Vans Warped Tour is the largest traveling music festival in the country, and a platform for some of the greatest names in the rock scene, as well up and coming local and regional bands, to get their music heard. Among them are an incredibly talented band called Up From Here.
The Tampa, Florida based punk-rock band took some time to talk to Altwire about what’s ahead for them and their thoughts on the Final Warped Tour.
AltWire [Omayra Lopez]: Would you please tell us a little bit about yourself, and the history of Up From Here?
Up From Here: We are a 4-piece pop-punk band from Tampa, Florida consisting of vocalist Danny Anderson, bassist Bern Mustian, guitarist Tyler Houser, and drummer Alex Boeving. We formed in January of 2015 after all of us meeting on Facebook. We’re surprised it has worked out as well as it has.
AltWire [Omayra Lopez]: What was the inspiration for the name of your band?
Up From Here: “Up From Here” comes from a lyric in a song called “Same Thing We Do Everyday Pinky” by the band Broadway.
AltWire [Omayra Lopez]: What’s your writing process like, and how do you decide which songs you release to the public?
Up From Here: The progression and lyrics of the song, or “skeleton” of the song, is written pretty much entirely by our vocalist Danny. After that is made he presents it to the rest of the band and then all four of us make it into what ends up getting recorded. We have written many different songs that haven’t been released or didn’t make the cut for a release. Once we get ready to record we take every song we’ve written and have a voting process between the four of us to decide what makes it onto the album.
AltWire [Omayra Lopez]: What has it been like to be a part of Vans Warped Tour and how do you feel about this final tour?
Up From Here: All four of us have grown up going to Warped Tour and it has played a crucial part in the evolution of our band considering we’ve played the Tampa stop of the tour three times. All of us are extremely sad to see the tour go. We’re a little disappointed that we never got to play the entirety of the tour before its end, but we’re extremely grateful for the opportunities we’ve been given to play the Florida dates.
AltWire [Omayra Lopez]: What are your best memories from previous Warped Tours?
Up From Here: We’ve all been going to the Warped Tour since we were probably all in middle school, but we’ve played the Tampa date of it three times: 2015, 2017, and 2018. The first time we played it in 2015 we played the Ernie Ball stage after winning the Ernie Ball Battle of The Bands competition. That year all of us were ecstatic about playing the music festival that ultimately got us into this scene of music.
However, in 2017 we got to play the main stage (Journey’s Left Foot) after winning the Ernie Ball PLAY Warped Tour contest. That was an unreal moment for all of us as we got to play a set on the biggest stage any of us have ever played on in front of the biggest crowd we’ve ever played for.
AltWire [Omayra Lopez]: How has this tour compared to the first time you played?
Up From Here: When we first played in 2015 we had a pretty decent draw to our set but it was mostly our family and friends. When we got to play this year we were greeted by not only our family and friends, but also Up From Here fans that traveled from all sides of Florida to catch our set. We probably had the biggest crowd all day on the Full Sail stage.
AltWire [Omayra Lopez]: What advice would you give to new artists coming into the scene?
Up From Here: Keep working, don’t give up, don’t cut corners, don’t be petty, and be the best band you can possibly be.
AltWire [Omayra Lopez]:Is there a message you would like to send to your fans and our readers before we close?
Up From Here: We’re releasing a new 7-song EP in about a month-ish that was produced by Rian Dawson from All Time Low. Stay tuned for that as we’re all very proud of it and stoked to release it to everyone.
Omayra is a Florida girl, mother of three, and visual artist sharing all things art, fun and the beautiful things in life. She firmly believes that one creates their own reality and applies that to her own life by marching to the beat of a different drum, using her camera as a tool for that purpose. Omayra is a jack of all trades and masters them all. When she's not behind of the camera, she's in front of it. Her experience as a model, helped her develop her eye as a photographer.
