Believers never die.

1. Amnesia - 5 Seconds Of Summer  There isn't even a recorded version of this song and I love it a lot. It's super relatable and these boys are really talented.

2. Clairvoyant - The Story So Far This show actually shows how amazing The Story So Far really is. It's so much different than most of their stuff and I just love it so much.

3. San Francisco - The Mowgli's I literally hadn't heard of this band and then I heard this song and just wow. I bought the whole album and it is literally a perfect spring break jam.

4. Anything - Hedley This is the most upbeat, positive song that I've ever heard. It makes me super happy inside whenever I hear it honestly.

1. A Part Of Me (feat. Laura Whiteside) - Neck Deep http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOyYwzkQB98 So I've fallen in love with this song so quickly. It's super relatable to my life at the current moment and I mean who doesn't love a good pop punk sing along?

2. I Was Hiding Under Your Porch Because I Love You - Waterparks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYKWBwQ1dfY I saw these boys last night and they were really great. They're a local Houston band, but I've been jamming this song recently really hard.

3. Small Town Girl - Never Shout Never http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKw-D2C49Uc I actually am so in love with this song because it is so adorable. The heartfelt lyrics make me love the song so much.

4. Days To Come fr. Fiora - Seven Lions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1hWi-vgoaU So I'm not a huge fan of EDM stuff (or whatever you call this, I'm bad with titles), but I really love this song for some reason. My friend played it for me over the summer and I've recently started listening again.

So I am with Brian Dales of The Summer Set. How’re you? I’m good, I’m good. We survived New Orleans last night, so today’s a good day. 

Crazy night?

Yeah we’d never been, which is weird after 6 years to have a city in the US you’ve never been to. We’ve been to almost every city more times than I can count, so that was pretty bizarre.

You released an album called Legendary, what does legendary mean to you?

 I think I’m still trying to figure that out. I think that’s the point though. I think that’s an album about waking myself up and not only trying to inspire whoever is listening to find what makes them legendary or what drives them, but at the same time inspire myself. I made a big move out of Phoenix to LA back in January. I think that whole new life has been my legendary moment so to speak.

My next question was what’s the most legendary moment you’ve had this year, so would it be that? 

I mean moving and taking that leap was probably the biggest milestone for me. But, I also just off an airplane so that was pretty wild. Even though that was supposed to be Jess’ legendary moment, it really resonated with me too. There was something unbelievable about that.

How was playing the iheartradio festival?

That was up there with my legendary moments too. I don’t think when we started this band we ever thought we would play with Queen, who I grew up listening to. That was awesome, I mean it’s the biggest show we’ve ever played, and I think the rest is history.

How is the current tour treating you?

It’s awesome, we’ve known the 3OH!3 guys for years, and Wallpaper has become one of our favorite bands and some of our favorite people. I think we’re having the most fun on tour we’ve had in a long time. Everyone on the tour is so awesome.

What is one of your songs you could use to describe your life right now?

I’m going to go with The Way We Were, which is weird because it’s not necessarily one of my favorite songs on the album. It was always harder for me to resonate with. Without giving a lot of details, last night I had a moment where that song made a lot of sense based on someone I was with. It’s weird to write a song and not really understand it when you write it, and then have it make sense to you way later. I had a weird connection with that song last night when we were playing it.

You were recently featured on Punk Goes Christmas, how was that?

It was good. I hate Christmas music, like I really really hate Christmas music. But, we’re on Fearless Records, and they’re a great team of people, and they asked if we wanted to do the compilation. So I tried to rack my brain for Christmas songs I did enjoy, which is very few. I wanted to do Bruce Springsteen’s version of Santa Clause Is Coming To Town, but that didn’t work out. Stephen had already started working on a music track for This Christmas. I love old R&B soul singers like that, so I was more open to the idea of doing that than other Christmas songs. Stephen’s track was really cool, and it even felt like a hip-hop song. It was just really cool to see Stephen do a song entirely from scratch. Stephen and I did that song, just us, in his bedroom in June. 

What is your favorite song to play live?

It changes every tour, which is a good thing because you don’t want to get too stuck to something. This tour it’s been Jukebox. It’s the second tour we played it on, and we played it about half the Warped Tour shows. I felt like we weren’t really good at it then, but now we are so I feel really good about it. Lightning In A Bottle is really standing out, but we play it first every night so there’s still the whole rest of the set.

Out of all the songs off this new album what would be your favorite?

That’s impossible to choose which is a good thing because with our other albums I pretty much knew immediately which two or three songs would be my favorites. I think it goes that way with a lot of people. With Legendary, it’s constantly rotating which makes it feel like I’m proud of all twelve of them at once. We’re gearing up for a big release of Lightning in A Bottle though, so I’m kind of on a Lightning In A Bottle train right now. Then there’s songs like Legendary, which none of the other songs would exist without, so it’s really hard to choose.

Speaking of Legendary, how are you feeling about the end of How I Met Your Mother?

I hated the season until last night. I was not feeling it at all, and I was really bumming hard on it. Then I talked some shit about it with my friend, my roommate, and then last weeks episode they showed the proposal scene. It was the most anticlimactic thing ever, and I was expecting the most overdrawn proposal moment. I mean even the song choice was bad. I’d made it this far and I didn’t even want to watch it anymore, but I’m going to bite my tongue because this week’s episode was unbelievably good. I put my faith in them that they know what they’re doing. They have a really good way of just irking me a little bit just to bring me back in and make me fall in love again. 

Since it’s almost Thanksgiving, we’re going to do a few “this or that’s”, so dark or white meat?

I’m not sure yet because I was a vegetarian for about six years until about a couple months ago. That transition is still a little weird, and I’m still not sure if I’m committed. So I guess I’m not sure. Let’s go dark meat, no let’s go with white meat. Yeah, white meat.

Apple or pumpkin pie?

Pumpkin for sure.

Sweet or mashed potatoes?

Sweet.

Rolls or corn bread?

Corn bread, I love cornbread.

The day after would you rather go Black Friday shopping or spend the day at home eating leftovers?

I’ve never once in twenty-four years gone Black Friday shopping. I’ve never done it and I probably never will, so I’m going with staying home which I don’t even get to do this year.

Lastly, play football in the yard or watch football?

I would say play, but it usually ends up being watch. I was born in Detroit, and the Detroit Lions always play on Thanksgiving.  So it’s even more of a tradition for me to watch football on Thanksgiving because it’s my home team. I’m always watching football on Thanksgiving.

Anything closing words for this interview? 

Say your name and what you do in the band. 

My name’s Kyle and I play bass in Real Friends.

I know that y’all did Warped Tour, how did that go for you?

Warped Tour was cool. It was one of those things that’s a lot of fun, but it’s a lot of hard work, too. It’s the worst summer of your life and the best. Then at the end you’re like, it was really hard and crazy, but it was awesome.

I know that you’re doing Warped Tour UK too, are you looking forward to that?

Yeah, I’m excited. I think that’ll be a lot different than the regular Warped Tour because it’s indoors. It’s more of a bigger show when Warped Tour is kind of a big festival. You’re outdoors and it’s hot and gross, but it’ll be really cool. We’re really honored that we were asked to play. It was kind of overwhelming in the best way possible.

You’re doing some more stuff in England with The Wonder Years, are you excited for that?

We’re really looking forward to that. We’ve known them now for a while, and it was really cool that they asked us to come out because we’re friends with them. Handguns we’re friends with too, who’s on the tour now. Neck Deep we don’t really know them, but they’re a great band. So I think it’ll be a lot of fun; I’m really looking forward to it.

Have y’all ever done a tour in Europe? 

No this will be our first time overseas actually, so it’s really cool. We’re starting it right after the tour we’re on right now, we go home for like 15 hours then we fly to the UK.

How’s the current tour going?

Awesome! This is definitely my favorite tour we’ve ever done just because we’re able to play a lot longer than we normally do if we’re supporting a band. Normally you play like a 25-30 minute set, but now we’re able to play 45 minutes to an hour. It gives us the ability to play more songs and get into the meaning of songs and communicate with the fans better.  I like to loosen up and feel like it’s a show, but you’re hanging out which is something we always try to do.  This tour we’ve been able to do that a lot, and turnouts have been great. We’ve had some sold out shows that have been really cool.  And other ones have had a lot of people. Even some places where we thought the show would just be all right, but they’ve all been way past our expectations. So it’s really cool when that happens, and it’s refreshing.  Being on the road can be a little monotonous sometimes; driving and long nights and early mornings.  It’s always refreshing when the shows are good, but when they’re bad it’s not fun.

Is this your first headlining tour?

Technically, yes. We did a three-week headlining tour this summer, but it was only East Coast and Florida. So this is our first proper, US headlining tour. 

Other than the tour with The Wonder Years, do you have any plans coming up? 

We’re going home for like three months to finish writing a full-length record that we dipped into the last time we were home. We were home for two months before, so we’re going to finish writing that and just be home for a while which is cool.  I think the next thing after that would be going to Australia earlier next year for Soundwave.

When did the band get started?

We started the band in 2010. It started as a side band I guess.  I was in a band with Dave, our guitar player who played drums in the band. We kind of saw it as something different to do, and it kept progressing to where we are today.

I know you said you were in a previous band with Dave, but how did you meet the other members?

Other bands really. Eric, our guitar player, went to high school with me, but we never really talked. Which is really weird; it’s always the most unexpected things. Most of the people I’ve been in bands with you meet from playing in other bands with them because you share that interest, you know what I mean? It’s very rare that you meet someone in the street and it’s like “Oh hey let’s start a band”. There’s kind of a road to get there. So mainly just other bands.

So correct me if I’m wrong, but PETA is sponsoring the tour right? Are any of the band members vegetarian?

I’m vegetarian, Dan our singer is vegetarian, then our guitar player Eric is vegan. So yeah, PETA is cool; they were on a tour we did with Senses Fail. They actually came out on the tour. They had people talking to everyone at the shows and stuff, which was cool. There’s a guy Ray who’s like the manager there who’s the coolest dude ever, so it’s really great to work with them on the tour.

How long have you been a vegetarian?

I’ve been a vegetarian for, how old am I? I’m almost 25 and I’ve been a vegetarian since I’m 19. That’s a long time and I didn’t even realize, so about five or six years now. It’s cool, I like it a lot.  I don’t feel so weighed down because I can’t eat bad food as much. I used to love Wendy’s so I used to go there all the time. Like 99 cent chicken nuggets and stuff so when I stopped eating meat it made me stop eating at those places. 

If you could only listen to one band for the rest of your life, who would that be?

Wow, that’s hard. I would have to say Brand New because they have a lot of albums that are different sounding. They made some of my favorite records; I wouldn’t say they are my favorite band though. But in the form of the question, it makes the most sense. They have records that sound like older pop punk, then they have records that are more down tempo stuff, then they have more aggressive stuff, too.

What would be your favorite Brand New album?

My favorite Brand New record would be Deja Entendu. I’m more into chilled out stuff, I don’t really listen to current pop punk which is I guess the style we’re in. But the album is really cool for me because it’s a lot slower, so it’s always grabbed me more than the other albums.

If you could collaborate with anyone who would you do it with?

I don’t know, that’s tough. I’ve never really thought about that because I’ve always been really happy with the members in this band. I feel like we pull so much influence from different music. I guess the best answer is nobody because I’m happy with where we are now.

What is a hobby you have other than the band? 

I write all of our lyrics, so I like to do spoken word poetry. It’s on YouTube, if anyone searches my name, Kyle Fasel, they’ll see it. Like three or four years ago, I had a lot of stuff I wanted to use because I write all the time. And I couldn’t use all this stuff for a band because there was too much, so I took some of the songs and extended them into poems. Some of the ones I have are over five minutes long that are more motivational type stuff. That was the first thing I did where I got the same fulfillment out of it that I get out of writing a song, so that was kind of cool.

What is your favorite show or tour that you’ve done?

We got to play with The Starting Line over the winter and that was really cool. They’re one of my favorite bands and we got to play a show with them. I still think about those shows.

What’s your favorite song to perform live?

We have a song called Home For Fall that I like to perform because it’s about one of my really good friends. I feel like I connect with that song the most out of all our songs because it’s about my friend moving away. I think it’s cool to have that personal connection when we play it. I think about the situation and stuff, as I do with all our songs, but that one always held a special place to me.

As a band what was the first song you wrote together? 

I don’t know. We have a CD called This Is Honesty, which is our very first CD that no one cared about when we released it. But the first track on there, A Little Too Nice, was the first song we wrote, and it doesn’t sound anything like we do now. Actually, that song, and every first song on our CD’s were the first song we wrote for that album. The song Floorboards was the first song we wrote for Everyone That Dragged You Here, and then Late Nights In My Car, on our new CD, Put Yourself Back Together was the first song we wrote for that too. It’s kind of weird how it all works out, three times in a row.

How would you say your sound has changed?

I think the first album we kind of talked about what we wanted to sound like. The problem is we tried to sound like that too much, and then once we decided to write whatever we want to write instead of thinking it needed to sound like something. That’s when it really worked. That’s a really cool thing. When you let go and you ‘re just like “I’m going to do it and if people care cool, if not then cool too”. That’s what we did and that’s how it worked.  So it’s really cool that people cared about what we wanted to do. Not something that was forced because I consider our first album forced.

If you could re-name your band, what would you name it or would you keep the same name? 

I like the band name; I mean some people say it’s stupid. We were going to name the band Never Meant because it’s an American Football song, and I thought it was cool. There are a lot of bands who name their bands after songs or lines in other songs, like All Time Low and Man Overboard is from a Blink-182 song. I still like the band name a lot, but I remember looking on Facebook and there was already a band named that, so I wanted something that was just ours. I was surprised there wasn’t a band called Real Friends because it’s a very common term.  It’s very cool that that worked out and it has meaning too because I was playing in a band with people I didn’t know very well. It was weird touring with people that you don’t know that well. They don’t know anything about your home life.

What’s it like to tour with people you’re not very close with?

There was a band that I was in where I knew one of the guys pretty well. But everyone else was just there. Which was weird because if I mention the area I hang out in, the mall or the Starbucks, they wouldn’t understand what I mean or know what I was talking about. And if I mentioned my mom, no one would put a face to that. Now everyone I’m in the band with, for the most part, knows my personal life.

Use one of your songs to describe your life right now.

I guess our song Late Nights In My Car, is one I connected with the most, and I still connect with it. It’s a song that’s about moving forward and realizing that everyone in your past that’s not in your life anymore for negative reasons made you who you are today. I reflect a lot on things in my life, there’s time that I wake up and I think of someone I haven’t thought of in a long time or a past friend or relationship, and realizing those things made you who you are turns in into a positive in a way. I deal with that a lot in life, I think a lot of people do. You can’t help but think about the past. But to know that it’s gone, and there’s a reason why. I think everything happens for a reason personally.

What is the one song you really wish you wrote but didn’t. 

I really like Jimmy Eat World, so it has to be one of their songs. I listen to Jimmy Eat World, and I’m just like “dang I wish that was my band”.  There’s a Jimmy Eat World song called Kill that I really like. It’s more of a down tempo song, and the lyrics are really good. So I guess I would say that. When you listen to a song do you listen more for melody or lyrics?

 I’m a lyric guy. Even if a song is super catchy and the lyrics don’t connect with me or I don’t think they’re well thought out it kind of turns me away. There’s bands that I’ve listened to that maybe aren’t that great of a band, but I think “oh I like that line or I like that part”. I’m definitely a lyric person, but I’m also a musician too so I also listen to musicianship as well which doesn’t always mean it has to be super complicated or something. Lyrics or vocals could definitely kill a band for me.