Christian Pulgarin of Currents: Growing up in hardcore, standout moments of touring, wardrobe malfunctions, and the upcoming co-headline tour with Erra.

With their upcoming Co-Headline tour with ERRA, and debut festival performance at Slam Dunk just round the corner, modern metalcore band Currents have a busy year ahead of them and we’re not even 6 months in. I got to sit down with Christian (bassist), to talk about their 2026 schedule, relationships with other bands in the metal scene, musical influences and growing up in his local hardcore and metalcore scenes.

Of course we also spoke about that infamous photo on Twitter - you know the one.

Christian: Good evening. I don't know. How do we do this?

Hayls: Wahgwan.

C: Ello.

H: Hello. Hello, Governor.

C: Ello-

H: Wahgwan.

C: Poppet. So this is the second time we've done this.

H: This is the second time we've done this because I'm a fucking idiot and I don't know to check my recording software beforehand to check that everything's good.

C: It's okay. It happens to the best of us.

H: I know. I'm an absolute pro and people should take notes from me, to be honest.

C: Yeah, that'sright.

H: But you already told me that.

C: No, everything I said before was a lie. Everything I said before was a lie.

H: Yes, okay. We can just veto that.

C: Yeah, I'm going to tell you the truth this time.

H: Fucking yes. That's what I wanted.

C: The whole dirty truth.

H: This is Christian's new thing now, so if you see Currents on their upcoming tour and he starts just saying "dirty", don't look at me. Shove that in a Currents’ lyric. The word "dirty".

C: Dirty?

H: Yeah.

C: I feel like- it's just I'm only saying it because it's easy because I can't do accents.

H: That's the easiest way of you doing the British accent is just saying "dirty".

C: Yeah. Or init.

H: Init.

C: Init.

H: Init. Real quick, say "leng".

C: Alright. Well, you're going to have to repeat that because I don't know what you just asked me to say.

H: Say "leng". L-E-N-G.

C: Leng?

H: Leng.

C: What the hell? What the hell does that mean?

H: It means good-looking.

C: Leng?

H: So you would say someone is "leng".

C: Like, oh, shit. Is it more- is it unisex? You could say that about anybody or would you just more?

H: Yeah.

C: Okay. So I'd be like, "She's leng".

H: Yeah. There we go.

C: How does that- how?

H: Don't ask me where that came from. I don't know. We literally just make words up.

C: You “literally” do. See, I'm going to get roasted for that because it probably sounds horrid.

H: Absolutely. Fuck it. It's funny. I suppose we'll get into the stuff that people actually want to know.

C: Yeah, let's do it.

H: The interesting part, which is Currents and everything to do with Currents.

C: That's right. I'm going to tell all of our secrets.

H: Because you are known as the one that can't keep your mouth shut.

C: I got a big mouth. Not going to lie. I'm usually the last person to know a lot of things because I get excited.

H: You said that about- just before the EP came out, didn't you? I can remember you put out a tweet and you were hinting at something and people were like, "Oh, is it such and such coming?" And you were like, "I genuinely don't know. They don't tell me anything."

C: Well, no. Okay. So I mean, that's a little bit of a- I do know most things because I do enjoy being the participant/participating in decision-making and doing stuff like that. I am heavily involved in that kind of stuff. But I do like to have fun with people. And when I'm sitting on something that I know people are going to enjoy, it's like being excited to give a gift to somebody. And it's like, "Hey, do you want your Christmas present a day early?" Yeah, because I get excited. And I also have fun with the guys, too, because there's times where I'll tweet something and then I'll hear Chris [Wiseman] in the other room go, "What are you doing?" And I'll be like, "Ha ha ha."

H: Can't keep your mouth shut.

C: Can't keep my- I got a big mouth.

H: Yeah. So if anything leaks, it comes from Christian.

C: Don't say that.

H: Take that out of context.

C: Yeah. I mean, maybe. You're probably right.

H: Speaking of leaks, actually, this was something I didn't ask you last time, but then it came to me afterwards. Obviously, the EP got released early. I think we had this conversation where it's like people in Russia and China, they have Reddits and they can just get hold of shit.

C: Yeah, I told you about that.

H: Yeah, because you mentioned your brother had told you.

C: Yeah, because after our stuff got a- bunch of our stuff got leaked. And it's not, I don't necessarily mind that because, I mean, it's a thing that happens. And especially to- people have VPNs and stuff. If the record comes out and it's in Australia, it's so easy to get a VPN and then just set it to Australia and then you could listen to it and stuff like that. 

But when that happened, I was asking- because my brother's on our management team and stuff. So I asked him, I was like, "How does that even happen? Is it somebody internally that-" not just the streams with a VPN, but when somebody can just actually download a whole record before it's even come out, I was like, "Is it somebody in the industry? Did somebody send it to their friend? Or how does it spread the way that it does?" And the way he put it to me is that there's data miners and people all over the world, but a big part of it is in Russia and places like that. And they're constantly taking all sorts of information and data with things like this and uploading them to their servers and then sending them out and stuff like that. So it happens that way. I mean, I'm not an expert on it and I wouldn't necessarily know why.

I could be like, "Why would somebody in China or Russia care about leaking my band's music?" So there's got to be some sort of reason for all of that. They could just be a fan of the band in Russia. We've never been there, so maybe that happened. But yeah, that's fine. And obviously, to me, music is the most important thing and I want people to hear it and to enjoy it. I'm not going to be- if you're a person that can't afford Spotify or you can't afford to buy a record and stuff, I'm not going to be like, "Well, then don't listen to my music." Obviously, I would want you to have it instead of not having it because I was also a kid that grew up doing stuff like that. I had LimeWire.

H: Oh, big up LimeWire.

C: Yeah. I destroyed family computers.

H: Yes. Bring those viruses in.

C: Yeah. Downloading illegal music, allegedly.

H: For legal purposes. Christian never did that.

C: I never. No, I heard about it once. But then there's certain other things. I got a little bit tight about some of it just because it was just like, "It was supposed to be a surprise." It was like, "People are ruining my surprise party."

H: I think that's what the point was.

C: Yeah.

H: Was that obviously, if it's a publicly known, you're about to release, "Oh, the album's going to release on X date." But then, like you said, if it's out in Australia, you can get a VPN. You can go and listen to it. But everyone knows it's coming out. And I think that's why me- I put a tweet out because that annoyed me. I was like, "They haven't even announced that this was coming out. None of us knew that this was coming out. And now you've got some idiot who has caught wind of it and used a VPN and streamed it,” and made it aware to, obviously, someone with a big following has made thousands of other people aware that this thing exists. And I think that's why a lot of people were jumping down others' throats for that because it took away the opportunity for you guys to be like, "Surprise, shadow drop."

C: Well, because, too, it's like I love meeting our fans. I quite frequently become friends with many of them. And the thing was, it was like, "Oh, we wanted to do something fun and special and figure out ways-" We're constantly trying to figure out ways to people that love our band and stuff, how could we do something fun for them? How could we do something that's going to get them excited? And stuff like that. 

And then it's like people that wanted to just do it just kind of for the clout of saying they got it early or that they could be the first person to be - I don't know - some sort of internet journalist and be the first person to be putting it out there and stuff like that, where it wasn't because they love the band or because they love the music. They were doing it for their own kind of selfish reasons that kind of dampered on what we were trying to do. So I was just like- and obviously, I don't want to speak for everybody in the band because that's never- I'm only really speaking on how I felt about it.

But it is what it is. It's like I'm not angry with anybody that did do that or anything like that. But it was just like it was more so me just being like, "The hell."

H: Yeah. “I was supposed to do that.”

C: Yeah. I was like, "I wanted to do it."

H: “And you're not even in the band.”

C: Yeah. Somebody else blew out my birthday candles. I still got the cake. You know what I mean?

H: Obviously, that's not the person that gets the praise for the album or the EP because obviously, it was an EP that dropped. They're not getting the praise for that. But yeah, it's a bit of a shitty thing. So there you go. You basically have the green light. If you want to use a VPN, that's fine. On a publicly announced record. Anything else, you're-

C: Do whatever you want. Just keep your mouth shut. Just shh.

H: Listen to it in silence.

C: Yeah. Don't broadcast your crimes. And that's general advice.

H: Yeah. Not just to do with-

C: Don't broadcast your crimes.

H: Don't do it for leaked music and don't do it for anything else which we can't speak abou tright now because it's incriminating.

C: Exactly.

H: I'm an angel. I've never been involved with the police ever. This is where you're supposed to say no. “Me, too.”

C: Good for you.

H: Oh, fuck. Do I need to cut that out?

C: No, it's fine.

H: No. Okay. Cool.

C: I have a clean record. It's why I can travel internationally.

H: But yeah. No, I just wanted to get your opinion on that because obviously, you put a tweet out. People started speculating, "Are you feeling shitty about it?" And you didn't directly say how you were feeling at that moment. So I wanted to get what your thoughts were on that because I think a lot of people thought that you were like, "No, I'm not even bothered about that."

C: I also regretted making that tweet, too, because people were kind of ganging up on certain individuals when it wasn't my intent to have that happen. Because like I said, it was such a -more of such a minor thing, it was such a minor inconvenience and annoyance to me that I was like, "I don't want this person- I don't want people to start feeling bad or losing sleep over something they did." That was really so minor.

H: We've passed it now and we have a great EP out of it.

C: Yeah, which we will be playing many songs off of. I think we're playing the whole thing.

H: There's only four songs.

C: Well, five.

H: Oh, yeah. There's one of them that I refuse to play on Clone Hero and I forget about it.

C: You refuse?

H: Yes.

C: Why?

H: Because this is too hard. It's too hard.

C: Oh, no.

H: I've almost got the riff to Can't Turn Back down, though. So I'm going to give Chris Wiseman a run for his money. If you guys ever need a stand-in when you come to the UK next, get me up there.

C: You just gave me a really good idea for, it would be really fun to do a Clone Hero for our VIPs.

H: Oh, yeah. You do the V- I saw that.

C: Well, we have VIP for this upcoming Erra tour, it'll be a joint VIP with both bands.

H: You should do Clone Hero.

C: That would be a fun idea. I don't think we'd be able to this time, but for the future, it would definitely be fun.

H: Yeah. So basically, when you come to the UK in the later part of the year, yeah?

C: I mean, if we come to the UK at the later part of the year.

H: I'll set it up. Don't worry. I'll get yous all guitars. I'll get you sick ones. Just tell me what decals you want. I got it.

C: All right. Cool. We'll make it work.

H: Not so much controversial stuff now.

C: Let's make it controversial.

H: You could make it controversial. I would not put it past you. Talk to me about the songwriting approach for you guys and what's everyone's position when it comes to the writing process.

C: The majority of the songs are written by Chris [Wiseman]. He builds up, pretty much a song to the point where he thinks it's almost a complete product. And then- so he sends them out to all of us, and then Brian [Wille] will start writing lyrics. I will listen to the songs and kind of decide if I think that, "Okay, this part sounds perfect, but I kind of think that we should change the structure of it here and there." And then we send ideas back and forth all the time. And then when it comes time to get down to the studio, we all lock ourselves in Chris's house for about a week. And we play the songs, rework them, listen to them till our ears bleed. And then kind of, everybody adds their own flavour to it, making their signature thing. Brian will have his kind of skeletal structure of what he wants the lyrics to be and the direction of a song. And then if I hear something that I'm like, "I like that, but I think it would be a little I think it would sound cooler like this," or, "I think you should change the words here and there." And then we collaborate a lot on that.

Or if my idea is completely different, sometimes we'll either go with my idea or, Chris as well, Chris also has a big hand in the lyrics and the structures of choruses and stuff. And then either we go with one of our individual ideas or sometimes we just mix and match. It'll be a Frankenstein version of both things, which is usually my favorite outcome when something like that happens because I love the collaboration, I love making something. It's like adding your own ingredients.

H: Yeah. So it's like everyone has their stamp on it, like you said. So really, Chris kind of comes in with the foundation of it and it's built up.

C: Yeah. I mean, sometimes.

H: Or it can sometimes- is sometimes it not started by Chris?

C: I mean, there's been times where Brian or myself have sent Chris ideas. And I know myself as a songwriter, I'm not as strong as Chris is like that. So if I sent to him a riff or an idea, he could take it and just make something like a masterpiece out of it. But he writes the bulk most of- sometimes, even with some of the songs, I'm just like, "This song sounds perfect. I don't think we should change anything to it."

H: Yeah. A talented man. And obviously, most of us just think of him as a guitarist.

C: Oh, no. He's one of the hardest-working individuals I've ever met in my life. And I will say one of the strongest qualities about him is his ability to collaborate and take an idea and really make it out of something because even there's times where I'm like, "I don't know how to physically articulate what I think this needs." And I'll just kind of, I don't even just make a noise with my mouth or something like that. And he'll be able to hear it and be like, "Okay," and then just do it, and it's admirable.

H: And obviously, add that on top of obviously, his workload with Shadow of Intent.

C: Like I said, he's one of the hardest-working individuals I've ever met. He's very, very, very disciplined and also maintaining his personal life, too, with him and his wife and family and just us as friends. Yeah. It's good. We have a family. We have a little family here, and I feel very fortunate to be a part of it.

H: That's cute. No, I like that, like you said, everyone can kind of put their own pizzazz on there.

C: Yeah. And then Chris will write out the drums on the computer, which sound great when he does that. But then when it comes time to do the actual recordings and stuff, we record, like on the EP we went and recorded with our buddy Greg, who is in END and he was in Misery Signals, wrote some of my favorite records of all time. He lives 20 minutes from me. So we spend a few days at Greg's house and just hammer out the drums. And either he'll take Chris's idea and then make it how an actual drummer would play it, not a guitarist. I mean, and to be fair, Chris has been playing a lot of drums recently, and he's becoming a pretty good drummer, too, now.

H: He's just adding everything to his repertoire, isn't he?

C: Yeah. He's going for the GOAT status.

H: He's just going to become a one-man band at this point.

C: I hope not because I need a job.

H: Yeah. Chris Wiseman, please don't do that. We need Currents. We need Currents as a whole. Kind of sticking onto the writing process and how it comes about creatively. Something that I've never really thought about because I tend to think about it in the other way, “Who sounds like Currents? Not, who do Currents sound like?” So are there any bands or artists that Currents pull influence from?

C: Just as artists, we're constantly being inspired by people in either direct ways or indirect ways. Brian and I were very influenced heavily in our early youth by a lot of post-hardcore bands. So that's where a lot of kind of the sad boy, emo-ey kind of stuff comes from, but then we always- we've listened to so many different genres of music and stuff that you probably wouldn't even think about when we were teenagers. One of the big ones was Northlane and stuff like that. A lot of the Australian bands from back in the day were pretty big influences. Vildhjarta, the fall bands that were newer or deathcore bands. There's kind of influences coming from everywhere. And it's just kind of really picking from the things. 

I grew up in metalcore and hardcore being here from New England. So it was like never, there was never a weekend where there wasn't a hardcore show happening that we'd be at. So even if the music isn't necessarily you might not hear the influence in the music directly, it's the place that we came from. And it's always going to be ingrained in me. The band has always been very DIY. So we've kind of just tried to take that as far as we can. Really, really is a band that started in its garage and then we tried to push it to just kind of see how far we could take it without any real outside help, at least industry-standard help like that.

H: Yeah. Not like TikTok monetization and-

C: Yeah. Just kind of-

H: “-Lets just put a 30-second clip on TikTok and watch it go viral. And that's going to shoot our band off.

C: Yeah. It's like we're not going to- we're not in the- they didn't just put us in a room with a producer that made all of the most popular music that's happening right now and we didn't really record or do any of it. It all just kind of, it all came from homegrown, organic. And then all of the bands that we've toured with, there's a lot we always try to learn from them, especially early on. There were a lot of bands that gave us a lot of just general life advice and helped us through things, bands like Miss May I, bands like Moths, even Invent Animate, those guys are very influential, just even as people, I love them. Silent Planet, Polaris. All of those people I consider family at this point now.

And it's like we're always trying to- it's been a nice thing when getting to the point where those guys will be like, "Hey, what would you do?" And I'll be like, "Oh, you want my opinion? That's crazy. Me?"

H: That's cool as fuck. I love that. We always forget that, obviously, bands they're kind of, not in their little circles, but bands will talk to each other and get help from each other and inspiration from each other. That's so cool that you guys can do that. And also from so many big name bands and kind of bands that I think people would group together. I definitely know that you guys [Currents] and Silent Planet are two of the names that I see come up when people talk about the big four of modern metalcore.

C: Yeah. That's a wild position to be in. And yeah, in 2020, it was right before the world ended. We were doing direct support for Silent Planet, and they also took us to Australia for the first time. Being able to- they're such personal people. They're funny. Garrett is- I've had so many deep conversations with him, even though it drives me crazy that he never wears shoes.

H: Same! That is the one thing putting me off going and seeing Silent Planet live because I don't think I can deal with the- he's got socks, at least. Please, Gaz. Please, can you just put some socks on? I know it's his thing.

C: I mean, I'm only fooling around.

H: I'm not.

C: I mean, yes and no. But I love him so much that I don't care.

H: I suppose.

C: And being inspired by them in different ways, he will, after their set every single night, I watched him stand at the barricade after just playing an hour, performing his heart out, and then he talked to every single person that needed to talk to him. And it wasn't just like, "Oh, hi. How are you?" Next, "Hi, how are you? Thank you for being here." Next. He sat there and listened to people because the people that are coming to these, I would say a lot of the people that are coming to these types of shows or that gravitate towards this style of music, they are usually deep individuals, usually experiencing some sort of pain or have lost or have general hardship in their life and our music is a form of escape, a way of feeling connected to other people when you feel like you're alone.

And I couldn't imagine connecting with a band that makes you feel not alone and then them just kind of cool-guying you or making you feel lesser than you should because that defeats the whole point of it. It's like we're a community, we're supposed to be helping each other, we're supposed to be there for each other. Obviously, it's like when there's thousands of people, it's like you can't be there for everybody. But putting in the effort when you can and I find that most people are just super respectful and they don't want to take up too much of your time anyway. So just giving a hello and just being like, "Oh, how are you?" People are like, "What?!"

H: “What? Excuse me. Did they just, Huh? Why me?"

C: Yeah.

H: No, and like you said, these people would sometimes, yeah, you'll have it sorted out into demographics. Some people are just there because they really fuck with the music, and they love the tunes and they want to come see you live. And then there's other people that maybe relate to it on a deeper level beyond just how hard the tracks hit.

C: Because some people, it's like they could have had a hard week at work. Their boss could be giving them shit. They could hate their kids because they're fucking little pricks. And then they just need to go to the show and just let it out, and that's their night and who am I to take that away from them? I'm going to give it my best to them. Good for them. Let it all out.

H: And obviously we're all just normal people, you guys are just normal people that can play instruments and get paid for it.

C: Normal-ish. But yeah, I see what you're saying.

H: Yeah. Debatable sometimes. But for the most part, you could be on the other side of the barrier if you fuck up.

C: Well, I mean, I was on the other side of the barrier for a very long time.

H: Because you didn't even join the band until after “I Let The Devil In.”

C: Technically, I joined the-yeah, I joined the band in 2019. But I've always been involved in the band, just not as directly. So it's funny because I feel like Currents is more of an entity rather than just a band because there's been so many iterations of it. The band started back when we were all in high school, and none of the current members are from the original version of the high school band back then. But we all grew up in the same music scene and the original Currents members were all some of my best friends and then everybody that's in the band, minus Matt [Young], we didn't meet him until much later. But we were all in the same friend group. We were all going to shows, all of us would go to Currents shows. Our bands would play with Currents. 

I remember hearing the first-ever current song that was recorded. And Patrizio, the original vocalist, was showing me in his dorm room, and I just remember being like, "Yo, this band is going to be massive." And I was in other bands. I toured for many years before being in Currents. When somebody would leave the band, it was just like, "Oh, one of our other friends will join." And then it was always the next logical person to bring in. And our band is formed from all five of us are just the guys that stayed in music and just didn't give up. Everybody was in their own individual band or was doing something, and then somebody in Currents would leave and then be like, "Oh, we're not doing anything. Let's join the band." And then it eventually became what it is now, which I feel like is its complete form. This is its final form.

H: Yeah. Well, I should hope so. I don't think we can get a better lineup than you guys. It's kind of like a football team when you think about it.

C: Yeah. Kind of.

H: You guys who were friends with the band, still involved with the band, and going to the band shows, you were on the bench. And then when someone had to come off, “Right, put me in, coach.” Then it's your turn.

C: There was a time, too, that both Brian and I were at a Currents show. And I remember I walked up to Brian and I was like, "Hey, man. How are you doing?" And he's like, "I'm alright." And I'll be like, "Well, what was wrong?" And he's like, "Oh, yeah. My band kind of just fell apart." And he's like, "I think I'm just kind of done with music. I don't think I'm really going to pursue this." And I remember I said to him I was like, "You're a really good dude and you're extremely talented, and one day, you're going to find the right group of guys and it's just going to work." And then three years later, we were both in the band.

H: My goodness. Yeah, because I didn't know this until not that long ago, a few months ago, that Brian tried out or sent, yeah, it was like an audition cover and I think it was for Northlane.

C: Oh, yeah.

H: I saw that.

C: Yeah. I love bringing that video up.

H: It is so weird. First of all, seeing Brian with short hair, that is weird as fuck it doesn't look like Brian. But second, even though that was obviously years ago, that was fucking donkeys ago, seeing how much, obviously, he's improved as a vocalist, but also seeing how not shit he was back then.

C: Oh, yeah. He's just a raw talent.

H: Yeah. He's always been a top-tier vocalist. And someone made me aware of that. And I was like, "No." And I saw it. And I was like, "Holy," I couldn't imagine Brian in Northlane because, obviously, Brian's Currents. But that's crazy that there's maybe almost a point that Brian wouldn't have been in Currents.

C: There's an alternate universe where Brian is the vocalist of Northlane.

H: Would he like that? Well, I'm assuming so because he'd fucking auditioned for them.

C: I mean, I don't know. I think he's pretty happy. I think he's pretty happy where he is now.

H: I think he should be. He should be.

C: He doesn't have to live in Australia.

H: One of the biggest benefits. Crazy how things work, isn't it?

C: The universe works in mysterious ways.

H: Yeah. So yeah, no, there's no one else on the bench now. No one else needs to be subbed in or out. This is it. Currents.

C: Yeah. I mean, I could say our buddy Dave [Pazik], who plays in Dreamwake, he is very, he's an honorary member at this point. Whenever Chris obviously, we were talking about how his schedule is insane, so sometimes, there's the crossover between the Currents stuff and the Shadow of Intent stuff. So when Chris isn't available to come out and do a Currents tour or has to miss at least a couple of shows so we don't have to backtrack guitars, Dave comes out with us and he learns all of Chris's parts and plays them flawlessly and also sings and does all of the things. So what Dave does is extremely impressive. And I love having him around. He's a goofy guy. And he fits in with our crew so well and we feel very fortunate to be able to have him doing that on top of his own stuff in Dreamwake to help us out in our times of need.

H: Yeah. Dreamwake got a couple of tracks. I'll give them that. That's good, though, that you have someone readily available and can do that and can do that to Chris's level. I'm just saying you 4, you can put people in temporarily.

C: Yeah. No, this is our family.

H: Like you said, final form. That's it now. Fully evolved Pokémon.

C: Hopefully. Yeah.

H: Please. Because it's just what we get used to and obviously, this is what we've been used to since-

C: 2019. So since “I Let The Devil In.”

H: Yeah. But I asked you about the lyrics to “Into Despair” and you were like, "I don't know that one."

C: Well, I don't know what Brian meant when he was writing those. It was almost 10 years ago.

H: That does not feel like a 10-year-old song.

C: I mean, it's getting close. It's not exactly 10 years.

H: I know. But it doesn't even feel like, it feels like a song that came out two years ago.

C: Yeah. In two years, it'll be 10 years. I am in a few of the music videos from that EP. And from a few of the “The Place I Feel Safest” music videos and stuff because I was present for them. There's a live video where you could see me doing a front flip off a stage.

H: Is that your thing, then, just doing somersaults?

C: Oh, yeah. Growing up, going to shows and stuff, I was big into headwalking and doing stage dives and stuff like that. I used to climb up speakers and stuff and do all sorts of crazy things that my back would never allow me to do now.

H: Yeah. I know. True. You're pushing it with the high kicks, to be honest.

C: I know. Sometimes, I surprise myself when I see a photo because I feel like I jump this high in the air. And I'm like, "Oh, God. I suck." And then I'll see a photo. I'm like, "How the hell did I do that?"

H: Yeah. You're getting air. I don't know what you're putting in your shoes, but-

C: It's like I'm a grasshopper.

H: Yeah. That's what you want to call it?

C: Strong, short legs.

H: Yeah. Sure. We'll roll with that. Grasshopper. Christian Grasshopper Currents, because that's what we do. We put the bands as your surname. We don't say your surnames, apart from Chris Wiseman. I don't know why it is. We can't call him Chris Currents. I don't think I've ever but we'll call you Christian Currents and we'll call Brian, Brian Currents.

C: Christian Currents. Brian Currents.

H: Yeah.

C: Is that a general thing that you guys do?

H: Yeah. Yeah. A lot of, you can't even call it- it's not fandoms. But a lot of fans of bands, we do that. So Chris Motionless.

C: I see. Yeah.

H: Noah Sebastian, no. Noah Sebastian is Noah Sebastian. Jamie Polaris. We don't call him Jamie Hails. I don't know. I don't know why. It's just a thing.

C: I just call him the love of my life.

H: Which one? I just listed off six men.

C: I think I've probably kissed Jamie more than any other human being. Don't tell his wife. She knows.

H: Going back to Currents stuff, I forgot you were in a band.

C: Me, too.

H: I could see that happening a lot sometimes. People come up to you. You'll be like, "Oh, my God. It's Christian Currents." You’re like, “Who? Who's that?”

C: Depends on where I am. If I’m walking to Zumies or something, maybe.

H: If you what? Sorry. What?

C: Oh. Do you guys not have those?

H: No. Zumies is what my cat does at 4 o'clock in the morning.

C: Zumies is a branded skateboard store in the US.

H: Oh. Oh, that's cool.

C: Yeah. It's heavily commercialized, it's like a McDonald's, but for skateboarding. I mean, if I walk into something or if I'm at a show or something like that or my local coffee shop, people will recognize me. But I'm not a Metallica.

H: People get excited over Metallica?

C: I love Metallica. It's probably my all-time favourite band, and Chris Wiseman's.

H: Okaaay.

C: Come on. They're the original.

H: The original of what? Being mid?

C: Modern metal music. Oh, my God we're going to fight. Alright. Now I know why Reddit doesn't like you.

H: Yeah. They've got a couple of tracks. That's it.

C: Oh, my God. No.

H: Yeah. A couple.

C: They're just one of those OG bands that, it's what made me, it was the first band that I listened to that I was just like, "Oh, I love music." I was a little kid when my dad would play them.

H: Wow. That's wild how we're only two years apart and the music that was played to me was not Metallica. It was heavy music, my dad was massively into grunge and metal and hard stuff, rock, obviously, I wouldn't really have called it metalcore back then that my dad was showing me. But he was showing me shit like Skunk Anansie.

C: That's crazy. Yeah. My dad was a part, he grew up in New York City and he also grew up in LA, and in the late '80s, early '90s when he was a teenager, because my parents had me when they were teenagers. So we always listened to metal, hardcore, stuff like that, he would play it all the time. We listened to Sepultura and Biohazard and '90s hardcore bands all the time and then he started taking me to shows in 2004. So I was the kid at the shows back then.

H: There's probably going to be a few people who are not fans of your band. I'm just going to put that out there. I have friends who do not like Currents. But they would be interested to know if you had any favourite hardcore bands.

C: If I had to say some of my favorites, I would say 100 Demons,  I would say Death Threat. I would say there's a band from Florida called Revenge that I really liked. I mean, then there's the more mainstream ones like Trapped Under Ice. Some of my favorite shows, I went and saw Ceremony a few times when they were still a hardcore band. Oh, my God. Have Heart, one of my favorites. Vein. I don't know. It's hard to say. I grew up in this stuff and I was at a show every weekend. So there's so many different ones that I went to.

H: You know, it was just that obviously, I have friends who are massively into hardcore, massively into “real” metalcore. And I think they as a joke, I went to them. I was coming up a blank on I was like, "Fucking hell. What questions do I ask? Give me something that's not generic. I don't want to do this whole generic, 'Oh, what's your favourite release?' Oh, what's it? No, I don't want to do that." And as a joke, one of them went, "Oh, what's his favourite hardcore bands?" I was like, "I'm not fucking asking that." But I think it's because they thought that you wouldn't like hardcore because of the kind of music that you make.

C: That's so insulting to me. Which is fine. It's just kind of like, the I don't know. There's so many different, even within a genre, within metalcore and hardcore, it's kind of like there's so many different versions of those in themselves either. Even hardcore is so, there's a whole spectrum of what people consider real hardcore and what people there's bands that they're metalcore bands that people think are hardcore but the hardcore community definitely wouldn't like them. You know what I mean? 

Where I grew up, it's like there's so many bands that came from out of here. I know the guys in Converge. I know Hatebreed is from, some of the guys are from the town that I'm from. My sister works for them. A lot of these guys, you know how if you say pop punk, it's like there's Green Day, which at some point, I guess, they were punk. But I would call them one of the founders of pop punk. And they're much different than Neck Deep or The Story So Far. But they're both pop punk. The genres are so, I don't know, I feel like it's such a weird discussion and it's to be so fixated on what an actual genre the music is. And it's either you like it or you don't and it's OK to not like it.

H: Yeah.

C: It's fine. But I know what you're saying where people are like, "Oh, it's real metalcore. It's fake metalcore," or something like that and be like, "Dude, none of these, nobody in these bands that you do like care either." I'm friends, I know the guy, I know some of the guys in Poison the Well. I know the guys in Converge, Misery Signals, all those bands I love those bands, too, of course. But I'm not going to write the same record they wrote. They did that.

H: Yeah. They've already done that. 

H: I'm going to put four of your songs into categories. And then I want you to do the same. 

Best lyric out of all the lyrics you have, it's “The classes separate watching as the guillotine swings.” From Poverty of Self.

C: Mm-hmm.

H: I don't know what it is. It's simple. But it's also the way it's delivered. That is one of my favorite lyrics. And I get very, very excited when it's coming up. 

Best riff, Can't Turn Back.

Best music video, Forever Marked. Incredible.

C: Oh interesting.

H: Incredible music video. I love that music video. 

And best solo, Guide Us Home. Your turn.

C: Okay. You switched it up a little bit for that.

H: I did. Yeah. The only one that is the same as the last time is best riff because I have to put that in there. That needs its flowers every single time, that riff.

C: Yeah. I mean, I do love that riff. I think I said it was one of the times that we were all locked in Chris's house for a week while recording. And that song started out a lot different. That starting riff at the beginning of the song wasn't even there. And I remember Chris because he gets up pretty early to write and like I said, I'm such a grouch when I wake up. And I remember kind of waking up and hearing him do the riff, the start of him making it, and I immediately got up, still in my underwear, kicked the door in and I was like, "That's it. Write that down. Record it." And then just got some coffee and then it was actually helpful and tried to actually be helpful after that.

I would say for me, just my personal favourite lyrics are probably “Remember Me.” 

They kind of, that song is really special to me just because it kind of took its own- it's weird like sometimes when we're writing a song and it has its meanings during the writing process, but once it gets released out into the world and you start playing it live and stuff, it starts to kind of take on new meanings. And the original meaning could still be in there. But it really took its own in a way that I never really I didn't experience as much with any other song on how much meaning got put into it post-releasing it.

H: Right. Best music video.

C: As far as music video, I think the best one is “It Only Gets Darker.” The production of that one is the highest.

But it's also a tie-up between that one and “The Death We Seek” music video, which was a lot of fun to do.

The music video thing is fun because I live with the guy that shoots all of our music videos and he actually does a lot of, usually, if you see a music video coming from a SharpTone band, it usually is made by him. And there's a couple of other bands that I do some cameos in.

H: Is there actual? I’m gunna have to go have a look.

C: Yeah. One of them is Sentinels. Yeah. I'm in one of the Sentinels music videos where I set myself on fire.

H: Right. Best solo.

C: I'm going to go back. I'm going to say one of my favourite, maybe, best one, it's hard to say best. They're all my kids. It's like trying to, it's like favourite moments of some of my kids. I would say “Apnea.”

H: Ooh, okay. I thought you would have gone from something from that album.

C: Yeah. That one's a really good one. Honorable mention, though, from that album, The Place I Feel Safest is, that the riff in that song is.

H: Yes. That is.

C: One of my favorites to play.

H: Title track. That's a fucking belter of an opener as well. Same with “Can't Turn Back.” They're both incredible openers. The song opening. I don't know if you've ever opened the set list with them. 

H: Right. We're going to stay on that topic of best. And I need to know who wrote the best opening lyric to “Best Memory,” the one that goes, "My friend, your willy’s wet."

C: I mean, it was Brian that wrote it.

H: So really? It's Brian's fault.

C: Yeah.

H: Because you retweeted it and you said, "We sing this to each other in the shower after shows." I was like, "Oh, so there you go then. The lyric's real." And I had people saying responding it was either responding to your retweet or responding to my original retweet, basically saying, "I can't unhear this now." I'm like, "You're welcome because I've always heard it as that."

C: Amazing.

H: From the day I heard “Best Memory,” it has always opened as, "My friend, your willy is wet."

C: Because you have a dirty mind.

H: Dirty. I'm so sorry for the British-ification that is about to happen to Currents. I'm not sorry. It's going to be awesome. Brian's going to start singing in a British accent.

C: There was one show where Brian, so we play this game it's called What Are the Odds, which I think I mean, I feel like it's pretty common. It's a pretty common game where basically, you're doing a dare. If you lose the game, you have to do it and if you don't lose, you don't have to do it. But he lost. And he had to speak to the crowd in Spanish.

H: And does Brian know Spanish?

C: And he doesn't know-

H: No?

C: No. No, he doesn't.

H: I was going to say, if he's fluent, then.

C: Amazing. No, he's not.

H: Oh, my goodness. Do you guys do that a lot when you're touring, have little weird games that you do?

C: Oh, yeah. We got to keep ourselves entertained.

H: If you're not entertaining us, then you've got to be entertained.

C: Exactly.

H: Because I can't imagine that being in a, whatever you guys tour in, I don't know, buses, big buses, small buses, minivans.

C: Sometimes big. Sometimes it's small.

H: Honestly, hats off to musicians. Hats off to touring musicians.

C: It's literally such an, I mean, the only real hard thing is just being away from home. I mean, I only have one thing to do all day, and it's to play for however long we have to play. I don't even have to do any of the other stuff. I joked around because we used to joke around all the time because it would be like obviously, there's late nights and there is work that gets done. But I would, being a construction worker is a hard job. Being a teacher is a hard job. There's discomforts, you get homesick or there's other things like that. But there's by no means obviously, there's pressure to perform well and then you have a bad night, and then all of a sudden, it's just people on the internet being like, "They suck." And you're like, "Bro."

H: Just having an off day.

C: I just had a bad day.

H: I get that. But obviously, you get to work doing what you love and sharing what you love with people who also love it.

C: Yeah. And I mean, there's times it's like I've played with the flu. I can't take a sick day or when I feel awful and you just kind of have the power through it. But even on the days, sometimes just mental health isn't good. But I remind myself of, hey, “there's people here that, they hired babysitters so they can come here tonight. They spent their hard-earned money to come see me do something really silly.” I think it's such a silly idea that people pay money to watch me perform my instrument. But obviously, there's production and there's a show. People are being entertained. But just that whole concept of it is a very surreal feeling and not really, it's just like I'm lucky. I'm very fortunate that I do get to do this and so there are times where I just have to slap myself and just be like, “No, you're lucky to do this. Even if you don't want to do it right now, you're going to do it the best way you can.”

H: Yeah. And that's all we obviously really ask for. But I'm sure that people would always say we would prefer you to be in your best mindset and stuff. But like you said, you're going to see it from your point of view thinking like, oh, these people have paid money. These people have traveled. These people have, like you said, hired babysitters, had to move around commitments and stuff. So you've got to give back in any way that you think that you can. But obviously, you just know that us from our side, if we knew what was going on in terms of getting you onto that stage in certain times, obviously, people would be like, we'd rather you not do that.

C: Yeah. I mean, some of the-

H: Good fans and actual nice people and the ones that actually care about the band as people and not just as a product. Yeah.

C: Yeah. No, for sure. I mean, there's definitely. But that's also the thing, too, that it almost deepens the connection on certain levels with certain things, especially the topics that the band sings about. 

This is quite a few years ago now. But it was right before I got on stage, I had found out that one of my childhood best friends had taken his own life from himself and I had to go out and perform like I was okay, and in a weird way, it was like as much as I wanted to just go into a corner and cry, going out there and doing it made me feel more connected even just with him because now it's like, there's not a show that I play where there's not a moment where I look up and I think about the people that I've lost, and that I can feel their- it's almost like every time I personally lose somebody, it's like I could feel their soul. I feel a little bit heavier because it feels like now I'm carrying the weight of them to keep moving forward. And every time I'm playing, I'm thankful that I do get to do this and that I'm doing something that is, in a way, trying to keep their memory alive.

H: Yeah. I mean-

C: And it's not just for me but for anybody else that's ever dealt with the same thing.

H: -And like you said, it's like especially some of the lyrics that you guys have in your songs could probably be well, that's what potentially the band members are dealing with at certain times. And I think people tend to forget that you guys are humans and just normal people and you might have things that maybe go on behind the scenes just before they're about to come and commit to a commitment to you guys, like playing a show or something. And I think that kind of like that's why you maybe see so many bands or maybe not bands as a whole but musicians. I can't think of the right way to put this. But take that, “Oh, why didn't you come to my city,” so seriously, not seriously but kind of like not as something that can kind of just be pushed aside because it's like this whole band and fans goes two ways. Obviously, we're wanting to come out and see you but you guys are just as normal as us. Like I said this last time, you're just as normal as us. You just get paid to play an instrument on a stage.

C: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I just you know it's, I think, the honesty and the rawness of who we are is one of the things that has brought us here. And kind of like what I was talking about before when I was growing up in hardcore, that honesty, that rawness, not being fake, that is what the core is. It is what it is, being there for each other in the community. And it's like being a teenager and all of this stuff, it's like everybody, we're all there because our lives suck and this is an escape.

H: Yeah. So now we all get to listen to cool music together.

C: Yeah. Hopefully, everybody's lives get better and stuff.

H: For those 90 minutes.  I’m not saying that obviously, the topic's nice. But obviously, it's probably nice for people to see this side of the band. Obviously, you're not a band as a whole. But you exist in the band. And I think that's why I wanted to start doing this, was for my own benefit as well, mainly for my own benefit. I didn't do this because anyone else asked me to. But I wanted to, obviously, I've got friends in bands across the pond, over here, I hear stories. I know what you guys all want to tell me. But obviously, there'll be people that maybe don't have that kind of relationship with band members, and we're not talking being parasocial and being fucking weird because don't do that. That's stupid. Stop doing that. Get these people off of a pedestal. They're just as normal as you. They can just play an instrument. Anyways, it probably helps people to see that that differentiation is really not there.

C: Yeah.

H: You're not just robots on a stage. You go through real things that they go through. You've probably shopped in the same stores that they've been in.

C: Oh, all the time. Somebody was telling me the other day- oh, it was my dad.

H: Oh. Just forget Dad.

C: My dad called me. And he was just like, “Hey, I was at the gym and I was listening to your record, and then I was in the locker room and then Brian just walked in.” And I was like. I was like, “alright.”

H: Brian goes gym.

C: Brian went to the gym.

H: Brian goes gym. That's wild.

C: Brian's getting jacked.

H: Is Brian getting wham, is he?

C: Yeah. Well, I mean, he's definitely getting into pretty good shape. But I'm here going to say, Brian's getting jacked. So it's going to put some sort of weird pressure on him to actually get massively jacked.

H: Okay right. There you go. That's Brian's call to- he's got to live up to that now. All eyes are going to be on him, even though he's not really on socials, is he? So how are we going to see the progress or whether he's actually done with it? We're going to have to rely on you.

C: You're going to have to be there. You're just going to have to come to the show.

H: Yeah. You're going to have to go to the Erra x Currents Tour if you're an American. Yeah. Actually, massive wham Brian. I couldn't imagine Brian being wham.

C: Yeah. We're going to get him on steroids.

H: That's awesome.

C: He's only going to eat beef and maybe eggs. It's going to be awesome.

H: Not broccoli? You're not even going to give him a little bit of broccoli?

C: Ew. No, I'm kidding.

H: No. This is protein, is it not?

C: Just protein. Pure protein.

H: And creatine. But shotting creatine.

C: Right in the ass.

H: Yeah. Awesome.

C: We're just getting so far out. This derailed so fast.

H: That's fine. This is a better version to put out than the last one.

C: This is why I get in trouble.

H: Because you're talking about Brian-

C: He's going to be like, “Why?!” And I'll be like, “I don't know.”

H: Now people are going to be going up asking him, like, “Oh, how's the bulking going?”

C: Yeah. It's funny because people be like, “Oh, you say crazy things.” And I'm like, honestly, I just get nervous and start word vomiting and people just think it's funny, so.

H: I mean, we can't complain. We've now got-

C: Inherently, I'm a shy person.

H: Really?

C: Yeah. I used to be really shy as a kid and kind of learned to have confidence.

H: Wouldn't have thought it.

C: Not many people do. I mean, it's possible. I feel like I'm living proof. But yeah, I was a really shy kid growing up. I had a stutter. I was fat.

H: Oh.

C: Dyslexic. It was crazy. My childhood was crazy

H: There you go. Someone's going to relate to that.

C: Yeah.

H: There's going to be a part of you that different people relate to, so many different parts.

C: Yeah. Hope so.

H: That's awesome. I love that.

C: Yeah.

H: I think that's cool. Before you go getting yourself into trouble with saying more things that you're going to make Brian do, poor Brian.

C: Sorry B.

Credit: Currents - It Only Gets Darker

H: Yeah. We're going to move on. You guys have got a pretty extensive touring catalogue behind you. And there's more coming up, which we'll get to. What's your favourite song to play live? Maybe it might be different to what your favourite song is to listen to. So this could be like how fun it is.

C: I feel like there's recency bias. So a lot of the newer songs, just because they're new, they feel like the most fun to play. So “Making Circles” is really fun to play, “It Only Gets Darker,” is a lot of fun to play. And then I'm sure any of the new songs that we play on this upcoming tour will be a lot of fun. Yeah. 

I mean, “The Place I Feel Safest,” whenever we played that, that was one of the hardest songs for me to learn, which gave me the most anxiety before actually performing it, which became really fun for me to do live because when I would nail it, I felt like this I felt like a sense of accomplishment and being like, “Oh, I fucking did it.” I overcame something that was hard. So doing stuff like that is fun. Yeah. “Monsters” is one of my favourite ones to play. That one, I feel like, is a really balanced one between me playing bass, doing vocals, and being able to jump around and kind of be crazy during that one.

H: I think you played that on, you might have played “Monsters.” I'm trying to think because you had.

C: Oh, we definitely played it.

H: Yeah. You had a pretty long setlist for The Death We Seek tour because you played most of them off of that album and then a couple from each other album. Obviously, “Into Despair” was on there. I don't think you guys really don't play that.

C: Well, we retired that one for.

H: Right. Well, no, no. We don't ever retire that.

C: It's funny. So my sister, she plays guitar. It's funny. All of us are musically inclined. But my sister, Maya, as far as raw talent goes, I think, is the most talented one out of all of us. But she's also very, very shy. And we were playing a show, a home show at the Palladium in Worcester and she was on the side stage and I had taught her how to play “Into Despair.” And I was just like, “Okay, you're going to-” sold out show. So I was like, “Do you want to play the song, do you want-” I was going to, right around the breakdown where it's just bass and drums, I was like, “I'll hand you my bass while you do that and then I'll just go do vocals with Brian.” And she was like, “Okay”. And then as soon as the part came on, she saw the crowd, and I looked at her and she went, she was like, no, no, no, no.

H: Oh, that would have been, did she not do it?

C: No. But we're going to get her to do it at some point. I'm going to make sure.

H: I think that would be awesome. That would be so cool because I remember you spoke last time we mentioned last time how you'll I think you had did you say you had one of your or both of your sisters involved in the, “It Only Gets Darker” music video?

C: One of my sisters, so my other sister, Sabrina, she likes acting and doing performances like that. So we had her involved in the acting of that music video and probably the future ones as well.

H: Yeah. So it's cool that you can get like you said, you like getting people from family and close friends who aren't in the music industry involved in it in little ways that they can to, kind of give them-

C: Oh, yeah.

H: -Just a little insight or a little taste of what it's like. But I think that would be awesome to get your sister to play that. But if she doesn't want to, don't force. Don't be a meanie.

C: Those girls are so spoiled. I do so much for them. Yeah. Meanie, my ass. No. She did a great job doing it and I love to be able to do anything that involves them. This is very much, my family is very heavily involved in this. Like I said, my brother is on the management side of things. Sabrina, I'm trying to get her involved in things like the music videos and costume designs and stuff like that. She has fun with that. And then Maya, she works for, now, for the last going on two years now, has worked in the music industry, working for bands. She works with Hatebreed, she works for Testament and doing stuff with them, which has been really cool, so really kind of turning this into a little empire for us.

H: Everyone's doing everything in music, but in different ways. That's awesome. I love that.

C: Yeah.

H: Everyone's creative. That's sick. And then I just play my little plastic guitar and-

C: So with Clone Hero, did you just download the song with it already mapped out?

H: I forget that people don't really know how Clone Hero works. Obviously Chris-

C: No. I've never played it.

H: Did you not get to join?

C: I mean, I played.

H: Was it just Chris that did the-? Because that's what he played.

C: No. It was Chris and Ryan. But I'm not sure because I'm not sure, is it some people map it out and then it's on a server and then you could just play it.

H: Yeah. And then you can just go and download it. So your entire discography is.

C: The entire discography?

H: Yeah. Apart from pre-Brian. So pre-”I Let the Devil In,” there's two songs.

H: Anxiety was done and the one with the backslashes in them, two words.

C: “Life//Lost?”

H: Yeah, that one. Yeah. Whole “I Let the Devil In,” whole “The Way It Ends,” “The Place I Feel Safest,” the whole “The Death We Seek,” and the whole new EP has been charted.

C: That's crazy. I had no idea.

H: Yeah and I play them all. I'm great. I've FC'd one of them, which means I've hit every single note. I'm going to let you guess.

C: I don't even know all the songs in our entire discography.

H: It's not off the EPs and it's not off “The Death We Seek.” I want to say it's off “The Way It Ends.” Yeah, it is. It's off that one. It's off that one.

C: Poverty of Self?

H: No. Because, why can't I FC the Poverty of Self? I'm trying to think. Oh, the riffs kind of gallopy. Yeah.

C: It's not narrowing it down.

H: It is Origin.

C: Oh.

H: Yeah. Because you have never played Origin.

C: No. We haven't. No. It is like a- I know that's one of Brian’s favourite ones that he wants to do, and I would like to do that one too.

H: Yeah. Brian should absolutely bring it back because I'll be stood there doing the finger buttons.

C: Yeah. Well, I mean, in a couple of years, the ten year mark will come and then if everybody demands a ten year tour for that album, then I guess we'll have to do it.

H: It's as though you're just feeding into it. We don't even need to get you to say that. But thanks for giving us the secret.

C: I'm just going to say, Chris Wiseman is a very analytical man, and if the demand is there.

H: You've got to do it. Right. Can everyone just go onto Twitter and say that they need to play “Best Memory” Live for the inevitable upcoming UK tour? Thank you.

C: I didn't say that was a thing that was happening.

H: It's the inevitable. It's going to happen. It is.

C: Maybe we never come back.

H: Well, that's not going to happen. Absolutely not. You've not been here since 2024. Fuck. No. You were here last year, weren't you? Yeah. I just didn't go.

C: Yeah. I was there like a couple months ago.

H: Yeah. I know. It was just before Christmas, wasn't it? It was November, The Plot In You.

C: Yeah. It was November.

H: Yeah. I just didn't go.

C: Wow.

H: I told you.

C: No more “Best Memory.”

H: I fucked it for everyone. I told you this the last time, I had my child. No. I did tell you this.

C: We're just going to we'll play it on the tour. We're just not going to play it in Scotland.

H: Oh, fuck. “Oh, sorry. We've had to make a change in the setlist tonight. Sorry. We've forgotten how to play this song. Yes. All four of us have forgotten how to play this song.”

C: It's the craziest amnesia you've ever heard.

H: Yeah. It's wild. Like we're talking about your extensive touring catalog. You've been to many, many places. You've seen many, many people. You've played many, many venues. Are there any standout moments that have happened throughout your touring career that you wish you could experience again?

C: There's a couple of different directions I can go with that, right? There's the funny direction of funny things that have happened, and then there's deep, personal, life-altering type ones.

H: So I could make it a little bit easier. I was then going to ask you for funny ones afterwards. There is a- you can go funny in a minute.

C: Well, so I mean, last year so there's two of them that are very defining to me. One was last year when we played Download Fest, because I grew up watching videos of Download and it was one of those things that I was like, “Oh, that's across an ocean. I'm never going to be able to experience that, let alone be able to perform on a main stage there.” So getting out there, first stepping foot on the stage and seeing the amount of people that were there to watch us was so mind-blowing because it was everything that I had dreamt in my head when I would be as a kid manifesting my future of wanting to perform on stage. It is the exact moment that I had envisioned and it was so surreal feeling, and I felt like I was on top of the world during that. And it was also cool seeing how many people throughout the years, spotting them throughout the crowd and just being like, “You came. You came. You’re here. You were here when we were playing the little venues in front of nobody. And you're still here with us when we're doing this.” So it was cool that they got to experience that with us. So that was really cool.

And then the second one is we were playing with Killswitch Engage, which is one of my all-time favorite bands, again, band from the area that I grew up in. And they were one of the bands that my dad and I listened to a lot together. So he and I were very connected with that band, but he had come out to one of the shows that we were playing, it was in New York, and obviously, he loved music and stuff so he's always been super supportive of everything that I do and what we do. And it was during “Kill the Ache,” the end of the song, where everybody's holding up their hands and stuff or has their phones out and everything. And I remember -sometimes I get choked up even telling this story because it's so- but I remember I was on stage, that moment was happening, and I could see my dad in the crowd. And I saw him just kind of look around and all the people there, everybody singing along and he looked back up to me, and he and I locked eyes, and then he just went like that. And I was like, I turned around. I was like, “You motherfucker. You fuck. Why are we going to do that? You're going to make me cry on stage.”

H: Oh, my God. That is adorable.

C: Yeah. That was a really nice moment.

H: That was like kind of like, you seeing dad's realization.

C: Yes. Yes. Like, “Oh, this is real now.”

H: They're really cute. I love that. And I also love, I think a lot of us British people are going to love that you speak so highly of Download.

C: Yeah. That was a really cool, really, really cool experience.

H: I'll tell you what people do ask, though. Why did you have a slip-up on Twitter where you fell out your shorts?

C: That wasn't a real slip-up.

H: Are you sure?

C: I am 100% sure. It was the lighting and it was just the way my shorts folded. And trust me, when we first got the set of photos back, we were rolling through them, and when I got to that photo, all of us were on the floor crying because we were just like, there's no way. And I ended up seeing the raw photo and having the -ha, raw photo- the photo, brought up the exposure and brightness on it and like, okay, it is 100% my shorts, and then I put it on Twitter just because I knew that was going to happen and I just wanted to be a little shit.

H: Because it did. It did the rounds in my server and it had us all questioning whether you'd actually fallen out your shorts. And I was like, because everyone was like, “No, no, no, no, no. He wouldn't do that.” And I was like, “I genuinely wouldn't put it past him.”

C: Oh, thank you for thinking so highly of me.

H: Do you know what it looks like? It looks like a microphone. It looks like the microphone has, I don't know why the microphone would be there. But also the crop of it, we can't tell if you're stood on the floor or obviously, and then obviously, you've got the field of view and shit. And so we can't actually tell the environment. But what that looks like is a microphone. So then it's like, well, how was that at that level? So then I was like, “No, I genuinely think that's what none of you think it is, but I do, and Christian knows he can get away with it because it looks like something else.” And no one would think he is brave enough to do that or stupid enough to do that. I genuinely thought it was a penis.

C: I 100% would post that on my Twitter. I just don't because I think it would make everybody else in my band very uncomfortable and I respect them too much. Yeah. No. I just thought it was hilarious because it really did look like it was. But it wasn't. I wear compression shorts under the shorts that you guys see me wear on stage. So it wasn't a possibility.

H: So if it does, you know something's gone very, very wrong.

C: No, Although there was a show kind of recently that I was running behind because of everything and I was already wearing a pair of shorts throughout the day. And then we got on, we're right about to get on stage and then I realized I was like, I didn't put any underwear on today.

H: Oh.

C: So I'd be like, be careful.

H: Right. No jumping around. That must have been the most inanimated show from your side. Obviously, everyone else could move around. But you're the one in shorts. People probably thought, “Nah, there's something wrong with Christian today. He's not moving about.”

C: Yeah. I told them I was sick.

H: Yeah. No. He was just free balling.

C: Yeah. Yeah. That was a bad preparation on my part.

H: Oh, that's funny. It's funny how you're known for wearing shorts, though. And it's weird when we don't see you in shorts.

C: Yeah. And people just yell, I hear people while I'm on stage and they'll be like, “Make them shorter!” And I'll be like.

H: They're fucking short enough. Jesus Christ.

C: I know. Sometimes it looks like if I want to wear a big shirt, it looks like I'm wearing a dress, like Winnie the Pooh.

H: I'm pretty sure when I saw you on The Death We Seek tour, you braved it for, fucking don't know why, you braved the Scottish cold and you were still in shorts, you weren't in joggers like you were this last UK tour.

C: Well, if I remember correctly, that was at a smaller venue.

H: Yeah. It was in SLAY.

C: So it was really hot in the venue but really cold outside.

H: Oh, yeah. Fucking baltic freezing. And yeah, I remember because that was the first time I'd obviously ever seen you guys live. I was like, holy shit. I remember looking at you and I was like, Jesus Christ. That's a Scottish thing to dress like that. Scottish guys, no matter what the weather is, they'll wear shorts and a T-shirt.

C: Really?

H: Yeah and it doesn't bother them. I don't know why. I think it's like a-

C: Just like a comfort thing for me.

H: Yeah. Because you want to be able to do your high kicks and your splits and stuff, don't you?

C: Well, yeah. I don't know why it's a sensation thing. But I don't like things in my pockets and I don't like feeling things on my legs. I don't know why. But it's just a sensation thing.

H: So when you came with The Plot In You and you had to wear joggers because it was that cold, that must have been torture for you.

C: I mean, it's not torture.

H: And we should all feel really, really bad for you because, yeah. I'm trying to garner your sympathy. You're supposed to play along. “Oh, it's not torture.” No. Play along.

C: Yeah. I mean, it was so hard.

H: “Having to put my shorts back in the suitcase.”

C: My sad shorts.

H: Yeah. It's weird if we don't see you in shorts now. And it genuinely does, it genuinely does. When I saw photos of The Plot In You tour, I saw you in jogging bottoms or whatever they were. I don't know what you guys call it, sweatpants.

C: Yeah. Those are actually my jujitsu shorts that I wear now.

H: Oh, it just looks out of character. It doesn't look right. So please never give up the shorts. Never give up the short shorts.

C: I got you. Never will. Since I started doing it, it's just a lot of bros coming up to me and being like, “Bro, what's your leg routine?”

H: Oh, no.

C: Jumping around on the stage.

H: Yeah. What you just saw for the last 45 minutes, that. It's the image I'm going to have to put up on the screen. That's fucking great. I'm so glad I get to do this.

C: I can't believe you have that. I can't believe you have that.

H: 2026, Currents have already got pretty stacked already in terms of a massive co-headline tour with Erra and support from an incredible British band, Caskets. Now, it's not unheard of for bands to collab ahead of touring. So is this your way of telling us that that's what's coming?

C: I mean, it's not to say that it would never happen. But we don't have any plans to do a collaboration on any music, at least not right now. I do think it would be a cool idea to do because I love Erra very much and I think one of the reasons why this tour made a lot of sense is just because our bands work together really well, both sonically and person to person. They're another band that's been very helpful to us for many years. So I'm glad that we finally get to do this with them because we haven't toured with them in a long time, I think, actually was in Europe with August Burns Red, and that was like 2019, end of 2019.

H: Yeah. So a long time ago. Yeah. I know a lot of people that are really, really looking forward to this tour that's coming up. And the fact that you're taking a British band over there as well, which is incredible, incredible for Caskets.

C: Yeah. They're a great band.

H: It's a very coded tour. There's no one that kind of stands out as being weird.

C: Like the odd band.

H: Yeah. “Oh, what are they doing on that lineup? They don't suit that lineup at all.” Which has happened before and then when you see them live, it really does feel out of place. And it feels bad because obviously, it's not the band's fault. But this feels coded to a fucking, its perfection.

C: I do really enjoy doing that. On our headliner, we brought out Unity TX, we've done stuff with Mugshot. Recently, we did stuff with Fromjoy. We did stuff with Foreign Hands. So I love having the mixed bills, especially exposing people to the other sides of the genre. But in this sense, it is a very cohesive bill, like Aviana, too, they're incredible live, incredible band. And then Caskets are also incredible, they're killing it. And then having us and Erra, it kind of just feels like, “Oh, alright, we'll send out a full night of heavy hitters.” I think it wasn't necessarily because of the style of music that they play. I think it was just really based on that, “Alright, who are the bands that, what bands can we take out right now that we think are front to back? How are we going to bring out the best show?”

H: I know I focused on obviously, that's just huge for Caskets but Aviana are a great band as well. Yeah, when I saw that tour announcement drop, I was fuming because that's like a Hayls tour front to back. 

Speaking of collabs, unless I'm blind, dumb, a fake fan, or all of the above, Currents have never collabbed or never had a feature on a song, bar the two back in 2015. So that was before you joined, before Brian joined. There were two features on that album. But since “I Let The Devil In,” there has never been a feature on a Currents track.

C: Not officially, no.

H: Okay, so that means there's an unreleased feature somewhere.

C: So I mean, well, okay, so there is the We Came as Romans song that we put out last year. Not technically a Currents song. But it has Anthony from After the Burial and it has David from We Came as Romans on it. So I mean, I guess it's the closest thing that you can get to a feature. And there are some, I'm not going to give out details, but there are some songs where, hidden in the layers of the vocals, there are, we have some friends that play in bands that kind of added a little layer here and there. So it's not necessarily a feature but there's some people hidden in it just for.

H: And then they've just been not named because obviously, it's not an actual separate part.

C: Yeah.

H: Ah. Okay.

C: Yeah. I mean, bands do that all the time. There's bands, songs that you've probably heard, and there's Anthony Greene's on it, and you didn't even know.

H: Yeah. But he's got a really distinct voice, so I feel like you'd be able to notice it.

C: You'd think.

H: Unless it was proper buried.

C: No. Yeah. They're usually pretty buried in there.

H: Yeah. Okay, now watch, people are going to be listening like fuck now.

C: And this is the thing that I like because now you got to go listen to all the songs, try to decide which song you think has somebody on it, and also, who do you think is on it.

H: Yeah. So we've got to name them and figure out which track we think they're on. You've just opened up your DMs to hundreds of people sending you, “Is it this track? And is it this singer? Is it this track?” So well done.

C: And I'm going to keep my mouth shut.

H: Oh, the one and only time you keep it.

C: Yeah. Because if it yeah, to be a shithead, yeah, of course, because it brings me a lot of joy.

H: Everyone, go and play this game now. Find the hidden feature.

Are there going to be collabs in the future? Do you think like a proper, you know what I mean, actually having someone else guest vocal on a track?

C: Yeah. We've talked about it before and it would be a fun thing to do. It's kind of just deciding on what track to do that with and who to do it with. I kind of want to, I personally would like to do it with somebody that's kind of out of the box that nobody would really expect. And so that is also just figuring out who that person would be. Or I don't know, I feel like it would be cool the way that Knocked Loose just did it.

H: With Denzel Curry.

C: Yeah. Nobody expected that. And it's awesome, so.

H: Do you think that's why you guys haven't had a feature because you kind of can't find you've not been able to find that right person for that right song?

C: I think it's also that we haven't actively been looking for it.

H: Yeah. You've not wanted one either.

C: Yeah. We just are like, alright, we're writing the record. And alright, the record's done. Ah, man, we should have done a feature, huh?

H: Yeah. Because a lot of people will have an album and there's at least one. There's not been an album that I've seen released in quite a while that hasn't had a feature.

C: Yeah. I mean, I was thinking about this the other day. And I mean, I guess outside of my shorts, there's not really any we never really do any sort of gimmicks, anything that isn't just music, just our music. There's no I don't know. I think it would be fun and creative to try to figure out one. But yeah, everything is just pretty straightforward from our world.

H: You put out what you put out because it's a finished product and you don't feel like there's anything missing that could only be filled by a featured vocalist.

C: Yeah. I think too-

H: It's kind of cool in a sense, though, that you've managed to do three full-length albums and two EPs without a feature.

C: I mean, if somebody like crazy was just like, “Hey, let me do a track,” if Oli Sykes was like, “Hey, let me do a feature on one of your songs,” I'd be like, “Get the fuck in here right now, you handsome son of a bitch.” Yeah.

H: That would be a sick one. Oli, hit Currents up. Fucking do it when you're back from being a dad and whatever else you're going on with. Oh, yeah. The apparent re-record of “Count Your Blessings.”

C: Really?

H: Yeah. Apparently because he's been in the studio and he has recorded himself doing one of those songs. So people are speculating that for the 20th anniversary this year, that they're going to redo “Count Your Blessings.”

C: Yeah. So I was listening to that record in 2009. And I was in a doctor's office with my mom and she was telling me that because I was a teenage boy, and she was just like, “You need to wash your hands and be clean.” And I was like, mom, I'm not going to get sick and I licked a doorknob at the doctor's office, and I got swine flu, the H1N1 virus, and I almost died.

H: What? Right. Stop laughing.

C: While listening to Bring Me to the Horizon.

H: That's the hardest shit I've ever heard in my life.

C: Yeah. I think I was listening to it on an iPod Nano.

H: Oh, they were so gas.

C: Yeah.

H: Wow. That feels like a whole world away.

C: I'm like, what am I going to, “I'm not going to get sick.”

H: So Bring Me to the Horizon's “Count Your Blessings” made you get swine flu. Basically, that's what you're saying.

C: Yeah. The subliminal messages on that record.

H: Yeah. That's what that is, and Oli should make it up to you by doing a feature on the next Currents album.

C: Exactly.

H: Yeah. Okay, awesome. I'll be sure to pass that on for you.

C: Thank you. You all know each other down there, right?

H: Yeah. He's basically from the same town as me.

Obviously, we were talking about your diary. You've got the Erra tour coming up. You've also got Slam Dunk in May. How excited are you for Slam Dunk?

C: Oh, very. Yeah. That's another one that I've always wanted to play, so being able to do this is another check off of the.

H: Have you not played Slam Dunk? I am very excited for this year.

C: Yeah. My manager, Scott, called me. And he's like, “Hey, do you want to play Slam Dunk with Knocked Loose?” And I was like, “Fuck yeah.” That was it.

H: You really don't need much convincing to do that. This is a very, very good festival. I mean, you've done Download. You've done other festivals. But Slam Dunk's a really nostalgic one for a lot of people.

C: I feel like the festivals in Europe in general are just different than in the US because I feel like they're so iconic. Before, we used to have Warped Tour and Lollapalooza and stuff like that, which I guess now, what's the one called in California?

H: Coachella?

C: Coachella, yeah. I guess there's that one, but that's not something we would really play. There's no real history behind it. But, so after Warped Tour went away, there wasn't anything as iconic as that. We have things, there are really good festivals here now, Inkarceration and stuff like that. But yeah, there's nothing that really when you say it, a Download or a Slam Dunk, they're just so, there's so much history, everybody knows what that is, even outside of the UK or Europe or anything like that.

H: How long have you been sitting on knowing that you were going to do that? When do they ask you that? Do you know for ages and ages?

C: I don't remember exactly when they asked. Probably maybe, September they asked us.

H: So it's like just shy of a year.

C: Yeah. Just like a little under a year.

H: Ah, and they'd give that to you, Mr. Big Mouth.

C: See, I have a big mouth. But I do know how to keep secrets.

H: Yeah. See, it just proved that. None of us found out about Slam Dunk before Slam Dunk told us. As soon as I saw Currents because I missed you the last time I missed you twice, actually, I'm pretty sure. I know. Fucked. Terrible. Blacklist me from all future shows.

C: You're right. It's already done.

H: Thank you. That's what I wanted. So I'd missed you twice and then I was like, oh, fucking hell. And you hadn't even announced the, because obviously, Slam Dunk announcement came before the Erra co-headline tour announcement. So I was like, “Fuck. They're not saying anything. Haven't said anything.” And it was before the EP came out. So obviously, unless we see a release, we don't think tour.

C: It's fun to see when little bits of general knowledge start coming out and then people on the internet start trying to put together, they start making up things. They're like, “This is what's happening. Oh, this is what they're going to do.” And it's like, we're not doing that. But sometimes they nail it, sometimes they know exactly what's going to happen.

H: Yeah. So obviously, that's why I was like, “Oh, fuck. I've got to go Slam Dunk now.” I've never been to a festival. I don't know what I'm doing. But I was like, nah, Currents. I don't think they're going to drop anything. So I don't think they're going to do a tour, even though their last tour was 2024, so they're due back. But then it was also that entire lineup is absolutely killer. Absolutely killer. There are a lot of clashes that could potentially happen because it's only one day. So there are a lot.

C: What are your biggest clashes?

H: If you clashed with Guilt Trip, that would make me sad. Hawthorne Heights, please don't clash with them.

C: Cut my wrists and black my eyes.

H: Yeah. Literally. I need to be shouting that. Static Dress. Oh, that would break my heart, that would. I have the chance to see all of these bands, but it could come at a cost because you could all start clashing.

C: I mean, you could always wait, see a couple songs that you want to hear, and then go to the other stage. Actually, I'm not really sure. There might be a third stage but I'm pretty sure there are just two stages, A and B, when one band's playing, then the other band, and then the next band, and then the other band.

H: I do think there are.

C: Don't quote me on that.

H: No, I'm not going to.

C: And there might be another, like a third smaller stage.

H: Last one, rounding it off, something generalized, pretty straightforward. What is one album, any genre, any release date, anything, there's no restrictions, that you think people have to listen to at least once in their life?

C: Oh, that's not an easy question.

H: It's an easy answer when you get to it because it's just one.

C: But you know how many records I've listened to? What is the absolute, everybody must listen to? It's like, what do I think is the most important record of all time?

H: Would you like me to- okay, shall I narrow it down to a genre? Because I did say any genre.

C: Well, yeah. Because I mean, if you were going to be like, alright, what's the one of the most important? I'd probably be like “Thriller,” Michael Jackson.

H: Wait. What? Is that for pop music?

C: Yeah.

H: Oh, no. That's Justin Bieber's 2015 album, “Journals.”

C: I love JB. But it's not better than “Thriller.”

H: No, it is.

C: Justin Bieber would not say that.

H: No, I know Justin Bieber wouldn't because he loved Michael Jackson. Right. Well, we're going to have to stay in your genre then. What is one metalcore record that everyone has to listen to at least once?

C: That's still not easy.

H: It's easier, though.

C: Yeah. Because I don't know which way to go, right? Because there's bands like “On Broken Wings” or something like that that maybe not the general our metalcore audience would know, but those types of bands that everybody, or if there's just the what I think is the king of all of the metalcores.

H: Right, okay, right go with your absolute favourite then.

C: I mean, honestly, I got to say, for me, a really perfect one is As “Daylight Dies” by Killswitch. I think I consider that a perfect record. Yeah. That's kind of has everything that I like, my personal favorites of the genre.

H: There we go. We'll go to the side that maybe the people that listen to just strictly your kind of metalcore maybe haven't heard of that band.

C: I mean, if you haven't heard of that band [On Broken Wings], just listen to that band. They're fucking so sick. Some of the, their drummer, it was before I was in high school, but he went to the same high school as me.

H: There you go. There's your claim to fame, you’re from the same high school as the “On Broken Wings” drummer.

C: Yeah, there's a lot of talent that came from that area. Kevin from The Acacia Strain is from a town over from me. The original members of Emmure are from 20 minutes from me. That area, for whatever reason, just blossomed up.

H: Spits out musicians.

C: I guess. I think it's probably because it's so gloomy here for so long out of the year that we’re just inside for most of the time.

H: No one’s got anything to do but just go sit in their garage and just learn how to play an instrument.

C: Exactly.

H: That's the way to do it, though. That's fucking awesome. Go listen to “On Broken Wings” if you haven't and also go listen to “Killswitch Engage” if you haven't, which I can't see why you haven't unless you're four years old. But if you're four years old, you shouldn't really be watching this.

C: That's true.

H: Yeah. I don't know how the fuck you've gotten onto YouTube. But Okay.

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Spin Currents latest EP, “All That Follows” which released on Sharptone on 31st October 2025 - Apple Music / Spotify

Make sure you catch them on their upcoming American co-headline tour with Erra, or their appearance at Slam Dunk Festival on 23rd & 24th May 2026.

Currents Socials: Instagram / Twitter