It was during Brisbane Soundwave that Warped Tour announced it would be making its Australian comeback in 2013. Fittingly, the announcement was displayed on the big screen during Blink-182's set. “I couldn't wait for the summer and the Warped Tour,” Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus sings on The Rock Show, and now, that iconic rock show is returning to Australia as it closes in on its 20th anniversary.
Two men sit behind the scenes working tirelessly to bring the festival Down Under again for the first time since 2002. Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman and Soundwave's AJ Maddah have been working around the clock amongst other commitments to ensure the best line-up possible for its return.
They rarely find the time to sit back, relax and enjoy the fruits of their labour, but, when they pick up their phones, Lyman is reclining at a Warped Tour BBQ in Buffalo, NY, and Maddah is taking some time out in Greece.
“I'm attempting to have a few days off, but people like you are ruining it. That's okay,” Maddah jokes. It's the type of humour somewhat lost on his Twitter followers, as comments like that in the past have been perceived as rude, when they're intended as nothing more than some light humour to break the ice.
It's soon hard to get a word in edgeways as the pair begins reminiscing about first meeting when Lyman brought Warped to Australia in 1997.
“My first full-blown, full-force experience with the Kevin Lyman factor was when he got in a van that I was driving and he told me to drive him to Melbourne from Canberra, or somewhere like that, in the middle of the night,” Maddah says.
“Oh, yeah! We were going to drive all the way across the country, at some point. My dream was to drive across the country; I thought it would be fun. Some commonsense was spoken at the point,” Lyman laughs.
“I remember five of us having to draw straws about who was going to go onstage and kick Unwritten Law off,” Maddah laughs. “I think that was rigged because I ended up drawing the short straw, but even that was hilarious…Wade [Youman], the drummer at that time, was a psychopath, so whoever went up there was likely to be knocked out, so let's send the new kid up – that was me.
“We always have a great time, and Kevin inspired me to do Soundwave and a lot of what I've done, so it's a real pleasure to be working together again,” he adds.
Stay tuned to theMusic.com.au tonight for the full announcement just after 10pm.
