Constructing Setlists From Facebook & Twitter Requests

Many musicians hit a turning point early on in their lives when they realise that playing music is what they want to do as a career. Some can actually pinpoint a moment in time when that desire crystalised into reality and Kellin Quinn, frontman for American rock act Sleeping With Sirens, is an example of this. Speaking from his home in Florida, Quinn is happy to reminisce with us.

"I went to my first-ever Warped Tour in 2004," he remembers, "and that's how I got into the music scene, and that's where I first saw the bands that made me go, 'This is maybe what I would love to do with my life someday.' And to say that we've been a band for almost ten years now, and to have accomplished the things we have, it's really awesome to be able to say that. It's something that I can pass down to my kids."

It's an achievement purely just to overcome the naysayers and sustain a career in music over such a period of time, especially in the rapidly shifting industry we live in today. "A lot of people told me that I would never be able to do what I wanted to do," he says, "but look at it now! I've put ten years of work into it and this is what came out. I got to see the whole world and I got to be on the covers of magazines, and it's all just really good stuff.

"Music and the industry are always going to change and you either accept it or you don't. I'm very happy with everything that this band has accomplished and if it was all to end tomorrow I would just look back on our career with a big smile on my face."

It can be challenging when you've been around for so long, and have a decent back-catalogue behind you, to construct a live setlist that pleases both fans and band members. Sleeping With Sirens are about to make a return visit to Australia and Quinn reveals that they have a special way of making sure everyone enjoys themselves when they come to the show.

"It just depends on what the kids want to hear, to be honest," he states. "We just want to put on the show that everybody wants to see, especially when we go to the more far-flung places like Australia. We want people to come to the show and feel like they got what they wanted out of it.

"So we're going to leave it all up to Twitter and Facebook and the online response - just ask people what they want to hear - and that's how we're going to build the setlist for that tour."

He goes on to say that the thinking behind this system boils down to feeling empathy towards the audience since, after all, musicians are fans, too. "I've been to shows myself where you've wanted to hear some of those songs. There's been a few bands where you go to the show and they've neglected to play anything from their back-catalogue and it's like, 'Fuck you! We're not that band anymore.' But to me, as a fan, you still want to hear those songs again especially if a band doesn't come around that often.

"I think it's important to have the fans leaving and saying, 'That was a show worth going to'."

Now, five albums and almost a decade into the band's career, Quinn is highly optimistic about the future, although it is an optimism tempered with a touch of realism. "I just take it a day at a time, I don't see it ending anytime soon," he says. "For us, I think the most important thing is to just keep doing things that are special. I don't want to be one of those bands that feels like they have to force everyone's hand and struggle to hold on, and when this stops being fun that's when I'm done doing it."