You Me At Six On Their 'Truth Decay' World Tour (So Far) & Returning To Australia

In a little over two weeks, You Me At Six will make their return to Australia after a four-year absence. Joined by Los Angeles-based trio, Set It Off and Australia’s Between You And Me, the Truth Decay tour not only celebrates the great new album from the UK rockers but promises an all-out rock and pop-punk affair for devoted (and long-waiting) Australian fans.

“Really looking forward to coming back down under. Australia has always been our favourite place to tour, and our fans are special there,” vocalist Josh Franceschi said in a statement upon announcing the tour in April. “Nothing like an Aussie crowd. Truth Decay is coming!”

In a recent Kill Your Stereo interview on all things Truth Decay, frontman Josh Franceschi teased a potential Australian tour well before this announcement. “We were talking about coming back to Australia the other day, and there are a few things on the table," he shared. At the time, the band looked at May or December dates, but this tour ended somewhere in the middle. 

Franceschi added, “If it were up to me, I would do both because one is a festival, and the other is headlining. I'd headline and then come back for the festival, but I don't really know how that logistically works. So, I'm just being a good boy.”

To celebrate the upcoming tour, we caught up with Franceschi for another quick chat about the best moments on the Truth Decay tour (so far) and what’s most exciting about getting back to Australia.

TRUTH DECAY TOURING MEMORIES (SO FAR) & HOW IT’S BEEN DIFFERENT TO PREVIOUS TOURS

A big thing that has made the Truth Decay Tour so far different from our previous ones is that we put the record out during our UK tour - and we've never done that before. I think it ended up happening because there are some vinyl issues or something like that. The album got pushed back, and I remember just being on stage in Nottingham on the night that Truth Decay was gonna come out at midnight. We played in an arena in Nottingham, and it was fucking wild.

And we then went to some nightclub and DJ'ed, and it was like proper old school hustling, selling vinyl and CDs over the barrier while playing fucking Welcome To The Black Parade, or whatever was being spun on the deck. It was really cool because it was that sense of experiencing it in real-time with the fans. And it was like we were basically on a night out, but we were also launching our album. It was also great because we were playing songs off the record as it was coming out live to people who were hearing for the first time in front of us. It was special, especially after Suckapunch was out during the pandemic, and we didn't get to feel that and didn't get that connection. For me - that's the most valuable thing.

If anybody was to ask how I measure our success, that would be the currency, seeing how others kind of inhabit and respond to something that's been so personal, which now suddenly by someone uploading it onto a server or putting it on vinyl or whatever, it becomes somebody else's. I always find that really, really fascinating and also nerve-wracking because you're like: what if it becomes somebody else's, and they hate it? So, in real-time, to see people falling in love with these songs that I've been in love with for so long was really special. That was definitely a highlight. 

I think we've also played some of the biggest shows we've done so far on our European tour, and that felt really special because it felt like we just moved up a couple of gears - which we weren't expecting; we weren't expecting that tour to do as well as it did. So far the touring for Truth Decay has been really wicked. We did a festival the other day as well for Nova Rock, it's basically the biggest rock metal festival in Austria. We went into it being like: this is gonna be pants because we're on the same day as Slipknot, Disturbed and all these fucking super amazing bands - and they’re very different to us. But we went on, and we had an absolute corker of a show; it was wicked. In that sense, there's been no complaints and no losses so far for the Truth Decay Tour, just a lot of victories, which has been great.

LIVE FAN FAVES DURING THE TRUTH DECAY TOUR (SO FAR)

With the tour, God Bless The 90s Kids was always in our setlist, and we were playing that song live before it had come out. And it was our hoodie design for the merch, so we were like: we have to fucking play it (laughs). We've printed all these hoodies, now we gotta figure it out! So, before we did the song, I would teach the audience the words of the chorus. And that was really funny because we've never done anything like it. I know it sounds a bit basic, but teaching a room full of like 10,000 people a chorus to a song, and then by the time the first chorus is happening, they know it, and they're like: oh right, that's my song - that was really surreal.

Another one that has been a fan favourite so far is No Future? Yeah Right. I was kind of anticipating that people who maybe like heavier music that like our band would really like that song - but I wasn't expecting our whole fan base to also get so into it. Live, No Future’s one of the biggest songs that we have now, which is mad! And not what we were expecting! We were like: oh, we should have a cool feature with our friend Rou [Reynolds]. Like, it’d just be two bands who have been orbiting one other for two decades just kind of on a track together. But we weren't expecting it to be this song that everyone really loves. It’s really cool. 

WHAT THEY’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO ABOUT TOURING AUSTRALIA WITH SET IT OFF AND BETWEEN YOU & ME

What we’re looking forward to most about touring Australia with Set it Off, honestly, is to get to know them and to get to know their music a bit more intimately. I've heard of them before, and one of our manager's best mates is their agent. He also happens to be someone that I play football with. So, we were playing footy, and he was like: what have you got coming up? I was like: oh, we're putting together this Australian tour. He's like: oh, one of my bands has been dying to go over there for ages. Do you reckon you could look at it? And I was like: yeah, who is it? It was Set It Off, and I was like: yeah, I'm down for that. About an hour or two later, I got an email saying: yeah, they’re confirmed. And I was like: all right, wicked!

It was a nice organic thing. We never really have that situation where we get people to submit or pitch or anything like that. We kind of prefer it where, you know, it becomes common knowledge that we're doing something. Set It Off felt like a great fit, and I think there are quite a lot of people excited to see both bands on the same ticket. I always love that cross-pollination between fanbases, I think that's really cool and something that should be elevated rather than winced at and ignored. I'm looking forward to seeing a room full of people that, I think, are getting good value for money with these two bands.

And now, of course, with Between You & Me, I think they're gonna be a brilliant addition. There were a couple of Australian bands that I've been personally talking to that I was like: I really want to get you on the bill. And there were things that kept on happening that kept on coming up, which meant things weren't lining up. Between You & Me were a band that I’d heard of and just said to Chris at Destroy All Lines, I was like: dude, I can't be in one of those bands that when we come to Australia, we don’t take out an Aussie band. Because it's so hard for Aussie bands to get a break. If an international band comes over, it's a great look for them. So yeah, we're glad that we could help in that sense. And generally, I think the tour will be a ripper! The shows are selling really, really well, which is really encouraging. And we’re just looking forward to it!

Tickets for You Me At Six’s upcoming Australian tour are on sale now via Destroy All Lines.