#it's gonna be a pretty short one-shot. probably like 2000 words at most. but hey it's something!

[walugus-grudenburg]

Writing my first fic. Yes, it's Rogue Legacy 2, and yes it's Irad-and-Cain centric. How'd you know?

[incarnateirony]

Hey dude! Do you have any recommendations for LGBTQ+ movies in the romance genre that have like a happy ending. I really don't care how old they are. I'm feeling the Gay™ hence I need the Gay™. You feel me?

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII NONNIE

First sorry for taking so long, not only did I have to timeline this :) but :) my computer :) froze :) after writing like :) 2 pages :) and I had to do it again :)

So anyway let it be said, the LGBT dialogue is one of osmosis and shared growth and awareness. Some of these films will be very poorly dated, but as you (thankfully) mentioned that them being old wasn’t a *problem*, expect a lot of old stuff. Because one of the most important things to have under your belt when talking about the LGBT media representation battle is the actual journey from A to B – be that incrementalization, subtextual inclusion, text-breeching features, outright evocative and groundbreaking films at the time (which is what MOST of this list will be) and an improvement in our dialogue; let us never forget that while tr*nss*xual is considered a slur and transgender is proper, tr*nss*xual was at one point the politically correct way to speak it – things like that breach in our growing understanding of the spectrum of human sexuality. 

I *WILL* disclaimer these aren’t all romance, so if you explicitly want romance, google them and take a look if it sounds to appeal, but I’m taking this as a general cinema history plug considering what a confused mess fandom conversation about LGBT history in film or modern text as applicable, accepted or not.

Wonder Bar (1936) (I wouldn’t really call this queer cinema, but if you have the time to watch it too, I think it was the first explicit mention of homosexual engagement even if it was fleetingly brief. You might even call it Last Call style. A blink and you’ll miss it plug that was still decades ahead of its time)

Sylvia Scarlet (1936) (Again, I wouldn’t call this queer cinema, but a lot of the community takes it as the first potential trans representation on TV due to the lead literally swapping gender presentation, even if the presentation is… not what we would modernly call representation IMO)

Un Chant d'Amour (1950) (Worth it for the sheer fact that it pissed off fundies so bad they took it all the way to the US supreme court to get it declared obscene.)

The Children’s Hour (1961) (also known as the 1961 lesson to “don’t be a gossipy, outting bitch”)

Victim (1961) (The first english film to use the word “homosexual” and to focus explicitly on gay sexuality. People might look on it disdainfully from modern lenses, but it really helped progress british understanding of homosexuality)

Scorpio Rising (1964) (Lmao this one deadass got taken to court when it pissed people off and California had to rule that it didn’t count as obscene bc it had social value, worth it for the history if nothing else)

Theorem (1968) (Because who doesn’t wanna watch a 60s flick about a bisexual angel, modern issues and associations be damned)

The Killing of Sister George (1968) (by the makers of What Ever Happened To Baby Jane)

Midnight Cowboy (1969) (…have I had sassy contagonists in RP make a Dean joke off of this more than once, maybe)

Fellini-Satyricon (1969) (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA THIS)

The Boys in the Band (1970) (This… this… this made a lot of fuss. Just remember leather)

Pink Narcissus (1971) (a labor of love shot on someone’s personal camera)

Death in Venice (1971) (This is basically a T&S prequel but whatever, based on a much older book)

Cabaret (1972) 

Pink Flamingos (1972) (SHIT’S WILD)

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) (The title doesn’t lie, be warned)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) [god I hope you’ve at least seen this]

Fox and His Friends (1975) (some really hard lessons that are still viable today, that just because someone acknowledges your sexuality doesn’t mean they give a shit about you as a person, and that some will even abuse the knowledge for gain)

The Terence Davies Trilogy (1983) (REALLY interesting history look it up, it’s sort of one of those “drawn from own experience” story short sets)

The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) (Documentary)

Desert Hearts (1985) (Pretty much the first film to put lesbianism into a good light as a true focus based on a novel from the sixties)

Parting Glances (1986) (the only film its creator got out before his death from the aids epidemic)

Law of Desire (1987) (two men and a trans woman in a love triangle, kinda ahead of its time)

Maurice (1987) (This one’s really interesting, cuz it was based on a book made about 15 years before it, but the book itself had been written half a century earlier and wasn’t published until after the guy died, he just thought it’d never get published Cuz Gay, so basically it’s based on a story written in like, the 20s finally getting screen time. It has a bittersweet but positive-leaning-ish ending without disregarding the cost that can come with it and even addresses class issues at the same time 100% DO RECOMMEND)

Tongues Untied (1989) (a documentary to give voices to LGBT black men) 

Longtime Companion (1990) (This one’s title alone is history, based on a NYT phrasing for how they talked about people’s partners dying, eg longtime companion, during the AIDS epidemic)

Paris Is Burning (1990) (Drag culture and related sexual and gender identity exploration as it intersected with class issues and other privileges explored in a documentary)

The Crying Game (1992)( I should correct this that I guess it’s more, 1992 considered, “SURPRISE, DIL HAS A DILL!” – I guess I really didn’t do that summary justice by modern language and dialogue as much as how people in the 90s were talking about that and that’s a my bad. LIKE. SEE, EVEN I CAN FUCK UP MY LANGUAGE I’M SORRY CAN I BLAME THE STRAIGHTS T_T) #90skidproblems – I guess I should call it a trans film. And this alone tells me I should go watch it again to recode it in my brain modernly rather than like circa de la 2000 understanding.

The Bird Cage (1996) (So you mix drag culture, otherwise heterosexually connected lovebirds, and then realize the girl comes from an alt-rightish house and the guy comes from a Two Dads Home and does cabaret, how to deal with the issues OF this conflict when it’s between you and your happiness, even if the fight isn’t even your own as much as it is that of the person you love. The answer is PROBABLY NOT to dress in drag and pretend to be straight, but what are you going to do? – while played for laughs we’d consider modernly crude, the fact that they even dared to approach this narrative was pretty loud)

The Celluloid Closet (1996) (Ever heard of the Vito Russo test for LGBT representation? This is based on a book by Vito Russo.)

Happy Together (1997) (Ain’t this shit an ironic name; a mutual narrative, via chinese flick, of hong kong ceding to china and an irrevocably tangled MLM pairing as a giant mirrored metaphor)

Boys Don’t Cry (1999) (one of the most groundbreaking films about trans identity at the time)

Stranger Inside (2001) (As easy as it is to recoil to the idea of “black gays in jail”, the film makers actually went and consulted prisoners and put a great deal of focus into intersectional african american issues that really weren’t around even in straight films at the time)

Transamerica (2005) (While it made a bit of a fuss for not casting an actual trans actor, it was one of the first times a big budget studio really tried to tackle it which really pushed us forward)

Call Me by Your Name (2017) (since I’ve apparently leaned really heavy old cinema throw in a modern one lmaooooo)

Also honorable The Kids Are All Right (2010) mention for the sake of the fucking title alone. 

And to any incarnation of “On the Road” by Kerouac, which

Was originally a book

Released a sanitized de-gayed edition because of the times

Later released the full homo manuscript

had a few film adaptations

Was one of Kripke’s founding inspirations for Supernatural once he left behind “Some reporter guy chases stories” and took the formula of Sal and Dean (and tbh later, Carlo) in a beat generation vibe gone modern as we know it today.

Reading both versions of this can actually help some folks currently understand that when you get confused over some shit (WHY IS CARLO SO UPSET? WHY IS HE ACTING LIKE AN UPSET GIRLFRIEND??? WHY IS HE SO JEALOUS AND SAD WHEN DEAN IS AROUND GIRLS???? WE JUST DONT KNOWWWWWWWWWWWWW) it’s because some big money asshat bleached the content, and sometimes, it takes a while for the full script to come out and again, surprise, it’s been GAY, they just didn’t want to OFFEND anybody. *jazz hands*

Now if you wanna go WAY WAY BACK, during 191X years, a bunch of gender role flicks came out like Charley’s Aunt, Mabel’s Blunder and the Florida Enchantment.

Also where is @thecoffeebrain-blog to yell about the necessity of watching Oz, for the next few hours? But no, seriously, just look into the entire LGBT *HISTORY* of Oz.

Beyond that though I’m gonna stop here cuz hi that’s a lot. I really don’t know how much counts as “happy ending” but if I had to give an LGBT cinema rec list, that’s it as a sum. I don’t really have like, a big portfolio of UWU HAPPY ENDING GAYS because 1. there aren’t a lot of those but 2. to me, it’s not about the ending, it’s about the journey. Be that in flick or through culture and history itself.

If you want more happy ending stuff, you definitely have to look at 2010+, but it’s not like we’re in a rich and fertile landscape yet so honestly just googling that would probably serve you better since I don’t explicitly explore romance genre or happy endings to really have a collection. LGBT life is hard and film often reflects that if we’re making genuine statements about it and really representing it, and we’re just now getting to a point of reliably having the chance at a happy ending. That or maybe someone can add like “Explicit happy endings” lists after this that has more experience in that subgenre.

Also, I can’t emphasize ENOUGH to remember what was progressive then is not what is progressive now, and frankly, what some people think is progressive now they’ll probably look back on what they said and feel really fuckin’ embarrassed. See: “It’s not text because by alt right homophobic dialogue, M/M sex isn’t gay if you do the secret handshake” MGTOW kinda crazy ass dialogue or parallel narratives they inspire that encourage self-closeting and denial based on the pure idea that being gay makes you somehow lesser, so It’s Not That. Like. I am. 99% sure. At least half of the people talking in this fandom. Are going to regret that the internet is forever. And maybe hope hosting servers end in the inevitable nuclear war that will annihilate this planet.

Also, edit: Speaking of mistaken dialogues and words aging poorly, I’d like to apologize from the poor description I rendered “The Crying Game” with, but that really goes to show how deep-seated the issue is we can so casually fuck up identifying a trans narrative as SURPRISE DICK IS GAY when we were all absorbing the content like 20+ years ago and HOW HARD it can be to de-code yourself from that kind of programming because here I am, writing a giant assed rep post and fucking it up because my brain hadn’t soaked that movie since Y2K. Guess what, time for me to go watch the Crying Game again.

[heathendolan]

I Couldn’t Be More in Love [E.D]

Summary: Ethan’s not about cliches, he swears, but he has the feeling he might just die if he doesn’t tell you how he feels during your last senior prom slow dance.

Warnings: nothing but like I’m very sorry for the cheesy picture BUT LOOK HOW CUTE

Author’s Note: just a lil something I couldn’t get out of my head, it’s cheesy, it’s lame, it’s short, and it’s nothing special but my prom is next weekend and like c’mon how perfect would this be. just stopping by, hope you’re all doing fantastic!! love you all, and photo credits to popstyledolan (?? i’m not sure if this is instagram or twitter or tumblr, lmk if you guys know and i’ll add a link!!) ALSO like isn’t this song such a prom song I FEEL LIKE IT IS 

Word Count: 2.6K+ || masterlist

Ethan had a gut full of fruit punch (spiked--thank you Casey Fraiser) and a head full of fuzz; what's a guy gotta do to get you for a slow dance?

He's slumped on the third row of the high school gymnasium's wooden, creaky bleachers, both hands threaded in the messy, over-gelled locks on his head, his foot tapping a mile a minute. And he should really be out there next to Grayson, whooping and hollering to the ancient Lil Jon song echoing out of the low budget DJ's rusted speakers, but he just can't stop thinking about you, okay? And this isn't new, and that's what's getting old.

He just wants one slow dance. Or two. Or three, or four, or ninety. It's the only time he gets the excuse to hold you close and make a fool of himself and not have to apologize once. He always does everything in his power to deprive the mood of romanticism, though.

Because this isn't the first or even the second dance he's spent beating himself up over you. No, this has become a tradition over the years; Ethan says something like, 'Hey, let's go together to the dance, just as friends, cause I don't want to waste my time begging some chick that's probably out of my league when I can take my best friend and have a way better time' (romantic, he knows), you guys suit up in your best homecoming, snowball, or prom attire, and spend the night together.

As just friends. 

Ethan's made that super clear to you; Just Friends. Every single dance is Just Friends. And it's started to make less and less sense over the years, why he wouldn't go with Molly Kozial even though he'd been talking to her right up until promposals started getting popular again in March. 

"Molly's a lot of work," he had said through a mouthful of fries, his feet kicked up on his dash in the parking lot of the McDonald's you guys went to all the time. "What's the good in going out, spending a shit ton of money on candy or whatever, getting all nervous to ask her, and having the drama of it the next day in school when I can just go with you? Easy as pie."

Right, you had thought. Cause I'm definitely not worth the time, or the candy, or the drama. Ethan had made that very clear by the eighth time he'd taken you to a dance. 

It's not like you were going to bother yourself with the pain of his backhanded rejection; this was your senior prom. Just Friends is what you needed right before heading off to college--no need to invest yourself in some guy who'd inevitably break your heart by the end of summer. 

"Yeah alright," you'd said, slurping a thick gulp of milkshake. "But I think I want to wear white this year and-"

"Nooo, everybody's going to say we're getting married," Ethan whined reflexively, his head flopping against his car seat and a pout on his lips. 

"Deal with it," you shrugged. "That's what you get for your lack of, uh, chivalry?" 

Ethan shot a glare your way. "Chivalry?" he asked through a bite of his cheeseburger. "I hav' pl'nty 'f chivalry." 

"Right," you snorted, yanking the burger out of his hand and taking the biggest bite you could. 

So you'd announced it oh-so-inanimately to your friend group at lunch the following day, ignored their pointed smirks and knowing glances, and searched for a prom dress worthy of your bank account. And it was fun! God, it was fun, it was always fun going with Ethan and your friends, but...

Well, but you wanted to feel wanted. You wanted that whole experience, getting asked with roses, being slow danced with and held tight. Ethan unfailingly went overboard on slow dances every year; he shouted the lyrics to the songs off key, spun you around dramatically, made fun of all the surrounding couples--just sucked any bit of romance out of it. Cause you guys were Just Friends. 

And that was fine, but it wasn't perfect.

You looked around and saw him stuck up in the bleachers, his hair disheveled and his face pale where it hung. He looked awful--he looked sick. You stopped grinding on your best friend Courtney for a split second to examine him more properly. 

Ethan did feel sick. He thought he was going to throw up thinking about what he was about to do. 

Should he? Should he really expose himself like this, at a school dance of all places? Didn't you deserve better than that? You deserved a fun, drama-free night full of shitty 2000's music and even shittier spiked punch--the staples of a good prom. You deserved a bed of roses and chocolate truffles in those heart packages and a million other cliches. You deserved more than Ethan. 

But it's May now, Ethan realizes. Realizes he's got exactly 24 days until graduation, and then only three months until college begins and you two split about half an hour apart. It's May and how much longer does he really have anyway? What if you died tomorrow? Ethan's heart actually sinks at the mere thought.

He looks up to see you frowning at him half a gym away, your hair dolled up all pretty, your face caked with all the make you don't need but love so much. You look spectacular in your dress, obviously. Ethan knows there's no way in fucking hell he can't do this tonight, cliches be damned.

And now, now Ethan's made a promise to himself--he's gonna tell you how he feels--and it feels like torture. He has the heaviest, most leaden bit of dread sunken in his stomach. And yet, he's gotta do this. He's just gotta. 

You've started trekking towards him--wobbling like a newborn colt in those heels you forced yourself to wear--when the DJ says with the stalest of voices, "Alright everybody, we're going to slow things down a bit..."

It's a song Ethan would never know off the top of his head if he hadn't heard you singing it in the shower one time when he'd come over. He can still hear your voice--less than angelic, he will admit--wailing the lyrics of I Couldn't Be More In Love by the 1975. Rasp and cracks aside, the memory still makes his knees weak, even weaker than they are now, rising despite the butterflies in his belly begging him to sit back down. You halt where you are and gaze up at the rafters of the gym once you realize what song's playing, and Ethan can see the faint smile on your lips even in the lowlight and beams of disco glitter. He thinks he just might faint. 

By the time he gets to you, he can hear his own pulse, can feel it too in the expanse of his neck and planes of his chest. His hands are clammy—no, clammy hardly covers it. He might just sweat through his dress shirt; luckily, he discarded the vest and dinner coat awhile ago. You're still grinning up at the ceiling and Ethan wonders if he should just run while he still has the chance. 

But he doesn't, of course he doesn't, because he has to do this. So, he taps you on the shoulder gently, the most gentle he's probably ever been with you, and swallows the lump of fear in his throat. You look at him and grin, all teeth, and mumble, "I love this song."

"I know you do," Ethan blurts too quick, his words strangled. Slowly, he slides a hand down the length of your waist and wraps his palm there and takes your hand in the other. Then, the two of you realize that that just won't work, so he chuckles and pulls you in close, tight, fits you between his arms with his wrists dangling over each other behind your back. You slip your arms around his neck and it feels different this time, much different, and you wonder when Ethan grew up without you noticing. 

"How'd you know?" you ask after a beat, a quirk in your brow. 

Ethan pinches his eyes shut, cursing under his breath. "Uh..." he begins, swallowing thickly, "heard you sing it in the shower one time..."

He knows there are better ways to explain that, but he can't figure out any bit of the English language right now, not with you pressed against him naturally, like you could slow dance with him forever. He prays to god you can't feel his heartbeat against your cheek. 

"Oh my god, tell me you're kidding," you groan, heat licking at the back of your neck. You bang your head against the bone of his shoulder, humiliated beyond repair. "I have the worst voice and you know that."

Ethan shakes his head right away, his hold on you tightening just a little. This is so foreign, Ethan being... God, if you didn't know any better, you'd almost say Ethan was nervous. 

"That's okay, I like your voice," he squeaks. 

You stiffen against him and then realize he can't possibly be serious, so you giggle in his ear. "E, stop sucking up to me, we're already best friends." 

Ethan knows he has to do it now, now. He lets out a shaky breath and squeezes his eyes shut tight, counting back from ten. 

But what about these feelings I've got? I couldn't be more in love.

By the end of that line, Ethan decides he must spit it out. "I know, and I hate it." 

He hears your breath hitch in his ear, feels you tense and pull back from his chest, warmth disappearing from your body and your personality. Ethan knows he has to keep going when a look of pure heartbreak splits on your face. 

"I-I don't like being best friends. Well- no, I love being best friends, but I don't- I- I don't like being just best friends, okay? I don't like pretending and I've spent the past four years pretending," Ethan breathes, his whole body shaking. 

You've caught on by now, and your jaw's completely slack. It's a good thing Ethan's eyes are sealed shut--permanently, from what you can tell.

"Eth-"

"No, I gotta say this," Ethan whines, his head falling forward. He presses his temple to yours, so close and intimate in a way you've never seen him, never felt him. The two of you are still swaying, slow and steady, blending in with the crowd of lovesick teenagers. And it's weird because it feels so personal, you feel so alone in your own little world of Ethan. You love it. "I fucking love you. And I'm not saying it in that way that we end our facetimes with, I mean that I really fucking love you. I'm- I'm in love with you," he chokes out, his voice crackling. He pauses for a beat and shakes his head. "That's not even right. I don't even know if there're words out there that can describe how I feel about you. And I know I'm an ass about a thousand percent of the time, but that's because you make my legs feel like jelly and my head feel like static. And usually, I can just ignore it--well, not ignore it, I can never ignore you--but usually I can, uh, push it down," he says. 

Ethan pulls back and looks down at you, his eyes round and doe-ish. His tongue darts out to lick his lips and he shakes his head again. "But not tonight. Not when you're looking like this and acting like you always do. I- I think I nearly passed out when I picked you up from your house," he says, squeezing his eyes shut once more.

You're absolutely gobsmacked. Amazed. Stupefied. Speechless. 

"And I get it, I'm shit at romantics and even worse with words, but I mean it. I'm so into you. And this might be surprising since I'm pretty good at pretending like you're a little sister to me-" Ethan pauses to scrunch his face up distastefully. "-but that couldn't be farther from the truth. I, um, I couldn't be more in love," he finishes, wincing at his cliche and the way he's echoing the chorus's lyrics. 

You think you might just cry with relief, staring up at him. He's looking at you like you've just saved the world, or aligned the stars, or waxed poetry; his eyes are soft but full of awe, a few inches from yours. And his lips are parted like he wants to say more, but Ethan's right, he's never been that good with words, not until now. Your hearts thundering, pounding, racing in your chest, swollen with love for Ethan Dolan. And you thought he ought to know it.

You giggle with disbelief and shake your head. Your head falls forward on his collarbone and he takes the opportunity to kiss the crown of your head, and you wonder if Ethan feels this inevitability, that there has always been a spark of tension between you, that just friends can't care as much as you two do and remain just friends, that he's got nothing to worry about. So you pull back, inch your lips forward, and check his expression for permission, but Ethan's already halfway there. 

You lean in, and press your lips to him softly, graze your fingers against the peak of his cheekbone. He's kissing you back like he's got all the time in the world to love you under the glow of these disco lights, in the mass of these slow dancing bodies, in the middle of your high school gym. His tongue glides along the split of your lips, hesitant but warm and wet and stomach-flipping, and you crack open your mouth with a giggle, slipping your fingers into his over-gelled hair. Ethan slides his tongue along tentatively along yours. He must notice your shudder and feel you press into him more firmly, more sure of yourself, because he does it again, leaving you dazed and crazed and desperate. You cradle his jaw between your palms and kiss him like you mean it, lost in the feeling of love and the tune of a love song.

Subliminally, your brain registers the snickers and whispers sounding around you, but you're too intoxicated by the reality of your constant daydreams to really acknowledge them. However, Grayson has other plans as he claps a hand--hard--on Ethan's back as the song draws to a close, startling the two of you and peeling you away from one another. 

"About fucking time, bro," Grayson snorts, his eyebrows lifted skyward and his smirk far too smug.

Your cheeks are burning as you glare at Grayson and the way he's chuckling along with your crew of friends. Ethan decides there's far too much space between you and yanks you back to him, ignorant to your stiffness. "Suck my dick," he snaps back, resting his chin on the crown of your head. After a beat of swaying still, as the sound of a song less heavy rolls in, Ethan says, "I think your lipstick is like, all over my mouth."

You snort. "How much gel did you put in your hair?"

Ethan scoffs and shakes his head, his chin rubbing over your hair. "No idea. Too much."

"It's all over my hands," you giggle, squeezing them in the air and cringing at the way they stick.

"It's all Grayson's fault, the bitch doesn't know how to do hair apparently." 

You chuckle and shake your head, so familiar with this side of Ethan it comes as no surprise. What does shock you is the way he keeps his arms tight around your waist, the way he slips a finger under your chin and tilts your face to his, and plants another kiss--albeit tongueless--on you in front of half the student body. If Grayson gags violently and Courtney attracts the attention of everyone with her obnoxious awe's, that's okay with you. You couldn't be more in love. 

[gamerszone2019-blog]

Why Reno Jackson’s “Strong Moustache Game” Defines the Character

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/why-reno-jacksons-strong-moustache-game-defines-the-character/

Why Reno Jackson’s “Strong Moustache Game” Defines the Character

Ever since he first showed up in League of Explorers, Reno Jackson has been something of a Hearthstone

icon. As a card he had a huge impact on the game, introducing the concept of decks with no duplicate cards – which was a new thing for Hearthstone – and toting the biggest heal ability we’d seen. More than that, though, there was something appealing about that big cheesy grin, that boundless enthusiasm. And now that a new Reno card – Reno the Relicologist – has been revealed, it’s been cool to discover that a great deal of Reno’s charm comes straight from the voice actor who plays him, Travis Willingham.You may not know Travis by name (although if you watch Critical Role you certainly do) but you’d almost certainly have heard his voice given his hugely impressive catalogue of work across anime, western animation and video games. And if you’re a Hearthstone player, then you’ve probably heard Reno say “we’re gonna be rich!” many many times too. What follows is my chat with him ahead of the new card reveal, and it’s a pretty fun insight into life as a voice actor, as well as the importance of Reno’s moustache. Enjoy!

IGN: Before we talk Hearthstone, can you give me a brief overview of how you got into this field of work and what your background is?

Travis Willingham: I started out in voice acting in anime, back in Dallas, Texas. My wife and I, Laura Bailey, although we were not married at the time, we both got our start at Funimation, working on shows like Dragon Ball Z, Fullmetal Alchemist, some of those really great titles back in the early 2000s and then we both separately made our move out to California, where there are video games aplenty and more anime to be dubbed and also western animation shows, original animation. We were very, very interested in pursuing that and we were lucky enough to land a few early roles in video games and animation and it’s just sort of built up from there.

But working with Blizzard on all of their amazing properties, whether it’s StarCraft or World of Warcraft or Hearthstone, it’s been nothing short of a little dream come true. You know one of the great things about the properties that they have is the breadth of characters… So whether you’re a tinkering goblin or a very burly-chested moustachioed adventurer of the human variety, there’s never a shortage of anything to sink your teeth into as an actor and stretch your repertoire of character acting.

IGN: What’s your history with Blizzard specifically?

Travis Willingham: Oh man, I think my first time working with Blizzard might have been around 2010, 2011. I think it was a character named Rell Nightwind in World of Warcraft and I was just excited to even have a character at all. He was a very cold and calculating Elvin fellow, if I remember. I played a few other characters there and finally booked the part of Gazlowe in Heroes of the Storm and that was where it all started to kinda take a turn. He was this tinkering goblin who only looks out for himself and I remember working with the fantastic voice director, Andrea [Toyias]. And she just said “Hey, so if this guy has maybe like an East Coast accent and really looked out for himself, what would it sound like?” And I was like “Oh maybe he sounds like this. He’s just kinda looking out for himself and hey, who cares about you?” She went, “Oh my god, get in the booth.” And that was the beginning of a really fun relationship with Andrea.

And after that, the auditions for Reno Jackson came up and after I booked that part I came in and she said “Why am I not surprised that the gregarious audition that I heard had your name attached to it?” She said “Why did you decide on this particular voice for Reno? And I said “Look, the guy is obviously some sort of safari adventuring adept adventurer, but that moustache, that tells me all I need to know.” She was like “Really? The moustache in the character design?” That is a strong moustache game going on right there. I have to live up to that moustache. And she said “All right, whatever does it for you.” And we were off to the races with whoever Reno Jackson was.

IGN: Who were some of the moustachioed men in real life that you looked to for inspiration? We talking, like, Tom Selleck? What were you picturing?

Travis Willingham: Tom Selleck, yeah, you nailed it, right? You gotta mention Tom Selleck. Hawaii 5-0 sets the tone. What other accredited moustaches do you have to mention? I know I’m probably forgetting some. I think Sean Connery has rocked a solid moustache in his day. Of course, Parks and Rec… Ron Swanson may be the greatest A1 alpha moustache of all time. Those all have to be blood relatives of Reno Jackson.

The oiriginal Reno and the new Reno.

IGN: Tell me a little bit about that first audition for Reno. It sounds like you very much were like “This is what I think he should sound like.” But what directions were you given or what information were you provided? How much did they tell you who the character was in advance or was it kind of just “Get in there and have a look at some art and just wing it”?

Travis Willingham: Well you know, for Reno, it was actually an in-studio audition. It wasn’t something that was sent through the normal audition channels and one thing that Blizzard never has a shortage of is amazing character art. They work with some of the most talented concept and character artists in the industry. There have been so many times where you’re at a session and they say “Here is the name of this character. Here is a brief description of him. We haven’t really landed on a personality, what do you think he sounds like?” And you’ll say “Do you have any character art or a picture to go off of?” And they’re like “No, let’s just take a shot and see what it sounds like” and you’ll try a couple things and maybe something sticks, maybe it doesn’t, but any time you’re able to look at an image, they really are worth a thousand words. If the concept artist has been either authorised or is brave enough to supply an expression or maybe some sort of attitude that’s inherent in that art, it really provides a shortcut to who that character could possibly be.

That is a tremendous specimen of a man right there.

“

I remember being in the studio and I think she had flashed several different characters across the screen and she was like “Would you want to read any of these?” And I asked her to stop on Reno Jackson and I said “That is a tremendous specimen of a man right there.” …I think at the time he had rolled up sleeves, really nice muscular, super hairy forearms, probably shorts that were a little bit of the crotch-hugging variety, a little bit of the 80s basketball league where we didn’t really need to see all of that white supernova thigh but we were getting it anyway. And he was ready to move quickly and probably swing from a whip and I said “Okay look, I gotta take a shot at this guy.” And she said “Great”. And everything he said was just SUPER FANTASTIC, very, very confident and I could see from her expression that she was enjoying herself and I was too and that’s how we started with Reno.

IGN: What other Hearthstone voice work have you done?

Travis Willingham: So for Hearthstone, we’ve also had Gazlowe show up for a few lines… And then I think I’ve been able to play a few other ancillary characters, whether they’re elves or they are giant Minotaur creatures or rock golems or any of the things that pop up in those NPC cards. It’s another one of those scenarios where they’ll show some art and they’re like “Do you have a voice for this guy?” And you’ll be like “I don’t know if that’s me.” And then they’ll pull up a giant super muscular Minotaur and I’m like “Yes please, can I try that?” So we’ll do that for a little bit. So Gazlowe and Reno, as far as I remember, are the two biggest cards in Hearthstone that I play.

IGN: Okay, cool. Tell me about getting the call to come back in and revisit Reno. What was the conversation like and what was that recording session like?

Travis Willingham: Sure, sure. Well I remember in his first version, Reno was very centred on himself. He was almost like a solo operator and that worked A-OK for him. In this version of League of Explorers, the Saviors of Uldum, he’s sort of working with a team. He’s looking out for other people… a group that he is bringing his talents to. So some of the lines are really directed towards other individual characters, other individual players, commenting on something that they have done well or conversely commenting on something that they have done poorly or that he thought he could have done in a much more successful way, if he had just been given the chance, and that was always fun.

I like when writers further shape and colour a character by letting you interact with other specific personalities, whether that person is cold and Reno is trying to pull information or excitement or enthusiasm out of them or if they are equally as alpha and looking to assume a leadership position and then it’s a case of one-upmanship between the characters and sticking their chests out and fighting for the biggest moment of bravado. And then other times you got to see him be really sheepish in moments of failure or moments of embarrassment, which I don’t know if we’d really seen before.

So any time you get to visit a character for a second time like this, you’re also going to get to know them better and again Blizzard is so amazing about rounding out their characters with fantastic writing and really finding a cool and unique way to piece together these unique personalities in a way that forms a team that you’re looking forward to play with for hours and hours on end.

The League of Explorers in 2019.

IGN: Do you have any favourite interactions or lines that really jumped out at you, that stuck in your head that you could share with me?

Travis Willingham: Oh man. I’d have to go through the script one at a time, I mean, he’s such a peaks and valleys character so it could be the most simple, forward-facing line. Four simple words like “We’re gonna be rich!” And he gets so excited at that concept that he’s like “We’re gonna be rich!” At any given time he could be very baseline or he could be ready to explode with exuberance…

IGN: How long are you in the booth to do the complete set of Reno’s voice work? What kind of timeframe are we talking about?

Travis Willingham: It’s several hours normally. We get in there, we review all the material, we’ll play some reference just so everybody gets in the same place of what the voice print of Reno was established before, how he sounded, what his vocal mannerisms are, how he’ll react to things. If he laughed, what did the laugh sound like, what were the highs and lows and then after about that first half hour period, we’ll start diving into the lines and we take it nice and easy in the beginning.

Andrea’s really great about giving us an A, B and a C take that we can do back-to-back because you’ll read a line once and then you’ll immediately have an idea while you’re saying the first take and so you come in with the second take and do it a different way and then off of hearing those two, your brain’s like “Oh there’s a third way I can do it.” And you’ll give them a C take. Just 1, 2, 3, back-to-back and then they’ll say “Yep, let’s take a second” and they’ll pick one and say “Great, we like this one. That seems to be consistent with what we had before. Let’s move on.”

You almost wish you could take the scripts with you so you could remember each one of those little moments…

“

And where you play Reno Jackson once before, you might have only gotten a certain amount of time with him but where you start getting all this new material, you also gain additional real estate – where the character goes, how he relates to other people, what’s really important to him. Does he value friendship over functionality? Does he value treasure over, I don’t know, staying alive? Those sorts of things that become very apparent very quickly in some of those situations.

A lot of it is also questions for the writers. It’s not just what I bring to the character, it’s really great having some of those talented writers at Blizzard be there to say “We’ve sort of set up these situations, these different relationships with Reno, this is where we feel like he’s going if that’s something you want to exploit or you want to change, give it a shot and if it works, then great, we’ll roll with it and we’ll keep going. Or if it’s something we want to tweak or change or maybe take a different approach with then [we’ll do that]” – they’re really great about being malleable in that way.

So it’s a really fantastic collaborative process and we’ll sit in there for two, three hours and just bang through it… And before you know it, we’re at the end and you almost wish you could take the scripts with you so you could remember each one of those little moments that happened but you usually don’t hear it again until the game comes out and then it’s almost a surprise for you as well. I’m hearing it again for the first time since we recorded it.

IGN: It seems to me that it’s interesting for you that if you’re working on, say, a long-running anime series, you do the voice work for a character and even people who love that series might only hear each of those lines once or twice, but in Hearthstone, there will be certain lines that people will hear over and over and over again. Does that change how you approach those roles?

Travis Willingham: Oh of course… there are certainly situations in which we will be working off of a script and unless there is someone that tells us, “This is a line that’s going to be played a lot because it’s a situation that will come up a lot” …or “It’s right at the start of a match” or any of those things where they say “We may need some variation on this just so it’s not too repetitive, this is something that’s going to be said a lot”, we might just blow by it.

And thankfully the folks at Blizzard are so great about saying “Hey, we want to get a few versions of this so it stays fresh, it stays new, it’s going to be one of the lines that’s said more.” And then as actors, when you hear that that’s going to be a line that’s said more and maybe something that people remember is a pretty popular line of Reno’s or something, that they parrot to each other and they relay the lines that they know from that particular character. All of the sudden you’re like “Oh shit, maybe I need to go back and put a little more thought into that one. Was it good enough? Is it up to snuff?” And they’re like “Yes, yes, it’s fine. Don’t overthink it, we’re just letting you know it’s something that might play a bit more.” But as actors, the saying is you’re never quite done working on something, you just decide to leave it. So we’re like “Okay, I guess that was good enough. We’ll leave it for now” and you keep going. But it definitely plays in our heads, like oh boy, that’s going to be the one that they hear a lot.

IGN: “We’re gonna be rich” is certainly a line that everybody associates with Reno now. It’s become very iconic. One other question about the sessions, is there room for you to improvise in terms of the lines or is it purely just the performance?

Travis Willingham: You know, sometimes we are able to improvise a little bit. They do such a great job of really providing this fantastic well-rounded script but sometimes a line on a page is also not the easiest thing to say. Sometimes it presents what we call verbal gymnastics. Either it’s really hard consonants that are back-to-back or if you’re trying to say something quickly you’ll just get caught up on it because the line’s been written but it hasn’t been said out loud before and in those cases they’re really great about changing it. But also, once you get in a character’s head and you’re really vibing with how that person reacts or something that he might say, they’re very good about saying “Yeah, whatever, throw it out there”. And some of the times they’ll just leave it open for a wild take and you can just go on a spiel. Some of it might not get used but others of it, they’re like “Oh my god, that was great. We’re totally keeping that.” So they really make it a playground where you can feel free to explore things that might work and might not but either way, it makes a really fun session.

Key art from their first appearance.

IGN: Awesome. Are there any other iconic World of Warcraft characters that you’d love to do the voice for in Hearthstone?

Travis Willingham: Oh well, I know that I personally have always had my eyes on Jaina Proudmoore – I’m not sure who the current voice actress is. She’s really talented and okay, I guess – whatever, but I’m just saying if Blizzard wants to do a fresh take on Jaina, I’m right here for the light, ready to rock it. So when you’re ready, you can come upgrade. No offense, again, to whoever it is that’s playing that character but…

IGN: Last question. You just eluded to the fact that you’re part of a family of friends and partners who do this professionally, so you must know plenty of other people who also do voice work in Hearthstone. What’s some of the stuff you’ve heard that you’re really impressed by? Are there any characters that you really love how they’ve been brought into the game or they surprised you?

Travis Willingham: Oh man, like you said, some of my closest friends are in the game, whether Matthew Mercer, Liam O’Brien, my wife – Laura Bailey, Steve Blum, Troy Baker, you have some of the most talented voice actors in the industry in the game. And not just those people but beyond. For me, Illidan Stormrage, when I found out that Liam played that character, it blew my mind. It didn’t sound like him at all. I thought it was somebody else and I went up to him and I was like “Do they pitch your voice? How did you make it sound like that?” And he said very calmly “Screaming, lots and lots of screaming.” I really had to shake his hand on that one because he sounds like an enemy that I would not want to find myself on the battlefield with one-to-one. I know he’s been playing that character for years and it’s definitely a fan favourite and the character design is not too shabby either. I remember being at BlizzCon and having that statue be out in the middle of the floor and whew, you don’t want to find yourself in a dark room with that guy. Just saying. Intimidating.

IGN: Thanks so much for your time, Travis!

Cam Shea is Editor in Chief for IGN’s Australian content team. He’s on Twitter.

Source : IGN

[bthenoise]

Read What Members of Taking Back Sunday, Anti-Flag, Atreyu & More Picked For Their All-Time Favorite Warped Tour Memories

If you’ve ever attended the Vans Warped Tour, there’s a very good chance you’ve accumulated some sort of life-long memory. Be it positive or negative, it’s difficult to walk through Kevin Lyman’s world-renowned punk rock summer camp and not take away something memorable. 

Like most of you reading this at home, the bands who have graced the Warped Tour stages throughout its illustrious 25-year career have also garnered some pretty special memories as well. 

Take Sleeping With Sirens frontman Kellin Quinn, for example. From attending the traveling festival as a high school student to years later playing the main stages, Quinn has been able to make quite a career for himself thanks to Warped Tour.   

“My first Warped Tour memory was in 2004,” Quinn tells us at Warped’s recent 25th-anniversary show in Atlantic City. “I was in high school and I went to Warped Tour in Michigan and I got to see The Used. I saw Bert [McCracken, vocalist] jump off these crazy speaker stacks into the crowd, which is nuts. I got to meet Underoath and I got to watch From First To Last. That was the first time I ever saw [guitarist/producer] Matt Good and now me and Matt are really good friends.”

Talking with more Warped Tour vets in Atlantic City like members of Taking Back Sunday, Anti-Flag, Memphis May Fire, Atreyu and more, we were able to hear about some pretty interesting Warped Tour experiences -- like the impossible task of playing after Green Day or when somebody almost burned their bus down due to excessive fire shots.

To read what the seasoned musicians had to say about their unforgettable summers on the Warped Tour plus their heartfelt goodbye to Lyman’s influential and iconic festival, be sure to see below. For more Warped Tour coverage from Atlantic City, head here.   

Chris #2 - Anti-Flag

Favorite Warped Memory

My favorite Warped Tour memory of all time? That is really, really hard because we've done 11 Warped Tours. So I'm going to give you a top three and I'll keep them all very short. I loaded Eminem's gear onto his stage so I could watch him because he had a closed stage and his set was really cool. That was in '99. In 2000, we played last in Pittsburgh after Green Day and that was -- Green Day is my favorite band of all time and I wouldn't be here without [them]. Pittsburgh is our hometown so our entire families were on the stage, Green Day's drums are burning and they're like, "Okay Anti-Flag, good luck!" And the show was great so that was a really great experience. And then the last one, maybe being 2004. The whole focus of our show was about the re-election of George W. Bush and trying to influence people to get involved and get engaged and there was a record number of people registered to vote on that summer tour. It felt like there was real power in the music and the community of Warped Tour and that was something that I think if we harness [and] if we keep that part alive throughout all of this, then it will be worth something. To this day, we meet people who were registered to vote at those shows and are still active and still empathetic and to me, that's the win of it all.

Least Favorite Warped Memory

Okay, so we played after Green Day twice. We closed the main stage twice on that tour. The second one was in Philadelphia. After the show -- we had an amazing, amazing show, one of our best shows ever -- we get off stage and the audience fence is like, right behind the stage and there's a little opening.  Everyone is leaving the show because it's ended and everyone's kind of congratulating us and saying whatever. And then this one guy just says, "Hey, Pat" and Pat turns around thinking that guy's gonna say hi and he just sucker punches [Pat] in the face [laughs] and it was really funny to me because it was like, "Holy shit! Did that just happened?" But also, it was pretty terrible. He didn't get hurt or anything, the kid wasn't that strong. But it was just like the highest high of like, "Oh fuck, we closed the show. We ripped it, it was sick." And then someone punched one of our guys in the face [laughs].

Most Brutal Warped Tour Memory

In 2004, in Florida, there were people who were coming to the shows to fight. They were nationalists. They were, you know, for lack of a better term, searching out people who thought differently than them and tried to fight them. They all were wearing mouth guards. We started playing, we saw this happen and we just stopped. We had a 30-minute set and we were silent for about 17-20 minutes of the show. We were not going to play another note until the violence stopped because we're not a jukebox for violence. And eventually, people realized they were getting kicked out of the show and the shit wasn't going to fly and we were able to move on but that was one of the more brutal and testy moments in Warped Tour history.

Who was the first band you remember being starstruck by or just excited to be spending the summer with on Warped Tour?

It was definitely Green Day. But also in that same year was NOFX and Weezer for me. And that's insane. You know, that was the year where we signed to Fat [Wreck Chords] because Fat Mike saw the shows and he was wanting to invest in the band and help us. On the very first day of Warped Tour, I met Billie Joe Armstrong. And I said, "Hi, I'm a tremendous fan of your band. I play in a band called Anti-Flag." And then he asked me how the politics of Anti-Flag were lining up with doing a corporate-sponsored tour like Warped Tour and my head exploded [laughs]. I was like, "First off, you know who we are? Second of all, you know the politics of our band?!” So I gave him some bullshit answer that I'm sure I would use in an interview or whatever just to get out of there. Then I randomly called home like, "Billie Joe Armstrong knows who we are!" But yeah, being around that and seeing the humility of Green Day, it led to us later playing with them on the American Idiot Tour and doing some other things with them. I'm forever grateful for Warped Tour providing me that experience. Because, if it wasn't for seeing [Green Day] on TV -- because I loved music and I wanted to be around music -- it never crossed my mind that I was able to do it. And then I saw this person who had pimples and he looked like me and it wasn't that far off. They were just normal folks on TV and they did it. So why the hell couldn't I? That's why we take our shit into the crowd at the end of every show. That's why we've really worked to just destroy the barrier between audience and stage. For lack of a better reason other than we're just four assholes from Pittsburgh, anyone can do this.

Final Words To Warped Tour

Obviously, we want to thank Kevin for working as hard as he has over 25 years. We've been a part of a lot of [Warped Tours] and they're a big reason why the band has the history that we have in America. I'm hopeful that as it manipulates and manifests itself into whatever it is in the future, that we can be a part of it. But if nothing else, I hope that the people exposed to Warped Tour -- those that played it, those that put it on, those that worked in catering, those that came and were patrons and walked through the door -- that the idea can live on beyond the show. There is no band hierarchy. There is no separation between audience and band member. The people that built this thing are of this community and so any person who's out there who's got a song in their heart, anyone who's out there who gives a fuck about more than just themselves, you can do this. I'm just hopeful that the next version of it is just as empathetic and just as cool.

Matty Mullins - Memphis May Fire 

Favorite Warped Memory

I would say my favorite Warped memory is the Warped Tour 25th anniversary today on the Monster stage at 2:20pm. Honest to God, bro. I've said this for years, my favorite show that we've ever played was Sydney, Australia [at] Soundwave. It was just unbeatable in my head [and] today beat it. I think this is my favorite show we've ever played. I mean, [today was] a taste of Warped instead of doing the whole summer, which I think makes it that much more special. But I mean, like, how many times can a band like ours be a part of something that sold 35,000 tickets? It's just not an opportunity that most people will ever get in their lifetime. I mean, dude, the sea of people and the actual sea to the right of it, it was just insane man. So yeah, today was my favorite Warped Tour memory ever.

Least Favorite Warped Memory

Worst memory ever? Gotta be careful with that one Kevin's gonna read this [laughs]. My least favorite Warped Tour memory ever was probably our bass player Cory broke his pinky right before we went out. It was his left pinky right before we left for Warped Tour the first year we ever played it and he had a big cast around his two fingers. We really stressed out about it. That doesn't sound that crazy. I don't know. I love Warped Tour. Nothing bad. Nothing bad about Warped Tour.

Most Brutal Warped Tour Memory

Las Vegas, Nevada. Las Vegas, Nevada on the blacktop down on the strip was dangerous how hot it was. Like the heat coming off of the blacktop was like 130 degrees. That was brutal, bro. I've never played a show where I actually thought I might die and that was one.

Who was the first band you remember being starstruck by or just excited to be spending the summer with on Warped Tour?

I don't get starstruck very easily just because I was raised in such a different genre of music. But MXPX was a huge deal for me. So when Mike Herrea was playing with Goldfinger and I met Mike and just got to hang with him, I mean, that was a starstruck moment for sure.

Final Words To Warped Tour:

Gonna make me tear up, man. Thank you for this community. To Kevin [and] everyone behind the scenes, but also to everyone that came to Warped Tour, everyone is part of this community. This will never die, the memories will live on but also the relationships that we've created will always live on. We would not be the band that we are today if it wasn't for Warped Tour and the four years we got to play it. So thank you. Thank you for everything.

Kellin Quinn & Jack Fowler - Sleeping With Sirens

Favorite Warped Memory

Kellin: I have a lot of favorite Warped Tour memories. So I think just being a part of the tour is my favorite memory. You know, like every time we come in and we're a part of Warped Tour and we get to see our friends and our family, it's always just a really good time for us.

Jack: Yeah, the first Warped Tour we ever did we were on the Monster Energy stage, not the main stage. Being out there every single day and seeing people show up, it was like the first summer tour we ever did. We were like, "Oh my god, something's happening! Like it's actually happening." So I think it's 2012 Warped, one of my favorite Warped Tours.

Least Favorite Warped Memory

Kellin: My worst Warped memory is knowing that there are only two more Warped shows left! It feels weird knowing that something I grew up going to, something I got to be a part of, is actually ending.

Jack: My least favorite Warped Tour memory was when we were trying to do flaming shots with Everclear and I accidentally blew one too hard and almost caught our whole bus on fire. Like a wall just went up in flames. And I was like, "Well, I'm not going to do this shit anymore."

Most Brutal Warped Tour Memory

Jack: Someone got struck by lightning in West Palm Beach one year. That's pretty brutal. One time we started a song and had to stop halfway through and had to restart the song. That's pretty brutal.

Kellin: Yeah, that was brutal. I had kids mudslide down a hill one time. It was raining. That was pretty sweet.

Jack: But that wasn't that brutal.

Kellin: It wasn't brutal. But maybe those kids getting in their parents' car after the show, [that] might have been brutal for the seats.

Who was the first band you remember being starstruck by or just excited to be spending the summer with on Warped Tour?

Jack: The first Warped Tour I went to I walked in and As I Lay Dying was playing and I was like, "This. Is. Incredible." So As I Lay Dying was my first like Warped Tour memory.

Kellin: I'd say for me, probably Every Time I Die because [when] I was a kid I bought an Every Time I Die CD, and I can't remember which one it was right now, but it had a DVD with them on it too. It was like them by their pool, like cooking food and like live stuff. So just getting to see their live show [in person] was awesome and we really love those dudes now.

Final Words To Warped Tour:

Kellin: Warped Tour, you've been amazing. You've been kind. You've been hospitable. We love you. Thank you so much for having us for so many years.

Jack: Thank you Kevin, Lisa, Kate and all the other people who have made this tour possible. So happy we were able to be a part of it for so many years, we couldn’t thank you enough.

Brandon Saller - Atreyu

Favorite Warped Memory

All-time [favorite] Warped Tour memory? That's so hard. I feel like my first time I ever went to Warped Tour was -- I can't remember the year it was so long ago. It was in Anaheim when they used to do it outside of the Arrowhead Pond which was weird becuase it was like half under a freeway but I remember seeing like Papa Roach and AFI and like so many bands that I obviously wanted to see. But it [was] the first time I was ever exposed to something like [Warped where] it's just something on such a massive scale and like everywhere you look rad bands are playing. 

Then playing it for the first time, the vibe was awesome. That year was like the golden year I think for me. It was us, My Chem, Fall Out Boy, Avenged Sevenfold, Underoath, Motion City Soundtrack. So many great bands. [*Noodles of The Offspring walks by*] They were on it. Transplants were on a bunch of dates, it was just like on and on and on so it was cool to be part of that. I remember we played our home show and we played early that day. There was a bunch of traffic getting in so me and I think Dan [Jacobs, guitarist] or someone was on stage waiting to go on and the rest of our band was literally running up the hill ‘cause the traffic was so bad. They had to run like two miles up the hill and we ended up going on like four minutes late. That was a good memory.

Least Favorite Warped Memory

There aren't many bad ones, you know? [Warped] is always hot. The catering lines are long, but that's just part of the deal. It's a good time. There's always such good hangs. Like even the last one we did a few years back, Good Charlotte was on it and we're really good buddies with them. So [it’s] just like hanging out with friends you don't get to see all the time, you know? It's a vibe, Warped has always been a cool vibe.

Most Brutal Warped Tour Memory

I think the hottest it's been on a Warped show [for us], I think was maybe around like 110 on stage. It was pretty brutal. It's just brutal all day. Like, I’m usually a five-shirt-a-day kind of dude on Warped. Like it's a system. You wake up in the shirt you wore last the night before. That lasts you until you get back from catering because after that walk you're sweaty. You change into a new shirt, wear that until showtime. Put on a show shirt, then after the show put on the shirt you had on before the shirt show. That should last you another like two hours untill the other catering walk. And then there's like a nighttime shirt which you wear till the next morning. It's just non-stop sweat. I'm a big dude.

Who was the first band you remember being starstruck by or just excited to be spending the summer with on Warped Tour?

I think on that first one we did in '05, obviously, bands like Transplants are crazy because it was like Tim Armstrong and Travis Barker. Like, whoa. I remember being a big My Chem fan and then on that tour, kind of becoming friends with them. There were a lot of bands that were in our genre exploding. So it was like, I think just the general awe of being around so many people who you don't know yet. There's always that weird barrier of like, "You know what band I'm in and I know what band you're in but we don't know each other yet so it'll be awkward for two weeks and then we'll become friends." It's like a lot of that where it's not necessarily maybe “starstruck” but it's just like, “I want to talk to that dude, I like that guy's band but it's not the right time yet.” You have to find that right moment in line on the way to catering or like at the coffee. A lot of the My Chem dudes, like me Gerard and Mikey would always meet at the coffee machine because we were the three dudes in like black pants and t-shirts getting coffee in 110-degree weather. So that was our common ground.

Final Words To Warped Tour:

It's been a great chunk of time. I have a feeling that hopefully, you know the sparkle will stay alive with these kinds of anniversary shows and stuff like that. But I mean, you can see it today, this is the biggest and best lineup I've ever seen Warped Tour have ever and it's like this is how you're going out? It's kind of going out with a bang, you know? It’s awesome.

Adam Lazzara & John Nolan - Taking Back Sunday

Favorite Warped Memory

Adam: One of my favorite Warped Tour memories of all time was there was a show, and it was at Randalls Island in New York. Whenever the tour went through New York, everyone would try to go into the city afterward so I stayed back. Most of all the tour was gone, so it was just abnormally quiet. It was actually kind of nice. So I'm sitting out beside the bus in one of those folding camping chairs and then I just hear kind of like this rumble. I'm looking around like, "What is that?" And then there's like this big thing of hedges, like bushes, and then you just see them start to rustle. It was like a movie, I couldn't believe it. And then out from the middle of the bushes comes Tucker Rule [drummer, Thursday] with a cigarette and beer driving with his knee just as fast as this golf cart could go. And so as he's going by, he looks and sees me and just goes, "Hey!" and takes off. So I'm sitting there like, "Well, that was fun." And then five minutes later here comes their tour manager and he comes tearing around the corner and stops and says, "Adam, have you seen Tucker?!" I'm like, "That way!" and then he just takes off after him. I'm not sure how it ended but neither of them were supposed to have the golf carts. It was real fun.

John: So in 2007, I was on the Warped Tour with Straylight Run at that time, and a guy in one of the bands comes up and knocks on the door of our bus. And I had kind of seen him around, you know, but it was vaguely familiar. And when he knocks on the door, I answer and he asked for a wine opener and I'm like, "Yeah, come on in" and I get him the wine opener. We kind of talk for a minute or two. And then I turned around and Shaun [Cooper], the bass player for the band, is just like wide-eyed and like in awe and he's like, "Do you know who that was!?” I'm like, "No, I don't know." He's like, "That's so and so from Bad Religion!" He's like...

Adam: Brian Baker.

John: Brian Baker, yeah. Like, I know who Bad Religion is but like I've never really like spent any time -- but yeah, [Shaun] was like starstruck and I lent him a bottle opener.

Adam: And now you guys are best friends.

John: Now we're best friends.

Least Favorite Warped Memory

Adam: Anytime you have to go to the bathroom during the day ‘cause it's like porta-potties. So like, okay, say doors open at 10, right? Or what? 10-11 in the afternoon? No, like noon. So doors open around noon. Now come like seven o'clock at night. That thing's just been sitting out in the Florida heat. And you need to use the restroom and that's the only one in sight, man. Your next best option is to walk 20 miles in any direction until you find one. So that's your only choice.

John: What about the trick that someone developed where you put a lock on the door but the door is actually open. It fools people into thinking it's locked. So it's like...

Adam: Oooooh. Like the like green, red thing and then so you think...

John: No, no, no, like an actual...

Adam: Padlock?

John: A padlock. But it won't be closed through the whole thing and locked. It's just sitting there to give the illusion of being locked. And you tell your friends "Hey, this one looks like it's locked but it's not. Yeah, porta-potty number four."

Adam: My thing with that is I would feel really bad about it for the first half of the day or like the first half of the tour and then at the end, I'd be like, you know, that's my fucking porta-potty. I can't do that shit anymore.

John: Taking Back Sunday played the whole Warped Tour in 2012 and towards the end of it, we had a show and it was probably like two in the afternoon. It had to be like 100 degrees. We'd been on Warped Tour forever at that point and I had definitely been drinking way too much the night before. I was probably only up for like an hour or two and barely hydrated or anything. Halfway through the set, my heart is pounding like harder and faster than it ever has. Sweat is pouring out of my body and I'm feeling dizzy and lightheaded. I literally was like, "I think I might die. This might be the way that I die." And then another part of my brain was like, "It's okay if we die like this. It'll be fine. At least you won't feel this way anymore."

Most Brutal Warped Tour Memory

Adam: Most brutal? I mean, the first place my head goes is to the heat because like Phoenix, Arizona. Ray threw up.

John: That's what I was gonna say.

Adam: Someone else on our crew passed out. I just felt so bad for everyone in the crowd because...

John: I think it was literally like 112 degrees or something.

Adam: Yeah, it was hot. I was wearing Chuck Taylors. And then as we were playing, when I would go do this [*lifts legs*] each time, it was like I had suction cups on my feet because my feet were melting to the stage.

Who was the first band you remember being starstruck by or just excited to be spending the summer with on Warped Tour?

Adam: Well, walking around [with] those NOFX or Bad Religion guys -- you know, that was a big deal. The first time we did Warped Tour it was in 2004, back when we were 13 years old. It was just crazy to be there and see those guys walking around because it's like, I felt that we were best friends already because I listened to their music so much.

Final Words To Warped Tour:

Adam: I'm really proud of you, Warped Tour. Really proud of you.

John: I'm glad you're still here. Is this the anniversary?

Adam: Yeah. 25 years.

John: 25 years? Congrats Warped Tour on 25 years. We didn't get you anything but we showed up so there's that.

Juliet Simms

Favorite Warped Memory

Okay, so it was 2011. I was doing Warped Tour acoustically. I was promoting my band Automatic Loveletter’s record The Kids Will Take Their Monsters On and I was on the Ernie Ball stage. It was about two weeks into the tour and I started to notice this very tall, very feminine, statuesque-type mannequin man appearing at my sets [with] big black long hair, crazy black eyeshadow and red lipstick. I was like, "What are you doing here?" And he had his security guard Yani with him at the time and they came to a couple sets. So one night, I wrapped up my set, was packing up my acoustic guitar and Danny Worsnop [vocalist, Asking Alexandria] had been watching and he's with his girlfriend at the time and he was like, "Oh, Juliet. I just love your music so much." He's like, "I've been a fan since I was in high school." I was like, "You're Danny Worsnop. Cool! This is awesome." 

You know, a funny thing about my band Automatic Loveletter: We never got really big but I always found that musicians really liked my band. So it's a pretty nice compliment [and] it would always surprise me because we weren't that big. And so when like, rock stars are coming to watch me play I was like, "Oooooooooh my god, I'm kind of a big deal, maybe?" So [Danny] was like, "Hey, do you want to come back for drinks after you're done? And I was like, "Sure, no problem!"

Wait, I'm skipping something so important. Before the Danny thing. The day before, I decided to go and check out [Andy Black’s] Black Veil Brides set because he had been coming to mine. I was like, "Well, I'll see what they're all about blah, blah, blah." Side note, guys. Andy and I had met in 2007 on a double date. He was with his girlfriend and I was with my boyfriend and his girlfriend was an actress and she loved my band and I loved her movies. We met on Twitter and decided to go on a double date. Okay, cut back to 2011. Andy and I didn't really like each other. At first, we did. At first, we got along so great. I hung out with his girlfriend just like three or four times, not that much. But we would get along really, really well and we would share tour stories and our love for music and all that. And then his girlfriend didn't like that so much. She did the shit-talking thing to him about me and then vice versa, me about him. So basically, we were like, "Ah fuck you." We were kids. You know how kids' minds work, we were very young. 

And so that's why I was really shocked when [Andy] was showing up at my sets. I was like, "We don't like each other. What are you doing here?" So I went to go and mad dog him and stare him down basically at his set. I went side-stage and I was standing there and he's on stage with Black Veil Brides and they've just got a sea of fucking people and I was like, "This motherfucker. He passed me!" And Andy's running around singing doing his thing and I'm just standing there with my arms crossed, just kind of glaring at him. And he looks over at me and he just gives me one of those fucking shit-eating grins that are just so fucking cute. My arms just dropped and I was just immediately like, "Oh my gosh, he is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my entire life." 

So then the next day, when Danny came over and invited me to his bus for drinks -- we're back to that part of the story. So I went to Danny's bus later that night and I open the door and I see Danny and his girlfriend and then the only other person on the bus was Andy. And Andy goes, "It worked!" He grabs a bottle of Jack and he goes, "We need to go talk" and I was like "Okay." So we went outside and we ended up sitting in the grass for like -- bus call that night was like 4am -- we sat and talked for seven or eight hours just about everything. We talked about what his girlfriend had said to him (they were broken up), we cleared that all up. I'm like, "Oh my god, that never happened. I never did that." And we just fell in love, that night. The next day, we told each other we were in love with each other. The following day, I moved onto his bus and two days after that, he asked me to move in with him after the tour. And then that was it, we've been together ever since. The rest is history. We've been together for eight years. Two months after we got together -- I've never told anybody this, we've never told anybody this -- we eloped in Vegas but we were so drunk at the time that we were not organized about it. It wasn't official -- we had gotten the marriage certificate but we had no witnesses and nobody signed the papers. It wasn't official. So that's why we had a real wedding in 2016. But yeah, we met and fell in love on Warped Tour, eloped in Vegas two months after.

Whose idea was Vegas?

Um, well, we were already engaged because he proposed like, five minutes after we got off the bus in LA. We were at dinner one night, this was right before I was going to audition for The Voice. We were just talking about when we wanted to get married and when it made sense and we were just looking at our schedule and he was going to be on tour for like 10 months. And he goes, "Let's just go to Vegas tonight." He's like, "Yeah, I want to marry you tonight. I want to marry you tonight." And I'm like, "Okay" so he's like, "Check [please]!" And we drove off to Vegas. It's pretty storybook, fairytale-esque."

Least Favorite Warped Memory

Oh man, that's a gross one. Oh my God. I mean, I have some really bad [stories]. Okay, guys. Listen, it is not easy being a woman on a festival tour, especially Warped Tour. So you wake up, you don't know when you're fucking playing. You know, you got to get your face together, be presentable. You have to go to the bathroom. You have your woman things. You get your period every month. It's very hard being a woman living on a bus on a festival tour. So that said -- oh my god this is so bad I don't even know if I should tell this, people are gonna think I'm disgusting. I won't go into too much detail but I was running to stage, I hadn't gone to the bathroom and we were the first band playing that day. And all of a sudden, I was like, "Oh, no, no, no." I had to use the restroom but what also happened at the same time was lady time. I didn't have a tampon on me so I had to make one. I had to run into a porta-potty and like Chuck Norris that shit [laughs]. Then I went on stage, did my thing and then handled it after. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do to not bleed into her pants in front of five people. So that was pretty shitty. And then I've thrown up a few times because it's been really hot and your body is falling apart. You go, "excuse me a second," run to the back of the stage, vomit a little bit and run back on. That was back in the day before I was -- I'm sober now. Me and Andy have not drank in over three years. But you know, back in the day, we were wild. You drank every day, you drank every night and you wake up and your body feels like shit. So of course, in 110-degree weather, you're going to get on stage and five songs in your body's going to go, "Okay, well remember last night? It's coming up now."

Who was the first band you remember being starstruck by or just excited to be spending the summer with on Warped Tour?

Hayley Williams from Paramore. She's like, a vocal Goddess to me. So being on tour with her is amazing. Katy Perry. That was awesome. Katy and I had actually done a couple of gigs in LA together before she was Katy Perry. Like, she was playing acoustic and I was playing acoustic and we'd play shows together two or three times. So it was cool to see her and watch her just blow up on tour. Not jealous at all [laughs]. Who else? Blink-182. Blink-182 was my first rock show. When I was 11 or 12, Bad Religion was opening up for them and I begged my parents "Pleeeeease." So they got me a babysitter to take me. Come on, I was 11. I wasn't gonna go to rock show alone. So they found like an adult supervision-type babysitter and it was me and my brother and my girlfriend. This is my first rock show so I didn't know -- I bought third-row seats and I was like, "Oh my God, we're going to be right up at the stage! I'm going to be able to look at Mark and Tom and it's gonna be fucking awesome." And we get there, we get to our seats and I was like, "Oh, shit. They're like a mile away!" And I was like, "this sucks!" But when "All The Small Things" came on, everybody in the arena -- it was like a stampede -- just rushed the railing and everybody jumped over and I was like, "Bye babysitter!" So we jumped over the railing and ran to the stage. It was like, "Oh my god, this is fucking awesome." So of course, when they were on Warped Tour and I was on Warped Tour I was like, "11-year-old me right now is on tour with Blink-182. What the fuck!?"

Final Words To Warped Tour:

Okay. Do you know how many farewells I've done to the Vans Warped Tour? I can't believe it, this is not goodbye. But okay, if we're pretending that this is goodbye and not like it's going to be back next summer, I owe this tour everything. Kevin, Lisa, Kate, Julie, everybody, all the crew, all the stagehands, all the sound guys, everybody in production, catering, the bands; I grew up on this tour. I went from being a little girl to a woman. It taught me who I was as an artist. It taught me how to have stage presence, it taught me how to sing, it taught me how to write, it taught me how to live, it taught me how to become a really strong woman. I owe this tour that. I am the strong woman I am today because of these people and this tour. So thank you for helping me find myself.

In case all those memories weren’t nostalgic and heartwarming enough – which we’re pretty confident they were – make sure to check out our full photo review of Warped Tour Atlantic City below thanks to Noise contributor Bryan Meyer.

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