Backstage at the Glasgow Academy, Jaret Reddick is in high spirits. The pop-punk legends have just come off their biggest ever global headline show at Wembley Arena, and they are now navigating a massive summer UK tour that includes playing actual castles. Joining Jaret is a vital component of the modern BFS machine: photographer, videographer, and social media manager Amy Russell.
“This is my first castle tour,” Jaret beams, addressing Moshville Times Editor-in-Chief Mosh, who notes he has completely lost track of how many times the two have spoken over the years. “I mean, if you don’t count festivals where you can see the castle in the distance, then yes, this is the first proper one. We sold out the last time we were here in Glasgow two years ago, and we’ve sold out again now. In a good way. Both ways, really!”
For a band that famously staged a “farewell” UK tour over a decade ago, their upward trajectory in recent years has been staggering. “Every time I speak to you, you’ve just broken a record,” Mosh says. “The last time, it was Cardiff. Now, you’ve done Wembley Arena.”
“Yeah, completely. Our biggest headline show ever,” Jaret agrees. “It’s insane.”
The conversation shifts to nostalgia and the band’s long-standing relationship with UK festivals, specifically Download. Mosh recalls first seeing the band there in the mid-2000s, complete with giant inflatable sheep on stage. “Oh, that’s right!” Jaret laughs. “Well, we had come to Download before that and had an incident with an inflatable sheep, so the next time we came, we brought two nine-foot inflatable sheep with us. Then the time after that, we had a knight in shining armour come out and sacrifice the sheep. It was an ongoing bit for many Downloads. We had the rock hands for a while, then the sheep. I was actually just saying that if we come back for festivals next year, I want to try to bring some inflatables back. Inflatables are always fun. We’re doing something with the audience again tonight, colourfully bantering these giant balls around the room.”
The spotlight then turns to Amy Russell, whose presence behind the scenes has completely revitalised the band’s digital output. “People come into our world, find themselves something to do, and make themselves irreplaceable,” Jaret explains. “Amy didn’t take very long to do it at all. She started out just helping her partner, Adam, do merch after COVID. The next thing we know, she’s got a camera in her hand and we’re like, ‘Wait a minute, you just have to come with us all the time because we love your pictures and your videos.’ She just gets it. She’s the first person, English or American, who can actually write the text for a social media post and sound exactly like me.”
Amy chuckles at the realisation of her undercover role. “I feel like such a fraud! I feel so bad for anyone who is commenting on those posts because they think they’re talking to Jaret, but they’re just talking to this kid from the southeast coast of England. I’m just sat in my bedroom like, ‘Howdy y’all!'”
“The progression of the shows in the UK has just been obscene,” Amy continues, discussing her transition behind the lens. “They just kept getting bigger and bigger. So I came out to help Adam, picked up a camera, and thought I’d give it a go. Jaret has just blindly trusted me ever since.”
“She just asked if she could take photos, and I said I didn’t give a shit, do whatever you want,” Jaret recalls. “Then you start getting the images back and you realise, ‘This is really, really good.’ After that first tour, I told Adam we needed to have her on full-time to handle media. The great thing about my crew is that we all have such a great relationship and rapport. That’s really important when you’re fitting in with a bunch of fat dudes who just fart and cuss all the time. She’s pretty good at both of those too! In all seriousness, she fits our vibe perfectly. She’s great at being a fly on the wall when she needs to be, and then she’s great at participating in the hijinks.”
For the gear-heads in the audience, Amy reveals her setup. “I predominantly shoot on a Canon R6 Mark II. My backup is also a Canon, my old 6D, which is what I originally started shooting on. I keep both on me. I generally keep a fisheye on one, a 24-70mm on the other, and I’ll switch out to a 70-200mm when I need it – though that thing is literally the size of my torso, so I try not to carry it too much.”
Despite her professional execution, Amy reveals that her very first proper music photography gig was on the tour with Bowling For Soup. “I used to do a lot of music journalism when I was younger, and that was the path I wanted to take, but it’s now morphed into social media. I also used to work as a hairdresser, managing salon accounts. I actually got to cut our tour manager Dave’s hair yesterday, which was a milestone – the first time I’ve ever cut hair in a castle!”
When pressed for her tour highlights from the last two years, Amy finds it difficult to pinpoint just one. “Every single time I stand on the side of that stage and hear the Bowling For Soup intro, every fibre in my being gets excited. But if I had to pick a specific moment, Jaret nearly made me bloody cry in Margate during “Star Song” because he knows it’s my favourite. He looked over at me during a little moment on stage, and he knew exactly what he was doing!”
“I caught her over there and she was just listening, just being part of it,” Jaret grins. “That’s what I love about Amy and all of our crew. They love the music, they love us as people, and we love them. It’s just a great family. Our guitar tech didn’t start as a tech; he was a buddy of ours. Most of our merch guys were just friends. What Amy has done in such a short amount of time is really develop the video editing, the photography, and the strategy. I can trust her completely. If carousels with text are getting big on Instagram, she reads up on it and executes it. She’s been a real blessing because I’ve been trying to run the band’s social media and my own for so long. Now I have brilliant help. She’s my true second-in-command.”
Mosh observes that this tight-knit gravity is a hallmark of the band’s career, pulling in opening acts and peers into their permanent planetary system. “That was a big part of the early days,” Jaret nods. “The support bands requested by agents are fine, but for me, it’s always about diversity and about the night itself. I’m not just here to sell tickets. I don’t want support bands just because they make us look cooler or fit a specific scene. I’m interested in the people who pay money to stand on that front row. I want them to have the night of their lives, and that doesn’t start with me, it ends with me. When I’ve been given the opportunity to hand over the torch to bands like Patent Pending, The Dollyrots, or Lit, I take it. It’s important to me who is on that stage. We brought American Hi-Fi over in 2005, and Wheatus had a long run where they hadn’t visited the UK in ages until we brought them over in 2007. It’s great to help bands revitalise that connection. You just keep moving it forward.”
With showtime rapidly approaching and American Hi-Fi audible through the walls, Mosh prepares to head out to the floor. “I’ll keep an eye out for you on stage, Amy. It won’t be difficult with your bright red hair,” Mosh jokes.
“We make her stand out because she’s tiny and we don’t want to step on her,” Jaret laughs. “Something about you has to stand out over there!”
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Photos by Amy Russell
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Brilliant interview
Thank you! Honestly, I could sit and chat with Jaret for hours. I must have interviewed him half a dozen times now and he’s lovely. Amy is definitely getting used to being dragged into the limelight as well!