By Ben Doy

Sleeping With Sirens are heading to New Zealand this week, playing one show only at the Powerstation in Auckland on this Wednesday September 16th.

I was lucky enough to get phone time last week with the band's guitarist Nick Martin while resting up in his home town of San Diego. Nick brought me up to date with all things Sleeping With Sirens.

Hey Nick, how's it going?

Good man! how are you?

Doing great thanks! How's San Diego today?

No complaints. I've only been home for about a week or so, but I can't complain. The weather's been awesome!

You're heading to New Zealand really soon?!

Yeah we are. It's funny because it wasn't until I went to lunch with a friend who asked what my itinerary was, and it kind of hit me like 'Oh Shit, I'm gonna be in New Zealand very very soon!'. I haven't mentally prepared for that yet. So am very very excited.

And it's your first NZ show!

Yeah it is. I've only been in the band now for like two years, but they've not been there before. I've been in previous bands and never been there either, so it's a first time for all of us!

A spot of sightseeing or will it be straight back on the plane?

If I can fit in any sightseeing I will! I'm not quite sure where I'd be going or what I should be checking out, but but I'm hoping I can fit the time in and kind of enjoy it and get a good grasp at the locally scenery and everything.

As you said, you're a fairly new addition to Sleeping With Sirens. How did you become involved with the band?

Sleeping With Sirens was a fan of my previous band. And when their guitarist had to go on a hiatus to have a baby, they contacted me to see if I could fill in with them. So I just went out and didn't have any sorts of hopes or intentions that I would join the band, and about two weeks in they asked me if I would be interested in touring more with them... and this kind of progressed to what it is now. So being in previous bands, touring a lot, meeting them, not really knowing them, getting to know them really well, then really becoming to know them like brothers... and just naturally being in the band now.

Everyone wins

I think so!

Who were your early influences when you were learning guitar?

I started playing guitar when I wasabout 12 or 13 years old... and I'm 32 now. So about 20 years. I was very lucky that I grew up on a lot of different types of music. My Dad has this really extensive record collection, so I grew up on The Beatles, Queen, Stevie Ray Vaughan... one band that really got me into guitar as a kid was Silverchair. That made me want to be in a rock band. I remember my cousin playing me Silverchair when Frogstomp came out... I remember he had a guitar and I remember learning Frogstomp on guitar. Those little moments like that definitely spearheaded me into wanting to be a guitar people.

Sleeping With Sirens fourth album 'Madness' was released earlier this year. Where did you record the album?

We recorded it in Los Angeles with John Feldmann. He's this brilliant producer who I worked with in previous bands'. So it was very familiar to me and he's great a creating and it's a blast working with him. There is no other producer that personally I would want to work with. He's a musical genius in my eyes and we were lucky to be in LA and experience making a record with him

Making the record took not even two months I think...

That's pretty quick!

Yeah it is quick... surprisingly. Normally it takes a lot longer than that, but it was a very speedy but productive process.

What's the plan following your NZ show?

After that we have a little run in Australia, and then we come back to the States where we'll be doing a tour with All Time Low. We have a lot of touring planned for 2016 which I can't quite announce yet but we're going to be extremely busy and travelling a lot and touring with a lot of different bands. It's going to be exciting, it's so weird that it's September right now and we have so much touring going through the following year. We're definitely excited to stay on the road and keep on pushing Madness.