CHRIS SORENSEN (SAOSIN)

Southern California quintet Saosin are one of the fastest-growing headliners in rock - earning mainstage slots on the Vans Warped Tour, selling out clubs, going out with heavyweights like AFI, Avenged Sevenfold, My Chemical Romance and Taking Back Sunday and garnering an ocean of fans who've downloaded their songs from MySpace over five million times - and all before they've released a full-length album.

Their debut single (download only) is released on November 20, and they are currently on the 'Taste of Chaos' UK tour. Their debut album was released on November 6. We talked to bassist Chris Sorensen...

1. How's the tour going - what sort of reaction are you getting?

A great one, anything not involving booing and throwing rotten tomatoes at us is a great reaction. Fortunately we have been greeted with smiling faces and screaming fans. Which is awesome considering we've not toured the UK and were the opening band

Band website

2. What tracks work well live and which ones are getting the best reaction?

So far all the tracks work well live. It's a challenge to get all the vocals pulled off but fortunately we've all taken lessons from angels and sound nothing short of the Vienna boys choir. The songs getting the best reaction are the songs that have been out the longest Bury Your Head, Sleepers, and Seven Years, but Voices is def. becoming a favourite sing along.

3. What are your favourite tracks on the album, and why?.

Come Close- it was the first song I wrote on my own for Saosin. I then sat on it for yrs before the rest of the dudes really shot it into song-awesomness. We finished writing the vocals days before we tracked them so it was nice to see it come together.

4. Who are your influences?

umm Deftones are one of my favourite bands, as well as Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. I also loved Peter Gabriel growing up as well as metal acts like Sepultura and Pantera (Dimebag R.I.P.)

5. What bands do you have on your iPod at the moment?

I left my iPod in Birmingham so ask the hotel maid haha. I have been listening to the Munich soundtrack by composer John Williams, Elliot-song in the air, Underoath-define the great line, Yo Yo ma-bach solo concertos, living sacrifice-reborn, Deftones-deftones and of course Saosin-Saosin.

6. Tell us how the band formed?

Beau and Justin started the band in 2003 I joined just before the first show along with Anthony green on vocals. We played the first three shows and got Alex on drums. And immediately left for tour for 2 months. Things didn't work with Anthony so he left and we found cove and began touring again in late 2004. Basically toured all of 2005 doing Taste of chaos 1 with My Chemical Romance and The Used, The Warped tour and a 2 month stint with A7X. And recorded our first album after.

7. Future plans for Saosin (i.e. in 2007) and any plans to tour as headliner in the UK, perhaps in smaller venues?

Well we can only hope to come back to the UK. If they'll have us :) We are in talks to do Give it a Name and maybe another support slot after. We would love to be in a position to headline the UK but we wanna work for it first!

8. Any personal ambitions not yet fulfilled?

To produce and record a full length album of another band. But gotta get this band into a comfy spot first.

9. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time away from the music scene?

Sneaking into things (ie water parks, movies, concerts) and just relaxing or cooking with friends and babes.

10. Message to your fans...

What a wonderful bird is the pelican, its beak can hold more then its belly can. And also thanks for keeping music alive!