We arrived in Bedford a little early on our schedule today, so we had the chance to stop at the hotel and get some (much needed) rest before we headed to The Esquires for the soundcheck!

The venue is not all that easy to find, being far from the sidewalk itself and located in between 2 other big buildings. We arrived and entered the place, started setting up the stage and finished up pretty quick. Remember the waiting game? That’s when it started. The guy with the PA encountered problems and got to the venue late – 2 hours late. We thus started doing the soundcheck at 6:30pm, and doors were opening at 8:00pm… Didn’t leave us much time, but we managed to make sure everything sounded great for a night we would all remember!

And we were totally right!!! Once again, it’s been pure madness when the guys embarked on stage! Not only on the stage, but in the crowd as well, as quite a few people made their way to the front row in order to do head banging with Sef & Ben. Alex also managed to climb somewhere and jumped into the crowd… But he did scare us, as from the way he jumped, it looked like he would jump past the lot of people awaiting him – which hopefully didn’t happen. And the whole show once more ended in the crowd, with Alex on the bass drum… A true moment!

After the show, when I asked Alex if he was happy about the show, he answered me those simple words… “I gave everything I had, and I felt liberated”… and this is what the essence of music is all about… Here are some pictures from the moment we’ve lived on stage… Enjoy!

Stephanie

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We need to load the van at 3:30pm today, and we are leaving our hotel at 4:00pm. It’s not everyday that we are allowed to leave so late, and after the show we had yesterday, I think we are all very happy to know we are having a little bit of time to get some extra sleep! We decided to gather all together in the lobby at 1pm, to have breakfast. Breakfast done, the guys started writing their post-its for the order on the YFE Store and for the new SFCC members – thanks to all of you, it’s quite crazy to see you embrace the moment and join the adventure the way you do!

We arrived at the venue and started getting our equipment inside. It’s crazy to think there’s absolutely nothing on stage before we arrive! We need to plug the amps, the footboards, set up the drums and keyboard… It’s like building our own sounds every time! It’s a collective effort to make sure that everyone enjoy this task, if only a little.

We played at The Horn previously, and when we arrived, the guys were surprised by how big the stage was! That was until they added the drum. They keyboard. The amps. The footboards and Sef’s spaceship. Then they remembered. The stage is indeed small…!

We did the sound checks and drove back to the hotel, where we ate a little… Fruits and vegetables, given to us by the promoters of the gig tonight. Yes, we surely are the only band to ask for fruits & vegetables on their rider! We took half an hour to rehearse the show in Alex & Ben’s bedroom, once again with acoustic guitars. It’s stripped down, but in a way that’s very different from the acoustic tour we’ve recently done. And already, in the room, we could feel just how incredible this show would be! For a very long time, the stress we felt before a gig was way more important than the excitement of it all…! But now, it’s different. There’s still stress, and I guess there will always be… But it no longer takes over the excitement of the present moment.

Arrived at the venue, we noticed something that was written on the wall…

“What would you attempt if you were sure you wouldn’t fail?”

It’s a quote that we have heard several times before, and that wasn’t new to us. But it seemed to be very fitting for tonight’s gig… I guess being in a band is not the answer that comes to everyone’s mind, and yet this is what we have tried… not that there was any guarantee of success when this all started. And I think that this is what makes this story so beautiful. If you are sure to succeed, if you know exactly what’s ahead of you, if you can tell with every details what will happen with every step you take, is it really worth trying it? When we started the band, we had no idea what was really ahead of us, we had no 5-year plans to conquer the world as Alex likes to say… But we jumped in anyway, because we felt it was the right thing to do. We met success we weren’t expecting. We met failures we weren’t expecting. We went the wrong way. We took curves we shouldn’t have taken. We stopped when we should have continued and went too far when it would have been better to stop for a little bit. We got lost. We fell down. We hurt ourselves. But we kept standing up. Because we knew that we were never alone. Could it have been different? Yes. Definitely. But the choices we made have always been ours, and they are the choices that we decide to assume every day. Because they have made us who we are today. We’re not perfect… we never will be. But we’re honest. And I think that this is the only thing that matters truly. What if we knew we wouldn’t fail? Well, I think we would have only taken the safe path instead of taking the one that shaped us the way we are right now. Would it have been better? We will never be able to say. But as long as we keep getting back on our feet after we stumble and fall, we will never be able to say that anything we do is a failure. And for this, we really have to thank all of you, for lifting us up when we thought we couldn’t do it anymore… We owe you a lot!!!!

And it is energized that we started the show… And I mean, very energized! It has been a pure let go, in which the band members have been joined by the people in the crowd in a beautiful way. Once again, it was loud, intense, real…! You could see the guys screaming on stage. All of them, without any exceptions – even Miss Isabel! Ben and Jeff have been jumping around absolutely everywhere on stage. It’s still unknown how they managed not to bump one another onto such a small stage. You could notice from the crowd the looks and smile that they exchanged with one another during the songs and in between them, brief moments filled with more than words could ever say… At one point, just before the song Open Your Eyes, Alex had trouble speaking, trying to catch his breath without much luck… But it didn’t matter much, and the next song just started, as intense as the previous ones. Alex climbed on the drums during From The City To The Ocean. The show ended with the song I Just Want You To Know… and with the band in the crowd, with Alex doing body surfing and filming the whole thing from his point of view with someone’s cell phone. It’s hard to put in words what exactly happened last night… I have attended pretty much every one of Your Favorite Enemies’ concert so far, but this one had something very special to it… Maybe because of the way they performed, but I guess it’s mostly because of the way I chose to listen to the songs… with the same let go they had on stage.

I hope those few pictures will help you understand and make you feel as if you had been there with us!!!

Stephanie

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We have spent the last few days at John Henry’s, making sure we were ready for the gigs that are ahead of us!

These songs are songs I heard over and over again, of which I know the lyrics by heart, and that I can recognize with the first notes, whatever they are. They all have their stories, some complete and crystal clear, some to which only fragments remain. For some, I clearly remember the moments when I first heard them. For others, I remember the studio sessions we’ve had, discussions about the songs, reactions after a certain riff was found, difficulties the band members had to touch exactly what they wanted to convey the way they wanted to. I have a very particular relationship with each and every one of them, a love-hate relationship, they’ve been through ups and downs with me.

At times they are the reflection of my own self-inflicted miseries, describing better than I could ever have what I was feeling. At times they are the trigger to a profound let go. At times they are a source of joy, their melodies being enough to lift me up. At times I want to listen to them over and over again, to escape. At times they are my favorite songs and I could listen to them over and over again. But they all have something in common. The more I listen to them, the more I understand them. And the more I understand them, the more I understand myself. Some of these songs I heard back in 2006, 2007… Like “Midnight’s Crashing”. That’s one of the song I remember hearing for the very first time. I was still living at my parents’ at that time, going to university. And I received an email, it was hotmail back in the days, from Alex, with only a few words and an attached file. High speed wasn’t exactly what it is today, so it took me around 20 minutes to download the song, on that old desktop computer, the old beige one, on which the screens were as big as the computer themselves, and on which you could still use floppy disks. Those 20 minutes seemed to last forever. But the file was finally ready. I opened it using Winamp player, and listened to it one first time. Then a second time. And then a third. And over and over again until my mother called me for dinner. But I couldn’t care less about it at the moment. I was living an experience. The song has brought me into a different world, where the only thing that mattered was the song and myself. Nothing else around me existed. And today, as I listened to the band rehearse at John Henry’s studios, I felt exactly the same! The song is different. It has evolved a lot since I first heard it, as the band members grew, discovered new sides of what freedom was about, what letting go meant in different ways as well, both on and offstage. This is what amazes me the most with music. It changes as you change, it grows as you grow, but a song once meaningful is forever meaningful. And the more honest you are, the more meaningful it becomes with every time you listen to it, on cd or live…

“Don’t forget the songs that made you cry, and the songs that saved your lives”…
And I can say, without a doubt, that these songs have saved my life today, and that they will save my life once again, every night they will be played.

– Stephanie

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6:30 am. It is time for me to go into the guys’ room, a final checkup to make sure nothing is left behind, as we are not coming back to this hotel anymore. I didn’t sleep at all last night, as I figured out I’d sleep through my alarm if I were to go to bed for only an hour. As soon as I enter the room, Alex, as the enthusiastic person he is, laughs at me “because I look like someone who just woke up”… Well, thank you, but no, that’s just me after a sleepless night. We finish packing everything, pack the many small items we don’t know where to put, and make sure what we need for the radio interview and first acoustic performance of the Coffee House Sessions is at reach! We left at 7:20am, 5 minutes late on our schedule, and thus unable to grab a coffee! Let’s say, we understand exactly why they are called “Coffee” House Sessions… The coffee is an essential part of it!

We drove all the way to Southampton, where we were expected for an interview at VoiceFM, on their morning show “The Morning Zoo”. We couldn’t have thought of a better name for an interview with the band! It somehow reminded me of the Bla Bla Bla we do on Sundays, super early in the morning! The interview was super nice, we’ve had an incredible time with the people, and basically just really enjoyed it! It made us forget it was so early in the morning!

We had a little time off before we needed to go to Southampton uni, so decided to go at Starbucks! Where else, and we didn’t have any coffee yet either… So that was a perfect match!

The rest of the day went by in a flash! We would arrive at a university, find ourselves lost, manage to find the place where we were scheduled to play, Alex, Ben and Sef would do the soundchecks with Matt, YB would be filming, Miss Isabel, Jeff and Moose would be talking with the people around, and I would be taking pictures and tweeting at the same time! That time was quick, even more so than the live performances themselves, that lasted only 2 songs. The band decided to play the songs Kerosene as the first one, and Where Did We Lose Each Other as the second one of the set. You know, that nasty feeling of being on the verge of something very very very cool, but missing it? Well, that was exactly it! The last show of the day, though, lasted a little longer. The Coffee House Sessions we are doing at the moment are supposed to be only 2 songs, an original one and a cover. That’s their concept. But the people at the University of Winchester were so into it, so enthusiastic, that we couldn’t tell them “no” when they asked us for more songs. We were waited for anywhere else after, so decided not to please the audience, but to please ourselves and play a few more songs!

Back to our hotel, we unloaded everything. Some left to do some promotion, while others stayed and practiced a little more. We then gathered all together a few hours after, shared a meal, and all the stories that happened to each and everyone of us throughout the day. Favorite moments, meaningful encounters, thoughts we’ve had… We say everything!

Our first show is at 1pm today, and we are only a few minutes drive away from the Hertfordshire University. That means we can allow ourselves to wake up late! We decide to gather all together at Starbucks (open 24h and just beside our hotel – we don’t even have to cross the street! Perfect place to be!). We spent an hour over there enjoying Americano coffees, or teas for the 2 of us who aren’t allowed coffee (to our biggest disappointment)! Comes 12, we leave and head to the university, where we are greeted by incredible people. The sky was bright blue when we arrived at the Starbucks. There was a lot of clouds, but it was nonetheless very beautiful. It didn’t last very long, though, and by the time we left for Hertfordshire uni, it was gray and raining again. Typically England, we thought…! And then we saw it, very faint, but hinting bright in its own way… A rainbow! And a full arched one, at that! A great reminder that even when things seem dark, there’s always a bright side to be found somewhere. And this rainbow followed us all the way to Hertfordshire University, where we have been greeted by incredible people! It was still quite early, but already, people were gathered in the cafe where we would be playing. We started setting up everything, and then it was time for a radio interview! Alex and Jeff then left the cafe, to head to the Crush Radio station inside the university! We talked about the band, about the different backgrounds we come from, the artists who inspired us, and about how hard it was to define YFE’s music…! Oh, and we also spoke French! That’s probably the last thing we expected being in England! We came back to the cafe where everything was ready, and we started the show! Once again, 2 songs were far from being enough! But it was a very soulful and meaningful time. As short as it may be, the passion the guys live on the stage knows no limit! We were fortunate enough to have a little time to talk after the show, so we enjoyed every minute of it! Having 2-3 shows a day, plus radio interviews, it means we’re usually in a hurry all the time! And don’t worry, we were in a hurry right after this!

We drove to the Queen Mary University of London, and the rush of the day started! Got there very last minute because of traffic and road diversion, emptied the van, sound checked, had problems with the equipment, but Matt found a way to fix everything – hopefully, because there was no tech guy at this university! Friends had joined us for this performance, so it made it a little bit more special! Right after this, we had an interview. Unplanned, but when they saw us perform, they knew they had to have this time with all the band members!

Then we rushed to our 3rd university of the day, Essex University. We were supposed to perform at 6pm. Plenty of time, as we left the previous university at 4:15pm. But that was without traffic. And roads closed. And more traffic. So it took us 3 hours to get there… Which meant we were late! Hopefully, the stage was set up, and we only had to practically plug and play. The thing is, there was a football game going on that night, and kickoff was at 7:30pm. People were looking forward to it. And I mean, really looking forward to it! A little bit like a Canadiens-Bruins hockey game, or a Giants-Dodgers baseball game. Nonetheless, when we started the first song, Kerosene, people changed their focus from the tv screen to the band that was playing behind them. We finished around 7:28pm. The big screen got turned on, people turned back to their original position, and it was game on! Right on time… 🙂

Only 1 university for us today! We are going to Reading, where the coffee they serve is Starbucks… And that fact alone makes us excited! We have met incredible people over there, involved with Amnesty International. We had a great time with them, and it was already time for the show. Alex started saying he was pleased to be able to play the famous Reading Festival, but that he was expecting something a little different from the festival. Yeah, maybe we should have told him it was the University of Reading, and not the Reading festival. Same city, different vibe…! The show, though it didn’t allow any bodysurfing, was a very intense one, deep and meaningful. We came back home early, as we had something very special planned that night… A digital date with the members of our fan club, the Secret Family Cult Club! We decided to invite them all to a rehearsal from the guys’ hotel room…! We were all gathered together, in the room, away from the camera, but very active on the chat with everybody who gathered from all over the world, at some crazy hours of the day for some people. Many of you told us that you’ve been uplifted and inspired by the music that has been played, but especially by what has been shared by Alex in between the songs. But let me tell you how inspired we have been by you. Opening up, letting go, being yourselves, being free. You’ve really, really inspired us. And after the camera was turned off, we kept talking about you. For 3 hours. Nonstop. And then we went to bed. Not because we felt like it. But because we had to. We were leaving early in the morning.

On the menu today for us was the University of Loughborough, then the University of Leicester, then the University of Warwick. And if 3 acoustic performances weren’t enough, we also had a radio interview and a live performance scheduled right after. So we knew the day would be a very busy one, and that every stop we’d do at every university would have to be very short. If you get late on the schedule only a little, you’d be late for the rest of the day… We’ve learned from experience 2 days before with Essex! It’s a little more stressful to see it this way, and an additional pressure, but it’s something we need to remind ourselves all the time in days with a schedule like this! We arrived at the first university in advance, enough for us to get ready without stressing out too much. Seeing everybody wearing shirts, sweatpants and sweatshirts, it didn’t take very long for us to realize that this university was renowned for its sports program! The cafe where we were playing was a wide open space, all white colored. And even though the atmosphere of the room itself was a little cold, the light was flowing in – because yes, there was a lot of sun that day! And that sun was the perfect representation of how the people welcomed the music as we were playing. It’s as if everybody stopped what they were doing to listen to what was going on. This is also where we have met our self-proclaimed milk-drinking fan, who had never heard of the band or of the Coffee House Sessions before, but just happened to pass by, and couldn’t help himself but stop and enjoy his time with us all. We’ve also met an incredible world changer, involved with amnesty international. Followed an interview for the university tv station.

And then we left, direction University of Leicester. We’ve heard from a friend that Leicester was the first city in England where non-English people became a majority. And driving through its streets, we could notice just how multi cultural of a city it was. The people walking around, the different buildings and the shops that inhabits them… It was as if we could smell the odors floating all around the city… We reached the university of Leicester, set up everything real fast as nothing was ready when we arrived (despite the big pink elephant that was standing right next to where we were playing – we never knew if he had been put up in honor of Sef, though!), and then started playing. And people were on fire! As soon as the music started, you could feel that the whole vibe of the place changed. And that feeling was proved right by the quantity of tweets/mentions/retweets and hashtags that got in! It was absolutely insane!

Then very quick, we left and headed to the university of Warwick. But road construction slowed us, and we got there a little late. But everything was ready for us, so we were ready in a few minutes only. We got on stage, and the show started. And once again, the reactions left us speechless! The band was playing against a glass wall, and we were blessed to be there right in time for the sunset, which added a magical, movie-like touch to the acoustic session! Another interview followed, and then we left for the HillzFM radio station, not far away from there.

Some more construction on the road forced us to do detours. And that’s one thing we learned about road signs in England. They NEVER annouce an upcoming blocked road. NEVER. Neither do they indicate what way you should take to contour it. So you’re basically just left to yourself, wondering where it is you may go… We may complain about all the road repairs in Montreal, but at least, they warn you beforehand and tell you which way to go – though it’s not an absolute fact those indications will be any good at all…

We were greeted by a very nice woman, fashionably dressed and with her hand tattooed. She guided us to the studios, upstairs, where reggae music was flowing all over the place, with DJs dressed accordingly. Incredible people, warmly welcoming the band and the large crew that follows them. We were allowed 30 minutes for the interview, from 6:00pm to 6:30pm, a slot that happened right in the middle of the reggae show that was already started when we arrived there. Different music, indeed… But still, the people working at the station loved the music so much that they absolutely wanted us on the show, as we were in the area. There was no other choice, we needed to be on that radio, and the show that was going on wasn’t really important. They wanted to meet the band, talk with them, and present them to the listeners. And this is exactly what happened… The band performed 3 songs live (Kerosene, Where Did We Lose Each Other and City On Fire), all while talking about the community values we have, our DIY ethos, the different places we’ve traveled to so far, the spirit that feeds the music and the lyrics, and the upcoming projects. The interview and live performance lasted around 40 minutes, until the DJ came back in studio to tell the interviewer that her time was well over and that she was stealing his show time! Well, that was until he closed the door of the studio behind him and sensed what was going on… And realized that there was not one guy in studio with his guitar, but 3 of them playing and singing, and 8 others, for a total of 11 people in studio… “You are really one… One family. One love. One united all together”. And then we started talking with him, about the meaning of the name of the band, about how fears & doubts are our biggest enemies, and that behind all our differences, we are all the same. And this is when he asked us to play another song. He wanted more of this. He wanted to keep that show going, even if he wasn’t DJ anymore. It didn’t matter anymore. Because this very moment had already been turned into eternity, and it was as real and honest as it gets. We drove all the way to Bristol listening to that radio station… Or at least as long as the coverage allowed us to!

Our first show is in Bath. I guess we were all curious to see what that city looked like, all a little intrigued by its name. I mean, come on, who wouldn’t be?! We left as the sun was shining bright above our heads. Definitely, that is a very good point for this region of England already! And then, as we were making our way to the university of Bath, we were left speechless. But completely speechless. The valleys, the sceneries, the green of the never ending fields against the blue of a sky where huge grayish clouds where hanging… It was simply too beautiful to be true. And then we entered the city itself. Completely different from the nature we had just seen, it was however just as breathtaking. Old stylish buildings, pale colored, with huge wooden doors and artisanal iron fences around the yards… We all fell in love at first sight with the city. And that was before we met its heart, its people. We were even more under its charm when we entered the university and met the people who were studying or working there.

And it was a magical moment as we played. Nobody wanted the show to end. But we had to leave the beautiful city of Bath, that surprised us all not only by its appearance but also by its looks in order to go to the university of West England, located in Bristol.

Bath sure is beautiful, the traffic that haunts its streets is still pretty dense… But we made it right on time to the university, plugged everything and started playing as Canada was competing against England in a curling game – for which we won gold! Special background for a Canadian band playing in Bristol… And despite losing the gold medal, people at the university totally flipped about the moment we shared all together! Right after the show was over, as we were on a rush, we learned that we had a radio interview as well! So we went upstairs, met the interviewer (who happened to be a fan of the band since 2008), and had an incredible time, talking about different inspirations for the band when it comes to lyrics and music, about faith and hope, and what’s coming next for the band! We said goodbye as the interviewer and cameraman were telling us we’d see them again in not too long, as we will be touring and playing in Bristol.

We left for a radio interview at the Bradley Stoke FM station. Tired and exhausted, Alex felt sick and was starting to lose his voice seriously. But after he heard the story of the station and how the people built it from scratch over a long period of time, finding a little bit of equipment here and there, in order to make this dream of theirs come true, a place where they would be able to share music they love and is meaningful to them, giving back to the community in this very special way, as well as giving them a place to express themselves through music.

We came back to the hotel and tuned in to the SFGLive stream, directly from Scottsdale, where the SF Giants were having their batting practice! And this is how we’ve ended the first week of the Coffee House Sessions… You may think that it is because we want to rest over the weekend… But the truth is that we’ve been offered so many opportunities of things to do this weekend that we just can’t wait to see what moments will unfold before our very own eyes!

– Stephanie

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Your Favorite Enemies are leaving at the end of this month for their very first tour in France. They have already played in Paris before, but it will be their first time going across the whole country! And let me tell you, they are super excited about this! For the moment, we know that the France tour will start in Cannes, on February 1st, at the prestigious MIDEM festival! More details, more dates, and more cities will be coming soon, so make sure you stay aware and miss nothing! Join the event on Facebook here

Right after this, the band will be heading to the UK, where they will go from South to North, from East to West. They have already been to some of these cities, some others they’ll see for the first time… But wherever they will go, what they are looking forward to most is this communion that they will share with you!

March 6, St. Albans – The Horn (Tickets)
March 7, Bedford – Holy Moly @ Esquires (Tickets)
March 8, Bristol – Thekla (Top Deck) (Tickets)
March 9, Nottingham – Rescue Rooms (Tickets)
March 12, Edinburgh – Sneaky Pete’s (Tickets)
March 13, Glasgow – King Tuts (Tickets)
March 14, York – The Duchess (Tickets)
March 15, Hull – Adelphi
March 16, Keighley – The Exchange (Tickets)
March 17, Liverpool – Korova
March 18, Sheffield – Corporation (Tickets)
March 19, London – The Barfly (Tickets)

Get the tickets for the whole tour here!
And make sure that you join us on the FB events!