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Every now and then, you just happen to stumble across a band, and it turns out they're phenomenal. That was what happened when Jen and Natty came across There For Tomorrow. They told me about them, checked them out, and knew why they were impressed.

I got the chance to speak with Maika when the guys were here on The Secret Valentine tour. So without any hesitation, ladies and gents: Maika Maile!

"Oh my god! Dude it’s like the freakin’ … it’s a conspiracy!"- Maika Maile. There For Tomorrow.

For our readers who don't know who you are, roll call - Who are you and what do you do for the band?

Hi I'm Maika Maile and I’m in a band called there for tomorrow from Orlando Florida, I sing and play guitar.

Um of and Chris played pee-wee football, actually no I think it was Mighty Missile Pop Warner, I dunno, do you guys have that in Canada?

(Laughs) In fourth grade we played football at a camp and then it was kinda like we lost contact because I went to a different school and stuff. Then in eighth grade him and Jay were just jamming , i didn't even know who Jay was, but his mom called my mom because he was so young, y'know? Just like 'hey the boys are trying to find someone to jam with, because I've been playing guitar since I was six years old, so I knew how to play guitar. So I started jamming with them. We started out playing like Green Day covers, like NOFX and Misfits too. Like weird stuff, but...

Oh yeah! Then we started writing our own stuff and it got us to where we are now. Christian joined the band three and a half years ago. We used to play with another kid but that didn't work out, so Christian came in and that is there for tomorrow now. And there for tomorrow the name, is just . . . Jay came up with it. It's been around since I was fourteen. We've been There For Tomorrow since I was fourteen. It's just a simple straight up name because we wanted something that would define our goal in the name of our band, and three words ‘there for tomorrow,’ we just wanna make a mark wherever we go. We don't wanna just be there for a split second, just like all those other people out there, make a cheap fan or a quick buck or whatever. We're down for the long road. We just wanna stick around.

My father and the culture I grew up around. I'm half Tongan. Tonga is an island in the south pacific… Y'know? Polynesians and the stereotypical Hawaiian…big fat guy with the Hawaiian shirt and the ukulele or something. That's music right there. I just grew up with music and I started playing guitar when I was six because I just wanted to be like my dad. Play guitar and sing. That's how I started. Metallica was also a huge inspiration because that was the first record I bought when I was six years old with my own money (Laughs) I think I got it from my birthday money or something.

(Laughs) Yeah! No but the funny thing was bouncing that and Middle Of Nowhere, Hanson at the same time! (Laughs) Whatever man. I used to listen to Mortal Combat soundtrack all the time. Back in cassette days. But that's how I got into it.

(At this time Ian Crawford and Chris Kamrada entered the room singing, so Maika thought it would be best if we went outside. He was also concerned about if Jen and I had jackets because it was Canadian March!)

Yeah the green room probably not the best place for an interview! (Laughs)

You guys are currently working on your first full length, what can we look forward to hearing?

Look forward to hearing that much more progression - Oh my god, I just noticed that apartment number is four twenty! (Laughs) It's in my sight! (Laughs) Yeah progression. We just wanted to take everything step by step. Our whole plan with what we're trying to do is not take leaps but to take . . .

Oh my god! Dude it’s like the freakin’ … it’s a conspiracy! (Laughs)

They don’t want us to interview! Yeah, no it’s nothing outta the box. It’s just exactly what I’m feeling. It’s just all the lyrics that I wrote are from me, are from my heart. You get a piece of Maika Maile with every line. There is a lot of B-S out there in music now-a-days. We’re trying to bring back a little realness. Something that people can really feel and really relate to. There For Tomorrow just a step up. That’s all we’re trying to show people with, with this album.

It’s great! It’s been kinda tough because this tour we had to put the recording process on pause and come out and do this. We actually have to go back and finish up tracking. We are about 85% of the way done with tracking, then we’re gunna go home and mix it up and get it finished. It’s been a little stressful because we’ve been going, going, going but it’s all gunna pay off in the end when it comes together. We’re all gunna have the stress off our shoulders. I think we’ll be proud of everything that’s on there.

Pft um…there’s everything that happens around us…like…this world is…it throws things at us all the time and sometimes you gotta just go with the times and the things that are going on around you and speed it up a little bit yourself. We we’re actually calling the album A Little Faster because we feel like a lot of…in rock and roll, I guess…I wouldn’t call us rock and roll, I would call us pop-rock or pop-punk, but we’re just trying to provide a little more of an edge. So that’s why we’re calling it A Little Faster. Things that influence my lyrics are just everything that happened in my life. Past, present or what I want to happen in the future. Yeah man, it’s basically my only way to vent. So just creating music and putting my heart into what I’m saying.

You guys recently won the MTVU Breaking Woodie award – Even though I heard you wanted to win the sexy newcomer award…?

Naw! That was Chris! (Laughs) Yeah, Chris likes that word. (Laughs)

(They receive our sexy new comer award!)

How does it feel and what to you attribute the success to?

Oh man. It was definitely a genuine shock to us because we had all the faith in the world that All Time Low was going to win. Or We The Kings because they’ve done incredible things in the last year and they’re really … they’re on a whole different level than us. So the chance that we would win was like just none, slim to none. So when we did it was just like, 'ah what the heck!?' Went up there, had no idea what to say, but it came through. And um, I guess all the people out there that believe in us, there was like, on the voting page online thing for the MTV Woddie, there was a comment section and I saw so many, 'Go There For Tomorrow!' and it just reassured us that what we're doing really does make some people happy. All the woodie did for us was reassure us that this is what we're supposed to be doing. We give it up to everybody out there that's been supporting us and whoever voted for us and MTVU especially MTVU has really helped us out.

(Jen and I both voted!)

If you were in charge of the music industry, what would be the first change you'd make?

(laughs) it depends on if I really wanted to be cruel, or if I wanted to be fair. I mean, I never try to knock anybody elses hustle because everybody does what they do and what they know. But I would try to eliminate the people that are doing what they don't know. Like y'know, there's just a lot of fakeness out there and it's just hard to hear that man because it's almost like, you have to be fake to get big nowadays because standards are set in the past. But I think there are a lot of people coming up now, a lot of young artists. It's cool being on this tour because we feel like part of a team. We're all just on the come-up and just trying to focus on ... everybody is really really dedicated to music on this whole tour. It's really cool because a lot of the time we've toured with people that are like older and not exactly...washed up, but they just wanna play and get it over with...

Yeah jaded. Everyone here is young, our age and it's really cool.

Yeah we actually got to talk to everybody on the tour and one thing we noticed was how genuine, like literally everyone is so into it.

I think there's a lot of talent on this tour that a ot of people don't know about. Like in The Cab, Ian is ridiculous! He's on another level. It's really cool to be a part of that.

Like I said, all the people. Like when we won the Woodie, it felt like I had people behind me for the first time in a long time. You've gotta expect with whatever you do you're gunna have doubters. You're gunna get naysayers, but it almost seemed before the Woodie all there was was naysayers. But now I feel like all there is is supporters. It's really cool. And we were just part of ... we got the cover of the main magazine in Orlando, it's called Orlando Magazine and it goes out to like, thousands of people in Orlando and all I'm hearing from people is 'oh my god I haven't seen you in so long and I just saw it. I was getting my hair done and you were sitting right there lookin at me.' This is cool man. I really feel like somethings happening because the team behind us, Hopeless, our record label, is really passionate and genuine people. Our manager, J.R who is like...a real guy. He's not out there trying to comp money from us, he's like really in this with us. Like a team. He's like our dad almost. And like, everybody else. Our booking agents. It's like we have a team, finally. It's paying off. This full length. We're anticipating it. We're ready to put it out.

The full length for sure. Warped Tour. We're going to Japan right before Warped Tour which is gunna be so insane. I've always been into Japanese culture so it will be cool to actually go and see first hand. Insane stuff going on over there. So yeah, all of Warped Tour. We're gunna get hot and sweaty. Just doing what we're supposed to be doing. And then after that it all depends y'know? We're gunna take things one step at a time. We can't look too far down the line and say we're gunna be doing this, because you never know. We'll be touring. People will see us!

So we usually like to end our interviews with five random, off the wall questions.

Tommy Hilfigher because that's what kind of cologne I wear, I guess (laughs) I dunno!

Oh man, I dunno! I'm more of like a...I really don't think too much about politics...

I mean,I do. Almost have to, y'know? But pass a law? No boys, or guys that are over eighteen that are under the weight of a hundred and fifteen pounds. Or a hundred and twenty pounds! (Laughs) Because there are so many guys in bands that are like (makes the motion of them being VERY skinny!)

Yeah it's like...you need cookies. Alright so if 'that's what she said' what did she say?

(Laughs) She said I put her on cloud nine. I dunno, I was never really good at the 'that's what she said' jokes. I was into the 'yo mamma' jokes. I like memorized all of them.

(We then got into a big 'yo mamma' and 'that's what she said' discussion and Jen said her really good one to which Maika replied, "That's what she said!" It was fun!)

Oh my god. If I see one more person do the Solja Boy dance, I'll probably just kick them in the nuts. That one and that other one, what's it called? The Chicken Noodle Soup dance? Worst ever. (Laughs)

You don't even wanna know. It's stupid.

Yeah...or breakfast. Lunch, I would like to have lunch with Davey Crockett. No wait, he's not fictional. Is he? No wait. Let me come up with someone better. I would like to have lunch with Sam Fisher from the video games Splinter Cell. Because I wanna know how the hell he kills people so good and so stealthily. I would like to have lunch with Sam Fisher. I'm a gamer, sorry!