Let's Cheers To This

The day has finally arrived. Today are the 2016 Alternative Press Music Awards, and somehow my band, Sleeping With Sirens, got nominated for: six awards! When me and the guys first heard the news, we started jumping and running around the tour bus that we were at the moment. This is so awesome to us. Ever since we were kids, we always dreamed about becoming this big, but we never thought we'd actually get to where we are now. It is such a privilege to be able to be at least nominated for an award and stand next to all our favorite artists. It's been a month since I first heard about our nominations and I still can't keep still.

The place was huge! We were all amazed; we've never been to an event like this until now. But we were also nervous, because we didn't know how to act in front of everyone. One thing is standing in front of millions of fans but another is standing in front of millions of fans and tons of artists who some may be our favorites and being recorded live on T.V. This was a big moment for us. So we all just sat at our table like a bunch of kids too scared to make friends on their first day of school.

The two hosts, Alex Gaskarth and Jack Barakat from All Time Low, kept making jokes in between performances and presentations. We let loose during the night, but then came one of our nominations. The hosts welcomed Adam Dutkiewicz and Jesse Leach from Killswitch Engage and Matt Heafy from Trivium to present the Best Guitarist Award. They entertained the crowd for a little while and presented the nominees: JB Brubaker from August Burns Red, Jack Fowler from Sleeping With Sirens (us), Chad Gilbert from New Found Glory, Misha Mansoor from Periphey, Kellen McGregor from Memphis May Fire, and finally, Kevin Skaff from A Day To Remember. These were all really good players, but we hoped for our guitarist to win. We crossed our fingers and waited for the winner to be announced.

The tension was too much. Our guitarist was kind of shaking and sweating. As they opened the envelope we watched intensely. "And the winner is... Jack Fowler of Sleeping With Sirens!" We couldn't believe it. We immediately stood up and cheered as loud as we could and we group hugged our bandmate. We were so happy for him. As he walked to the stage to claim his award our latest hit Better Off Dead from our newest album Madness played in the background. He took his award and gave a small speech thanking us, his family, our management, and most importantly, the fans.

We didn't win the other awards we were nominated for, but at least we got one. We had tons of fun tonight. It made me think about all the things we went through to get to where we are now. Hard work really does pay off. But it's crazy how time flies: one second you're playing at a birthday party in front of five people and the next you're playing at a sold out concert in front of millions of fans and now you're at a music awards show receiving an award. We have to treasure every moment and never give up. We went through lots of ups and downs but we never gave up. We worked hard to get to where we are now and it really has payed off. This experience has motivated all of us into continuing our crazy adventure with the band and release more awesome music into the world. Our dreams have finally come true.