KISS and Mötley Crüe have likely been responsible for a lot of firsts, especially for fans who have yet to reach the age of 20. But for British band The Treatment, whose five members are still in their late teens despite their ’70s rocker imagery, these two bands have not only been big influences on the throwback rock sound heard on the recently-released debut album This Might Hurt, they’re also responsible for The Treatment’s North American debut. Currently making its way across the United State and Canada, the co-headlining bill known simply as The Tour features the young quintet as the opening act (with additional club dates for The Treatment on off dates from The Tour). Being introduced to new audiences each night, The Treatment’s singer Matt Jones talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about the tour, the album and what the rest of the year has in store for this young band.

You’ve already gained quite a following in Europe, but touring with two of the biggest bands in the world is quite a way to make your North American debut.

Yeah, I mean it’s huge. We’ve all grown up listening to these bands, so to be out here playing with them in America in front of that many people is just unbelievable.

What have the reactions been like for you so far on this tour?

I think people come in early because they want to get a good spot for KISS and Mötley Crüe. We’re going on about half an hour before the main bands go on, but we’ve had really, really good responses so far. It’s been really fun, too.

With KISS and Crüe, it’s not just the front men who have been able to capture the attention of audiences. And many of the other members of each band have fronted other bands of their own. As a singer and front man, who would you say have been some of the bigger influences on you between the two bands you’re currently touring with?

That’s hard because, like you said, their all such great front men. Vince Neil was the ultimate ’80s front man, then Paul Stanley is fantastic and Gene Simmons is fantastic. I don’t know that I could really pick one. I’ve grown up listening to both bands and both bands have had an equally big impression on us, really.

You’ve had the opportunity to play with some other big rock bands like Alice Cooper and Motörhead in your homeland. As I mentioned before, we aren’t that familiar with you here, but do you already have a pretty big following back home?

We’re doing quite well at home and we’re doing quite well in Europe. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind lately, but over the last year it’s all slowly, but surely, picked up. Hopefully after this tour in the U.S. we’ll be able to go back and do some more shows. But it’s been a fantastic start for us so far.

The new album has a lot of different influences, ranging from bluesy Black Crowes kind of sounds to harder rocking ’80s-inspired stuff. I’ve noticed a resurgence in the ’70s and ’80s rock sound in a lot of newer bands, as well as bands from that era seeing a renewed interest from fans. Why do you think that sound is making a comeback of sorts?

I think it’s just because we’ve all grown up with it. I mean, it’s something passed down from our dads and our mums because our parents were around in the ’80s and as we were growing up, that’s what they listened to. As we’ve grown up, we’ve listened to what they used to listen to. So when we come to writing music and started playing guitar and stuff like that, we’d go back to that kind of music to get inspiration because that’s what we knew. I think it’s a generational thing that was handed down to us.

You also released a digital-only EP of cover songs. How did you go about choosing which songs you’d cover?

We wanted to show that we don’t just have an ’80s side to us, but we’ve got a real kind of rootsy ’70s feel as well. We wanted to choose songs that people wouldn’t automatically think we’d go for and songs that might be a bit of a curveball, especially for people our age who might not have ever heard it before. Stuff like Canned Heat and ELO and stuff like that, people who are 18 back home in England don’t really know that kind of stuff. So we wanted to breathe some new life into some great songs and hopefully people will listen to that and go back to hear the originals.

How did you discover those bands if a lot of people your age haven’t heard them in England?

When we got into rock music, we all kind of sat down and went back to the roots. So if we liked Mötley Crüe or whatever, we’d go back and listen to what they were influenced by like UFO and Slade and stuff like that. We’re all massive music fans, so we’d sit down with records from the ’60s, ’70s and even the ’50s and ’40s, and listen to as much as possible.

This tour has you on the road through September. What are your plans after that?

After this tour, we go home and have a couple of weeks off to try and recoup some energy. After that we go on tour in the U.K. with Thin Lizzy, which we’re really excited about because we’re all massive Thin Lizzy fans. We’ve actually done a couple of dates with them before and they went really, really well. So a whole tour should be a lot of fun. Then we’re back in Europe through October. Then we’ll take some time off at the end of the year to see our families for Christmas and stuff.