Coming out with their 2nd full length album "Anywhere but Here", and also co-headlining with The Academy Is...on the AP Fall Ball Tour '09 is Mayday Parade. After about a year of no touring, and working on their upcoming album, the guys from Mayday invited us on their tour bus to talk about the album and their future. We sat down with Alex Garcia and Derek Sanders.

Karolina: She color coded the questions.
Alex: What does purple mean?

Justyna: Nothing, I got bored, that’s what I do. Alright, introduce yourselves and what you do in the band.
A: OK, my name is Alex and I play guitar.
Derek: I’m Derek and I sing, and the rest of the band is in the room.
Jake: Hi! I’m Jake and I play drums!
Jeremy: I’m Jeremy and I play bass.
A: Do you guys want us all to do it?

J: If you want to.
Jeremy: I mean we don’t all have to be there.
A: They can just say HI and then that’s it.

J: How did the band get started?
D: The band got started by…we’ve all been friends for a long time, we’re all from Tallahassee, FL. Basically a long story short, there were two bands, one that myself and Brooks and Jeremy were in, and one that Jake and Alex were in, and we decided to take kind of the best from both and form one I guess. A lot of the guys in the bands were married and had kids, and stuff so.
*Attempted fist bump from Jake*
A: That’s a distraction.
Jake: Sorry.
D: So they couldn’t take it seriously or tour and stuff so, we just decided to take the most dedicated and best from both and start one band. That was back, about 4 years ago, this November will be 4 years.
A: Yes. What Derek said.

J: So how did you get signed to Atlantic Records?
A: Well, funny you should ask…No they just…from the beginning, before we had signed to Fearless, they had an interest in us, and they wanted to find a way to put us on an Indie label before we would be on Atlantic. So they’ve always kind of been in contact with us, but after we signed to Fearless, we were kind of already in their system, their family. Later on they kind of approached us, the AR agent approached us, they wanted to wine and dine us kind of, wanted us to be on Atlantic, it seems like a good opportunity, so we took it.
D: Yes.

J: So how has touring been, since you guys took a break to write the new record?
A: It’s been interesting kind of getting back into the swing of things. We did a tour right before this with Metro Station, and it was just kind of weird to get back into it, we haven’t toured for barely a year, right Derek?
D: It’s been about 8 months, yeah.
A: So, it’s kind of odd to get back into. Cause we were in like tour mode, for  2 years solid. It was like tour, tour, tour, a month break here, and there. And when we wrote and recorded, the newest album, we had 8 months off, with no touring, just either being at home or just studio. Then all of a sudden being back into touring, it was just kind of weird, but I think that within the first, well actually the first show that we played after, I know for me, and I’m pretty sure  for everybody else it was kind of like an eye opener, a reminder of like ‘oh this is why we play music.’ The kids out there listening, and singing along, it was just amazing.
D: Yeah, I don’t know what to add. We were off for a long time, and this is why we do it, and I love it.

J: Describe the new record.
A: Derek.
D: The biggest thing that’s different about it there’s not as much of the double vocal, the back and forth singing kind of stuff, there’s a little bit of it still but we didn’t do near as much. But other than that I wouldn’t say it’s too different, some of the songs maybe like “The Silence” is a little bit darker maybe, but for the most part, we’ve always had the same kind of attitude with writing songs, or trying to write the best songs we can. There’s not much of a method to it than that. We don’t necessarily pick a direction or a style or so, if we want to write songs like this we just try and write the best song, that we can, and I feel like anybody who likes the last album will like this one as well.
A: I agree. I concur.

J: What inspired this album?
A: Umm..wait ugh Derek…
D: As far as the lyrics, it’s always about what we’re going through at the time. Some of the songs are about a really complicated relationship that I got out of, some of the songs are about being in the band and the things that you go through, friends that you lose, and stuff.
A: What about the song about spaghetti?
D: There is a song about spaghetti, actually, called “Kids in Love” it’s about spaghetti. No…it’s about just, the things that we’ve been going through, it’s been a while since we wrote “A Lesson in Romantics” it’s been almost 3 years since we wrote and recorded that CD. Maybe not quite, but anyways, that a lot of time having these ideas, and songs that we’ve been writing on the road and stuff, since then so, there was a lot of stuff to go through.

J: Is there a favorite song off the record? To play?
D: We’ve only played three of them so far, out of the three my favorite would probably be ‘Kids in Love’ the spaghetti song. Nah, but that’s probably my favorite to play, yeah for sure.
A: Yeah I’m the same way, I love that song, it’s fun to play.

J: How do you think your music has developed since the beginning?
A: I think structurally it’s developed, from us, and from working with producers, and stuff. Our song structure has been better, the songs as a whole have been well constructed. Musically, I think we’ve been a band for almost 4 years, so naturally we’ve kind of gotten better at our instruments, from whenever we recorded our EP, to the last album, to this album. I think we’re all kind of better at our instruments as well it will help us to write different parts that can add a lot to songs, that’s one way our music has developed. Lyrically I’d say, we’ve matured as people, so the lyrical content has changed as well, cause we have matured, and we have a different outlook on things.

J: Is there a specific process you have, writing music, or coming up with new music?
A: I think it mostly just starts with anyone of us with a guitar, or acoustic guitar or whatever and coming up with the basics, fundamental parts of it, then it just kind of grows from there right Derek?
D: Yeah, you just start with an idea, and then you work from there, and then a song will form.

J: Who writes the songs? Or is it all of you combined?
A: Umm, this last album is mostly Derek.
D: We all contribute, but most of it was me, and Jake.

J: What inspires you to keep playing?
D: What Alex said before, it’s playing shows and stuff, is really like the most rewarding part about being in a band, and makes you want to keep doing it, and keep writing songs, because you see the connection, you see the people there, that are singing along with the songs, it’s the coolest feeling in the world. It’s hard to not want to keep doing that.

J: Musical inspirations, people you look up to?
A: I think one thing that all of us have in common, is that we all like a lot of classic rock kind of music, so that puts a different dynamic on our band, of course we like the standards of classic rock, and we all kind of emulate, and like there’s a slew of classic rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Guns and Roses, and of those types of bands, that we love, and kind of draw from. That’s where we get our influence from.

J: Is there anyone you’d wish to tour with?
A: Oh yeah, Paramore, Taking Back Sunday, Jimmy Eat World, U2.
D: There’s a lot, but those are just some of the ones we can talk about.
A: Fall Out Boy, Foo Fighters, anybody. Lil’ Wayne.

J: Is there anywhere you’d like to travel outside of the US?
D: Yeah, absolutely, anywhere, I mean, we’ve been fortunate enough to do a little bit of out of the country stuff, like Japan and Australia, and the UK, and Canada. Those have all been amazing experiences so yeah, there’s no place we don’t want to go. We’d love to go anywhere.

J: Anything strange happen on tours?
D: Lots of strange stuff, specifically…Alex.
A: Strange? We’ve done a lot of strange things, like I mean, it’s not necessarily done to us, but we’ve…we travel the country so there’s always see a wide scope of people. Different regions have like different kind of people and like. We were in Montgomery, Alabama, and there’s nine of us, and we all dress in tight jeans, and tight shirts, and whatever, long hair. And we walk into a mall in Montgomery, Alabama, people kind of look at us like, ‘omg this punk rock music’. I don’t know, that’s strange to me.

J: Any crazy fan encounters?
A: yeah a lil bit, a lil bit. Ugh Derek?
D: Yeah I mean, it’s hard to say like specifically, it’s hard to name one. You get like weird, stuff happens, and sometimes some pretty over the top, kind of crazy fans and stuff, but it’s all part of it, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

J: How do you feel about headlining this tour?
A: It’s really incredible, cause I mean, I was a huge fan of The Academy Is…most everybody in the band has been or is, and to be able to headline with them is incredible. It feels like quite an achievement, and quite an honor. It’s really an honor for all of us.
D: Yes it definitely is.
A: Especially appreciate it from AP, you know, we respect that magazine, and a magazine that we’ve all grown up with, so it’s kind of ridiculous to us that we’re, and that they even considered us headlining.

J: Any tours after this one?
D: I hope so.
A: There will be!
D: I can’t say for sure what they will be right now, but there’s a couple of things in the works right now, but yeah hopefully the plan is for the next, as long as possible, is to tour.

J: Anything to say to your fans?
D: THANK YOU! A huge thank you, to anyone who has listened to us or reading this interview or listening to this interview or whatever, thanks for checking us out. It really means a lot to us.
A: We appreciate all the support, and everything, and we love you guys. And that’s it.

J: Alright, well thank you.
D: Thank You.


Justyna Zurek is a staff writer in the Midwest region at Musiqtone. You can reach her at justynazurek@musiqtone.com.




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