Mayday Parade
Pop punk outfit Mayday Parade are en route to Australia in October which will be their most extensive tour here to support album number five Black Lines. Along for the ride are Philadelphia’s favourite son’s Early November. Across The Ocean spoke to lead guitarist Alex Garcia about the tour, Black Lines and thoughts on album number six.
Another Australian tour, you must be pumped?
Everyone is very excited, I love coming to Australia. It always is a lot of fun to go there.
Without Soundwave is a bit harder to tour Australia now?
I don’t know, I don’t think so, in my experience I think it is a little bit easier because before it seemed like we would be there every other year that we would get to go to Australia. Now it seems as though it would be about every year because we were there last summer with Yellowcard and now we’re coming back.
With five big albums now what sort of set list can fans expect on this tour? Will it be predominantly Black Lines?
I think that it will be a good mix of all the songs from all albums. I think the thing we want to try and do now that we have five albums is make sure that we play what people want to hear and cover all of our bases pretty much.
What can you say about the really cool support band Early November?
I may have met them a long time ago but a lot of us grew up listening to that band and being fans of them. When they submitted for the tour the opportunity to tour with them everyone was like yes. It will be cool to watch them play every night. One of the best things of touring is getting to see their show, I’m very excited about that.
Do you have a preference for small club shows or big festivals?
They all have their own pros and cons, I think if I liked one more than the other, small shows are more intimate and can be a lot of fun but the big shows there’s definitely a big feeling. It feels like a big accomplishment when you play a huge show, you feel like you’ve climbed a mountain but there is a lack of intimacy there. I think you feel more disconnected and it’s almost like two totally different experiences. It is a very strange part of touring.
Black Lines has been out for a while, were you happy with how it was received by fans and the industry?
I don’t know, on one hand I feel like I didn’t expect much considering that I knew it was going to be a different album. I felt like I knew when we were making it we’ll see what people think about it. I knew it was what we wanted to do but it was going to take time. I don’t think it was that totally different or anything like that. It is still hard to tell and it’s not we noticed a significant jump in ‘oh we’re a much bigger band’ or ‘wow, people really hate this album’. Honestly, it feels like the same reception we had when we released our last album Monsters In The Closet. I think it feels very similar to that which is a good thing.
Do you think some bands try too hard to be different to mix things up?
Nah, I don’t know, every band has to charge their own course and I always think of AC/DC as band who never changed its sound and how that worked for them. When you’re a fan of AC/DC you know what to expect from their music. It’s not like you’re going to be hit with that piano ballad you know what I mean. It’s always going to be that consistent sound. Whereas other bands in different genres like Brand New you never know what you’re going to get. I think you pretty much go a long for the ride. For us, I feel like we had to balance both sentiments there if we wanted, obviously we have the basic taste in music but then we also have got older and want to experiment a little bit more. I don’t know what other bands do I don’t judge it too harshly. Honestly, I try and be pretty open with it.
Has there been much thought about what you might do with album number six?
Yeah, oh man it is still very much in the conceptual phase. We’ve talked a little bit about it and because it is at the stage where everyone is writing it is about coming up with ideas on their own. I don’t think we’ll start formally talking about it until after Christmas but it gives us a lot of time to write. I’m hoping this time around, it seems like every time we get together we have more and more songs to choose from. I’m hoping that will be the case this time around.
Does that make the culling process a bit trickier when you have so much material?
It can, it is just a process. The writing and recording process is a very long and heartbreak filled process where you have to continually push for things that you like and common ground on other things. It is a long process but yes it can make it hard. Choices are good, options are good and good to have a lot of them I think. You have to learn each time around and the strongest song will survive.
Does the change in the music industry influence how you go about the next album?
I don’t know and I think about that a lot. I think for Mayday Parade we’re very content with releasing albums but also we have talked about changing the way that we do it, changing how we release music, how the frequency of it will be announced and right now I have been waiting to see but I feel this is the way music is going to go or should go given the way people listen to music on a song by song basis, releasing shorter albums or EP’s or collections here and there. It’s almost reverting back to how music was in the fifties and before where single were released and the concept of an album as we know it wasn’t very present or a thing. I think that is the way people listen to music know and I think with albums you need to have something important to say to have a full length album. I listen to so many where they could have cut two or three and the album would have been strong.
Whether it is rummaging through vinyl at record stores such as Clarity and Title finding hidden gems to scouring the internet to find that album by the next big thing or chasing bands to get that elusive autograph and photo his passion is music all the way.
- Aversions Crown - January 27, 2017
- Sick Of It All - January 19, 2017
- Refused - January 11, 2017
