It took just a few short years for Mayday Parade to be crowned kings of their genre. Now, following their meteoric rise to the top, the band have no intention of stopping. Having copped their fair share of drama, most notably the departure of vocalist Jason Lancaster, the latest release from the band demonstrates no cracks whatsoever, in fact the polar opposite. It’s in this very fine form that the band returned to Australia, and Music Feeds managed to catch up with vocalist Derek Sanders before we lost him to the highways of our country.
Since their inception, the band has performed only twice in Australia, with a fan base that seems to grow exponentially between each tour. What is a treat for the fans is also a massive treat for the band, as Derek explains: “We’re so pumped, we just got done with a tour with The Maine in the US, got home yesterday. We have a week off then we head to Australia. This is our third time, I’m pretty sure. Every other time has just been so much fun. We’re all so pumped. It’s the last thing we’re doing for the year, so we know it’ll be a great time.”
“The first time we went was a really long time ago; that was with Paramore. I mean, gosh, that was about 5 years ago. It took us a while to get back, but we eventually did Soundwave. The difference between those two was crazy, when we came back for Soundwave the crowds were just massive,” Derek added.
A lot has changed for Mayday Parade since the release of their 2007 full-length debut A Lesson in Romantics. Now several albums deep into their career, the conversation took a bit of a nostalgic twist: “We had no idea at the time that anything like this would happen. We just wanted to release an album. The last several years have been amazing, watching things grow – especially internationally. It’s amazing, we’re very lucky”
With such a solid back collection now, and having faced lineup changes and everything else that would affect the writing/recording process, I asked Derek which of all their releases best captures the true essence of Mayday Parade: “It’s tough to say, I mean, obviously A Lesson in Romantics is a big fan favourite, but for me, I’d think the self-titled…the newest one is the one that means the most to us. Maybe I’m a little biased. When we did the second album, Anywhere But Here, we ended up making the album the record label wanted us to make, more so than the album we wanted to make. With the self-titled release, the biggest priority was just doing what we wanted to do.”
Though the band is constantly evolving, fans will have noticed one glaring consistency throughout their records: the album art. The story of the faceless man has stumped many, as Derek explains: “We really didn’t have a story for this guy, it was just something the graphics designer came up with, but people kept asking, so with this latest release we came up with a bit of a back story, and we’re thinking about releasing a little more on the guy in the future, maybe. But there’s more to the story.”
Adding more to the story, hey? It sounds as though Mayday Parade might already have new material in the pipelines. I thought I’d grill Derek over this release to see what we could discover: “Yes, we do! I’m super excited about it, everyone is. We haven’t gotten together to work on anything just yet, but after we do some touring, we’re gonna sit down and get cracking on the new one; couldn’t be more excited.”
“Since the latest release, I’ve felt a new energy and renewed life in the band.”
While currently in between releases, they found their way onto the latest edition of the Punk Goes Pop franchise. Covering Gotye’s Somebody That I Use to Know with Vic Fuentes of Pierce the Veil. The team-up had fans drooling at the mouth. Previous Mayday Parade releases were collaboration-free, but this future album is set to change that: “Yeah, I mean, we’ve thought about it. We actually thought about it for the last album, you know, get someone in to sing a verse. It didn’t work out really. But it’s something we’ll keep an open mind with for the next album. If something works out, it’ll be awesome. We’ll see how it goes, it’s a real possibility…I’m actually really happy with how that cover turned out with Vic!”
Derek could hardly contain his excitement for the future of the band. So for those yet to sink their teeth into Mayday Parade, it’s not too late, and there is sure to be a lot more to munch on in times to come. Check out Mayday Parade’s tour dates with We Are in the Crowd and Heroes for Hire.
Friday, December 7
The Hi-Fi, Sydney – Lic AA
Tix: http://www.thehifi.com.au
Saturday, December 8
Billboard, Melbourne (Afternoon U’18 & Evening 18+)
Tix: http://www.oztix.com.au and Oztix outlets / http://www.ticketek.com.au / http://www.moshtix.com.au
Sunday, December 9
The Hi-Fi, Brisbane – 18+
Tix: http://www.thehifi.com.au
