Taking Back Sunday: New Again, again?

**Your new self-titled record, _Taking Back Sunday_, is due for release on June 27th. How excited are you for its release?**

We’re all super-excited, we worked really hard for an entire year, writing and recording the record. We recorded with producer Eric Valentine [_Good Charlotte_, _Lost Prophets_], and he’s just phenomenally talented. He worked with _Taking Back Sunday_ on _Louder Now_, and he also worked on _the Dwarves_ record _The Dwarves are Young and Good Looking_, and the follow up _Come Clean_, and I thought those records sounded amazing. I was 18 or 19 when I heard those records, and I just wanted to work with him ever since. It was a dream come true to get to do that.

**The new single, ‘El Paso’, sounds a lot heavier than anything you’ve done before. Is the record a natural progression from _New Again_ [_Taking Back Sunday’s_ most recent studio album] or will the album be a return to the old sound?**

First of all, it’s not gonna’ be our first single. It’s just kinda’ a little teaser track, to throw people through the loop a bit, for fun. We plan to follow up with a proper single that’s gonna be a little bit more poppy. [El Paso] was basically the product of a couple of riffs that Mark [O’Connell, Drums], and Eddie [Reyes, Guitar] had written on guitar. We thought that was really important, to showcase right out of the gate, because their music writing was so important to the sound of the _Tell All Your Friends_ record and also on _Where You Want to Be_ [TBS’s 2nd studio album]. The band started straying from that after that, so we wanted to say “Hey, this is a return to the focus of you guys writing.” And they’re the heart and soul of _Taking Back Sunday_. We really wanted to showcase that, right off the bat.

**With John Nolan [Vocals, Lead Guitar] and your return to the band last year, how do you think the writing process has changed?**

Well, because I wasn’t there, based on what the others guys have said, the band was less and less collaborative. There was a bit more of a dictatorship going on with different players in the band. Writing their own material, bringing it to the band and saying “Oh hey, I want the band to sound this way”. I think the biggest thing with me coming back is all five of us get to write, all five of us contribute huge amounts, and it’s that collaboration that makes us sound so unique.

**Can you explain to me how you got back into the band? Did you remain friends with the members of _Taking Back Sunday_?**

Mark, who plays drums, and I have been friends since we were 6 years old and when John and I left to start _Straylight Run_ [2003-2010], there was tension for a little while, but we’ve been best friends forever, so I guess that never stopped. We didn’t like each other for a little bit, we didn’t like what each other had done, but it was never anything we couldn’t get past.

**Why did you choose to leave _TBS_ back in 2003?**

Basically what happened is, we got too big too fast. First of all, I just wasn’t prepared for that, so I was kinda’ freaked out by the whole thing. There was a lot of infighting because we were all kinda’ losing our minds and everyone was drinking too much.

**As a long-time _Taking Back Sunday_ fan, can you please clear up the whole Jesse Lacey [Ex-_Taking Back Sunday_/_Brand New_ Lead Vocals] incident that led to his departure from the band all the way back in 2001?**

Well, Jesse and John had a fight over a girl and then they wrote songs about it. It was really lame. That’s the big mystery! _**Laughs**_.

**_Tell All Your Friends_ was an incredibly influential album on the alt-rock scene, will there be any songs playing tribute to it on your new album?**

Oh no, this is a completely new sounding record, it’s a real evolution for us all. I think the track that sounds most like the _Tell All Your Friends_-style, would be [‘The Best Places to be a Mom’](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9uyOL-nwTg), which is a song we leaked a demo of. That’s the closest we’re coming to the original sound. But I think we’ve evolved in a good way that fans will absolutely understand. And you can hear the element of that writing, the collaboration of the 5 of us, which made that record [_TAYF_] great. That energy has always been there between the 5 of us.

**You said you’ll be releasing a “poppier” single, can you tell us what that will be?**

We’ve been playing it live and we’ve been talking about it. It’s called [‘Faith’](http://supjustin.com/content.php?4177-Don-t-Lose-Your-Faith-in-Taking-Back-Sunday#new_comment). Some people that have heard it have said it’s “the poppiest _Taking Back Sunday_ song ever”, but it still has a little bit of an edge.

**I have to say sorry for continuously harking back to the past, but did you listen to the new _Taking Back Sunday_ albums when you were playing for _Straylight_?**

I really wanted to know what they were doing with _Where You Want to Be_, because there were songs that we had worked on together that they had rewritten with those guys [Fred Mascherano, Matt Rubano], so I wanted to hear how that was gonna’ play out. And when _Louder Now_ came out, I didn’t hear it for the first couple of months, but I saw them play ‘Make Damn Sure’ on Jimmy Kimmel live and honestly, wow, that’s a hit single. I was so proud of them at that point.

**How important do you feel Social Networking, and in particular Twitter has been to you guys as a band and music in general?**

Oh yeah, it’s incredibly important. Yesterday I just heard for the first time that YouTube plays are the new Soundscan [Nielsen SoundScan is an information and sales tracking system], because people are not selling records any more. That’s how in the States we used to keep track of record sales. It’s now based on YouTube hits, which is an incredible thing, especially because you don’t get any money for YouTube plays. They’re incredibly important to promote your band and get your songs out there. And on Twitter too, you can have a direct interaction with bands. I mean I do it too, and when they write me back I feel really cool. I’m a huge fan of social networking, you can’t be a band without it these days. Unless you’re _Radiohead_ or something, and then you’re too good to be a band anyway.

**What music influences you and the band?**

We all have completely different influences. John and I are huge _Radiohead_ fans, big _Beatles_ fans. Adam [Lazzara, Lead Vocals] was always a big _Lifetime_ fan, which I grew up on too and so did Mark, and he was like an old school Long Island hard-core dude who loved _Dag Nasty_ and shit like that. We all came from different backgrounds, but we all grew up on our punk rock, like _Minor Threat_, and ska, like _the Mighty Mighty Bosstones_. We’re all just massive fans of music.

**You have a UK tour planned, are you excited to return to the UK?**

_Straylight_ toured the UK several times, and it was always a great time, the fans are always great and super honest and just looking to have a good time. I never got to go there with _Taking Back Sunday_, as John and I actually left the band and when we left we had a UK tour booked for that summer that we had to drop off of because we left the band. I’m really looking to get across the pond with those guys.

**How do the UK shows compare to the U.S.?**

Shockingly similar! I think there’s a bit of a looser vibe because the drinking age is lower, I’m a big fan of that. I think because of the social networking and all of that there’s not that much of a difference in audience, you know? Kids talk to each other from overseas all the time.

**Do you have any UK festivals planned?**

Yeah, Reading and Leeds we’ve announced, which I’m really excited for. I’ve never played either of them before, so that should be crazy! It’s just those right now, but I’d love to do as many as possible, because I think they’re amazing and to play to those size audiences really is a dream come true.

**Thank you very much. Do have any last words regarding your new album and UK tour?**

We’re so excited to get over there and play some new songs for you guys. I can’t wait to get over and meet all you guys and eat the most amazing Indian food in the world and have pints with everybody!

_Taking Back Sunday will be touring the UK in May, tickets can be found [here](http://www.seetickets.com/Tour/TAKING-BACK-SUNDAY)._