In 2005 two local Tallahassee bands, Kid Named Chicago and Defining Moment, joined forces to form Mayday Parade. Just one year later, the band released their debut EP, Tales Told By Dead Friends. Just another year after that, their debut full-length, A Lesson In Romantics was released. Mayday Parade guitarist Alex Garcia discusses how he feels about that album turning 10 next year.
“Man, it’s crazy,” he admits. “It’s honestly a pretty crazy thought. It feels like it was that long ago but it also doesn’t. It’s hard to explain. I didn’t think that it’d be like this. It’s cool. I’m very excited about it. I’m just grateful that we’re still able to tour and people still care and still wanna hear our music and are excited about our new music. That’s a huge thing for us.”
Garcia goes on to explain how he feels they’ve changed since their first album was released. “I think all our tastes in music have changed. I think we’ve become better musicians for one. I think we’ve become better at playing with each other. I think that’s a big thing. When we first started playing together we didn’t really know each other that well as musicians.”
The band clearly love Australia. They played Soundwave Festival in 2014 and supported Yellowcard in Australia last year. Next month, they will embark on their first headline tour of the country in four years.
“I’m actually very excited,” Garcia says. “I always love coming to Australia. The people are just so nice. The country’s so beautiful. The cities are really, really cool. I love Melbourne a lot. Australian people are always so welcoming to Americans. I’ve always had a very good time there.”
The Early November, who, in their more than a decade together have toured Australia just once, will support Mayday Parade on the tour. A choice which was made by Mayday Parade themselves as they are such big fans of the band.
“We’ve been fans of that band for a while,” Garcia states. “When we saw that they submitted for the tour we were like, ‘absolutely, we’re picking them. We love that band.’ I’ve seen them play but we’ve never been on tour with them.”
In 2015 the quintet released album number five, Black Lines. Before the release of that album, frontman Derek Sanders made comments saying he felt the band was becoming “too predictable.” This view was shared by Garcia.
“We’d kinda done the same thing over and over again and that’s why we went to a different producer. I think if we’d gone to the same producers that we’d worked with in the past, it really would’ve felt like a sequel to Monsters In The Closet or self-titled, and we really wanted to do something different. I feel like it’s important for bands to do that. To change it up a little bit and experiment, or at least, it was important for us to do that. To experiment and try something a little bit new and challenge ourselves. It would’ve been easy for us to be very comfortable and make our fifth album just like the others, but none of us wanted to do that.”
Looking at the band’s discography you may notice they have released a new album every two years. We asked Garcia if there was any chance at a new album next year to keep the trend going.
“I think so. We’ve talked about it. It’s still a little bit away and we’re still trying to figure that out. I mean, yes, I think we will. We’ve talked about getting together in the winter and to start working on songs. I think this time around we really wanna make sure that we spend the right amount of time on everything. In the past, even with Black Lines, it was so much of a rush. I know none of us want to do that now. We want to make sure we take our time and release something when it’s ready.”
To end with, Garcia revealed what he most loves about being a musician:
“You get to be creative and not a lot of people get that opportunity; to be creative and make that your job. I can’t imagine not doing that. I can’t imagine a life where I’m not playing music or at least able to create music. I can’t really imagine living a nine to five life. I feel I’d go insane just not being able to be more free with my time and go at things at my own pace, so I really appreciate that. I think that’s probably the best thing about being a musician for sure.”
Mayday Parade with The Early November Australian tour dates
Oct. 6 – Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane (AA)
with Skies Collide
Oct. 7 – The Metro Sydney (AA)
with Cambridge
Oct. 8 – Arrow on Swanston, Melbourne (AA)
with Set The Score
Oct. 9 – 170 Russell, Melbourne
with Harbours
Oct. 12 – The Gov, Adelaide
with After Change
Oct. 13 – Astor Theatre, Perth
with Avastera
