Work ethic is built into the foundations of pop-punk band Mayday Parade.
Having endured rigorous tours and an unexpected lineup change in a career of only seven years, the band is tougher than its catchy hooks let on.
The band once toured for seven months straight without a break and continues to perform back-to-back tours. Its current co-headlining tour with The Maine immediately followed a sold-out tour in the U.K.
Mayday Parade consists of vocalist and pianist Derek Sanders, bassist Jeremy Lenzo, lead guitarist Alex Garcia, rhythm guitarist Brooks Betts and drummer Jake Bundrick.
Guitarist and vocalist Jason Lancaster left the band since its inception in 2005. Lancaster is currently pursuing a career with his new band, Go Radio.
However, the sudden loss of Lancaster mid-tour didn’t deter Mayday Parade from continuing its stint on the road or from making music together — the band is currently promoting its third major release, a self-titled album.
Mayday Parade will co-headline Union Transfer with The Maine tomorrow, Oct. 24.
THE TEMPLE NEWS: How did you guys move forward after Jason Lancaster left the band?
DEREK SANDERS: That was pretty early on in the history of the band. We had only been a band for a year, maybe a year and a half, at the time he left. It was definitely tough, especially because he left in the middle of a tour. I mean obviously, he sang and played guitar, so there were a lot of parts that we had to figure out how to cover right away so we could play a show the next day without him. That was the only really difficult part was how to adapt our set right on the spot and finish the tour. After the tour was done, we had a month off to spend time reworking everything to work with just the five of us. That was it. We just kept on going after that.
TTN: Having been veterans of big festivals like Warped Tour and Bamboozle as well as completing headlining tours, do you have a preference of what type of show you prefer?
DS: It really just depends. I like being able to do both. Instead of just doing one, I like being able to mix it up. Sometimes the series festival kind of shows can be very fun and can be a very cool experience, and sometimes the smaller, more intimate shows can be pretty awesome as well. It just kind of depends, and we enjoy being able to do all of it.
TTN: A lot of your fans were introduced to your band at a really young age. Do you feel as if you’ve grown with your fanbase?
DS: I don’t know. It’s interesting that I think a lot of our fans have grown up, or grown with us. We definitely have fans who have been listening to us for five years, six years, or seven years or whatever, and it’s pretty cool. It’s pretty cool to see. I don’t know, we don’t ever really like consciously talk about that or think about that or talk about adapting our sound or anything. We write the music we want to write, and will continue to do it. That’s how it goes, you know?
TTN: Your super popular album “A Lesson in Romantics” has a lot of beach imagery and is a summer album for a lot of people. Do you guys put that into your persona as a band, or was that strictly that album?
DS: That’s just kind of how it came out. What’s funny is that we actually recorded “A Lesson in Romantics” in January I believe, so it certainly wasn’t during the summer at all.
TTN: What makes your new self-titled album distinct from your other work? Are there any major changes or ways in which the band has grown?
DS: It’s hard to say specifically. Obviously, we were like 19 when we started this band and we’ve all evolved and grown a lot — as people, as friends and as musicians. Hopefully we grow as a band. I think our sound has changed a little along the way. I’m sure it will. I think in general, it’s pretty much the same idea — us writing music that we want to write, creating music that we love. That’s the goal really with this band, I suppose.
TTN: Having just completed a sold-out headlining tour in the U.K., is it surreal to be so popular overseas?
DS: Yeah, it’s really kind of crazy. We’ve done a whole lot of international stuff these last few years and it’s crazy to go to these places that you never would have imagined even going to. [Plus] there are a whole lot of fans there, people coming out for shows, singing along in other countries. We were just in Manila before the U.K. It was our second time over there, and it’s crazy. Great market. We’ve been to the U.K. seven times now, it’s been cool to see it build and grow from the first time we went there until now.
TTN: How do you guys keep stamina on these extensive tours?
DS: I don’t know. We’ve just been going at it for so long that we expect to stay busy and work hard. I think it’s just part of who we are and the goals that we set right when we started this band. The whole idea was just to go out there and work as hard as you possibly could to make this happen.
Jenelle Janci can be reached at jenelle.janci@temple.edu.
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