We used to talk about it when we were a kid.
Like, I think it makes all of us feel really lucky that people put, like, still consider our older records relevant and they wanna know like, what we're, you know, what we're gonna make.
I, that's just, that doesn't make any sense why people should give a shit.
And I, I love it.
We're gonna start out with your first album ever.
"All We Know Is Falling", which is one of my favorites.
What was the biggest lesson you learned on your first album?
We had no time to make it.
It was like, well, you know what
people used to say to us all the time, they would be like, you have your whole life to make your first record.
You know, so get it right because like, once it's out, then it just, I don't think we had the foresight to really understand what that meant.
So we made our album in three weeks.
We definitely, we, you know, we wrote those songs over the course of probably a year, just if you include the first few that we wrote.
But like a lot of them we wrote after we had, we kind of like relocated to be closer to our label.
"Fueled by Ramen" at the time.
And like that's where we made, "All We Know Is Falling".
The only beneficial thing to it being so quick is that it made us not second guess anything.
That's something we attribute to that, to this day that helps us make quick decisions.
So going into your next album "Riot!", which is when Taylor joined the band.
Taylor had written on songs like, he had written with us.
Because you know, we started playing together, the three of us when we were like 12 and 13.
I can remember the first time we played "That's What You Get",
We were in Austria and we were sound checking it for our friends in this band Lost Alone that were opening for us.
And I just felt so proud of it because I had remembered Taylor and Josh working out those guitar parts in like one of our rooms, like childhood bedrooms basically.
And like feeling all of us being there together playing.
It was, it was nice.
It was, it kind of felt like a full circle moment, even though it was still really early in our career.
So yeah, there was so many firsts for us with "Riot!" and it was like stressful and hectic and exciting all at once.
The next album, there was like another two-year period before "Brand New Eyes" came out, which has the standout all I wanted, which is not an easy song to sing live,
I can imagine.
No, that's why I only did it one time.
Yeah, exactly.
It's cool, it's cool that people kind of found that song a little bit late.
Like, this generation is discovering that song over a decade later.
I love that
fans love it.
It's such a special song and the way that, like, the music of that song takes me back to like, our earliest days as a band when we would like gush over a lot of like, like failure, like heavier, but like, how do I explain it?
Like almost post grunge kind of vibes, you know, that was really exciting for us to experiment with and, and we got to do that on a couple of other songs later.
But "All I Wanted" was like the first time I felt that feeling.
Then moving into my favorite album, self-titled.
Oh, thanks.
You know, it, there's so many songs on that album that I really do love.
But "Last Hope" we need to talk about.
Okay.
Tell me everything, the process that went into it, the writing, like what it means to you guys.
Because it means a lot to me, so
That was honestly a sad time because it was the first album that we had written without Zac in the band.
And we, even though we had proven ourselves a little bit since then, we still had a lot of self-doubt about what our purpose was and if we were gonna be able to sustain this thing that we cared so much about.
And so I just can remember feeling really when we wrote that.
Like, I was in a hotel room when I wrote the lyrics and I was just sad, you know, it was like, sometimes you're sad and you don't know what you're sad about.
It's just like this, this like, blanket that kind of feels like it's been thrown over you.
And, um, I love that song because now it, like, it has this very triumphant feeling.
And then going into 'After Laughter", I know this was a point when you guys were thinking about a break as you explained in interviews, like, you know, we're getting tired and it's, I mean, I can only imagine how tiring it is being in a band.
So tell me about that.
Like, being, you know, thinking about taking a break.
I don't think when, when we think back on that time that we really recall
needing to take a break, and I think that's coming off of these last four years where it feels like we actually took a break, you know?
Because I mean, I think truly we were only off the road for maybe a few months, a couple months before we started writing for "After Laughter".
You know, so I think maybe we weren't active like on the road and touring, but I, I do think that's still occupied a lot of our mental headspace and we hadn't, we hadn't quite learned,
I mean, it's, it's always hard to detach from whatever your passion or your, your career is, and I can all relate, you know, to that feeling.
But, I just, I don't think we could really stay away from it for that long.
And yeah, and then I think the minute you start telling your team that you're writing, it's like the whole machine starts up again quicker than you even meant for it too, you know?
So we probably could have even used a longer break than we even had at the time, but it just kind of all started back up again.
That's kind of like a great segue into us talking about your new record.
Like how did you guys figure out the sound for this album and, you know, talking with the producer, Carlos, and like figuring out, you know, how to go from "After Laughter" to "This Is Why".
I mean, I really think it was, we just kept writing and every song kind of like led us somewhere else
and you know, then we, you know, we, we definitely, I think wanted to scratch this, you know, this the itch of like playing some rockier music, you know.
And, but I even remember there was a time where me and Zac were starting to write a new song.
He's like, "Hey man, can we maybe like do something more chill and like take a break?"
And I was like, yeah.
You know, like it felt like, you know, so I just think that we were just...
Pushing it.
Yeah.
But we're just winging it the whole time.
Each song felt like its own album.
Yeah.
And we gave it a lot of attention and its own special lane, if you will.
And I think, you know, especially the first couple records we were just like, we're a rock band and we have two guitars, bass, drums, vocals, you know, like very, like not really stepping outside of that too much.
I mean, there was, there's elements of like the fans doing gang vocals or you know, like certain elements on first records, but each song and, and with that it kind of, you kind of have your guidelines in a good way.
It's kind of have your borders of like, this is what we do, this is what we sound like.
Yeah.
And going back into it taking so much time, it was like, we don't really know.
So that's why every song kind of got its own attention because we were kind of like waiting to see what it told us kind of thing.
Do you guys envision yourself making music as a band in like your fifties and sixties?
‎À la Rolling Stones?
Like anything like that?
Individually?
Like myself, like no.
I mean, do, do I wanna do, I'm sorry.
Do I, do I wanna make music at that point?
I hope so.
Yeah.
I hope that I still, but like our bodies are, are changing rapidly.
Yeah.
I don't know if it'll be any "Figure Eight"-esque stuff in our sixties, but maybe some slow, nice, chill ones.
Yeah.
If we still made music in our fifties or sixties, would you be bummed if we made like acoustic records?
Would you be like, "Hey, you should have hung it up back there."
No, I would listen to everything you guys put out.
I'll say it.
Hell yeah.
You're sweet.
We're gonna just gonna be a folk band.
Food for thought. Can't wait.