INTERVIEW: Jeremy Lenzo & Alex Garcia – Mayday Parade

The past 11 years for MAYDAY PARADE have been packed to the brim with success. Their debut album A Lesson In Romantics saw its ten year anniversary last year, leading to a subsequent tour that was high in demand. This year sees the band releasing their sixth studio album Sunnyland, playing at the last Warped Tour and playing their very first Download Festival. We caught up with bassist Jeremy Lenzo and guitarist Alex Garcia to chat about the album, and their show at Download and more!

How are you doing?

Jeremy: We’re doing very well, excited to be here playing out first Download Festival, it’s an experience.

How are you feeling about playing for the first time?

Alex: It’s pretty awesome, we’ve done Reading and Leeds before and we feel this has a similar vibe to that. Compared to most things we’re used to, this is big and a little overwhelming but it’s cool, it’s nice to be here. I’m excited to be here.

Jeremy: Definitely overwhelming for sure.

What can we be expecting from your show later on?

Alex: A lot of energy, we try to keep things energetic and it’s probably the biggest thing.

Jeremy: Yeah, a lot of good songs and good vibes.

Alex: Good vibes yeah, we try to be positive, that is a big thing.

Jeremy: Spread the love.

Alex: It’s easy to be down about things, I don’t talk on stage but Derek out singer does and he’s a positive guy.

Last year saw MAYDAY PARADE do a 10-year anniversary tour of your debut album, A Lesson In Romantics and now your first Download appearance. Did you ever expect to become such a household name in alt-rock scene in the UK?

Jeremy: Are we?!

Yeah, it’s not unusual for people to have listened and loved MAYDAY PARADE since your beginnings over in England. Very huge to certain groups.

Alex: Oh wow. That’s super humbling, that’s more than any of us have ever expected when we started playing music.

Jeremy: When we started the band, I don’t think we ever thought about going outside of the country, that wasn’t even in my mind. So, it’s very cool to be here and be accepted very kindly here.

Alex: It means so much when you know you’ve been a part of peoples lives for so long on a personal level, it’s such an incredible thing.

Your latest album Sunnyland is due out in just over a week, what can people expect from it?

Jeremy: I think musically it has a little bit of everything. We realised with Black Lines we moved away a little too far from what our fans were expecting so we tried to come back a little bit and come back to the normal roots of MAYDAY PARADE but keep the creativity that we have with Black Lines. I think you’ll find a lot of songs that fit in every different MAYDAY PARADE album, something for everyone.

Was it a conscious decision to try make it a more even balance this time?

Alex: I think it just kind of came out like that, subconsciously we all recognise that we experimented with Black Lines and that combined with the fact we had just done the A Lesson in Romantics tour it was in the back of everyone’s mind that we’d just been playing all these songs, we all recognised that it was the most successful album for us. There was never a conscious decision or a verbal ‘lets make an album like this’, it just happened organically, it’s pretty standard for MAYDAY PARADE.

Do you think it was a maturity thing as well?

Jeremy: Definitely, that’s definitely a part of it. If you repeat the same album like writing the same album over and over, it becomes stagnant. There’s no creativity there so you lose the integrity of the band if you just continue to do the same thing, it was natural for us to just grow and to expand upon what we’ve done in the past and to continue pushing forward with new ideas.

Do you think the label move from Fearless to Rise Records changed anything with the writing process on Sunnyland?

Alex: I don’t think so. It wasn’t like we’re on a different label, so we have to change and be a certain way, the only thing I will say is that we’re definitely more willing to hear them out and take their opinions and influence into consideration than we have in the past more than we’ve done with other labels. I think that was less on them and more on us, just being a change that could be stagnation, that was the biggest thing for sure. The spirit of experimentation still existed even in some of our songs that come out more conservative and standard MAYDAY. Being able to open up is us kind of experimenting with that.

Is stagnation something you are genuinely worried about as a band?

Alex: Yeah, I think after our fourth album we saw that we were repeating.

Jeremy: Not Monsters In The Closet but after that, this was just a reiteration of Monsters, we needed to expand and push ourselves and not just what people are expecting of a MAYDAY PARADE album, we need to do something different as people as musicians as a band.

Alex: We want to make it special to us as well.

You been getting good responses from singles you’ve released so far?

Alex: I think so it’s hard to tell, I always think that it takes a year where the chips lie and where everything sits. It’s easy to get caught up on a specific website, if I got hung up on looking everyone’s opinions and comments on YouTube then I would feel one way and completely different if I’d have only read it on Reddit. Our ways of seeing people’s reactions is limited. Last night we played Piece of Your Heart in Newcastle and I was shocked that people were really into it which doesn’t usually happen when we play new songs, usually it’s met with blank stares.

Are you going to try show off some new material tonight?

Jeremy: I think so, we’ll probably play a couple and see how they go. We have 40 minutes, so we need to find out what songs make the most sense to play. We haven’t decided the set list yet, but we are pretty proud of the record though, so we want to show off that.

Isn’t that nerve-wracking, not having thought of a set list yet?

Jeremy: No, we haven’t really played in six months because we’ve been doing the record and we had time off. Yesterday was the first show we did in six months and it was kind of our practice show. Today we’re probably going to play a lot of the same songs, I’m more nervous that we’re going to have a quibble that ends up breaking on stage and something goes terribly wrong. Fingers crossed.

What’s coming up from you guys after the album release?

Alex: We’re doing Warped Tour in the States which will occupy most of the summer and then after that we’re talking about doing something in the Fall and after that coming back to the UK after that at some point. It’s more starting up the cycle again and getting going with that, promote the album and get back on the road and play for our fans.

This is the last Warped Tour this year, are you feeling sad about that? In the States it’s a huge festival.

Alex: Yeah, but unfortunately, I think it lost some of its pre-eminence but it’s not as big as it was in 2005 but it’s still a staple for the emo/screamo scene in the US. It is sad and the end of an era, I think it’ll be more of a celebration of it than a funeral. I keep thinking about the last day, the last band that will go on and the last song, it’s going to be a very emotional night.

Sunnyland is out now via Rise Records.

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