Mayday Parade are set to be one of the highlights of Soundwave 2014. We chat to Guitarist Alex Garcia before they make their way Down Under.
Your amazing latest album – 'Monsters In The Closet', was there is concept behind it?
Ah, no there wasn’t really a concept, like an overall kind of common thought behind all of the songs.
Were there any funny stories when you were recording it?
I’m trying to think of specific ones, it’s hard to pin point anything specific. I mean it’s just always a great time recording in Atlanta where we record because the two producers Zack Odom and Ted Maou are good friends of ours and the band's so it’s such a great vibe and we go to shows and just party with them and have such a good time. The actual process of recording is real easy and fun.
How do you feel your fans have received it?
So far I think it’s been really good, I think all of our fans really enjoy it. I think they see a progression with the band and think that they can relate to the songs and really enjoy it. I mean, we just toured in the States off of the new album and so many times I would hear people saying ‘Oh I’m glad you played this song from the new album’ or ‘Oh I really hope you guys play a lot of the new stuff’, but so far yeah, I have been really happy with it.
I noticed that on all previous album artwork you have a man standing with an umbrella... what’s the significance of this and why did you chose to drive away from this with your latest album?
Well actually the umbrella man still makes an appearance on the new album cover; you can kind of see his reflection in the doorknob. It’s funny because originally the umbrella man had no real significance for the band, it was just kind of a design that we really liked for ‘A Lesson In Romantics’ and we originally kind of wanted to stick with it because it felt like a good image for the band. Starting with our self-titled album we started to come up with a slight back story for this character but originally there was no story behind it.
Have you got everything out of it that you hoped you would? And how do you feel you've evolved being on your forth studio album?
Well it’s funny because at the time I definitely felt really good about everything and felt like it was going in the right direction and I think it’s just something that happens with all albums. It’s happened with the self-titled or anything else where a month after we’re done I start thinking of things that I wish that I had done or different ways we wished that we had approached things and I think that’s something that is very natural. It just makes me more excited for what we will do in the future but other than that, as far as what I enjoy that has been different, I think we were continually honing in on our sound. I think also the band were starting to be more open to taking experimental directions with things and kind of stepping out side of our comfort zone, and I think that’s a really important thing to do, and I think there’s a lot of potential within Mayday Parade to really make something a little more experimental or to step outside of the box. So I think each album is kind of like a progression of that.
I’m your regular over opinionated girl, so tell me, the song 'Girls' from your latest album, what inspired you to write it?
Well Derek actually wrote that one and it’s funny because he came to us with that song during the writing process of our second album and at the time we were working heavily with Atlantic Records and producer David Bendon and for some reason Atlantic and David Bendon didn’t really like the song. They didn’t think that it was worthy of being on the album despite the fact that we loved it. It’s funny because I’d always listened to that song, the demo of that, the one that Derek had made, you know for years up until this writing process and while we were talking about songs and going over ideas I bought up, 'well hey, what about this song that’s really good and lets take another look at it', but as far as the overall meaning for the song I think… I’m trying not to speak for Derek but it’s just a very light silly song, you know what I mean, it has no deep meaning to it.
How does it make you feel knowing you have such a huge impact on young people's lives?
Ah, it’s pretty humbling and incredible and I feel like there’s a little bit of pressure there to try and recognise that. I think that the band, you know, we’ve never really.. I think that we have just tried to be a positive influence on people and I feel like so many bands kind of, their thing is to have a really big voice on politics or social issues and while I feel that it works for a lot of bands, I think that Mayday Parade just tries to be as positive as possible with any sort of message or anything and I think that it makes any sort of pressure there a lot easier because, I mean, none of us try to get too deep with our philosophical or political views or anything like that so it’s just trying to maintain a positive message and one of hope and of love really, not to get too abstract with it. I think we just want to be a positive force on people.
Your amazing latest album – 'Monsters In The Closet', was there is concept behind it?
Ah, no there wasn’t really a concept, like an overall kind of common thought behind all of the songs.
Were there any funny stories when you were recording it?
I’m trying to think of specific ones, it’s hard to pin point anything specific. I mean it’s just always a great time recording in Atlanta where we record because the two producers Zack Odom and Ted Maou are good friends of ours and the band's so it’s such a great vibe and we go to shows and just party with them and have such a good time. The actual process of recording is real easy and fun.
How do you feel your fans have received it?
So far I think it’s been really good, I think all of our fans really enjoy it. I think they see a progression with the band and think that they can relate to the songs and really enjoy it. I mean, we just toured in the States off of the new album and so many times I would hear people saying ‘Oh I’m glad you played this song from the new album’ or ‘Oh I really hope you guys play a lot of the new stuff’, but so far yeah, I have been really happy with it.
I noticed that on all previous album artwork you have a man standing with an umbrella... what’s the significance of this and why did you chose to drive away from this with your latest album?
Well actually the umbrella man still makes an appearance on the new album cover; you can kind of see his reflection in the doorknob. It’s funny because originally the umbrella man had no real significance for the band, it was just kind of a design that we really liked for ‘A Lesson In Romantics’ and we originally kind of wanted to stick with it because it felt like a good image for the band. Starting with our self-titled album we started to come up with a slight back story for this character but originally there was no story behind it.
Have you got everything out of it that you hoped you would? And how do you feel you've evolved being on your forth studio album?
Well it’s funny because at the time I definitely felt really good about everything and felt like it was going in the right direction and I think it’s just something that happens with all albums. It’s happened with the self-titled or anything else where a month after we’re done I start thinking of things that I wish that I had done or different ways we wished that we had approached things and I think that’s something that is very natural. It just makes me more excited for what we will do in the future but other than that, as far as what I enjoy that has been different, I think we were continually honing in on our sound. I think also the band were starting to be more open to taking experimental directions with things and kind of stepping out side of our comfort zone, and I think that’s a really important thing to do, and I think there’s a lot of potential within Mayday Parade to really make something a little more experimental or to step outside of the box. So I think each album is kind of like a progression of that.
I’m your regular over opinionated girl, so tell me, the song 'Girls' from your latest album, what inspired you to write it?
Well Derek actually wrote that one and it’s funny because he came to us with that song during the writing process of our second album and at the time we were working heavily with Atlantic Records and producer David Bendon and for some reason Atlantic and David Bendon didn’t really like the song. They didn’t think that it was worthy of being on the album despite the fact that we loved it. It’s funny because I’d always listened to that song, the demo of that, the one that Derek had made, you know for years up until this writing process and while we were talking about songs and going over ideas I bought up, 'well hey, what about this song that’s really good and lets take another look at it', but as far as the overall meaning for the song I think… I’m trying not to speak for Derek but it’s just a very light silly song, you know what I mean, it has no deep meaning to it.
How does it make you feel knowing you have such a huge impact on young people's lives?
Ah, it’s pretty humbling and incredible and I feel like there’s a little bit of pressure there to try and recognise that. I think that the band, you know, we’ve never really.. I think that we have just tried to be a positive influence on people and I feel like so many bands kind of, their thing is to have a really big voice on politics or social issues and while I feel that it works for a lot of bands, I think that Mayday Parade just tries to be as positive as possible with any sort of message or anything and I think that it makes any sort of pressure there a lot easier because, I mean, none of us try to get too deep with our philosophical or political views or anything like that so it’s just trying to maintain a positive message and one of hope and of love really, not to get too abstract with it. I think we just want to be a positive force on people.
What’s one inspiring thing you would like to say to your fans?
Just to be yourself and to live a positive life. I’ve come to realize the older I get that my interpretation of the world is really… it can be good, it can be a positive thing or it can be negative, I can easily be a negative person and hate or dislike certain things but I feel that my quality of life would go down with that attitude. I think if I maintain a positive attitude and focus on positive things I’ll live a more positive, happy life because I think that’s the important thing.
What’s the earliest memory you have from starting Mayday Parade and what were your thoughts back then?
Well for me where I was at I wanted to be a part of something that was serious, I wanted to be in a band that was very serious, that the goal was to tour and to really, really make a career out of it and I remember thinking that when we first started the band, the first couple of songs that we worked on and the first moments of it I remember thinking 'this is my best chance and best opportunity', I felt very confident, confident enough to drop out of college and quit my job. I felt very sure and it’s funny because back then I don’t think I envisioned exactly what the seven or eight years would be but I knew, I felt really, really good about it. If I was going to do this, if I was going to be in a band and have a career in music, Mayday Parade would be my best opportunity and my best vessel for that.
What’s one thing you would like to do in your career that you're yet to do?
Well a really basic one that I think that the band has always wanted to do is just to continually take steps up to progress and I think that, I mean I can think of venues in the world that I would love the play at some point. I’d love to play Madison Square Garden in New York or the O2 Arena in London, places like that. I think that those are my goals but I think… we just had an experience recording a song live, live as a band, instead of each instrument on it’s own we recorded it as a band together and that was a really, really great experience. I think personally I’d like to experiment with that some more and really see how that plays with the band.
Tell me what big things are to come from Mayday Parade? What are 2014’s plans?
I think that it’s just going to be a lot of heavy touring, when we will be over in Australia we will come from Europe and England and right after Soundwave we will be going to South East Asia and we are talking about doing some more international stuff and then we just announced that we are doing Warped Tour in the United States over the summer and I’m sure that we will be doing something in the Fall. Who knows where, we haven’t gotten that far yet. I think 2014 will just be pretty much touring.
Speaking of tours, I heard you guys always order two avocados on your rider? Why on earth is this?
Yeah and that sums up the band so much, for some reason at some point and time we thought, 'hey we would like avocados' and I can’t remember why… I couldn’t even tell you why. For some reason we have just never changed it, we have just forgotten about it, that’s so typical, it’s something that we notice and go, 'hey that’s weird, why is that happening?' and then we just kind of forget about it and don’t really care *laughs*. Now it’s become kind of like and inside joke and I don’t know why we haven’t changed that yet but for some reason we haven’t.
And on that note what’s a weird fact about the band besides the avocados *laughs*?
I’ll say this, another thing that we get on our rider, actually another kind of useless thing is we’d get this baguette and that was another thing that well… no one ever touched it, if anything we would just use it to beat each other up with and get in baguette fights but that’s about it.
What’s one important thing that you have learnt in your music career?
I think to really trust your own voice and to be confident and don’t take crap from anybody. If you feel confident in it, because ultimately for us it’s our vision, it’s our music, it’s our name that’s on the album or being represented so no one else really has as much invested in it as the members do. So I think that’s the biggest thing that I think I and everybody else has learnt.
Interview by Shannen Murphy
Just to be yourself and to live a positive life. I’ve come to realize the older I get that my interpretation of the world is really… it can be good, it can be a positive thing or it can be negative, I can easily be a negative person and hate or dislike certain things but I feel that my quality of life would go down with that attitude. I think if I maintain a positive attitude and focus on positive things I’ll live a more positive, happy life because I think that’s the important thing.
What’s the earliest memory you have from starting Mayday Parade and what were your thoughts back then?
Well for me where I was at I wanted to be a part of something that was serious, I wanted to be in a band that was very serious, that the goal was to tour and to really, really make a career out of it and I remember thinking that when we first started the band, the first couple of songs that we worked on and the first moments of it I remember thinking 'this is my best chance and best opportunity', I felt very confident, confident enough to drop out of college and quit my job. I felt very sure and it’s funny because back then I don’t think I envisioned exactly what the seven or eight years would be but I knew, I felt really, really good about it. If I was going to do this, if I was going to be in a band and have a career in music, Mayday Parade would be my best opportunity and my best vessel for that.
What’s one thing you would like to do in your career that you're yet to do?
Well a really basic one that I think that the band has always wanted to do is just to continually take steps up to progress and I think that, I mean I can think of venues in the world that I would love the play at some point. I’d love to play Madison Square Garden in New York or the O2 Arena in London, places like that. I think that those are my goals but I think… we just had an experience recording a song live, live as a band, instead of each instrument on it’s own we recorded it as a band together and that was a really, really great experience. I think personally I’d like to experiment with that some more and really see how that plays with the band.
Tell me what big things are to come from Mayday Parade? What are 2014’s plans?
I think that it’s just going to be a lot of heavy touring, when we will be over in Australia we will come from Europe and England and right after Soundwave we will be going to South East Asia and we are talking about doing some more international stuff and then we just announced that we are doing Warped Tour in the United States over the summer and I’m sure that we will be doing something in the Fall. Who knows where, we haven’t gotten that far yet. I think 2014 will just be pretty much touring.
Speaking of tours, I heard you guys always order two avocados on your rider? Why on earth is this?
Yeah and that sums up the band so much, for some reason at some point and time we thought, 'hey we would like avocados' and I can’t remember why… I couldn’t even tell you why. For some reason we have just never changed it, we have just forgotten about it, that’s so typical, it’s something that we notice and go, 'hey that’s weird, why is that happening?' and then we just kind of forget about it and don’t really care *laughs*. Now it’s become kind of like and inside joke and I don’t know why we haven’t changed that yet but for some reason we haven’t.
And on that note what’s a weird fact about the band besides the avocados *laughs*?
I’ll say this, another thing that we get on our rider, actually another kind of useless thing is we’d get this baguette and that was another thing that well… no one ever touched it, if anything we would just use it to beat each other up with and get in baguette fights but that’s about it.
What’s one important thing that you have learnt in your music career?
I think to really trust your own voice and to be confident and don’t take crap from anybody. If you feel confident in it, because ultimately for us it’s our vision, it’s our music, it’s our name that’s on the album or being represented so no one else really has as much invested in it as the members do. So I think that’s the biggest thing that I think I and everybody else has learnt.
Interview by Shannen Murphy