“When we went into making [‘Happiness Is’], we all knew it was our best stuff. If people don’t like it, that kinda sucks, but this is what we do, and you can only do so much.” He says of the new album. “If people like it, then that makes me happy. The most popular song off our last album was ‘Make Damn Sure’, and then when we put out our first song from this album, ‘Flicker Fade’, playing it live kids were singing it and going crazy, so it was definitely the best reception we’ve had to a song since ‘Make Damn Sure’.”
Taking Back Sunday are certainly no strangers to Australia. The band have toured the country regularly over the course of their career, including as part of the 2010 Soundwave Festival line-up. “That’s such a different thing,” O’Connell explains. “doing a festival is a lot of fun, but I suppose I do prefer the smaller shows, it’s your crowd.”
“Our manager asked if we’d like to do a co-headliner with The Used and we said ‘yeah!’ We’ll keep coming back as long as people keep coming to shows.”
You can catch Taking Back Sunday with The Used at HQ Complex, August 21st 2014.
Tickets are on sale now.
Interview by Sofie Marsden