Photo by Jordan Knight
Mayday Parade
3/16/22
Bogart’s, 2621 Vine St, Cincinnati, OH
6pm doors, 7pm show, Buy Tickets
Buy the brand new album “What It Means To Fall Apart”
In 2006, just a year after their formation, Mayday Parade joined their first Vans Warped
Tour. Unofficially, that is. “We weren’t a part of the tour,” Derek Sanders, frontman of
the Tallahassee, Florida-founded pop-punk band, clarifies. “We were just there in our
van showing up every day to sell CDs in the parking lot. That’s kind of how we kick-
started the band.”
Since then, a lot has changed for Sanders, guitarist Brooks Betts, drummer Jake
Bundrick, guitarist Alex Garcia, and bassist Jeremy Lenzo. Their debut album, 2007’s A
Lesson In Romantics, was certified Gold and followed by five more successful studio
albums, 1.6 million in sales, multiple worldwide tours, and seven (official) Warped
Tours. “We just grew,” Garcia shares on the band’s evolution. “We became better
musicians, better at writing, and our music tastes have changed throughout the
decade-plus of us being together.” Some things have stayed the same, like the tenacity
that got them started in the first place and the brotherly bond that has kept them
together for all these years. Now, with their seventh studio album, What It Means to
Fall Apart, they’re proving that their dedication to emotionally aware, fan-driven music,
hasn’t changed either.
Joined by longtime collaborators, producers Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount, the band
diverged from their typical path in the studio. With no final destination in mind and
setting their sights on just writing the best songs they could, they started chipping
away at something, letting go of any attachment to whether they left the studio with a
single, an EP, or a full record. They arrived at a fully realized album, 12 contemplative
tracks written through the eyes of a band moving forward with the knowledge they
could only gain from looking back.
Their anthemic lead single, “Kids Of The Summer,” infuses nostalgic memories of their
care-free formative summers at Warped Tour into song, granting listeners and
themselves the opportunity to “remember and embrace that feeling and carry it into the
future,” Bundrick shares.
The band takes a slower pace in tracks like “Angels Die Too,” an emotional tribute to
friends who’ve been lost to suicide. That thread of providing comfort can also be heard
in the pensive track, “Think of You,” and in the ballad, “One For The Rocks and One For
The Scary” a song about making the most of the time we have with the people we love.
Mayday Parade taps into the current climate, with “Golden Days” by focusing on the
restlessness of lockdown, and the necessity of hoping for better days and in “You Not
Me,” a cautionary tale of the dangers of “disposable love,” in a culture caught up in
inebriated left swipes and hookups, that often lead to self-loathing and regret.
What It Means To Fall Apart also sees the band wading in a wide range of complex
emotions, like in “If My Ghost Don’t Play, I Don’t Play,” which highlights feelings of
being ostracised and the relief of finding connection, or “Heaven,” with its simple yet
profound repetition of “It feels like heaven when you put me through hell.” The slow-
burning track, “I Can’t Do This Anymore,” takes a lyrical dive into the mental struggles
of relationships and the thin line between walking away or deciding to stay. There are
also acutely aware reflective moments, like in the self-confrontational lyrics and
cathartic bridge of “Bad At Love.” In “Sideways,” the band shares a lesson on the
nature of toxic codependency, reflecting on what Betts refers to as, “the trapped
feelings and the addiction to the relationship that keeps pulling you back even though
you know to walk away.”
Some of the album’s brightest moments bring to mind the electric energy of the band’s
live shows, songs like “Notice,” a track dedicated to the fans Mayday Parade has met
throughout the years, people that continue to inspire them to move forward.
The band is looking forward to sharing these songs in venues around the world, noting
that it’s not just about creating music for them, but how that music connects them with
their fans and each other. “We all live in different states and have separate lives with
different things going on,” Lenzo shares, “But just being able to get back together and
play music is always a highlight.” Sanders mirrors that sentiment as well, sharing that
the spark that started Mayday Parade still shines bright, “Even after all this time and
plenty of other ways it could have gone or plenty of other things that we could be doing
with our lives, we’re lucky to be able to do this.”
