Originally published in The UWM Post by Madison Goldbeck
I did not anticipate the evening to be as sunny and warm as it had. I hopped off the bus on Wisconsin Avenue, virtually in front of the striking tan building known as The Rave/Eagles Club. Crossing the street, I called the number that connected me to Mayday Parade’s tour manager.
I arrived earlier than expected and had to wait for the band to get done with a meet and greet. After that, it was a constant rush. Once the tour manager met me in the lobby, I was given my press pass and concert ticket and hurried into the room where the concert would begin in an hour, past security, and through curtains backstage to where artists hangout before their shows.
Immediately, I felt like the character William Miller in the 2000 film “Almost Famous.” I took in the dim atmosphere of the different colored lights, a variety of funky patterns, black couches, and lots of cloth curtains (even on the ceiling). Before getting a chance to respire, Jeremy Lenzo was already seated at a table looking at me. He’s the bass guitarist in Mayday Parade, also known by the nickname “Cabbage.” With almost two million likes on their Facebook page, their most recent album Black Lines debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Rock Albums Chart and #1 on the Alternative Albums Chart.
The band manager let us be and it was just us and the comforting sound of guitar tuning in the background. Lenzo greeted me with a handshake and a cheerful smile. I took a seat, fumbling with my recorder. As I set up, he asked me if I was from the area and what the interview was for, making me feel at ease. By the end of our interview, I felt silly for feeling anxious. Interviewing a rock star like Lenzo flowed as laidback as a conversation with your best friend.
So you guys just got here from Grand Rapids, welcome to Milwaukee. You’re not even a month into this tour yet, but how have your shows been?
Shows have been really good and a lot of fun. This tour has been a lot better than we expected, but really good shows. Even though this tour feels like it just started, we are at this middle point where it’s also just ending at the same time too. We’ve toured with The Maine a few times and they’re awesome people with really good music as well. It’s a great tour to be on because they’re a part of it and we’ve known each other for about as long as the bands been together.
So you like touring with The Maine?
Yeah we love touring with those guys, they are awesome.
Have you ever performed in Milwaukee before?
Yes. I’m not sure how many times. This venue in particular, we before in our old band, we bought a bunch of tickets to sell in order to play at this venue. In order to play the show, they gave you a bunch of tickets and they say “you have to sell these tickets in order to play”. Well, we were from Florida and we just wanted to play a show with The Starting Line, who was playing here. So, we came up and Derek got sick the day we got here and we didn’t sell any of the tickets. We were trying to sell them outside the venue and we never did play the show but that was the fire time.
But you have performed here at The Rave prior to tonight?
Yes. So that was the first time. That was before we were even Mayday Parade. But, with this band we’ve played here probably six or seven times over the past ten years.
Your next show is in South Dakota tomorrow, but will you have any free time to do anything but perform in Milwaukee? Or is it just perform and hit the road?
Well, you have a couple hours in the morning before sound check to make sure our gear is all working and that usually takes place around 2:30pm so we have until we get to the venue which is normally like 11 a.m./12 p.m., so we have a couple hours maybe to go and explore the city. So, you don’t really have too much time to see everything.
Have you ever ended up exploring Milwaukee before?
No, not really, just whatever is around this area which isn’t too much. It would be nice though.
Okay, what are you excited about for this tour? Specifically for your fans to see.
Well, we’re playing a lot of songs off the new record. I always like doing that because it is fresh for us and it feels good playing stuff you’ve never played before. I hope the fans like that too, but we’re also playing a lot of songs off our older records that we haven’t played a lot before. It’s like stuff people normally don’t hear. So, if you’re a fan of older records, but we never played the song you’re looking for, maybe you’ll hear it on this tour.
Does it get repetitive playing the same songs?
It does. That’s why it’s nice to play new stuff because it’s fresher and you haven’t been playing it forever. One of the songs we play on this tour is “Three Cheers for Five Years” and we wrote that song pretty much the day we started the band ten years ago. This is like the first song we ever wrote and we wrote it on like the second day of band practice and we’ve been playing that song for ten years pretty much on every tour. I’m so over that song because we’ve played it so many times.
How about a favorite song to perform?
I like the song “When You See My Friends” and it is off our self-titled record. It’s fun to perform.
Photo courtesy of Tom Falcone
So you’re latest album “Black Lines” has been out since October. How have you taken the reception it’s received?
Good. With every album there’s always good and bad reviews and a lot of people like it and a lot of people don’t like it. It doesn’t really bother me. I haven’t noticed a drop in attendance at shows. It still seems like the same amount of people that come out and they do either way. This album is a little different than our previous albums. We’re trying to make it a little more rock and a little less pop rock and more 90s rock. When you do something like that, it’s to be expected that there will be a downfall in CD sells because it is different. So we’ve noticed that, but it hasn’t really bothered me.
My next question you’ve covered, but “Black Lines” has been described as emo, emo-pop, pop-punk, and rock. Does this sum it up for you or how would you put it correspondingly?
That sums it up pretty much. I would say it’s more rock than emo. I don’t mind if it’s classified as that, it doesn’t bother me. I think it’s fine, it fits. Our first couple albums were definitely more pop-rock than our later stuff and you kind of fall into whatever category people put you as.
Like you said, this album is different than your others. How exactly would you say it is different than your other four albums?
We tried to model it more after what we grew up listening to, which was 90s rock. We can write pop-rock songs all day, that type of stuff is stuff we’ve been doing forever. We wanted to broaden what we do and get out of our comfort zones. So 90s rock is what we really love and we wanted to make a record like that. We knew it would push us to try out of that comfort zone because it is different than what we normally write.
Did you inspire from any 90s bands?
Yeah. We inspired from Bush and Stone Temple Pilots and Third Eye Blind.
That’s amazing. So you’ve come a remarkable way since 2005 with an endlessly growing fan base. How would you describe this evolution of fans since you’ve first began?
Our fans, I feel like, are the type of fans that stick around for a long time. They’re very dedicated. We don’t have any radio success or anything like that, so I feel like our fans think of us as their sort of secret band that nobody knows about it and it’s the band only they know. They stick around, they come out to the shows, and we’ve seen a lot of the same people. Every tour we do, we know people by names that we met multiple times. They’re really supportive of our music especially when we change style.
So you created something that when radio is gone, your fans will still be around.
They just enjoy what we do but they formed themselves.
Photo courtesy of Sarah Smolenski
Just recently, it was announced you’re returning for the 2016 Vans Warped Tour. This has received a lot of responses from fans. Is there anything else fans can anticipate?
We’re just going to try to play songs that are the most upbeat and energetic and get people moving. I don’t know what they can expect what we can do differently. When you perform Warped Tour you only have 30 minutes to play. There isn’t a lot of time to set things up and they’re very strict on what you can and can’t do, but I think they should just come expected knowing what they already know, the energetic ones, and just have a good time and sing along with us. You gotta go. You’ll probably only go once. It’s one of those things that it’s like so hot and you spend the whole day outside. That’s just me personally because I’m getting older now that I can’t do that every day.
That’s true! So you guys are known for being sort of like mentors and taking smaller “up and coming” bands under your wing. What advice can you give to bands that are trying to make it?
You have to work for it. Nothing is going to be handed to you. You can’t expect to write songs and automatically you’re going to have success just because you have good songs. You have to go out there and show the labels you’re willing to tour and be on the road and that you actually can be on the road. A lot of bands, once they actually get on the road, they realize they can’t do it. They get home sick or stressed out because of the surroundings. You have to prove that you can do that to a label. That is very important. You have to really focus on what your band does well and really go that direction. You might want to write pop-rock music, you might not be good at it, you might be good at writing another type of music. You just have to realize what you do good, monopolize on that, and figure out what you’re not doing well and how can you make that better. That is some general advice you can give anyone. Just show those labels you’re willing to go out there and do what it takes. They don’t want to sign someone who is going to break up in a year.
That’s true and you guys have been together for ten years! That’s crazy!
Jeremy said: Mhm and we all went to high school together. We’ve all known each other. Brooks and Derek started playing together in bands when they were in 8th grade. We’ve been together for a long time. That’s another important thing, you have to be friends with who you’re playing with. If it’s just a business and you’re like, “Okay well this dude is pissing me off, screw that dude” then your band probably won’t see long term success because you’ll end up breaking up because you’re fighting all the time.
That’s great advice. Do you have anything you’d like to add before we wrap?
If you’ve never seen us play, try to come out and see us. We try to make it an enjoyable environment for anybody, no matter what type of music you like.
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