Whether it was the first time we heard “Until the Day I Die” in our JNCO shorts at Warped Tour, drugstore eyeliner working down our faces, or the thousandth time we’re listening to it 20 years later, there’s no denying the energy of Story of the Year’s Page Avenue. Sure, there’s the nostalgia issue, the comforting reminisce of clicking by way of tracks on an early iPod, and rush of serotonin when the first hook would hit, Dan Marsala’s crooning vocals swiftly validating the swarm of exhaustive feelings all of us certainly felt at the moment, for no matter cause.
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But apart from the throwback of all of it, the album’s platinum standing has continued to show itself with its skill to face the take a look at of time. We’re all nonetheless in search of solace at the finish of the day, whether or not it’s from relationships, friendships, or we simply need to expertise that innately human catharsis that solely sure music can obtain. It’s been a 12 months replete with anniversaries, and whereas the concept that it’s been 20, 25, or 30 years since we first etched all of these emo lyrics in our brains may sound daunting, it’s turned out to be a gorgeous factor to have a good time, a possibility for followers and artists to unite once more, to acknowledge the work that we’ve all the time beloved and cherished, in addition to dive into the evolution and progress we’ve all skilled, from the pit and on the stage.
We sat down with Story of the Year to debate all issues Page Avenue, as they put together to embark on the album’s twentieth anniversary tour, their newest album, in addition to the work they’ve put in to carry onto what’s made them an enduring drive in the business.
I’ve been speaking to so much of bands about anniversaries this 12 months, it appears like greater than ever — and everybody’s having a singular expertise. For Story of the Year, what does it really feel prefer to be going again to an album 20 years later? What is it mentioning for you guys?
DAN MARSALA: It’s not likely going again to it. We’ve been doing it for 20 years off and on fairly persistently. You do not actually notice that that quantity of time passes, you are simply being a band the complete time and also you do what you do. And we love enjoying music. So if you look again and really give it some thought being 20 years, it is fairly loopy. I by no means would’ve thought that we might’ve been in a position to nonetheless have a fanbase in any respect, and even that anyone ever would’ve purchased our file in the first place. It’s very humbling and superb. You’re simply inside of this factor, and it feels completely regular and you then’re like, “Oh shit, it has been 20 years. What do we do now? Let’s just keep playing music.” Ultimately, it would not change something. It’s bizarre to look again, although.
RYAN PHILLIPS: Trite as this may sound, all we ever wished to do was play Warped Tour! That was the highest aspirations we ever had. It’s like, “Man, if one day we could just play Warped Tour and then afterwards skateboard in the parking lot with the other bands…” That’s all we ever considered. But then we moved to California, made a file with Feldmann, it went gold! All these loopy issues occurred, and if our profession would’ve ended there, it could’ve been a large success. Anything after that’s simply icing on the cake.
So wanting again at this file, taking this tour nationwide, and actually digging into these songs and revisiting it fills me with an insane quantity of gratitude for the final 20 years. And the indisputable fact that I’m at work proper now, that that is my job — speaking to you, and once we hold up, I’m going to select up my guitar and work on music… it is a fucking loopy life that we get to stay. We don’t take that with no consideration.
I like that. As an viewers member, that gratitude and pleasure from the band is actually felt and appreciated. There are positively bands for whom wanting again is tough, they usually’re actually targeted on evading that. But it’s all the time lovely to listen to from a band that regardless of how lengthy they’ve been doing it, it is nonetheless a visit. That actually transfers. What are some standout recollections you may need from making the album?
MARSALA: We are from St. Louis, Missouri. The largest reminiscence for many of us was the indisputable fact that we moved from St. Louis to Southern California collectively, eight folks dwelling in a single little home. We had been like, “All right, we’re going to move here, and we’re going to get signed, and we’re going to make this happen.” We had this loopy mindset. There was no manner we had been going to not succeed on this. Surprisingly, it truly labored.
We ended up hooking up with John Feldmann from Goldfinger, and he was additionally A&R from Maverick Records. He took us to Maverick, obtained us signed to Maverick, produced the file, and helped us in tens of millions of alternative ways. Most of my nice recollections are simply of that point — being younger, transferring to California, committing the whole lot we needed to being in a band, and the loopy whirlwind of these couple years when all of that occurred, making the file after which going on tour. There are 1,000,000 superb recollections packed in there, clearly. But that is the tough overview of how that point was for me.
PHILLIPS: I take into consideration how a lot energy there may be in being actually naive and fucking silly. We have children now, mortgages, medical insurance, actual grownup shit, and it is more durable to take dangers and take pictures and put all of it on the line. The extra you must lose and the extra conscious you’re what you’re up in opposition to, being simply sufficiently old to purchase beer, with $200 in your checking account, wanting to maneuver throughout the nation to California and attempt to make it in an business the place the odds are actually one in 10 million. We did not know that. We did not know the odds. We did not understand how laborious it could be.
MARSALA: [We] may’ve, however we did not care in any respect. That’s what I’m saying. We had been simply informed, however we could not course of that.
PHILLIPS: We had been too naive. And there’s a lot energy in simply youthful naivety. There’s that window of time the place an individual takes these dangers. So that is the factor I bear in mind most about that point is simply once I assume again, it is like, “Man, we just really didn’t know how hard it would be, the odds or anything.” We similar to, “Oh, we’ll do it.” And all of it labored out. But perhaps if it could’ve been 4 years later, we would not have taken these possibilities. It’d be like, “No, I can’t go. I have a job.”
MARSALA: And that power is captured in the songs and one thing we will not recreate ever, as a result of that was a sure time in our lives. That’s the magic to us of that file nonetheless.
That truly leads into my subsequent query. In phrases of the lyrics and emotions in that album — what nonetheless feels on the nostril for you, and what has shifted in your perspective?
MARSALA: Most of the lyrics are principally what we had been simply saying. It’s all simply the experiences of these couple years and simply being a pal group that was experiencing all this loopy stuff collectively for the first time. It’s largely only a lot of private songs about our lives at the time, which we obtained away from on later data, and realized that it would not join as a lot as that sincere, private stuff did on the first file. It was relationships, friendships, life classes — no matter was occurring to us at the time, but it surely by no means actually adjustments. That form of stuff all the time works. That’s what folks determine with and join with, actual conditions and honesty. But it was very easy at the moment as a result of there was simply a lot occurring.
PHILLIPS: For me, I take into consideration a track like “Until the Day I Die.” Those lyrics are very timeless, and virtually ring as true now as they did again then. So much of folks over the years have thought it is a love track between two folks, but it surely’s actually a love letter to our band — about genuine, actual friendship. After these loopy final 20 years, we have been by way of excessive ups, excessive lows, and in every single place in the center — however the core of this band are these lyrics, nonetheless as impactful now as 20 years in the past. We’re all the similar folks. We all nonetheless stay in St. Louis. More than something, we nonetheless need to make this our full-time job and be a full-time band.
I wished to speak about the tour, as properly. We mentioned the lyrics and the way they resonate with you then versus now, however I’m curious to listen to about what it felt like enjoying exhibits and touring when the album got here out in comparison with the tour you are about to go on.
MARSALA: Well, my Chemical Romance will not be on this tour, sadly. [Laughs.] The very first tour we did once we completed the file, we left John Feldmann’s home and drove throughout the complete nation from California. We began in Rhode Island and went out with the Used, Thrice, and My Chemical Romance. We had been opening, and no one knew who any of us had been apart from the Used as a result of they had been the solely band that had a file out that individuals had been listening to. So that was our first Page Avenue expertise, earlier than the file was out. Now, we’re in all probability so much higher stay, and our sleep schedules are totally different. But it in all probability gained’t be that totally different. You nonetheless go onstage, and also you attempt to put as a lot power into it and have as a lot enjoyable and hope that it is a good time for everyone.
PHILLIPS: It is humorous how a lot outdoors of the present is totally different. I used to do an entire tour with one pair of pants. Sometimes I might brush my tooth, shit like that. Now I’ve to have a smoothie maker so I can have inexperienced smoothies and shit. You can scent Bengay on the bus, and individuals are popping ibuprofen. It’s loopy humorous how a lot we did not want again in the day. As lengthy as there was beer and a few chips in the dressing room and one pair of pants, we had been good. Now it is like, “Man, I got to hit my protein quota of the day. I hope there’s Wi-Fi for my white noise machine.”
I’m certain it may be a distinct viewers expertise as properly. Back on that first tour, they didn’t know the album, and now, everybody’s certain to know all the phrases. For followers, album play exhibits are actually lovely. There’s one thing uniquely particular about going by way of it track by track. It’s transportative.
MARSALA: Yeah, and that is going to be one of the first instances that we have toured and performed each track in its entirety. It gained’t be so as, although. We’re going to create a setlist round the complete album as a result of our two largest songs on the file are second and third off the file. But we can be enjoying each track. And we’ll in all probability attempt to throw some new songs in there as properly and perhaps a pair in between.
PHILLIPS: We simply did a Page Avenue present it a pair of weeks in the past. Yellowcard did Ocean Avenue, [and] we did Page Avenue. And you mentioned you thought these exhibits had been lovely. I believe that is as a result of there’s a lot nostalgia wrapped up in these albums. That first album, folks grew up with it, and we grew up with it. So it is not solely listening to the songs — everybody’s basking on this collective nostalgia. And that to me is one other degree of power for these varieties of exhibits. We really feel it, too. It’s actually cool for us, too.
I can not wait to see it. And in the midst of this anniversary second, you even have some new work that’s come out price celebrating!
MARSALA: Yeah, we even have a brand new file out known as Tear Me to Pieces that we’re tremendous enthusiastic about, and it simply occurs to fall on the similar 12 months as our twentieth anniversary, so all of it obtained lumped in collectively. It’s positively obtained the similar power and superior feeling as our previous stuff combined in with some badass new stuff. So if folks have not heard that, test it out for certain.
What do you are feeling has modified in phrases of the sound between these two albums? What do you assume that has modified, and what’s inherently the band that has stayed?
PHILLIPS: For some albums, we tried to go slightly political, in phrases of the lyrics and the total messaging from the band. We went outdoors of what folks affiliate with Story of the Year, testing boundaries. For this file, we labored with a extremely nice producer and targeted on rediscovering who we’re and what made us click on in the first place — what labored. He managed to do this in a extremely natural, unforced manner.
MARSALA: No pesticides on a brand new file.
PHILLIPS: Not one. This file was all about getting again to that sort of ethos, and it wound up being actually, actually enlightening for us to work with somebody who was like, “Hey, SOTY wouldn’t do that chord. The Story of the Year I grew up would do this chord!” It was actually enlightening. I used to be like, “Oh shit, this dude’s right.” And it was very easy to faucet again into what folks gravitated in the direction of us in the first place. We’re getting again to the authentic recipe.
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