Interview: Mayday Parade | Slam Dunk Festival 2021
Just before their outstanding set at Slam Dunk 2021, we caught up with Mayday Parade’s Derek Sanders and Jeremy Lenzo to discuss new music, new tours and their return to the United Kingdom.
You’re in the UK again, you’re back to performing. How does it feel to be performing in the UK once again?
D: This is our first show [in the UK] since the fall of 2019, so almost two years now. It’s pretty wild to be here, and Slam Dunk is such a cool festival.
J: It feels good to be back!
Is there anything you miss about UK festivals in particular, compared to festivals in the US and around the world?
D: That’s tough to say… I think maybe the crowds are a bit more fun. People are less timid; even if they don’t know your band, they’ll go and jump around and have a good time regardless. The crowds get pretty rowdy.
So would you say the UK is more excited about new music or bands they don’t know that well?
D: Yeah, and I love the energy.
Throughout 2020, you were giving us some new music including the recent single ‘Bad At Love’. During the pandemic, being stuck at home and not being able to be around each other, what kept you motivated in terms of making music and releasing new songs?
J: We just love making music, that’s why we started being in a band. Even if we can’t be together, we can make music at home individually and then get together, especially during the pandemic. We get together and work on stuff here and there.
Were there many Zoom meetings involved in the process?
J: Oh yeah, a lot of Zoom meetings and phone calls.
D: We were pretty limited with what we can do, but we can still write music and write songs. At first it was weird, and in the first few months I wasn’t very motivated, then eventually I thought “okay this isn’t going away anytime soon” and settled into it.
‘Bad At Love’ has been positively received, and tells a story in its lyrics and its video. What was the inspiration behind the story?
J: We tried to do something a little more pop than we usually do - it’s worth doing every now and again, just to see what happens. We worked with a lady named Katherine [White] from California. She’s the one who wrote the story for the video, and she directed the music video. We worked with her and the music video was a few concepts she had that we tweaked a little bit, but she came up with the overall concept.
Compared to singles released earlier on during the pandemic, such as ‘It Is What It Is’ and ‘Lighten Up Kid’, was the process of releasing and promoting ‘Bad At Love’ easier with restrictions lifting and touring commencing again?
D: That’s hard to say... The biggest pain was not being able to play live and support the new songs, so now it’s nice we can. We’re not playing them today unfortunately, but we’re doing a tour in the States after this and we’ll be playing them. So that was difficult, but now it’s nice to know we can put out music then go out on the road and support it again.
Derek, outside of Mayday Parade, you have had a few solo appearances around the US and a few more coming up. How have you been able to balance it all and stay relaxed?
D: Especially with the last year and a half, I’ve had plenty of time to not focus on everything and that’s been nice; but I’m just happy to play music in any way, shape or form. When Mayday Parade’s at their busiest, it’s tough to find time for that stuff - so next year, for example, there won’t be as much of that - but in between on time we have off, I just love working on music.
Your last album, Sunnyland, was released back in 2018. How has recording music changed between recording Sunnyland and recording your more recent music?
J: One thing we did differently was split up the recording process. Normally we record a large batch of songs, but over the pandemic we’ve been recording a few songs this month then go away then come back and record a few songs. That’s how we’ve been approaching it lately and it’s nice because you don’t have to worry about learning on a large scale, just three or four songs at a time.
Do you think that’s something you’ll bring on for future work?
D: It’s hard to say, I can see it going either way. I like the idea of going in more often and continuing to record music, but it’s also nice to go in and wrap your head around recording an album as one body of work. I can see a little bit of both.
Are there any plans you can talk about in terms of more music or even a new album
J: We can’t say a lot but there will be more music coming out soon.
D: And some announcements. Soon!
Along the same lines, what can we expect from Mayday Parade in 2022?
D: There is some special stuff happening. I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say, but it’s gonna be one of our busiest years ever! I guess it’s just making up for lost time. This year is the ten-year anniversary of our self-titled album, but with the pandemic we couldn’t do much to celebrate that, so there will be some celebrations next year. This, along with new music and a lot of touring.
Interview by Jo Cosgrove