Mayday Parade is back in the UK. New album 'Monsters In The Closet' came out last year and the five-piece has been riding a wave of success since then. The bands' fourth album in their career has taken things to the next level. The band were playing to a sold out Leeds Cockpit and we couldn't wait to catch up with them.
We caught up with front-man Derek Sanders to chat about and their huge fanbase, working on the new record and their Topman obsession...
Heya guys! So
you’re back in the UK- how’s the tour been going so far? Is it your first tour
of 2014?
It’s been incredible so far, the tour
has been flying by. Every show has been a blast and we’re with amazing bands
and people. This is the first tour of the year it’s been great to kick things
off with such a solid tour.
Is it easy to
get back into the swing of things after the Christmas break or did you all eat
a few too many mince pies?
[Laughing] It’s always nice to have
some time at home, especially around the holidays. We enjoyed our time off and
we were ready to get back to work. It’s a balance.
We’re in
February now; how are the New Year’s resolutions going?
I don’t have any! I never make any, I
think it’s sort of a silly concept. If you wanna make a change in your life you
have to just make it, but I suppose if it helps some people then that’s cool.
You’ve played
over in the UK and Europe lots of times now- is it your second home?
It has sort of become that, it’s the place we’ve been to the most other than
the US. It’s cool to play places that we’ve been a bunch of times and now what
to expect. It doesn’t feel as foreign as the first time you go somewhere.
We hear you
like the odd UK clubnight too- at Leeds Cockpit right? Oh and Topman?
We love all of that. I’m looking forward to the club night tonight at the
cockpit, we’ve had many good times right here. The after parties in the UK are
always pretty crazy.
So your
fourth album ‘Monsters In The Closet’ has been out since October. Is it nice
properly seeing the fans response now first hand on tour?
It seems like
this album that you’ve come into your own- would you say it’s the truest to
yourselves?
I think so. We’ve just learned a lot
along the way and at this point we feel like we have a pretty good grasp of our
sound and how we operate best. Writing together has become a very natural,
stress-free experience.
You worked
with Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount on it; you’ve worked with them before so I
guess that helps the process too right?
It certainly helps being with
people as creative and talented as them. They’re so much fun to work
with.
Being a band
for 8 years now I guess you must have seen bands come and go and how at times
the scene is quite fickle and fast moving. You have a huge fanbase which is still
increasing; I guess that is testament to your music which is reflected in the
chart position of the latest album?
I guess so, we’re very aware of how
things could start to plateau or drop off for us at anytime, but we haven’t
seen signs of it yet. We’re happy to keep moving forward.
The same way
that you looked up to bands for inspiration when you were first starting I
guess kids are looking up to you guys now as their musical inspiration. Is that
quite nice? And nice getting out on the road meeting these kids?
t’s an incredible feeling and very
humbling. We try to go out after every show and meet fans so they know how much
we appreciate their support.
What else
looking to achieve and what are your plans for 2014?
We just want to keep things going the way
they’ve been going. It’s been a blast so far, we’ve done some incredible things
in the last 8 years and we just hope we can keep it up. Musically we want to
keep challenging ourselves and growing our sound with each album and just have
fun along the way.http://maydayparade.com/
