#i want whatever the decaydance records bands had

[fuck-showers-in-general]

d. do you want to tell us about the history of panic at the disco. i feel like you want to do that.

YES I DO (small unreality cw for a few of the jokes i make in this)

so back in like 2005. this emo boy from suburban nevada named ryan ross and his childhood friend slash the only drummer he knew (spencer smith) decided to start a band together called pet salamander. they also got this other guy named brent wilson to play keyboard but brent is a bitch and they kicked him out after the first album so this is the first and last time you will hear me mention him. ryan was singing, playing guitar, and writing music, which was a lot of work for a depressed teenager in his first band ever, so they ended up trying to find someone else to either play guitar or sing, and end up putting out an ad in some newspaper or something. up turns this kid named brendon urie! he can do both. they end up just having him sing though, because ryan still wants to play guitar. it was also some time around this that they realized pet salamander was a stupid ass band name, so they changed it to panic! at the disco. and thus the most band of all time was born.

ryan, pretty much by himself, writes an album called a fever you can't sweat out, which takes heavy inspiration from chuck palahnuik (im totally spelling his name wrong but idc), moulin rouge, and ryan's own childhood living just outside las vegas. it toes the line between pop punk and cabaret goth, or more accurately pirouettes along the tightrope between them. it is a picturesque score of scandals, sins (not tragedies), classic literature, dark circus couture, and a troubled childhood. it still genuinely astounds me that this album was made by a bunch of teenagers. it is an absolute fucking masterpiece. panic! records a few demos, and then gets the bright idea that "hey, ryan's a huge fan of fall out boy, right? that pop punk band from chicago that's really popular right now? like, he's super obsessed with pete wentz's writing. and pete is really active on social media. what if we shot him a few demos?"

and what does peter lewis kingston wentz the motherfucking third, known lacker of common sense, do?

he makes an entire fucking record label just to sign panic!.

ma'am what.

pete decides to start decaydance records, a sublabel of fueled by ramen, and signs a bunch of his friends' bands, along with these random kids from nevada, because he thinks they have potential or whatever. panic! fully records afycso, and releases it on september 27th, 2005. it becomes a smash hit near immediately, and i write sins not tragedies remains to this day a staple of 2000's emo hits. and what, logically, do they do after this? well, first, they go on the nothing rhymes with circus tour, which i would have absolutely killed to get tickets to had i been, like, alive at the time. but after that they, of course, get this guy named jon walker to join the band as a bassist, take the exclamation point out of their name and retreat into the mountains to hotbox a cabin and write a classic rock album. of course. perfectly logical next move. ...look, they swore to shake it up and we swore to listen. this is on us.

some time in mid to late 2006, panic emerges from the mountains with an album called cricket and clover. after recording demos for pretty much the whole album, they realize, oh, we totally cannot release this. so they rework it into an album called pretty. odd., which is an absolute masterpiece. i don't understand why people don't like it. it's so fucking good. if pretty. odd. has 10000 fans i am one of them if pretty. odd. has 10 fans i am one of them if pretty. odd. has 1 fan it is me if pretty. odd. has no fans i am dead. i don't have as much eloquent stuff to say about p.o. as i do with afycso. i just really like it.

[bad wilbur soot impression] it was at this point that brendon decided to become a problem.

so ryan was struggling with a lot of mental health issues right? you would expect your bandmates, especially the one you trusted to sing the lyrics you expressed and processed a lot of those mental health issues with, to not make fun of you for that, right? you would think? brendon did not think. ever. that man has not had a thought in his life and i mean that as an insult. things get so bad eventually that panic splits in half, with ryan and jon splitting off to form a band called the young veins that released one album in 2010 and then broke up, and spencer and brendon being left with the record deal but being explicitly told by ryan to not use the name panic at the disco. which, technically, they didn't. they went back to panic! at the disco. but still. dick move, man.

panic! is still touring pretty. odd. at this point (late 2009), so they need some touring musicians, because they no longer have a bassist or a guitarist. so they hire. i believe ian crawford? but don't quote me on that. as a guitarist, and, more importantly, dallon weekes as a bassist. dallon becomes a full member of the band soon after, because they flat out don't have a bassist anymore, nor a songwriter, but dallon just so happens to have written music for a (very good) band called the brobecks since before panic! at the disco was even a twinkle in poor ryan's eye. justice for ryan ross. but dallon writes an album called vices & virtues, featuring a couple of songs (mostly bonus tracks) from our good friend pwentz, a song brendon wrote about his wife (the worst song on the album honestly), and like half a song left over that ryan wrote when he was still in panic!. which makes vices & virtues the only panic! album that has had every official panic! songwriter on it. four of them. what is wrong with this band. v&v is a fucking amazing album though. i love it so much.

after that, dallon gets to work on panic!'s fourth album, too weird to live, too rare to die!. his original draft is a fucking masterpiece, but unfortunately most of it never sees the light of day (as in, basically nothing minus all the boys, a demo of far too young to die, and the original lyrics to vegas lights) because brendon comes in and ruins the whole thing and turns it into a marketable alt pop album. as he does. justice for dallon weekes. justice for anyone who has ever interacted with brendon ever actually. twtltrtd is still an amazing album, don't get me wrong. just not as good as it would have been without brendon's meddling. i may be a little bitter.

dallon, inevitably, leaves the band, because not only has brendon been fucking up his writing, he's been harassing him, harassing his wife, and on top of it all, paying him so little he had to get a second job to support his family. spencer also leaves, for unclear reasons. so brendon's got three albums left on a record deal for a band that no longer exists. what does he decide to do? pretend the band still exists and is more than just him, of course. this band and its associates have a history of logical decision making and everything they have ever done was a good idea. of course. he releases an album called death of a bachelor in 2016, which was actually pretty good. you will come to see this is a fluke.

two years later, in 2018, brendon! at the disco releases their sixth album, pray for the wicked, which had like four good songs on it total. however, something much more important happened that year. see, something had been happening in the shadows of salt lake city. someone had been plotting. playing shows. a band that didn't exist had been popping up around, with a disturbingly long name. were they here from the past? were they, perhaps, back from the future? we'll never know. all we know is that the band consisted of dallon weekes, a man* who definitely had no connection to panic! at the disco, and ryan seaman, a man who definitely had no connection to falling in reverse. both of whom had dubious connections to the brobecks. and in 2018, they released their first single, a song called modern day cain.

THATS RIGHT THIS POST IS ABOUT I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME NOW BBY

iDKHOW ended up also releasing their first EP in 2018, called 1981 extended play. it is an absolute masterpiece. i did not care that it was 6 songs, i listened to those 6 songs on loop for months on end. they did not release a full album until 2020. so clearly those months turned into years at some point. i lost track. their first album, called RAZZMATAZZ, came out in october of 2020, after making everyone wait way too fucking long for a full album. you may recognize that album name. that is because it's my name. i am way too obsessed with this band. they haven't been around for very long, so they don't have much history for me to infodump yet, but i am very proud to say i was one of their first fans, and i'll be a fan until the day i die.

nowadays, jon's still releasing solo music (also we are tiktok mutuals), ryan is a hermit, dallon was never in panic! at the disco at all why am i mentioning him, and brendon released an album called viva las vengeance that bombed so hard he announced the formal disbandment of panic! at the disco last month. the evil is defeated. thanks for coming to the circus, everyone. you can go home now.

[souryogurt64]

woah where do you get those shirt designs? since you took pete’s and i remember you copied joe’s shirt where do you find them? are the designs just floating on the web or do you have to recreate it?

Detailed tutorial of pirating unavailable band merch under the cut

I recreated the designs in Photoshop!! I have very minimal Photoshop skills and am not artistically inclined at all and only have my shitty Macbook thats like 8 years old and cant even run some of the tools in Photoshop so theres probably a better way to do it but.

With Joe's shirt, I was able to find a better photo of the shirt online to work with because the video was so grainy. But I just used the photo of Pete I posted for the Decaydance records one.

Then I focused in on the logo and used a combination of puppet warp and copying and pasting less messed up letters or parts of letters from other parts of the image using the marquee tool — for example, with the Pretty Girls Make Graves shirt the V needed to be fixed but there wasn't another V so i used parts of the A.

Other tools I used included: the healing brush to erase any letters I was covering up, and the magic eraser to clean up other pixels I didn't want around the letters if that makes sense 😅. With the PGMG shirt, I also used lighten/darken and the brush tool to make the letters look better and less warped since there were so many unique letters, but this was extremely hard and didn't look great, so I tried to avoid it unless absolutely necessary.

Then I messed with the hue and other things like contrast and lighten/darken to make the logo more or less the color I wanted and then I made the background transparent. I'm not very good at this yet, but there are sites that do it automatically online.

I think the transparent background is a very important step. Otherwise I think the sites will just screenprint the background around the logo as well and the texture and look will be off— I've never tried it, but I'm almost certain this would happen. When you are doing anything transparent in Photoshop you MUST export as a .png or it won't actually be transparent.

Then it wasn't perfect so I cleaned it up using magic eraser and altering the brightness and black/white levels. I had to test it a few times using the site i wanted to use and keep cleaning it up by altering the black point and brightness to get rid of messiness around the letters and making the photo transparent again.

I would imagine if you had a tablet or were artistically inclined or better at photoshop it would be easier to do all of this but it only took me a couple hours. The PGMG shirt took a lot longer because I didn't know what I was doing but the Decaydance shirt only took like two or three. They aren't perfect but whatever.

Also I don't have a desire to sell these and I only made them because the PGMG shirt has not been sold in decades. I have been looking for one unsuccessfully for 7 years and have only been able to find old listings. I had to start using Photoshop for my job about a year ago and then I realized I could just "make" my own. When I recreated this shirt I thought it was Smiths merch but apparently its for a band actually called PGMG.

Anyway, Pete said the Decaydance shirt was hand embroidered with actual spider silk by enslaved child unicorns in Switzerland or something and was therefore too expensive to sell to people who don't play golf like its their job and own thousands of pairs of custom designer sneakers, but due to overwhelming demand he was “looking into it.” But that was 5 years ago. Also one of the Cs being the champion logo was so, so fucking ugly and reeked of jock energy so I yassified it.

[bloodstainsonthefloor]

how did you come up with your current url? (if you remember) i think it’s fun so i’m curious

omg okay so basically my main is super bandom and music oriented (and then i have @certifieddiceeater for like mcyt and dnd and stuff)

and my old was fromtheothersideoftheapocalypse (song lyric) and i wanted to change it to something decaydance (which! is a record label from the mid to late 2000s that’s technically still around but rebranded in 2014 and many of the original bands broke up or disbanded. i could talk about decaydance for hours but that is not the point here)

and then i added the faggot cause. well. *vaguely gestures to myself* (also decaydance had a reputation for whatever stagegay gay chicken thing they had going on. still no idea what was in the air there and what was going on)

#decaydance is a special interest of mine if you couldn’t tell lol #asks #felix #frens #mikey’s stuff

[almostshere]

oh to be apart of pete wentz’s gaggle of boyfriends from the 2000s....

#yknow maybe i will tag them actually #pete wentz #gabe saporta #william beckett #travie mccoy #ryan ross #mikey way #i want whatever the decaydance records bands had #this post i a JOKE btw #shawn.txt

[thisaintascenereviews]

Album Review by Bradley Christensen Fall Out Boy – Save Rock & Roll Record Label: Island / Decaydance Release Date: April 12 2013

Fall Out Boy’s fifth album, Save Rock & Roll, was a big deal for a lot of reasons. It was an album that showed Fall Out Boy’s rebirth, since they had been gone for the last four years, let alone showed how they could come back with a new record and a renewed sense of passion and dedication. They needed some time apart, because they had been getting bogged down by how much time they had been spending together by that point in their career as a band. That would take its toll on anyone, but the thing that broke the camel’s back, per se, was the negative backlash that they had been getting from their last album, 2008’s Folie A Deux. I love that album. It’s one of my favorites from the band, because it’s their first full embracement of pop-rock, but they kept the “rock” aspect of their sound. It’s got a very accessible and immediate sound, but over time, fans have really come around on it. It used to be the black sheep of their discography, but what’s kind of unfortunate is that while people have grown on the album quite a lot, they only realized how great it was when they talk about how awful their post-hiatus stuff has become. That doesn’t sit well with me, but the album is great. I got into Fall Out Boy around 2007, right around when Infinity On High came out, so I didn’t have the nostalgic connection with their first two albums. I had the advantage of getting into their more experimental, weird, and pop-focused material. Infinity On High was the band at their peak, at least at the time, anyway, so it was cool seeing this rock band getting all this success, especially with how weird, experimental, and scattershot they were being. I don’t think I listened to Folie much when it came out, and to be honest, I didn’t even get a copy until 2013, I think, but it’s a great album. My point is, I got into them a bit before the hiatus, and it was kind of a bummer, because they were my favorite band.

When they came back, I couldn’t believe it at first. I wasn’t sure they would, even though a lot of people kept saying that’s what an upcoming announcement was going to be. I was wrong, though, and the band dropped “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark,” the first track from Save Rock & Roll. A lot of people hated it at first, because it was so different, but was it really, though? The band had been moving towards a pop-rock sound for awhile now, and hell, Folie was a pop-rock album. That song was just more modern, and it was more on the pop side of things, but I loved it. I thought it was great. It was slick, catchy, energetic, and fiery. It was exciting, because as a long time fan of the band, they were back. They were really back. I don’t remember really loving it when it came out, and it surprisingly wasn’t too high on my yearend list, but in retrospect, the album’s really grown on me. I love it now. It’s a really great album, but here’s the thing about it – it’s not quite a musically adventurous album. It’s not like Infinity On High, nor is it like frontman Patrick Stump’s solo record, 2011’s Soul Punk, both of which had very diverse and unique sounds to them, incorporating a lot of styles of music to them, but it’s more basic pop-rock, all the while having some influence in R&B and hip-hop. At its core, though, it’s very basic pop-rock, but that’s okay. Comeback albums are like that a lot of the time. Bands need to play it a bit safer than usual. If anything at all, this album just picks up where Folie left off at. It’s the same kind of sound, but with more emphasis on pop than rock. This is an album that they needed to make, because this proved that Fall Out Boy could come through with a solid Fall Out Boy album. It’s not a super innovative record, by any means, but they’ve slowly been getting more experimental again, which kind follows a pattern. Their debut LP wasn’t experimental, and it was rather generic, but they kept getting more experimental throughout their early work.

I don’t understand why Save Rock & Roll gets the hate it does. I mean, I guess I kind of get it, only because it’s a more pop-focused album, but at the same time, it’s got some of their sharpest songwriting, some of the best lyrics that they’ve ever written, and some of the best vocal performances from Stump. I want to look at a few songs in particular that showcase why I love this record. I already talked about “My Songs,” but that is the one that showcases everything this record that I really love. It’s catchy, fun, energetic, and different for them. I love the song, no matter how “poppy” it is, like that determines how good a song will be. Some of my other favorites are “Alone Together,” “The Mighty Fall,” the title track, and “The Phoenix.” “Alone Together” is a song that has one of the best hooks on the album, but it’s one of those Fall Out Boy songs that’s a love song in a really weird way. I love its hook, as well as its R&B groove that it almost has. It’s a really slick song, but Stump’s performance on the song is great. The lyrics are nothing really special, per se, but they’re fun and interesting, at least to a degree, because I always like when Fall Out Boy goes more into a sentimental territory. “The Mighty Fall” is a bit opposite of that, but this is a song that a lot of people don’t like, especially diehard fans, because it’s got a hip-hop song. It also features rapper Big Sean, whom at that point, hadn’t released 2015’s Dark Sky Paradise yet, so he was seen as a comical, silly, and dumb rapper that a lot of rock and metal fans didn’t like. I really like his verse, because it fits pretty well with the beat, even though the lyrics don’t fit with the song itself, but he’s got a smooth flow. His bars are incredibly silly, too, but I love it. The title track is one of my favorites, because it doesn’t only feature Sir Elton John, but it’s a perfect closing song that showcases how the band still has it. “The Phoenix” is a good example of the opposite, well, in terms of an opening track. When I first heard that song, it definitely represents a rebirth of the band, and that’s when I was like, “Yeah, they’re back.”

Save Rock & Roll is an album that a lot of rock fans harp on, because of the obvious idea that they’re not really a “rock” band anymore, but that’s stupid. Rock and roll isn’t just a style of music, it’s a mentality of being true to yourself and doing whatever you want, musically speaking. That’s what Fall Out Boy have always done. This LP has grown on me over time. I wasn’t super crazy about it when it came out, but over time, this album has grown to be one of my favorite Fall Out Boy albums. It’s a solid pop-rock album with a bit more emphasis on pop, but that doesn’t bother me. I don’t really get the idea that Fall Out Boy “sold out,” or anything close to that, because they didn’t. This album isn’t their most adventurous one, which is why it’s not one of my top favorites, but it’s still one worth listening to and talking about. This album showed that they’re back. It’s not their best, and I understand if fans were disappointed by it, but you have to look at it for what it is. A lot of diehard fans, too, were disappointed by it, because they wanted something that sounded like the “older stuff.” That’s never going to happen. It’s been five years since this came out, so you’d think these fans would get it by now, right? They still don’t. M A N I A just came out, and these fans are still bitter, jaded, and angry. It’s ridiculously hilarious, but I love this record. I have no shame in admitting that. It’s a great record. Fall Out Boy is my favorite band, and they have been for the last eleven years now. I’ve grown up with them, and I’m totally for their evolution. I was happy that they went into a pop sound, because it fits them well. They’re not doing it to try to pander to the mainstream, either, because they don’t need to. Not only have their last couple of albums, not counting M A N I A, have gone to number one on the Billboard 200, they’ve got some more radio hits until their belts. They’re totally fine. They don’t need another radio hit. They have a bunch, but they don’t need any more.

#fall out boy #save rock and roll #save rock & roll #patrick stump #pete wentz #andy hurley #joe trohman #pop #rock #elton john #courtney love #big sean #r&b #hip-hop #my songs know what you did in the dark

[themousai]

Q+A: itoldyouiwouldeatyou

How’s it been going supporting Queen Zee on their UK tour? Amazing! Packed rooms full of lovely people with plenty to say. QZ have been very sweet to us and tbh we'd like to work out some arrangement where we can do every tour ever with them. We're also having a lot of fun playing Almost Zero live for the first time - it's my favourite track on the record and it's so fun to sing and dance to, plus we've of course gone and made it more complicated for the live show - weirder rhythms, silly little things that just keep it fun. 

Has there a been a stand out show of the run? So far I've gotta say London. The crowd was so fun - I always have a good time when they let us talk shit on stage for a bit, which they did without complaint. The kids at all the shows have been so sweet too - I'm always honoured when someone comes up and tells me a song or record helped them through a tough time and we've had a lot of that on this run. It's a big responsibility but one I have no choice but to wholly embrace - as I say, I'm honoured. 

Your debut album 'Oh Dearism' has now been out in the world since last November, so how has it been going down live? Are there any obvious crowd favourites? I think people really go off for 'Earl, King...' and 'Young American', which is great cos those two are super fun to play as well. The tattoos are something I wasn't expecting. There's a woman in Australia who messaged us about getting a 'Goodbye To All That' tattoo. It blew my mind! We'd like to do a show where we just play the whole thing, so maybe watch this space...

The sound you've created has always been riddled with 90's emo influence, but the new album really brings out a sense of nostalgia reminding me heavily of American Football's early stuff. What are some of the bands you draw inspiration from when working on new music? For me, I gotta say that as far as 'emo' goes I've always got Say Anything and mewithoutyou at the front of my mind. Musically though it goes beyond that - our notes for this record went from Radiohead to Keane to Joy Division. There's something important about bands like us not considering the wider canon as something untouchable. We wanted to make a great rock record, it's just that there are certain instincts in how we articulate that that are 'emo'. But that's just the language we use to make (BIG QUOTATIONS) """"indie music"""".

Do you think there's anything different about your approach to making music now compared to when you first started out in 2014? 100%. When we started it was just my demos that the band interpreted. Then for a while it was the same but with me adding lyrics to Josh's instrumental demos with the rest of the band filling in the gaps. Now it's a constant combination of both, with the others chipping a lot more than before too, which is always a good thing. We want to the process to be as open and communicative as possible, because we're all good at different things, so why would one person write it all?

Has there been any moment/s in your years together when you've struggled with the thought of writing new music? If so, how did you get through it?   Recently, after I finished the last lyric of 'Oh Dearism' I thought to myself 'that might just be it, that might be the last song', because I was exhausted and had put years of writing into this thing. I allowed myself some time off so that I wouldn't take that idea too seriously. Eventually little lines started cropping up in my head, and I would write them down, hoping for something bigger and fuller to come at some point. That's when it really helps to have a band around you, because there are always ideas floating about. In writing as with all things, when you're unsure, listen, then try again. You can't wait for the muse to strike, you gotta be looking for it a little bit I think, without driving yourself to distraction.

Last year was obviously massive for you with the release of 'Oh Dearism', so what does itoldyouiwouldeatyou have in the works for the future? No chance of slowing down I hope? Honestly, I've worked harder on this band in the last month than I did during most of the writing and recording of Oh Dearism. So however it pans out, whatever happens, I can say there's new music, it's different, it's good and you'll be able to hear some of it before the year is out.

Quick Fire:

The one song I wish I wrote is… Whole of the Moon - The Waterboys.

Three things I can’t live without are... Saturday Night Live, Chance The Rapper and fizzy water.

If I could only play music in one genre for the rest of my life it would be... Pop, cos it's everything and I just wanna make catchy stuff anyway.

Three adjectives that describe my life are… Absurd, anxious and loud.

If I held a world record it would be for… Listing the full members of bands on Decaydance Records that no one remembers or cares about.

My first memory of loving music is… My dad playing me Pet Sounds in full. I thought I heard someone saying my name very clearly in the background of the title track. I skipped back to the start and never heard it again.

The song of mine that I am the most proud of is… Throwing Roses on Tanks.

My favourite venue I've ever played is… Power Lunches, RIP.

The ideal environment for me to create music in is… On the floor, a little stoned, with friends nearby.

If I could have any two bands open for me they would be… Minutemen and GLOSS, but lets face it both should be the headliners. 

Disclaimer: All answers by Joey Ashworth

Follow itoldyouiwouldeatyou on Social Media!

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Interview by Scarlett Dellow

#itoldyouiwouldeatyou #indie #emo #pop #london music #oh dearism #interviews #dellow #british music #alternative

[jebwtf]

A Very Honest, Very Candid Interview|| Magazine Article

Written By: Macy O.

It isn’t often you hear of a Punk Pop band going gold over night, and that hasn’t happened yet, but the band Sunrise and Skylines is on their way. After ten years, five different vocalists, four different guitarists, three stints in rehab, six different managers, and multiple albums and EP’s later, the band has made it to the radio, and if you haven’t heard their track Believer yet, you’re going to want to get it before they hit it big. The band's manager informed me they’re in talks to be signed to Island Records under Fueled By Ramen or Decaydance, and while he can’t tell me more than that, the statement alone tells you what you need to know and why you should be getting comfortable with hearing their name.

On an early evening late last week, I was fortunate enough to get to sit down with two of the men behind the lyrics and music behind the songs. Johnny Ingrid, 31, composes the guitar parts and helps with the lyric process, and Jeb DuBois, 21, writes the songs and composes the vocals. 

To give you reference on what I’m dealing with, I got up to the roof to see them giving an impromptu photo shoot with Jeb’s phone, sharing a cigarette between them, and giving each other pig noses for said photo shoot. Both men are laughing, heads tossed back, hands in pockets and jackets wrapped around them to keep the cold at bay. I’m taken back by the fact these are the two behind a sound so powerful. Both have a boyish charm and a relaxed air around them, but have the look of the bad boys our eyes have been graced with in movies and magazine covers; minus the ruddy cheeks and noses from the cold. Jeb informs me that their manager called them and told them “We need to be on our best behavior, which unfortunately for us means we just shouldn’t talk.”

“We’ve made a bad habit of saying whatever is on our minds, he gets upset sometimes.” They’re honest, but kind with warm smiles and a willingness to talk candidly about their music and experiences. I decided to start with some background, not wanting to waste any time to get to know the two.

Int: So, Johnny, you’ve been in this band for awhile now, right?

JI: Yeah! I’m actually, the fourth guitarist Isaac brought on, he’s the founding father of the band, and I was always a fan of him on the scene.

Int: Were there a lot of problems, then? Or was it just growing pains?

JI: I wouldn’t call them problems, growing pains sounds right. It was just y’know, Rock and Roll and people wanted to live that life but not keep up with their work. And in the developing stages that’s not the best attitude to have.

Int: All the rock without the roll?

JI: [laughs] That’s exactly it! Everyone wanted to be Johnny Rotten or like the dudes from Motley Crue but didn’t realize you actually have to be able to get fucked and play at the same time.

Int: And when and where did Jeb come from?

JI: From Hell.

JD: [laughs] Close enough!

JI: He’s the White Devil.

JD: [continued laughter] I don’t get why you think that, but sure. I’ve been on and off with these guys for three or four years, and just recently started being their full time vocalist and guitarist.

Int: Did you have big shoes to fill?

JD: No, I wouldn’t say so. I mean, the guy before me had a very rough voice that fit, but I feel like I changed the sound and made it work. [laughs]

JI: You definitely changed the sound, but I think that was for the best. At the time we met Jeb we were sort of in the process of re-configuring and trying to decide the fate of the band. The lyrics at the time were completely left up to me, so I think having someone that was already used to doing all his own songwriting really helped us shift into a positive direction, because he knew how to do it and get it done quick but still have the great quality.

JD: I’m blushing.

JI: [laughing] On top of that, Jeb brought this sort of new and young sound. It was something that, you know you’ve heard it somewhere, but it’s so different, because he was making these power songs and anthems with nothing but his voice and an acoustic guitar. We were thrilled. He came just in time.

JD: Like Superman. Pop Punk Superman.

JI: New Halloween costume?

We talk a little more about the other men and how they’re coping with the new found success, the two informing me they don’t feel any different yet, the just have more followers on Twitter and Instagram.

JI: We make Jeb handle that. We’re too old for it.

Int: You’re not that old! Thirties are the new twenties.

JI: You’re sweet, but I definitely feel really old, especially with a twenty one year old next to me.

JD: Mostly it’s a mistake because all I do is post memes with information to our shows and Album drops.

Int: Speaking of, this interview is about the tracks from the album and the set list for your upcoming show! Do you want to dive in or is there anything else I should cover?

JI: We should probably talk about the songs before Mark kills us.

JD: I like to talk so it’s best we start talking about the songs, or we’ll be here too long.

With that we started in on their ten tracks they’ll be performing October 20th and 21st.

The Break Down, Track by Track

1. We’ve Got A Big Mess

Int: To be honest, the first time I heard this I about shit my pants, that intro really left me shaking.

They both break into laughter, Jeb giving a shrug of the shoulders.

JD: Can’t say I’ve heard that before, but thank you! Jamie is really good with that dirty bass sound. He’s a gift.

JI: Jamie is fantastic. Also, fun fact, this is the first track [Jeb] and I wrote together. 

Int: Really?

JI: Yeah! We’ve known each other since he moved here and he’s always been happy to fill in for the band when we were between singers, and one day we just sat down, after a week of straight drinking and shows, and busted this out. I think at the time we were both in this weird change of the times, where our life could’ve gone one way or another, it’s where that raw guitar and bass sound comes from.

JD: I remember that! We had done a show down in DUMBO at some bar that’s closed down now, and I just remember we got into this bar fight--

JI: I forgot about that[…]

JD: Yeah, we got into this bar fight, trashed the place, and their [Sunrise and Skyline’s] manager was like “Get your shit together” and I was just [a pause] Just fucked up. [laughter] But I remember waking up one morning and really feeling like I had no idea what I wanted, which was scary, because music was my life since I was seven and for the first time I wasn’t sure music was what I wanted to do with my life. I’ve never been scared of the unknown which is where the line ‘To be exposed where no one goes and no one’s been’, and we ran with that feeling and came up with the first track of our album.

2. The Phrase That Pays

JI: Since we’re being honest, I don’t remember exactly what it was about, but I remember Jeb came into the recording studio just pissed, because some sleazy record exec was out talking shit when you [Jeb] was trying to go solo. I just wrote the music to it, DuBois wrote the lyrics.

JD: No it wasn’t just the record guy, it was everyone. Everyone was talking all sorts of garbage about me being washed up before I was even at the status to be washed up and I was like ‘who the fuck do you think you are?’ I just remember being at work and writing the lines ‘My life's one big make it or break it, I only make plans to break plans, and I’m planning something big’, it’s changed since then, so it flows with the music, but that was the original line that started it all.

JI: I remember he came in and sang the first chorus acapella for us and part of the first verse, and Isaac looked at me and was like ‘Are you sure he doesn’t want to be our permanent singer?’ because at the time Jeb very much was anti band and anti studio and we were already such a mess our manager didn’t want to take another kid under his wing.

JD: All I’m saying is, if Ed Sheeran can do it, so can I.

JI: Did you just slam Ed Sheeran?

JD: I did.

Int: What do you have against Ed Sheeran?

JD: Nothing! I’m just saying, he’s not a gift and A Team is good, but also-- Let’s be honest here. Jamie is a gift, Ed Sheeran isn’t.

JI: How dare you!

3. Believer

JI: The song that put us on the map!

JD: The song that all my students listen to!

Int: Students?

JD: I’m getting my degree in teaching, so I’m doing my Intership and Externship right now at a high school, and most of them don’t know that it’s my voice they’re listening to, so I hear it in the hallway or in class and I’m like ‘hey cool song!’ and they’re like ‘fuck off you know nothing’, and all I can say is--

JI: True

JD: Yeah, true!

They both share a fit of laughter, and I can’t help but join in, eventually calming them down to get back to the interview.

JI: Uhm…

Int: The song?

JI: Yes, the song! Believer is another Jeb DuBois angst special. [laughter]

JD: Believe it, he laughs as he starts thinking about the process of writing the song Believe it or not, this isn’t about one singular thing, a lot of people [when it first came out], were like ‘oh which girl is this about’ or ‘it’s really cool of you to write a song about faith’, and it’s so hard to be like ‘it’s not about that’, because it could be.

JI: Really?

JD: Yeah, I wrote it to be ambiguous, because I realized I have a lot of really specific songs, and I wanted something that everyone could relate to. I am a very angry person, but there are people out there that have really made this life worth breaking through all the anger and the bitterness, and at the time I was constantly being told ‘you can’t do that’ or ‘you don’t know what you want’ and all these things that I feel a lot of people my age constantly hear when they don’t need to. I’m well aware of what I’m going through in life, I don’t need to be told, and I really think that’s a feeling a lot of people can relate too, and I wanted to put a voice to that, Johnny was nice enough to put music too it.

JI: We were in the process of recording the EP, that would become this album that we’re starting to tour on now, and Jeb had emailed me a rough track with nothing but the vocals and guitar and I asked if it would be okay if I made some tweaks to it, because it was good, but the tone of music just didn’t quite match the lyrics. It was almost too upbeat, and when I was listening to it, I pictured it as a song you listen to when you’re getting ready to kick ass or lay into someone, so I pulled our bassist out of bed at like, 3 AM, and was like ‘I have an idea and we need to lay it down now before I forget’ and he was mad but he did it.

JD: Maybe that’s why he was so mad when we actually played it live.

JI: [laughs] The first time we all played it together was in a basement in our producers mom’s house, because no one was booking us at the time, and we were running on like 3 hours of sleep over the course of four days, because we could not get it right. There was a very specific sound we were going for, and we were all so pissed and sick of each other at that point, and he called us in to run through and record it so he could listen to it and give his input, and I think that anger just really translated across and we nailed it.

JD: Yeah this was about a year ago, and our reputation was still in the trash, and God bless Mark, he still took every chance he could on us, and the look on his face when we finished playing, I’ll never forget it. He looked like he was about to cry, or like he’d witnessed a miracle right before his eyes.

JI: He was so surprised that it was actually good. If there is a God, I thank them for bringing us Mark. That man puts up with more than he should from us, but I guess someone has to.

4. Snitches and Talkers

JD: I’m not gonna front, this is literally about me being a drunk piece of shit and being called out on it. Not in the sense that I was mean, I was just…

JI: You slept with anything that moved.

JD: Yeah basically. Didn’t matter who you were or who you were with.

JI: Sweet and simple.

JD: It was not a sweet conversation, it was with a girl that I was hooking up with at the time and she told me the ‘homewrecker with a heart of gold act won’t work forever’ and I was like [pause] Alright! Wanna bet!

JI: You have such a good memory to be quoting people in your songs. They’re gonna sue your ass.

JD: There’s nothing they could take from me. I don’t even have dignity anymore, so bring it.

Int: I just have to know were you safe during these times? I feel like this is a good spot for a safe sex campaign.

JD: [laughing] Oh my gosh, of course! To quote Lil’ Wayne, Safe sex is great sex.

JI: Safe Sex, endorsed by Sunrise and Skylines

JD: Catch us with a Trojan Condoms banner at our next big show.

5. Floral and Fading

JD: This is all you, man.

JI: No, you wrote part of it.

JD: Did I? How fucked is it I can’t remember that?

They’re both laughing uncontrollably again, and pause to refresh their memory on who wrote what.

JI: Okay I think I got it.

JD: Good because I still don’t. [laughter]

JI: So, I wrote most of this after my girlfriend of 4 years left me, and I was in this place of remembering everything because we shared an apartment and were planning a future together, so it has those aspects of nostalgia in it, but it was only the chorus, and Jeb wrote the first and second first with the [singing] Stupid motherfucker can’t figure it out--

JD: Oh, okay. I remember that.

Int: Is that specific to anyone?

JD: Yeah, me, I’m the stupid motherfucker

They both start laughing again.

6. Cigarettes and Saints

JD: This song has a long backstory, but the gist is it’s for my friend Lydia, who actually sings with us on one of the tracks on our album, and it’s about a mutual friend that passed away from a drug overdose.

JI: And you wrote this awhile ago right? I remember the first version being acoustic.

JD: Yeah, so I wrote this when I was doing a solo act, and everything was very fresh in my head and another friend, he was talking to me about it, because him and the friend we lost were super super close, in the sense they got high together, and we were so focused on trying to figure out who to blame, because the parents blamed us [DuBois’ group of friends], and we all blamed each other or we blamed ourselves, and the song is word for word about everyday life from the funeral, to backpacking across Europe and lighting a candle in the churches there, and just having to continue with all that guilt and blame and it’s all from Lydia’s point of view and my point of view and it’s ultimately sort of a promise that I won’t let my friends down.

JI: It’s very personal.

JD: It is, and the cool thing about this song is I get so many people coming up and telling me how much it means to them, and each person has a different meaning. Some tell me it saved them from themselves, some tell me it helped them through their own friends death or suicide, and that’s the point of the end of the song. We [as a generation] get sold on shit that can kill us, get sold on this idea that we aren’t good enough, get sold on this idea that Higher Ups have the solution but only if we’re willing to sell our souls, and I don’t believe that. Whatever sadness or problem is out there it can’t take me, and I won’t let it take my friends. I get sometimes you aren’t equipped to handle a situation, I’m not so self righteous to believe that, but I do think we know enough to know how to help; even if [helping] means having to tell someone else you or someone you know has a problem.

Int: How did she like the song when she first heard it?

JD: She cried and slapped me, because it was very surreal at the time and I think she was embarrassed, but she likes it now.

7. Lose It

JD: This one is definitely all you.

JI: Yes! This is another break up song, it’s sort of about that weird limbo where you’re both trying really hard to move on, but are still in contact with each other. You know that you shouldn’t get back together, because obviously things weren’t working, but you also can’t seem to let go.

Int: I hate those relationships.

JI: They’re so hard! I remember getting a text message one night, and she was telling me how she’s going to go do what she wants, and I should do what I want because I always do anyway, and I know that it was meant to mean well--

JD: [singing] I think she means well…

JI: Yeah! I thought she meant well but I wasn’t sure so I told her to fuck off and we haven’t spoken since. Which is ironic because it’s such an upbeat song, but the story behind it isn’t quite the same [laughing] It was a quick one to right, it was very much get it down, get it out, and then I didn’t really think about it after.

8. You Look Good

JD: We needed some soul.

JI: Apparently. DuBois likes to try and incorporate his Southern Roots into just about anything he can, and Mark told us we needed to lighten the fuck up so we brain stormed something and it didn’t turn out half bad.

JD: We actually wrote this at a bar. Not after a night out, but when we were still sitting in the bar, completely tanked and trying to scrawl out lyrics on a napkin.

JI: It’s because, no, okay, it’s because he invited out his friends, and his friends are, y’know his age, so in their twenties and just hot as fuck, and me, Isaac and Jamie, are either just turning thirty or are in our thirties, but we some how fit in so well with that age group and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

JD: Just take it as a compliment and don’t think about it. It’s just a fun song about finding someone attractive.

JI: Basically. I’m just still upset about feeling old, and I needed to tell everyone.

JD: This is also the song my friend guest vocals on, so shout out to Lydia Reagan.

JI: She really hit that shit, I was completely surprised.

9. Remembering Sunday

JD: This is about another friend of mine, or she used to be a friend of mine, and surprisingly, I didn’t write it, Johnny did, I just vented and he turned it into a song.

JI: Where DuBois excels at writing about anger and angst and drugs, I’m very good at love songs. Which is weird, because he’s definitely more of a lover than I am.

JD: That’s true.

JI: Wow, no pause there. [laughter] We just had a heart to heart late in the studio, and I remember listening to him talk about this girl and how he just really felt like he fucked things up, but how he was so pissed at her, and it was the most heartfelt and hurt I think I’d ever heard him. And from my point of view, being old and wise, it was pretty fifty-fifty, so it was really cool to write a song that kind of show cases two different sides of the coin.

JD: Cool for who? [he laughs]

JI: Cool for me!

10. This Ain’t A Scene

JD: It’s a fuck you to the scene. That’s it.

JI: Fuck the scene and everyone who thinks they can dictate it.

JD: You can’t stop me from being both country and punk and pop. I’ll do whatever I want.

JI: [laughter] There are so many people trying to police what it means to be punk which is… It’s the most unpunk thing I’ve ever seen and heard, but it happens so much. And as a band we catch so much shit for playing the music we like but preaching our ideals that fit into the punk category, and it’s… It’s so stupid. I think the thing people forget is we [for our music] don’t claim to be punk. I think we have always labeled our genre as punk rock or pop punk, but never punk. Yet somehow we got caught up in the scene and it’s… It’s a trip man.

JD: We just agree with ideals that are seen as punk like standing up to oppression and fascism, which… I think that’s such a low bar for being considered punk, but I guess I don’t know shit. I’m not punk. I’m just angry.

We all laugh, the boys tell me about their favorite memes, pulling out their phones to show me, but at this point the sun is gone and we’re all freezing and ready to get off the roof.

Int: Any last words? Maybe bits of wisdom for the people reading this?

JI: Go for what you want and go hard. You can do anything it’ll just take everything you’ve got.

JD: It’s okay not to know what you want, don’t take yourself seriously but take your passions seriously. Everything else will fall into place and people will get with you or get out of the way.

You can download their album Bottle Chronicles now, or buy it from iTunes, Amazon, or at your local record store.

#i got bored at work and instead of being productive wrote a piece so u can get to kno jeb and one of his bandmates (((: #bc i'm a fuckin loser #the links are for references for what i feel like they'd sound like #bc i'm also not a musician #and i claim no ownership over anything ((((:: #p:selfie #p:magazine article