EastScene

EastScene’s BERNARDA GOSPIC sat down with John Nolan and Mark O’Connell of Taking Back Sunday on their Toronto stop of this summer’s tour—the first time playing in Canada as the original lineup in over eight years. They’re back and doing what they love how they’ve always loved to do it. Frankly, I have “faith” that they’re “not going anywhere”.

EastScene: What’s it feel like being back in Toronto and on this tour for the first time in 8 years together again?

Mark O’Connell: It feels great, yeah.

John Nolan: I remember this place in particular, we played in 2003, maybe, and it was our first show in Canada. We were gonna play in one of the smaller rooms here and actually got moved to the bigger room. We had no idea what to expect—we’d never been to Toronto before—and we get here and it was just people lining up so early, hundreds and hundreds of people, and it was mind-blowing.

ES: How is it coming to a country for the first time and not knowing anything about your fanbase?

JN: It’s amazing and it’s hard to comprehend. With touring in America, we started to do very well after a while, and that was pretty mindblowing. At least we had been touring around and working and doing that. It’s weird when that happens and you haven’t even been somewhere yet.  You don’t really know what to expect or what to think about it.

MO: On that tour, too, I think we were playing to 300 kids and by the end, it was like, 2000. This was in a two and a half month span, so that was like, “what the fuck”.

ES: What was it like recording this album together, fifth one, and back to the original five?

JN: It was great, and I think it was a great experience for us all. It was pretty different for me, I don’t know how different it was for the rest of the guys who had worked with Eric before, but we had a lot of time to really work on songs and hammer out details. I’d never had that experience. It’s always been a much more rushed kind of thing, and you just get through it and hope it comes out good. This was very, every day we had a lot of time to think about songs and develop them. It was pretty awesome.

MO: I think I enjoyed myself on this album more than any other one. We were having a good time, enjoying the songwriting, and having a fun time throughout the whole experience. It was hard work, but very enjoyable.

ES: Did the creative process change a lot over the years?

MO: No.

JN: No, not really. When we first got back together to work on songs it really felt the same as when we were working on songs in Mark’s parents’ basement. We have a way of collaborating that I think is pretty unique to these five people and that was just exactly the same as it has always been.

MO: Yeah, which was strange because we didn’t know how it was going to be. After the first or second day, we were like “this is nothing different.”

JN: Yeah, it was really surprising, actually.

ES: How did it come about? Who contacted who?

JN: It was Mark who put this whole thing together.

MO: You know, we found ourselves again being extremely unhappy and I couldn’t take it anymore. I would go home and talk to my wife and say, “I hate this” and just going through those emotions… I always wanted John and Shaun in the band—there was never a time I didn’t want them in the band—and Adam and Eddie weren’t ready for them to come in the band. So I was kinda like, “alright, it’s not gonna happen,” but John was actually doing a solo tour and was visiting as his parents’ house. Shaun called me and said, “John’s in town, let’s go out” so we went out and that was when I knew that this had to happen. It would be so much fun and it would be good to have a blast and have things get patched up, possibly. Short story long, it happened. I talked to Eddie and Adam about it and they said, “alright, fuck, let’s give them a call.” Shaun was down but when I called John, it was a bit of a shock. After a couple of minutes of talking to him, he was willing to give it a try. I was very excited about that. I was literally pacing back and forth in my room.

ES: You guys seem so genuinely happy.

TBS: Yeah, we are.

ES: Are you content with the record and how it turned out?

JN: We are very happy with it.

MO: It sounds great, the songs are really good.

ES: It’s very catchy

JN: Yeah, it is. I was saying the other day that we are so proud of this record. We worked so hard on it and put so much of ourselves into it. It’s just, when I first would see anything even remotely negative on the internet or something, I would just be like, I couldn’t believe it. Like, how is it possible that somebody could not like this? It doesn’t make any sense to me!

MO: They’re lying! They’re lying to themselves. That’s what I thought, you’re fucking lying! You love this shit

JN: You’re just pretending

MO: Yeah, you’re just pretending for some odd reason. Dicks.

JN: We couldn’t be more proud of it, you know. It’s like our little baby.

ES: Have you felt a lot of pressure from fans over the years to get back together?

MO: All the time. And I’d be like, “yo, I agree with you” but I couldn’t be saying that with other people from the band being around. You know what I mean? That whole time, there was a lot of that.

ES: You guys are playing a Straylight [Run] song. How did that come about?

MO: It happened in that first conversation.

JN: Yeah, it did.

ES: Was that the compromise?

MO: Well, I was trying to convince him a little bit. I was like, “dude, we’ll do whatever you want to. We can throw in a Straylight Run song into our set.” And we did.

JN: It wasn’t something that I was pushing for, you know. I think you and adam talked to me most about it, that that was something you wanted to do. And I thought it was awesome, but at the same time I didn’t want it to be like, “you guys gotta play one of the songs from my old band if I’m gonna do this!” It wasn’t that kind of thing. They just wanted to do it and they thought it would be fun, and it is.

ES: On that note, are there any songs that you refuse to play live?

MO: Well, there’re songs that, when we used to play them, I used to be like “aw man, do we have to play this?” and I feel bad because Adam really likes a couple of the songs that I couldn’t stand playing

ES: Like what?

MO: I think the song “Twenty Twenty Surgery” is an awful song.
ES: I like that one!

MO: I really don’t like it and I’m really happy that I don’t have to play it anymore! Horrible song.

JN: In your opinion!

MO: In my personal opinion.

ES: Do you guys ever get sick of playing the same songs all the time? But do you also feel pressure from the fans to play them, just because they really love them?

JN: I think that because people still get so excited when they hear those songs, it makes them exciting to play. There are certain songs that, when we get together to practice before a tour, we don’t spend a lot of time playing “Cute without the ‘E’”, you know? There are certain songs that we’ve played so much and we know so well. When we get out in front of the crowd, there hasn’t been one time that I haven’t been excited to play any of the songs.

MO: It makes it exciting to see their reaction. That makes it new every single time.

ES: Taking Back Sunday has been cited as a huge influence by so many bands. How do you feel about that, and about the bands that you don’t necessarily like?

MO: It’s very flattering.

JN: Yeah, it is very flattering. We’re so old and out of touch that I don’t think we’re even fully aware of which band are influenced by us. I know I’m not, but I know it exists and I know they’re out there. There’s bands that look up to us, but I’m just not tied into what’s happening with younger bands enough to really know—which is probably not a good thing. I need to be more aware of what’s happening in the new youth culture.

MO: Yeah, we don’t really know. We don’t listen, I don’t know. When John and I and Adam we on our bus the other night til like, late—I don’t want to say the time—we listen to Creedence Clearwater Revival, you know. That’s where we’re at in our lives.

ES: “Bad Moon Rising” is an awesome song

MO: Oh, dude, great song. “As Long As I Can See the Light”, that’s my favourite. But that’s where we’re at right now. It’s not like “Hey! Let’s put on the new, pop-punk-emo band coming up.” You know? We’re in our thirties.

ES: You guys all married? Have kids?

MO: Yeah

JN: Some, yeah. Eddie and Adam have kids. Shaun is not married, but he will be in just a couple weeks. Then we’ll all be married, officially, as a band.

ES: When you guys have kids, what would you tell them about your proudest moment?

JN: From our career?

ES: Anything, really.

MO: I don’t know…

JN: I’ve never thought of that, before…

MO: I think just the fact that we’re a band that’s able to do this. Like, go to a state and people actually want to see you play music….that’s something that I’ve wanted since I’ve been a little kid and now, you know, it’s been happening for the last decade. That doesn’t happen—that’s not real life. It doesn’t really happen with people, so we’re just extremely blessed people.

JN: Yeah, I totally agree with that. It’s hard, too, because there’s been so many things, positive things, and it’s hard to put a single moment down as the best, but I agree with that.  When I think about the fact that we’ve been made it through this long and people still want to see us play music, I, I just can’t believe it. I feel very proud of that.

MO: Yeah, it’s a strange thing.

ES: How is it touring with Thursday?

JN: It’s awesome. Those guys are the best.

MO: Awesome dudes.

ES: Have you known them a long time?

JN: We go way, way back to 2001-ish. They didn’t like us so much at first because we, we kind of were coming up behind them.

ES: Shoved them out of the way?

JN: We didn’t shove them out of the way. We sorta more rode their coattails [laughs] so they were a little skeptical of us at first, but over the years we go to know them, and they got to know us, and then they started to like us. This is the first time we’ve ever toured with them, though, so it’s cool after all these years of knowing and then finally getting to do a full tour. Their new album is great and the direction they’re going in is really cool. They’re just awesome guys and put on a great show every night. It’s amazing.

ES: What’s up with your new video for “Faith (When I Let You Down)”? Whose idea was it?

JN: That was the director’s idea. It was all his thing. He came to us with that. Mark was immediately into it. I was a little scared of the idea but I think it turned out awesome.

MO: I just thought it was so strange, you know

JN: It’s a strange video

MO: I thought it was kinda funny, shows our lighter side and that we’re able to have a sense of humour, and it’s funny. Just the “Welcome to the Jungle” video idea, and getting addicted to catnip, I thought it was hilarious.

ES: Are you guys fans of Keyboard Cat?

MO: I’ve actually never watched a cat video.

JN: I have seen Keyboard Cat. I always saw the, I think it was after the original video came out, there’d be something happen in a video and then it would say, “play him off, keyboard cat”. That was funny. I like that. It’s really one of the only ones I’m familiar with on any level. That’s what’s really weird about it; we haven’t really kept up with cat videos over the years.

ES: Well, that’s the thing now!

JN: And we just decided to capitalize on it.