Lily shoots the shit with Derek Sanders of MAYDAY PARADE.

Posted on Feb 23, 2011 / Posted by Lily Howell /

It was day two in the studio when I caught up with a “very, very excited” Derek Sanders, singer of Florida rock group MAYDAY PARADE. The band was in Atlanta, Georgia, recording their fourth studio album.

Derek has been playing music since he was a boy so it was no wonder he was busting to talk about the new album.

Lily: First of all, can I just get you to give me a run down on how Mayday Parade got together?

Derek: Yeah for sure.  The basic story is there was two bands that kind of split to form one.  Me and some of the guys were in one band and some of the other guys were in another band, and for just – for different reasons we decided to quit our old bands and start this one, and then honestly from that point till now – we’ve had the band for a little over five years – it’s pretty much been nothing but just writing music and recording music and then touring and just kind of doing that over and over again, and it’s been wonderful.  We’ve been very lucky and we’re lucky to be where we are.

Lily: How did you personally find yourself taking this career path?

Derek: You know I started a band with Brooks, who is one of the guitar players in MAYDAY PARADE. We met when we were 12, in seventh grade, and we started a band then and, honestly, that’s kind of been all that I’ve wanted to do since then was to play music and to be in a band.  So it’s kind of been a dream of ours for a long time and it’s really cool that it’s come as far as it has.

Lily: So you were only a little boy when you started singing and playing keyboard?

Derek: Yeah and you know, back then I played guitar and sang, we were in terrible bands but we used to do cover songs at first and then write our own songs and then throughout the years of just playing in different bands, I feel like we got better and better.  Then out of high school, we decided to really take it seriously and start touring as opposed to going to college and doing something else in our lives.  We decided we wanted to really take it seriously and try and make it happen so we’ve pretty much been touring every since we graduated high school.

Lily: What do you think you would do if you weren’t in a band or playing music?

Derek: I really don’t know, and that’s kind of scary because there isn’t much of a backup plan.  I’d like to think that if  MAYDAY PARADE broke up today or if something happened and, you know, we weren’t in Mayday anymore, I would still try to be involved with music somehow. Y’know, I could be a songwriter or something.  That’s my passion, that’s what I love to do but if none of that worked out then, gosh, I mean, I really don’t know what I would do.  I would just have to kind of assess my life and figure out what I wanted to try I guess. Who knows!

Lily: Who inspires you to play better, write better, sing better?

Derek: Well, from the beginning, my family, my mum was the one who kind of wanted me to start taking piano lessons when I was younger, and my older brother got a guitar and started playing in a band and I just thought that was really cool.  So for the beginning that was kind of my inspiration for starting with it and then throughout the years, meeting all the people that are in the band, they’ve for sure inspired me to be better at what I do, absolutely.

Lily: Okay, tell me about the album. It’s day two of recording? How’s it going so far?

Derek: It’s going amazing.  I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am for this CD.  It’s kind of hard to say, you know, it’s hard to remember what it was like, the exact feeling, you know, going in to record A Lesson in Romantics or Anywhere But Here. But I feel like this is the most excited I’ve ever been to record an album and I’m totally in love with these songs and I really can’t wait for everyone to hear them.

Lily: Can you tell me what the fans can expect to hear?

Derek: Yeah, well I mean it’s not fully completed yet, but for the most part I feel like we have a pretty good idea which songs are going to be on the album and the songs that are mostly finished. Some of them are totally finished and some of them are finished except for maybe some lyrics or maybe they’re just kind of at different stages.  We have total freedom on this record.  Whenever we made our last album, Anywhere But Here, I think that was..(ponders), you know, as far as the stuff that MAYDAY PARADE has done, that was the least “Mayday” because there was just a whole lot of outside influence on that album.  It was our first time doing an album on Atlantic Records and, you know, there were just a whole lot of people involved telling us what to do and what songs to play and just things like that.  That’s kind of not the way that we like to work.  So for this CD we’ve kind of got permission to just go in and make the CD that we want to make and then turn it in.  So I’m very excited about that.

Lily: So no restrictions, it’s just total creative freedom?

Derek: Yeah, exactly.  Whereas before we had to send all the demos and have the label kind of pick which songs they liked the most.  During the making of the last album, there were so many songs that we loved, that didn’t make the album and they [the label], ended up picking songs that we didn’t like as much but they liked more.  I still think that comes across on a CD.  If a band doesn’t love the songs that they’re going in to record then you’re going to be able to tell, you know.

Lily: That must feel awful to know that this is your bit of art that you’re putting out but it’s not your favourite bit of art.

Derek: Yeah, exactly.  That’s kind of the thing that really bummed all of us out about the last album.  I love the last album, I just feel like there could have been things that were different about it that I feel like would have made it better, but this time around like I said, we’re able to do whatever we want to do and we all love these songs that we’re recording so it’s going to be a good time.

Lily: Do you have a favourite Mayday Parade song?

Derek: I definitely know that some of these newer songs are for me personally, my favourite songs that I’ve ever written or my favourite songs that we’ve written together.  It’s kind of hard to say because it’s not finished yet and because they aren’t recorded yet but I really have a strong feeling that a lot of these songs are going to be my favourite songs.

Lily: Is there a favourite one you have to play live?

Derek: It kind of changes but Jamie All Over is always one of the most fun ones to play live.  It’s very energetic and the crowd always kind of moves around for that one the most and kind of gets into that one the most.  So Jamie All Over has been one of my favourites for a while.

Lily: What would you say is the hardest thing about being in a band?

Derek: The hardest thing is probably being away from home and just spending most of your life touring and travelling, which I guess isn’t really that bad, you know!  It’s a really good lifestyle, the lifestyle that we all love.  Yeah, it’s tough that you miss your family, your loved ones, the people that you can’t see every day, you know, you miss them but that’s the, kind of only negative side of it.  Everything else about it is wonderful and amazing.

Lily: What do you like to do for fun when you’re not recording or touring? Not that what you do isn’t fun.

Derek: Oh yeah, yeah of course.  Well, I’d say I like to read a lot and play video games and hang out with my friends and stuff, that’s about it.

Lily: What is your biggest pet peeve?

Derek: People who are rude I think.  I enjoy when people are polite and when people are kind, so just when people are rude for no reason.

Lily: Can you tell me something that your fans may not know about you?

Derek: I don’t know…there’s not a whole lot that’s really interesting enough to bring up. I’m vegetarian but a lot of people know that about me.

Lily: Can I ask you why?  I’m a vegetarian, can I ask you why you are?

Derek: For me, there’s several reasons but basically there’s a book that I read called ‘Eating Animals’ by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Lily: Yeah, I know him and I know the book.

Derek: Yeah, yeah, well I love him as an author and so I read that book and it totally just changed a lot for me and I just decided to – I guess mostly because of the book. I guess I’d always kind of known that there were bad things about eating meat and that it probably wasn’t a very good situation but I wasn’t very fully educated about it so reading that, there’s just so much more to it than I knew.  So, yeah, I decided I didn’t want to support it and it’s cool.  My mum’s vegan and so I get to eat like really good vegan food with her all the time, and you know, I’m not vegan, I’m just vegetarian but she makes awesome food that’s really cool.

 

Lily: Now you’re coming to Australia for the Soundwave Festival in a few weeks that is going to brilliant. Is there anything you’d like to say to the Aussie fans?

Derek: Just that we are extremely excited.  We can’t wait to get over there and it’s going to be a good time, and really I guess, you know, thank you to everyone out there for the support and for us being able to come out and do a tour like this.  It’s unbelievable, so thank you very much.

Lily: Is this your first time to Australia?

Derek: No we’ve been once a few years back.  I think in 2007 we came to Australia with Paramore and Hot Rod Circuit and it was a great time.  It was such a good experience, so we’re very pumped to come back and do it all over again.

Lily: Excellent. Well thank you so much for talking to me Derek.

Derek: Thank you, I appreciate it.

Lily: All the best with the new album.  I look forward to hearing it.

Catch MAYDAY PARADE at SOUNDWAVE FESTIVAL in just a few more sleeps!!!

Tags: hot rod circuit, interview, mayday parade, paramore, soundwave festival