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Flying The Red Flag With JEREMY LENZO From MAYDAY PARADE · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  So my name's Jeremy. I play bass in the band Madeo Parade. I
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  don't know what else I'm spot to say with it. Thanks for joining us
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  today, Jeremy. How are I I'm doing well? Thanks for having me.
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  Oh? Is it also? May Day Parade returned to Australia next month
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  for a run of show, starting in Perth on November the first, before
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  hitting Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney and finishing in Britain on November the ninth,
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  mate, So it's not far away now, bro, if you're packed and
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  ready to go. Oh, I have not packed yet. I'm having someone
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  watch my kid tomorrow so that I can. I can pack and get all
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  the laundry done I need for the for the shows. I'll tell me,
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  mate, like you would have done a bit of touring around the world by
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  now. So what's what's the couple of essential left of sorry, non essential
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  luxury items that you always take with you on tour? Non essential items,
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  non essential luxury items. Probably just whatever can keep me from being bored,
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  So like an iPad, uh, you know, Nintendo Switch, any sort
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  of like thing to keep my mind just occupied so that I'm not just sitting
• 1:03
  there doing nothing. You know, I need to be touring with All Time
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  Low and Lauren hibbid mate? So want us through both of those bands?
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  And why you've been in with them on tour? I guess so. I'm
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  not quite familiar with Lauren because we haven't toured with her or met them.
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  But with All Time Low, we we go back a long time with them.
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  We've toured with them probably starting back in two thousand and seven, so
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  on and off since then throughout the years, so just became friends with them.
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  They brought us out this year in the US and then offered us the
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  Australia shows as well, and we said yes to that. So that's kind
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  of how that lined up. But we're excited to be there. It's gonna
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  be a good time. So tell us a bit more about what Australian fans
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  can expect from my day for Raide live shot. Then, I expect a
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  lot of energy, Expect hopefully a good time. Expect that we're growing up,
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  be considerate and we're going to make it a safe space for people to
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  come and just enjoy themselves and have fun. Cool Okay, mentioned time a
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  bit bro like May They Parade emerged in Florida back in the mid two thousands.
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  So was it musical climate like back then they gave birth to the band
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  and where did you fit in initially? So back then it's a pretty small
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  scene. Tallahassee was a very small scene starting playing music and there were probably
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  there's a lot more bands then than there are now in Tallahassee. The music
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  scene has definitely died off, but we were one of the only i would
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  say successful bands of pop rock this genre to kind of come out of Tallahassee.
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  A lot of artists were really good and probably just as good as we
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  were. But you know, a lot of it is luck when it comes
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  to music, you know, right place, right time, So we were
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  fortunate enough to make a living out of this where our other contemporaries were not.
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  But yeah, the music scene was very vibrant at the time. But
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  you know, I went there. I live in Michigan Now I went to
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  Tallahassee recently and most of the venues are gone. They've been turned into just
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  nighttime DJ clubs, you know, like they don't really do any live acts
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  much anymore. So there's really not a spot for a lot of local bands
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  to like go and get started, and you know, it's kind of you
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  know, it's it sucks really that that, you know, all these high
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  schoolers who you know, everybody in high school wants to play an instrument at
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  some point, and you know, start a band with their friends, like
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  if you're into this type of music, and they have nowhere to go to
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  play, and it's just kind of a terrible thought that, you know,
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  coming up in that with without any venues to play. So was the early
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  vision for and How's Our early vision was just to play as any shows as
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  possible, Like that was our ultimate goal. Like we we thought we would
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  be able to let me see phrase this our biggest thing at the time is
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  like if we ever got a bus, we've made it. Like we've made
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  it big, you know what I mean. And then like three years into
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  our career we were able to you know, finance a bus to like work
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  within our touring budget, and since then everything's just kind of been one next
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  step, you know, next, bigger step here, bigger step there,
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  And you know, we never thought we would make it where we were or
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  be in the position that we are in now. So we're very fortunate,
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  very lucky to be here. Debut album, My Listen in Romantics, came
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  out in two thousand and seven. It was a worldwide success. Bro,
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  So what do you think it was about that album that connected with the audiences
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  At that time, we had two vocalists. I think that was a big
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  part of it. I think the songs were very strong, and you know,
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  like I said, a lot of it's luck too, just right place,
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  right time. You know. My Space was the was the leading social
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  media you know, website and only other one. I think Facebook came out
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  maybe three years after MySpace, and we really used MySpace to our advantage to
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  market our band. We toured, like I said, as much as we
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  possible, as much as we possibly could coming up, and we followed around
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  Warp Tour and sold our ces in the Warp Tour line, you know,
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  before ever playing Warp Tour. And I think all of those things led to
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  the success of our first debut album. And all you've released seven studio albums.
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  How's your music and your approach to music changed over those album cycles.
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  We tried branching out a little bit. On I think our fifth studio album,
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  We're like, let's do, let's do like we enjoyed growing up so
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  we made like a nineties rock record, and the fans did not like that.
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  So we're like, Okay, let's do that. Let's go back to
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  what people expect of us. And I think, like, honestly, I
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  think that's kind of where our sweet spot is. People people like to have
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  some familiarity in their music, like when it comes to an artist they like
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  to be They like to know what to expect. And so what I've seen,
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  at least reading online, is that people like that made Parade has stuck
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  to the roots for the most part. You know that we don't really go
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  too far out of our pop rock genre, you know, and people like
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  that because you know they can expect it. It's something that's, you know,
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  expectable. So is that a word expectable? I don't think that is
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  just chucking the dictionary. I like it. Your most recent releases, a
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  single more like a Crash Rich is your first few music since twenty twenty one
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  album What it means to fall a pot like is that song that started a
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  new album? So I feel or is it just a standalize? Yeah,
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  it's just a standalone single. We wanted to try doing things a little bit
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  different as far as how we release music, we figured that most of the
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  records we released, like only the first half really gets most of the plays,
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  and so a lot of the songs were not getting the listens that we
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  thought maybe they deserve or that would you know, I think if people listen
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  to the later half of records more singles wouldn't even be a thing. But
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  I've definitely noticed that it has paid off for us, where these songs have
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  gotten significantly more listens than other songs on the back half of our past records.
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  So it's working as intended. And it also gives you as an artist
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  more room to experiment because you're not saying you don't have to You don't have
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  to force a whole record to a specific sound. You go, I'm going
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  to experiment with this one song and just see if a crowd likes it.
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  You know, they don't like it, then no harm, no foult because
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  it's not a record, it doesn't ruin anything. It's just one thing by
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  itself. So it gives us a lot more more leeway to experiment as well.
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  It's an interesting theory about it. It actually it makes sense to see
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  Nayday Prade also went independent as an artist fight so what are some of the
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  pros and tons of the band doing that. The pros or that we get
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  to do what I was just describing with the single route, we get to
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  do whatever we want to do and we can market it however we want to
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  market it, and no one can tell us no. So that's the benefit
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  of going this route. But I guess if we were to go with a
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  label, what we don't have going independent is we don't have financial backing.
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  So everything has to come straight out of the pocket for everything that we do,
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  and we have to kind of plan that way in advance. Go,
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  Okay, we're going to do this tour, and this tour is going to
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  fund the next recording of the next six songs, and that'll fund the marketing
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  and the publicist for these songs and you know, the whole work. So
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  you kind of have to plan everything way in advance going the independent route.
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  Before I let you go, we started up doing three new Spotify playlists based
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  on songs from bands that we talked to you to let get people would be
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  better, I guess, so using may Day Parade songs, can we have
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  a song for a playlist to get the party started? One for a playlist
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  to save your marriage and one for a playlist could potentially end your marriage again.
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  Start well, let's see terrible things. There's a song about someone's wife,
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  a dad talking to his son telling him about how his wife or his
• 10:00
  mother passed. Right, So I don't know what that will fit in the
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  saving a marriage or helping to end a marriage, but the death I think
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  of the wife and the father talking to his son about it. I think
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  one of it can fit in one of those. I say that'll probably be
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  more saving, probably saving. Yeah, it definitely is a tear trigger.
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  Let's see to get a party started. I don't know. It depends on
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  the type of party really, like because we have we have like a we
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  have like kind of funny foot not funny, a fun silly song kind of
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  called get up, and that's more of like I guess it would be like
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  a party song. It's basically shouting out different states in the United States,
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  So that would kind of be a party song, I guess. And then
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  for ending a marriage, maybe center of attention, center of attention, the
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  song about someone who makes things, they're the center of attention. Yeah,
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  self explaining thanks very much for your time, maybe your tour kicks off with
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  All Time Low and Lauren Hibbard on November. The first PERSO we'll see you
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  over here in a couple of weeks. Brother, Thank you so much.
• 11:09
  I appreciate it. Nice chatting with you.