(Photo: Flickr user viviandnguyen_)
Street: How did you guys end up playing two shows at the Electric Factory?
Shaun Cooper: We do really well in Philly, and we know The Menzingers are from the area too, so we kind of had it in our heads that we would potentially do two shows. We love playing the Electric Factory; we’ve been there several times before, and it’s always fun to come back.
Street: You guys always have interesting opening bands; this time you have the Menzingers, and letlive are kind of a weird band to be on a Taking Back Sunday tour. What do you think of them so far?
SC: Oh, I love them! They put on a pretty wild rock show–very energetic–and it’s been a lot of fun. They’re all good dudes too, so it’s been a great tour.
Street: What do you guys listen to on the bus?
SC: Well, there’s been so much heavy music on this tour that
a lot of times, we listen to more mellow stuff. The first thing that comes to
mind is Fleetwood Mac. There’s also been a lot of 60s music–Simon and Garfunkel,
Tom Petty, David Bowie… All that. We try to make it a relaxing time when we’re
all on the bus, just hanging out.
Street: You’re in your thirties – do you still find that you listen to a lot of the same stuff from when you were a teenager?
SC: Oh, sure. Everything in my life has been kind of a constant thing. I’ve had the same group of core friends since I was a really little kid; I met a lot of my friends in Kindergarten or first grade. So, I listen to a lot of the same music I always have. I’ve always been really into The Beatles and Guns N’ Roses and Nirvana, and later on, Green Day and Rancid and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones–things like that. Those are still in heavy rotation for me, for sure.
Street: You’ve been in a band with these guys on and off for like 15 years; do you guys still hang out when you’re not on the road? Are you friends then, or do you try to stay away from each other and give everyone a break?
SC: We do give each other space. John [Nolan, rhythm guitar] and Adam [Lazzara, vocals] live down in North Carolina, so they’ll see each other between tours and stuff, and Mark [O’Connell, drums] and I are both in New York, so we’ll see each other. Mark’s wife and my wife are good friends, and we have young kids that like to hang out together and stuff. Eddie [Reyes, lead guitar]’s in Ohio so we don’t get to see him as much, but we all text and talk. There’s always band business going on. There’s maybe two weeks that will pass where we don’t have much contact, but it’s definitely not just a working relationship.
Street: That’s definitely good to hear. I mean, being on the outside, you always wonder if the bands you listen to even like each other, or if it’s all kind of an act when they go for interviews, or do signings and stuff like that.
SC: I mean, we spend so much time on the road and so much time together that if we weren’t friends, it’d be really, really hard to do. Even the crew that works for us, we’ve been friends with most of the guys for years now, and it’s kind of like a second family.
Street: That’s awesome. So, you’re going to have to talk about this for the rest of your life probably, but you and John [Nolan, rhythm guitar] left the band for seven years, and it was a huge thing when you came back. What’s it like still being back in the band a few years later, now that it’s not shocking anymore? Is it kind of like you never left?
SC: Yeah, you know, it’s been over five years since we came back, and time has really flown by. It’s pretty surreal. But I think we’ve gotten much better at working together. I think the first record when we came back was good, but we were still learning how to work with each other again, but with Happiness Is we’ve really started to hit our stride and we’re excited to see where the personal relationship and the working relationship takes us on the next album.
Street: Yeah, I was going to ask about that. How was the recording process different for the self-titled and Happiness Is?
SC: It was a lot different. It was the first time we ever worked with two producers, our old friend Mark Hudson and Mike Sapone. We recorded half the record in Michigan and then half on Long Island, and then it was all mixed and mastered by the same people, so that gave it the cohesiveness. But it was very relaxing and we kind of worked on the songs here and there over two years, so we had a lot of time to listen and refine them.
We didn’t really overthink things, and I think that made for more of a potent effort than that first record back. I think a lot of the songs on that record were a little overthought. We had a lot of people then from Warner Brothers then who had a certain idea of how the record should go, for better or worse, but it was just a really strong effort from the five of us on Happiness Is.
Street: Was it very different to be back on Long Island for part of this record?
SC: The self-titled was recorded in Los Angeles with a super producer, Eric Valentine, who’s one of the greatest musical minds I’ve ever met. Being back on Long Island was a lot of fun. I’ve been doing demos in Mike Sapone’s basement since, gosh, I must have been nineteen years old or something like that, so it was probably 1999 or 2000. And then Straylight Run [the band Cooper and guitarist/vocalist John Nolan started after leaving Taking Back Sunday] recorded there, so I’ve done a lot of work with Mike. He’s just a really great personality to be around and he has a great mind and a great ear.
Street: Speaking of Straylight Run, has your relationship with John changed as a result of being together during those years?
SC: Well, both bands have all written pretty collaboratively, but there’s very different catalysts in Taking Back Sunday, like how Mark, our drummer, writes a lot of the guitar riffs and has pretty solid outlines for songs, and Eddie, too, writes a lot of the riffs and stuff. But in Straylight, John brought a lot of his ideas and piano stuff and chord progressions, so that’s been working a little differently.
Street: That’s interesting; I feel like a lot of people have a different idea about what goes on when you’re writing.
SC: No, everything we do is very collaborative, I mean, John and Adam will always be writing stuff in their notebooks, but we’ll put the lyrics with the song after we’ve already shaped them.
Street: On a completely different note, what’s it like to play the songs from when you weren’t in the band? Does it ever feel like you’re playing cover songs?
SC: I definitely have a connection to those songs even though I didn’t write them, because I’ve always believed in what Mark and Adam and Eddie have done, and what they’ve brought to the songs. It was fun learning those songs, too, because that’s something I don’t really do anymore. When I hear songs and stuff, I don’t really want to go and learn the bass lines; it’s kind of lost its magic for me. It was definitely a new challenge learning Matt Rubano’s bass lines, and he’s a fantastic player, so it was a really fun challenge, and I really enjoy playing those songs every night.
Street: Yeah, I was going to ask what you thought about Matt Rubano, who is both your successor and predecessor.
SC: He’s a very, very talented musician and bass player. We never sat or worked on music together, but learning his bass lines was definitely a great learning experience for me.
Street: It’s been about twelve years since Tell All Your Friends came out; what’s it like to play those songs still? Do you think you’re ever going to retire some material?
SC: I mean, we always change up our setlist, but we also wanna give people what they want. I mean, people want to hear “Cute Without the ‘E’,” and we’ll probably never play a show without it. Those songs are boring as hell to play in a practice room when we’re trying to run through them, if we haven’t played together in a while, but when we play them live every night, it’s a new experience every time. There’s such a great energy in the crowd and the songs take on a new meaning every night, so it always makes it fun. I never hate playing those songs live.
Street: Oh well of course. Thinking back to every Taking Back Sunday show I’ve ever been to, the crowd is wild when you play the Tell All Your Friends songs; it’s a great experience.
SC: Yeah, and we feel so grateful to have that, and we don’t know how or why people responded to those songs and that record so much. We didn’t think we would really do anything with the band. When we got signed by Victory Records back at the end of 2001, we though okay, we’ll put out this record, maybe tour through the summer and then get back to life. I’m still waiting for that to happen. I don’t want it to happen–I want to do this forever–but I’m living my dream right now, and I feel like I’m on borrowed time as it is. We didn’t really overthink things, and I think that made for more of a potent effort than that first record back. I think a lot of the songs on that record were a little overthought. We had a lot of people then from Warner Brothers then who had a certain idea of how the record should go, for better or worse, but it was just a really strong effort from the five of us on Happiness Is.
Street: So, what’s it like to be on Hopeless Records? I mean, Hopeless has a lot of younger bands; do you think you have a different fan base from most of those bands, or is there a lot of overlap?
SC: I think there’s definitely a lot of crossover, and Hopeless is just so good with the viral marketing and making people aware that your records are coming out. They’re run like a well-oiled machine. We had two videos out before the record and that wasn’t something we had in a very long time so we just feel like they have a really good handle on things and know how to work well with us. It’s been a very enjoyable experience being on their label… They’re all music fans there, and a lot of the people working there are the same ages as us and they’re very like-minded individuals.
Street: It sounds pretty different from being on Warner Bros.
SC: Well, with Warner they have to do different things. They’re a major label and they spend a lot of money on things and they need pop singles. They need to do that and that’s important to them, but with a label like Hopeless, they want albums. They want real records. It’s not about the single–it’s about the package. It’s about putting out vinyl because they know fans of our band would like that because that’s what we like too, and that’s something Hopeless has been great at.
Street: That’s awesome. So, and this is hard to ask, but there’s always been a lot of drama with Taking Back Sunday amongst yourselves, and then even recently with Adam and Jesse Lacey [Brand New]–so how do you deal with that?
SC: It’s just part of life, and I don’t read the internet except for my Twitter feed, so I don’t see what other bands are up to or what other people are saying about our band. I’m a grown-ass man. I’ve got enough going on in my life with my wife and my kid, and I’m just a pretty happy guy. I’m living my dream, so when there’s drama, I don’t care or really even give it much of a second thought because it doesn’t mean anything. People get all hyped up about stuff on the internet for a couple days, and everyone likes complaining and bitching and moaning and talking shit and at the end of the day, it doesn’t change my life at all. I’ve always been a big fan of the saying “save the drama for yo’ mama.”
Street: What’s next for Taking Back Sunday? It’s that time of year again–are you guys going to do Warped Tour?
SC: No, not this year. We’re doing some festival dates and stuff. We’re flying over to the UK to do Slam Dunk and some other international stuff we have planned, but it’s going to be pretty low-key throughout the summer. We’re getting together to do some writing and demo-ing, and just spending time with our families. We’ve done a lot of touring in the past year, so it’s time to get into writing mode.
