- 11 months ago
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00:00i'm here and i apologize in advance uh i'm hack i just can't i've been sick for like over a week
00:06and i thought i was thought i was there today but talking for an hour straight has proven
00:12uh the hack is still alive and well so um i'm gonna try to mute i'm gonna try to mute the mic
00:18when i need to hack but i apologize in advance i had that in may dude i coughed for an entire month
00:24i thought i did i i had it uh on our tour in australia and we had to cancel a sold out show
00:30at an arena in sydney and it was a real nightmare and now i have it again that's yeah that's the
00:37hack is the worst well thank you ryan for joining appreciate you so much for having me no problem
00:43and i'll try to make it where you're not hacking no i'll be fine i'll be fine don't worry about me
00:49do your thing i'm happy i'm stoked to be here let's do it let's do it all right yellow card
00:54new album october uh is it called better days what's the title better days october 10th okay
01:00so like the single okay great yes it's a great song i know you hooked up with travis barker how
01:05did that come about um yeah it's very wild very um organic and just uh unexpected you know um along
01:14with all the other things that are happening for our band uh kind of these draw jaw dropping
01:18experiences that keep coming our way but um we when we went in to make this record you know um
01:26there was a lot of talk about how this can't just be another collection of songs that kind of washes
01:33out to sea you know like this has to matter and this has to get yellow card fans just fully reinvested
01:41and and re-energized and excited about about not just the fact that yellow card's back and touring
01:47but the fact that we're making music again you know and i have been pretty disconnected from
01:52our genre from from rock music in general just as a personal like listener and the music i create
01:58outside of the band um i'm trying to get into film and television scoring so i listen to a lot of
02:03instrumental music and electronic music and stuff and so when we decided to make the record before we
02:08had travis before we had a record deal before we had any real plans i just kind of said to the guys
02:13like would we be open for the first time in our career to maybe working with um other writers you know
02:20outside of the band we've never done it before um i think i think the stigma around that has has faded
02:26a bit than compared to when we were younger and we also have a couple of friends who are band you
02:32know band dudes first you know they're not we weren't looking for like the coolest
02:36pop top line writer in la we wanted to work with some some friends who have found a lot of success
02:43in songwriting that used to be in bands and and we've played with and toured with and we have some
02:48friends that do that so um we planned on working with a buddy of ours named nick long who he wrote
02:53like five or six songs with blink on on one more time um he's worked with travis on several other
02:59projects and when we had that on the books he called us and just said i was talking to travis told him
03:04i was going to be working with you guys and he said come down bring him to the studio i'd love to
03:07be a part of that session so we just kind of you know we're taken aback what what do you mean what
03:14travis barker wants to work with yellow card okay let's do this and um so we did um we the first song
03:21we demoed with nick and travis is on the record it's called barely alive um and we that was back in
03:26april of last year so we've been working on this for a long long time um and man it was just such an
03:33amazing experience it was it was everything we needed to be in terms of just getting getting
03:40back to the roots of yellow card and and the sound the core kind of sound and energy that gets people
03:46excited about yellow card travis was really able to to help us find that again for the first time in a
03:52long time and i think the proof is in the music you know and the fact that i woke up this morning
03:58and we have a song that's number five on the radio i don't even know how to i don't even know how to
04:03handle that in my brain it's just so surreal we haven't had a song on the radio in 20 years
04:07like when when when does that happen for a band when do you kind of reach this mountaintop moment
04:14in your career become a pseudo household name and then kind of fade away for 20 years and then come
04:22back with a song that goes top five it's just i don't we are we are blown away it's amazing what
04:28was the um what was like a defining moment when you were working with travis something that he may
04:32have said to you guys that you went like epiphany or like you know like holy shit yes that yes i had
04:40one um i went into the record pretty timid you know pretty unsure of myself i've i've i've dealt with
04:50in my career a lot throughout my career i've struggled with kind of that imposter syndrome
04:57thing a lot and so one part of this time around that's been really good for me is i'm kind of
05:05trying to be kind to myself and and and remind myself that without being arrogant about it that
05:10like i belong here i'm supposed to be i'm supposed to be doing this this is supposed to be happening
05:14for us you know and so at the beginning at the beginning of the recording process i was pretty
05:19pretty unsure of of what i was doing there and like writing this kind of music again and um i remember
05:27being in the booth recording re-recording a vocal like i had already done the whole song
05:33and it was like we got it let's just do it again like to get a different vibe and i remember being kind
05:39of frustrated and immediately thinking you're this is the maybe going to be the biggest opportunity
05:48of your career to date to be in here in this studio making this record and you fully just showed
05:52like and you know you showed a not good side of yourself you got frustrated in front of everybody
05:58and you i felt really bad about it but travis came into the booth put his hand on my shoulder and
06:04said dude i can't remember the artist i wish i did for the story but some artists he'd work with
06:10recently and he just said we did you know 54 versions or whatever the number was of the song that ended
06:18up on the album and i'm gonna sit here with you and i'm gonna be right here with you all the way
06:25until we get it right like i'm not going anywhere take your time relax like you got this and
06:33simple but very eye-opening moment you know to have him come in as a producer and say
06:40i'm in this i'm really in this because in the early days of of doing it it was it was so surreal
06:47and happening so fast for us thinking travis is the drummer of blink first what's he going to be
06:54like as a producer you don't really know what to expect and we've been working with the same producer
06:58for almost 20 years since ocean avenue he neil avron our longtime producer you know he knows
07:04he knows us as people he knows how to navigate our relationships in the studio and you know band
07:09band dudes can be really annoying and and really treat each other poorly in the studio if somebody
07:16wants something to go a certain way so you walk in on day one with a new producer and just be like
07:20hey you know nice to meet you let's let's go start making music together you don't know what to expect
07:26and so getting that kind of vote of confidence from him and also seeing his level of dedication to the
07:33project to the band um right from the get-go was really inspiring and i think was a real light bulb
07:39moment as you said for me um yeah because when i heard better days um i heard growth i heard something
07:49i was like oh this is a pop punk record but there's something extra on it there's an extra layer of
07:57something do you know what that layer is what am i hearing
08:01excitement i think i think that a little bit of the sparkle in our eye or whatever you want to call it
08:13had faded almost completely away by the end of 2015-16 when we we decided to to step away from yellow card
08:21and at that time it was forever we were never going to do this again we really
08:25some of us didn't speak to each other for half a decade i mean it was
08:30it was um a long time in the dark away from yellow card and we never thought we would return and
08:36so we had this tour in 2023 um celebrating 20 years of ocean avenue and one of the reasons we
08:46stepped away from the band is because we were we're just struggling to you know sell out shows
08:50and make it worth being away from our families for eight or nine months a year and all those things and
08:54um then fast forward to 2023 after we'd made the decision to start playing some shows again and
09:00we're doing the biggest tour we've ever done in our career we're playing amphitheaters and arenas i mean
09:04it was totally surreal so we're coming off the back of that just charged up i mean we are just
09:10thinking what's next what do we how do we continue to to you know carry this energy forward because
09:18this is good now this is this is fun this is exciting this is um it feels like we're all on heading in
09:27the same direction as a band all you know all four of us are just we want the same things um for
09:32ourselves for each other for our families and it just i don't know there's just like this passion
09:36in it that has been gone uh or had been gone for some time and and i think travis could smell that
09:44and you know smell blood in the water sort of in a way um because i can't think of another another
09:50reason why um you come in and and want to be work with for a group of 45 year old dudes who
09:58haven't had a song on the radio in 20 years um it was really uh inspiring for us the fact that he
10:06wanted to work with our band you know and it's it permeated every piece of music on the record
10:12that also sounds like during that time there was a lot of growing up i think you can't help it when
10:19you get your 40s you start to grow up um and i that's what i hear too i hear men right grown up men
10:27making music and and putting that together from all that they've learned and the lessons is that true
10:33i mean just as a band coming together going hey this is what you just said we we know what we want
10:40and we want it for everybody our families each other yes it feels more more collective now than ever
10:47before and um i you know i can i really can only speak for myself but i will say that i think the
10:54time away from the band when i in my head i was convinced i was never going to be a part of yellow
11:00card again was in a lot of ways the best time you know best best time of personal growth at least for
11:09me to date in my life because it was just me i was done i was alone and i i and then you know the
11:15pandemic came 2020 i was really alone um and i had a lot of time to kind of break down why things
11:24went the way they went and and what what was my role in it what what don't blame anybody else because
11:30i can do that all day but what what how did my reactivity play a role in where we ended up um
11:38and so you know personally i spent so much time just working on that just trying to figure out how
11:44to not let myself be so reactive and let negative energy affect me in a way that affects other people
11:50um the way that i have in the past and so now you know even if it's just my part in the band i try to
11:58remove that reactivity from situations and i think that helps me be more kind to everyone else in the
12:03band in turn and then i get more kindness back as well and it just man it's it doesn't sound very
12:10rock and roll you know out loud but but it feels so good it just feels so good to be back in the band
12:16and and and the the direction we're heading and the success we're having um i think it's all direct
12:22results of this mentality yes growing up definitely um i'm gonna do some weird i'm gonna do some fun
12:29quick uh questions um what's the worst food you've ever been served on the road oh ever been served
12:37on the road yeah that it's tough to think of like what i've been served but one thing that just pops
12:44into my head of something like i i tried under duress like you have to eat it was raw horse in japan
12:50and i eat i when i'm in japan i eat like i'll i'll bite the head off of a fish or whatever you tell
12:56you know i'm there for the food but raw horse was not the one yeah that sounds i can't think of a
13:04like catering served this terrible meal story right now but so the fact that you've survived eating raw
13:10horse i might want to say that you're the answer to this question but let's find out okay who in the
13:15band would survive a zombie apocalypse um probably sean probably sean because he sean sean lives on you
13:23know like huge plot of land in texas and he's ready he's got atvs and you know uh he's we're gonna go
13:32there if something bad happens the walking dead happens it's yeah yes like i live i live in like
13:37this pretty neighborhood in maitland florida in a mid-century modern you know ranch style house like
13:41with with a pool out back he's he's where we're going if if 28 days later happens what is um the
13:50weirdest dm you've ever received from a fan from a fan oh
13:56i don't know i don't know i don't you know you have to go into like your requests and like read
14:05through people you don't follow and i try to stay away from that stuff because fair enough i'm sure
14:10if i pondered long enough or like went through the history i could find one but um no people don't
14:16really get that weird it's you know it's like can we meet you at the show or can i can i get an
14:21autograph to this or that you know there's nothing really crazy okay so yellow card fans have their
14:26head on the head on straight they seem yeah they seem to be pretty pretty level-headed folks pretty
14:30good factor fiction the band uh the name came from a from uh soccer but the first person who brought it
14:37up didn't even watch the game factor fiction a little bit of both um the name did come from
14:45the term yellow card in football soccer um but it was it was really kind of like a high school term
14:51for a party foul and i was not in the band at the time i was friends with adjacent to the band but i
14:58wasn't in the band but the way i understand the lore was that it was basically like 48 hours to the
15:04first show and flyers had to get made at kinko's and a name just had to go on it and you know at that
15:11moment either someone spilled a beer on sean's mom's carpet or whatever happened and someone
15:17gave him a yellow card and someone said that's it we're gonna be yellow card um and now that's that
15:23so i i don't know the exact science of the story but that's basically how it went down factor fiction
15:29the violin was added to your sound because a guitar broke right before a show
15:34um fiction the violin was added uh because the the original the original inception of yellow card
15:43in in high school in 1996 7 had um i'm gonna air quotes a ballad on their pretty heavy skate punk i
15:51mean the original first high school yellow card sounded like um if you're familiar with like
15:56sounded like good riddance like early lag wagon um early strung out when they were even more kind of
16:01like metal and thrashy than they came to be later in the 90s and they had this kind of slower tempo
16:07song and we went to an art school so you know i was a theater major they were music majors there's
16:13dance department uh visual arts department um and so it was a real melting pot for for young people to
16:20be creative and um sean was just kind of rolling with the band guys you know and coming to shows and
16:28stuff he was in he was into the same music everybody was in you know all of us were into and so um it
16:33was kind of a just fun moment of what if we put some violin on this song factor fiction ocean avenue
16:40was almost off the album because they didn't people didn't think it was strong enough but the fact but
16:46it was because i could not write a chorus for it we had um we had this musical demo that all they had
16:52the verses done because i i had written the verse melody lyric and everything with the guitar um and
16:58it was a it was a unique song for us at the time and obviously it's really early in our career and
17:02as songwriters but um i remember the the talking about the concept of doing a kind of like u2 with
17:09or without you style song where it's the same chord progression basically the that song is the same
17:13chord progression the entire song but um ocean avenue almost is and so we decided to just have the
17:18chorus be the same exact chords as the verse and i just struggled so hard to find a melody that
17:24carried after the verse into that chorus and it was yeah like four or five days before you know we
17:32had to be done it was this had to be the last note recorded and i finally walked in with a melody that
17:38neil avron our longtime producer was like that's it get in there and record that and it changed our lives
17:44but it almost didn't happen well ryan i really appreciate your time the new album uh better
17:52better days aptly titled yellow card october 10th yes coming out october 10th october 10th and we have
18:00a song uh another song you can hear from the album called bedroom posters will be available streaming uh on
18:06the 15th of this month august 15th awesome ryan thank you so much for taking time you sound great
18:12you didn't hack look at you thank you i'm trying i'm hydrated i'm more hydrated than when i started
18:17that's why there you go thank you so much and look forward to seeing you all right cheers thank you
18:22guys for having me and thanks for all the support playing the song and everything we're so grateful
18:26no problem baby it's a good tune it's a really good tune thank you we're happy to do it have a good
18:30one man all right you too cheers i love
18:33bye
18:33you
18:34you
18:35you
18:35you
18:36you
18:36you
18:36you
18:36you
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