Summer Break Series: Warped with Mayday Parade

While Mayday Parade are enjoying their third year on Warped Tour, I was able to spend some time talking to lead vocalist Derek Sanders about their most recent album, working with both Fearless and Atlantic records, upcoming tour and album plans, and their former vocalist’s departure and formation of Go Radio.

Mayday Parade is a pop-punk band from Tallahassee, Florida, which Sanders said was formed by himself and some other friends that were floating around the music scene at the time. Mayday Parade mainly formed from two different bands, and came together officially in 2005. Most of the band has remained together, although former vocalist Jason Lancaster departed in April of 2007 for “personal reasons” and formed the band Go Radio. Although there was apparently some controversy surrounding the departure of Lancaster, Sanders says that there are currently no hard feelings, and they will in fact be touring with Go Radio on the upcoming Fearless Friends Tour. Sanders went on to say that Mayday Parade is “very supportive” of Lancaster’s new band.

Mayday parade released their latest album, Anywhere but Here, in October of 2009, and while on Warped Tour Sanders says they have been playing “a good balance of new stuff and old stuff” and that so far the response to their new material has been mostly positive, and that it has been going over very well with the Warped Tour crowd, despite the increasing number of hardcore-punk bands and fans in attendance on the tour. Sanders also says that even though their sound may be a little lighter than some of the other bands on the tour, there is still plenty of respect between bands. When asked which bands he goes out of his way to see on the tour, Sanders stated Four Year Strong, Pierce the Veil, and Enter Shikari as some of his personal favorites.

In addition to the Fearless Friends Tour, which begins in October and will be headlined by Mayday Parade, the band will also begin work on a new album, which Sanders says they are all very excited to begin work on, and will be released under Atlantic records. When asked about working with Atlantic, Sanders simply says that “it has been very different, but still a positive experience.”

Up-to-date tour information, as well as information on the upcoming record, can be found on the band’s Myspace page as well as at www.maydayparade.com