Taking Back Sunday
If
you can't believe that Taking Back Sunday have been around for 20 years, you're
not alone, because they can't either. Although the pride of Long Island have
had a handful of member changes over the years, the current lineup of the band
- vocalist Adam Lazzara, guitarist John Nolan, drummer Mark O'Connell and
bassist Shaun Cooper - have all been there since the beginning. From the band's
landmark 2002 debut Tell All Your Friends
to their most recent full-length, 2016's Tidal
Wave, Taking Back Sunday have evolved from a key player in the early 2000s
emo scene to a genre-defying rock band who have three gold albums without ever
ceasing to push the limitations of their sound. This fact is evidenced on Twenty, a 21-song collection set for
release in January 2019 via Craft Recordings that spans all seven of their
full-lengths and solidifies them as an act with a catalog that will undoubtedly
outlive them. By now you know the basic history of the band, so we thought it'd
be apt to look back at the fact that almost none of it happened...
"When
I joined Taking Back Sunday in 1999, it was the first real band that I had ever
been a part of, but it never crossed my mind that I would be doing this twenty
years later. When I came in to audition it was just [original vocalist] Antonio
[Longo] and [founding TBS guitarist and former Movielife member] Eddie Reyes.
Eddie had started enough bands that he was like, 'I know how to do this, I can
just call one guy.' But it was a crazy thing. When it started out, there was a
lot more likelihood that it would fizzle out in a few months than it would last
a few years. I tried out, and basically
after we jammed for a couple of hours Eddie was like, 'All right, you're in.
You have to get some different equipment though... and I'll sell it to you.' I
think he sold me a head and cabinet for $200 [that] had to be worth at least
$600." -John Nolan
"My entry into the band is pretty interesting. One day my
brother said, 'Hey, my friend is looking for a drummer and he wanted to know if
you wanted to try out.' But once I realized he was talking about Eddie, I had
second thoughts. I remembered Eddie was the jerk who would yell at me and Shaun
and all of our friends in front of Shaun's house when we would hang out there
because he would be going to Movielife practice. So I said, 'No, I don't want
to play in a band with that guy.' Then maybe two months later Shaun and I were
hanging out [with] my mutual friend at a restaurant where Antonio worked and
our friend said, 'Yo, my boy needs a drummer for his band if you want to try
out.' The first song I heard was 'Go On' and I was like, 'Wow, this definitely
has a lot of potential,' so I agreed. On my first tryout I remember walking in
and seeing John, Antonio and then guess who's there? Eddie Reyes. I was like,
'Oh, what's up, man? How are you doing?' That was it." -Mark O'Connell
"I didn't know anyone in Taking Back Sunday initially; I
just knew who Eddie was because some of the bands from Long Island would play
in North Carolina. I had just moved back to Greensboro from Wilmington and I
didn't really have anything going on aside from delivering Chinese food, so I
really wanted to be playing music. I ended up in a booth with Eddie and Antonio
at the after show hangout spot, Waffle House, after an ill-fated Sons Of
Abraham show and heard they needed a bass player for their new project. They
said, 'Yeah, you should come up.' A couple of weeks later me and my friend
Chris drove his 1988 Honda Accord up to New York, I tried out and then drove
back. A few weeks later I got a call from Eddie [who] said, 'If you want to do
this, we have some shows coming up.' So I flew to Long Island and never came
back. Looking back now it's funny because I was like, 'I'm moving to New York,
it's going to be so sick.' Then I moved to Long Island and it was kind of a
bummer. It was just like North Carolina... only way more crowded." -Adam
Lazzara
Mark and I have played in bands together as long as we've
known each other, which is over 30 years. When he joined Taking Back Sunday, I
begged him to get me a bass audition. At first Mark told me that since I was so
unreliable in our previous bands that he couldn't vouch for me, so I got
serious, enrolled in night classes at a local college and tried to get my act
together. About a month later, Mark noticed a change but sadly some kid from
North Carolina was ditching everything he knew to move to New York to play bass
in the band. Adam was a good bass player but he had a manic, magnetic energy on
stage that everyone in the crowd was captivated by. Suddenly Antonio was out
and Eddie made Adam put down the bass and grab a microphone. Mark got me a
tryout for the band December 26, 2000. I played along to the demo day and
night, made myself fall in love with those songs and played my first show at
our friend's house a few days later on New Year's Eve. -Shaun Cooper
The rest is history. Taking Back Sunday may have started
out like most of their peers by playing local shows and recording demos; however,
unlike most of those peers they went on to sign to a major label, tour
alongside Linkin Park and become international superstars. That said, they
still speak of the band's early days as if they just happened yesterday. "I'll
never forget, we played Ground Zero in Long Island in 2001 and it was the first
show we played where people were singing along and going crazy. It was a tiny
place that held 100 people but you could sense something had changed," Lazzara
recalls. "After the show I remember we carried some equipment back to John's
car and we were sitting in it just not saying anything. We were just thinking,
'that was the best thing ever.' I was starry eyed and staring into space; I
couldn't believe that just happened." Nolan concurs, adding, "Even after the
band got a lot bigger and did things that were a lot more impressive, that
moment was really huge because you could tell something was happening. Everyone
was going nuts and that really stands out to me as being one of the defining
moments of Taking Back Sunday."
Twenty is a
celebration not only of those career-defining moments but of the landmark
albums that chronicle the band's story: 2002's Tell All Your Friends,
2004's Where You Want To Be, 2006's Louder Now, 2009's New
Again, 2011's Taking Back Sunday, 2014's Happiness Is and
2016's Tidal Wave, all of which are represented on this collection.
Whether your introduction to the band was singing along to "A Decade Under The
Influence" in a sweaty club or hearing "MakeDamnSure" or "Sink Into Me" on the
radio, Twenty is a look back at some of the highlights from this
unlikely group of musical misfits. Additionally, fans will be able to hear two newly
recorded songs, "All Ready To Go" and "A Song For Dan," which hint at the
direction that Taking Back Sunday are heading in the coming years. Musical legacy aside, ultimately what's most
impressive is the fact that after two decades and countless successes, Taking
Back Sunday have managed to preserve that initial spark that excited them as
teenagers.
That fact alone is one worth celebrating, so turn it up
and listen loud.
- Website:
- http://www.takingbacksunday.com/