Since its creation in 1997, Los Angeles-based band Yellowcard has seen it all: rapid success, multiple member changes, several side projects and, most recently, a full-blown hiatus. Now, the band that rose to fame off of 2003's platinum Ocean Avenue is back with its seventh studio album and a brand new attitude. Before When You're Through Thinking, Say Yes dropped March 22, lead singer Ryan Key chatted with tableau about Yellowcard's breakout, the group's breakup and getting back to its roots.
You guys decided to call it quits in 2008. What were the reasons behind the two-year hiatus?\nThere are several reasons. I think the driving force was the fact that we had just recorded [2007's] Paper Walls, the last record we did on Capital [Records]. It came out in July, and by late fall the record company was just falling apart around us and pulled the plug on the album. [Our previous album, 2006's] Lights and Sounds was a pretty turmoil-filled chapter for the band. We really tried to regroup and refocus on Paper Walls, and we felt like we did, but none of the expectations for Paper Walls came true.
The only decision other than doing what we did was going right back in the studio, and we just couldn't jump right into it. It would have been forced. We were tired of it, and honestly, we were tired of each other. We weren't going anywhere, and it wasn't a happy place to be. Our band started on the idea that we were all having the most fun we could possibly [have], and we were close friends. We felt like we were losing all that and we needed to take a step back.
Did you have plans to come back, or were you done with Yellowcard?\nThere was no plan. To be honest, I didn't think we were ever going to do anything again. We didn't want to close the door on it; a lot of bands use it as a gimmick to break up and get back together. If we ever did do anything again, I didn't want it to come across as that. It was a pretty dark time. We had a lot of doubts and a lot of questions.
Why did you decide to reform when you did?\nWell, time passed, and we all got settled into our personal lives for the first time in 10 years. It was initially sparked by a couple of phone calls from our drummer [and founding member Longineu Parsons]. He wanted to get together and play a show somewhere. A couple of months after that, we sat down at our manager's house and had a real open forum about what everyone would need from each other going forward.
Has the band struggled to get back into the swing of things after such a long time apart?\nSo far, it's been one hundred percent solid. We're much more able to talk to each other when there's a problem. We've matured, and it was important this time around to be open and honest with each other. A lot of things have changed: People are married and planning on starting families right now. We were really honest to each other about the things we love and how we could work going forward without compromising those things.
What is the new record like in comparison with your previous albums?\nIn some ways it's similar to Ocean Avenue, but what you get from the new record is still a feeling that's it's a natural step. There is an evolution, and there is an inner growth on the album. We didn't force it; we didn't sit down and say, "Let's write Ocean Avenue, the album that sold the most records," but because we were so excited about the new record that we were able to recapture the energy we had when we wrote [Ocean Avenue]. It's easy to lose that naked excitement, and we found that again on this record because we spent so much time away from it and then spent a lot of time writing it.
What does the new record's title refer to?\nIt's actually just a line that I had for a long time in my head. It was from a text message I sent to a girl I was trying to get to go out with me. I was looking back on it and seeing if I should send another text to her. In that sense, it's out of context, but everyone agreed it was really descriptive of where we are. There's a real positivity around everything right now, and we hope to really focus on keeping that energy up.
What are your upcoming plans?\nWe are going to tour as much as possible. It's been a long time since we've gotten to do a real long touring cycle for an album. With Ocean Avenue, we were out touring for 19 months. That's the goal now: We want to go out and support this as long as possible. We want to take it one day and one show at a time. I don't want to get caught up in where we'll be in five years and how big the shows will be; we need to enjoy now and wake up fresh every day and not worry about what's going to happen in the future.
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