{"id":21458,"date":"2014-05-15T16:23:46","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T06:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=21458"},"modified":"2014-05-15T16:24:08","modified_gmt":"2014-05-15T06:24:08","slug":"mark-o%e2%80%99connell-of-taking-back-sunday-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2014\/05\/mark-o%e2%80%99connell-of-taking-back-sunday-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark O\u2019Connell of Taking Back Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>\u201c\u2026The thing is, we didn\u2019t come up with the title because of this, but at the same time personally the relationships within the band are the best they\u2019ve ever been throughout the fifteen years of being a band, so it made perfect sense when he said it.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Tour Release:\u00a0 Selling millions of albums worldwide,\u00a0<\/strong>TAKING BACK SUNDAY\u00a0<\/strong>continue to deliver successful releases such as\u00a0Tell Your Friends, Louder Now, New Again<\/em>\u00a0and latest sixth full-length release,\u00a0Happiness Is. Happiness Is<\/em>\u00a0showcases a new musical and conceptual leap for a band of mainstream misfits.<\/p>\n

We caught up with Mark of Taking Back Sunday to talk us through their upcoming Australian tour with The Used as well as an insight into their newest album \u2018Happiness Is.\u2019<\/p>\n

You\u2019re heading back to Australia this time with The Used and a new album under your belt. What can fans expect from a Taking Back Sunday set circa 2014?<\/strong>
\nYou can expect a lot of energy, because we care about what we do and we want everybody to enjoy the show.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been out with them in the US, and both bands are so energetic and a perfect pairing in my opinion, do you guys try and out show each other every night?<\/strong>
\nWell you know there\u2019s always that thing you always want to play the best you possibly can and we always want to give it our all, and it\u2019s not about that, I mean there\u2019s always competition when bands play together, but for the most part those dudes are just good dudes, we enjoy hanging out with them and enjoy playing shows with them, they\u2019re nice guys. So it\u2019s not about showing each other up, it\u2019s about putting on a good show, and that\u2019s the thing, all the kids that were coming out to those shows were having a good time you know\u2026<\/p>\n

Well when you have powerful front men like Adam and Bert out there, you know you\u2019re in for a good show\u2026<\/strong>
\nAdam is good at what he does, that\u2019s for sure. We are lucky to have a front man as good as he is.<\/p>\n

Last time you were here, Adam\u2019s leg was well and truly busted and he was sitting for 90% of the set, but the show was still so unbelievable, is playing live just what empowers you guys to produce such a good live show?<\/strong>
\nYeah like when we started, I was eighteen when I joined Taking Back Sunday and when we started and it was us five, Me, John, Shaun, Eddie and Adam I knew that I had finally found four other guys that cared about being in a band as much as I did, because that\u2019s not an easy thing to find. Growing up and being in high school I was always trying to start bands as I knew what this is what I wanted to do, so when people wouldn\u2019t show up to practice or they didn\u2019t care, I just didn\u2019t understand, I was saying \u2018Why don\u2019t you care as much as I care?\u2019 and I never got it, so yeah, when I joined Taking Back Sunday I finally found the right guys, I found the guys that will drop everything to do what we do.<\/p>\n

So do you have a favourite memory of a previous tour down here you can share with us<\/strong>
\nHmm\u2026 well, man, you know it\u2019s hard to say because Australia is a nice country and I think my best memory is just realising that I\u2019m in a band that\u2019s able to go to Australia and play and people are going to care. That\u2019s my first thing that comes up with Australia, and just having that, and it\u2019s a beautiful country you know.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2018Happiness Is\u2019 is the new album, your second with the \u2018classic\u2019 line-up of the band, has everything gotten completely back into the groove again after the last album where you\u2019d only been back together for a short amount of time?<\/strong>
\nYeah, it had been a really long time and the thing is when we got together, we didn\u2019t do much touring, we didn\u2019t have much time, basically we got together and wrote an album immediately and then with this last album we had two years to feel the songs out and write the songs and it was kind of more like writing \u2018Tell All Your Friends\u2019 because we had so much time to write all the songs we had then, and then now this time with \u2018Happiness Is\u2019 we also had a very long period to where we could write these songs, so it wasn\u2019t just like \u2018ok, sit down and write an album\u2019 it was like over the two years that we had it was just here\u2019s songs\u2026 you see what I\u2019m getting at?<\/p>\n

And you can tell because this new album flows so well, it was almost like the first one was put together because you almost had to, and with this one as you said with time to do it did you set out to or want to do anything differently this time around?<\/strong>
\nI think with this album we didn\u2019t say \u2018hey we\u2019re going to go for this on this song\u2019 or \u2018we\u2019re gonna try this genre\u2019 we just said we\u2019re going to do whatever we want to do and that\u2019s it and if a song turns out the way it turns out, if it\u2019s a slower song or a faster song there wasn\u2019t any \u2018no we can\u2019t do that\u2019 it was all just\u00a0 this is what sounds best to us and this is what we\u2019re gonna go with.<\/p>\n

You say that and you have a song like \u2018Nothing At All\u2019 which stood out for me as a completely different Taking Back Sunday was that something you were a bit hesitant to do?<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s a funny song because I came up with the music for that song, and when I first wrote it, it was a faster punkier sounding song but I wasn\u2019t liking the way it was coming out, so I was working on it and working on it and working on it and I was sitting on my balcony with my guitar and I kind of felt defeated and I was playing it very, very slow, just strumming the chords I had and I thought \u2018oh man I think I\u2019ve got something with playing it like this\u2019. So then I took it to John and said hey I recorded this, check this out and he was into it and then just started putting the extra little bit of music on it and we kind of just went with it.<\/p>\n

The title of the album, I have to ask, \u2018Happiness Is\u2019 well, what is happiness to you?<\/strong>
\nHappiness to me is family, I got a wife I got a kid and coming home from tour and seeing them and just hanging out with them and being a dad and a husband and that\u2019s what happiness to me is. I think if you asked everybody in the band I think they\u2019d say the exact same thing.<\/p>\n

So how did the title come about as it seems like an open statement to leave it to your own interpretation as to what happiness is?<\/strong>
\nWe were throwing around a bunch of things and Adam called all of us and said \u2018I have this idea, \u2018Happiness Is\u2019 what do you all think?\u2019 and everybody, it was kind of just immediate, everybody said yeah let\u2019s do it. The thing is, we didn\u2019t come up with the title because of this, but at the same time personally the relationships within the band are the best they\u2019ve ever been throughout the fifteen years of being a band, so it made perfect sense when he said it.<\/p>\n

So do you think that the little split with a couple of the guys and getting back together was what you guys needed to re-energize the band?<\/strong>
\nYeah definitely, before John and Shaun came back I had checked out, mentally I was just done and that was the thing, Shaun and I have been, our group of friends have been best friends since we were five or six years old, so I still hung out with Shaun all the time, he\u2019s still one of my best friends, so John Nolan was actually doing a solo tour and it was starting off in Long Island, and Shaun was like \u2018Yo, wanna go hang out with John? He\u2019s coming\u2026\u2019 so we all three went out one night and I was like \u2018I just can\u2019t be in this band anymore\u2019 and to Shaun I was like what about this idea, do you think John would be down with it? No one thought he would and when I talked to him he was, so yeah, having John and Shaun back, if they weren\u2019t back we would be done for sure, 100%…<\/p>\n

Now you talked about you writing music for the songs, do you guys all work on different parts and bring them in to each other and build the songs that way?<\/strong>
\nYeah, it\u2019s like writing is five guys, it\u2019s cool because one guy will have a guitar part, like I\u2019ll come up with a guitar part of Eddie will come up with a guitar part a lot of the times and then everybody has something to say you know what I mean? Everybody has their strong points and everybody knows what they\u2019re good at. So John and Adam are the lyric guys, but they add to the music too, so to answer your question, yes, everybody adds to the writing.<\/p>\n

OK, so the year is well underway, so let\u2019s predict the rest of it\u2026 finish this sentence for me, by the end of 2014, Taking Back Sunday will\u2026<\/strong>
\nHmm\u2026 tour more countries than we\u2019ve ever toured before. The goal is to go to as many places and reach out to as many people as we can.<\/p>\n

I did just see you were added to Riot Fest which is an absolutely insane line up\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah dude, being a part of that is amazing, I mean Slayer is playing, there\u2019s a band that I really like called Red City Radio, they\u2019re playing\u2026 it\u2019s such a crazy line-up and I\u2019m really excited to be a part of it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m half tempted to get on a plane and come over for it\u2026<\/strong>
\nYou know, I was thinking, you know how Coachella is like the hipster thing here where all the bands are playing and it\u2019s like the festival and you\u2019re a band and you get on that it\u2019s like the big thing you know, but I kinda don\u2019t really give a shit about that, like being a part of this, the Riot Fest is really cool for me and I can\u2019t wait to do it.<\/p>\n

Well firstly we\u2019ll see you down here in August, it\u2019ll be one hell of a show\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah man, I can\u2019t wait to go, I\u2019m super excited.<\/p>\n

Essential information<\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong>\u00a0Long Island, New York, USA<\/p>\n

Band members:<\/strong>\u00a0Adam Lazzara – vocals, Eddie Reyes – guitar, John Nolan – guitar\/vocals, Mark O’Connell – drums, Shaun Cooper – bass\/tomfoolery<\/p>\n

Latest release:<\/strong>\u00a0Happiness Is\u2026 – (Out Now \u2013 Hopeless Records) \u2013\u00a0Check out our review HERE<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Catch Taking Back Sunday on tour in Australia with The Used at the following dates:<\/strong><\/p>\n

TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY 16 MAY, 9AM LOCAL TIME<\/p>\n

THURSDAY 21 AUGUST \u2013 ADELAIDE, HQ \u2013 Licensed All Ages
\nwww.oztix.com.au<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0www.venuetix.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

FRIDAY 22 AUGUST \u2013 BRISBANE, EATONS HILL HOTEL \u2013 Licensed All Ages
\nwww.oztix.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

SATURDAY 23 AUGUST \u2013 SYDNEY, UNSW ROUNDHOUSE – Licensed All Ages
\nwww.ticketek.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

MONDAY 25 AUGUST \u2013 MELBOURNE, 170 RUSSELL \u2013 18+
\nwww.oztix.com.au<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0www.170russell.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Presented by Soundwave Touring<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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Website:<\/strong>\u00a0http:\/\/www.takingbacksunday.com<\/a><\/p>\n