Interview With Yellowcard
Posted: 6 September 2004
Contributed By: Jay

TuneLab Music: Obviously, the biggest news is that you just won the MTV2 award at the 2004 MTV VMAs. How does that feel? How was it?

Ryan: Did you see it?

TL: No, it hasn't aired over here [Europe] yet.

Ryan: I was crying. Well not like, bawling, but you could tell I was having trouble speaking. So yeah, it was a pretty big deal.

TL: How was it to perform there?

Ryan: Performing was pretty easy. There was a crowd, you know? Felt like... kinda felt like playing a show. Wasn't like a normal TV show we're always playing because there's not an audience there, it's like they're usually sitting down you know...

TL: Were you excited to play? Like did you think it was a kind of a hint, like maybe you're winning something, so you gotta be there to perform or...

Ryan: I don't know cause we found out we were playing before we found out the nominations. So, I don't know. I mean we really didn't, we really didn't think we were gonna win. Like we were all fuckin' freaked out, dude.
Pete: Yeah, we were not expecting that at all. We went there knowing we were gonna play and then we were gonna party afterwards, that's it. And we went there, and they called our name, and we had no idea what to do with ourselves.
Ryan: And we all got like really nervous when the Beastie Boys came out, cause we were like "ah fuck, dude if the Beastie Boys give us the award..."
Pete: That was amazing within itself.

TL: So what do you think will be the next "huge thing?" Since you got the VMA award, what's the next big thing you'd like to achieve?

Pete: Uh, time off.
Ryan: We're trying to play the Super Bowl. That would probably top it.

TL: You guys have a team?

Ryan: Uh, yeah, I guess we're for the Jaguars, for our hometown, the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Pete: It's gonna be in Jacksonville this year.
Ryan: That's why we're trying to do it, it's our hometown.
Pete: We'll do the hometown heroes thing, play our own Super Bowl...
Ryan: And they're kind of into it because of what happened last year, and they're like, now they're like "oh good hometown southern boys, you know like, clean rock show."
Pete: Yeah, they're kind of into it, we might get it.

TL: You've got the football connection sort of with being on Madden, that's actually how I first heard of you...

Ryan: Yeah, a lot of people [heard of us] that way.

TL: What plans do you guys have for your Europe tour? Are you gonna try to see anything? I saw your schedule and it looks like you don't have much time...

Ryan: Yeah, we don't have time at all, man.
Pete: We went and saw the Louvre when we were in Paris. Um, we went and saw the Eiffel Tower that night, that's about it. We were gonna try and go see a concentration camp today, it's right outside of town, but...
Ryan: We didn't have time.
Pete: Didn't have time.
Ryan: It sucks. We're gonna get really wasted in Amsterdam. You see things in Amsterdam you weren't even planning on seeing.

TL: Sometimes you see things you don't even want to see in Amsterdam... How does a European show compare to American shows?

Pete: Um, the kids here are nuts. It's like they really go... it's like they're thirsting for it and when they get it they just climb all over each other, it's cool.
Ryan: Yeah, it's like starting over over here for us. Like going back in time a bit, it's cool.

TL: You think you have as much as a fanbase here as you do back there?

Ryan: It's growing, not as much at all as in the states...

TL: Because of exposure, through like MTV and all?

Ryan: I mean record sales, there's just not as many records going out over here, you know?
Pete: And the record's a little behind here, too.
Ryan: But it's growing you know, I mean, it's our third time here this year, which is good, I mean, we're not gonna come back again until probably spring next year, but... it was good to get here three times. The shows are growing, you can tell this time around that kids know now who we are.

TL: What are you doing after the US tour following this tour?

Ryan: We do Europe, Australia, Japan, then back home for the US tour.

TL: Do you have plans for after that? Downtime, writing a record?

Ryan: See you later... See ya. Who knows when you'll see us again after that.

TL: Really...

Ryan: Yeah, we're gonna go away... for a while. Just go back to normal life for a while and try to write a record.
Pete: Kind of, we're actually moving to New York, which will be an adventure...
Ryan: Pete and I are gonna move to Manhattan, which is a pretty big adventure for us. We just need something to spark writing real quick and we figured doing something drastic like that...
Pete: It's uh, we're going on the take a lifetime to write your first record and two months to write your second, so...
Ryan: We gotta see what we have...
Pete: We have to start a new life in just literally about three months
Ryan: We have about three months to write the record... if we wanna keep it on a good track, you know but we could take as long as we want, but if we wanna keep it going on a good pace we need to be in the studio by March...

TL: So maybe an album in the summer?

Ryan: Yeah, so we're gonna go somewhere new and hang out with new people and see what happens.

TL: It's a fun place, New York's a lot of fun.

Pete: Yeah, that's our favorite place to stop when we're on tour. When we were on the Warped Tour, we had like Randall's Island in New York and we had a couple shows in Jersey and we had a hotel room for three nights in the city and just took the train back and forth and we had way too much fun that weekend.

TL: This will actually be my first time seeing you live, but seeing videos of you perform live, even on like Sharon Osbourne, you have an amazing amount of energy. Do you guys do anything to get amped up for a show?

Pete: I don't know, we love playing, we just love getting out there and playing, for the most part you know, we just feed off the kids.
Ryan: Yeah, it's kinda as much up to them as it is to us. If they're not into it, if they're not feeling it, it's hard for us to be feeling it... so we just drink. There's a beer on the amp.... a couple beers on the amp that, if the kids are into it you don't have time to turn around to drink 'em, but if they're not... (Ryan takes a drink from his beer as an example)
Pete: We're gonna relax like you guys.

TL: How's touring with New Found Glory? You guys getting to hang out at all?

Ryan: Yeah, well, Warped Tour we hung out every day, almost every day. They're some of my best friends in the world. I live real close to them right now, so when we're home we hang out everyday when we're both home. But, uh, we haven't had as much time to hang out in Europe, because, like travel, leaving early...

TL: So you've got a DVD coming out in November, right?

Pete: Actually, no, it's not gonna be out until like January now.
Ryan: Really? Why's that?
Pete: Something about they can't get shelf space for the holidays, it's too late... you know they have to book space on the shelves
Ryan: You do? That's weird.

(Update 10/11/04: The DVD is in fact coming out November 2nd. Pete either got some bad info or the status simply changed and they got shelf space...)

TL: That is weird.

Pete: There's too much stuff coming out... bigger than us.
Ryan: Are they gonna have Internet pre-orders?
Pete: Maybe, I don't know. It's not gonna hit store shelves until like January though.

TL: What kind of stuff's gonna be on it?

Ryan: It's a live show, you know, really pretty much dry, live. If we fucked up you hear it. We didn't go in and... we didn't go in and over-dub anything. We're just throwing it out there like it is. And uh... then there's like a 35-40 minute long.... documentary...
Pete: B-side footage.
Ryan: ...of stuff that...
Pete: Shows you how lame we are?
Ryan:Well, a lot of it, uh, I don't know, you know we're dealing with, uh, being lumped in with a lot of bands that we really don't care to be lumped in with. And I don't think that Good Charlotte would necessarily put out the footage that we're putting on our documentary footage. Uhhh, it's not like, too crazy, definitely a lot of... it's just us, you really get to know what we're like and what it's like to hang out with us. You know.

TL: What do you guys do with your downtime when you're just hanging out?

Pete: Oh, man.
Ryan: Unfortunately, we drink.
Ryan & Pete: (in unison) We drink a lot.
Pete: We have, you know, when we were on Warped Tour, when we weren't out like checking out other bands, we'd hang out on the bus and watch movies, play video games... Umm...
Ryan: We're pretty geeky dudes. We try to go out and drink and act like we're cool, but...
Pete: On the Warped Tour, we really got into, we bought, we buy a lot of like TV series stuff on DVD, so we can watch like an entire season in two days, 'cause we have nothing else to do. We were really into this HBO show, Six Feet Under, and uh, we watched uh, two seasons in like a week. Like 26...
Ryan: 26 hours of episodes. Dude, it's a...
Pete: It's addictive.
Ryan: It's amazing. It's like... it's the best shit ever... it's so amazing. We're like dying right now because the third season is not on DVD.
Pete: I feel like a woman with a soap opera.
Ryan: Like it's not out yet, we don't know what happened with our boy at the end of the last season. Total cliffhanger.

TL: What's the last CD you bought?

Pete: The last CD I bought was the.. umm... and I'm ashamed to say it, it took me too long to get it, but it was the latest Bad Religion, The Empire Strikes First. Um, it came out a couple months ago, but I got it like two weeks ago.
Ryan: Mine was... oh, God
Pete: Sparta?
Ryan: No, it was later than that. Oh, oh... um...
Pete: No, the last CD I bought was the newest Ben Folds CD
Ryan: Sunny D
Pete: Super D
Ryan: I said Sunny D, like the drink. [I meant] Super D. Um, I bought, uh, Dogwood. Put a record that, like their latest record. And, I've been friends with them for a long, long time... not really, I don't keep in touch with them anymore, but we used to, I used to tour with them a long time ago. I was in a record store buying a Rock Against Bush compilation for a friend of mine, and I saw, I was like, "I never seen this Dogwood record" and I bought it.

TL: If you weren't Yellowcard, if you never started a band, what do you think you'd want to be doing right now versus what you probably would be doing?

Pete: I would be working in residential construction. That's what I'd be going.
Ryan: I think I'd be in New York somewhere trying to do theater. I would have probably graduated college and gotten a degree in theater.

TL: Are you big into... like performing, being on stage?

Ryan: It's been... I was 20 when I went back to school and that was the last show I ever did, Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. That was like, five years ago almost now, so I haven't done anything like that in a long time. But yeah, that's what I did like my whole life. I picked up a guitar when I was like 13, but I still did theater through college. I ended up in a band somehow.

TL: Would you rather be doing that right now?

Ryan: No, hell no.

TL: Didn't think so.

-- At this point the waitress comes with the pizza. --

Ryan: Hey, keep going dude, I'm just gonna hog this down.

TL: What's you guys' favorite song to perform live?

Ryan: [Long pause] I don't know.
Pete: Believe or Salesman probably.
Ryan: Believe probably, yeah.

TL: Well, that's really all the questions I got, I'll leave you to the pizza.

Pete: That's it? Cool!
Ryan: You got any ranch dressing?

TL: No, no ranch.

Ryan: Yeah, neither does anybody in Europe.
Pete: Hidden Valley could make so much money over here.
Ryan: Yeah, I said I was gonna get a huge bottle of A1 sauce and ranch dressing and bring it over here, but I forgot.