By Alyssa Herter
Arts Editor
After a lengthy hiatus, golden-boys of alternative rock, Taking Back Sunday, are back on the touring scene in full force with a new album to tote.
Currently co-headlining a United States tour with the All-American Rejects, Taking Back Sunday are excited to have new material, and yet again, a new member (guitarist Matt Fazzi), to introduce to fans.
I had the opportunity to chat with bassist Matt Rubano about the new album, tour, and the band’s refreshed chemistry.
Alyssa Herter: The title of your latest album is “New Again,” how does that relate to the changes the band has been through since the first EP, and how has the chemistry changed from album to album?
Matt Rubano: Well, specifically on this album, with Matt [Fazzi] joining the band, and us having a little bit of time in between “Louder Now” and “New Again,” it really kind of gave us some new blood and a fresh perspective on the band itself. We really always want to be redefining what it means to be Taking Back Sunday, to sound like Taking Back Sunday. And on this record I think we really made it a diverse, and creative record. I think we did a lot of things that are kind of true to, maybe, the original sound of Taking Back Sunday, the things that sort of tie all the records together, and some exploration into new place for us. So I think that over the years, it’s certainly changed relative to the personnel, and just sort of, our own creative influence.
AH: In regards to what you touched on, the members of the band have almost completely changed since the beginning. In regards to the direction of the music do you feel like it has evolved the way you’ve wanted it to? Have the changes aided the creative process?
MR: Well yeah, I mean when I joined the band in 2003, I joined before “Where You Want to Be,” and contributed in helping write that record with everyone else. So at that point, the original members were really up for everything, you know, they really were down to you know, not try this “whole new thing,” but it was like, as far as what kind of music and what kind of sound we were gonna do, it was really open to whatever we wanted to try, and that was a really empowering thing cause we were able to kind of re-write the story and start all over again. I feel like “Louder Now” was kind of like a record where we learned from our previous experiences, and kind of developed a sound a little bit more and captured some of the live energy that we’ve always had on that record. And on “New Again” it was really about trying to sort of, you know, take yet again another look at everything and refresh it for us. There was a real open-minded approach to writing that record, to writing “New Again,” that made it fun and exciting for us because we weren’t really concerned with anything other than what organically and naturally just came out of the band.
AH: It’s been almost four years since “Louder Now” was released, is it refreshing to have new material to play?
MR: Certainly. I mean, it was in 2006 “Louder Now” came out, so yeah, it was the kind of thing where we toured for so long on that record and then took time off after Project Revolution [music festival] in 2007, and started working on the record kind of immediately. But didn’t really have everything moving forward until we had completed the lineup, and that’s when Matt [Fazzi] joined. But yeah, certainly, and now we have four records from which to choose every night when we make our set list. So yea, there’s quite a bit of material to play now, both new and old, and we play a lot of the things of all of the records each night.
AH: That’s good to hear as a fan of some of the older tunes, that fans will still have the opportunity to hear some of the old favorites live.
MR: Yeah, I mean, it’s the kind of thing where most people have sort of grown along with us and for the same reason that none of us dress the same way that we did ten years ago, or eight years ago, or six years ago, you know, people don’t listen to the exact same thing that they were into then. And I think a lot of people have sort of stuck with the band and grown with us over the years, and hence the change in the sound of the records.
AH: I know a lot of your fan base probably are within the college realm now, just thinking of the people who started listening to you back in middle school and high school and have been following you over the years, probably are that age group now. Do you know a difference as far as kind of, crowd appreciation when you play that age group?
MR: I mean, it’s really hard to break it down these days because there are people that have discovered the band now as younger people in there teens, and people that have been listening to us for a long time. And I personally, have enjoyed seeing the fan base kind of diversify and the age groups seem to be pretty wide right now for us. It’s a cool thing because you know, it means that people are kind of being able to take in your music that you’ve written over the years from different records and are sort of like, processing it all at the same time versus someone that’s been a fan for years. So it’s hard to say I’ve really watched it change over the years from almost exclusively really young people to you know, a much broader thing at this point, which feel really good because that makes me feel like we’re not only reaching out to people, but connecting with them and keeping them interested.
AH: I think that really says a lot about the depth of your music that you can appeal to such a wide variety of age groups and personalities.
As far as live performances go, you guys have been known to give quite the high-energy performance. I have to ask, I heard at some point that you had a run-in with a microphone a few years back?
MR: I did. Um, I unfortunately had my face sort of bashed in by Adam [Lazzara]’s microphone one night at a show in London in front of about 12,000 people during the first song of our set.
AH: Geez.
MR: Yeah I wasn’t really paying attention, and sort of walked right into it. I mean, it’s the kind of thing where if you’re in Taking Back Sunday, you accept that as a part of your every day, not getting hit by the microphone, but that you need to keep your eye on it. I was a little bit distracted by something else that was going on on-stage and got myself a half-dozen stitches in my forehead. I was able to finish the show, and then got taken to the hospital afterwards. But yea, I’ve never been knocked to the floor so swiftly, or with so much force as I was that day.
AH: In lieu of that, would you say that you agree with the statement that “mics are for singing not swinging?”
MR: Um, I agree more with “pay attention dumbass.” I think it’s really cool, and I think it’s certainly part of Adam’s performance.
AH: This time around, what can fans expect to see this time around that they may not have seen from you guys before?
MR: On this tour we’re really trying to mix up the set-list, and it’s really impossible to play all the songs that everyone wants to hear every night, and especially with four records under our belt at this point. So we’re really trying to mix it up and keep the set-list fresh from night-to-night. And we’re working on some little cover ideas, and things like that. I think people can expect to hear maybe some songs that they haven’t heard from us in a while.
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