Things have been a little too quiet for Straylight Run. When John Nolan and Shaun Cooper left alternative rock band Taking Back Sunday after the release of the successful Tell All of Your Friends in 2003, all eyes were on the duo to see what their future pursuits would yield. Fans didn’t have to wait long, as the two quickly formed Straylight Run and released their first, self-titled album in 2004. However, despite widespread critical praise and a warm fan reception, the band fell under the radar after the release of their 2005 EP, Prepare to be Wrong. Earlier this year, the band released their highly anticipated sophomore album and showed fans what they’ve been up to for the past two years. Luckily, PopZap! Music’s Scott Olstad had the chance to catch up with John and Shaun at the Warped Tour this year
PopZap!: So I was pleasantly surprised to find out you were playing Warped Tour this summer. It’s not exactly the setting that I would have expected to see you in.
Shaun Cooper: It’s the first time we’ve ever done a Warped Tour, and we were surprised to do the tour as well but Kevin Lyman (Warped Tour creator) was very persistent with us and we took it not knowing what to expect. [And] he was right; it’s been awesome for us.
John Nolan: We’re very excited and happy to be here, and we’re sad we didn’t do it sooner.
PZ!: The setting here is so different from the small, dark clubs or bars that I’ve seen you at previously, like the Beat Kitchen in Chicago or Station 4 here in Minnesota. Obviously, the sunny, outdoor setting is as far away from that as you can get. How does setting affect your performance?
JN: To me, it doesn’t affect it that much. The sound is a little bit harder to deal with outside, but not that bad. I think the biggest thing is the crowd. You can play shows at the same location but the difference in crowds from one show to the next is really what makes it feel different to me. That’s about it.
PZ!: One of the most noticeable aspects of your shows is the amount of intensity you bring to every set. After playing for these huge Warped Tour crowds, is it harder to get excited for shows with 50 kids in a dark room?
SC: Well, if it’s 50 really enthusiastic kids, it’s very easy. It gets hard when people don’t really know your band in a setting where there are more kids like today. I think that takes a lot more energy because you’re really trying to win those thousands of kids over, which is more difficult.
JN: Yeah, you go in with a different mind set when you know you’re playing for fans than when you’re playing for people who don’t really know your band very well. You come in when you’re playing for people at the Warped Tour with this idea of “We’ve got to get out here and really win these people over, really show them something.”
SC: It’s a fight to win them over. That’s how you feel. It’s that kind of mentality.
PZ!: How do you keep yourself energized while playing a new show everyday on this tour?
JN: I don’t know. It hasn’t been so hard on this tour. We have a half an hour set. We’ve been playing for the past two years, with almost every show ranging anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes, so the shorter set makes it easier. Just the opportunity to get in front of a lot of new people makes it easy to get excited, because we haven’t gotten that opportunity very often in any of our tours.
SC: Absolutely. I say the most difficult thing is that today we’re on a 12 day run, I don’t know when the last time was when we played 12 days straight without any breaks. Tomorrow is the first day off since we got on the tour, and even that isn’t too bad.
PZ!: What is your ideal setting? If you could play a show anywhere where would you play, keeping in mind that PopZap! is situated out of Winnipeg and not Minneapolis so you have no obligation to pick this city?
JN: As basic of an answer as it is, I think we all love playing at home the most. There’s just nothing like playing to a hometown crowd, whether it’s Long Island or New York City. Our last show at Irving Plaza was probably my favorite show we’ve ever played. And I don’t know how much that has to do with being at Irving Plaza or not, but it’s a cool place to play because I saw so many bands there while growing up. It’s so close to home, you get such an enthusiastic reaction. It’s really a great place for us.
PZ!: You mentioned how short a half hour set is compared to the much longer sets you get during headlining tours, how does only having half an hour affect your set list? Do you change your set to better fit a Warped Tour crowd?
JN: We kind of try not to change up what we would naturally do too much. Of course, you have to make some choices about what to cut because you only have a half an hour, but we try to just do what we would do anywhere, and not try to tailor our set to a Warped Tour crowd or anything. I think it has worked out.
SC: We’re just trying to do our own thing and separate ourselves from the millions of bands who get out there and talk about circle pits and moshing and “is everyone having fun?” Of course everyone is having fun, it’s the Warped Tour. And, you know, shouting the city’s name over and over again. It’s like, man, you’ve heard it about 18,000 times from every band that has played today. We’re just trying to give everyone a little something different.
PZ!: You just released your new record. You only get to pick one thing you like about it, what is it?
SC: I think it’s the diversity that I like. I like the feels of all the different songs. I think it’s what we’ve been aspiring to do for awhile now. What do you like?
JN: I like that in addition to the diversity of the different types of songs on the album, I think that we were able to still maintain a consistent, recognizable sound, even with those different varieties. I think the combination of those two things together and that we were able to pull these different styles of songs together is probably my favorite thing.
PZ!: How long until we see a drumline on stage for “Take It To Manhattan?”
JN: Ha, I would hope sooner than later. Will would have it any day; he loves a lot of drums. I don’t know if it will ever happen, but we’d like to incorporate it someday. A drumline would be expensive. We would one day like to do a tour where we have horns and strings and the drumline and make a big production of it but who knows if that will ever be possible?
SC: Yeah, a lot more people need to buy our record and a lot more people need to come to shows before we can start doing that.
PZ!: On a similar note, does the previous mentioned diversity of the new album make it harder to play some of the more complicated songs live?
SC: Yeah, we haven’t even attempted some of the songs live yet. That’s going to take a little while to work out. Hopefully we’ll get it together and do a tour, and figure things out, and maybe we’ll have to scale things back a little bit from how they are on the record but hopefully still stay true to the song.
PZ!: My favorite song on the new record is easily “Who Will Save Us Now.” Can you talk a little bit about the inspiration for it?
JN: Thank you, that’s one of the songs that I’m really proud of on the new record. It came from a place in life, whether it’s in my personal life or just looking around life in general and other people, and just kind of realizing that for myself and for everybody that there needs to be more personal responsibility taken for people and the decisions that we all make in our lives. I feel that so many of us are looking for something to save us from our problems; or something to blame our problems on; or something to tell us what we have to do in life. It just seems like everybody’s solution in life is to find somebody who will tell them how to live. You see it a lot and I just think that it needed to be said, both to myself and for myself. I think that the only way to really solve your problems in life and deal with anything is to take responsibility for your actions and to live your own life your own way and go through a process of trial and error to figure things out.
PZ!: “Who Will Save Us Now” isn’t the first time that your songs have taken a political tone. Is it a band’s responsibility to advocate issues they feel strongly about or do they risk alienating potential fans by doing so?
SC: It didn’t seem to hurt Green Day any to come out and speak about their beliefs. I mean, [American Idiot] was their biggest record. I think it’s just things that are on John and Michelle’s mind, that they feel like they have to express in one way or another. It’s not really trying to sway people, as much as it is to get it out there because it’s what they’re thinking.
JN: That’s exactly true. It’s not something, like Shaun said, that we think we need to convince people to think this or believe that politically. I think that it’s just the same as anything else. You sing about what you’re feeling and what you’re thinking about things and your point of view, and sometimes that happens to cross with politics. I think your only responsibility as an artist is to be honest about what you’re seeing and what you’re thinking and feeling, and that’s it.
PZ!: What is your goal when you sit down to write a song? Are you trying to write something that you’re going to like, or that your fans are going to like, or are you trying to get a message across?
JN: The goal that I have is to write something that expresses something that I need to get off my chest, and even more than that is to write the kind of song that I would like to hear. I think that’s always what I try to do first and foremost: to write songs that I like. I can’t do anything good if I’m not doing that.
PZ!: Was there more pressure making the first record when you had so many big expectations before you were even a band, or this record that you recorded without a label and you had to make sure you could sell it to a label to make your money back?
SC: I think I felt equal pressure on both, which was a lot of pressure -- as you said, people have lots of expectations for the first record and then we went away for a long time without touring and without much label support behind us at all. We put out the EP but that died out very quickly. We didn’t tour on it as much as we could have. It was like starting from square one all over again. Anytime you record a record you want people to like it, but you also want to please yourself and do something interesting and innovative. I think we’ll always feel that same exact kind of pressure because we’re always trying to reinvent ourselves. So I think, it’s never going to be easy for us.
JN: Unfortunately.
PZ: On the Prepare to be Wrong EP, you recorded an excellent cover of Bob Dylan’s “With God on Our Side.” Which cover would you like to do for a future release?
SC: There are so many good songs, it’s hard to pick without putting a lot of thought into it. There are so many songs you want to play, but you’re not sure if you could do them justice or if they’re worth remaking.
JN: Yeah, that’s a problem with cover songs. You don’t want to just take a song that you love a lot and then do a pale imitation of it. The only reason we even did the Bob Dylan song was because we felt that his original version was so stripped down, it’s acoustic and so basic, that it left us a lot of room to do our own thing with it and, not make it better, but at least make it our own --
SC: To put our stamp on his song.
JN: Yeah, I think that’s a really important thing if you’re going to do a cover.
SC: I feel like there are only two artists to cover like that. One of them is Bob Dylan and the other is the Misfits. I feel like they have such good, solid songs, but also have room for people to put their mark on. I don’t know many other bands like that.
If you want to one day see Straylight Run perform with horns, strings and a drumline, make sure you buy a copy of their latest record, The Needles The Space. Actually, you should buy two, just to be safe.
Straylight Run has recently finished their UK tour and will begin touring the US with The Bravery on October, 31st. Spooky.
