Dan Marsala - Story of the Year (01/07/2011)
Story Of The Year are due to make their return to Australia, marking the 5th time that the band have toured here. Touring again less than a year and a half after their last headlining tour, supported by Saosin and Blessthefall, Story Of The Year are set to play at this years Soundwave Revolution festival in September.
I spoke to vocalist Dan Marsala about the band’s history, prior Australian tours, his thoughts on the bands success and their latest album The Constant, and his love of early A.F.I.
Hello, how you doing?
Not too bad Dan, how are you doing?
I’m great.
That’s good. First thing’s first, how’s the band doing at the moment?
The band’s doing great. We’ve been relaxing for the last few months, we’re off with some side projects, and kinda just been hanging at home. We’re all ready to get to work and come play some shows in Australia.
That’s cool man. Have you started writing the follow up to 2010’s The Constant?
We haven’t actually gotten together and started writing yet. I know everybody’s working separately as we always do, but we’ve all been writing for other projects. Nothing has come together yet, but I’m assuming it will in the next few months, we’ll see.
Speaking of side projects, Adam Russel (bassist) is playing in D.R.U.G.S with Craig Owens, are any of the other guys playing in other bands?
Yeah, they’re playing Soundwave, which will be interesting for Adam; it’s going to be a long day for him playing two sets. I have a punk band, a funny punk band called The Fuck Off And Dies, and that’s been occupying my time for the last couple of months. We just finished recording the full length in my basement, actually. It’s just like old school punk rock, short songs, fast, fun. We say fuck a lot, I don’t know if I can say fuck on whatever this is, but you guys seem to be a bit more lenient with the F word down there than we are here.
That sounds like fun. Any plans to tour before you settle down with writing the new Story Of The Year album?
For Adam, D.R.U.G.S are doing really well, and it’s getting serious for them. Everyone else is just doing things to occupy our time while we take a break and play with some other friends. As soon as Story Of The Year is back in swing, we know that that’s our priority.
Soundwave Revolution will be the 5th time that Story Of The Year have played Australia, which is pretty regular touring. (I reminded him of each of the times that the band had been here.) Do you have a favourite tour?
Man, that’s good that you reminded me of all those, because I’m always trying to remember how often we’ve been there. Every time is amazing there, it’s seriously one of our favourite places to play, and I know that people probably just say that, but we all seriously love it. I distinctly remember that Flogging Molly and Emery tour, because I think that was probably our biggest one. The show that we played in Sydney that tour was one of the biggest headline shows we’ve ever played. We always remember that show because it was super special to us. We were really excited to be there with Flogging Molly because they’re an amazing band, and we were confused as to why they were opening for us, we felt a little weird about it.
Do you have anything planned for Soundwave, or just a standard set as far as you guys go?
We haven’t talked about it too much yet, we’re getting ready to rehearse for some other shows we’re doing. With every show we play, it’s all about putting as much energy into it as possible, and you know, just having as much fun as we can. You can definitely expect energy and an array of different Story Of The Year music. I’m sure we’ll pull out something crazy when we get there, we’ll see.
I saw you guys last year when you played with Saosin and Blessthefall, and I think you played around 22 songs, and that was a pretty even spread across all four albums.
Yeah, now that we have four albums out, it’s hard to not play for an hour and a half. It’s very tiring.
Considering that when you’ve toured Australia before, you’ve played for an hour or less, it’s a pretty big difference.
We try to step it up and play as long as we can these days. I don’t know about Soundwave though, it’ll probably be a shorter set, so we’ll have to figure out what to throw in there, we’ll see.
I’m guessing the Soundwave Revolution set will revolve more around the crowd favourites, to keep everyone interested?
Yeah, we’ll keep it upbeat, play some of the crowd favourites, and just have fun.
Speaking of those favourites, do you ever get sick of playing some of your more well known songs, such as Until The Day I Die or Anthem Of Our Dying Day, or do you enjoy playing those songs set after set?
You know, there was a time where we definitely were kind of sick of it, in the middle years where we’d been touring for like three years straight, and we played the songs every day. It got a little old, and after a few more years go by, you realise that people still love it and still sing along to every word. The songs have a different meaning to me now, I just love to see the whole crowd light up when we start to play the songs that they really love. I still love playing them now, but there was a time where we got a little tired of them.
They’re such distinctive songs as well, as soon as you start playing Until The Day I Die the crowd just go nuts and have a massive sing-along.
Yeah, and that’s a great thing. It’s a great pick-me-up in the show, and it’s a really great feeling.
Your newer songs have been going down live as well; The Constant was really well received.
Yeah, I think it’s been doing really well. We keep in mind how a particular song will go down live, and we’re a band that prides ourselves on our live show, and we focus on that when we write songs.
Recently you played your debut album, Page Avenue, in full to celebrate 10 years of being a band. What was that like, pulling out all those old songs that you haven’t played on years?
It was pretty amazing. We wanted to do it in our home town, for all our friends and families and fans that have been with us since the very beginning. We didn’t really know what to expect, but it probably ended up being one of our favourite shows we’ve ever played. It was pretty amazing. It felt really different and special, and a couple of the songs we had never really played live. It was really cool, and I know we’re going to do it again at other places in the world at sometime in the near future, but we’re going to try and wait a little closer to the ten year anniversary of Page Avenue. We’ve got another year or so, but we’re definitely going to take it on the road at some point around then.
10 years for a post-hardcore band like you is a pretty long time, most bands tend to start out strong and then burn out. What do you think the reason for your success was?
I think it’s just friendship. We grew up skateboarding together, and music was just kind of a hobby in a way, you know, we all played music and skateboarded and hung out. Music became more and more serious over the years, but we were friends first, and the music was just an added bonus to us. Friendship really solidified that we were going to stay together, and we all truly still like each other which is hard to find in bands now. A lot of bands hate each other, but they play music because that’s what they have to do.
So many bands start hating each other after being stuck on the road together for so long, or after constant line up changes. SOTY have had a pretty solid line-up for most of your career, do you think this has helped?
Yeah, we went through a lot of changes in the early days, but this line-up got together in around 2001, and it’s been the same guys since then. I don’t think it’ll ever change.
That shows a kind of solidarity that a lot of bands lack.
Yeah, we can still pull it off now, and hopefully for another ten years to come, we’ll see.
You used to be known as Big Blue Monkey back in the early days, but after another band had the same name, you changed to Story Of The Year. Why that name?
We had a song called Story Of The Year, when we were known as Big Blue Monkey, and we’d gotten some local success, and we were doing well, so we wanted to keep it kind of recognisable to our fans that we had, so we just went with a song title that we already had. To hear the song now is kind of funny, as it says story of the year a bunch in it. It was just a song title, and Big Blue Monkey was one of the worst names of all time, but at least it was funny. (laughs)
Would you ever consider pulling out one of the old songs live again?
Hmm, maybe. We have a five song demo, and it’s basically the same line-up as Story Of The Year, but its right when I started singing, as I was previously the drummer, and a guitar player before that. We have some old demos recorded of that, and it would be fun to either re-record or remix those and put them out at some point.
One of those songs was re-recorded for Page Avenue, wasn’t it?
Yeah. Razorblades was actually an old song from the Big Blue Monkey days, and it used to be called Razorblades And Cupcakes, and we re-recorded it for Page Avenue.
It’s always interesting when bands pull out songs from before they had a change in style, such as when A.F.I pulled out a song off one of their first albums, and hearing that live was just so surprising seeing as it’s a 15 year old song that sounds nothing like how they do now.
I’ve been an A.F.I fan for a really long time; we actually toured with them in Europe last year. It’s really weird to hear them play older stuff, you know, compared to their newer style. I’ve always been an A.F.I fan, I think they’re great.
It was at Soundwave last year, they actually played Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, and the majority of the crowd had no idea what it was.
(laughs) The newer fans are not necessarily fans of the older punk stuff, you know.
Speaking of Soundwave, are their any bands you’re excited to check out or play with while you’re here?
Yeah, definitely. A lot of our friends that we’ve toured with over the years are playing; I'm definitely excited to see friends. You know, the obvious ones, like Van Halen and Alice Cooper, that’s going to be crazy.
It’s the first time that Van Halen are playing outside the states in something like 15 years, I heard.
It’s going to be crazy. I hope we’re playing at a different time so we can watch them a bunch of times.
Do you know if you are playing a sideshow while you’re down here, or is it just the festival set planned?
Honestly, I have no idea. I don’t think any separate shows are planned at this point in time, but we’re always open to playing one if it can be done.
Dan, that’s it for us. Thanks heaps for your time, and see you at Soundwave Revolution.
No problem, come say hi.
Josh Mitrou
I spoke to vocalist Dan Marsala about the band’s history, prior Australian tours, his thoughts on the bands success and their latest album The Constant, and his love of early A.F.I.
Hello, how you doing?
Not too bad Dan, how are you doing?
I’m great.
That’s good. First thing’s first, how’s the band doing at the moment?
The band’s doing great. We’ve been relaxing for the last few months, we’re off with some side projects, and kinda just been hanging at home. We’re all ready to get to work and come play some shows in Australia.
That’s cool man. Have you started writing the follow up to 2010’s The Constant?
We haven’t actually gotten together and started writing yet. I know everybody’s working separately as we always do, but we’ve all been writing for other projects. Nothing has come together yet, but I’m assuming it will in the next few months, we’ll see.
Speaking of side projects, Adam Russel (bassist) is playing in D.R.U.G.S with Craig Owens, are any of the other guys playing in other bands?
Yeah, they’re playing Soundwave, which will be interesting for Adam; it’s going to be a long day for him playing two sets. I have a punk band, a funny punk band called The Fuck Off And Dies, and that’s been occupying my time for the last couple of months. We just finished recording the full length in my basement, actually. It’s just like old school punk rock, short songs, fast, fun. We say fuck a lot, I don’t know if I can say fuck on whatever this is, but you guys seem to be a bit more lenient with the F word down there than we are here.
That sounds like fun. Any plans to tour before you settle down with writing the new Story Of The Year album?
For Adam, D.R.U.G.S are doing really well, and it’s getting serious for them. Everyone else is just doing things to occupy our time while we take a break and play with some other friends. As soon as Story Of The Year is back in swing, we know that that’s our priority.
Soundwave Revolution will be the 5th time that Story Of The Year have played Australia, which is pretty regular touring. (I reminded him of each of the times that the band had been here.) Do you have a favourite tour?
Man, that’s good that you reminded me of all those, because I’m always trying to remember how often we’ve been there. Every time is amazing there, it’s seriously one of our favourite places to play, and I know that people probably just say that, but we all seriously love it. I distinctly remember that Flogging Molly and Emery tour, because I think that was probably our biggest one. The show that we played in Sydney that tour was one of the biggest headline shows we’ve ever played. We always remember that show because it was super special to us. We were really excited to be there with Flogging Molly because they’re an amazing band, and we were confused as to why they were opening for us, we felt a little weird about it.
Do you have anything planned for Soundwave, or just a standard set as far as you guys go?
We haven’t talked about it too much yet, we’re getting ready to rehearse for some other shows we’re doing. With every show we play, it’s all about putting as much energy into it as possible, and you know, just having as much fun as we can. You can definitely expect energy and an array of different Story Of The Year music. I’m sure we’ll pull out something crazy when we get there, we’ll see.
I saw you guys last year when you played with Saosin and Blessthefall, and I think you played around 22 songs, and that was a pretty even spread across all four albums.
Yeah, now that we have four albums out, it’s hard to not play for an hour and a half. It’s very tiring.
Considering that when you’ve toured Australia before, you’ve played for an hour or less, it’s a pretty big difference.
We try to step it up and play as long as we can these days. I don’t know about Soundwave though, it’ll probably be a shorter set, so we’ll have to figure out what to throw in there, we’ll see.
I’m guessing the Soundwave Revolution set will revolve more around the crowd favourites, to keep everyone interested?
Yeah, we’ll keep it upbeat, play some of the crowd favourites, and just have fun.
Speaking of those favourites, do you ever get sick of playing some of your more well known songs, such as Until The Day I Die or Anthem Of Our Dying Day, or do you enjoy playing those songs set after set?
You know, there was a time where we definitely were kind of sick of it, in the middle years where we’d been touring for like three years straight, and we played the songs every day. It got a little old, and after a few more years go by, you realise that people still love it and still sing along to every word. The songs have a different meaning to me now, I just love to see the whole crowd light up when we start to play the songs that they really love. I still love playing them now, but there was a time where we got a little tired of them.
They’re such distinctive songs as well, as soon as you start playing Until The Day I Die the crowd just go nuts and have a massive sing-along.
Yeah, and that’s a great thing. It’s a great pick-me-up in the show, and it’s a really great feeling.
Your newer songs have been going down live as well; The Constant was really well received.
Yeah, I think it’s been doing really well. We keep in mind how a particular song will go down live, and we’re a band that prides ourselves on our live show, and we focus on that when we write songs.
Recently you played your debut album, Page Avenue, in full to celebrate 10 years of being a band. What was that like, pulling out all those old songs that you haven’t played on years?
It was pretty amazing. We wanted to do it in our home town, for all our friends and families and fans that have been with us since the very beginning. We didn’t really know what to expect, but it probably ended up being one of our favourite shows we’ve ever played. It was pretty amazing. It felt really different and special, and a couple of the songs we had never really played live. It was really cool, and I know we’re going to do it again at other places in the world at sometime in the near future, but we’re going to try and wait a little closer to the ten year anniversary of Page Avenue. We’ve got another year or so, but we’re definitely going to take it on the road at some point around then.
10 years for a post-hardcore band like you is a pretty long time, most bands tend to start out strong and then burn out. What do you think the reason for your success was?
I think it’s just friendship. We grew up skateboarding together, and music was just kind of a hobby in a way, you know, we all played music and skateboarded and hung out. Music became more and more serious over the years, but we were friends first, and the music was just an added bonus to us. Friendship really solidified that we were going to stay together, and we all truly still like each other which is hard to find in bands now. A lot of bands hate each other, but they play music because that’s what they have to do.
So many bands start hating each other after being stuck on the road together for so long, or after constant line up changes. SOTY have had a pretty solid line-up for most of your career, do you think this has helped?
Yeah, we went through a lot of changes in the early days, but this line-up got together in around 2001, and it’s been the same guys since then. I don’t think it’ll ever change.
That shows a kind of solidarity that a lot of bands lack.
Yeah, we can still pull it off now, and hopefully for another ten years to come, we’ll see.
You used to be known as Big Blue Monkey back in the early days, but after another band had the same name, you changed to Story Of The Year. Why that name?
We had a song called Story Of The Year, when we were known as Big Blue Monkey, and we’d gotten some local success, and we were doing well, so we wanted to keep it kind of recognisable to our fans that we had, so we just went with a song title that we already had. To hear the song now is kind of funny, as it says story of the year a bunch in it. It was just a song title, and Big Blue Monkey was one of the worst names of all time, but at least it was funny. (laughs)
Would you ever consider pulling out one of the old songs live again?
Hmm, maybe. We have a five song demo, and it’s basically the same line-up as Story Of The Year, but its right when I started singing, as I was previously the drummer, and a guitar player before that. We have some old demos recorded of that, and it would be fun to either re-record or remix those and put them out at some point.
One of those songs was re-recorded for Page Avenue, wasn’t it?
Yeah. Razorblades was actually an old song from the Big Blue Monkey days, and it used to be called Razorblades And Cupcakes, and we re-recorded it for Page Avenue.
It’s always interesting when bands pull out songs from before they had a change in style, such as when A.F.I pulled out a song off one of their first albums, and hearing that live was just so surprising seeing as it’s a 15 year old song that sounds nothing like how they do now.
I’ve been an A.F.I fan for a really long time; we actually toured with them in Europe last year. It’s really weird to hear them play older stuff, you know, compared to their newer style. I’ve always been an A.F.I fan, I think they’re great.
It was at Soundwave last year, they actually played Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, and the majority of the crowd had no idea what it was.
(laughs) The newer fans are not necessarily fans of the older punk stuff, you know.
Speaking of Soundwave, are their any bands you’re excited to check out or play with while you’re here?
Yeah, definitely. A lot of our friends that we’ve toured with over the years are playing; I'm definitely excited to see friends. You know, the obvious ones, like Van Halen and Alice Cooper, that’s going to be crazy.
It’s the first time that Van Halen are playing outside the states in something like 15 years, I heard.
It’s going to be crazy. I hope we’re playing at a different time so we can watch them a bunch of times.
Do you know if you are playing a sideshow while you’re down here, or is it just the festival set planned?
Honestly, I have no idea. I don’t think any separate shows are planned at this point in time, but we’re always open to playing one if it can be done.
Dan, that’s it for us. Thanks heaps for your time, and see you at Soundwave Revolution.
No problem, come say hi.
Josh Mitrou