Entrevue avec Ryan sur AP

This interview was conducted over the phone with Ryan Key of Yellowcard. The band's new album Paper Walls hits stores on July 17th. Thank you to Ryan, Yellowcard, and Jason at Capitol Records for setting this up.

There was a relatively quick turn around between Lights and Sounds and Paper Walls, is there any particular reason for this?

Well, you know I had the surgery in May of last year on my vocal chords, and that sort of stopped the train from running for a little while. There were four weeks where I was absolutely mute – couldn’t speak at all. And I was really frustrated at that point, you know, with what was happening to my voice – so I had the surgery and then there was that time where I couldn’t speak; no press, no tour, nothing. So that was maybe the first time in a long time where I had some time to just stop and breathe. Time to myself. And so I used that time to think – because I couldn’t talk - and I suppose, in hindsight, that was maybe the best thing to ever happen for me or for Yellowcard. What it forced was a real sense of perspective – seeing where everything was at that point – and reevaluating our band and myself. Because around that time “Rough Landing Holly” went to radio and the video was done but we weren’t able to tour. And I can’t say if it was because people didn’t like the song, or because we weren’t touring, but things didn’t go anywhere. So, we had to sort of back-up and take a look at things – sort it out and then move on.
So when we could, we headed back out on tour that summer, in September, and this time when we went out, I feel that I went out with a completely new perspective. Maybe a better perspective than I’ve ever had on any of this – at anytime with Yellowcard. It was just a totally different headspace for me. And we were playing smaller shows, which lead to a feeling of acceptance, a feeling of “ok, this is where we are – let’s move on – things have happened but we can’t look back.”
And while I can’t speak for the entire band (which is sometimes hard in these one on one interviews) I can say that I, personally, had a great summer. I loved the shows we were playing – and everything. And while the “old” version of myself probably would have thought our career was over, and after we had worked so hard, and all that, I made a conscious choice not to act or feel that way. Instead I was able to enjoy it – enjoy playing music with my friends – and it may have been the first time in a long time I felt that way. And with that feeling in mind we talked as a band and felt that we didn’t need to take anytime off before putting the next album together. We had been writing as a band while on the road, especially during a lot of the international stuff, in the dressing rooms, things like that. Mainly we just had a bunch of riffs put together. I mean, Ryan (Mendez) is basically playing guitar – all of the time. And that makes it almost impossible not to write music. So we had a lot of riffs, not really whole songs, I think I had a couple songs done – “Keeper” was pretty far along and so was “Light the Sky” when we went into production. And we had enough pieces where we just felt, as a band, we should go in – you know? Just go and do it – fresh – and see what we come up with – and so we did.

So based a little off of that – Lights and Sounds may not have been as critically accepted as some of the band’s previous work. In hindsight – what are your thoughts on that album?

I suppose it depends how you look at “critically accepted” – I mean, when the album first came out, you could say, in many ways, for a variety of publications that it was released to critical acclaim. It depends what and where you read. For example, many publications that had sort of shunned the band before for - actually similar reasons I read in your review of the new album in reference to “pop-punk” - that very word - and I think some of those people came around and said, “oh this record is very different and it’s sort of taken them out of that genre.” And on the other side we have a lot of kids who were previously fans of the band, and they maybe didn’t like that. You know?
So I look at it like this – first, it’s hard to include One for the Kids in this analogy because that album was so different, we wrote it at 18, and so many of those songs came from like 3 other bands I had been in. So if you look at these three records (Ocean Ave., Lights and Sounds, and Paper Walls) you’ll find this: Ocean Avenue was a record that was very much about moving out and finding your place in the world and looking at everything that you wanted to be. Lights and Sounds was then a record that was about the realization that you had gotten lost. And where people grabbed onto Ocean Ave. and applied it to their lives – both in the music and the lyrics – Lights and Sounds was a record that came from a completely different perspective. It was completely introverted and came from – I wish I had a different word but I don’t – “darker” place. And I don’t think I ever expected everyone to grab on to those feelings – I think our hope was that maybe we had done something that could transcend the genre. And I really think you have to go through that – we can’t make the same record over and over again. We change as people and we feel our fans do too – they’ve grown with our band. Now you look at Paper Walls, which is very much a record of hope and finding yourself again. It’s after you’ve come through all of that – going to the height of it – and picking yourself back up again. And by “hitting rock bottom” I don’t mean in record sales or fame or any of that shit. I mean personally – emotionally.
So I suppose there was always the hope that we had done something great and maybe different – Sean and his arrangements on Lights and Sounds for example, was a huge undertaking. And I remember saying back when the album was about to come out that there were going to be some people that were alienated by the record. But that was necessary for our career and for me as a person to get those feelings and emotions behind me. Because, to not really get specific, I was not taking very good care of my body at that part of my life, falling into a lot of the common pitfalls that come with being in a rock band. And I think if I wouldn’t have made that record, Lights and Sounds, I wouldn’t have made it through it and came out of those pits and with a new feeling of hope. And now Paper Walls is the story, the feeling, of what it’s like to be out of those holes, looking back, no regrets, but smarter and having grown through them.

Some people have said that the new album has a sound that could be described as more “commercially viable,” for lack of a better term, how would you respond to such comments?

Sure, that is actually really easy to explain. When we finished the touring for Ocean Avenue we’d been out for maybe 19 or 20 months. So almost two years – no break – every night on the road. When we were done with that it was like, okay, I will see you guys later. And at the end of the cycle Pete and I had talked about moving to New York. It was something where we both realized we’d sort of be homeless at the end of the tour and we started talking – and we thought “well, we’re both 25 and single – let’s do it.” A lot of the music was conceived there. In a very dark place. Middle of the winter, I was pushing more limits on myself – both personally and emotionally – than I had ever done before, and so that was what we got. And then we came back out to LA to record, and you know it’s funny – the tracks we wrote and recorded with a full band in LA were “Lights and Sounds” and “Rough Landing, Holly” – the two, I guess, commercially viable songs. So if you look at the whole batch – it’s kind of telling that the two that we did as a whole band were I suppose the ones that were as you say “commercially viable” – if you want to call them that. You know what I mean?
And now “Paper Walls” was written – the five of us – together – in a room. So, I think what we find kind of relates to the phrase “commercially viable,” but, more so, what you’re really seeing is what Yellowcard actually is – as a band – as a whole. What we as a whole band sound like compared to Pete and I writing together in an apartment. And for me – I love “Lights and Sounds.” I love it because it was a challenge. Like, let’s see how far we can test and push ourselves musically and such. Things like “Two Weeks from Twenty” and the intro and outro to the record where we transposed the keys, all of that, was very challenging for us – and exciting. And if it was critically accepted, or commercially accepted, to us it didn’t really matter. And the album went gold. To be honest, if in today’s music industry you’re not happy with a gold record … hell, we have no guarantees or can’t say if even Paper Walls is going to even be able to do that, you know?
And I think “Lights and Sounds” really showed us a lot about ourselves, and helped us really define what Yellowcard is. And of course people are going to now say “Paper Walls” sounds kind of like “Ocean Ave.” and you know what? It does. Because that’s Yellowcard, as a five person group, all together – all the time. That’s the energy you get from that – and that’s the sound – that’s Yellowcard. Now if you were to take me out and I was to go off and write all by myself it would probably sound very different again. But circumstances being – we all wrote the album and I am really, really happy with it. I think it took all of this for me to find out what I really love about Yellowcard, and about being a part of Yellowcard. And a big part of “Paper Walls” was coming to a realization that we are pretty fucking good at writing three and a half minute pop songs. And there’s nothing wrong with that. We’re good at that – that’s our talent – I feel like we’ve been given that gift. Let’s just embrace that and make a record that is the best of our talents and the best of our abilities – and I think that’s what we were able to do. And I think the best thing about the record is that we drew on both records to take the melodic hooks and drive from “Ocean Ave.” and the more alternative rock stuff from “Lights and Sounds” to fuse them together and create “Paper Walls.”

You mentioned loving “Lights and Sounds” – a year from now do you believe you’ll love what you’ve created with “Paper Walls.”

Certainly, because I still love “Ocean Ave.” We play those songs every night and I don’t cringe at it. And that’s one of my favorite parts of the show – because I know that song speaks volumes about who I am. Therefore, when we play that song, even if it is for the five thousandth time, we still get that same energy and same feeling and it is almost like a hurricane hitting you on stage.
For example, when this really hit me was back when we were playing Bamboozle a little while ago and we had a real problem with our in-ear monitors. They were broken or something – not working. And so I hadn’t played a show without those in a long time – so there are some 20 thousand kids or whatever out there and for the first time in as long as I can remember … I can really hear them. I mean, really hear them. Hear the audience, naturally, and when we played “Ocean Ave.” it was fucking unreal. They were singing that so loud that it was mesmerizing. And that moment made me stop and realize this is everything, this is why I do this. And this record, these songs, are things that people can feel and react to in a similar manner – and I just know I’m going to love this fucking record forever.

Slightly off-topic, but have you read anything about the “band in a bubble”?

Nope. I just saw a preview for it yesterday actually.

Ok, well the rundown is a band (Cartel) was recording an album in a bubble in 20 days in New York and it all aired on MTV. I was just curious as to your thoughts on the project and if Yellowcard would ever participate in something like that?

You know you take things one day at a time with stuff like that. There are like a thousand offers and 999 of them you hope you never see because you have a great manager that looks through those things for you. And I don’t know that we would do something like that man, and I don’t want to sound like I’m talking shit or bashing what another band has chosen to do – but recording is one of the most personal times we have and one of the most personal times we, as a band, need. I don’t think we could do it under that large of a microscope. And you know, I don’t know what’s going to happen with this record – we sort of have a new direction and vision for what we want to do and where we want to go as a band. And we have this really strong “here we go” energy about the band and through the band right now. So I don’t know if we would do that Verizon thing again like with the last album or any of that. It seemed to make sense at the time – but did it help or hurt? I don’t really know. But now, I don’t think that makes as much sense to where we are as a band. I think, instead, we’re of a mindset that we really want to put our trust in us, and in these songs, and this album – more so than our “celebrity” or whatever you wanna call that whole thing.

So, do you mind if I ask a question about Ben (former guitarist)?

Well, you can, I don’t know what kind of answer I will give.

Well you don’t have to answer anything you don’t want to. Basically, since Ben’s departure from Yellowcard he’s appeared and then left two other bands (Amber Pacific and NHOI) – is there any felling of vindication from that?

You know what? I don’t want to feel vindicated. I don’t want to have any “see I told you so” moments. And the reason is that what happened between us was such a traumatic thing – and it’s still something I don’t want to spell out or even tell my “side” of the story because it’s very personal. However, I feel that the circumstances about what happened in the next two bands may have been very similar to what happened with us, minus the 10 years of history. And right now, I still feel the same as I did before, that I just really wish that he (Ben) would be able to get his life on track. And who knows, he may say that he does have it exactly where he wants it to be. But, I mean, dude, having Ryan (Mendez) here now, I can say that it’s not a “replacement” for Ben. It’s a fresh start.
And for the record, there is a song on the new album, “Five Becomes Four,” and just to clear it up – it is about Ben and myself and the band. Completely. And I don’t think I could have gotten through the recording process without touching on that subject. I think, and hope, that the way the song was written really explains the situation on as true of a level, emotionally, as I could have written it. And I guess people can look to that for answers. Because, I think the worst part of that whole thing were people taking sides. It was the whole “who was on whose” side – and no one except the five of us even knew what was going on. It was all hearsay. And it was all basically based on a little four question interview in Alternative Press magazine that was clipped into a feature on the band – and within that interview we were saying we didn’t want to comment and that there was no need to air that laundry … but then the magazine goes and gets Ben to comment. But I understand, that’s what they do, and that’s what you guys do. And so a lot of people based their information off of that. But it’s really hard dude, I’m not going to lie, it’s really hard. Especially during some of those months when I really wanted to just come out and say: this is what happened. But that’s not the right thing to do, and I still don’t believe it would be the right thing to do – and so that’s why I haven’t and I won’t.

So how was the recording process different with the inclusion of Ryan Mendez in the band?

Well, Ryan is a – ah fuck it I’m just going to say it – he’s a guitar geek. He’s on the internet, on ebay all the time looking up guitar stuff. You know? He can play “Master of Puppets” from beginning to end with his eyes closed – shit like that. He’s insane. And so on the road when we were touring it was next to impossible to not be writing songs almost all the time. Because he was always playing guitar. In the dressing room he’d have an acoustic guitar warming up – things like that. And there’s a video tape of us in the dressing room in Milan, Italy – hanging out, drinking, stuff like that. On the tape one of the guys on the road with us is walking around filming and throughout the entire thing you can just hear this shredding in the background. I mean, full on face melting – and it never stops. And this is a 25 or 30 minute tape – and it was Ryan in the backroom playing the whole time. And that sums up a day in the dressing room with Ryan. So we were always throwing ideas off each other. Then we get into the studio together and it was really cool to have someone that just wanted this – wanted this all – and was really hungry for these songs, to tour, to do all of this – and it really brought a great energy into the recording process. And I think that rubbed off and it really helped us charge forward.

So what would you like to say about “Paper Walls” and Yellowcard to everyone reading this?

Well, I think “Paper Walls” is such a definition of what we’ve been through and who we are. And we’ve had ups and downs, we’ve had a lot of bumps, but everything we do is for us to still prove to everyone that we still care. We love our fans. We are not in this because we want houses in the hills – we love being out there, playing shows, and love knowing that someone, anywhere, is moved by our songs. In addition, I already feel an energy building on this album and this particular set of songs. I really hope people react to them – and I just want everyone to give us a chance, or a second chance, or whatever – we are still here to do this for a long time. And a huge thank you to you guys, and all the readers of AbsolutePunk, we read the site everyday and everything that’s been going on over there is amazing.

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