* A Lesson In Romantics is an album that a lot of bands cite as something that has been influential to their style…
Derek: Really?

* Yeah, several bands that we’ve interviewed.
Derek: Cool, that’s awesome.

* So when you guys were writing your new album, Anywhere But Here, did you feel any pressure for writing and delivering a follow up to it?
Derek: Oh yeah, of coarse. That’s the huge thing, you know what I mean? The second album is always a big deal for any band. Luckily, we’ve done that now and we’re starting to look at a new album. It’s cool because I feel like there’s not the same pressure anymore for the next one. Obviously there is pressure to deliver a good album, but it’s not quite the same because—so many things happened when we were recording Anywhere But Here—writing and recording Anywhere But Here—it was the first album we had done without Jason, it was our sophomore album, it was our first album on a major label—it was kind of just a bunch of factors piled into one. Now I feel like this next one we just don’t have to have so much pressure and stress.

* You guys released a lot of new videos already for the new album (Anywhere But Here, The Silence, Kids In Love). The one for “The Silence” was really awesome, with a parachute? How did you guys film inside of a parachute?
Derek: Well, they blew it up—a hot air balloon but yeah, yeah, yeah—but we actually thought we were going to be able to ride in the hot air balloon in the video. That was part of the original video plan but then because of a bunch of insurance/security reasons, we weren’t actually able to ride in the basket of the hot air balloon which kind of bummed us out. Yeah, they blew up the hot air balloon on the ground and filmed us inside it playing, and it was so hot. It was just a hot day in general—it was in San Diego. I was wearing this jacket thing, we were inside this hot air balloon, so it was super hot. It was cool. It was a lot of fun.

* If you could pick any one song that would remind you specifically of this summer, if you looked back ten years from now, what one song would that be?
Derek: Of this summer?

* Yeah.
Derek: I would say Four Year Strong’s “Wasting Time (Eternal Summer).” I would say that one.

* You guys are going to be going to the UK with The Maine, and then you guys are headlining the Fearless Friends 2010 Tour. So, are you pretty stoked about that?
Derek: Both of those, I am so excited about. I love the guys in The Maine. We toured with them once before and it’s been way too long, like we’ve been itching to go out with them again ever since we toured with them. That’s going to be great. The UK is going to be great. The Fearless tour is going to be great. Breathe Carolina is going to be on it, and they are on this tour. Artist Vs Poet is going to be on it, and they are on this tour. We love the guys in Every Avenue, and obviously we know the Go Radio guys and they’re really good guys, so it’s going to be really cool.

* You guys did Punk Goes Classic Rock…
Derek: It was cool, it was a lot of fun. I always love doing stuff like that. We did—I’m sorry—”We Are The Champions” by Queen.

* Awesome. Did you guys enjoy that? That’s a big song to cover.
Derek: It is, it is. Whenever we do those, we never prepare for it. We go into the studio and just figure it out all in the studio. I like that because it’s different. Usually whenever we go to the studio and do anything else, it is very prepared beforehand and most of it is already written and stuff. But it’s cool having to be creative on the spot and having to figure it out as you go along.

* You guys are Florida natives. Do you guys feel there’s more love here when you perform?
Derek: Well this is the first Florida show of the Warped Tour, so we’ll see how it goes, you know what I mean? I’m pumped to be here. This is probably the closest show to Tallahassee, I guess. This or Orlando are both four and a half hours away. It’s good to be here, I love Florida.

* How was it trying to make it in Florida? Did you feel like you had to travel outside to get that publicity?
Derek: Well that’s pretty much what we did right away is we started the band and within six months we wrote and recorded our first EP, Tales Told By Dead Friends. We followed Warped Tour in ’06 and sold it outside. So, it’s cool being apart of Warped Tour now. Every day I think about—here especially—whenever we were out in line selling CD’s and stuff. We didn’t really play in Florida a whole lot. We kind of started pushing ourselves everywhere else—you know what I mean? It worked out great.

* What is next for Mayday Parade?
Derek: Those tours that we talked about, and then we’re just going to be doing a new CD.

* Any info on the new CD?
Derek: It’s so early to say right now. I’ve been writing a lot in the past five or six months and I’m so excited about it. I love—it’s some of my favorite stuff that I’ve ever written. None of it is finished, it’s all little ideas because on Warped Tour we never really have time to sit down. If I sit down with a song, usually in a half hour I have to go do something, or whatever. So I’m excited to have some time off to really start writing the songs and finishing the songs. Everything that I’ve written so far, I’m really, really pumped about.

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