My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 304 - PAPA ROACH/RYAN KEY FROM YELLOWCARD

Episode Date: October 3, 2023

Here's a Special BONUS My Mom's Basement with interviews featuring Papa Roach and Yellowcard frontman Ryan Key! 3Chi: Use code BASEMENT15 for 15% off your complete order at 3Chi.com! Factor: Head to FACTORMEALS.com/lcb50 and use code lcb50 to get 50% off. That’s code lcb50 at FACTORMEALS.com/lcb50 to get 50% off! Celebrity Mint: Follow @thecelebritymint or visit NY Comic Con Oct. 14 as they launch on eBay Live via the eBay app with Nature Boy Ric Flair & a chance to win $2,500! #PapaRoach #Yellowcard ****************************************  Subscribe to My Mom's Basement on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeZ96PqdsJYQ7DFLRx6MHw My Mom's Basement Merchandise: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/my-moms-basementYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hello and welcome to My Mom's Basement presented by 3G and Barstool Sports in a very special interview edition of My Mom's Basement. I'm bringing you two interviews today, one with Papa Roach that I did just last week, and one with Ryan Key from Yellowcard that I did about a month ago, but it never made its way to the podcast feed, so I'm putting it there now. And before we get into this, I, of course, got to tell you about 3Chi. Of all the things in life, one of the best has to be getting high wherever you want, whenever you want, without the paranoia of consuming some

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That's 3G.com promo code basement15, basement15 to take 15% off your order. That's 3chi.com, promo code BASEMENT15, BASEMENT15, to take 15% off. Must be 21 or older to purchase. Please use responsibly. Now let's get into the first of these two interviews with Papa Roach. All right, welcome back to My Mom's Basement. It is Robbie Fox, and I am here with Jacoby Tobin and Jerry from Papa Roach. How are you guys? You guys are on a run of shows right now that from videos looks absolutely awesome. Yeah, it's incredible. Packed houses every night. Energy's great. We're just smashing it up, dude. I mean, like, when we leave town, I know people are talking, is dope absolutely you guys have

toured the country and the world even over so many times do you have favorite places to play in america specifically shy town always goes off texas goes off yeah we could tour texas for like two weeks yeah i'm excited to actually go back to florida too man it's been a minute since we've been to florida so florida usually brings it man so we'll see if they still got it what about the weirdest places you guys have ever played i have a band here at barstool it's kind of like a fake pop punk band but we just recently played a bojangles parking lot have you guys ever done anything like that do we play parking lots we play keg parties in the backyard probably played bojangles or there's a lot of Bojangles.

There's a rock club actually out in Cali called Bo. It used to be called Cattle Club. That's where the Deftones got started. Then they changed the name to actually Bojangles. We did it all, dude. We've been doing this since 93, right? School talent shows,

freaking Jerry's Garage, Tobin's Garage, my garage, theerry's garage tovin's garage my garage the homies garage never a basement though we never had a basement come on never remember that that show in tahoe it was a bar yeah we played in a bar we played a basement but we never got to rehearse in the basement because they don't really have basements in california so we played his mom's house. We played at a gas station. What was that like? Was that like an official show?

You told people to come to the gas station? It was exactly what you think it would be like. People getting gas and there was like a mascot walking around the place. We were willing to play anywhere, anything. That's crazy. We actually just had Darius Rucker in the Barstool office,

and he said something that I thought was pretty interesting. He said, back in the day, you went on tour to support your album. And nowadays, you're writing albums so that you can go on tour. Did that change in the business affect the way you guys write music? You know, what came first, the chicken or the egg you know i guess that's that kind of situation one thing we're definitely like trying to figure out if making a full-length album is going to be the thing to do in the future you know it might just be uh more single based you know or a smaller like ep type thing that's one thing that's definitely kind of, I've noticed the change.

But how much are you thinking of the live show as you're writing now? Are you thinking like, let's write this so it's fun to play live or not always? With certain songs, we definitely feel that experience, right? It's like, oh, this one could get the crowd bouncing. What's that bounce tempo? You know, I think that's important. But also, you know, when you're making but also you know when you're when you're making a full-length album that's you do want to take your fans on the journey so it's not always

about that live experience that we're thinking of um when we're writing a song you know in particular there's a track called leave a light on on the new record and it's you know an acoustic just a straight acoustic song right and for us in live show, that's like not the norm for us. We've been playing it on this tour and it is probably honestly one of my favorite points in the set. And it's just, it's about, you know, the lyric, the guitar, the vocal, the melody, the simplicity of what a great song is and i think exploring that i guess version dynamic of who we are as a band it's like on this tour it's really it's it's fun it's exciting to see where we you know where we take it from here yeah and you guys have been consistently releasing music for decades at this point you never go two or three years without an album does the writing process

ever stop for you you're just constantly writing do you have to start it back up when you you feel ready for an album what's that like i mean tobin's like tobin will write till he passes out at night i walk in the back lounge studio is fully set up set up on top of two guitar cases balanced on top of an ice box and i'm going man this bus is about to take off and drive down the freeway toby's dead asleep in his bunk he wrote till you know he wrote till his eyes couldn't take it no more dude so yeah man yeah we don't we don't really have a shortage of ideas but we do have to like um make it an experience every time we do make a record we have to find a way to trap ourselves like in an environment that is fun.

You know what I mean? So that, cause we've made a lot of records, you know, been a band for a long time. So like every time we officially go in and like start to like really, really like record and refine all of the ideas for an album, it has to be an experience, you know, where we have like stories to tell. And it's just a good time where we all get to like reconnect outside of touring and outside of our our home family life so we make that a point we got to figure out what we're going to do for this next one what's next which record do you have the fondest memories of making when you look back probably uh crooked teeth which was i was that's

what i was thinking yeah yeah we had to um we made this record called Cricket Teeth about, what, how? 2017. 2017. And we did it in North Hollywood, which is like where all the studios are. And it's not like the most desirable place, you know? It's like, it was a little rough neighborhood,

but we decided to buy thousands of dollars worth of sand and turn the whole entire parking lot into like this like like beachy kind of tiki bar uh you know we wanted to play spike ball was big at the time so we needed a big area where we could dive in the sand we had a pool we would have these late night kind of like acoustic like sing-alongs by the fire and meanwhile um all the all the neighborhood uh suspects were like creeping in like what are you guys doing over there you know what i mean and so it was that was just we made a good time out of that one and then what about the flip side do you have a record that was particularly hard to get down the way you guys wanted it i think every

record has its moments where it's challenging you know I don't think there's an album for me in particular that sticks out that was like that was really hard to make I say it's just there's moments or songs you just wrestle with that one in Jersey was rough trying to figure out how to get off the damn turnpike was

fucking dude put a bullet in my brain I'm from Jersey born and raised so you're preaching to the choir here we're in fair lawn we couldn't oh shit you were you recorded in fair lawn yeah whitney houston's old studio unreal i yeah i grew up 20 minutes from there yeah yeah that's right drove past it every day every day on my way to college yeah how involved in the production process are you guys usually how how much do you like to actually get your hands involved in the sonic process of the record i'm a lyrics and melody guy so that's not

that's not my deal you know what i mean so i'm gonna step out of that one you got y'all take yeah we pretty much delegate like that like i would i'd say i try to stay involved as much as possible you know but you have to also trust you know the producers and the outside collaborators because they're like you know the the outside pair of ears so um you know but we definitely like the three of us are heavily involved with everything. And especially now that we are our own label, we have our own team, we do everything. It's just crazy. We just had a meeting, a shareholders meeting. We go through all the ins and outs of our business and it's just like our minds are just alone as we've grown yeah with this business the opportunities have

expanded you know to be our own record company to be our own boss and really it's like the more you discover like you go visit the wizard behind the curtain you're like fuck the wizard man he shit you know what i'm saying like i could be a. We could be wizards. Hold on, I'm a wizard now? Now that you're involved in that, like on that side of the label and business process, do you look at anything differently than when you were just coming up? I think, you know, we're very conscious of budgets.

You know, I think that's, we've learned that from being a touring artist for so many years and and learning how to have a profitable business um and then when you're making records and you and you learn i guess the back end of the the shadowy side of the music business it's like oh man you know when you make records are you really, do you even make money off your albums? And then you see how much money the record company makes versus the artist. And it just, it kind of makes you sick.

The more you learn, you're like, fuck, these cocksuckers just want to rake you over the coals on a regular. You can cut out the middleman nowadays. It's much easier. Would you recommend that to a band that's like coming up and trying to make a name for themselves or do you still have to go through a process of signing with a label and stuff i think if you set it up right and you're able to like take advantage of social media and you learn the business you know um i mean you really that's the hardest part and you have a good team together you have to have like

a great team and we're very lucky that you have a good team together. You have to have a great team. And we're very lucky that we have a good team, a good lawyer, good managers, good business managers. What else am I leaving out? Yeah, I mean, that's all. Good food. Yeah, good food. And you can delegate just who's in charge of what. Yeah, I think if you just blindly go at it, it can just be a disaster, you know?

And it really helps to have smart people around you. That's, that's, that's a big deal. But, you know, an artist in particular that comes to mind that's done a really good job with it is Macklemore. You know what I'm saying? He just came out of straight when he was shopping at the thrift shop with that track dropped it independent right off the rip and has done a great job with his career and it's it starts with the music though you know you got to have something a movement a feeling a song that just connects with people on a deep and meaningful way you know that's what's going to

take that's what oliver anthony's doing right now yeah on the topic of advice uh my band is actually playing our first ever festival this saturday i wanted to really i had yeah i wanted to know if you guys had any advice for us playing our first you know festival set um do you got how many shows have you guys played before we've played about like 15 shows before but never like a legitimate music festival it's always us putting on a show through barstool and it's our own thing this time like we're going on right before mike campbell like some legends yeah dude crowd participation i noticed that crowds like big festival crowds they love to be told like what to do so you know if you can get them to you know clap or sing along sing along or just like anything they're just they love to be a

part of it give them the freddie mercury heyos maybe yeah yeah absolutely man if freddie mercury live or sorry queen live at don or not donning, but live at Wembley Stadium. Just go watch that shit a couple of times. It's like all the tricks are in there, man. And they're just, obviously it starts with the songs, but they were just such an iconic, amazing band. And he just had a way of really grabbing the crowd and just having them in the palm of his hand, you know? What's the best live show that the three of you have personally seen from the crowd and just have him and having him in the palm of his hand you know what's the best live show that the three of you have personally seen from the crowd oh man um yeah that's it we see a lot of live shows like recently when we were in europe

um we saw while she sleeps play in a little tent on the same day that which they're like I don't know how you word this word, kind of a hardcore new metal band from England at the same time that we watched the 1975 was on another stage. 1975 was so tight.

And they were great. So we get to see a lot of good stuff and um tam and paula was a dope oh yeah that was legit fake the more in in europe we got to catch like the first half of their set before we had to bounce and they played all the songs i wanted to hear which was nice uh chili peppers that louder than life was awesome a couple of years ago. Nine Inch Nails, they've done some, Jerry and I went and saw them in London.

Yeah, London at this 5,000 capacity theater. And it was just, it was top. You mentioned Faith No More. And I know you guys constantly, you know, will reference them as an inspiration and kind of give them their flowers. But I feel like they're a band that doesn't get enough credit, especially with like current bands nowadays, how much influence do they actually put on other bands? Do you guys feel that way? Oh, we love them, man. And I think they, I think they do get the credit they deserve because they

know, the band knows, you know, when, when there's an interview and we reference their band or another band reference them you know whether they like it or not they've inspired a whole genre of music in a way um they've been godfathers of it and you know when we go tour in europe it's like they're they're the headliners of the festivals right they're like the big dogs so i think that's that's the flowers that they deserve when you step on the stage and and you're the you're the top dog it's like that's the space that we're all gunning for you know a good point maybe not america maybe they're a bit underrated in america but worldwide it's like iconic good good i'm glad to hear that because i feel like they do deserve that headlining spot amazing amazing band um what is

the perfect rock and roll album to you guys when you think especially sonically especially if you're thinking of bass tones or guitar tones or drum sounds that you want to emulate on papa roach records stuff that you could show a producer and say make me sound like that i don't know i mean there's like the classic ones of course like i feel like if you're looking at rock and roll like in the encyclopedia there should be like a picture of like ACDC yeah you know or like even like uh like Appetite for Destruction you know like that album is amazing but as far as like modern rock definitely I would say like Angel Dust yeah that's a pretty speaking of faith no more you know uh love Sugar Sex Magic that's a really like nice organic sounding yeah rock album you know just raw takes on it and then even like the rage yeah rage first and the second rage album

uh is that are very different yes yeah which leads to like you know deftones like white pony around the fur all great picks how often do you guys get asked about to be loved being the monday night raw theme you know we are super grateful that that song was featured on that because that made that track pop off worldwide song goes off live every time we play it. Yeah. Funny story about that is that we played in Germany with Iron Maiden. And, you know, metal fans, especially in Europe, are super diehard. And we were, like, kind of freaking out, like, shit. Are they going to hate us? Are they going to boo us, you know?

Yeah. And then we came out to that song, and they just went nuts. Yeah. And we're like oh they love us cool and then we were you know trying to figure out what it was and then we found out after the show that germans love wwe and that being the song was like it was the perfect setup for us for a great for a great show absolutely'm a huge wrestling fan myself, and that is the soundtrack of that era. There's such a nostalgic bone that song hits because it makes me think of watching wrestling,

and that being the theme song. Every Monday night, it was the thing you looked forward to, and that song got it kicked off. I'm glad that you guys had fun. Who's your favorite classic wrestler, like old school style? Like Shawn Michaels? Would you count him as old school enough oh yeah fuck yeah i would say sean michaels then yeah i was like awesome when i was first into it man ricky the dragon steamboat dude i was all about him dude i love that he's still around

wrestling he's still making appearances and becoming special guest referee and stuff all right so my final question for you guys this is a question that i ask all of the musicians and artists on my show. Noel Gallagher of Oasis once said that he summed up everything he's ever wanted to say with three songs, Rock and Roll Star, Live Forever and Cigarettes and Alcohol. If you had to pick three songs that sum up everything you've ever wanted to say, which three would you select? Oh, what? You're going to hit me with that, bro. You make me um

the scars being there yeah i think scars would definitely be in that batch of songs i feel that that one's just so angels and insects i would that would be my pick all right scars angels and insects and then maybe should we leave a light on yeah leave a light on there's something really special about that one something really i believe mature about that that song message really reflects, you know, who we are. I love those three picks. Awesome picks. You're still on tour.

If you want to go see Papa Roach on tour, you can get tickets. Go look up their website. See if they're coming to a city near you. Hopefully they are. And hopefully we'll hear some new music from them soon because I'm always itching for new Papa Roach music. Thank you guys for joining the show. Absolutely. Good luck at your festival this weekend, music. Thank you guys for joining the show. Absolutely. Good luck.

Hey, good luck with your festival this weekend, man. Thank you. I really appreciate that. Smash him out. What's the name of the band? So we can check it out.

We're called pop punk. We're like a parody on like the blink one 82 era of pop punk bands. Songs about like being angsty, stuck at our locker, lying about girlfriends, stuff like that. Hell yeah. Oh yeah.

All right. Thank you guys guys i really appreciate it all right shout out to papa roach for coming on and giving us that festival advice i will be talking about that festival on the next edition of my mom's basement with clem now before we get into this interview with ryan key let me tell everyone about factor with the busy fall season fall season already in swing, you might be looking for wholesome, convenient meals for your jam-packed days. Well, Factor, America's number one ready-to-eat meal kit, can help fuel you up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with chef-prepared, dietician-approved ready-to-eat meals delivered straight to your door. You'll save time, eat well, and stay on track with your healthy lifestyle.

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like broccolini, leeks, truffle butter, and asparagus by heading to factormeals.com slash robbie50, R-O-B-B-I-E-5-0. Use that same promo code robbie50 to get 50% off. That's code robbie50 at factormeals.com slash robbie50 to get 50% off. All right, welcome back to my mom's basement. It is Robbie Fox Fox and I am here with Ryan Key of Yellow Card. He is on tour right now celebrating 20 years of Ocean Avenue. The band

also has a new EP coming out soon, Childhood Eyes. I was actually there in Asbury Park for the one of the first shows of the tour at the summer stage, Stone Pony. It was an amazing night as it always is with Yellow Card. Ryan, thank you for being here. How are you? I am doing so well, man. Thanks for having me. I'm currently, you know, in the midst of the most unbelievable chapter of my professional life. And I just wake up in disbelief every day that we're, we're here doing what we're doing.

I mean, for example, the stone pony summer stage show in New Jersey, we played the small room at stone pony for 15 years and you know, and then the outdoor stage, which is four times the size of that sold out in 72 hours. So we just don't know what's happening man we're we're we're just all smiles over here for sure i was gonna ask how tour is going but it sounds like it's going pretty damn well it's yeah yeah uh dude we sold almost 7 000 tickets in detroit last night holy shit wow yes exactly that's exactly the the feeling on the bus is just holy shit i mean

we uh you know that's the best thing i can do when when talking about it is like those kind of those venue comparisons you know like uh in detroit we played a venue called saint andrews hall um year after year and the place holds 900 people you know and like in in like 13 14 i think there were one or one tour or the other of those we didn't even sell that out and what how how do you explain that to me like aside from all of the there's a resurgence of you know the scene of music and people are older and they can bring and they're bringing their families to the show and i get all those reasons that does not compute to almost seven times the amount of tickets in you know in a city it just does not we we are in complete disbelief um the show was in detroit last night was just like it was it was an all-. I mean, this amphitheater was complete, this completely full to the back, this, this massive amphitheater.

I mean, it was, yeah, I don't know. I don't even know how to describe it, but it's, it's been that way every day, every day of the tour so far. We're seven shows in and we're already like this, you know? So it's, it's a, it's epic. Well, I feel like maybe the world and your fans got a taste of a world without Yellowcard. And they were like, we can never let this happen again. When did you know that you would be back on stage with the guys in Yellowcard?

We got an offer to play Riot Fest last year. And it kind of came out of nowhere. And we were very much moved on with our lives. We were all doing very independent things on our own and just living life without yellow card as you put it you know i mean mentally i had done a lot of work to move past it you know um and we we have um our booking agent is uh a really close friend of ours and has been our booking agent since 2001 which is very rare in the music business we have have the same agent, whether it's a manager, an agent or a label or whatever it is to have, have one person or one company or whatever it is work with you for your entire career is very rare. So she brought the offer for Raya Fest to us and

being the friend that she is, you know, she was just, it was a really intense conversation about making it happen and all the reasons why it should happen and brought us all back together and to have a conversation about doing the show which led to doing the show which led to this incredible positive energy we were feeling in rehearsal at the show itself i mean for all the reasons you know i kind of mentioned like we were you know we were struggling at in the mid 2010s we were we were struggling to sell out shows and just feeling like it was time to step away. So even when we got the Riot Fest offer, we had this feeling of like, well, what if no one comes to watch us? We still were kind of suffering from that mindset. And Corey, Christopher Martin is our agent's name.

She was just like, you got to trust me. You just got to trust me i i know what's going on right now and this has to happen and so we did the show and she was not wrong it was like one of the most insane nights of our whole career you know attendance wise energy wise it was just like i don't know it's like it was crazy uh and that immediately led to the conversation that is now everything else. You know, the EP coming out and doing this this summer tour in bigger rooms than we've ever played in our whole career. And it's just it's just I don't know, man. I mean, grateful doesn't even begin to sum up how we feel.

You know, at the show in Jersey, you mentioned on stage that the boys in May Day Parade really helped you get to this point. You said, I don't know if I'd be on stage without them. Can you expand upon that a little bit, how they helped you get back on stage? Sure. When the band split up in 17, the final tour, as we called it at the time, was mostly in 2016, but we did do a few international dates and a final run of like 10 West Coast shows in 2017. So that was March 25th, I think was the last show that year.

So we all go home, you know, that's it. Like there's no storage locker with yellow card gear in it anymore. It's over. I mean, we, we, we sold all that shit off or donated it and got rid of our LLC and disbanded. It was done. We go home and I spent six or eight months feeling pretty sorry for myself and not really doing anything, not really finding any direction. And then when I finally got out of that funk, I decided I wanted to make some music. And so I worked on my first EP and did a little bit of touring on that EP.

The guys in Newfound Glory brought me out to open for them, which was really interesting. And I was really pumped that they let me do it because the music I was making was basically like Elliot Smith and Sufjan Stevens, like acoustic driven, ambient folk music, whatever you want to call it. And I'm opening Newfound shows with those songs. It was a really interesting dynamic. But nonetheless, I got to stay present in people's minds.

You know, I got to go out and do the tour and people could, I was visible, you know. And so then I did a second EP. I expanded a little bit on the sound I was going for and made it a little bigger, added some drums and wanted to do some pretty extensive touring on that and um and mayday parade offered me a full u.s tour uh also opening for them um and that was the one where i really i mean those shows were i was you know i was really in it at that point i had figured out kind of the headspace i wanted to be in and thinking i'm like chasing this full-blown solo artist career at this point never knowing that i was going to be in and thinking I'm like chasing this full-blown solo artist career at this point, never knowing that I was going to be back here talking to you about

yellow card ever again. But they just, you know, I owe as much to Newfound as I do to Mayday. It's just, you know, Mayday is on this tour. But to have friends that will give you that opportunity, they could take anyone on their tour. You know, I'm not, I wasn't worth any tickets for their, to help sell their shows. You know, I'm, I, for a lot of people, even today, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm the guy from yellow card. They don't know, they don't know my full name, you know, it's just, we were

never one of those bands that had sort of like that step out celebrity to it is just, it was just yellow card, you know? So my point just being that they truly just did that for me, um, out of kindness and, and being, you know, good people and giving me an opportunity. So I'm very pumped to have them on the tour this summer. They've obviously gotten way closer with them in my life since that tour. And they also brought the guys in this wildlife who are opening our tour. They brought those guys into my life because they were on that tour. And, you know, I ended up touring all of Europe with with this wildlife and anthony from was playing drums for me and just the relationships

i built during that time are really special i think and and have have lasted you know they're they're all here with me now on this tour it's amazing that's awesome yeah great band great people um i really appreciated the whole set list that you guys played you know it's 20 years of ocean avenue but you met you're mixing in a bunch of yellow card from the other albums as well are there any songs in particular that you were like yellow cards back this has to be on the set list so yeah the set list was um pretty much put together the way you just said it was it was uh we thought okay we were still in in disbelief that like anybody was going to show up to these giant rooms. So we were like, but if they do, if they, if they happen to fill up,

there's going to be a lot of people who haven't seen us in a long time. A lot of people maybe who have never seen us before. So let's really go through. And as much as, you know, the like long time hardcore fans are probably going to be a little bummed maybe that we're not digging like deeper into some of the album tracks what's the core like what what is what's the core block of songs that got people in each chapter of of our career got people excited about the band you know for lack of a better word the singles right i mean we we stopped doing like radio

singles long ago but that's so what you would call it the song you promote the song you push out you know so we looked at when we live in this age of algorithms and metrics and you can see it all you know so we were able to really look at the songs that resonate the most on the streaming platforms um and just i i actually had a unique kind of window into it too by performing so much on my own away from the band over the last six or seven years I did a lot of yellow card songs and I was kind of aware of which ones really got a you know a great response even stripped down in a totally new way on an acoustic guitar and a different key and however I was performing it but we really ended up basically building an Ocean Avenue heavy single

driven set list because we right now is just such a crucial moment for us as far as do we get to maintain the band at this level or is this one time nostalgia flash in the pan thing? We will be completely stoked and grateful either way. If this is all we get to do and we have to go home again, this is the coolest thing we've ever done. So we're going to be over the moon that we even got the chance to do it in the first place. However, if we got to do this again, like, you know, in a year and a half,

like if this comes back around in 2025 and we're doing another summer tour in these rooms and this is like the level we're touring at now i don't really know how to comprehend that as like reality uh but that's just to say that this tour is so crucial for people leaving the show going i have to when they come back i have to see that again and i think the songs we choose help that this, like, I think next time we could maybe dig a little deeper into the catalog and play some, you know, some fan favorite album tracks and things. But I think right now, just the cat, you know, the catchiest melodies, the hardest hitting songs, the biggest, most anthemic songs, those are the ones we chose to

put into this show. Is it a tough show on your voice or no? Oh yeah. It seems like it, right? It has to be. I mean, singing is, has always been very challenging for me. Probably its own interview we could talk about sometime. Um, it's, it's not my favorite part of my job being fully honest with you. Uh, it's, it's, um, it's, it is really challenging for me. And I, you know, I've got a friend like Derek from Mayday Parade, Derek Sanders from Mayday Parade. Dude, like, doesn't even warm up. He just walks out there and just, it's like talking for him. And I know it.

He would be like, no, come on, man. But I know it. I can see it. I can see his, like, body language when he's performing compared to mine'm you know when I'm doing a show like this like a 90 minute show full of full octane single high you know highest parts of my range all night there are so many moving parts I have to be aware of I mean I find myself catching like okay your shoulders are tight bro you know you're you're tapping your foot too hard and it's making you're you're not breathing right you know that's all in my head while I'm singing whereas I think think someone like derek says he'd be like i've never thought about my shoulders once in my entire career you know um so it is very

it is very much a challenge uh for me and it always has been but i'm in a better place i i know personally i'm in a better place vocally than i've ever been in my whole life um i i am generally comfortable up there there There's some nights so far where I've sort of had to dial it back or I've felt a little tension and things that kind of made me a little uncomfortable, but nothing that has disrupted a show or caused me to have a bad show. I'm really happy about that. And when you're feeding off of six times the amount of people you're used to playing for, and they're all losing their minds and screaming the songs back at you, there is a, you know,

a tangible energy that helps you perform just on another level, you know? And so I've learned a lot about my voice, even in the time away from yellow card, just, just touring on my own and singing in a, you know, the music I made on my own was a very different style of vocalizing, um, different range, a lot quieter, a lot more mellow, which was very deliberate, uh, based on everything I've just told you, I wanted to make music that I knew I'd be more comfortable singing, you know, live. But I think through doing that, I, I became just more comfortable with my voice in general.

Um, I, I started to watch live performances back on, you know, Instagram or YouTube or wherever during the years of touring by myself, 18, 19. And I was finally, for the first time in my life, like, I think I sound good. You know, like, I think that sounds pretty good. That's great. I'm really happy about that. And I think that that kind of growing confidence has stuck with me, you know, and I feel more comfortable and more able to just relax and let it happen because I finally started to sort of be pleased with the way I sounded live. Because previously, I just, I don't know, man, why? I don't know if it's just me or, I don't know, man, why, I don't know if

it's just me or whatever, but watching like old videos, like, especially like 2004 or five, six, that, that pre-surgery I had surgery on my vocal cords in oh six, the, like what we had no business doing late night television. I had no idea how to say no idea. You know? So I watched that stuff and I'm just like, Oh, snails on the chalkboard. Um, but I, you know, I, I stuff and i'm just like oh snails on chalkboard um but i you know i i think i've put in the work i've learned a lot about my voice i got you know i've had a lot of vocal coaching and um proven to myself which i think is really was an important piece of the puzzle that i can do it you know i think i was real sort of um i i had a lot of just like anxiety and and um like i'm sure what i'm trying to look for like insecurity i think i carried a lot of just like anxiety and, and, um, like I'm trying to, what's the word I'm trying

to look for? Like insecurity. I think I carried a lot of insecurity about my voice for a lot of years and I've learned how to build up, um, uh, a more confident feeling and, and, and that it works, you know, you just, it's like everything in life, man. I mean, I'm learning as I get older, mindset, your mindset is everything. Like I, you you know if i tell myself i can do this then i get up there and i do it if i get in my head about you know i'm struggling with this song or that song or whatever it's contagious and then you get in this negative headspace and it doesn't work so um i'm just trying i'm trying to stay in that headspace i mean it's 2023 yellow card get that question. You guys have any pre-show rituals and everyone's expecting like, yeah, you know, or we're just like ripping beer bombs backstage and ready to rage, you know, but we, we have a, there's a sign on, on one of the dressing

rooms on this tour and it's the yellow card wellness lounge. And we literally go in there and meditate every single night before the show. And we, you know, we just take that 10 minutes to totally, totally disconnect and focus and center ourselves before we go out there. And dude, it's an, it's an absolute game changer. Like it's, it's brings you out there with a, with a totally different energy and all those little things. I just, I don't know. I'm just so pumped on the way that everything's working right now. That's awesome. We have like a fake pop punk band at Barstool and we might have to implement that to our pre-show ritual, a little meditation. It's a game changer, man. I'm telling you. I'm telling you. Now let's talk about the new EP, Childhood Eyes. How did you approach this

musically, lyrically, just in terms of this is the first time people are going to hear Yellow Card in a while. Do you go for that nostalgic that nostalgic sound you try to push it forward how do you balance that we made two records in 2014 and 16 that were certainly all about pushing the envelope you know we we pretty much detached ourselves from if you want to call it pop punk on those records um and that's what we needed to do at the time so when we went into this there was a conscious effort conscious thought let's let's make something that the most hardcore yellow card fan in the world will just lose their mind over that's that's the mission can we do that it was it was fun it was a challenge honestly it had been you know since

southern air in 2012 that we've made music like that and so we put we kind of threw down the gauntlet in front of ourselves and said can you accept this challenge of making a record that rips just classic core yellow card sound um and i believe we pulled it off i i think it was fun to step back into those shoes you know it was inspiring it was creative because we hadn't done it in so long and people ask like why do you make why did you make those different records why did you you have to you have to change it up you have to keep yourself uh you have to keep your creative blood flowing and if you just keep doing the same thing over and over again, it maybe works for some artists, but it certainly, excuse me, certainly didn't work for us. And so, although we were returning to sort of the core sound of the band,

in a lot of ways, it was a challenge to do. It was like starting, you know, starting a totally new direction for the band because of where we had, had been heading, you know, in, in the late 2010s with our music. So, um, the, the goals were, how do we make yellow card fans just insanely happy about what they're hearing and how do we have fun doing it? And, you know, that, that was, that's all we set out to do we had no expectations we had no you know we're not thinking this song is going to be on the radio or this song's gonna we just sat down you know poured some whiskeys and played guitar together like it just old old like old times it was it was incredible um we made an ep because I think albums are not as necessary anymore.

I think that's definitely a paradigm shift that is happening or has happened. You know, I think if you have a 10 song album and you, your average fan, you're on your phone listening to it for the first time, and then you get an update from Instagram or something and you click through to that and you watch that video instead and you don't finish the album and you come back to it later. It doesn't have that same effect, uh, that it used to when it certainly does for some fans i'm not generalizing the entire population of music listeners but the general consumer right now is very distracted that's just a fact you know so doing five songs for us was like we know exactly what kind of song to make

each one you know we want we want one that's kind of fast we want one that's a little more mid-tempo we want one that's kind of up up tempo like a way away breathing type song we want a ballad and we want an acoustic song boom five songs it's focused you know you know exactly where you're going with each piece of music um and we also just didn't have the time or we weren't able to logistically put together a full 10 song album tracking session we all live in different cities and have lives and families and things going on so um i but we enjoyed the process so much that i i think uh you know um the door is definitely open for us making more music which we're excited about and i think we might stick with this ep thing because it was just um i just feel like the songwriting is so

concise and focused and you know it would mean we probably could release more music more regularly because the recording takes less time and, you know, all those reasons. So we're super excited about these songs, man. Vic Fuentes from Pierce the Veil is on a track. Chris Carraba from Dashboard Confessional is on a track like Pinch Me, you know, Wake Me Up. It's just crazy. No, it's awesome. And I'm such a diehard yellow card fan have been my entire life. I've been to all the Starland ballroom shows, the warp tours,

and this hits exactly as you, I think, wanted it to hit for at least me. So I really appreciate it. I think you're probably a good gauge. You know, you're a good thermometer to take the temperature of like how people are going to react. So that's sick. All right. I got to cut off this interview with Ryan Key really quick just to tell you guys about Celebrity Mint. Celebrity Mint is the first venture of its kind offering the world's first ever precious metal legal tender collectible cards featuring sports luminaries and influential figures and bringing to market unique memorabilia with intrinsic value as a bonus.

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products can be purchased at celebritymint.com and exclusively on eBay through an exclusive distribution collaboration. Follow at the CelebrMint or visit New York Comic Con on October 14th as they launch on eBay Live via the eBay app with The Nature Boy, Ric Flair, that's right, The Nature Boy, Ric Flair, woohoo! And a chance to win $2,500. Again, follow at TheCelebrityMint or just visit them at new york comic con on october 14th now i'm also a huge star wars fan massive star wars fan i'm inked up with the lightsaber on the arm and everything uh does the yellow card tour end right before ahsoka on purpose was that your

schedule no but but thank thank the maker it does you know um yeah i can't wait man i've watched the trailer like 15 times already um i'm i'm so excited i've had this incredible uh i don't know what you want to call it um just just thing happened in my life where at the very beginning of 2020 right before the pandemic hit i sat down on a plane i was on a delta flight from la to orlando um for the weekend to do some emo night shows and i got upgraded on the flight and i sat down next to um a woman wearing head-to-toe star wars like sweat sweats like really not like nice vibey star Wars like sweatsuit thing R2-D2 carry-on suitcase and a Mickey Mouse hat and I sat down next to her on the plane and we got to talk it on the flight and turned out it's actually Ashley Eckstein who voices Ahsoka Tano

in the Clone Wars and my now wife like this is how our how far our relationship has come Ashley and I uh my wife and I were going to have a proper wedding. We decided to elope instead. But when we were working on planning our real wedding with guests and everything, Ashley was going to officiate our wedding. Oh, my God. So Ahsoka is like truly my friend. She's such an amazing human being. And yeah, we've just connected and bonded over

her husband too he's he's an amazing dude and we've just really connected and bonded and you know we go to Disney World together all the time and it's just it's amazing so um I've been on the ride with her like preparing for live action Ahsoka and everything that she went through with the production of it and like not being in it. And, and you know, just, it's, it's crazy to be connected at like with someone who's really in the universe like that on, on the eve of such a big event for the franchise, you know? So I know a lot about it.

I know a lot about what's going on and like how you know and just it's dude it's i as a star as the level of star wars fan that i am um you know the the real connection i have to the star wars universe now is i never dreamed possible you know um it's it's crazy so uh i'm very much looking forward to the show. And yeah, I wish my wife was on board with the Star Wars thing, you know, so that we could have like a big family Ahsoka night. But she fully supports being my nerd. So she knows that night I'm just I'm fully focused well having you like repping the Star Wars tattoos on stage the in-ear monitors and everything growing up I was like this is awesome pop punk Star Wars

connection what's better than yellow card for sure now my final question for you I ask this to all of the musicians and artists that come on this show I'm a big Oasis fan and Noel Gallagher of Oasis says that he's defined everything he's ever wanted to say he's pretty much summed it up with three songs rock and roll star live forever and cigarettes and alcohol if you had to pick three songs that sum up everything you've ever wanted to say from the yellow card or even from your that i was quite aware that i was like trying to say something that makes sense like i was writing songs about my life and like pretty specific events in my life you know or observations of real life events things like that but later on

you know with lift to sail and the self-titled record and the solo stuff i did that as far as finding your voice and like what you're trying to say as an artist that i think that's when i that happened for me so um i think transmission home the opening track from lift to sail but this is really hard dude because well no all right i'm gonna pick two from lift to sail because that album is is it exists to do what you're talking about i i that that was the most i ever dug in and like got behind the walls in, in my, you know, in myself. And, uh, I was going through a lot in my, my personal life. The band was, was going through a lot internally. It was a, it was a very heavy time. Um,

and it was just pouring out of me and it wasn't about, you know, a breakup or like, I don't know, a news story, something that was like, wow, that's super impactful. I'm going to write about this was just straight internalizing my emotional journey that I was on at the time. I don't think I'd ever done that before. Um, maybe I, I touched on that a little bit with lights and sounds maybe, cause I was also in a very strange place when we made that record. But either way, so Transmission Home and Lift a Sail, the title, I would say Lift a Sail is sort of like my mission statement. I mean, that's the song that says, I'm going to overcome this and I'm going to look into my past and learn from the mistakes I've made and the triumphs I've had.

I mean, that's what that song is. It's the overall overarching mission statement for the band, I think, moving forward, for myself moving forward. It's just a positive affirmation of how to live your life. And it took writing that album to start to stumble upon those themes and ideas for me. But then I have a song on 13, which is the EP I put out in 2018 that I absolutely love. And it was one of those songs where lyrically when I finished it, I really was kind of taken back by, wow, I didn't know I could do that.

I didn't know I could say it like that. But the opening track from that EP is called Old Friends. And there's just a lot of lines in there that are like, I still look back on it. I'm like, did I write that? Like, I mean, yeah. What's the line about, I thought that I could, uh, like black out the sun and everyone would be with me in the shade, something like that. Like the idea that I could just burn it all down and

take everyone with me. Like, I just really went back to look at like how I had treated people in my life that I cared about, uh, you know, poorly at times and why and how, how desperately I wanted to improve as a human being and be better to the people I love. And asking for forgiveness is really what that song is about. And again, something I hadn't really done a lot of, I think, until I started to get older and have the time for reflection to look back on. And luckily, I still had a desire to write songs. You know, I mean, I didn't know when the band broke up, I didn't know I was going to keep making music.

I didn't know what I was going to do. So I'm really grateful that I still felt compelled to write because songs like Old Friends came out and, you know, only a small fraction of the earth is ever going to hear that song. But I have it and I hold on to it, you know, and I'm really proud of it. And I think those three songs are pretty easy. Yeah, that's pretty easy answers for like those are those are like the most clear examples of like what I want to say as an artist. They're great songs. I hope more people listen to them from this interview as well.

That would be the the ultimate goal there. Thank you for doing the show. When you get through with the pop punk adventure, then go back and explore some of the more experimental yellow card, which there's a healthy amount of out there. And I should also, I should plug, since we were talking about Star Wars, Adam Russell from Story of the Year and Nick Gambarian of Bayside and myself host a podcast called Think the Maker.

So if you're listening to this and you're a Star Wars fan, we've been doing it for three years now, maybe more, a little over. We've had unbelievable guests on the show. Ashley Eckstein was on the show. Many, many more. Emily Swallow, the armorer from Mandalorian has been on the show. It's surreal. So we have a lot of fun with it.

And we're actually, we stream live now on YouTube for recordings and stuff. So if you want to check out Thank the Maker, it's everywhere. Just just look up Think the Maker podcast online anywhere. It's a great show. And I'm so jealous of the group trips to the Disney and the Star Cruiser. I never got to do the Star Cruiser. Just got to do Disney for the first time in March, which blew me away as a longtime star Wars fan, obviously rides and everything. We need to, we need to do a whole new interview, a whole separate interview. We can talk about star cruiser. Cause obviously it's a huge polarizing thing, but yeah, it's,

it's the, it's the best, like other than being, you know, happily married and really stoked on my, my personal life. It's the best thing I've ever done in my life. It was the best three days of my life.

Oh my God. I'm so jealous. I can't believe it's closing. It's just, I know we're, we are all going the whole crew, the podcast crew, like our sister podcasts, um, some YouTube creators that we've connected with through, you know, being podcasters now over the last few years, we're all going on the second to last voyage. There's like 25 of us going. So we're going to be there almost at the end and they know we're coming uh we like we went

through um we had a friend so we're we're friends with um the uh i don't know what his exact title is like the military title for it but he's the head of the 501st legion uh in the u.s and so his wife uh is connected directly with disney and. Like she, she, she connected with them directly to plan this like full, it's like a full cosplay voyage. Like everyone on it, no one's going to be in sandals and shorts. Everyone's going to be fully immersed. It's,

it's going to be wild, dude. So, um, yeah, we're, we're really excited. I'm so excited.

I get to get to do it one more time. I'm bummed. It's closing to man. I'm, I'm expecting my first kid. And when my wife told me that it was happening, like the third thought across my mind was I can't wait to take them on the star cruiser and now I'll never get to, so I'm bummed too. But, um, yeah, it was, it was incredible. So to all the haters out there, and this is probably

audio only, but I'm a middle finger up. It was the best. No, no, it's video too. We're on YouTube. Oh, well, there you go. If you're a Star Cruiser hater. It's legendary, man. I mean, it's just like the most immersive, imaginative adventure you could imagine for your life. It just makes you 12 years old, 10 years old again. It's so amazing. So I'm sorry I didn't get to do it, bud.

I'm rubbing it in, I know. I know. I'm getting more and more jealous of every sentence. We'll make tons of content when we go in September. Yeah. I'm looking forward to it. Everyone check out Thank the Maker. Obviously, Childhood Eyes is on the horizon.

And if you could get tickets to see Yellow Card, go see Yellow Card. I don't know if you could get tickets because everything's sold out, right? Well, no, not everything. There's tickets left, but it is astounding. The amount of people coming to these shows is astounding. So there's tickets left in most markets. But it's like, how do you even compute like, oh yeah, there's some tickets left in Chicago because it's a 7,500 cap room,

but we've sold 6,400 tickets. It's crazy, dude. It's like, I don't know, man. I don't even know what's happening, but we're just grateful, man. We're so happy and grateful and everything is, I don't know. This is the best chapter yet for the band. I'm so happy to hear it. Thank you for doing the show. I've been a lifelong fan. Just getting to pick your brain a little bit about this stuff has been really cool for me. So I appreciate you doing the show and have a great show tonight. Of course. Thanks, Robbie. I actually have, we have the night off. So it's family movie night. Oh, nice. Impossible.

Going to Mission Impossible. I'm jealous of that too. I haven't seen that yet. All right. You're just living my best life over there. I'm trying, man. I'm leading by example, you know. Have a good one, man. All right, Robbie. Thanks for having me, man.