A couple of weeks ago I was able to schedule a Zoom call with the lead vocalist of Story of the Year, Dan Marsala, to discuss the band’s newest album, A.R.S.O.N. that releases on February 13th, 2026 via SharpTone Records. In this interview, I asked Dan about the songwriting process on key tracks from the new LP, where the album title originated from, and upcoming touring plans. If you’re enjoying the interview, please consider pre-ordering Story of the Year’s seventh studio album, A.R.S.O.N., here.
Thank you so much for your time today, Dan, and it’s great to see you again. Story of the Year recently announced their seventh studio album called A.R.S.O.N. that will be released in February of next year. So where did the album title originate from? And how stoked are you guys about this great new material?
Yeah, we’re super excited. Obviously, you’re always excited about your new record, but we can tell this one’s really strong, and it’s already getting a great response. We’re just just happy to be busy, consistently, and be in a band full time again. But the album title itself is always the hardest part. When you get a record done, we do it the way we do it. Usually, we listen to the whole thing when we get it done. It’s very rare that we have an idea before the record is done and pretty much ready. So yeah, we got pretty much the order of the songs. And we’re like, Alright, we know we want to open with “Gasoline.” It just comes out hard. It’s pretty cool. And in the second verse, I say, we’re “here for the A.R.S.O.N.”, which is a weird line. I’m just digging through all the lyrics, and I was like, “Man, that’s a weird standout line.” And maybe it’s dumb, maybe it’s awesome. I was like, I don’t know If that’s just the album title, so we tied it all together and everybody kind of liked the idea. And it’s the first song. It’s a good representation of how that record’s gonna feel. It’s got a cool double kind of meaning to where it can literally just mean “arson”, if you want to just talk about burning shit down, or whatever. Or it can be deeper and darker, and that’s why we made it the acronym thing, so it had more meaning to it. And it just kind of made sense to just kind of have to look at the record as a whole and see what made sense.
Very cool And I understand you’ll be touring with Senses Fail. So what are you most looking forward to with that stint?
We love the Senses Fail guys…We became really good friends in the last few years, although we’ve known each other for 20 something years, probably. But yeah, we did a few things over the last couple records, and we realized, hey, we’re the exact same people. We should probably be playing more shows. So we just became really good friends. So this tour was just us being like, hey, we have to tour together in the US. We haven’t done that. We just did Australia together. So yeah, it’s just gonna be madness, friendship, partying and fun every single night. So whether or not people show up, we’re gonna be there.
I’m sure plenty of people will show up. That’s a pretty good bill! So I’ve spun the new record a few times that your publicist shared with me. I think it’s some of your best and heaviest work to date, honestly. In fact, it reminded me a lot of the style of In The Wake Of Determination. Was that heavy-hitting direction intentional during this writing process, or did that kind of come organically throughout your guys’ experiences?
I think a little bit of both. Tear Me To Pieces, it had some heavy moments, and surprisingly to us, the song that connected the most with everybody was “War,” which is one of the bigger, heavier riffs on the record. So we were like, alright, people obviously are enjoying when we get heavy again, because we’ve had different times in our career. We put out In The Wake Of Determination, and got a lot of backlash because it was too heavy. It wasn’t like Page Avenue. But then some of our fans love that record way more, because they like when we get heavy. So it’s been an up and down, and back and forth, our whole career of where do we lie in this genre. We’re so bipolar. We play acoustic ballads and then super crazy metal songs, and everything in between. So we knew that it was kind of the timing of what was going on nowadays that was leaning heavy. So we weren’t afraid to go heavy on this one, basically. We weren’t purposely, necessarily doing it, but it was like let’s just see where these riffs go. And let’s just scream this whole verse. Let’s go hard on this and then, as long as you go heavy and then still have a big chorus. I think it usually works out. So that’s usually the plan.
That’s awesome, man. And like I said, I really love the material that you guys put together for this one!
Yeah, you really…once again like the album title, you just kind of go where it takes you, and then you listen back and go, well, this is a heavy record. That’s kind of how it works for us.
Yeah, and I think I asked you this in the last time we chatted, but is there any news about a vinyl pressing of In The Wake Of Determination? I don’t think it’s ever gotten a vinyl pressing, but now it’s past the 20 year mark, actually, this month…
Yes, we have been talking about it, and we definitely want to do it. I’m pretty sure it’s in the works. It’s just the timing of the new single, <the anniversary> came right at the same exact moment from putting out a new single. Otherwise, we probably would have pushed that forward right away, but yeah, we’re going to give it a little bit of time so this new record can get out there, and then we’ll work on that. And it’s the only record of ours that is not on vinyl. So, yeah, we’re definitely doing that. I don’t know exactly when, but very soon.
Excellent! So getting back to A.R.S.O.N., one of my favorite tracks that I keep coming back to is “Fall Away” that features a great cameo from Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach. So how did that pairing come to fruition? It works really well in this case here!
Yeah, Colin Britain, the producer of Tear Me To Pieces and most of this record, has done a lot of Papa Roach stuff in the past on their last few records. So it’s mutual friends, and we’ve always known each other over the years. Jacoby is one of the coolest, nicest, fucking dudes in the Rock n’ Roll industry. Always has been. So we’ve always been friends, just on like a Hey, good to see you level. But this song, weirdly enough…there is a version that exists where I’m doing the kind of rapping thing that he ended up doing in this song, because we were just writing it. And it was Colin’s idea. He’s like, “What if you kind of scream, yell, rap it.” And I was like, “okay, cool. Let’s try it.” And then I did more of a hardcore kind of yelling thing. And then we were all like, oh It’s really cool. It doesn’t sound like something I would do. It seems very weird. And Papa Roach was coming into the same studio that we were in, because he was working with Colin as well. And we were like, “Dude, what if Jacoby did it?” And Colin said he would ask him. And he came in, and we all were hanging out, and he’s like, “Dude, I would love to do it, man…” The way he always is, and no questions asked. He just knocked it out super quick. And, yeah, it’s turned out way cooler than the way I was doing it. And it’s an awesome collaboration. And we usually don’t do a lot of collaborations. So yeah, I’m excited to finally have a cool one.
Do you think any of those demos from this session will ever see the light of day based on what you mentioned before?
I forgot about it until just now. There’s a version of me singing, in a very different way, and I’m sure we could have Colin take that version up and send it over. I might even have a shitty version somewhere. A rough take.
Everybody’s doing the deluxe treatment these days…So, you never know! <Laughter>
It had a totally different chorus at the beginning too. So the version where I’m rapping that same verse, but then a whole different chorus comes in. We rewrite a lot in the studio. It’s like, oh, man, that could be better. So just kind of go back and rewrite it. Try it again. Rewrite, try again. That’s been our process with technology now, and it’s kind of like, you write while you’re recording. Go in and you’re like, alright, well, what if I did this? Let’s literally record it right now. It’s not like living with it for a while. So a lot of that stuff ends up happening.
That’s awesome. Can you talk a little bit about what you want to do differently on A.R.S.O.N. that you maybe hadn’t tried before, that you wanted to kind of tinker with for Story of the Year?
Yeah, I don’t know. We don’t really stray too far from what we have done. I mean, the guitar work is different for Ryan. He was really working on riffs really hard. He had, I don’t know, 50 to 60 demos probably, of just song ideas with riffs, and some of it’s just a couple riffs, some of it’s a whole song structure. Never vocals and stuff. He’ll just send over all these music ideas, and then that’s usually what we work off of, when either I’ll come up with some melodies, or we go in the studio with a writer or something and just kind of work on it with each with a room full of people. So his approach was a little different. I think his influences are a reason why it’s a little heavier. He’s getting into a little bit of different stuff on guitar, but he said in the past that it’s really easy for him to just try weird stuff, because no matter what, whenever I sing over it, it ends up sounding like Story of the Year. So, although there is some different guitar work and stuff, as soon as I’m screaming or singing over it on this record, it still ends up sounding like us. So it’s always pretty much the same approach. We don’t try to make it heavier or not. We don’t try to do anything. It’s just, oh, that’s cool. That’s really all it is. And as long we literally make music for ourselves, I don’t think we have anybody else in mind. Very selfish artists. It’s because, as always, we like it, and then if that translates, people are going to like it too. So you have to love what you’re putting out, or else it’s just not going to connect.
Yeah, it would be a bummer of an interview if you weren’t excited about the new material…<Laughter>
<Laughter> Yeah, yeah…We’ve never been chasers of the trends or what’s cool. I mean, in some ways, you’re influenced, and you sure in certain paths and directions, but yeah we don’t worry about it.
What are your most vivid memories about this writing process/recording process of A.R.S.O.N.?
Well, it was not easy, because Colin is the drummer of Linkin Park. He wasn’t when we did Tear Me to Pieces, but now he’s much busier this time around. So it was quite a process. And now he’s back in LA. The last time he was in Nashville and worked from St Louis, so we could just drive to Nashville. And we did that record very, very easily, with just a few drives down to Nashville. This time, there were a lot of flights to LA, back and forth from St Louis, a lot of writing sessions, a lot of just a lot of time consuming stuff. So technically, this record was a bit more of a logistical nightmare, and it really was a pain in the ass, but that’s just because it just took more time. With Colin being so busy, we brought in extra executive producers, a guy named Dan Book, who ended up writing and producing half of the record with us, an awesome producer. So he actually did “Gasoline” with us. But Colin was still putting his touches on everything too. We had a lot more moving parts, and a lot of work that went into it. So that’s the main thing I remember. I’m like, Damn, that was not an easy process to get this record done, but you know, as long as you’re satisfied at the end, it doesn’t matter how hard the process is. It’s fun when it’s just real easy though, but yeah, just sometimes it’s a pain in the ass to get it done.
Yeah, but it sounds like you’re proud of the work and the finished product, and you’re excited for people to hear it in February, right?
Absolutely, yeah. That’s the goal. It doesn’t matter how much it sucks for all of us to fly everywhere and be busy as hell and be gone for months at a time, but as long as it turns out great, it’s all good.
Yeah, definitely So you recently performed at some of the cool festivals like When We Were Young festival in Vegas. What was that experience like for you, and what does it mean to you to see so many fans connecting with your full discography over time?
When We Were Young is crazy. It’s so awesome. This is our third one we’ve done out of the four, which is kind of weird…but our manager is a part owner on the whole deal. So we get lucky that we keep getting invited back. But this year it was…the backstage is just so much fun, because there’s 50-60 bands, and everybody’s in this big compound of just trailers. So most of my day I’m just walking around going, “Hey!” for hours at a time. You can’t walk more than five feet. So that’s just so awesome, because it’s all bands that you know we’ve either toured with, or we’ve known for 20 years, or new bands even that I’m like, “Whoa, dude. I love that band.” And it’s just like, getting drunk enough to go over be like, “dude, hey man, I think you’re cool!” A lot of that kind of stuff is going on, just hanging out with bands. I rarely even go out into the world of the show. I did go watch Bad Religion. I hardly have time to watch anything. We had a lot of press and stuff. But yeah, it’s just such a cool environment, and it’s an amazing show. And we’ve done a bunch of other big ones too lately, like Louder Than Life and Aftershock, these ones are like leaning a little more heavy on that side. But same thing, just being backstage and meeting all these bands that we’ve never even gotten a chance to play with. It’s so awesome. I love the big festivals. It’s obviously a different vibe show-wise, because the crowd’s different. It’s not all your fans necessarily. There’s 30,000 people, so maybe 5,000 of them really love your band, but the other 20 might just be like, “Oh, okay.” So you’ve got to kind of win over the crowd in a different way than at a 1,000 person headlining show. Everybody’s there to see you. But I love that challenge too. I love a little balance between both big festivals and then playing some headlining stuff too.
That’s cool. And it sounds like people were connecting with your band too.
Yeah, every time “Until The Day I Die” comes on and 1,000 people are singing, and I go, “wow, we really did something here. We should be proud of ourselves.”
Absolutely. What does your band have in store for the rest of this year/2026. Or, anything else you care to share about what’s going on with the direction of Story of the Year right now?
Yeah, we have that Senses Fail tour, and I guess that’s it for the rest of this year. That starts in a couple weeks, goes through the middle of December, and then we’ll be home for the holidays and stuff. We will be putting a second single out relatively shortly. I don’t know the dates on all this, but we’re gonna try to get a few singles out before the full release date, obviously. So that’s the new cycle for all bands. Now, it’s just to make them wait, but to see them with a single every month or so. So we’ll have a couple more songs coming out before February, then in the New Year we’re doing the Emo’s Not Dead cruise, which is fun. We did one of those a couple years ago as well. Bunch of awesome bands on that as well. We’ll just be touring all year next year, I think, trying to stay as busy as we can without losing our minds is the plan.
That’s great to hear. And what have you been listening to recently, personally?
Man, I always try to remember things whenever people ask me this…It’s weird because I’ve been listening to our record exclusively just to try to remember now, but there’s a band called the Co-defendants that I love that’s newer. It’s a side project of Fat Mike from NoFX, and Sam from Get Dead. And then another dude that’s more of a rapper. It’s just really cool fun, and in between hip hop and punk rock, and it’s very different to me, and it sparks creativity to me, because it’s not like everything else. I like a lot of older punk rock stuff. So anytime an older band puts out something new…but that’s not fun. I need to figure out what new bands are doing…
<Laughter> I guess that’s my job, I mean, to discover the next big thing…So, the last question I have for you is, with the record coming out next year, what do you hope people will feel or connect with A.R.S.O.N. when it comes out in February?
Yeah, lyrically, it’s very first person, kind of introspective lyrics. Kind of dark, usually, but I like to make it to where it feels dark, but it can be interpreted in any way that people want to interpret it…but just about the struggles of life, and just just personal stuff. A lot of it means certain things to me, but I like whenever people can get some kind of crazy meaning for themselves as well. So yeah, I just hope that it makes people realize that they’re everybody’s going through certain things, and it makes them feel better about their life in some way, or gets their frustration out, or whatever it is. I think that’s the magic of music. It connects people with people on many different levels like that. So, yeah, I just hope that they hear it, love it, and identify with it in some way. That’s all you can really do with music.
That’s awesome, Dan! Anything else you care to get off your chest before we disconnect?
Should we start making a new record already?
Absolutely! <Laughter>
<Laughter> We’re just excited to get it out, and we’re going to be in as many cities as humanly possible. Like I said, we’re all going to try not to go crazy, but we’re going to tour as much as we can. We all have kids and wives and families and lives at home too, but we’re really enjoying being a full time band again and really being able to do this still in our 20 plus years of a music career now. So we want to do it forever, and until the day we die…
Can’t say it any better than that! Thanks again for your time, Dan.
Take care, Adam!