This past week, I was able to catch up with Ryan Key of Yellowcard before he and his recently reunited bandmates embark on their summer tour celebrating 20 years of Ocean Avenue. In this in-depth interview with the lead vocalist of Yellowcard, I asked him about what went into the writing and recording of their new EP Childhood Eyes, the comparisons of the new EP to the sound of Paper Walls, and how he keeps the spirit of Yellowcard alive through various projects and outlets. Childhood Eyes will be released on July 21st via Equal Vision Records, and pre-orders are live.
Let me first start by saying how incredibly glad I am to see Yellowcard releasing new music again. So at what point during the band’s reunion process did you guys decide to pen some songs that would become the EP of Childhood Eyes?
It came up around the tour, really, it was sort of like…every piece of this has sort of been a one step at a time thing, and no expectations event. We got an offer for Riot Fest that got the phones ringing between each other. And then alongside that, pretty quickly came this offer from Live Nation news tour. So originally, the thinking behind new music shifted pretty dramatically. Originally, it was like, don’t need to do it. In general, just a lot of the stuff that happened at the end of the band, and tensions within things that led to us making the decision to put a fork in it. It was kind of like, do we need to all be in a room together again? Before we’re done touring, or before we’ve seen what the energy is going to be between all of us again. And then once dialogue really picked up about touring, I think everyone felt really comfortable with the relationships between each other, and how excited we were about what was coming up, and that we had this massive opportunity that just fell in our laps out of nowhere. And I think also the concept of doing an EP made it feel a little more accessible for us. Not having the pressure of a full-length album. We were kind of in that way it would be able to really map out, we’ve got five songs, what five songs do we need? What type of songs should be on this record? And so we really were able to approach each song by kind of saying, let’s do let’s do a faster song. Let’s do kind of one that’s maybe a little bit more in the latter years…the sound from the later years of the band? Maybe a ballad kind of song and acoustic song. So I think that we felt really comfortable making music as things progressed. And at the beginning of it all, we were concerned that we kind of bit off more than we could chew.
Sure, and I think I saw you mentioned that the direction of the new record was similar to the vibe of your album Paper Walls. I’ve heard the advance of the record, and I tend to agree with the sentiment that you put out there. And yet, it’s still a logical jumping off point from the self-titled record, the last one you guys put out. So what went into the process of narrowing down these five songs, and also can you speak to the Paper Walls comparison?
I just think when it was done, it sounded like Paper Walls. There wasn’t a conscious effort to make something that sounded like Paper Walls, there was a lot of conversation and consideration for the direction that the music is heading. I think that the last two records the band made, they were probably made more for us than for you. And I can certainly say that speaking for myself, and you can ask each of us how we feel about the records we’ve made. But for me, the subject matter on those records, lyrically, the sonic direction being so different from anything we think we had before, were all things I think that we just needed to do. Just if we were going to be creating at that time in our career, we needed to change it up. We needed to do something to keep it fresh. And then lyrically, for me, I just had a lot to dig into that held a lot more weight than anything I had ever put on a Yellowcard record before. So I think we went into these songs open-mindedly saying, how do we make something that we have fun creating, and we put ourselves fully in too, but that gets fans super excited about hearing new music from Yellowcard?
Yeah, and I think I think you accomplished both of those things on this EP, so congrats on that! The EP also includes two collaborations with Vic Fuentes from Pierce the Veil, and Chris Carrabba from Dashboard Confessional. Why did your band want these extra voices on the record, and what drew you to working with them?
I think it was just a conversation about visibility. What can we do since we’ve been gone for a long time, and we haven’t released any new music in almost seven years? And the two releases prior to this one, being Lift A Sail and self-titled, while we’re very proud of those records, they didn’t really gain very much traction at all, with the fan base. Well, going back from a creative musical standpoint, I think there’s a lot of growth, but as far as growing the band from monthly listeners on Spotify, and all the metrics you need these days to quantify success in what you’re doing…those records didn’t really move the needle much on those. So we had a conversation about whether it would be cool to have some other artists on this EP that might help. Maybe more dormant listeners who haven’t been following the band, whether it be from Ocean Avenue at all on, or whether it be from maybe the early Hopeless Records on, and so the conversation with Vic came up solely because I sat down on an airplane and put on their new record that released <The Jaws Of Life>.
Yeah, I love it!
I was just blown away by it. And I was blown away by it in the context of Lift A Sail and self-titled for Yellowcard, because I felt like, ”Wow, this is Pierce the Veil doing exactly what they want to do!” And you can take it or leave it. They’re heading in a completely new direction. And I don’t listen to a lot of rock and roll at this point in my life. I listen to mostly instrumental electronic, scores, and post-rock. But bands with lyrics, it’s just not what I do these days. But if I do, I’m still a 90’s alternative grunge rock fan. That’s what made me. So I heard Pierce the Veil’s album and one of the songs is called “Pass The Nirvana.” So, even reading that thought before listening to it. I didn’t know what to expect. But then I got into it, and I was like, “oh okay, they’re pretty much aged two years younger than us, or our generation for sure. And I knew that they were leaning into this 90’s Alternative and grunge sound. And I was so pumped. Every song, I was just completely enthralled with with the new Pierce the Veil record. So I was really only texting Vic to say, “Dude, I am so impressed with your album. I have to tell you, I don’t listen to much new music from our scene, or from bands at all, in general. But something drew me to listen to this record today. And it’s stellar!” And that conversation just evolved into…by the way, we’re making new music. How would you feel about maybe hopping on a song? And he was instantly like, yes, whatever we need to do, I’ll make it happen,
Especially when you throw in a nice compliment like that…<Laughter>
<Laughter> My point is that I wasn’t buttering him up to ask him. I didn’t know that that’s where the conversation was going to take us, but I’m very glad that it did. And that that process was super cool. I got to go down to San Diego and record his vocals in Pierce’s rehearsal studio space with him and Jamie, and we just had a blast. We just had such a great day together hanging out working on the songs.
So, you actually worked together when you did those vocal parts?
I kinda produced the vocals a bit with him. And we just had a blast, and I think you can hear it in the song here that we were super collaborative. We were super invested in the vocal performances together. And yeah, I’m just so excited for people to hear this.
Honestly, I’m surprised it took you guys so long to collaborate with each other because of how well you play off of each other on the song…
For sure! And then, Dashboard. Chris and I’ve been friends for a long time and he is just such a wonderful human being. He has been so supportive of me and my journey post-Yellowcard. We both don’t live there anymore, but for the seven years that I lived in Nashville, Chris was there. And when we weren’t both traveling, touring, or doing whatever, we would spend time together. He’s just the most encouraging, positive, loving, supportive human being. He’s just like, anything you want to ask me about doing stuff on my own because he’s largely a solo artist in essence. And he helped me through so much of that. And so “The Places We’ll Go,” the song that he sings on, is an acoustic song that I had laying around in the bank for a long time. Back in 2015, when I knew the band was splitting up, I sort of made a proactive decision about wanting to get into producing, collecting gear and starting up stuff I should have done long before 2015. But being older and wiser and not knowing what the future will hold, I tried to be, as I said, a little proactive about what was coming next. So I worked with Yellowcard fans on a Kickstarter campaign that was so incredible. I was really hesitant to do Kickstarter in the first place, it was still kind of a new thing. And I was concerned with like, “Is this me just lobbying for money? Or am I doing something cool?” It was such a tough call to do it in the first place. But contrary to popular belief, just because we had a song on the radio in 2004, does not mean we are all multi-millionaires, and I can just go build a recording studio whenever we want. And so I decided to do it, after a lot of research of others, what type of fundraising campaigns other artists have done, or were doing actively. And so basically, I launched the thing to help me with the studio together and it was overfunded by about 30% or 40%. It was absolutely incredible. And I still to this day, I get to sit in this studio, the one you’re currently looking at, and work here because of it. So part of that campaign was “custom song rights,” which I had never done anything like beforelike that before. But basically, if you wanted to be a part of this campaign, you would let me know what you want me to write a song about. Whether it’s for your child or your wife, yourself, or a life experience. So, one of the songs I wrote was this really cool story about a fan who had a high school sweetheart, and they split up after high school. He joined the Navy, he had somewhat of an alcohol problem. So he ships out, going through all that kind of stuff and wasn’t really taking care of himself while he was in the Navy. And while he was gone, his high school sweetheart got engaged to someone else. And that kind of made it worse for him. And then he got home, and sobered up. She ended up not marrying the person she got engaged to and they ended up married, together and had kids. It was an epic story, so I wrote a song based on this story that he gave me back in 2015. So on the record, on Childhood Eyes, when you hear “The Places We’ll Go,” the choruses and the second verse are the vocals I recorded myself in my studio in 2015. And Neil Avron and I got to do all the vocals for this record , so we tweaked some of the lyrics to sort of make it my own, and be something that could go on a Yellowcard record. But I only recently re-worked, and was re-saying the first verse, and kind of quieted down the third verse part. But I had this song that was an acoustic song that we wanted to have a classic Yellowcard acoustic guitar and strings on the record. Again, kind of thinking what would get fans most excited about this process and I think everyone has always really enjoyed when we bought pull out acoustic guitars to write a song, and that one was premeditated. I thought, I’m gonna ask Chris about a few songs. We’ve been talking about doing something together for a long time. Chris and I, we even talked about starting like a 90s kind of grunge/alternative band like Smashing Pumpkins, but it never came together. But we have talked about doing a lot of stuff together, whether it be touring, or that kind of stuff. And so no hesitation, he was like, “Absolutely send me the song, and I’ll check it out.” And I didn’t really give him any direction. I just said, “If you want to take a whole verse, let me know. If you just want to sing harmonies or do some call and response.” And he just took the song and ran with it. And I tell you what man, when that last chorus drops and you really hear that Chris Carrabba aching, raspy, throat-wailing…I think that’s one of the most special moments. That line, “You will be right there,” is just one of the most special moments.
Yeah, I can’t wait to put that one on vinyl when it arrives! I already pre-ordered it.
I just listened to the test press. It sounds really good.
That’s awesome. So, can you tell me about the Ocean Avenue anniversary tour? The reaction to the tour seems to be an overwhelming success, just from an outsider’s perspective. From the venues that you guys are playing and the bands you’re bringing together, what does it mean to each of you in Yellowcard to have this positive energy from your fans towards not only that record, but just everything as a whole?
It blows my mind. We were terrified when this tour came to be and we found out what rooms they wanted us to play. It’s a really interesting feeling because we got the offer from Live Nation, and it is a life-changing opportunity for us. Getting older, having families, starting families, all of this is unbelievable. But we looked at some of the venues and 5,000-7,000 seats. We’re like, “We never did that! Even when we had a song on Top 40 radio…What are you thinking?!?” Then there’s this element of you have to trust that a massive company, like Live Nation, that specializes in bands going on tour, knows what they’re doing. But nonetheless, we were still really freaked out about it. Yeah, we’re gonna get to go on the tour, and we’re gonna get paid whether anyone shows up or not, because that’s the offer. But that doesn’t mean we want it to go that way. We don’t want to play for 1,500 people in a 5,000 seat room! <Laughter> Let’s play for 1,500 people in a 1,500 person room like we’ve been doing for the last decade! And then, the morning of the fan presale, where you had to have your name on an email list by going to our website and signing up….and when I woke up I was already in California recording vocals for the EP. So the East Coast presale starts, it’s still like 6 or 7 o’clock in the morning in California. And so I kind of rolled over, and cleaned the sleep out of my eyes at 7:30 or so in the morning, and saw I had 31 missed calls from my booking agent. So, Yellowcard’s had the same booking agent since 2001. She’s been with us the whole ride. She’s an absolute legend, her name is Corey Christopher. And so she’s just calling until I can wake up. And finally, I answer it, and it’s actually our manager, Kristin Harris. She calls, and she says, “hang on, I’ve got Corey”…And I’m thinking something’s wrong. She just starts rattling the numbers off, and I’m in utter disbelief. It’s the first day of email list-only sales, and I think the best example to use is how shocked we are and just how overwhelming the response is to this. One of the shows I was most nervous about was Jacksonville, Florida. I live there now again for the first time in over two decades. So we’re playing an amphitheater here in Jacksonville, with just over 5,000 capacity. Normally, we play at a little place downtown that holds about 1,000 people. And we’ve done it a couple times in the last 10 years, and it hasn’t sold out. Most of the time it did, but a couple of times it didn’t. And so I was just the one where I was like, “Please help us get out there and have this one be a success.” And it sold out in 72 hours, and Live Nation wanted to add a second show. And we were in such disbelief still, but especially when they said, “Let’s add a second show…” We were all still like…no! Why? Let’s just take the win! And now we’re like five or 600 tickets away from selling out the second show.
That’s awesome. Congratulations!
Thank you. So everyone is just shocked and humbled beyond belief to think that we really believed we would never step on stage together again. And then arrive here, seven years later. There really isn’t really a way to describe how it feels. I can’t believe it.
And you seem to be keeping the Yellowcard spirit alive through over the years through your personalized lyrics, the handwritten lyrics you do for fans as well as staying active in our Chorus.fm forums every now and then. So why do you take it upon yourself to keep the legacy alive over the years? And what have you learned from this process?
Well, personally, I’m really proud of being a part of Yellowcard. And of what we built as a band and career over the 17 years that I was a part of the band, to get the chance to see the world the way we did so many times over. And for Yellowcard being the way that I got to make a living for so long on its own. And, but that said, full disclosure, being transparent. I think a big part of it for me is I wanted to keep making a living playing music, and doing music. When the band broke up, I was very, very determined to stay on the path of being a musician, whether it be live performances, or creating in the studio or whatever. And not having to get some other job to sustain me financially. And so even though the band wasn’t touring, there were still a lot of opportunities that I was provided by Yellowcard. And so I took advantage of whatever opportunity I could. I felt like I could share with fans comfortably on my own, and not feel like I was taking advantage of anyone else. So, doing handwritten lyrics for example, I’ve always felt really comfortable doing those and making a living doing them. They have subsidized so much of what I’ve been able to do as a musician. So for anyone that’s reading this, if you’re a fan that has purchased a handwritten lyric sheet for me, you have to know what an absolute game changer that that revenue stream became. I mean, every time I put them on sale, it’s been such a special and supportive element of my career. But that’s something that I felt comfortable doing, because I wrote all the lyrics to all the Yellowcard songs ever written. So, if I was out trying to sell records of covered Yellowcard songs or anything like that…that’s not something that I could do. But as soon as I was able, I started writing my own songs to take on tour so that I wasn’t just “Ryan from Yellowcard,” going out playing Yellowcard’s songs. I wanted to be able to play my own original music as fast as possible. So it was only right at the very beginning, like 2017-2018, where I did some shows where I played Yellowcard songs on my own. But, again, I want to keep the legacy alive, because I think it’s a really special thing, what we built. And the fact that people still support and care so much about the band and have. I didn’t want to let that fade away. And then the other aspect of it was just it’s been so helpful for me to continue creating new music I want to create and try to create things I tried to do. So it’s been a hustle, that’s for sure.
So the last two songs in the record, “Honest From The Jump” and “The Places We’ll Go,” seem to hint at the possibility of more music on the horizon from Yellowcard. Is there anything you can share to that prospect?
Classified. <Laughter> The door’s open for anything. We don’t have any concrete plans. A lot of moving parts and none of us live in the same city anymore. We love working with Neil <Avron>. He doesn’t really produce a whole lot anymore. So if we’re going to do something, what’s his involvement? What’s his availability? There’s again, a lot of moving parts that have to come together for us to be able to comfortably and successfully create something. If we’re going to make new music, we don’t want it to be stressful, and we don’t want it to be done kind of halfway. I think after dipping our toes in the water with the EP, if we’re going to do more music, I think we all would want to maybe do it more traditionally, where we get to all be in the same room. For this one, we were all on Zoom and sending demos, and Sean and I tracked the background vocals with me sitting in here and then on to this thing. So my approach was to run live while I sang, and help me write parts. So I’m not sure, but I will say that whether it’s music or more touring or anything, the door is officially open for anything that makes sense and that we feel good about.
That’s great to hear from not only a longtime fan and supporter of your guys’ music, but also someone who grew up with this music. I wish you guys nothing but the best, and congrats again on the successful tour and the upcoming release of your EP!
Well, man, thank you so much. It was great to talk to you again!
You too! Take care, Ryan.
