Nostalgia; it’s a hell of a drug. Here in the mid-2010s, the internet effectively provides us with a nostalgia database. For starters, terabytes of storage space and manifold social media platforms have made fetishising past activities a daily practice. Then there are music streaming services like Spotify, where a click of the finger lets us revisit old favourites that may have been discarded in a fit of post-adolescent taste restructuring.
Anyone partial to pop-punk back in 2003 would know that Yellowcard’s Ocean Avenue was big news. Just a couple of years down the track, however, and the pop-punk boom had largely dissipated. There was a strong chance many Yellowcard fans had turned their ears towards another booming genre movement before the band’s next record. Those listeners might be surprised to discover that not only have Yellowcard released five subsequent albums, but the pop-punk tag doesn’t do justice to the breadth of the band’s nine-album catalogue.
“I guess people would have put us in a genre for many years and called us a pop-punk band,” says vocalist Ryan Key. “We’ve been doing this for a long time, we’ve written a lot of records. It’s important for us to continue to grow and mature as musicians and writers, and most importantly, never write the same record twice.”
Nowhere is Yellowcard’s determination to continually expand their repertoire more apparent than on their latest LP, Lift A Sail.Released last October, the record includes heavy melodic alt-rock numbers, sentimental balladry, stacks of lovely string work, and yes, the occasional outbreak of pop-punk.
“We always try the best we can to make a well-rounded record,” says Key. “With Lift A Sail in particular, we realised early on in the process that we were going in a whole new direction so we just kind of ran with that.
“When Sean [Mackin, violin/backing vocals] brings in a whole piece of music and says, ‘What if this was just a song with vocals and strings and no drums or guitars?’ we go, ‘Yeah, that sounds rad. Let’s do that.’ There were no fucks given. I think we were inspired and really excited to try new things.”
Of course, it’s unfair to suggest that nostalgia is the chief force underpinning Yellowcard’s following. Along with the hoards of listeners around the world that have stuck with the band album after album, the US fivesome has attracted plenty of fans in the years since Ocean Avenue. For instance, it’s safe to say anyone who was first exposed to Yellowcard courtesy 2006’s Lights And Sounds would have a markedly different conception of the bandthan that of diehard Ocean Avenue enthusiasts. Lights And Sounds saw the band sidestep into the realm of alternative rock experimentation. After the platinum-selling success of Ocean Avenue,such a drastic departure left some listeners more than a touch confused.
“Because it was so fresh off Ocean Avenue and it was such a different-sounding record, people weren’t quite ready for it,” Key says. “After that, we have been a little more focused. Not that we were scared to do what we wanted to do, but [we’ve been] really trying to make a record that we were super stoked and super proud of, but also knowing that fans were going to be excited.”
Following Lights And Sounds, Yellowcard had a rethink. Naturally, if you’ve pleased people once, you want to make it happen again. Although an Ocean Avenue repeat has never surfaced, the record’s catchy and emotive pop-punk sound proved a durable foundation for 2007’s Paper Walls. “We got a little scared after Lights And Sounds and that got us really focused when we wrote Paper Walls,” Key says,“and Paper Walls became this epic, amazing pop-punk record.”
2013 was Ocean Avenue’sten-year anniversary. To celebrate, Yellowcard embarked on a global tour, during which they performed acoustic reworkings of the record’s 13 tracks. Along with satisfying fans across the globe, this tour marked a symbolic end to that phase of the band’s career. Thus, when it came time for Lift A Sail, there was no longer any concern about how far Yellowcard could branch out.
“We realised what a new chapter this was going to be for the band and sonically what a new direction we were heading in,” Key says. “We don’t want to turn our back on anybody that expects a certain sound from us, but at the same time, when we feel as inspired as we did when writing these songs we have to run with that.”
Throughout Yellowcard’s history, Key has never hesitated to bare his soul in his lyrics. His knack for illuminating vulnerable emotions while also placing emphasis on willpower as a remedial force is greatly cherished by Yellowcard fans. In the lead-up to Lift A Sail, Key went through what he describes as an “overwhelming” period of existential unrest. His personal struggles were then turned into song subject matter.
“What I’ve been through in the last year and a half – my wife is a professional snowboarder and she suffered a really terrible spinal cord injury, so we’ve been going through rehabilitation and learning how to live with this injury.”
When lyrically pursuing delicate matters of the heart, one risks making blankly naХve statements or alienating listeners with self-pity. Never mind that though, because on Lift A Sail, Key doesn’t fall into the traps of hyper-sentimental narrative gloom.
“What I always want to do is make it something that everybody can get something from,” he says. “I never want to come across with a ‘woe is me’ vibe. I want to come across as, ‘I’m going through this thing but I’m navigating my way through it and hopefully I can write a song that can share some of what I’ve experienced and what I’ve learned with you, the listener.’”
While Key tends to incorporate events from his own life into the band’s songs, he points out that his lyrics aren’t a direct account of daily life. “Personally, when I’m not writing songs, I have to really struggle with not going to a dark place. But as a songwriter, I can remind myself that it’s better to stay positive and know that I can share these feelings of positivity and forward-thinking with however many thousand people across the world listen to the Yellowcard records.
“This year has been very dark and very challenging,” he adds, “but that’s not the part of it that I want to share with people. I want to share the part where you overcome it.”
Perhaps he’s doing a better job at staying positive than he gives himself credit for. Either way, Lift A Sail makes one thing certain: Yellowcard are fighting fit and confidently charging ahead.
“There’s just something special about this record and I don’t really know how to put it into words,” says Key. “We do two things: we make records and we tour, and those are our two favourite things in the world to do. So we feel extremely grateful that we still have the opportunity to do both things at the level that we get to do it. It’s pretty amazing.”
Lift A Sail out now through Razor & Tie/Cooking Vinyl. Catch them withMayday Parade and Born Lion atHordern Pavilion onFriday July 10, tickets online.
