Taking Back Sunday singer Adam Lazzara talks about music and new tour
Adam Lazzara tells how Taking Back Sunday’s breakthrough hit made the whole band sad
All 162 Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe “Fun Cups” will be on display at the Chippewa Store
All 162 Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe “Fun Cups” will be on display at the Chippewa Township location
PITTSBURGH – Taking Back Sunday won’t have to worry about tornadoes this time when the rock band returns to Western Pennsylvania.
“The last time I was there was at the Four Chord Festival last year. There was a tornado, so everything got postponed and we ended up playing five songs acoustically, just the three of us. So I’m really excited to be able to play there with a full band,” said Adam Lazzara, singer of Taking Back Sunday, recently.
In fact, on July 24, the indoor Stage AE crowd will see Taking Back Sunday’s full program, with a headlining set including tracks from last fall’s album 152. The album reveals a band testing their limits to continue to grow, baring their inner selves in the hopes of building connections with others.
“152,” named after a popular ride, features more synthesizers than the Long Island-based quartet’s seven previous albums.
“All of our records have had synthesizers. But on this one we’re putting a little more emphasis on them,” said Lazzara. “One of the coolest things about making ‘152’ was that it completely turned my mind on its head in terms of recording.”
The record’s producer, Tushar Apte, known for producing records by artists such as Demi Lovato, Niki Minaj and Chris Brown, pushed “Taking Back Sunday” out of his comfort zone of studio purism.
“Tushar’s craft is not what we do as Taking Back Sunday. He has a completely different ear and approach than we do,” said Lazzara. “He changed my whole perspective on recording and old habits.”
The track “Lightbringer” features a slight growl from Lazzara, an example of how a demo track became the final product.
“What’s on there is the first thing that came out of my mouth,” Lazzara said. “We went back and tried to make it ‘better,’ or right, the way you’re supposed to do it in studios, but nothing felt the same. The song got worse every time I tried to re-sing it. Like a square peg in a round hole, so we decided to just leave the demo as is.”
In contrast, “Amphetamine Smiles” has undergone many changes under Apte’s leadership.
“I think it was actually much faster in the beginning, which is weird for us to slow it down,” Lazzara said. “We usually speed everything up.”
Lazzara, 42, still remembers his first reaction when he heard Apte’s final arrangement of “Amphetamine Smiles,” with its slow, stripped-back beginning and gently swelling harmonies before the full band kicks in.
“Normally we would have said, ‘No way, dude,’ but when I was walking down a long hallway and the door to the studio control room was open and I heard it, right when the drums started, it was like an NFL linebacker came in and shoved me down the hallway in the best way possible,” Lazzara said.
Taking Back Sunday promoted the “152” songs with a series of seamless, home-movie-like music videos showing the band on a beach in Montauk and other locations in their old hometown.
“The overarching idea was to make everything feel coherent, because we hadn’t really managed that in the past,” said Lazzara.
He compared the band’s previous marketing efforts to door-to-door advertising.
“We went door to door and knocked on people’s doors and said, ‘Hey, do you want to hear our songs?’ We just wanted to get into their world. And then we realized, hey, wait a minute, that’s not how you do it. Nobody likes that, under any circumstances. So how about we invite them into our world? All the photos that were taken around this record are from one house,” Lazzara said. “It was really important to stay Long Island-centric because that’s where the band is from. And every time we go back there, it just feels wonderful, and so we just tried to find a way to convey the feeling that it gives us.”
Going out on the streets again is a special feeling.
In an interview a few weeks ago before the start of the second leg of the tour in Pittsburgh, Lazzara said the setlist would consist of fan requests from social media and other online posts, as well as songs the band likes to play live.
“MakeDamnSure,” Taking Back Sunday’s 2006 chart hit, closed the shows on the first leg of the tour.
“MakeDamnSure” is marked by a major note, said Lazzara − “we call it the Pedro The Lion note” − inspired by the popular indie rock band of the same name.
Lazzara remembers writing the chorus alone in the studio late one afternoon and later playing it for guitarist Mark O’Connell and former bassist Matt Rubano, “and they both looked at me like there was something on my face or like something bad had happened, but they were just so excited. And I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, I impressed them.’ Because that’s what I was trying to do most of the time. Don’t tell them I said that.”
Another insider tip about “MakeDamnSure”: If you listen to it with headphones, a voice message can be heard quite quietly in the mix when the bridge is inserted.
“You can hear it on speakers, although it’s so quiet that you really notice it with headphones. That was a voicemail that was on my phone at the time, and I remember getting the message. The next day I was in the studio and I was like, ‘Hey, this is going to be great in this part of the song because it gets deeper and sadder.’ Because it was really sad news,” Lazzara said.
So sad that Lazzara didn’t want to be in the control room when the news was mixed into the studio track.
“It was really difficult. So, I’m outside. And maybe 45 minutes go by and Fred Mascherino (former guitarist and singer) comes out and says, ‘Hey, you have to come back in here because we can’t keep listening. I mean, come on, dude.’ I was like, ‘Oh God, because (producer) Eric Valentine wanted to make sure he put it in the right place, so they listened to it over and over and the mood was awful. Because everyone was so sad. And you know when you listen to something like that on repeat for half an hour through these beautiful speakers, it gets on your nerves,” Lazzara said. “That’s a funny part of the song.”
Fans of Taking Back Sunday would say it is one of the band’s songs that makes them feel seen and find comfort.
“That thing that happens. I don’t fully understand it and that’s part of the magic of it,” Lazzara said. “One of the things I’m most proud of is that I was able to be a part of something that found someone at exactly the right time when they needed it. That’s what music has always given me. All my favorite artists and all my favorite bands. It helped me feel validated and seen. To feel like I matter and I’m not alone, like all of those things. But to think that I was a part of something like that for someone else is absolutely incredible.”
Lazzara describes “Highway Companion” by Tom Petty as such an album.
“There’s something in it that just fills a gap in me that needs to be filled,” Lazzara said.
Lazzara also enjoys losing himself in the music of Citizen, the band from Toledo, Ohio, that warms up audiences on the “Taking Back Sunday” tour.
“One of the things I really like about Citizen is that each of their records is very different from the last. That’s why their set just flows so well,” said Lazzara.
Normally he would watch the opening act a bit before getting ready for the show, “but with Citizen, I lose track of time every time they play because they have so many great songs and they’re all different. I know their set and I watch it every night, but I lose track of time every time. And then I’m so glad we took this band on tour because if I lose track of time, hopefully everyone else in the audience does too.”
Unlike the storm-prone Four Chord Music Festival last August at Wild Things Park in Washington County, there will be no power grids at Taking Back Sunday in Pittsburgh this time.
“With the full band and the full production, I’m really looking forward to it,” said Lazzara.
This abbreviated Washington County performance marked the first time the band played many of their “152” tracks acoustically, paving the way for this year’s release of the four-song EP “S’Old (Acoustic),” which presents the song in four different styles.
“That was a big day because we were partly scared because we’re not used to taking shelter in a tornado. And there were a lot of questions about the schedule. A lot of commotion. In the end, it was great because the organizers said, ‘Hey, you can’t play the whole band, but if you want to play acoustic, we can probably get you up there for 20 minutes, no problem.’ And we went up. And we played the newer songs for ‘152’ acoustically early on and it went really well. We were terrified of it because we didn’t know how it was going to go because we’d never done that before. So that was really magical. It was like a sky after a storm, it looked ominous and the people who had taken shelter all came back to the festival grounds and we played those songs for the first time in this format that we’d never tried before. It was really exciting.”
He hopes fans in the Pittsburgh area are excited about the Stage AE show, “because we are.”
Lazzara said: “What I’m proud of is that the crowd ranges in age from 12 to early 50s. Of course, someone who is 12 is at a different point in their life than someone who is 28, 38 or 42, but in that hour and a half or two, none of that matters. Everyone gets lost in the same thing at the same time and that’s an impressive thing.”
What’s up:
What: Taking Back Sunday indoor concert at Stage AE, Pittsburgh
Doors open: July 24th, 7pm.
Tickets: $42.50-$85.
Information: promowestlive.com
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