Where did the album title, You’re Welcome, come from?
“Well, I needed a hoodie for a show. It was our first show back from this massive time that we took off. Me and my wife had our first kid, the band was cool, and we pretty much took the whole year off to just be home, so I could be a part of that first year and help out. In the downtime, whenever I could, I’d be writing. So that’s really why we’ve been gone for so long. But for the first show back, I put on this outfit and was like, ‘Oooh, I need a white hoodie with this.’ So I went to the store and bought a white hoodie, and it said in red, ‘You’re Welcome,’ and the colour matched my shoes that I was wearing, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is perfect!’ There was a photo that was taken of me at this festival that we’d played in Mexico where I’m singing, and I pull my hoodie and it says, ‘You’re Welcome’. I got tagged in the photo the next day, and the first comment said, ‘Calling it now: the new A Day To Remember album is called You’re Welcome!’ And because I read it online, completely unguarded, it kind of hit me like I was told the A Day To Remember record name for the first time. I sat there, and it kind of had me stunned (laughs). I was like, ‘I think I fucking love that.’ So it was named by a fan.”
Surely you’re going to have to message them and say thank you?!
“Yeah, I’ve got a screenshot of it (laughs). It’s crazy. I just put it in my notes, and we had a bunch of other names that kept getting thrown around, but we felt like nothing was better than that. It fit. And it’s our whole brand: not taking ourselves too seriously. It’s also a gift, you know what I mean? We wrote so many songs for this record, and we’re so excited and proud of it, that it’s like, ‘Here, you’re welcome!’”
It was ADTR’s 15th anniversary last year and you went on a huge U.S. tour to celebrate. Did that inspire or influence you at all?
“I don’t know that I’d say it inspired anything, but it was actually the biggest and best tour we’ve ever done. For us, it was just like, ‘Man, it really does feel like what we’ve done here matters more than just the band that wrote that cool record one time.’ It really feels like now we might be that band who wrote some records that will matter to people for a long time. And that was the tour where it really hit us, like, ‘Maybe this is a thing? Maybe we’re a lifer band now?’ It was the first time where we really felt that we might have crossed that point where it’s not, ‘This record has got to be the one or else it’s all gonna come fucking crashing down!’ You have that stress, every time, as an artist, putting everything for that long into it. But that was the first tour where it was like, ‘Man, they’re still here after all these years.’ It’s exciting.”
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Did it feel like the pressure was off, then?
“It definitely felt like the pressure was off, 100 per cent. But that was also just because it was such an inspiring time. And then making the album, literally like day two or three of collaborating with people where it was like, ‘Okay, now that song is special.’ In my experience, it’s those lightning-in-a-bottle moments where the song writes itself, and it just comes from this very personal place, and the words write themselves – almost like you’re remembering it, rather than writing it for the first time. Almost every song that’s mattered in our career has happened that way. Actually, I’ve never had one that was meticulously put together that ever did that. It was cool, and there was a lot of them on this record that happened that way.”
Did having a daughter for the first time between albums make a difference, too? Almost giving you a new perspective on life, and the band not needing to be this stressful thing?
“Urgh… I’m gonna weep! Yes. Yes! It’s just like, ‘Okay, this is a new part of my life.’ It’s like a switch that was turned on in me that I didn’t even know was there. I’m a new person because of her. I haven’t talked about this publicly yet, but that’s actually what Rescue Me is about. I’m talking about her and my wife. Nobody knows that, but that’s what it’s about. It definitely affected me, and I would say that this is the first truly happy A Day To Remember record, which is another thing that makes me so excited about it – and also why that title makes so much sense! I’m not in a bad place – I’m in a great place, and the vibe has never been stronger.”
A Day To Remember's new album You're Welcome is out on November 15 via Fueled By Ramen.