Taking Back Sunday
Taking Back Sunday is an American rock band from Amityville, New York, formed by guitarist Eddie Reyes and bassist Jesse Lacey in late 1999. The band's current members are Adam Lazzara, John Nolan and Shaun Cooper, accompanied by Nathan Cogan and Mitchell Register for their live performances. The band's former members include original singer Antonio Longo, Jesse Lacey, Eddie Reyes, drummer Mark O'Connell, bassist Matthew Rubano, and guitarist-vocalists Fred Mascherino and Matthew Fazzi.
Lacey quit Taking Back Sunday in 1999 and in 2000 formed the rock band Brand New, with whom Taking Back Sunday would become embroiled in a highly publicized feud. Lazzara joined prior to the release of the band's 2002 debut album Tell All Your Friends, while Nolan and Cooper left the band in 2003 to form Straylight Run before returning in 2010. The band's breakthrough album, 2006's Louder Now, featured the popular lead single "MakeDamnSure", sold over 900,000 copies, and peaked at No. 2 on the United States Billboard 200, surpassing the band's previous Billboard 200 peak in 2004 at No. 3 with Where You Want to Be. They released their eighth studio album, 152, in 2023.
Taking Back Sunday has been referred to as "one of the more visible groups of the early-2000s emo boom." The staff of Consequence ranked the band at number 38 on their list of "The 100 Best Pop Punk Bands" in 2019.
History
Early years (1999–2002)
Guitarist Eddie Reyes, who had formed and played in the Movielife, Mind Over Matter and Inside, and guitarist Jesse Lacey of the Rookie Lot founded Taking Back Sunday in Amityville, New York, in November 1999. The band's name was taken from a song by Long Island band The Waiting Process. Lacey moved to bass with the addition of guitarist John Nolan. The group also included vocalist Antonio Longo of One True Thing, and drummer Steven DeJoseph. Lacey left the band after a personal incident with Nolan. Lacey formed Brand New a year later. Nolan contacted Adam Lazzara to fill in on bass, which resulted in Lazzara moving from North Carolina to New York. Lazzara had met the band when they played a show near his hometown in North Carolina.DeJoseph was unable to tour extensively because of personal issues and was waiting until the band had another drummer before leaving the group. Mark O'Connell, a friend of Reyes, heard about the opening and joined the group. After recording Taking Back Sunday's self-titled EP, Longo left the band and eventually played with The Prizefighter and the Mirror. In December 2000, Lazzara switched from bass to lead vocals. He never thought he would become the group's singer: "I remember getting into Windstar with that and just driving around singing those songs, just to make myself actually do it." O'Connell suggested that the group needed a bassist, and brought in Shaun Cooper. Lazzara spoke of his initial thoughts on Cooper's talent in an interview with AP magazine, saying with Cooper it was "the best bass playing I'd ever seen in my life. I was like, "Oh my God, people can do that?'" In February 2001, Taking Back Sunday released a five-track demo before touring for a year.
While performing as an unsigned band, they received contract offers from labels that ultimately amounted to nothing. These included Triple Crown Records, who was apprehensive as they had just signed Brand New, and Drive-Thru Records' offer resulted from co-owner Richard Reines having mistaken Nolan for Lacey. Eventually, a friend of the band shared a demo with Victory Records sales and A&R representative Angel Juarbe. Jurabe then sent a copy to Victory founder Tony Brummel, who asked to see a live performance. Within two weeks of seeing them live, a contract was written up, and the band signed to Victory in December 2001.
Victory Records era: ''Tell All Your Friends'' and ''Where You Want to Be'' (2002–2005)
Although other labels expressed interest in Taking Back Sunday, Victory Records encouraged them to make an album. The band's debut effort was recorded over a period of two weeks in December 2001 at Big Blue Meenie Recording Studio in New Jersey with producer Sal Villanueva. Lazzara fell ill around Christmas, and the sessions were delayed one to two weeks; recording concluded in early January 2002, and ended up costing $10,000. The debut album's name was revealed in February to be Tell All Your Friends; prior to the release of their debut, a music video for "Great Romances of the 20th Century" was released on March 4, 2002. It was directed by Christian Winters, a friend of the band. Winters made the video before the group signed with Victory, and the record company enjoyed it. The song was distributed to radio stations on March 12, and the full album was released on March 25. A video for "Cute Without the 'E' " followed on December 10, 2002, and "You're so Last Summer" on November 24, 2003, following a radio release the previous September. Both videos were also directed by Winters.Lazzara was suffering from a drinking problem around this time and cheated on Nolan's sister, Michelle, who he had been dating for a while. After playing Skate & Surf Festival in late April 2003, Lazzara apologized to Nolan later that evening. However, Nolan later learned the apology had been insincere, and both Nolan and Cooper officially told the other three band members they were leaving the band two days later. Nolan publicly reasoned that his departure resulted from exhaustion from touring; Lazzara reiterated this reason, and revealed Cooper had left because he did not want to be in the band without Nolan. In truth, Nolan later revealed there was constant fighting within the group, with each member feeling they were not receiving enough credit for the group's success.
John and Michelle Nolan formed Straylight Run with Cooper and Breaking Pangaea drummer Will Noon in the wake of the split from Taking Back Sunday. Taking Back Sunday underwent a short period where they were unsure what to do next, and even briefly considered breaking up. The band was due to tour the United Kingdom with Brand New in May and June 2003; however, all the shows were cancelled because of rumors of the band breaking up. Eventually, it was decided the band would continue; the two departed Taking Back Sunday members were replaced by Breaking Pangaea frontman Fred Mascherino on guitar and vocals as well as O'Connell's longtime friend Matt Rubano on bass.
After their co-headlining tour with Saves the Day concluded in November 2003, Taking Back Sunday immediately commenced work on a second album. Recording for the second album began on March 1, with Lou Giordano at the helm as producer. Taking Back Sunday self-financed the recording sessions, two weeks of which took place at Mission Sound in Brooklyn, New York. The remainder of the album was completed at Water Music in Hoboken, New Jersey, and recording was officially finished by April. At the suggestion of Giordano, the band experimented with instruments aside from the group's usual instrumentation.
The record, titled Where You Want To Be, was released on July 27, 2004, on Victory Records. Despite sounding slightly different from Tell All Your Friends as a result of Giordano's guidance, the new album managed to do well commercially; preceded by the single "A Decade Under the Influence" on June 22, Where You Want To Be was propelled to the No. 3 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart at its debut, with around 163,000 copies sold. It became one of the best-selling independent rock albums within a year, selling 634,000 copies by June 2005. Rolling Stone listed Where You Want To Be as one of the top fifty records of 2004. Instead of spending marketing money towards trying to get radio play, Victory Records deployed a street team handing out sampler CDs and fliers to promote the album. It remains Victory's highest chart peak for an album.
Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 directed the music video for "This Photograph is Proof "; Blink-182 had invited the band to open for them during their North American tour in 2004. Taking Back Sunday toured frequently for eight months in support of Where You Want to Be, including an appearance at the Reading Festival.
Major label debut: ''Louder Now'' (2005–2007)
Production on Taking Back Sunday's third album began in April 2005, when Lazzara that the band was in "the early stages" of writing new songs. During this time, they were on a co-headlining tour with Jimmy Eat World; they would introduce two new tracks, "Error: Operator" and "What's It Feel Like to Be a Ghost?" during these shows. On June 10, 2005, it was announced that the band had signed with major label Warner Bros. Records and would begin recording their third album later in 2005. "Error: Operator" would become the first song from the upcoming album to be released when it was added to the video-game adaption of Fantastic Four; it was later added to the film's soundtrack as well.On September 21, 2005, it was announced that Taking Back Sunday had begun recording their third album. With Eric Valentine at the helm, recording commenced at Barefoot Studios in Los Angeles. The group chose Valentine because he had produced Queens of the Stone Age's Songs for the Deaf and Third Eye Blind's self-titled album. The band had attempted to secure Valentine as producer for Where You Want to Be, but were unable to. During the sessions, the band strived to take a more rock-oriented instrumental approach without compromising their whole compositional style. By January 2006, the album was completed, and the album's title was revealed the following month as Louder Now.
Louder Now was released on April 25, 2006 through Warner Bros. Records. The members' comments on the album reflected the dramatic change the band had undergone in the two years since their last release. Matt Rubano noted that the move to a major label was not something the band took lightly, but it was a move that made sense given the band's tumultuous past.
On October 30, 2006, the band's former record label, Victory Records, released Notes from the Past, which featured four songs from Tell All Your Friends, six songs from Where You Want To Be, and two B-sides: The Ballad of Sal Villanueva and Your Own Disaster . The band then released Louder Now: Part Two on November 20, 2007, a DVD of unreleased live concert footage from their show at Long Beach Arena in Long Beach, California, which included special features such as the video for "Twenty-Twenty Surgery", made to be released in Europe. In 2007, the band contributed the song "What's It Feel Like to Be a Ghost?" to the soundtrack for the science fiction action film Transformers, although the song did not appear in the film.