James caught up with Derek Sanders from Mayday Parade to talk about their current album, supporting You Me At Six and much more.

You have just released your new self titled album in the UK, how has it gone down with the fans and press so far?
Derek: I think it’s all been pretty good. The main thing for us is that we just wanted to go and make a cd that we were happy with and we loved. We’re all super pumped about the album and then on top of that it seems to be going over pretty well. People are saying that they love the album and it’s their favourite one. We’ve all received good feedback and it’s always good to play the new stuff live, it’s awesome.

What themes and stories do you cover within the album?
Derek: One thing that is kind of interesting is we did the faceless umbrella guy; he’s been the character we’ve used for all of our artwork. The actually wasn’t a story at all for him, it was just the artwork that we got and we just decided to keep using him. We actually went back and wrote out this whole story explaining who the umbrella guy is and where he came from. The Oh Well video is like the first part of that story and we’ll hopefully do something along the way about it as well.

How did you find writing and recording the album compared to your previous albums?
Derek: This one was very different but it’s been different each time we’ve gone in to do an album. We learn along the way and at this point I feel we were the most comfortable with it, we knew what we wanted and what we didn’t want and we knew what to expect. It felt like we could just go in and focus on making an album that we loved and it worked out great. I think this has been our best experience in the studio because there wasn’t any pressure from the label where as when we were recording ‘Anywhere But Here’ we were making the album that the label wanted rather than the one that we wanted. It makes it very frustrating and it feels like you’re having to make a lot of compromises and it shouldn’t be that way. So with this one we just went in and we didn’t even have anyone else even listen to it. We just did it out way and I think that’s what works the best for us.

You are currently towards the end of a massive tour with You Me At Six, how did this come about?
Derek: We met You Me At Six on the AP tour that we did with The Academy Is and Set Your Goals and we just instantly had a great connection with them. They’re great guys and we hung out with them again on Warped Tour and the Noise Tour. They just asked us if we wanted to come over and do this tour with them and it’s great to come over to their home territory and see them play here. It’s been an incredible tour, we’re very lucky to be able to do this.

How have you found the tour so far? Any highlights at all?
Derek: It’s been incredible; I think Glasgow has been the biggest show of the tour and that one was wild. It was Matt from You Me At Six birthday earlier on the tour and today is Dan’s birthday so I expect tonight will be pretty wild.

You are heading back to the UK in May for the Slam Dunk Festival how do you feel to be coming back to play these shows?
Derek: That’s gonna be awesome especially as we did Slamdunk last year and it was so much fun. There are a bunch of bands playing like Taking Back Sunday that we’re really excited about it so it means we look forward to it even more.

Apart from the forthcoming Slam Dunk shows what do you have planned once your current tour comes to an end?
Derek: Well like you said we’re doing Slumdunk and then some more international stuff and then Warped tour in the summer. In September we’re doing South America which will be our first time down there so I can’t wait for that. Hopefully after that I think we might try to come back over here in October, we love it over here so hopefully we can come back and do something like a headliner.

Most bands get gifts from their fans, what has been the best and also the weirdest gift you have received from a fan?
Derek: Some people put a lot of work into their gifts, they’ll make us scrap books or cool artwork or someone once made us this really cool quilt. We’ve had lots of really cool stuff and we keep it at our bass players’ house because that’s where we’ve always kind of set up and practiced. I’m not sure what the weirdest thing would be; we get lots of candy and things like that and there is one person who brings us these little windup toys. I guess that we’re lucky that we haven’t got anything too weird.

What’s your opinion on the whole anti piracy laws going on at the moment and how it will affect the music industry?
Derek: It’s tough to say and I need to fully educate myself on it but it seems like it’s all pretty bad stuff. The idea of it sounds like it’s not so bad but the things that it would do seem like it would have a negative effect. I think the internet is the craziest most powerful thing and I think there is maybe too much freedom with it. I think it’s better to try and adapt with it as oppose to stop it. I’ve been trying to read a lot about it recently and this is all based on what I’ve read and heard but it seems like a pretty awful thing.

Where do you hope to see May Day Parade in a year’s time?
Derek: I don’t know, at this point I think we’re just happy where we are because we’ve had three albums now and I feel like these days it’s pretty hard to stay relevant. Obviously our goal is to grow but more than anything we just like doing this and we’re having a great time doing it. As long as we’re still doing thing and we’re having a good time then I’m happy.

One last random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a zebra or Giraffe which one would you be and why?
Derek: I’d be a giraffe because how awesome would it be to be the only animal with an awesome long neck. A zebra is just a horse with stripes but a zebra would be pretty awesome as well

Thanks for your time is there a message for your fans reading this?

Derek: Thank you for the support and as I said before we’re very lucky to be able to do this. We’ve all played music growing up so it’s amazing that we’re able to make a career out of it so thanks for all of the support.

Interview by James Daly