There really isn’t a better feeling in the world than spinning one of your all-time favourite records. Nearly breaking your fingers as you tap the drum beat, shamelessly shredding your air guitar and of course, drowning out the vocals as you take centre stage.
Well, that might be a slight fib, there is one thing better, and that’s when the artist that has produced your favourite unforgettable piece of wax decide to embark on a worldwide tour to celebrate the legacy of their masterful creation and the impact it has left on the music world.
This is exactly what the five inseparable pals of Story Of The Year have employed in lieu of their seminal post-hardcore debut release, Page Avenue.
The quintet’s debut record was released in September 2003 on US label Maverick Records. It has been cemented in the music history books as one of the major bricks that smashed through the proverbial wall to the mainstream for the once underground scenes of emo and its close cousin, ‘screamo’.
This harsh yet gut-wrenchingly melodic sound was a natural progression from the raw pop-punk aesthetic that broke at the turn of the century thanks to the likes of Green Day, Blink-182, and Sum 41. “We were normal, skateboarding together, playing music together – just being friends first and foremost.”
Acts at the forefront of this bourgeoning scene included The Used with 2003 compilation Maybe Memories, Taking Back Sunday’s 2002 debut Tell All Your Friends, My Chemical Romance’s searing 2004 LP, Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, and of course, Story Of The Year’s ball-busting Page Avenue.
Combined, this new breed of youngsters were equipped with a screeching fresh sound and were gearing up to take the alternative rock world by storm.
Tone Deaf was lucky enough to steal some time from Story Of The Year’s leading man Dan Marsala, taking a personal trip down memory lane over Page Avenue’s everlasting legacy.
From humbling beginnings, Marsala recounted his and the boys’ days as bratty punks in the Midwest of Missouri, “all five of us are from St.Louis, we grew up all around each other in the north county area.
“We were normal, skateboarding together, playing music together – just being friends first and foremost.”
The early days of the band were not unlike any other, having formed in 1995, the band of brothers traded instruments copious amounts of times as they sought to find a distinct groove that worked. “We had many different versions of the band. I played guitar, then I played drums for a while, then we got the lineup right where I was singing and Josh [Wills] was playing drums,” says Marsala.
He chuckles upon reflection, “it took until 2000-2001 but yeah, it was quite a journey with local bands and learning, struggling and making music.” Pausing, he offers a more serious remark, “luckily it all kind of took off from there. I think that’s kind of why we’re still together more than 10 years later, because we were friends first and music was our hobby, luckily it became our career!”
From dive bars and self-supported tours, Story Of The Year finally caught their big break in 2002 when they signed to major label offshoot, Maverick Records. The group had earned quite the reputation for putting on one hellof a live show (which of course still rings true today) and they caught the attention of one man in particular who fast-tracked the five-piece to worldwide success.
So who was the band’s saving grace? Why, just a little character known as John Feldman from Goldfinger. And just how did a band from St. Louis win the heart of such an influential music figure?
“We gave him a demo as well as a VHS tape that we put together of us being idiots and a lot of our live show stuff. His manager called us one day and was like ‘John really likes your band! Would you guys like to tour with Goldfinger?’ and we were like… Absolutely!”
Speaking of Feldman’s fascination, Marsala continues, “every night he would watch us and just be like ‘yeah these songs are not good. That one is good. Keep playing that. Write some new ones.’ so he kind of just mentored us the whole way, then he was like ‘okay I’m going to take you to a label and I’m going to make your record.’”
Continuing with only the highest regard for their producer, the singer continues, “he was a huge help and a big influence on a lot of the ways we do things even now, 10 years later.” “We have a lot of influences; we’ve always been a confused band.”
He explains how Feldman’s honesty was clearly paramount to the band’s growth; “we knew we wrote decent songs but he knew how to spot the good parts and he’s not afraid to tell you ‘nope that part sucks, it’s terrible’.
“He knows how to structure music and he’s a great producer. He took our parts and turned them into great songs, without him we would have been completely lost. We owe a lot of Page Avenue to him, for sure.”
Just before inking their Maverick deal, Story Of The Year packed their bags and made their way west to California to work on what would be their first full-length album.
Head to Page 2 for a closer look at Story Of The Year’s influences, touring memories, and first visit to Australia
True to their roots, the lead vocalist confirms the origins of the record’s title, “there’s a street named Page Avenue which is kind of centrally located from where we all grew up … we just wanted something that reminded us of home and of our past.”
As the conversation flowed, the strong sentiment that Marsala bestows upon the record became very apparent, “looking back on it now a lot of the songs are about being young and touring.”
The great pilgrimage west bore heavy influence to what would become the band’s greatest musical achievement to date, “we had move to California as a band into a three bedroom house with eight people all just living in this house. We had moved 2,000 miles away from home and our goal was just to move there and become a band and make it work no matter what happened.”
“We already had ‘Until The Day I Die’ and maybe ‘Razorblades’ but we wrote most of the record in California. We were away form home, we were missing a lot of friends, there was so much stuff going on, a lot of emotions. That shines through the lyrics on the record,” says the vocalist.
Lyrically, Page Avenue definitely fits the mould of a ‘growing up’ record – but where did the band draw their melodic, sonic explosion? “We have a lot of influences; we’ve always been a confused band.
“I grew up listening to 90s punk rock like NOFX and Bad Religion and stuff like Rage Against The Machine, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam. We were also into bands like Glassjaw, Boyssetfire, Refused, that was the scene that we were trying to come up into at the time.
“We were throwing all of our influences together, making this new scene that was coming up as kind of… ‘screamo’ was the original term, we didn’t know, we just wanted to be heavy but sing and be melodic and be fun all at the same time!”
With screamo coming out of the dark, it was Story Of The Year’s time to shine, “the scene still was very underground, bands like The Used, My Chemical Romance, and Taking Back Sunday… we were all kind of the ones that took that music to the mainstream.” “We were throwing all of our influences together, making this new scene that was coming up as kind of… ‘screamo’.”
Somewhat dumbfounded, he jibes, “it’s still kind of lasting now… I don’t know how but it’s still kind of making sense now, it’s always reinventing itself, it’s a little heavier now with the scene bands nowadays.”
With the world of pop-punk styled emo ready to crack into the mainstream, Story Of The Year and their compadres got the call to the open road, embarking on national tours that showed these five St. Louis natives the remaining 50 states of North America.
Retracing the band’s steps, Marsala recounts the quintet’s experience on the road, “our very first tour after we signed with Maverick was opening for The Used, Thrice, and My Chemical Romance. It was only like 1000-capacity clubs; none of us were big yet… five years later that would have been a 15,000 sized arena!”
From playing tiny shows to the big stadiums, Story Of The Year made their maiden voyage Down Under in 2006 courtesy of the pre-Soundwave days where a little Rod Laver extravaganza called Taste Of Chaos reigned supreme, “we were super surprised because we’d never been there and we didn’t know if people knew the songs,” Marsala recalls.
“It was maybe a year and a half after Page Avenue had came out so it blew us away! It was an awesome tour [the lineup] was The Used, Killswitch Engage, Rise Against – it was amazing.”
Having well and truly left their mark, the band soon returned, “we came back later that year and it’s still one of the biggest headlining tours we’ve ever done! We played [Sydney’s] Hordern Pavilion, it was like 6,000 people and it was insane! It’s a very good memory in all of our brains and we’ve always loved Australia since then.”
This sentiment is deeply reciprocated, with the band announcing they would be bringing their 10 year anniversary celebration of Page Avenue to Australian shores this June.
So what can we expect from our five favourite dudes from Missouri? “We will definitely play the entire album plus a bunch of other stuff. It’s different, it’s not just another ‘Story Of The Year put out a new record they’re going on tour’ show, this is something special.”
Unable to curb his excitement, the frontman gives a spoiler, “we’ve done the show in a few different places now and it’s probably been the best touring we’ve ever done. It’s a different emotional connection to the crowd on these 10th anniversary shows, you can just tell that the people have loved the record for so long and it’s part of their childhood, like we were saying, it’s just awesome, it’s going to be a really cool tour!”
If you’ve got an incurable screamo meets emo nostalgia, Story Of The Year are packing the antidote. The gang of five grace our shores at the end of June, allowing plenty of time to exercise those pipes for the big day when we can – to paraphrase two of the band’s biggest songs – sing this anthem, of our dying day.”
Story Of The Year Australian Tour 2014
TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY 4 APRIL, 9AM LOCAL TIME
Thursday 26th June – The Hi-Fi, Brisbane QLD (18+)
www.thehifi.com.au
Friday 27th June – The Metro, Sydnew NSW (All Ages)
www.ticketek.com.au
Sunday 29th June – 170 Russell, Melbourne VIC (18+)
www.oztix.com.au or www.170russell.com
