Mayday Parade

The band formed in 2005 and just a year later they put out their self released EP “Tales Told By Dead Friends”. The band was quite tenacious to get the word out about their music and followed the Vans Warped Tour in order to sell the EP to concert goers. They were also eager to start touring and performing their music live, which lead to them touring with notable acts like Plain White T’s and Melee.

After going on tours to support their debut EP Mayday Parade recorded and released their debut album “A Lesson in Romantics” in 2007. The album was released on Fearless records and would be the last album to feature the main songwriter and lead singer, Jason Lancaster. The album contained several notable singles such as “When I Get Home, You’re So Dead” and “Jamie All Over” and it received success in the charts by reaching the No. 8 spot on the US Billboard Top Heatseekers chart. The band also played several festivals to support the album like Vans Warped Tour and Give it a Name Festival.

Although losing Jason Lancaster from the band’s lineup would seem like it would strongly impact the band, the pianist Derek Sanders was able to pick up lead vocals duty and do a compelling job. Rhythm guitarist Brooks Betts and Lead guitarist Alex Garcia were able to create intricate dynamics for the band’s sound and the bass player Jeremy Lenzo and drummer Jake Bundrick were able to powerfully hold down the rhythm. The band’s second album “Anywhere But Here” conveyed that the band was able to hold up without Jason Lancaster and showed the band approaching a more pop-punk approach to making music as opposed to a direct rock and roll approach.

Mayday Parade seems to be gaining more critical and commercial success with each album they release. Their third studio album, which is self-titled reached the No. 12 spot on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and their fourth studio album “Monsters in the Closet” reached No. 10 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on the Independent Albums chart. The album experimented more with symphonic rock sounds, which gave the album an epic quality and featured hit singles such as “Ghosts” and “Girls”. The band has also garnered attention for some of their interesting songs they have covered such as “We Are The Champions” by Queen and “Somebody That I Used To Know” by Gotye.

Mayday Parade is one of the most persistent touring bands out there on the scene. They were recognized as the hardest-working touring band in 2010 having played 194 shows in that year, which included large festival dates such as the Soundwave Festival and the Slam Dunk Festival.