By Aaron Calvin, Entertainment Editor
This interview was conducted with Mark O’Connell and Shaun Cooper of Taking Back Sunday.
The Chronicle: The band Taking Back Sunday is from Long Island. Are you guys from Long Island?
Taking Back Sunday: Yes
Chronicle: How do you think growing up on Long Island has influenced your music?
TBS: Well, our guitar player Eddie, he’s very old. He’s 39. So that dude grew up in Amityville. He was on of the guys who started the Long Island hardcore scene, you know what I mean? He was in Movielife, Clockwise, Inside, Mind Over Matter, Runner-Up (laughing). He was doing this band called Clockwise in ’93, ’94 and it’s like this kind of style. So that dude really helped make this scene happen and you know, just being here, doing what we do. We were a lot younger than Eddie and he really embraced us and took us into that scene and gave us a starting point. It was really cool having that group of bands around when Taking Back Sunday started to play shows together and to tour together. I don’t think we would’ve had that kind of thing in a different state. We toured with a band called North Star who were a band from Alabama. They didn’t have any friends in bands, it was just them and their group of kids. We had a group of 20 different bands we could play with every weekend on Long Island. So it was really influential on our upbringing.
Chronicle: And you guys have a relationship with Hofstra University, right? The Cute Without The E video was filmed here.
TBS: Well, before that the Great Romances of the 20th Century video was filmed here, which is, we looked very young and weird in that video. Well, we were young and weird. Our friend Christian Winters went to school here and he was in the film program so he was able to block out time for us and he did the “Great Romances” video for free and out of his own pocket. Hofstra donated time and stuff to let us come in and shoot the thing. So when we had a little money from Victory Records, we wanted to come back and we were able to do the “Cute Without The E (Cut From The Team)” video in the same exact spot.
Chronicle: It’s been a while since Tell All Your Friends came out, but you’re still relatively young compared to most of the acts playing today. What’s it feel like seeing these kids who remember hearing your albums when they were in their younger teens singing along with all the all their parents here?
TBS: It’s cool, man. A lot of the bands that we came up with are not really around. We’re very lucky to still be a thing, still be playing shows like we’re playing here. College people are still able to identify with us, their parents are able to identify with us. We still like music from when we were kids, like Mark went to see The Descendants last night. So it’s really cool and hopefully we’ll have a similar longevity to them. Like if we could be around the next ten, thirteen years, that’d be really cool.
Watch the videos for “Great Romances of The 20th Century” and “Cute Without The E (Cut From The Team)” filmed right here in Studio A, Dempster Hall.
Taking Back Sunday performing at Vibe Live during Hofstra University’s Fall Festival 2011 (The Chronicle)