Yellowcard Are In A Better Place With Paper Walls

08/23/07 6:00pm

by Stephanie Joudrey (CHARTattack)

In previous chats with Yellowcard, the Florida fivesome have declared that they make music for themselves, not their fans. But their new Paper Walls album definitely has a more listener-friendly sound.

Vocalist Ryan Key says that in the short time that the record has been released, he's already seen the effect that it's had on old fans. He knew when writing their last album that followers might not react well, but this time around he wrote something more hopeful that Yellowcard fans should be more accepting of.

"It's a story of finding where you are at this point in life," Key says. "Light & Sounds was totally a story of getting lost along the way.

"So many people fell in love with Yellowcard through Ocean Avenue and through the story of us going out to conquer the world. Then we wrote a record about finding out that once you achieve so many of the things you set out to do that the world isn't exactly what you thought it would be and you fall into this black hole in your life. I think a lot of these Yellowcard fans didn't really understand that, and that wasn't necessarily what they wanted to hear from us. I think because of the fact that we went through this black hole and came out the other side and were able to come together and make such a collaborative effort to create Paper Walls and genuinely find the place in the band. Lyrically and personally, I am in such a better emotional place then I was then."

Key — along with bassist Pete Mosely, violinist Sean Mackin, guitarist Ryan Mendez and drummer Longineau Parsons III — took quite a hit over the last year, and it seems a miracle that they were able to get Paper Walls out so quickly. Recording began only eight months after the release of Lights & Sounds.

"There were a lot of roadblocks that came along with Lights & Sounds," says Key. "There was a lot of distance between the band at the time of recording and touring on the record.

"We had been through so much, and so much of each of our lives has changed so dramatically in the two years prior. There was no space until we were forcing ourselves to make our own space between each other. Then we lost Ben [Harper], our guitar player, and then I had to have surgery on my vocal chords, and it was just one thing after another. I think we just realized that we had worked as hard as we could to support that record and it was always going to be a very important time for Yellowcard, but it was time to go get a fresh start. So we just jumped back into the studio."

Key says that, despite what they've been through, he's glad that they decided to take the positive route and not dwell on anything negative. He says the reaction from everyone has been more then enough to prove to them that this is what they should be doing.

"We've gotten to a place in our lives where we just want to be able to continue to do it, and that's good enough. We just want to get out and tour on Paper Walls and see what happens instead of planning our lives two years before they happen. It's more about just taking it as it as it comes."

Although Yellowcard aren't planning too far ahead, they'll be touring in support of Paper Walls into the foreseeable future. They currently only have one scheduled Canadian date at Toronto's Phoenix on Sept. 13, but more are sure to come.