Mayday Parade

As one of the most enduring acts to rise from the underground in the mid-aughts, Mayday Parade has soundtracked both adolescence and adulthood for millions of listeners. Their music stands synonymous with the emo and pop-punk genres: 2007’s A Lesson In Romantics, their debut LP has been hailed as one of the best – and most influential – emo albums of all time by Alternative Press. Monsters In The Closet, their 2013 release, debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, and tracks like the Platinum-selling “Jamie All Over,” Gold-certified “Miserable At Best” and “Oh Well, Oh Well” represent not only widespread commercial acclaim, but the sort of artist-audience relationship that’s fortified them across changing musical landscapes and the ebb and flow of an unforgiving industry.

Now, as they celebrate a remarkable 20 years as a band in 2025, the Tallahassee, Florida, five-piece are in the process of releasing perhaps their most aspirational effort yet: a three-part album showcasing their prolific, emotionally resonant songwriting. The first entry, Sweet, is led by the effervescent bounce of “By The Way,” a pitch-perfect blend of what’s made Mayday Parade a genre mainstay for decades: a tender, piano-led groove ultimately giving way to a crush of stereo guitars, ascendent melodies, and heart-on-sleeve lyricism.

“As we got closer to our 20th anniversary, it felt right to do something big and unexpected,” vocalist Derek Sanders says. “With this being our eighth album, breaking the pattern of being on the same sort of traditional album cycle seemed like a cool idea.”

Recorded with longtime producers Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount, the trilogy of releases marks Mayday Parade’s first full-length since 2021’s What It Means To Fall Apart as well as the first self-released collection the band – Sanders, drummer/vocalist Jake Bundrick, guitarists Alex Garcia and Brooks Betts and bassist/vocalist Jeremy Lenzo – has released since they followed the Vans Warped Tour in 2006, selling tens of thousands of copies of their Tales Told By Dead Friends EP in parking lots from coast to coast and building their audience one fan at a time.

Sweet succinctly showcases just how far Mayday Parade has come in those years: The trademark sound that’s transformed them from genre newcomers to torchbearers for a new generation is still there, the same one that put them on the covers of Alternative Press and Rock Sound and stages around the world including Sad Summer Festival, Warped Tour, When We Were Young, Slam Dunk and Riot Fest. But fans will also find the band continuing to nudge the edges of their sound outward, whether they’re stomping through reflective alt-rock (“Who We Are”), crafting wryly sardonic pop-punk (“Who’s Laughing Now,” featuring Knuckle Puck’s Joe Taylor), standing up shimmering arena rock (“Natural”), or melding muscular, grungy guitars with electro-pop shine (“Pretty Good To Feel Something,” which the band brought to tens of thousands of listeners across the country as headliners on Sad Summer Festival 2024).

“In the past, our approach might have been, ‘Damn, I want to do something different,’” Garcia explains. “You feel like you want or need to change. Over time, I think we’ve really understood the importance of following the song. We’re all able to bring our own flavor to the table, but we all speak the same language as we’ve uncovered and established our sound. No matter who writes a song in this band, it feels like Mayday Parade.”

It’s this ability to tune out the external noise, seemingly unbothered with what’s preoccupying both their peers and the industry at large, that’s carried Mayday Parade to this point. Instead, they’ve devoted their time and energy to becoming the best possible version of themselves, along the way cultivating a fanbase built on trust and mutual admiration – the same audience that’s been twice-nominated for Most Dedicated Fans at the Alternative Press Music Awards and continues to fill venues around the world to experience the band’s earnestly authentic brand of pop-rock.

Now, with Sweet and a massive North American tour (the project’s remaining two releases waiting in the wings later this year and into 2026), it’s undoubtedly a good time to be a Mayday Parade fan. The only thing better? Being in Mayday Parade these days, riding high on a renewed sense of confidence, clarity and creativity that acts rarely feel this far into a career.

“We’re really excited to see how people respond to this project,” Sanders adds. “It feels like a different lifetime and such a different stage of the band compared to when we were first starting out, but there’s still an excitement around what we’re doing. It’s been, and will continue to be, a lot of work, but it’s work that we all enjoy.”