“People have been getting married, buying houses, starting to take time to explore new hobbies in interests. It’s just that time in everyone’s lives.”
Four Year Strong are headlining the Slam Dunk Festival taking place in The Academy next month so we caught up with Alan Day, the unexpected Bon Iver fanatic “long before he won all the grammys”, ahead of their show to see what the band have been up to.
The guys have been pretty quiet for the last year and a bit, with no new music since 2011. Since then they’ve been dropped from their label and have been taking it pretty easy.
“This has actually just been the first time in who even knows how many years that we just decided to take more than two weeks off. It’s just a little time to take a breath and enjoy being with our friends and family at home. It didn’t really have anything to do with the last record or being dropped from the label.”
Ever since starting the band though they have been pretty much non-stop and are well known among the circuit as being on a never ending touring cycle, so the last year has been a much needed retreat from that.
“I’ve been doing my solo thing lately which has been great. Everyone else has been doing stuff at home that they haven’t had a chance to do with all the touring and craziness we’ve been doing for so many years. People have been getting married, buying houses, starting to take time to explore new hobbies and interests. It’s just that time in everyones lives.”
As for where they’ve developed as musicians, well Four Year Strong have always been lumped in with the Hardcore pop punk scene of America, hosting one of the biggest fanbases in the scene, contemplating a change in sound was the last thing anyone expected from them.
“We think about that all the time. We thought about it so much that we decided to go through with it on our last record ‘In Some Way Shape Or Form.’ The reaction wasn’t great. But it wasn’t terrible either. We loved the songs and the whole idea of stepping outside of the box and doing what we felt was right, not what we felt people expected out of us.”
But even with such a steadfast fanbase, the group aren’t immune to criticism or even laughing about it, as they named one of their singles It Must Really Suck To Be In Four Year Strong Right Now in reference to a completely unrelated review.
“It was actually a stab at a review in a magazine about a Set Your Goals record. Pretty dumb story. It basically just said ‘this SYG record is really good, so it must really suck to be four year strong right now’. We thought that was just the stupidest thing we’ve ever heard so we wanted to make fun of it and use it as a song title for the very first song on our new record.”
The band return to the stage with a pretty heavy line up including Red Enemy, Man Overboard, Wounds and more… We asked what they thought of getting back into touring again.
“We can’t wait to play Slam Dunk and share the stage with so many great bands. The best part about it is the fact that so many of the bands are great friends of ours that we’ve toured with in the past. Thats one of the best parts about festivals in general is just the amount of friends you get to see.”
See Four Year Strong at Slam Dunk Ireland in The Academy on Wednesday 29th May. Tickets on sale now.