Yellowcard - Yellowcard (September 30, 2016) Album • Page 59

Yeah I wasn't even thinking about GAC as a b-side because it was a soundtrack song. It's probably tied with Bombers for second place for me.

 

Thanks, Ryan! I hope you guys have an awesome first show of this tour!

 

A bit off topic, but I was at the comeback show in Pamona back in November 2010. You tapping the piano part and transitioning into the solo during Gifts and Curses is to this day is my favorite moment in concert-going history. So sick man! See you in Baltimore!

 

haha fair enough, awesome song either way. as for out of the box, i suppose i just mean any unusual instruments or anything to add creatively to a song. string arrangements, particular guest vocals, etc. i'm a huge fan of what can go into the studio process, especially little things that most may not really notice upon first listen but get stoked discovering the more they take in the music.

 

I was at that show too... I hope this concert is as long.

 

Ryan,

HUGE fan and long time listener. The new record is climbing it's way up the rank every time I listen to it. It's such a big rock album that works on every level. My favorites are definitely A Place We Set Afire and Savior's Robes. Any chance of divulging the guitar tunings of those songs? I really want to learn to play them correctly. Along those lines, how do you guys go about selecting a tuning for a specific song?

 

Glad you remember that, what an incredible show. Playing that in that song was so much fun! Stoked you appreciated it.

 

Here's one for you: on the verses of Here I Am Alive, it's all real guitars but I literally played one muted note at a time for each part and we put together a loop which is what you hear. The idea was to make it feel a bit electronic and pop but to have the sound itself be organic.

I played the intro octave melody/bridge whoa melody from Sleep In The Snow, note for note (but different key), in a song on the new record. I'll let you try to find it.

 

Longer

 

Thank you, stoked you like it! We tuned to Drop C for the entirety of the last two records with the exception of My Mountain (D standard) and I'm a Wrecking Ball (D Standard). Of course all of the actual song tuning aren't necessarily that, it's just what we tuned the guitars to. A Place We Set Afire is C minor, Savior's Robes is B minor. For how we choose tuning, a lot of riffs get naturally written in whatever drop tuning we're in because it's easy and fun to play, hence many songs in Drop D and recently Drop C. Savior's Robes was written around that guitar lead which utilizes the open top strings to play so there was really only one option for that. Empty Street originally was in Drop C# because we tuned down a half step for all the Big If stuff, but that's a terrible key for strings so when we redid it for this record Sean wanted us to either do it in D or C and we chose to stay tuned down to Drop C because we liked the heaviness of it.

 

that Big If mention made me dig into what Sean is doing now and he has a solo album out! And two of the Big If songs are on the album, I used to always love this one

I'm going to have to check out this album, I loved Reeve Oliver too

 

Thanks so much for chatting with us here Mr. Mendez, you're always super nice on Twitter, but this longer form is great.

My guess for the Sleep in the Snow riff is maybe the verses of What Appears?

My girlfriend and I are really looking forward to seeing you guys in Brisbane next year, it'll be our 5th time, it's always a great show, and worth every one of the 1300km of travel to see you play. We loved Lift a Sail and your tour of it in Australia was amazing!!

A question - you guys alway seem to make the last song on your album one of the best and my favourite is Paper Walls, though Fields and Fences is really something special. What was your favourite closer to write and how do you manage to make all of them so great?

 

that's awesome. thanks! I'll look forward to searching for the Sleep in the Slow thing on the new album, one of my favorite songs from Southern Air as well! Sad I won't be seeing you guys on the farewell tour, but I saw you guys 3 times turn WYTTSY era, once in NYC for Paper Walls, an amazing acoustic show in Philly somewhere between L&S and Paper Walls I believe.

My favorite was at the Delaware State Fair during L&S era. The Ataris opened, and there was a lightning storm creeping up on the stage the whole show, you guys managed to fly through the show and the encore, finishing with the title track as the storm reached the stage, and low and behold, set finishes, rains pours down. I'll never forget that show, you guys have always put on a killer one.

 

Thanks for the response! It's so cool that you're taking the time to interact with the fans like this. Do you guys have photos/videos from the recording sessions you plan on releasing? How did you guys go about choosing the order in which you recorded the songs?

 

Any early info on how the album sold?

 

I bought a copy, so I guarantee it sold at least one copy.

 

Make that two

 

That's almost platinum by today's standards, right?

 

Double

 

Yeah and the rock aspects of it sound so much fatter because of it. The mixing and tone/effect choices for the last two records (the most recent one, specifically) were great because those guitars sound absolutely massive but still have tons of clarity to them. I get hyped every time I hear the quiet-to-loud transition in "Got Yours".

 

Here's the chart for that hits daily site. I don't really know what that number next to Yellowcard means though.

 

I just listened to the album. I really like it, which is a bummer to be honest. I did not like their last album at all, so I wasn't that sad when they announced that they will stop, because I figured their music left me behind anyway (not that that is a bad thing), but then this album happened and now I'm really sad.

Is there any information regarding what's next for the members? Given some stuff on this album I could see some Alt Country project happen.

 

I love "Bunny And Me" so much. Too bad it never became a Yellowcard song. I could envision it becoming an all-time favorite for me.

 

agreed, while Sean was with them I had always hoped that one would've been worked into a yellowcard track, could've added some really awesome stuff with strings.

 

So cool that Ryan is in here shedding some light on the record and communicating. That's great.

I still haven't spent as much time with this album as I'd like to - there's been so many great releases these past couple of months that I feel buried, but I've been so, so pleased with it over my first few listens. It's immensely powerful and a really beautiful way to say goodbye to a band I've been listening to regularly since Ocean Avenue released while I was in junior high.

I've been reading through a lot of the comments since Ryan joined the conversation, and I just wanted to mention how much I adore Life A Sail as well. I vividly remember being mostly underwhelmed by the singles as they were released, and then when I popped the CD in the morning it came out, I was completely floored.

I'm still sad I won't be able to make it to this final tour. My final show of theirs will have been last April on a dreary, awful night in Portland, Maine. I barely made it home after the show because it was raining so hard, but it was worth it. I felt so bad because the place wasn't very full - probably because it was a crappy Monday night, but it didn't seem to bother them. They absolutely killed it. The Lift A Sail songs sounded so, so good live, too.

Thanks for all the records, Ryan, and of course, the rest of the band as well. It's really been one hell of a ride growing up with your music.