Long Island tonight, Philadelphia tomorrow, and Asbury Park on Saturday… talk about glorious.
The Aquarian goes way back with New Found Glory; since the band became a massively successful mainstream rock group in 2002, we’ve been there. During every peak and valley over the last 22+ years, The Aquarian has supported, chatted, and enjoyed the band. Currently, New Found Glory is on tour with a special anniversary laying the foundation for the shows, and they are taking that to the Stone Pony Summer Stage (where they are headlining for the first time) on August 24 (with support from fellow longtime fan, Sincere Engineer). To be celebrating 20 years of Catalyst, one of the most formative albums in the entire pop punk genre, alongside the band itself as they take time in their latest set to play the classic album in full, is truly special.
We had the chance to chat with Cyrus, NFG’s drummer, and we touched upon the 20th anniversary, all of the exciting things happening with the band in 2024, and – in honor of this being a sort of ‘throwback tour’ – we decided to conduct a ‘throwback interview.’ Cyrus got to answering questions that we had asked the band in the past over the last 20 years of New Found Glory features. This is definitely not an interview to miss.
Catalyst is the reason, pun in tended, for the 20-year anniversary tour. How are we feeling?
Super excited! [We’re] in the middle of getting ready for that… a little different prep for this tour than most tours. What I mean by that is, you have to go back – even we have to relearn our songs sometimes, and especially those deeper cuts on the album. When you promise people you will play an entire record, you gotta make sure you can do that. It’s been really fun to go back. I’ve been listening to this album back and forth a bunch. I actually dove into the original recording session and I am still discovering new things each time I listen, like random sounds on songs I didn’t even know were there from 20 years ago! It’s been really awesome to get ready for this and we are super excited to play this album (and then some) to audiences all over the country.
I can say I’m so excited to finally be playing outside at The Stone Pony, too! We had a concert scheduled there back in 2017. Weather prevented that from going on and we ended up on a whim moving that show into Convention Hall. It was our first time playing Convention Hall since Skate and Surf Festival 15 years before. It was one of the most amazing shows on that tour, but there was always this little chip on my shoulder because of how we never got to play the outdoor Stone Pony. Now we are! It looks like it’s going to be an amazing show. That area in Jersey has always been so huge for us. I wouldn’t expect anything less than an amazing time. Thank you to The Aquarian for the support you guys have given us throughout all of our years.
Three of the seven (!) times that New Found Glory was on the cover of The Aquarian
New Found Glory always has a place with us! Also, that makes perfect sense about re-learning some songs, because tracks like “All Downhill From Here” you play every night, but you also have tracks like “I’d Kill To Fall Asleep” that are definitely not as common.
Exactly! There are fun things for us in the band with that; it can bring up memories of recording or even writing, decisions that were pondered at that time. Of course, I’m the drummer, so I’m partial to that aspect of the recording. “I’d Kill To Fall Asleep” starts with a little drum intro, so that was cool for me, especially because I remember recording that on a separate drum kit in the corner of the studio and it was meant to sound like that filtered sound, just how we recorded it. It didn’t have all these tricks through protools or whatever. We literally mic-ed up a drumset and made it sound bad on purpose and then recorded it, and that’s the sound you hear. It’s things like that that are cool.
Everybody in our band and our fans have different feelings about what their favorite album is. I will go on record – and I have for a long time –and say that Catalyst is my favorite record by us for a lot of different reasons. It’s not really just the songs or the content; a lot of it has to do with how we made the record. I feel like that was the pinnacle for our band of being able to experiment, having a record label that supported that, having Neil Avron there as a producer, and just doing whatever we needed. Whether it was a string section, a church choir, or just a random keyboard sound that filled out the album, we got to really do anything we wanted on that record. I think it shows and the final product sounds like that.
It’s funny, too, because Catalyst was released when you had the most amount of eyes on you as a band, coming off of Sticks and Stones. There was a lot of pressure, and I think that made an even better product.
I appreciate that! Some of Catalyst, and I guess in general the entire idea of that album, from the artwork itself to the way it starts with that intro song, a lot of that was a response to what was going on in the music industry and how we viewed ourselves. [We were being] pushed onto that pedestal, but at the same time, finally understanding of the pressures that came along with that and this corporate thing that is the music business – trying to see what they could do to us. We’re a band that has always, and still to this day, doesn’t want anybody to do anything to us. We want somebody that works with us. That was our response. We made a record, on a record label, that was talking about how record labels are manufacturing bands. We created a product that says and shows this, yet you still have a record label that puts it out, and it’s on MTV and sells a lot. It’s almost this ironic juxtaposition. That’s the way our band is. We’ve always tried to be true to ourselves; Catalyst was no exception. It was our response to getting popular and what the music industry wanted to do to the pop punk scene at that time as it was just then getting extremely flooded with bands right and left.
New Found Glory was one of those bands that led the charge, though. In 2023, I interviewed your bandmate Chad [Gilbert], and we talked about is it tough to put your personal moments on display in the music.
At times it can be! There are a lot of things that the audience/our fans don’t necessarily see, or there can be more context that they’re not going to know about when things are happening. Specifically with Catalyst coming off the success of Stick and Stones, all of us were finding ourselves in our own personal lives. Some of us had developed relationships, maybe even starting families, and stuff like that. We were all living in California by that time, but figuring out if we wanted to live in one city versus another. We were kind of splitting apart as a band, but just physically splitting apart. We were laying down our own roots. Some of that is in Catalyst. We came together to record that record for two or so months, but we were less like the kids that were hanging out – because we grew up next to each other. More of, “This is our band now and [this is] what we want to do as experienced people in the industry.”
There were times people would come in the studio and have an attitude, but it wasn’t because they were mad at each other. Maybe they had something that happened in their life that day, maybe we are in this weird gray area with labels and politics, just trying to figure out what we’re supposed to do or how we please everybody yet stay true to ourselves. We had a great team around us with Neil Avron honing whatever we were thinking into these amazingly crafted songs. We were very fortunate we didn’t have many roadblocks in our way from the very beginning of our band… and still to this day. We support each other and we’re all united in the cause, which is to keep this going as long as possible. As long as it’s still fun and enjoyable, we’re still going to do it.
I love to hear that! In 2017, we asked Chad about fond memories playing New Jersey. Obviously there’s a lengthy history of The Aquarian and New Found Glory, which you hinted at earlier. Tell us about playing New Jersey.
That could be an hour-long interview in itself! Like I said before, New Found Glory and Jersey go back so far – from literally some of our band being born in the state of New Jersey and then coming down to Florida to now. To this day, when I talk to people that don’t know much about our band and I’m explaining our history, I will make a point to tell them about when we first started: We were still playing local and regional shows, we had one or two of us still in high school, and we would leave South Florida on a Friday, go and drive up to Jersey, and play something like the Wayne firehouse or a VFW hall up there with bands like Midtown or Taking Back Sunday or Thursday. All of these bands obviously became their own big things, but we would leave on a Friday, drive all night, show up Saturday, play Saturday night at one of these halls, and Sunday drive back so everybody could get back to school. There was no problem with doing that. We absolutely loved doing it just for one show. By doing that so much, our Jersey following in general was one of the first places that got big outside of Florida. It doesn’t make sense because we’re from all the way down in Florida, but it was so true! That really did anchor where and when we started to tour nationally; qw knew in the Northeast you were going to do amazing.
Fond memories, specifically? Too many to name! We have amazing memories at Skate and Surf in Asbury Park right down the street from The Stone Pony in Convention Hall. I remember one show where we had a knock on the back stage door – this was before we played – and there was a Dominos delivery person with pizza boxes. “Cool, bring him in!” We didn’t know who ordered it. A couple minutes later, we realized that person’s pizza boxes were empty! They worked for Dominos, put their uniform on, and grabbed some extra pizza boxes from the store just to sneak into the show and try to talk to us. Once we figured that out, we were like,”You know what? This is the first time this has ever happened and this is pretty cool. Guess what? Yes, you’re hanging here. Yes, you can watch the show on stage. We are a little bummed you didn’t actually bring us pizza, but it’s such an original idea we’ll let that slide.” Those are the kinds of things that happen in Jersey. We had some of our biggest shows there even before we were popular in other spots like California.
I can only imagine the shock of opening an empty pizza box being like, “What is this?” Even further back in time now, in 2014 we interviewed Jordan [Pundik] during the Resurrection album cycle. The whole interview had us talking about recording as a four-piece band. Now that you’ve been a four-piece for a decade now, give me some reflection, 10 years later.
Yeah! At that time when we were writing and recording that record, it was another pivotal moment in our band. We had gone from a five-piece to a four-piece. We felt like we had something to prove, like everyone would want to have a question answered of, “How are you going to continue? Are you going to sound the same?” We embraced the idea of still surviving as a four-piece. We can write songs that are crafted for being a four-piece, and to date I feel like Resurrection is one of our best records. I think it’s super heavy sounding. It’s ironic that it’s heavy sounding when there is only one guitar player! Playing those songs live still goes over really well. I think we did a really good job of proving the point that we could continue as a four-piece. Elements of that still exist today. A lot of this goes into Chad’s condition and what he’s been dealing with the last few years, but we relied on support from our extended family (all of our friends that are in other bands). We have had other guitar players come out on the road with us either to help Chad out if he’s unable to play or as a second guitar player to play our other songs. I think in that time, in 2014, when the entire world was looking at us saying, “I don’t know if you can continue,” we definitely did a good job of showing that if we write a song and it’s got guitars, drums, bass, and Jordan singing on it, it’s going to still be New Found Glory.
I love that answer! We interviewed you guys the year before that, too, in 2013. We touched upon in the beginning, but let’s dive in: What has changed most in the music industry since you started? I imagine your answer in 2024 will be different then in 2013.
Day to day that answer is going to change! When we started in the late nineties, we were kids that grew up going to shows. When we were teenagers who we went to concerts, listening to all different types of music. A lot of us gravitated towards punk rock, pop punk, or rock shows. We started going to local venues and seeing either national or local bands, and we came up as a product of that. We started forming our own shows and seeing if we could play a bar here or a pool hall there – if we were old enough to be there. It was such a cool community that helped us get bigger. As the buzz built about us, the local South Florida community was really excited for us and helped promote. Everybody would tell their friends. That’s how we started. By the time the music industry as a whole looked at us, noticed us, and wanted to get involved, we already had a name for ourselves. It’s kind of still happening now…. Well, back in 2013 maybe it wasn’t because you didn’t have your TikToks and social media was there, but it wasn’t as big as it is now.
You have so many kids today that will come up to us and ask us, “What can we do? Give me tips on how to get big as a band!” It’s so hard, because I cannot tell you what to do today. My experience does not work today. The grassroots you do today is a TikTok video or social media thing because a lot of the local scenes are not local anymore. Somebody from across the world can tap into your local scene. You need to understand how to use that.
As far as the industry is concerned, pop punk came up in the early 2000s, and a lot of people said it died and came back. Here we are in 2024 – almost 2025 – and I think a lot of people will say pop punk is back and in some ways bigger than ever. Green Day is playing stadiums. Blink-182 is playing stadiums and/or huge arenas. We just did a tour last year with All American Rejects that saw over 10,000 people a night. I think a lot of the people who grew up with us love to go to concerts. Maybe they have a nine-to-five job now, but they still want to go out at night and put themselves in a headspace where they don’t have to worry about life for a few hours. These tours will have a person in their thirties attending, and they’re bringing their kids out, too. Generations are not changing. For us, it feels like in some ways we’re multigenerational… and it looks like there’s no end in sight.
I agree that pop punk is bigger than ever in a lot of ways! In 2008 we had the chance to talk with Chad about the move to Epitaph Records. You guys have been on Hopeless Records, since then, and Revelation Records, and you’ve just been on a lot. Looking back at those moves now, and all the labels you’ve been through, what do you think about?
It’s amazing; I still remember when we sent a demo of our first self-titled five-song EP to Revelation, trying to get a record deal from them, and they wrote back, “Yea,h it’s cool, but we can’t really work with you right now.” Fat Wreck Chords said the same thing. They turned us down. “You’re good,but we’re not singing bands.” Now we look back and we’ve worked with a lot of these labels. It is cool because I think we’ve been able to partner – and I say partner because it really feels like a partnership with a lot of these labels that understand us and/or will allow for us to be ourselves. We can come up with ideas and talk to them. We’re realistic. Nobody’s shooting for the moon if it’s not possible. It’s not just them telling us what to do. We’re teaming up together to have these realistic goals on how to release a record, support a record, or market ourselves. We’ve been able to do that with a handful of labels very successfully. Every label worked and served its purpose at that time in our band. Going forward, it’s the same thing. We’re thinking about our next move right now and everything looks good for us to find a great home for whatever our next product is. Everybody understands we’ve been doing this long enough, so we know what’s best for our band. We also know how to work with other labels so that everybody wins and it becomes a great situation for all involved.
REVISIT CATALYST TO CELEBRATE ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY BY STREAMING IT BELOW OR WHEREVER YOU LISTEN TO MUSIC! FOR TICKETS TO THE ANNIVERSARY TOUR, CLICK HERE!
