Story of the Year reflect on 20 years of Page Avenue

Whether it was the first time we heard “Until the Day I Die” in our JNCO shorts at Warped Tour, drugstore eyeliner running down our faces, or the thousandth time we’re listening to it two decades later, there’s no denying the power of Story of the Year’s Page Avenue. Sure, there’s the nostalgia factor, the comforting reminisce of clicking through tracks on an early iPod, and rush of serotonin when the first hook would hit, Dan Marsala’s crooning vocals swiftly validating the swarm of exhaustive emotions we all surely felt at that time, for whatever reason.

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But aside from the throwback of it all, the album’s platinum status has continued to prove itself with its ability to stand the test of time. We’re all still seeking solace at the end of the day, whether it’s from relationships, friendships, or we just want to experience that innately human catharsis that only certain music can achieve. It’s been a year replete with anniversaries, and while the idea that it’s been 20, 25, or 30 years since we first etched all of these emo lyrics in our brains might sound daunting, it’s turned out to be a beautiful thing to celebrate, an opportunity for fans and artists to unite again, to recognize the work that we’ve always loved and cherished, as well as dive into the evolution and growth we’ve all experienced, from the pit and on the stage.

We sat down with Story of the Year to discuss all things Page Avenue, as they prepare to embark on the album’s 20th anniversary tour, their latest album, as well as the work they’ve put in to hold onto what’s made them a lasting force in the industry.

I've been talking to a lot of bands about anniversaries this year, it feels like more than ever — and everyone’s having a unique experience. For Story of the Year, what does it feel like to be going back to an album 20 years later? What is it bringing up for you guys?

DAN MARSALA: It's not really going back to it. We've been doing it for 20 years off and on pretty consistently. You don't really realize that that amount of time passes, you're just being a band the whole time and you do what you do. And we love playing music. So when you look back and actually think about it being 20 years, it's pretty crazy. I never would've thought that we would've been able to still have a fanbase at all, or even that anybody ever would've bought our record in the first place. It's very humbling and amazing. You're just inside of this thing, and it feels totally normal and then you're like, “Oh shit, it has been 20 years. What do we do now? Let's just keep playing music.” Ultimately, it doesn't change anything. It's weird to look back, though.

RYAN PHILLIPS: Trite as this might sound, all we ever wanted to do was play Warped Tour! That was the highest aspirations we ever had. It's like, “Man, if one day we could just play Warped Tour and then afterwards skateboard in the parking lot with the other bands…” That's all we ever thought about. But then we moved to California, made a record with Feldmann, it went gold! All these crazy things happened, and if our career would've ended there, it would've been a massive success. Anything after that is just icing on the cake. 

So looking back at this record, taking this tour nationwide, and really digging into these songs and revisiting it fills me with an insane amount of gratitude for the last 20 years. And the fact that I'm at work right now, that this is my job — talking to you, and when we hang up, I'm going to pick up my guitar and work on music… it's a fucking crazy life that we get to live. We don’t take that for granted.

I love that. As an audience member, that gratitude and excitement from the band is really felt and appreciated. There are definitely bands for whom looking back is hard, and they're really focused on evading that. But it’s always beautiful to hear from a band that no matter how long they’ve been doing it, it's still a trip. That really transfers. What are some standout memories you might have from making the album?

MARSALA: We are from St. Louis, Missouri. The biggest memory for most of us was the fact that we moved from St. Louis to Southern California together, eight people living in one little house. We were like, “All right, we're going to move here, and we're going to get signed, and we're going to make this happen.” We had this crazy mindset. There was no way we were going to not succeed in this. Surprisingly, it actually worked.

We ended up hooking up with John Feldmann from Goldfinger, and he was also A&R from Maverick Records. He took us to Maverick, got us signed to Maverick, produced the record, and helped us in millions of different ways. Most of my great memories are just of that time — being young, moving to California, committing everything we had to being in a band, and the crazy whirlwind of those couple years when all of that happened, making the record and then going on tour. There are a million amazing memories packed in there, obviously. But that's the rough overview of how that time was for me.

PHILLIPS: I think about how much power there is in being really naive and fucking stupid. We have kids now, mortgages, health insurance, real grownup shit, and it's harder to take risks and take shots and put it all on the line. The more you have to lose and the more aware you are what you’re up against, being just old enough to buy beer, with $200 in your bank account, wanting to move across the country to California and try to make it in an industry where the odds are literally one in 10 million. We didn't know that. We didn't know the odds. We didn't know how hard it would be. 

MARSALA: [We] might've, but we didn't care at all. That's what I'm saying. We were just told, but we couldn't process that.

PHILLIPS: We were too naive. And there's so much power in just youthful naivety. There's that window of time where a person takes those risks. So that's the thing I remember most about that time is just when I think back, it's like, “Man, we just really didn't know how hard it would be, the odds or anything.” We just like, “Oh, we'll do it.” And it all worked out. But maybe if it would've been four years later, we wouldn't have taken those chances. It'd be like, “No, I can't go. I have a job.”

MARSALA: And that energy is captured in the songs and something we can't recreate ever, because that was a certain time in our lives. That's the magic to us of that record still.

That actually leads into my next question. In terms of the lyrics and feelings in that album — what still feels on the nose for you, and what has shifted in your perspective?

MARSALA: Most of the lyrics are basically what we were just saying. It's all just the experiences of those couple years and just being a friend group that was experiencing all this crazy stuff together for the first time. It's mostly just a lot of personal songs about our lives at the time, which we got away from on later records, and realized that it doesn't connect as much as that honest, personal stuff did on the first record. It was relationships, friendships, life lessons — whatever was happening to us at the time, but it never really changes. That kind of stuff always works. That's what people identify with and connect with, real situations and honesty. But it was really easy at that time because there was just so much happening. 

PHILLIPS: For me, I think about a song like “Until the Day I Die.” Those lyrics are very timeless, and almost ring as true now as they did back then. A lot of people over the years have thought it's a love song between two people, but it's really a love letter to our band — about authentic, real friendship. After these crazy last 20 years, we've been through extreme ups, extreme lows, and everywhere in the middle — but the core of this band are those lyrics, still as impactful now as 20 years ago. We're all the same people. We all still live in St. Louis. More than anything, we still want to make this our full-time job and be a full-time band. 

I wanted to talk about the tour, as well. We discussed the lyrics and how they resonate with you then versus now, but I’m curious to hear about what it felt like playing shows and touring when the album came out compared to the tour you're about to go on. 

MARSALA: Well, my Chemical Romance won't be on this tour, unfortunately. [Laughs.] The very first tour we did when we finished the record, we left John Feldmann's house and drove across the whole country from California. We started in Rhode Island and went out with the Used, Thrice, and My Chemical Romance. We were opening, and nobody knew who any of us were except for the Used because they were the only band that had a record out that people were listening to. So that was our first Page Avenue experience, before the record was out. Now, we're probably a lot better live, and our sleep schedules are different. But it probably won’t be that different. You still go onstage, and you try to put as much energy into it and have as much fun and hope that it's a good time for everybody. 

PHILLIPS: It is funny how much outside of the show is different. I used to do a whole tour with one pair of pants. Sometimes I would brush my teeth, shit like that. Now I have to have a smoothie maker so I can have green smoothies and shit. You can smell Bengay on the bus, and people are popping ibuprofen. It’s crazy funny how much we didn't need back in the day. As long as there was beer and some chips in the dressing room and one pair of pants, we were good. Now it's like, “Man, I got to hit my protein quota of the day. I hope there’s Wi-Fi for my white noise machine.”

I'm sure it's going to be a different audience experience as well. Back on that first tour, they didn’t know the album, and now, everyone's bound to know all the words. For fans, album play shows are really beautiful. There’s something uniquely special about going through it song by song. It's transportative.

MARSALA: Yeah, and this is going to be one of the first times that we've toured and played every song in its entirety. It won’t be in order, though. We're going to create a setlist around the whole album because our two biggest songs on the record are second and third off the record. But we will be playing every song. And we'll probably try to throw some new songs in there as well and maybe a couple in between. 

PHILLIPS: We just did a Page Avenue show it a couple of weeks ago. Yellowcard did Ocean Avenue, [and] we did Page Avenue. And you said you thought those shows were beautiful. I think that's because there's so much nostalgia wrapped up in those albums. That first album, people grew up with it, and we grew up with it. So it's not only hearing the songs — everyone's basking in this collective nostalgia. And that to me is another level of energy for these kinds of shows. We feel it, too. It's really cool for us, too.

I can't wait to see it. And in the midst of this anniversary moment, you also have some new work that’s come out worth celebrating! 

MARSALA: Yeah, we also have a new record out called Tear Me to Pieces that we are super excited about, and it just happens to fall on the same year as our 20th anniversary, so it all got lumped in together. It's definitely got the same energy and awesome feeling as our old stuff mixed in with some badass new stuff. So if people haven't heard that, check it out for sure.

What do you feel has changed in terms of the sound between those two albums? What do you think that has changed, and what is inherently the band that has stayed?

PHILLIPS: For some albums, we tried to go a little political, in terms of the lyrics and the overall messaging from the band. We went outside of what people associate with Story of the Year, testing boundaries. For this record, we worked with a really great producer and focused on rediscovering who we are and what made us click in the first place — what worked. He managed to do that in a really organic, unforced way. 

MARSALA: No pesticides on a new record.

PHILLIPS: Not one. This record was all about getting back to that kind of ethos, and it wound up being really, really enlightening for us to work with someone who was like, “Hey, SOTY wouldn't do that chord. The Story of the Year I grew up would do this chord!” It was really enlightening. I was like, “Oh shit, this dude's right.” And it was really easy to tap back into what people gravitated towards us in the first place. We’re getting back to the original recipe.