After traveling all summer with the Vans Warped Tour, the show on August 20 in Boston was the final leg of the tour, marking the 20th anniversary of the our. Before their performance, two of the four band members, Andrew McMahon(piano/vocals) and Josh Partington(guitar), discussed everything from why they felt confident about their sophomore release, North, to why they don't consider themselves a punk band.

JustArts: How do you like being on the Warped Tour?

Andrew McMahon: How do you not like being on the Warped Tour? (laughs) The Warped Tour is kind of a brotherhood in an amazing way, how we travel and play music. It's similar to how they used to do it in the '60s when all the bands would get together and they would be this community, which is awesome.



JA: What is your favorite part about being on tour?

McMahon: The people. You get to meet a lot of interesting people. Especially on a tour like this where its like 700 different people a day. And then with the bands, you get to experience so many different personalities. Every person you meet has had a different experience than yourself...you learn so much through different people.



JA: You just released your sophomore album, were you nervous about it?

McMahon: You know it's a weird thing as a band something we really try to do is create good records, and just projects in general, whether it be making a DVD or music videos. We immerse ourselves in them completely and do everything we can to make sure it is a representation of everybody in the band and that we all feel really happy about it. And when we sit back and look through everything and think: "Wow, this is exactly what we wanted to put out."

When we did North, that was how we felt....Not to say that it didn't matter what other people thought. We wanted people to like it and we wanted to keep our jobs, but to the extent that you start trying to placate your thoughts for what the fans might want from you, at least in our cases, is the moment when we are not being true to what we've done-which is to be as free as possible and not have any attachments and just to be able to make records that we love. So yeah, we were nervous, but nervous knowing that if it doesn't go well, at least we did what we wanted to do.



JA: How would you describe the evolution of your sound from Leaving Through the Window to North?

McMahon: We are a couple of years older, about a world traveled more.

Josh Partington: Again, a lot of it is experience. We've seen a lot more, and I don't know about wiser, but we are definitely different.

McMahon: What I wrote [for North], and I imagine what Josh wrote, was almost disillusioned. It was this weird, in-between period of time. We went from being this high school band and loving it to having it being our living and the thing we do everyday, without paying attention to anything else. And then realizing that the next record that we make determines how long we get it to do it.

That was a really weird feeling to rest with. I think it pushed the band to evolve though, at the same time because we wanted to make something good, something we could get behind and that made progress from the first record.

The record was also a little bit darker for the reasons that I just mentioned, but that's not to say we will always make dark music. For me at least, that was a darker period of time...We evolved as a band more than anything. The music has evolved as a result of us as a group of guys trying to work together.



JA: What has the songwriting process been like?

Partington: The process is usually either myself or Andrew write a song when we are either really happy or really sad...Usually when you wake up in the morning and you've had a cup of coffee and there is nothing going on, you are not going to write a song. That's the worst time to do it because you don't have a lot to say.

McMahon: For me it's anytime you are really feeling something, and it can happen in a number of ways. I've written entire verses of songs in my head or sung lyrics over the phone. I've written an entire piece of music [that was without words] for a year. Music for me isn't really a process...It can be anything. It can be a sign I read that strikes a chord and I think of those words. Anything that I find so supremely inspirational that I have sit down and make something out of it....A lot of the song writing process is to say things that you wouldn't say to other people. It helps us with all these suppressed emotions, to get them out without having to say anything to anyone.



JA: What do you think distinguishes you from other bands in the pop-punk genre?

McMahon: Well first of all we are not punk. Just because we are on Drive Thru Records everyone immediately thought of us as a pop-punk band. I fail to see any punk rock in our records at any point in time...We don't really follow any scene or particular set of bands...I think sonically it just comes across differently. I know a lot of bands now that are trying to fit into something. It's never worked for us, we've never tried it.



JA: Who do you count as your influences?

McMahon: Tom Petty, U2, Counting Crows, Bob Marley, The Grateful Dead, Weezer, Green Day...

Partington: Metallica, Korn..

JA: You have very different tastes.

McMahon: Yeah that's what I was talking about. That's why I think our band is special. He's like the hardest rock guy and I'm the biggest pussy. (laughs)



JA: Where do you see yourself in five years?

Partington: Hopefully still playing music. This is such an awesome job...

McMahon: You learn quickly not to expect things. If I had been asked that question five years ago, I wouldn't have expected to be sitting here. That's the beauty of this business, you set goals for yourself, but truthfully its what you find on the way to those goals that end up being your life...