The Marquee sits down with Major League, a band out of New Jersey, to discuss the album Hard Feelings and what the future has to hold for them.
Today is Thanksgiving. Nick Trask, Brian Joyce, Matt Chila, Kyle Bell and Luke Smartnick wander the aisles of Wal-Mart in Jacksonville, Florida. They order sandwiches at Subway, then part ways. Some go to see the new James Bond film, Skyfall. The others go to see Lincoln. For anyone else, it seems unorthodox, strange to be separated from family on a day like this. For Major League, it’s just a part of the sacrifices they have to make. Being a full time touring band with a dream and a new release to promote requires the band to create a new kind of family, with each other.
“We had tons of people offer us places to stay, but it just didn’t feel right,” lead singer Trask said. “Thanksgiving is such a family holiday that we would feel bad with six dudes coming into your family dinner. We thought we’d spend it with our [band] family.”
Long before Major League had started in 2009, guitarist Joyce had dreams of playing pop punk.
“When I was 12, I would pretend that I was Tom Delonge in front of my mirror in my room just wishing that one day I would be able to play one show, even if it was in a garage,” Joyce said.
The three members who have been in the band the longest, Trask, Joyce and Chila started Major League in January of 2009 in Southern New Jersey. Their influences range from Earth Wind & Fire, Boston, Senses Fail and hardcore. Although they didn’t set out to start out to play pop punk music, Joyce said that what they started writing ended up being just that. In early 2011, they lost their bass player who was replaced by Bell. This year they lost their drummer and he was replaced by Smartnick.
In May, they entered the studio again to record their full length album Hard Feelings, with plans of releasing it themselves. They went in with most of the songs already written. As soon as they got to the studio, they ditched all of them and decided to write new songs. They had only three weeks to write and record.
Joyce said that their decision to write new songs opened them up to a new and more natural way of writing. Chila and Joyce had always been writing the songs, then the band would come together collectively and add the bass and drum parts.
“We didn’t go into it with any plans of putting perfect songs together,” Joyce said. “We had some ideas of what we wanted Hard Feelings to be about. Then we realized that making the record a gimmick or making it about something specific didn’t feel right. We found a way of portraying things so much better when it came naturally. “
Before going into the studio, Joyce had written a song that he said he wasn’t sure if he wanted to show the rest of the band. The song dealt with Joyce’s anger over his parent’s splitting up. When he was 6, a man started harassing and stalking his mom. It became way too much for the family, and his parents ended up divorcing over it. A few months ago, Joyce heard through some friends that the man is now married with kids and is well off financially.
“I couldn’t help having some hate and angst towards him,” Joyce said. “But then through writing I realized that having those thoughts made me no better of a man than he was.”
Joyce said he was worried how lead singer Trask was going to be able convey the anger in the song. He gave the lyrics to Trask and he said that he couldn’t have been more pleased with the result.
“The passion that was in it was more than I could’ve done vocally, more than I could’ve ever expressed,” Joyce said. “I think that’s also why it’s my favorite track because you can feel the emotion in the drums, the bass and the guitars.”
For Trask, he said that his role in the band is not only to be a singer, but also an actor. He said that he doesn’t write the lyrics and he does not feel these feelings, so he has to find a way to portray the feeling of the song so that it is believable to listeners.
“I looked at it more as I’m portraying a character,” Trask said. “I needed to make these lyrics relate to me in some way so that I can feel what they’re feeling. It worked out, and I’m really proud of what I did on this record.”
After the band finished recording, one of the band’s friends told them that they should try to find a label to release it. Trask said that they were skeptical but willing to try anyway. Through a friend, they connected with No Sleep Records, an indie label based in California. They were signed, and Hard Feelings was released on November 13, 2012.
Now that the band is on a label, Trask said that it’s like a weight has been lifted off the band’s shoulders. Their next seven months have been planned out for them. They have someone to book their tours for them and have worked them into a UK tour bigger than the one they’d been planning.
“We put all of our effort into this as a full time job, we’re just not getting paid as a full time job,” Trask said. “It’s cool to have someone to back you up and to believe in your music as much as you do.”
Now, the band is looking forward to working their way out of the “local band” scene and into what they call the in-between, the point in their career where they have started to receive international attention.
Both Trask and Joyce agreed that touring is the best part of being in a band. Trask said that touring is just one big vacation with your best friends. Joyce said that if it wasn’t for Major League he wouldn’t get to live out his dream of being a musician with his best friends and play in more than just a garage.
“Even if all of this ended today, I would take that sort of stuff to the grave,” Joyce said
