Ryan Phillips - Story of the Year (16/04/2014)
It’s hard to believe that Story of the Year’s iconic album Page Avenue is already ten years old. As one of the main albums responsible in bringing post–hardcore to mainstream media attention, and for a lot of people one of the main reasons they learnt and started following the genre in the first place, the album has a strong place in people’s hearts. So, with the news that Story of the Year have not only come out of their hiatus, but have just begun a world tour has more than a few people a bit excited. However, nearly none of them are as excited about this as Story’s guitarist Ryan Phillips.
"It feels good man, doing this 10 year anniversary. I grew up with these songs and I’ve got an emotional attachment to them and it’s pretty awesome to actually be celebrating it."
Story had been on hiatus for about three years since the announcement of the Page Avenue anniversary shows without any hint of returning. However, as Ryan points out, this was not at all a spontaneous occurrence.
"We released Page Avenue and we toured, we toured, we toured. We released our second album and we toured and toured and toured. We released another album and we toured and then another album and we toured, that’s about 7 years of that shit. Eventually we were just like “dude, we are really burnt out and maybe the music is starting to suffer a little bit, so we just needed a break. So, we decided that we’re gonna take a break for a couple of years, and then for the ten year anniversary we’re gonna do something really special with the album, maybe a tour and some kind of rerelease to honour that album. So we had it all planned like years before it actually happened."
Part of the anniversary celebrations was a rerecording of all Page Avenue tracks in a completely different styling, an idea that evolved from a couple of acoustic sessions. Ryan helped shed some light as to why they decided on the full change in style and tone as opposed to keeping it acoustic.
"For the 10 year anniversary tour, we wanted an album to go with it, but we didn’t really want to do the typical acoustic album. A lot of bands will just swap out the electric guitar for an acoustic one, and call it an acoustic album and it’s cool, and that’s fine. I personally didn’t have any interest in doing that. I felt if we didn’t put a completely new spin on the songs and reimagine them, there wasn’t really a point to it. So it was really, really exciting to just completely change a song, make it not heavy and throw a piano and some violins in there while completely changing the tempo."
"So many people grew up listening to the songs and there is so much nostalgia attached to it that we didn’t want to go too far, but we wanted something interesting and new. We really just wanted to give everyone a new way to listen to these songs that they grew up with. That was pretty much the whole mindset of it."
Fame has never really been that much of a deal for Ryan, so when Page Avenue first dropped, he and the rest of the band just though sell–out shows and MTV coverage was a part of that bracket. It wasn’t until years later that he realise that he might have been a part of something a lot bigger than he first thought.
"I never knew we were a big band! We were just these dudes that grew up in the same place who were skateboarding together, and we were these little punk kids who made noise together. I didn’t realise we were a big band until we weren’t as popular anymore, and then I looked back and thought “holy shit we were really big for a while”. I just didn’t realise it!"
"Like our singer Dan (Marsala) always talks about how he was living at his dad’s house and was watching his video on MTV and just registering “dude, I’m on MTV and I’m in this shitty house in Missouri but I’m on MTV”. It was like that for all of us, I don’t think any of us really knew."
Being both at the forefront of the scene when it broke through to the mainstream and one of the main reasons that said breakthrough occurred, Story of the Year have inspired countless kids to scream their hearts over beaten up guitars. It’s the thing Ryan loves most of all about his work with Story of the Year.
"It’s honestly the best part of doing what I do and what I’ve done. Knowing that yeah, I’m not curing cancer, and I’m not feeding starving kids in Africa, but honestly the fact that I can write a song that’s helped somebody through a bad time in their life or inspired a kid to pick up their guitar and do something that they love and discover a passion, well that’s what it’s all about for me. If there wasn’t that aspect to it man, I don’t know how much longer I would do this because it’s tough dude, it’s a tough, tough way to make a living and I’m a little bit older now, so I have a family, and leaving that family is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life."
"But I get onstage, and I see people singing along. And to be on the other side of the world and see people singing along to songs that I wrote and to be talking to kids that tell you that “I picked up a guitar and I played it and it inspired me to make my own band”, well that’s what it’s all about to me man. It’s not about money, it’s not about fame, it’s not about any of that temporary fake bullshit, it’s about that connection that I get with my fans. That’s what it’s all about for me."
As we part ways, I asked Ryan what advice he would give to those kids starting bands because of his music.
"Dude honestly? I think the biggest piece of advice I could give is just to be real with yourself and ask yourself “is making music something that I really, really want to do no matter what? Is it something that I would do all day, every day if I could and if I really, really, really, really have the dedication and the drive to do?”
"If you answer that honestly and the answer is yes, I think that so much of your battle is already won right there. Because to do anything in this business, and this applies to all things in life, but especially in this business man, your chances of being successful, or turning it into a lucrative career are so slim that it’s never going to happen unless you’re willing to outwork every other person, and you’re willing to stay clocked in longer than any other person. You’ve got to work harder and be more passionate than every other person, and that’s what it takes. But you’ve got to be honest with yourself and say hey, if I’m not this kind of person, maybe I should just do something else and keep it as a hobby. You don’t have to have more talent than any person in the world, but you have to have more determination and just grit than every other person."
Ben Spencer
Story of the Year
Thursday, 26th June 2014 The Hi-Fi Brisbane (18+)
Friday, 27th June 2014 The Metro, Sydney (Lic All Ages)
Sunday, 29th June 2014 170 Russell, Melbourne (18+)
"It feels good man, doing this 10 year anniversary. I grew up with these songs and I’ve got an emotional attachment to them and it’s pretty awesome to actually be celebrating it."
Story had been on hiatus for about three years since the announcement of the Page Avenue anniversary shows without any hint of returning. However, as Ryan points out, this was not at all a spontaneous occurrence.
"We released Page Avenue and we toured, we toured, we toured. We released our second album and we toured and toured and toured. We released another album and we toured and then another album and we toured, that’s about 7 years of that shit. Eventually we were just like “dude, we are really burnt out and maybe the music is starting to suffer a little bit, so we just needed a break. So, we decided that we’re gonna take a break for a couple of years, and then for the ten year anniversary we’re gonna do something really special with the album, maybe a tour and some kind of rerelease to honour that album. So we had it all planned like years before it actually happened."
Part of the anniversary celebrations was a rerecording of all Page Avenue tracks in a completely different styling, an idea that evolved from a couple of acoustic sessions. Ryan helped shed some light as to why they decided on the full change in style and tone as opposed to keeping it acoustic.
"For the 10 year anniversary tour, we wanted an album to go with it, but we didn’t really want to do the typical acoustic album. A lot of bands will just swap out the electric guitar for an acoustic one, and call it an acoustic album and it’s cool, and that’s fine. I personally didn’t have any interest in doing that. I felt if we didn’t put a completely new spin on the songs and reimagine them, there wasn’t really a point to it. So it was really, really exciting to just completely change a song, make it not heavy and throw a piano and some violins in there while completely changing the tempo."
"So many people grew up listening to the songs and there is so much nostalgia attached to it that we didn’t want to go too far, but we wanted something interesting and new. We really just wanted to give everyone a new way to listen to these songs that they grew up with. That was pretty much the whole mindset of it."
Fame has never really been that much of a deal for Ryan, so when Page Avenue first dropped, he and the rest of the band just though sell–out shows and MTV coverage was a part of that bracket. It wasn’t until years later that he realise that he might have been a part of something a lot bigger than he first thought.
"I never knew we were a big band! We were just these dudes that grew up in the same place who were skateboarding together, and we were these little punk kids who made noise together. I didn’t realise we were a big band until we weren’t as popular anymore, and then I looked back and thought “holy shit we were really big for a while”. I just didn’t realise it!"
"Like our singer Dan (Marsala) always talks about how he was living at his dad’s house and was watching his video on MTV and just registering “dude, I’m on MTV and I’m in this shitty house in Missouri but I’m on MTV”. It was like that for all of us, I don’t think any of us really knew."
Being both at the forefront of the scene when it broke through to the mainstream and one of the main reasons that said breakthrough occurred, Story of the Year have inspired countless kids to scream their hearts over beaten up guitars. It’s the thing Ryan loves most of all about his work with Story of the Year.
"It’s honestly the best part of doing what I do and what I’ve done. Knowing that yeah, I’m not curing cancer, and I’m not feeding starving kids in Africa, but honestly the fact that I can write a song that’s helped somebody through a bad time in their life or inspired a kid to pick up their guitar and do something that they love and discover a passion, well that’s what it’s all about for me. If there wasn’t that aspect to it man, I don’t know how much longer I would do this because it’s tough dude, it’s a tough, tough way to make a living and I’m a little bit older now, so I have a family, and leaving that family is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life."
"But I get onstage, and I see people singing along. And to be on the other side of the world and see people singing along to songs that I wrote and to be talking to kids that tell you that “I picked up a guitar and I played it and it inspired me to make my own band”, well that’s what it’s all about to me man. It’s not about money, it’s not about fame, it’s not about any of that temporary fake bullshit, it’s about that connection that I get with my fans. That’s what it’s all about for me."
As we part ways, I asked Ryan what advice he would give to those kids starting bands because of his music.
"Dude honestly? I think the biggest piece of advice I could give is just to be real with yourself and ask yourself “is making music something that I really, really want to do no matter what? Is it something that I would do all day, every day if I could and if I really, really, really, really have the dedication and the drive to do?”
"If you answer that honestly and the answer is yes, I think that so much of your battle is already won right there. Because to do anything in this business, and this applies to all things in life, but especially in this business man, your chances of being successful, or turning it into a lucrative career are so slim that it’s never going to happen unless you’re willing to outwork every other person, and you’re willing to stay clocked in longer than any other person. You’ve got to work harder and be more passionate than every other person, and that’s what it takes. But you’ve got to be honest with yourself and say hey, if I’m not this kind of person, maybe I should just do something else and keep it as a hobby. You don’t have to have more talent than any person in the world, but you have to have more determination and just grit than every other person."
Ben Spencer
Story of the Year
Thursday, 26th June 2014 The Hi-Fi Brisbane (18+)
Friday, 27th June 2014 The Metro, Sydney (Lic All Ages)
Sunday, 29th June 2014 170 Russell, Melbourne (18+)