It’s been practically 20 years since Yellowcard’s “Ocean Avenue” dominated the airwaves (and MTV’s Complete Request Dwell!), however in line with frontman Ryan Key, the hit single nearly didn’t see the sunshine of day.
Within the newest episode of Us Weekly’s “Anatomy of a Track,” Key, 43, opens up concerning the historical past behind the tune, which was the band’s second single off of 2003’s Ocean Avenue. “The music nearly didn’t go on the document. It was two weeks away from turning into a B-side,” he explains. “I had the verse lyrics with none music, then the rhythmic drum and guitar loop that grew to become the verse is the place I received that rhythm. [With] that melody, they simply match collectively completely.”
On the time, Key went into rehearsal armed along with his first try on the refrain — however he didn’t get the response that he was in search of. “Everybody checked out me like I had two heads, and I didn’t understand why, but it surely’s as a result of the melody I had was ‘Time After Time’ by Cyndi Lauper,” the vocalist explains. “It was the identical precise melody.”
“I used to be like, nicely, I can’t do this — however then I couldn’t unhear it,” Key continues. “I used to be simply caught on that melody for weeks and attempting to get it out of my head. I simply couldn’t do away with it.”
The band’s longtime producer and mixer Neal Avron pushed Key to maintain fine-tuning the music till it was excellent. “He simply saved saying, ‘No, that’s not it but,’” he explains. “Then one time I walked in, [singing] ‘If I may discover you now, issues would get higher,’ and he was like, ‘Get in there and monitor that proper now!’”
Working underneath time constraints whereas recording Ocean Avenue proved to be one other problem. “We had been two weeks away, or a couple of week and a half away, from ending the album,” the Jacksonville native continues, noting that again in these days, dwelling studios — and the luxurious of engaged on music at your individual tempo — had been principally non-existent. “[You’d] should be out of the studio as a result of one other artist is coming into that room, so we needed to end.”
Recording the album on the legendary Sundown Sound proved to be a seminal second for the pop-punk band. “Our earlier document [One for the Kids], we had been sleeping within the van on the street, going into the studio within the morning and showering within the sink,” Key remembers. “Three years later, we’re in West Hollywood in a studio the place we’re ordering three meals a day trip of a e book.”
As Yellowcard followers know, the band — Key, violinist and vocalist Sean Mackin, guitarist Ryan Mendez and bassist Josh Portman — went their separate methods in 2016 earlier than reuniting in 2022 to carry out at Riot Fest. “We had no concept what the vibe was going to be between the band,” Key tells Us. “There have been very strained relationships inside Yellowcard that was one of many different components main in the direction of the choice to step away from what we thought was going to be ceaselessly.”
However “the vitality, the connection between the 4 of us [and] the gang’s response to the present was so intense and so overwhelming,” says Key, pushing the quartet to plan a summer season tour to rejoice the twentieth anniversary of Ocean Avenue and document new music: “[Getting in] the studio was even higher as a result of it had been a very long time since we had sat round as buddies sipping whiskeys and writing songs.”
What adopted was Childhood Eyes, a 5-track EP that was launched July 21. “It was a really actual connection to the roots of the band and the explanations we began making [music] underneath Yellowcard within the first place,” Key explains. “It was a particular time, and I believe you’ll be able to hear it within the songs. I believe the followers have linked with it.”
Key can’t assist however recognize how “Ocean Avenue” modified the model’s trajectory. “I’m actually glad that no matter motivated me to provide you with that melody that day,” he provides. “In any other case, how completely different would our lives be?”
To listen to the tales behind Yellowcard’s “Solely One,” “Means Away,” “Respiration” and the band’s newest launch “Three Minutes Extra,” watch the unique video above, the newest in our “Anatomy of a Track” collection.
