Why After Over 15 Years, Taking Back Sunday All Still Have Their Hearts In It

Taking Back Sunday are one of those bands whom, when you are told that they have been around for well over a decade and a half and have no less than seven full-length albums under their collective belt, you might say something along the lines of, 'Whoa, really?' But, yes, it is indeed the case and even frontman Adam Lazzara himself is a little bewildered about their longevity.

"Yep, back to 1999/2000 when I was the ripe old age of 11!" he jokes "It's a strange thing; you'd think we'd be all jaded by now, but we're not. It's really wild to sit back now and think about all that we've been able to do and everything we've been through, and put ourselves through, and accomplished."

'"This is all we've ever wanted to do, and hopefully people will still want to hear us."

So, when you first started out, did you have any inkling at all that in the year 2017 you'd be doing an interview with Australia on the eve of your next tour there? "No, man, when we first started out, we were just trying to get enough dollars together so we could tour. We were just trying to see if we could push our luck and get to California!" he laughs again. "And now we're doing a 14-hour flight past California."

In fact, this coming tour will be their fifth time Down Under during their career to date and that in itself is a little mind-blowing. "That's also just another crazy thing, and it makes us realise how lucky we are that we get to do that, that we get to go so far from home and meet people and connect with people. It makes us realise that we're not so alone in the world."

The band are bringing a broad and varied setlist to Australia, touching on most to all of those seven albums. Lazzara reveals that it is getting more and more difficult to write a TBS setlist these days that will come close to pleasing themselves and the fans that come to see them.

"Yeah, it's definitely become more of a conversation than it used to be, within the band. We'll make a list and we'll say, 'Okay, this is way too long,' so we'll cut it down a bit and we'll get into which songs we should play, which songs we shouldn't play and so on. It's definitely a lot different than the old days. When we first started we barely had enough [songs] for one full set. So we just played everything we had and got out of there before anybody got upset!" he laughs yet again.

And now that the band has existed for well over 15 years, Lazzara feels that the band has plenty more to give before they are done. "Absolutely," he states definitively. "It seems that, between the five of us, even if one of us didn't have their heart in it, we'd know that it was time to call it quits. But this is all we've ever wanted to do, and hopefully people will still want to hear us."