We Had the Coolest Day With the Coolest Guy, Adam Lazzara

All photos in article taken by Keeyahtay Lewis

Can you imagine doing something that continuously excites and challenges you for 16 years? Taking Back Sunday has been a band for that long, and in that time has risen from Long Island house shows to selling out some of the biggest clubs in New York City. This past spring, the group embarked on a tour that spanned the country, featuring some of their best production yet. It was a tour that signified their place in the scene. Alongside them they brought along the future sound of soul-punk in letlive, and the most honest punk band in the world The Menzingers. It’s truly a testament to who they are; the music is timeless and forward thinking enough to attract new fans to the world of Taking Back Sunday, and true enough to themselves to bring people who have been down since day one.

Their singer Adam Lazzara is a social chameleon. On stage his presence holds the confidence and skill that goes across generations—throwing the mic around his neck and sashaying the stage with the strut of a young Harrison Ford. Off the stage, Lazzara is thoughtful and gentile; he doesn’t bullshit and will treat you like someone he’s known forever. For the band, New York City was a land across a bridge they couldn’t cross. The promised land of music and culture took time to let the band play, and when they did they took it in stride. So there was no better place to hang out with Adam Lazzara in, than the heart of Grenwich Village, Manhattan.

NOISEY: What do you do in New York when you have time off?
Adam Lazzara: I just walk around. That’s my favorite thing to do here. Like of course there’s the restaurants you go to and stuff like that, and places you frequent. But yeah man, I like getting lost here. It’s always been one of my favorite things. You turn any corner, and you’re gonna see some new weird shit. [laughs] That’s one of the coolest things about the city.

It’s been a year since Happiness Is came out, how do you see it now from a year ago?
Adam: I think the thing is that when you’re about to put anything out there in the world, it comes with a lot of anxiety. Cause one, it’s about to no longer be yours. And two, you never know what people are going to think. So the anxiety of just being nervous about it being out in the world. I feel pretty great about it now. [laughs] I mean the response has been great, we’ve taken it around the world and you can’t really complain about that.

Is it strange being in the city and seeing yourselves go from not being able to get booked at really tiny clubs or bars to having a huge light show?
Oh yeah, man. Even the first time we played a proper show here, we played at Brownies’ which is the HiFi now. But even then, it’s funny. Like we played with Interpol but they sounded more like Nirvana back then.

That’s such a strange show composition to think about now.
Such a weird show. Or my we’d play my buddy Justin’s house. But yeah, it was there at this tiny little stage, and no lights, with one can. You just play as loud as you can and hope people like it. I remember we saw The Get Up Kids at CBGBs and thinking, because their bus was around the corner, I remember at the time thinking “oh man I can’t imagine this ever happening to us.” So being able to do the things we’ve done and we’re coming in with a fucking light wall. Most nights it’s so surreal to think about, there’s always a moment of “I can’t believe we’re doing this, this is awesome. The thing with the light wall too, it’s funny like the first week of touring it took me everything not to just turn around and watch it. [laughs]

Yeah, there’s a billion cool things happening all at once with it, it feels like.
Or yeah, you don’t want to miss anything. It feels like we’re the real deal. It’s pretty cool.

What kind of music listener are you these days? How do you find new bands?
There’s a little bit of internet trolling I’ll do, but it’s still a lot of word of mouth with friends. Or like there’s a record store where I live called “Lunch Box” and so I’ll go there and see what they have that’s new. The guys there aren’t all that approachable there, but the way it’s organized it’s really easy to find stuff that looks cool. But I guess with the internet there’s just stuff that’ll pop up with my instagram or twitter that I’ll go listen to if it looks cool. I read this article from Noisey about BirdCloud, it’s this female duo from Nashville. And I was reading the article because they have a song called “Saving My Hymen For Jesus.” So that’s how I found out about that, but yeah. To where it used to be with magazines it’s all about the taste maker websites.

What excites you the most about music presently?
My Morning Jacket has a new record coming out soon which I’m pretty excited about. It’s actually funny, I’m trying to think of things I’ve purchased. I bought this Joe Walsh record and he has this song called “Life’s Been Good,” so I’m getting familiar with the whole album now. But I haven’t really dove into it. There’s that, and that new Twin Shadow record came out, so I grabbed that on tuesday. I’ve only had the chance to listen through once or twice. It’s a lot more upbeat than his other stuff, which is cool to hear. Cause he did this online thing where he was doing these cover songs, but the way he’d shoot them was in this one big space with a light on him. It was one of those things where I watched and thought “fuck, why didn’t I think of that?” And those kind of things. But I think he’s great. I learn a lot of music through [my manager] Andy here, he showed me How To Dress Well.

What was your opinion on the emo revival?
I didn’t know what it was. It wasn’t until I was asked this that I was made aware that’s what people were doing. To me emo was a word you used to make fun of your friends, and at a certain point people started to kind of claim it. In the same way they’d claim “I’m punk,” it’d be “I’m emo.” So we thought that was funny. And I guess for a while it wasn’t cool to listen to certain bands because of the connotation that was put on them, and I happened to be in one of those bands. See for me, I never looked at us as an emo band but I know that’s what everyone called us. It’s one of those things, like it hasn’t bothered me all that much as long as people were listening. But as far as “the revival,” there’s nothing to revive. I haven’t stopped working, and none of the guys I’ve been working with in a band.But then again, that’s to look at ourselves as an emo band. I also think a lot of it is, like Tell All Your Friends came out a long time ago, and I know that record was pigeonholed with the emo thing. And so a lot of those people if they were 12 or 13 when they got that first record, now they’re young adults. And they’re going to maybe revisit it, hence the revival. So maybe it’s more of a revisitation than a revival.

With a record like Tell All Your Friends, is it weird when you put out new music and try to get people to listen to that?
It’s not really weird, but that became the record we were known for. It’s hard I guess, and for any band really, when you get on with records for people to focus in. Because people relate music a lot with how they were feeling at a certain point in their life. So there was a lot of nostalgia that comes with that. For us, we try not to think about it too much and just keep doing what we do and hope people like it, because it’s all we can do.

Is it hard not thinking about it too much when you’re on the internet all the time?
Oh yeah, well the thing is I need to stay the fuck off the internet. See, it becomes such a mindless thing. I just check my Twitter or my Instagram when I’m bored. And I used to get a lot more done before that. It’s hard, because people can just say whatever and there’s no consequences. They just go on there and they can call someone fat or say they’re the worst, and they just put it out there and the person who sent it feels taller because they knocked someone down a peg. But the whole thing is stupid. And I need to stay off, and I’m a grown man.

Have you felt straight physical discomfort from shit you’d read or find online?
There’s stuff where– I mean look, like I just said I’m a grown man. [laughs] But I’m also a person and that stuff does hurt. You go on and you check your feed, and there’s people telling you their opinion of you when they’re complete fucking strangers. It’s like yeah, at a certain point it does get to you. But at that point, I try to think of that Jimmy Kimmel bit with the mean tweets at celebrities. And that makes me feel better, because it puts the whole thing into perspective. They had one that just had Obama, and then they’re just making light of the whole thing, where anyone would have the time to spend that time to spew out this negative thing. All that to say, yeah it can feel shitty, but that’s anybody. If you’re walking down the street and someone yells something shitty at you, you’d be like “ah, well that sucks.” But then you forget about it. So I guess it’s like that, but you can experience it by yourself when you’re in the bathroom.

It’s always weird being online because it seems that people like making Taking Back Sunday apart of some sort of drama regiment, and bring up shit that has happened like a decade ago at this point.
Yeah, and it’s like going through a high school year book. You wouldn’t go through a yearbook and see some kid in your class that picked on you and be like “I’m gonna find that mother fucker’s phone number and email address, and I’m gonna tell him what I think now.” No, you’re over that now. You’ve experienced a lot between point A and point B and that stuff just doesn’t matter anymore.

Do you think as yourself as a celebrity?
No. No, I’m just a really lucky guy. Like when I think celebrity I think of Brad Pitt or somebody like that. Or Dave Grohl, he’d be the musical celebrity. I’m just lucky to still be doing this.

What is it like dealing with the intersection of fame that you’ve seen though? You’ve been in a band for so long, it must be weird for some random guy at a show to approach you and ask “hey how’s the garage?”
Yeah, see I try to keep the private stuff private. And there’s people you meet that are like “so what’s up with you and this other guy,” and it’s fucking nothing. Why are you asking about that, because you read some shit on a Wikipedia page? [laughs] Which is a funny tidbit too because there was a time I tried to change everything on it. I went on to look because one of my friends was like “hey you’re not going to believe this!” and he showed it to me. So I went on to try and change my own page, and it wouldn’t let me do it. And I was putting factual stuff on there, like fuck I don’t want my kids to get old and one day read this shit.

Was there something super over the top on the page?
There was some outlandish shit on there, and like details about a personal relationship I had thirteen years ago. Like one it shouldn’t be public knowledge, and two who gives a shit? [laughs]

I just imagine some 15 year old with a big homemade Adam Lazzara timeline, trying to tie together people you’ve been with.
Right? [laughs] When you’re twenty years old, you’re going to do some weird shit, but it doesn’t need to be broadcast.

On the other end of the spectrum, what’s the coolest experiences you have with fans?
Man, the most memorable ones are when someone’s real genuine and tells me how something I wrote was a part of something important for them, or helped them somehow. I mean that’s the best. Or there’s validation in that. Cause a lot of that stuff, those songs are just pages out of a notebook. And then you put them into a song, and put a melody to it and put it out there. You never know what it’s for, other than a kind of self-serving thing and the goal is always to try and give back a little bit what my favorite artists did for me. So when someone says that, it’s like “ah, maybe we’re doing something right.” [laughs] It’s not just a selfish thing of just chasing a dream.

Can you remember the first time someone came up to you that you didn’t know who was really affected by the music?
Yeah, when we started touring I was selling merch, which is when it first started happening. And then just being blown away by it, because at first you think they’re fucking with you. [laughs] And when it turns out they’re not, it’s a pretty crazy thing.

What do you think it is about the northeast that breeds bands like you and Thursday and others born out of that scene?
I have no idea, I don’t know. Yeah, like what was it about Seattle that bred all those bands? I have no clue. It’s just something that I guess was happening at the time, or a bunch of like-minded folks I guess.

It’s really interesting to see I guess the sliver of America that New Jersey and Long Island have, and how that affects being a developing person and what bands people like.
Yeah, it’s definitely its own distinct place. When you kind of pack that amount of people into one area, it will create an interesting space.

What do you still want to achieve in life? Like do you still have a bunch of things you feel you need to do?
Yeah man, there’s still a lot that the band needs to accomplish, I mean that’s why we’re still doing it. Even for myself, I’ve been thinking about that a lot and it might come with the kids. I wasn’t always looking towards the future, I was always in the moment which I still am to a certain degree. To be completely honest, I’d like to write and perform songs for the rest of my life. That would be awesome, because it’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do.And it’s the thing I’ve been lucky enough to do for this time. Hopefully I can keep it up to go even further.

John Hill totally didn’t cry when they played “Ghost Man On Third.” Follow him on Twitter at @JohnxHill