We Asked Saves the Day Superfans About Their Favorite Albums

Photo by The1point8

Saves the Day’s beloved Stay What You Are celebrates its 15th annivesary this year. To commemorate the occassion, the New Jersey outfit stopped by this year’s FYF Festival to play the album in full, giving emo kids current and grown good reason to leave the confines of their bedrooms to bake their pale skin in the sun, show off tribute tattoos, and scream their little black hearts out to every. Single. Word.

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We all know “At Your Funeral”: it’s the soundtrack to mental montages of your high school crush with the snake bites hiding behind side fringe who you never had the guts to talk to (or is that just me?). But to really love Saves the Day is to know Saves the Day beyond the ocassional anthems of your underground.

The crowd at the band’s highly-anticipated set at LA’s Exposition Park are the OGs, the followers from their teens into their 30s; they’ve saved the Valentines they made for frontman Chris Conley when they were 11; they have Saves the Day album artwork permanently inked on their skin. We sought out the biggest superfans among them to discuss their devotion, what makes Stay What You Are such an iconic album, and that time they took Chris Conley to Jamba Juice and played Dance Dance Revolution.

Fan photos by Artemis Thomas-Hansard

Billy (above), Elle, Kathy, Luis

Noisey: What are your favorite records?
Elle: Stay What You Are
Cathy: Stay What You Are
Luis: Stay What You Are
Billy: In Reverie [points to tattoo inspired by In Reverie album cover]

Oh shit! How many times have you seen them?
Elle: Probably like 87. I think I first found out about them in 2000.
Billy: The first time I saw them was like 2001 at Chain Reaction with Thursday. And those were a couple of the best shows I’ve ever been to in my life, right, it was ridiculous. I started listening to to them right before Through Being Cool came out and I remember the day that came out me and my friend went into Tower Records and came to his house and just sat in his room and just listened to that whole album front to back and were just like, minds blown.

What’s your favorite song on that?
Billy: Ummm, “Rocks Tonic Juice Magic.”
Elle: That’s also my favorite song! Which is not on my favorite album, which is Stay What You Are. But “Rocks Tonic Juice Magic” is my fucking favorite song of all time by them.
Billy: The imagery, the violent imagery. The always did well with that. Like, the song they played today [“As Your Ghost Takes Flight”], “drink your blood”, I just like that imagery. That’s what always drew me to them was their lyrics. Chris is a fuckin’ wordsmith, it’s amazing. Elle: Yeah so, same thing that he said. It’s not just the imagery, though, I love the intensity. I love how intense and passionate [Chris] is. How he’s able to express exactly what he’s feeling when he’s talking about some painful shit. The way he expresses his emotions is pretty much my favorite part.

Kathy and Elle

What did it mean to you to hear Stay What You Are performed live all the way through?
Luis: It’s just an iconic thing that every emo band is doing now, but honestly, this has been a long time coming. Because I think that every band that has been jumping on that bandwagon, like, this is one of the bands that every one—it doesn’t matter what other band you’re into, you’ll know this album.

Billy: Saves the Day earned it. They came up through the scene and Chris is literally like the nicest person ever. One time I was outside at South Side [Ballroom], it was a Thursday-Taking Back Sunday show. It was the Thursday farewell tour, and I was just standing outside in my Saves the Day sweatshirt and then someone just comes out of nowhere and hugs me and I look over and it’s Chris, and he was like, “I like your sweatshirt, man!” And I was like, “Is this happening right now?!”

Oh, so that sweatshirt is probably framed. Like, never washed again.
Billy: I wish I still knew where it was. I’m bad at holding onto clothes.

Kathy: [To Luis] We went to Taking Back Sunday when we saw him, right? At the Grove?

Luis: Oh yeah, we went to Taking Back Sunday, Saves the Day, and Moneen, and we were just waiting before the show in the parking lot and we were just like, “Oh, let’s go get Jamba Juice” and…

Elle: And Chris was like, “Let me come with you guys!”

Luis: So we got in the car—

Kathy: I had to try to keep calm while driving.

Luis: —and went to Jamba Juice with Chris. I think he ordered the same thing I ordered, Peach Pleasure with no bananas, no peaches. And then we started playing Dance Dance Revolution, and it was a very surreal moment because, you know, it’s like you kind of see these musicians as your idols, but at the same time they’re also regular people.

Luis

Chris Conley drinks Jamba Juice, he’s just like us!
Luis: Chris is honestly one of the most down-to-earth people. Like, he has no ego whatsoever. And he loves everyone. And you can tell that everyone loves him. There’s never any real drama around him. He just loves everyone and you can feel it in his music, and I think that’s why people love Saves the Day, because you can feel that emotion he has towards his fans, and he can capture that so well. Many years later I ended up working on the Warped Tour, so seeing Chris every day, and him saying hi to me, it was like coming full circle. And Saves the Day was that band that everyone on the tour would go see every day, it didn’t matter. And there are very few bands like that on a music tour where people from the bands take time out of their day to go see. And Saves the Day was that band. They’re one of the most beloved bands.

Was he good at Dance Dance Revolution?
Luis: He was! I think he was. There’s a video somewhere. That’s all I remember. It was a very iconic day in all of our friendships.

Zach

How long have you been a fan of Saves the Day?
I’ve been a fan of Saves the Day since I was 16 years old, so for ten years.

What’s your favorite album by them?
Umm, well, it’s probably not this album honestly. I like the B-sides album [Ups & Downs: Early Recordings and B-Sides] the most, and that had covers on it.

How come?
It came out a little later, and they were songs that you didn’t get to hear on other albums. On this album [Stay What You Are], I love that “Freakish” is on it. I’m excited to hear that. It reminds me of my childhood. That’s what all Saves the Day does, really. I’m so glad they’re still touring.

Have you seen them before?
I saw them in Cleveland once, and Chris had his twin kids and his wife on stage, and it was like, everybody’s growing up. I grew up with them. It’s wild to see that. I actually just saw them two months ago, but I’ve seen them quite a few times, maybe like ten times. I’m a big fan. I was so surprised they were playing this festival though, it doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the music.

Are you pretty much here to see them, then?
They’re my number one, yeah. They’re the reason I’m here.

Are you gonna get in the pit?
[Looks at girlfriend shaking her head no] Uhh, maybe, we’ll get close.

Tamara

How long have you been a fan of Saves the Day?
I discovered Saves the Day on warped Wednesdays through the song “Anywhere With You” when I was 11. I immediately started listening to all their music and went to Warped Tour just to see them. I met them in 2006 and Chris Conley had just dyed his hair pink. I took a photo with him, cut out a heart, colored it red and pasted the photo on the heart.

How long ago was that? Do you still have it?
I’m 23, and yes [Laughs].