A Day To Remember frontman Jeremy McKinnon has spoken to NME about their surprise new album, titled ‘Big Ole Album Vol. 1’. Check out our exclusive interview below.
Announcing details of the follow-up to 2021’s ‘You’re Welcome’ today (February 18), the rock veterans have told fans can that if they pre-order physical copies of ‘Big Ole Album Vol. 1’ now they can receive the album as early as Friday (February 21). The record will not be available on streaming services until March 21. The band will also share two new tracks — ‘Make It Make Sense’ and ‘LeBron’ on streaming later on today at 8PM GMT / 3pm EST
“In the past, updating people as we slowly put things together has left some fans feeling disappointed,” McKinnon told NME. “These days, people just are used to getting their content right when they hear about it. It felt like it would be more exciting to say nothing and be like, ‘There it is!’ There’s no slow [rollout] – what better way to get people’s attention? ‘Here’s the pre-order. By the way, it’s going to show up at your house in three days.’”
Explaining why the band tactically named their 2024 US run ‘The Least Anticipated Album Tour’, McKinnon revealed that ADTR envisaged this release strategy early last year. “People can’t stream it yet, so we have this surprise, secret album which leans into our last tour name, because people had no idea what we’re doing and what’s coming.”
McKinnon confirmed to NME that there will be a follow-up to ‘Big Ole Album Vol. 1’, as the title implies. “Not only do we have this album, but there’s also a second one in the works. We don’t have [Volume Two] completely finished, but that will be coming in the future.”
The chaotic album artwork was inspired by the theatrical release poster for 1978 American comedy film National Lampoon’s Animal House. It features cartoon drawings of the band backed up by an ensemble of famous faces – including Bring Me The Horizon’s Oli Sykes and Knocked Loose’s Isaac Hale – and notorious landmarks such as Mount Rushmore and the Hollywood sign.
“The idea was to pepper in all the people that touched this album in some way, shape or form,” he explained. “Our whole team, everybody who wrote with us for Volume One and Two. There’s some people on it [who worked on songs for] Volume Two. I thought it turned out really cool.”
Check out our full interview below, where McKinnon discussed the band’s constant desire to seek out unexpected sounds, how a Michael Jordan meme inspired a song about LeBron James, and if the band could step up to headline Download Festival in the future.
NME: Hello Jeremy. You said ‘You’re Welcome’ would “run the whole gambit of what an ADTR record is” – so what did you want to achieve with this album?
Jeremy McKinnon: “When we put a record together, it felt like we should do things that aren’t as expected. When we put out ‘Homesick’, it would have been the easiest thing in the world to write a record where every song almost has a breakdown in the second verse or the bridge. To me, that’s too ‘expected’ to be cool or to be exciting. [Heaviness] would have felt forced. We went more experimental, trying new things while keeping the same A Day to Remember formula, obviously with different influences… it’s almost like ‘You’re Welcome’ created this next batch of albums that are coming.”
“For the first time since those records, it felt like the surprising thing to go back and put a breakdown left, right and all over the place. There’s more to come on Volume Two, whenever that gets finished. I don’t want people to hear that and [think], ‘It’s going to be the heaviest record ever,’ because it’s not. We definitely leapt into it this time, and it felt fresh to approach it that way. How can we fit in a heavy part where it doesn’t necessarily belong – which has very much been our thing in the past – but in a tasteful way? I think there’s songs that’ll make a lot of A Day To Remember fans happy.”
You’ve always been consistent in following your instinct in the moment…
“If you don’t, you’re just pandering to people, it’s not coming from the heart. This many years deep into a career, it’s very important for me to find new subjects or influences, to keep it fresh. You might think you want us to write a carbon copy of something, but I don’t even personally know if I can. I’m not going to write a worse version of something that we’ve already done.”
Are the opening lyrics of the record (“You want it? / You fucking got it / Blast ‘em”) on ‘Make It Make Sense’ as on-the-nose as they seem?
“Everybody in our comments is talking about how we don’t write heavy music anymore. Alright – you got it. That was the vibe. And then it’s our version of having a shitty day, people bringing you down. Most days, I can take the higher path in life, but this song is about being over it for the day, and that rain cloud following you around. Our version of [Limp Bizkit‘s] ‘Break Stuff’, essentially!”
On the flip side, could you call ‘All My Friends’ the album’s party song?
“We were working with Zakk Cervini and Drew Fulk in LA. Drew was like, ‘I heard somebody say something funny the other day. How weird is it that there’s never been another ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’?’ Something about him saying that… immediately, I pick up an acoustic guitar, and this song just falls out of thin air. We tried to write the second ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ – the A Day To Remember version.”
What inspired you to name a song after LeBron James?
“I’ll be real with you, I saw this one YouTube comment on ‘Miracle’. This person said, ‘It is a miracle that they wrote another good song’ – and just like the Michael Jordan meme, I took that personally! Why are you either the best or the absolute worst? There is never an in-between – people either love you or hate you in the moment… when will people stop trying to be so negative and just appreciate people for what they’ve done?
“Immediately, I think of LeBron James, how people always talk about if he’s the greatest of all time. People obviously respect him, but more than anything, there’s this negative discourse around his career when he has done so many amazing things. I just tied these correlations to his career and people in general – you don’t have to like everything someone does to appreciate them, whether that’s LeBron James or us. If you love it, thank you. If you just love what we’ve done in the past, also thank you. We’re just happy to be here.”
Do you see parallels between fan toxicity in music and sports?
“For sure. Think of all the amazing moments you’ve got from your favourite players, but then I’m sure there’s people that completely run them through the dirt. It’s meant to be a light-hearted take. You don’t get to this point without doing something that people care about.”
Do you think LeBron is a secret ADTR fan?
“I would be surprised if he was, but I just want him to hear it! I think it reflects positively on not just him, but artists and entertainers in general. We can all enjoy things without tearing everybody down, guys.”
When did you realise this album needed a second volume?
“There were like 18 songs, [maybe] more. We went through our first batch of songs that we absolutely could not go without. There was a bunch of stuff that was unfinished, that I’m also extremely excited about. For the first time, we also have ourselves in this situation where we can put out Volume One and see – in real time – what people connect to, and actually write [some songs] towards that. We have so many ideas. We could fill an entire second album already.”
When can we expect it? Bring Me The Horizon once promised four EPs in a year, and it took four years to get the second one…
“I will be very surprised if Volume Two takes four years – there’s no way. I don’t want to give any dates or get anybody’s hopes up. Let’s all digest Volume One [for now]. There’s a lot already done, so it shouldn’t be too hard.”
Speaking of Bring Me, if everyone on the artwork is involved with the album – what role did Oli Sykes play?
“This was crazy. Again, we were out in LA, and Drew and Zakk turned around and went, ‘So, Oli sent a voice memo of this vocal hook that he had, and we put together some music that we thought was cool around it.’ They hit play, and the music they put together is almost identical to what you hear on the record. The first line is pretty similar: ‘Remember when you said that you would die for me?’ ‘Die For Me’ started off with his voice memo, and we just took it, made it our own and told a story that felt like A Day To Remember.”
We spotted Knocked Loose guitarist Isaac Hale on the artwork as well…
“Isaac came into the studio because he was in town, and he was riffing around with us. We wrote three ideas with Isaac. He ended up finishing this song that we had started with [Whitechapel guitarist] Alex Wade, which is one of the heavier songs on both volumes. That song will be on Volume Two.”
You’re back in the UK to headline Slam Dunk Festival – could you get used to ADTR becoming established festival headliners?
“I mean, that’s up to the fans, if y’all want us! I was told we were the most requested headliner in the festival’s history. To be a part of it, we’re just excited.”
A dress rehearsal to step up and headline Download in 2026 or 2027, perhaps?
“Bring it on. Y’all want it? Let ‘em know, we’ll do it.”
A Day To Remember will release ‘Big Ole Album Vol. 1’ physically on February 21, before the album lands on streaming services on March 21. Check out the tracklist below.
‘Make It Make Sense’
‘Feedback’
‘Bad Blood’
‘All My Friends’
‘To The Death’
‘Flowers’
‘Lebron’
‘Die For Me’
‘Miracle’
‘Same Team’
‘Silence’
‘Closer Than You Think’
Check out the band’s UK tour dates below and visit here for tickets and more information.
MAY
24 – Slam Dunk South, Hatfield Park
25 – Slam Dunk North, Leeds Temple Newsam
JUNE
24 – O2 Academy Brixton, London
25 – O2 Academy Brixton, London