March 29, 2024

New Fury Media

Music. Gaming. Nostalgia. Culture.

Major League Exit The Minors

 

Photo by Thomas Falcone

2014 was a year of transformation for the New Jersey pop punk band Major League.

               After the departure of former vocalist Nick Trask, the remaining four members- guitarist/lyricist Brian Joyce, guitarist Matt Chila, bassist Kyle Bell, and drummer Luke Smartnick- showed no signs of slowing down as Joyce immediately assumed the vocalist position and they began moving forward stronger than ever. Multiple tours ensued, including a US headliner and a support slot for scene-giants Mayday Parade this past fall, which led up to the release of Major League’s highly anticipated sophomore album “There’s Nothing Wrong With Me.”

Prior to the album’s release, many longtime fans were skeptical that Major League would be capable of putting out quality material or that they would change their sound for the worse without Trask on the mic. Even the members themselves were nervous as to what people would think of it. However, fast forward nearly four months after its release date and Major League are extremely satisfied with how the record was received and how it all came together.

“I think it took a little bit to grow on the older fans but [its] gotten a pretty good reaction from people who’ve never heard the band before,” said Joyce from the green room of Upstate Concert Hall in late February 2015. “This is kind of a rebirth of the band in the most non-cheesy way possible,” he said.

Whereas their older material was more straightforward pop punk, reminiscent of early-2000’s bands such as New Found Glory and The Starting Line as well as their current peers in Handguns and State Champs, “There’s Nothing Wrong With Me” expands the band’s pallet as they experiment with different sounds.

“We took a lot of chances with trying new things with the record,” said Chila. “For the song ‘Just As I Am’ we started in the studio with just a simple drum beat and then tried at least 30 different ways of [where it could go],” he said.

“We were like do we want it to be a poppy song? A little darker? A little hard hitting?” said Joyce.

The band ultimately settled on an eerie, alt-emo direction with “Just As I Am”, drawing comparisons to their label-mates Balance & Composure. This may not be pure coincidence since both bands have now worked with Will Yip, the acclaimed producer/engineer that Major League tapped for “TNWWM”.

“I think Will’s sound was kind of the sound we wanted to go for. We liked his raw, big quality to his recordings,” said Joyce. “I’ve listened to bands before [Will] and then after Will and you can hear the transition the band goes through and for me it’s always been a progression forward,” he said.

Yip has produced some of the scene’s most successful releases over the past few years and has earned himself an excellent reputation. And as Joyce said, the differences in production between Major League’s earlier releases and “TNWWM” are very apparent due to Yip’s work on the latter. The loud/soft dynamics and the texture of the songs simply sound crisper and more tangible than previous material. However, their shift in sound on “TNWWM” goes farther than just the production.

“There’s more passion behind everything. The instruments, the vocals and just the songs as a whole,” said Chila.

“I think [there’s] just more honesty,” said Joyce. “In the instrumentals, when I listen to it, I can hear their personalities coming through. Knowing these guys, I feel them coming through their instruments which is something that the previous records didn’t have,” he continued.

Unlike their earlier releases, specifically 2012’s “Hard Feelings” and 2010’s “The Truth Is…”, the band wanted to do more than just make music for the sake of making music.

“We had a mindset going into it. We knew that we wanted to create something together and have it be ‘us’,” said Joyce.

Joyce also took the opportunity to expand lyrically with “TNWWM”. Throughout their career he was always the sole lyricist of the band despite Trask being the singer. However, after Trask left Joyce felt that he was able to open up and begin to write more personal lyrics now that he wouldn’t be forced to channel his thoughts through Trask.

“We could write songs about girls and generic stuff all day long. But I wanted to introduce people to who I am and who the band is gonna be from here on out,” said Joyce. “I didn’t want to just step in and be the next lead singer of the band,” he said.

Joyce certainly delves into more somber material on tracks such as “Montreal” where he sings, “A poster child for the chemically imbalanced/ I’d try to explain but my words are all silenced/ Mama I’m so sorry if this breaks your heart.” The moody, more emo-sounding tracks such as “Little Eyes” and the aforementioned “Just As I Am” also touch on darker subjects such as the mental health issues that Joyce has faced throughout his life. These songs are a sharp contrast to the upbeat “Kaleidoscopes”, which features quite possibly the catchiest riff Major League has every laid down, and the closer, “Rittenhouse”, where Joyce pours his heart out in an attempt to make amends with a loved one before the song explodes into an absolutely epic, thick-riffed finale. The contrast between each track is vast but the transitions feel natural and the whole album flows incredibly smoothly.

Roughly an hour after they spoke in the green room, Joyce and Co. took the stage for one of their last dates opening for Silverstein on their highly successful “Discovering the Waterfront 10 Year Anniversary Tour.” The tour celebrated the 15-year existence of Silverstein- a forefather to many modern post-hardcore, metalcore, and pop punk bands- as well as the 10-year anniversary of their beloved sophomore effort “Discovering the Waterfront”. As an opener for the tour Major League were able to expand their audience and perpetuate the continuous development of the band as they did on “TNWWM”.

“It’s cool to do support tours because 90% of the crowd doesn’t know who we are,” said Joyce. “It’s nice to be able to kind of reinvent the band. They don’t know what to expect so we don’t have to ‘be anything’,” he said.

And that’s exactly where Major League are in their careers right now. They’ve attained a sizeable fan-base over the past few years but they still have plenty of room to grow and develop. And with virtually no pressure from their label they have every opportunity to simply be themselves, whatever it is that may be.

“I think there’s something in that name ‘There’s Nothing Wrong With Me’ that just kind of really hit home for us,” said Joyce. “I think a lot of the time people look for excuses to give themselves a title of why they are the way they are. You’re just you. There’s nothing wrong with you,” he said.

 

-Eli Enis

New Fury Media

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