Straying Away From the Norm:  An Interview with Straylight Run

In April 2003 two of the original members of the sensation Taking Back Sunday, John Nolan and Shawn Cooper left the band over creative differences, armed with nothing more then an idea to start something new.  Nolan and Cooper then decided to start a project known as Straylight Run.  Later on, the duo was joined by drummer Will Noon and instrumentalist/vocalist Michele Nolan (John’s sister).  Little over a year later, with only a six-song demo that they released on their website, Straylight Run had become one of the most popular underground bands in the scene.  In Fall 2004, Straylight Run released their debut album which simply defied classification.  I got the chance to interview founding members John and Shawn at The Metro in Chicago when they were on their tour with Hot Rod Circuit and Northstar. I  walked onto the tour bus that HRC and Straylight Run were sharing; I first heard French pop music and saw a hole in the door covered up with red duct tape.

XROXX:  What are some of your influences?
Shawn:  Michael Jackson.
John:  That’s a Good one.
Shawn:  Thriller was the first real album I had.
John:  I really like Pink Floyd, I like Modest Mouse, Nirvana was a big influence when I was younger, Radiohead and lots of other things.
Shawn:  Wow, I only had one.
John:  Something profound.

XROXX:  How did you feel about the finished product about your debut CD?
John:  Its was alright.
Shawn:  We where actually talking about this the other night, are there some things we would like to change, of course, but overall but we think we did a good job.  I don’t think we’ll ever be completely happy with do.

XROXX:  What are three CD's that you’re currently listening to?
John:  Well I don’t have CD’s anymore, because I’m part of the I-Pod generation.  But Say Anything’s CD is a CD I have been listening to a lot.
Shawn:  Green Day’s American Idiot and the new My Chemical Romance record.
John:  I was listening to Pet Sounds the other day.
Shawn:  Eww...I’ve been listening to The Drifter's Greatest Hits.
John: and OK Computer.

XROXX:  How do you feel about where you started off in the music business?
Shawn:  Good, It was pretty sweet that our first show was sold out.
John:  It’s a mixed bag, there’s a lot of advantages with having people know who you are, but then you also have a lot of expectations and reconvicted notions that you have to deal with.  It’s good and bad, just like everything else is in the world.

XROXX:  Why did you decide to tour with Hot Rod Circuit, Say Anything and Northstar?
Shawn:  Well we thought they were great guys but after two weeks of sharing a bus, they just turned out to be complete assholes.  We’ve been friends with Northstar for years.  We liked Say Anything’s records so we decided to get them as well.

XROXX:  Is it different touring with your album, rather then the EP you released on your website?
John:  It’s a lot better.  We were playing like an hour set and everyone in the audience only knew about half the songs we would play.  The response is a bit better when the kids know songs that you’re playing, it’s nice.

XROXX:  What are three of your favorite movies?
Shawn:  Rocky 1, 2, and 3.

XROXX:  That’s a complete cop out…
Shawn:  Okay but Rocky one was pretty bad ass.  Umm, I would have to say Rocky one, Rambo, and the Karate Kid.  No!  I think I’ll take out the Karate Kid and add Little Shop of Horrors.
John:  I’m gonna have to say Royal Tennumbaums, Pulp Fiction, and Trainspotting.

XROXX:  What’s like to tour with these three bands?
Shawn:  Great.
John:  Yeah, pretty good.
Shawn:  It got really bad when Jay Russell from HRC erased all my pictures from my phone.
John:  Him and Hot Rod Circuit are having a lot of problems—
Shawn:  I’m just a diva, I blame myself.
John:  Other than that, all the guys in the bands are really awesome fellas, and we really enjoy their company.  We couldn’t have a better tour.

XROXX:  What do you guys like to do on your downtime?
Shawn:  Watch movies, we like to watch DVD's.
John:  We play video games, there’s been a lot of Tiger Woods Golf going on…
Shawn:  I like to laugh, we like to walk around town, yesterday we saw this big bean you can see the whole city in it.  Then we slid down that one bridge, we got a video of Will doing it.

XROXX:  Why’d you guys decide to sign to Victory Records?
Shawn:  Well, what happened was John and I still had a contract with Victory Records but Michele and Will didn’t.  We found that they did a really good job with that old band that John and I were in.

I had a great time interviewing Shawn and John, thanks to everyone at Victory Records for setting everything up.

Austin James
austin.james@XROXX.com