From Warped Tour parking lots to a three-album odyssey, Mayday Parade’s Derek Sanders reflects on 20 years of screaming, falling, and somehow still flying

Words by Tanita Hingerty | March 24, 2025

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More people could do with admitting that nostalgia hits harder than expected. Take Mayday Parade’s Derek Sanders, for example—a frontman who, two decades into his band’s career, still sounds equal parts grateful and bewildered by the journey. From scrappy Warped Tour hopefuls to scene stalwarts, the Florida quintet has weathered the highs and lows of the music industry with a mix of earnest emotion and anthemic hooks. Now, as they celebrate their 20th anniversary with a sprawling three-part album project and a massive tour, Sanders is taking stock of just how far they’ve come.

So, congratulations on 20 years of Mayday Parade. What would be the biggest highlights and accomplishments so far?

“Oh, gosh. Well, first of all, thank you, I appreciate it. It means a whole lot. And, you know, a whole lot to still be here doing this and, I don’t know, it’s tough to say. The problem is that there’s, like, there’s so many, you know, that it’s hard to, you know, take a handful, I guess.”

He zeroes in on the band’s Vans Warped Tour roots. “But, I think for us, you know, the Warped Tour has meant so much to our band from the very beginning, and I think has a lot to do with the success that we’ve had. You know, starting out following the Warped Tour and selling CDs to people outside whenever we were, you know, a six-month-old band, to kind of working our way up and then playing the main stage for the first time, in, I think 2012. It was the first time that we did the main stage, so, you know, that was just such, an incredible moment, you know, to see how far things had come.”

The gratitude extends beyond the stage. “I don’t know, all of it, like all the touring around the world that we’ve been able to do—every time we go to a new country, I just think of, you know, how lucky I am that this is my job and in my life and, I don’t know, it’s hard to, like, kind of, you know, wrap it all up into something. But, you know, the fact that we’re celebrating the 20 years right now, and, I’ve really spent a lot of time going back and watching early interviews and early sets of the band. And it’s kind of given me this perspective of just, you know, how much we’ve changed and grown and how young we were when we started this and just how amazing it all is.”

Absolutely. That’s incredible. That’s amazing that you can, like, see the growth and everything is awesome. And to celebrate, you are releasing a three-part album. What was the idea behind this and the process? And are all the parts connected and separate? Tell us a bit about this.

“Yeah, for sure,” Sanders nods. “Well, it just kind of felt like, you know, this was the right time to do something more ambitious like this. And it’s something we’ve kind of, you know, toyed with the idea of, you know, releasing music in a, in a different sort of way than just the standard album that we had always been doing.”

He explains how the project evolved organically. “And, so it actually didn’t really—it wasn’t planned from the start. Whenever we went into the studio about this time last year, we were going to record half of an album, essentially, and go in later in the year and record the second half. And, we just kind of started talking about how, you know, this music was going to be coming out in 2025, which is our 20-year anniversary. And, you know, why don’t we try to do something bigger? And, it just kind of came together nicely.”

The structure, he says, allowed for creative freedom. “It also meant that, you know, the body of work that we were recording—those seven or eight songs—instead of kind of mixing that together with the second half, that would just be a collection of work. And, you know, that’s part one. That’s Sweet. I don’t know, it all just kind of felt right.”

Part two is already in the can, and part three looms on the horizon. “But, you know, it’s tough to say. I think on one hand there is kind of a, a seam and a goal towards, you know, making each release, both kind of stand out on their own as well as feel, you know, cohesive part of this whole release. But it’s also just kind of like we come in and we pick the best songs that we have. And so, you know, there’s a little bit of, like, steering the ship towards a goal. But at the end of the day, we don’t lean too heavily into that and just try to record the best songs that we can.”

Nostalgia, he admits, is the undercurrent. “And for me, it seems like nostalgia is kind of the big theme of this release, you know, the music feels nostalgic to me. And, I feel like maybe that’s just inevitable after so many years doing this. And at this point in our band, where I feel like we’re all a bit reflective right now about, you know, all the highs and lows and everything that we’ve been through.”

And Sweet is set for release on the 18th of April, and I’m so excited for fans to hear it. What, in your words, would you say fans can expect from the album, and what is the inspiration behind this?

“Yeah, for sure,” Sanders says, “You know, I feel like it’s been our goal for kind of a while. And hopefully we’ve refined this process, but it’s always been kind of the goal to both, you know, identify, and take what is good about our band. Like, what do we do? Well, you know, identify that. And, kind of, you know, make that the core and then try to build upon that and not to get too comfortable and to feel like we’re always just repeating the same steps and making the exact same kind of music.”

He points to ‘By the Way’ as a perfect example. “So it’s kind of, you know, how can we build upon our core sound? And, to me, I feel like this release does that really well. And, you know, ‘By the Way’, which has been out for a little while, but I think that song’s a great example of something that, you know, both feels like a Mayday Parade song, but also feels like something we’ve never done before to me.”

Then there’s ‘Who’s Laughing Now?’, featuring Knuckle Puck’s Joe Taylor. “And that song is such a cool example to me of, you know, something that we’ve totally never done before. I mean, it’s—we just leaned fully into the, the pop-punk side of, of our band and really embraced that which we had never fully done before, I think. And I think we weren’t even sure if we could do that. And, you know, we tracked that song and I love the way it turned out and it’s like, so cool that, we’re still learning things about our band, like, ‘Oh, we can do this, you know, this far into it.’”

The album, he promises, is a full spectrum. “But, you know, other than that, I think it’s just a pretty well-rounded album. There’s a good amount of energy and intensity and fun, and there’s obviously going to be some sadness in there and some softer, more, you know, mellower sounds and, yeah, we just kind of try to give a little bit of everything we can.”

Do you have a favourite from the album, or do you have a favourite song you’re looking forward to performing live?

“It’s got to be ‘By the Way’ and ‘Who’s Laughing Now?’ Those two, I think, are my favourites,” he says without hesitation. “And, I’m—so we never played either of those live before, and we’ll be doing them on the on the upcoming tour. And I am—like, gives me chills to think about. You know, I’m so excited to play them and see how it goes over live.”

Amazing. Yes, I’m sure everyone can’t wait to see them as well. And the new music video for ‘By the Way’—what was the inspiration behind it? There’s a lot of kind of slow-mo and stuff going on. It’s really beautifully filmed. What was the creative process of this?

“Yeah, well, thank you, I love the way it turned out. So we have a, like, a creative director helping us with this whole project. His name is Benjamin Lieber, and he did, you know, the artwork for all this music that we’re releasing. And then he has done the music videos as well.”

Music videos, he admits, haven’t always been the band’s forte. “So, you know, the music video thing has always been kind of tough for our band. It’s always been a little bit of a struggle. And I feel like it’s something we have a hard time kind of identifying, you know, how much we should be involved in the process and coming up with the ideas versus letting someone else with the vision kind of run with it.”

This time, they handed the reins to Lieber. “And, this one was mostly Benjamin, just kind of, he directed the video. He sent over a treatment that seemed really cool, and we just kind of trusted him to, to go for it. I love all the slow-motion falling shots. And I just feel like it—yeah, matches the vibe and the energy of the song really well.”

The shoot, however, wasn’t exactly comfortable. “It was kind of brutal to film just because I had to fall so many times. And, by the end of the day, I was a little sore for sure. But, but it’s worth it. You know, I think it turned out great.”

Okay, so you really felt it, then. Like, it cut you then. Okay.

“Yeah, there’s like a mattress on the floor, but they just kind of like superimposed it out or whatever. But it was—it was a bunch of takes of falling over and over again. Yeah.”

Yeah, these are the parts people don’t see. Right. Yeah. It sounds fun. And is there a message for the fans who have followed you since the beginning?

“You know, it’s—it’s hard to put into words,” Sanders says. “But, I feel like I always try to be appreciative and grateful, but I think now more than ever, just because of, you know, what we’re all feeling about this 20-year mark and the way we’ve kind of stopped and looked back at all of it in a way that we had never done before. I feel like we just totally feel the love and the support that has carried us through all of this, you know? And, it means so much. And, we’re so excited to still be here doing it. It means everything.”

And do you have a message for your younger self? Say, when you were first starting out, it made a great.

“I don’t know, you know, it’s tough because I feel like there are things that I would say and maybe like advice I would give, but I also feel like, you know, we learned the lessons that we’ve learned by going through the experiences, you know, and, so it’s kind of tough.”

Still, he lands on a guiding principle. “But I think the, the overall message would be, just, you know, this band, you know, this project started because the group of us, you know, had this vision and this idea, and we always have to be in charge of that, I guess. Like, you know, there are points along the way where you feel like, ‘Oh, you know, now we’re on this label or like this, these guys, they got it. Like, they know what they’re doing.’”

He laughs. “But like, to really be the most fulfilled with it and happy with it, you have to kind of—you got to steer the ship. You got to be the one, you know, in charge of all that. And, but again, I feel like we really learned that by going through it. So it’s, it’s hard to know what I would say, but… yeah.”

Yeah, absolutely. Tough question. Tell us about your upcoming tour and festival season. Any kind of future plans for Mayday Parade?

“Yeah, for sure,” Sanders says, shifting gears. “It’s going to be a very busy year. You know, we have the release coming out soon, and then, like, a week after, we hit the road with Microwave and Grayscale and Like Roses. They’re all such good bands. I just—I love the lineup of this tour. It’s a long tour. It’s a big tour. It’ll be the biggest tour we’ve ever headlined.”

The band has poured everything into the production. “We have put so much time and energy and love into building this set. And it’ll be, you know, the biggest production we’ve ever done. And, I’m really excited. I’m anxious and excited about it. It’s, you know, I’m just kind of nervous because it’s so, you know, really, it’s like we’ve put so much into it. And I just want it to be, you know, good and unique and kind of stand out from what we’ve done before.”

Beyond the U.S. run, there’s Australia, Southeast Asia, and more. “And then we have a lot more—we’ll be in the studio later this year. We’ll be doing Australia with Jack’s Mannequin and The Home Team, also just incredible bands. And more touring in the fall that hasn’t been announced yet. So I can’t, you know, speak too much on it, but, yeah, it’s going to be a busy year.”

Part two of the album is also on the way. “Obviously, we don’t know the exact plan for part two, but that’ll be coming out this year as well. So a lot of—a lot of things happening for sure, but it’s, you know, it’s like—it’s good. I mean, it can be tough, especially being gone as much as we are going to be this year with, you know, family and kids and stuff, but, you know, we appreciate that we’re busy right now. It’s it’s a good thing. And, and, yeah, it’s going to be a wild year.”

It sounds insane. It’s so exciting. I mean, is there anything else that you’d like to add?

“I don’t think so, just, you know, thanks to everybody for the love and support and, we’re very grateful to still be here in our 20th year—or 21st year. Yeah.”

Sweet releases independently on April 18th, and you can listen to it below:

Watch the full interview with Derek below: