Interview with Dan ‘Soupy’ Campbell (vocals)
How is the tour so far. And how is it to tour and to share the stage with Yellowcard and Saves The Day?
The tour has been hard. Because most of our things are broken. So when we were in England, someone from the venue plugged our amps to the wrong outlet, he connected them to a different frequency, so our keyboard and all the pedals fried, they totally exploded and don´t work anymore. So we had to rent new stuff.
And then yesterday in Germany our tour van broke as well. So the band is broke. We rented a new van. So it´s been a little difficult, we´ve been kind of good, just with minor tragedies but the shows have been really fun. We´ve never been in these places before and there are people who know the words of our songs. Which is really kind of an inspiring experience to see like holy shit, there people they who knew all the words to every song.
It´s a cool thing to share the stage with Yellowcard and Saves The Day. They are so good in what they do. That’s a band, they have it. Just dial them perfectly. If you want to be better, what I do, that’s so good they make you want to rise the occasion.
How the band ‘The Wonder Years’ got created?
We started the band just for fun. We wrote jokes songs.
And then we wrote songs for ourselves. We didn´t think people would hear them. And then people heard them. They wanted us to write more songs. So we decided to write serious songs instead.
Your latest release ‘Suburbia: I’ve given you all and now I’m nothing’ came out a few months ago. What’s the story behind this release? What makes it so characteristical?
It’s a record about finding your place in the world in different aspects 
like kind of physically, geographically and metaphorically – more on an emotional level. It’s a record about coming home. And seeing the place you grew up in with the dull eyes for the first time. You look it, the world one way as you growing up there, you leave that place and you come back and things look a little different. It’s about experiences we lived and then deciding if it’s the place for you were its time to move on.
And where is for you the place?
For us the place is right outside of Philadelphia, called Lansdale Pennsylvania.
What’s your favorite song on the latest release?
I have two favorite songs. One is ‘And now I´m nothing’, which is the last song on the record. I feeling it most complete song we´ve written it with the band. It is a tactically sound.
I love the melody. I love the lyrics. Everything about this song really works. I feel the dynamics are really clain it sounds like a little more quiet, it builds and it falls it builds and it falls. It´s very interesting end on the record, because it ends with two minutes of instrumental. Like I stop singing and then it’s the band jams for two minutes …..
And the other one is ‘I won’t say the Lord’s Prayer’, which is a kind of a slower down tempus song. It’s mainly focus around the guitars and vocals for the first half. I love this song, because it gives an important statement. And it’s an important commentary for me. I’m a religion and about how religion is been viewed my whole life through the Lansdale, the town we grew up, and it’s mostly the song about just kind of not following something because you been told to follow. It’s the song against blind faith. It’s a song about making sure that you believe things, because you actually believe them. Every searchs them and thought about them instead of following in something.
It’s an important statement for us to, we caught some flag for. We have some fans. Which are really serious Christians and they thought we were attacking them.
So I told them, I’m not attacking your faith, I’m attacking the idea that you follow something blind. Faith is fine – blind faith is fail. So that’s what we´re trying to make statements about.
Tell me the secret about your songwriting.
There is no secret. A series of happy accidents, I guess. There is no formula. It’s not like, I write this songs. Casey writes these songs etc. We all come to practice and say ‘Ohhh, I have this idea’ and then we all model the idea in a song together. So, not one person writes the songs. It’s not really could be a secret. It’s a kind of collective collaborative thought. It’s, six brains are working to create something.
Since your last release you’re signed with Hopless Records. What has changed since you´re a member of it?
We have been on some magazine covers. Which I don’t think it wouldn’t happen otherwise.
The biggest thing is, Hopeless Records let us do really anything we want to play.
Hopeless Records like what we do and that’s why they signed us and they let us do what we do. So they dont hear the record until it is finished. They have no input on anything. They didn’t see the hard work until I say here is the finished hard work. They let us do whatever we want to do and they trust us to do it right. And that’s kind of the whole thing.
We’re not 17 year old kids and we know the direction we want in music to go. We know how we want things to precede. They trust us to make sure that happens.
Besides being a professional artist, do you have other jobs?
No, not anymore. We don’t have time. We spend 260 days on tour this year (away from home). 30 of them we were recording. 230 of them we were on tour. 100 days at home and the schedule is not like it’s a straight 100 days, it’s not like a week here a week there. This is the 30th week straight since we’ve not been home. One more week and then we will go home for a couple months. I’m so excited to come home, just spend some time, reading books, sleeping in my bed, not playing every night.
What are you gonna do after this tour? Which project is for you most important in 2012?
Well we know that we have a headline tour in states. We will be coming back to Europe, but I don’t know exactly when. We also come back to Australia. I don’t know exactly when.
We really hope to be in Japan and Brazil. These are two goals that we have.
And this 2012 we gonna write a new record. I don’t know when in the year, could be the summer or the fall. We’re gonna make it sure, that we’ll write a new record this year. We will be releasing some other stuff. A split is coming out. And hope something else.
Which bands are on the split?
it is supposed to be a secret but everybody knows. The band ‘Stay ahead of the weather’. And it’s actually I don´t even know…. It’s Evan from ‘Into it. Over it.’, Nic from ‘Cast Away’, and a couple other people. From ‘Might the mid last’. It’s an incredible band that we really admire their song writing.
Something you would like to add? A shout out
No, I always feel that it is so contrives. You know what I mean. Like ‘Buy the new record’. You don´t need to buy the new record, if you don´t want to. If you do want to I appreciate it. You don´t need to come to our shows, if you don´t want to. If you do want to do, we appreciate it. That’s most important. Be safe, Love your friends, your family. Enjoy your life.
By: Kinga Dula
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