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STRAYLIGHT
RUN :: LONG
ISLAND EXISTENTIALISM
Story
By Ryan Brosmer
When John Nolan and Shaun Cooper took their leave
from Taking Back Sunday at the peak of their debut album’s
success, some people might have thought they were giving up on a dream.
The way they see it, the dream was just beginning.
The dream that was born out of their parting ways
is Straylight Run. The band is made up of multi-instrumentalist and
vocalist Nolan, former Breaking Pangaea drummer Will Noon,
Nolan’s younger sister Michelle on piano and vocals, and
Cooper on bass guitar.
Straylight Run is Michelle Nolan’s first band, but after her
brother had worked with her on her songwriting the band recognized the
integral part she could bring to their songwriting. “We saw a
lot of potential in her,” explains Cooper, “she was
just a natural fit.”
As for drummer Noon, he and Cooper have a bit of
history. “Will and I played in a band when I was 12 and he
was 13. It was pretty terrible.”
When the band saw that in order to grow they
needed to get a permanent drummer and stop relying on Taking Back
Sunday drummer Mark O’Connell, they went right for Noon,
who’s band had recently broken up.
“We had played with his band, Breaking Pangaea, and we knew
he was an excellent drummer and a cool guy,” says Cooper. So,
with the dissolution of Breaking Pangaea, Straylight Run gained Noon on
drums while Nolan’s place in Taking Back Sunday was filled by
Noon’s former bandmate, Fred Mascherino.
When Straylight Run had its lineup solidified it was time to write a
record, and due to contractual obligations to Victory Records the band
would be one full-length album and an EP away from securing its
freedom. “After we got the EP into stores the label was done
with us and we were done with them. No hard feelings,” says
Cooper. Those two releases on Victory have gone on to enjoy combined
sales of over 200,000.
The band’s EP, Prepare
to Be Wrong, bridges the gap between
the two full-length albums. “‘Hands in the
Sky’ was the first time we had dealt with politics and
war,” says Cooper of that album’s single.
“That basically showed people how far we’d be
willing to go with expanding our sound.” According to Cooper,
the new album is “going to be more existential overtone.
Dealing with the war, dealing with politics, love, death. The future is
going to be change.”
After parting ways with Victory the band began work on an album free of
any constraints. With no label controlling them, and producing the
record themselves, they finally had free reign on their ideas.
“Hey, this is us, for better or worse, we’re not
changing for anyone but ourselves,” explains Cooper on their
mindset while writing their second full-length, The Needles The Space,
which is being released on Universal Republic.
“I feel this band has a more common goal in trying to be as
diverse as we can and explore where we want to go,” explains
Cooper on the differences between writing and recording with Straylight
Run as opposed to Taking Back Sunday. “Every personality when
[Taking Back Sunday] got together was very volatile, and it made for
some good songs, but a hard time getting anything done,” says
Cooper.
 When it comes to Straylight
Run’s song style, especially when
focusing on the lyrics, one word that gets dropped a lot is
“existentialism.” Are the Nolan siblings two of the
great thinkers of our time? Will their music take on a journey to
explore the inner workings of your mind and soul? Cooper seems to
believe so.
“Everything is just so wildly confusing. Why are we here, why
are we alive, when am I going to die? The finality of dying, you
can’t experience anything like it until you’re
dead,” explains Cooper. “It’s like people
say, ‘The only sure things in life are death and
taxes.’ I’m surprised more bands aren’t
talking about it.”
Straylight Run’s songwriting feeds off a rapport between John
and Michelle Nolan. “Both of them have such an ear for
melodies and harmonies. I think they make each other’s songs
a lot better. There’s no Gallagher brothers from Oasis
drama,” he stresses. “It adds the family aspect to
the band, which is definitely comforting.”
The Needles
The Space sees definite growth from the band’s
self-titled debut. The album focuses on heavy topics from life and
death, to religion, to war.
“The war in Iraq just seems so bleak right now… we
have so many men and women dying, and why?” asks Cooper,
“It’s very confusing and I just don’t
understand it… It’s very disheartening when you
don’t have faith in your president.”
Cooper, who was born Catholic, seems just as disheartened and
disillusioned by his religion. “I feel like I’m a
spiritual person, but a lot of ignorant people have screwed up the
beauty of what religion can be. Whether it’s right-wing
fundamentalists or radical Muslims,” he explains.
“Most people are just assholes and looking to strike down
anyone with a different viewpoint than them.”
With all the risks the band has taken it’s clear the pop
experiment known as Straylight Run is in all ways a labor of love.
“All our goals are to just do this as long as we possibly
can,” says Cooper.
“It’s been my dream since I was six years old to
play in a band, when I started getting into Guns
‘n’ Roses,” admits Cooper. “Any
of this could end any day, and we’re all really aware of
that…. The only other option is a bartender or something, or
working for UPS.”
The band is heading out for a stint on the Vans Warped Tour, the first
for all of them and one of the few festival shows they’ve
ever played. “It should be a weird time. I hope
we’ll have fun,” says Cooper. “We might
get shoes thrown at us.”
For more
info, go to: straylightrun.com
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