Jake from Morning in May got in touch recently to tell us about their new release. But we’re nosey so we wanted to find out more about the whole band…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We are from Cleveland, Ohio! Zack my bassist/backing vocals and Mike my guitarist are from the Youngstown/Austintown, Ohio area.
How did you meet?
We met playing in bands. I started Morning In May back in 2010. Zack and Mike were previously in the metal band Alteras (Revival Records). Life happened. Their singer kind of dropped off and they came over to the Morning In May team. We’ve been good friends for years and we’ve been all over the country together so it just kind of slipped into place.
How long have you been playing as a band?
The guys recently just joined. We had a lineup change. As fate would have it. My crew just wasn’t feeling it, with covid, uncertainty they just dropped off as well.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
The band name actually comes from the band LUDO. They have an EP that came out in 2003, called The Broken Bride EP. It’s a conceptual piece that centers around the main character losing his wife. He attains a time machine and tries to get back to “That Morning In May” that she dies in a car accident. The main character goes back and forth between apocalyptic times then dinosaur times, zombies and all of this theatric cool stuff im into. At the end of the EP he ends up just getting in the car with her and they both die. It really resonated with me, and stuck with my 15 year old self.
What are your influences?
Zack’s a big fan of Underoath, Mike likes bands like “Thursday”. We have a little bit of an Ice Nine Kills factor. I tend to draw inspiration from Marianas Trench, All Time Low, Fall out Boy, Slipknot, Motionless in White, and The Used.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Our music is a little unique. We don’t so much tell our audience that “it’s going to get better”, but more so how to navigate yourself with the bad times, how to “use the hate/sad/etc.” to push yourself forward. We’re thematic and energetic. We just kind of like being wrapped up in the psychosis of it all. Like that part when you get your second wind in life. But it’s driven by all these bad emotions that you start really accepting yourself and start doing something about it. We want to say the things people want to do or think.
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Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Our lyric themes are very cinematic. Like if you read a thesaurus/ Shakespeare, sat at an asylum. And were a really angry 13 year old. Then wrote some songs. There’s a lot of “other” sounds in our songs than just vocals, like voices, chattering, chanting, screams, and breaths. whatever gives it that edge. I like a lot of metaphors, and figures of speech to really hit home with relatable tragedies.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We’re super energetic and everywhere. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve busted my body open or broken a stage performing. Not on purpose. You just go hard and by the end of the set everything hurts and there’s a dead guy laying there. I’ve chipped teeth, smashed hands, I had to go to the hospital a couple times, I smashed my nose to the point of fracture. Black eyes, blood all over… the whole deal.
Mike and Zack are just monsters. No part of the stage goes untouched. Above and below. There’s rafter swinging, amp jumps, and we go out into the crowd. Morning In May has played a couple hundred shows and Mike/Zack have as well, so that many!
Offstage we want to talk to everyone in the room. We want to get their story. We want to know what makes you happy/sad. We want to know where you’re from and what your dream is. We get to shows early and leave last making sure if there’s one person we can bring some light to we do. Cheesy, but that’s why we do it!
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
That’s super hard! We’ve played for some truly amazing bands we’ve grown up listening to like Hawthorne Heights, August Burns Red, Alesana, Saliva, Ice Nine Kills and a lot more. I have my stories for all of these guys. There’s homeless people gone wrong, mosh pits gone wrong. We met Joey Jordison (ex-Slipknot) at a Guitar Center in Des Moines, Iowa which was pretty nuts. We talked to him for hours and really just hung out. There’s a bunch!
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
We use and endorse Orange Amplifiers, Dean Guitars, GHS strings, Ernie Ball Strings, Seymour Duncan Pickups, Sennheiser Microphones.
We use Spirit Airlines as we are part of their Music4miles program. So we endorse them as well and they generously fly us to wherever we want to go and take care of us pretty well (not an instrument, but they are very very good to us!)
We use but do not officially endorse Gibson Guitars and DW drums.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
Right now we are plugging our new single “Orpheus In Retrospect Feat. Craig Mabbitt”. We got to work with someone we grew up listening to on this track. This is one installment of our conceptual album to come. Centered around the story of Orpheus and Eurydices, a Greek tragedy you should totally check out! The story’s way too long to type.
This song is the leading single and really means a lot to us. It’s the single that made us “know what and how we’re supposed to do this” now independent.
What are your plans for the next 6 months or so?
Getting ready for tours, the album release, getting things in order for when the world goes back to normal. A few singles and the album. Festivals, more writing, all that stuff.
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If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
A band I think we would absolutely love to open for would be The Used. They would give us that fulfilled feeling. Like we achieved something we’ve worked extremely hard for. As an artist you are always fighting for those “what’s this all for” moments. Things you do that make it all make sense. Playing with the Used would be nostalgic cool and we could learn a thing or two.
First on the bill… I’m not too particular. Just a band that worked super hard, are a good group of people and mean the best. We have a lot of friends’ bands that fit that category and it’s hard to pick just one.
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