Yellowcard took “a lot of steps” before finding their way to Travis Barker’s studio for their 11th studio album, Better Days.
“It’s really special,”band member Sean Mackin told Us Weekly exclusively ahead of the album’s Friday, October 10 release. “There are so many people that believed in us and asked us to trust them. It led to these Better Days songs, and probably the best chapter of Yellowcard.”
The record is a major step for the Florida-based band, who released (what was supposed to be) their final album back in 2016. The four-piece group — comprised with Mackin along with William Ryan Key, Josh Portman and Ryan Mendez — surprised fans with a reunion in 2022 ahead of Ocean Avenue’s 20th anniversary. Mackin, 46, told Us it was a “wonderful” step to get Yellowcard back together again before recording Better Days.
“We were so lucky to find Travis Barker, because it was totally just the Rock Gods leading us that way. It was totally organic,” Key, 45, told Us, sharing that one of their cowriters mentioned to Barker, 49, that Yellowcard was writing some new music. Barker was quick to express interest in working with the band.
“He just had a way of dissolving, diffusing, clearing the room of that sense of pressure, sense of tension, of uncertainty,” Key continued. “You just get in there and jam. It’s been a long time since we’ve made a record like that, where we sit down and write a whole song, we don’t demo it, we don’t live with it, we don’t overthink it. We just sit in there [with] whatever the energy is that day, whatever the vibe is that steers the direction of the music we’re making.”
Key said it was “awesome” being in a creative space like that because it alleviated any sense of pressure for a comeback.
“We were so relaxed and we just enjoyed it so much,” Key continued. “It’s been a long time since we’ve made a record in that way. You can hear it. I think it just sounds like the most core source material Yellowcard is to people, and we just found it again — with a little help from our friends.”
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Barker also facilitated both collaborations on the record — “Love Letters Lost” featuring Matt Skiba from Alkaline Trio and “You Broke Me Too” featuring Avril Lavigne.
When Key noted that “You Broke Me Too” sounded like “an early 2000s Avril Lavigne monster ballad,” Barker said they should get her on the song.
“[He] sends a text to me that says, ‘Merry Christmas,’ and it’s a board-bounce of the song with Avril singing on it,” Key recalled. Mackin added, “You just don’t think that that concept or that moment would come to life, and you look at each other in disbelief.”
Both Mackin and Key are huge Alkaline Trio fans, so getting Skiba on Better Days was also a huge win. Barker FaceTimed Key with Skiba earlier this year and “Love Letters Lost” was born.
“He was just so gracious and so kind in the way he was talking about the song, and how excited he was to be a part of it,” Key said of Skiba. “It was a really unbelievable thing to process, listening to our music with Matt Skiba singing and Travis Parker playing drums. It’s a lot to get your head around.”
Mackin added, “Big full circle, dreams do come true kind of a thing.”
Better Days is out now.
