Taking Back Sunday

Taking Back Sunday is an American emo and rock group from Rockville Centre, United States, active from 1999 to the present. The band forms in Amityville, New York, in November 1999, and its early line-up develops around guitarist Eddie Reyes, guitarist Jesse Lacey, vocalist Antonio Longo and drummer Steven DeJoseph. The group is later associated with Long Island, New York, and records for labels including Iwillendyouinc, Victory Records, Warner Bros. Records, Hopeless Records and Fantasy Records.

Formation and early line-up

Eddie Reyes, who has previously played in The Movielife, Mind Over Matter and Inside, and Jesse Lacey of the Rookie Lot, found the band. Lacey later moves from guitar to bass when John Nolan joins on guitar. Adam Lazzara joins after Nolan contacts him to fill in on bass, which leads to Lazzara moving from North Carolina to New York. Steven DeJoseph leaves early in the band’s run, and Mark O’Connell joins after hearing about the vacant drummer position. After the self-titled EP is recorded, Longo leaves and later plays with The Prizefighter and the Mirror.

First releases and breakthrough

In December 2000, Lazzara changes from bass to lead vocals, becoming the band’s frontman. Shaun Cooper of Breaking Pangaea joins on bass after O’Connell suggests the band needs a bassist. A five-track demo follows in February 2001, before the group tours for a year. Their debut album, Tell All Your Friends, is preceded by the video for “Great Romances of the 20th Century” and then released in March 2002. Around this period, Nolan and Cooper leave after touring pressures and later form Straylight Run with Nolan’s sister Michelle and drummer Will Noon. Taking Back Sunday then add Fred Mascherino on guitar and vocals and Matt Rubano on bass.

Commercial success in the mid-2000s

The second album, Where You Want To Be, arrives in 2004 on Victory Records. It includes “A Decade Under the Influence” and becomes a major commercial success, debuting at number three on the Billboard 200 and selling more than 600,000 copies by June 2005. Rolling Stone includes it among the year’s top fifty records. During this era, the band uses internet promotion, a label sampler and a large street team to build interest, and it tours extensively in support of the record. The band also appears on late-night television and contributes songs to film soundtracks, including “This Photograph Is Proof (I Know You Know)” for Spider-Man 2, “Your Own Disaster” for Elektra, and “Error: Operator” for the Fantastic Four video-game adaptation and soundtrack.

Major-label period and lineup changes

Taking Back Sunday signs with Warner Bros. Records in 2005 and records Louder Now with producer Eric Valentine. Released in 2006, the album reflects a more direct live sound and brings further mainstream exposure through appearances on television programmes such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Degrassi: The Next Generation. A documentary, Louder Now: Part One, follows in 2006, and a live DVD, Louder Now: Part Two, appears in 2007. The band also plays Live Earth and joins Linkin Park’s Projekt Revolution tour with My Chemical Romance and HIM.

Mascherino leaves in 2007 and is replaced by Matthew Fazzi, who adds guitar and backing vocals. The band’s 2008 single “Capital M-E” references his departure. In 2008, the group begins unveiling material from New Again, and the album is released in 2009. During this period the band issues free downloads, streams songs through MySpace, and releases the live album Live from Bamboozle '09. Rubano and Fazzi leave in 2010, and Nolan and Cooper return. The original line-up later records the self-titled album Taking Back Sunday, released in 2011, with singles including “Faith (When I Let You Down)”, “This Is All Now” and “You Got Me”.

Later albums and recent work

The band begins work on a sixth studio album in 2013 and releases Happiness Is in 2014 through Hopeless Records, with “Flicker, Fade” among its tracks. Tidal Wave follows in 2016, and the material for it is written between tours for Happiness Is. Reyes leaves the band in 2018 after a long association with the group. The compilation album Twenty appears in 2019 to mark the band’s 20th anniversary, gathering songs from earlier releases and adding two new tracks. The band later releases a cover of Weezer’s “My Name Is Jonas” in 2021. In 2023, it releases “The One” as the lead single from 152, which arrives through Fantasy Records and marks its first full-length album in seven years.

Membership

The band’s members across its history include Jesse Lacey, Eddie Reyes, Steven DeJoseph, Antonio Longo, John Nolan, Adam Lazzara, Shaun Cooper, Mark O’Connell, Fred Mascherino, Matthew Rubano and Matthew Fazzi.