YELLOWCARD has announced their signing to EQUAL VISION RECORDS who will release their upcoming EP CHILDHOOD EYES on July 7, 2023, marking the band’s first new material since their self-titled album in 2016. With a new label in hand, CHILDHOOD EYES finds the band not only honing their sound that propelled them through ten studio albums but also forging new territory with a revitalized sound and a renewed sense of excitement.
“I just wanted to let you know how excited we are to be releasing our new EP Childhood Eyes on Equal Vision Records. I still remember in 1999, driving to a little store in Jacksonville Beach where I grew up called CD Connection and purchasing my copy of Saves the Day Through Being Cool. The fact that we’re going to have a record on the same imprint as Saves the Day is so so cool for all of us. Thank you so much to the Equal Vision family for having us and working so hard to make this EP for you all. We’re looking forward to getting on tour this summer as well.” – Ryan Key, Yellowcard
“Equal Vision Records holds great admiration for Yellowcard’s exceptional artistic creativity and profound originality; we are thrilled to be afforded the opportunity to contribute to their success during this exciting new chapter” – Matthew Gordner, Equal Vision
Reuniting in 2022 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their iconic breakthrough album Ocean Avenue at Riot Fest in Chicago (six years since the band called it quits in 2016), Yellowcard felt a creative shift in that reunion and soon found themselves penning new material in Texas.
“When we got to Austin,” says Key, “we sat down and poured some whiskeys and we started talking about what we wanted to do and what we wanted out of it. We knew we were writing an EP which meant we only got five songs, so we had to really make them special. And I think there was an immediate sense of bringing it back to Paper Walls—the idea that we need to make something that we’re proud of, but also something that gets Yellowcard fans excited about what we’re doing. So at that point, we picked up the guitars and started demoing and, honestly, I think these five songs could have just been on that record in 2007. And I love that.”
The five songs that make up Childhood Eyes capture the spirit and essence of Paper Walls —its powerful yet tender anthems, its open-hearted emotional vulnerability, its sense of wide-eyed wonder against the odds—but they’re also riddled with the band’s experiences of the decade and a half since it came out. From the breakneck speed of “Three Minutes More” which features Pierce the Veil to the gorgeously plaintive final track “The Places We’ll Go” which features Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba (“When he comes in on that last chorus and you can really hear that Dashboard ripping grit in his voice, it’s just awesome,” says Key), the EP is a testament of a band re-finding its footing after a number of years apart.
Tinged with hyperactive electronic flourishes, the first single and title track “Childhood Eyes” came to Key in the middle of the night when he woke up with the first lyrics and the melody of the chorus ringing in his head. Working the rest of the song out with the rest of the band, “Childhood Eyes” is imbued with the essence of the EP, tapping into the excitement of a band reborn with the seasoned spark of a band whose chemistry is tight and fluid.
“I’ve always enjoyed writing songs where the verses explore the struggle or the pain of an experience, and the chorus tries to find a way out of it,” says Key. “That’s a pretty classic Yellowcard thing to do. But I’m particularly proud of these lyrics, because they’re 43 year-old Ryan writing, not 23 year-old Ryan writing. Because although we knew we were trying to capture the spirit of Paper Walls, we didn’t want to literally recreate it. So instead I got to write from where I am right now. And that’s kind of the mission statement of this whole thing—I found this again and I’m not going to give up.”
Yellowcard is Ryan Key (vocals, guitar), Sean Mackin (violin), Ryan Mendez (guitar), and Josh Portman (bass). CHILDHOOD EYES will be released via Equal Vision on July 7, 2023digitally and in limited edition vinyl and CD. Yellowcard’s national tour kicks off at Milwaukee’s Summerfest on July 1st.
