I’m very excited to be releasing the PropertyOfZack interview with Jason Lancaster of Go Radio. In the interview Jason and I discuss Go Radio’s latest EP, Do Overs And Second Chances, the band’s plans for touring, and Mayday Parade, enjoy!

So, for the record, could you please state your name and role in Go Radio?
I’m Jason Lancaster, I do lead guitar and vocals for Go Radio.

You guys put out a small EP in 2008, but Do Overs And Second Chances will be your first release on Fearless, how do you think it will be received?
I’m hoping that it’s going to be a good one. We put a lot of time and a lot of heart and effort in general into this release. So far it’s had really good reviews and it’s doing well on iTunes and Pure Volume. It leaked a couple of weeks ago I guess, so just having lots of people sing along at shows at places we haven’t been has been good. I think it’s going over pretty well actually.

What was the writing process like for the Do Overs? Was it a quick process?
Nothing that we do is never really quick. I probably wrote a total of 20 or 30 songs total for that record, just over the last probably year, year and a half since we started thinking about doing another one. Yeah, just kind of writing and narrowing down and going “This song is good, but this song is better.” The writing process really didn’t stop until the EP was done. So it was definitely a longer process for sure.

How did working with Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount go production wise? They worked on A Less In Romantics with you a few years back.
Kenneth and Zack have always been really great people. We did A Lesson In Romantics with them, like you just said. I did that record with them before and kind of had a history and more of a friendship built up. We stayed in contact throughout the beginning of Go Radio and things like that. We tried to make sure that we stayed friends just cause those were awesome dudes. When we actually got into the studio they had great work ethic and great ideas, and it was a lot more like practice than actually recording a record. It was more like, “Hey, I’m going to bounce this idea off you, you tell me what you think.” It was really just running a bunch of ideas around and the end result we were happy with. They were really, really fun to work with.  Great experience all around for sure.

You were obviously on Fearless Records before with Mayday Parade, but was it an easy decision signing back with the label?
Absolutely. You hear always talk about destiny and stuff, but I really honestly think that Fearless was always the label for Go Radio, just because I did have that relationship with them and their staff before. They really, really go as far as you can possibly go to try and get the artist out there and they all believe really strongly in what they do. They all work incredibly hard. They’re the kind of label that don’t sign a band unless they enjoy the band. So, if someone if the office says, “Hey, I don’t like this band,” then they’re not going to pick them up. It’s a really, really close knit family in there, and I think that’s really the kind of label that Go Radio needed to begin with. Obviously, we had to take some time to develop ourselves and weigh out our options and everything, but I really do believe that it was always Fearless that we were supposed to be on. They’re too good to the bands on the roster, and they’re too good to each other, and to everybody as an individual not to be.

What song are you most proud of on the EP?
Probably “Goodnight Moon,” hands down.
POZ: It’s obviously a children’s book, but where did the idea of turning that into a song come from?
Jason: Really, I was sitting around one day and just trying to think about happier stuff. I’d been writing a lot of really sad stuff. I had a lot of things going on in my life that were just overall negatives. I was tired of it. I was wanting to not write sad ballads anymore, I didn’t want to write songs that we’re going to remember when their grandma passed or remember when their long term girlfriend left them, or something like that. That song really just kind of encompasses childhood in a lot of ways. The feelings and the emotion, it’s all about staying up late and having a good time and really trying to appreciate everything you have around you. Just the overall emotion on that song, it’s really simple in it’s structure and lyrical content. It’s just a great song for me to go, “Okay, everything sucks right now, but everything’s gonna be okay.” Or, “Remember when things were better than they are now.” That song was really just like an effort to make something happy and make something that wasn’t so depressing.

Can you tell us a little about “Thanks For Nothing”? Would it surprise you if people automatically jumped to conclusions about it representing your departure from Mayday?
“Thanks For Nothing” is a kind of like a slap-back song. I had a friend of mine, an old friend of mine, do some stuff that he probably shouldn’t have done with a girl that he probably shouldn’t have done it with. I found out at a really inopportune time I guess and we had words and a scuffle and I went back to the studio. Our management keeps a space where we can write and record, it’s just a really great tool. I went over and confronted him, it had to have been at about 6 o’clock in the morning or so and I got back to the studio after everything happened because that’s where I was staying at the time when we were writing. We were home from a tour for a little bit, it was like the day before I left to go out again. So I just went back and wrote. It started out as a piano song. It was really slow, really simple. I don’t know, I did that, then brought it to management and the band and everyone was like, “Wow, this is really great.” We started experimenting with the way we could play it, but that song is one of the more tragic songs on the EP. I think a lot of people probably think it’s about the Mayday think, but it really has nothing to do with it. [Laughs]
POZ: [Laughs]. Just a few people think that.
Jason: It really has absolutely nothing to do with those guys. I love all of those guys to death. They’re really good people and it sucks that things didn’t work out and we aren’t in the same places all the time, but the fact remains, they are still our friends. We had some disagreements, but they’ve all definitely been worked through. I’ve got nothing but the best for those guys.

Go Radio just started on the Toursick tour with A Day To Remember. How are the shows treating you so far?
These shows have been phenomenal. Tonight in Minneapolis was our second show on this tour. Last night we were in Chicago, tonight we were in Minneapolis and both of those shows the kids were so open. We had some reserves about the level of just hardcore on this tour. All of these bands are incredible but they are significantly harder than anything that we do. But it’s been great. There’s always gonna be that one kid in the crowd that’s gonna want to make fun of the pop band, but for the most part we continue to outdo our previous records in merch every night. We make a bunch of new fans everywhere that we go. I don’t think that there could have been a better tour for us right now.
POZ: Are these some of the bigger venues you guys have ever played?
Jason: Yeah, we did a tour a while ago with Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and we were in things like the Norva and Hard Rock, but these venues are definitely up there if not surpassing them.

The tour ends in mid-May; can we be sure to expect an announcement about new touring plans for the summer?
Hopefully. We’re all really excited to keep the ball rolling here. It took us a long time to get moving like we are now and we all really want to keep rolling. We all love tour, we love being out, we love seeing new places and meeting new people. With luck there will be something immediately after this tour in a week or two after and we can just pick it up and keep going. So hopefully before this tour is over then we’ll have announcements for another place to go.

Do Overs And Second Chances is 7 tracks, which is long for an EP, but is there any time in mind for heading into the studio to record a full-length?
Yeah, it’s being thrown around now as far as timing and scheduling and when would be an appropriate time and place to do it. We definitely at least within this next year, it would be great to put a full-length out and start touring off that. Let people kind of have a little bit more to listen to and have a little bit more time to get what we’re about and what we have to say.

By next year this time do you have any goal in mind for Go Radio or just to keep touring and keep a steady pace?
Yeah, I guess the goal is always to grow. The goal is always to make new fans and make new friends along the way. I’d love to be doing larger tours and not opening for bands in the next year. That’d be awesome. I’m not gonna be bummed if it doesn’t happen just because we’re all out here having a great time, but we’re gonna be working as hard as we can and the way we look at it is, if we keep working and have Fearless on our side, and they’re gonna keep working, then only the best outcome can happen.

Thank you so much for your time, anything else you’d like to add?
No, I think you pretty much summed it up. I definitely appreciate it.