PropertyOfZack was lucky enough to stand on the streets of New York City with Josh from The Wonder Years as the band finished up their tour with Streetlight Manifesto. In the interview Josh and I discuss their tour with Streetlight as well as Four Year Strong in Europe, the rerelease of The Upsides, as well as future plans for an album. Check out the interview and support the band!

For the record, could you state your name and role in The Wonder Years?
My name is Josh and I play bass in The Wonder Years.

Tonight is your last show on the Streetlight Manifesto tour. How has the tour been?
The tours been great. It’s been a really good time to play with them and Dan and some of the other guys on the tour. I remember getting Streetlight records when I was in high school. It’s been really cool to just share the stage. They’ve been super nice to us. Just nice guys all around. It’s been a lot of fun.

How is it on stage having back Mike Kennedy and then having Nick on your stage right?
It’s cool. It’s different. We used to be a six piece and then we dropped down to a five and now we’re back at a six, so physically it’s different because there are more people on the stage, but it’s just more people and more fun. We’re all happy with the way it’s working out. We’re excited to do more stuff as a six piece.

Five months ago you played in Manhattan as well in a much smaller venue at Webster Hall than here at Highline. What exactly does it feel like to so quickly be escalating in fans and venue sizes?
The venue size doesn’t have so much to do with us as it does with Streetlight, but it’s very cool to play bigger rooms like the Soma in San Diego or the Metro in Chicago. These venues that kids like us grew up going to seeing bands at has been a privilege to see the other side of it. A lot of us still go to shows at the TLA or the Starland Ballroom in Philly, so it’s cool to play those venues and see the other side.

In a few weeks The Wonder Years will be opening up for New Found Glory. That just has to be one of your biggest dreams.
Yeah, when we found out we got it I didn’t really know how to act or know what to do. It’s been a rush just knowing that it’s coming up. We met them through mutual friends at the Slam Dunk Festival that we did in England and they were super nice to us and excited to do the tour. It’s gonna be really cool, it’s some smaller rooms. I’ve been really looking forward to it. Like you said, it’s just one of those things that when you start a band you’re like, “Oh, I want to play with New Found Glory” and you finally get to hang out and then you sound like a superfan when it’s in print. But it’s still really cool and I’m excited to do it.

So did those dates come together through Slam Dunk or?
No, I don’t really know how they came together, they’re on the Honda Civic Tour and wanted to do some sideshow dates and I guess we had the privilege of being asked or being submitted for it and have the privilege to do it. So I’m just really excited.

In early September the band will be heading down to Australia to headline a tour with House Of Heroes and a few other bands. Are you stoked to headline down there?
Yeah, I’m really excited to go to Australia. The first couple times we went to the UK we headlined a trip so I’m looking forward to going to Australia and to headline and to have a good time and to see a bunch of new stuff. One of the best parts about being in a touring band is getting to see other things and see cool stuff, like playing with Koalas and shit. You get to enjoy the scenery and get to play shows too and hangout with who I’m sure will be very cool people, so I’m super excited for it.

Just a few months ago it was announced that The Wonder Years were signing to Hopeless Records. How has the relationship been so far and are you guys also still a part of No Sleep or what?
Hopeless is rereleasing The Upsides on September 21^st, but we’re no longer under contract with No Sleep. Just signed to Hopeless, but still have a very good relationship with Chris at No Sleep and the relationship with Hopeless is awesome. They have a small roster of bands, only seven or eight super active bands, so it’s cool to be part of a smaller family and still get a lot of attention. It’s going well. I’m really excited for the rerelease to come out. I hope it can blossom into a great thing for us and them.

Everything was looking way up until you guys ran into some issues coming home from Europe after being on tour with Four Year Strong and then some van issue. Then there was the unfortunate death of your two fans coming to a show. Those were just a bad few weeks. What was dealing with that like?
It’s kind of two separate things. We missed our flight home from Europe. We didn’t have GPS and we got lost and that sucks. That kind of stuff happens when you take a risk internationally touring. The van thing is bad luck, but the death of just two younger people was really kind of just upsetting and we’re glad that we could help with whatever we could do. The vans and that other stuff is just part of what you do when you’re in a touring band. A lot of bands go through it. It kind of just stacked up for us. We’re young men and we have the best job ever so we can get through it and try to make a little money back with merch and shows and try to do our best and pay down the debt, but it’s just debt, it’ll go away eventually, we’ll take care of it.

How were the Slam Dunk Festival and the mainland Europe shows with Four Year Strong?
Slam Dunk was awesome. There were so many cool bands there. Met a lot of nice guys and a lot of different bands. Slam Dunk was awesome. There were some problems, but there’s bound to be problems with a bigger festival and I’m sure it’ll be hammered out and it’s gonna be even more awesome next year. Hopefully we play it, that would be cool. I had a really good time. Then the Enemy Of Europe Tour with Four Year and Fireworks was awesome. Just great dudes. The Four Year guys were really nice and we had met Fireworks before doing tours with them. It was our first adventure into mainland Europe, which was really cool playing Germany and France and especially with two great bands with great dudes. It was fun to run around mainland Europe with a bunch of stupid punk rock kids.

There have been rumors that you most likely cannot confirm or deny that a stateside fall tour with Four Year Strong…
There are a lot of rumors.
POZ: Can I get a head nod or a headshake?
Josh: I cannot give you one. We will be announcing a tour for the fall in the next few days, so yes. All the rumors are there. We will announce our plans very, very soon.

The Upsides rerelease will be hitting the world on September 21^st. Was it fun getting back into the studio for a small amount of time?
It was fun to get into the studio and try to do some things and write as a six piece in the first time in a long time. With the rerelease tracks we tried to do some different, truly bonus material type stuff. There’s a lot of cool things. There’s two reworked versions of songs on The Upsides and then two completely new songs. But with the reworked version of “Logan Circle” I think we tried to do something really different than you would expect to see on a rerelease from a pop-punk band. I’m excited for everyone to hear that. I’m also really excited for everybody to hear the brand new full-band song with a six piece and to show you that we can write as a six piece and that you don’t need to be afraid that it’s gonna suck. So hopefully people like it.

Will that follow in the same vein as The Upsides kind of sound?
Yeah, you’re always going to be, as a band, we try to not stay still or be stagnant and try to keep pushing forward. But if you’re gonna ask if it’s more like Get Stoked On It! or more like The Upsides it’s absolutely gonna be more like The Upsides. We’re just trying to keep developing our songs as we get older and have new experiences.

Will Six Dudes From The Keystone State will hopefully be released come the New Year?
I think early 2011 is the plan. I’m not sure exactly when, but it’ll be a completely remixed and remastered Get Stoked On It!, remastered Won’t Be Pathetic, remastered Distances, our tracks anyway, and a couple other bonus things. There’s “Christmas At 22” redone. Also a song that never got finished for The Upsides that nobody’s ever heard. We haven’t heard it yet because we haven’t finished it. So that’ll also be on there. It’ll be a cool compilation of things and to get Won’t Be Pathetic and Distances and “Christmas At 22” together on one disc.

When did that idea come into fruition?
Just from us and Chris at No Sleep working together because Won’t Be Pathetic is out of print and Distances is out of print, so just to give people the opportunity to buy that and get it if they want it with cool artwork.

Have you guys heard the remastered version of Get Stoked On It!?
Yeah, I think it sounds awesome. I’m really excited for people to hear it. Sonically it’s way more impressive than the original just because we recorded and mixed that and got it mastered in between two weeks and three weeks and that’s not a really long time to do that at all. It was our first record and we weren’t as sure as what we were doing as a band and stuff like that, so I think it sounds way better, not to knock anybody who worked on it the first time, but we had more time to get the sounds right this time around.

Lyrically for Soupy on The Upsides was obviously extremely personal about everything. Since you guys are obviously at a really great point as a band will the next album still have that realist side?
I think it’s going to be realistic. He’s working super hard on honing his lyrics. His goal is to just have a giant book of lyrics and just to work them out. I imagine they’ll be in a similar vein just because stuff still goes wrong. You still have fights with your parents or fights with loved ones. When you’re touring, even though it’s super fun, it can strain your personal relationships and strain some other stuff on you. I’m not trying to like complain, but I’m really looking forward to what he’s writing also because he’s a big part of the writing process with his lyrics. I expect big things from him lyrically.

When do you guys want to get into the studio?
Hopefully we’ll be in the studio in winterish is what we’re shooting for. Who knows with the scheduling and timing and all that, but hopefully winterish I believe.

Will we be hearing synth on the record like on Get Stoked On It!?
No. The piano that we’re using now isn’t so much synth as it is kind of piano based. You’ll get a better idea of where we’re going from the songs on the rerelease. I think you’ll get a taste of what’s going to happen. I think it’s a cool thing to use to fill out the sound and adding different melodies. You can do a lot of different things with keyboard that you might not be able to do on guitar.

So would you guys like to have an album out by fall the latest or?
Hopefully we’ll have one out in 2011. I don’t think that’s a ridiculous thing to shoot for. I’m super excited to start writing and try to make another record.

Thank you so much for your time, is there anything else you’d like to add?
Yeah, actually. Soupy started doing it when he did a lot of the interviews, but we end every interview with two main goals as a band. One is to meet Mark Hoppus, obviously is goal number one. So if anybody knows him put in a phone call, we’re trying to hang out. He doesn’t even have to be friends with us. We just want to say what’s up an give him a high five. Goal number two is to be placed on the notable persons pages from our high school’s Wikipedia pages. We came up with it the other day because Soupy and Nick and Matt all graduated together, but me and Kennedy and Casey did not. Totally let down. But thanks for the interview, I hope to see everybody at our tour in the fall our tour with New Found and thanks a lot.