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Interview by: Abigail Virginia
Y’all claim to be the happiest band on earth. Who is to blame for this? What makes y’all so happy?
Ed: Sean is very happy. Sean is the happiest member of the happiest band on earth. I think just once we all get together, the general attitude is always happy. We are all very good friends. Someone actually called us that though we didn’t originally label ourselves as the happiest band on earth which I think is an important distinction.
We’ve heard 2023 is the year for the 502s and y’all started it off by releasing y’all’s EP “Stories to Tell!” What story are you going to tell this year?
Sean: A lot
Ed: I think the idea is that the band is about 5 or 6 years old at this point. So we’ve been traveling, touring, growing both inside the group and with the shows and everything. We were just like, "Oh man, this feels like a lot of chapters of our stories." We’re gonna tell them throughout the entirety of our career. We don’t want it to be just "here’s one album" and we retire. So that was kind of the idea. I think we came up with that when we were traveling in Europe. We were like this feels like a cool chapter of our story.
Are y’all starting y’all’s tour here at the Hangout?
Matt: We went on that 6-week tour of the entire United States this year. So that was like a great start to the year of the 502s. So yeah, this is kinda picking it back up at Hangout, Bottle Rock, like all over, but ready to do it again.
What is yall’s favorite song on the EP?
Sean: They are all really good. They all have their own story to tell so it depends on what mood you’re in but something I identify with is "Backstage in Glasgow." It’s just a really hype song. It really changes your mood from any mood to a better mood and it’s a lot of fun to play the crowd really loves playing it too so it’s always just a good time.
Ed: It feels like maybe you picked that one because there’s a drum solo in it.
Sean: What's funny is the lyrics follow what Ed and his wife go through and find love in different corners and I really loved that and how you incorporate that in the songwriting.
Ed: Nice, that was a nice pivot
Do y’all do all of the songwriting together or is someone primarily writing?
Ed: Yeah, we do it all together. Ideas come in then we flush them all out. "Stories to Tell” is a good example. It's 5 minutes long and we all sing a verse on it. It all just kind of came together organically.
“Friday Night” is one of my favorites. The first line says “Not gonna waste another Friday Night." So it’s Friday night at the Hangout, so where are we hanging out?
Sean: We are hanging out at the Hangout Fest.
Ed: Probably in the hot tubs!
We know you guys have a busy day, so thank y'all for your time and have fun this weekend!
502s: Thank you!