This interview was conducted the day after Rival Schools new record, Pedals, came out. We discussed the 10 years of lag time in between records, what it’s like playing together again after such a long time and the release show here in NYC. Enjoy it!

OOPM: Being that you guys have so much history as a band, even before Rival School, has it been easy after so much time to be able to come back together and feel like a band again?

Walter: It gets easier all the time, when we first got to playing again together we did a tour in 2008 and we kind of played around in Europe, we played the United States as well and that was really the first thing of seeing what it felt like to play together and play those old songs and get a sense of where we left off. With the album out now you know, we played last night in New York, it was a big show, sold out, all our friends were there and it just felt really great, and this tour we just did in the states was just excellent. So now I feel that much more solid. The cool thing about a band is that it’s always evolving, or I want this one to be that way.

OOPM: How did the reunion shows back in 2008 and 2009 come about?

Walter: We essentially broke up the band, but we didn’t so much say that we broke up the band, we wanted to leave it open to sort of do something in the future. I guess you call it a hiatus is what people call it, but we weren’t really sure that we’d ever do it again. So, over the years we’d get together every so often to try to write songs and see how it was going and it just got to where in 2008 Sam called me and was like, “hey dude, if we’re gonna ever do this it’s gotta be now, it’s been 10 years.” Doing the tour and getting out and playing was always with the intention of making an album to follow up United by Fate. As great as that album was to us and as important as it is to us, having not followed it up was kind of like something hanging over our heads, at least for myself anyway.

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