attachment-magnolia park 1
[Photo by Jessica Griffith]

Magnolia Park deliver the bittersweet truth with “I should’ve listened to my friends”

Nothing hurts like heartbreak, and Floridan pop-punkers Magnolia Park are delivering some bittersweet truth with their latest single “I should’ve listened to my friends.” The vivacious, head-bopping anthem details the realization that your friends who warned you about dating someone were absolutely right, and it’s come back to bite you.

The music video plays on the whimsical irony of the song, featuring frontman Joshua Roberts being examined in a hospital setting, and then kidnapped. All the while, the rest of the band set out to find and rescue him.

Read more: How The Cobrasnake became one of the first digital archives of the Y2K party scene

Finishing their run supporting Sum 41 and Simple Plan, only to jump onto another massive U.S. tour with the Used and A Day To Remember, we caught up with Magnolia Park to find out more about their new music, what touring with their idols is like and how to heal heartbreak.

Firstly, how is life treating you?

JOSHUA ROBERTS: Life’s been really good! We just finished our tour with Simple Plan and Sum 41. So now we’re about to start our trek back home. But the tour has been amazing. Every band that we play with has opened their arms to us, so it’s been really nice to meet a few of the legends in the scene and play with them.

I wanna jump straight into the single. Could explain in your own words what it’s about?

ROBERTS: When we went into the studio with Nick Long and Andy Seltzer, we came in with just a clean slate. We didn’t know what we were going to write about that day. We just wanted to go in there with a fresh mind and see what we could really do. Nick came up with the idea of a breakup story. Him and Andy Seltzer started working together to create the instrumental, and we had inputs as well. The lyrics are very relatable but also very open-ended at the same time.

The music video shows you in a hospital, and your friends are trying to save you. Can you speak on the importance of friendship, especially being in a band together?

ROBERTS: Oh, it’s very important. We have to make sure that we accommodate everyone’s personalities. It’s a very crucial fact of how Magnolia Park works, is especially why we have to have that friendship, that family, in order to make this work. Because, like you said, we’re always together. We’re always doing something together. So having that friendship, having that family is very important.

The song is about listening to your friends. Who gives the best advice in the band?

ROBERTS: [Laughs.] It’s between Jerry and Freddie [Criales, guitarist].

You have great chemistry. When you’re on tour, is it important for you to have your own space as well as be around each other?

JARED KAY: Some of us are more introverted, some are extroverted. I think we do a great job of understanding each other’s boundaries and letting people do what they need to do. We stay pretty easygoing with each other. We don’t really hate each other at all.

That’s good to hear. You were on tour with Simple Plan and Sum 41, and now you’re going on tour with A Day to Remember and the Used. Have you learned anything while being on tour with these industry legends?

ROBERTS: I went to lunch with Pierre [Bouvier] from Simple Plan. We talked for a while about just being a singer, being a frontman and what the job really entails and how to really navigate through being on tour as a singer. So I’ve learned a lot about how to prepare myself for a lot of the upcoming stuff that we’re doing.

KAY: One thing Jaret [Reddick] from Bowling For Soup said to me that really stuck. He said, “Bands like Simple Plan, Sum 41, all these bands that have great guys, that play great music, that treat their crews and their fanbase well, they’re around because of that. They stick around because of how much love they give to the community.” And he said, “You guys clearly have that as well. So keep at that. Be genuine, be humble, keep giving back to your fans, to yourselves and to your crew, and you guys will stick around 20 years into the future, just like we have.” And that was a hell of a thing to hear from Jaret.

How does it feel to tour with the bands that you listened to in high school?

ROBERTS: Oh, it’s surreal. The fact that now I know them and I can speak to them about stuff, that’s pretty awesome. It’s a pretty good feeling.

I wondered if you could give any advice to the younger version of yourself when you were going through your first heartbreak.

ROBERTS: Write about it. Put it in a song.

KAY: You know, it happens, and it sucks. But you will heal. You’ll come out on top. Just keep doing you. Keep persevering.

ROBERTS: I got the “write about it” thing from Oprah back in the day. I used to watch Oprah with my grandmother, and she was like, “If you ever have anything that you want to say but you can’t really say it, let it out. If you want to give it to that person, do it if you want to throw it away.” So that way, at least that emotion’s out — that feeling, that thought process is out.