Derek Sanders
[Photo by Lupe Bustos]

Derek Sanders announces solo EP with Jimmy Eat World cover

Derek Sanders of Mayday Parade recently announced that he will be releasing a solo record in 2020. The record is a five-song EP titled My Rock and Roll Heart. The EP releases on Valentine’s Day Feb. 14.

The special thing about the record is that it’s all covers of influential bands in Sanders’s youth. The five tracks consist of covers of Jimmy Eat World, Something Corporate, Saves The Day, the Juliana Theory, and local Tallahassee band, Goodbye Love.

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Sanders announced the EP today in a tweet and dropped the first single “A Praise Chorus” by Jimmy Eat World. Listen to the song below.

The cover also features local Tallahassee native Daniel Lancaster of Stages & Stereos. The record is comprised of songs that shaped Derek Sanders’s love of music. Of course, a Valentine’s Day release date and the title My Rock and Roll Heart must have some romantic symbolism, right? Well, it does.

The record spawned from a gift that Sanders gave his wife for Valentine’s Day in 2017. Sanders covered the song “But Lauren” by Goodbye Love. Goodbye Love was an influential band in both Derek and his wife Lauren’s youth and Derek wanted more people to be exposed to such a great song.

“This was before the internet, and Mike[Hanson] never really broke out of Tallahassee,” Sanders says. “It’s such a shame his music never had a chance to do more than it did, and it’s cool that people will be able to hear it through me.”

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Speaking of the record as a whole, Sanders talks about his love for music being based on his youth and the influences he chose for My Rock and Roll Heart. 

“When I started getting into music, I got an acoustic guitar when I was ten years old. I spent all of my time with that guitar, just learning to play and writing my first songs. I’ve been in so many bands since then, and it’s cool to go back to playing acoustic and singing the way it all started,”

“All of the songs on the EP are ones I was listening to at 15 or 16 years old,” he says. “I was like, ‘I gotta do a Saves The Day song, I have to do a Jimmy Eat World song.’ It was very nostalgic.”

Derek Sanders also launched a line of merchandise to coincide with My Rock and Roll Heart. Check it out below.

My Rock and Roll Heart Tracklist

1. “But Lauren” (Goodbye Love)
2. “Rocks Tonic Juice Magic” (Saves the Day)
3. “A Praise Chorus” (Jimmy Eat World)
4. “Punk Rock Princess” (Something Corporate)
5. “August In Bethany” (The Juliana Theory)

My Rock and Roll Heart drops of Feb. 14 and can be preordered here. Derek Sanders is also playing a very limited run of shows next month. Tickets are available here. Check out the dates below.

02/15 – Orlando, FL @ Will’s Pub
02/16 – Atlanta, GA @ Vinyl
02/17 – Nashville, TN @ The High Watt

Are you excited for Derek Sander’s new album? Sound off below!

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