Triumphant homecoming
BY TOM LOUNGES
Times Correspondent | Saturday, March 25, 2006
Just a few years ago they were renting out local VFW halls and self-promoting their own shows with dreams of being the next Alkaline Trio or Rise Against, two Chicago bands they idolized and admired.
Now 14 months after releasing their debut national album, this little combo of rockers from Chicago's northwestern 'burbs of Barrington, Mount Prospect and Fox River Grove have become one of the fastest-rising bands on the indie rock scene.
The current success of The Academy Is... in part is owed to Chicago's other shining star, Fall Out Boy, a band who once shared the costs and headaches of producing the aforementioned VFW hall shows.
Fall Out Boy was the first "buzz band" of the current Chicago punk-pop boom now drawing national attention to Chicagoland in a way not seen since the early 1990s when Smashing Pumpkins first exploded and ignited a record label-signing frenzy in our toddlin' town.
After Fall Out Boy inked with the Florida-based indie imprint, Fueled By Ramen, they introduced The Academy Is... to Ramen's powers-that-be.
"We released an EP with a small Chicago label first," recalled The Academy Is... vocalist William Beckett. "Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy, is a very good friend of ours. He took our EP to them and told them to come to our live shows and check us out."
Heeding Wentz's advice, the label caught the fledgling band live at the Bottom Lounge in Chicago and a short time later they were in Tampa recording tracks with producer James Paul Wisner (Dashboard Confessional) that would ultimately become their first breakthrough album, "Almost Here," which enjoyed sales of approximately 3,000 copies each week thanks to hit videos for the songs "Checkmarks" and their current radio hit, "Slow Down."
The two bands shared the bill consistently on a variety of tours that also included other upstart young groups like The All-American Rejects, Panic At The Disco!, Motion Picture Soundtrack and others.
For the last few months, The Academy Is... has headlined their own major market tour wherein according to guitarist Mike Carden, not a single unsold ticket has been left remaining at any box office.
That also is true also this weekend where every available ticket has been snatched up in advance for the group's triumphant three-night run of shows at Chicago's House of Blues.
"We love being out with all the other bands, because we're friends and it's always cool to hang out and play music with your friends, but it was important for us to do this (headline) tour, because when you are out with a lot of other bands, you never really know who the kids are coming to see and how well you are doing," said Carden who co-founded The Academy Is... in 2002 with Beckett.
In 2004, the trio swapped out the drummer and guitarist they had been working with early on for current members Andy Mrotek and Tom Conrad, respectively, and the deal with Fueled By Ramen landed the newly unified team of Windy City rockers on mini-tours with the likes of Matchbook Romance, Armor For Sleep and their old pals, Fall out Boy.
It's been a steady progression to the top from that point on thanks to the advent of the booming Internet music scene and musician-friendly sites like www.myspace.com, which helped the band build a rock-solid fan base without having to depend on having someone with deep pockets backing them.
Being signed, selling a ton of records and selling out does not mean that life has gotten easy for The Academy Is..., cautioned Carden. There is not an army of lackeys following the members around and jumping to their every rock star whim.
"Nothing has actually really sunk in with us yet. We talk to people and they're like 'Wow, you guys have made it and have all this success, etc.' and we're like, 'Yeah, I guess...,' because we don't see it. We're on the bus every day on our way to another gig somewhere. Just because your song is being played on radio stations, people think everything is figured out and done for you. Not at all," Carden explained.
"We're an indie band, so we're still doing most things ourselves just like we did when we were booking those VFW gigs, only things are on a bigger scale now," added the Schaumburg, Ill., native.
Life has been so jam-packed with television shows, tours, interviews and the like, but Carden confessed to still living under his parent's roof in the same house where he grew up listening to his parents' classic rock album collection.
"I haven't even had time to think about getting my own place, because we have not been home long enough," he laughed.
"Home" for Carden will always be Chicago. "I plan on staying here and I think the other guys probably feel the same," he said. "We have a great music scene and the people here are different than other places we've been like where they grow up in the sunshine all year. People here are down to earth and more real."
Carden is excited about this weekend's shows because as local musician, he recalls attending many HOB concerts and fantasizing about one day playing that stage.
"I went to a lot of concerts there and to be playing three sold-out shows on that stage is like a dream come true. I'm really looking forward to it because a lot of the people who have been with us since the VFW shows will be there with us, along with our family and friends," he said.
Carden and Beckett both confessed to having a strong love for Chicago and the thriving original music and club scene here.
"I've always thought of Chicago as a great city for music, but traveling as we have has really made me appreciate it even more," exclaimed Carden.
"Chicago has so many great places for young bands to play compared to other cities we've been to around the country. There's big, there's small, there's The Metro, The Double Door, The Riv and all the great smaller clubs out there... ."
Following their return home, The Academy Is... will be undertaking a short tour to Japan, which they hope will go as well for them as did their very successful run across the United Kingdom some months ago.
A couple of weeks of much-needed downtime will follow and be used to fine tune the cache of new songs written on the road over the past year.
"We'll be out doing the Van's Warped Tour after that short break, which will keep us busy through the summer," he said, noting that he expects they will be road-testing some of the new songs on those live audiences as the band begins thinking of which ones to record for their sophomore album come fall.
"It's too premature right now to really talk about the second album," he continued. "We're talking about some people (producers) we might want to work with and planning to record in fall, but that's about it."
Like their buddies in Fall Out Boy, whose early success landed them a distribution deal with Island Records, Carden noted that a major label is very interested in getting behind distribution on the next album by The Academy Is..., though the group itself plans to stay "indie" in all other aspects.
"In today's world, indie is the way to go," concluded Carden. "We've gotten this far as an indie and we'll take it to the next level the same way."
onstage
The Academy Is with Panic at the Disco, Acceptance and Hello, Goodbye (Panic at the Disco and Acceptance are not on Monday's bill)
When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday
Where: House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn St., Chicago
Cost: $14 (all three shows sold out)
FYI: (312) 923-2000 onstage
The Academy Is with Panic at the Disco, Acceptance and Hello, Goodbye (Panic at the Disco and Acceptance are not on Monday's bill)
When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday
Where: House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn St., Chicago
Cost: $14 (all three shows sold out)
FYI: (312) 923-2000
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