At a glance
Brooks Betts wears his life on his tattoo sleeve. Covering his right arm from shoulder to wrist, the vibrant ink shows pink birds and leafy-green trees full of fruit.
By day, the 31-year-old Floridian raises chickens and grows trees near Tallahassee.
By night, Brooks waves around his guitar as one-fifth of poppy emo-punk group Mayday Parade.
“I’ve always been into agriculture and stuff,” Betts said of his timber-production side business. “I realized there is a large market for it where we’re from and the forests where we grew up are really beautiful areas that we’re losing a lot of.”
He’s not alone in his entrepreneurial interests.
Both lead singer Derek Sanders and drummer Jake Bundrick have had clothing lines, and before launching Mayday Parade Newport Music Hall, 1722 N. High St. 614-461-5483, www.promowestlive.com 7 tonight $25
his timber company, Betts ran a gourmet peanut butterand-jelly food truck.
Members’ quirky passion projects are made possible thanks to the security that comes with longstanding popularity in the modern punk scene.
The group — originally a six piece, which also included bassist Jeremy Lenzo, guitarist Alex Garcia and lead singer Jason Lancaster — formed in 2005 when two Tallahassee bands (Kid Named Chicago and Defining Moment) sharing the same practice space united.
After a stint on traveling punk/rock festival Warped Tour, the group landed a slot with California punk label Fearless Records and, in 2007, released its debut, “A Lesson in Romantics.”
Documenting the struggles of maintaining a long-distance romantic relationship while on the road, the album featured hit single “Miserable At Best,” still the group’s most popular song.
Citing a lack of creative credit, Lancaster left the band soon after the album’s release and later formed his own punk group, Go Radio.
Mayday Parade is currently touring for the 10th anniversary of the “Romantics” album, but Betts said working around Lancaster’s vocals is a nonissue.
“Ever since he left the band back then, Jake and Jeremy both do vocals as well … They just do the parts themselves. It’s easy enough to do that,” he said.
With its lengthy names — “You Be the Anchor That Keeps My Feet on the Ground, I’ll Be the Wings That Keep Your Heart in the Clouds” takes the cake — and ultra-catchy pop choruses, “Lesson in Romantics” holds up four albums and a decade after its release.
Betts agrees that the songs are solid, but also thinks that fans connect to its history.
“(For) a lot of bands, their debut records become their most nostalgic,” he said.
What started as low-quality garage music in the early 1990s burst into the mainstream — thanks to bands such as blink-182, Fall Out Boy and Green Day — by the end of the millennium.
Mayday Parade squeezed into the genre’s final stretch, when emo punk tended toward heartfelt lyrics and a more radio-friendly sound.
“We got in at the right time that we were able to gain popularity amongst all the other bands in the scene but we weren’t early enough to catch the wave,” Betts said.
Still, the band remains one of the more popular (and
active) groups from its era.
While its members have aged, Betts said many fans are closer to the age represented on the debut.
He has noticed a few aging fans in crowds, but said they are mixed in with a consistent high-school and college-aged base.
“It’s actually kind of weird because we continue to gather these young fans along the way,” Betts said.
As rock of all stripes has given way to electronic music and its various electro-pop and -soul offshoots, Betts is counting his blessings that Mayday Parade made it through the shifting music landscape.
“I don’t know where we fit into all this, but we seem to have survived,” he said.