Story Of The Year are headed out to Australia next month to honour the 20th anniversary of their iconic debut full-length Page Avenue. Joined on the road by Senses Fail (celebrating 20 years of Let It Enfold You) and returning local heroes Behind Crimson Eyes, the tour promises to be a celebration of all that was great about the post-hardcore in the early-mid '00s.

Ahead of the St.Louis superstar's arrival down under, we caught up for a nostalgic chat with drummer Josh Wills, reflecting on the band's strong connection with Australian audiences, the enduring legacy of Page Avenue and the friendship at the core of their ongoing success.

Diving Right In with Josh Wills of Story Of The Year

Josh, Story Of The Year are headed to Australia for the second time in fifteen months. What will be different on this visit from your last?

“Oh, well, you know, festivals you go on in the afternoon, the sets are quite a bit shorter. Plus, that last visit was for Knotfest! So we felt very out of place on that fest. But it worked. I feel like we get a little more freedom, especially if we were headlining and what we're going to do, how long we're going to play, you get your kind of production and backdrop and all the stuff that goes along with it. I find that to be more fun.”

We were at the Melbourne show and it worked pretty well, do you think the secret to your cross-genre appeal is that your live show is spiritually, quite metal?

“I think what happens is, we have a lot of heavy moments. We don't ever have a song that's just supremely heavy the whole time, but within that heaviness, there's melody and catchiness to it. I think that kind of stuff is what kind of works for us. Even when Dan is screaming and stuff, there's a melody to him screaming. It's not just like guttural the whole time. So I don't know I just we've always been a band that can step in and out of different things. From super poppy melodic stuff to heavy fast punk stuff with heavy breakdowns and things like that. We all like so many different types of music so it eventually finds its way into our music.”

As a drummer, that's got to be fun too, right? The chance to mix up your playing styles?

“Yeah, well as much as I can. I'm not great at metal stuff. I can play fast, but you try to throw in weird double-kick patterns and things like that, that’s not me. I base all my double bass stuff on Herb from Primus. So accented and has a pattern here and there. But if you need me to go all-out metal, I can't do it.”

You are coming out to celebrate the 20th or truly the 21st anniversary of Page Avenue, what is it like kind of stepping back into that time and that space each night?

“It makes you appreciate it, a whole lot more. As a band you go through phases where you think ‘I’m tired of playing that song, I don’t wanna play it anymore’, but then the further you get away from it and the more you talk to people and see the reaction that those songs bring out of people when you see them singing along and see that it means so much to them, that gives you a better appreciation for it.”

“It also makes it a lot more fun to play, maybe more fun than it was 21 years ago. Because there's a different connection now, it’s deeper. It’s not just to like, ‘Oh, my God, I just heard this, this is awesome’.Later on down the line, you talk to people and you hear how a song helped change this person's life, or these people danced at their wedding to the song or whatever, getting that feeling from other people, learning what it means to them, that make playing the songs more meaningful and enjoyable to us.”

“A lot of times that song probably means more to them, than it does to us, you know what I mean? So it's, that's part of it is awesome to me. Seeing people crying, can be weird sometimes, but I get it. It’s also cool that we have people who bring their kids to shows that like our band. I almost am scared for these kids, because they're on the barricade at like nine years old with their parents. I'm like, ‘Oh, you guys are gonna get kicked in the face’, because people still like to crowd surf when they're 38 years old. And they shouldn't be. But you know, that part's awesome, too.”

That does sound awesome. I'm sitting here talking to you, and I can see your certified platinum album for this, for Page Avenue in the background and I can vividly remember when that album dropped over here it just took off and it felt like this complete package had just landed out of nowhere to fill a void. What was that experience like for you, looking back on that now?

“I guess it was a lot weirder for you guys, especially back then because the internet existed but it wasn’t like it is now, where new music is so frequent and so easily accessible. For us, people saw and we saw these bands playing shows and we could feel that wave building up. We were a band for a little while beforehand, and we worked hard and then we got that little pinch of luck and we got lucky with he people we met and everything turned out great. But we worked our asses off. We didn’t come out to Australia until the second record, so we’ve always thought that Australians liked the second record more than the first, so you’re a little bit unique in that.”

I remember you guys coming down for the first time, it was for the Taste Of Chaos tour!

“Yeah, the international Taste Of Chaos tour!”

During that time, all the bands on that tour were pretty much gods to the people attending these shows. When you guys hit the stage it was pretty obvious that we’d all been rather intensely studying both the records, to this day, I talk to people who think of that tour and that moment in time as an essential memory of their teenage years. So that’s what you’re stepping back into on this tour.

Now the fact that you’ve managed to maintain the hunger, and continued to put out records and tour, makes you stand out a little bit during this emo/screamo nostalgia timeline. What do you think has been the key ingredient, the secret recipe to Story Of The Year’s longevity?

“For us, the core of it has just been friendship. I’ve known Ryan and Dan since I was 14 years old. We’d skateboard together before we ever picked up instruments together. So at the core of it, we just like each other, we enjoy hanging out with each other. When we’re on tour there’s no real drama, there’s little things here and there, but in general, we all really like being around each other still. We like playing music together on stage, it’s fun. That friendship has been at the core of everything that we’ve ever done.”

“I say this all the time, ‘I’m 43 years old, if it’s not fun, I’m not gonna do it’. If I have to be away from my wife and kids for whatever amount of time, it has to be fun. I love playing music with my friends. That has been the basis of everything we’ve done since we were 15 years old.”

If you could only play one song off Page Avenue, for the rest of your career. What song are you choosing and why?

“Dive Right In. I've always loved that song. It's fun to play live, I like the groove of it. For me, there are enough different parts in the song that I don't get bored, and I never have, I've always loved playing that song.”

If you could have any song play when you enter a room like you’re John Cena, what song do you want it to be?

“Oh, ‘My Own Summer by Deftones, they’re one of my favourite bands. In the States in baseball, when they guys go up to bat they all have a song, and I've always said if I played Major League Baseball, it would be that song.”

Story Of The Year

Celebrating 20 Years Of Page Avenue

Australian Tour 2024

With Special Guests

Senses Fail (Performing Their Album 'Let It Enfold You' In Full)

And Behind Crimson Eyes

Sunday 4 August - Magnet House, Perth

Tuesday 6 August - The Gov, Adelaide

Thursday 8 August - The Forum, Melbourne

Friday 9 August - Roundhouse, Sydney

Sunday 11 August - The Tivoli, Brisbane
Tickets from destroyalllines.com

Listen to Story Of The Year

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Interview - Diving Right In With Josh Wills Of Story Of The Year