Rival Schools Take Their Time on First Album Since 2001

Rival Schools have certainly taken their time getting 'Pedals,' the melodic punk band's second album, into the hands of fans. In fact, it's been nearly 10 years since they released their 2001 debut, 'United by Fate.' While fans may be clamoring for the new material, guitarist Ian Love reveals that the band decided to take things slowly to ensure they made the best album possible.

The new record is a bit more thought-out," Love tells Spinner. With 'United by Fate,' we had a producer and were in an expensive studio just kind of banging it out fast. With this record, we self-produced it and I recorded it and we really took our time on every aspect of it: the writing, the performances, the sounds, etc."

The result, as Love says, is a more diverse album with some songs that may surprise listeners. "There's this underlyng acoustic element to most of the songs, even in the heavier tracks," he says. "Theres' a song called '69 guns' that's more poppy and a song called 'Choose Your Own adventure' that's kind of dancier in a way. Those two I wrote the music for and Walter [Schreifels] wrote the vocals. That was a little different for us as well, for me to write some songs and have Walter come up with the melodies."



As for the record's name, the guitarist reveals that it's somewhat related to his love of effects pedals, which he uses to create some psychedelic sounds. "Walter came up with the title. When he first said it, I thought he meant flower petals actually," Love admits. "The cover art is a painting of flowers but I think Walter thought it might be too feminine, so he thought of pedals like biking pedals. Then he thought our music has lots of effects pedals, so it ended up making sense. Maybe, in a way, yes, my giant pedal board played some part."

Before the album's March 8 release date, fans can preorder the record in a bunch of different bundles, some of which include rare vinyl, hoodies and custom sneakers. Aside from that, the band has plenty on their plate for the rest of 2011.

"We're doing some east coast shows in the beginning of March, then we're going to Europe in April to tour with Trail of Dead," Love says. "We're also starting to write a new record, so that's exciting. 'Pedals' has been done for a year and half so were excited to do new stuff as well."