Words by Angelina Singer

A brand new band is entering the scene out of the archives of Warped Tour royalty. Built out of the wisdom and lessons learned from being in highly acclaimed band Taking Back Sunday, Mark O’Connell and Eddie Reyes are building something very special with ME. (the band). Ahead of their debut album release, I had the very exciting opportunity to sit down with frontman Mike Jansen and drummer Mark O’Connell, who took the time to help me understand the writing process for this new sound, as well as the process of how they got here. While it might be tempting to think of this new band as a Taking Back Sunday reunion, the band has made it clear that it’s actually anything but.

Instead, there’s something very intriguing about chatting with a band that allegedly wasn’t supposed to exist, with a frontman they never expected they would have. If this is sounding really confusing, you’re not alone — but I’m confident that my chat with Mark O’Connell (MO) and Mike Jansen (MJ) will help illuminate things.

I first wanted to start from the beginning, and touch on the journey with Taking Back Sunday, and the lessons learned from being in a band at that very high level of popularity.

“For me personally, just being in a place where I’m happy, I’m around people that love me. People that respect me. And musicians that are gonna care about their craft as much as I do. And I absolutely have that with Mike. Man, this dude is on top of it. And it’s really cool, because he’s pushing me. So that’s the main difference, just pushing me in the right direction. Pushing me to push myself and make myself better. That’s what I’m surrounded by now, and that’s what I’m really excited about.” – MO

From here, Mark continued on, describing how their sound has evolved into what ME. is going to be, contrasting with the generational emo style of Taking Back Sunday. “With Taking Back Sunday, and the sound that we had (especially in the very beginning), a lot of it was Eddie [Reyes] and I. So the main thing was, when we got together, it wasn’t about us trying to be the biggest band in the world. Trying to get streams or accolades; it was us just trying to be creative in a free space together. The main goal with the music, was to not get in the way of ourselves. Which we were both guilty of, in the past for whatever reason it was. And we did that, so a lot of it seamlessly, [we] kind of ended up doing things that we do naturally and we let it be.” - MO

This is where I started to realize that there was no particular marketing meeting for Taking Back Sunday — or ME., for that matter. Instead, these talented artists just do what they love and hope people resonate with it — which I found to be both extremely encouraging and ballsy in the best way. And of course, I also wanted to hear how they developed the name ME. – because it’s oddly simple but catchy, and I wanted to know if there were any hidden meanings in it.

“We couldn’t really think of anything. Before Mike [Jansen] was in the fold, it was like Ed Reyes and Mark [O’Connell], and Ed has always come up with the band names, for any band that he’s started. The Movielife, Clockwise, INSIDE — you name it. So I said ‘okay, cool.’ And the next day, he came and he was like, ‘What about ME?’ And I thought, ‘Man, that’s a good band name.’” – MO

With that all explained, I next wanted to dive into what it was about this album ALL GOOD THINGS that stood out to me. Their song “Bloodsport”, as a title, sounds gory and intense — but it’s got a lot of heart and sonic intrigue that you’ll want to hear for yourself. And the lyrics are what stuck with me the most: “I’m not gonna change for you / I can’t even change for me,” as they really highlight the internal struggle of someone who knows they need to grow but don’t have the strength in them. Bonus points for the subtle namedrop too.

“So I wrote the album from a lot of personal experiences, and this was a really good starting point, lyrically for the album. You start with the idea of I’m not in a good place, and I need to fix something. And you’re really mad at yourself, and you don’t know what you’re gonna do. There’s people you want to change for, but you can’t even do it for yourself. This isn’t the life I want — I don’t want to be here, anxious all the time, in the same cycle. So it’s kind of that, there isn’t a resolution in the song. But in the album, there is.” – MJ

It’s this uncertainty that is so relatable for listeners, and it’s cool how the song changes as well, which Mike explained. I think this is why this song resonated with me at a deep level. Mental health is a really relevant topic, and I know other listeners will love it too. Next I wanted to know the title “Bloodsport” came about, as I found it both thought-provoking, as well as really gritty and real.

“How we hurt ourselves, yeah. And how fixing yourself is just as painful — If not more painful. And that everything is a struggle, you just have to choose what struggle you really want to focus on. You can continue to struggle in a bad way, or you can focus on fixing things. It’s not easy, either.” – MJ

“Ringo said it best: ‘It don’t come easy’”, Mark added, as a tongue-in-cheek moment of clarity.

Mike also cited Mark and Ed’s journey to sobriety as a big component of the struggles that are touched on in “Bloodsport”, which I know a lot of people will relate to. “There’s a part, about like closing all the windows and being inside, which comes from stories Mike and Ed were telling me about coming home from tour and the dark places you could be in. Then the beginning, talking about aliens, because Ed always has to have something on the TV in the studio. And he had these alien documentaries on constantly, like Bigfoot documentaries. That’s CNN, and they created this feeling of kind of panic in me. That stimulus to me, creates anxiety, but it calms him down. In the writing sense, I needed that constant poke, of uncomfort [sic], to kind of bring out what the song needed.” – MJ

I really appreciated this dual perspective of uncertainty and anxiety being channeled into something profoundly useful, both in the studio, and in the artists’ journey to a higher sense of self awareness in the process. That’s the secret sauce that brings this album to a new level of authenticity — because the musicians show their fear and anxiety in the music, ensuring that listeners won’t feel alone in that.

And on a deeper level, in the musical side of things, Mike recounts how Mark and Eddie wrote these songs in a higher key than he typically is comfortable singing in. Obviously, Mike wanted to be in this band, so he made it happen, embracing the discomfort for the greater good of the band’s art.

“It was just above my comfort zone. It’s that natural angst of trying to get to it [the note]. It wasn’t in the normal range I would sing in, so it added that natural angst that we want in music.” – MJ

I found this to be very meta, in that the artist feels the same discomfort on a visceral level, even while producing the album. Maybe there’s something to that idea, that you can up the ante on an album not only by bringing the listeners into that space, but by entering into that struggle yourself.

When I commented how cool it was that Mike was able to pull this off, Mark jumped in excitedly, saying “He does it with ease, too! With ease. And it’s probably way harder than anyone [could explain], but the way he did it just flawlessly is pretty amazing. And to hear him track vocals and do a full verse, and that’s the take. It was pretty amazing to see. It’s exciting.” – MO

My next question flowed on beautifully from here, and the way the take for “Grown Man” came together so perfectly, pretty much in one take. And if you know anything about what it’s like to track music in a studio, you’ll know how much of a feat that really was.

“What happened was, Mike recorded that on the track that we had, and both Eddie and I did not listen to it. What happened was, Mike sat Eddie down, and played it for him, and sang it to him. Eddie came running out, and was like ‘Mark, you gotta come here and listen to this.’ And I was like, ‘yeah yeah, hold on one second.’ And he was like, ‘Come right now. You have to listen to him right now.’ And he sang it to us and we were both blown away. And it was what he already had. So he just went in and recorded what he had already recorded, with our producer, Chris… he’s such a good guy. Applehead — Mike’s wearing the Applehead studio shirt, it’s in Woodstock. He went and just recorded what he had already done.” – MO

This is one of those really intriguing things that came together really fast, and it’s chilling and exciting to hear about the process that brought this band (and new album) together at lightning speed. Mike went on to say that he had recorded other samples of his work, alongside the instrumental recordings he had been given. And that there wasn’t talk of him being in the band at that time, but he had recorded two songs for their album.

“There was, [talk of Mike joining the band]” Mark interjected. “There was, but just not with you.”

I really enjoyed the laughter and honesty of this moment, and how real these two guys are. For a few moments, I (almost) forgot they were punk rock royalty, who had deigned to give me the time of day.

Next I wanted to hear more about what changed the band’s mind about avoiding having a lead singer at all.

“He’s amazing,” Mark explained. “It’s that simple, the dude is incredible. I fought it the most, and it just got to a point where I sounded silly. It was silly at that point, because it was too good.”

Mike continued to explain that by the time he was on the scene, Mark and Eddie had already determined what the general idea for the sound was going to be. So there wasn’t much flexibility in he himself making suggestions — but it all worked out in the end. “For me, that was a fun puzzle piece… Like this is what it is, do it, or don’t. I want to do it, so we did it. The instrumentals were fully fleshed out by the time I got there, for these songs… the ‘oopses’ are the record.” – MJ

Then they talked about how they chose each song for the album, because they needed one or two more, and Mike actually wrote the song “Big Smiles” and it made it onto the album. “I wrote ‘Big Smiles’ the night before everyone got there for the last week. Just talking with Chris the producer, who does a lot of acoustic recordings as well and he’d just done this big jazz session, where everything sounded amazing. And he’s got this 1953 microphone… and he’s like, ‘If you wanna go record something at some point, just let me know.’ So I wrote something that night, and then later in the week, we needed another song. I just said I had one, and everyone was like, ‘all right, go do it.’ There was no testing it out, it was just ‘go sing it’.” – MJ

It seemed like everything about integrating Mike into the band was so smooth and easy — and what a wonderful outcome they got out of it. I think it really shows what the band is capable of, and as we got to the end of our chat, I asked what sort of genre direction they see the band taking in the future.

“I think the exciting thing about being in ME., is anyone’s down to try anything that works for the band and is good. So we can go as hard and fast as we want — like with “Nuzzo”. That’s our hardest song by far, and it’s fast. And we can reel it in, and go the exact opposite way. As long as it’s good and fun. Whatever comes naturally.” – MO

Finishing up our chat, I wanted to find out each of their favorite songs off the new album. I mentioned that I loved how hauntingly beautiful “Special” is, but that I was curious about their favorites as well.

“I go back and forth, depending on my mood. I love ‘Bloodsport’ so much right now. And I’ll put that song on and be like ‘Holy shit this is so f*cking good I can’t believe this is my band… but I go back and forth, like I think that ‘Sun Poison’… we’re going to release as the third single, and I really believe this is going to be part of society and culture in 2026. But also, ‘This Is What It Feels Like to Be Normal, but also ‘Soapbar’, man, I never skip ‘Soapbar’ either. But as of right now, I’m gonna go ‘Bloodsport’. It’s the energy behind it.” – MO

“It’s a hard question, ‘cause we all like the whole record, so one day, I’m like ‘Bloodsport’ is my favorite song. I think ‘Grown Man’, today… Yesterday it was ‘Nuzzo’. And then I’ll over-listen to them and the next day I’ll move down the spectrum. ‘Big Smiles’ will be like, ‘I’m so proud of this one… ‘Grown Man’ is about convincing yourself you’re worthy of love. I was in love and getting ready to propose, and I was scared that I wasn’t worth it…” – MJ

Before I signed off, I was able to share my excitement for the new music, and Mark shared that despite his previous success with Taking Back Sunday, launching a new band with music you’re truly proud of never gets old – no matter how old you get.

“Good music is good music, and if it makes people feel, that’s the best thing in the world.” - MO

ALL GOOD THINGS by ME. is coming to your headphones as soon as you can hit play. Listen to it on Spotify now!

A conversation about ALL GOOD THINGS with ME.

Gallery: Jinjer