Straylight Run

In the early years of the new millennium, the emo-rock group Taking Back Sunday built a following among emerging punk enthusiasts largely through the songwriting partnership and vocal interplay of Adam Lazzara and John Nolan. As their debut album Tell All Your Friends continued to build momentum, internal tensions escalated and prompted guitarist/vocalist Nolan along with bassist Shaun Cooper to exit the lineup. The pair regrouped under the name Straylight Run, adding Nolan’s younger sister Michelle on vocals and keyboards plus former Breaking Pangea drummer Will Noon to complete the roster. Established in May 2003, the new ensemble rejected the high-energy style of Taking Back Sunday—a sound then being emulated by numerous younger acts—in favor of an indie-rock direction marked by introspective, atmospheric, and frequently piano-centered material. Several demo recordings were tracked and offered as free downloads via the band’s website. The ready availability of those tracks, combined with the established profile of their principal songwriter, quickly generated mounting interest. Victory Records finalized a deal with Straylight Run in April 2004, and the self-titled debut appeared six months afterward, mixing fresh compositions with newly recorded versions of the online demos. Extensive touring ensued alongside Hot Rod Circuit, Say Anything, Northstar, Rooney, and Minus the Bear, while the lead single “Existentialism on Prom Night” earned modest airplay on alternative-rock stations, MTV2, and Fuse. The October 2005 EP Prepare to Be Wrong merged acoustic textures with lyrics addressing broader social themes, among them the Iraq conflict, and also contained the candid track “A Slow Descent” recounting the Taking Back Sunday split. Further road work included dates with Simple Plan and a spring 2006 stint on MTVu’s Campus Invasion tour supporting Motion City Soundtrack. Early in 2007 the band announced its move to Universal Republic, and the follow-up full-length The Needles the Space arrived that June.