Breaking & Entering: Hey Monday

February 12, 2009 05:02 PM
Keir Bristol

Cassadee Pope may be barely out of high school, but the teenage siren and her band Hey Monday are already touring with one of modern rock's biggest acts, Fall Out Boy.

Much like that group, Pope says that their fans were the inspiration for the band’s name. In response to a bulletin posted on Friendsorenemies.com, fans sent potential monikers to the Hey Monday email account.

“This girl Hilary sent the name ‘Hey Monday’, and we picked that because we liked it the most,” says Pope. “It could mean a lot of things. It’s the beginning of a new week, a lot of people have a bad outlook on Mondays, but it could bring you a lot of good things.”

Hey Monday will continue bringing their "good thing" on tour with FOB through April, after which the both bands will join Metro Station, All Time Low and Cobra Starship for the Believers Never Die Part Deux tour around the United States and Canada.

Prior to the record deal and major tours, Hey Monday started out as a bunch of post-high school students jamming together in their local Florida music community. From the ashes of various local bands, Pope joined up with guitarists Mike Gentile and Alex Lipshaw, bassist Jersey Moriarty and drummer Elliot James to form the power-pop quintet.

Hey Monday signed with Columbia in April of 2008 after handing off old demos to an A&R rep at the Atlanta Music Conference. Just a few months later, its debut album “Hold on Tight” -- a collaborative venture between Columbia and Decaydence Records -- was ready for release.

The album is a rollercoaster of Pope’s infectious vocals and upbeat rhythms, with a track list that any teenager would find relatable. “Homecoming,” the first single off of the record, was featured on the Fall Out Boy curated Citizens For Our Betterment mixtape in August 2008. The next single, complete with a new music video, will be “How You Love Me Now,” but Pope is excited to promote empowering pop-punk anthem "Should’ve Tried Harder."

“I wrote that song in six months for myself,” says the 19-year-old singer-songwriter. “I’m really proud of it in a sense, because I wrote it acoustic and it ended up being so much more than I expected.”

With no signs of momentum ceasing anytime soon, one should certainly expect Hey Monday to exceed expectations. The troupe has already started writing its sophomore set.

“We want to go a little heavier with the next album, but nothing too crazy,” Pope says. “Every band out there wants their next album to be better than the last, so that’s definitely what we want for sure.”