The Academy Is... releases first new album in 18 years, gears up for Warped Tour
As William Beckett took the stage at Madison Square Garden in 2024, it all came rushing back.
The lead vocalist of The Academy Is… was there to join old pals Fall Out Boy for a special cover of the Barrington pop-punk band’s song “Slow Down.” But despite playing the holy grail of concert venues, Beckett was thinking about the small suburban Chicago basements, VFW halls and Fireside Bowl where the two groups spent many nights during a time when the emo/pop-punk scene felt like the actual soundtrack of the city.
“It was just so cool to reconnect with them and to see how much hasn't changed from the VFW Hall days,” Beckett recently said during a Zoom call from his home in Barrington, where the band is getting ready to release its new album “Almost There.” Out March 27, it’s the band’s first album in 18 years, and a lot of the tracks memorialize the moments when the city felt like the band’s oyster.
He’s not far from Barrington High School, where The Academy Is… was founded in 2003 and soon wound up on a roller coaster of MTV and Warped Tour loops with aughts hits like “About a Girl” and “We’ve Got A Big Mess On Our Hands.” In fact, a lot of it is thanks to Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, who championed The Academy Is… early on and helped to get the band signed to tastemaker label Fueled By Ramen. The two acts have been closely associated ever since. But for Beckett, that scene still feels as raw as day one. “It still exists in this way that is almost untouchable, like it exists beyond time.”
It’s a feeling that he and his The Academy Is… bandmates (bassist Adam Siska, guitarist Mike Carden and drummer Andy Mrotek) bottle up in their daydreamy new single “2005.” The lyrics throw it back to that summer, with Beckett singing about driving downtown while listening to Saves The Day’s 2001 opus "Stay What You Are.” At the same time, he wonders about bringing “TAI back from the dead,” which they effectively do with “Almost There.”
The seeds for the album were planted during a series of recent reunion shows, including Riot Fest 2022 and the elder millennial gathering When We Were Young in 2023 — the band’s first since calling it quits in 2015. And the band members found themselves looking back at the good ol’ days and wondering if they ever really appreciated it all.
“I think a lot of people have run away from that scene or from that feeling. And I always thought, ‘Man, it’d be so interesting to do a record that still has that spirit of what that was and celebrate it,’” said Carden who joined the Zoom chat from his current home base in Arizona. To that effect, the band has started digitizing some of the VHS tapes from back in the day, recently finding footage from a gig at the Elk Grove Teen Center, while some members troll eBay for promotional relics.
“It really was a magical time. Or maybe I just have this romanticized perspective of the pre-phone era, VHS tapes and the internet at the cusp of dial-up,” Carden joked. “But being part of that community and looking back, especially as we age, it’s like, ‘Wow, we were so lucky to have all that.’”
The wanderlust continues on another new song “L Train.” On its official social media pages, the band has been sharing behind-the-scenes footage of Beckett at stations around the city — although it’s not entirely accurate.
“This is what’s embarrassing for me. I’ve been in the suburbs forever, so I drive into the city instead of using the trains. Maybe it’s a form of masochism where I just need to have that I-90 bumper-to-bumper traffic because that’s what’s truly Chicago for me,” he joked. Yet, if the group had to pick a favorite line, “it would definitely be the Blue Line,” Carden said. “That’s the one we would take most often.”
While much has changed for the band with the advent of families, gray hairs and new fans who weren’t even alive the first time around, there’s still a full-circle feeling for The Academy Is… in 2026. And it’s not just because they’re playing the revitalized Warped Tour again this summer. “Almost There” is in many ways a continuation of the band’s 2005 debut “Almost Here,” with the road ahead a bit clearer this time.
“I hope that with this record, we were able to convey a level of self-awareness and honesty and modesty,” said Beckett. “With the benefit of reflection about all these life experiences and personal growth with the peaks and valleys, I think it puts us in a situation where we may not know the destination, but we know that we’re on the right path.”