Ho-Ho-Ho! It's Christmas Day - the time of year again where families invade your house, you've eaten more food than an entire kindergarten and your anxiety levels are through the roof... wait, that's just me? Okay, moving on...
In celebration of the big day, we present to you a means to escape the mayhem and join Jeremy McKinnon and Browny as they celebrate A Christmas Day To Remember - a special interview discussing how they're spending the holidays and a few surprise gifts along the way.
Settle in for the full video interview, or read on for the best bits...
A Day To Remember burst back onto the scene with their surprise release Big Ole Album Vol. 1 which not only stormed the charts around the world, but was labelled a return to form according to critics and long term fans alike. There were two songs in particular that stood out from the rest - 'Flowers' and final track 'Closer Than You Think' - when quizzed about their inspirations, Jeremy was more than eager to explain.
"The whole idea behind [Flowers] is why don't we say the positive thing and not just focus on the negative all the time?
It kind of feels like when you have something super positive to say, sometimes you just internalise that and you don't share it as much as you would hope that somebody would do for you.
It just feels like people could use more of that these days instead of only being hit with negativity. So, the idea was just sharing a moment like that, that was personal to me, to try to hopefully make people understand the sentiment behind the song.
It only takes small acts of kindness to really make a lasting effect sometimes. So why not be something like that for your friend or your family members or just a stranger you see on the street doing something awesome?
[It's] just meant to be a wake up call to people. Make sure you do stuff you want to do before it's too late."
Meanwhile, 'Closer Than You Think' was centred around conversations Jeremy was having with his growing daughters, but after their producer heard it in the studio, the meaning took a new universal turn for the average listener.
"Originally, it was about the idea of my daughter getting older or both of my daughters getting older and having that moment where they get their heart broken for the first time, and as a parent just wanting to protect them, I guess, from the world as much as you can.
But that's one of those things that everybody goes through no matter what at some point in their life, and you just kind of got to learn it the hard way in that feeling of wanting to protect them and not being able to, but being there with them through that time and showing 'em that just takes time and things are going to turn out [okay] if you stick with it.
So that was the original inspiration... I was originally worried that it was going to be too specific to me, so other people couldn't relate to it as much. And then one of our producers, Zach [Cervini], was like, 'man, if you hadn't told me that, I wouldn't have even known that. To me, it was just a song about being there for somebody who's lost someone,' and the first time he told me that, I was just so relieved...
If you could view it from that lens, then this really does apply universally pretty much to everybody just being there for someone in their time of need."
That wholesomeness is felt all throughout Big Ole Album Vol. 1, and as that title suggests Vol 2. is on the way which has already been confirmed.
But as a special treat, we asked Jeremy for an early Christmas update on the current situation of the album, to which he explained, "It's not done!" before further revealing more about the writing processes.
"That's not the fun answer, but.. we're spending a lot of time with it now though.
We're just writing stuff right now and just having a good time doing it and we'll see what comes out when it's done. That's usually how every A Day To Remember record is.
We're not like, 'you got to have this, you got to have this.' It's just we write, we're basing it off what we're inspired to do in the moment, and yeah, I think people will be really happy when it's done."
In the meantime, the band will make their return to Australia and NZ in April for the Big Rock Tour alongside Papa Roach and Landmvrks, which is going to be an all-time tour. When the conversation turned to why they wanted to bring these two bands down with them, the gushing commenced.
"Man, we love Papa Roach. We did a tour in the States years ago with them, and it was one of the best tours of our entire career. So when we all got to talking about bands we wanted to tour with again or just period, they're a name that gets brought up all the time. So being able to put something else together where we can tour together is going to be awesome.
And then the Landmvrks guys, we played a lot of shows with them in that last year's Euro tour. We did the festival run, and they're just an awesome band, so we're excited to be able to actually get them on a bill."
It's going to be a great time. Everybody knows Papa Roach. They're a fantastic live band. Landmvrks is one of the coolest newer bands out right now, so it's just going to be a good time. Come out, have a good time with us... you're not going to regret it.
You heard the man. So if you don't unwrap tickets to their tour today, disrespect your surroundings and make sure you get your own to avoid missing out completely.
Merry Christmas and have a happy and prosperous new year.
Interview by Paul 'Browny' Brown @brownypaul
The Big Rock Tour kicks off April 4th. Tickets Here
A Day To Remember + Papa Roach - Big Rock Tour Australia & NZ 2026
with Landmvrks
April 4 at RAC Arena, Perth
April 6 at Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide
April 8 at Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
April 10 at Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney
April 12 at Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane
April 15 at Spark Arena, Auckland
