Major League, the pop-punk band hailing from Mantua Township, NJ, shocked fans when they performed together for the first time since their 2016 breakup on November 21, 2025, at the Williams Center.
Imagine the response, then, when the band announced their first co-headling tour in ten years on January 26 with Ohio-based pop-punk band Hit the Lights.
One scroll through the comments on the announcement’s Instagram post reveals fans asking about bringing their newborns, admitting to flying to shows from across the country, and begging for more tour dates. Despite the years, it’s clear that nobody is safe from a healthy dose of nostalgia; instead, fans are dying to be a part of Major League’s reunion.
Before their tour with Hit the Lights commences, and ahead of their show at the iconic Stone Pony is Asbury Park, we chatted with Major League’s vocalist Nick Trask and guitarist Brian Joyce on prepping for tour, favorite cities to play in, and, of course, their Wawa orders.
It’s been 10 years since you guys have been on tour together. In these final days before it kicks off, what are the vibes? What are you feeling? What are the emotions?
Nick Trask: I’m terrified. I’m absolutely terrified. I’m so scared. I’m so anxious. Before, when you’re younger, you’re like, “Whatever, this is cool.” But I have a family back home. I got all these responsibilities, and I’m about to leave, you know? No, but I’m really excited, to be honest. It’s really cool to feel the feelings that I had back then, to reconnect with Brian and everybody else that we’re going on tour with. It’s a surreal feeling. There are a lot of mixed emotions happening.
Yeah, I can imagine. You touched on being anxious. Are there any habits or rituals that you guys used to do before shows or even during tour that you’re anticipating bringing back?
Brian Joyce: No, we’re trying to create new habits that we never did before. Me and him (Nick) were talking about vocal warm-ups. He’s got a nebulizer thing for his voice now. Before, we were just chain-smoking cigarettes and drinking Mountain Dew. Now we’re like, “We’re gonna get up in the morning, we’re gonna run, we’re gonna do this.” We’re trying to establish a routine this time around.
In terms of prepping for playing live songs that you probably haven’t played in a while, how does that process work in terms of preparing and choosing what songs you’re going to play?
Nick Trask: When we did our reunion show back in November, it was listening to the songs for like three hours every day for months just so I could remember those words. I listened to the songs the other day, and we’re playing a couple of songs that we haven’t played in a really long time. I was like, “I know these words.” So, the prep when it comes to the lyrics themselves, I feel very confident about. It’s the longevity of my voice holding up and doing these other things for me personally that I’m like, “I really need to crack down on myself. I really need to focus and sit with this.” I think that’s why getting in shape is so important, because I want to be able to jump around on stage and do all those things that I used to be able to do and really bring the energy. But if I’m not healthy, then I’m gonna be wiped. I’m gonna be absolutely wiped.
You gotta do what they say about running on the treadmill while singing, that way it trains your lung capacity.
Nick Trask: That’s what I do!
Oh, that’s crazy. Do you find that it works well? What is that like?
Nick Trask: I think what helps really well is the fact that, one, it helps me push my body to where I know how much I can move around and still be able to sing at the same time. But it also helps you be able to move around and push your core, actually pronunciate, and push your voice the way you need to push to sing. So it sounded really silly at first, but I just started doing it, and people hate me at the gym and whatever. But it actually works. It works. I stand by it.
With instruments, do you find that with the songs, muscle memory kicks in?
Brian Joyce: Yes and no. I feel like there was this weird thing that happened last year, where I hadn’t played the songs in like a decade, and I sat down, and I was like, “I wrote all the songs. I know them. I’m good.” Then I sat down, and I was like, “What did I do?” As I started relearning the songs, I was doing this thing where I was like, “There’s no way that’s what I played. There’s no way.” It was just such an alien thing. Then I felt like, after the first rehearsal with everyone being there, there was just that chemical reaction that happened. And I was like, “No, I got this.” But at first, by myself, when I was running through the set and relearning the songs and stuff, I was having this weird disassociation with him (Nick). I was just like, “Are you sure? Am I looking at a warped version of the song? I definitely did not play this.”
I think when you take that much time off, and you remove it so far from your vocabulary of things, it’s like that riding a bike thing that everybody always talks about, but there’s another association to it because you built the bike as well. So you feel this weird transition on things where you’re like, “But I should not just be able to relearn this, but I should also remember how it went, and I can’t find it.” Certain parts would come up, and I’d be like, “What? Where did this come from? This is the bridge of the song?” It’s an interesting little road to navigate.
Do you find that while you are relearning, there are things that you’re changing or that you wish you had done differently? Are the songs now a more modern version to accommodate your current opinions, or do you think they’re still the same as they were when you played them live in the past?
Brian Joyce: I think personally, for me, there’s a blend of it because you don’t want to stray too far, especially for albums like The Truth Is…. That’s what we’re going out there to play, with the anniversary of the album and whatnot. So you don’t want to stray too far where people feel like, “Oh, this isn’t how I remember this song.” You want to be pretty exact on that. But I’ve also, over the last decade, still toured and played, so my musicianship has gotten so much better.
Now I’m taking a lot of new things that I’ve learned, being in the middle of a certain song and being able to riff off the chart and do your own thing or whatever else. I know for you (Nick), vocally and stuff, we would go at it when we were younger. We’re just going at the song. It’s just like, “I’m just gonna go for it, and I’m out of breath and whatever else.” From a third party perspective, watching him, there’s such a new way that he’s approaching the songs vocally where it’s, yeah, those songs are very fast and they’re very wordy, but he’s added such a flow to his melody and the way he sings now that I think it’s almost given the songs a “if we recorded The Truth Is… today, what would they sound like?” feel. There’s this maturity to the sound. It doesn’t sound like we’re 19 again. It sounds like we’re 36 playing songs that we did when we were 19.
Then you guys are from New Jersey, too, so I’m sure you know how iconic it is to play the Stone Pony.
Brian Joyce: We played there with Senses Fail in 2013. And then we’ve done Bamboozle [Festival] and Skate and Surf, which is in, like, a parking lot. But this is so much more pressure. That was a Senses Fail show. So it was like, “Good or bad, it’s on you guys. We’re just here to open.” (laughs) So for this there’s definitely this little weight of responsibility. That’s the house that Bruce built. That’s Bruce Springsteen’s little dojo. There’s a lot of pressure with the Stone Pony. But there’s also equal excitement, I think.
Nick Trask: I’m super excited to play the Stone Pony again, and we’re playing on a co-headliner with Hit the Lights. We’re not playing as an opener for another band. That has a whole new meaning, like Brian was saying.
Yeah, and also now it’s not just fully your responsibility, too, since you are co-headlining. So if anything goes wrong, you could always share the blame.
Nick Trask: (laughs) We’ll feel responsible because we’re from New Jersey.
What’s the vibe with Hit the Lights? Are you excited to go on tour with them?
Brian Joyce: Right after Nick left the band, we did a co-headliner with Hit the Lights in 2014. We just instantly clicked. I grew up going to see Hit the Lights. I just posted a picture on my Instagram not that long ago of me and my friends when we were 17, driving to see Hit the Lights in Philly.
It’s just crazy. It’s one of those things where that’s not lost on me, even though I’ve been friends with those guys for years, and Nick and I just got dinner [with them] back at my house a couple of weeks ago. Because they’re playing 20 years of This Is a Stick Up… [Don’t Make It a Murder], I like to put it on just to listen to it and feel those 17-year-old jitters of like, “Oh, I love this thing.” So it’s not lost on me how cool it is to be doing this with them, no matter how long we’ve been friends and stuff.
I’m also just super excited for this Nick to be able to experience it. I’m an old man, and I’ve been an old man since I was 22. I’m not like a partier. Hit the Lights is that type of band where, after a show, they’d be like, “Where do you think you’re going?” And I’m like, “I’m gonna go lie down for a little bit.” And they’re like, “No, this bar doesn’t close till three.” They’re just go, go, go, but they’re so fun. It’s a responsible party. They’re not crazy partiers, but they’re like, “We’re going to have a good time. We’re on tour. We only get to do this for blips at a time. Come hang out with us.” I think that’s a nice break from reality, too, to be pulled out of that comfort zone thing and thrown into this, “No, we’re actually going to enjoy each other’s company because we only get each other’s company for the next 16 days or whatever the tour is.” And I’m excited for him (Nick) to experience that, because maybe they’ll pull him, and I’ll just be able to go nap.
You’ll be able to escape and go home.
Brian Joyce: I go to bed at 8:30 every night. We’re gonna see how this goes.
So, in terms of performing, do you think there’s anything from Hit the Lights’s live performance and the way that they navigate live performances that you think that you will integrate into your own performance?
Nick Trask: I think we have very similar styles. but also very different styles of how we perform. I don’t think necessarily that we look at Hit the Lights and go, “Yeah, we want pieces of those things,” or, “We should share pieces of these things.” I think it’s like Brian was saying. Now, we are in our late 30s. I think we’ve found who we are, and we’re just gonna be ourselves. That’s really all it is. The most true, authentic that we can be, is to be ourselves on stage, whether we do great or not. That’s who we are right now. We want to share that experience with where everybody is, where they are now.
Then speaking of tour, is there a certain stop that you are most excited for or excited to play, besides Asbury Park at the Stone Pony?
Nick Trask: Philly.
Brian Joyce: Philly. Philly’s always been more of our hometown than I think Northern Jersey is because we’re so close to Philly. I’m ecstatic for Philly, but I also really love New England. Quick story. Our first time playing in New England, we got booked at this venue in Brockton, Massachusetts, and it was all hardcore bands. I’m talking, like, these dudes where no one was under 6 foot, and they all had head tattoos and whatever. We pulled up, and we were these scrawny little teenagers. We were like, “Oh my God, did they listen to our band before they put us on this show?”
Nick Trask: It was super, super sketchy and super scary.
Brian Joyce: Yeah. And we go in, and we watch the first couple of bands play, and everybody’s moshing and beating the shit out of each other. Then we go on, and we played “From States Away,” and these giant dudes are piling on to sing, “I’ll be home before you—” And we’re just like, “What?! This is insane.” We just felt so protected. This is an area where you can tell these guys feel loose to be themselves and sing along to a song about missing your girlfriend. We feel like, “Okay, we’re cool to play this, and no one’s throwing a bottle.”
New England has always been so good to us. It’s been such a cool place for our band because New England is so big in the hardcore world and such a staple for that type of community; for a pop punk band to be accepted into that community and kind of coddled a little bit and them be like, “Hey, we got you guys.” There’s that kind of relationship, which also just becomes funny because then we have fans that are like younger girls, and they come out, and then you have to do the, “Hey, let’s behave ourselves tonight. There are children, be careful.” But New England, I’m really excited for. That’s gonna be a really fun one. It’s been a while.
So then as veterans of the genre, what do you think sets New Jersey/Philly based pop punk apart from pop punk that’s based in other major cities or states?
Nick Trask: First off, thank you for saying that we’re veterans of the genre. That’s a big statement. Go ahead.
Brian Joyce: Also, going back, thank you for saying that it was your brother who introduced you and not your dad, because that would have made me feel old as shit.
I’m 24, and he’s only four years older than me, so don’t worry. And even when I wrote “veterans” in my questions, I was like, “Oh, is that offensive?”
Brian Joyce: No, that’s sick. That’s cool. I want discounts now, though. (laughs)
But no, I think that the thing that I’ve always loved about the Philly, South Jersey area—I would even include New York in that because it kind of spans up that Tri-State area—is the community of it. There’s never felt like this rat race of us versus them. With every band that we had toured with from this area, it’s always felt like it was a, “Hey, I got the leg up, let’s go” kind of thing.
Bands would get an opportunity, and the first thing we’d get is an e-mail or a text being like, “Yo, we just got this sick offer. We got this thing, and they’re looking for another band. You guys down to do it?” immediately trying to bring you in on what they’re eating. That taught us really early on that it isn’t about trying to get a leg up on somebody; if there’s enough for everyone, everybody should eat kind. I think that helped us along the way because we did meet bands that did have a standoffish attitude at first, and wound up becoming our best friends, because I think that there was that little bit of a feeling of like, “Who are these guys?”
I think also this house was a big part of it, too, because a lot of bands would tour through and we’d be like, “Yeah, stay at Brian’s mom’s house.” And so we’d all come to my mom’s house. It’s cool being back here. We would come here, and we would have three different bands staying with us. My mom’s house became this weird little hub for touring bands, even when we weren’t home. It was fun. I would call my mom at, like, one in the morning, being like, “Hey, there’s a band from California. They’re called Heart to Heart. They’re coming through, but they need a place to stay. Is there any way they can use the garage?” And she’d be like, “I’ll go down and unlock the door.” And I’m like, “Thank you so much. They’ll be quiet. They’ll be out in the morning.” It was cool; it became this cool little hub. I think being able to have that for other bands made us more of a band’s band in the long run. I think that’s how we had such cool opportunities because bands knew, “Well, these guys are homies.” I think that’s not something that we necessarily did on our own. It was something we learned from this community. That’s something that we really were bred in during all of this, and it’s such a cool place to be from.
I did see an interview where it said that there were hints towards new music, possibly in the future. If that’s true, potentially, what do you think an album in 2026, 2027 would sound like? Would it be very reminiscent of 10 years ago?
Nick Trask: I’ll put it this way: I think there’s a little bit of everything that we would put into new music. We would love to do some more nostalgic things, but also, I touched a little bit about where we are now. I think that’s healthy for growth, and, growing up, sounds change. But it’s not so far off that people would be put off by what we put out.
Brian Joyce: I think the unique opportunity that our band has in particular is that we had a debut album, which was Hard Feelings, and that was with Nick singing. And then I took over vocals, and we had a debut album of me singing. This is our chance to have a real sophomore album of what the band would sound like for a sophomore album of Hard Feelings. And it’s kind of a sophomore album for There’s Nothing Wrong with Me because I’m still a songwriter. So it gives us an opportunity to be like, “Hey, here’s what we actually have for a sophomore album, because we never really got to have that.” That is such a unique opportunity for us to be able to explore. And we want to take our time with that.
We feel this rush, a little bit sometimes. We’re like, “Okay, we’ve got to get this done. We want to write this. We want to do this.” Then there’s that feeling of taking a step back and making sure that we’re going to do it right. I’m lying if I said we didn’t have an album name and everything picked out. But we are. We are definitely taking this little breath with it because we do have a lot of things going on right now in the tour and whatever else. We don’t want to half-ass any of it. We don’t want to go into this tour being like, “Well, we were just in the studio. Do we want to play new songs?” It’s like, “Let’s nurture what’s already there that people want to hear. Let’s do the thing that we’re supposed to be doing right now.” It’s what everybody wants to hear. It’s what they’re coming out to relive again. And then we’ll do for us, which is now, “Let’s go to the studio and see how we’re feeling on things.”
Nick flew out to me a few months ago, and I feel like that was the test of whether or not we were going to do new music again. It was the closest we’ve been to The Truth Is… in 20 years or 15 years, however long it’s been. It’s the closest we’ve been because it was just Nick and me again. We used to live together when we wrote The Truth Is…. He and I would play some riffs, he’d sing some melodies and stuff, and we’d be making Totino’s pizza rolls. With a mouthful of pizza rolls, we’d be like, “What do you think about this lyric? What if the verse is like this?” at, like, two in the morning. Now here we are again, 15 years later, and it was very much the same thing. We were sitting there, and he’s like spitting out melodies. I’m like, “This is cool. All right, then if you’re doing that, what if the guitar says this,” and punching it all out. It was just such a fun experience to do again, just like it was when it started. I think that was like the real test of like, “Okay, we could do this. Even if it’s just a single, we’ve got it.” We’re finding that mojo again. There’s not this weird, like, “I don’t know, should you write it, should I write?” thing. I just feel excited. I feel excited for whatever we’re gonna try, whatever we’re gonna do.
Kind of in the same vein of new music, what are you guys listening to right now? What bands, what artists would you say you’re taking inspiration from, whether lyrically, sonically, or just listening to for fun?
Nick Trask: I think lyrically, I’m not really listening to anybody. It’s more melodies that I focus on. But The Band CAMINO with “Holly!” just came out. I love that song. I listened to a lot of Grayscale, Bill Murray.
Brian Joyce: That new The Maine album— It’s bonkers.
Nick Trask: So good. I mean, we listened to so many different things that I feel like we have a lot of inspiration to pull from, to really develop what we want new Major League to sound like.
Brian Joyce: I think for me, it’s listening to everything that isn’t what I want us to sound like, because I just need that break. It’s like reading a book or something. I need that thing that’s like, “How far removed can I be from our sounds so that I can just clear my brain on it?” Because when I listen to too much of similar things, once I start writing, I’m like, “Does that sound too much like this?” So for me, the plane ride out here, I listened to Flea’s new album, Honora which is beautiful. It’s a jazz album. It’s super cool. Jalen Ngonda, he’s an R&B artist. Olivia Dean’s record is so good. I can’t get enough of that album. And then Depression Cherry by Beach House. I like stuff that I don’t have to sit there and be like, “Oh, what’s he say there? What’s this? This riff is so sick,” and stuff like that. I’m totally, fully pulled out of that world.
I’ve also been listening to a lot of Every Time I Die lately because the tour’s starting and I want to feel that amped-up feeling. I think that we definitely have different styles, and we definitely have our similarities, too, like Bill Murray and The Maine and all that. I think that’s what is also interesting and what makes this work because of how we separate on style, so that when we do come together, he’s coming up with melodies. I’m like, “What, are you listening to lately?” And he’s like, “I’ve been listening to this,” I’m like, “Oh shit, that’s cool.” I think that’s what makes it super fun when we are creating.
This is a personal indulgent question, but I see the Wawa cups. What is your go-to Wawa order? I’m a Wawa enthusiast, so I’m dying to know what you guys are getting when you go.
Brian Joyce: Wawa changed so much because I haven’t lived here in eight years. When I came back, I didn’t know they had quesadillas. I didn’t know they had pizzas. I didn’t know they had burgers. When I left, it was chicken cutlet sandwiches and an Italian hoagie. So I’m gonna stay in that realm. I only eat fish and chicken now, but I think that if I had to pick my perfect Wawa order, it would be a bag of Lay’s baked chips with a raspberry or peach Wawa iced tea and an Italian hoagie.
Nick Trask: I would say definitely Italian hoagie with extra mayo, little oil, salt and pepper, with everything on it. And then I’d get mozzarella sticks. Obviously, because why not? They’re really bad for you, but they taste so good. And then I’d get a Colombian with French vanilla creamer.
