Backstage at the Taking Back Sunday "Sink Into Me" video shoot
| To match the new dramatic sound of its new single “Sink Into Me,” Taking Back Sunday was looking for an equally dramatic video. They turned to director Travis Kopach, best known for his videos for Panic at the Disco and Hinder. And Kopach? Well, he turned to goo. Black goo, to be exact, and plenty of it. The concept was pretty straightforward: The band sinks into the goo. But filming that idea turned out to be far more complicated as goo apparently has a mind of its own, as the fans who patiently waited hours for the chance to be extras in the crowd scene could surely attest. Singer Adam Lazzara is sliding across the goo-covered stage, at Nut Roaster Studios in Bushwick, like a maniac, losing his balance and nearly kicking bassist Matt Rubano in the head as he falls.
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The battle against the goo does lead to lots of unusual sights. Lazzara is standing in a trash can getting hosed off so he can continue to the next scene, as people debate how clean his face needs to be for the shot. Matt Fazzi is carefully trying to crawl out of a hole in the goo so he doesn’t have to change clothes again.
And in the name of expediency (and goo containment), Eddie Reyes has opted to do an interview without his pants, with Rubano, who does the interview without his shirt, allowing him to scratch goo residue off his arms and chest while he talks.
“I like a challenge,” Rubano says, smiling. “It’s something that happened on this album a lot too. There’s an element of a challenge on almost every song on the record. That’s very important to us as a band these days. That makes it exciting for us.”
Drummer Mark O’Connell says he likes the new single because it sounds unexpected and because it came about in an unexpected way.
“A lot of bands just sit there and try to write a hit,” he says. “I think it’s so cool how our first single comes out. No one was trying to just find a hit. We were just playing around and it just sort of came together in like an hour. It was there and you didn’t even know it yet.”
The reaction has been good, so far. “Sink Into Me” is up to No. 16 on Billboard’s Modern Rock charts.

Taking Back Sunday has wrapped up production on its fourth studio album, “New Again,” which will hit stores on June 2.
Taking Back Sunday is continuing its holiday tradition of offering greeting cards, with the proceeds going to various cancer charities.
Taking Back Sunday drummer Mark O’Connell still isn’t sure exactly what went wrong.
Though Taking Back Sunday is holed up working on the follow-up to "Louder Now," there is a new single out this week featuring Adam Lazzara.
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So I’m standing on the MTV Video Music Awards red carpet, minding my own business as I try to keep the casts of “Laguna Beach” and “The Hills” straight, when a giant panda bear approaches from behind and puts me in a headlock. (Yes, Stephen Colbert, I know. I watch the
Taking Back Sunday turned what could have been a run-of-the-mill benefit performance Wednesday night at Webster Hall into a special event, playing its “Louder Now” (Warner Bros.) album in its entirety from start to finish.