It’s been an undeniably eventful few years for The Menzingers. As they announce their upcoming eighth album Everything I Ever Saw, Greg Barnett unpacks how marriage, divorce and fatherhood fuelled their immediate songwriting and why, 20 years in, the best is still ahead of them…
Life comes at you fast. If you’re not paying attention to what’s happening in the present, the most magical moments of your life may pass you by. It’s something that Greg Barnett has been thinking about a lot lately. As one half of The Menzingers’ songwriting engine, he has always used his lyrics to document chapters in his band’s life and, as their new album Everything I Ever Saw shows, there has been a lot to write about recently. On one hand, getting married and welcoming his first child, Ruby, into the world promised new beginnings. At the same time, his co-conspirator guitarist and singer Tom May was going through a divorce and starting over. The sense of doors opening and closing is reflected across Everything I Ever Saw and capturing this time has resulted in immediate storytelling that ranks among the band’s finest.
Alongside the release of their eighth album, 2026 also marks The Menzingers’ 20th year together. “In true Menzingers fashion, I think it will be the 21st birthday that will be the big one,” chuckles Greg, noting their long tradition of soundtracking boozy parties. While Greg, Tom, bassist Eric Keen and drummer Joe Godino have all grown together in the band, their fans have grown up alongside them with their songs soundtracking some of the most significant moments of their lives. For all the memories they’ve gathered on this ride from the sweaty house shows of north-eastern Pennsylvania to travelling the world, it is the present and what is to come that excites Greg the most…
Your albums always seem to capture a moment in time. Was that songwriting approach heightened by all the big changes you were going through personally?
“Yeah, it was one of those records that felt very organic, like how we did [2012 classic] On The Impossible Past. Particularly on this album, I got married and my wife was pregnant while we were writing. Tom got a divorce and he started a new relationship. We had these really huge life changes that were happening and it felt like a moment in the band’s life where we needed to document exactly what was happening. And if some of our albums look towards the past or the future, this one feels so immediate and in the present. It felt exactly like what was happening in our lives.”
Knowing you were about to become a father while writing, was part of you thinking what kind of song you would want to show your daughter when she’s older?
“Absolutely. One big thing that shifted in my writing was a lot of my lyrics in the past were pretty self-deprecating. I think I had to change my mindset because now I’m going to be relied upon. Instead of being anxious I need to have more confidence in myself for her, you know? Instead of dealing with your inner torment or whatever, it’s time to step up and be the person you’ve always wanted to be. And I think that comes through in the writing.”
In the lead single Nobody’s Heroes there’s that lyric, ‘You can always reinvent yourself.’ It sounds like you’re talking to Tom about his break-up, but at the same time were you also trying to encourage yourself?
“Yeah. I knew that I wanted to write a song for Tom so that he knows how much me, Eric and Joe are there for him. But that being said, the song really did develop into something bigger than that. The line, ‘You can always reinvent yourself,’ that was something my dad would always tell me whenever I was going through a hard time. It always stuck with me and it’s true. It’s never too later to be the person you want to be. That was kind of my mantra with Tom, so to see him find happiness through all this is beautiful. But it really did come back to the kind of things that I want to instil in my child and nieces.”
You were experiencing all these new beginnings becoming a husband and father, but at the same time for Tom there was a chapter of his life closing. Was it challenging at all holding both of those things at once in the band?
“Some days yes, some days no. A lot of my songs on this album are love songs, reflecting on my marriage and writing my vows. When She Enters My Dreams is a quintessential love song. When he was going through his heartbreak and I’m sharing a song about getting married, it could be difficult when he’s ending his marriage and sharing a divorce song. But we communicate so well as friends and I think we were able to craft something really special together between those moments. This album was one of those times where music was just pouring out of Tom and it was incredible to capture it.”
Are there any particular songs of Tom’s you love on this album?
“The Fool absolutely blew me away. When he sent us the demo for that we all just stopped in our tracks like, ‘You gotta be kidding me, dude.’ It’s such an anthem! That was one of the first songs we had that kicked off the album. Parade Day was also such a personal song for him. We were wrapping up the album when he wrote that and he was like, ‘I’ve got something special, just give me a little more time,’ and when he finished it they were powerful lyrics. I’m really glad we managed to get that on there. I also love when Tom writes political songs and Other People’s Money is one of his best.”
Other People’s Money sarcastically mentions ‘A billionaires in space / Gonna save the human race.’ You guys have never buried your leftist leanings but how does it feel to be a conscientious band in America right now?
“It’s absolutely crazy. When Tom was writing Other People’s Money, that was at the height of Elon Musk dumping an exorbitant amount of money, buying elections, then suddenly he’s in Trump’s government firing people with no fucking idea what he's doing. These billionaires run our country and we’re just forced to deal with it. Tom says this onstage sometimes and he’s right, we’re not politicians and I don’t have answers to help everyone. But it does feel absurd and I want to be there for our fans that feel the same way to know that they’re not alone in their anger and frustration at the world.”
2026 marks 20 years since you formed the band and you’ve managed to keep the same members, which is quite rare. Have the relationships between the four of you changed much over the years?
“It’s a rollercoaster, right? I mean, Eric is now my brother-in-law! Some things have changed, but I would say right now the four of us are closer than we’ve ever been. We still all live like a block away from each other. We’ve always valued our friendships away from the band and we just have so much fun playing together. People say to us all the time that they can’t believe it’s still the four of us after 20 years and we’re like, ‘What else would we do? This rules!’
“But the thing is, whenever we think about how long we’ve been together we always say, ‘Yeah, but our best years are still ahead of us.’ I think it’s easy for bands 20 years in to just hit cruise control and ride nostalgia, but we have no interest in that. We want to make music that gets us just as pumped as when we were teenagers where it’s the most fun, exciting thing in our lives.”
Having all of this history together and having these big life shifting moments happening while writing this album, did it pull into focus why the band is important? For you guys and your fans?
“Oh, totally. Apart from going through all this together, when we go on tour people have our lyrics tattooed on them. They bring their kids to our shows. After The Party [the title-track from their 2017 album] has become like a wedding anthem for the punks. We get tagged in photos all the time of people on the dance floor at their wedding, dancing to that song. People are sharing the most important moments of their lives with this thing we’ve created. Does it get any better than that? That sense of community is the most exciting thing I take away from 20 years of this band. There’s this interconnectedness between us that feels really powerful and special.”
Everything I Ever Saw is released on July 17 via Epitaph. Catch The Menzingers live at Slam Dunk Festival next month, which takes place at Hatfield Park on Saturday, May 23 and Leeds Temple Newsam on Sunday, May 24 – get your tickets now.
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