PopWrapped caught up with Derek Sanders, lead vocalist and piano man for Mayday Parade, at Warped Tour 2014. Derek shared with us what it was like to go from being a young fan of the tour to eventually headlining Warped Tour with Mayday Parade on the Main Stage. See what he had to say, below!

Zachary Jaydon: So this is Warped Tour number six for you, and I would say that you are inarguably one of the biggest bands that has ever gone on Warped Tour. What’s it like to see everything go on for so long, and how do you feel about everything from year to year?

Derek Sanders: It’s really crazy. this year is very special for us, because we went from following the tour in 2006 to playing it a bunch of different times on a lot of different stages and now the Main stage for the very first time. It’s just really incredible crowds, so energetic and big and just I have so much fun every single day. Every time on stage [when] we play I think back to selling CDs here, I think back to when I was a kid in 2002 going to [Warped] tour for the first time and how amazed I was by all of it. So, it’s really incredible and I’m sad it’s almost over, only one [show] left and that’s it.

ZJ: That’s exactly the reaction we hear from everybody, and I know you guys are in the middle of a seventeen or eighteen day stretch; I know when we did this it was crazy, and one thing that I looked forward to most was a shower everyday in a full-sized shower and clean laundry. Is there anything that you look forward to when you go home?

DS: Um no, just sleeping at my house in my bed and my family at home. I have a daughter, so it’s great to have some time off every now and then but it’s also very amazing to be able to do this. I’m very luck to be able to do both, you know.

ZJ: Have you brought your daughter out to see you at all this tour?

DS: Yeah, she came to three or four shows, so it’s great to break it up like that and be able to see her more often.

ZJ: She’s kind of grown up in all of this. What does she think about having a famous daddy who’s a rock star?

DS: She’s only two so she’s starting to understand it, but she loves coming out [to the shows], she loves watching from the side of the stage. She jumps up and down and sings while we’re playing.

ZJ: What’s next for you guys?

DS: We’re doing Reading and Leeds Festival in the UK at the end of August, and we’re doing a tour in the fall. We haven’t announced yet, so I can’t really say much about it, but it will be really cool. We’ll wrap up here, and then in 2015 we’ll be working on our next album, and just keep on.

ZJ: Are you guys playing anything new on this tour that fans might see on the next record?

DS: No we’re not, we’re not quite there yet. We do have a lot of new ideas individually; I have a bunch of ideas I’m working on and excited about. We haven’t started getting together and getting everything finished, but hopefully before long we can start getting ready for that.

ZJ: Out of every band that has ever played this tour, you guys epitomize what this tour is about, that no matter what, when you go and chase your dreams that anything is possible. Is there any advice that you would want to give to another band that is looking to do this? You went from chasing the tour to headlining it. What would you say to some of the other bands that want to play this tour?

DS: There is a spot for everybody out here, you just have to really want it and work for it and stay positive and do it your way, you know. Whether or not it works out with Warped Tour, there’s a way to make it happen. I know it’s tough, I know that selling CDs in the lines the way that we did has kind of changed a little bit, but there’s always an angle you can figure out. So, just stick at it and stay positive.