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The Academy Is… is back to having some fun.

"The last record was a bit of a darker record for us," bassist Adam T. Siska said. "We had lost a member, we had been feeling the pressure of trying to make that second record, and we'd been in the black cloud of touring for about five years in a row - and that's not easy."

Now, Siska proclaims, almost as a band mantra, "You should never take anything too seriously. This is life, have some fun and loosen up a little bit."

The result is Fast Times at Barrington High, which is not only a play on the classic 1982 movie Fast Times At Ridgemont High and a bit of nostalgia for Siska and lead singer William Beckett's former high school, but also a step back into the reason TAI came together in the first place.

"I think that this is the [record] that, I guess, when I was a kid, I imagined being in a band and making an album, and that this is the one I'd hoped we'd make," Siska said.

Whether this is the record of his dreams or not, this is the album the Chicago-based five-piece has been waiting for to break into the mainstream. The buildup to Fast Times brought the group previews in Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly and even the now-defunct CosmoGirl! The album debuted at No. 17 on the Billboard Top 200 and garnered rave reviews from Newsday, The New York Times and Alternative Press, which put the band on its June cover.

"I mean it's crazy," Siska said. "I never imagined I'd be on any chart, let alone Top 20, and it's a cool feeling. It's definitely nice to … come out and have a good debut like that. It shows everyone you have a lot of fans, and they're really passionate about the band, and they're going to go buy the record and not download it. It's an exciting thing. [But] all those things, they don't matter too much."

Now, in light of the recent and past success TAI has seen, the band members find themselves a little more than a month into a 40-date national tour. Dubbed "Bill & Trav's Bogus Journey Tour" in another obvious reference to TAI's love of 1980s cinema, the tour has been a real relief for the constantly-active band.

"The tour's been a blast," Siska said. Co-headliners "We The Kings are all real nice guys, and we're having fun playing together. And it's just been a lot of fun playing songs from three different albums now.

"It reminds us, you know, how awesome it is to play live when we finally come back and start playing shows every day," he continued. "I think we're reminded how therapeutic it is to get up on stage and play music every day with your friends. It's something that I don't think I could go without."

But what's most important is the band has never stopped having fun.

"You see so many bands that come out with these concept albums and their artwork is very serious, and in their promo they have their arms crossed and they're not smiling one bit," Siska said. "But for our band we wanted to show our fans that music is a really fun thing."

The Academy Is… will invade the 9:30 Club tonight with We The Kings, Carolina Liar and Hey Monday. Doors open at 6 and tickets cost $20.

diversionsdbk@gmail.com

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