Rental Vans, Corn Nuts, and the Open Road: Emo Darlings Macseal Headlining First Tour

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Touring coast to coast? A big step. As headliners? Huge deal. But what really makes this tour unique for the indie rockers in Macseal? “It’s the first one that we didn’t book ourselves,” laughs one of the band’s vocalists and guitarists, Cole Szilagyi. 

That’s a solid milestone for a band that’s been at it since 2014. Emerging from Long Island’s legacy-laden emo community, Macseal has worked hard across albums, EPs, and live shows to build a reputation for melodic yet complex emo-meets-power pop. As such, they are VERY used to touring, however, Cole says these upcoming dates—kicking off on February 21 in Connecticut before going all the way to the West Coast and then back east to end in New York City on March 22—feel different because, “When you play for someone else’s crowd, you’re kind of like, I hope we win them over. And if not, that’s okay. They still get to see the band they paid for. But knowing that we’re playing to people who hopefully know more of our music is… I think it’s a good kind of pressure.”

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But how does Macseal prepare for that pressure? I interrupted that prep time to speak with all four members of the band—Cole, vocalist-guitarist Ryan Bartlett, bassist Justin Canavaciol, and drummer Frankie Impastato—over a video call about what a band at their buzzy level does to prepare for a month on the road in 2025. 

What are some things you’re doing now, while still at home, to get ready for this tour?

Justin: Well… this is gonna be the most we’ve practiced for a tour, I think ever.

Frankie: Usually before we go on a tour, we’ll get together the day before and run everything a single time and be like, “All right, we’re good to go.” But this time, we have three dedicated days where we’re gonna be working on different stuff each day. We haven’t played it yet, so we don’t know if it’s gonna work, but right now we have an on-paper perfect set that should flow beautifully from one song to the next. That took a lot of brain power because songs are in different tunings and obviously different keys. You don’t want everyone to be just watching you tune on stage for 15 minutes.

Any tips you’ve picked up from the bands you’ve toured with?

Frankie: Honestly, I think for a minute we were like, “Oh, we don’t wanna play the old songs. We only wanna play the new songs.” Because they’re new, they’re exciting, of course we wanna play them. But from touring with Prince Daddy, we see that it’s like you gotta play the old stuff and give the people what they want. 

Ryan: Also, I feel like everyone we’ve toured with has been really accommodating, so going into this tour, we wanna make sure that the other bands on the package are taken care of and having a good time.

What is going to be your mode of transportation?

Justin: For this tour, I got a Ford Transit high top. I rented it from Enterprise right next to my house. Not sponsored. I don’t want to be sponsored. The last tour I did the same thing. I rented a van through Enterprise and by the time we finished the tour we had gone through four vans. Like, I had to drive from the venue in Orlando to the Orlando airport with Ryan holding the back door shut with a piece of rope.

Cole: It worked out great, though. Turns out Ryan’s really strong. 

Any new gear for this tour?

Justin: I’m upgrading on this tour with a new Darkglass bass head. Shout out to Darkglass, who I guess are sponsoring me, unlike Enterprise. And I’m really excited because now my setup is like a quarter of the weight it used to be, so carrying things in and out of venues is gonna be a lot nicer for all involved.

Cole: Ryland from Origami Angel splits his guitar a million different ways, so it sounds like there’s like a bass and an electric guitar, and an acoustic guitar playing at the same time.  I picked his brain about it when we were on tour, and our newest record, Permanent Repeat has a lot of acoustic guitar, so I sort of rigged up a couple of these little pedals to make it sound like my electric is also an acoustic at the same time. Hopefully that works out.

Frankie: I just got the news that my new cymbal is backordered, so I’m devastated that I’m not getting that. Instead with that money, I bought a new Mets shirt.

Are you driving long distances every day or do you have some time off built in? 

Frankie: We have like seven off days, which are all travel days with probably a minimum of nine to 10 hours of driving. But in terms of mileage, none of the drives are that egregious. Like typically on tours, the route will be Salt Lake City to Denver which, without an off day, is a rough 13-hour drive. When putting the tour together, we were like, “Hey, we’re not gonna do that.”

Cole: Especially during a winter tour. We hear a lot of horror stories.

What is the band’s go-to entertainment for the long drives?

Ryan: Justin’s the main day driver and he just sits in silence.

Justin: I am so much more comfortable sitting in silence than everyone else in the van because when you have to play a show and soundcheck, it’s like six or seven hours of music every day. So silence just kind of hits, you know?

Ryan: We play this game called “My Cow” (that Frankie learned from a tour manager, named Lisa Larson). Basically when you see a cow, you say, “My cow,” and you get one point. If you see a church, you say, “Holy cow,” and that doubles your cows. If you see a graveyard, you say “Dead cow,” and then everyone else’s cows but yours are gone. We get pretty competitive.

Any particular road snacks that fuel you?

Ryan: I feel like we’ve gotten better at not having crap every time. Like the amount of times I’ve gotten just a candy bar when we stop just ’cause I’m bored and want something fun to eat… it’s so tempting. But now I’m really into corn nuts.

What is the impact of touring on your personal lives?

Frankie: I have a little dog and he has to go to daycare when I’m on tour and he really hates it. They’ll upload a picture of him every day and it’s him literally in the corner of the room, sitting by himself. I wish dogs could be on tour. Uh, and of course I miss my wife also. I live above my grandma too, and it stinks not to hang out with her every day. Every time I leave and come back, she says she was just counting down the days. Classic grandma guilt <laugh>. But yeah, I think it takes a toll on our families more than we like to think about.

Cole: Totally. I was in a long-distance relationship for a couple years, but we just moved in together. I’m in Chicago now, so it’s funny to be like, “We get to spend every day together now” and then be like “In five weeks we get to do that.”

Ryan: Once we get into it, it’s just so much fun. But also, you kind of… I don’t wanna say you feel guilty, but it’s like “Oh, I’m having a great time” and yet, my wife is at home taking the trash out. It’s cool and sucks at the same time. It’s a weird dichotomy.

During all the time together on the road, how do you keep peace amongst the band?

Justin: That’s where the silence in the van helps because no one can annoy each other.

Frankie: And I don’t think we’re a bougie band, but we all prioritize our well-being. Like if we’re having a bad time, we won’t think twice about getting a nice hotel room so we can all have a place to sleep and take a shower. Or we’ll go to the Cheesecake Factory and get a nice dinner. After all, that’s ultimately what makes people fight: hunger. So we make sure we’re fed.

Cole: Yeah, it’s a lot harder to be pissed off at someone when you’ve had a cookie skillet. 

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