Jesse Lacey

Lacey was raised in a Christian family on Long Island, where he was a regular churchgoer, although Lacey has said Christianity was never forced upon him. His parents listened to bands such as the Beatles, Steely Dan, Simon and Garfunkel and Bruce Springsteen, which Lacey has stated contributed towards both his interest and taste in music, commenting that "there was always a record playing, and good music, too". Albums by Billy Joel, "Weird Al" Yankovic and The Big Picture by Michael W. Smith were amongst some of the first that Lacey owned. Lacey attended General Douglas MacArthur High School in Levittown, New York along with John Nolan. After Nolan convinced Lacey to learn the bass guitar, the two friends would go on to form a number of bands during their high school years, one of which was named Gudmunder Bjornsen. He also learned how to play the trombone while participating in the church choir. In 1998, Lacey, along with Garrett Tierney, Brian Lane and Brandon Reilly formed the Rookie Lot, who would self-release a split EP as well as a demo tape. Lacey described his upbringing as "really white and really middle-class". In November 1999, Lacey formed Taking Back Sunday with guitarist Eddie Reyes; after adding Nolan to the band, Lacey moved to bass guitar. He contributed bass guitar and backing vocals to their first EP in 2001, but left the band during the recording sessions after Nolan slept with Lacey's girlfriend. Prior to becoming a full-time musician, Lacey had a number of different jobs, including working for the clothing retailer Gap Inc., a skate and bike shop, and also spending two days working at McDonald's, before quitting after being told "sexual harassment is going to happen, so get used to it". ==Musical career==

Brand New After the Rookie Lot broke up, its former members, with the exception of Reilly (who formed the Movielife), would form Brand New, recruiting Vincent Accardi as an additional guitarist. After recording and releasing a number of demos, the band released their debut album Your Favorite Weapon in 2001. Lacey provided lead vocals and guitar for the album, as well as writing lyrics for all of the songs. The band toured heavily up until work began on their second album in February 2003. Influenced by his time on the road, Lacey wrote much of the album on acoustic guitar in his bedroom. The album's success led the band to be engulfed in a bidding war between labels. Brand New toured for nearly 300 days to promote the album, causing Lacey to tear his patellar tendon. After finishing the extensive touring and promotional cycle for their album Deja Entendu, Lacey had become unsure as to whether he even wanted to release another record. In an interview, Lacey stated that he had the realization that he no longer wished to be associated with many of the people and bands he'd met over the past years with Brand New, and he also felt as though he had no friends. After the loss of a number of his friends and family members, Lacey and his bandmates purposely immersed themselves in their grief, channeling it into the songwriting with the hope of expelling it. Having previously become disillusioned and uninterested in the bands and people they were previously around, Lacey found friendship in bands such as Thrice, mewithoutYou, Manchester Orchestra and Kevin Devine, remarking that they had "created a small community". In 2008, Lacey along with his Brand New bandmates cofounded the record label Procrastinate! Music Traitors. Solo One of Lacey's first solo shows was on April 27, 2004, at The Downtown in Farmingdale, New York, performing a mixture of covers and songs by his band, Brand New. In July 2007, Lacey and Kevin Devine did an acoustic tour in the United States with Grace Read, with Lacey once again performing material from Brand New, as well as performing various tracks with Devine. In 2008 Lacey toured with Kevin Devine and Brooklyn native Brian Bonz, later stating in an interview how at this point he wished only to occasionally tour and perform Brand New material solo, believing that "the songs lack meaning" without his bandmates beside him. On January 31, 2025, Lacey performed a solo set in Los Angeles to raise money in relief of the Los Angeles wildfires. On March 2, Lacey performed his first public solo show since Brand New's breakup, where he performed new music and publicly addressed the death of his stepson for the first time in Madison, Tennessee. On December 14, 2025, Lacey played another public solo show in Nashville, with all proceeds going to the Second Harvest Food Bank. Other projects Outside of Brand New, Lacey has frequently collaborated with Kevin Devine, both in the studio and live. In 2005, Lacey was featured Kevin Devine's album Split the Country, Split the Street, providing vocals on the songs "Cotton Crush", "Afterparty", and "No One Else's Problem". In 2009, he would again contribute to the album ''Brother's Blood'', singing on "Tomorrow's Just Too Late". In 2013, Lacey produced the album Bubblegum. Lacey was initially nervous, as it was the first album he had produced outside of Brand New. Along with Kevin Devine, Lacey frequently appeared onstage and on tour with Manchester Orchestra. Other appearances by Lacey include contributing bass guitar to the track "Rocket" on the Intramural 2007 album This Is a Landslide, as well as providing bass and guitar on Grace Read's song "Cloak and Dagger", from her EP Young Guns. At various Brand New shows in 2014 and 2015, Lacey joined support band Dinosaur Pile-Up on stage, performing their track "Nature Nurture". Lacey and his wife Andrea released a cover of "In Spite of Ourselves", originally by John Prine in February 2015. In 2015, Lacey, along with Mike Sapone, co-produced the track "Aerobed" for the band Cymbals Eat Guitars, as part of the Devinyl Splits series, curated by Kevin Devine. American singer Halsey, a publicized Brand New fan, referred to Lacey as "largely responsible for why I write with such detail." Lacey and the rest of the band earned songwriting credits on Halsey's 2020 album Manic as a result of her sampling the "(Fork and Knife)" demo on her song "Alanis' Interlude". Brand New was thanked in the liner notes of Manic. In 2025, Lacey and Brand New drummer Brian Lane were named as co-writers and producers of the self-titled debut album from Stagediver, the solo project of Kelsey Kopecky. == Influences ==

Early on in his career as a musician, Lacey cited bands such as Lifetime, Foo Fighters, the Cars and Pearl Jam as influences for himself and Brand New. When discussing Deja Entendu, Lacey said that Sigur Rós and Outkast were among the few groups breaking new ground in music. Towards the release of The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, Lacey expressed his fandom of the Stone Roses and Ride. During the Daisy era, Lacey cited Polvo, Archers of Loaf, Fugazi and Modest Mouse as influences. He named Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine as the influences for the album's guitar sound. During Deja Entendu, Lacey's lyrics were written mostly about situations that he was personally close to. "Being white and middle-class is a very shallow thing to draw from... but I really can't write about anything else. There wasn't much about anyone else on that last record." Film, television and literature have also influenced his songwriting. During the writing and recording of the 2006 album The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, Lacey was particularly influenced by bands such as U2 and Radiohead to try writing using instruments other than the guitar. During the sessions, Lacey and Devine's friendship would play a major influence on his songwriting, with him looking to write more about current events. == Image ==

Lacey has been described by the media as being both enigmatic and reserved. He has no public social media accounts and only occasionally gives interviews, stating in one interview that although he enjoys talking to people, he and his Brand New bandmates feel more comfortable not having to worry about interviews, photo shoots and music videos, and that "those peripheral things had nothing to do with the project we were working on". His discomfort with interviews stems from American media outlets' tendency to misrepresent facts. "Most people don’t want you to look how you want to look. They want you to look how they want you to look," he said. "Writers have to make it interesting. The headline would end up being something stupid like 'We hate My Chemical Romance'." He also dislikes the idealized image that fans create of him in their heads. He said in 2006, "On the last tour, we were on the bus watching the Mets game, and some kid wandered through an unlocked door. He saw what we were doing, and he looked so disgusted at the fact that we were sitting around watching baseball. He thought we should be cutting ourselves and crying, not drinking beer and cheering." Following the success of Deja Entendu, Lacey was described by Kerrang! as a "heartthrob", an image which he disliked. "I don't want anyone listening to our music because they think I'm cute," he said. "We're hoping for things to go in a Radiohead way instead of a Justin Timberlake way. We want to be known for our music." ==Personal life==

Lacey is the second oldest of seven siblings, one of whom is a teacher. Another one of his siblings, Cody Lacey, is in the United States Navy. His brother Jamey Lacey is also a musician and was the vocalist of the band Coasta. His father is a nurse. In 2005, he revealed in an interview that he still lived in his parents' Long Island home. Andrea King had a son from a previous relationship, Miles, who became Lacey's stepson. Miles King Lacey died in February 2022, which the Lacey family did not disclose until June 2023. Following his death, the Laceys created a charity named Moms Skate Club. Prior to forming Brand New, Lacey attended Nassau Community College on Long Island for three years, studying child psychology and elementary education. Attending school with fellow musician John Nolan, the two friends had a brief, highly publicized falling out. This would lead Lacey to write "Seventy Times 7", which appeared on Brand New's 2001 album Your Favorite Weapon, while Nolan would later write about the dispute from his perspective in the Taking Back Sunday track "There's No I in Team". Later, Lacey and his Brand New bandmates stated that the "situation cleaned itself up a lot sooner than most people thought it did", and that the situation had been blown out of proportion by fans and the media. Lacey has described fellow musician Kevin Devine as one of his best friends, as well as citing him as a musical influence. Lacey has an interest in photography and graphic design, and has had a part in designing and composing artwork for a number of releases by Brand New. Sexual misconduct allegations In late 2017, Lacey was accused of sexual misconduct by two women, who alleged the events occurred 15 years prior while they were underage and Lacey was in his early 20s. Lacey apologized publicly for cheating on Brand New's Facebook page and admitted to having a sex addiction in his past, which he had sought treatment for over a decade before the allegations were brought public. He did not acknowledge the alleged age of his accusers in his apology. ==Discography==

With Brand New • Your Favorite Weapon (2001) • Deja Entendu (2003) • The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me (2006) • Daisy (2009) • Science Fiction (2017) With the Rookie Lot • five-track demo tape (1998) • The Rookie Lot/Yearly split 7-inch (1999) Appearances Production discography ==References==