Today marks the 10-year anniversary of Stay Bold or Get Old by Xavier’s School. Being in this band and making this record was one of my favorite creative periods of my life.

I met Aaron Apple at a Joyce Manor house show. We bonded over shared influences, started jamming for a couple months, and eventually decided to form a Get Up Kids cover band for the annual Valentine’s Day cover show. Aaron brought in his lifelong friends Lauren Bunke and Aaron Kayser, and after that one-off gig we knew this lineup needed to be an original band.

We originally performed under the name Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngers, an homage to the X-Men. We eventually shortened it to Xavier’s School. This change was inspired by Rival Schools who did a similar thing and it would limit the amount of errors we were seeing on posters.

Over the next two years we practiced weekly and played around 20 shows, opening for bands like The Sidekicks, Walter Mitty, Shellshag, The Velvet Teen, The Narrows, and a slew of other incredible regional bands.

Xavier’s School was the first band where I really focused on guitar and arrangement rather than lyrical content. I wanted to write songs that were interesting sonically, with a pop-punk edge, and let the music carry more of the emotional weight.

We tracked 11 songs in a single weekend with Erik Takuichi Wallace. Eight of those became the album, and three were released later as the Death To False Pop Punk EP. Most of the record is live takes. We settled in on Friday night and powered through some takes. The next day we grabbed breakfast at the Ferry Terminal (when StrEAT Food was still there), and finished drums, bass, guitars, keys, before overdubbing a second guitar and vocals. The only parts recorded outside that weekend were guest vocals by Alex Lockhart and my vocals for “Still Remember” after my voice gave out.

I mention this because I’ve never recorded that way since, and I think that fast, focused approach gave the record its character. It captured our scrappy live energy. In a world of AI and endless digital recording tricks, I’m really proud of how this album sounds. It sounds like humans playing music together.

When Apple moved to New York, that was the end of the band. There was some hope of doing one-off shows, but it never really materialized. Since the project started with Apple and he was such a big part of the collaboration and direction of the band, it never felt right to replace him and continue on.

I think about the time these songs were written and released, and it feels like a world that doesn’t exist anymore. I wrote “Eulogy Song” early on and sang, “This song is for the future, of a world less grim.” I meant a Star Trek-style future. One without homophobia or hate. I truly believed things would keep getting better.

These songs didn’t change the world, and by some cynical measures they might look like failures. But I don’t see it that way. Making music with my friends, imagining a good life, and choosing creation over destruction mattered. Even if I underestimated how much hatred was hiding in plain view, what we made together was real, fun, and beautiful. And that is something to write home about.

Thank you Aaron, Aaron, and Lauren. You made me a better musician, and I love the record we made together.

-Tyson 2/25/2026

Cat Positive will be playing songs from this album at our next two shows. The first pressing of the record on translucent gold vinyl is available in our online stores.