The Academy Is…

BIOGRAPHY

It’s hard to believe that 20 years have passed since The Academy Is… released their breakthrough debut, Almost Here, a record that quietly shaped an entire underground era. In the time since, the Chicago-born band — William Beckett, Mike Carden, Adam Siska, and Andy Mrotek — have grown up, built families, and lived full lives. Yet The Academy Is… never stopped being part of who they are, and after the long stillness of the pandemic years, making the band a priority again began to feel not just possible but necessary.

“William and I made the first record at nineteen and walked away at twenty-eight,” Carden says. “Almost There is really about everything that’s happened in the space between.” In many ways, Almost There is a conceptual companion to Almost Here in the sense that it’s the same core group of musicians revisiting their dreams from two decades ago and seeing if their teenage aspirations came true. The album is based in the present as it reexamines the past through a lens of wisdom and reflection that only comes with experience.

A lot has happened. After the success of Almost Here, the band toured relentlessly and released two beloved albums, Santi (2007) and Fast Times at Barrington High (2008), before stepping away in 2011. A 2015 reunion brought them back for Riot Fest and other marquee shows, but the deeper creative spark didn’t fully ignite until years later. “We want to write from where we actually are now,” Carden explains. “Our audience is growing with us. They’re dealing with the same real-life changes, the same celebrations, the same setbacks.”

He also acknowledges that this record is, at its core, an exploration of his creative relationship with Beckett. “This album is also very much about my relationship with Bill,” Carden says. “Bill and I had our share of complications early in our careers…yet every time we reconnect creatively, something undeniable sparks. It took years to understand just how rare and special that really is.”

The seeds of Almost There began to form during rehearsals in Las Vegas for When We Were Young in 2023. “Almost Here was about leaving home,” Beckett reflects. “This album is about finding your way back. It’s the other end of the spectrum.” The songs sit with the bittersweet truth that time moves fast. Years stack up without warning. The person you were slowly meets the person you’ve become. There’s a quiet urgency throughout the album, a sense that if something matters, you can’t keep waiting for the perfect moment to chase it.

From the swelling, atmospheric opener “Up in the Air” to the breezy acoustic nostalgia of “2005,” the album blends memory with clarity. Energy still cuts through. “Miracle” lands like a spark, and “L Train” finds Beckett stretching his voice across stark, intentional arrangements, but the emotional center remains grounded.

Even while touring a sold-out twentieth anniversary run of Almost Here, the band didn’t feel pressure to create new music. That lack of expectation created the space for honesty. After years inside the machinery of the mid-2000s scene, they finally had room to make something that didn’t have to look or sound like what came before.

“I don’t think anyone from our circle of bands has really celebrated or documented what that scene meant in the mid-00s,” Beckett explains. “It was such a special, powerful time, and the whole experience...from us as the musicians to the fans...was something truly rare." That space, acknowledgment without imitation, is the beating heart of Almost There. The album reaches back not to relive youth but to understand it. “There’s a feeling we were trying to tap into,” Carden says. “Can you go back there? Even for a second?”

When Beckett sings “Sometimes it feels like the first time I’m with you” on the closing track “Ten Years,” it doesn’t just echo their history. It widens into something universal. It’s the sound of moving forward while honoring the past that shaped you.

Don’t worry.

We’re almost there.

Almost There will be out everywhere on I Surrender Records on March 27, 2026.