Many students have tuned out a boring teacher during class to daydream about doing what they love once they get to the “real world.” Travis McCoy, the vocalist of Gym Class Heroes, turned his daydreams into a reality.

“High school was a joke to me and I knew that I either wanted to do art or music, and gym class wasn’t helping me with either,” McCoy said.

Friends since high school, McCoy, drummer Matt McGinley, bassist Ryan Guise and former guitarist Milo Bonacci met in 1997 at a friend’s birthday party where the vocalist and the band were separately performing.

Bonacci was later replaced by guitarist Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo.

“They didn’t have a singer because they just played instrumentals. I was like ‘fuck it, there’s a mic up there,’ so I grabbed it and started rapping,” McCoy said. “We got together the following week and we’ve been together ever since.”

Originally fueled by the buzz of their debut album, For the Kids, Gym Class Heroes started work on their follow-up, The Papercut Chronicles, before being signed to a record label.

“We had all intentions of just putting out the album ourselves like our first one, but the guy who did our t-shirt designs ended up playing some songs for Pete [Wentz] from Fall Out Boy,” McCoy said.

Wentz took the demo to John Janic, head of Fueled by Ramen Records, and the rest is history.

“When we found out Fueled by Ramen’s interest we were like ‘whoa’,” McCoy said. “They build up a band and let them grow as opposed to a major [label] that just tosses you out there and expects the world to digest you without even knowing you.”

With a label supporting their effort, Gym Class Heroes went into the studio to complete work on their second album. They emerged with a polished, more mature sound than on their first album.

“There’s a lot of stuff on [The Papercut Chronicles] that definitely lets people into my personal life,” McCoy said. “I know there are a lot of people that have been through or will go through what’s happened to me. It’s hard putting some stuff on the album, but it helped me and it could help others.”

McCoy and company’s Chronicles is a collection of what can be best described as “hip-hop lounge.” Their lyrics and instrumentation embody a style of rap that evokes emotion in the listener, something McCoy said radio hip-hop has ceased to do.

“When I listen to a lot of hip-hop, I feel like [rappers] are degrading listeners,” McCoy said. “What’s disgusting is that it’s become a trend [to talk about money, cars and women] to where kids getting into hip-hop have no idea about that lifestyle…and everything is so formulaic that if [rappers] don’t talk about that stuff they’re not going to sell records.”

McCoy has turned his back on what is portrayed by the average rap video by creating songs that deal with love, life and personal issues in a poetic manner that is rarely vulgar.

The Papercut Chronicles features 18 tracks of inspiring music. The most effective track on Chronicles is “Faces in the Hall,” which deals with the murder of a homosexual high school student named Alberto.

“It could be a true story for anybody across the United States. I felt that it was something that needed to be touched on and heard,” McCoy said. “When I finished that song in the studio I almost threw up. If somebody listens to that song and gets the same feeling I got when writing it, then I’ve done my job.”

With the February release of the album behind them, Gym Class Heroes have begun a string of tours to support the new album and bring their unique brand of music to crowds across the United States.

Currently, they are on tour with label mates The Academy Is… and Fall Out Boy.

Next, the band will jump on a reggae tour until the summer when they will play on Vans Warped Tour. They will be playing a set that is vastly different than anything else on the tour, but are ready to shock those who thought mixing rap and rock tastefully was dead.

“We’re used to complacent crowds and dropped jaws when we come out,” McCoy said. “But then to see those same kids dancing their asses off by the second song…it blows me away.”