Upset, April 2016

DEFTONES

upsetmagazine.com Editor: Stephen Ackroyd (stephen@upsetmagazine.com) Deputy Editor: Victoria Sinden (viki@upsetmagazine.com) Assistant Editor: Ali Shutler (ali@ upsetmagazine.com) Contributors: Alex Lynham, Corinne Cumming, Danny Randon, Emma Swann, Emily Pilbeam, Giles Bidder, Heather McDaid, Jack Glasscock, Jade Curson, Jessica Goodman, Kathryn Black, Kristy Diaz, Marty Hill, Nariece Sanderson, Ryan De Freitas, Sarah Louise Bennett, Steven Loftin, Will Richards All material copyright (c). All rights reserved.

This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of Upset. Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, for which Upset holds no responsibility. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of Upset or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions.

Distributed nationally.

P U B L I S H E D F RO M

THE BUNKER W E LCO M E TOT H E B U N K E R.CO M

IN THIS ISSUE RIOT 6 WEEZER 10 J O H N N Y F O R E I G N E R 12 F U N E RA L F O R A FRIEND 14 B O S TO N M A N O R 15 M AX RA PTO R 16 A RC H I T E CT S ABOUT TO BREAK 18 CHEAP MEAT 19 KATIE ELLEN

41 DEFTONES 43 THREE TRAPPED TIGERS 45 FRIGHTENED RABBIT 48 FUTURE OF THE LEFT 49 TRACKS OF THE MONTH LIVE 50 TWENTY ONE PILOTS 52 CREEPER 53 MUNCIE GIRLS 54 ENTER SHIKARI

FEATURES 20 DEFTONES 28 BLACK PEAKS 32 RUN FOR COVER RECORDS 36 THE WONDER YEARS

COMING UP 57. ON THE ROAD

RATED 40 WEEZER

VS THE INTERNET 62. PVRIS

FESTIVALS 58. 2000TREES 60. HANDMADE FESTIVAL

EDITOR’S NOTE You can talk

P.20

about legendary bands all you like, but very few deserve the title as much as Deftones. Actually incapable of putting out a duff album, with their latest ‘Gore’ they’ve ridden a bit of internal conflict like that famed white steed into battle to produce one of the most interesting records of their career.

They’re not the only veterans showing they can still mix it, either.

Weezer are back - and not just in a ‘have a new album out’ way, either. Maybe all those long nights praying finally paid off, because the White Album is exactly the full-length we’ve all been waiting for. Smart, perfectly pitched, dorky and melodic - even for those of us who maintain that, bar ‘Raditude’, it’s never been that bad - it’s like the last fifteen years x didn’t happen.

S

RIOT

E V E RY T H I N G H A P P E N I N G I N RO C K

“I GUESS YOU PROBABLY HEARD ABOUT TINDER?”

EVE RYO N E H AS A N O PI N I O N O N W E EZ E R , BUT WITH THEIR NEW ALBUM THEY’RE B A C K AT T H E T O P O F T H E I R G A M E .

WORDS: ALI SHUTLER

W

eezer haven’t had the easiest of journeys in their 24 years of being a band, but one thing that’s remained constant is their desire to push things forward.

Ten albums in and every single one, for better or worse, has had its own distinct feel. From the scene-defining one-two of the ‘Blue’ album and ‘Pinkerton’ through the bold stance of the ‘Red’ album and to the grandiose three-part rock epic that promises ‘Everything Will Be Alright In The End’, the band haven’t shied away from change. the ‘White’ album continues that trend of reactive evolution.

Finding new places to take the band is “a struggle” admits frontman Rivers Cuomo. “I think most people think of this record as 100% my creation but there’s definitely a lot of push and pull. This time it felt like there were two camps. There was one camp of conservatism and keeping things rooted in that nineties alt-rock sound, and then there was another camp that wanted to throw all that out the window and try crazy new things. This record is a result of those two camps fighting.”

That to-and-fro opened up new places for the ‘White’ album to go and Rivers “wouldn’t have it any other way. If I got things 100% the way I wanted them, it wouldn’t be as rich of an album. I see myself as on the radical side,” while Jake Sinclair, who produced both this album and Panic! At The Disco’s ‘Death of A Bachelor’ is “very much in the camp of the old school fan. We were wrestling back and forth and I think we came up with something that’s the best of both worlds.”

That fervent old-school spirit is something the band have had to contend with since the start, but you don’t need to know all the ins and outs to fully appreciate the ‘White’ album. New to Weezer? Perfect.

Rivers thinks that’s cool, so come on in. “From day one, from that first album we’ve been focused on trying to make classic records. It’s never really felt like something that’s in style. Hopefully they’re songs that people of all ages and all backgrounds can relate to. I think Weezer records will never be particularly trendy but it’ll take a long time for them to go out of fashion too.”

Work on the ‘White’ album began pretty quickly after the release of ‘Everything Will Be Alright In The End’, the band starting it “in earnest about a year ago, but there are bits and pieces from throughout our history.”

‘Thank God For Girls’ line “I’m so glad I got a girl to think of even though she isn’t mine. I think about her all the day and all the night, it’s enough to know that she’s alive,” was written in 1997.

Approaching the writing with a view to create “a beach album” gave the band focus. “It definitely helps you, it gives you some inspiration,” explains Rivers.

“At least it gives me inspiration as a writer and it also 8 upsetmagazine.com

“I’M ALREADY WELL INTO THINKING ABOUT THE ‘BLACK’ ALBUM.” helps you, when you’re sifting through mountains of old music, you can find the stuff that helps you fit your theme.” Apparently the band looked through a backlog of 250 songs, but Rivers doesn’t keep count.

The ‘White’ album wasn’t a simple collage exercise from past experience though. To take the band forward once more, Rivers had to break himself out of his comfort zone. The record was inspired by “just getting out of the house, hanging out at the beach and meeting people. I guess you probably heard about Tinder?” he asks. The vocalist, with his wife’s blessing, used the app to talk with guys and girls outside of the band/fan dynamic in an attempt to find new points of contact. “I just noticed I was set in my ways. I was sitting at home a lot and by chance I might have to go out for something, maybe a friend’s birthday party. At first I’m reluctant and I don’t want to go. I might not necessarily even have a good time, I might feel alienated at the party but the next morning when I get up to write a song, I realised I have something to write about.

There’s some memories and some visual images in my mind and everything flows and that’s when I realised, maybe I should get out of the house more often.”

That sense of rediscovery is threaded throughout the ‘White’ album. “I think pretty much everything I’m singing about is some sort of reaction to a social experience I’ve had.”

“I like creating stuff that’s intriguing and puzzling and inspiring and makes you want to listen to it again and keep studying it to try to figure out what the hell is going on,” admits Rivers. “Ultimately I want to create something that I don’t understand. That means writing from an unconscious place as much as I can. I’ll do a lot of stream of consciousness writing or wake up in the morning and ramble for three pages into a journal and then there’s a lot of cut and paste work where you go back and find cool lines in journals, in books, poems and snippets of overheard conversations. Then you reassemble it into this story that seems to be about this thing that happened but it’s so weird that it seems like maybe it couldn’t have happened. Then when you go to record it, you try and go to a place where you’re not thinking, you’re just reacting.”

For the ‘White’ album, Weezer - Rivers, guitarist Brian Bell, bassist Scott Shriner and drummer Patrick Wilson allowed themselves space to

explore and react to their own parts before anything else. “This time we worked independently more than we ever have before,” starts Rivers. “Each guy would have time in the studio on his own, without the other guys and specifically without me. Everyone had time to really craft his parts before getting any input from me and I like that. I like having it taken out of my control. It turns it into something more complicated and multi-layered.” Despite the friction, the self-discovery and the puzzle, “it seems like all the pieces settle and sit together like they’re supposed to sit together and I don’t know that we really understand it, which is the goal. As I said, it should be something complex and beyond our understanding but it does seem like everything is where it’s supposed to be.”

look around my studio at home and think about my writing process, it’s all just little bits, pieces and techniques that I’ve picked up from other people.”

The band didn’t just rely on their own input though as they asked the fans to “figure into the process. Like I said, I’m the guy who wants to throw out the rulebook and do something different each time but we make sure to check in with fans as we’re working. We have fans all around the country so when we happen to be in Chicago or something, we bring fans backstage after the show and say ‘here’s some new demos, check them out. What do you think?’. We like trying out different ideas and at the end of the day, we’ve got to make the decisions on what we want to do but it’s good to get input and ideas from all over the place. I always learn something from working with another artist and I just

The band are very aware of their history but they’re not trying to outrun any shadows cast by previous chapters. “I completely forget the previous albums.

If anything, if my attention gets pulled anywhere else it’s to the next album.

I’m already well into thinking about the ‘Black’ album which’ll be coming out in a year.”

Weezer may have looked outside their bubble, but the ‘White’ album is an assured record. The band sound like they know exactly what they’re doing throughout and the concept, while nuanced and suggestive, gives their tenth album a steely focus. A few weeks before release Rivers is “still feeling pretty good” about the record. There are no nerves, instead he’s “super confident, positive and can’t wait for everyone to hear it,” however that’ll only last “until it comes out and then we get all the criticism,” he explains with a laugh. “Then I move on to the next record and do it all over again.”

Sorry, what?

“I’ve just got to go with what feels exciting in the moment and right now, I’m excited to do a black album but y’know, that could change. The next album is going to feel like an urban environment, night-time and gritty and

hopefully a lot more modern sounds, synthesised sounds, samples maybe. I like to break away from the ‘distorted power chord’ thing but its hard ‘cause it works so well.”

With the ‘White’ album out in the world and a short European run complete, the rest of Weezer’s year will see the band working on the ‘Black’ album around a summer run with Panic! At The Disco.

“I’ve been hearing great things about Panic’s fanbase, that they’re really open minded and just huge fans of music.

Some of the bands that Panic! have toured with in the past have gone on to be very successful so hopefully that happens to us too,” Rivers adds with a chuckle. Touring beyond that depends on how the ‘White’ album does. Weezer are constantly reacting to what’s around them. “If the record grows and starts to get a new fanbase, we’ll stay on the road and we’ll postpone the ‘Black’ album, otherwise we’ll jump into the studio in the fall.”

It’s an ambitious plan underpinned with a sense of optimism which is reflected in the ‘White’ album and, despite the band’s constant forward momentum, is something they’ve always channelled. “I think all Weezer records have a hopeful quality to them. I’m always feeling hopeful. It’s just who I am,” explains Rivers. “I’ve been that way since I was a little kid, I always had a big dream.” P Weezer’s self-titled ‘White’ album is out now.

9

BRUMMIE FOUR-PIECE JOHNNY FOREIGNER ARE WORKING ON THEIR NEXT F U L L- L E N GT H .

WO RDS : J ESS I CA G O O D M A N IN THE STUDIO WITH...

JOHNNY FOREIGNER

“Y

ou start to question how much of what we do is an expensive ego trip, just putting off the real world for another year to play rock band,” Johnny Foreigner frontman Alexei Berrow deliberates. It’s certainly been a lengthy journey for the band. In their decadelong history, the Birmingham quartet have released four albums, a number of EPs, and performed everywhere from their hometown to Johannesburg. Holed up in their rehearsal space, they’ve spent the past two months working on album number five.

“We’ve been sleeping in our own beds and trying to maintain a normal life at the same time,” Alexei chuckles, “but it’s been the most intensive project we’ve done.” Battling with broken technology, illness, minor explosions, and a partial roof collapse, it’s not been an easy ride, but at long last the record is finally nearing completion. “With ‘You Can Do Better’ I tried writing from other perspectives, moulding events to better suit my narrative,” he recalls of the group’s last record. “For this, I really swung back hard in the other direction.”

Opening up on record isn’t something

10 upsetmagazine.com

the group take lightly. “Some songs are like spells, and I feel like if I say what/who/when they’re about then the spell breaks,” Alexei reflects.

Looking back on some of the moments that inspired their music, it’s apparent why the group keep the more personal details hidden. “I had my second police-car-accidentally-tries-toremove-my-legs incident,” he winces.

“Literally centimetres away from death, both cars steaming write-offs.

I called a cab and went to work. Shit just happens, and it’s terrible, and we deal with it. Can’t go on, must go on.”

Disaster and turmoil seem to be things Johnny Foreigner encounter on an all too frequent basis. “We’re of the age now where tragedy is regular, and it was weirdly refreshing as a songwriter-slash-emotional vampire to get used to that,” the frontman expresses. “The drama’s still there, it just doesn’t only happen in taxis and nightclubs. There’s births and deaths and marriages and divorces; the stakes are higher.”

Keeping the album title under wraps, but hinting at a release date for June (“though as ever we reserve the right to be casually late”), the quartet may have given up the dreams of mass stardom,

BIT ON THE SIDE There’s more to Johnny Foreigner than their output as a band. Frontman Alexei Berrow talks through the various side projects.

Releasing a new EP with drummer Junior Laidley as Yr Poetry, the musicians have certainly been busy.

“My solo shiz is called Yr Friends, and Junior’s is Fridge Poetry,” he explains.

“This confuses more people than not.” Bewildering though the divides may seem, the projects are distinctly removed from one another.

“When the genesis of a song starts in my head, it’s like it comes prestamped for Johnny Foreigner or Yr Poetry or Yr Friends. One’s like a baby and the other one a pet,” he jests. “Me and Junior pretty much live for music, and not doing something feels like a waste of time. We care and nurture Johnny Foreigner, and just use Yr Poetry to have some fun in the gaps.

Not so great pet owners, really.”

but they’ve no shortage of ambition when it comes to their own personal expectations. “I hope people who love our other records will love this as the rad next chapter of us honing our craft and progressing through life with them,” Alexei conveys, before taunting: “I hope we get BRIT nominated. Be satisfied with whatever the middle point of that is.” P

“WHATEVER LEVEL OF A SHIT YOU HAVE GIVEN ABOUT OUR BAND, THANK YOU.” T H E Y ’ V E B E E N AT T H E TO P O F TH E B RITI SH ROCK SCENE FOR FIFTEEN YEARS, BUT NOW FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND A R E C A L L I N G I T A D AY .

N OT B E FO RE O N E F I N A L C H AT, T H O U G H .

W O R D S : H E AT H E R M C D A I D

12 upsetmagazine.com

W

hen talking about the legacy of Funeral For a Friend once they end their fifteen years together and walk off stage for that final time, Matt Davies-Kreye has some trouble with the idea. “Legacies belong to bands like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. It’s hard for me to fathom answering that question without me sounding like a cock!”

It’s this nature of just making and playing music for their own passions

that is one of the key factors why Funeral For A Friend have stood the test of time while many peers disbanded. They made music, it was good music, and, whether or not they planned on it, there’s a definite impact they’ve left on British rock.

“If I had to choose anything,” he continues, “being true to yourself and forging your own path, not following trends and not caring what people think. Following whatever excites you creatively - if they get that from us then that’d be awesome.”

For Funeral, being true to themselves meant calling it a day when they felt they had come full circle with ‘Chapter and Verse’. What was it about

this album that felt like the journey had come to that point? “I think for me, it was the root,” explains Matt.

“It was really rediscovering the root of where our sound came from, the acknowledgement of that is when we realised there was nowhere else for us to really go.

The road that we travelled in those years was quite a varied, interesting, pretty bumpy road that taught us a lot.”

“FUNERAL WERE A HUGE PA R T O F A L L O F O U R M US I CA L U PB RI N G I N G A N D A MASSIVE INFLUENCE ON U S WA N T I N G T O L E A R N A N D P L AY M U S I C . A S A

flat out say this record you put out changed my life. Fucking hell, that’s mental. I imagine that’s how Walter Schreifels felt when I told him how much Quicksand meant to me.

It didn’t just B A N D W E H AV E A H U G E “In my head it felt like when we teach them, but A M OU NT TO TH A N K TH E M finished that record that this is it; I hordes of fans in FOR, FROM THEIR think we all kind of felt it. It felt like music. Creeper I N F LU E N C E U P O N US, TO this really reconnected with the fans, and Moose the music, the scene that inspired Blood are but “I never thought TA K I N G U S O U T O N O U R me to even consider picking up a two acts the for once we F I R S T E V E R T O U R ! M AY microphone or guitar. It’s very much band gave early would be in a THEY BE REMEMBERED a record born from the kind of 90s support slots position to be FOREVER.” hardcore that I grew up with and some to. Intentional this way, but of the guys in the band adopted from or otherwise, I have always MOOSE BLOOD me playing them incessantly. So, it Funeral became felt like that is had that effect and it feels like a very a band who something that selfish Matt Davies record, really, but actively shaped is inherently everybody was totally into it.” the acts many of their fans went on important, to share opportunities. to love. “We’re fans of music first and I don’t want to play with pompous Now that we know ‘Chapter and Verse’ foremost,” he notes. “We spent a few ignoramuses who play cock rock and is the last stop on this particular years out in the wilderness not really fuck everything that moves, slam down journey and can look back on all those caring about who we took. It wasn’t bottles of whisky every night and get albums before it, how do they fit in? until the last five or so years that we fucked and not give a shit. That’s so far “Every one is different,” notes Matt. really made the effort to try and get removed from what I ever want to be “They’re a signpost along the way. For more involved in the scene again. I or our band to be associated with. We me, the album that I love with all my shut myself off for the longest time, wanted real, we wanted reality and the heart from start to finish is ‘Hours’. you know life was just fucking nuts, bands we have been lucky enough to That is the purest thing I think Funeral and then I started going to shows play with over the last 4-5 years have For A Friend have ever done as a and seeing bands play and seeing the just been hugely inspirational in their whole. It’s always going to be my little simplicity and honesty of the hardcore own right to us.” baby. Everything else really pales in scene again, I realised how stupid I was comparison!” he jokes. to even try to leave it behind.

When it comes to their final shows, they’re starting to get a sense that “‘Casually Dressed...’ I love, but I wish “I’m glad in terms of the choices of they’re saying goodbye bit by bit, we could have avoided putting EP bands I invited to play with us; the venue by venue, in this musical suit songs on it and maybe had more people who were working with us, at least. “It’s a very difficult thing to time to put a full record out. I love whoever we wanted to play with they articulate because it’s not like we all ‘Hours’ because it feels like the first were cool with. We’ve played with start breaking down and blubbering record where everything was written everybody. A lot of US bands we have and crying. It’s kind of a beautiful thing from scratch. brought over like because everybody got together and Everything else Major League was singing way louder than me, I “ G R O W I N G U P, F U N E R A L is kind of an and Such Gold, found myself stopping and just looking FOR A FRIEND WERE ONE exploration, a that blows my at the audience and looking over at the O F T H E M O S T I M P O R TA N T breakdown of mind because we dudes in the band and was like ‘this is B A N D S T O M E .

T H E Y aspects of what speak to these fucking it’. I’ll never be in this place and we do and what people and we doing it on this stage, when you think C H A N G E D T H E L A N DSCA PE we like musically. have friends in about it that way it’s a bit shit but it’s OF UK MUSIC AND WERE ‘Tales...’ - that was these bands and also cool because people were having T H E S O U N D T R A C K T O M Y done through I never once a good time, dancing, singing and that’s F I R S T R E L AT I O N S H I P S . burnout and thought that our how it should be.”

‘Memory...’ was band would be a THEY WERE THE BAND from a rush band that people With other directions, musical and T H AT A L L O F Y O U R F R I E N D S before our record would care about. otherwise, on the cards for the band, AG RE E D O N . T H I S I S SO label put out our It’s been very this is but the end of one big chapter best of. much a humbling of their lives, not the end. “It’s like a MUCH MORE THAN JUST experience to closure,” says Matt. “I would like to say LOSI N G A BA N D. W E’RE “Everything sit down with quite simply whatever level of a shit LOSING FUNERAL FOR A else had a place these amazing you have given about our band, thank FUCKING FRIEND AND IT where it was an musicians, and you from the bottom of our hearts. analysis of where talents, and Words cannot really express how SUCKS.” we were at a amazing human thankful we are to those who have W I L L G OU L D, C RE E PE R particular time. beings and they given a shit about what we do.” P 13

IN THE STUDIO WITH...

BOSTON MANOR BOSTO N M A N O R A RE J O I N I N G T H E ‘ G R E AT BRITISH BANDS’ CLUB, W I T H A D E B U T T H AT ’ L L K N O C K YO U R S O C K S O F F. WORDS: NARIECE SANDERSON

B

ack in November, Blackpool quintet Boston Manor signed to Pure Noise Records before the release of ‘Saudade’ - an EP Upset named as one of the best of the year. 2016 sees the band go on to even bigger things, heading back to the cosiness of the studio for a full-length.

They’ve returned to Southampton’s Ranch Production House, where ‘Saudade’ was recorded, to once again work with Neil Kennedy. “He’s the bomb,” says vocalist Henry Cox of the producer, who’s worked with some of Britain’s brightest young bands, including Creeper and Milk Teeth. “It

14 upsetmagazine.com

was the natural choice to return to him for the album.”

Their peers’ success hasn’t put extra pressure on the band, though - they’re pretty tough on themselves as it is.

“We’ve always been very fortunate to have a super supportive fan base,” says Henry. “I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves, we’ve always been perfectionists, we give ourselves a hard time and push one another to be as good as we can be.

“I think particularly in the early stages of the writing process we felt a lot of pressure; we sort of didn’t know where to start, and were second guessing every beginning of an idea that we had.

After the ball got rolling, things picked up speed, we settled into it. By the time we came to recording we’d ironed out a lot of the kinks in pre-production, so the pressure just came to nail our takes.”

“The past three years of touring have massively changed who we are as

people and musicians. I am not the same person I was when this band started,” he continues, making it clear that Boston Manor will keep exploring new horizons. “We’ve become more comfortable in taking risks and challenging ourselves to think differently.”

Alongside passionate vocals and driven pop-punk riffs, the twisting and turning of drum tempos are what keeps ‘Saudade’ at high momentum. Will the album see a change in the band’s sound? “In some ways; if you enjoyed the last EP there’s definitely a lot of stuff in this record for you. We really challenged ourselves, there’s some songs that are a little more out there, and there’s some stuff which is a lot poppier than we expected.”

With Henry’s positive outlook on Boston Manor’s debut, it begs the question of what it could mean for the Lancastrian pop-punks. In a nutshell: “Change, experience and a lot of hard work.” Yet, for the vocalist, one thing is certain. ”It’s going to change everything. Hopefully for the better.” P

M A X R A P T O R A R E F LY I N G T H E F L AG F O R G E T T I N G O F F YO U R B U M A N D A C T U A L LY D O I N G SOMETHING. WO RDS : J ESS I CA G O O D M A N

L

ife for Max Raptor has turned into something of a whirlwind adventure. “We were writing, hoping to get onto a new label, out there looking around,” frontman Wil Ray recalls of the group’s activity twelve months ago.

“Nothing was really happening,” but things didn’t stay quiet for long.

“We got talking to Hassle [Records], put down the contract, and since then it’s been non-stop,” the group exclaim.

Putting out EP ‘Damage Appreciation’ in November, and now gearing up to release a full-length album, things have certainly heated up fast for the Midlands quartet. “It was maybe a month after signing we organised the EP, put that into action, then went straight back in to record the album just before Christmas.”

Recorded at Brighton Electric Studio, the band’s self-titled offering may have destroyed their festive spirit (“it was right up until Christmas Eve, ruined our Christmas – but that doesn’t matter”), but the group couldn’t be more thrilled with the results. “The EP we were really, really happy with, but we wanted the album to sound even more live,” Wil expresses. “We’re the happiest with this out of all of them.”

With a refined confidence, Max Raptor have emerged with an album

“THINGS NEED TO CHANGE” purposefully built to challenge. “Our first record, ‘Portraits’, was about eight different characters. This is more of an overview,” they express. “We delved into politics, and being unhappy with the way everything’s sort of amalgamated and the same. Things need to change because people are getting so bored of everything.”

The band have never shied from tackling the status quo. “All of our lyrics are pretty much about current politics, about this country, and about people we know or people we’ve met,” they assert. New single ‘Old Romantics’ is the first taste of the defiant direction the group have made their own. “It’s about my opinion on how things are losing their soul a bit,” Wil portrays. “I think it’s a whole tech thing. People don’t talk as much.”

Frustrated with the world around them, Max Raptor have put their thoughts into action, and created a record that’s both an outlet for anger and a rousing cry for action. “Treat people with the respect that you want to be treated with!” Wil declares. “If you actually want to do something, go and do it. One of the songs on

the album is about these guys that we know,” he introduces. “They’ve got all these ideas and plans, but it never comes to anything, they just sit around and drink and talk.”

“Being in a band, we’re not here to preach to people,” Wil clarifies. “But we write about situations that do affect everyone. That’s when people really relate to the tracks.” Laying their opinions on the line, and wearing their heartfelt opinions on their collective sleeve, all Max Raptor want is for their words to be heard and their energy to be felt. “I just want more and more people to listen to the music,” the frontman enthuses.

As for what can be expected from the upcoming record: “fast, energetic, British punk, rock’n’roll…” Wil starts, turning to his band mates for help. “… that you will like…” “…that you should buy…” “…today! At maxraptor.co.uk,” they offer. “Just make something up that sounds great, then say I said it,” Wil laughs. However you choose to describe it or define it, Max Raptor are setting themselves a brand new precedent. All that’s left to do is enjoy the ride. P 15

“ I T ’S

WITHOUT Q U EST I O N T H E A RC H I T E CTS B OYS A R E M A K I N G A S TAT E M E N T WITH THEIR NEW RECORD - BUT IT M I G HT N OT B E W H AT Y O U T H I N K …

A

WORDS: ALI SHUTLER

rchitects’ sixth album ‘Lost Forever//Lost Together’ was the sound of a band coming back swinging.

Elevating them to new heights, the record broke into the Top 20 of the Official Albums Chart, and saw them sell out London’s Roundhouse.

For their comeback to the comeback, “a lot of people were maybe expecting us to go a little bit softer. We just really wanted to do the opposite of that,” explains vocalist Sam Carter.

“We know we’re good at being a heavy band and we want to continue being heavy.” There was a desire to experiment, but Architects wanted to see what they could do with weight “instead of going more melodic.”

The result is ‘All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us’. Crushing, brutal, visceral - you get the idea. “It’s a pretty heavy record, lyrically and musically, and it was a conscious effort to make something as heavy as possible.”

Recorded over seven weeks at the close of last year, the record “was a lot of hard work. Trying to create something that could top ‘Lost

16 upsetmagazine.com

THE BEST

ARCHITECTS RECORD” Forever…’ was always going to be a challenge and we knew that going into it. We just pushed each other and we were all pulling in the same direction. It’s without question for me, the best Architects record and one we’re all the most proud of.”

More than just sonically heavy, Architects’ seventh album is their most confrontational. It sets their audiences up for realisations of mortality and global responsibility.

“We live in this really sad world at the moment where humans think we’re the greatest thing that’s happened to the planet when really, we’re essentially a cancer on the Earth.

“We really are just wrecking the place with no thought for future generations or for the animals on this world,” explains Sam. “With climate change, it’s almost getting to the point where even if we start doing things now, it’ll be too late.”

Despite the gloom, the helplessness and the misery, there’s hope to ‘All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us’. “Through the darkness, there’s definitely a light at the end of the tunnel. As much as

there are songs talking about the real dark things, there are songs as well that are there to help you through that and discuss the lighter side. It’s just acknowledging what’s going on and not hiding from it.”

The title, like the record, also has more than one dimension. “People are going to think, straight away, we’re bashing god when in fact it’s the complete opposite. We’ve abandoned our gods and they’ve abandoned us.

We’ve let them go and to be honest, if there was a god – I don’t know if there is or there isn’t – but they probably don’t want anything to do with us anyway because we’re a mess.”

There are dark, daunting topics on play across this record but Sam isn’t worried about how people will handle them. He’s expecting a reaction because “it’s a confrontational record but it’s not like we’ve done anything.

It’s not like we’re responsible for all the problems in the world, we’re just bringing it to the forefront and wanting to put it out there to be discussed. We’re quite excited for that.

We’re a bit fed up of the state of the world so let’s have a talk about it.” P

THE JOY FORMIDABLE

ABOU T TO

BREAK

THE BEST NEW BANDS TH E H OT TEST NEW MUSIC

CHEAP MEAT

L

ondon-based trio Cheap Meat aren’t wasting time.

Having recently released single ‘Sweetness Take Me Back’, they’ve quickly returned with debut EP ‘The Parts That Show’. “We’ve recorded four songs,” guitarist and singer Ross Drummond explains, “and then we’re going to go back in [to the studio] during the summer to record some more. We’ll have singles to release while we do it, so we can keep some momentum for when an album comes out.”

As for the time frame, “it just depends how well things go with the EP coming out. We’re still relatively unknown so it’s a bit more of a slog to try to build a fan 18 upsetmagazine.com

base for anyone to give a shit, because once it’s out, it’s out, you know what I mean? You can only get to the top of the mountain once ’til you have to come back down again. I’ve got so many songs I’ve written to craft and set up this perfect kind of first album. I know I want it to have ten songs on it, but it’s like, what ten songs?”

The band initially started as a duo, a plan Ross briefly believed foolproof.

“We recorded the EP originally as a two-piece and added bass afterwards, because originally we thought that if we were a two-piece then it’d be cheap to do and we thought we were super fucking original. I remember we went to rehearsal one night and Matt [Rebeiro,

“WE FOUND PETE ON G U M T R E E . I T WA S H I M A N D A FRIDGE FREEZER.” WORDS: STEVEN LOFTIN.

drums] was like, ‘Oh have you heard this band called Royal Blood?’ I was like, ‘Well we’re fucked now then’. That’s that done. There hadn’t been a two-piece in a while and then all of a sudden every fucker’s in a two-piece.”

The third dimension was added with a simple online ad. “Pete [Hakola] our bass player is from Finland, we found him on Gumtree. It was him and a fridge freezer,” Ross explains laughing. The addition of Pete was pivotal in forming the powerful and melodic sound that makes Cheap Meat so pleasing. “When it came to us playing live I was trying to have this massive wall of guitar and if you come to our show you’ll hopefully hear that, it’s pretty fucking rad. Pete and I

spent a lot of time on our guitar and bass tone to get that proper like power trio, I felt like it was kind of missing.”

Of course, no band can truly get going without a good live show, something that Ross is a major advocate of including utilising their mutual love of wrestling. “We’ve been coming up with different songs to come onstage with. I think when we go onstage on tour we’re going to come on to Stone Cold’s theme tune or The Rock’s theme. Matt’s got an Octapad with triggers and he’s finding all wrestling one-liners to trigger in between songs and shit.”

Continuing his explanation of their live mentality, he says: “When we play live we don’t really take ourselves very seriously, there are so many fucking poser bands.

When I was growing up and seeing bands playing and looking like they’re having fun, to have that dynamic, makes you want to be in a band. It makes you want to go out and play guitar, and when we play live that’s what we want to do.”

“Matt and I have this bad double act,” he adds, “Pete’s just this stone cold, one-liner dude, but Matt has a mic and he just talks shit all the time and it fucking winds me up.” It’s clear from the jubilance in his voice that there is a chemistry between the two that can’t be faked. “So I call him out on it constantly.

Matt thinks he’s stuck in [Blink 182 live album] ‘The Mark, Tom & Travis Show’.”

For the next year, what they are all about is documenting a musical journey of experimentation, taking life as it comes and then slapping it on a track. “Last year, I had a really bad stint of mental health and this is like an anniversary of getting through this last year. That’s what the start of this is about, and the opportunities from it. We’re basically just going to do as much as we can, try and get to as many places as possible play as much music as we can.” P

FACT FILE Band members: Ross Drummond, Peter Hakola and Matt Rebeiro Hometown: London (UK) Formed: 2013 Signed To: Hassle Records Did you know? Ross is on a oneman mission to own all of the ugliest guitars in the world.

KATIE ELLEN W O R D S : R YA N D E F R E I TA S

O

ften when a band breaks up and its members go on to start new projects, there’s a particularly trite adage that gets thrown around: ‘Like a phoenix from the ashes’. Thankfully, in the case of katie ellen, the new project from former Chumped members Anika Pyle and Dan Frelly, there was no fire from which ash could form - just a group of musicians accepting that it was time to do something new.

“I wanted to find autonomy,” Anika explains. “Personally, musically and emotionally.

Starting katie ellen was all about challenging myself to be better and stronger. I really wanted to lean more heavily on my songwriting and to draw inspiration from artists and genres that I cherish but didn’t necessarily fit in my last project, like Billie Holiday and 60s girl groups and Patsy Cline and Judy Garland.”

That’s lead to a pretty bold and drastic step away from Chumped’s pop-punk on katie ellen’s ‘wild <3 demo’. In its place is something more akin to Waxahatchee or Radiator Hospital. “These songs have a different energy to them, more of a melancholy, soulful reflection rather than a sense of chaotic urgency,” Anika states.

“But, I’m no less candid or vocal about my feelings or my politics.”

Anika and Dan are in the process of making a record with the aim of putting it out by the end of the year. She does admit however that “there’s a ton of work to do still”, but, in keeping with the ethic that saw Chumped earn the undying respect of peers and fans, “regardless, we’ll definitely be sharing music, playing shows and doin’ the damn thing.”

On this evidence, whenever it ends up coming along, new music from katie ellen is going to be one damn thing worth waiting for. P

19

FO R M O ST BA N D S , I N T E R N A L C O N F L I CT W O U L D F O R C E T H E M A PA R T. W I T H D E F T O N E S T H E I R D I F F E R E N C E S O N LY DRIVE THEM HIGHER. W O R D S : R YA N D E F R E I T A S

D

Deftones have never released a bad album.

From ‘Adrenaline’ all the way back in 1995, right through to previous effort ‘Koi No Yokan’, they’ve absolutely refused to put a foot wrong. Nobody chimes into a conversation about the legendary Sacramento outfit to lament they ‘prefer the early stuff’. In an age of cynicism, this is one band who still provoke near-universal enthusiasm.

They’re now back with eighth studio album ‘Gore’ and, predictably, it’s bloody great. There aren’t many bands who can say, over twenty years removed from the release of their debut record, that they’re still looked to with such unmoving expectation; that what they’re about to put out will stand shoulder to shoulder with what’s come before it. And there are even fewer bands still that can say it while having as diverse and unapologetically experimental a back-catalogue as Deftones’.

With all that in mind however, ‘Gore’ might require some patience. Where ‘Koi No Yokan’ offered up the blistering ‘Swerve City’ as its opener, this album presents the unhurried swirls of ‘Prayers/Triangles’ as an introduction – and it serves as a particularly succinct indicator of what’s to come.

22 upsetmagazine.com

This isn’t a record of immediacy.

It’s not hit after hit – that a song as relatively subdued as ‘Prayers/ Triangles’ became the first radio single gave that away already. Instead, ‘Gore’ is a rich, considered body of work in which one can, given time, find themselves wholly immersed. The result of that, as vocalist Chino Moreno is happy to attest, is that it’s a bit of a slow burner – and that’s fine by him.

“I don’t think that it’s a first listen,” Chino concedes off the bat. “And honestly that wasn’t the idea going in to make this record - there wasn’t actually any idea going in to make this record - but that’s what ended up coming out. But in the end, as not even the person who created the record but as a listener of the record, I enjoy ‘Gore’ more today than I did the day we finished it. I honestly think that every time I hear the record I get something more out of it. I like that. Most of my

favourite records do that, too.”

And of course, there’s nothing wrong with an album being a grower, but at a time where instant gratification tends to reign supreme, could that affect the commercial success of the album?

Sitting as Chino is now, in the West London offices of Deftones’ record label, it’s a question that can’t be too far from his mind. “Possibly,” he considers.

“But probably not, cause I feel it’s got longevity.

“I feel like this record - as opposed to some of our other records especially has staying power. The more you listen to it the more you enjoy it. I have a short attention span so if I hear something and I figure it out really quick, I lose interest. That’s just me. But things that I don’t understand right away, that

require me to take time to wrap my head around, are things that interest me.

That’s in music and that’s in… almost, in life. That’s something that’s part of my character, it could be a flaw, could be whatever, but it’s just the way I’ve been for my whole life.”

The reason for this is rooted in more than just Chino’s personal taste, though.

When it comes to Deftones there’s a 23

“I’LL BE DA M N E D I F I ’ M GONNA SIT IN A CORNER AND J U S T WA I T FOR THINGS TO H A PPE N.” very crucial dynamic at play, one that’s shaped every single thing the band have put their name on to date: the push and pull between the contrasting creative personalities of Chino Moreno and guitarist, Stephen Carpenter.

initiating. He plays on every song, he’s present on every song, but I initiated more of the initial ideas on this record.

The reason behind that is something you’d have to ask him, cause I honestly don’t know.

Chino - as you can hear particularly clearly listening to his Team Sleep, Crosses and Palms projects, or even on the almost ‘Full-Chino’ 2006 Deftones album, ‘Saturday Night Wrist’ - brings the ethereal, dreamy side of the band’s music to the table. It’s made most obvious by his vocal performance, but almost any time you feel Deftones leaning particularly left and veering into more ambient territory, that’s Chino leaving his mark.

“It was one of those things where we were in the studio, we were working, he was there every day, physically there, but he wasn’t that forthcoming with sparking ideas, and I don’t know why.

The way I looked at it was, I flew here, I’m living in a hotel room and I’m in this studio, and I’ll be damned if I’m gonna sit in a corner and just sort wait for things to happen, otherwise we’ll be here for three fucking years waiting to do something.”

Meanwhile Stephen, quite simply, is the metalhead of the group. That recurring bombardment of distortion on ‘Rocket Skates’? Stephen. ‘My Own Summer’’s iconic fury? Stephen. Basically, anything from a Deftones album or live show that leaves you feeling like you’ve been punched in the jaw is on him.

“So, in the meantime I was very inspired and so was Sergio [Vega, bass],” Chino continues – hinting towards a reason as to why ‘Gore’ has turned out as groove-laden as it has, even by Deftones’ standards. “If there was any downtime he and I were working and writing stuff.

Stephen eventually came around and joined the party but it took a little while.

Maybe two-thirds through the writing process was when he finally started to become part of some of the ideas.

This isn’t to discredit the rest of the band’s input, but the dichotomy that exists between these two is crucial to how each individual Deftones album sounds. ‘Gore’ is no different. While it’s not entirely lacking in heavy moments, it’s clear that Chino walked away from their eighth recorded tug-of-war with the lengthier share of the rope.

“It wasn’t as equal as it usually is,” Chino admits. “Honestly, I did a lot more of the 24 upsetmagazine.com

“That’s gonna come off maybe sounding like I’m biased to my own ideas - which I’m not. I’m a fan of Stephen’s guitar playing just as much as anybody, and I love when he comes and initiates songs. So I was trying to be as patient as possible with him, but at the same time I’ve still gotta be productive.”

The sound of the band’s most universally revered record, 2000’s ‘White Pony’, was a direct result of Chino and Stephen’s creative inclinations to build on, or outdo, the work of the other. It could read as a damning reflection on ‘Gore’, then, that Stephen wasn’t hands-on this time around.

What was it then, in the absence of that butting of heads, that the band could take inspiration from? Surely the quality of the album would suffer if the Deftones creative engine wasn’t firing on all cylinders?

“I think just excitement of what we were coming up with,” Chino offers. “I mean I honestly just liked what we were coming up with, Sergio, Abe [Cunningham, drums] and I. Even though Stephen was sort of sitting there not participating as much as we would have liked him to, we were still very excited with what we were coming up with. And honestly once Stephen did decide he was gonna join the club, it even went up another notch, it was way better.

“It’s not that he didn’t do anything. He’s got songs on the record that he initiated.

But I think one of the coolest things that we learned to do on this record is to fill in space, sonically, to complement each other in a way. I feel like when Stephen really came into this record, he complemented the foundation Sergio, Abe and I were building - and it led to less of a fucking djent record!”

There’s still some room for head-butting, clearly.

“I mean Stephen loves fucking Meshuggah, and when he plays his big ass fucking guitar, it sounds like fucking Meshuggah to me. I like Meshuggah too, but we’re not fucking Meshuggah.

I love that being in there, but in the same way, I love Morrissey, but we’re not the fucking Smiths! So, to utilise our influences that are so separate, put it into what we do, but do it organically and fill the space, the crevices are in there. That’s what makes us, us. I guess there’s less of a push and pull on this album and more of us compromising, with our different ideas, into making something together that is cohesive.”

That compromise is apparent listening to the record. Sure, there’s a fair amount of Chino’s distinctive hallmarks on display, but without Stephen around to punctuate them as only he can, ‘Gore’ just wouldn’t be a Deftones album. Third track, ‘Doomed User’ shows this perfectly as it sees a measured, almost Mastodon-

esque guitar line underlining its best moments. Still, it’s not a compromise that comes effortlessly.

“We still fight,” Chino confesses. “We still argue, we really do. We argue a lot.

But we can argue, and know that we’re all gonna go home and still be friends and come back the next day and do it again because everybody’s just being fucking honest, we all speak up and say shit. If we didn’t, if we were tiptoeing around each other, you’d hear that in the music. And that would be no fun.

You’d hear that record and be like, ‘these motherfuckers are just going through the motions.’”

But what’s stopping them from doing exactly that? Now into their forties, they could quite easily start phoning it in.

Considering their legacy, they’d almost be forgiven for churning out the first thing that came to mind. At the end of the day, they’re a band who could quite easily fill up a ‘Greatest Hits’ setlist, tour it for the rest of their lives and continue making a pretty good living.

Death From Above 1979 and Periphery.

Bands half their age that would blow most other ‘elder statesmen’ figureheads out of the water, legacy be damned. It takes guts to do that, but courage has never been something Deftones have lacked.

“I’m not scared of anyone,” Chino defies.

“Maybe it’s a way of keeping us on our toes, but I’ll fucking play after anybody.

We still have a lot of passion. When I hear some of our tunes, whether I like it or not, I can be tired as fuck, I can be not in the mood at all to even walk up on stage but once the music starts going, I feel overwhelmed with this passion just to let loose. And it feels very genuine still and that’s something that can’t be touched. So yeah I feel very confident with playing after whoever. Hell, you get a warm-up band cause they’re supposed to warm shit up!”

It’s that attitude that keeps Deftones

at the top of their game. It’s that fire and fearlessness that allows their fans to feel safe in the knowledge that Deftones aren’t about to drop the ball.

That ‘predictably great’ thing? It’s made so predictable because this is a band who wouldn’t know what laurels are to even consider ever resting on them.

They’ve innovated, they’ve challenged expectation and, most importantly, they’ve stuck together through everything.

“It’s something as simple as the joy of making music together,” Chino continues, speaking again about what stops the band getting complacent.

“Like I said, I have no interest in making music by myself. I can, of course. I can sit there and fucking program a beat on my computer, and put a bassline to it, put a guitar to it, throw my vocals on it and you’d have a song. It’d be very uninspired though because it’s just me being me, and I like collaborating.

I think that’s one of the main things that

Instead, they tour on their current records and with bands like letlive.,

“WE STILL ARGUE, WE R E A L LY D O . W E A R G U E A L O T. ”

keeps us at it; the fact that we can still collaborate, that we do still collaborate, is awesome. The fact that, there’s no sound there and then you put us together and we create something.

“The feeling we get from finishing something is one of the greatest feelings in the world, from creating something together. Especially when sometimes it’s not that easy, and when we actually break through the threshold and finish something. Can’t beat that, man. Can’t beat that feeling. And I’m also very proud that we’ve been a band, and friends, for as long as we have. What other bands are - I mean obviously aside from Chi [Cheng, original bassist who

tragically died in 2013 after living in a semi-comatose state for almost five years], these are the people that I’ve been making music with for over half my life and we still have a handful of people who are interested in what that’s gonna sound like, so we are very lucky to be able to do that. That’s something that I’m probably more proud of than anything; that longevity that we have, and the fact that we’re still inspired by each other.”

“I mean, I don’t think that when we make records we think that we’re gonna save the world, or rock‘n’roll,” Chino concludes. “But I think we can just be proud of the fact that we are still together and we can still create, but also that we can actually be motivated, actually be engaged. It’s very much not just ‘well, guess we’ve gotta make another record’. If it were just something we were trying to get through we would definitely do it a lot faster. The fact is that, this far into our career, we spent a dedicated year of our lives to making ‘Gore’. We must have some sort of passion.”

‘Gore’ isn’t about singles. ‘Gore’ isn’t about increasing ticket sales. ‘Gore’ is the sound of a band that still give a fuck, continuing to give a fuck. And while so many others are happy to play nostalgia sets, or to reunite a band they don’t want to be in so that they can force a smile and collect a pay cheque, we should be grateful not only that Deftones are still around and still care, but that they’re doing it for each other and because they still want to - and by the sounds of it, that ‘want’ doesn’t seem to be fading in the slightest.

Deftones’ album ‘Gore’ is out now.

O U T R U N N I N G T H E I R O W N H Y P E , B L A C K P E A K S H AV E M A N A G E D T O S U S TA I N A S E N S E O F E X C I T E M E N T A R O U N D T H E I R D E B U T A L B U M , D E S P I T E T H E D E L AY S .

W I T H ‘ S TAT U E S ’ O U T S O O N T H O U G H , T H E I R S T O R Y C A N R E A L LY B E G I N .

WORDS: ALI SHUTLER P H OTO S : C O R I N N E C U M M I N G

A

year ago Black Peaks were one of the most talked about bands following their early unveiling of ‘Glass Built Castles’. After a number of singles, relentless touring and leaving their album be, the band are now primed to drop ‘Statues’. A dark fairytale of a record that deals with control, revenge and a longing to be remembered, it’s set to start the conversation aflame all over again.

That’s not to say the band have spent the past twelve months trying to recapture the lightning-in-a-bottle magic that was ‘Glass Built Castles’. Quite the opposite, in fact. Their debut was recorded back in November 2014; they’ve been sat on it for a year and a half. “We’ve definitely done the naughty thing and tweaked, chopped and cut little bits that don’t work after listening to it for six months, but we tried not to,” explains vocalist Will Gardner.

“We’ve gone back and mixed and remixed, that was the delay in the album.

Just for mixing, nothing more than that,” adds drummer Liam Kearley. “There’s nothing really to spill,” he protests. “It was just mixing.”

Despite the ever-growing weight on their shoulders, there are not really any nerves about release. “It’s happening and there’s nothing that’s stopping this train anymore.”

‘Statues’ is “quite dark, and there’s a sense of urgency about it because we were so determined to put a big piece of music out into the world,” adds guitarist Joe Gosney. Recorded over an intense two-week time frame, the record “just happened. We didn’t have any time to think about or talk about ‘let’s make a song that sounds like this’.”

“We grew up a lot in that time. We got more professional,” reflects Liam, before Will adds: “We definitely developed a lot as people over those two weeks. It was such a mixture of sitting around and being really involved in helping other people be creative.”

“It was all fourteen, fifteen hour days.

Even for the people who weren’t recording, they were still there discussing things, listening to guitar tones and drum takes,” continues bassist Andrew Gosden. “It’s such an important thing. I felt quite a bit of pressure because it’s our first major statement and I feel we had to get it right. We have to be happy with it.“

“THERE’S N OTH I N G STO PPI N G THIS TRAIN ANYMORE.” Because of this desire to create something brilliant, “a lot of the tracks were perfectly regimented, structured and done” before the band went into the studio; months of jamming, writing in living rooms and building on each other’s ideas paying off. “We were so prepared going into the studio. We still knew we needed one or two more tracks, there were a few things we were unsure on but for the most part it was just go in and paint by numbers. We knew what we wanted and we knew what we were aiming for. We just found what we wanted and recorded it. We had a very strong vision for what we wanted and the album is very much that.“ “We’re four very opinionated people but it’s good because we’ve always needed it to be right. I don’t think that’s a bad thing in our group of four,” explains Liam, reasoning you only get one shot at a debut. The waits and delays for ‘Statues’ have been a bigger deal to the band, “’cos you play it over and over in your mind.

It’s your first album and it really sucks to be pushed back.” But all good things…

There’s a fantastical element to ‘Statues’.

From the engulfing musical storm tossing your attention in all directions to the lyrical storytelling, the record is one of escape. “I think all four of us as characters have elements of escapism in us and if that’s being translated onto the record, then that’s cool,” explains Joe. Taking influence from the likes of Mastodon, The Mars Volta and Led Zeppelin, the band “wanted to make one piece of music that you can listen to, start to finish.”

More than simply a run of eleven tracks though, ‘Statues’ also contains a story broken into four parts (‘Crooks’, ‘Hang ‘em High’, ‘Glass Built Castles’ and ‘Statues of Shame’) and scattered throughout. “As with everything we do, we wanted to do a little bit more. We may have written those four songs in order and Will may have started piecing the story together but when we started putting the album together, we realised that that can’t go there,” explains Joe. “It was never meant to go from start to finish musically or lyrically,” adds Will. “In my head it was always going to sound better dotted around and with other stuff in between.“ ‘Statues’ is full of these little flourishes of the band doing something just because it feels right. Despite their constantly shifting sound, none of Black Peaks are tech heads. “We try to push ourselves musically as a group but we never sit down and work out what’s in 7/8,” offers Andrew. Writing is “such a freeing and creative process. Knowing all that music theory and knowledge is great but it can pen you in.” Instead the band work by the rule “if it sounds good, it’s good.” If it so happens to be a diminished seventh, well that’s just lovely. “This album, I pushed myself. I pushed boundaries that I didn’t know I had just because it felt right. I just wanted to do stuff,” offers Liam. That excitement of self-discovery was channeled by every member of Black Peaks and can be felt in every daring twist and daunting turn of ‘Statues’. Not that the band know that. “We’ve had no outside perspective view of what people are expecting. We’ve been in 29

this bubble with it for such a long time, we’re just numb to it. We haven’t heard anything from anyone who’s only heard the finished product and can hear it as a whole and make those observations.”

The band have been so wrapped in the daily goings on, like “sorting out tours and working merch”, they don’t really see the other side of it. “That hype is awesome. It’s helping fuel what’s going on right now but for us, we’ve made eleven tracks, they’re on a CD and we’re going to go out and play some shows.

Hopefully people like ‘em. That’s it really.

We’re really super-happy and chuffed about it and we’re so lucky to be in this position. To have had people support us with us not having much music out is fucking overwhelming. We’ve tried to take it in our stride and just crack on. We’ve never said ‘this is what we deserve’. Let’s just keep going, keep making music, keep playing shows and get our album out to as many people as

possible.” Playing live is the “only time we realise how much of an impact we’ve made on certain people. OK, wow. This is happening I guess.”

“We’ve always tried live to get across the emotion that it’s the four of us in the moment together, trying to do the best we can. If that comes out in the album, that’ll be amazing,” offers Andrew, before Joe adds, “We’ve always had a saying that we want our music to be dark, heavy but still beautiful and have something about it. Something that grabs people.”

“It’s not metal music, it’s not hardcore music, and it’s not pop music. It’s all those things together,” ventures Will. “We keep those doors open. We don’t like to close doors on any genre of music.”

“It’s weird though,” says Joe thinking out loud. “I’m never consciously thinking it’s got to be this or that; it’s just what comes out. That’s what we’re hoping we can achieve with our music, because we

“WE HAD TO G ET IT R I G H T. ” 30 upsetmagazine.com

don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves.”

Black Peaks are part of a crop of bands refusing to play by the rules of a genre or a scene. “It’s a really good time for British music and to be part of that time is really cool. Everybody is doing their own thing, which is awesome. The oddities are becoming the norm.”

What started off as a three-piece instrumental band before Will joined, through their time together as Shrine and into the never-ending circus that’s been Black Peaks, the band have been on quite the journey, but they’re not ones for reflecting. “We never really allow ourselves to look back. We’re always focusing on that next thing. It is super healthy sometimes to take a step back but we just haven’t had, or allowed ourselves time to do that. Maybe after this album campaign, we can just take a step back and say that was a really sweet time, let’s do it again but it’s really easy not to and that’s always been the mentality of this band. We wrote the album and straight away, we started writing the next one.”

The band are consistently writing because they enjoy it and because they want some more options for what comes next. They’ve already started playing a new track live “as a thank you for waiting so long for us,” but, as Joe points out, “we probably shouldn’t be talking about the next album.” There are still so many stories to be had with ‘Statues’. P Black Peaks’ album ‘Statues’ is out 8th April.

Solids’ new EP Else — available everywhere on CD, vinyl, cassette & digitally on April 15, 2016 from Topshelf Records.

“Satisfying as hell” -Stereogum

The new EP from Sorority Noise — It Kindly Stopped for Me is available everywhere on vinyl, cassette & digitally April 22, 2016 from Topshelf Records.

“Effortless fusion of thick, heavy gloom and pop melody” -DIY

“Gently rises from a quiet meditation into a surging, DIY-orchestral climax” -FADER

Slingshot Dakota’s third studio album Break — available everywhere nowon CD, vinyl, cassette & digitally from Topshelf Records.

“One of the most unique rock bands in the United States.”

-Rolling Stone “New strides with striking conndence.”

-A.V. Club “A snapshot of a band growing outwards. Starting as they mean to go on, Slingshot Dakota go from strength to strength” -Upset

Also available from TOPSHELF RECORDS:

MOCK ORANGE

Put the Kid On the Sleepy Horse CD / LP / CASSETTE / DIGITAL - MAY 20, 2016

THE WORLD IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE & I AM NO LONGER AFRAID TO DIE Long Live Happy Birthday

CLIQUE

NAI HARVEST

CD / LP / CASSETTE /DIGITAL - MAY 27, 2016

AA 7” / DIGITAL - OUT NOW

Burden Piece

Jelly / Just Like You

7” / CASSETTE / DIGITAL - OUT NOW

New 2016 releases coming from Happy Diving, Special Explosion, Del Paxton, Enemies, Hey Mercedes, Field Mouse, Ratboys & more.

tsr-store.com topshelfrecords.com

TA K E

C OV E R !

M E ET RU N F O R C OV E R R EC O R DS , H O M E T O M A N Y O F Y O U R F AV O U R I T E B A N D S .

W O R D S : R YA N D E F R E I TA S

“THEY’RE BASI C A L LY T H E O P POSITE OF E V E RY T H I N G I GREW UP BEIN G A F R A I D T H AT L ABELS WERE.” – SEAN HUBER , MODERN BAS EBALL

S

tarting out in a boarding school dorm room sometime in 2004, Run For Cover Records came into existence at a time when trust in labels was at an all time low. The bands that current RFC flagship Modern Baseball would’ve grown up listening to were entrenched in legal battles for unpaid royalties, breaches of contract and just about everything else. It makes 32 upsetmagazine.com

sense then that when Jeff Casazza, a high school hardcore kid from Boston, decided to start a label to put out an EP by his friend’s band, he’d be doing so with the intent to do things the right way.

Today, Run For Cover is at the forefront of their genre. If you look at the timeline that runs through these pages and the records on it, it’s almost hard to believe that this is an independent label essentially run by Jeff and a few of his mates. The impact RFC has made, the

artist-first ethos and honest approach that they’ve stuck to the entire way through, show that there truly is an alternative way for record labels to operate. A way that puts to bed the myth that you have to be a bit of a bastard to succeed in the music industry.

It wasn’t easy getting RFC to this point, though. While it may have been a manageable start back when Jeff was “pretty much just putting out 7”s for a bunch of hardcore bands I knew,” reflecting on it now in a West London

FROM G R E AT . A P A R T LY L A E R N E E B S “IT’ S S I O N A L LY , H THEM PROFE WORKING WIT RIENDS. E A L LY G O O D F R O S L A E R ’ Y E TH THEY’RE AW E S O M E W H AT LY L A E R S ’ T I I THINK R BAND SEVEN ELIEVED IN OU B Y E H T .

G N I O D HEY NEVER EY STI L L D O. T H T D N A O G A YEARS NGE O U L D YO U C H A C Y E H “ , D I A S O N C E H AV E ETTER OULD SOUND B W S I H T “ , R O ” , THIS D THEY ESE BANDS AN H T D E N G I S Y I F. . . ” . T H E E AT . ” I N K T H AT ’ S G R H T I .

M E H T T S TRU J AW THE RU LLINS, TIG ERS N - BRIANNA CO FOR CO VER cafe, it’s clear that the early success of the label became something of a double-edged sword.

“In 2010 RFC was still in my apartment,” Jeff recalls. “We had just put out the Title Fight 7” six months earlier, and put out the Man Overboard, Transit, Hostage Calm, Fireworks, Tigers Jaw, Wonder Years LPs when the label was still just me. This could have gone way worse from a label standpoint all considering - the orders all got sent out in a relatively timely manner which was a feat in itself - but the company was growing so quickly mainly due to all these bands gaining a lot of traction all at once, that it became obvious that we didn’t have a lot of resources, especially to the bands who were touring a lot.

“So when bands started signing to Rise, and Triple Crown and these big labels who actually had money and an office and employees, instead of this friend who’s in college with a hobby and boxes all over his bedroom, I think it made sense. I somehow handled all those releases myself to the best of my ability, and the next year is when we hired Tom [Chiari, former guitarist of RFC band Hostage Calm, who has since become Jeff’s right hand man at the label]. At that point we made it a goal to do what we needed to do to provide more resources to our bands and keep bands on our label, which

TIMELIN

obviously included getting a staff, an office, etc.”

At this point, in 2011, the label had finally left behind the dorm room it’d long outgrown. Instead, Jeff, Tom and Tay (Sullivan, Jeff’s longtime friend and star of the label’s megapopular YouTube series, ‘Tuesdays With Tay’) had now set up shop in a friend’s apartment. Boxes still filled the hallways and the living room was dominated by the label’s merch stock, as well as a few Tetris-packed desks, but it was still a significant step up. “Luckily,” Jeff explains, “it was the apartment of Kevin Duquette, one of the guys who ran Topshelf Records, so he understood the mess.”

It was in that apartment where things really started to take off for the label. Riding the momentum generated by Tigers Jaw’s ‘Two Worlds’ album coming out just before the move, the living room office saw the release of Basement’s breakthrough ‘I Wish I Could Stay Here’, as well as its follow up ‘Colourmeinkindness’ and an unpredictably wellreceived split EP between the then-unknown Citizen and Turnover. (“I think we got about a thousand pre-orders for that, which was insane for bands of their size,” Jeff recalls.) Things went so well, in fact, that the label moved into its first ‘real’ office after only a year and a

E

2004

THESE D AY S – D E AT H SENTEN CE 7” – RFC 00 1

2006 FIREWORKS - WE ARE EVE RY W H E RE E P – RFC 005 CRIME IN STEREO – LOVE – RFC 007

2009

TITLE F IGHT – THE LA ST THING Y OU FOR GET – RFC 0 14

2010 THE WONDER YEARS – THE UPSIDES – RFC 018 T I G E R S J AW – S E L F -T I T L E D – RFC 023

half and have gone on to need two more office moves since, in order to keep up with the growth of the operation.

2011 NT – BASEME COULD I H S I I W C 043 RE – RF S TAY H E IGNALS MIXED S AT I O N COMPIL 50 – RFC 0

2012 C I T I Z E N / T U R N OV E R SPLIT – RFC 054 BASEMENT – COLOURMEINKINDNESS – RFC 061

2013

– JAR E AV E N SUPERH 81 – RFC 0 H – YOUT CITIZEN

88 – RFC 0 ST OF X – FEA E PITY S 0 9 0 RFC LOVE –

2014 MODERN BASEBALL – YOU’RE G O N N A M I SS IT ALL – RFC 096 T I G E R S J AW – CHARMER – RFC 10 4

Often with growth, especially of such a rapid nature, you’ll find greed following not too far behind.

It doesn’t need illustrating that success can all to easily go to the head and see people abandoning their ideals in the quest for more.

One glance around at the quotes from bands on the very pages you’re reading however, will tell you that Run For Cover have avoided that particular pitfall and at the core of their operation even to this day is the same artist-first attitude that they set out with back in 2004.

“Honestly, it’s not hard to be accommodating,” Jeff explains.

“That’s the whole point of the company really – and if we weren’t, they’d probably hate us. We’re all on the same page at RFC and have the same goals. A band like Captain, We’re Sinking, for example, there’s no crazy expectations on them. Our aim with them is to not lose money on putting them out and there’s no reason for us not to be happy with that just because of how good they are. We just love their music and want to put it out.”

“Yeah, being artist-friendly is pretty much the whole point of us doing this.” Tom Chiari continues. “That’s really just it, we want to give the bands the best platform and service that we can while giving them the best chance to go as far as they can while still being the band they want to be.”

With that in mind, it’s easy to see why bands would sign to them.

That noble approach, however, hasn’t been enough to make the label invulnerable to the shittier side of the game. Even early growing pains aside, it’s been far

from an easy ride. “A year before Tigers Jaw’s ‘Charmer’ came out,” Jeff reveals, “Brianna [Collins, vocals/ keys] had called me to tell me that they were going on hiatus.”

Tigers Jaw, of course, figured things out and with a bit of luck we might even see a new album from the band this year. Some situations have gone much further than a near-miss, though. From having to step out and denounce Whirr late last year after a transphobic attack on queer-punks, G.L.O.S.S., was posted from the band’s Twitter account, to losing bands even in more recent years, RFC have had to navigate some incredibly trying circumstances.

A band wanting out is a rarity these days though, and those that have stuck by the label are reaping the rewards in a big way. “In terms of those bands like Basement and Tigers Jaw, we’ve grown as they’ve grown,” Tom beams. “We’re at a point where we just put out this Basement album and delivered everything they wanted and gave them everything they needed on it, despite how big of a record it was. We’ve taken the label to the point where it’s able to do that. If those bands had gone to some other label that forced them into a five record deal, who knows what could’ve happened? We’re all friends at this point, too. We’re really flexible and it’s all very comfortable and they can fully trust us. Trust is a huge part of it.”

Trust might be a huge part of it, but in 2016 RFC offer a lot more than just niceties. Two years ago, Run For Cover signed a deal with ADA Distribution – a huge operation under the Warner Music umbrella that offers major label distribution opportunities to independents worldwide. It meant that Run For Cover could have 10,000 copies of Tigers Jaw’s ‘Charmer’ pressed and sold (that’s just the first

I LY A N D N I T L A B E L FA M K TH G I T Y R E “IT’S A V UCH. I’M SO E C T T H AT S O M P S E R D N A E V I LO , N OT A P A R T O F T H AT N E E B E AV H O PROUD T I C.” E T H AT D Y N A M AV H N A C S E S S MANY BUSINE , BASEMENT - A L E X H E N E RY 34 upsetmagazine.com

“ T H E Y ’ R E A L W AY S LOOKING OU T FOR THE PEOP LE THEY WORK WITH AND THE Y C L E A R LY C A RE A W H O L E LOT N OT J UST A BO UT THE MUSIC THE Y’RE RELEASIN G BUT ALSO THE PEOPLE THEY WORK WITH A N D T H AT ’ S T H E B E S T. ” - S A M R AY , T E EN SUICIDE pressing, too), allowing them to bring in and reinvest an entirely new level of revenue.

As a way of paying their success forward, RFC started up their own distribution wing last year, where they exclusively distribute other indie labels’ releases.

Currently this outlet works with Double Double Whammy, Exploding in Sound, Count Your Lucky Stars, Broken World Media, Triple B Records and a few others, handling the distribution of all their releases with their distribution partner ADA. They didn’t let that newfound clout go to waste for their own goals either.

Not long after the success of ‘Charmer’, Run For Cover announced that they’d signed emo-leaning indie-rock legends, mewithoutYou. This was a huge coup for the label since it marked the first time an established band – for perspective, their 2004 record ‘Catch Us For The Foxes’ has sold over a quarter of a million copies to date – chose Run For Cover as their new home.

Jeff and Tom credit producer Will Yip (who RFC have started new label Memory Music with) as being a big part of making the deal happen, as well as taking them to “this really great Chinese place” which Jeff maintains played a key part, but it’s not as though the label wasn’t ready for it. ‘Pale Horses’, the record they signed to release, sold 10,000 copies in its first week, something that wasn’t just a new feat for RFC; incredibly, it was also the first time that mewithoutYou had hit that landmark in that timeframe.

Clearly able to hang with anyone in the game at this point, the future is looking very bright for RFC. As well as

starting a new label under RFC called Joy Void (where they’ve put out records for Teen Suicide and Julia Brown already, with more on the way soon), this year they’ve already very successfully released ‘Promise Everything’, Basement’s excellent third full-length, as well as Pinegrove’s ‘Cardinal’ – a country-leaning indie record that’s garnered an impressive amount of attention. Add the upcoming releases from Teen Suicide, Pity Sex and Turnover to that and 2016 looks set to maintain the label’s incredibly positive momentum.

Not forgetting, of course, the small matter of the band who opened this article: Modern Baseball. The Philadelphiabased outfit that Jeff decided he “had to sign as soon as [he] heard three songs off their debut record,” have their third full-length, ‘Holy Ghost’ on the way – a record that looks set to bring both band and label up yet another level still.

“The sky is the limit with that band,” Tom attests, but the label are fully prepared to match their ascent. “We’re able to handle it now,” continues Jeff. “They can sell 20,000 copies or 80,000 copies and we’ll be fine. Macklemore uses the same distributor as us and he sold a million records. We have the scope to do whatever insane numbers they bring in.”

Just as well, too, because judging by the raucous reception the band received at the show that brought the RFC crew to London, they’re a band on the verge of going supernova. As Jeff and Tom finish up their lunch, it’s proposed half-

2015 A DV E N T

– SUPE RS

URES ONIC H OME - RFC 1 11

E LV I S D EPRESS E D LY – NEW ALHAMB RA – RFC 1 17 – PERIP HE MEWITH

T U R N OV ER RAL VIS ION – RFC 1 22

O U T YO U – PA L E HORSES – RFC 1 32 P E TA L – SHAME – RFC 1 38

2016 BASEMENT – PRO M I S E EVE RY TH I N G – RFC 143 P I N EG ROV E – CA R D I N A L – RFC 147 E LV I S D E P R E S S E D LY – HOLO PLEASURES E X PA N D E D PITY SEX – W H I T E H OT M O O N MODERN BASEBALL – H O LY G H O S T

jokingly that what’s around the corner for the label must be at least a little intimidating, but they are unmoved.

“All this is,” Tom concludes, “is the next phase of Run For Cover as a label. We’re ready to move onto having everything selling 50,000 copies.”

Those are ambitious numbers to deliver with the resolute seriousness he carries in his tone, but without that ambition, without the earnestness of their approach, they wouldn’t have made it this far. And if – no, when – they’re proven right in their ambition, you can be damn sure there’s no one out there that will have deserved it more. P 35

“WE’LL E D U C AT E IN OUR O W N WAY ”

T H E WO N D E R Y E A RS A R E H E R E TO M A K E Y O U T H I N K . O R N O T. W H AT E V E R M A K E S YO U H A P P Y.

WORDS: ALI SHUTLER

P H OTOS : SA R A H LO U I S E B E N N ET T

“IT’S ABOUT FINDING W H E RE YOU R VO I C E I S I M P O R TA N T . ”

L

ater tonight The Wonder Years will take to London’s Alexandra Palace as main support to Enter Shikari.

It’s the last night of a seven-date tour that’s seen the Pennsylvanian six-piece bring their latest album ‘No Closer To Heaven’ to the UK for the first time. What started as a pop-punk band back in 2005 has grown into so much more. Album number five takes their songs of struggle out of the suburbs and into the wider world, dealing with pharmaceutical sales and the abuse of prescription drugs, systemic racism, class and privilege, masculinity, violence and abuse. It’s heavy weather but The Wonder Years still aren’t a ‘political band’.

“I think when you say that, it means that’s all that you do. I don’t even think that it’s a political record,” starts vocalist Dan ‘Soupy’ Campbell, fighting through illness. “I think it’s a personal record but the things that personally affected us, speak as part of a larger societal dialogue. We’re not writing songs about things that didn’t touch us in any way. I’m not writing about the pharmaceutical industry for no particular reason, I’m writing about it ‘cause it personally affected our lives.”

The band take their own experience and bring it to the conversation. “I would say we’re still a personal band,” Dan offers. Their lives have just become more entwined with bigger issues.

Those Big Issues are hard to break down

but people got what ‘No Closer To Heaven’ was talking about from the get go. From the very first show, “from the first note of ‘Brothers’ people were singing and being wonderful,” even though the discussions the band wanted to start weren’t front and centre. “I don’t think I hoped everyone would get it. I just hoped that if they were looking for that, it was there for them, but if they weren’t then the songs could stand on their own. That was the big thing for me. To write songs that I felt were important but could function with or without that aspect.” One simple desire rang true.

“It’s a good song no matter what we’re talking about.”

This layered approach meant that some fans were stoked because they could lose themselves in the melody, while “some of them are taking the time to learn about the things we are singing about and didn’t have any idea of before. In a way we’re spreading awareness about topics we want to bring awareness to, which is a really rewarding thing for us. Other fans just go, ‘I like jumping up and down to this song, it’s fucking sick’ and that’s all you need then. Whatever it is about music that makes you happy, I hope we gave it to you.”

With every album, The Wonder Years have presented fresh challenges to their audience. It’s a daunting undertaking helped along by the band having “a lot of respect for our fanbase, they’re really smart. I don’t underestimate them at all. I feel like they’re smart enough and they’re mature enough to deal with what we talk about. At no point did I think ‘oh, I hope that they get it’ - I kinda knew that they would. I guess, I have a lot of respect and a lot of confidence in them and they responded wonderfully.”

‘No Closer To Heaven’ provokes a discussion. Like Tonight Alive’s ‘Limitless’ and letlive.’s upcoming fourth album, it’s a record set to inspire questions about the world at large. “There’s a shift,” starts Dan. “Everyone can be more aware because information is so much easier to disseminate. We can film the police now, we can film travesties and we can live blog revolutions.”

That ability to capture and share information is, according to Dan, the

only way things will get better. The future is absolutely in education: “I say that as someone who went to school to be an educator so maybe I’m a little biased, but I feel like in every major quarrel on Planet Earth and at the centre of every major issue, if we better educated people about those issues and they went in with a better understanding of it, I think we’d see much less of a problem.

The information being disseminated to us as a culture is sometimes so breathtakingly inaccurate and biased, it makes us less informed and more hateful and causes problems.

“Things like abstinence-only education, which I’m not sure you guys have over here, but it was a government-funded program for school that basically didn’t teach you about contraceptives, safe sex, and STDS. It just taught you that you have to abstain from sex or you’re bad and bad things will happen to you. We actually just signed a bill to remove federal funding for it which is a really great step in the right direction, we need to teach our young people about safe sex, we need to teach our young people about consent and we weren’t and it’s manifesting itself into problems later in life. The way our major news networks and the media present Islam in America is dangerous and causes such hatred. If we were better educated about the religion, I think there would be so much less hatred.”

It’s a world-altering view and one that The Wonder Years incorporate into their music. “We’ll educate in our own way and where we feel comfortable with our voice and its place in the conversation. Sometimes our voice isn’t as important as other voices and hopefully in those instances we find ways to amplify the voice that is important. Sometimes we just don’t know enough about something to talk about it and sometimes I think being silent is important. It’s better to not talk about something than it is to talk about something and disseminate incorrect information.”

The Wonder Years knowing when to step forward and when to step back is a gut reaction. “I just feel where the line is. I never think ‘When do I start or stop talking’. If I feel like I can do a positive thing, I’ll do it.“ Writing songs that deal with bigger issues

was “challenging, because I haven’t written this way before but now that I have, I feel like it’s a little easier for me.” That’s not to say The Wonder Years are going to lose that balance of entertainment and education.

Dan never wants to get to the point where he feels “like me talking is going to have a negative repercussion or turn some people off because it’s too preachy. If everything I do shifts to a political thing, then there’s a chance we could rapidly lose our fanbase and then all of a sudden the soapbox that I have to speak from is suddenly kicked out from under me, whereas if I were to speak when I feel like it’s important and my voice is valuable only, then I’m able to have a greater reach,” but it’s not something he spends much time thinking about.

“I’m just doing the things that my brain is telling me to do. It’s not so deliberate, I guess.”

Over the past ten years, The Wonder Years have attracted a passionate, attentive fanbase but Dan doesn’t really think about an audience when writing music. It’s never an overwrought process but the fact “our audience has been receptive to our progress means we don’t have to fear making progress. We respect the intelligence of our audience and their ability to hang with us, which is cool.”

“You have to find a balance between who you’re writing for and what you’re writing for, but there are definitely times where it’s about finding where your voice is important and worthwhile. In the times where I find my voice to be important and worthwhile, and then I feel like it should be part of the conversation, then I do feel an obligation to join the conversation but again, standing back and letting the people whose voices are more important to yours on a particular topic to be heard is of equal importance.”

That sense of obligation has grown as Dan has got older but he readily admits, “I’ll never be done working out the balance. The whole point of ‘No Closer To Heaven’ is that all these topics, the people singing them and the people they are being sung to, are all a work in progress. I don’t think I’m ever going to get it right, right? Hopefully I can just get a little better.” P

39

RATED WEEZER WEEZER

Atlantic

eeee

Hooking up with Jake Sinclair, the man who helped Fall Out Boy and Panic!

At The Disco take over the airwaves, they’ve finally found the formula that matches classic, critically acclaimed Weezer with their postmillennial, mainstream chasing successors. Sinclair, it should be noted, used to front his own Weezer tribute band. It’s really no surprise he had the answers.

The formula is all there. Dorky lyrics, the direct line to California’s other great harmonisers The Beach Boys, an understanding that a little bit of musical gravel can go a long way. But they’ve not simply tried to return to 1996. It’s 2016, and they know it.

So when ‘LA Girlz’, the White album’s standout track, comes woozing out of the traps, swooning with grit and lazy melody, it sounds like the band who released ‘Buddy Holly’, rather than a band who wishes they did. More polished, more realised - it’s not in any way better, but it complements what came before. ‘Do You Wanna Get High?’, likewise, chugs to a soaring chorus that would make any ‘Pinkerton’ convert smile a little.

IT’S NOT ‘PINKERTON’, IT’S NOT BLUE, BUT ON THEIR TENTH ALBUM, WEEZER FINALLY SOUND LIKE A BAND BACK ON THEIR VERY BEST FORM.

“I

t’s gonna be alright if you’re on a sinking ship, the California kids will throw you a lifeline.”

So goes the refrain of ‘California Kids’, the opener of Weezer’s fourth self-titled, colour coded record. That’s your review, right there. With the ‘White’ album, Weezer have saved themselves.

The signs were there for a while.

‘Hurley’, a somewhat underrated record (no, really - Ed), sparked at points.

‘Everything Will Be Alright In The End’ took it a step further; a confession that taking the band back to their roots might be the smart move. Here, though, 40 upsetmagazine.com

Rivers Cuomo and his band of merry men have nailed it. This is redemption.

No, this isn’t ‘Pinkerton’ or ‘Blue’. But then, it never could be. In the 20 years after Weezer delivered one of the great album one-twos, things have changed - not least the protagonists themselves.

Since returning from their between albums break with the ‘Green’ album, they’ve been a band under fire - but they’ve learned from that. Every Weezer album - even ‘Raditude’ - had at least one song that showed the magic was still there. Now, they’ve packaged it all up and brought it home to make - arguably - the album ‘Green’ should have been.

But elsewhere, Weezer are still trying new things. ‘Thank God for Girls’ is every bit as deep-fried as anything from ‘Red’; ‘Wind in Our Sail’ is a truly brilliant piano led pop song - this isn’t a band reverting to type, but finding their stride once more.

Coming full circle, there’s a scene in the video for ‘California Kids’ where Rivers Cuomo digs himself out of the sand, before disappearing. His trademark glasses fall to the floor, and the recently exhumed Rivers puts them on. As metaphors for Weezer’s current standing go, it’s a good one. They’ve finally found themselves, they’ve retaken their place, and now they’re ready to go once more.

After all, the ‘Black’ album. What’s the worst that could happen? Stephen Ackroyd

BRITISH THEATRE

ONCE UPON PARQUET A DEAD MAN COURTS

Self-Released

Self-Released

Rough Trade

.A TRULY DESPAIRING SOUND OF JOY.

.SIMPSONS ASSEMBLE!

.BRASH BUT CONSIDERED.

When music runs through your veins, there’s little that can get in the way of creating. And when it runs in the family, that means no matter how much else you have on your plate, it’s the perfect time to start another band with your brothers and a close pal. Well, if you’re the Simpson family, that is. So what do you get when you’ve gone through the poppy end of rock to the post-hardcore realms and then mellowed out with some acoustics? Well, there’s always throwing an electronic twist on what you create.

‘Concepts and Phenomena’ is often a safe and comfortable journey, and enjoyable along the way, but those moments that Once Upon A Dead Man decide to kick it up that last notch are what make this EP feel that little bit bigger. Heather McDaid

When Andrew Savage talks of “mid-sentence tremors” and his mind being “at its weakest” on the title-track of his band’s latest album, it becomes hard to ignore that something has changed. Parquet Courts are known for locking into garage rock grooves; their alacritous, repetitious off-kilter racket doesn’t give them time to think too much.

‘Human Performance’ changes all of that.

‘I Was Just Here’ is a menacing blast of self-deprecating post-punk, ‘Steady On My Mind’ unexpectedly recalls Elliott Smith at his most soul-destroying, and closer ‘It’s Gonna Happen’ is a fittingly eerie send off. Few bands introvert so arrestingly.

Parquet Courts have written a record that maintains their brash charm but takes more time to consider itself. Marty Hill

MASTERY

eee

‘Mastery’ is full of uncertainty; an electronic soundscape delivering as both upper and downer in its own heady way. It has an energy which sounds like it hasn’t been overthought, nor attempted to be overcompensated with structural ideas or grandiose attire. An album of two halves, opener ‘Blue Horror’ steers towards the groove of an off-beat fluoro optimism, continuing seamlessly through the first few tracks until the instrumental ‘The Coldest Of Shoulders’ turns to a darker place. ‘Newman’ is a hard listen but, like the rest of the record, the investment in the listen is part of the pay-off. In all its confusion and struggle, ‘Mastery’ longs for darkened corners. A truly despairing sound of joy. Giles Bidder

CONCEPTS AND PHENOMENA

eee

HUMAN PERFORMANCE

eeee

DEFTONES GORE

Warner Bros

eeee

NEVER STANDING STILL. ‘Gore’ is a bit of a strange one for Deftones. With their own guitarist, Stephen Carpenter, being open on the fact he wasn’t really on board with the direction the band was taking at the time, it’s not exactly the hype you’d hope for ahead of the album’s release. But worry not. Yes, there are moments that feel like they’re building up to a bang that doesn’t always come, but it’s not all about that explosion. The further you travel into its depths, the more you find that the album doesn’t need to shout to find its hook; bit by bit these whispers start to be heard. ‘Prayers/ Triangles’ is raggedly ethereal, leaping into Chino’s strangled yells and back again, ‘Xenon’ pulses, a power almost trying to break through its many layers. ‘Doomed User’ goes all out, heavy and commanding, where ‘Pittura Infamante’ is a well-needed puncture in the gloomier atmosphere. ‘Gore’ is familiar, but not the same. Enough to stamp the hallmarks of Deftones but allow them to sidestep and try something new. A band who will never churn out the same album twice, this is their declaration not to stay settled in their comfort zone. Heather McDaid

TERRIBLE LOVE

SLEEPING SORORITY WITH SIRENS NOISE

Big Scary Monsters

Epitaph

Topshelf Records

.A PERFECT INTRODUCTION, THE UNDERGROUND NEVER SOUNDED SO SAVAGE.

.THE MAGIC OF A LIVE SHOW, BUT ACOUSTIC.

. A SUBDUED BUT SUCCESSFUL JAB AT THE FEELS.

The difference between a band live and on record can be stark. Capturing that little something extra on record is the real challenge, and ‘Live and Unplugged’ might as well plonk Sleeping With Sirens in your living room. It’s not just the band, but the whole magic of a live show. Anyone who goes to shows and doesn’t get a little shiver at the most powerful of sing-a-longs may be made of steel. This album will definitely test your resolve. There’s Kellin Quinn’s passing chats, like announcing one of the first songs he ever wrote with the band, ‘If I’m James Dean, You’re Audrey Hepburn’. It feels like a personal affair. A live show can rarely be truly replicated on record, but Sleeping With Sirens have done a bang up job. Sit on your couch, close your eyes, and have a little acoustic concert from the comfort of your own home. Heather McDaid

Over the course of two records, Sorority Noise have found their place as one of the most poignant bands of the emo renaissance. Although they’ve been known to stray into more tender territories, this is the quartet’s first full-blown acoustic foray. As you’d expect, all four tracks are just as honest and endearing as their arsenal of power-pop bangers. ‘Either Way’ is an ode to those struggling to stand in the storm of mental health, while the stomach-churning spoken word of ‘Fource’ will bring on the throat-lumps. The hearton-sleeve ideals that are so synonymous with the Northwestern scene have never been more integral to Sorority Noise.

‘It Kindly Stopped For Me’ mingles with tones not miles away from Sufjan Stevens and early Bon Iver, but the cathartic lyrics make it unmistakably their own work.

Danny Randon

CHANGE NOTHING

eeee

Forming a band after the dissolution of your previous one is always a risky move.

Bringing a sound to the post-hardcore scene that is filled with topical relevance and musical abrasiveness, Terrible Love have taken the best of all their prior bands, including Goodtime Boys and Bastions, and melded them into an unstoppable juggernaut that is surely going to bear the fruits of their labour. The first offering from this new band is the ‘Change Nothing’ EP, which at only fifteen minutes long neatly acts like an agenda of sorts. It’s a perfect introduction and an indicator of the great things to come from this melodic hardcore conglomerate.

Filled with frustration and angst, it’s a promising start for the next generation of post-hardcore. The underground never sounded so savage. Steven Loftin

42 upsetmagazine.com

LIVE AND UNPLUGGED

eeee

IT KINDLY STOPPED FOR ME

eeee

THREE TRAPPED TIGERS SILENT EARTHLING

Superball Music

eeee

.ONE OF THE BEST INSTRUMENTAL BANDS IN THE WORLD. Three Trapped Tigers have reasons to excuse them the five year delay - but has the wait for a new album been worth it? At its heart, ‘Silent Earthling’ is an evolution, not a revolution. This time around it’s less of a ‘live’ sounding record, more a studio arrangement, but that doesn’t mean it has become sterile. The swirling ‘Strebek’ and angular ‘Engrams’ retain that driving rock force, while the band finally cut loose on ‘Rainbow Road’. The highlight, however, is ‘Blimp’, which goes from atmospheric with electronic undertones to synth-driven feel-good melodic riff fest by its climax. A coherent and worthy successor; no doubt ‘Silent Earthling’ will reaffirm Tigers as one of the best instrumental bands in the world. Alex Lynham

INTO IT. OVER IT. STANDARDS

Triple Crown Records

SOLIDS

FILTER

Topshelf Records

Spinefarm Records

.SOLID WORK.

.A WORTHY SUCCESSOR.

Solids made a name for themselves as a loud and fuzzy duo off the back of their debut album, ‘Blame Confusion’, two years ago.

Since then, the twopiece have been on the road almost non-stop for the past year, shredding their guitar and hammering their drums with the likes of Pity Sex and Metz. That back catalogue should be more than enough to get you excited about the prospect of their follow up EP, ‘Else’.

While splattering in with a predictable guitar and drum sequence in ‘Blank Stare’, melancholy seeps through their destructive noise; the instrumental, math-rock elements bring about a feeling of intricacy and detail.

‘Blurs’ begins to hint towards a new, more inventive direction as the drumbeats become upbeat, and with much more thought behind them.

Solids are a good band, and this a good EP. Emily Pilbeam

Though still best known for their platinum-selling debut ‘Short Bus’, Richard Patrick’s Filter have been delivering solid postgrunge and industrial rock records in fits and starts for twenty years now. ‘Crazy Eyes’, their seventh record, is described by Patrick as “new industrial”, though it’s hard to see what that is in relation to. The opening track, ‘Mother E’, is more 90s in approach, and certainly brutal enough; but for the most part the album is too sonically coherent to suggest a major departure - either from track to track, or from Filter’s extensive back-catalogue. For a band that never became world-beatingly huge, nor threw in the towel, it’s quite surprising both that Filter are still going, and that they should have a (ahem) quality filter in place even after all these years. ‘Crazy Eyes’ is a worthy successor to the best of their early material and even manages a couple of surprises along the way. Alex Lynham

ELSE

eee

CRAZY EYES

eeee

eeee

.CONFIDENT AND ASSURED. Into It. Over It.’s third full-length doesn’t fit the mould of other albums conceived in a cabin in the woods. Evan Weiss’ stay in a cut-off location in snowy Vermont hasn’t led ‘Standards’ to become insular, stripped-back or quiet - it’s his most fully-formed work yet. The presence of drummer Josh Sparks at the writing sessions is abundantly clear - his rhythms flow through the record.

First single ‘No EQ’ is built around his pulsating drums, and his intricate work makes ‘Required Reading’ a standout. ‘Standards’ doesn’t signal a noticeable reinvention or departure from 2013’s ‘Intersections’, just a natural progression that should be commended. The time spent shut away has given Weiss the time to create an album confident in its intentions from an artist growing more assured in his sound with every album. It’s almost what was to be expected, but the familiarity and lack of shock doesn’t feel restrictive - it keeps him at the very top of the scene he’s making his own. Will Richards

43

MERRICK’S TUSK REGROUP AND REFORM

Self-Released

eee

.UNTAPPED POTENTIAL. Merrick’s Tusk wear their influences on their sleeves.

They have the word ‘reminiscent’ in their bio. They’ve rejected modern trends that have emerged in emo, the adoption of grunge and shoegaze, the sound of a thousand Title Fight cover bands. Rather, ‘Regroup and Reform’, their second EP, recalls a melodic indie-rock sound more associated with bands such as Mineral and Texas Is The Reason; harking back to the hopes and dreams of the mid90s, a step removed from 80s hardcore, but way before anyone started using the word ‘twinkle-daddy’. Sure, there is room for that, but there’s more to be said here. As the band develops, the real excitement is going to come from looking forward. Kristy Diaz

LANDSCAPES O’BROTHER MODERN EARTH

ENDLESS LIGHT

Pure Noise Records

Triple Crown Records

. PROBABLY EXACTLY WHAT IT SHOULD BE.

.SLOW, ROUGH AND THE RIFFS ROLL HARD.

If you’re a metalcore band in 2016 you have two choices. You either have to top anything that’s come before or subvert it beyond recognition.

In truth, Landscapes struggle to do either. What they do deliver is a well-rounded mix of metal and hardcore. The vocals possess that endearing drawl that Your Demise used to spit. Yet there’s none of the optimism - ‘Modern Earth’ is an album resigned to accept the cruelties of this world.

Even the first stark tempo change on ‘Remorser’ doesn’t draw out even a hint of sentimentality, but focuses on the more sombre quality of the album’s melancholy motif. It’s a reduction from bathing in animosity to a realisation of the sombre state of affairs they’re left with. A draining experience; but that’s what it probably should be. Jack Glasscock

O’Brother manage to blend two undoubtable goliaths on this record; Deftones and Muse.

Now, think of that what you will, but it leaves them an awful lot to live up to. Fortunately, the Atlantans throw down the gauntlet with ferocity in the form of the slowburning opener, ‘Slow Sin’. This is the track that really highlights Tanner Merritt’s channelling of the mighty Chino Moreno and all the easy, sultry swagger that comes with it. On tracks like ‘Complicated End Times’ the guitar tone is caked in grunge to the point where the notes are almost indistinguishable. Things are slow, rough and the riffs roll hard. It’s hard not to picture the band set up in the Mojave Desert at one of those infamous Kyuss generator parties. When ‘Endless Light’ is good, it’s really very good. Jack Glasscock

eee

MAX RAPTOR MAX RAPTOR

Hassle Records

eeee

LISTEN UP. It’s clear that Max Raptor aren’t afraid to cast a few stones to make their voices heard. Unleashing pent up frustrations at everything from the state of the country to the people they encounter in the street, the band are pushing more

eee

extremes than ever. Enraged and engaged, their self-titled record is a twelve-track plea for people to switch on, tune in, and do something about it. Using a chant-along chorus and tumultuous refrains, ‘Big Divide’ acts as a rallying call to arms, while lead single ‘Old Romantics’ boasts enough echoing hooks and rolling rhythms to demonstrate the group at the height of their stadium-ready potential. It’s ‘Relic’ that showcases the band at their boldest. Raging every which way over its fourminute duration, the energy alone is enough to exhaust. As vital as it is volatile, Max Raptor’s self-titled release speaks to each and every person who plays it. Jess Goodman

AFTER FOUR ALBUMS C H ASI N G TH E I R SOU N D, F R I G H T E N E D R A B B I T T RY SOMETHING NEW WITH ‘ PA I N T I N G O F A PA N I C AT TA C K ’ .

WORDS: ALI SHUTLER

FRIGHTENED RABBIT LOSE THE FEAR

“I

t’s only when you do your next record that you get an idea about what the last record was,” starts drummer Grant Hutchinson. “‘Pedestrian Verse’ was a climax of the sound we were trying to achieve for the three records previous and we felt we achieved it as best we could. This time round allowed us, with less worry and stress, to really push ourselves in a slightly different direction.” Frightened Rabbit’s fifth album ‘Painting of a Panic Attack’ is a departure but it doesn’t stray too far. “It’s still Frightened Rabbit,” Grant concedes. “But we didn’t feel we needed to do those big anthemic songs about sadness. There are still elements of that but we tried to push ourselves in a different direction.”

“I think everyone had a bit more leeway in pulling it in the direction they would pull it in,” adds keyboardist Andy Monaghan. The five members of the band, brothers Scott (vocals) and Grant Hutchinson, Billy Kennedy (bass), Simon Liddell (guitar) and Andy were all given

space to see how they far they could run with new elements and ideas before reaching a limit and having to bring it back in. It created an album that expands on the Frightened Rabbit verse.

“There’s a middle ground we found on this one. It was a difficult process for many reasons but the end result, we’re all really, really happy with.”

Working with one of their heroes, The National’s Aaron Dessner was “good, eventually. It was difficult at first because we hadn’t worked with him before. He works a certain way, which is different to the way we’re used to working.”

There were times during the recording process where the band were asking themselves “What is going on?

So many other things are getting put on, so many other things are getting taken off and you don’t know what it is anymore,” offers Andy.

“There were times where it was like, ‘is this a Frightened Rabbit record or an Aaron Dessner record?’, but it was just a case of finding out how each other worked and where the boundaries were.

It came good at the end,” Grant adds.

The decision to push things forward

FRIGHTENED RABBIT PAINTING OF A PANIC AT TACK

Atlantic

eeee COMFORTINGLY HONEST. “I have a long list of tepid disappointments,” Scott Hutchison sings during ‘An Otherwise Disappointing Life’, summing up Frightened Rabbit’s mood of wistfulness and regret. There are no niceties on ‘Painting Of A Panic Attack’ - the chilling, piano introduction and bleak imagery of ‘Death Dream’ sleepily drifting off to a haunting conclusion.

An honest account of alcoholism, ‘I Wish I Was Sober’ is a sombre affair compared to its follower ‘Woke Up Hurting’, sounding surprisingly jovial for a hangover song. Frightened Rabbit have never been ones to hold back on the struggles of real life - they manage to write about universal topics while capturing the intensity of personal experience. Whether it’s a line or a whole song, there’s something comforting to be found on this record for anyone willing to listen. Kathryn Black was a considered one. What started on ‘Pedestrian Verse’ with Scott opening up the songwriting to include the other members of the band held more weight with this album. “Basically if this band wants to stay together, we have to make the decision to push ourselves and change our view of what we think is right and what we think this band needs,” states Grant. “We all did that. You need to evolve to stay relevant. ‘Where can you not go?’,” he asks, with a smile.

“Hopefully we don’t run out of places to go but we haven’t started writing the next record yet.” P 45

46 upsetmagazine.com

PITY SEX

SKATING POLLY

Run For Cover

Chap Stereo

WHITE HOT MOON

eeee

.THERE’S NO SOPHOMORE SLUMP HERE. Shoegaze and melody go together like politics and scandal, which, luckily for Pity Sex, they have both of by the bucketload. With the gentle, fuzzy guitars of DIIV but the drum power of more pop-punk contemporaries, their return with ‘White Hot Moon’ is just as powerful as their debut. The first glimpse of this new record came from ‘What Might Soothe You’, an apt precursor of what to expect. It demonstrates perfectly the band’s ability to toe the line between shoegaze and straightforward rock. There’s no sophomore slump here. Pity Sex bring a startling ability to appeal to a wider audience, something that will surely help them flourish. Steven Loftin

THE BIG FIT

eeee .A BREATH OF FRESH AIR. Two is the magic number of late, but while there’s many singingguitar-player-anddrummer combos, that formula is nothing new.

Luckily, Skating Polly do not care for formulas. Their first UK release pushes comparisons off the table. They’ve got jagged pop, massive melody, key-driven storytelling and downright anarchy on ‘The Big Fit’, leaving little room to sit and get comfortable. ‘Oddie Moore’ is unruly but real, ‘Cosmetic Skull’ is candy sweet with a theatrical edge, and ‘For the View’ gradually amps up before launching into a shrieking onslaught. Snarly, snarky, sweet and distortedly infectious all at once, Skating Polly are a breath of fresh air.

Heather McDaid

BLACK PEAKS STATUES

Easy Life / Sony Red

eeee

FILTHY AND FANTASTICAL. How do you solve a problem like ‘Glass Built Castles’? Interesting, surprising yet deep enough to properly latch on to, it’s the sort of debut track that could easily overshadow anything placed near it. It’s a good job Black Peaks don’t do flukes then. We’ve had our suspicions for a while though. ‘Saviour’, ‘Set In Stone’ and ‘Crooks’ are all just as daring, but it’s when they slot into the ‘Statues’ that Black Peaks really start showing off. Intense and constantly shifting, the record doesn’t let up. Moments of calm offer brief windows of reflection but it’s the many times Black Peaks are locked at full, fascinating acceleration that ‘Statues’ is truly stunning. To move as one is poetry in motion and Black Peaks cover a lot of ground. More than a collection of incredible songs, ‘Statues’ is a united declaration of want, offering surprise and escape time and time again. Ali Shutler

ON ALBUM FIVE, FUTURE OF T H E L E F T F I N D PE AC E BUT T H E R E ’ S A L W AY S S P A C E F O R THE SNARLING TRUTH. WORDS: ALI SHUTLER

“WHAT’S THE POINT OF FINISHING A SONG YOU DON’T LIKE”

“I

t’s just nice to make music,” starts Andy ‘Falco’ Falkous.

“Just standing in a room and making some loud sounds with some friends is pretty much the way to go with life in general I think.”

conversation about direction or aim.

“It was just the way the songs were coming out. The stuff that works, self-evidently works and the stuff that doesn’t work so well, doesn’t work so well. As much as I’m usually reluctant to use words like this because they can simplify records and make them sound cliche, it’s a very intense record.”

It’s a lifestyle that’s resulted in Future Of The Left’s fifth album ‘The Peace & Truth of Future Of The Left’. The record is a more streamlined attack than 2013’s ‘How To Stop Your Brain In An Accident’ but is still a hulking, unpredictable beast. “Anything that has as many twists and turns, you perhaps shouldn’t be able to describe in a sentence,” he ventures.

“It just sounds like a band, as ridiculous as that sounds. It’s a bit of a pet hate for me when bands talk up their new record and slag off their old one by implication.

They’re just two different records.”

The band “only started thinking about writing this record in May just because of everything that’s been going on in life in general. Jack [Egglestone, drums] is a father two times over, and Julia [Ruzicka, bass] works in a different city so, we’re lucky, I don’t think we’d rehearsed for maybe seven months before we had one in May.” After a run of festivals, the band rehearsed once a week from August and “just wrote some songs. It was dead fun and dead easy. Every time you practice, you’re getting better in some way.” That blood and guts approach was carried over into shaping the album.

Inspired by “everything going on” around them, there was never really a

“What gets left behind is stuff that you get halfway through and you just go

48 upsetmagazine.com

FUTURE OF THE LEFT THE PEACE & TRUCE OF FUTURE OF THE LEFT

Prescriptions

eeee

INCREDIBLY STRONG. Always conjuring up some form of fuzzed-out madness, Future of The Left bring forth the idea that music can be terrifying and exciting at the same time; ‘The Peace & Truce Of…’ stalks and taunts until it’s over. ‘If AT&T Drank Tea What Would BP Do?’ circles its prey, before hitting its stride at the very end and attacks. A cross between 2009’s ‘Travels…’ and 2012’s ‘The Plot Against...’, it’s more vicious than ever.

FOTL pull no punches, particularly with song titles like ‘White Privilege Blues’.

You don’t have to change your sound to keep things fresh, you just need to have someone like Falco at the helm who can convey social issues through even the most nonsensical lyrics. Steven Loftin

‘nah’. What’s the point in finishing a song you don’t really like? We had two songs, which we wrote for the album, which we were pretty sure were going to make it on but when it came to record them, they just seemed really flat and normal.”

“I just hope the record gets listened to by people and if they then decide they don’t like it, that’s entirely up to them,” he adds. “I’m really happy with the record and I’m excited to be playing some proper shows for the first time in a while but I’m not overly optimistic that the record will be heard by enough people to please my eternal soul but there we are, that’s life.” P

TRACKS OF THE MONTH BIFFY CLYRO

ISSUES

Biffy Clyro don’t do gentle returns. After years in the wilderness, they’re back and they’re as weird as ever. From the laughing challenge of “record this?” through the electro promise of it being their turn and beyond, Biffy pluck ideas from around them, cherry pick the best bits and move on before tired becomes an option. It’s odd, jarring and still contains stadium-ready hooks. Watch this space, ellipsis is coming.

First things first, Issues are ‘The Realest’.

Taking the collision theory of snarling fury and boyband skips, the first cut from upcoming record ‘Headspace’ sees a band honing their craft with near impossible sheen. Whereas before Issues clung desperately to two polar extremes, ‘The Realest’ sees the band let go and let their magnetism sort out the rest. It’s a match made in heaven, now watch the flames begin.

PIERCE THE VEIL

WHITE LUNG

WOLVES OF WINTER

CHISEL BEECHES

IN A WEEK, ON A WHIM

Self-released

ee The mashing-up of technically-driven riffs and poppy sensibilities has proven an unlikely yet lucrative pairing for the new breed of UK rock. As with any burgeoning movement, however, a line must be drawn, before the scene is riddled with carbon copy bands.

Chisel Beeches have the potential to become the wheat within their crop.

But while ‘In A Week, On A Whim’ has its promising moments of sharp, refined melody and killer hooks, they’re sadly undermined by bland indie-pop.

If they mixed that blatant Coheed & Cambria influence with that effortless Don Broco-esque cool for a little while longer, they may end up with something much more delectable. Danny Randon.

TEXAS IS FOREVER

Pierce The Veil are promising Misadventures with their new album, and the first track proper from it gives an insight into what wicked games the band have planned. Relentless yet playful, ‘Texas Is Forever’ sees the band embracing their past while pushing forward with reckless abandon. It’s been a long time coming but Pierce The Veil are finally back. Mischief Managed.

THE REALIST

KISS ME WHEN I BLEED

White Lung are brilliant. Period. ‘Kiss Me When I Bleed’ captures the band’s ear for a barbed hook and sets it against feedback, nasty riffs and wide-eyed honesty. It’s a thunderbolt of a track, not wasting time with potential energy or unnecessary weight and instead striking at the point of least resistance.

For all the bedroom confessionals that rage against White Lung’s walls, the lip curling “like I even care” sees a band who don’t need your permission.

LIVE TWENTY ONE PILOTS O2 BRIXTON ACADEMY, LONDON

eeee

Words: Ali Shutler.

Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett.

A R E N A S B E C KO N A S T W E N T Y

Ignoring the ceremony of the evening, Twenty One Pilots treat the venue like their very own playground. Venturing in, out and on top of the crowd, darting about the stage, pulling a kid from the crowd for the ‘secret handshake’ and even taking to the upper balcony for the final flourish of ‘Car Radio’, there’s a playful abandon to the show. Tonight, Tyler and Josh are everyone’s mate.

O N E PI LOTS M A KE B RI XTO N F E E L I N T I M AT E .

W

hen Twenty One Pilots announced their biggest UK headline show yet, it felt like a reach. A big, looming target to aim for.

The band’s peak. Yet here we are at the second of two shows at Brixton Academy and it’s completely sold out. It’s been a similar story across the UK. The stage looks like a post-apocalyptic wasteland, desolate and doused in red smoke before Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun appear and slide straight into the rapid-fire of ‘HeavyDirtySoul’. Every word is instantly and furiously shot back at the pair. From the off, Twenty One Pilots make Brixton feel small while their audience stands tall.

The piano-led ‘Stressed Out’ sees Twenty One Pilots’ grip tighten before ‘Guns for Hands’ sends the room spiralling out of control. It’s a playful exchange of chaos and control that the band threads throughout their set. A stripped back medley sees Tyler and Josh hold court with nothing but the bare essentials while ‘Lane Boy’ is dialled right up and, sparked by the ol’ crouch and jump, turns Brixton into a euphoric rave.

Jarring and all over the place, ‘Blurryface’ has created an anything-goes culture around Twenty One Pilots.

Their live show is just as angular, just as united under their control and just as gladly received. “I wish I could have a conversation with each one of you and ask why you’re here, how you got here and what this music means to you,” starts Tyler at the evening’s close.

“You guys have been the most amazing source for inspiration for writing songs and we’re so confident because of you.”

Despite the boundless swagger and enthusiasm that the pair performs with, the set still contains some very human moments. Both Josh and Tyler blush when the crowd chants their names and as they step forward to take a bow at the end of the show, the applause goes on and on as the pair look on with disbelief. It further amplifies the connection they share with the crowd.

The final cry of “We are Twenty One Pilots and so are you,” rings true. Tonight, everyone mattered. “You have the most beautiful house and you should invite us back,” teases Tyler but let’s be honest, after the comfort of Brixton Academy, arenas beckon. P

CREEPER THE UNDERWORLD, LONDON

eeeee

C

Words: Ali Shutler.

Photos: Sarah Louise Bennett.

reeper are building something. From the off they’ve had a clear vision and since the release of ‘The Callous Heart’ they’ve been revealing it, piece by piece. Tonight at The Underworld, they finally have the space to step back and show off their creation.

From the opening hammer of ‘VCR’, the band hold the capacity crowd on a knife-edge. The twitching call-to-arms of ‘Black Mass’ sees fists and voices raised while ‘Honeymoon Suite’ drags the last few stragglers into the party.

Starting with three of their most celebrated tracks is a bold move, but it instantly creates that sense of familiarity that Creeper thrive on. From here on out, the sombre reflection of ‘Misery’, the chiming fury of ‘Astral Projection’ and the sheer heartbreak of ‘Henley’s Ghost’ incite the same white-knuckled reaction. Moments of beauty quickly turn into ecstatic chaos but the room twists as one.

52 upsetmagazine.com

The usually gushing Will Gould keeps the chat to a minimum throughout.

There’s every chance he’s also caught up in the runaway momentum of the evening but it’s more likely a result of the newfound comfort within Creeper.

The band is more fluid, more playful and finally seems at home being the centre of attention. There’s no need to explain how important tonight is when everyone in the room feels it too.

An encore of ‘We Had A Pact’ and ‘Novena’ sees the evening end just as it began, with fists and voices rising in unison as Creeper stand atop their lovingly crafted creation. “A lot of people think this is an act but this is not an act,” Will declares. There’s a whole-hearted honesty in everything Creeper do. We all know the only way is up and this show is the model for whatever comes next. Misery never goes out of style because Creeper are not a fashion statement; they’re a death wish to expectation. P

MUNCIE GIRLS THE LEXINGTON, LONDON

eeee

S

Words: Ali Shutler.

Photos: Corinne Cumming.

urrounded by balloons and backed by a handmade sign, Muncie Girls take to the stage of The Lexington with a borrowed bass to celebrate the launch of their superb debut album ‘From Caplan To Belsize’.

No frills but lovingly hand-crafted, the band’s first sell-out headline gig in the capital is a focal point for everything Muncie Girls have been working towards for the past few years.

From the rattling open of ‘Respect’

and ‘Gone With The Wind’, Muncie Girls attack their set with urgency and animation. It’s an energy that simply doesn’t let up. Older tracks ‘Revolution Summer’ and ‘Kasper and Randow’ are still vibrant and still demand a reaction while the likes of ‘I Don’t Want To Talk About It’ and ‘Balloon’ are already fullyfledged classics. Less than a week in and the room already knows every word.

“It’s about power,” frontwoman Lande Hekt explains before ‘Learn In School’ alongside the encouraging, “no one

is going to teach you anything but that doesn’t mean you’re dumb.” Its observational “there’s so many of us and there’s so few of them,” coaxed into a rallying call to arms. Later ‘Gas Mark 4’ twists from frustration to reflection.

The lessons and confessions that dance about the records are replaced with a common understanding onstage. It’s more a conversation down the pub with your mates than a one-sided exchange, and that give and take between the audience and band further amplifies Muncie Girls’ message of community.

A one-shot encore of The Ramones’ ‘Pet Sematary’ comes with the unfounded warning, “Remember you asked us to play this. No one film this or remember this please ‘cos I’m going to fuck it up,” but it, like the rest of the night, sees Muncie Girls on the highest of forms.

Muncie Girls have been building up to tonight in the relative safety of the underground but they’ve become the leaders of a new gang. It genuinely feels like change is afoot. The balloons’ll deflate and float away but Muncie Girls are here to stay. P

ENTER SHIKARI ALEXANDRA PALACE, LONDON

eeee

“T

Words: Ali Shutler.

Photos: Sarah Louise Bennett.

his is a hobby that got well out of hand,” laughs Rou Reynolds as Enter Shikari ready themselves to bring their headline show at London’s Alexandra Palace to a glorious close.

The near two-hour set sees the band pull songs from across their nine-year history and arrange them into a loose narrative. Presented in quadraphonic sound and backed by an incredible, ever-shifting light show, from the opening of ‘Solidarity’ it’s obvious that this tour has elevated Enter Shikari to the next level.

A sense of revolution is the beating heart of The King Blues but tonight, their with-us-or-against-us mindset falls short. For the faithful, it’s a celebrated return but for the uninitiated and the unsure, it’s all a bit distant. Following, The Wonder Years make themselves right at home. The slow build and group cry of “we’re no saviours if we can’t save our brothers”

54 upsetmagazine.com

dances on heartstrings before the hit of ‘Cardinals’ sees the room raise their fists as one. It’s intimate, intricate yet every single body in the room feels it whether they know The Wonder Years or not.

“We’re going to take you on a journey tonight,” promise Enter Shikari and, true to their word, their headline set is nothing short of a trip. However, for all the lights, video intermissions and fancy sound systems tonight is really only about one thing and that’s Enter Shikari’s ability to write music that brings people together.

From the end-of-the-world party abandon that ‘The Jester’ and ‘Mothership’ incite to the campfire sing-alongs of ‘Radiate’ and ‘Dear Future Historians…’

Enter Shikari are always on the move but constantly ensuring the room is with them.

“Christ on a bendy bus,” Rou exclaims, taking a moment to look around.

“Whatever you think of our music, it’s not middle of the road. It’s not easy listening,” he continues, explaining why tonight doesn’t make any sense.

The band is completely independent and they’re “not afraid to call a cunt a cunt”, yet here they are. Not just looking comfortable in Alexandra Palace’s expanse but laying down the gauntlet for every other band to follow. Tonight is challenging, theatrical and overblown but every meticulous and unpredictable second is completely Enter Shikari. P

THREE TRAPPED TIGERS Silent Earthling

In Stores 1st April 2016 â&#x20AC;&#x153;TTT is at the cutting edge of contemporary music. Watch your fingers!â&#x20AC;? - Brian Eno The trio return with their long-awaited second album, combining shimmering sci-fi explorations, rich cinematic landscapes, pulsing electronics, mammoth riffs and pounding drums.

Pre-order on limited digipak CD or Gatefold 180g double vinyl from the Superball store and receive a signed art-print while stocks last: http://superball.tmstor.es

On tour in the UK from 17th April-10th May, full list of dates at www.threetrappedtigers.com A

L

S

O

A V A

I

CONRAD KEELY Original Machines

L

A

B

L

E

F

R

O

M

T

VENNART The Demon Joke

http://superball.tmstor.es

H

E

MATT SKIBA & THE SEKRETS Kuts

ON THE ROAD VISIT UPSETMAGAZINE.COM FOR THE LATEST TOUR NEWS.

ANDY BLACK MAY 10 Sheffield Leadmill 11 Newcastle University 12 Glasgow O2 ABC 14 Birmingham O2 Institute 15 Cardiff Tramshed 16 Manchester O2 Ritz 18 Brington All Saints Church 19 Portsmouth Pyramid 20 London Koko

AS IT IS MAY 13 London Underworld 14 Southampton 1865 16 Plymouth Hub 17 Bristol Fleece 18 Swansea Scene 19 Carlisle Brickyard 20 Newcastle Academy Ii 21 Aberdeen Tunnels 22 Glasgow King Tut’s 23 Sheffield Leadmill 24 Manchester Deaf Institute 25 Liverpool Arts Club 27 Nottingham Basement

BRING ME THE HORIZON OCTOBER 31 London O2 Arena NOVEMBER 1 Bournemouth International Centre 2 Nottingham Motorpoint Arena 4 Birmingham Barclaycard Arena 5 London O2 Arena 6 Sheffield Motorpoint Arena 8 Manchester Arena 9 Glasgow SSE Hydro

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE

MODERN BASEBALL + PUP

NOVEMBER 24 Newport Centre 27 Newcastle O2 Academy DECEMBER 3 Manchester Academy 6 Birmingham O2 Academy 9 London O2 Academy Brixton

APRIL 22 Brighton Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar 23 Norwich Owl Sanctuary 24 Huddersfield The Parish 26 Glasgow Stereo 27 Liverpool Studio 2 28 Derby The Venue

THE DIRTY NIL APRIL 30 Nottingham Rock City MAY 3 London Old Blue Last 4 Guilford Boileroom 5 Manchester Sound Control 6 Newcastle Jumping Jacks 7 Birmingham The Sunflower Lounge

FOXING + T TNG APRIL 27 Manchester Sound Control 28 Glasgow Audio 29 Norwich Owl Sanctuary 30 London Borderline MAY 1 Southampton Joiners

FUTURE OF THE LEFT APRIL 15 Bristol Thekla 16 Norwich Arts Centre 17 Nottingham Bodega 19 Newcastle Riverside 20 Liverpool East Village Arts Club 21 London Electric Ballroom MAY 12 Cardiff Club Ifor Bach 13 Manchester Night and Day

ISSUES MAY 24 Cardiff Y Plas 25 London KOKO 26 Manchester Ritz 27 Glasgow Garage

LETLIVE. APRIL 21 Manchester, Sound Control 22 London, The Dome 23 London, The Underworld 24 Kingston, Fighting Cocks

NECK DEEP APRIL 16 Southampton Guildhall 18 Newcastle University 19 Leeds Beckett University 20 Liverpool O2 Academy

OUGHT APRIL 19 Bristol Lantern 20 Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach 21 Manchester Islington Mill 22 Glasgow Broadcast 23 Belfast Voodoo 24 Dublin Whelans 26 London Tufnell Park Dome

PLACEBO DECEMBER 2 Glasgow Sse Hydro 3 Leeds First Direct Arena 5 Manchester Arena 6 Nottingham Motorpoint Arena 8 Birmingham Barclaycard Arena 10 Dublin 3arena 12 Newport Centre 14 Brighton Centre 15 London SSE Wembley Arena

PLAGUE VENDOR APRIL 9 Norwich The Owl Sanctuary, 10 Leeds Brudenell Social Club, 11 Manchester The Castle Hotel 12 Glasgow Broadcast 13 Nottingham The Chameleon Arts Cafe 14 Liverpool The Shipping Forecast 15 Birmingham The Flapper 16 Brighton The Green Door Store 17 Cardiff Clwb ifor Bach 18 Bristol Start the Bus

20 Guildford The Boiler Room 21 London The Old Blue Last

ROLO TOMASSI APRIL 8 Hartlepool The Studio 10 Sheffield Picture House 11 Birmingham Sunflower Lounge 12 Cardiff Moon Club 13 Southampton The Joiners MAY 21 London Holy Roar All Dayer

THE SUMMER SET MAY 10 Bristol Thekla 12 London Scala 13 Birmingham Asylum 14 Leeds Key Club 15 Glasgow G2 17 Manchester Club Academy 18 Nottingham Rescue Rooms 19 Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms

VANT APRIL 17 Bristol Louisiana 18 Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach 19 Swansea Sin City 20 London Boston Music Room 22 Birmingham Sunflower Lounge 23 Sheffield Plug 25 Nottingham Bodega Social Club 26 Manchester Deaf Institute 27 Glasgow King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut 28 Newcastle Cluny

YUCK MAY 12 Norwich Arts Centre 13 Edinburgh Sneaky Pete’s 14 Glasgow Broadcast 15 Manchester Deaf Institute 16 Guildford Boileroom 17 Birmingham Oobleck 18 Brighton Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar 19 Bristol Exchange 20 Nottingham Bodega 21 Leeds Brudenell Social Club 22 Bedford Esquires 57

EXCLUSIVE!

MILK TEETH, CREEPER, MALLORY KNOX AND MORE FOR 2000TREES 58 upsetmagazine.com

T

he clocks are back, the nights are longer, and the first festivals UK festivals of the year are starting to warm up their PAs. It’s time to get excited about the summer, and to help there’s a new batch of bands for this summer’s 2000trees festival.

The latest names include more than one Upset fave.

We’ve got previous cover stars Milk Teeth, buzziest new band in all of rockdom Creeper, perpetual purveyors of quality things The Xcerts and one of this issues big star turns, Black Peaks.

There’s also room for big Brit-rock success story Mallory Knox, Arcane Roots as they head towards that new album, Counterfeit, Yuck, Dinosaur Pile-Up, Brawlers, Demob

Happy and loads more.

They join a line up packed with quality bands. Refused and Twin Atlantic headline, with appearances from Basement, Neck Deep, The Bronx, Lonely The Brave, Moose Blood, Palm Reader, Heck and Muncie Girls, among others.

The complete list of new names reads: Mallory Knox, The Xcerts, Counterfeit, Arcane Roots, Animals As Leaders, Yuck, Dinosaur Pile-Up, Black Peaks, Creeper, Milk Teeth, The Magic Gang, Recreations, Grumble Bee, Tired Lion, Blackhole, Brawlers, Zoax, WACO, Demob Happy, Reigning Days, Dave McPherson, The Spills, LIFE, Puppy, Then Thickens, NARCS, Bare Knuckle Parade 2000trees takes place July 7th-9th in Cheltenham.

Q&A

2000 TREES 2000trees organiser James Scarlett reflects on what makes the festival special, and his years booking some of the best bands around.

What is it do you think that makes 2000trees so popular?

First and foremost 2000trees is all about the music and I spend months handpicking the lineup. But what people also love about 2000trees is our determination to give the ticket buyers quality in all areas. Our team works very hard all year to produce a festival with a unique atmosphere.

Twin Atlantic and Refused are headlining this year.

Both of these bands really know how to put on a proper rock show. Twin played for us way back in 2010 before their first album, so to have them back as headliners in 2016 will be something very special. And Refused are without doubt one of the most incendiary live acts I’ve ever seen.

Are there any bands on the 2000trees line up you think could be future headliners of the festival?

I can’t remember a time when the British rock scene felt this healthy. There are so many amazing bands coming through right now so take your pick from Arcane Roots, Milk Teeth and Muncie Girls. I could go on forever with this list!

Have you ever stumbled upon a new favourite band during the booking process?

Yes! It’s one of the things I love most about booking the bands for 2000trees. Future of the Left (2008), Lonely the Brave (2014) and Black Peaks (2015) are the ones that stick out in my memory. I love those bands and only discovered them as a result of booking for 2000trees.

59

ENTER SHIKARI AND LA DISPUTE SIGN UP FOR HEVY

A new batch of bands have been added to the line up for Hevy. Enter Shikari have been revealed as the first headliner, joined by The Bronx, La Dispute, Arcane Roots, Rolo Tomassi, Max Raptor and more. Hevy runs from 19th-20th August.

BIFFY AND FALL OUT BOY TO HEADLINE READING & LEEDS PREVIEW

HANDMADE 2016 Later this month, Upset will be teaming up with Handmade Festival.

It’s going to be Bloody Well Amazing, obviously.

Dozens of our favourite bands will be playing the May bank holiday event Leicester, including The Xcerts, Theo Verney, The Magic Gang, Three Trapped Tigers, Cassels, Swim Deep, We Are Scientists, She Makes War, Big Deal and Her Name Is Calla.

Black Honey (Future Perfect stage, Friday 29th April)

Here are a few you shouldn’t miss:

Visit handmadefestival. co.uk for more information. Weekend tickets are on sale now for just £40.

65daysofstatic (last.fm stage, Friday 29th April)

Deaf Havana (Upset stage, Saturday 30th April) Lonely the Brave (Upset stage, Saturday 30th April) Los Campesinos!

(Wichita stage, Sunday 1st May)

Biffy and FOB are joining Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foals and Disclosure at the top of the bill for Reading & Leeds this August bank holiday weekend. If our maths is correct, that’s five headliners in three days, which is a bit of alright.

CREEPER AND BOSTON MANOR FOR SLAM DUNK

Creeper, Boston Manor and Beautiful Bodies are among several new bands for Slam Dunk. “It is a festival we’ve been attending for years,” says Creeper’s Will Gould, “and has become a staple of the summer.” The event runs from 28th-30th May.

SWMRS TO FLY OVER FOR THE GREAT ESCAPE

The line up for The Great Escape has got even bigger, with SWMRS, The Joy Formidable, Black Foxxes, Black Honey, Boy Jumps Ship and Get Inuit all confirmed. They join an already heaving bill featuring Diet Cig, Muncie Girls and Dilly Dally, among others. The multi-venue festival takes place from 19th-21st May across Brighton.

Y NOT CONFIRMS NECK DEEP, MILK TEETH AND MORE

Band of Skulls, Eagulls, Creeper, Neck Deep, Heck, Dinosaur Pile Up, Lonely The Brave and Milk Teeth are all featured on the latest line up announcement for Y Not, which will take place from 29th – 31st July in Derbyshire. They join Gnarwolves, Moose Blood and more.

playing …and out come the wolves (only show in the EU)

Me First & the Gimme Gimmes © face to face FRANK TURNER AND THE SLEEPING SOULS Sick Of It All © Less Than Jake Four Year Strong © Dillinger Four 30 years anniversary

excl. benelux

excl. mainland eu

terror © Dag Nasty © The Movielife © Emmure © Letlive. © Bury your dead excl. EU FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES © MOOSE BLOOD © MUNCIE GIRLS © THE FALCON EXCL. EU WALLS OF JERICHO © DESPIsED ICON © NORTHLANE © BROKEN TEETH © knockout kid excl.eu Saosin (with Anthony Green) © Juliette & The Licks © No Fun At All © iron chic © Youth Of Today BlessTheFall © The Aggrolites © burn © snfu © pup © Venerea © Modern Baseball Flatcat © Night Birds © TANGLED HORNS © DOUBLE VETERANS © much the same excl. eu OFF THE CROSS © COMA COMMANDER © TEEN AGERS © Rozwell Kid © Siberian Meat Grinder Bad Cop Bad Cop © Pears © THE DIRTY NIL © THE BENNIES © HELLIONS © CLOWNS © NOT ON TOUR

APRIL 29/30 | MEERHOUT (BE) TICKETS FRIDAY €65/€75 SATURDAY €70/€80 DOORS: FRIDAY 15.00 SATURDAY 11.00 CAMPING THU 18.00 COMBI €98/€115 CAMPING €15/€20 CAMPING TICKETS ARE NOT SOLD SEPARATELY

W W W.GROE ZROCK .BE

IL L U S T R AT I O N A N D D E S I G N : © D O MINI C VA N H E U P E N

+ more to be announced

PVRIS VS

THE INTERNET YOU GUYS SUGGESTED SOME QUESTIONS FOR US TO ASK ON TWITTER. WE ASKED THEM. HERE ARE THE ANSWERS. Do you guys have a routine before getting on stage? @Lienvandenbergh We are usually trying to find each other and make sure no one is lost.

It happens quite often, it’s quite like trying to herd kittens together.

How do you deal with getting homesick on tour? @brianlikesboys Good question! Luckily our crew on the road is family to us so it’s hard to get homesick when we’re around such good company and good people. Aside from that, you just gotta adjust and find little things of comfort that make you feel at home.

I always like finding little coffee shops to hide away and get work done, makes me feel semi-human!

Lynn, how many songs do you think you wrote last year? @_gunnulfsen Close to 30? Maybe a little more?

Not sure on the exact number. A lot are just snippets and little ideas scattered all over my hard drives haha.

Would you rather live under water or in outer space? @PanicAtThePVRIS Underwater. Outer space sounds terrifying.

a bit more and back into the real world.

What has been the toughest thing to happen to you guys as a band? @norma_santos92 It’s definitely hard to maintain friendships and connections with loved ones back home, but luckily we live in a world of technology and have ways of keeping in touch the best we can!

What’s one thing you want to accomplish in your lifetime?

Doesn’t have to be music related. @ItwasFay I would really just love to leave an impact on people as long as we can, whatever that may be.

Create something timeless and real and long lasting.

When was the moment you guys realised that you had made it and were finally living your dream? @13Ema13 We have that moment almost every day!

What is your favourite thing to do when you have any free time? @em_ilyy8 On the road, reading, drawing, or working out. When I’m home I love exploring and hiking with my friends.

What is the first thing you’ll change when you complete your inevitable world domination? @joyapmc86 Destroy the internet.

Okay... Maybe not that drastic and evil, but it would be cool to see what would happen if we could get people off their phones/technology

If you could switch places with any other band for a day, who would it be? @Adriixx13 Definitely a heavier band like our friends in Beartooth or something! We all have inner metal-heads that need unleashing!

G O R E THE NEW ALBUM IN STORES NOW FEATURES THE SINGLE PRAYERS/TRIANGLES

CATCH DEFTONES LIVE IN THE UK FRIDAY 3 JUNE • SSE ARENA WEMBLEY / SATURDAY 11 JUNE • DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 2016

DEFTONES.COM

VELVETHAMMER.NET