Upset, April 2018

ISSUE 31

“I FEEL

APRIL 2018

BETTER THAN I’VE EVER FELT ABOUT A RECORD BEFORE IN MY LIFE. THIS IS NUMBER ONE” THE WONDER YEARS, P.24

DEAR READER,

ABOUT TO BREAK

LIVE

48 WATERPARKS 50 MARMOZETS 52 COMING UP

I’m gonna let you into a secret here, beloved Upset reader.

When we kicked off this mad journey, 31 issues ago, we’d never actually designed a print magazine before. We just kind of made it up as we went along. Over that time, the mag has evolved to the point it’s no longer recognisable from those early issues, but the original vision was quite different to what our still blossoming InDesign abilities knew how to achieve. This month, we’ve ripped everything down and rebuilt it in that image - equal parts trashy ‘zine and shiny colour bomb. Almost exactly three years on from when we first started work on Upset, we’re impossibly proud of what we’ve achieved. We hope you like what we’ve done with the place.

Another throw back to those early days are this month’s cover stars, The Wonder Years.

When we came up with the idea of starting Upset, putting bands like them on the cover was the top item on our mission statement. Now we’ve finally done it. Full circle feels pretty good.

FEATURES

TEENAGE KICKS

STEPHEN ACKROYD, EDITOR

UPSETMAGAZINE.COM EDITOR: Stephen Ackroyd

(stephen@upsetmagazine.com) DEPUTY EDITOR: Victoria Sinden

(viki@upsetmagazine.com)

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Ali Shutler

(ali@upsetmagazine.com)

Dan Harrison, Dillon Eastoe, Jack Press, Jessica Goodman, Linsey Teggert, Rob Mesure, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin CONTRIBUTORS:

PHOTOGRAPHERS: Giles Smith,

Mitchell Wojcik, Sarah Louise Bennett, Steve Gullick

COVER PHOTO: Mitchell Wojcik 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 The Bunker Publishing Ltd. 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.

PUBLISHED FROM

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

THIS MONTH RIOT!

4 FALL OUT BOY 8 TWIN ATLANTIC 10 MILK TEETH 14 PRESS TO MECO 15 DREAM WIFE 16 YOUTH MAN 17 BLACK PEAKS 18 PLAYLIST 22 DREAM STATE 24 TEENAGE WRIST 25 HAGGARD CAT

26 THE WONDER YEARS

36 CASEY 38 BLESSTHEFALL 40 DEMOB HAPPY 42 HOP ALONG

RATED

44 THE WONDER YEARS 46 BLACK FOXXES 47 HINDS

54 TIGERS JAW

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EVERYTHING HAPPENING IN ROCK

4 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

FOB-MANIA INCOMING!

FALL OUT BOY’S ‘M A N I A’ SAW THE BAND EMBARK INTO A BRAVE NEW WORLD. NOW, THEY’RE BRINGING IT TO THE UK. WORDS: ALI SHUTLER. PHOTOS: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT.

ALL OUT BOY JUST KEEP GETTING BIGGER AND BIGGER. From climbing up the line-up at Reading & Leeds (they’re headlining this year, FYI) to getting further from their basement punk past while keeping that special FOB spark, Pete, Andy, Joe and Patrick have never looked more in control - and they’ve never enjoyed being Fall Out Boy more.

New album ‘MANIA’, with its broad strokes, neon inspiration and grinning excitement, feels like a return, even though it’s a departure. Gone are the self-imposed rules and arching themes, replaced by a free-flowing anything-goes attitude.

‘MANIA’ will be once Fall Out Boy are back in the familiar ground of arenas.

“With pyro, you know at one beat in the song there’s going to be an explosion. That’s a lot of power,” grins Patrick. “You get so accustomed to playing some of those songs with pyro and stuff, that without them you feel ‘Oh, I have to be entertaining instead. This is so much more challenging’.” The ‘MANIA’ tour in the US was the first time the band had to buy their production, because they created a staging that couldn’t be rented or used by anyone else. With every movement, the band are heading off-road.

Fall Out Boy aren’t afraid to toy with their tracks, either.

Live, ‘Young And Menace’ switches gear from jarring “Music keeps electro-breakdown JOE TROHMAN moving and keeps to piano-led marvel. changing,” starts Partly a nod to Patrick. “This is something that Pete has set as those people who dismissed it as all style no a tone for on a few records. If we were 15 and substance, “it’s still a song,” starts Patrick. “It’s coming together for the first time, what would not like a computer algorithm wrote it. I made we sound like? You’ve got to try and tap into a song, but also, I was reading an interview that. There’s an earnestness to it. That goes with The Beatles talking about ‘Paperback away after a while when you start worrying Writer’. This song was so studio heavy; it had about what’s cool or successful” 16 vocal layers and 12 guitars. To play that live you’d have to have a choir of other Beatles.

The band are in London following a gig at Brixton Electric to celebrate the release of “It was a similar situation for ‘Young and ‘MANIA’. Tracks that have been out for less than Menace’. We’re able to play it full on live” twenty-four hours are greeted with the same “Mostly to prove it’s possible,” adds Joe - “but roar as anything pre or post-hiatus, and the when I’m doing it, I have to watch everything whole gig flows through the band’s winding I’m doing. I’m controlling my vocals with my history and scattergun present. Everything foot, then I have to switch guitar pedals, and feels at home, so imagine how comfortable I have to sing at the same time. I feel like

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I’m one of those one-man bands with cymbals between my knees and spinning a plate on one hand.”

And that just doesn’t sound like fun, which doesn’t sound like Fall Out Boy. “Truthfully, it was Pete’s suggestion,” continues Patrick. “He suggested I try it on piano and, I’m such a jerk. I’m always like, ‘No, no, no’. Then I tried it, and it was neat how those chords play on a piano in a completely different way, and I sing in a different way.

Thanks again, Pete.”

Fall Out Boy in 2018 have put a renewed emphasis on encouraging people to be themselves, to believe in what they believe and to follow that as far as it leads them. That community support has always been there, from basement roots to arena spotlights, but with ‘MANIA’ they’ve given it a voice. “It’s such a silly thing older generations always fall into.

‘Kids these days’. They’ve been saying that since time’s memorial. ‘These damn kids, get off my lawn,” offers Patrick with a shake of his fist .

“You have to have faith in the future,” continues Joe. “Or else everything’s going to die.”

Fall Out Boy started young and weren’t always taken seriously, not that it really bothered them.

Nowadays, they’re older, wiser and still don’t care what other people think.

“I am surprised at the reverence with which people talk to us. I think back to where we were on some of these records; you’re just a bunch of smelly 6 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

guys in a all your van. You’re albums kinda broke bad.” and, in my case, not As for the particularly future, as educated or always, it’s PATRICK STUMP qualified to an open do anything. door and a But then to have people revere some collection of small moments waiting of these records, it’s funny. I don’t have to happen. This is a band who thrive a lot of natural, inborn self-confidence. on feeling inspired. “A certain amount I’m not that kinda guy.” of inspiration comes from momentum,” Joe explains. “You’re always moving, so Even with that collective weight of you get good at coming up with ideas. legacy and inked skin, Fall Out Boy When we took the hiatus, I didn’t can’t let that into the studio, “or I’ll expect how much harder it would be lose my mind,” continues Patrick. “The to get that wheel moving again. It fact the four of us have experienced took a long time to get things back it together, that’s one of the things in motion, to get them back to where that makes it so weird and unique. we were coming up with new ideas We talk to a lot of other bands, and every day.” maybe there’s one original member left, and no one likes each other. It’s And the band don’t look much beyond so odd because we get on really well. those sparks and flashes.

We’re still good buddies. Our Star Wars discussions do get a bit heated, “I’m not very ambitious as a person,” though.” continues Patrick. “My ambitions are very small. I want this to sound good; ‘MANIA’ is the sound of Fall Out Boy I want to hand in a produced piece enjoying Fall Out Boy. It’s infectious. of music that I think I performed and Their show at Brixton Electric sparkles wrote well. I don’t think much beyond with a collective joy. Making the that. I’m not bothered if we were to,” record, “we enjoyed having fun and he starts before drawing a blank. “I experiencing it. If anything, it’s one don’t even know what. What else is of the things that made us take there we could do?” he asks, beaming. so long. It was a very relaxed, very “There are so many amazing things fun experience. It wasn’t a lot of we’ve done. What, are we going to stress. Talking about the legacy thing, play on the moon? I just want to know what that means to me is that it has what we did our best. I just want to to be that much better every time we know we were good.” P put out a record. There’s no point just FALL OUT BOY TOUR THE UK FROM 27TH saying, ‘Yeah let’s do a record’. It has to MARCH. be worthwhile. A bad album will make

DUNK 2018 SLAM P LINE-U

SAM MC TRU STY

Eat World, PVRIS, Frank Good Charlotte, Jimmy s, Taking Back Sunday, ake lesn Ratt Carter & The e Champs, Twin AtlanStat ns, Sire With Sleeping er, Every Time I Die, fing Gold , Fish Big tic, Reel r Strong, The Skints, Yea r Fou y, rsda Thu Creeper, Your Goals, Real Set , ition Aud The ad, Zebrahe Northlane, Capdown, k, Puc ckle Knu , nds Frie Kid, Crown The Empire, Save Ferris, Comeback ’t t, Roam, Broadside, Can Counterparts, Trash Boa Swim + more

!

IT’S A FESTIVAL FRENZY

IT’S BEE N A WH ILE SIN CE TW IN ATL AN TIC ’S LAS T REC OR D, HASN ’T IT? TIM E TO CH ECK IN SAM WI TH FRO NTM AN MC TRU STY.

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TOE .

WO RDS : DILLON EAS LICK PHO TO: STE VE GUL

AVING RELEASED TWO HUGE ALBUMS IN A ROW AND STORMED GLASGOW’S HYDRO ARENA ON THEIR ‘GREAT DIVIDE’ TOUR, THE STAGE WAS SET FOR TWIN ATLANTIC TO STRENGTHEN THEIR GRIP ON MAINSTREAM PLAYLISTS. They’re not a band to just do what’s expected of them, however - so instead, they hunkered down in a small studio in LA and spat out ‘GLA’, a gnarly, groovy beast that contained some of their dirtiest riffs yet.

Looking back on ‘GLA’, released in 2016, singer Sam McTrusty insists that making the record was crucial for his selfconfidence. “I should listen to my own opinion more,” he explains. “Sometimes we’ve had artistic ideas that have been ironed out of us over the years. But doing this record - when we could have just done the big pop thing that we were teed up to do, the big obvious record - doing what we did and listening to ourselves, we enjoyed it more. We felt a bit more self-worth I guess, it was a self-healing experience.”

While the album polarised some fans hoping for ‘2 Free, 2 Furious’, Twin Atlantic is a band that’s all about moving forward, and Sam claims they have no regrets about the direction they went on ‘GLA’. “I think we’re pretty good at closing chapters and moving on; I’m too busy thinking of new things, making new music or getting better at being a musician than wasting time on things that we fucked up.”

And making new music is exactly what they’ve been doing. Since touring wrapped last summer, they’ve been at home in Glasgow setting up their own studio and then “living in it pretty much, making new music, recording… experimenting.”

Asked if the new material resembles the gritty rock of ‘GLA’ or the widescreen gloss of ‘Great Divide’, Sam is keen to draw a line under their older material. “We’ve probably gone somewhere different, but, again, it’s funny - whenever we make a record it’s never intended to be different or to react to anything other than what we feel like doing on the day.”

Indeed, the band have fairly simply criteria when it comes writing new songs. “We’re pretty impulsive, so if it is different, it’s not because there’s too much thinking going on, it’s just ‘cause we’re trying to make music that we like.”

With regards to what shape the final record will take, Twin are less certain. “I’ve gone so deep with music production and recording.

We just start messing with something,

engineering geeky stuff and we end up with a song a few days later.

“It’s cool ‘cause we’ve never made a record this way before. We’ve always tried to write this hit song or something, I guess ‘cause at the time that’s what we wanted to do. Now if something sounds cool we just follow it, and a song appears. We got some synths to mess around with, and even if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can just hold a button down, twist a knob and make a cool sound.”

Although they’ve been writing and recording for a few months now, Sam warns not to expect to hear the fruits of their labours too soon. “It’s funny; it’s like the more records you make, I’ve found, the easier it is to make more and more music.

For the last record, we wrote 30 songs, so I never like to call it. We’ve definitely got an album’s worth of material and then some.

But you never know what’s around the corner, so I like to just keep going until we run out of time.”

FESTIVAL UPDATES HANDMADE

The final line-up announcement for Handmade is here, and it features loads of top names – including The Wytches, Black Peaks and Kamikaze Girls. The new acts join a mammoth list of bands, such as Drenge, The Big Moon, Spector, Turbowolf, Weirds, Gender Roles, Idles, Future of the Left, Get Cape, The Spook School, Dinosaur Pile Up, Black Futures, and Protomartyr. The weekender will take place from 5th-6th May at the O2 Academy in Leicester, with tickets on sale now from handmadefestival.co.uk.

ARCTANGENT

‘GLA’, while recorded in LA, was infused with the spirit of the boys’ hometown. The themes of the new record, however, are yet to fully reveal themselves to Sam as he continues to explore new sounds in the studio. “I’m not too sure yet; I like to figure that out later. Like when our record’s finished then fans try to read into things, that’s when I start to realise what the answer is.”

ArcTanGent has confirmed loads of new bands, including Glassjaw, Shellac, Pelican, Arcane Roots, Black Peaks and La Dispute. Also new to the bill, are Alcest, Zeal & Ardor, VENNART, Delta Sleep, Telepathy, People Like Milk Products, Scalping, Wren, Jo Quail, VLMV and Vasquez. “This feels like the biggest and best announcement we’ve ever done at ATG,” says organiser James Scarlett. ArcTanGent takes place from 16th–18th August at Fernhill Farm, Bristol. Visit arctangent.co.uk for more info.

One thing that Twin Atlantic do have on the horizon is a live return at Slam Dunk in May. After a few months off stage, they’re ready to get back out there and do their thing. “I feel like we turned into being a solid festival band that kind of turn things up a notch for people there, even if you don’t know our music or don’t know what to expect, we like to make a festival show more of a party atmosphere. A really fucking good time. We’re not one of the heavier bands, but in terms of rocking, like an actual full-on swinging rocking thing, we’re pretty up for that at festivals.”

2000trees has signed up some of our fave bands for its 2018 event, including The Xcerts, Black Peaks, Sløtface and Nervus. Also newly confirmed, are Ho99O9, Hellions, Dream State, Press To Meco, Fangclub, Gallops, Black Futures, Gender Roles, Sun Arcana, and Haggard Cat. They join Enter Shikari, At The Drive In, Creeper, and loads more. 2000trees will take place from 12th-14th July in Cheltenham; find out more at twothousandtreesfestival.co.uk.

Early in their career the band were wary of festival sets, but have grown into them as they’ve cast off the shackles. “We used to be a kind of uptight band and be control freaks about our gear and precious about ‘How’s it going to fucking sound?’, and we didn’t enjoy festivals for a long time ‘cause we were trying so hard to be a good band. And that’s like the number one thing you can’t do, ‘cause you just can’t predict anything at a festival. Since we’ve loosened up, we now want to play them all, all the time.” P SLAM DUNK TAKES PLACE FROM 26TH-28TH MAY, IN LEEDS, HATFIELD AND BIRMINGHAM.

2000TREES

THE GREAT ESCAPE

The Great Escape has booked a few more bands, including The Faim, Nervus, Japanese Breakfast, Gender Roles, Peaness and Goat Girl. Also new, are Superorganism, Bad Sounds, Nilüfer Yanya, The Spook School, Phobophobes, Let’s Eat Grandma, Nelson Can and loads more. The Great Escape will take place across multiple venues in Brighton from 17th-19th May, and has also revealed plans to host sets on the beach. Visit greatescapefestival.com for tix.

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BLINK VS CREEPER

Travis Barker has taken to Snapchat to share a few photos from in the studio, and it looks like he’s working with some very special guests - Creeper.

The two snaps show a leather jacket, the Creeper logo, social handle, and - if that weren’t proof enough - frontman Will Gould laying down some vocals.

What are you up to, guys?

COMING SOON TO A RECORD STORE NEAR YOU

Record Store Day has posted the full list of reissues, deluxe editions, rarities and oddities which will all exclusively be hit IRL record stores on 21st April. Artists taking part include Courtney Barnett with an album teaser, Awolnation, Led Zeppelin, Linkin Park, and Rage Against the Machine. Visit recordstoreday.co.uk for deets.

IT’S OH SO QUIET...

Beach Slang have revealed they’re going to release a new Quiet Slang album this spring. Their debut record, ’Everything Matters But No One Is Listening’ is due 18th May via Big Scary Monsters. The band precede the release with new single ‘Dirty Cigarettes’, featuring Laura Burhenn (Mynabirds) and Heather McIntosh (Elephant 6) - check it out now on upsetmagazine.com.

BOO, HISS – SORORITY NOISE ARE ON HIATUS

They may have a stripped-back album just out and a support tour with The Wonder Years happening right now, but Sorority Noise have announced they’re taking a break. “This may come as unexpected news,” says frontman Cam, “but after our UK/US tours, Sorority Noise will be going on hiatus.”

NOTHING, NOWHERE.’S ALBUM IS OUT IN APRIL

Fueled By Ramen’s nothing,nowhere. is soon going to release a new album. ‘ruiner’ is due on 13th April, just before his sold out London show at Camden Assembly on the 18th. He’ll also play Reading & Leeds this summer, alongside Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco and loads more.

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WANT TO IMPRESS YR MATES? GET TO KNOW A FEW MILK TEETH DEEP CUTS. THAT’LL DO IT, RIGHT?

M

ILK TEETH ARE RESURRECTING A FEW OF THE BAND’S EARLY SONGS FOR THEIR LATEST JAUNT AROUND THE COUNTRY. NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE OLDIES? DRUMMER OLI HOLBROOK INTRODUCES A FEW OF ‘EM.

VITAMINS I think that’s helped get our name out there the most and we get the crowd reaction from this song. I see ya’ll bouncing.

LEANNE It’s probably one of one our first songs we ever wrote. I don’t even remember the last time we played it, but it’s definitely more of a moshy song.

MELON BLADE We get asked to play this a lot, and the video was a lot of fun, but I don’t think we are gonna bring it out this tour.

FORTY SIX It’s named after the bus route me and Becky used to take to college. The video is nonsense, but it’s a fun one to play live.

SWEAR JAR (ORIGINAL) It’s exactly the same as the second version just worse recorded. But it’s a fan favourite, and we always get the best sing-alongs for it.

WIZARD BATTLE 10/10 kids go hard to it. It’s really fun for us to play and lets us live our dream of being a nu metal band.

GREASE It has every element of the band as a whole, and has heavy and softer parts.

Sounds better with Billy singing too.

KEVIN MALONE We ain’t ever playing this, it was just some B-side that our old singer wanted to do to impress shoegaze kids.

LINDA Errm, it’s our least popular song, but we’d thought we play it one last time because we love it even if other people don’t.

BAGELS I did vocals on this which I won’t be doing live because I’m banned from a microphone. But this song always gets the sarcastic youth sway, and it’s dope.

NO FUN Stage dives. Circle pits. Metal parts. A lot of fun.

TRAMPOLINE I can’t remember how to play this yet so gotta relearn it. We used to end on it, and it was sick crowd reaction. Definitely one for the older fans.

MILK TEETH ARE TOURING THE UK RIGHT NOW, SO GET ON IT.

DEATH FROM

ABOVE OUTRAGE! IS NOW INCLUDES THE SMASH HIT “FREEZ E ME” + NEW SINGLE “CAUG HT UP”

BIG UP BIG UPS

Brooklyn foursome Big Ups are back with a new track, a new album, and a new UK tour. The noisy troupe are going to release their third full-length, ‘Two Parts Together’ on 18th May via Exploding In Sound. The release is preceded by the track ‘PPP’, and followed by a UK tour that kicks off in Leeds on 10th June.

ALRIGHT, GRANDMA

Fresh from releasing their most recent album ‘Going Grey’ and touring Europe, The Front Bottoms are releasing a new six-song EP. ‘Ann’ - due 18th May - is the second of the band’s ‘grandma’ EPs, following 2014’s ‘Rose’. The shorts feature re-recorded sparkly versions of some of the band’s oldest songs, previously only played live or on sketchy demo tapes.

LOVE IS DEAD

The follow-up to 2015’s ‘Every Open Eye’, Chvrches’ new full-length ‘Love Is Dead’ is due for release via Virgin Records on 25th May. It is an album about growing up and “coming to terms with the fact that there are great things in the world and there are awful things in the world and that you can’t get one without the other,” explains Lauren Mayberry.

BRODY DALLE’S COMING TO THE UK

A few more bands have been added to the line-up for Queens of the Stone Age’s Finsbury Park show, including Brody Dalle. The bill for the event, which takes place on 30th June, already featured the likes of Iggy Pop, Run The Jewels, Black Honey, and Deap Vally. They’ll now be joined by not only Brody, but Hinds, too.

LONELY THE BRAVE ARE A MAN DOWN

Lonely the Brave’s lead singer, David Jakes has left the band, saying that touring has “made things really difficult concerning my mental health”.

The band are going to remain active however, with the remaining members revealing that “the four of us will continue with a new vocalist.”

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TONIGHT ALIVE. SMASHED LONDON’S KOKO AS PART OF THEIR UK TOUR. CHECK BACK NEXT ISSUE FOR THE FULL REVIEW!

PHOTO: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT DISRUPT THE NOISE 13

“IT

’S

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GA

M LBU

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!”

W

HAT’S THAT? YOU THOUGHT PRESS TO MECO’S NEW ALBUM WAS ALREADY OUT? After a false start late last year, the band shelved their release plans, signed with a new label, and now ‘Here’s To The Fatigue’ has finally arrived. Guitarist/ vocalist Luke Caley explains what happened.

HEY LUKE, TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEW ALBUM. I’m really excited about it! I think there’s a whole bunch of new sounds and places this record goes, but it still sounds 100% PTM. IT WAS ORIGINALLY DUE LAST YEAR, WASN’T IT? WHAT PUSHED IT BACK? Yes! We announced it for self-release on 17th November 2017. The deal came through from Marshall Records, I think like two weeks before the self-release date. We went and met up with Marshall, to hear what they had to offer, and left the meeting feeling pretty optimistic. After weighing it all up we concluded that releasing through

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Marshall Records was gonna give this album a bigger platform than if we selfreleased, so we pulled the original release date and 30th March was the earliest we could go for, allowing enough time for the label and PR to do their ‘thing’.

DID YOU CHANGE THE RECORD AT ALL DURING THE DELAY? No not really to be honest. We put a lot of time into the pre-production stage, so when it came to recording and tracking, we had a really clear vision of what we were trying to achieve. There are ALWAYS things that you wanna add in post-recording, especially after you’ve been jamming the tunes live for a little while. Like you always get that, ‘Oh sick we could do THIS’ with certain riffs, but over the years we’ve learnt not to dwell and just keep those changes for the live set. We always love it when we go see bands, and there are a couple of things they mix up, add in or drag back.

IN WHAT WAYS IS THIS ALBUM A PROGRESSION ON YOUR DEBUT? I think there are a few new sounds for the band on this record. It certainly feels a bit darker and moodier, especially towards

the back end of the album. I think mostly though it’s just the most accomplished version to date of what we’ve been doing all along. It’s the most Press to MECO sounding album yet, in a way. We’ve all progressed as writers and learnt a lot over the last couple of years, and I hope people feel the new album reflects that.

HOW DID YOU FIND YOUR TIME IN AUSTIN, TEXAS? HOW LONG WERE YOU OVER THERE? It was AMAZING. Austin is such an awesome city. There was certainly a slight culture shock the further out of town you got, just being around people who all own guns. It was one of those things though where, even if [producer] Machine wasn’t a clear choice for this album, which he so WAS, there was a chance we would have just gone and done it anyway for the experience. Like, if the band split up straight after we recorded, it was always gonna be cool to look back and be like, ‘Yeah this one time we went out to Texas to do an album’! We were out there for a month... I’ve missed the food ever since; I’d put on a stone by the time I came back!

WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING WITH MACHINE, IS HE THE MAIN REASON YOU MADE THE TRIP? It was the best. He’s such an amazing and inspirational guy. So much positivity and enthusiasm. He’ll make you fall in love with your songs all over again, even the ones you’ve been tearing yourself apart over and now despise. I joked about going over to Texas for fun, but realistically yes, he was absolutely 100% the reason we made the trip. It was one of those relationships where after the first day of pre-production we knew he was THE guy we had to be doing this new album with. I’m so happy we took the risk and went for it, he’s such a great fit for this band.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF WITH THE ALBUM? Honestly, I’m proud that we just went out and did it, but not only that, we had so much fun pulling it together. Even if we put it out and everyone hates it, it was one of the best experiences we’ve had in our lives. So, I’m just proud of the whole process really. There are definitely a couple of ‘moments’ on the new record though where I feel we’ve been better than we’ve ever been. We’ll just have to wait and see if anyone else thinks so!

WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU GUYS GOT COMING UP THIS YEAR? LOTS OF SHOWS? Touring, touring, touring etc. P Press to MECO’s album ‘Here’s To The Fatigue’ is out 30th March.

FIND OUT WHAT YOUR FAVE BANDS TAKE ON THE ROAD. THIS MONTH...

DREAM WIFE DREAM WIFE ARE ON TOUR!

Bristol The Exchange (20th March), London Heaven (21st), Glasgow Stereo (23rd), Manchester Deaf Institute (24th), Dublin Workmans Club (25th)

HOOK AND YARN! Bella spends a lot of time knitting on tour; it’s a great way to while away those long journeys. She recently knitted us all hats.

SNAIL MASKS! Rakel is big on the skin care, and sometimes we put on face masks and meditate.

Snail masks are a South Korean trend, and the snails essentially get to go spa and secrete this magic juice because they’re having such a good time.

LAPTOP / INTERFACE! Alice works on remixes and demos while we’re roaming around. She has a super lightweight setup that is easy to transport.

PAVELEY! Paveley is our drummer!

We met him while studying in Brighton (he was on Alice’s course) and he’s a great pal, a great drummer and an invaluable member of our team.

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HERE’S EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE RETURN OF...

B

IRMINGHAM PUNKS YOUTH MAN ARE BACK! IT’S BEEN A WHILE SINCE WE LAST SAW THEM, SO WE ASKED KYILA WHYTE (GUITAR AND VOCALS) AND MARCUS PERKS (DRUMS) RUN THROUGH EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THEIR RETURN. THERE ARE TWO OF US NOW. MARCUS: Miles [Cocker, bass] left at the end of last year, after we finished the new EP. We wish him all the best. From now on, we’re a two-piece; the live show is still as rad as ever.

KYILA: We have our friend Meesha playing live bass for us at the moment, but creatively it’s two of us writing and recording the music.

We’re gonna spend lots of time locked in our bunker mekkin big choonz.

WE STILL FIND SOCIAL MEDIA FUCKING BORING. M: Bands - nay, all people - are expected to cultivate and maintain this strange social media presence. It’s so weird and boring and valid and narcissistic. We have neither the time nor the attention span to tell everyone what colour pants we’re wearing and what we’ve ordered from Nando’s, so we generally don’t bother.

K: However, we know it’s really useful, and we want to let people know what we’re up to so we try to partake. We’re really bad at it though, so bear with us...

WE HAVE A NEW EP DUE OUT IMMINENTLY. K: There are five new songs on it. We wrote a lot of stuff and discarded a lot of stuff - the five songs you’ll hear are the ones that made the cut.

M: Most of the lyrics were written while we were invading Europe in a van on tour with Trash Talk, so a lot of it’s about cabin fever and fatigue and intoxication and stuff.

EXPECT FEWER SHOWS AND MORE MUSIC. M: We’ve been playing shows here, there and everywhere for years and we realised that in the course of doing so we’ve kind of neglected our foremost duties as musicians - writing songs.

WE HAVE A NEW RECORD DEAL. M: We signed to Alcopop! last year and promised them a banger of an EP which I think we have delivered. It’s mad really - they’re a fantastic label run by swell guys who love music and aim to push the envelope regarding the way people consume music - I really don’t think we could ask for a better label.

K: Yeah, we’ve been fans of Alcopop! for a while so we’re stoked to finally be working with them. Brucey bonus being on the same label as some mates too.

Large up man like Tigercub and Johnny Foreigner. P YOUTH MAN’S AS-YET-UNTITLED EP IS OUT SOON.

“I WOULDN’T WORRY. THEY’RE MOSTLY ARMLESS.” 16 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

IN THE STUDIO WITH...

“HELLO WORLD, DID YOU MISS US?”

precious and delicate this thing that we have created can be. Once we brought Dave in, everything clicked. It put so much fire in all of us to make this work, which in turn has had an awesome effect on our sound.

B

LACK PEAKS ARE BACK!! Newly signed to Rise Records, they’re hard at work on the follow-up to 2016 debut, ‘Statues’.

They’ve already shared their MASSIVE comeback track ‘Can’t Sleep’, but what else do they have up their sleeves? Vocalist Will Gardner and guitarist Joe Gosney fill us in.

HEY JOE, WILL, WE HEAR YOU GUYS HAVE A LOT OF NEWS - A NEW SINGLE, A NEW RECORD LABEL, LOTS OF TOUR DATES. ARE YOU READY FOR A BUSY YEAR? Honestly, we are so ready! Although our last UK show [2000trees Festival] wasn’t all that long ago, it feels like forever since we have been out on the road.

We all thought that after a crazy few years touring our debut album ‘Statues’ that we’d need some down time before getting stuck into writing for the second record, but it ended up being only a few weeks after the last tour that ideas started bubbling and the whole creative process kicked off again.

YOU’RE RIGHT OUT OF THE STUDIO, AREN’T YOU? DOES THAT MEAN YOUR NEW ALBUM IS IMMINENT? It is coming we promise, and we could

not be happier with how it all went down in the studio. I think you can do as much preparation as is possible prior to going in to record an album but there’s a certain amount of magic that needs to happen to create the right overall feeling for it.

HOW DO YOU THINK IT COMPARES TO YOUR EARLIER MATERIAL? It’s a more concise version of Black Peaks. We spent a lot of time on ‘Statues’ working out how we wanted to sound, as most new bands do. There was a lot of finding our feet as musicians and working out what felt good to play live and where musically we wanted to take things. So in that sense, when we started to put the pieces of the puzzle together on the new material, I think we had a much better idea of it all, the whole sonic picture. I don’t want to give too much away, but for me this is the best record any of the four of us could have made at this time.

HAS THE LINE-UP SHIFT MADE A DIFFERENCE TO THE BAND’S CREATION PROCESS OR SOUND? It really has given a whole new life to the band. We all had demons to face after adjusting to being home properly for the first time in a few years, and I think after Andrew decided to step away from the band it made the rest of us realise how

WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEW SINGLE, ‘CAN’T SLEEP’?

‘Can’t Sleep’ is our way of saying “Hello world, did you miss us?” The song is just the perfect choice for our first new material back, crushing riffs, huge melody and aggression. The rest of the album definitely holds some surprises, so we felt ‘Can’t Sleep’ bridges the gap.

HOW DID YOU COME TO SIGN WITH RISE RECORDS? As a band we are always writing, and in some down-time after our final touring cycle we decided to demo some of these new songs and start thinking about the next steps. After our previous deal ran out, our awesome managers put out some feelers using the demos. Our genuine number one choice was always Rise, and we were over the moon when we found out that they loved the demos.

ARE YOU GOING TO AIR MUCH NEW MATERIAL ON YOUR UPCOMING TOUR? Fuck yeah! 100%! The whole point of this tour is to play in much smaller venues, get really up close and personal again with our fans, give them a taste of the new album, and get people hyped on new material. We’re going to be airing at least two-three new tunes, and I cannot wait to melt peoples faces off with some of this new shit. I hope people are as excited to hear it as we are to play it!

BLACK PEAKS’ NEW ALBUM IS DUE LATER THIS YEAR.

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THERE’S A WHOLE UNIVERSE OF MUSIC OUT THERE TO ENJOY. HERE’S WHAT WE’VE BEEN LISTENING TO THIS MONTH. D CHECK IT OUT, YOU MIGHT FIN SOMETHING NEW. FALL OUT BOY

I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY (WHO LOVES ME)

Is FOB’s cover of the Whitney classic good? Is it awful? No idea. It’s loads of fun though.

FROM FALL OUT BOY’S SPOTIFY SINGLES SESSION.

ITOLDYOUIWOULDEATYOU GET TERRIFIED

Look, you can add Lexi from JoFo to the line-up if you like, but if you’ll insist on a long name without the spaces, you’re gonna get a hyphen. FROM NEW EP ‘GET

LISTEN TO THIS

HALFNOISE FLOWERSS

Zac ‘from Paramore’ Farro’s other band have announced a new EP. The first track from it is bloody brilliant. FROM NEW EP ‘FLOWERSS’, OUT 4TH MAY.

TERRIFIED’, OUT 20TH APRIL.

POST ANIMAL

CITY BOY

ALBUM ‘WHEN I THINK OF YOU IN A CASTLE’, OUT 20TH APRIL.

‘CALPURNIA’, OUT ‘LATER THIS SPRING’.

Post Animal are Joe Keery’s (Steve from Stranger Things) band. He’s not touring them, but he is on their new album.

They’re great. FROM NEW

GENDER ROLES GILLS

After touring with Upset faves Jamie Lenman and Loa Loa, Gender Roles are ripping it up with this new EP cut. FROM NEW EP ‘LAZER RUSH’, OUT 13TH APRIL.

COURTNEY BARNETT

NAMELESS, FACELESS The wonder from Down Under is back. The first taster of her second album, ‘Nameless, Faceless’ is pure fire. FROM NEW ALBUM

‘TELL ME HOW YOU REALLY FEEL’, OUT 18TH MAY.

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CALPURNIA

RALPHIE

Post Animal aren’t the only Stranger Things band about.

Finn Wolfhard’s Calpurnia have dropped their debut single and it’s flippin’ wonderful. FROM NEW EP

BIG UPS PPP

Big Ups are back with a new album, and a run of UK dates this summer. First cut ‘PPP’ will shake out the cobwebs.

FROM NEW ALBUM ‘TWO PARTS TOGETHER, OUT 18TH MAY.

SPEEDY ORTIZ LUCKY 88

The first taster of a brand new album, Sadie and co. are back with their catchiest, most awesome cut yet.

Infectious doesn’t come close.

FROM NEW ALBUM ‘TWERP VERSE’, OUT 27TH APRIL.

AVAILABLE APRIL 6TH, 2018

FEATURING HOW SIMPLE AND NOT ABEL

STEF CHURA MESSES

“The Detroit-based indie rocker Stef Chura sings in a wry, hooded tone somewhere between acidic Liz Phair and eyebrow-raised Chrissie Hynde; her voice is a colorful instrument that hits a lot of emotional nerve clusters at once. On “You,” she lets it unfurl like a snapping ag.” - Pitchfork

YOUNG JESUS S/T

“a sprawling collection that rewards the patient listener and, with its vivid shifts in dynamic, teeters between anxiety and wonder, ennui and resolve.” - Buzzbands.la

ALSO AVAILABLE: BIG THIEF  CAPACITY BEST OF 2017 ON PITCHFORK, NPR, ROLLING STONE, PASTE, SPIN, NEWSWEEK, ROUGH TRADE AND MORE!

UF F. EV ERYO NE LOVE S CO OL ST HE RE ’S SO ME CO OL ST UF F.

Want to know the lyrics to Black Foxxes new album? Want to look at some lovely photos? Job done. £30 BLACKFOXXES.TMSTOR.ES

Apparently this Avengers bed linen only comes in ‘single’. Not sure why.

Still, who doesn’t want to sit on Captain America’s beardy face? £41.99 EMP.CO.UK

Chvrches’ new album ‘Love Is Dead’ comes with a really rather cool logo, which goes nicely on this really rather cool shirt. £18 CHVRCHESUK. SHOPFIREBRAND.COM

We’re 100% behind the message on this mug from Architects. No caffeine, no deal. £11.99 IMPERICON.COM

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With this t-shirt on then you can’t go wrong. This is unofficial Steps merch, right? £30 DROPDEAD.CO

They’re on the cover, you’ll find a very positive review later this issue - it’s safe to say we’re fans of The Wonder Years’ new album ‘Sister Cities’. We’re even bigger fans of this splatter 12” and hardcover book combo, though. What a beauty, eh? £41.99 THEWONDERYEARSBAND.COM

Waterparks have a purple fanny pack, and there’s absolutely nothing funny we could possibly say to that.

$15 WATERPARKS.MERCHNOW.COM

PVRIS jogging bottoms. Because when we think of jogging, we all immediately think of PVRIS, right? £24.99 EUROSTORE.PVRIS.COM

* GET A YEAR’S WORTH OF MAGAZINES - THAT’S ELEVEN ISSUES OF UPSET - DELIVERED DIRECT TO YOUR DOOR ON RELEASE. HEAD TO UPSETMAGAZINE.COM/MAGAZINE TO ORDER NOW! * SAVING BASED ON MAIL ORDER COST OF AN INDIVIDUAL ISSUE TO A UK ADDRESS.

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THE BEST NEW BANDS. THE HOTTEST NEW MUSIC.

SO UT H WA LE S

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WANT A NEW BAND CRUSH? CHECK OUT THIS LOT! >>>

THE FAIM

You’re going to be hearing a lot about The Faim this year. Pals with Blink182’s Mark Hoppus and Twenty One Pilots’ Josh Dun, their newest single ‘Saints of the Sinners’ is pretty special, and they’re in the UK this April.

FIV E- PIE CE DR EA M STAT E AR E MA KI NG WA FE ST IVA LS TH VE S, AN D WI TH IS SU MM ER , YO AP PE AR AN CE U CA N BE SU RE S AT LOAD S OF TO SE E TH EM WO RD S: JAC K SO ON .

PRE SS.

SELFISH THINGS

This bunch from Toronto have just released their debut EP, ‘Vertical Love’.

It’s a massive collection of tracks, with highlight ‘8147 Mulholland Terrace’ all but guaranteeing their place as one of 2018’s breakout bands.

F YOU WERE TO CREATE A BAND THAT WAS RAISED ON A CRASH DIET OF TOOL, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, AND FALL OF TROY THAT BLURS THE LINES BETWEEN THE POST-HARDCORE CRUNCH OF ALEXISONFIRE AND PRESELF-TITLED PARAMORE, WITH CHORUSES THAT COULD ERUPT AN ARENA FULL OF FANS INTO A SING-ALONG AT THE SAME TIME AS MOSHING IN A FRENETIC FRENZY, YOU’D PROBABLY FIND YOURSELF WITH SOUTH WALES QUINTET DREAM STATE AS THE RESULT. Following the release of their sole EP, 2015’s ‘Consequences’, 2017 saw Dream State sign to Australian label UNFD, home to Architects, Crossfaith, and Tonight Alive. Having recently released ‘In This Hell’, a song that wrestles with harsh and clean vocals as the band throw infectious riffs with breakdownheaviness that goes together like a house on fire, they’re sitting on the top of the pile of what’s to come in rock music, honest and raw lyrics in hand.

“I’ve had a lot of people write about ‘White Lies’ and how it’s helped them through hard times, and how ‘In This

CALPURNIA

He’s mates with some of our fave bands - SWMRS, PUP - so it’s no wonder little ‘un from Stranger Things, Finn Wolfhard can lay down some charming scuzz-rock of his own. Calpurnia’s selftitled debut EP is coming this spring.

Hell’ has helped them battle anxiety,” says vocalist CJ. “It’s good not to be alone with it. It makes me feel good not to be alone with it, but it’s inspiring more than anything. It’s more inspiration for me to carry on with it, and try and help people through music the way it’s helping me.”

away from the screens of their smartphones and getting them to go to a gig is becoming increasingly more difficult, Dream State have gone from playing to a couple of their friends in Swansea to playing to a couple of hundred, and it’s only spurring them on.

She’s reflecting on these moments before a mid-tour set, which has seen their self-described “raw, energetic, and very honest” sound reach corners of the UK they’d never expected, their lyrics hitting home more than they could ever expect.

“I feel like rock is making a comeback, everyone is saying rock is dead, and I really don’t think it is. People are in a lot of pain right now, and rock music addresses lyrically deeper meanings in life, and that’s drawing more people in.”

“Lyrically I had to sit down and lock myself away and put into words what it feels like to have that anxiety and to have that feeling of being trapped and inside your head. Sometimes you have to get in your head and be in a dark place just to get those lyrics onto paper. It’s therapy, and it’s reflecting in fans.

With a sound made for arenas and a level of hype few bands achieve across their entire careers, Dream State are riding a wave of confidence that is infectiously inspiring.

“We had a fan who said he suffers from bad anxiety, didn’t really go to many gigs but he came with his mum. He was at the front row singing all the songs, and he felt like it was healing him. He got to scream and get all that tight-chested feelings off of his chest.”

In an industry where stealing audiences

“In a non-egotistical way, I can see us doing bigger stages, headlining a festival.

I’ve got to keep those positive thoughts and set those goals because if I don’t, then they’re not in sight. I believe we can get that far, we want to tour as many countries as possible and meet as many people as possible. We just want to gig and gig and gig.” P DREAM STATE PLAY BOTH THE GREAT ESCAPE AND DOWNLOAD THIS SPRING.

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A-BASED GARAGE-ROCK TRIO TEENAGE WRIST HAVE GONE FROM MAKING A RACKET AT SCHOOL, TO RELEASING THEIR DEBUT THROUGH EPITAPH. “WE WANTED TO BE A LOUD ALTERNATIVE ROCK BAND. IT WAS THAT SIMPLE,” EXPLAINS BASSIST/VOCALIST KAMTIN MOHAGER. Words: Sam Taylor HEY KAMTIN, HOW DID YOU LOT MEET, THEN? Marshall [Gallagher, guitar] and I went to high school together in Colorado. We were familiar with one another then, but our friendship didn’t really blossom until after we both graduated. We spent our later teen years playing in different local bands around town, and ended up on many of the same bills. From there, we had always kept in touch, then later sharing the same circle of friends after we had both moved out to Los Angeles. Anthony [Mohager, drums] came into the picture from him and Marshall playing music together out here in LA. Now we are a big happy family.

WHAT WAS THE PROCESS LIKE FOR NAILING DOWN THE TEENAGE WRIST SOUND? It took a while for us to figure out just

exactly what Teenage Wrist was going to be. Honestly, we didn’t know at first. The only thing that we were certain of was that we wanted to be a loud alternative rock band. It was that simple. But it definitely took a few months for us to hone in on what exactly that was going to be. However, once we did “crack the code,” it all ended up flowing naturally. It was quite easy for us at that point.

CAN YOU REMEMBER WHAT YOUR FIRST FEW SONGS TOGETHER WERE ABOUT? It all came together once we wrote ‘Slide Away’. It was so obvious that we wanted that sound to represent us as a band. It was emotional and vulnerable, yet somehow very strong and confident.

It struck a chord in all of us, where we could look at one another and say “Guys, I think we are onto something.” In that moment, we knew that we were working with sound that felt special to us. It allowed the remainder of the writing

process for the ‘Dazed’ EP to be very inspiring and free-spirited. Those songs gave us this bigger picture of we wanted to write about. Growing up, failures of life and love. Subjects that we knew would resonate with people.

HOW DOES THAT COMPARE TO YOUR CURRENT OUTPUT? I feel that we are doing that exact same thing, but doing it better than we ever have. It feels good for us to write these songs. It’s therapy. We are improving ourselves with every song written, on a personal and musical level.

HOW DID YOU FIND RECORDING YOUR DEBUT, ‘CHROME NEON JESUS’?

Absolutely fantastic. Looking back on it now, it does seem like a bit of a blur. I’m not saying that we felt much pressure from anyone to deliver. But there were a couple of moments during the writing process where we had to reassure ourselves that what we were doing was good. Epitaph signed us after hearing the demos for ‘Stoned, Alone’, ‘Dweeb’, and ‘Swallow’. We basically had a couple of months to write the remainder, and as a band, we knew we wanted to write something that would be noticed.

ARE YOU TAKING IT ON THE ROAD THIS YEAR? ANY FESTIVALS? Definitely, we’ll definitely be hitting the UK and Europe at some point. Hopefully sooner than later. As of now, we just have North American dates booked, including the Shaky Knees Festival. P TEENAGE WRIST’S DEBUT ALBUM ‘CHROME NEON JESUS’ IS OUT NOW.

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HAGGARD CAT: GREAT AT MUSIC, SHIT AT OPENING THE TOOTHPASTE.

THE BOYS FROM HECK HAVE RETURNED WITH THEIR NEW PROJECT, HAGGARD CAT. WORDS: LINSEY TEGGERT.

OU CAN’T TALK ABOUT NOTTINGHAM ROCK MOGGIES HAGGARD CAT WITHOUT FIRST MAKING MENTION OF THE BAND THEY CAME FROM. The infamously chaotic, hardcore fourpiece HECK were best known for their destructive, sometimes A&E inducing performances. “There were certainly several trips to the hospital,” says vocalist and guitarist Matt Reynolds. “I thought performing as a duo with Haggard Cat would be nerve-wracking, but it’s not.

Perhaps because there’s less of a sense that I might die!”

Not so much rising from the ashes of HECK, but emerging from the sidelines, Matt and drummer Tom Marsh have decided to make this their full-time project. “We formed in 2011. Heck had been going for about a year, our bass player had left to go to Copenhagen for a few months, and we were bored stiff. We were sat in a pub one day, and someone asked if we wanted to play around the corner at Nottingham Rock City. Of course we wanted to play Rock City! So we winged it, and that’s how it all began.”

It’s a blessing for listeners that the duo decided to finally unleash the beast that is Haggard Cat upon the world. Their album ‘Challenger’ is a glorious aural assault of bluesy rock‘n’roll, a down-anddirty stormer of a record that is just as powerful and passionate as anything HECK produced. “I think we still manage to convey the same energy that HECK did, but it’s more subtle, and that’s what excites me now,” explains Matt.

bonkers things happening. It seemed like we should pass comment. There’s some serious cosmic imbalance!

Haggard Cat has also given Matt the opportunity to be more real lyrically, particularly when it comes to politics. Just from name alone, it’s apparent ‘American Graffiti’ is probably going to reflect upon the current state of world affairs.

Whereas HECK lyrics tended to explore “relationships and not being a very nice person”, this is a chance to express a different kind of frustration.

So how are Haggard Cat finding the experience of playing as a two-piece, without the death-defying stage antics?

“With HECK, the red mist would descend during a show, and you’d come off and be like, ‘What the hell just happened?!’ But if we’d kept doing that we’d have started to resent it and resent each other. We had an amazing time, but we had to burn out bright and fast.

“’American Graffiti’ was written at a time when (now) President Trump was running for office, which just seemed absurd! The fact that anyone was taking him seriously and the fear that it might become a reality, and now here we are. Weirdly enough, as we recorded it, that’s when the Brexit vote came in. Every instance in that song rang true with all these

“I like the idea of making Haggard Cat songs as powerful as we can, and an audience going home and remembering them, remembering the choruses, as opposed to just watching the chaos unfold.” P

“Lyrically there’s a sense of futility to ‘Challenger’, a frustration at feeling powerless, but there’s also backwards love songs, songs about infidelity, not getting what you want. It’s a little bit of everything that made us tick the two years we were writing it.”

HAGGARD CAT’S DEBUT ALBUM ‘CHALLENGER’ IS OUT 20TH APRIL.

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THE WONDER YEARS ARE NO STRANGERS TO DELIVERING EXCEPTIONAL RECORDS, BUT, IN THEIR OWN WORDS, NEW ALBUM ‘SISTER CITIES’ “IS NUMBER ONE.” WORDS: ALI SHUTLER. PHOTOS: MITCHELL WOJCIK.

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HE WONDER YEARS’ NEW ALBUM ‘SISTER CITIES’ STARTS WITH THE BAND NURSING A VENDING MACHINE COFFEE IN A RAINY KYOTO. It ends with them missing everyone at once and longing for oceans. In the middle, two years of adventure. Of lessons learned, of friends found and of community extended.

The whole trip is about “connectivity and empathy and understanding,” offers Dan Campbell.

Those visions of life might be one small part of a much larger story, but it’s in those details that The Wonder Years shine.

To them, everything matters. Stray dogs, paper cranes, wet matches. Those oceans, they capture the band’s glass half full to overflowing. “The earth is unified by water, that’s something that connects us to one another in a geographical sense,” Dan starts. “Your continent and mine could be considered to be divided by an ocean. I am considering them to be united by an ocean.”

It’s an outlook that tears through the record; a bright side that knows things feel dark.

And sure, The Wonder Years have always been about unity. They’ve celebrated what we have in common. They’ve always tried to

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be the friend you could turn to or lean on.

From the basements and suburban streets, the band has tried to make good in face of the bad and told stories that carry, at the very least, a hope of resolution. But not on this scale.

The eleven tracks of ‘Sister Cities’, each one confident and comfortable in their own space but tightly gripping the thread that’s passed along, manage to dig deeper and reach higher. With the stories set in the months and years that followed ‘No Closer To Heaven’, it sees the band constantly on the move and constantly somewhere new.

Inspired by the never-ending journeys, the record also comes with a book of photographs, tour journals, poetry and drawings.

“I had this vision in my head of, on release date, a kid taking the LP, putting it down on their turntable, dropping the needle and then opening the book. Then as the songs play, they’re seeing the photos of the places we’re singing about. They can stop, go to the tour journal and read my actual thoughts from that day. They can have this full, immersive experience.”

As the band get bigger and the songs more global, The Wonder Years still value that

individual. They care about everyone all at once, and so that’s who they’ve written an album for.

‘Sister Cities’ doesn’t spend much time dealing with the cause and effects of the world we all find ourselves in like ‘No Closer To Heaven’ did, all fire and frustration. Instead, it finds itself “staring at the majesty of humanity.

This looks more at people. It looks more at interpersonal relationships and connection with other people.”

T

HE IDEA STARTED WHILE THE WONDER YEARS WERE TOURING THE UK WITH ENTER SHIKARI IN EARLY 2016. They had only just released ‘No Closer To Heaven’ so “we weren’t thinking about a new record yet”. What they were thinking about though, was all the touring opportunities that had begun to pop up.

this dream of making a documentary about all the touring we were doing, all the places we were going, and it never really felt particularly feasible.

“Then I started thinking, well, we always have a fantastic photographer with us, there’s usually someone talented, so you know what, let’s take a bunch of photos.

We started spit-balling that idea and, as is my normal behaviour, the gears in my brain started churning as I lay in my bed at night after those Shikari shows. What else can we do with this?”

Quickly the idea to keep a journal of everything to go alongside the photos fell into place. “Obviously there can’t be a narrative presupposed because it hasn’t happened yet, but what if, after this world tour, I’m able to revisit these journals and look back at these photos and see if we

can sculpt that into a record somehow?

Maybe these are the life events that I’m going to sing about next time. That’s when we decided to see where it could take us. Let’s go document everything and see where it goes.”

The Wonder Years like to make sure they get things right. “We want to write a better record every time we write a record, so it has to be more ambitious, right? It can’t be the same or less, or it wouldn’t be a better record.” In everything the band do, from interviews to artwork, The Wonder Years want it to have value.

“We put in an immense amount of work to make sure that happens. We’re not comfortable making something that doesn’t feel valuable. We’re going to push hard to make art that has value. If we don’t feel capable of that, we won’t

“We were in England, and we knew we’d be doing a tour in the States with Letlive.

(RIP), and we knew we had opportunities coming up to do Australia and Japan and Europe, and then South and Central America for the first time. We always had

DA N CA M PB EL L DISRUPT THE NOISE 29

DAN CAMPBELL make that art. We’ve never shied away from the hard work aspect of it. We wanted to create a piece of art that was more encompassing than we’d be able to create before. We didn’t want to phone in any element of that.

“It was worth the time because now I look back at it, we don’t even have the physical copies yet, we’re looking at it on a computer screen but I’m scrolling through it thinking goddamn, we did it. It feels really rewarding to get there.”

“In hindsight, there are always things about our albums that I can be critical of,” he continues. “‘I wish that I had done this differently’.

But at the time we’re making them, we have to feel like they are the most valuable thing we have created to date, or we aren’t done making it. There’s no, ‘Well it’s time to record it. We’ve got to put it out, so let’s put it out’. That’s never an option.

Is it the best thing we’ve done? If you can say yes, if you can say confidently it’s the best thing we’ve done to date, that’s when it’s ready to be made. That’s when it’s ready to be put to tape, and pressed and sent off to your house.

“There’s this drive to always be more creative, to always be more thoughtful and to always push our boundaries in every way that we can, in every detail of it. We’re involved in every single

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detail of this band, and we work very, very hard to make sure all of those things are the best thing they can possibly be. I think that hard work shows.”

It’s why The Wonder Years are still creating records that are peoples favourite The Wonder Years records.

It’s why they’ve gone from playing Watford Rugby Club with more people on the stage that off it, to selling out London’s KOKO or having to announce a second date at Islington Academy.

The first time they played Jacksonville in Florida, it was in someone’s living room, and it was so small, their keyboard player had to stand in the kitchen.

Those stories are shared with a fondness and a weight; it’s how they’ve made it this far. But there’s still more to come. “That’s a goal of ours, to make records of the time in which they’re made. And so, the records that we wrote when I was 31 should feel like the record I wrote when I was 31, and not like a rehash of the record we wrote when I was 22. We very certainly want to be a band you grow with.”

‘Sister Cities’ is the best The Wonder Years record yet. “I feel better than I’ve ever felt about a record before in my life. This is number one. I feel really good,” Dan beams,

full of pride and bursting with excitement. “The thing we’ve always said, is we want to push forward each record. We never want to say, ‘Well, that one went pretty well, what if we make it again?’ That’s never been an option for us.

“I said this at the time, but ‘No Closer To Heaven’ was a hard record for me to write.

I was in a rut as a writer. I’m still super proud of it, but if I look at it with a critical eye, I can go back and say, we could have taken a few more risks. It was difficult to write because I was feeling so anxious about it and I was having such bad writer’s block, and I was so unprepared to write it. That’s where the preparedness mattered on this one; we were so ready to write a record, it was almost the opposite of the writer’s

block.

“Last time, I really, really struggled, and I would write something, then second guess it, then question whether it was worth it, or maybe I’ll bring it to the guys and maybe they’ll think it’s cool. It wasn’t a thing this time. I felt super confident, and we were churning songs out. Every time I would finish an idea, I would feel so good about it and so excited.”

You can feel that energy across ‘Sister Cities’, from the twinkling melancholy of ‘It Must Get Lonely’ through the starshine daydream of ‘Flowers Where Your Face Should Be’ to the twist and tear of ‘The Orange Grove’, The Wonder Years move forward with purpose and pride “Each time we want to

take one full step. One full step from ‘Suburbia I’ve Given You Everything and Now I’m Nothing’ to ‘The Greatest Generation’. One full step from ‘The Upsides’ to ‘Suburbia…’. We wanted to take one full step from ‘The Greatest Generation’ to ‘No Closer To Heaven’.

“I think, if I’m self-critical, we took three-quarters of one.

In a lot of ways, we took a really bold step, and then in some ways, maybe just because I was so second guessing myself, we didn’t take the full step we needed to take. We held back a little bit. I feel like we took it this time, and we took the quarter step we should have taken last time. This is where it should have been.

This record is where it’s all been going. If you’ve been listening to the band for the past eight years, it’s all been

trending to here. If you’re a fan of the band, you’re going to hear this record and go, ‘Oh yeah, obviously. Of course this is where it’s been going.

This makes so much sense to me now hearing it’.

‘S

ISTER CITIES’ FEELS LIKE A COMPLETE STORY. The beginning is known, and the end is left open, but every detail, every thread, and every movement all pull in the same direction. The colours are rich, and the band let them run.

“We did a better job of editing. It’s eleven tracks and not fourteen; it didn’t spill into two LPs because we couldn’t cut down on anything. It ebbs and flows wonderfully. I’m just so immensely proud of it in

its entirety, the way that it shows itself up and where the peaks and valleys are as far as the dynamics. I feel like it’s a very dynamic record. There was that thought of, let’s push it. Let’s push it and see where it goes, let’s not be afraid of it.

“In the past, if it’s started to move one way, we’ve been like, ‘Oh man, maybe that’s a little anxiety-inducing, maybe we’re not ready to follow where it goes, maybe you don’t want to end up there’. This time, we were willing to follow it. We were willing to follow where the song wanted to take us.

We explored a lot of new territory for us.”

The idea of ‘No Closer To Heaven’ came as Dan sat on the front step of his house, writing the phrase “I’m no closer to heaven, but I’m

going to keep walking,” in a notebook.

‘Sister Cities’ came into focus in Santiago, Chile. It seems almost too obvious to say they’re worlds apart, but here we are.

“I see ‘No Closer To Heaven’ as a record about understanding that maybe all of our goals aren’t entirely attainable but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be evolving and learning.

Just because we might never understand everything or be the absolute perfect version of anything, doesn’t mean we should stop striving to be that. That’s that record to me, and I think its encapsulated in that last verse of the last song,” he begins.

“Let me make sure I get it right because if I misquote my own lyrics, I’m in trouble.

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‘The future feels bright. The glow of the city out across the great plains. With the closer I get, the further I feel away. I can stay here in the darkness, feels like I’m wandering circles for days. I may never reach the gate; I’ll keep walking anyway. I’m no closer to heaven’.”

That’s the message the band carried out into the world, a flickering torch of hope and humanity. “The idea that sometimes it feels like we’re not moving forward or we’re not necessarily doing the right thing, but then the options presented to you are lie down, give up, stay where you are or continue moving forward because forward is always better.”

You already know that The Wonder Years will always choose moving forward. “We should always strive to be better, that’s

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that record for me. What we saw with ‘Sister Cities’, what we saw with two years of touring, is that there are a lot of very good people in the world. We’ve had the distinct pleasure of meeting and knowing many of them now. We have some of the most thoughtful, forward-thinking, empathetic fans on the face of the earth and I feel very, very lucky, and privileged to be able to perform music to those people.

To be able to play to a room full of people that understand that other humans have value, that everyone is of equal importance, that means a lot to me.”

“The crux of this record is that there’s this fundamental misunderstanding that I’ve been presented with, that many people have been presented with their entire lives,” he continues. “You’re told that the world is so big and so vast and so different and

foreign from you. That people are so different. That cultures are so different. And the things that they do are almost unaffected by the things that you do. We found that this is fundamentally untrue.

The world, as big as it is, is not all that big. These people that you are taught are so different, maybe adversarially different, to you, are not so different.

“Humanity is a great equaliser.

Most people are kind and loving.

We’ve had the opportunity to go to a lot of places and meet a lot of people and experience a lot of cultures, and I think we’re in this year, these several years - and this harks back to ‘No Closer To Heaven’- where it’s felt like everything is crumbling.

Everything has felt very divisive.

There’s a lot of conversation about walls and barriers, and this person is your enemy, these people are your enemies. There’s

been this creation of these paper tigers. As we go through the world, you realise these people are just like me.

“Everyone is very similar. Everyone loves, everyone wants to be loved, everyone experiences joy, everyone experiences devastation, we succeed, and we suffer together. It’s a record about how important it is to connect with other people and understand that, while in your mind you are very important, your life is very important and has value, everyone has that in their mind. No person is less important or less valuable than you.

“That’s where it went from the last record to this record. Those are the answers to the questions we got.

It’s what the touring and travel taught us. It’s when I look back and all those journals, it’s what I learnt by connecting with individuals. It is that. It’s being taught by others, in other places, about kindness and

empathy in ways I hadn’t thought about it before.”

There’s a joy to these discoveries. A sigh of relief that what they hoped might be true, is. A wide-eyed embrace that it’s bigger and more powerful than they could have hoped for. The fact they faced it, explored it and documented it together gives ‘Sister Cities’ a whole lot of soul.

“A lot of those memories are really positive, and then obviously there’s obviously going to be some painful ones in there that aren’t going to be particularly fun to relive but are important to relive.

“Every song on the record has its unique space, and some of those live in a space in loss because some of those events are events where you lose people, or you almost lose people. They have an equal importance to the pantheon of the record. Everything is about a different event or series of events, and how they tie into the place that we are.

“For a song like ‘Raining In Kyoto’, that’s a song about my grandfather passing away as I got to the airport to do a tour of Japan. I was not able to attend his funeral so I went to this temple in Kyoto that had this Inari shrine and it was pouring down with rain on us all day. I walked up the stairs, and I saw that there were these enclosures and I saw that they were filled with wax. I understood that people had been lighting candles and leaving them there. I thought that I would light

a candle and think something, or say something in regards to my grandfather. I would have some sort of ceremony even though I didn’t know what the ceremony meant or if it meant anything at all. I would light this candle.

“I did, and I stood in front of it crying in the rain. There was an older man close to me, we didn’t speak the same language, and he didn’t understand why I was upset and I didn’t know what he was upset about either. I watched as he pulled on this bit of cloth to ring a bell, then I rang the bell. I felt connected to him in that space. I don’t know if he had lost someone, but I felt united in loss with other people, and that’s just as important as feeling united in joy with other people.”

Those connections with other people are the heroes of ‘Sister Cities’. Some, like ‘Pyramids Of Salt’, are scarlet and don’t need pulling apart. Others, like ‘We Look Like Lightning’ are found in places you’d never expect. That song came about because in one year, The Wonder Years took forty flights.

“There’s a certain feeling I get where I’m in the air where I almost I feel like I cease to exist until we’re back on the ground. It’s like I‘m nowhere.

Air travel can be terrifying. Just by the odds, some of those flights were really rocky. You think, ‘Well I’m going to die right here, in this aeroplane, full of people that all look terrified and we’re all strangers, and we’re all going from one place to another, and we’re all going to die together right here. That feels strange.

“There’s also the understanding of connectivity between two places, and how air travel makes it seem so seamless. I can get to almost anywhere in a day, and it makes the world shrink in a way. If I started walking, from where I am, in a day, I might be at my mom’s house. But in an aeroplane, I can be in Sydney or Rio or London or Paris, or Tokyo or anywhere else. It makes you realise that while the world seems so big, it is not so big. It’s very interconnected and interwoven. Everything you do has an effect on everyone else, everywhere else.”

DAN CAMPBELL

The title-track roars with the kindness of strangers. Of home and heart in foreign lands. Of it not actually being all that foreign after all. “The record had a series

DISRUPT THE NOISE 33

DAN CAMPBELL of working titles before we landed on ‘Sister Cities’, and we landed on ‘Sister Cities’ when we were in Santiago, Chile. We had found out just before boarding the play that the show we were going to play in Chile had been cancelled. There’s always a little sense, when you’re in another country, of alienation or lonesomeness or otherness. You’re in a place, and you don’t live there, but now there’s no practical reason for me to be there at all because there’s no show.

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“We were wandering around, and most people are just going about their lives, just passing us by. We’re unrecognised by them, we don’t understand what they’re saying, they don’t understand what we’re saying, and we just pass each other.” There was this feeling of, “We don’t belong here. It’s not that we’re not welcome here, but we are strangers with no practical purpose in this place.

“We decided we’d walk to

get some food, so we walked through the bus station, and there are so many stray dogs just everywhere. I almost felt this sense of commiseration with them in this moment because well, here you are and here I am. We’re both in this bus station, in Santiago Chile, and we both have nowhere to go, and nobody particularly wants us here. I thought I’m going to bring you back the rest of my dinner, and we kept walking.

“Before we found a restaurant, we found ourselves under these huge, couple-storey-high obelisks that reach up towards the sky. I read that they are the monuments to the Sister Cities of Santiago, Chile.

Standing there, the stray dogs are reminding me of a place; the air temp is reminding me of a different

place. The air, the altitude, the mountains are reminding me of somewhere else; the graffiti of somewhere else and the architecture of another place. I feel like I’m in ten places at once. I feel like I’m everywhere at once, here.

“I started thinking about the idea of sister cities and maybe everywhere is a sister city to everywhere else because there’s always going to be a connection between two places.”

Then, the band found a group of people from the local music community who said, “You have to play a show. We were excited to see you and when are you ever going to come back to Chile?” The band apologised, explained that it wasn’t their decision to cancel and were

met with a resolve to make it work.

“They came to our hotel, they put all our gear in the back of their pickup truck, and they drove us out to this rehearsal space community centre, with a stage and a PA, and we became very fast friends. We had a great time with them, we played a really fun show in this sweaty DIY rehearsal spot, and I thought about the dog, and I thought about these people. You took me in when I had nowhere to go. That connection is really what spurned that song and started me thinking about the album art, and the cover. I had decided it on that day that we’re going to call the record ‘Sister Cities’ and the stray dog that I commiserated with will be the most major piece of the imagery.”

That day was important for The Wonder Years, as so many of them were.

‘Sister Cities’ is full of these overwhelming waves of hope, belief and faith.

“Pretty much every day was inspiring. Everything we saw was inspiring, that’s why writing it all down was so helpful. I could see this was an important day. This was an important five minutes.

That was an important one second.

“The one thing that happened here had a fundamental impact on how I thought after it. What I saw was more people connecting than more people dividing.

That’s the important thing.

We are in a time frame where we are presented with divisiveness very consistently but in a practical sense, on

a city street, in a baseball stadium, at a monument, in an airport, what I saw was more connection than division.

“The hope really presented itself to me. It’s an important moment to understand you’re connected to other people. Even if you haven’t left the place you are, there are people everywhere who are just like you, who are just as important as you.”

‘Sister Cities’ finds these big ideas in the little moments.

In a caught eye, shared space or simply doing things their own way, The Wonder Years celebrate humanity at every turn. Six albums in, the band can afford to be cocky, to get confident. To indulge in being rock stars, but they never do. They’d rather strive for more. They want to be

better. Trashing a hotel room is pretty much rock’n’roll cliché number one, but the video for ‘Sister Cities’ sees them taking the opposite path. Alongside snippets of stories and postcards of other lives, it deals in the aftermath through the eyes of the cleaner, who has her own story to tell. It constantly and defiantly feels like The Wonder Years are never trying to be something they’re not.

“I’ve never felt capable of that,” begins Dan. “Listen, we’re fundamentally uncool.

It’s who we are; we don’t do those things. I’m pretty sure we aren’t any rock’n’roll cliché. I don’t think I have that in me and we try and stay honest to that.” P THE WONDER YEARS’ ALBUM ‘SISTER CITIES’ IS OUT 6TH APRIL.

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TILL CARDIFF NO 36 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

ASEY ARE BACK WITH A NEW ALBUM, FULL OF HEART-ONSLEEVE LYRICISM AND MAMMOTH TUNES. “IT SOUNDS LIKE WHAT WE’VE ALWAYS DONE, JUST ON A MUCH BIGGER SCALE,” TOM WEAVER EXPLAINS...

Words: Sam Taylor.

Photo: Martyna Wisniewska.

HI TOM! HOW ARE YOU GUYS AT THE MO? EVERYTHING GOOD IN CAMP CASEY? We’re all great! All working hard towards bits and pieces for the album, excited for people to hear it.

WHAT HAVE YOU ALL BEEN UP TO SINCE THE RELEASE OF YOUR DEBUT? We’ve got to play a bunch of cool shows and make new friends which is always nice. We played the biggest show we’d ever played with Impericon Festival Leipzig. We got nominated for an award at the first Heavy Music Awards which still kinda baffles us, to be honest.

Liam [Torrance, guitar] has a kid! I always forget that because I guess we don’t consider it a “band” event, but it definitely changed our dynamic slightly.

Oh, and I got hospitalised for a few weeks at the start of 2017 which sucked, but it also contributed to the writing of the record, so I suppose there was a silver lining there.

HAS WRITING AND RECORDING THE FOLLOW-UP BEEN INTENSE? Not at all really. The only way it differed from the debut was that we did it in a much shorter space of time, and we were a little more segregated when writing the initial structures for the songs, but they all ended up being changed and developed collaboratively in the studio anyway.

And even despite the shorter writing period, the recording process was actually way, way easier than the debut.

Our producer Brad was the easiest person in the world to work with, kept us all completely focused without stressing anyone out. He’s the most interesting guy we’ve ever met, and we’d often spend huge chunks of time just talking to him about his experiences and people he’d met, but even with that included, nothing on the record felt rushed.

IT SOUNDS LIKE THE ALBUM TACKLES SOME REALLY PERSONAL

TOPICS? I’ve always been of the belief that if I’m not intimately invested in the music I create, then it has no purpose to me.

And with writing the debut, I decided that if I’m going to be honest in my art, then I should be as honest as I can be, and not hold anything back. The biggest challenge for me was learning to dilute my experiences just enough so that they become accessible from a third person perspective, but remain individual to me.

DOES IT FEEL EXPOSING TO PERFORM SONGS LIKE THIS IN FRONT OF PEOPLE? A lot of the therapeutic elements of songwriting for me are taken up with the writing and recording process; because by the time we have a finished product, and it’s ready to perform live, I’ve already recited and listened to the lyrics a million times. So when it comes time to performing them, I’m already comfortable with the content, and it doesn’t feel like a vulnerability.

I suppose in a sense it becomes rehearsed, but we always endeavour to ensure there’s an element of authenticity in our performances.

TOM WEAVER DO YOU FIND FANS CONFIDE THEIR TROUBLES IN YOU AS A RESULT OF YOUR OPENNESS? Absolutely, I’ve had a lot of very honest discussions with fans about their own experiences, and the ways that they’ve used those experiences to interpret our music. I’ve never written with another person’s interpretations in mind, so to have a third person perspective on my own experiences is interesting and insightful.

We actually used that as part of the development of our music video for ‘Fade’. We requested that fans anonymously submit one thing they disliked about themselves to an online mailbox, and then wrote out all of the

submissions onto a backdrop for the video. The aim was to evidence the idea that no set of circumstances are entirely individual, and that a person will always have someone with whom they can relate.

DO YOU THINK THE ALBUM WILL DIFFER FROM WHAT PEOPLE EXPECT? I would say there’s a portion of our demographic that might not be completely comfortable with some of the material, but personally, I don’t feel that there’s anything on there that would have been misplaced on the previous record. It just sounds like what we’ve always done, just on a much bigger scale.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR FAVOURITE TRACK ON THE ALBUM. ‘The Funeral’ is definitely my favourite track on the album; it was the one I struggled with the most lyrically, and was the very last song that I ended up writing. It’s the first song we’ve done (as a full song) that’s not in a 4/4 time signature, and I just couldn’t get my head around a vocal pattern that felt fitting on there.

It ended up clicking the day before we started vocal tracking, and I wrote the whole thing in about 20 minutes. I tend to find my favourite songs are always the ones that develop very rapidly.

ARE THERE ANY OTHER BANDS WHO YOU THINK DO A PARTICULARLY GOOD JOB OF WRITING ABOUT LIFE’S DIFFICULTIES? There are loads! I’d say my favourites of them at the minute are Sorority Noise.

‘You’re Not As _ As You Think’ was such a triumphantly heart-breaking body of work. I think that’s a great example of how I’d like to think I portray myself as a musician; because although I can’t personally relate to all the sentiments expressed on their record, it’s so unbelievably intimate and honest that it opens itself up to the empathy of the listener.

ARE YOU PLAYING MANY FESTIVALS THIS YEAR? We’ve got a few bits and pieces lined up, our main ambition for the year lies in the fall to be honest, but at the moment we just have a lot in the pipeline. P

CASEY’S ALBUM ‘WHERE I GO WHEN I AM SLEEPING’ IS OUT NOW.

DISRUPT THE NOISE 37

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LESSTHEFALL WERE FEELING A BIT DOWN IN THE DUMPS AFTER 2015’S ‘TO THOSE LEFT BEHIND’ FAILED TO GET THE PUSH THEY’D HOPED. NOW SIGNED TO RISE RECORDS, THEY’RE BACK RARING TO GO. BEAU BOKAN FILLS US IN OVER COLD BREW COFFEE AND OATMEAL. Words: Sam Taylor.

HEY BEAU, HOW ARE YOU GUYS AT THE MOMENT, ARE YOU ENJOYING YOUR TOUR WITH OF MICE & MEN? The tour is off to a great start!

We’re six shows in, and the crowds have been bonkers. The highlight for us is just being able to tour with such cool dudes.

They’re very respectful, and we’ve known them for almost seven years now.

IT FEELS LIKE YOU SPEND AN AWFUL LOT OF TIME ON THE ROAD, DO YOU GET MUCH DOWNTIME? We try to make sure we have some time off between tours. It can definitely wear down on you when you’re out on the road for too long. It’s important to have a steady balance.

WHAT DO YOU ALL GET UP TO WHEN YOU’RE NOT GOING ABOUT BAND BUSINESS? Everyone has different hobbies like golf, working out. I personally am a huge ice hockey and basketball fan. I try to play both sports as much as possible.

It gets the aggression out!

YOU’VE SAID YOU FEEL YOUR NEW ALBUM ‘HARD FEELINGS’ IS A FRESH START, HOW SO? For a culmination of reasons.

One being on a new record label that is genuinely excited to work together. I feel that partnership is hugely important.

We had to make a change from the situation we were in. Things were stagnant, and it really wasn’t looking good.

WHAT DO YOU THINK SPARKED THIS REJUVENATION? Just being treated like you’re special. Like you’re a commodity to the music scene. It helped motivate us to write the best album we could possibly write because we know that it wouldn’t go unnoticed.

HOW DID YOU COME TO SIGN WITH RISE RECORDS? We were speaking to a few different labels, and frankly, we really didn’t know what the future held for us as a band.

Our last album was completely neglected. So we were in a scary position. Rise has a grassroots approach to the way they run their label. They don’t have 25 employees running around. They have their shit together, and they’re hard workers, just like we are.

DID YOU COME UP AGAINST ANY UNEXPECTED CHALLENGES DURING THE ALBUM’S WRITING OR RECORDING PROCESS? The only challenge was the challenge I put on myself to outdo anything I’d done before.

The entire time I was focusing

on making these songs, vocally and lyrically, something timeless.

WHAT’S THE STORY BEHIND THE ALBUM’S TITLE? Once all the songs started coming together, we realised how much raw emotion was put into every line. My wife was wearing a hoodie that said “No Hard Feelings” on it. As I was in the middle of writing, I saw that hoodie and said to myself, nah fuck that - hard feelings. It’s pretty random, but it all clicked.

ARE ANY OF THE SONGS ESPECIALLY PERSONAL TO YOU? All of them are. They have to be.

I’d say the one that hits me the hardest is ‘Welcome Home’.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT THE RECORD? Just the feeling I get when I listen back to it. It sounds fresh.

It doesn’t sound like anything we’ve done before, but we’ve managed to keep our integrity.

Fans will hear something familiar, but they will also be extremely surprised to hear what we created.

DID CREATING THIS RECORD SPARK ANY NEW IDEAS YOU’D LIKE TO EXPLORE IN THE FUTURE? Oh, 100%.

ARE YOU GOING TO PLAY ANY EXTRA UK DATES WHILE YOU’RE OVER HERE FOR DOWNLOAD? I hope so! If not we’ll be planning on coming back very very soon. P BLESSTHEFALL’S ALBUM ‘HARD FEELINGS’ IS OUT 23RD MARCH. DISRUPT THE NOISE 39

D VS EVIL .

M SEES THEM PON DER GOO DEM OB HAP PY’S NEW ALBU

WORD S: STEVE N LOFTI N.

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ollowing a four-year wait between their debut EP and album, the two-and-a-bit years between Demob Happy’s ‘Dream Soda’ and its follow-up feels almost impatient. “We’re always eager to get stuff out,” begins singer and bassist Matt Marcantonio. “Then it just depends on the boring industry side of things.”

Matt, drummer Thomas Armstrong and guitarist Adam Godfrey have cemented themselves a second outing with ‘Holy Doom’. In addition to their usual self-set pressures (“We set very high standards for ourselves; we’d never allow anything less than what we deem to be perfect”), following a , rapturous reception to their debut their second album also comes . bearing the weight of expectation

to get that down to eleven. So at that point, we were able to go, well, this isn’t about whether or not the album’s going to be good because all of that stuff is good, it just depends on what album we want to make.”

What they’ve made is an album that’s chockfull of dirty riffs in that classic Demob way. “We were given the sort of freedom where we could’ve made three or four very different sounding albums out of all the stuff we had,” Matt reveals.

“We tend to write whatever we feel like writing, so it covers quite a few genres, but it never strays from being us. We were able to say; this is the confinements of the album that we want to make, we want to do something and nail it.”

“People were coming up to us and saying [‘Dream Soda’] was their favourite album of the last ten years, and wild things like that,” Matt marvels. “You have to go, ‘Okay, I want to make sure that it lives up to that’, and goes even further. But then you also have to try and factor in the things that you want to do, and where you’re at.

“We couldn’t have written another twelve songs like ‘Dream Soda’… most of those songs were old when we put them on the album anyway. There’s pressure to live up to it, but in terms of an overall quality, we don’t ever think that we have to write the same stuff again otherwise it won’t be as good.”

The first peek at new Demob came in May 2017 with standalone single ‘Dead Dreamers’. Originally supposed to be included on ‘Holy Doom’, it instead served as a precursor; filled with the underlying themes running throughout the album such as religious lyric play. “We’re always , aware that if we’re doing an album we’re making something that’s bigger than the sum of its parts, so it comes down to thematics,” Matt considers.

“We set out with quite a clear vision in mind. We had, in the end, seventy songs that we wanted to choose from, some more complete than others, but we knew we had

Religious imagery runs through the centre of ‘Holy Doom’ like a lifeline vein. “Sweet and sour, yin and yang, a balance of good and evil; it was inherent in everything that we were doing [at the time], this sense of balance,” says Matt. “In music, we want things to have a sweetness in them; a melody and a harmony, a dirtiness and an edge in the guitars and the bass and drums.

“I thought it was very important for us to get [it] across, so we spent a lot of time figuring out how we were going to get the right sort of sounds for the guitars and drums that translated that. Where the harmony and the melody could sit in this sweet place and quite soft nice melodies, but the guitars and everything else underneath it just provided this bedrock of dirtiness.”

“If it’s a positive message then the music has to sound gnarly,” he adds, “and if it’s a gnarly message, then the music can sound a little more positive.”

That’s basically what it all boils down to for Demob Happy: “As long as you’re having fun with what you’re doing then the rest sorts itself out,” Matt says matter of factly. “It’s undeniable when you can hear a band having fun because even if you don’t like it per se, you can’t deny it sounds like three people actually enjoying themselves. I think that comes across no matter what we do.” P DEMOB HAPPY’S ALBUM ‘HOLY DOOM’ IS OUT 23RD MARCH.

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PHILADELPHIA’S HOP ALONG ARE STRIVING TO OVERCOME THEIR FEARS. hen I was a kid, the first thing I was afraid of was a dog that lived down the street,” Frances Quinlan recalls. “I must’ve been four. It chased my mum and me onto the top of our car.” Bringing enduring memories to life in music is something Hop Along are no strangers to, but never have they done so on such a vibrant tapestry as with new album ‘Bark Your Head Off, Dog’. From the addition of strings and full harmonies, to the intricate structures of the songs themselves, this is the Philadelphia outfit at their most dynamic yet.

Their music has always held an affinity for narrative: finding inspiration in day to day life, entries in old journals, and beyond, the band have a knack for portraying the world with a poetic grace. “My neighbour tried to get me to reconcile with the dog and pet him, but I was too freaked out,” Frances reflects on the memory that inspired the album title. “A lot of [the album] has to do with fear of animals,” she mulls, “not that I’m overtly afraid of animals.”

Rather, the album’s repeated references to animals are a vehicle the band use to explore the nature of strength, and the lack of it. “I think it addresses the misuse of power and the processing of trauma as a result of the misuse of power,” Frances carefully portrays. “But it deals with it on all sides, I think, or on many sides.” Such a topic is a difficult one to navigate, which is exactly why Hop Along chose to do so, posing the questions and situations that were concerning to them.

One such question arises in the form of a lyric repeated throughout the album: “So strange to be shaped by such strange men.” “Something I’ve been considering a great deal is how, as an individual, I have personally deferred to men throughout my life, and how weird that is that it’s automatic,” Frances explains. “I’m trying to undo it, but it really has become a part of how I judged myself.”

Considered in relation to superiors,

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significant others, colleagues, family, or others beside, that lyric, and the sentiment behind it, is one which drives a lot of the songs on ‘Bark Your Head Off, Dog’. “I think it’s odd that we so admire a kind of mean strength and use of power,” Frances states. “We still have an admiration for that, for people who just take what’s theirs.

Considering how enlightened one would hope we’d be by now, it is strange.”

The struggle that comes when trying to source a feeling of strength is one that underpins a lot of the record.

Frances recalls another memory that has long inspired her writing of when her stepfather was in a head-on car collision.

“It was the first time someone I loved had something awful happen to them,” she states. “Visiting him in the hospital, I will never forget that.”

FRANCES QUINLAN While quick to express that “thankfully, he’s okay, which is wonderful,” the memory of the event is something that continues to influence her songwriting. “I kind of came back to it, thinking about being afraid and what else I’m afraid of,” the musician reflects. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot, in terms of just how I continue to have a hard time finding my own sense of power.”

Throughout all of this, Hop Along are – much like the rest of us – grappling to find where that sense of power lies for them, and they do so with no uncertain amount of narrative grace. “When I was a kid I wanted to be a short story author,” Frances states. “I had a creative writing minor at

WORDS: JESSICA GOODMAN.

college, then I realised that my attention span just could barely handle getting a poem together, let alone a full short story, so I mostly stick to songwriting.”

Nevertheless, influenced by this in her writing, Frances describes a lot of the inspiration for the record as “stories I wanted to tell.”

“Part of ‘How You Got Your Limp’ concerns these group of teachers that would come into the bar every weekend,” she offers as an example. “They would take up a booth for at least three hours, well into my shift.

They would order pitcher after pitcher of the cheapest beer and just talk trash on their students, cursing loudly with families around them. They would be so abrasive.

Then when they would leave, they would tip shitty.”

A lot of the record finds itself lost in the state between being, as F. Scott Fitzgerald once so wonderfully posed, “simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.”

“There’s still a number of things I’d like to write about and just haven’t found the way to,” Frances conveys. That may be, but with ‘Bark Your Head Off, Dog’ the musician is quick to add that “this is the first time that I’ve felt this close to saying what I meant to say.”

“I think that goes for everybody,” she comments of her bandmates. “We worked really hard together. We always do, but I think we were very focused on speaking the same language and figuring out a song’s mood as a group, and all being in tune with that.” The result of their efforts is the band’s most cohesive album to date.

“I hear that in everyone’s parts,” Frances enthuses. “I’m very, very proud of it.”

Describing a lot of the album as “the idea of trying to look at the events of my life in a different way,” ‘Bark Your Head Off, Dog’ is an exercise in our perception of power, and how we find our own understanding and our own sense of that. “At times I still think of that dog as this menace,” Frances reflects on the title, “and he was just a dog.” P HOP ALONG’S ALBUM ‘BARK YOUR HEAD OFF, DOG’ IS OUT 6TH APRIL.

DISRUPT THE NOISE 43

.

THE ONLY VERD ICT YOU NEED

44 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

BLESSTHEFALL HARD FEELINGS eeee

ONCE THE MOST IMPORTANT POP PUNK BAND ON THE PLANET, THE WONDER YEARS HAVE PROGRESSED FAR BEYOND ANY SIMPLE GENRE. WITH THEIR LATEST FULL LENGTH, THEY’RE HITTING A WHOLE NEW LEVEL.

“I

feel like if you’ve been following The Wonder Years, this is where it’s been going,” promised Dan Campbell as they announced their sixth album ‘Sister Cities’. The band have a habit of telling the unflinching truth and from the downpour of ‘Raining In Kyoto’, they’ve gone and done it again.

There’s an instant familiarity to ‘Sister Cities’, a warmth in old friends and a comfort that while everything’s changed since you last crossed paths, you’ve shifted together.

in being with yourself, staring at the ground and kicking up dirt, it bursts, and it decays while ‘We Look Lightning’ feels eternal. Subdued and manic, it embraces everything it can.

‘Sister Cities’ is bigger than The Wonder Years have ever dared to dream while losing none of that heartfelt intimacy.

‘Pyramids of Salt’ creeps under skin and dances on the back of necks, building something from frustration, blame and whispering uncertainty before it collapses, pulling you down with it.

The Wonder Years have always been excellent at closing tracks but the SISTER CITIES six-minute-plus HOPELESS RECORDS The spirit of The adventure of ‘The eee e e Wonder Years Ocean Grew Hands IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU’LL remains unmoved To Hold Me’ picks LIKE...

GOOD THINGS, - a celebration at your soul and PROBABLY of humanity wraps itself around and strength in the bones of your unity - but ‘Sister being. Finding the Cities’ sees the band at the edge of band invigorated. They plough forward everything, the future is as uncertain as into the big, wide, unforgiving world, it’s ever been and the present isn’t much bubbling with excitement. better, but there’s a resolve to carry on.

Triumphant in knowing that through it Full of purpose and absolved of selfall, we haven’t torn ourselves apart. doubt, there’s an absolute belief in the space that each track takes up. The Over the past decade-and-a-bit, The Wonder Years have never been so sure Wonder Years have built something of themselves as they are on ‘Sister special in telling stories and taking Cities’, weightless and everywhere at chances. ‘Sister Cities’ is their crowning once, it finds a home in the kindness achievement. As all the pieces fall into of strangers as it moves, unblinking place, they’ve created something worth and unburdened. ‘Flowers Where Your following and something to believe in.

ALI SHUTLER Face Should Be’ finds an uneasy peace

THE WONDER YEARS

When an established band takes a sonic shift, it’s always going to cause a rumble in the cheap seats.

While the established wisdom is a band shouldn’t stand still, it often feels a lot like that’s more a case of saying one thing and wanting the opposite.

But chasing down fresh horizons is something Blessthefall should be commended for. While ‘Hard Feelings’ finds joy in the melodic moments, it still packs an almighty punch. Beau Bokan’s vocals mesh perfectly with the evolution - and that’s exactly what this is. Change is for the better. DAN HARRISON

CASEY

WHERE I GO WHEN I AM SLEEPING eeee Casey’s ‘Where I Go When I Am Sleeping’ is a record of pain. You don’t need to know the details of the afflictions that vocalist Tom Weaver suffers from to feel the weight; the struggles are front, centre and scarlet-soaked. Scratched vocals and furious colours run the show as the band point the finger, wallow in pain and try to find a way out. Disappointment and frustration at their own shortcomings crackle like lightning before they lash out with thunderous rage. It’s a record of pain, sure. But more importantly, it’s a record about wanting to be better. ALI SHUTLER

CONJURER MIRE eeeee

If you’ve been paying even the slightest bit of attention over recent weeks and months, you’ve probably seen the buzz for Conjurer’s debut full-length building. Initial promise following the band’s second EP back in 2016 has turned into a tsunami of attention - every bit of it deserved. Metal that paints itself in varied hues, the sheer creativity for a band on their first album is astounding. That it still feels like there’s further potential to be realised is nothing short of stunning. DAN HARRISON

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DEMOB HAPPY HOLY DOOM e eee

Demob Happy are the sort of band who never feel to get their dues.

Debut ‘Dream Soda’ was a record worthy of the higher divisions, but while it garnered plenty of praise, it was their peers that went on to arena shows and chart bothering success. Its follow up, ‘Holy Doom’, would - in a just world - see those wrongs righted. A grungy, scuzzy delight, under the surface it’s a record shinier and tougher than diamonds.

Like the band itself, impossible to break and worth a fortune. DAN HARRISON

GOAT GIRL GOAT GIRL e eee

Sick. It’s a word that keeps coming to mind in regards to the debut by Goat Girl. It’s there from ‘Salty Sounds’, a haunting intro with the briny, acrid tang of something deeply unpleasant; the snapping, disjointed guitar lines in ‘Viper Fish’ and ‘Cracker Drool’; the way ‘The Man With No Heart Or Brain’ lurches and spirals into thrashy full gear. There’s a sickness in the surfy ‘The Man’, too, with Clottie sardonically purring “You’re the man for me” in a way which implies anything but. ‘Goat Girl’ is a brilliant, darkly fascinating album. ROB MESURE

HOP ALONG

BARK YOUR HEAD OFF, DOG e ee While Hop Along’s first two records were self-confessed slabs of freak folkdyed indie rock set in grunge and punk, their third effort ‘Bark Your Head Off, Dog’ demonstrates their natural evolution, adding strings, synthy power-pop, and lyrical rants that roll off the tongue. Vocalist Frances Quinlan tackles the politics of power and gender, making for a wild ride of abstract thoughts, oblique observations, and curious ideas draped across a backdrop of jingyjangling indie-pop. It’s a delightful distraction from the melancholy of the masses. JACK PRESS 46 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

BLACK FOXXES’ DEBUT ALBUM SHOWED PROMISE. THEIR SECOND SHOWS ONE OF THE MOST ACCOMPLISHED NEW VOICES IN ROCK READY TO TAKE FLIGHT.

B

lack Foxxes took the title of debut ‘I’m Not Well’ and painted it in thick, black letters on the wall. Raw and uncompromising, it raged inside the tunnel vision and struggled to find a way out.

Big and loud, or big and whisper quiet, there was no middle ground. ‘Reiði’ fills in the gaps with deliberate, delicate watercolour.

Full of adventure, Black Foxxes’ second album sees them discover the new. Wide open space and time to play, they make it clear they’re so much more than a fuzzy rock band. Gone are the comparisons to Taking Back Sunday, this record is wholly Black Foxxes. From the opening burst and decay of ‘Breathe’, through the sensational flurry of ‘Manic In Me’ and out to the twinkling starshine of ‘Oh It Had To Be You’, the band spark with joy and excitement.

The lights dim in the second half, but

SERIOUSLY, JUVE GOT TO HEAR THIS ALBUM!

the colours still run. ‘JOY’ is just as bold, as flawed and immediate as anything on the first album, before ‘Am I Losing It’ indulges in sparse abandon and the closing ‘Float On’ flickers between nightmare and daydream.

BLACK FOXXES REIÐI

SPINEFARM

eeeee ALBUM FACTOID... ‘REIÐI’ IS THE ICELANDIC WORD FOR RAGE

New adventure but the same fire in the pit of their stomach, ‘Reiði’ crackles with passion. The edges bend and break under the weight, but those gaps allow the band to shine. There’s a personality to the ambition, humanity in the pain. Finding peace in the struggle, ‘Reiði’ is full of splintered soul but chases the horizon and stories yet to be told.

Wildly confident and carefully constructed, the record dances as Black Foxxes have fun showing off just how far they can explore. ‘Reiði’ is wild and untamed, swerving in any direction it pleases but at no point does it feel unruly. Black Foxxes know what they’re doing, and they do it well. ALI SHUTLER

PILLOW QUEENS

HINDS

Pillow Queens’ debut EP ‘Calm Girls’ was a rough and ready introduction to your new favourite band. ‘State Of The State’ is immediately bigger, and not just because it’s one track longer. The restless energy on their debut has been given more space to explore as once again, they refuse to retread their steps. Each song sees the band rush somewhere new, stay for a while and make it their own. Fizzing with confidence and the glinting desire to see what they can get away with, ‘State Of The State’ is a marvel from beginning to end. ALI SHUTLER

Anyone who’s ever had the pleasure of Hinds’ effervescent live show will tell of a band able to bottle a lightning storm and deliver it with infectious ease. More fun than any of their peers, it’s the kind of energy that - if captured on record - could rip down barriers with a single blow. ‘I Don’t Run’ gets damn close to delivering, too. Hinds will always be having more fun than the rest of us, but at least we’re invited along to watch.

STATE OF THE STATE EP e e ee

SELFISH THINGS VERTICAL LOVE EP e e ee

I DON’T RUN e e e ee

STEPHEN ACKROYD

TEENAGE WRIST

CHROME NEON JESUS eeeee

Selfish Things aren’t a band that rewrites the great big rule book of rock. They aren’t a band who sound like nothing else you’ve ever heard, and yet at the same time there’s something undeniably fresh about their debut EP. Maybe it’s the fact they’re already so assured - ‘8147 Mulholland Terrace’ feels like an anthem barely willing to wait for the world to catch up - but whatever that special ingredient is, it’s infectious. The best of both worlds, theirs is a brew that’s as intoxicating as it is impossibly rare.

DAN HARRISON

Sun-kissed Los Angeles trio Teenage Wrist have channelled the ghosts of yesteryear for their otherworldly debut, ‘Chrome Neon Jesus’ - a tour de force of shoegaze-addled grunge, soaked in emo-pop. The band ride a wave of influences that radiate rainbows as much as they illuminate the darkness. Their adoration for the 90s darker sonic territories and masterful command of distortion, fuzz, and crossover bravado has left Teenage Wrist riding off into the distance with a sound so powerful we may be seeing a post-grunge revival. JACK PRESS

SUN ARCANA

THE MAPLE STATE

With an oomph like the wind being knocked out of an unexpected ribcage, Essex gang Sun Arcana attack their debut EP with an almighty punch. Opener ‘Forever’ arrives on the scene with a sense of deliberacy that bleeds confidence. A band who know their way round the tricks of the trade, over the space of six tracks, they display more than their share of sparkle and shine.

There are still new gears to explore, but the sheer scale of ambition suggests there’s the potential for something very exciting indeed. DAN

It’s been nearly ten years since we last heard from Mancunian threepiece The Maple State, and new EP ‘The Things I Heard At The Party’ bears all the classic tropes of their previous work - from rich melodies to sound-bite lyrics, all presented with earnest delivery. Sadly, there are too few moments that stand out. Lead single ‘Something In The Water’ is the strongest track here, offering a muchneeded power, but they fail to take it anywhere, and the EP doesn’t hit home. STEVEN LOFTIN

AS I TAKE A BREATH EP eee

HARRISON

THE THINGS I HEARD AT THE PARTY ee

A SHORT Q&A WITH...

H

inds are a raucous bunch everywhere they go it’s a mess of high-energy larks and goodtimes. With their new album ‘I Don’t Run’, the four-piece show themselves as a force to be reckoned with.

Hey Hinds, it looks like being in this band is the most fun. Is it?

Ana: It really is. All our friends always want to come on tour with us. That’s a good sign. We know how to tear up a room.

How was the whirlwind that was releasing your debut album?

Amber: It was good. At the beginning, it was a little bit too crazy with the touring and everything. We had to get used to everything, but now, we are.

We’re ready.

So it must have been nice to go home to Madrid to write ‘I Don’t Run’?

Carlotta: It was cool. We really can’t write on the road. We need an intimate place, to sit down, to be chill and to freely talk about whatever we want, so we always do it in Madrid. This time was better than writing the first album.

Ade: That first album was so tough. I still remember it like a nightmare. We were so tired.

Is it true that one of the reasons you sing in English is so your parents don’t know what you’re singing about?

Carlotta: Yeah. My mum is obsessed with ‘I Will Send Your Flowers Back’ from the first album, and she can’t believe we’re singing about sad things.

She doesn’t want to accept it. It’s not that we feel embarrassed about what we’re singing though, it’s just easier to create a new you.

It seems like this time out, Hinds are fearless.

Ana: Fearless? Absolutely. P Hinds’ album ‘I Don’t Run’ is out 6th April.

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ON STAG E. IN HERE .

48 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

LIGHT UP LONDON’S OLD BLUE LAST. PHOTOS: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT.

A

flurry of synthesised notes signals the beginning of Waterparks’ set, and from the very first sound, a generation filled with adoration for the Texas trio is let loose. Considering those at the barricade were queueing since 5am in order to be front and centre for this exact moment speaks volumes for exactly what Waterparks have created.

Since gaining popularity in waves, Waterparks have been in the spotlight for their stunningly bright and sugary take on pop-punk - rife with electronic leads and pure melodies. None of which is a bad thing. At all. But this creation has drawn its naysayers and, tonight at London’s KOKO, Waterparks are here to silence them.

As opener ’11:11’ reaches its flurried climax, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that every word is being bounced straight back at frontman Awsten Knight.

Every quiet moment that, on record, creates a passage to the eruptive chorus instead acts as breathing room for the

T vying crowd to offer their input.

One thing that becomes abundantly clear at a Waterparks show is you can forget the age-old expectation of poppunk bands being dominated by guitarwielding singers. Awsten is a hybrid who bounces between pop-sensation leading agent, and the more normalised trope, with spectacular ease. The mist of the stage creates a silhouette of a leader of a movement, one who’s not afraid to offer everything underneath a poptastic exterior, complete with the venom of punk.

The palpable chemistry between the band and their fans is where the magic of Waterparks lies. As Awsten orchestrates the crowd, guitarist Geoff Wigington bounds, spins, jumps and just about any other form of physical movement from each side of the stage, encouraging the baying throng.

Powering through the majority of ‘Entertainment’, the isolated acoustic ‘Lucky People’ shows the behemoth can have its tender moments. The unstoppable power within the tracks, be it a pulsating beat, or snarling chords, truly lies in the emotional energy of the words and once these are presented unfiltered, it all makes sense.

Ending with ‘TANTRUM’, wherein Awsten takes aim at, well, pretty much everything, this tour is clearly where Waterparks are showing they’re ready for war. They’re here to reinvigorate the world with their electronic-fuelled fury of melody, and the army behind them will make sure you know about it.

he last time we saw The Winter Passing, they were stretched out across a stage at 2000 Trees Festival. Tonight, the first date of their UK tour, things are a bit more cramped as the band pile into London’s Old Blue Last. These close quarters just dial up the wondrous intensity though.

“I just need to keep telling myself that everything’s kind of okay,” reasons ‘Like Flowers Ache For Spring’ and for the rest of their set, The Winter Passing seem determined to double down on that truth. On record the band burst with a sparkling enthusiasm that’s both reassuring and contagious. Live, it lights up the room.

‘So Said Virginia’ binds everything together, bristling gang vocals making way for driving reflection before ‘Significance’ takes a deep breath and continues the adventure. In bloom and pouring out their hearts, The Winter Passing find a robust, gritted teeth strength in their vulnerability.

They hurry through their repeated onstage thank yous, nervous or just excited to be back, but that never overflows into the purposeful dance of the songs. Constantly searching and doused in a rainbow sheen, every movement is deliberate, every explosive whisper or heartfelt cause for celebration is joyous and every scarlet story glistens with an unwavering power. ALI SHUTLER

STEVEN LOFTIN DISRUPT THE NOISE 49

HAVE THEIR PERFECT MOMENT. PHOTOS: GILES SMITH.

D

eaf Havana have always been upfront about the struggles that come with being in a touring rock band. There are nights that make it all worth it though, and tonight’s celebration is surely one of those. Islington’s Union Chapel is a grand setting and Deaf Havana play to the occasion, bringing along a string section and posting a youth choir up in the church’s gallery.

The treat of sharing a stage with classically trained musicians isn’t lost on the self-taught Veck-Gilodi brothers. Every song tonight is uniquely reworked to make the most of the ‘unplugged’ setup, and it makes for a special evening for those lucky enough to score a ticket.

For a band that was on the brink of splitting up in 2014, this one-off show caps a remarkable comeback for the band. No longer leaning on their older material, the expanded band take the stage to an orchestral ‘Ashes, Ashes’, violins and James’ vocals piercing the respectful silence of the audience.

Latest album ‘All These Countless Nights’ takes charge of the setlist, demonstrating how far Deaf Havana have come in the past year. As the band brings the crowd to their feet with a thumping finale of ‘Caro Padre’ you barely notice that they’ve not even touched ‘Fools and Worthless Liars’, the record that made them and then began to weigh on them.

Newer songs soar, ‘Happiness’ transcending into ballad territory and ‘Sing’ morphing into a campfire singalong. As the choir take hold of the vocal refrain in ‘Anemophobia Part II’, Deaf Havana have never felt so at ease, even when lifted out of their amplified comfort zone. With their new songs lighting the way forward, Deaf Havana have reconciled the past and are deservedly enjoying their moment..

DILLON EASTOE

50 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

MARMOZETS HIT THE ROAD WITH THEIR NEW ALBUM, ‘KNOWING WHAT YOU KNOW NOW’ - AND IT WAS EPIC. PHOTO: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT.

I

t might take Marmozets a while to get around to releasing albums but live, they’re always a hundred miles an hour. The mob has been toying with new material for a good few months now but tonight, at London’s ULU, it’s the first time they’ve played the capital since the release of ‘Knowing What You Know Now’. The record takes the world of Marmozets and pushes it wider in every direction. Live, it’s the exact same story.

Queen Zee are also pushing at the walls. From the opening blast of ‘Victim Age’, all ‘Danger Days’ snarl and driving seat momentum to the grinning confrontation of ‘Sissy Fists’, the band are everywhere.

There’s a comic book vibrancy in their grimy attack, a fierce direction in their fuzzy, static blur and a voice they want to be heard. ‘Fly The Pink Flag’ was written in the wake of the terrorist attack in Orlando at the Pulse nightclub. “Because of their gender or sexuality, fifty people didn’t come home,” explain the band. “Fuck transphobia, fuck homophobia. Shut that shit down whenever you see it,” they implore before the track, wrestling with looming threats, finds something sparkling to escape with.

Marmozets are ready to take on the world. Sauntering onto the stage like it’s the only place they feel at home, they waste no time in driving things forward. ‘New

Religion’ is hyper-charged, wielding a flickering neon brightness and juddering about the space. It’s the perfect track to welcome people to Marmozets shiny new world.

Don’t be fooled by the sheen and the sense of purpose that charges through this new landscape though.

The band has been sharpening their fangs.

‘Habits’ takes the band to the brink of war but despite the tumbling walls, Marmozets are always in control. ‘Play’ bristles with energy, taking hold of the night and changing direction on a whim while ‘Insomnia’ embraces its black sheep charm. Slowing things down but never dousing the flame, it places the band at one extreme before they catapult across to the next.

‘Run With The Rhythm’ amplifies that joyful abandon, pulling together the very busy room and leading them in something big, sweeping and powerful before the band let go of the wheel for ‘Why Do You Hate Me?’ and ‘Captivate You’.

The set sees almost the whole of Marmozets new album being aired and despite it only being out a matter of weeks, every shock, every word and every dazzling rainbow dance is greeted like an old friend.

There’s a sense of togetherness in their unruly adventure as the band grow from weird and wonderful to something strange, spectacular and really rather special. ALI SHUTLER

EVER NEED. ALL THE TOUR NEWS YOU’ LL

ALL THOSE BANDS, ALL THOSE TOURS - IT’S HARD TO KEEP UP. SO WE’VE GATHERED TOGETHER ALL THE DATES YOU NEED RIGHT HERE IN ONE PLACE. YOU’LL NEVER NEED TO MISS OUT AGAIN. A PERFECT CIRCLE: Manchester O2 Apollo (12th June), London O2 Academy Brixton (13th) AMERICAN NIGHTMARE: London Camden Underworld (28th April), Brighton Haunt (29th) ANDREW WK: Cardiff Great Hall (13th April), London O2 Forum Kentish Town (14th), Birmingham O2 Academy2 (15th), Norwich Waterfront (18th), Portsmouth Pyramids Wedgewood Rooms (19th), Manchester O2 Ritz (20th), Glasgow Garage (21st) CANCER BATS: London Camden Underworld (26th28th April) CASEY: London Boston Music Room (13th April), Leeds Key Club (14th), Newcastle Jumpin’ Jacks (15th), Plymouth Underground (16th), Manchester Satan’s Hollow (17th), Birmingham Asylum2 (18th), Nottingham Rock City

Basement (19th) CODE ORANGE: Nottingham Rescue Rooms (15th April), Newcastle Cluny (18th), Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms (22nd) CONVERGE: Manchester Academy 2 (25th April), London Camden Electric Ballroom (26th) DRENGE: Liverpool Invisible Wind Factory (25th April), London Islington Assembly Hall (26th), Bristol Lantern (27th), Brighton Old Market (28th), Manchester Gorilla (2nd May), Glasgow Art School (3rd), Newcastle Riverside (4th) EVANESCENCE: London Royal Festival Hall (March 30th-31st), Manchester O2 Apollo (2nd April), Nottingham Arena (3rd), Glasgow Armadillo (5th), Sheffield City Hall (6th) EVERY TIME I DIE: London Garage (29th May)

FALL OUT BOY: Birmingham Barclaycard Arena (27th March), Cardiff Motorpoint Arena (28th), Manchester Arena (29th), London O2 Arena (31st) FOO FIGHTERS: Manchester Etihad Stadium (19th June), London Stadium (22nd-23rd) THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM: London Eventim Apollo (20th-21st July), Dublin Vicar Street (23rd), Glasgow Barrowland (24th), Manchester Eventim Apollo (25th) GLASSJAW: London O2 Academy Brixton (18th August) GRETA VAN FLEET: Manchester Deaf Institute (30th March), Birmingham O2 Institute3 (31st), Glasgow King Tut’s (1st April), London O2 Academy Islington (4th) HALESTORM: Dublin Academy (19th September), Belfast Limelight (20th), Sheffield O2 Academy (22nd), Glasgow O2 Academy (23rd), Birmingham O2 Academy (24th), Manchester O2 Apollo (26th), London O2 Academy Brixton (28th), Bristol O2 Academy (29th) LOWER THAN ATLANTIS: Lincoln Engine Shed (2nd April), Cambridge Junction (3rd), Leamington Spa Assembly (4th), Swansea Sin City (6th), Pontypridd Muni Arts Centre (7th), Gloucester Guildhall (8th), Bath Komedia (9th), Exeter Lemongrove (11th), Southampton Engine

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Rooms (12th), Watford Colosseum (13th), Southend Chinnerys (14th), Brighton Concorde 2 (15th), Oxford O2 Academy (3rd May), Reading Sub89 (4th), Wrexham Central Station (5th), Liverpool Hangar34 (7th), Aberdeen Lemon Tree (8th), Edinburgh Liquid Rooms (9th), Middlesbrough Empire (11th), Hull Welly (12th), York Fibbers (13th), Sheffield Plug (14th) THE MAINE: London Camden Dingwalls (6th June), Manchester Deaf Institute (7th) MALLORY KNOX: Brighton Haunt (16th April), Cardiff Globe (17th), Exeter Cavern (18th), Stoke Sugarmill (20th), Glasgow King Tut’s (22nd), Manchester Rebellion (23rd), Birmingham Mama Roux’s (24th), Nottingham Bodega (26th) MARMOZETS: Norwich Waterfront (4th May), Liverpool O2 Academy (5th), Newcastle Hit The North Festival (6th), Exeter Lemon Grove (7th), Northampton Roadmenders (9th), Coventry Kasbah (10th), Oxford O2 Academy (11th) MILK TEETH: Edinburgh Mash House (17th March), Manchester Deaf Institute (19th), Birmingham Mama Roux’s (20th), Milton Keynes Craufurd Arms (21st), London Camden Underworld (23rd), Bournemouth Anvil (24th), Plymouth Junction (25th) MOVEMENTS: Leicester Cookie (30th April), Newcastle Think Tank? (1st

PIANOS BECOME THE TEETH AND FOXING HAVE ANNOUNCED A CO-HEADLINE TOUR

May), Glasgow King Tut’s (2nd), Leeds Key Club (4th), Manchester Night People (5th), Birmingham Asylum (6th), Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach (7th), Brighton Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar (8th), London Camden Assembly (9th) OF MICE & MEN: Bristol O2 Academy (21st April), Glasgow O2 ABC (22nd), Manchester O2 Ritz (23rd), Birmingham O2 Institute (25th), Norwich UEA (26th), London KOKO (27th) QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE: London Finsbury Park (30th June) ROLO TOMASSI: Glasgow Audio (April 3rd), Manchester Deaf Institute (4th), Birmingham Flapper (5th), Bristol Exchange (6th), London Garage (7th), Leeds Strangeforms (8th) THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS: Cardiff Motorpoint Arena (23rd March), Manchester Arena (24th), Glasgow SSE Hydro (25th), London O2 Arena (27th), Birmingham Barclaycard Arena (29th) TIGERS JAW: London Bush Hall (6th April), Brighton Bau Wow (7th), Manchester Rebellion (8th), Dublin Whelan’s (10th), Glasgow Stereo (11th), Newcastle Cluny (13th), Leeds Brudenell Social Club (14th), Bristol Exchange (15th), Southampton Talking Heads (16th), Kingston Fighting Cocks (17th)

P

ianos Become The Teeth and Foxing are heading to the UK and Ireland this August for a co-headline tour.

Following the release of their new album ‘Wait For Love’, Pianos Become The Teeth are teaming up with Foxing, who are finishing up their next LP with producer Chris Walla, for the UK run.

Their first visit in almost three years, they’ll also play ArcTanGent while over.

The tour kicks off with two dates at London’s Bush Hall before calling off in

Brighton, Manchester, Dublin, Glasgow, and Newcastle.

PIANOS BECOME THE TEETH / FOXING: London Bush Hall (August 9th-10th), Brighton The Haunt (11th), Manchester Rebellion (12th), Dublin Wheelan’s (13th), Glasgow Stereo (14th), Newcastle The Cluny (15th)

TWIN ATLANTIC: Newcastle Riverside (24th May), Norwich Waterfront (30th), Southampton Engine Rooms (1st June), Cardiff Tramshed (3rd) THE WONDER YEARS: London O2 Academy Islington (11th April), Manchester Academy 2 (13th), Glasgow Garage (14th), Leeds Stylus (15th), Bristol SWX (17th), Dublin Button Factory (18th), Belfast Empire Music Hall (19th)

DISRUPT THE NOISE 53

WITH...

TIGERS JAW

BEN’S PLAYLIST... + TOM PETTY - EVEN THE LOSERS + FLEETWOOD MAC - THE CHAIN + SAVES THE DAY - FIREFLY + MXPX - MOVE TO BREMERTON + NEW FOUND GLORY - HIT OR MISS + WEEZER - TIRED OF SEX + MC5 - TEENAGE LUST + OF MONTREAL - DIRTY DUSTIN HOFFMAN NEEDS A BATH + PAVEMENT - STEREO + ARCHERS OF LOAF - HARNESSED IN SLUMS + BUILT TO SPILL - BIG DIPPER + THE SHINS - CARING IS CREEPY + MICROPHONES - I WANT WIND TO BLOW + ISLANDS - ROUGH GEM + BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE - CAUSE = TIME

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WHEN YOU LOAD UP SPOTIFY, A GREAT BIG CHUNK OF THE TIME YOU CAN’T THINK WHAT TO PLAY, RIGHT? OVERWHELMED BY PRETTY MUCH ALL THE MUSIC EVER, YOU DEFAULT BACK TO YOUR OLD FAVOURITES, THOSE ALBUMS AND SONGS YOU PLAYED ON REPEAT WHEN YOU FIRST DISCOVERED YOU COULD MAKE THEM YOURS. THIS ISN’T ABOUT GUILTY PLEASURES; IT’S ABOUT THOSE SONGS YOU’LL STILL BE LISTENING TO WHEN YOU’RE OLD AND IN YOUR ROCKING CHAIR. This month, Tigers Jaw’s Ben Walsh takes us through the songs that made him who he is today.

Much of my musical interest came from various family members. I remember really liking Fleetwood Mac and Tom Petty songs I heard on the radio during family road trips, and that’s my earliest memory of paying attention to music. Growing up, my family didn’t have a desktop computer until pretty late, so my first wave of discovering music came from going to my cousin’s house and burning CDs there.

It’s funny to reminisce about now-defunct ways of discovering bands. One of my cousins was dating a guy in a band, and I remember thinking he was super cool. I looked at his AIM profile and saw all these bands listed: Saves The Day, Alkaline Trio, New Found Glory, MxPx, Blink-182 etc. That

was my gateway to punk music.

My cousin Matt played in an amazing Scranton power-pop indie band called The Sw!ms, and I became obsessed with them and their label mates, Okay Paddy. Getting to know them and listening to their wide array of influences led me to Weezer and Of Montreal and MC5 and the Elephant 6 Collective. Those two Scranton bands made me want to make music, and I probably wouldn’t have started a band without seeing them play.

I got a job at a thrift store when I was 15 with the ultimate goal of buying an electric guitar. Some of the (few) perks of the job involved getting to sort through all the CDs people donated. I used to take ones I thought looked interesting. One particular haul led me to Pavement, Archers of Loaf, and Built to Spill. I talked about some of these bands with my cousin Jake during a family vacation, and a few weeks later he mailed me some CDs of stuff he thought I’d like - The Shins, Spoon, Sloan.

In the early days of Tigers Jaw, myself and bandmate Adam [McIlwee] would trade CDs and get excited and inspired by all types of music. He introduced me to some weirder indie music, such as The Microphones, Islands, and Broken Social Scene. Most of the music I’ve mentioned is still stuff I listen to, and all of it helped formulate my influences for songwriting in Tigers Jaw. P