Upset, August 2021

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68

D ownload Pilot

Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!

Yonaka

Caps tan

As D e c emb er Falls

Witch Fever

+ loads more

upsetmagazine.com

** Plus **

jxdn Creeper DC Dark Nights

is “Everyone e going to b . mindblown as I mean, I w n, w lo b d in m m and it’s y g!” !$@&ing son

The future is NO W !

Meet

daine.

THE NEW ALBUM

FEARLESSRECORDS.COM

CHUNKNOCAPTAINCHUNK.COM

AUGUST 2021 Issue 68

RIOT 4. DOWNLOAD PILOT 12. SUPERMILK 14. AS DECEMBER FALLS 18. CHUNK! NO, CAPTAIN CHUNK! 20. LAKES 23. CAPSTAN ABOUT TO BREAK 24. WITCH FEVER FEATURES 26. DAINE 38. JXDN 42. CREEPER 46. DC DARK NIGHTS 52. YONAKA 58. PRESS TO MECO

Upset Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Ali Shutler Scribblers Alex Cabré, Alexander Bradley, Dan Harrison, Edie McQueen, Kelsey McClure, Martyn Young, Jamie MacMillan, Jasleen Dhindsa, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin Snappers Cynthia Parkhurst, Dave East, Debbie Ellis, Dieter Unrath, Dylan Nolte, Joe Brennan, Julie Ernie, Tom Goddard P U B L I S H E D F RO M

W E LCO M E TOT H E B U N K E R.CO M U N I T 10, 23 G RA N G E RO A D, H A S T I N G S, T N34 2R L

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. Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, for which The Bunker Publishing Ltd holds no responsibility. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of Dork or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally.

HELLO. There’s nothing more exciting than the new. The chase for the freshest blood is something which has dominated the world of alternative music for as long as any of us can remember. From that desire to be one of the four people at an early show to the lustre of those rare early releases, or just the chance to brag to our mates about being cooler than them - we’re all notactually-that-guilty of it.

But there’s a difference between ‘new for new’s sake’ and genuinely show stopping. That’s where this month’s cover star daine comes in. Impossible to strap

inside one genre-labelled box, she draws from rock, punk and emo just as much as she does the bright neons of hyperpop and beyond. With no need to bridge divides and a licence to experiment at will, she’s not just new; she’s potentially revolutionary.

What could be more exciting than that?

S tephen

Editor / @stephenackroyd Upset 3

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THIS MONTH >>>

Ex-Doe drummer Jake Popyura gets up close and personal with a new album under his Supermilk moniker. p.12

EVERYTHING HAPPENING IN ROCK

FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES

At the best of times, Frank Carter has the raw, dangerous, energy of a caged, provoked animal, so it’s to no one’s surprise when all social distancing goes out of the window the second he appears on stage. Half running through a rendition of ‘Trouble’, Frank and guitarist Dean Richardson pile straight into the crowd.

As they settle in, Frank calls on a few friends with IDLES frontman Joe Talbot joining for new single ‘My Town’ while Cassyette and Lynks come out as The Rattlesnakes tease their impending fourth album.

Sitting modern rock classics like ‘Wild Flowers’, ‘Kitty Sucker’ and ‘Juggernaut’ side by side, Frank Carter earns the right to take on a cover of ‘Ace of Spades’ as they bring a truly wild set to a typically chaotic finale.

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As they approach their second album, Nottingham powerhouse As December Falls are the epitome of doing it yourself. p.14

Parisian favourites Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! run through their new album, front to back. p.18

After a year with little to no live music, and a whole festival season lost to Coronavirus, Download is back with a special test event set to help work out how we get a whole nation’s summer back underway. With Enter Shikari, Frank Carter and loads more signed up, this is what - fingers crossed - festivals could well be like in 2021.

Words: Alexander Bradley.

F

rank Turner sang, “Now who’d have thought that after all / Something as simple as rock ‘n’ roll would save us all?” And when we all needed help to get our lives back on track, up stepped the Download Pilot.

The three-day festival is, in fact, a data-gathering exercise, the maskless music fans the guinea pigs for eventual government guidance on the safety of mass gatherings in the future.

It’s easy to forget that though in a chorus of 10,000 people singing their hearts out.

Admittance on-site starts from home with uploading two pictures to an online portal: one, a photo of your confirmation text from the NHS that your lateral flow test is negative; the second, a selfie with your test strip.

A quick questionnaire on if you feel okay, have been told to isolate or been in contact with anyone who has tested positive, and you’re good to go.

“It feels like a birthday party in someone’s garden” Han Mee

Once at Donington, there’s an extra wristband to confirm you have indeed tested negative, the QR code on which getting you through the gates with no need for a mask or social distancing, as if stepping into a time machine that takes you back to the carefree, unsanitary, days of two years ago.

With only a tenth of the usual Download crowd in attendance, the festival site is just the two stages, with the camping area a fraction of

the size too. Friday’s proceedings only kick off at 5pm, giving time for people to erect their tent in the driving rain atypical of the unaffectionately known “Drownload”.

The later start to the music gives a chance for everyone to adjust to

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Riot. the strange reality of being together again, every cautious instinct of the last 18 months being abandoned.

More than anything, there still seems disbelief that it’s actually going to happen. “It’s not really sunk in,” smiles Hot Milk’s Han Mee. “Because there are so many mates here, it feels like a birthday party in someone’s garden,” she adds, clutching her small bottle of mojito, flourishing with the return of social interaction.

As the first band to hit the Main Stage, the Mancunian pop-rock duo’s plan was to throw a party and have some fun with that idea more focused than ever after the struggle of the last few years.

“We’ve played gigs in the past where we’ve been frustrated or angry or something hasn’t gone right and, however long off we’ve had puts it into perspective that [you have to] just enjoy it because it can go like that,” Hot Milk’s Jim Shaw explains, snapping his fingers.

For others, their set is a leap into the unknown after so long away. Boston Manor’s Ash Wilson reveals, “I feel unprepared even though I know I am prepared. It’s one of

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“Until yesterday, the last time we had all been in the same place as a band was cancelling our Cardiff show in March 2020” Sam McTrusty

those where I could walk on, and anything could happen right now.” Adding to that, singer Henry Cox says: “I don’t know what level of trepidation people are going to have in the crowd or whether it’s just going to be a full-on frenzy. I’m excited to see. They might be the most hesitant mosh pits you’ve ever seen, or it could be madness; I hope it’s the latter.”

There’s a lot of uncertainty about how the festival will go. How will the crowd react?

Have the bands had enough time to prepare? Will anyone know the songs released in lockdown? Will it be safe? Only time would tell.

Normally, there would be a level of preparedness before

a huge festival slot. Time to bed in new songs, rehearse them and tour them would be ideal, but the nature of the Download Pilot was that every band has had roughly three weeks notice in which to fit in practices. The exception to that is Twin Atlantic.

“Until yesterday, the last time we had all been in the same place as a band was cancelling our Cardiff show in March 2020, so I’ve literally not seen them in real life. We’ve run the set once and then left.

We played the songs once in a year and a half and then just [about to] play to 8-10,000 people,” Sam McTrusty admits.

With his wife, an NHS nurse who has worked on Covid wards throughout, the perspective Sam has on the pandemic is still one of constant caution. He remains wary even around the festival site, with his face mask and hand sanitiser to hand.

He confesses: “I’d usually probably crowd surf and things like that, but I don’t think I’m ready yet.”

Talking modestly about his own band’s contribution to the festival, the Twin Atlantic singer looks at the bigger picture and the eventual data being collected from the test event. Aware of the dangers

of the virus and the risk the festival presents, he considers: “If today was a failure and everybody here got Covid, then I’d still feel like it was a success because we fucking tried. We tried to help in the only we can, which is by playing a show.”

With a more balanced outlook on the weekend, Rou Reynolds of Saturday night headliners Enter Shikari describes himself as “on a rollercoaster at the moment”.

“One minute, I’m really flustered and like, ‘oh fucking hell, this is intense’. A lot of people are just finding it difficult being around this amount of people because we haven’t experienced it in so long. And the next minute, I’m

Stage, in the rain and in front of a crowd tentatively feeling their way around the surreal experience of being back together at a festival, Hot Milk bring a party.

Enthusiastically barrelling in, Han Mee instantly decks it on the rain-soaked stage but swiftly recovers to break into their shiny new single ‘I JUST WANNA KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I’M DEAD’ from their upcoming EP of the same name. With their energy not letting up - high kicks, spins and jumping down into crowd - Hot Milk bolt through a number of new tracks alongside huge poppy anthems like ‘Candy Coated Lie$’ and ‘Awful Ever After’ to bring their set to a close and any anxieties in the crowd completely abandoned.

BOSTON MANOR

A

few short months ago it was incomprehensible that we’d see a festival in the UK this summer, but the government’s pilot scheme gave Download Festival the opportunity for 10,000 negative-tested revellers to descend onto the hallowed ground at Donington.

It’s weird at first; there is no denying that. No masks.

No social distancing. Every precaution that’s been drilled into us in the last year forgotten for the sake of a testing ground to discover if we can once again safely be in a large crowd on a regular basis.

After the first hour or two of thinking and saying to

anyone who will listen “this is so weird”, there are moments of complete amnesia. The mosh pits grow, the crowds pack, long lost friends run at one another and embrace, while others awkwardly but thoughtfully negotiate the level of contact they’re ready for, but human contact and community returns gradually.

The rain falls sideways, the music is deafening, the beer weak, the toilets vile, and the food overpriced - and it’s all perfect and as it should be.

Whether it’s the music, the social interaction, the fleeting freedoms or the rare opportunity to be carefree for a weekend, the relief is palpable. The shoulders drop, the tension eases, the anxiety

subsides, and the sighs of relief are audible; we’ve almost survived.

As for the line-up, it was quickly cobbled together within three weeks of the festival starting, but it’s a refreshing approach to Download with a lot of the familiar gatekeepers of the festival - the classic rock contingent and the big-name American bands - nowhere to be seen in favour of embracing the wealth of British talent that rarely gets a chance on the biggest stages. Here are some picks from across the weekend...

HOT MILK

Tasked with getting the show started on the Main

If a song could possibly give some context to the last 18 months of our lives, then Boston Manor’s opener ‘Everything Is Ordinary’ is it. It’s the first opportunity, and fittingly too, to hear the tracks of frustration and conflict that make up their album ‘GLUE’, which landed just as the first lockdown started. “This is nothing short of a miracle,” singer Henry Cox marvels before they launch in ‘Brand New Kids’, prompting a sea of limbs pouring out from the crowd and over the barrier.

It was a Main Stage slot that Boston Manor have deserved over the last few years, and as swirling power of ‘Halo’ hit, it was proof this is exactly where they belong.

NECK DEEP

“If we’re Boris’s lab rats, then let’s give them some fucking data,” encourages Ben Barlow as the pop-punk outfit tear through a hitpacked set. Having released their latest album, ‘All Distortions Are Intentional’, during the lockdown, this is the first chance for fans to hear new tracks like ‘Sonderland’, ‘Lowlife’ and ‘Sick Joke’ while promising to play more of the album

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Riot. when they tour next year.

Smashing through older tunes like ‘Can’t Kick Up The Roots’ and ‘Motion Sickness’, there is no denying the Wrexham lads leave everything out on the stage after two years away from playing any live shows, as the singer gives a breathless tribute to all in attendance for giving him a purpose again. Rounding off their set with ‘In Bloom’, the song becomes even more poignant for the longing of a life postpandemic.

SLEEP TOKEN

Plunged into moody lighting, cloaked and behind their masks, Sleep Token bring one of the most atmospheric performances at Download Pilot. Previewing their upcoming second album with new single ‘Alkaline’, it’s a flash, a glimpse, into the power the enigmatic outfit possess and the direction they could be about to expand into. Soulful, dizzying, symphonic explosions decorate their set for one of the most truly engaging, absolutely unmissable, performances of the weekend.

WARGASM

If it looks like a rock star, and sounds like a rock star, then it’s probably a rock star. That’s exactly what you get from Wargasm.

They’re a few songs short of a full setlist beyond their devastating punk rock singles ‘Pyro Pyro’ and ‘Spit.’, so they fill out their set with a filthy cover of N.E.R.D’s ‘Lapdance’ and Metallica’s ‘Fuel’ for good measure.

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absolutely buzzing, and I just can’t wait to play,” he smiles.

15 years on from their first ever Download set to “headlining” (a repeated sceptical grimace from Rou as to the validity of the pilot event being a real version of Download), and “we are about a prepared as we could be,” in his opinion. Shikari still only had the three weeks to rehearse after they “bit the hand off anyone offering us a gig,” but they had spent a lot of the year following the release of their last album ‘Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible’ figuring out production for when the time came.

So along with a few weeks rehearsal, a full production and huge lighting rig, Enter Shikari are fully embracing the chance to make a return, even if it is to their own detriment.

“We are losing a lot of money doing this,” Rou laughs nervously as if the words being spoken out loud make him realise the reality of just how much this is setting them back.

“Effectively, we shouldn’t have brought any production with us. We should have just brought a backdrop and played our show, and that would have been great.”

“And, we are not doing very well financially at the moment anyway; neither is anyone, we are all struggling.

But, firstly, it’s not every day we get to headline Download, and we thought we should try and make it joyous. We just want to make it feel as fucking joyous as possible; we’ve all been trapped inside, so let’s make it a celebration of community, live music and the whole industry because it’s been such a struggle.”

The bigger risk, according to Rou, is if their winter tour isn’t possible, then they will really be in trouble. He continues:

“One minute, I’m really flustered and like ‘oh fucking hell, this is intense’, and the next, I’m absolutely buzzing” Rou Reynolds

“There are countless people within the industry from security, catering, promoters who are all struggling so much worse than we are,” putting the matter into perspective in the same way he did last year with his open letter to Chancellor Rishi Sunak attempting to throw a spotlight on the venues and workers behind the scenes left abandoned by the pandemic and the government’s financial support.

It’s an important reminder that the weekend of normality is also a weekend back to work for everyone who made Download Pilot possible. From the security staff, litter pickers, the food truck businesses and their staff, sound technicians, lighting guys, managers alongside every band that

plays over the three days, it’s a return to normality for them as much as it is for the festival-goers.

And sure, the bi-product of making a festival on three weeks notice during a global pandemic is the chance to celebrate the abundance of amazing British bands that rarely get a chance on the biggest stages with the eyes of the world watching. But, it’s more important to not allow Download Pilot to be a one-off event but instead another step in getting people’s livelihoods back on track.

Filled with hope and optimism, Han Mee of Hot Milk states: “Rock music always comes back because we are the most resilient fans,” and from the crowd, truer words have never been spoken. Rock music is saving us all again. P

Riot.

YONAKA

Clinching victory from the jaws of defeat, Yonaka overcome a few technical issues to deliver a fun-filled set drenched in Main Stage sunshine. Having played their first two songs with no sound output, they rescue their set by replaying ‘Punch Bag’ before kicking into feel-good anthems ‘Rockstar’ and ‘Don’t Wait Til Tomorrow’.

Trialling their upcoming EP ‘Seize The Power,’ Yonaka win over even the most hardfaced members of the crowd with ‘Raise Your Glass’ which prompts a sea of plastic cups, cans, hip flasks and drinking horns into the air.

VUKOVI

“Holy fucking shit, I’m shiteing myself right now!” beams Janine Shilstone as Vukovi seize their moment on the Second Stage. They give a debut to new single ‘KILL IT’, which sits comfortably alongside newer tunes ‘Violent Minds’ and ‘Behave’ from their more adventurous 2020 album ‘Fall Better’.

But after announcing, “I’m coming down here now, it’s fucking shite up here,” the Scottish singer gets down and face to face with the crowd as they rifle through old favourites ‘Animal’ and ‘La Di Da’ for one of the most fun sets of the weekend.

WHILE SHE SLEEPS A small, tense, build-up followed by the scream of “SLEEPS SOCIETY!” is all it takes to send the crowd into absolute chaos as While

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She Sleeps burst into a set that throws their name into the conversation of future festival headliners.

The majority of the set is dedicated to their triumphant new album as the metalcore band rip through ‘ANTISOCIAL’, ‘YOU ARE ALL YOU NEED’ and ‘NERVOUS’.

Frontman Loz Taylor completely embraces the return of live music as he sprints through the crowd to climb the soundstage as a timely reminder that there is always room for the showman in modern metal.

CREEPER

As the production ramps up over the Saturday evening, Creeper need no further invitation to make a theatrical statement. Hinting at their forthcoming ‘American Noir’ EP, Will Gould arrives on stage with sparks flying

around him and caped in an American flag. Where do you go from there? Well, Hannah Greenwood takes centre stage in a wedding dress for a crack at ‘Crickets’, as you do. Beyond the extra levels of drama, Creeper’s setlist alone is deserving enough of a bigger stage. ‘Suzanne’ raises the roof and ‘Misery’ brings it crashing down again, and in the new single ‘Midnight’ they seem to have recaptured the rock opera magic that made their debut a gold-plated classic.

ENTER SHIKARI

It’s a headline slot 15 years in the making, and as the darkness begins to fall over Donington, it’s a performance in which Enter Shikari themselves become fully realised. The enormous stage is decorated head-to-toe in light strips; as always, the band’s ambition for their stage production is matched by the innovation of their sound. The set is the band’s first in two years, and alongside the new lighting production, confetti cannons, streamers and a careerspanning set, it’s a complete headline performance and a promising introduction to the ‘Nothing Is True & Everything is Possible’ era of Shikari.

LOATHE

Loathe crush the Main

Stage with an assured performance on Sunday afternoon. Showing off last year’s standout ‘I Let It In And It Took Everything’, they seamlessly blend the confrontational and bruising riffs in ‘Aggressive Evolution’ and ‘Broken Vision Rhythm’ with the experimental and textured moments of ‘Screaming’ to lay bare the entire range of the palette they’re now painting with.

A lot of that goes thanks to singer Kadeem France’s clean vocals becoming more prominent in Loathe’s sound, and it’s his vocals left stark as technical difficulties curtail the end of their set during ‘Two-Way Mirror’ as, coincidentally, he sings “Give me the sounds I need to hear”. They never arrive, but Loathe still leave the stage victorious, if a few minutes early.

JAMIE LENMAN

The moustachioed maverick is accompanied by Wargasm as he kicks off a blistering set with the aptly pessimistic ‘The Future Is Dead’. But, never one to take himself too seriously, Lenman blasts out his “extreme heavy metal” rendition of the Popeye theme tune with the same conviction he gave to the deep, introspective cut ‘The Road To Right’ from last year’s mini-album. Rounding off with the only Rueben throwback of his set in ‘Stuck In My Throat’, Jamie Lenman’s set is over all too quickly.

TRASH BOAT

Bouncy pop-punk hits ‘Tring Quarry’ and ‘Strangers’ and a cover of Linkin Park’s ‘Givin’ Up’ - which is tagged on late as the band realise they’re playing a slot 20 minutes longer than they expected receive the biggest reception of Trash Boat’s set. Equally melodic numbers like ‘Shade’, and the message of acceptance in the new single ‘He’s So Good’ go down well too ahead of the arrival of their new album, ‘Don’t You Feel Amazing?’. P

Riot.

Got Milk?

Ex-Doe drummer Jake Popyura gets up close and personal with a new album under his Supermilk moniker.

Words: Sam Taylor. Photo: Julie Ernie.

L

ondon multiinstrumentalist and ex-Doe drummer Jake Popyura is back with his new album, ‘Four By Three’.

Inspired in part by his love for VHS tapes - it’s even available on one - it’s another fuzzy, lo-fi gem that sees him strip things back more than ever before.

Hello Jake! How are you doing today? What are you up to?

Hello! I am packing all my stuff into boxes in preparation for moving house next week and generally just trying not to have a nosebleed.

Your new album is coming pretty quickly after ‘Death Is the Best Thing For You Now’, is that just because you had some extra time during the many lockdowns?

Kind of, but I also just like to keep things moving, so it probably would have happened pretty soon after the first one regardless. Some of the songs were half-written around the same time as the songs from ‘Death…’ but I had way more time to sit down, finish those, write the rest of them and record them due to the various lockdowns.

What else have you been up to over the past year?

The last year I’ve mostly been… struggling! Like everyone else, I guess. But learning and growing a lot, which sounds lame, but it’s true, so there you go. There’ve been lots of very sweet and also useful moments during

this year of mostly shit and piss, so I’m grateful for those.

Has all the turmoil of late impacted your creative process at all? How did you find writing through it?

Not really to be honest, my process has more or less remained the same over the years. I grew up in a pretty remote place without siblings, so I quickly got used to spending time on my own and using music as a way to stave off boredom, so this was just more of the same. I

moment, and there’s so much to feel inspired by. I’ve also started writing full songs in my head while out running, which works well as long as I can remember them by the time I get home!

Is it tough figuring out songs while unable to try them out live, or is that not really a thing for you?

It’s not a thing just because I’ve never played live shows with Supermilk. We had full band plans just before the first album came out, and then

“The album’s called ‘Four by Three’ because I collect VHS tapes” Jake Popyura guess some of the lyrics were influenced by the turmoil, but not the process itself.

the first lockdown happened literally two weeks before our first show!

Do you have any tricks for avoiding writers’ block?

If I’m feeling stagnant or having trouble writing these days, I try and force myself to listen to nothing but new music. I’ve had a bad habit in the past of sticking to older music I already know and like, and as a result, you end up holding all other music up to an impossible standard and getting stuck in routines with writing. But once you pull your head out of your arse, it’s clear that there’s a lot of great stuff being made at the

What’s ‘Four By Three’ about, is there a theme?

It’s mostly concerning a series of events in my life from the end of 2019 to mid last year, with the pandemic serving as a sort of silent backdrop, apart from on ‘Cease to Exist’, which is the only song explicitly about Covid etc. It’s called ‘Four by Three’ because I collect VHS tapes, and 4:3 is the native resolution of that format. It’s a hobby which provided a good distraction whenever things got a bit dark over the

last year and a bit, so I wanted to use that to tie everything together.

How did you approach curating the tracklisting?

It’s just whatever makes the album rise and fall the best. I like to avoid having too many songs in the same tempo or key lumped together. It usually seems obvious to me when I’m writing them which songs will go where.

Was there anything new you were keen to try for this record?

I don’t know if I ever consciously think, ‘I’m gonna try writing a song like this and use this sort of instrumentation’ or whatever; the songs just end up being a reflection of how I’m feeling at the time I write them. I was agitated and a little bitter when I wrote the first album, but I was feeling much softer around the edges when I wrote this one. There are even some pretty acoustic songs on this record which I never thought I’d do.

Are you planning to tour soon?

Not right now, but we’ve started rehearsing again, so there may be the occasional live show on the cards once the chaos has settled down even more. We’ll see.

What’s next for you? Is there anything else we should know?

Some dinner, a big sleep, maybe another lockdown? P Supermilk’s album ‘Four By Three’ is out now.

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As they approach their second album, Nottingham powerhouse Falls are the epitome of doing it yourself.

As December

Words: Sam Taylor. Photo: Tom Goddard.

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A

lot goes into making a band work - it’s not just writing some songs, recording some songs and then hey presto, job done.

What about tour routes?

Artwork? Syncs? Who’s going to get t-shirts printed, or sort out licensing contracts?

What about doing stuff abroad? It’s a lot to take on, but Nottingham band As December Falls make it look easy, with already a number of sold out shows and a successful debut full-length under their belts. Next up is their second album, ‘Happier’ - Bethany Curtis tells us more.

Hello Bethany! How are you doing? What are you up to today?

Hey! I’m all good! Just heard that the Covid lockdown easing has been postponed by four weeks, so we’ve got some band stuff to try and move around!

You’re about to release your second album, ‘Happier’ when did you begin work on it, and what was your starting point?

Wow, a long time ago, this album has been in the making for around two years now, so super excited to finally be getting it out there! The record actually started with the latest single, Nothing On You. We wrote that one really early on, so we decided to jump straight into the studio with John Mitchell to get it down. That was the first week of Jan last year.

It’s a really fun one, are you feeling happier at the moment? Did the record help exorcise any demons?

For sure, it may be an unapologetic rock album, but some of the themes made me feel pretty vulnerable letting others see a different side to me. A big difference to singing about bars and being broke like on the first album!

How did the process differ from putting together your debut?

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“It may be an unapologetic rock album, but some of the themes made me feel pretty vulnerable” Bethany Curtis

So this album felt like it was put together in reverse. The drums are the backbone of any ADF track, and we actually recorded those last for the album, so that was pretty strange! Also, doing pre-production via zoom was both hilarious and stressful!

I’m really hoping this is the last album we have to do during a pandemic.

Pandemic aside, did you come up against any unexpected challenges?

To be honest, no. Obviously, things were much more difficult to arrange, and we spent a LONG time in selfisolation around recording.

But if anything, it actually gave us the freedom to spend longer on our recordings. The downside was we couldn’t all be at the studio at once, so working on the record separately was really weird as we’re all used to be in the same room when everyone is recording their parts.

You’re big advocates of selfreleasing, what’s been the driving force behind staying independent?

Every label contract that we’ve seen has basically been a bank loan, but they own your music even after you finish paying back the loan.

Plus, we’re now on our second record, having sold-out shows across the UK independently; I don’t think we should change something that isn’t broken.

If the right offer came along, then yeah sure sign us up! But so far, nothing worthwhile has

come our way.

What does doing everything yourselves mean on a dayto-day basis, does it take up loads and loads of extra time?

Massively so! We are all basically working two full-time jobs. We write, record, book shows, do our own marketing, keep our own accounts… the list is endless! The benefit of doing everything ourselves is there’s no barrier between us and our fans. Every communication that someone has with us, whether it’s email, Facebook, IG or whatever, it’s one of us in the band replying, and it’s building those relationships that has gotten us this far.

What’s next for you lot, there’s a tour later this year right?

At the moment, we are actually writing again! Then we’ve got our virtual album launch in July, and of course, the album is being released in August, and at the end of the year, we start our Happier.

Tour! Words simply can’t describe how ecstatic we are to get back on the road!

Is there anything else we should know?

We’ve just released a ton of new merch, and it’s all designed by a really creative artist that we collaborate with regularly! Highly recommend grabbing a shirt! P As December Falls’ album ‘Happier’ is out 6th August.

Employed To Serve are back with news of their fourth album, ‘Conquering’. Set for release on 17th September via Spinefarm, the announcement of the follow-up to 2019’s ‘Eternal Forward Motion’ comes alongside their new single ‘Exist’. Frontwoman Justine Jones says: “’Conquering’ is about rising above adversity and self-doubt.

We’re really excited to share our latest album, I feel it’s our best work to date. We wanted to go a more metal orientated direction with this album and see how far we could push our musical capabilities.”

Amyl and the Sniffers have unveiled their second album, ‘Comfort To Me’. The follow-up to their 2019 self-titled debut, the full-length will be released on 10th September. Vocalist Amy Taylor describes the recording process as “less spontaneous and more darkly considered”, adding’: “The lyrics I wrote are better too.”

Frank Carter and The Rattlesnakes have confirmed their new album, ‘Sticky’. The record’s set for release on 15th October, and features both the duo’s recent collab with Joe Talbot from IDLES, ‘My Town’, and also the recentlydropped title-track.

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Track x Track

Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!

Parisian favourites Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! run through their new album, front to back.

time, we all needed to comfort ourselves with good memories.

Because of the pandemic, I really like the idea that a lot of people can now relate to this message... positive nostalgia to cheer you up. I guess we all needed it in 2020.

Bitter

This song is our first love song!

It’s pretty crazy to think that it took us 4 albums to finally do this. I wanted to dedicate a song to my girlfriend without sounding cheesy. I am extremely grateful to her for always supporting me despite the difficulties that can arise due to the distance between us, and the band obligations like touring. We have overcome every difficulty, and that’s why we are stronger and more in love than ever. I hope this song will speak to all those who are in a long-distance relationship.

Chunk is back in full force with a fresh new sound that will knock you off your feet! ... That’s the kind of feeling we want this song to trigger, and if you listen to the first few songs on each of our previous albums, that’s always been our thing. In fact, the lyrics for ‘Bitter’ have some references to older songs like ‘Restart’. More specifically, the idea of the title is to give the listener the first burst of energy that powers the whole album while giving a nice sonic representation of it.

Drift Away

This one started as a joke; the idea was to create an extremely heavy track using the happiest scale possible.

We’ve always liked to play with this kind of contrast; it’s kind of our trademark. Despite its completely bipolar side, this song turned out to be one of the most powerful ones on the album; we are very proud of it!

Gone Are The Good Days

We wrote this song during the first lockdown. The songwriting will always be memorable because it was a very strange time where the world had suddenly stopped.

Originally this song was just about our band remembering the good times on tour. At that

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Marigold

Made For More

It is a typical Chunk song.

The idea was to capture a tone that’s entirely our own and to no longer rely on crafting something new, but rather perfecting what has been working for us since the beginning. It has that ‘Pardon My French’ guitar riff style mixed with the same vocal emotions and intensity as in ‘Get Lost Find Yourself’.

The song is about how weird it felt to be suddenly stuck at home during the pandemic, locked up in our rooms, contemplating our own thoughts, going darker and crazier. However, despite this feeling of going insane, we should always stay lucid about how crazy the world has become. In the end, dealing with your own sanity while dealing with the world’s

Gone Are The Good Days

craziness is a tough job.

True Colors

This track is very special. On each of our albums, we have always added some darker and heavier songs; this is one of them. I think it stands out from the rest of the tracklist, which creates an interesting twist within the album. I’m

also very proud of the lyrics: “Heavy’s the head that wears the crown”. It shows that it is possible to make a very heavy song while quoting Shakespeare. I sincerely think that this track will speak to a lot of people... and well beyond Chunk fans.

Good Luck

This song started from a rhythmic and structural challenge. The idea was to have a song that feels very repetitive while being very progressive, and where the different parts never come back in the same way. I’ve always liked these little songwriting challenges where you give the listener the impression of false simplicity.

This track is also very short and musically very unique. It could almost be considered as an interlude within the album, which is pretty cool and lightens up the tracklist a bit.

Complete You

This is one of my favourites. It started as an experimentation of an Afrobeat demo mixed with a funk/indie tune… something completely weird and basically impossible to adapt to Chunk. We wanted to see how far we could go in our experimentation. Strangely enough, this impossible mix worked incredibly well and is actually very coherent with our music. In order to highlight this magical combination, we felt the need to bring in even more unexpected instruments. We are really proud of this track, and it inspires us a lot for the direction of our 5th album.

Blame It On This Song This is a track we released in 2016 at the end of Warped Tour. We always thought this was a great song and that it would eventually find its way into a tracklist that fit. I think this album is the perfect opportunity to give it a new life and proper exposure. The track was also remixed / remastered, and I

took the opportunity to fix some pronunciation issues.

Beyond the music, I also find that the theme of the lyrics fits perfectly with the rest of the songs.

Pain Killers

The idea here was to do something completely different, get out of our comfort zone and take a risk.

It’s a dark song with more dramatic lyrics than we’re used to writing. Technically this track allowed me to push the limits of my voice. When I listen to this track today, I almost can’t recognize it, but it’s interesting; I know now that I am able to transform my voice, and it opens a lot of possibilities for the future.

The breakdown of this song is probably the heaviest and most aggressive we’ve ever done.

Tongue Tied

It’s an acoustic song about two different perspectives of the same love relationship.

The idea here was to make a particularly soft and delicate song because we realized that we always had experimented with being as heavy as possible in our albums, but never the opposite. We were fortunate to have been able to collaborate with artist Yvette Young (Covet) on this track, and we are very grateful to her. She sings, but she also played all the violin parts on this song, which gives it a very unique sound.

Fin

This song was written from a pre-production we started six years ago. We always thought that this demo had something special and that we had to follow through with this idea.

I think it closes the album perfectly as the grand finale.

The lyrics have a lot of movie references like The Wizard Of Oz and Pulp Fiction, and then the chorus explodes with the line: “This is my soundtrack to the end”. We wanted an epic and HUGE end to this album; here it is! P

Yours Truly have shared their new single and video, ‘Walk Over My Grave’; their first release since recent album ‘Self Care’.

Vocalist Mikaila Delgado says of its inspiration: “I shiver a lot, and when I’d shiver this person would say ‘someone must be walking over your grave’, and that was just a thought that kept coming back to me after we weren’t close anymore. I shivered one day as I was driving and I remember pulling over and writing lyrics.”

The Mysterines are back with some new music: their first single of the year, ‘In My Head’ marks the Liverpool band’s signing to Fiction Records. “Partly autobiographical, it’s about how sometimes life can feel like you’re being haunted by something out of your control,” Lia Metcalfe says of the track. Keep an eye out for news of their debut album.

Northern Irish trio CHERYM have announced their new EP, ‘Hey Tori’, set for release on 30th September via Alcopop! Records. Featuring latest single ‘We’re Just Friends’ (“a cheesy tune about being in a very wholesome relationship with your soul mate”), it’ll arrive ahead of their upcoming October tour with cheerbleederz.

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Riot.

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Watford-based post-emo troupe Lakes are about to drop one of the albums of the summer.

Words: Rob Mair. Photo: Dylan Nolte.

“N

ot how we planned it?” consider Lakes on ‘No Excuses’, the second track on second album ‘Start Again’. Taken out of context, it’s an inspired insight into the group’s growth from bedroom project to twelve-legged ‘glock rock’ indie/emo juggernaut.

Barely two years after releasing their debut album, ‘The Constance LP’, through their local record store, the group now has transatlantic deals with America’s Know Hope and the UK’s Big Scary Monsters, as well as a notable collaboration with former Real Friends vocalist Dan Lambton under their belts. In fact, Lambton was so enamoured with the group, he now sports a Lakes tattoo.

But heavyweight endorsements don’t end there, either; they can also call on American Football’s Mike Kinsella and Garrison/Gay For Johnny Depp’s Joseph Grillo as notable fans – both of whom appeared in the video for recent single ‘Start Again’.

Even set against their wildest dreams, this success is testament to some stellar songwriting and perseverance of the craft; the sort of stuff you dream about and work towards, but which you can never truly plan for.

“Before we ever released any music – so pre-first album – we’d decided where we wanted to go with Lakes,” considers vocalist Roberto Cappellina. “We always knew we wanted to release an album with Big Scary Monsters, and we started conversations with labels and blogs before we really had anything to show – and that set the tone. But it is pretty surreal; like, have you seen the Big Scary Monsters

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Riot.

roster? We’re right next to La Dispute,” he says, directing the statement to covocalist and songwriter Blue Jenkins – a huge fan of the post-hardcore heroes. “It’s mind-blowing,” he laughs.

“It’s something that’s gone in waves,” says drummer and founder Matt Shaw.

“When we started, I never thought we would be anything – but then, it was like, if we’re gonna do a band, we may as well try and get signed to our favourite label. But after that, you start to think, ‘Actually, this is impossible; there’s no way we could do that’. So, the fact that we can say we have, it’s pretty cool.”

What’s more remarkable is that this has all been accomplished while juggling ‘proper’ professional jobs (Matt, for example, works in air traffic control at Stansted), families, and diaries of six members. It means Lakes have had to be extraordinarily organised to make their dreams come true. Even booking a tour needs requires Matt to give his employers 12 months’ notice to book annual leave.

Indeed, Matt’s so dedicated to the Lakes cause, he’s joined the Zoom chat with Upset, Roberto and Blue while holidaying with the family in Cornwall. A man’s emorock is never done, it seems…

Yet, much of Lakes’ (completed by guitarists Rob Vacher and Gareth Arthur and bassist Charlie Smith) growth in profile has taken place during a global pandemic, where shows have been off the table. It has meant much of the past 18 months has felt like some strange fever dream for Roberto.

“Because we’ve been trapped indoors all the time, it doesn’t feel real at all. We haven’t played a show or even met the Big Scary Monsters people in person yet.

So, it does feel like some bizarre dream,” he says.

Certainly, Big Scary Monsters is the perfect fit for Lakes. One thing the group

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have had to contend with throughout their career is comparisons to the titans of Midwest math-inspired emo – and now labelmates – American Football. While this means Lakes have found listeners relatively easy to come by Stateside – their deal with Philadelphia’s Know Hope came before their contract with BSM, for example – winning over UK audiences has been somewhat more challenging.

“We always knew we wanted to release an album with Big Scary Monsters” Roberto Cappellina Although such comparisons have helped drive listeners to the band, in truth, they are vastly different musically and stylistically. For example, Lakes’ love of direct pop hooks shines bright on ‘Start Again’, with the likes of the title track and ‘No Excuses’ both marrying math-inspired song structures with pop oomph. While many have tried, few do it quite as well as Lakes, and as sonic growth goes, it really does feel like a chance for the group to “start again”.

“American Football are one of my favourite bands, and we probably talk

about them way too much, but I’ve never really got the comparison,” counters Matthew. “We’re definitely not a straight copy. On the first record, we had silly rules, that every guitar part had to be clean and there were no chords, or whatever. But this time, it was like, ‘There are no rules, let’s just see what happens’. And our guitarists have got their own sounds, and they’re way different to anything I would do. It’s been a much more collaborative process this time around.”

“Lyrically too, it’s been different,” adds Roberto. “On the first record, I wrote most of the lyrics in the space of three weeks, and I was very conscious that, to my ear at least, a lot of the vocal patterns started to sound very similar. The last thing I wanted on this album was to be recycling old melodies, so I knew I needed to do something different. Also, we wanted Blue in the band because she’s an artist first off – and an artist we are all into – and that will enable us to do different things. I think album three is gonna be Blue-tastic.”

While Blue’s influence on ‘Start Again’ was limited due to joining after much of the record was written, her presence can be felt throughout, especially vocally.

Again, much like Lakes’ ability to develop almost counter-intuitively to how they planned it, bringing Blue into the band was as much to do with good fortune than any grand master plan.

Having been blown away after watching Lakes perform at a bar where she worked, she gave the group a link to some demos. Shortly after – and with a vacancy in the group opening up – they approached her to take up the vacant spot.

“I had a message from Gareth or Matt, saying ‘I listened to your Bandcamp, and it’s amazing’, which was really cool. Then I saw the Facebook announcement saying that Sam [Neale] was leaving, and about a week after that, I got a message from Roberto saying something like, ‘Hey, fancy going for a beer?’ I was just telling myself it was a coincidence; we met up, they dropped the question about joining the band, and I just freaked out,” she laughs.

In truth, adding another songwriter to the mix will only ensure Lakes continue to thrive creatively.

If ‘Start Again’ has seen the group rip up their own rulebook, LP3 – which is already in the works – presents a real opportunity for the sextet to stake a claim as one of the UK’s leading indie/emo/math acts. The journey might have been one that they never planned, but it’s leading to some wholly exciting destinations… P Lakes’ album ‘Start Again’ is out 30th July.

Everything you need to know about

Capstan’s new album

‘Separate’

Florida five-piece Capstan let us in on some interesting tit-bits from behind-the-scenes of their second fulllength, ‘Separate’.

Photo: Dieter Unrath.

new colour. Machine was also just a ton of fun to hang out with-riding his motorbike all over his property, throwing footballs and frisbees with us every day, showing us his flamethrower, and sharing copious amounts of ice cream with us.

Speaking of ice cream, we became obsessed with Creamy Creations We shopped at the HEB down in local Dripping Springs a few times a week, the Texas equivalent of our beloved Publix Supermarkets down in Florida. At the time, we discovered their private label ice cream brand, “Creamy Creations”, and it’s undoubtedly the greatest ice cream we’ve ever had. Unassumingly packaged in a standard cardboard freezer box, but so creamy that you can pull it right out of the freezer and use a PLASTIC spoon to scoop yourself this amazing treat. It defies logic, really. And the flavours? Strawberry Dream, Cookies Over Texas, Birthday Cake, Mexican Hot Chocolate, Texas Starry Night, just to make a few. It’s easy to say we ate more ice cream collectively in that month than we ever had in our lives up until that point.

The pandemic allowed us the most time to write we’ve ever had together In the past, touring and working when we’re home made it difficult to get any real stretch of uninterrupted time to work on new music, but when we were forced off the road last spring, we dedicated ourselves to working on the new record.

We’ve never scrapped so many ideas or spent so much time fine-tuning songs as we did with ‘Separate’. We think this record represents our tightest effort yet - no fillers, all bangers.

We camped out on a ranch outside of Austin, TX to record for a month It was an amazing and immersive experience for us. While we did have internet and power, and heat for the cold

December nights, we basically were in an epic barn all day making this record.

We cooked for each other and ate under the lean-to, worked out and showered outdoors, and hung out every night after family dinners under the stars. There’s nothing like having your total focus on the music, and the environment there allowed us to do that like never before.

Working with Machine elevated the record He’s easily the most youthful OG in the industry. He brought so much energy to our entire recording process. He got the best out of our vocal performances, Anthony especially. He helped out a ton on the pre- and post-production, adding elements to the songs that really brought

We got to feature three artists on this record, our most yet Getting Shane Told (Silverstein) on ‘alone’ was incredible; we had previously toured with them back in 2018, and the band was kind enough to feature Anthony during their set every night, so being able to feature Shane really made it come full circle. We had experimented with saxophone on our last record, ‘Restless Heart, Keep Running’, so we knew this time around, getting Saxl Rose, undoubtedly the most recognizable horn player in the scene, was a cool thing to connect. He’s super talented and was great to work with.

And lastly, with ‘sway’, being the ballad it is, we were always imagining a female voice to duet with Anthony, and we felt our friend Charlene’s voice complimented the sound we were going for wonderfully. P Capstan’s album ‘Separate’ is out 23rd July.

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About Break. to

WET LEG Newly signed to Domino, Wet Leg’s debut single ‘Chaise Longue’ is a masterclass in tongue-in-cheek sass, oozing punk spirit.

NEW TALENT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Manchester’s Witch Fever are kicking up with a summer support tour alongside Bob Vylan, and a debut EP due later this year.

Words: Jasleen Dhindsa. Photo: Debbie Ellis..

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THE VELVETEERS FFO Deap Vally, LA Witch et al, Boulder, CO rock’n’roll trio The Velveteers release their debut album ‘Nightmare Daydream’ on 8th October.

SADEYES 21-year-old Portland singer/ writer/producer Nathan Lewis plays with lo-fi, alternative, emo rap, and hyperpop under confessional lyrics.

M

anchester four-piece Witch Fever have been brewing in the city’s underground for a few years now, but now armed with a record deal and debut EP due in October, they’re breaking the mould of the hardcore bands that have come before them and forging their own compelling path.

Though initially being picked at random because they liked the sound of it, Witch Fever’s namesake grew as a reclamation of the hysteria which accompanied the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts and Europe, which the band believe were a means to belittle, suppress and diminish women. This is something the band’s frontwoman Amy Walpole has experienced first hand.

“I’ve always tried to play with the expectations of what I should be doing on stage and how I should behave. I grew up going to church. It’s called Charismatic Christianity. It was very intense, all about spiritual healing and speaking in tongues and all that. It was a very shitty place. There are a lot of men there that were not good.”

She continues, speaking further about how her upbringing informs Witch Fever’s lyrics: “I’m really inspired by horror films and literature, and the lyrics are kind of a mash-up between horror and Gothic. Using biblical imagery to me is reclaiming the sixteen years that I lost to the church. My family left the church soon after I did, so it feels good to be able to channel it into something else.”

Witch Fever’s sound can’t be pinpointed to one genre.

There are moments on their EP which echo 80s punk,

and on ‘In The Resurrect’ swaggering Rage Against The Machine style rock is reflected, seeing Amy switching up her dynamic vocals with gusto. Lead single ‘Reincarnate’ is indicative of all that is explored on the EP, feeling gargantuan and far bigger than the band itself.

Most importantly, the band are reworking hardcore into an invigorating and unheard form, rather than a tiresome reiteration of what’s come before.

And it’s not just the music that is exhilarating and kinetic; the lyrics are just as mighty too. ‘In Birth’ hears Amy charge with battle cries “You pressed me, undressed me / Telling me I was your

2022 tour after the band made a point to book predominantly non-male artists to open their shows.

“We were super happy when they asked us to be part of that tour, especially the European tour,” Amy gleams.

“It’s obviously a great thing that they’ve chosen mainly women for their supports, because time and time again, for years and years, women have been saying, we’re not getting the same opportunities as men are. We need to be given this platform.

I think it’s a really positive move.”

Guitarist Alisha Yarwood continues: “I would like it to be more than just one tour because sometimes it could

“There are women in music doing sick things at the moment” Amy Walpole wet dream / But get out of my cunt, I’ll fucking eat you alive.”

The band’s varied sound can be pinpointed to their individual music tastes and backgrounds and collaborative songwriting efforts.

“For this EP, we really want to push ourselves,” Amy explains. “We’re recording an album later on this year, so we’re doing that even more.

We want to keep on changing it up and experimenting more, and keeping people interested and ourselves interested.”

Witch Fever were one of the acts chosen to support IDLES on their forthcoming

seem like maybe this is one tour for women, and then next year when we’re doing another tour, it’s going to be back to the same old crap. So, it’s just good going forward if bigger bands take that into consideration.”

“Not saying that was what IDLES were doing at all, but it’s for every band, instead of them seeing it as a tick box thing like we’ve got to do this in order to make ourselves look good. They should genuinely want to support women or non-binary people,” Amy adds.

“There are women in music doing sick things at

the moment,” Amy reflects when asked about who she looks up to as a feminist in music. “Particularly noname, who puts a lot of time into educating people about social issues often through a communist lens. Lauren Mayberry from CHVRCHES has been outspoken about the misogynistic and violent comments and messages she and many other female musicians receive from men on a daily basis. Also, IAMDDB and Amy from Amyl and the Sniffers come to mind for owning their sexuality and being all round bad bitches.

Russian activist band Pussy Riot are great too for obvious reasons.”

“When we do live gigs, we’ve always wanted people to be empowered,” Alisha agrees.

“We’re not necessarily coming with an agenda. It just so happens that we’re all feminist, we all are musicians.

And unfortunately, being in those venues as women and non-binary people, it is very difficult sometimes. We didn’t feel like we had a choice but to speak out about feminist issues, and the safety at gigs and in the wider music industry. The amount of horror stories from people in the music industry is just insane. Awful, awful things have happened to women, trans people and non-binary people for years and years.

For me, especially being the one that talks to the audience with the microphone, it feels like I’m missing an opportunity to raise awareness about stuff like that because it directly affects us, and it directly affects everyone in the room too. We don’t want to claim that we’re some figurehead for feminism; we’re still learning too. Being a feminist is a proper process.” P

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In a time where genre means nothing and attitude means everything, daine’s universe simply refuses to be labelled. One of a new breed of artists who draw from the underground to make something exciting and new, meet your next icon in waiting.

Words: Martyn Young Photos: Joe Brennan

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T

he rise of Australian/ Filipino 18-yearold prodigy daine from unknown bedroom experimental creative to rising alternative icon has been swift and striking. Taking the time afforded to her by the global shutdown of the pandemic, daine has spent the last 18 months cultivating her own unique and idiosyncratic world full of evocative imagery, darkness and light and the wide-eyed optimism of a musical vision of infinite possibilities smashing through genre boundaries.

It’s impossible to sonically categorise daine’s music as she experiments with

all manner of progressive sounds, but there is an adventurous spirit that courses through everything she does is influenced by her childhood loves of midwestern emo, hardcore and a punk and DIY aesthetic that encouraged her to follow her own bewitching alt-pop path. And all of this without ever really leaving her bedroom. Musicians in 2021 are good at improving, and daine has already packed a lot into a short period of time as she has risen to become one of the most exciting new artists on the planet.

“It’s been a really interesting journey,” she begins from the creative hub of her bedroom in Sydney.

“I’ve had to learn a lot as a person. I feel like I was thrust into being a musician before I knew how to perform.”

Like many emerging new artists, the enforced lack of live performance has given them a different perspective on their music and style.

“It’s been really fun. In that way, the music is a lot more genuine because I was just a kid writing songs, and I was able to develop all these songs over the past few years, and it was just a really worthwhile process.” daine is an artist who has strong convictions and knows exactly who they are. Committed and focused, daine is passionate about advocating for what

she believes in and the music that she loves. It’s something that she puts down to her formative years in Australia’s heavy music scene. She cites her vegan lifestyle as an example of her commitment to going against the mainstream. “I’m pretty into veganism,” she explains.

“I love cooking and a plantbased lifestyle. That’s pretty common in the heavy scene.

Heavy music has always been a counter-culture, so if the mainstream is patriarchy and sexism, hardcore will be avidly feminist. If the mainstream is capitalism, then the hardcore scene will be super communist. I think that’s the same with veganism; that’s just another

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extension of social justice.”

The sense of shared community and collective ideals fostered within those heavy scenes plays a key role in daine’s development as a person and as an artist.

Collaboration is important.

She may have been physically isolated but has spent the last 18 months building important relationships with a diverse group of artists and creatives that have shaped her music and her approach to her art. Music is just one part of the creative process.

For daine, it’s all part of one fevered sensory release. “My music and creative vision feel a little more cohesive than just music,” she explains.

“It feels more like a movie.

I’m very particular with my visuals, and I have a strong aesthetic vision. I want my music and my fanbase to have this fantasy world where they can escape to. I want to create visually immersive content, and hopefully, the music goes with that. I want to create an immersive experience.”

There’s a dark pop majesty to the visuals that accompany daine’s music, from the futuristic gauzy sci-fi desert hinterland of her debut track ‘Picking Flowers’ to the gothic synth-pop of ‘Bloody Knees’, with its dystopian neon cityscapes.

But it’s the playful horrorcore electronic nightmare of her last single ‘boys wanna txt’ which brings daine herself into the light of clear focus for the first time, as she gazes passively straight into the camera before the screen gets warped and mangled in a glitchy fever mirroring the tone of the track. There’s the constant push and pull of sadness and isolation in her music, cleverly tempered with just the right hint to light to make her music truly disorienting and compelling.

The fascination with darker sounds goes back to her earliest musical loves.

“I grew up going to a lot of hardcore shows,” she says.

“The Melbourne scene was really inspiring for me.

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I listened to a lot of the classic Midwest emo bands growing up, like Tigers Jaw and American Football, and that kind of made me a bit of a moody person,” she laughs. “Maybe I was already a moody person, I don’t know. I was quite melancholy.

That translates in my sound.

People don’t believe me, but I’m actually a really happy person! I just like to sing sad songs because they pack more of an emotional punch.

I try to sprinkle some hopeful lyrics in there.”

She laughs as she ponders her propensity to mention blood a lot in her songs as an example of creeping darkness.”It’s kind of grim, but it’s such a visually stark concept. In my song ‘Bloody Knees’ where I say ‘Look down and see dark red in the

Numbers’. This embracing of futuristic electronic sounds culminated in her last single, ‘boys wanna txt’, a full-blown hyperpop banger featuring key artist in the scene ericdoa, and produced by hyperpop figurehead, and one-half of 100 gecs, Dylan Brady. It’s a striking pivot point in daine’s career so far.

Rather than seeing herself as a hyperpop artist despite featuring in all the attendant playlists and the song having the playful, inventive hallmarks of the genre at its best, daine sees the track as more of a loving tribute and experiment to recognise a community that embraced her and shares some of her musical values. Rather than box herself in as a hyperpop artist, she instead sees it as a creative impulse that can

“Heavy music has always been a counter-culture” daine snow’, the only time you’re ever thinking of red-stained snow is blood.” Her songs are filled with otherworldly imagery and ghostly apparitions. “I like spiritual motifs like angels, angel numbers, synchronicity and dreams. Leaving your body. I find concepts like that to be really visually engaging.”

Summer 2021 marks an interesting pivot point in daine’s musical career. Her earliest music was firmly rooted in that emo aesthetic, lo-fi and primarily composed on guitar. Gradually, she incorporated more of an experimental electronic edge to her music. She collaborated with different producers, including PC Music founder and all-around electronic pioneer Danny L Harle on the stunning dark pop electro ballad ‘Angel

influence her own music and different tastes in a positive way. “I’m not annoyed by it because I’m really connected to the hyperpop community,” she explains. “That scene has been so supportive and welcoming to me. I love all the artists, like ericdoa, Ethel Cain and 8485. I’m not super angry at people comparing me to a sound that isn’t really me. I think it’s something that will easily pass me by. ‘boys wanna txt’ is the most recent, so people think that that’s my defining sound, but I’m going to have songs that I’m going to release later that will surpass that, and then I’ll be defined by that sound.

It’s ever-evolving.” As she explains, it’s just as much the passion of the people involved that drew her to the sound as much as the sonics.

“I’ve always been drawn to

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“It’s a goal of mine to do a song with Jamie from Title Fight and Mike from American Football. Hopefully, I can reach their eyes sometime soon” daine

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a community whether it’s like the hardcore scene growing up or the emo-rap SoundCloud scene as I got older, and now hyperpop is that group of people for me.”

The music daine is working on now incorporates some of that anythinggoes spirit of the invention of hyperpop but aligns it firmly to a heavier, more alternative approach. “A lot of my upcoming songs I had written two years ago before the whole hyperpop thing, so they’re all pretty emo and pretty post-punk,” she reveals. A perfect example of her musical switch up is her next single ‘Salt’, a collaboration with Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oli Sykes. A speaker-blowing, cavernous scream of pure emotion and controlled sonic chaos, it hits harder than anything she’s ever done before. “I think ‘Salt’ is a good segway into my future sound,” she proclaims.

For a song so powerful, it’s endearing to hear daine idly talk about how it all came together with the ease of meeting up with a pal for a casual walk in a park. It’s only a collaboration with someone from one of the biggest rock bands on the planet. No big deal. “He messaged me on Instagram and was like, ‘Do you wanna do a song?’, and I was like, sure and sent him ‘Salt’ because I knew it was the best song that he could possibly hear,” she laughs. “It was pretty quick. He sent his verse overnight, and it was perfect, and he sang along with me in the chorus, and I couldn’t have asked for him to do better. The lyrics were so cohesive with what I’d written. I was so impressed.”

Despite the low key nature of how it came together, daine knows that this is a moment. This is a big one.

“I think everyone is going to be mindblown. I mean, I was mindblown, and it’s my fucking song. It’s going to be pretty insane. Lonelyspeck’s production. Holy Shit. They are the best producers in Australia, if not the world at

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the moment.”

Bring Me have always been a touchstone for daine. “It was the catharsis and intensity of the music that drew me to them,” she says. “I channelled that into making ‘Salt’. Lonelyspeck is really inspired by Bring Me The Horizon as well. It really puts a lot of intensity

into the track.” It’s not just the newcomer learning from the established star, though, as Oli obviously saw something special in daine and wanted to tap into some of her creativity. “I think Oli wanted to learn about the new hyperpop sound,” says daine, recognising how Bring Me have led the way in

incorporating experimental sounds into their music.

The music she loved in her youth still holds a lot of importance for daine and will shape her music going forward. “I loved Bring Me The Horizon, Trophy Eyes, and I’ve got a collaboration with John Floreani coming up,” she says excitedly.

“It’s been great to see that my idols can hear that I’m doing something that’s in the same vein and that they can connect with. It’s mindblowing for me. It’s a goal of mine to do a song with Jamie from Title Fight and Mike from American Football.

Hopefully, I can reach their eyes sometime soon.”

‘Salt’ promises to act as a jumping-off point to daine to further expand the heavy aspect of her music in her own diverse way. “It leads me back into my original creative identity,” she explains. “It’s sort of like wiping the slate clean so that people don’t have any predictions about me going forward. I want to break people’s idea of what they think my music is going to be because I feel like everybody is going to be expecting more glitchy hyperpop electronic music.

I think it’s going to allow me to go back to my guitar sound and hopefully engage with some older fans. It’s like the matured version of my earlier tracks.” She promises some more new music on the way soon as she looks to build on ‘Salt’ and go deeper into the heavy depths of her sound. As ever, there will be no compromises or dilution for mainstream tastes. “My process is quite simple, and I don’t see that process changing,” she states. “I haven’t ever intentionally tried to make anything sound DIY, but that’s how it has organically evolved for me.

It’s going to remain pretty authentic.”

A lot of the freedom to make as many stylistic turns and take her music in any direction she pleases comes from her immersion in online creative culture. She used

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to post her songs on various SoundCloud rap sites and different online platforms, and it’s a freedom which she revels in, and she wants to recognise the diverse audience it gives her. “It’s pretty liberating. It allows me to connect with different communities, and everybody has something for them,” she says. “It’s kind of daunting, but it’s really cool knowing that one day I could wake up knowing that Beyonce has followed me on Instagram,” she laughs. “Anything can happen to anyone in the age of social media. There are no boundaries between

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everyday people and celebrities. Everyday people can become celebrities. It’s kind of terrifying that the internet can be so volatile and unpredictable, but it probably only serves an artist’s benefit, particularly at the beginning of their career.”

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that an artist as confident and fully formed as daine is right at the start of their career. Earlier this summer, daine expressed online some of her fears about the pressure of existing as a new artist with the constant expectation to always be on and present

“I grew up going to a lot of hardcore shows; the Melbourne scene was really inspiring” daine

and performing and creating 24/7. “Artists just write all the time, and they constantly churn out music,” she says.

“Personally, I’ve found that approach to be really exhausting and not genuine to me. I’ve always found writing when I’m inspired when something happens in my life, and I feel something and then going to my guitar or going into Ableton and making something is the best approach because something rare, spontaneous and organic evolves when you are writing from the heart. It’s hustle culture that’s informed by capitalism. Everyone brags about having no days off and working so hard, and that has affected the creative community because people think, oh, I’ve got to make something every single day. Is it genuine if you go at it every day? There has to be a really healthy balance.”

Someone who knows all about the pressures of being a new artist is Charli XCX, and she has spent time acting as a mentor and sounding board for daine while repping her at every opportunity as the best new artist around. It’s a relationship that daine is hugely grateful for. “Charli helps me balance my ‘I don’t wanna write right now’ attitude,” she laughs. “She’s always moving and always doing something to it really inspires me because I think in ten years when I’m her age, I want to have that fanbase. It helps to have her wisdom and her takes on things because she was doing the same stuff as me when she was 18. It’s good having her as a mentor.

She’s a genius.”

One thing daine hasn’t experienced yet is the thrill of performing live to actual real people on the flesh. She has big plans, though. “I’m so excited. It’s something that I’ve been dreaming about since I was a kid,” she beams. “I can’t wait to see what my listeners look like and share the music in real life. I’m really going to go ham into performing. I’ve been rehearsing and bought some

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cool stage props. I want it to be very atmospheric and magical.”

While the world was on pause for the last 18 months though, daine has established her own performing festival online, which acts as a safe space for like-minded and progressive artists to perform and express themselves. Community is everything for daine, and this was her way of giving back and representing a diverse and fluid community that may otherwise have been marginalised. Notable performers she has engaged have been future pop icons Charli and Hannah Diamond, as well as new wave hyperpop experimentalists like Brevin Kim, Harvest and 8485. She calls it Nocturne. “A lot of people in the hyperpop community or the SoundCloud community or the new wave

and super creative and pushing boundaries for what we expect in music,” she says passionately. “In recent years, people have been bored because there’s been no innovation or no room for innovation in music,” she continues. “Hyperpop is the response to that boredom.

Why not make everything crazy, and in that way, it has been inspiring.”

For daine, there’s no better time for her to be making music than in 2021.

“It’s boring to do the same thing over and over again that’s been done a million times before. A lot of people can have more complex sonic identities now. There are no rules. You can have a trap beat with a guitar. You couldn’t have done that 20 years ago. I think the fact we can now is awesome, and we have all these incredible mini genres that you can’t even

“Everyone is going to be mindblown.

I mean, I was mindblown, and it’s my fucking song” daine

of DIY electronica, a lot of these artists are queer or neurodivergent or have had rough upbringings and being able to make music and express yourself is something that connects everybody.”

Within this community are people who will shape and define alternative pop culture for years to come.

They represent a new way of working and a new attitude.

Respectful to the icons who have gone before them but not content to rehash the past, they want to shape a new future, and daine is right at the heart of it.

“Everyone is super talented

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describe.” daine’s music at its best certainly does defy description. It’s a hypermodern blend of old and new, traditional and far-out, experimental and super accessible alt-pop. What connects everything though, is her punk values and punk spirit. As daine’s music morphs and evolves and becomes harder, heavier, bigger and stronger, daincore becomes ever more a state of mind and a way of life. P daine’s single ‘Salt (Feat.

Oli Sykes)’ is out in August.

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38 Upset

jxdn cements himself as a forerunner in the pop-punk revival with his debut album ‘Tell Me About Tomorrow’, out via Travis Barker’s DTA Records.

Words: Steven Loftin.

Photos: Cynthia Parkhurst.

Upset 39

to his fresh-from-the-packet record label DTA (Don’t Trust Anyone) and set to work on making jxdn’s next chapter a big one. A voicemail sample of Travis exclaiming to someone that he’s the future even opens ‘Tell Me About Tomorrow’.

Yet even at this point, jxdn’s musical exposure was limited.

Unlike most teenagers, his time wasn’t spent idolising rockstars or pop artists (bar an ardent viewing of Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never doc).

His first foray into his new mentor’s world came from blink-182’s ‘Darkside’: “I was like this is hard. This is tough; I love this. Even when I signed with Travis, I wasn’t listening to punk music.”

Making up for lost time, jxdn is soaking in all the music he can with the voracious energy of a teenager scrounging through his older brothers records. Citing the likes of punk icons the Descendents (“This band is literally fucking amazing”), glam rockers Mötley Crüe (“They’re probably one of my favourite bands of all time”), and of course JuiceWRLD (“He really changed my life in a lot of ways he was probably the closest thing I had to a punk artist”), jxdn’s exposure to these elements is what continues to influence his modern take on a beloved genre. Along with feeding more personally into his ability to, quite simply, not give a fuck.

With all these ingredients slotting into place, jxdn’s grown into an entirely different person. Even compared to last year. On Zoom with Upset, looking a bit like a punk rock Bieber - flattened mid-length dyed blonde hair, black tank top, fresh tattoos (“One day when I’m covered, everybody will be like ‘Well, he did say he was gonna end up like Travis!’”) and a lightly placed green cap - he’s as fresh-faced as ever, yet understandably well adjusted to his new standing in the world.

“Whether it’s in front of five or 50 million, it doesn’t matter to me. I was born this way, so I can’t wait to live this way for the rest of my life,” he

40 Upset

exclaims. For someone who’s undeniably invested in his rock star manifestation, jxdn is also supremely humble.

It’s hard not to be when your scrappy, teeth-cutting years fell during a period of severe inactivity for the world.

Certainly, the adoring fans that have amassed into titanic numbers across his social media platforms are indeed tangible to a degree, but music is about a sweaty throng where people, much like jxdn previously, can have those moments of clarity. “It was so powerful for me I’m hoping that I can give the same type of energy or the same type of outcome for somebody else,” he notes.

On his way to orchestrating those moments, jxdn’s continued exploring of his new rock star realm is rooted in being grateful, a lesson

understand this whole music lark is a marathon, not a sprint.

“I will say that there’s a lot of things that I’m not good at,” he smiles. “This album has taught me to slow down and admit where I need to work on things, [and] get better at them, so I wasn’t always a perfectionist. I don’t know if this relates, but I’m pretty kind of messy; I’ll be straight up,” he says holding his hands up laughing. “Not like dirty, but I’m messy for sure. But when it comes down to things that I’m creating, I absolutely need them to be the best they can be, and I need to trust other people that they’ll tell me the truth, you know?”

Travis’ touch is littered throughout ‘Tell Me About Tomorrow’. Under his crown as the godfather of the new pop-punk movement, his first endeavour into manning

“I did like five minutes of cardio with Travis Barker, and I swear I almost died” jxdn learned from his mentor. “He understands that nothing’s given to you,” jxdn explains.

“Opportunities are given, but they also have to be met - he never stops. Never!”

“He’s 40 something, and he’s basically the healthiest fuckin’ grandpa!” He laughs, the ripping sound of a recording contract looming in the background. “I did like five minutes of cardio with him, and I swear I almost died. I was like passing out, and he’s just going crazy!”

Fitness regime aside, jxdn is also a perfectionist. But the whirlwind of going from having a single to a record deal and now to an album has been all about jxdn learning to

an entire project with his prodigy is sparkling with the same melodious trademark of his day job. For example, ‘A Wasted Year’ has echoes of blink’s ‘Feeling This’ in its chorus, but these touchstones serve a greater purpose; to make jxdn’s dream a reality.

Case and point, few artists get to play their very first show at a weed convention in Las Vegas. But few artists are jxdn. Recalling performing five songs at the city’s extravagant Mandalay Bay resort, “A bunch of things went wrong, but it felt perfect, dude! It just felt so natural. I’ve never felt that way in my entire life; I could talk about it forever.” It’s this enamoured feeling that’s

helped jxdn push Tell Me About Tomorrow even further, supercharging his dedication to its cause, simply “because I got to feel the energy from people, it just got me so excited.”

Jaden’s evolution into jxdn seems almost complete.

Leaning truly into being that rockstar he was born to be, he notes that it’s all based around one simple ethos of “100% literally just doing things like… just do it.”

This isn’t jxdn searching for a Nike sponsorship, it’s his newfound truth, and the strength to live it. Especially after having fallen into a whirlwind, transporting him Wizard of Oz-style from that church surrounding to the City of Angels. Though he admits, there’s still a stigma around being your true self. “People really need to understand that that’s what all punk is about.

Just being able to be who you want to be.”

He’s certainly found himself in the right circles to embrace himself. He’s now busy living that mythological rockstar life, right down to popping up for a guest spot during his new friend and collaborator Machine Gun Kelly’s recent rooftop performance in Venice Beach, California; Travis Barker in tow, along with their respective partners (Megan Fox and Kourtney Kardashian).

Not bad for someone who was still living at home in Tennessee a few years earlier.

When jxdn eventually gets to hit the road properly, his first big engagement supporting Machine Gun Kelly, the manifestation will become complete. “I know that I’m going to live up to the expectation, and hopefully more, because this is what I’m made to do, man,” he enthuses one last time.

“I really know I am, and there’s nothing behind it; there’s no ill intent or anything.

I just want people to have a moment like I had, and I know it’s gonna happen for a lot of ‘em!” P jxdn’s debut album ‘Tell Me About Tomorrow’ is out now.

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42 Upset

“Any time you have rules, it just sucks”

A year on from their second album, and Creeper are furthering their story with new EP, ‘American Noir’.

Words: Jamie MacMillan.

I

f ever a band understood the power of a good death, then it’s Creeper.

And if ever someone understood the even greater power of a good resurrection story, then frontman Will Gould is the one. After a spectacular on-stage ‘break-up’ and subsequent rebirth for the band with ‘Sex, Death & The Infinite Void’, a record that culminated in the tragic death of its hero (spoiler warning), it’s perhaps no surprise to find that there is a sting in the tale. Catching up with Will in a noisy Southampton rehearsal studio a few days before the trial Download Festival event, it is time to say hello and wave goodbye once more to Roe, Annabelle and the world of Calvary Falls.

There’s excitement in the air as we speak, the background hum of rehearsals resonating down the phone as Will searches for a quiet place to chat. Finally, after what feels like more than an eternity of silence, Creeper are playing a real-life show reconnecting with their fans, the passionate force that breathes continual life into the band. There’s a lot riding on the weekend; the eyes of the music world turned firmly towards Download to see what the future of festivals could look like. “No pressure at all,” laughs Will, admitting to feeling nervous after his longest spell without a gig since he was a teenager.

There are bold plans for the show in place, plans that mean that the festival will

cost the band more financially than they’ll gain. But he’s not worried, eager as he is to get back to work. He’s hardly been sitting still for the last year or so, though - starting a new band at the same time as releasing a flood of new Creeper material. “I’ve just kinda embellished my regular hobby rather than getting a new one,” he smiles. “So it has all become a lot more stressful for no reason!”

Riding high from the critical success of the playfully dramatic ‘Sex, Death & The Infinite Void’, a tale that culminates in a tragic ending for its protagonist, returning to that fertile storytelling soil for the ‘American Noir’ EP is perhaps both the most perfectly natural and equally unnatural Creeper thing to

do. Gaining its title from the record’s original name, it returns to Calvary Falls one last time for what Will calls an epilogue rather than a sequel.

“We’d had a line-up change,” he begins (drummer Dan Bratton left the band suddenly last year, replaced by Jake Fogarty). “The world was reopening. The record had been out for a year, and it was time for a refresh. Coming back with the same imagery just felt a bit stale, you know? I felt we were at risk of becoming a bit predictable.”

For a band that pretty much have their entire future mapped out in the most exact detail, it would have felt entirely un-Creepery to not keep pushing forwards.

“Exactly! We always want to be thinking two steps ahead,

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and it felt like if you just sat on what you’ve already got… that’s a different band, you know?” he explains before concluding with a magician’s flourish. “It was time to pull another trick, really.”

Digging deep into what he variously describes as a ‘purgatory folder’ of music on his phone, as well as a ‘musical graveyard’, he began to spot the potential of what had previously been discarded. Or rather, his girlfriend did. “She kept saying that one of her favourite songs was the one we never put out,” he explains.

“I was like, it’s not like me to re-use something for another record. I always just wanna keep it fresh each time. But she was on me about it all the time. Constantly.”

Thankfully, for all concerned, that song became ‘Midnight’, and she was proved entirely right. “Yeah, it’s annoying,” he laughs again. “But she often is; I’m very lucky. I’ve never had somebody be able to tell me when something sucks and when something’s great. But she’ll tell me a song is shit.

‘This isn’t your best work’.”

Picking through the bones of sixty songs in that graveyard, faint skeletons of promise began to reform in new shapes. Taking the stylistic change of ‘Sex, Death & The Infinite Void’ as a springboard, what became ‘American Noir’ leant even further into the hypertheatrical Jim Steinmanesque style that Creeper had been residing in. “I originally wrote ‘Midnight’ and ‘The Thorns Of Love’ on the same day, on my shit little Argos keyboard,” he explains. “But I couldn’t get it right for ages. I wanted it to sound like Bruce Springsteen, and it sounded like High School Musical. So I abandoned it. I’m a really bad person for that; if it’s not going the right way, then I fucking scrap the whole thing and move on. People get frustrated with me all the time.”

Eventually, things began to slot into place, however, with Will’s focus shifting more

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towards writing for Hannah Hermione. Continually, our conversation returns to just how impressive an artist, and how integral to Creeper, she is. It’s obvious just how full of admiration Will is, and so the songs began to be based around her. “I remember asking Hannah, ‘how smutty will you let me go with this song?’,” he explains about ‘Ghosts Over Calvary’. “And she was like ‘do whatever you want to do’. That was great because if you let me off the lead, then I’ll make you something amazing. Any time you have rules, it just sucks, you know?”

Names like his beloved David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Alice Cooper and Radar Love are dropped as influences and inspirations, a real 70s Classic Rock vibe running through all of ‘American Noir’, mountainous riffs rubbing shoulders nostalgically with romantic piano performances.

In short, it’s close to a perfectly formed minimasterpiece and makes the perfect accompaniment to ‘Sex, Death & The Infinite Void’. “’Damned And Doomed’ is one of my favourite Creeper songs,” he says of one of the new tracks. “I think it’s some of our most accomplished work. It’s so lavish and romantic and heroic, I think it’s just beautiful, and I love it so much. And I don’t even play on it! I have nothing to do with it other than writing it. I get so sick of my voice all the time…” He pauses briefly.

“Which is funny because I’m talking at you so constantly right now. But yeah, I go crazy sometimes. I never wanted to be the singer; I never wanted to be the man up front. I just wanted to work and make things and have other people do them, and now I’m getting to do that a little bit more.

And it’s fun because Hannah is SO talented. Whereas when I sing, it’s life and death and I’m gonna give you everything, but I’d NEVER listen to it!

His excitement at recording, and releasing, new music is infectious. “People need music right now; I’ve

been saying that for the last year - whether it’s Salem or Creeper or whatever,” nods Will. “I know that a lot of the kids who come to see us do so because they feel lost in the world. I feel a debt somehow, a debt to our audience. And now, because of the global pandemic, I’ve now got a chance to colour in a bit more of this story. So it’s lovely, we left our last story with a death scene, and we pick up here with another death scene.

Only it’s the most dramatic death scene in the world now.”

You don’t need to be religious to pick up on the overtones to Roe’s story - a redemption story set in a world full of sinners, who get visited by a stranger from another land. Famously one of the fastest talkers in rock, when we get to this subject, Will finds another gear altogether. “It echoes the kind of Catholic guilt I have from growing up in a Catholic story,” he agrees. “The strange boy who dies to save the town? Unfortunately, that sort of thing is deeply rooted in my being because I grew up reading the Bible. Which is funny considering some of the things I sing about these days… The thing about the Bible is, half the stories are such rubbish. They’re not even good tales! You never get any pay-off; they forget to tell a story. I’ve gone off on a tangent; we’re telling the story of Annabelle and how you deal with grief. How it comes and goes like a phantom in the night. So she’s dealing with the loss of someone in a ridiculously religious tale which references the life of Jesus Christ…” He pauses again for a few milliseconds.

“When I hear myself talking sometimes… Honestly, what the hell am I talking about?

But yes, that’s what we’re doing. It’s Jesus.” At last, a decent ending to a Bible story.

We chat for a while about ‘endings’, and it’s here that Will drops another bombshell reminder that will drive a thousand daggers into a thousand Creeper-loving hearts. “With Creeper, there

was a start date and an end date to the entire band.

There’s a point where the band actually STOPS, and it’s not a stunt anymore,” he promises, “And I’ve got all that mapped out. It’s a finite thing.

I went from working in a call centre and doing ‘this’ for fun, to it becoming my bread and butter. That’s scary because what happens now is things will build to a conclusion. It’s not soon, but at one point, this chapter will close. And after that, I’ve got to work out what I do next.”

After their cover version of The Ramones’ ‘Pet Sematary’, we ask whether that future holds any other horror movie soundtrack work - and for the first time in our chat, Will gets cagey over an upcoming project and the 1000 wordsper-minute rate drops. “It’s so funny you’ve asked me that, because I’m doing a song for a horror movie thing at the moment…” he admits, telling no more tales. “The funny thing is, as I’ve got so soft as I’ve gotten older. I’m so sensitive these days! When I see someone getting killed for no reason, it just makes me sad,” he says. “I always say if we were horror movies, then Ian Miles is The Blair Witch Project, and I’m Beetlejuice.

I like a punchline constantly.

There’s so much darkness in the world anyway. But… I could write a B-movie horror movie musical. Ed Wood, Rocky Horror, something like that. That’s my dream!”

We let him get back to his Download preparations at this point, giddy at even the faintest prospect of Will Gould doing a Rocky Horror Picture Show-esque soundtrack honestly, where do we sign, and how much do we have to donate to make this happen?

The delicious promise of whatever comes next hangs over us still. Ghosts, ghouls, creatures of the night, we can’t wait to see them come to life. P Creeper’s EP ‘American Noir’ is out 30th July.

“I wanted it to sound like Bruce Springsteen, and it sounded like High School Musical” Will Gould

Upset 45

Dark Nights...

Mastodon, Manchester Orchestra, Soccer Mommy and more have come together for a soundtrack of epic proportions.

Words: Alex Bradley.

46 Upset

...Rising!

D

avid Hasselhoff is Superman.

Chelsea Wolfe is Wonder Woman. Andy Biersack from Black Veil Brides? Yeah, he is Batman, of course. Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull is the villainous Lex Luther. Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains is Captain Cold, while Maria Brink is the otherworldly HAND, and rapper Denzel Curry is Darkseid Batman.

And that’s just the beginning. This is the Sonic Metalverse. There is a multiverse, and different versions of Batman; one of them is a dinosaur (Batmansaurus Rex obviously), another is a baby, and one version of Batman is a cybernetic vehicle.

If none of that makes sense, then that’s okay and, frankly, understandable, but there is maybe some reading to be done. Luckily, you don’t need all that information to enjoy this soundtrack.

The ‘Dark Nights: Death

Upset 47

Metal’ soundtrack features contributions from Mastodon, Rise Against, HEALTH, Soccer Mommy, and IDLES with some tracks including appearances from Chino Moreno, Dave Lombardo from Slayer and Greg Puciato of Dillinger Escape Plan. This is a Justice League level of collaborations that the world has never seen before to accompany the ‘Dark Nights: Death Metal’ comic series.

And the man behind it all is Swamp Thing, voiced by Tyler Bates.

Tyler has scored films like Guardians of the Galaxy, John Wick and Watchmen while working on The Punisher and Californication series and was Marilyn Manson’s lead guitarist for a few years too.

More importantly for this soundtrack, Tyler Bates is a comic book fan, a self-professed “Comic-Con veteran” and he couldn’t stress enough that ‘Dark Nights: Death Metal’ is a project for DC fans with authenticity and integrity at the core of its making.

“Nobody was well compensated for their work on this; it was literally all about loving the material,” Tyler begins, Zoom-ing in from his studio in Los Angeles. Referencing both Andy Biersack and Denzel Curry’s “encyclopaedic” knowledge of the DC Universe, it’s clear this was a project he didn’t need to pitch very hard to those involved. At the end of the day, who wouldn’t want to be a superhero?

The soundtrack was also helped by the pandemic; for many of those involved, it was “this cool distraction or respite from the severity of COVID,” Tyler reasons before adding the situation also meant a lot more artists were available to participate, sit with material, and then even voice a few characters for the motion comic series alongside The Hoff and Charles Fleischer (aka Roger Rabbit) who voices The Joker.

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A

ndy Biersack is the voice of Batman for ‘Dark Nights: Death Metal’ and features on the track ‘Meet Me In The Fire’ with Maria Brink. The Black Veil Brides frontman is an expert on comic books with his band’s upcoming album ‘The Phantom Tomorrow’ set to include its own comic too.

Andy let us know what is was like to live out his dreams of being The Caped Crusader.

“Being Batman, on any level, was one of my greatest dreams as a little kid. I’ve talked about this before, but I used to dress up nearly every day and walk around my neighbourhood and try to imagine pretend crimes.

I watched an animated series every single day, I would tape it on VHS as a kid, and I watched all the movies, and at one point, I think I started calling my mum “Alfred” for a time, and I would call my dog, my dog’s name was Copper, but I would call my dog Ace because Ace was the BatHound.

I just always thought in my head as a kid that it seemed like a reasonable career path to be able to be Batman.

Obviously, as you get older, you realise that you can’t necessarily be a vigilante superhero.

But, you know, in my own way of being on stage and the aesthetics of the band and everything, I’ve always tried to incorporate this character into the way that I present myself. To have the opportunity to play Batman in any capacity is a dream, but to be doing it in a medium where it’s so heavily based on rock and roll and the musical style that I associate with and made a life out of, it’s kind of the best of both worlds. To get to be heavy metal Batman is [the best], and I can’t imagine anything better than that.”

Because of your knowledge of the DC

Universe, you might be the best person to explain the world of Dark Nights: Death Metal as it isn’t your typical good versus evil story.

“One of the things that I believe is a difficult entry point for people who don’t necessarily understand but this multiverse concept has existed for so long when you go back to the original ‘Crisis’ comics, [you realise] how many different offshoots of these characters there are.’

“For me, I’ve been either exactly in line with where the comics are or following since I was a little kid and, if I’m not reading the current stories, I tend to catch up, so I was familiar with everything.

“I would say that to understand this story, you’ve got to understand that there is many different timelines, many different ideas, and there are many different versions of the character.

This is an opportunity to see many different iterations of how the character could be, and you’ve got all these

different versions of Batman and all these different personality traits that are being shown.

“And I think, in my opinion, it’s one of the best stories if you’re a fan of this character because you’ve got so many different iterations and styles just within this world of how this character operates, and the motivation behind this character is different for every different iteration. So, I really love it.

“You know I’m really into the kind of deconstructionist superhero stories. I’m a huge fan of Alan Moore and all of his works, so I would always recommend them. I kind of like these, what you might call big hero stories, the antihero stories as to whether good versus evil, as you say, is truly what it is when you look at something like V for Vendetta or Watchmen or The Killing Joke. I’ve always been a big fan of that kind of deconstructionist look at these heroes.”

With the luxury of time last year, the process of bringing together artists for the soundtrack became an organic process. Tyler and Chelsea Wolfe had been working on some film scores together, and through a couple of conversations, she ended up voicing Wonder Woman and wrote and recorded the moody and tense ‘Diana’ about her character’s alter-ego.

timing. Call it who you know, not what you know but a lot of stars aligned on this soundtrack. “It was such a joy on so many levels because one thing I really love to do is to introduce people so that may form substantive connections on their own,” Tyler beams, never one to take too much credit for his role in the project.

Even the inclusion of Dutch symphonic black

“It was literally all about loving the material” TYLER BATES

With HEALTH in the studio, the discussion of singers who could complement the song ‘ANTILIFE’ was had and the dream pick would be Chino Moreno, who just so happened to be an acquaintance of Tyler’s and, before you know it, the Deftones singer turned around his typically dreamy vocal performance.

A similar situation occurred with synthwave band Gunship. Tyler explains how they reached out to remix for on track of theirs, and suddenly they’re writing the track ‘Berserker’, and the former Fightstar singer Alex Westaway has agreed to voice Batman’s right-hand man Alfred Pennyworth. While writing the track, Gunship repeatedly referenced a drum beat reminiscent of Slayer’s Dave Lombardo who, unbeknownst to them, was a good friend of Tyler’s and had already been working on some of the earlier Sonic Metalverse series score. So he Dave and Gunship joined forces for one of the most unlikely alliances on the soundtrack.

Call it luck. Call it great

metal duo Carach Angren was a recommendation by Tyler’s long time friend and collaborator Robert Carranza who mixed the soundtrack,

and they went on to become a recurring part of the Sonic Metalverse audio.

And, when Tom Whalley, President of Loma Vista Recordings, phoned to tell Tyler they had the track’s from Chester Bennington’s first band, it was too good an offer to pass up.

“I’d really love to put this song out. I think the emotion of his vocal performance is really aligned with what we’re doing, and the desperation of his lyrics of the song factors into the emotional aspect of this comic series,” Tom Whalley suggested, according to Tyler.

It was one of the very rare times Tyler had to leave the house in the last 18 months, but he joined with the remaining members of Grey Daze to re-record their parts for ‘Anything, Anything’.

“Everybody has such a really positive attitude about what we were doing,” he explains. “I think we’re able to further imbue Chester’s performance with the context of this particular comic book.’

“And then, I have to say,

it’s really unusual to make executive decisions with a deceased artist’s vocal performance. It’s one thing to go back and listen to archived sessions because I have many archived Pro Tools sessions and songs from the past, and I can go in and isolate tracks and listen to exactly what was happening on that channel.

So that, in its own right, had a very emotional quality when I experienced that, but this was more of a sense of channelling this person to the best of my capacity, because I never knew Chester, to bring him into the room with us.

“Yeah, that was a challenge, but it was still really cool, and I thought that because of the process we went through to make that song that it earned its right onto the record and definitely made its own unique statement.”

That “unique statement” is important when coming into this soundtrack. With the exception of ‘Diana’, there isn’t a Superman song or a Batman song, but instead, a

Upset 49

lot of tracks were created as an emotional response to the source material. In a way, it’s an album with 15 unique statements on the same source material. It’s a soundtrack that covers the expansive storyline with vast, sweeping brushstrokes. And, it’s ‘Death Metal’ by name but certainly not by nature either. Mastodon do the job perfectly, but this soundtrack evolves with the punchy punk revolution called by Rise Against’s ‘Broken Dreams, Inc.’, the frenzied, stabbing, ‘Bad Luck’ by Denzel Curry and dramatic power of Maria Brink and Andy Biersack on ‘Meet Me In The Fire’ all finding different ways to set the atmosphere in this apocalyptic superhero story.

If you take the soundtracks finale, the delicate ‘Kissing In The Rain’, it still draws from the same art that every musician had to work with.

“She [Sophia Regina Allison] was able to take something, some seeds of inspiration from this series.

She wasn’t into writing perhaps about fist fighting or blowing up the world, but there was something emotionally somewhat bereft in ‘Kissing In The Rain’ that I think evokes an emotional element that I think is inherent in these comics,’ Tyler starts.

“There’s this longing and a sense of isolation and the desperation to connect to people that is congruence throughout all of these events that are taking place; all these threats to humanity and all the violence.’

‘So I thought that was very interesting, that’s more how I looked at comics, I always felt that they were an impression of reality and from what I see in ‘Dark Nights: Death Metal’ that’s still very much the case regardless of how you look at the world.”

The songs are truly a testament to the great work by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, who created to DC Comic Book series from which the songs took

50 Upset

I

n This Moment singer Maria Brink wrote and performed the track ‘Meet Me In The Fire’ for the Dark Nights: Death Metal soundtrack and voices the super-celestial being HAND in the motion comic too. She let us know about her relationship with comic books and how the pandemic helped her involvement in this project.

“All kids fall in love with comic books at some point, and I’ve definitely loved the idea of bringing fantasy to life in all forms: books, comic books, TV, music. I mean, just imagination in general. People exploring those parts of themselves is so beautiful.

“In This Moment is in the process of releasing our first comic book in a few months that we’re very excited for. It was supposed to come out over a year and a half ago, but when COVID hit, it really slowed us down, so we’re

so excited for people to see ‘The In-Between’ comic book coming out by In This Moment soon.”

How did she find working with Tyler and Andy for this track?

“I love to collaborate. I love to create music and art on all platforms; it’s something that just brings me great joy. I had the honour of working with Tyler once before this song and loved my experience, and so when he came to me about this new track, I was so excited about it.

“It was really an amazing experience to collaborate.

Honestly, I needed this because it was in the middle of COVID and I was feeling kinda lost. To have this project come to me with Tyler and knowing that Andy is just so talented and to collaborate with both of these stars, honestly, to create something was an honour, and it gave me something to be excited about in a hard time that I was going through.”

“I would tape Batman on VHS as a kid; I started calling my mum “Alfred” for a time” Andy Biersack

inspiration. But, for the freedom afforded to him

by DC and Loma Vista, the magic of the soundtrack as a whole is thanks to Tyler Bates.

If you could imagine his job of sprinkling magic on other people’s work, executing their vision, day in and day out, the freedom to curate your own soundtrack and source material must have been liberating. The record label were happy for there to be no radio-friendly single to maintain the integrity of this as a fanmade project (“it’s definitely not a corporate widget” being one of Tyler’s favourite phrases) and as a result: “This is probably the most latitude besides making my own album that I have ever, ever experienced,” he says, proudly.

With such a star-studded masterpiece, a brilliant, inventive collection of songs worked on by a lot of friends with a shared passion for the comics, it’s difficult to find any fault; especially when the heart and soul of such a big project is still intact at the end. But, is there anyone Tyler wished he had got on the soundtrack?

“I love this record the way it turned out,” he begins, then hesitates.

“There are a few of my friends who were busy during this time, but I think if we do another record that’s of this ilk, I have to have Tobias Forge and Ghost join us.

Tobias is a friend of mine, he’s an excellent artist and just a really excellent person, so I would love to have had him / to have them on this record, but hopefully, if we do another project of this ilk, he’ll join us on it.”

It’s good to know the door is open for a sequel, but in the meantime, the way to listen to the soundtrack is, ideally, with a comic book in hand. Tyler recommends treating the physical comic in the same manner as liner notes to a vinyl “almost as you would like back in the analogue days when I was a kid,” he reminisces.

“If you listen, that way to the music, thinking about when the artists created this track or at least wrote the lyrics and recorded, all that they were relating to is this material directly,” he suggests.

So whether it’s the record and comic book together or separately, ‘Dark Nights: Death Metal’ is rife with world-saving superheroes and heinous villains to serve as a distraction, escapism, from our own impending doom. And in a timeline full with superhero films, TV shows, video games, this spin-off is a deeply immersive, expertly executed, diligently assembled masterclass in soundtracks with, refreshingly, fans of the original comic books still central to the work. P Dark Nights: Death Metal Soundtrack is out now.

Upset 51

52 Upset

Yonaka are a force to be reckoned with, promoting empowerment, hopefulness and acceptance across their new mixtape, ‘Seize The Power’.

Words: Alex Cabré. Photos: Dave East.

Upset 53

Y

onaka are stoked. In a couple of days, the Brighton bunch return to the stage by virtue of Download’s huge Pilot weekender (spoiler alert, they ace it) and in a few short weeks ‘Seize The Power’, their wild-eyed, eclectic new mixtape, is set to drop.

Bustled into a Zoom frame from singer Theresa Jarvis and bassist Alex Crosby’s home studio, the foursome are practically fizzing with energy.

“Running these new tracks in the rehearsal room the past few days, they just fucking pop. It’s crazy,” grins guitarist George Werbrouck-Edwards.

Since emerging around 2016 with a dirty sound fusing rock with a hip-hop swagger, Yonaka have been on a non-stop ascent. They honed their stagecraft opening for everyone from Frank Carter to the Libertines to Bring Me the Horizon (who they later jumped on a track with) and released ‘Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow’, a stonker of a debut, two years ago.

Despite Covid they’ve kept busy, penning what eventually became this ambitious eighttrack project.

“We wrote like a hundred songs last year; we literally wrote every single fucking day,” recalls Theresa, who chats at a mile a minute when she’s not snacking on a bowl of pistachios off-cam. “We had so much momentum. It was so good because usually, we’d be touring... you don’t get that much time to sit and write.”

‘Seize The Power’ strays further down every sonic path the band have touched on to date, including their fiercest rock yet (‘Clique’) as well as jittery dance beats (‘Get Out’) and a maudlin piano ballad (‘Anthem’). “I think it’s our first one that could possibly make you cry”, she says of the latter.

So, why a mixtape instead of a full-blown LP? “When you do an album, you kind of have to sit on it for a while until you can release any more music. It’s been so long; we just want to keep

54 Upset

going. It gives us space to be able to drop more music right after.”

“Each song is so different in the writing style and production. It’s cool to show the spectrum,” adds drummer Rob Mason.

And what a spectrum they’ve covered. At one end, there are tracks here that sound, well, like Yonaka; ‘Raise Your Glass’ feels like an embrace with a blaring chorus that says, ‘get us to a stadium, stat’. It revives the heartfelt tone of ‘Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow’, whose title came from a lyric about looking out for loved ones who are enduring hardships, and was partially inspired by Theresa’s choice to cut down on drinking.

“When I drink a lot, I feel very distant, I really don’t feel in my body, so I rarely get

chorus, but that’s so obvious, and we always do that, so let’s try something that’s completely different to what we would usually do. Then we’d all fall in love with it because it felt new and exciting.”

The band have been producing their own material for a while now, and ‘Seize...’ provided ample opportunity to try fresh techniques in that realm too. ‘Greedy’ was inspired by Timbaland, Alex explains.

“He does lots of production with his mouth like beatboxing; there’s a lot of that kind of stuff in there. Pretty much all the noises are Theresa’s vocals which we manipulated.”

“Developing ourselves as producers has definitely helped the writing process a lot,” Rob adds. “You might write a beat on your laptop

“We wrote like a hundred songs last year; we literally wrote every single fucking day” Theresa Jarvis super pissed anymore. I still drink [but] I’m more conscious of how much and how I’m gonna feel the next day.”

At the other end of the scale is the MIA-reminiscent ‘Greedy’, a confrontational and trappy cut that refines the no-fucks-given streak that has coloured so many of this four’s past releases.

“It’s not classic Yonaka where we go like ‘wahh!’” – T gives a compelling impression of the squealing guitar sounds the band often favour – “it’s quite low and laid back, I’m almost talking through most of the song. It felt really cool to do that.”

“With every track, we wanted to bring something different to the table,” she expands. “We made a conscious decision as we were writing, like, we could go to this

that you wouldn’t necessarily do if you were behind a kit.

You’re coming at it from a different angle.”

You don’t need all high-end equipment to master the dark art of production, Alex notes.

The fidgety backbone of ‘Get Out’ started on a “shitty little broken Casio keyboard we’ve got. The pitch is very warbly, it sounds seasick or something.”

“It gave it an eerie, dirty pace, in a sexy way,” T continues. “As soon as it comes on, it feels like you’re walking into a sex club.” A what sorry? “A strip club!” she corrects, but it’s too late; the boys are cracking up.

Alex is the main engineer in the group, she says, once the laughter subsides: “If we want certain sounds, we’ll talk about it then Al will find them,” though her articulation

of some styles occasionally makes for a “fun challenge”.

“Theresa’s vocabulary is very much in terms of feel as opposed to technical,” George laughs. “It needs to feel like wood, or it needs to be fluffy or more purple.”

“I can see it and taste it and smell it, so I’ll try to explain things like that, and the guys are like ‘what the fuck?’ That’s how you know you’re in a band with the right people,” she says. “I can say shit like that, and we’ll find it.”

As all good mixtapes should, ‘Seize The Power’ features some gnarly guest appearances. Barns Courtney lends his pipes to the solemn closing number ‘Anthem’, while Jason Butler from Cali rock lot Fever 333 helps make ‘Clique’ the most kick-you-in-theteeth, set-your-house-on-fire frenetic Yonaka song so far.

The group first met Jason when both bands toured with Bring Me back in 2018. They immediately clicked.

“That tour flipped our worlds around a bit because we saw how it’s supposed to be done,” T states resolutely.

“There wasn’t one night where we didn’t watch them. We were like, ‘we need to step our game up massively’. We all learnt a lot”.

“It’s more things you have to do as well,” adds George.

“There’s gotta be some sort of wow-factor to the show. Like, on their intro, Jason would come on tied up with a bag over his head when the song kicks off... it’s all so theatrical, and then they go mental. Their ethic was amazing.”

Getting Jason on ‘Clique’ saved the song from almost not making the cut, T remembers.

“We fell out of love with it a bit, but we sent it to Jason, he sent it back, and it was like this fucking lightning ‘oh my god’ moment. We went harder on the production, added a few more bits vocally, and now it’s amazing, and we love to listen to it! It’s hard, it’s in your face, it’s like ‘don’t give me no shit’.” P Yonaka’s ‘Seize The Power’ mixtape is out now.

Upset 55

Rated.

THE OFFICIAL VERDICT ON EVERYTHING

As December Falls Happier

eeeee

As December Falls know how to play the poppunk game. Following up on 2019’s self-titled debut album, ‘Happier’ is a record that takes everything already learned and turns it up to full volume. Selffunded via a bank loan, rather than doing what most other bands would and signing-up to a label, it’s that level of all-in selfinvestment that punches through with every riff and chorus. From frustration and break-ups to empowerment and devotion, ‘Happier’ is an album wearing all its emotions on the outside and it’s all the better for it.

Dan Harrison

Capstan Separate

Yonaka

Seize The Power

eeeee

56 Upset

The spiky, spunky foursome of Yonaka are never ones to rest easy. Punching their way back into the world with a new mixtape - not an album, mind you - Yonaka have some things to get off their chest. Having been toiling away to give their already locked ‘n’ loaded sound a rumbling beat-laden spanking new sound, it’s all very much In Your Face (see: ‘ORDINARY’, ‘SEIZE THE POWER’).

Stomping their way through the weight of the tracks, including a frenetic appearance from Fever 333’s Jason Aalon Butler (Clique), it’s a full-throttle, rapping, rocking and rolling affair. Certainly taking no prisoners, if that wasn’t clear before, it doesn’t quite fully hit the mark in all cases.

‘Raise Your Glass’ feels a bit odd, in a could-be-in-

a-musical way, deferring away from the more focused ‘fight the power’ theme. Still, there’s oodles of attitude.

‘Greedy Master’ and its rolling thunder does the job of attacking the music industry (or any industry for that fact) and not far from being Karl Marx’s wrestling anthem (where he, y’know, a wrestler).

Most surprising is the careening crash into the piano-led, orchestrally reserved closer ‘Anthem’, where promises of “we’re an army now, and you can’t take us down” ring loud. It’s Yonaka’s statement of intent for what’s next. They want you to hear the sincerity.

They yearn for their’s, and the world’s success, and most importantly it’s a call to arms to grab the power by the throat and take it all back. Steven Loftin

eeeee Fusing posthardcore, prog and metalcore, Capstan are the kind of band who pull from all corners to sharpen their craft. Dynamic and deliberate, ‘Separate’ is a record that - from opener ‘pretext’ onwards, always strikes with precision.

Melody drifts across brutal breakdowns and glitching, atmospheric beats, leaving no room for fat to trim.

Though it may have been born from a dark place both personally and in terms of the worldwide pandemic in which it was recorded it’s also an album that shows good things can come from bad times. There’s no stronger message than that.

Dan Harrison

Chunk! No, Lakes Start Again Captain eeeee Chunk!

Lakes have Gone Are The Good Days eeeee

When a band are given a label, you can be sure they’ll try and find ways to push beyond it. That’s exactly what easy core heroes Chunk!

No, Captain Chunk! aimed to do when it came to starting work on new album ‘Gone Are The Good Days’ back in 2016. After a false start, they decided to leave it be and return later. One global pandemic later, and work resumed - with no firm plan, and hope for a few singles. What became an EP then developed into a full-blown album - one that stays true to what came before, but finds new, interesting and, in one case, sax-y ways to deliver. While Chunk may push at their own boundaries rather than those at the bleeding edges, this is the sound of a band evolving at their own speed, finding exactly what they wanted at the time they needed it most. Dan Harrison

Creeper American Noir EP eeeee

You didn’t think that was the end, did you?

Roaring back to life once more, ‘American Noir’ is a fitting epilogue to the story of Roe and Annabelle that began in ‘Sex, Death & The Infinite Void’. Built from the bones of discarded songs from that record it may be, but don’t let that put you off.

This is one special EP. It’s so delicious, and so exciting, that a band like this exist right now with their ambition, and sense of scale and ‘event’.

Cherish them while we have them, because that final ending will be a bitter one.

Jamie MacMillan

a glockenspiel, and they know how to use it.

Indeed, built on the back of these tinkling keys, the self-styled ‘glock-rock’ math/emo troupe have had quite the stellar two years. It helps that the sextet can write some inspiring – and inspired – math-rock/indie/emo. With second album ‘Start Again’, everything is brighter and bolder than what’s gone before, but a frantic – urgent, even – undercurrent constantly struggles to emerge. Sometimes it manifests wildly – like on ‘Peace’ or ‘Animals’ – but more often, it bubbles to the surface as a swell of musicality and emotions (‘Get Better’, Retrograde’). Much has been written about the ‘Fifth Wave’ of emo, with little mention of what’s happening in the UK. That should come as little surprise – usually, the UK follows in such trends, after all – but Lakes are so vital to the narrative they deserve a leading role in such discourse. Rob Mair

Lauran Hibberd Goober EP eeeee

Our Lauran’s blend of slacker-poprock, with its snarling eye-roll at dealing with the ickiest of creatures - boys - has been gestating for a couple of years now. On her latest EP, a decent chunk of the tracks have already been unleashed on the world, but this doesn’t make their grouping on ‘Goober’ any less joyful. There’s something cathartic about her warts’n’all way of biting at redundant relationships (‘Bleurgh’), kicking ‘em to the curb (‘Boy Bye’), and the war games of love life (‘Old Nudes’ and ‘Crush’). Closer ‘You

Never Looked So Cool’ reads like a haunting nightmare but sounds like an ethereal daydream, opting for a slow, clean chug, offering more than once facet to this burgeoning tongue-in-cheek master of the fanciful, funny and fearless.

Steven Loftin

Kississippi Mood Ring eeeee

Kississippi’s voice is gorgeous and ethereal; the guitar dreamy and nostalgic.

There’s a quiet comfort to be found in second album ‘Mood Ring’: it can feel like a late night drive with friends or like watching the sunset with a loved one, but it can also feel like growing pains under the gentle glow of fairy lights in your childhood bedroom. It’s appropriate that this album is called ‘Mood Ring’. Effortlessly transitioning from blue to blush, from sad to romantic, it’s highly emotive and highly effective.

Wonderful vibes from a wonderful album. Kelsey McClure

Sleep Waker Alias eeeee

Sleep Waker’s blistering ‘Alias’ is here to fuel your existential crisis.

Colliding screaming angst with stadium-sized instrumentals, the album questions integrity and reality with surgical precision, like scalpels peeling back skin.

And what it finds underneath our shiny modern masks is real and frightened and frightening.

From the razor sharp emotional intensity of the title-track, to the relentless sado-masochistic nature of ‘Skin’, it confronts brutal truths. Sleep Waker are here to jolt us out of our complacency. Edie McQueen

Wavves Hideaway eeeee

The rough ’n’ ready sound of Wavves is one that’s been around long enough to hold a level of expectation. Some crunching guitars churning away in a lo-fi fray, while frontman Nathan Williams sits chewing on the world around him, is pretty much the gist of things. On ‘Hideaway’, however, Nathan embraces his inner pop demon and digs deep into those melodies to help deal with confronting a whole bunch of bubbling self-awareness.

Stemming from holing himself up in his parents’ shed - similar to his day dot method of working - he’s emerged with a more confident, similarly raucous but ultimately satisfying version of Wavves.

Certainly not an album to hide away from. Steven Loftin

Upset 57

EVERYONE HAS THOSE FORMATIVE BANDS AND TRACKS THAT FIRST GOT THEM INTO MUSIC AND HELPED SHAPE THEIR VERY BEING. THIS MONTH, LUKE CALEY FROM PRESS THE MECO TAKES US THROUGH SOME OF THE SONGS THAT MEANT THE MOST TO HIM DURING HIS TEENAGE YEARS.

WITH... LUKE CALEY, PRESS TO MECO

Nickelback

How You Remind Me

This is quite literally the song that started it all for me. When I was 10, my only real perspective on music was whatever was on top of the pops that evening and my ‘2 UNLIMITED - No Limits’ CD. Cue Nickelback going to number one for what seemed like forever. Amongst a sea of dance beats at the time, something about the drums, bass and distorted guitar just pricked my little child ears up and instantly drew me in. ‘How you Remind me’ was a siren song, luring me towards picking up the guitar and I was helpless to Nickelback’s calls. I still haven’t forgiven them.

System Of A Down Innervision

From a young age, one of my friends, Mitch, was always such a huge gateway to discovering new music for me. At 10 or 11 years old, I told him I liked the sound of ‘rock’ music. He came to school the next day holding a weird-looking album (System Of A Down’s ‘Steal This Album’) and told me to have a listen. This was my first real experience of music; I’d not heard ANYTHING like before. It was almost alienating at first, but the more I listened to it, the more I became obsessed with the offkilter vocals and erratic nature of the band.

When people ask about the PTM having multiple singers, I always refer to System Of A Down as being the band that very early on showed me how effective different personalities and voices can be in a song.

AC/DC

‘Over My Head’ was one of the standout tracks that inspired me to be able to write a chorus even half as big as they could.

Billy Talent River Below

I feel like for PTM fans Billy Talent are the influence I wear the most on my sleeve, at least from a guitar perspective. Ian D’sa is one of the best to do it and arguably still doesn’t get the credit he deserves for being such a pioneer. I wouldn’t say I have many guitar idols, but D’sa really opened my eyes to exploring new ways to voice chords and bring out melody lines. I think ‘River Below’ was the first song I heard and was INSTANTLY hooked by their unique brand of ‘punk’!

SikTh

Peep Show

Angus. That is all... Just listen to that one note he plays at 4:19. It’s everything. AC/ DC are one of those bands like Nirvana, the older you get and the more you listen to them, the better they get. This song also may or may not be responsible for me running around with a Gibson SG, sweating on everyone.

If Billy Talent were one side of my guitar influences, I’d say SikTh would have to be the other. I feel like I sound like a much less talented love child of the two bands. I LOVE SikTh for the melodic chaos they’re typically known for, like Billy Talent, the chord progression in the opening riff of ‘Peep Show’ hit me like a train when I first heard it.

I HAD to know what those types of chords were and learn them.

Sum 41

The Mars Volta

Sum 41 were such a good band. Even now, I listen back and have so much respect and appreciation for the role they played in me latching on to melody and hooks. They were just the epitome of ‘cool’ to me at the time.

I must’ve been about 13/14 when I discovered The Mars Volta. CYGNUS VISMUND CYGNUS was the first song I ever heard, and I remember being blown away with how something could sound so

For Those About To Rock.

Over My Head (Better Off Dead)

Cygnus Vismund Cygnus

funky and SO intense. My hair grew, my pedalboard grew and a weird proggy couple of years quickly followed! In my opinion, this was Cedric at his absolute best vocally.

Some out of this world vocal moments on that record!

The Dillinger Escape Plan Fix Your Face

I remember right from when I started playing shows at the age of 12. The Dillinger Escape Plan was always a band I heard the ‘older’ kids and other people in bands talking about. When I was about 15, I had some leftover lunch money, so I went to HMV and thought I’d spend it on a record. I found Ire Works. I came home, pressed play and got transported to another planet! I’d never heard something SO abrasive, so erratic, and SO intense. It felt like the first time some music represented how my ADHD brain felt rattling around in my head. I remember feeling confused on first listen and not entirely getting it, but I also remember thinking, “I know there’s something in this that I need to give time to”. The Dillinger Escape Plan showed me that there can be a greater reward in challenging people with music sometimes. Ire Works still is and probably always will be in my top five albums of all time. It completely changed my perspective on music. A masterpiece record, in my opinion, from one of the greatest heavy bands to grace the earth. P Press To MECO’s album ‘Transmute’ is out 20th August.

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