Upset, July 2018

J ULY 2 018 D ISRU P T THE NOISE

GOOD CHARLOTTE YOU ME AT SIX PANIC! AT THE DISCO CULTURE ABUSE UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

THE FAIM PETAL

S T A T E

C H A M P S

“IT’S STILL THE SAME BAND. IT’S JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE US”

NEW ALBUM LIVING PROOF JUNE 15, 2018 23 OCT - GLASGOW - O 2 ABC 24 OCT - NEWCASTLE - NORTHUMBRIA INSTITUTE 26 OCT - MANCHESTER - ACADEMY 27 OCT - LONDON - ROUNDHOUSE 29 OCT - NORWICH - UEA 30 OCT - LEEDS - O 2 ACADEMY 31 OCT - BIRMINGHAM - O 2 INSTITUTE 1 NOV - BRISTOL - O 2 ACADEMY

E xcl u s i ve v i ny l c o l o r ava i l a bl e a t

ISSUE 34 JULY 2018

“WE DON’T CARRY THE FLAG GOING, ‘WE’RE THE LEADERS OF THE

UPSETMAGAZINE.COM EDITOR: Stephen Ackroyd

FUCKING SCENE’”

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

STATE CHAMPS, P.26

(viki@upsetmagazine.com)

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Ali Shutler

(ali@upsetmagazine.com)

DEAR READER,

CONTRIBUTORS: Dan Harrison,

Jack Press, Liam Konemann, Lily Beckett, Rob Mair, Rob Mesure, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin

PHOTOGRAPHERS: Patrick Gunning, Sarah Louise Bennett

THIS MONTH

All material copyright (c). All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of The Bunker Publishing Ltd. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of Upset or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally.

RIOT!

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ABOUT TO BREAK

4 YOU ME AT SIX 6 BLOOD RED SHOES 8 TWIN ATLANTIC 10 GOOD CHARLOTTE 14 THE GREAT ESCAPE 16 THE GET UP KIDS 18 CAN’T SWIM 19 DREAM STATE 20 PLAYLIST 22 SNAIL MAIL 24 MODERN MAPS 25 THYLA

FEATURES

26 STATE CHAMPS 34 ZEAL & ARDOR 36 PETAL 38 CULTURE ABUSE 40 MAYDAY PARADE

RATED

42 PANIC! AT THE DISCO 44 STATE CHAMPS

LIVE

46 SLAM DUNK

TEENAGE KICKS 50 THE FAIM

Well, we’re back into it now, aren’t we? The first few festivals have been knocked off the to do list, with Download set to descend right as this magazine hits the streets.

We’re knee deep in rock bands, and that’s without the ones sneakily planning new albums to add to the mix.

The next few months look pretty damn packed something which kicks off right here, right now with the return of State Champs. It’s gonna get loud in here!

STEPHEN ACKROYD, EDITOR

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

DISRUPT THE NOISE 3

EVERYTHING HAPPENING IN ROCK.

YOU ME AT VI

“WE WERE LOSING OUR IDENTITY” YOU ME AT SIX ARE ALL-GUNS-BLAZING FOR SIXTH ALBUM ‘VI’, WITH GRAND PLANS TO REASSERT EXACTLY WHO THEY ARE. “WE LOST OUR WAY A LITTLE BIT,” SAYS JOSH FRANCESCHI. WORDS: STEVEN LOFTIN

Y

OU ME AT SIX ARE BACK AND READY TO FIGHT: THEY’RE OLDER, THEY’VE LEARNED SOME VALUABLE LESSONS, AND NOW THEY’RE PUTTING THEM ALL TO THE TEST ON THEIR SIXTH OUTING, ‘VI’.

“I felt very much like [2017’s] ‘Night People’ was a halfway house to going nowhere,” frontman Josh Franceschi starts. “We didn’t really execute any of our ambitions or visions that we had for the band, be it creatively or just in general, to be honest.

A lot of darkness and negativity around making that record was...”

He pauses. “It’s been quite integral to this record coming together.”

“When I listen back to the new record, and how it’s sounding and feeling, it sounds like a band who knew exactly what they wanted to achieve. They had the confidence to go for it. They cut out all of the distractions and bullshit that can come with being an artist, and it was great to make a record again in England.”

Returning to their home shores to carry out ‘VI’ gave You Me At Six a chance to re-kindle their faded passion. Instead of letting life get in the way - be it clock watching due to commuting between drummer Dan Flint’s house in Surrey to London, or simple dinner plans - it all went out of the window in favour of a far more centred method.

Focusing on finding themselves again, they set up shop in a residential studio. Cracking out fifteen-hour days, only stopping for sleep - and the pub, of course - what it’s led to, is a genuine movement forward for themselves.

They’re progressing, they’ve re-found the fire, and it sounds better than ever.

Dropping not one, but two new tracks in the form of ‘Fast Forward’ and ‘3 AM’, you can immediately hear the development they’ve undergone. There’s aggression littered across Josh’s vocals, and the instrumentation is fierce. “’Fast Forward’ is very much a selfassessment song lyrically, and I’ll be honest with you, my personal life, and also my life within the band during the whole ‘Night People’ era, was just sort of coasting.

Whether it be coasting through bad stuff or good stuff, it was just coasting. There was no flag in the ground moment.

“Sometimes you have to lose something to know what it meant to you in the first place.

With You Me At Six, we felt like we’d lost our way a little bit on the last record, and therefore it made us so hungry.”

Josh attributes the discourse around the time of ‘Night People’ to the breakout success of 2014’s ‘Cavalier Youth’.

“We came off the back of it with a number one album, O2 Arena, main stages at Isle of Wight and Reading, T in The Park. In terms of everything we wanted to achieve as a band, if it was a video game, we’d completed it,” he says matter of factly.

“SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING TO KNOW WHAT IT MEANT TO YOU” JOSH FRANCESCHI “Everything we’ve wanted to do, we’ve done.

When you come out of that, and you’re surrounded by people that tell you that’s what you’ve done, and encourage you to just coast…” he tentatively trails off.

“Anybody that works in the industry knows that it’s full of complete cunts, but there are also some truly pure and wonderful people in there. It’s about surrounding yourself as often and as much as you can with your eyes wide open as to who those wonderful people are, and keeping those that are going to cause nothing but aggravation at a distance.”

He’s not going to name and shame those who failed to help them capitalise; instead, he’s staying firm with the belief that beyond having achieved what they felt they needed to, all that matters now is keeping that fire alive.

“It won’t achieve anything... Actually, it does.

It’s moulded us into becoming as wise as we are now.”

It didn’t just lie with various people who, intentionally or not, didn’t have the band’s best interests at heart.

“I felt like we were, and had been, losing our identity,” Josh freely admits. “Because it was like, ‘OK, you’ve done stage one of turning into a band’, now it’s about having that Kings of Leon ‘Sex on Fire’, or fucking ‘Mr Brightside’ moment.”

A bold claim, but what do you expect from someone who’s re-found the love for something that’s given him more opportunity than anyone else could imagine? ‘VI’ is the culmination of all of these ideas and a future that feels brighter for You Me At Six. There’s no grand statement album coming out. It’s not a piece of art that sits on a station way above anything else around it.

Instead, it’s something purer - that missing identity.

“I generally feel that the music will say everything we need to say, and sometimes, giving the album a title you’re almost encouraging some sort of identity to come alongside that,” he nods to the simplicity of the title.

“Whether it be branding or marketing, and with ‘Night People’ it was very clear when I look back on that whole period that we were trying to make something of our title, and that being our identity, whereas our identity is ‘six’. You Me At Six, it’s a part of our name! It’s what we’ve done the whole time, and why we’re dropping new music on the sixth of the sixth because that shit’s just meant to happen. There’s something quite poetic about that, and we’re just trying to keep it real simple.”

Feeling as if they’re in a better place than ever, the road ahead looks prosperous. The fight is a lesson they’ll never forget, and the industry can try it all it can to taint them, but You Me At Six have made it this far. “Bands like us never do that,” he quickly admits.

“They say [that it’s] the difficult second or third album, but our difficult album was our fifth album,” Josh finishes laughing. “And it’s like we had to get some shit out of our system to be able to make this record.” P

YOU ME AT SIX’S ALBUM ‘VI’ IS OUT 5TH OCTOBER.

BLACK PEAKS’ ALBUM IS INCOMING

Black Peaks’ new album ‘All That Divides’ is out on 5th October via Rise Records/BMG, preceded by the single ‘Home’. “The album definitely holds some surprises,” they told us earlier this year. Exciting stuff, huh? The band are also hitting the road the same month.

BLACK HONEY ARE HITTING THE ROAD

Black Honey have announced an autumn tour, which will see them head out from 13th October, with a finale at London’s Electric Ballroom. They’ll also play the Omeara this month, on 12th June. The group have not long released their new single ‘Bad Friends’, with their debut album also coming imminently. Can’t wait!

DISRUPT THE NOISE 5

FESTIVALS 2018

CREEPER ON TOUR

Creeper have confirmed a trio of shows that will act as warm-ups for their set at Reading & Leeds this summer. The band – who released their debut album, ‘Eternity, in Your Arms’, in March of last year – will be joined by Dollskin, Miss Vincent, Dark Days and In The Cards to play Dover (20th), Leicester (21st) and Stoke (22nd).

SPRINGERS’ ALBUM IS NEARLY HERE

Spring King’s second album ‘A Better Life’ is arriving on 17th August, preceded by the track ‘Us vs Them’.

“I never thought much about the old haunts and memories until now,” says guitarist Pete of the track. “Now I really see the way in which time has passed.

I can feel my whole world changing, softly in the morning sun.”

AS IT IS ARE HITTING THE ROAD

As It Is are taking their new album ‘The Great Depression’ (due 10th August) on the road this winter, with a five-date tour that includes a night at London’s Forum on 1st December. Get yr tix now.

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ZERO PUNK ROCK

IT’S AN EXCITING TIME FOR BLOOD RED SHOES WITH NEW MATERIAL ON THE CARDS, THEY’RE ALSO EXPERIMENTING WITH A BRAND NEW SOUND.

HEY STEVEN, HOW’S IT GOING? Right now we’re driving through the plains of Wyoming about a third of the way through our US tour, which has been going really well so far.

music and seeing what felt right for the theme. The music for this one was some of the fastest we’ve ever written; it came together one weekend, we recorded it, then released it about six weeks later.

IT’S GOOD TO HAVE YOU GUYS BACK - WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS? Well, last year we released two new singles and played a handful of shows, but mostly we’ve been writing a lot and recording album five which we wanted to be a departure from what we’d made before, so it took a lot of time!

Getting out of your habits and out of your comfort zone takes work and real inspiration, you can’t just go through the motions, and it’s something we didn’t want to rush. We intend on being a band which is around for a very long time and evolving is crucial to keeping things interesting.

WILL YOU BE AIRING MORE NEW MATERIAL DURING YOUR UPCOMING SHOWS? A little. We’re always conscious about how people first hear things - you only get one chance at a first impression, right?

So having a shitty YouTube clip of us playing a new song live isn’t always the best way for our fans to hear it! We’re playing some but holding a lot back so people can hear the fully realized studio versions before the live ones. A lot of the new stuff needs us to expand to a four-piece too.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEW SINGLE, ‘GOD COMPLEX’.

‘God Complex’ is one of the fruits of that time. Laura wrote the lyrics when she was travelling around the USA and in some crazy underpopulated town, and when she got back, we started jamming

YOU’VE SAID YOU WANT YOUR NEW MUSIC TO BE A DEPARTURE - WHAT’S DIFFERENT THIS TIME AROUND? Without giving away too much, we spent a lot of time experimenting with other instruments and other styles. There are two songs on the album which have no live drums on whatsoever. Rock music is incredibly stale at the moment and

ALSO PLAYING 2000TREES… At The Drive In, Twin Atlantic, Enter Shikari, Arcane Roots, Creeper, Mallory Knox, Turnstile, Black Peaks, Boston Manor, Black Foxxes, Touché Amoré, Basement, The Xcerts and loads more.

“IT’S GONNA BE INTERESTING TO SEE WHAT OUR FANS MAKE OF IT”

evolution of the previous one, but this is much more of a leap of faith. It was essential to do that for ourselves, but it’s gonna be interesting to see what our fans make of it considering there are a lot of dance and electronic influences and zero punk rock stylings. It’s definitely not a minimal rock duo sound any more; it’s much more focused on groove and mood.

STEVEN ANSELL

HOW’RE YOU ENJOYING YOUR TIME IN THE US? TOURING OVER THERE MUST BE GREAT FUN. Yeah, we love it here. I think that’s partly what’s impacted the new album, broadening our horizons, seeing and experiencing new things and new sounds. There’s a cowboy spirit we relate to, a feeling of risk taking, don’t give a fuck, just do it, which is a healthy thing especially coming from such a conservative country as the UK. There’s a kind of purity and almost physicality to the way people respond to music here, it’s very emotional and way less cerebral and determined by social factors than we’re used to in our country.

I see new bands in London, and everyone is trying to figure out if it’s cool to like or not....over here people just respond

constantly relies on backwards looking, retro ideas, and that’s very, very boring.

The album is our attempt at shoving rock music into some new spaces and taking some risks with it. If you took our most popular songs to compare, it’s unrecognisable next to those.

IS THE ALBUM’S EVOLUTION A GREATER JUMP THAN YOU’VE TAKEN PREVIOUSLY? By a long, long way! It’s the first album where we’ve had to ask ourselves if we even like some of it because we got so far away from our typical style. We rejected more than we’ve ever thrown away, probably about 30 songs. So far I think each record has been a slight

immediately if they FEEL something.

YOU’RE BACK FOR 2000TREES THIS JULY, IS IT A FESTIVAL YOU’RE PARTICULARLY FOND OF? Yes! Actually, they tried to book us loads of times in the past, and we were always somewhere far away and couldn’t do it.

When we finally made it in 2014 for the first time, we totally loved it, so it’s gonna be great to return. We’re keeping our live stuff very sparse until we have more new music out, so it says a lot that this is one of the offers we chose to take.

WHO ARE YOU KEEN TO SEE ON THE LINE-UP? At the Drive In of course, then it’s always good to see friends like Turbowolf, The Xcerts, Black Boney. There’s also a cool band we’ve met from tour in Belgium called Brutus who it’ll be good to see (and probably the only drummer lead vocalist apart from me, haha).

WHAT ELSE DO YOU HAVE GOING ON OVER THE SUMMER? I can’t tell you that, yet. P BLOOD RED SHOES PLAY 2000TREES FROM 12TH-14TH JULY. DISRUPT THE NOISE 7

THE JOY FORMIDABLE ARE BACK

The Joy Formidable have returned with new song ‘Dance of the Lotus’, and announced a couple of UK shows.

Catch them at the Lexington in London (22nd August) and Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff (23rd).

HOP ALONG ARE RETURNING TO THE UK

Hop Along are coming back later this year with The Decemberists, to tour their just-released album, ‘Bark Your Head Off, Dog’. The new run will kick off on 4th November in Dublin, featuring dates in Glasgow, London, Bristol, Leeds, Nottingham, and Manchester before heading to Europe.

DEATH CAB ARE PLAYING A TINY LONDON SHOW Death Cab for Cutie are going to play a small London show while they’ve over for Robert Smith’s Meltdown Festival.

The band – who’ve been teasing a new album of late, rumoured to be coming in August – will play the Scala on 19th June, marking their smallest gig in the capital in over 15 years.

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TWIN ATLANTIC DEEP CUTS

T

HINK YOU KNOW ALL ABOUT TWINNY’S BEST TRACKS? Bassist Ross McNae and drummer Craig

Kneale unearth a few of the band’s lesser-known gems.

I AM ALIVE, FROM GLA Ross: This was one of the first songs written for the record. This was one of Sam’s babies. The majority of the structure stayed pretty true to the demo except we added the riff in chorus to give it some weight behind the long extended vocal. To me, it feels defiant. Musically the world is tumbling down around you through the movement of the guitars, but vocally you’re more sure than ever of who you are. The middle eight got a little bit more experimental on the final album version than it had been - something we usually do the opposite of when it comes to distilling ideas in the studio.

Fun fact - The song never saw the light of day live because it was pretty tricky to sing and play and we just didn’t ever have time throughout touring the record to even begin to try and tackle it. Maybe we should try harder and whip it out one day!

DREAMEMBER, FROM FREE Ross: I heard it recently, and it caught me because it’s got this weird kilter to the chorus and especially the verses

that sounds quite playful and exciting.

I’d kind of forgot about the song, but I’m quite proud that we stuck it on an album at that time because we were in quite a ‘rock’ zone at the time and this sounds a bit different. I love all the vocal stuff Sam’s doing in the verses too - it sounds like the kind of thing we’re into with the music we’ve made recently.

VIVARIUM, FROM OLD GREY FACE Craig: A riff based three-minute face melter with a genuine key change. Old Grey Face was a really fun song to get right. It took a minute. We played it now and again when we were touring GLA for a bit of fun and managed to get it right zero times - it even confuses us, and we wrote the thing.

A GUIDANCE FROM COLOUR, FROM A GUIDANCE FROM COLOUR Craig: Does this count as rock opera? It’s over six minutes, and it has many, many parts, so I think so. It’s not as good as Bohemian Rhapsody (obviously) - but for a song, we made when we were teenagers it’s pretty cool. Features the closest thing we have to a metal guitar part near the end too - a route we stopped pursuing as we couldn’t grow good enough hair. P TWIN ATLANTIC HEADLINE 2000TREES ON FRIDAY 13TH JULY.

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GENERATION TERRORISTS

“LIFE IS PAINFUL, NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE”

IT’S TIME FOR A NEW GOOD CHARLOTTE RECORD, AND ‘GENERATION RX’ SEES BENJI AND JOEL MADDEN GOING BACK TO THEIR ROOTS. WORDS: ALI SHUTLER.

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G

OOD CHARLOTTE RETURNED TO US WITH ‘YOUTH AUTHORITY’ IN 2016. IT WAS AN ALBUM ABOUT PROVING THE BAND STILL HAD SOMETHING TO SAY. “IT WAS US SWINGING THE BAT AGAIN, SHOWING EVERYONE THAT WE CAN STILL HIT THE BALL,” STARTS JOEL MADDEN. Already, their new album ‘Generation RX’ looks set to embrace the future; first single ‘Actual Pain’ sees the band stepping into the unknown. “Now, we want to grow,” promises Joel. “Now, let’s see what we can do.”

We’re sat backstage at Slam Dunk.

It’s very warm, and the band’s makeshift air conditioning is whirring away in the corner. “We brought our biggest fan,” grins Benji Madden. It doesn’t matter how big Good Charlotte got; they were always those kids who made good on their dreams. None of that has been lost - goofy dad jokes, sincerity or making what they do count.

‘Generation RX’ “just happened”, he explains. “These days, we try and follow our feelings and not think about much else. Right after the holidays, we felt inspired. We felt like we had something to say,” Taking to one of the studios at their MDDN offices, the band got creative to see if anything took shape.

“We didn’t want to do anything unless there was a point,” starts Joel, as Benji adds: “We didn’t make a record for the sake of making a record. We just started writing; maybe it’ll be three songs? We didn’t know.”

By March though, they were almost done with ‘Generation RX’.

“We love every song on the record.

There’s no filler. Every song on the record matters. It felt like making our first couple of records,” Benji continues.

“Before everyone has an expectation, and you were making records purely on feeling. We’ve been finding our way back to that place. It’s taken fifteen years to do it.”

“There were no expectations,” explains Joel. There was also no timeline, “because we had the freedom to do it like that. Away from the pressure of expectation and working to a plan, ‘Generation RX’ can just be.”

“We made a raw record that feels honest and pure,” offers Benji. “It just happened, and it felt good. It feels gratifying to have the first song come out. We love ‘Actual Pain’. It’s only been out a couple of days, and I’ve already had people come up to me, say they love it and quote a lyric. Already, I feel

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“WE LOVE EVERY SONG ON THE RECORD. THERE’S NO FILLER” understood.

“We love the message behind it and the sound of it. There are pieces of every record in that song. There are pieces of ‘Good Morning Revival’, there are pieces of the earlier stuff we did, but I think it’s a song we couldn’t have done until this point in our career.”

“But the record goes so much deeper,” promises Joel. “’Actual Pain’ is a good introduction to the record but it goes so much deeper, and I’m excited for people to hear the songs because we opened up on it.”

‘Generation RX’ isn’t Good Charlotte making a record for the sake of making a record; there’s a purpose behind it. It looks at “what we’ve had a front-row seat to over the last eighteen years,” says Benji, before handing off to Joel.

“It’s a record all about pain. We see kids in so much pain, and we relate to it. This record is all about that pain. It’s about going in and asking what your pain is and how you deal with that pain. The Opiate crisis in America, it’s personally touched all of our lives, and our family’s lives in so many ways.”

They’ve always just talked about what they’ve known, their music a mirror for what surrounds them.

“It’s interesting to me that we’ve never said anything about it before, but I don’t think anyone realised it was happening until it was too late,” he continues. “This album is all about that inner struggle, and that experience that we’ve all gone through. These are just feelings that come out, and we just try and articulate them.

“It’s not an ad or a promo for some charity,” nor does the record have all the answers. “It’s more about the emotional experience we’re all going through that

gets us to a place where we want to kill the pain that’s in all of us.”

While some people turn to drink or drugs, Good Charlotte turned to art.

“That’s what music was supposed to be there for. That’s what it was for us as kids,” explains Benji.

“We do feel responsible. Life is painful, no matter who you are. Being human is painful, but every artist I know has a big heart. Artists have bleeding hearts, and we do feel responsible. We see kids in pain, and we think, ‘Man, that was me’.

We remember those records that got us through the toughest days.”

Good Charlotte are trying to pass it on.

“For me, as a father, as an older brother, as an older guy in the music scene, I’ve been through it all,” promises Joel. “I’ve done it all. I’m not here to judge anyone or criticise anyone, but I would like to share some perspective.

Hopefully, people can gain something from my experience, and get something positive from it.

“Maybe it’ll help them reflect on their own experience, and if anything positive comes out of even having the conversation, then I feel like we’re contributing in a positive way. It’s important we do our part to try and help people, encourage people and maybe inspire people to love themselves.

Hopefully, something positive comes out of it.”

Last year, Good Charlotte returned to Brixton Academy. It was a show of sincerity, sentiment and connection. It was about the journey the whole room had gone on together, but it was also a reminder of life changes. The one-two of ‘Riot Girl’ and ‘Girls And Boys’ came with a speech about how important it is that

women are allowed to stand up, speak their minds and express themselves.

“I got a little girl at home, and I want her to grow up in a world with no sexism, no racism, no hate,” explained Joel Madden. “And it starts with us. It starts with how we treat each other and the respect we give each other.”

“It’s very important to us that people understand that, when I was younger, I didn’t know anything. When I originally wrote those songs, that was just my perspective and how I felt about myself. When you listen back to some of those records, we were just making commentary about what we were seeing in the world around us. Now, I have a much greater understanding,” Joel says.

“If you break down those lyrics, those songs were social commentary,” adds Benji. “They were pushing for people to look on the inside and not the outside.”

“I don’t even know if I understood that at the time though,” adds Joel.

“We’ve always been a band that wants to empower. We want everyone to feel empowered, but especially our female audience. Right now, it’s a very important time. I think about it because I have a ten-year-old daughter. What kind of world do I want my ten-yearold daughter to grow up in? Am I contributing to that world or am I not?”

The band want to make sure there’s no doubt about what side they stand for.

If you’ve seen Good Charlotte recently, you know they’re thankful: grateful they’re still here, and that they were

given a chance in the first place.

“We feel indebted,” starts Joel.

“There are kids who just got into Good Charlotte last year, and we’re seeing them at our shows. Then, there are people who have been listening to us for eighteen years. They’re all important to us. The legacy of the band is in their hands. This is a legacy for my children.

It’s important to us, and it’s solely in the hands of the people that listen to our music. We feel really grateful.

“We want to connect with the people that are listening to our music. We want them to know how much we appreciate it and the only way we can show it is up there on stage. The Brixton show was special. This crowd in the UK stuck with us at times when no one else gave a shit about our band, and now people have caught up. We’re doing Ally Pally, and we’re going to do stuff that we’ve never done before.

“We’re going to bring a show we’ve never given anywhere else because we do feel indebted.”

It’s easy to forget that Good Charlotte scratched their way to the top, and fought for everything they got.

“I don’t know if people could get a real picture into where we were at when we were younger, and before we got a chance to do music,” starts Benji, before Joel adds: “And how much this changed our lives.

“It changed the trajectory of our family for generations. When you listen to the new record, there’s still that sense

of us trying to reach out to the underdog and to the kids that we were. Kids that were a little left out.

“We didn’t have the same chances as some kids, but what we’ve realised growing up is that every kid has a tough time. It doesn’t matter what household they’ve come from; there’s a lot of different forms of poverty.

“I hope people that people who listen to our music, but especially the ‘Generation RX’ record get something positive from it. I really, truly hope they look within themselves, and they find what’s special about them. They love themselves, they believe in themselves, and they’re not afraid to be idealistic.

“I think it sounds very idealistic sometimes, and it may sound naive, and I know we live in a cynical world, but what I see around me is not enough people loving each other. There are not enough people celebrating each other’s differences.

“At this moment in time, it feels very combative. People are all fighting, I just look at everyone, and I hope they aren’t looking outward at other people for their answers. Let’s build each other up.

Hopefully, people listen to this record, and people feel understood,” smiles Joel.

“One of the biggest things we need as human beings is to feel understood,” adds Benji. “I hope when people hear this record, they feel understood. I hope they feel felt.P GOOD CHARLOTTE’S ALBUM ‘GENERATION RX’ IS OUT 14TH SEPTEMBER.

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. THE FAIM S .

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HE GREAT ESCAPE IS ALWAYS UTTER CHAOS. For a few days in May, the thriving music hub becomes supercharged, with almost every available venue, pub and basement playing host to artists from all over the world. This year, there are even a couple of tents on Brighton beach as TGE tries to fit it all in. That sense of urgency rushes about the weekend as people dart about, trying to catch a bit of everything. We were there. We caught it all. These are the best eight bands we saw all weekend.

1. BODEGA

FESTIVALS 2018

THE BEST 8 BANDS WE SAW AT THE GREAT ESCAPE WORDS: ALI SHUTLER PHOTOS: PATRICK GUNNING, SARAH LOUISE BENNETT

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The thing about a festival like The Great Escape is that it runs on sheer excitement. There’s a promise, an expectation, around everything and at the Green Door Store, it quickly becomes apparent that the secret is well and truly out about Bodega. The band aren’t on for at least another thirty minutes, but the venue, the bar, even the garden outside is at absolute capacity. The queue that runs back towards the train station just gets longer as the band tear into their set. Their music is angular but accessible; they talk of disconnect while wrapping themselves around your heart.

They carry warnings about a near future while having the most fun imaginable.

‘Can’t Knock The Hustle’ is a firestorm of sideways glances and tongue-in-cheek attack, stomping its feet to get what it wants. ‘Jack In Titanic’ pulls itself apart in front of a flickering black mirror, sunshine smiles and nervously darting eyes, while ‘How Did This Happen’ sees the band holding their heads and updating their status as they look around at the world, and themselves, in despair.

From the gut, spirited, and with buckets of thoughtful conviction, Bodega are somehow playing above any and all expectations.

2. THE FRIGHTS

‘You Are Going To Hate This’ promised The Frights back in 2016 on their second album, but as they kick into their first ever show in the UK, they couldn’t be more wrong. Between then and now, the band have grown comfortable with their own shape and tonight they show off every sun-scorched side.

From the opening rattle of ‘Kids’, through the fuzzy angst of ‘All I Need’ that quickly drops to something quieter, more vulnerable and more exposed until the rolling bleeding heart of ‘Submarines’ that somehow transforms into a karaoke cover run of Green Day, Journey, Smash Mouth, The Killers, Shaggy and back again, The Frights are on terrifyingly joyful form. It’s chaos front to back.

3. BULLY

A few years back, Bully were the talk of this town. With just a few scratched songs to their name, everyone wanted to see what all the fuss was about. A couple of albums later, the band are just as intense, just as soul-quivering and just as brilliant. Down at The Arch, they blaze through a set that says it all.

Their debut album saw them riding waves, being pulled this way and that by longing and new found freedoms.

‘Losing’ sees them more in control. Side by side, they scatter and whirl about the space, purging and confronting at every angular snap. The sabotage explode of ‘Feels The Same’ sees them static and steely-eyed, ‘Kills To Be Resistant’ places them in the middle of a battle between head and heart while ‘Running’ cracks walls and tears up pages. “I’ll admit it; I get anxious too,” it snarls. The buzz might have been replaced by something less transient, but Bully roar louder than all others.

4. VALERAS

Piling into the front room of The Black Dove, Reading five-piece Valeras are basically on top of one another. Guitars are carefully swung to deliberate rhythms, and a bass almost hits someone in the head. There’s little room to manoeuvre but Valeras are nimble quick.

Their songs unfurl before us. Unearthing surprises, taking detours, the scenic route or simply changing direction, the set flows without fear. Valeras are bold in everything they do. ‘Painkiller’ hangs in the air, glinting and electric while ‘Louder’ has no time to waste floating on down. Razor sharp and tumbling, it’s a jagged ball of cut flowers, dying leaves and curled lips.

Valeras have absolutely no right to be this stunning in a pub. The next day they play Patterns, a bigger stage and with bigger emotion, they’re still ridiculous, and they still dwarf the space.

5. PEANESS

If there’s a more joyful band than

. BODEGA S .

Peaness, well, they’re definitely not in Brighton this weekend. Filling up Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar before doors have really opened, the band feed of that excitement and their set is a chattering triumph of smiles, sarcasm and taking feelings of disappointment and making them . DREAM STATE S . glitter.

‘Oh George’ is a volcanic anthem of being let down, twisting betrayal into heartbreak as the hop along music only highlights what might have been.

‘Seafoam Islands’ loses itself is daydream escape and ‘Same Place’ fizzes about the place as it comes of age with a spoonful of honey, a pocket full of sunshine and the fear of change. A new song ‘How I’m Feeling’ glints in the basement as Peaness shine a light in the darkest of times (or venues).

6. THE FAIM

The Faim are going to get a lot of comparisons to Fall Out Boy, Panic!

At The Disco and All Time Low, and for good reason. Just like those bands, The Faim take the everyday and make it magical. From the moment they walk onto the stage of The Hub, they sparkle. With only three songs out in the wilderness, The Faim still manage to inspire a whole-hearted devotion for the duration of their set. Already this is a band who aren’t going to be content with standing still.

There’s a swagger to ‘Saints Of The Sinners’, a stage owning stomp backing up ‘Summer Is A Curse’ while ‘Midland Line’ reaches for the stars in the glint of the spotlight. Tonight, The Faim will have to make do with the sweat-soaked ceiling. Triumphant, trusting and with everything before them, The Faim are ready to take on the world.

7. DREAM STATE

Dream State released ‘Recovery’, their new EP, today, so their set at the Latest Music Bar should be a celebration. Instead, there’s an extended soundcheck, a drum kit that won’t stay in place and technical problems that just won’t quit.

Fortunately, nor do Dream State. The

set is stop-start, meaning the band never really hit their stride, but the second they’re able to start playing, they switch it on.

The cinema expanse of ‘New Wave’, full of determination, hard fought battles and the need for new beginnings, sees the band snap into life. ‘In This Hell’ just wants to feel something and CJ is going to make sure she’s not alone. Grabbing the audience by the scruff of the neck, she’s determined and dynamite. ‘White Lies’ explodes, passion and pain cutting deep as the band embrace the flaws.

It’s far from perfect, but Dream State use that to their advantage, forging a genuine connection in a room that would best most bands.

Later on, they play The Hub, and everything falls into place. CJ has the crowd in the palm of her hand as she scrambles about the place, maintaining eye contact and belting out her truth.

There are tears, splendour and sparkle as Dream State play with the conviction of wanting everyone to hear what they’ve got to say. Always unafraid, Dream State are bold and lit up in technicolour.

8. NERVUS

After days of hype, it all ends with Nervus. We already know they’re great.

New album ‘Everything Dies’ is a bloodsplattered lesson in survival and tours with Creeper and Milk Teeth have put their music in front of an audience that really cares. Tonight at Sticky Mike’s, it’s late, and the festival is in its death throes, but that doesn’t stop Nervus from having the best time.

There’s a smirking cover of Nirvana’s ‘Territorial Pissings’, a glinting dance across ‘Sick Sad World’ and the glitching parade of ‘Nobody Loses All The Time’ is a carnival anthem in hope in a hopeless place. Fists in the air, a wiggle of the hips, their music is tightly wound and unblinking but stands proudly with open arms. Everyone is welcome here, just as long as you’re not a dick.

Each fiery turn is a hit, connecting squarely with the crowd and leaving a lasting impression; there’s fun to be had in every moment. Nervus’ set is genuine, weighted and without fault. P DISRUPT THE NOISE 15

GET UP!

THE KIDS ARE UNITED INDIE-ROCKERS THE GET UP KIDS RETURN WITH THEIR FIRST RELEASE IN SEVEN YEARS, AND THE BONDS HAVE NEVER BEEN TIGHTER. WORDS: ROB MAIR

“M

Y WIFE SAW US PLAY LAST YEAR AND SHE SAID, ‘YOU KNOW, THERE’S SOMETHING THAT WORKS WHEN YOU GUYS ARE TOGETHER – BUT YOU GUYS ARE ASSHOLES TO EACH OTHER’. AND WE ARE,” LAUGHS THE GET UP KIDS’ MATT PRYOR. “That phrase, ‘We’re loyal, like brothers’ [from the song ‘Red Letter Day’]; we are.

Watching my sons fight and get along, it’s like us. We fight a lot, but ultimately we’re on the same page – and hopefully, something good comes out of it.”

Indeed, with ‘Kicker’, the group’s new oh-so-short four-song EP, something very good has come out of this relationship.

Something so good, in fact, that plans are being concocted that puts the future of the group on solid foundations after a seven-year absence from recording material.

Pryor’s certainly upbeat. He’s currently at home, sitting on his porch, having taken his kids to school and spent some time in the gym earlier in the day. And even upbeat doesn’t quite cover his mood; he’s bubbling with excitement; excited for people to hear ‘Kicker’ and excited for people to hear what comes next for The Get Up Kids.

Seven years is a long time to be away from recording, but when Pryor says

16 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

‘Kicker’ “comes out swinging”, he’s not wrong. Sure to appeal to fans old and new, it’s a charged EP filled with big singalong choruses and easy on the ear indierock melodies. A throwback to the group’s earlier sound, it makes for a triumphant return, wrapped up in the image of the ‘sport’ (well, pastime) of foosball.

“The EP has a dual meaning,” considers Pryor. “Yes, we like foosball, but it’s also a kicker of an EP; four fast songs, and also like a new beginning – like kicking off a new chapter.”

Burned by the experience of selfreleasing 2011’s ‘There Are Rules’ – and bummed about the response – The Get Up Kids took some downtime. This time away turned into a “malaise”, as band members concentrated on other stuff, such as going back to school or raising a family.

Then, last summer, Pryor came to a realisation. Having just done a solo tour – and with the five members of The Get Up Kids (completed by Jim Suptic, James Dewees, Rob and Ryan Pope) with a free diary – they decided to hit the studio and see what happens.

“It was like ‘Why am I putting so much effort into this other stuff? Why don’t I just double down on Get Up Kids stuff?’

“No matter what I do it’s always going to be Matt Pryor (of The Get up Kids), so I might as well lean into that. Once that

decision was made, it was just about making it happen. It was a lot of nagging,” he laughs.

Ever eager to experiment (“We’re not Madonna though,” attests Pryor), the group set themselves a challenge: to see what The Get Up Kids of twenty years ago – the ones who made ‘Something To Write Home About’ and ‘Four Minute Mile’ – would make today. With ‘Kicker’, such ambition came about accidentally, but with an album in the works, and tentatively pencilled in for early next year, they’ve deliberately decided to push this idea to the limit.

“I’m still trying to get my head around it,” confesses Pryor. “The only way that I’ve come up with explaining it is in the lyrics. I couldn’t write a song about how I miss my girlfriend now that I’m forty-one, but I can write a song about how a friend of mine passed away. It’s a similarly raw subject to talk about, so it’s trying to find the things thematically in life that can be a modern, grown-up version of what we did when we were twenty – without it being derivative.”

Perhaps one of the reasons for this new-found optimism can be seen in the shifting musical landscape in which the Get Up Kids of 2018 find themselves in. In 2011, the emo revival wasn’t on anybody’s radar. Seven years later it has been and gone – and seen a whole raft of bands

“WE FIGHT A LOT, BUT ULTIMATELY WE’RE ON THE SAME PAGE” MATT PRYOR embrace a DIY way of life and a debt of gratitude to The Get Up Kids’ early sound.

Now the group are in a position to reclaim their legacy – something which Pryor seems to have made peace with.

Modern Baseball, for example, described opening for The Get Up Kids at Riot Fest as a bucket list moment. Frank Turner, meanwhile, told Pryor that his first band used to cover The Get Up Kids. Such comments have led Pryor to come to terms with the group’s influential history – reconciling and reclaiming it from the alienation felt in the mid-late 2000s.

“I feel more comfortable now with what people tell me is our musical legacy than I did ten years ago,” Pryor says. “If someone’s like, ‘[The Get Up Kids] were a big influence on me’, and if I can really listen to them and be

like, ‘Wow, they are really fucking good, I wanna be influenced by them,’ then that’s something I can be proud of.”

This sense of acceptance – comfortableness even – translates to the group’s internal relationships. With five passionate characters working behind the scenes, it’s unsurprising that conflicts would arise. Pryor admits this is the happiest he’s been in the band for a long time, and it sounds like the lines of communication are better than ever.

“We have a weird sort of common language that only the five of us and maybe three other people speak – inside jokes and a sort of shorthand page where we can communicate with each other without saying anything.

“But at the same time, we’re all incredibly stubborn people, so there’s a certain kind of Voltron magic when you get the five of us together, but sometimes you have to fight for it.”

Where things have changed, however, is in knowing what people’s strengths are, and in using them, says Pryor. “We all now have enough outside experience to be like… if I bring a song in, I’ll look at Rob and Ryan and say, ‘You two need to work out how we’re going to fuck this up’. That’s something we didn’t do so well in the past.”

And this is what, in essence, makes ‘Kicker’ so exciting. The four songs are

marked by the talents and songwriting skills of the five Get Up Kids; the chaotic effervescence of ‘Maybe’, the glorious layered pop of ‘I’m Sorry’ or the timeless charm of ‘Better This Way’. “We have to take that piece of coal, put it into The Get Up Kids machine and turn it into a diamond – hopefully – rather than another shitty piece of coal. But each of us has to put our mark on it,” comments Pryor.

‘Kicker’ is, quintessentially, a classic Get Up Kids record, brimming with the urgency and drive of youth, but coloured by twenty years of experience. It’s also another pitch-perfect EP and one that could take things full circle for a band that continues to evolve.

“My hope is that the people who have written us off because they didn’t like what we tried in the last 15 years, will hear the EP and be like, ‘Oh… I’m intrigued’,” says Pryor. “And, when they hear the record, they’ll be like ‘Shit… let’s go back and listen to those weird records’.”

Like a sleeping giant fighting history and expectation but waking from its slumber following the wilderness years, ‘Kicker’ is a real throwback to the trophyladen glory days. On this strength alone, expect a full-blown title challenge when the full-length drops next year…P THE GET UP KIDS’ EP ‘KICKER’ IS OUT NOW.

DISRUPT THE NOISE 17

CAN’T SW EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT...

NEW JERSEY’S CAN’T SWIM HAVE NOT LONG RELEASED THEIR DEBUT ALBUM ‘FAIL YOU AGAIN’. HAVEN’T INTRODUCED YOURSELF TO THEM YET? NOW’S YOUR CHANCE - CHRIS LOPORTO RUNS US THROUGH A FEW FACTOIDS ABOUT HIS BAND. WE’RE FROM KEANSBURG, NEW JERSEY.

We all live within five minutes of each other and grew up as friends. I started the band myself, writing songs on my laptop as a hobby, which turned quickly into a full-time project after getting signed by Pure Noise. Our record was being heard all over the world before we even got into a room together to play the songs live.

18 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

THE GIRL ON OUR RECORD COVERS IS MY EX-GIRLFRIEND.

music that really feels our own.

She is 19 years old on the cover of ‘Death Deserves A Name’, and 26 on ‘Fail You Again’. She is the majority of lyrical content in all my songs, and the main reason I started Can’t Swim. A past lover who turned into a dear friend over the years who I can’t thank enough for making this all possible.

WE ALL GREW UP WITH VERY DIFFERENT MUSICAL BACKGROUNDS.

DANNY RICO, OUR GUITAR PLAYER, IS ALSO THE BAND’S PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER.

We have recorded all of our own releases so far, and he has produced every song we have made. We don’t go into some fancy studio but rather our living rooms to make

I never sang a day in my life, and our very first show was the first time I put my mouth to a microphone in front of anyone.

Greg grew up playing guitar in a technical metal band and hadn’t played bass in almost ten years when Can’t Swim started.

Andrea plays every instrument and was doing her own electronic band, where she sang and played keyboards live, when she joined the band. Danny, started the band playing drums and then moved to guitar, but he also grew up playing drums in a fast hardcore band and fronted an alternative rock band called Mason Avery.

DREAM STATE ARE PLAYING DOWNLOAD (10TH JUNE), 2000TREES (14TH JULY) AND BURNED OUT (4TH AUGUST).

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

DREAM STATE HATS

WIM Mike and I played in a Jersey hardcore band which is how we met, shortly after that we decided to start doing Can’t swim stuff.

ALL OF OUR SONGS ARE ABOUT PERSONAL EXPERIENCES THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN MY LIFE.

‘Hey Amy’ is about our town being destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. ‘Molly’s Desk’ is about my grandfather passing away. ‘Death Deserves A Name’ is about my girlfriend’s abortion. ‘What’s Your Big Idea’ is about my close friends turning to drugs. One Shot is about my parents’ relationship. I try to cover everything that’s affected me in some way or another emotionally in the last 29 years. P

Bed head is a challenge on the road. We’re usually crashing on sofas for the night or running on a tight schedule, so hats are great for covering up that dishevelled look!

TRAVEL PILLOW

Sleep is invaluable on tour, so a good travel pillow and sleeping mask can make all the difference when we’ve got a long drive between shows. Add in some headphones or earplugs, and you’ll be dreaming in no time!

GAMES

We don’t get a huge amount of downtime on tour, but video games are great if we just need to kill some time. Fortnite, Pokémon Go and Super Mario are the current staples.

BONG AND VOCALZONE

I promise that this is not a bong! It’s my vocal inhaler that makes steam for you to breathe in and clear all the gunk from your lungs and vocal chords. Vocalzone throat pastilles are also amazing for decongesting your airways and making sure we’re on form.

DISRUPT THE NOISE 19

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

DANCE OF THE LOTUS

The first taster of a new album from the Welsh three piece, this was first handed out to fans via their mailing list. STREAM ‘DANCE OF THE LOTUS’ ONLINE NOW.

CAN’T SWIM EVEN IN DEATH

This was the last track recorded in the sessions for debut album ‘Fail You Again’.

STREAM ‘EVEN IN DEATH’ ONLINE NOW.

THE FAIM

SUMMER IS A CURSE

“It’s about the paths that we take, the dreams that we have, and the things we leave behind to reach them,” says excellently named vocalist Josh Raven. STREAM

‘SUMMER IS A CURSE’ ONLINE NOW.

QUEEN ZEE SASS OR DIE

It comes backed with a demo of another new track, ‘Medicine’, and follows up on previous track ‘Victim Age’, ‘FYI’. STREAM ‘SASS OR DIE’

ONLINE NOW.

SPRING KING US VS THEM

The second taste of their second album, Spring King are in ferociously fun form right now. FROM NEW

ALBUM ‘A BETTER LIFE’, OUT 17TH AUGUST.

LISTEN TO THIS

AS IT IS

THE WOUNDED WORLD

As It Is have made daring fashion and musical choices for their new full length. FROM NEW ALBUM

‘THE GREAT DEPRESSION’, OUT 10TH AUGUST.

THE FEVER 333 TRIGGER

Frontman Jason Aalon Butler says ‘Trigger’ is a reaction to gun violence. You can read his statement on upsetmagazine.com now.

STREAM ‘TRIGGER’ ONLINE NOW.

GOOD CHARLOTTE ACTUAL PAIN

There’s a new album, and a big old European tour on the way.

This is the first taster. FROM

NEW ALBUM ‘GENERATION RX’, OUT 14TH SEPTEMBER.

THE MENZINGERS TOY SOLDIER

Like someone jumping out of a big cake, ‘Toy Soldier’ is a surprise treat from The Menzingers. STREAM ‘TOY SOLDIER’ ONLINE NOW.

DISRUPT THE NOISE 20

THE BEST NEW BANDS. THE HOTTEST NEW MUSIC.

22 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

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

BODEGA

Following their top set on Upset’s stage at The Great Escape last month (which you can read more about later), New York City’s Bodega are about to drop their debut album ‘Endless Scroll’ - and it’s bloody good.

GRAYSCALE

This lot recently supported As It Is on tour - frontman Patty features on their debut album, ‘Adornment’, you know - and went down crazy well at Slam Dunk. Get their summery, pop-punk vibes in your ears.

HOMESAFE

The latest project from Knuckle Puck’s Ryan Rumchaks - plus Tyler Albertson, Emanuel Duran, and Joe Colesby Homesafe are newly signed to Pure Noise Records, and have a debut album due imminently. Exciting stuff.

SNAIL MAIL L SNAIL MAIL’S LO-FI INDIE ROCK TUNES COME STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART, AND ARE QUICKLY GAINING THE MARYLAND ARTIST AN ARMY OF FANS ALL OVER THE WORLD. WORDS: LILY BECKETT. INDSEY JORDAN, BETTER KNOWN AS SNAIL MAIL, HAS BEEN VERY, VERY BUSY. SPEAKING TO THE TEENAGE STAR AT MATADOR RECORDS AFTER A SOLD-OUT GIG AT LONDON’S OSLO, SHE’S STILL BUZZING, FULL OF ENERGY FROM THE NIGHT BEFORE. “It was a great night. It was so sick,” she enthuses.

Touring isn’t a new concept for Lindsey, who’s been and done this all before, despite the fact she’s only just about to turn nineteen. The last time she was in London, she was here for another sold-out show. This time, gigging in the city has become a little more intense, with the addition of back to back dates all over the USA, UK and Europe over the course of two months.

“Rapid-fire is an entirely new experience,” she laughs. “You have to change your attitude, learn to live differently. Touring before was like going on vacation and getting to go home afterwards. Now, we have to learn to live on the road.”

Despite barely having a moment to rest and recuperate, Lindsey admits that having to play a new crowd night after night isn’t the worst thing in the world.

“I’ve grown up and learned what works for me. It’s a skill, it’s tricky, but I like it. I love travelling, and I’m so excited to be doing this tour right now.”

Snail Mail released her first EP, ‘Habits’, in 2016. Since then, she’s been writing, touring and setting herself up for the release of her new album, ‘Lush’. To the Maryland-based singer, the term ‘lush’ isn’t simply a positive affirmation used predominantly by the Welsh amongst us. In her mind, the name draws on the ‘sensory immersive’ direction she’s taken the album, which promises deep storylines and all-encompassing sounds.

According to Lindsey, the record will tell a

“A LOT OF PEOPLE DON’T UNDERSTAND THAT BEING A WOMAN ISN’T A GENRE” LINDSEY JORDAN

story of personal growth.

“It starts off wistful and positive; then there’s a ‘fuck you’ song on there, ‘Full Control’. It levels out at the end of the record, with this self-actualisation song, ‘Anytime’, which is kind of an ode to the realisation that the most healthy thing you can do is separate yourself from relationships that aren’t conducive to self-growth.”

Lindsey confesses to being a perfectionist-slash-super-control-freak with very strong ideas of what she wants to create. In terms of the role she assumes as an artist, she sees herself primarily as a songwriter who plays shows, and when it came to creating the ‘Heatwave’ music video, the performative process didn’t come naturally, despite the polished final result.

“Outside of playing shows and writing music, I feel like a fish out of water and unskilled. It becomes so not my field that I get so flustered, and I don’t even want to do it anymore. I get really weird about the things that get aligned with Snail Mail; I don’t like it when people get their hands on my brand.”

Also, Lindsey would appreciate if people would make an effort to delve a little further into her music before automatically lumping her in with other women who also happen to play guitar

and sing.

“We’re all making music which is different from one another, and when we’re thrown in together like that, it takes away from what we’re doing as individual artists. A lot of people don’t understand that being a woman isn’t a genre.

“You get those people who are like, ‘I love women!’, and I think they took the exciting fact that there are many women in music right now and ran with it in a way that devalues everyone’s individuality.”

Her straight-talking attitude goes hand in hand with a refined mix of musical heroes who have inspired her to love music since early childhood. She explains that Fiona Apples is her “biggest musical, performance and personal inspiration.”

“I saw her play with my mom when I was young, it was incredible. She’s not scared of being straightforward and giving herself to the audience. I’ve always been in awe of her; she’s just so bold.”

Other artists cited as influential in Lindsey’s formative years include Electrolene, Grizzly Bear and Paramore.

Asked about her current tastes and her most-played on Spotify, Lindsey whips out her phone and reels off dozens of names, adhering to no specific genre.

“Velvet Underground, greatest classic band of all time. Casey Musgrave, any of her stuff. I like The Big Thief and Alvvays; those guys are doing some great work right now. Also, Crying, from New York.”

She hastens to add that she finds minimal-techno music pretty cool, too.

It’s suddenly very easy to see how Snail Mail came to find herself in the middle of a sold-out international tour.

Lindsey possesses the confidence to point out what’s right and what’s not in the world, an infectious enthusiasm for music, and, perhaps most critically, the palpable desire to create something that’s totally her own. P SNAIL MAIL’S DEBUT ALBUM ‘LUSH’ IS OUT NOW.

DISRUPT THE NOISE 23

MODERN MAPS

C

ALIFORNIA TRIO MODERN MAPS ARE A MYSTERIOUS BUNCH - JUST TRY GOOGLING THEM, IT’LL TURN UP NAFF ALL. WHAT WE DO KNOW? THE TRIO RECENTLY SIGNED TO RISE RECORDS, AND BY THE TIME THIS ISSUE OF UPSET LANDS (HELLO), THERE’LL BE A DEBUT ALBUM TOO. VOCALIST TREVER STEWART LIFTS THE LID ON SOME OF THE INTRIGUE. HEY TREVER, INTRODUCE YOUR BAND - WHO ARE YOU ALL? We are a three-piece rock band from Los Angeles, California. Our band consists of; Trever Stewart on vocals, Matthew Hall on drums, and Dominick Hall on guitar.

Modern Maps was born when brothers, Matthew and Dominick, posted an ad to Craigslist searching for a vocalist. Lucky for me, they weren’t psycho murderers, and my vocal tryout went well.

WHAT’S BAND LIFE LIKE SO FAR? Band-life while preparing for [debut album] ‘hope you’re happy.’ has been incredible! Fortunately for us, Rise

24 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

Records has backed our vision 100% since day one and gave us as much time as we needed to bring the record to life.

YOU’RE VERY DIFFICULT TO GOOGLE YOU KNOW, DID YOU HAVE AN ONLINE PURGE? IS THIS A FRESH START? Oohhhh that’ll change soon enough. Yes, this is a completely fresh start for us. We wanted our first impression to be of our most true form as artists. We feel like this record is the best representation of who we are and it marks a perfect launch point for our career.

HOW DID YOU SIGN YOUR RECORD DEAL WITH RISE? We flew up to Portland, Oregon last year to demo two songs with our close friends and producers David Knox and Ryan Furlott. After completing the demos, they reached Rise’s ears. They were so fond of those two demos that before the end of the day they offered us a record deal and had us march our butts right back into the studio.

IS YOUR ALBUM TITLE ‘HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY.’ SINCERE OR SARCASTIC? Both. Depending on the tone in your

voice, it can go either way. It could be honest, or it could be a giant middle finger. In this circumstance, it’s a form of goodbye, and it’s honestly both.

WHAT WERE YOUR KEY SOURCES OF INSPIRATION FOR THE RECORD? ‘hope you’re happy.’ is an extremely personal collection of music that details the loss of love and the rolling wave of self-doubt that comes along with it. The inspiration behind this record came from exploring those events and translating them into music. ...Also BBQs, Mario Kart 64, and Teddy and Maggie, the studio dogs.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES FACING UP-ANDCOMING BANDS AT THE MOMENT? For me it was finding my confidence.

There are so many amazing pieces art in the world that it’s so easy to get discouraged about your own. Not just bands, but all artists should understand that just because there is so much incredible art in the world, that doesn’t mean that it’s better than your own. P MODERN MAPS’ DEBUT ALBUM ‘HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY.’ IS OUT NOW.

THYLA B BRIGHTON POST-PUNK HAS NEVER SOUNDED SO GOOD. WORDS: LIAM KONEMANN

RIGHTONIAN ROCKERS THYLA HAVE HAD A BIG FEW MONTHS. THEY’VE BEEN DROPPING BANGERS LEFT AND RIGHT, WENT OUT ON THE ROAD WITH INHEAVEN, AND PLAYED SCORCHERS AT THE FIRST FEW FESTIVALS OF THE SEASON. UPSET CAUGHT UP WITH THE FOUR-PIECE TO DISCUSS ALL THINGS 2018 - FROM THEIR FIRST FEW SINGLES OF THE YEAR TO THE UNIQUE STRESSES AND ANXIETIES THAT COME WITH SUCH RAPID MOMENTUM, AND ON THROUGH TO THE ETERNAL QUESTION WHAT’S NEXT?

LIVE AT LEEDS? It was really cool playing the Dr Martens stage at LAL, it was right in the middle of the high street, the weather was glorious, and the crowd were ace. We’re super excited for the ones coming up too!

IT’S BEEN A BIG YEAR OR SO FOR THYLA. DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE GATHERING MOMENTUM AT THE MOMENT? It’s only May, and we’ve done our first tour and released two singles. The response to both the live show and recordings has been immense so yes definitely!

‘I WAS BITING’ IS ABOUT YOUR DISCOMFORT WITH SOME ASPECTS OF MODERN SOCIETY. WHAT IS IT THAT UNSETTLES YOU, AND IS THIS SOMETHING YOU EXPLORE A LOT? These are themes we explore a lot in our songwriting. We all feel that there are lots of dystopian elements to today’s society namely in the wake of the social media climate. Ironically, more so than ever before, one can feel very alone. Our songs convey that anxiety.

YOUR RECENT TOUR INCLUDED YOUR BIGGEST LONDON HEADLINE TO DATE - WHAT WAS THAT TOUR LIKE? It’s always nerve-wracking playing a headline show out of your hometown. We couldn’t have asked for a better turnout at ours, that show was super special for us. We didn’t play London on tour with INHEAVEN, but the experience was epic as a whole.

HOW WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE AT THIS YEAR’S EARLY FESTIVALS LIKE

YOU’VE SAID THAT MORRISSEY WAS A BIG LYRICAL INSPIRATION FOR YOU - HOW DO YOU BALANCE OUR INSPIRATIONS WITH THEIR PUBLIC PERSONALITIES? DO YOU STILL CONSIDER HIM AN INSPIRATION? Of course I do. Personally, I feel people are entitled to their opinions regardless of whether they agree with my own. His lyrics will always be an inspiration to me.

‘PRISTINE DREAM’ WAS ABOUT STICKING TO YOUR GUNS AND DOING WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. IS THAT THE WAY YOU GENERALLY TRY TO APPROACH THINGS OR IS COMPROMISE SOMETIMES IMPORTANT? It’s important to take advice from the ones you love and respect, so yes compromise is important. It comes down to a ‘check yourself in the mirror’ mantra.

“MORE SO THAN EVER BEFORE, ONE CAN FEEL VERY ALONE” You’ve got to love who you are and what you do. Life is short.

CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT WRITING AND RECORDING ‘BLAME’?

‘Blame’ grew out of the chorus riff; it was one of those songs that materialised really quickly. We all caught the vibe almost instantly. ‘Blame’ is one of our favourites to play live, the response is always awesome. We really tried to capture its raw live energy on the record.

IT’S A SONG ABOUT JEALOUSY AND ANGER, AND PEOPLE TRYING TO BE LIKE SOMEBODY ELSE. DO YOU THINK THIS IS SOMETHING WE ARE ALL MORE GUILTY OF NOW THANKS TO SOCIAL MEDIA? Definitely! Most people are totally immersed in social media; life is now fed through Insta filters and with that, for me anyways, comes a heavy serving of insecurity.

WHAT’S NEXT? We’re gonna focus our energy on writing, with an EP in mind. We’ve got some exciting shows coming up too. P THYLA’S SINGLE ‘BLAME’ IS OUT NOW. DISRUPT THE NOISE 25

LIVING COVER STORY

PROOF

26 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

BY THIS POINT STATE CHAMPS ARE EFFECTIVELY POP PUNK ROYALTY. WITH NEW ALBUM ‘LIVING PROOF’, THEY’RE SET TO CLAIM THEIR THRONE. WORDS: JACK PRESS PHOTOS: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT

DISRUPT THE NOISE 27

F

IVE YEARS AGO, ALBANY’S STATE CHAMPS WERE PUTTING OUT THEIR FIRST RECORD ‘THE FINER THINGS’, WHICH FOR THE MOST PART WAS THE CULMINATION OF SEVERAL YEARS OF PLAYING HOMETOWN SHOWS AND SKIPPING OUT SCHOOL. FAST FORWARD TO NOW AND THEY’RE ON ALBUM NUMBER THREE, AND MUCH LIKE ITS TITLE, THEY’RE LIVING PROOF THAT BUSTING YOUR ASS DAY IN AND DAY OUT PAYS OFF. “’The Finer Things’ was our fun thing, it was us introducing ourselves,” muses frontman Derek DiScanio. “Then ‘Around The World & Back’ comes along, and it’s like, woah, how many bands even get a chance to do a second album? And out of those bands, how many of them actually outdo their first album, and take it to a whole new level? Not many, but we did.”

Derek’s currently flitting between dressing rooms, bathrooms, and corridors at Zurich’s Dynamo club, moments away from headlining State Champ’s first ‘Living Proof’-era show.

The band’s spirited brand of pop-punk has taken them from their state-capital hometown of New York’s Albany to sharing arenas with the likes of Fall Out Boy and 5 Seconds Of Summer, to gearing up for their first trip to South America - and they’ve paid their dues to make it to album number three.

“Now we get to do a third record, and that’s more pressure because we have to outdo both of those albums,” Derek continues. “To do that we had to step back and realise what we wanted to do and whether it’s worth it with where we are in our lives personally, and as a band, because we exhausted ourselves from that whole cycle.”

Touring 2015’s ‘Around The World & Back’ for just over two and half years saw the band use up every single inch of their souls, leaving their power banks empty and their motivations questionable. Jet-lagged and jaded, the Champs had a new record to write while the world was still upside down.

“All of a sudden we found ourselves in all these cool spots, working with all these producers, and we’re partying and meeting all these new people, and we’ve all got relationships going on. Then we come home, and it’s like, what the hell is going on? It was a lot to take in all at once, and we had to stop and reflect.

“At the end of the last cycle, I had a relationship that ended. It was a longterm and a long-distance relationship, and it was the first time where something like that really got to me, and

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“WE’RE NEVER GOING TO DO ANYTHING THAT WE DON’T WANT TO DO” it was the first time I felt a kind of way about it and had something to say.

“The idea of ‘living proof’ is that we made it out alive. That’s why I think it’ll connect with the fans, because everyone has ups and down, everybody goes through bad times and rough parts, but it’s up to yourself to realise how you can get through that and find the light.

Everyone faces adversity in life, but you’ve got to find your own path, and you have to stand back and embrace your independence, to be the living proof in your own way.”

‘Living Proof’, thematically, is State Champ’s most personal record, a cutdeep tell-all that documents the struggle between the personal and professional realms of being a global superstar. Much of the album questions whether the band are really where they’re at, and why.

On revolutionary songs like the softer ‘Future Hearts’-era All Time Low-vibes of ‘Our Time To Go’, the realisation of being where you’re meant to be is something co-founder Tyler Szalkowski echoes.

“It’s the reminder that we’re where we’re supposed to be,” he says. “We all need that. Whether you’re in a band or not, we can all agree it’s fucking hard to be alive sometimes, so songs like that help me realise we worked our asses off to get here, and yeah, we’re here by some lucky chance, but we’re truly here for a reason.”

H

aving navigated an avalanche of obstacles in their personal lives and the perils of selfdoubt, the band sat down with a myriad of household names in pop-punk and alt-rock to put the pieces of the ‘Living Proof’ puzzle together.

Not only is the album a much deeper

line of work lyrically, but it is a far more dynamic record sonically than they’ve ever done before, exploring the extremes of pop-punk, pushing its traditions to its limits in a remarkable modernisation that’ll split opinions more than a Donald Trump speech.

One of the key players in this polarising shift in sound is co-writer and producer John Feldmann, renowned for helming make-or-break records for the likes of All Time Low, Blink-182, and 5 Seconds Of Summer.

“We were curious to see how it was going to go, because a lot of our friends had worked with him, and we heard he could be good or bad,” admits Tyler, expressing a sense of insecurity towards sharing a room with a man who pushes bands to think outside of their boxes.

“We didn’t know what was going to happen,” Derek continues. “Like, for all we knew, this guy was going to come in and make us write pop songs.

“There are certain things you hear, like - he can not necessarily ruin bands, but you never know what’s going to happen.

Even now, as the singles are coming out, we’re getting comments like, ‘You’ve been Feldmannised’. What does that even mean?”

“He’s good at getting honest feelings out of you,” Tyler adds. “He wants to talk to you about your life and what’s going on in it, and he wants to take your feelings and turn it into art.”

Working with old friend Alex Gaskarth from All Time Low, and ‘Around The World & Back’’s masterminds, Mike Green and Kyle Black, the band allowed themselves to evolve their straight-up pop-punk into a maturer sound. They were uncompromising in what they wrote and how they wrote it, ensuring

“WHO WANTS TO HEAR THE SAME RECORD THREE TIMES?” it always had the State Champs seal of approval.

“A lot of people doing co-writes wind up getting a song that sounds nothing like their band,” states Tyler, “because whether they’re shy or not, they don’t want to upset the person they’re writing with. We’re not shy in that regard. If we don’t like something, we’re just going to tell you because we’re not going to waste our time with something that doesn’t feel like us.”

“We’re never going to make songs that we didn’t want to make,” Derek picks up.

“We don’t have anyone telling us what to write or what to play or what’s going to be a single or what’s going to go on our record. That’s why we love what we do; we’re never going to do anything that we don’t want to do. There’s no sell out term in our vocabulary.”

It doesn’t matter how far the State Champ sound stretches as the records pile up, they’ll always maintain the same ethos they’ve always had - that just they’re five guys making music, playing shows, and living life.

Co-writing songs, working with John Feldmann, taking on bigger budgets - it’s enough evidence to convict the band of trading up. ‘Living Proof’ juggles and juxtaposes the changing faces of State Champs, running the gamut from piano-led alt-rock ballads to straight-up Warped Tour pop-punk ripped right from the pages of ‘The Finer Things’.

“A lot of people have their doubts,” reflects Derek. “They think we’ll be sell outs and write all these pop songs cause we work with all these producers, but a song like ‘Criminal’ being the first song [on the album], which goes straight to the punk beat, like a fast Warped Tour circle pit vibe - it’ll catch a lot of people off guard. It’s Champs, it’s a pop-punk song for sure, but it’s polished, too.

“After doing all these writing sessions with all of these people, and starting to think outside of the box, we had all

these demos of songs that made us think, are these really Champ songs? Ae we going somewhere we don’t want to go?

We definitely did, but that’s okay. It’s okay to explore and try new things. If it works, it works; if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”

E

xploring unknown territories, thematically and sonically, was all-important to the continuation of State Champs and their evolution as musicians, who ultimately found themselves lost in the sound of their own band, bored before they had even really began, meaning a new palette of sounds was just what the doctor ordered: “It breaks up the monotony of it all. It doesn’t matter how much you love it, we’ve played ‘Elevated’ like a thousand times, so it becomes second nature. It’s not like it’s boring; it’s like driving a car, - it can be fun, but most of the time it’s just ‘whatever’.”

When making music and playing shows become more of a chore than a career you enjoy, things have to change, because who truly wants to stick to their guns and sleep in a safety blanket? Not State Champs.

“That kid’s boring, man,” Derek laughs.

“Who wants to hear the same record three times? You can go and listen to ‘The Finer Things’ if you want to hear a raw-ass pop-punk record, and when you want to hear some more epic-sounding pop-punk, you can listen to ‘Around The World & Back’. If you want something next level and change the game, but still be State Champs, ‘Living Proof’ is for you.”

Perhaps now, more than ever, because of their need to create music that was once again enjoyable for themselves to listen to and play out on the road, they sound more like what they want State Champs to be than ever before, whether the fans like it or not.

“Look back to our first record,” Tyler starts. “We’re all six years older and so much shit has happened in our lives. We

have more mature mindsets and with that comes a more mature style of music.

“We didn’t feel any pressure to be anyone but ourselves this time, and that’s the difference maker. What you hear is what we wanted to have on the record, there was no forced things; there was no ‘Put the song you don’t want on’.

We just got to be ourselves.”

They put away the pressures that came with recording their second album and focused on writing the songs they wanted to make, ignoring the expectations they’ve always slaved to live up to, Tyler explains.

“We’ve always had in the back of our minds the expectation of our fans going, ‘This is a pop-punk record, if it isn’t strictly pop punk I’ll be fucking mad’. This time we just didn’t feel that pressure, and I think we’re on the good side of that.

It’s not our crazy stoner record; it’s not a fucking bunch of delay pedals and a bunch of bullshit. It’s still the same band; it’s just a little bit more us.”

They’ve bitten the bullet and accepted that ‘Living Proof’ won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, but that’s not a bad thing at all, even if it is eating away at the back of Derek’s mind.

“I’ve been psyching myself out in my head like, maybe it’s just one of those things that’ll take people a few listens to really get into it? Then I’m like, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I want people to love it off the first listen, but it’s not that easy, especially when you’re trying to show a new side to your band and evolve yourself because you’ll always have those fans who want the old Champs.”

Two of their co-writes, Alex Gaskarth and Mark Hoppus, have been through the same motions State Champs are going through, having both taken their bands from straight-up pop-punk to sounds as different as alt-rock and synth-pop, and the two ultimately influenced ‘Living Proof’’s stylistic change. The latter of the writers being the one they never saw coming, a pinch-me moment if there ever was one.

“If you’d have told me that five years ago I’d tell you that’s fucking impossible,” laughs Tyler.

“He just shows up one day, and he didn’t even know about our band, but he asked if he could hang,” says Derek, sounding like a kid on Christmas morning. “Thirty minutes go by, and it’s just Mark and me taking a hike outside John Feldmann’s house, and he wants to know about my life, and he’s asking me about what stories I want to tell.

“We start writing lyrics right away, thirty minutes into meeting him and I’m freaking the hell out in my mind, but I’ve got to play it cool because it’s Mark DISRUPT THE NOISE 31

Hoppus. That was something so totally different that I wasn’t expecting, but because of the situation, I learnt a lot.”

Mark not only made dreams come true for the inner Blink-182 fans they were, but he also co-wrote lead-single ‘Dead & Gone’ and the record’s most polarising piece, ‘Time Machine’; an antiballad built around piano and bass that wouldn’t be out of place on a modernday ATL outing.

“Mark had a bass in his van, and he plugged it in and started mapping out the structure of this real dark song. It was the day after the big mass shooting in Las Vegas, and we were sat around thinking, we should write a dark song to match the mood. Like, let’s write a song about losing someone and not being there to save them. So we start writing lyrics, we get the idea of the time machine, and we start adding piano, and we’re like, this isn’t a pop-punk song, is this even a Champs song at all? No, no it isn’t.”

“It was very organic and natural, but something very different and outside the box. We weren’t even sure it was going to stay on the record, but we’ve got Feldmann calling us up afterwards when we’re picking songs for the record, and he’s like, ‘If you don’t put ‘Time Machine’ on the record, you’re tripping.

It’s seriously special’. So we rolled with it because we were confident in it, it’s unique.”

U

nique is the word that’s always kept State Champs at the forefront of what they do, always two steps ahead of their peers commercially and critically, flying the flag for the current wave of pop-punk. However, it’s something the band simply can’t comprehend.

“Someone tried to say we’re top of the genre and people look up to us, and I was like, what the fuck, since when?’”

Tyler muses. “That’s not shit we even realise now. We don’t carry the flag going, we’re the leaders of the fucking scene.

“It feels strange, and it’s very flattering, but it blows our mind. We started this band to play shows in our hometown; we named it State Champs for a reason.

I mean, I’m doing this interview from Switzerland, man. We never thought that’d happen... world champs, baby!”

State Champs were never meant to leave their state; it was just five guys hanging out and playing music that sounded like bands they liked, and now they’ve got bands doing that over them.

“There’s a band from Albany where we’re from called Perfect Score, and bands are naming themselves off of our songs. I thought that’s a thing you only

32 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

do because you’d name your band Man Overboard after a Blink-182 song, or a Green Day song. Why would you do it after a State Champs song?” exclaims Derek, shocked at the sheer surrealism of it all.

“We never set out to be anything’s fucking compass,” adds Tyler, “or anyone’s purpose. We’re just a bunch of guys who make a shit load of mistakes and find ourselves in the same situations as everyone else, but that’s the beauty of music, being able to share your experience and having grown from it.”

Growth. Life. Maturity. Three words that bound together ‘Living Proof’ and the world State Champs currently inhabit. They may be resting on cloud nine, but they know more than anyone else that it could all be gone in a matter of minutes. They’re not letting the hype, praise, and scene-leading phase them.

“You don’t get anywhere by thinking everything you do is fucking awesome,” says Tyler. “You’ve got to be honest with yourself. We can do better next time. It’s not to say what we’re doing isn’t good, there’s just more room to go.”

They know there’s room for improvement, and they’re always striving for the best. The juxtaposition of the two forever sticks out in their mind, often splitting the band between two sides of whether what they’re doing is truly what they want to do. It’s all about the bigger picture, even when it’s pouring with rain.

“Whether it’s a little thing, like a bad show, or something we’re unprepared for, any little mishaps - anything like that can trigger those little thoughts of self-doubt,” Derek explains, “but we do

certain things to block them out. We get our shit together and realise that what we get to do is play music with our best friends every night, and making money, and sharing these experiences with my friends that I can take home and never forget and that I can tell my kids when I’m older. You’ve got to psych yourself out, remind yourself of the place you’re in, and realise how grateful you should be.”

T

he process of creating ‘Living Proof’ - from sharing writing rooms with idols and friends to battling personal demons - has led State Champs to discover new things, to always have in the back of their mind their end goals and whether, ultimately, they can be the living proof that a band of nobodies can become a league of somebodies.

The future is never set in stone, as Derek reflects.

“My favourite part of being in a band is making records and being in the studio, so I’m going to start thinking of that stuff more as time goes on. In no way is that me saying anything is happening to Champs anytime soon, we are definitely going strong for the foreseeable future, there’s no danger zone as such - but we have to think about what we want to do with the rest of our lives.

“We want to make music, obviously, but how possible is that? How realistic is that? We’re going to keep our head on a swivel while enjoying the ride.” P STATE CHAMPS’ ALBUM ‘LIVING PROOF’ IS OUT 15TH JUNE.

“MARK HOPPUS JUST SHOWED UP ONE DAY, HE DIDN’T EVEN KNOW ABOUT OUR BAND”

DEREK ON...

FAN TATTOOS “I don’t think it’ll ever not be strange.

It’s happening more and more too, and people ask us to write simply anything, and they’ll go and get it tattooed. It’s scary! Like, I could just draw a dick right now, and they’ll go and get it. I want it to look good so I do my best penmanship. I’m absolutely going to make sure I spell it right because god forbid I spell something wrong and you go and get it tattooed, which has almost happened. I was like, so sorry, and rewrote it. I get so nervous, but it’s so special to me, and it’s so special to them.

“My mum keeps an album on her phone of all the pictures she finds of our tattoos online, and I genuinely have started to do the same. I literally just take pictures of any tattoos fans of ours have. I see all of that stuff, regardless of whether all the fans think we don’t see all the pictures and tweets they post, we do see everything.”

GENRE-HOPPING “We listen to everything; we like everything, we take influence from everything. It’s super cool that we can fit on bills with 5SOS and then go and play a metal festival with Emmure the next day. That seems extreme, but it’s happened.”

TYLER ON...

MAKING IT “I honestly feel like we’ve made it.

We’re humble people, but we’re selling ourselves short if we don’t say that we have made it to some degree. There’s still a lot more road to go, and a lot more dreams to tick off that checklist, but we’ve done a hell of a job looking back so far. We’ve created something special here by putting our time in.”

SCENE LEGENDS “The fact we can share a stage with bands like Jimmy Eat World and Taking Back Sunday, these bands I used to eat my bowl of cereal before middle school listening to. These were all bands that made me go, ‘That’s so cool, I want to do that’ - it’s awesome.

“I started a band because of Good Charlotte, and we got to tour with them, and I can hope that the bands that started because of us, we can pay that forward for them. It takes care of its own; people really put each other on, and it’s so cool.”

33 DISRUPT UPSETMAGAZINE.COM THE NOISE 33

ZEAL APPEAL

STRANGER FRUIT

PUTTING THE SPOTLIGHT ON ALTERNATE HISTORY VIA BLUES, GOSPEL, AND SOUL-TINGED METAL - ZEAL & ARDOR REMAINS ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING ACTS AROUND. “IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE,” SAYS MANUEL GAGNEUX. WORDS: JACK PRESS

“I

T STARTED OFF AS A JOKE OF SORTS, THE IDEA OF A SECOND RECORD SEEMED FUNNY TO ME AT THE TIME.” A joke. A game. An internet experiment.

Once upon a time on a website notorious for meme-making, one man band Manuel Gagneux made songs in thirty minutes based on the genre choices of random forum readers. Unsuspectingly, Gagneux never imagined that the mixing of spirituals and black metal would ever become anything more than another half hour of his life lost to the internet, and yet after a slew of well-received demos, Manuel Gagneux became Zeal & Ardor.

Now, a year on from the global release of his gospel blues for occultists debut album ‘Devil Is Fine’, Gagneux is walking through the bustling streets of Switzerland, high-fiving friends as he tells Upset all about the second effort he never thought he’d make.

‘Stranger Fruit’, unlike its predecessor ‘Devil Is Fine’, expands upon the projects routes, exploring thematically and sonically the sounds of spirituals such as gospel, blues, and soul while on the other hand, taking the elements of black metal past the occult and into a harsher territory of sound.

While ‘Stranger Fruit’ ties together the sonic palette of a painter under the influence of something undeniably hallucinatory across its sixteen tracks, it wasn’t always clear to Manuel why this sound was as acclaimed across the globe as it has been.

“Initially, it was really bizarre, but the more I’ve played live, the more I’ve understood what people appreciate about it. There’s an emotional catharsis to both elements that gets people at different points, so in hindsight, it makes perfect sense, where it never did before.”

Manuel is a light-hearted spirit, a musician who thinks as much as he laughs, and it seems that often or not, his doubt towards the initial future of Zeal & Ardor has always been down to a crisis of confidence, the worry that such a concept couldn’t be pulled off. Yet, with a debut and several tours under their belts, it’s a living, breathing, machine.

“I think the first record was a proof of concept more than anything else. I had more time to think about what I wanted to say, and I explored more of the negro music side of things as well as the metal side of things, it allowed me to have more fun with it too.”

While Zeal & Ardor has grown from the brainchild of an internet game at the hands of a pondering one-man-band into a fully-fledged touring act, the man behind the madness is still very much the same man, even going as far to write the

“IT’S STILL ME IN LITTLE MORE THAN MY UNDERPANTS IN A BASEMENT TRYING TO MAKE MUSIC” MANUEL GAGNEUX record exactly the way the original was written.

“It’s still me in little more than my underpants in a basement trying to make music,” but, as he adds, it’s an everevolving experience nonetheless. “The main difference was having the experience of already making a record, so I got to be more specific about my intentions, but the process was still fucking similar. I did the demos by myself, and I did it in the same basement as I wrote the first record, and so I got that ‘Oh, we’re back here again’ feel, so it all fitted together.”

Two singles prelude ‘Stranger Fruit’ - ‘Gravedigger’s Chant’ and ‘Waste’ - the former, a straight-up blues number that bubbles and builds hauntingly, the latter proving to be Zeal & Ardor’s first dabble in the aesthetics of Norwegian black metal, brutalist blast beats and distorted riffs providing a plain for shrieking howls, much like a modern-day interpretation of ‘Emperor’.

It seems strange then, that the album would be introduced by its opposites, or is it?

“The thing about ‘Gravedigger’s Chant’ being the first single is that the expectation was that we did a metal thing, and it was harsher than the previous album, so we wanted to really challenge the listener with a pure blues song, as if it was a joke.”

It may have been a joke at first, but the contrasting elements that make up Zeal & Ardor’s bizarre DNA on ‘Stranger Fruit’ comes from a methodical strain of thinking.

“If you follow something harsh with something softer, it’s going to sound even harsher, which is something I stole from System Of A Down. They were the first time I heard such a thing, of having something so soft and melodic precede something so aggressive and harsh, so much so it elevated that harsh part, and I wanted to do that with ‘Stranger Fruits’.”

‘Stranger Fruits’ implodes Zeal & Ardor’s thematic trajectory, stripping back its dedication to understanding the theory of alternative history and instead opting for a more ambiguous set of songs.

“It was important not to have the whole

thing set in one time, and to leave it to be ambiguous. Take the song ‘Servant’, for example, it could be a slave rebellion call to arms but at the same time it could be interpreted as an assessment of the American middle class, and of American Black people now, but that vagueness is important, I’m not a fan of music that’s too obvious.”

Alternative history is still very much a thought pattern for Zeal & Ardor, only this time around it’s infused with the world around him, a symbiotic relationship between similar events in differing timelines.

“Although it’s always been an alternative history thing, it just irked me. I don’t need to address the orange elephant in the room, but the whole affair just got me. Making the music that I do and not acknowledging all of that would just be weird, so I tried to incorporate it as subtly as possible, but it still appears, it’s all there.”

The world may be a dark place, but for Manuel and Zeal & Ardor, it is a world of possibilities, that they’re not afraid of making the most of while it lasts.

“If there’s one thing that I’ve figured out in the course of the last year, it’s that I have no idea how things will develop, so now is probably not the best time to set specific goals. I’m fully aware of how lucky we are, and how rare this all is, so I’m not betting on this going on forever, so we are just reacting to it, rather than acting to it.”

In fact, if the hype was ever to die down, Manuel isn’t afraid of starting from square one again.

“It’s absolutely possible, because when the moment comes when I completely strain myself, or worse a song doesn’t become enjoyable anymore, for me or the listener, that’ll be the time to give it up and start again.”

As jovial as ever, Manuel departs our conversation revealing his next grandiose idea, yet another contrast in the life and times of Zeal & Ardor.

“Maybe I should make the next record a tango-trance thing. The more I think about it; it’s a terrible idea! Oh, think of the possibilities!” P ZEAL & ARDOR’S ALBUM ‘STRANGER FRUIT’ IS OUT NOW.

DISRUPT THE NOISE 35

MAGIC GONE

“SOMETIMES IT DOES FEEL LIKE PICKING SCABS”

PETAL’S KILEY LOTZ IS BACK WITH A NEW ALBUM OF WONDERFUL, INTENSELY PERSONAL TUNES THAT WORK THROUGH LIFE’S CHALLENGES.

T

HE TRANSITION FROM ADOLESCENCE TO ADULTHOOD IS A TREACHEROUS TIME, BUT ALSO A FORMATIVE ONE. IN THIS ERA LITTERED WITH EMOTIONAL LANDMINES, THERE IS PLENTY OF PAIN AND CONFUSION, BUT THERE IS ALSO GROWTH, CLARITY AND, EVENTUALLY, ACCEPTANCE. IT IS THIS CONTRAST, THIS PROGRESS THROUGH LIFE, THAT PETAL MUSES UPON IN HER LATEST ALBUM. Speaking from her home in Pennsylvania, Kiley Lotz – the artist behind Petal, supported by a rotation of musicians – speaks candidly about the events of the past few years that have inspired her latest album, ‘Magic Gone’.

Kiley’s musical career was born from a musical childhood. Her mother, a choir teacher, carted her around to rehearsals from a young age and it was here that an affinity with music developed. She was writing and singing as soon as she could.

“When I finally learnt some words, I started making up songs sitting on the floor playing with my toys, and they would be 20-minute-long songs about flowers and butterflies. My dad said he was impressed, but it was also a little exhausting being on the receiving end.”

She wrote her first proper song at 10, but it insists it was far too weird to be album-worthy. Soon she was learning piano and guitar, and finding inspiration in her favourite artists from Talking Heads and Fleetwood Mac to Whitney Houston and Queen.

“I was attracted to the voices that had that theatrical quality,” she explains, “where you could hear the emotion of everything they were singing.”

Eventually, Petal began thanks to a happy accident. Unsure that her short German name had the sound she was looking for and beginning to get more

WORDS: STEVEN LOFTIN

ambitious in her songwriting, Kiley decided she’d feel less self-conscious performing under another name. It didn’t initially work out, however.

“We started to play shows as Scout, and this one time all these people came thinking we were this other band named Scout which was a lot bigger than us.”

And so, plans changed. While recording the ‘Scout’ EP in 2013, Kiley and a friend Googled simple five letter words. She knew she wanted something feminine, but with a masculine look. One word stood out, and Petal was born. Two years later, her first LP ‘Shame’ was released on Run For Cover Records; an achingly beautiful album with songs written like photographs, capturing the clarity of a moment.

That is the story of how Kiley Lotz became a musician, her character arc.

Having a sense of progression and purpose has been an important part of Kiley’s writing, a preference partly inspired by her love of theatre. In her songs, the story which drives her is her own.

Inspiration appears at all times, and writing a constant process. The bulk of her second album, she admits, had already been written before her ‘Shame’ LP had even been released. “I write slowly; I don’t like to force stuff to happen.”

“There’s always a point in time that is a stimulus for my songwriting,” she explains.

“I can remember exactly when and where I was when the first line of the song came to me. I’m always jotting down memos in my phone, it’s like they just come out of nowhere and I have to try and catch it before they go away. It’s usually the result of a pretty intense feeling.”

The source of this intense feeling is pretty apparent. Since the release of her debut album, Kiley has undergone two significant changes in her life: her decision to come out as queer and leaving New York to undergo mental health treatment in her home state.

In reflecting on this journey, Kiley has formed ‘Magic Gone’ into two parts,

with Side A, titled ‘Tightrope Walker’, documenting her time “before I came out and went to treatment” and Side B, ‘Miracle Clinger’, exploring her time in recovery having accepted her sexuality. As Kiley puts it, the story arc of the album is about “coming out and getting help within the landscape of encroaching adulthood.”

“Initially, it feels so bitter,” she reflects.

“I can’t believe I didn’t see this before.

There’s the anger that you didn’t have the foresight to deal with these things sooner, or that it’s just a joke. You feel resentful at the hand you’ve been dealt. After that initial anger and frustration, you have to deal with the reality of the situation, and then you’re on track to make peace with it.”

Reliving such raw emotions on stage, however, isn’t always easy. “Sometimes it does feel like picking scabs or filing away callouses you’ve built up over a long time.

It’s painful to think about where you were because you still feel all those things.”

Ultimately, however, Kiley admits reliving such difficult emotions has helped her process her past.

“There is that feeling of catharsis, especially on songs like ‘Better Than You’ or ‘Something From Me’. Those are definitely songs from my paranoia, but it’s nice to give that voice a place.”

In both Kiley and her music, there is a strong sense of peace and hopefulness.

The record starts in one place and ends in a very different one. The progression of Kiley’s journey has culminated in acceptance, a halo of brightness around her darker moments. That’s all that matters to her now, the numerical success of the album is secondary.

“It’s cool to have recognition for what you’re doing, of course you want that, but I want to stay focused on the writing and seeing how I can connect with other people. That’s the stuff that makes me love what I do. Everything else is just a perk.

I wrote this record for myself, to process these events in my life.” P PETAL’S ALBUM ‘MAGIC GONE’ IS OUT 15TH JUNE.

DISRUPT THE NOISE 37

DREAMWEAVERS

IF IT MAKES YOU HAPPY...

WITH THEIR NEW ALBUM, CULTURE ABUSE POSE SOME BIG QUESTIONS ABOUT LIFE. “WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?” ASKS DAVID KELLING. WORDS: ALI SHUTLER

“L

ET THERE BE PEACE ON EARTH. LET LOVE REIGN SUPREME,” PROCLAIMED THE INTRODUCTION TO CULTURE ABUSE’S 2016 ALBUM ‘PEACH’. THE BAND THEN SPENT THE NEXT TEN TRACKS ROLLING THEIR EYES AND BURNING THE PAGE, FEELING A WORLD AWAY FROM THAT WISH. INSPIRED

BY A WHOLE LOT OF PAIN, THE RECORD WANTED LOVE, BUT IT WAS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND. NEW RECORD ‘BAY DREAM’ KNOWS IT’S TOUGH, BUT IT WEARS THAT BIG, STUPID HEART WITH PRIDE. “There’s the saying, ‘Shit happens’,” starts singer David Kelling. “But my Mom would always say, ‘Shit is happening’, because it never stops.”

Across ‘Bay Dream’, Culture Abuse try to find a balance between the good, the bad, the ugly and the ridiculous.

“The whole point of it was not to have any outside influence or feel like we’re a punk band, so we have to write a punk record. Instead, these are the songs, this is what I’m feeling. We ran with it. Everyone has an idea of what they want you to do, or be. We made a record that didn’t consider anyone else.”

David sounds confident now, and the record fully commits to that feelings-first mantra, but as ‘Bay Dream’ came to life, there were definite moments of, “wait, what have we done? Is this too crazy? Is this too something else?”

And sure, almost everyone who does something creative gets those doubts. It’s part of sharing yourself. The thing is, ‘Bay Dream’ is very, very different to everything that’s come before.

Last time we saw them, it was Reading Festival, and they were destroying the stage, their equipment and themselves for the show. It would have been very easy for this record, full of “soothing melody and the vocals like a calm wave flowing over the music,” David says, to be a step too far.

“I wanted a cruising record,” he explains. “I

wanted it to feel like ripples in the water.”

But ‘Bay Dream’, beautiful, serene and laid bare, is somehow the perfect next step. It’s the answer to what happens when everything you know shifts.

David has spent pretty much his whole life making music, but it’s never felt like this. Surrounding himself with positive people, he’s been “pulling some weeds, planting some flowers,” around himself.

“The guys that are in Culture Abuse, everyone’s that little misfit underdog,” he explains. “It’s nice to do what we’re doing because everyone is happy and supportive of what anyone wants to do. I’ve been in bands before where the other dudes made me feel like I never did anything right. I was wrong; I was the one holding everyone back.

“I was in a band for six years, we broke up, and I didn’t start another one for four years. I had a freakout, moved to the UK and lived in Swansea for a while.”

Eventually he returned home to tour with a friend’s band, then realised - “You know what? I wanna make some music.”

The first Culture Abuse release was their demo ‘The Day Dreams Of Nothing’.

It’s why this record is called ‘Bay Dream’.

Now dreams are coming true, and the band aren’t holding back.

“It was crazy making the record.

Everyone was just pouring every bit of themselves into it. We had this opportunity to make a record with Epitaph [Records] with no holes barred, so let’s make this beautiful record.

“When we play, it’s still going to be whatever we’re feeling. Most of the time when we’re playing live, I do want it to be a little bit crazy and a little bit of chaos.

I don’t want to play by the rules where you’re told to record a record, then play it live, and it be perfect. I don’t want to be a puppet. I want to go out and have emotions to everything we do.”

People found a kindred spirit in the chaotic, furious, beaten-down-but-not-out voice of ‘Peach’. People would tell David his words gave them hope, even if he didn’t see it himself.

“They’d tell me, ‘The things that you say are so optimistic and positive’, but I feel

“WAIT, WHAT HAVE WE DONE? IS THIS TOO CRAZY?” DAVID KELLING

like it’s just realistic.”

It’s the same on ‘Bay Dream’.

“Life is suffering, and when you come to terms with everything, you can be okay with it,” he starts before asking, “Isn’t that some Dharma Buddhist shit? When you try and convince yourself that life is perfect and nothing can ever go wrong, then when something goes wrong, it’s going to destroy you? But if you accept that, yup, shit is fucked up, life is broke; then when something happens, you’re ready for it.”

‘Bay Dream’ is a record about love.

‘S’Why’ was written backstage at Leeds Festival with David missing his girlfriend, Barbara. “I feel you pushing me forward to the place I want to go,” it starts, diving in with no build up. “S’why I like you around, ‘cos you make me feel good,” it sings, sincere and simple. There’s no pretence, no bluster, there’s nothing fake or added on in those admissions. Across ‘Bay Dream’, it’s truthful: this is how I feel, and this is what I like.

“That’s the whole thing with this band or trying to do these songs, instead of trying to hide it behind some poetry, let’s just write some simple songs that just speak how I’m feeling.”

The album doesn’t just find itself loving other people. It looks at loving what you do, loving where you’re going and trying to love yourself. It admits that it’s never easy, it all takes work but it is possible. Maybe.

“Everything has been hard,” David admits, before pausing. “My Mom has this thing called pulmonary hypertension, it’s an incurable condition, and it’s fucking crazy. I don’t know what to do. Of course she’s the most supportive person ever but we have to leave on these tours but I don’t know how long I have with my Mom. “What do I do right now?” he asks, not knowing the answer. “Do I not go on tour?

Do I choose to stay home, and stay with her? If I don’t go on tour, not only do I piss off our label, manager, booking agent, I let everyone down in my band. It’s not even letting them down but it changes the course of their life, y’know?

“My mum wouldn’t want me to stay, but in the future, am I going to fucking forever be regretful that I was gone for so long when I could have been there? A lot of this record is me asking, what am I supposed to do? A lot of it is me just trying to do the right thing.”

That struggle is all over ‘Bay Dream’.

Homesick in the spotlight, real life versus living dreams. Culture Abuse don’t have the answers; they’re just trying to keep going.

“At the same time, it is what it is. No matter what, you could beg, you can plead, you can barter, what else are you supposed to do but do what makes you happy?” P CULTURE ABUSE’S ALBUM ‘BAY DREAM’ IS OUT 15TH JUNE.

DISRUPT THE NOISE 39

“WE NEVER WANT IT TO GET STALE” TEN YEARS ON FROM THEIR BREAKTHROUGH DEBUT, AND MAYDAY PARADE ARE STILL GOING STRONG. “I NEVER THOUGHT THAT WE’D MAKE IT THIS FAR,” SAYS FRONTMAN DEREK SANDERS.

M

WORDS: STEVEN LOFTIN

AYDAY PARADE ARE ONE OF THOSE BANDS THAT FEEL LIKE THEY’VE ALWAYS BEEN HERE. THE LAST DECADE HAS SEEN THEM BUILDING UPWARDS FROM A DEBUT THAT STRUCK AT THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME. NOW, HAVING SPENT THE BEST PART OF 2017 CELEBRATING THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF ‘A LESSON IN ROMANTICS’, THE TIME HAS COME TO MOVE ON. The fact that their debut is cemented in time and synonymous with a period that many cherish has not only given them an anchor, but spurred them on in refusing to let that be all that keeps them afloat.

40 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

“I’ve always expected as we get older with this, people aren’t going to be as into it anymore, or some of the older fans will be less interested,” frontman Derek Sanders earnestly muses over the phone.

It’s a fair point given the short shelf life of many bands. So assumedly, Mayday Parade feel quite lucky to be where they are then?

“We definitely feel that especially more and more as we keep going,” he offers.

“So many of the bands that were our peers when we first started aren’t around anymore, so it means a lot to have lasted through all that.”

“It’s pretty insane, it really is,” Derek marvels, reflecting on the band’s lasting ability. “I of course never thought at the beginning that we’d make it this far, but we have no plans to stop any time soon, so we’re just happy to be here and keep

on truckin’!”

Enter, new album ‘Sunnyland’. Finding Mayday Parade at a point where things have inevitably grown up, they’ve gone from singing about dreaming of Las Vegas to opening their arms to grander ideas. Of course not forgetting those emo-tinged beginnings, their sixth outing feels like their most complete work to date.

It even includes the self-confessed angriest song Mayday Parade have ever laid down, ‘It’s Hard To Be Religious’, with lyrics such as “everyone knows what a selfish prick you are”, and bile that’s both surprising and refreshing from a band whose ballads having become their focal point.

“The most personal lyrics are the ones that seem to come across the best, and people can attach to it. It’s almost

therapeutic for me,” he begins. “I’m a pretty happy person in general, and I have a great life, [but] there’s a lot of sadness in these songs. This is my way of relief, of getting this stuff out there, and it helps me clarify my thoughts.”

Over the years, as the stages have gotten bigger, with new fans jumping on board, and many tours that have traversed the globe, Derek’s outlet may be his music, but it’s also instigated other concerns.

“There’s almost this mini-depression that happens in that transition period in the days where you have to adjust and are like, ‘What do I do?’” he says regarding post-tour life. “It’s a weird thing, but ultimately, any of the negative stuff that comes with doing what we do is pretty far outweighed by the positives of it and how much fun we have.

“We realise how lucky we are to have this occupation, and almost anything else we could be doing with our lives wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying. We want to be able to keep on doing it for as long as we can, while we’re young-ish,” he says, laughing.

“We’ve been in this band for almost thirteen years now, we’ve changed so much. I was nineteen when this first started, and I’m thirty-one now, so we’ve grown up a lot. With each album, we try and open it up to more things, and new ideas, and we want to keep up with that

and never want it to get stale.”

Fortunately, at least for Derek, there hasn’t been any uncertainty about the future of the group.

“There’s never been even a moment where I’ve felt like it’s getting close to the time to stop doing it,” he says. “It’s always been fun. It has become more like a job than it was at the beginning simply because that’s the reality of it over time, that it’s our job and our source of income and everything, but we realise how lucky we are.”

When it comes to looking back at everything they’ve been through, it all boils down to the beginning for him.

“A lot of the fondest memories are way back in the early days of the band, and some of the first tours we did,” he considers.

“It’s very much a learning period of how to do this; there’s a lot of things you look back on and cringe - like, ‘Oh my god I can’t believe I did that’, but we were figuring it all out.

“When we were in a van, touring, just the five of us with no crew or anything, there was something about the sense of seeing all these places for the first time, and this excitement of we’ve been dreaming of doing this for so long.

Driving city to city, sleeping in the van, playing shows, and starting to see some momentum build - to see more and more people coming to the shows and singing

along... those were magical times.”

The halcyon days are far from gone for Mayday Parade; ‘Sunnyland’ could even be the instigator of a new realm of possibility. Given they’ve spent the last year celebrating their beginnings, it suffices to say Mayday Parade have always been on the right track; sticking to their guns and working hard, and there’s no denying it’s paid off.

“We just put out the first single, ‘Piece Of Your Heart’, and it seemed to get a really good reception. Seeing it as our top song on Apple Music and iTunes was really exciting. It’s been a while since we put out a new song that makes it up there to our number one, that people are listening to more than ‘Miserable At Best’, or ‘Jamie All Over’ and ‘Terrible Things’ all these older songs that are hits.”

While the fans keep the fire lit beneath them, it’s the core of Mayday Parade wherein the real magic lies.

Derek’s ending summarisation of where it all began feels befitting of the rest of their tale.

“We all played in bands growing up, and we were all looking for the right people to start a band with, and when we started Mayday Parade, from the very first practice we ever had, it was just like - this is finally what we’ve all been looking for.” P MAYDAY PARADE’S ALBUM ‘SUNNYLAND’ IS OUT 15TH JUNE.

DISRUPT THE NOISE 41

THE ONLY VERDICT YOU NEED.

42 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

WICKED GAMES

P

anic! At The Disco didn’t Golden cathedrals and Eden paradise, it so much as burst onto the celebrates trust in yourself. scene with their debut Rather than try to outrun his history, album, as create it. It’s Panic! At The Disco use it to give this always been a big ask for present more weight. ‘High Hopes’ hits Brendon to fully escape harder knowing Brendon has always the shadow of 2005’s ‘A Fever You Can’t been a dreamer. Even now, glittering and Sweat Out’, but over the past few years, doused in starshine, he promises “they he’s started to craft a new wave. haven’t seen the best of me.” There’s a 2013s ‘Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to contagious hope living on the bright Die!’ saw him return home larger than side. The stranger crusaders done good, life and add a neon tint to those lived in escape has never felt more inviting. fantasies. 2016’s ‘Death Of A Bachelor’ ‘One Of The Drunks’ and ‘Old Fashioned’ found him the last man standing, keep the spirits high, numbing any something pain by keeping to prove and the glass half something to full and the party say, he embraced neverending. It’s the his history and sort of excess we’ve headed towards come to expect. a future. ‘Pray Across ‘Pray For The For The Wicked’ Wicked’, each song sees him dancing is fully realised, in the moment. coloured in and “To the old, and celebrated. to the new. We ‘The Overpass’ goes dedicate this song uptown with its to you,” starts the funk, while ‘King hyper-positive Of The Clouds’ skip of ‘(Fuck A) embraces the crisp Silver Lining’. lines of the nineties Unapologetic, before someone boisterous and speeds up the disc.

PRAY FOR THE relentlessly Under the silver WICKED energetic, it’s lining though, FUELED BY RAMEN/DCD2 the perfect Brendon once again RECORDS introduction to an chews over the fact e e ee album that refuses he doesn’t trust IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU’LL to slow down. anyone else. “I don’t LIKE... GLEE Panic! At The Disco feel anything at all,” certainly haven’t. he cries.

His time on ‘Dying In LA’ fast Broadway has galvanised the performer forwards Brendon to an unknown future. within. Live, Brendon has always been Surrounded by dreams that came true the spotlight, but now the songs have and the proof that nobody can put limits that same showmanship. ‘Roaring 20s’ on what you can do, the closing track high kicks and heads for the big finish, flickers between optimism and defeat. undercutting the party throwdown with ‘Pray For The Wicked’ is a record of an emotional edge, while ‘Dancing’s Not belief. It’s about making wildest dreams A Crime’ is full of pomp, promise and feel a reality; there’s sadness in the victory, good fanfare. Elsewhere, ‘Hey Look Ma, but resilience to what comes next. ALI SHUTLER I Made It’ is full of untouchable pride.

PANIC! AT THE DISCO

DISRUPT THE NOISE 43

CULTURE ABUSE BAY DREAM e eee

”Be kind to yourself,” beg Culture Abuse on ‘Bee Kind To The Bugs’, as the track shimmies and sways.

The band have followed up a debut record that found itself surrounded by broken glass, scorched earth and not a whole lot of light with a wild haze that oozes summer nights. As their dreams come true, the band throw themselves into every opportunity. In the quiet, they miss home. ‘Bay Dream’ exists in the middle. Joyful, lovely, positive to the point of beaming but nagged by feelings of loneliness and having to force itself to indulge in a little selfcare, the band are on the brink. Bold is an understatement. ALI SHUTLER

DANCE GAVIN DANCE

ARTIFICIAL SELECTION e eee Following up a much-praised album might be a harder job than coming back from something more mundane. 2016’s ‘Mothership’ full-length saw Dance Gavin Dance in top form, meaning there’s a high bar to clear with their eighth offering ‘Artificial Selection’. It’s one they bound with ease, though.

From the soaring ‘Count Bassy’ and its suggestion that “empathy is overrated”, to the hazy, shimmering ‘Shelf Life’ and guttural punch of closer ‘Evaporate’, there’s more than one string to DGD’s bow. Next time round, they’re gonna have to jump even higher. DAN HARRISON

DON’T WORRY

WHO CARES ANYWAY? e ee Don’t Worry’s debut full-length is both heartfelt and raw.

Featuring a charming emotional unravelling set in everyday mundanity, the lyrics are bursting with British references that perfectly juxtapose their lo-fi emo-American sound. The vulnerable ‘Bird’ is a particular highlight, an acoustic, dawdling number that lets gently picked strings take the backseat to the vocals. It’s a record that both delivers on the growth that their previous EPs have been hinting at, and offers a knowing comfort. STEVEN LOFTIN 44 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

CHAMPIONS STATE CHAMPS TRY THEIR HAND AT POP-PUNK EVOLUTION.

T

heir second album, 2015’s punk pals, and influencers All Time Low ‘Around The World And Back’ did on ‘Don’t Panic’ and ‘Future Hearts’, put pop-punkers State Champs State Champs have entered a period of on a transition. ‘Living podium, flying the Proof’ is a safety flag for America blanket selection in the new wave of songs that sound of pop-punk. On like enhanced its follow-up, editions of their ‘Living Proof’, previous efforts, they’ve revisited with the occasional the straight-up curve-ball to eat pizza, write suggest where the songs mentality band are heading of debut ‘The sonically.

Finer Things’ and The Mark Hoppuspainted it in the featured ‘Time polish of ‘Around Machine’ plays out The World…’. like a post-Tom With choruses Blink-182 cut, that collide in while ‘The Fix-Up’ LIVING PROOF your ears like a would fit perfectly PURE NOISE RECORDS tsunami, ready in The Maine’s most e e e ee and waiting recent work, an DID YOU KNOW? STATE for the arenas alt-rock sensitive CHAMPS ARE TOURING THE they should be sheen shining UK THIS OCTOBER. HURRAY! headlining next through. The pieces cycle, opener are there; they ‘Criminal’ lights up just need putting like a New Year’s together.

Eve Fireworks display, alongside single On ‘Living Proof’, State Champs sound ‘Dead & Gone’, and the quotable-heavy bigger than ever, with a songbook of ‘Lightning’. anthems stacked up higher than the Much like their writing partners, popEmpire State Building. JACK PRESS

STATE CHAMPS

MODERN MAPS

TANCRED

Modern Maps are a throwback to a different time. A world of big radio rock bands and gloriously dark antiheroes, they recall big, brash statements delivered by gigantic alternative bangers. Take opener ‘Autopilot’. Writing its intentions a hundred miles high, it’s a sign of a band with true ambition. ‘Heatwave’ pulses, halfway to the dance floor, while ‘Nightfall’ offers out a hand. If there’s a criticism, it’s that Modern Maps are treading well-worn paths, but with hooks this sharp, they more than make the grade. DAN HARRISON

With every passing record, Tancred (aka Jess Abbott, formerly of Now, Now) evolves in unexpectedly beautiful ways. Now onto album number four, ‘Nightstand’ is the most forthright and assured Abbott has ever sounded – and it makes for some deliciously syrupy pop songs, awash with cool textures and hooks that sink soul deep. The result is a masterclass in pacing and storytelling, with Abbott orchestrating a world where pop and purpose live together in perfect harmony. ROB MAIR

ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER

TIGRESS

HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY. eee

HOPE DOWNS e e ee

NIGHTSTAND eeee

WHO CARES? EP eee

With two minialbums already under their belts, Melbourne-based “tough pop/soft punk” (their words, not ours) types Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever are not your average, short-lived buzz band. Now, ‘Hope Downs’ moves further, taking everything that made their previous releases shine and building on it. It’s an album which reflects the beauty and danger of Australia; Rolling Blackouts have a sun-scorched sound, and it’s brighter than ever here, but it’s more picnic at Hanging Rock than barbecue at Summer Bay. ‘Hope Downs’ has been well worth waiting for. ROB MESURE

It’s no holds barred on Tigress’ third EP. Branching out from the titular statement, it’s clear they don’t give a fuck about what anyone thinks - they’re here to play riotous, raucous and rampaging jams littered with good feelings.

‘Paranoid’ and ‘Bring Me Down’ are rocking, while ‘Over Your Love’ features an anthemic call out to lost loves. The self-reflective ‘Hangman’ is more subdued, and that classic ‘90s reverberant edge hits home on closer ‘The Cycle’. It’d be interesting to see what Tigress were to do given the chance to create a full-length; they’re a promising bunch that have all the right ideas in spades. STEVEN LOFTIN

SNAIL MAIL

ZEAL & ARDOR

The teenage years are tough – and rarely has the drama of heartache or the struggle to find your place in the world sounded so palpable as it does on Snail Mail’s ‘Lush’. The product of 18-year-old singer-songwriter Lindsey Jordan, ‘Lush’ brims with angst and broken hearts, its immediacy to the subject matter its most potent weapon. There’s no distance of time to soften the pain, just raw and honest lyrics that pull on heartstrings with all of the power of a seasoned crooner. In this adolescent twilight, truths are precocious and profound – and the results are enchanting. ROB MAIR

Zeal & Ardor’s ‘Devil Is Fine’ was held together with string.

Six tracks, three interludes and a whole lot of ideas, it flirted with something a lot bigger but wasn’t quite sure what path to take.

‘Stranger Fruit’ sees Zeal & Ardor arrive. From the fizzing swell of the opening track to the aching collapse of ‘Built On Ashes’, the band embrace and explore every avenue. Powerful in every decision, deliberate in every move, the record makes everything count. Full of colour, and letting each shade run, ‘Stranger Fruit’ is a masterpiece of excess and control. ALI

LUSH e e ee

STRANGER FRUIT eeee

SHUTLER

GHOST

PREQUELLE e e e ee Ghost have always been an entertainment act.

The stories, the outfits, their evershifting legacy exists for enjoyment. It’s something that ‘Prequelle’ embraces wholeheartedly. From the haunting nursery rhyme of ‘Ashes’ to the roaring disgust of ‘Rats’ until the closing serenity of ‘Life Eternal’, this record plays up to expectation. ‘See The Light’ marches with the sort of shining celebration that’s made for really massive gigs, ‘Faith’ hits hard, glinting with intense direction and ‘Witch Image’ relishes the hellscape the band can inhabit.

Ghost are storytellers and actors. As they’ve been thrust into the spotlight again and again though, they’ve realised there’s no hiding. ALI SHUTLER

PETAL

MAGIC GONE eeeee From the outside world to the thoughts in our own heads - it often feels like it’s all best ignored and left to sort itself out, at least until it catches up with us. That’s the point we arrive at Petal’s latest full-length. Split into two sides, the first, ‘Tightrope Walker’, consists of the songs recorded before Kiley Lotz entered treatment for major depressive and panic disorders, while the second, ‘Miracle Clinger’, is comprised of those written in recovery.

Across the divide comes everything from defiant anger and determination (‘Better Than You’) to the movingly introspective (‘I’m Sorry’, ‘Something From Me’), its ten tracks detailing a journey facing down demons and discovering a hidden strength. It’s a remarkable, personal account of finding a way through. DAN HARRISON DISRUPT THE NOISE 45

ON STAG E. IN HERE .

FESTIVALS 2018

DIVE IN TO SLAM DUNK! WORDS: ALI SHUTLER, STEVEN LOFTIN PHOTOS: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT

. FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES S .

FESTIVALS, EH?.

SLAM DUNK IS. PROBABLY ROCK. MUSIC’S FIRST. BIG STAND OF THE. SUMMER, AND .

WITH A LINE UP. PACKED WITH .

SOME OF OUR. FAVOURITE BANDS,.

THERE WAS MORE .

THAN ENOUGH TO .

GET OUR TEETH .

INTO. HERE’S. SOME OF THE. HIGHLIGHTS....

Kicking off a festival is always a tricky slot, but WOES make easy work of the Signature Brew stage. Powerfully hurling themselves into the lives of onlookers revelling in the bank holiday sun, the Scottish four-piece . KNUCKLE PUCK S . waste no time in reminding everyone why pop-punk is in the heart of all at Slam Dunk with their infectious melodies. Never letting the emotional weight of cuts like ‘HLB2’ hang too heavy, Woes perfectly deliver.

Continuing their victory lap for latest album ‘Shape Shifter’, KNUCKLE PUCK’s vicious riffs and emotive lyrics consume the crowd, which grows larger with each passing track. ‘Want Me Around’ is an instant fan favourite with its singalong chorus, while the vitriol-filled ‘Double Helix’ gets the crowd’s blood pumping.

Ending with the unfathomably quick sounds of ‘Pretense’, it feels like they’ve only just begun and given half the chance could easily take things over to the main stage.

After toiling away for the best part of a year and a half, THE FAIM have finally begun their take over of the world, and it seems that they’re more than ready to step up. The fervent crowd knows almost every song, which, considering only three tracks are readily available, proves the hunger for The Faim is real. Frontman Josh Raven knows how to keep fans in the palm of his hand, feeding the hype that’s propelled them this far while the rest of the band expertly execute their brand of show-stopping, bold punk rock.

The greatest reaction arises for their burgeoning breakout single ‘Saints of the Sinners’, but ‘Midland Line’ feels like it’s

. FOUR YEAR STRONG S .

fast on its way to being the soundtrack for a generation. The cult of The Faim is here to stay.

Last time we saw CAN’T SWIM, it was supporting Creeper at the big ol’ Shepherd’s Bush Empire. On that stage, they were beautiful and deliberate.

Their songs hanging in the air for just a moment before melting into something new. Today, they open The Signature Brew Stage, and they’re a very different band.

Nothing fades as they tear into their set. Gritted teeth, rough edges and a whole lot of something to say, the band are fierce and scrappy. The moments of beauty still shine, but they’re surrounded by jagged edges and broken nails.

Forceful and full of heart, this is Can’t Swim unafraid. This is Can’t Swim at their very best.

The hyper-punk of ‘We All Float Down Here’ is soon ringing out across Slam Dunk as FOUR YEAR STRONG strut onto the stage, ready to do what they do best; play with an energy and conviction few others can muster. Immediately stirring the packed crowd into a frenzy, no single body stands static as Four Year Strong remain untouchable. It’s an unrelenting barrage of riffs and vigour that swiftly takes hold and refuses to let go until the final crashing note of ‘Wasting Time (Eternal Summer)’ rings out.

It’s easy to forget how long SAY ANYTHING have been around. With almost two decades of experience, the LA five-piece have nailed down exactly what a live show should be, and today’s set at Slam Dunk is no exception. Chock-full of spirit and presence, there’s no stopping them as they tear up the stage with their raucous and unstable sound. By DISRUPT THE NOISE 47

rife as the emotional outpouring from frontman Kellin Quinn. Rallying the crowd into a mess of limbs, Sleeping With Sirens know how to keep the energy at palpable levels until the chaos comes to a head with ‘Kick Me’ and they leave Hatfield quaking.

. CREEPER S .

the time they come to leaving, there’s a Say Anything shaped hole torn through the main stage, and there’s nothing but positivity radiating for miles.

CREEPER are used to main stages.

2000trees, Download, Brixton, Ally Pally - they’ve done them all in a short space of time, and they’re spotlight-ready. That dog-eared wide-eyed excitement that came from being allowed somewhere they shouldn’t has been replaced by something else - as the band march onto the stage, Will walks to the very edge and glares at the crowd. Fully embracing their status, the band know today comes with a lot of expectations.

From the moment they kick into ‘Black Rain’, they obliterate them all and find someplace new to take us. There’s an urgency behind every chapter of this steadily unfurling story, from the beg and plead of ‘Suzanne’, through the heartbreak swing of ‘Crickets’ (still dropping jaws and snatching breaths) until the turbulent emotion of ‘Astral Projection’ into ‘Misery’, Creeper find surprises in plain sight.

There’s a weight to this set as well.

With the first birthday of debut album ‘Eternity, In Your Arms’ behind us, with the knowledge that Creeper refuse to sit still at every turn and with only a handful of summer tour dates left to play, moments like today can’t last forever.

Set to unleash their third album ‘Living Proof’ upon the world very soon, STATE CHAMPS are here to cement their place at the forefront of the pop-punk scene. The effect that the success of their last album, ‘Around the World’ has had on the group is evident by the confident swagger they have coming onto the stage, but the integrity with

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which they pull it off is a testament to their dedication to their set. Frontman Derek DiScanio relishes in this opportunity to stoke the energetic fire that’s surrounding his band. Preparing to capitalise on every occasion, the euphoria that surrounds State Champs rides high above cuts like ‘All You Are Is History’ and ‘Secrets’. If anything, State Champs are living proof to the core of pop-punk being alive and (high) kicking.

Another band who are safeguarding the core components of pop-punk, ROAM are starting to establish themselves as newcomers to the mainstay of the genre.

They’re bringing a multitude of melody, heart-on-sleeve lyrics and just a whole heap of fun. Infectiously upbeat, they’re the perfect addition to the Californiaesque heat bearing down upon Hatfield and with the crowd ready and bursting to join the party, it’s a wildfire befit of the essence of pop-punk. Showing off the majority of tracks from last years ‘Great Heights & Nose-dives’, ROAM’s pride on their previous outing is entirely justified given the timelessness they radiate from the Signature Brew stage.

Popping back over to the UK to continue celebrating the release of last year’s ‘Gossip’, SLEEPING WITH SIRENS are far from finished with us. Barrelling through ‘If I’m James Dean, Then You’re Audrey Hepburn’ and ‘Better Off Dead’, they promptly light the crowd’s fuse.

Throughout, the breakdowns are as

. PVRIS S .

“And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you open a fucking show!” FRANK CARTER cooly says, clambering back on stage after finishing set opener ‘Juggernaut’ upside down, legs in the air, seemingly swallowed by the crowd.

And he’s not wrong. Along with more attempts to lead the world’s largest circle pit, and promoting of safe spaces for women at gigs, Frank Carter is an icon whose might grows with each performance. Twinned with The Rattlesnakes, who give a life-force to the justified venom he spits, at this point he’s unparalleled. The crowd know his every move, waiting to greet him like a sea of promise and understanding.

Sauntering off in an oversized animalprint coat as the blues-driven, and snake-bite laden, fan favourite ‘I Hate You’ rings out behind him, there really is no juggernaut quite like Frank Carter.

The legacy of TAKING BACK SUNDAY is iron-clad. Even with founding guitarist Eddie Reyes now missing from the lineup, they’re still holding steady at the core of emo and hardcore with their sights set firmly on the future.

Classics like ‘Cute Without The ‘E’’ and ‘makedamnsure’ still cut as deep as they did a decade ago, while the newer material befits a band who’ve no interest in devaluing the past for any sake of nostalgia. A set that simultaneously feels like it’s been waiting a lifetime to be played, yet fresh out of the box, Taking Back Sunday have no qualms in injecting a burst of vigour into the late afternoon.

PVRIS are always hustling. They barely paused between debut ‘White Noise’ and follow-up ‘All We Know Of Heaven…’ and

since they released ‘Heaven’ almost a year ago, they haven’t stopped. Chasing or being chased, their shows at Reading and Brixton hung on the edge of control.

Chaos never fully out of sight, today sees the band much more comfortable in this second era. The band are all smiles and bounce, from the opening warped poetry that shimmers about the stage to the purge and plunder of ‘My House’ that brings the curtain down on this return.

The band are ever-shifting. Lynn bounces from keys, drums, guitar and roaring into the face of the audience without ever having to play catch up, while Alex and Brian own their space, weaving streams of personality and play into moments of calm, moments of fear and moments of all-out attack. ‘Half’ flickers between light and dark, the band at ease in both before ‘No Mercy’ sees them embrace the fury and the fear that stalks everything they stand for, and lets it all go.

PVRIS are already thinking about what comes next, driven by excitement, challenge and the new, but in this moment, there’s peace, and there’s glory.

A deafening sound of air raid sirens cuts through the noise of Slam Dunk to signal the start of AS IT IS’ set. ‘The Wounded World’ is a proponent of their recent aesthetic change and sounds like a classic in the making, but as soon as ‘Hey Rachel’ kicks into life the As It Is of old are swiftly returned and on greater form than ever. Patty’s liveliness is infectious as bodies spill over each other all the way up until the close out of ‘Dial Tones’. A band who are in no doubt a real treasure of the UK scene, whatever else As It Is have up their sleeves is bound to take things to an incendiary level.

“Sexy is an opinion, reliable is a fact,” JIMMY EAT WORLD told us last time we met, and their headliner at Slam Dunk is a testament to that. Across their ninetyminute set, they blast through some of their greatest: ‘Bleed American’ kicks things off, predictably euphoric; it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve danced this dance with them, Jimmy Eat World still feel exciting. ‘Bleed American’ still shakes with awesome power, sparking something inside the crowd that never fades away.

Jimmy Eat World write choruses to live by, with epiphanies littering moments of all-out surrender. Beaming grins and full hearts, the band can’t help but shine. It might be a greatest hits set, but there’s not one moment that dwells in nostalgia.

The classics feel fresh, delivered with a sense of importance, urgency and a playful disregard for sticking to the script, while the newer stuff takes the band

someplace unexplored.

‘Pass The Baby’ is the heaviest they’ve gone, and live it adds colour and jubilance to a set already dripping with both. There’s lightning in the distance, and if we didn’t know better, we’d say the band summoned it themselves.

Jimmy Eat World have always let their music . GOOD CHARLOTTE S . do the talking. To the point, brash and tracks that they’ve amassed, GOOD unafraid to show themselves, they make CHARLOTTE use their headline slot anthems for victory and defeat. ‘The as a reason to show off exactly what Middle’ has been the star that everything got them here. Bathed beneath a glow else revolves around, it’s promise of of white light, it’s no time at all before “everything, everything will be just fine. the hits attack, one after another in Everything, everything will be all right” an unrelenting mass of singalongs - an idea the band live by. But today Jim and confetti. The behemoth of the goes deeper, making sure it’s message Madden brothers, immortalised in the of hope and persistence isn’t lost in the party-starting opener of ‘The Anthem’, moment. “You’re never down to far where all the way through to defining closer you can’t start yourself back up,” he starts.

‘Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous’, is a “It may seem like you’re just trapped, but statement to the legendary status they’ve you’re not. Ask for help. Take some help. built themselves. The addition of new No one wants to feel different, or treated single ‘Actual Pain’ fits seamlessly into with kid gloves but ask for help. Take a collection of tracks that have been the help.” soundtracking a generation, and will in Slam Dunk is a festival that leans heavily no doubt continue to do so for many to on the past, time capsules of days gone come. The impromptu lightning storm by, but Jimmy Eat World have broken that’s hanging behind the stage is a free. They might be reliable, a band you fitting tribute to the electric energy that can always count on to deliver, but that Good Charlotte make palpable. From the doesn’t take away from how important angst of ‘The Story My Old Man’, to the they are. The world outside is turbulent, biographical ‘I Just Wanna Live’, every combative and uncertain but tonight, song suits a mood and feeling, and most in this moment, Jimmy Eat World are importantly, rounds off a festival that was unifying, electric and full of hope. It started to celebrate who you are, and might not be sexy, but it’s never been where you’ve come from. Something the needed more.

Madden brothers have never A testimony to the abundance of iconic

forgotten. P

. JIMMY EAT WORLD S .

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WITH... THE

FAIM

EVERYONE HAS THOSE FORMATIVE BANDS AND TRACKS THAT FIRST GOT THEM INTO MUSIC AND HELPED SHAPE THEIR VERY BEING. THIS MONTH, JOSH RAVEN FROM THE FAIM TAKES US THROUGH SOME THE SONGS THAT MEANT THE MOST TO HIM DURING HIS TEENAGE YEARS. THE EAGLES - HOTEL CALIFORNIA

One of my all-time favourite songs. I first heard this when I was eight years old on a road trip with my family and even as a young kid who didn’t really pay attention to detail, I was instantly captivated. I don’t remember many things from my childhood, but I remember every moment during that song like it was yesterday.

RED HOT CHILLI PEPPERS - CAN’T STOP

When I first heard this song I was instantly hooked. My mind is pretty erratic, and my attention jumps all over the place, but this song had me sucked in from start to finish.

Even now, I feel like I’m constantly finding more pieces to love about this song.

DISTURBED - SHOUT 2000

In my more angsty years I dabbled in a pretty broad spectrum of sound. Finding different songs that I could connect with emotions that I was still discovering helped me find my own kind of therapy.

When I’m angry, I sing this song with all the energy I can muster and then by the end I’m completely clear. Thanks to my brother Daniel for letting me steal the album from him.

SLIPKNOT - VERMILLION PT 2

I love this band; their versatility and passion is unparalleled. Hearing this song 50 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM

THE COMMITMENTS - MUSTANG SALLY

really solidified my respect for these guys; it was pretty ballsy with the sonic identity they established to come out with a song so stripped back, emotional and mellow.

When I was 15, I stole my brother’s ID to sneak into a Slipknot concert, and I don’t think he ever knew. Until now, sorry Jason.

This band just throws back to my childhood.

Dad had the album on repeat, and at first, I had a typical teenage response: “Dad this isn’t cool”, “Dad do you listen to anything else?” I’m glad he didn’t listen.

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE - NOTHING ELSE MATTERS

THE KILLERS - COVER OF DIRE STRAITS: ROMEO AND JULIET

I’ve spent so many long nights listening to Bullet For My Valentine. I think everyone has a phase of being sucked in by this band.

Looking back, they helped me discover parts of my voice. I respect any band who goes out of their comfort zone sonically.

If you don’t like The Killers, you better respect them because you cannot deny the talent, authenticity and passion of this band. There are countless songs that I love from this band, and I find myself discovering this special perfection that lies in their sound. I personally love the Dire Straits, and I find myself listening to both versions, but I can’t deny my connection to Brandon Flowers voice.

FRANK SINATRA - MONTEREY

Frank Sinatra is definitely a hero of mine.

I love stories, and this man is the king of expressing them. He paints the perfect picture with his warm, passionate voice and lyrics that progress, develop and portray an incredible experience. This was one of my many “teenage heartbreak songs.”

CHUCK BERRY - JOHNNY B GOODE

When I hear this song, I have to dance. It hits this part of my soul that screams, “This is too good to not move too”. Even though I’m a terrible dancer. Chuck Berry is an undeniable legend, and I’ve been obsessed with him since I heard this song.

FALL OUT BOY - I’M LIKE A LAWYER WITH THE WAY I’M ALWAYS TRYING TO GET YOU OFF

I can’t not mention Fall Out Boy. They’re a massive inspiration for me. I love every aspect of who they are and what they represent. Listening through an album I could dance, party, cry or scream out of joy. Patrick is a huge inspiration for me as a writer and a performer. I’ve always felt like Pete is the guy I tried to copy in high school. Smart, slick and sexy. I’ve accepted I’ll never be as cool as Pete. P