Upset, June 2021

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66

upsetmagazine.com

** Plus ** Rise Against Tyler Posey Cassyette Black Peaks Mannequin Pussy Holding Absence + loads more

The greatest hits of

JUNE 2021 Issue 66

RIOT 4. BLACK PEAKS 8. WALTER ETC. 12. MANNEQUIN PUSSY 14. FIDDLEHEAD 18. HOLDING ABSENCE ABOUT TO BREAK 20. SOFTCULT FEATURES 24. WATERPARKS 32. TYLER POSEY 36. RISE AGAINST 40. CASSYETTE REVIEWS 44. WATERPARKS TEENAGE KICKS 46. OUR HOLLOW, OUR HOME

Upset Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Ali Shutler Scribblers Aleksandra Brzezicka, Dan Harrison, Edie McQueen, Jamie MacMillan, Jessica Goodman, Kelsey McClure, Linsey Teggert, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin Snappers Ashley Osborn, Jason Siegel, Judith Priest, Mitch Wojcik, Morgan Stickney, Olof Grind, PHOBYMO, Robert Aaron Nuñez, Sam Lees, Storm Santos P U B L I S H E D F RO M

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

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

HELLO. Do you have any idea how long we’ve been trying to get Waterparks on the front of Upset? It’s pretty much as long as there’s been a) a magazine and b) the band Waterparks. Finally, though, the timelines have worked out. About bloody time.

With their new album ‘Greatest Hits’, they’re as brilliantly nuts as ever - if not more so. As the world starts to move a

little closer to normal, it’s the perfect point to give a band who never feel mundane or boring a debut cover, eh?

Exactly.

S tephen

Editor / @stephenackroyd Upset 3

Riot.

Twelve months on from the release of last record ‘Dark Comedy Performance Piece of My Life’, Dustin Hayes’ Walter Etc. are back. p.8

THIS MONTH >>>

EVERYTHING HAPPENING IN ROCK

“IT WAS KIND OF A NO-BRAINE A live album from a period where there’s been no live shows?

Black Peaks, explain please...

Words: Linsey Teggert. Photos: Sam Lees.

B

y the time this issue of Upset goes to print, Black Peaks’ livestream event, Live At The Brighton Centre has already taken place, and no doubt been rapturously received. It’s also been released via digital platforms, though fans desperate for the vinyl release will have to hold tight until autumn.

“Why cover old news?” you may be shouting. Well, because this cinematic performance will be an important staple in the Brighton band’s history, and because it has once again cemented the fact that Black Peaks are one of the most vital alternative acts in the UK right now.

Even before the pandemic hit, Black Peaks had suffered unforeseeable setbacks, with vocalist Will Gardner suffering a life-threatening illness, thus Live At The Brighton Centre marked 16 months since the band had last played together. In fact, even their

4 Upset

“IT’S BEEN SUCH A WEIRD COUPLE OF YEARS” JOE GOSNEY

last notable show in August 2019 at ArcTanGent festival didn’t feature Will, with Jamie Lenman stepping up to the plate to perform vocal duties.

“It’s been such a weird couple of years,” muses guitarist Joe Gosney.

“Obviously, before the pandemic, we weren’t able to play shows for some time. As musicians, so much of the pay-off of actually writing music and spending all the time on putting the

whole package together is getting out and playing to people, so having this livestream event has been a good point of focus to throw all of our creative energy into.”

Admittedly, the ‘lockdown livestream’ concept has come a long way since the pandemic first shut everything down. Those poor-quality bedroom acoustic sessions have been usurped by live sets with way more impressive production values, albeit played to empty venues.

“At first, we were very much in the camp of ‘we don’t want to do this, they suck!’” laughs Joe. “We thought we would just wait until live gigs come back and then get out and play a real show. But then we started watching a few of the shows with better production that were really good, notably Nick Cave, Biffy Clyro and Architects, and the longer all of this went on, we realised that if we could do something that had the production value we’re happy

Heading to the studio with one song and a bunch of anxiety, Mannequin Pussy’s new EP is the sound of a band in full flow. p.12

Fiddlehead are back with their second album, ‘Between The Richness’. Singer Pat Flynn and guitarist Alex Henery do a deep-dive into the release. p.14

ER”

Upset 5

Riot. with, it was kind of a no-brainer. I suppose at first, it almost came from a selfish place; we just wanted to get on a stage and do our thing for a little bit.”

Despite being filmed in the depths of winter 2020, the band kept the performance top secret until its release four months later in April, though this was down to the full creative control Black Peaks had over the production more than anything else. “We’re so picky about everything, we probably could have kept on going with the details; we just wanted everything to be right with how our music was represented visually. It reached the point where if we’d have kept going, normal live gigs would have been happening again!”

When it came down to visual representation, the venue itself, the iconic Brighton Centre, became a part of the show that was just as important as anything else, with cutaways of the empty venue punctuating the space between each song. This sense of empty space even translates through the audio alone, with emphasised transitions between each track creating an eerie pause for thought.

“We looked at a few different options when we were searching around for a venue - we even looked at the pier at one point. It was pretty tacky in a cool way, but it just wasn’t the right vibe for what we wanted.

We’ve all grown up watching shows in The Brighton Centre amongst other venues, but that’s the biggest one, and we wanted everything for this live show to be as grandiose as it could be, so naturally, it felt like the right place to do it.

“We really wanted the empty space to be a part of it, and we wanted to try and embrace the weirdness of the situation rather than it be this awkward thing where we’re in this 5000-capacity venue playing to ten people. We wanted it to be a timestamp of this moment as we wouldn’t have done something like this otherwise.”

Given how long it’s been since any of us have been able to attend gigs, there’s a huge sense of emotion attached to ‘Live At The Brighton Centre’. Right from the extended introduction to the soaring ‘Aether’ 6 Upset

“HAVING THIS LIVESTREAM EVENT HAS BEEN A GOOD POINT OF FOCUS TO THROW ALL OF OUR CREATIVE ENERGY INTO” JOE GOSNEY

from 2018’s ‘All That Divides’, there’s a sizzling sense of anticipation and electricity. It was also incredibly good to see and hear frontman Will in rude health, back in full powerhouse mode. Someone needs to give that man an award for most impressive set of lungs in UK rock.

“I don’t want to speak on Will’s behalf, but I believe he’s all good now, which is so positive. He had sepsis, which is really serious; he almost died twice. I didn’t even know what it was until I researched it and realised how serious it was, but he’s in good health now.

“It was just so good to be together on a stage again, and what really helped on the day was that everyone felt really lucky to be there. I don’t mean like lucky to be working for us, but just to be working at all. The whole events industry has been shut down, and no matter what was being done, whether it was just pushing some boxes on stage or setting up some lighting, there was such a good atmosphere.”

One of the stand-out tracks from the whole recording is the mighty ‘King’, a stand-alone single released in September 2019 and the last piece of new material we’ve heard from Black Peaks. The track continued along the hugely dynamic path set by their second record ‘All That Divides’, while hinting at the even bigger things to come. Though it, unfortunately, coincided with Will’s illness, the intention was to release the track and bide time while Will recovered and keep the momentum building before touring again and writing a third record. As it turned

out, Live At The Brighton Centre was the first time ‘King’ got a proper outing on a live stage. “’King’ is definitely a sign of what’s to come with us,” explains Joe. “Without giving too much away, I think we hit on something with that song that felt really good, and we wanted to keep pushing in that direction. Of course, it was so frustrating with everything that happened; this is something we’ve all really given our lives to, and we’ve thrown absolutely everything into it, but sometimes things happen in life that can stop you in your tracks.

“Yet there’s so much to look forward to even when everything goes tits up! Everyone has days where you think it’s hard work, but for the most part, we all try to look forward, not back.”

While the circumstances may have broken lesser bands, it’s a testament to Black Peaks’ resilience that despite everything, they’re determined to keep moving forward.

Live At The Brighton Centre proved that despite the setbacks, they are still a force to be reckoned with.

Though work on their third record is still in the early stages, anticipation is already building.

“The positive side of everything that’s happened is that it’s given us patience. The fact we’ve managed to take these hits and work out ways to move forward with it has built us into a band that can take on a lot.

Hopefully, that will serve us for a long time, and we’ll be able to keep going as long as possible.” P Black Peaks’ album ‘Live At The Brighton Centre’ is out now.

Upset 7

ETC.

Riot.

Twelve months on from the release of last record ‘Dark Comedy Performance Piece of My Life’, Dustin Hayes’ Walter Etc. are back.

Words: Rob Mair. Photos: Robert Aaron Nuñez, Morgan Stickney.

I

n an ordinary year, ‘There There’ wouldn’t even be a thing. Coming a little over 12 months since the release of ‘Dark Comedy Performance Piece of My Life’, it’s a mighty swift turn around, even for someone as prolific as Walter Etc.’s Dustin Hayes.

But 2020 was far from ordinary, and even though it’s been a bust of a year for touring musicians, the silver lining for Dustin is the fact that he hasn’t had to drag his break-up album around the world to re-live the trauma on stage night after night.

‘Dark Comedy…’ culminates in ‘Thanks For Growing Up With Me’, a five-and-a-half-minute rumination on learning to let go and moving forward as he meets up with his ex for the final time. Filled with searingly honest lines like “And I regret that the whole time we never took off our sunglasses/I wish we had/I wanna know what your eyes look like so bad”, it’s no surprise Dustin calls it the “ultra-personal, sappy record.”

“I definitely did not wanna play ‘Thanks For Growing Up With Me’ every night on tour,” laughs Dustin, as we chat over Zoom.

“I mean, over time, I’ve grown more comfortable with that record, and a lot of people have reached out to me and said they’ve gone through similar break-ups, which has taken the pressure off – if you can call it pressure. I guess it’s no longer my embarrassing personal jam, but a group of people’s embarrassing jam.

“But a lot of the songs on ‘Dark

8 Upset

“THE CAT HAD SNUCK IN AND MEOWED, AND I WAS LIKE, ‘WELL, I GUESS THE CAT IS ON THE ALBUM NOW’” DUSTIN HAYES

Comedy Performance Piece…’ were a couple of years old for me by the time we released the record, and I had a backlog of stuff I’d written, so with the pandemic and not being able to tour, it was like ‘OK, what else are we gonna do? Well, let’s just move forward with the next album’.

With a flag planted in the ground, it has meant Dustin was able to put this global inertia to good use and move on to ‘There There’, teaming up with collaborators Kris Schobert, Jake Lee and Milk Flud – the same group that performed on 2014’s fan-favourite ‘Well Soon’ (released under the name Walter Mitty And His Makeshift Orchestra).

Since then, Dustin has worked with an array of friends and collaborators, first on 2017’s ‘Gloom Cruise’ and then last year’s ‘Dark Comedy Performance Piece…’, with each album influenced by the musicians and producers behind the record.

‘Gloom Cruise’ (helmed by Jeff

Rosenstock and released on Lame-O) remains a peerless pastel-hued pop record, sun-kissed and breezy despite the serious content matter, while ‘Dark Comedy Performance Piece…’, produced in collaboration with Modern Baseball’s Ian Farmer, has a more frantic indie-punk edge.

‘There There’, however, is neither of these, but instead a grown-up folk-punk record, heavily percussive and stripped back to the bare bones – think early Bright Eyes played by Jack Johnson. It’s an album for slow and lazy afternoons, where its gentle vibe and unhurried pace has the space to breathe. It owes much to the cast of characters responsible for it and the heavy collaborative process in which it was forged.

On ‘Well Soon’, the quartet decamped for a month to Dustin’s house – at the time he was living in Portland, Oregon – with everyone bringing in their own parts. This time, they retreated to a cabin in Big Bear

Upset 9

Riot.

“I’VE ALWAYS WANTED MORE KAZOO” DUSTIN HAYES

– the lakes and mountains behind LA – and approached the writing and recording process in a similar fashion.

“When I wrote them, the songs were all inherently very acoustic and much more laid back and mellow,” considers Dustin. “When the guys came in, they really hit that vibe with what they brought, too. Like, yeah, we might have said, ‘Well, what about putting some full drums on this song’, but often, we just went for the more percussive sound instead because it fits the record’s feel. It definitely has a laid back vibe and far less of a rock band sound compared to the previous record. I mean, there are a couple of rock songs, but not many.”

One such rock song is lead single ‘UBI’. Named after the abbreviation for the concept of Universal Basic Income – where the State would pay citizens a standard salary – it’s an interesting concept for an enjoyable surf-pop number, written from the perspective of a self-important guy mansplaining the concept to his girlfriend, even though he can’t quite grasp the idea entirely.

It’s also a song that is notable for heralding the return of one of music’s most-overlooked musical instruments – the kazoo.

Walter Mitty And His Makeshift Orchestra were synonymous with the instrument – to the point fans would come to shows with their own kazoos to play along on the likes of ‘Compersion’, ‘Holy Cannoli’ and ‘Otterpops In The Icebox’. Yet the kazoo has failed to make an appearance on the last couple of records. “’Dark Comedy’, there was no place for a kazoo, really, and that’s the same with ‘Gloom Cruise’ – they’re slightly more serious records. But I’ve always wanted more kazoo because I love the 10 Upset

way it sounds.

“People think of it as a really ‘kiddy’ instrument – and it is – but to me, it sounds cool and crunchy and soulful, and I wish we could rip it from its juvenile connotations, but I fear those are here to stay.

“But I thought it worked well on the song ‘UBI’ because the song is full of these adult, political concepts, and universal basic income is a boring adult concept and not youthful. I

wanted to juxtapose those things.

Like the lyrics in the song are overtly cartoonish, and it’s a little bit hyperbolic, but I loved the idea of juxtaposing the kazoo sound with the dry economic concepts.”

That’s not to say ‘There There’ is simply an album of political and economic discourse – although written against the backdrop of the fractious 2020 US election, some such ideas do creep in. Instead, it’s

just as preoccupied with nature, being outdoors, spirituality and lifecycles.

Equally, this wide-ranging focus is reflected in the production. Dustin mentions that he repeats the phrase “closer to the source” on the record, and this philosophy underpins the album. There’s little in the way of overdubs or retakes, meaning this stripped-back sound is as close to the original take and idea as possible.

Such dedication means there are

some moments where the band breaks the fourth wall, particularly on the second song on ‘Me Vs The Algorithm’, where the sound of a meowing cat can be heard in the introduction. While Dustin’s cat Gidget has been the object of Walter Etc. songs previously, this is a neighbourhood stray which Dustin has adopted (of sorts) and created a small house for outside his garage.

“I was just touching up the song,

and the cat had snuck in and meowed, and I was like, ‘Well, I guess the cat is on the album now’,” Dustin laughs.

“There’s actually a few things like that on the record where we said ‘Fuck it’ – like that’s what happened when we were recording it, let’s keep it on the record. So just trying to keep it all closer to the source.”

Like the idea of a universal basic income, algorithms are another area of interest for Dustin – and another interesting jumping-off point for a song. Considering the songs and history of Walter Etc. (and Walter Mitty and His Makeshift Orchestra), they’re not an algorithm-friendly band, jumping through styles and names with reckless abandon. Dustin also acknowledges that he’s unlikely to ever write songs that people expect.

By extension, such an approach to artistry means he’s probably shooting himself in the foot when it comes to beating the algorithms.

Equally, he’s been surprised to find that songs that have found their way onto Spotify Radio or Discover Weekly playlists are not ones he’d have said represent the band – even though he’s thankful for any “algorithmic action”.

Instead – and it feels pertinent to the discussion and the themes around the record – Dustin is much more concerned about organic growth and self-sustainability. Much of the press, PR and marketing is done on his own terms, while he also maintains ownership of most of his catalogue.

Similarly, a popular Patreon allows Dustin to support himself and his creativity. Indeed, Patreon-only live streams of the album before launch have proved to be very successful, allowing fans and friends to listen to the album and ask questions and engage with Walter Etc. immediately, removing some of the barriers between band and audience. For an act that welcomes its own kazoo orchestras to shows, such an approach seems entirely fitting: “It’s definitely more direct and authentic [than traditional media interviews]. But for better or worse, I think that goes well with our band.

There’s very little that’s contrived, and we try to be filterless and accessible.

Just straight to the source,” he laughs.

As conclusion’s go, it’s a more than fitting point on which to end… P Walter Etc.’s album ‘There There’ is out now.

Upset 11

Riot.

PERFECT MOMENT

Heading to the studio with one song and a bunch of anxiety, Mannequin Pussy’s new EP is the sound of a band in full flow.

Words: Linsey Teggert.

Photos: PHOBYMO.

“I

’m in control; that’s what I tell myself when all the walls around me close in,” sings Mannequin Pussy vocalist and guitarist Missy Dabice in the opening lines of ‘Control’, the killer first track of their new EP ‘Perfect’. It’s the only completed song that the Philadelphia-based trio brought to recording sessions, and having been written pre-pandemic, the lyrics take on a strange prescience after the last year.

“Honestly, for me, that song was on thin ice; I was like, ‘I don’t fucking know...’” laughs Missy. “I thought we’d maybe give it the axe once we got into the studio, but once we were in the studio, we had our breakthrough.”

The whole recording session for the ‘Perfect’ EP was something of a breakthrough, with the band approaching things in a way they had never done before, writing mainly on the fly with no preparation. This was all done under the expert eye of legendary emo producer Will Yip, who they had worked with on their hugely acclaimed third album, 2019’s ‘Patience’.

“It was so emotional going into the studio - there were all the feels,” recalls bassist Colins ‘Bear’ Regisford. “There was a lot of anxiety, but we walked in there, and all of a sudden, it was just coming out of us; it was too easy!”

“We really hit that magic point where we were all writing together in real-time,” adds Missy. “It’s been a while since I’ve been able to write like that, so it’s good to know that we’re not just capable of doing it, but doing it well.”

The EP that has come from the release of those pent-up ideas is a kickass little gem that represents sonically just exactly what Mannequin Pussy are capable of. ‘Control’ is an explosive pop-punk banger, while ‘Perfect’ is a glorious short sharp blast of the thrashy chaos that the band do best: feral but perfectly executed.

Yet it’s delicate EP closer ‘Darling’ that leaves the biggest impression, building on the quiet vulnerability explored in the heart-breaking ‘High Horse’ on previous record ‘Patience’. At over four minutes, it’s the longest track on the EP, and its shoegazey softness is breath-taking when compared to the EP’s more riotous moments.

“I wanted to do something we’d never done before,” says Missy. “We do the thrashy thing, we do the indiepunk thing, but we’ve never made a

“I REALLY WANTED TO DO SOMETHING WE’D NEVER DONE BEFORE” MISSY DABICE

really soft, minimal song. ‘Darling’ was actually a demo I had from five years earlier and never did anything with, and I’m so grateful to Bear, and our drummer Kaleen for both being very open to making it a Mannequin Pussy song and show this other side of us.”

One of the things that makes Mannequin Pussy so unforgettable is Missy’s confessional and cathartic approach to lyric writing. While the bizarre reality of the last year has certainly been something to write about, the themes of ‘Perfect’ both embody and transcend the frustrations of lockdown.

“It’s hard to envision these songs as being just about the pandemic; a lot of these feelings are things that we all walk around with and are very present in our everyday lives, but they’ve just bubbled to surface under the situation that everyone was put in,” states Missy.

“Whether it’s a song like ‘Perfect’ about the idea that as artists we’re seen as ‘content creators’ and not creative people, or ‘Control’, which is about not having control over what your life is. Or ‘Darling’, where you’re in a room longing for someone else’s touch that you can’t have, or ‘Pigs Is Pigs’, which is about the experience of many Black Americans - all these things, these themes are always happening, and not just within the context of the pandemic. This is reality, and all these things continue to happen, so what do we do about them from here?”

For a band like Mannequin Pussy, live shows are crucial to exploring and confronting reality, allowing a release for both audience and band alike. After the release of ‘Patience’ afforded the band the opportunity to turn music into a full-time occupation, adapting to the new reality of pandemic life just as their career was lifting off has been strange, to say the least.

“Every musician has that issue where they’re always trying to explain to their loved ones that this is what they do

for a living, and they either go, ‘ohhh, okayyy,’ or ‘wow, that’s cool’,” Bear muses. “I felt like we were finally doing something where my parents were going to feel comfortable talking about what I did! It was really hard to come to grips with what to do next.”

As cliched as it may sound, punk rock is definitely not about doing nothing. Despite the shit we’ve all been through, Mannequin Pussy are still strong believers that music can affect a positive change. “I’ve asked myself a lot over the past year: what is the point? What is the point of art, of creating things? What role does it play in our lives?” ponders Missy. “Then when I think about the things that have consoled me, whether that’s movies or TV shows or graphic novels, that’s all someone else’s creativity. That’s about connecting with others through art.”

“Music can always be the answer,” continues Bear. “Sometimes people just see a song as being too much or too aggressive, but often that aggression is necessary to speak to people who need to hear that. You sometimes have to give exactly what it is that people might hate, but you know that there are a whole bunch of people who are like ‘I see you and you actually see me’, and that’s what’s important.”

Talking to Mannequin Pussy and listening to their new EP, one thing is very apparent: going to live shows again is going to be the most incredible feeling. Does anyone else want to take part in a group scream?

“There was a certain point on our ‘Patience’ tour where we invited the entire audience to just scream with us,” recalls Missy. “Like, I know that’s why you’re here, I know that’s why you like Mannequin Pussy! You have something inside of you that you are trying to understand and get out in some way.

When you’re in a room of 500 people all screaming together, it really feels like... ‘woah’. I think we’re going to need that.”

P Mannequin Pussy’s EP ‘Perfect’ is out 21st May.

Riot.

FIDDLEHEAD TRACK

X

TRACK

BETWEEN THE R I C H N E S S

F

iddlehead - the punk powerhouse featuring members of Have Heart, Basement, and more - are back with their second album, ‘Between The Richness’. Singer Pat Flynn and guitarist Alex Henery do a deep-dive into the release.

Grief Motif

Alex: I remember casually jamming a guitar riff with [guitarist Alex] Dow, which would become the crescendo part that we build to in this song, and instantly Pat’s brain starts whirring and begins to explain his idea of it as an intro to ‘The Years’. At the time, I didn’t really understand it, but once we were in the studio and I could hear the transition with both tracks next to each other, it was a no-brainer.

Pat: This song is, in a way, primarily meant to address something I was rather apprehensive about - which was writing another record with some heavy themes of death. As much as I’m past worrying about what the public thinks of me, I still knew I’d probably struggle hearing any person complain that I was trying to profit from grief or make a show of it. That’s one of the big challenges with being vulnerable - the alienating idea that the public may not perceive your pain as authentic clashing with the alienating reality of pain you’re currently experiencing that you know is only going to get better through health expression. So, in a way, this song, and its lyrical repetition serves as both an honest expression of the eternal sorrow from losing a loved one and a real F.U. to any shadow figure in my brain threatening my sense of authenticity.

The Years

Photos: Mitch Wojcik.

Pat: I see these first two songs as entirely interdependent and almost operating as a ‘mission statement’ for the whole record, really. The inseparable nature of this song and ‘Grief Motif’ was intentional. While ‘The Years’ can skate without ‘Grief Motif’, the same isn’t true the other way around. Both lyrically and musically, ‘Grief Motif’ can’t really make sense without ‘The Years’. Musically, ‘Grief Motif’ comes off as random, nonsensical and arbitrary without The Years. Lyrically, ‘Grief Motif’ gets its point across, but the larger album theme of ‘life IN death’ doesn’t ring

through without ‘The Years’ following.

This song, ‘The Years’ is kinda designed to acknowledge and honour the broken-soul nature of ‘Grief Motif,’ but also send the signal that life must continue as it will regardless of our grief. The one-two punch of its beginning and content hopefully make that message clear to the listener.

Metaphor and simile are wonderful literary devices. For me, I’m happy and almost intent on being crystal clear with what I wanted to say as my primary aim, lyrically, was to think of this whole record as a ‘Decade in Review’ spiritual gesture of communication with my father. The remainder of the songs really serve as references to landmark changes and crucial continuities in my life that I constantly wonder what my father would have to say about. Whereas the first record (‘Springtime & Blind’) was an attempt to understand my mother’s grief, this was more of a firstperson take. Equally instrumental in the healing process. So, the big hope with this ‘Grief Motif’ into ‘The Years’ opening was to establish a lyrical / musical theme of light within in darkness as opposed to the previous record’s theme of darkness in light. I think we pulled it off.

Million Times

Alex: This song has an interesting story because after we tracked everything and had time to listen to it in its final form, we weren’t 100% on the direction of the vocals. After listening to an instrumental iPhone demo for months, it’s natural to have an expectation of what it might sound like. Pat now had the incredibly hard job of reworking some of the melodies, specifically the chorus. I didn’t know how he was going to do it, since those original melodies are so hard to shake once you’ve heard them let alone sung them 50+ times. But he did it, and we demoed the ideas with Jesse Weiss, and it sounded amazing. The song was completely transformed, the lyrics and title changed, and it ended up being the first single.

Pat: I completely fucked this song up.

I came in way too confident with an idea and a melody. I didn’t even really check to see if it would work on an actual recording until we hit the studio.

Originally it was titled ‘55’ and was going to be about the weird alienated

feeling of one’s childhood home being sold. In hindsight, I’m so glad that plan didn’t work out as what emerged was a song to fit one of the major events of my life in the ten years since my father passed, which was the breakup and reunion of my high school sweetheart and total love of my life. Our ups and downs are pretty symptomatic of two people who truly love each other, but met way too young, setting up a long road of self-discovery and discovery of each other by way of breaking up and reuniting. The world never seemed to spin like it should in our off-times.

The flavour of life felt off. Not that we are the “meant-to-be” soulmate types, but - we’ve always struggled with knowing that our union is worth the effort. We’re able to laugh at the past now, which is a total gift. The sombre but unserious yet not silly vibe of the song catches the reality of how we look back on our journey from high school dorks in love to being in love and married with children.

Eternal You

Alex: Casey [Nealon, bass] brought this super fast riff to practice, and it was a refreshing to write a high tempo song that was a bit more aggressive sounding than the other songs we had written for this album. I really love the little detail in the guitar part at 0.55 that dow does to exit the chorus, just gives it some character. I think it was Pat who suggested the song should abruptly go to a very soft and sombre outro. Shawn nailed the transition part with the drums; it makes that part so enjoyable to listen to.

Pat: I try to let the music inform the lyrics, hence a song with a maddash and crash into retirement musical orientation that is about an enduring friendship from childhood into adulthood. Originally the song was going to be called ‘Side-Car’, as my best friend Ryan (who the song is about) and I have this plan to buy a motor car with a sidecar when we retired and just cruise around Massachusetts in it every weekend in the Fall like we did in his shitty car when we were pathetic losers in high school listening to At the Drive-In and eating orange creme savers on the way to a hardcore show.

Loverman

Alex: Another Casey riff that we Upset 15

Riot. started jamming at a practice; we played it through first time and just improvised it. I don’t think I’ve ever written a song in one take before, but that’s what happened this time. This is probably the most fun song to play on the record and also is the first time I’ve ever recorded a guitar solo.

Pat: I’ve never written a straightforward, traditional ‘love song’.

I figured I’d go all the way home on this one and let the public make no mistake about the intention behind the lyrics.

Down University

Pat: I’ve walked through my entire academic life with both a love for learning and deep insecurity of my potential. Fortunately, my parents protected me from the bullshit social Darwinian obsession of attaining some ridiculous level of elite status by way of education. I was always told my education was for my soul, the enrichment of my life and how it can contribute to building a world better than the way I found it.

However, the forces of the outside world found their way into my brain shortly after my father passed as I looked to continue my education at the graduate level in History & Education.

My father came from intense poverty and was able to rise above the great challenges of an impoverished start to life and enjoy a decent middle-class life through the forces of the American public education system, a story that is sadly too rare in this country. After he passed, I, somehow in the weird perversions of grief, became obsessed with attaining some BS level of “prestige” via my education. It was not healthy to have such a warped sense of self-doubt and excessive standard.

I became crushed at the prospect of having anything less than a perfect resume featuring the best schools.

I received a wonderful education, completing two master’s degrees that truly prepared me incredibly well for becoming the History Educator I am today and I am grateful. But, the process along the way was unenjoyable and only in recent years was I able to become more in touch with the original message of true education of having nothing to do with social status that my father set for his children. So, this song was somewhat of an expression of catharsis for the weird way I got all up in my head in 16 Upset

such a terribly stupid way.

Get My Mind Right

Alex: I remember Dow showing me this riff years ago, and eventually, the band jammed it in the UK at a soundcheck in Manchester. That set the idea in motion and once we were back in the States we ended up recording it for a 7”. The lyrics slightly change on the outro, but we kept the claps, originally an idea from Jesse Weiss who recorded the track first.

Pat: This is possibly one of my favourite Fiddlehead songs. We wrote three weeks after my son was born and it came together so easily. Dow, [drummer Shawn] Costa and I were futzing around at a gig we had in Manchester a few months prior. He was just noodling on the opening riff and we tinkered around for a second and I knew there was something there.

Fast forward seven months later and we banged this song out within 45 minutes really. I kept listening to the demo and the line ‘Get My Mind Right’ just came to me, which I loved as it was a fun spin on fellow BHC Waste Management’s song ‘Get Your Mind Right.’ I was looking down the prospect of moving out of the city and back into the suburbs, thinking about my sister who has been back there for a few years now.

Life Notice

Alex: For a while every time we met up as a band for a practice we would write at least one song. There was always a natural flow of ideas and this song is a good example of that. Everyone was bringing parts to the song or had an idea and it became a really strong song naturally. I love the intro riff Casey wrote, it’s slightly creepy and ominous but also bright and catchy.

Which compliments the tone of the lyrical content.

Dow’s abrasive guitar part at 2.06 that just runs through the breakdown really stands out to me, I remember hearing that on the original demo and loving it.

Pat: It only occurred to me after the record was done that this song perfectly complemented ‘Eternal You’ - which features a spoken word verse from me about my love for my best friend who I’m lucky enough to still have around and call on at a moment’s notice. The complementary nature of the two songs stems from the fact that

my wife is the person who is reading her eulogy for her best friend from childhood who sadly died from an overdose and is, in contrast to my best friend, no longer around to call on and catch up.

I was so moved by my wife’s response to the terribly lifeless announcement in the newspaper that Heather had died. I recall the page simply saying “DEATH NOTICE: Heather Elizabeth Johnson of Hyannis died at the age of 34.” One’s life deserves so much more poetry than that. So, in response, she pulled together what would be a big gathering of friends and family to commemorate her life and the tragedy of her way to passing.

The effort inspired me to put some music to her life, especially in recognition of her now motherless daughter and tragic way of passing.

I took parts of her eulogy and what I knew of Heather myself and put it to music. Heather was actually the one who informed my deeply insecure 15-year-old that my wife had a crush on me, giving me a boost of confidence to say hello and pursue a relationship with her. She was also one of my father’s AP English and Latin students.

He always remarked on her special contribution to class. She was just so central to so many people and critical junctures of my life, and I therefore felt compelled to get the triumphs of her life into song in a way that could push back on the darkness of her death.

Joyboy

Alex: Having a softer song on the record was definitely important to us, but always hard to navigate as we predominantly have more energetic

songs. Most of the time, I just question, does this work for Fiddlehead? But I think this song is really important in the pacing of the album. There’s a moment to breathe after the chaos of ‘Life Notice’, and it prepares you for the closing song. We used the mellotron on the outro, and that added a really nice dream-like feel to it.

Pat: This is, quite possibly, one of the more complex ideas I’ve ever tried to convey in a song. I spent so much time in the first year of my son’s birth wondering what my father would be like around my son. Countless days and nights staring at the abyss of the sky, wondering where the hell my father has gone. This song is really an imagination of how he may feel observing the two of us together, unable to be with us, in the way that I play with my son and pause to wonder

about the sadness of his absence. The music had a terribly brokenhearted, bittersweet tone to it. I almost instantly knew that this would be the sound to put such an idea too.

It, for sure, was the last song I recorded, as the vulnerability was as high as it could get. I’m not really all that sure of myself when it comes to singing in more subdued, add the nakedness of the lyrical content, and you have a tall order for an inherently insecure guy like myself.

But, I suppose what I love the most about this band is the relationship between myself and the fellas in it. In any moment of insecurity, I just have to remind myself that I’m surrounded by four of the more strange and loving oddball creative people I’ve spent time with in my music writing journey. Very grateful for the fellas.

Heart to Heart

Alex: Similar to ‘The Years’, Pat had a strong reaction when I showed him the original riff to this song. He had it all in his head instantly. It took a second to write as the outro is pretty specific with timing, and we weren’t relying on vocal cues to know how long we should go for. We actually ran out of time at the studio and had to record the final vocals in the basement of our friend’s Matthew Alexander’s house.

Since there had been a month or so in-between both sessions, pat had demo ideas for the vocals, and I think that’s why they have such a dynamic sound to them.

Pat: I vividly remember the practice where we wrote this song. I knew it’d be powerhouse upon its completion and that whatever I’d produce lyrically that it’d have to be a powerhouse as well. So, I went big and decided to write a song that could either be interpreted as a letter from my father to me on how to connect with him or a letter to my children on how to find me when I die. I remember telling Dow, “The song is going to be a letter to Richie for him to read when I die.” All he said was something like, “Oh Jesus.

Well, you can do it”. I like to think we made this one work as imagined from the jump and hope to give some people some light in the listening experience. P Fiddlehead’s album ‘Between the Richness’ is out 21st May. Upset 17

Riot.

18 Upset

HOLDING ABSENCE’S Everything you need to know about

album

‘THE GREATEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE’ by vocalist Lucas Woodland

THE ALBUM IS NAMED AFTER A GRACIE FIELDS SONG

The story goes that my Great-Uncle recorded a cover of ‘The Greatest Mistake Of My Life’ many moons ago. Upon hearing this from my Nan, I just felt like it was too special to not pay homage to! Sometimes I realise how weird it was to name an album after a 90-year-old track, but in all honesty, timelessness is something we really try to achieve with our music, so it is very fitting.

THE ALBUM WAS RECORDED JUST BEFORE LOCKDOWN

We entered the studio in February 2020, and everything was going fine. It wasn’t until maybe the second week of the session when we got word of Italy going into lockdown that we realised just how big a thing COVID actually was! By the time we’d left the studio, there were only about 2-3 days of normality before lockdown hit. It’s really odd to think we went into the studio one day, and then everything was different when we stepped out... But luckily, I truly believe that the pandemic had no mental effect on the songs or the recordings, which I’m really grateful for.

MY SISTER SINGS ON A TRACK

We always knew we wanted a duet on the album, more as a challenge to us as songwriters than anything else. But when push came to shove, we realised that we didn’t really want to cheapen the song with a great big “FEATURING X MUSICIAN FROM X BAND” on the title, and that’s where the idea of getting my sister came

in. I’ve spent my whole life singing with her, and it just felt right! Though it was very stressful for me on the day - making sure that we did right by both her and the band - I’m very proud of the end result! I’d love to get more guest features on songs in the coming years too, by the way. It just didn’t feel right for this particular song to have anybody but her!

Stand Atlantic have teamed up with nothing,nowhere. for their new single ‘Deathwish’. The track sees vocalist and guitarist Bonnie Fraser issue a reminder to “not be a little bitch to other people’s opinions and trust yourself instead, you’ll be better than ever.”

REDDIT HELPED INSPIRE SOME OF THE LYRICS

We knew we wanted a spoken female voice to run throughout the album, but we just weren’t sure what it was she was going to say... I decided one night to go on r/askreddit and see if there was a “what was the greatest mistake of your life?” thread, and the rest is history! I paraphrased three of them into poems, and those are what you hear the voice say on ‘Drugs & Love’, ‘Die Alone’ and ‘Phantoms’.

A new hip-hop and rock festival is launching in London, ALT+LDN. Taking over Clapham Common on 30th August, the event will host sets from Playboi Carti, Machine Gun Kelly, Lil Yachty, Architects (pictured), The Kid Laroi, Lil Skies, Ski Mask The Slump God, Smokepurpp, Mario Judah, Bexey, Sleep Token, Princess Nokia, Bob Vylan and more.

DAN WELLER SMASHED IT

When I look back at the whole of this process, I really deem Dan to be the biggest difference. We’d written songs with him previously (‘Like A Shadow’, ‘Monochrome’, ‘Gravity’ and ‘Birdcage’) but having him in the studio to inspire and encourage us for ‘TGMOML’ was just a completely next level experience. It really taught us the importance of having a magical connection with a producer, especially one who believes in you the way that Dan believes in, HA! P Holding Absence’s album ‘The Greatest Mistake Of My Life’ is out now.

Willow has teamed up with Travis Barker for her new single ‘t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l’. The track is the first taste of an upcoming fulllength, due out this summer, and a confident opening step into a whole new sound. “I am so grateful for this tune because it was created in such an introspective time (during the first couple months of quarantine),” she says.

“It was the song that proved to me that I needed to let go of the insecurities I had about making a project of this genre.”

19 UPSETMAGAZ COM Upset 19

to B ut reak.

Abo NEW TALENT YOU NEED TO KNOW

20 Upset

COVEY Tom Freeman, aka Covey, is one of the leading names in up-andcoming folk-punk. His debut album is out this summer.

FOLLY GROUP The London-based collective are gearing up to release their debut EP, due in June - single ‘Sand Fight’ is a particular highlight.

SOFTCULT

Twin sisters Softcult may have had an ‘interesting’ time so far, but there’s much more to come.

T

win sisters Phoenix and Mercedes Arn-Horn aside from being related - are cut from the same cloth.

Growing up avid music lovers from a musical household, they began immersing themselves in the local scene of their hometown Kitchener, Ontario. It was here the pair discovered that change in the industry was needed, and their debut EP - ‘Year Of The Rat’ - is leading this call to arms.

Lending itself not only to the year that Softcult became an established idea with cogs fully turning (2020), but also their determination in going against the grain - especially after the last year’s focus on protesting and rioting.

“There’s a lot of white rats that are going in one direction, and then a red rat going in another,” Mercedes explains of its artwork. “Phoenix was the one who was like, ‘Well, we’re the red rat - society is going one way and then this red rat…’ It changes everything if one person speaks out,” she continues. “Hopefully, it has a ripple effect - you don’t have to be part of the rat race; you can find your own way.”

Refusing to join to the rat race themselves, the sisters have been tinkering away, trying to figure out just how it is they’re going to avoid it. Truly, all of their past musical endeavours have all been leading to this moment.

The prominent inspiration for the pair aligning in this way comes from the riot grrrl punk scene. First discovering the movement through the documentary

Words: Steven Loftin. Photo: Judith Priest.

“YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE PART OF THE RAT RACE; YOU CAN FIND YOUR OWN WAY” MERCEDES ARN-HORN

The Punk Singer - capturing the life of Bikini Kill’s founder Kathleen Hanna - at the age of 19, it was love at first sight - albeit, appearing in a bittersweet way.

“It’s crazy - a lot of the songs we write are about abuse and stuff like that, [but] my abuser actually showed me that documentary,” Mercedes explains. “And I’m glad he did because it’s an amazing documentary, and it totally changed the course of my life and my passions, and how I saw myself in the music industry. But it’s just a weird, crazy, messed up little web that it started from.”

Similarly, the riot grrrl method of operating is where Softcult took root.

From the music to the ideas-expanding zines, it’s all straight from the heads, hands and hearts of the sisters. It’s also the lifeblood throughout ‘Year Of The Rat’, from its dealing with the toll of depression (‘Gloomy Girl’), the objectifying world (‘Take It Off’) to misogyny and sexism (‘Another Bish’).

A healthy dose of realism to their music - with reference points aplenty the sisters aren’t trying to drill into any new territory; instead, they yearn to

push things around on the surface with their luscious slices of alt-pop; treacly and thick with lashings of substance.

The ultimate goal being inclusivity for all.

When it came to forming their place in the landscape, the catalyst came through Softcult taking a look at the industry and the representation drastically needed. Truthfully, it’s based on “being that person that you felt like you needed,” according to Mercedes.

“So, if young women listen to our music, or see us on stage, and they learn that Phoenix is our producer recording and producing everything we do,” she elaborates. “Or that I’m in charge of the visuals - directing and editing all our music videos. Seeing that women can take these things that are male-dominated aspects of the industry, and you can do it yourself seeing it in someone else means that you can see it in yourself.”

While they’re yet to see the fruits of their labours bloom and blossom on a larger scale, they have been receiving various pieces of fan art based around similar subject matter that Softcult Upset 21

focuses on. In turn inspiring them while the world may feel a bit cynical and cyclical at times, Softcult are creating the right atmosphere to breed the change so needed.

Deciding to embark upon their journey, with their musical chops favouring shoegaze, seems a bit odd when the majority of the names that influenced the pair came out with raw, unfiltered punk - breakneck speed guitars, hollering gang vocals and the like. Softcult’s more measured, deft weaving of emotion through ethereal sonics and tight-knit beats comes simply from the fact that Mercedes’ voice didn’t quite match.

Admitting that it would all ring great “until we added the vocals”, instead, the wall of sound that shoegaze offers breeds its own form of aggression - a passive one which coddles you, proving more light-footed in its endeavour to get the message to sink in. Before you know it, you’re facing the crux of Softcult’s matter.

It’s here the pair are steadfast.

Survivors of their own abusive experiences and witnessing the misogyny and injustice, both first-hand and by telly screen, has engrained purpose into the projects DNA. Indeed, since their band is trying to establish itself as a force for good, what better way of doing that than by setting a few ground rules - to keep the boys club of an industry from its deep-set ways. Cited as “ethical everything, creative freedom, social activism”, and absolutely no prejudice or hatred.

Certainly, the burgeoning duo haven’t been without their controversy. In early 2021, upon the release of their no-longer-available second single ‘Uzumaki’, it was pointed out by various musical corners of the internet that it was very, very similar to UK shoegaze-screamers Loathe’s ‘Two-Way Mirror’ - right down to the accompanying video. “We call it the cursed song right now,” Mercedes laughs.

For the Arn-Horns, it wasn’t the loss of the track that hurt - that can be revisited when the pair are ready (“we want to redo it and re-release it at some point”) - it was the fact the subject matter, incredibly close to their hearts, dealt with their experienced abuse. Wanting to make one of their first moves into the world as Softcult something that made 22 Upset

a difference, hoping that it would resonate with those listening. Instead, the echo chamber diluted the issue to something inconsequential.

“The thing that made us sad was the message was completely lost. It was just focusing on pretty much one aspect of the song, that to us, was

the least important.” They both nod, admitting to having their confidence knocked, sending Softcult back into their shells. Briefly, mind you.

A valuable lesson came from the apology the duo posted to social media. Noting that while most people accepted it, “There were some people

“WHEN YOU MEET OTHER SURVIVORS, AND YOU SHARE YOUR STORIES, YOU FEEL THIS WEIRD SORT OF TRAUMA-BOND” MERCEDES ARN-HORN

that were saying we were playing the victim, and that really got to me because that is exactly what people say when people come forward about abuse,” Mercedes recalls.

“They’ll say it’s for attention or that you’re just totally playing up this victim storyline. It taught us that if we’re going to be in a band that says these subversive things, it will trigger people, and it will strike a chord with them. We just have to be okay with that, like it’s going to happen.”

“And we can’t let it penetrate our

outer shell,” Phoenix continues. “It is what it is, and that’s the kind of band we are - it will elicit those types of responses, you have to be ready for people to maybe not be okay with what you’re saying, and not everyone is gonna like it.”

The finale rounding off the pair’s EP, ‘Bird Song’, is a testament to where Softcult finds their strength to weather such storms. Featuring birds twittering outside Mercedes’ bedroom, it’s living proof the duo’s project unveils more with every listen. She explains the

particular allegorical epiphany: “It’s like in the dawn when they sing to let other birds know that they’re there.

“I thought that was a cool analogy, too, because when you meet other survivors, and you share your stories, you feel like this weird sort of traumabond or something. It’s; I’m here, you’re here, we’re all still here, we got through it. We’re survivors.”

“We made it through the night, and it’s morning now,” Phoenix smiles. P Softcult’s debut EP ‘Year of the Rat’ is out now.

Upset 23

e r G e Th 24 Upset

. t s e eat Fed up of a year of being stuck inside?

Fancy a bit of disorganised mayhem?

You’re in luck. Waterparks are back, and they’re better than ever.

Words: Jamie MacMillan. Photo: Ashley Osborn.

Upset 25

T

here’s only one place to start with Waterparks, and that’s the hair.

“Changing hair colour is like an indication that the seasons are changing, or like when the groundhog sees its shadow,” goes the explanation from the band for the constant colour evolution. Leaning right into the camera, Awsten Knight, he of the famous (and fabulous) hair shouts: “Yeah, THERE’S TWO MORE YEARS OF ‘FANDOM’!!” before the rest of his band dissolve into giggles.

Thankfully, this time around, the groundhog has happily sniffed out the good stuff, and a new age is being ushered in. So have Waterparks reached their ‘Greatest Hits’ era already then? Hell yeah. And then some.

It’s safe to say that 2020 was full of some messed-up shit, no matter who you were or where you faced it. For Waterparks, it brought the by-nowfamiliar stories of tour cancellations and enforced quarantines, though it also gifted the trio some wellearned time off as well as the time and space to pursue new hobbies.

For lead guitarist Geoff Wigington, dialling in from his house and bathed in a blinding white light (“Are you doing this interview from heaven?” jests Awsten), it was a chance for the wholesome twin pursuits of buying aquariums and building sandpits, and “just being a dad” to take precedence.

For frontman Awsten, a passion for Swiffering is the first in a series of ‘well, I didn’t expect that answer’ moments.

Enquiring as to what a Swiffer is on behalf of those of us not fully house-trained, he wanders off, leaving Geoff and drummer Otto Wood to the interview for a while. Clearly an allaction hero in the making, Otto begins to tell tales of his love for baseball and climbing things that are plainly not meant to be climbed, admitting that he’s not always so good at getting down from the aforementioned high things.

“It gets sketchy at the top,” he sighs as we talk about poison ivy, tetanus, bees, and his general struggles with the act of actually getting down. It doesn’t exactly sound like a leisure pursuit, to be honest. In the meantime, returning proudly brandishing his Swiffer, Awsten stands statue-still in the corner of his room with his cleaning apparatus aloft for so long that everyone else assumes his wi-fi has frozen and continues to

26 Upset

“THERE’S NOT A WATERPARKS FORMULA; IT’S JUST SORT OF LIKE GOING WAAAAAARGGGH, AND THEN SOMETIMES IT’S GOOD” AWSTEN KNIGHT

admirably ignore him. “WELL… THIS IS A SWIFFER!” he booms eventually in an exasperated tone. Minutes in, and the interview is already unravelling into a glorious feast of nonsense and fun that entirely suits life as one of the most exciting bands around.

Somehow then, amongst the neurotic cleaning, the chimney-climbing

and the fish-watching, Waterparks also managed to find the time to create another killer of a record. But one thing that ‘Greatest Hits’ isn’t is a lockdown album. “Dude, I made one song about lockdown, and I didn’t even finish it because no-one’s gonna want to fucking hear it,” Awsten points out wearily, “And I’m not gonna want to

sing about it. You have like a two week period to make a quarantine song, and even when it was fresh, it was still in bad taste. And it’s not like you can sing, ‘I’m glad I’m here in my living room on day four hundred’, everyone will be like, ‘shut the fuck up!’”

That’s not to say that the impact of the last year hasn’t bled through to the writing, of course, something we touch upon later in our chat. In fact, though, the foundations for the band’s fourth album had already been laid a few months earlier. Once again working with ‘FANDOM’ producer Zakk Cervini, key tracks like ‘Secret Life For Me’ and ‘Crying Over It All’ were laid down before they even headed off on the FANDOM tour. “Sometimes it feels like the songs are lifting above you; you just gotta grab them,” explains Awsten.

“They’re all different though, ideas can come from anywhere and have different starting points. There’s not a Waterparks formula, though; it’s just sort of like going WAAAAAARGGGH, and then sometimes it’s good.” “Yeah, that’s exactly how it goes,” Geoff nods with a grin and just the slightest bit of sarcasm.

After their return home, the nature of the pandemic made recording a much tougher process than they’d ever been through before - even more so than the entirely scrapped third album that ‘FANDOM’ eventually replaced. “It was definitely the strangest way we’ve done an album,” says Awsten about the stop-start nature of recording. “And I’m just throwing this out there, but I don’t prefer the way this one had to go down. Because while I loved the amount of time, I want to just get in a zone and BLOOP. Two months later, it’s done. This time, it was about doing what you can when you can.” That extended process has come with benefits, however, Geoff admitting his pride at how the songs were transformed even in these weird times. “It’s weirdly been more rewarding, I don’t want to sound hokey, but it’s the journey!” chips in Otto in agreement.

That journey led to 108 songs, a mammoth amount of music that somehow needed to be whittled down to a (still) chunky 17 track record. So how on earth did the band make those decisions? “There’s definitely a moment where we butt heads,” grins Geoff. “And we’re like,

honestly, if we could put all 108 on there, we would…” “When Geoff wants to butt heads, and he leans in, I just kiss him on the lips,” laughs Awsten, before Geoff finishes with the tantalising prospect of revisiting some of those that didn’t make the mark this time further down the line. ‘Greatest Hits 2’, then? “Yeah, we’ll just keep releasing it under the same title over and over again,” laughs Otto. “Only ‘Greatest Hits’ from now on! But everything that is on there is just fucking top shelf, and they’re all unique from each other,” promises Awsten. “Like, there’s not two songs where you think, ah yes, this is the same thing. I’m fucking freaking out about ALL of them.”

That freaking out is fully justified, to be fair. ‘Greatest Hits’ is one of those records that lives up to the promise of both its title and his ‘no-repeats’ claim. Endlessly restless and bold in its risk-taking, it manages to spend as much time pushing the band into new territories as it does consolidate and revisiting past glories. It’s a riot of colour in a scene that’s often happiest

in moody black and white. Despite all that, Awsten has already felt the need to warn against approaching with any expectations of prior things - a statement that he’s been moved to make before previous releases. “I’m used to it,” he nods. “I can’t micromanage what other people think. But I’ll probably always give some kind of context because I feel like when you make art, half of it is about the art itself being fucking amazing. But then the other half is about the showing the world that’s around it, offering looks inside that people might not otherwise see?”

But even four albums in, any attempt to try and define the sound and genre of Waterparks will always see the band duck, dodge and dive at the last possible second. It’s a trait that they’ve had since their earliest days, and the band see no reason to change now. Like many of the most interesting bands, in many ways, Waterparks themselves have become the genre. “I just don’t look at it as like a sliding scale of pop and rock,” he explains. “’Fantastic’ on

Upset 27

28 Upset

our first EP, that shit’s just straight up dance-pop with little vocal glitches and stuff like that. So I feel like, instead of moving on this line of pop to rock, where if you go backwards, you’re going back to your roots, and if you go this way, you’re attempting to be different, it’s such an outdated way for bands to think?”

Using his hands to mime ripping that imaginary line in about sixteen different directions at once, he continues. “What I wanna do is to fucking take this line, and stretch it in this direction and pull it like this. I wanna go over here and make a fucking jazz song. And then go down here to make a Euroclubby electrohouse thing. And then over fucking HERE, I wanna make a hardcore song.”

It’s like he’s a shark patrolling musical waters (Jawsten, if you will), where staying still will kill him and constantly moving is the only thing he knows to do. “Moving backwards is never, never a good answer for longevity; I want everything we do to be a full progression forward.” Cliche it might be, but it’s easy to see them as a Trojan horse sneaking pop in via rock’s back door (and vice versa) - or, just like Awsten once said on Twitter, it’s about becoming the Goth Coldplay that’s allowed to say the fuck word. “It feels like a flex that if we wanted to, we could go so fucking hard in so many directions,” he says. “We could hold our own on any fucking tour at this point!

When we opened for Sum 41, we were watching these dudes walk in wearing Slipknot shirts, and we were like, ‘oh these guys are gonna fucking HATE us!’

But we held our own. And now we could open for anyone in the fucking world and still make sense. Billie Eilish, even fucking Ed Sheeran.”

As well as that genre fluidity, it’s

in the writing where things continue to get *really* interesting, however. If ‘FANDOM’ dealt largely with external events that had happened to Awsten, ‘Greatest Hits’ is most definitely the result of someone who has largely own been able to keep his own company. It comes as no surprise to anyone who listened to early single ‘Lowkey As Hell’ and caught its darker, worrying undertones, but he was finding

“WHEN YOU’RE STUCK INSIDE WITH YOUR OWN BRAIN FOR OVER A YEAR, I MEAN… YOU’RE GONNA FIND SOME SHIT IN THERE” AWSTEN KNIGHT

himself in a less than happy place at times. It is probably the only time in our entire chat that he doesn’t speak at 300 m.p.h in a manner that demands CAPITAL LETTERS. “It’s a lot easier to distract yourself when you’re playing shows every night or seeing friends.

When you’re stuck inside with your own brain for over a year, I mean…

You’re gonna find some shit in there,” he laughs quietly, before continuing.

“When you look at anybody too closely, then you’re gonna find all the things they don’t like about themselves.”

With themes of anxiety, depression, and even several references to suicide, running through much of ‘Greatest Hits’, it seems only fair to ask him if he’s, you know, doing ok? There is a long pause as he chooses his words.

“You know, I gather myself so closely, but I also make it so transparent so everybody can see the best and worst I’ve what I’ve got going on.”

Singing “I wish I was dead sometimes so I could spend a day alone” on ‘Just Kidding’, or “I feel like I’m running out of time, real-life never feels like it’s mine” Upset 29

on album highlight ‘The Secret Life Of Me’, it’s clear that being able to escape is another recurring thought. “I think when you’re stuck in the same room for a year, it’s hard not to write about escapism”, he shrugs. ‘Crying Over It All’, a stunning, massively emotional track about his fear of losing everything that he’s built that will resound with pretty much *everybody* after the last year, still affects him now. “I feel emotional and get that hot feeling right here singing it,” he admits as he points to the top of his nose. “Nothing lasts forever… I always write selfishly, it’s very ‘me’, but it ends up being more relatable than I think it will be. You always feel like you’re a fucking alien, and no-one’s gonna relate to you, but it’s always surprising how much people can.”

The one area of ‘Greatest Hits’ that remains out of bounds is the subject matter behind ‘Violet!’, a dark tale of a stalker looking through the peephole of his apartment. Referencing Misery, the Stephen King story about a crazed fan who ends up holding her favourite writer hostage, it resounds with the air of a real scenario. Promising that the song is based on a real-life event is as far as Awsten wants to take it today as he describes it as “too close to home”.

It leads onto the topic of how the Waterparks fandom reacted to ‘FANDOM’, a record that was in itself a reaction to the suffocation and claustrophobia that the frontman was feeling under the weight of millions of eyes and expectations. Admitting that nothing has changed in that respect, he does at least seem to have found some balance in his life in what to let go of and what to take in. “It’s easier said than done,” he states. “I’m better about it than I was. It’s tough, though, because I’ve always had issues with guilt since I was a kid. So when people are telling me I’ve done something wrong, lots of people, I really ‘feel’ it. It is what it is,” he finishes with a shrug.

In truth, he seems in a good place with it all, his concentration on the art of disconnecting and disassociating, doing him a world of good throughout the last year. One track even contains the bell effect from his transcendental meditation programme as a metajoke on how he has adapted. Having studiously avoided anything likely to upset him, Netflix and horror movies have been his constant companions throughout the last year. It’s when we start talking about horror movies that 30 Upset

things again take another suitably wonderful Awsten-esque diversion as he insists putting on the It Follows movie soundtrack. After trying to get his attention for a little while, we give up and listen along too. Or try to, because he’s listening to it on his laptop and we’re in England. But the thought was there. And it is a good soundtrack, to

be fair, as we try to tell him over the intense soundscape emanating from his speakers.

Talk turns to the album’s release and the fact that after all the best-laid plans were set in stone, one of the world’s biggest bands swooped in on the same release schedule. Awsten’s not going to back down, though. “I was already

“YOU ALWAYS FEEL LIKE YOU’RE A FUCKING ALIEN, AND NO-ONE’S GONNA RELATE TO YOU” AWSTEN KNIGHT

dealing with like five other things that day; I looked at my phone and was just like… FUCK. Twenty One Pilots is like one of the biggest bands on the whole fucking planet, and I’m a huge fan,” he says, placing ‘Blurryface’ in his all-time top ten albums. “But on the flip side of that, I think that our record is just

as good, or better, than anything else that could come out that day or this year. With an album called ‘Greatest Hits’, you can’t bitch out. You can’t call it ‘Greatest Hits’ and then tremble and go OOOOOOOH NO. It’s not gonna get Number One. It’s probably not gonna get Number Two because of Olivia Rodrigo. But this can hold its own.”

Regardless of that first-week chart position, it is another moment where you can imagine the venues getting bigger once again for Waterparks.

With each new release, from that first bucket of invigorating ice water that their debut ‘Double Dare’ splashed in unsuspecting faces, the progression and ambition has been clear each time, and it shows no sign of abating here.

“This one’s taking us TO THE MOON!” shouts Awsten, “You have to always write songs for the fucking rooms you want, dude.” Their UK tour plans might have now been pushed back to summer 2022, but the scenes that will arise when they do come promise to be something not to miss. “I’m going to crowd-surf on some fucking vaccinated kids straight up, I’m gonna front flip onto them before the venue lights are even on,” promises Awsten, as Geoff and Otto begin to plan how they can split the room into different vaccine groups. “Straight on their fucking heads,” concludes Awsten worryingly.

As our time together begins to run out, the faint threads of sensibility that have held our interview together finally begin to fizzle out and fray away.

Open threats of physical violence on anyone who doesn’t appreciate One Direction’s farewell album ‘Made In The A.M.’ as much as Awsten does are made, before, for reasons that are hard to fathom now, we discuss in-depth the infamous Hollywood celebrity ‘Imagine’ video that circulated at the start of the pandemic. “That was so dope. I wish

they asked me,” boasts Awsten before offering a rendition of the song that is so painfully unaware of the correct words that it may offer some answers as to why he wasn’t asked. “Whatever the fucking words are,” he mutters, Googling furiously. Pointing out that the interview is being recorded and this rendition could be a fortune, he laughs it off. “Do it! Someone needs to be making money off of this; this shit is GOLDEN!” In fits of laughter, as he watches the video, occasionally pausing (“I’m not shitting on Fallon, I wanna play his show,” he says sternly), his incredulity reaches a new level when he spots the YouTube ratio. “9,000 like. 91,000 DISLIKES! I want to either be that hated or that loved. Nothing in-between.”

By now, it’s less of an interview and more like riding a runaway rollercoaster after a day at the pub, Otto taking over the singing duties as Awsten pivots wildly from a song about peace into wild fantasies about finding and getting into a fistfight with the YouTuber JayStation.

“Well behaved women rarely make history, except for Marilyn Monroe,” he points out, as Geoff and Otto try to slowly back away out of their own Zoom cameras’ views, the modern equivalent of someone shouting ‘get him’ from a safe distance. “Will you fight him with me?” Awsten implores, as Geoff ignores and Otto reaches new musical heights as he sings something about imagining all the YouTubers. There is just time for one last anecdote about the time Awsten and Otto ate frozen yoghurt in someone’s Bentley, and then that’s it. Silence descends, and reality seeps back into the world. All we know is that we should hope that the groundhog will see a shadow next time round. Anything to keep the ‘Greatest Hits’ era going for a while yet. P Waterparks’ album ‘Greatest Hits’ is out 21st May. Upset 31

32 Upset

“OKAY, I’VE PEAKED. MY LIFE CAN’T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS”

With multiple bands already under his belt, Tyler Posey is trying his hand at going solo - albeit with the help of some pretty well-known names...

Words: Jessica Goodman. Photo: Storm Santos.

Upset 33

“T

he little kid inside of me is just screaming every time we wake up,” Tyler Posey enthuses.

“It’s the coolest thing in the world.” The sun is shining in Los Angeles, and the actor-slashmusician is making the most of his time at home, working on new music and showing off the different pieces of Blink 182 merchandise he has scattered around his house. The cause of his enthusiasm? His recently released solo single ‘Shut Up’, a song which saw him collaborate with Phem and Travis Barker.

Asked how it felt to work with one of his musical icons, Tyler lets out a deep sigh, starts to stutter a response, then sighs again.

“Okay, I’ve peaked,” he finally declares. “My life can’t get any better than this.” His words are a total contrast to the lyrics of the song in question, a contagious riff on finding yourself caught up in a relationship and struggling to hear your own voice. The more he talks – be it about his childlike excitement the moment he realised Phem was going to lend her voice to the track, or about his adoration for the miniature and life-size Tom DeLonge guitars that decorate his home – the more energetic he becomes. “It’s like a wave. It’s this high that I’m riding, and I’ll be able to ride for the rest of my life,” he states, with a grin. “Where am I gonna go now?!”

It’s taken him a long journey to reach this point. After parting ways with PVMNTS in 2019, Tyler formed Five North with Kyle Murphy and Scott Eckel (“my fucking HOMIES!” he beams), only for their plans together to be put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “I’m an actor and a musician, so I’ve had no outlets to go do my career, you know?” he states. In the time since then,

34 Upset

Tyler has struggled with – and worked to overcome – his battle with addiction.

“I was alone so often I was like, ‘I may as well just do a bunch of drugs’,” he recalls, “and then I was like, ‘okay, I might need some help’.” He pauses, then laughs.

“So, you know, classic story.” His sense of humour surrounding the situation he found himself in isn’t flippant, but simply how he finds himself most comfortable.

“I don’t like to take myself too seriously because it takes the fun out of things,” he conveys. This is an ethos that very much carries through to the music he makes.

“Even though you’re writing about stuff that’s really serious or emotional, you can still have fun and still keep it light-hearted.”

“It’s almost like therapy,” he adds. “You’re reliving what happened to you, but you’re doing it in a way where you’re not letting it beat you.” His road to recovery is what formed the building blocks for his first EP, to be released later this year. “It’s about being sober.

It’s called ‘Drugs’,” he grins. A collection of songs written about his own experiences with battling addiction, this new EP (the first of two he’s readying for release) is a powered-up, pop-punk take on all the sensations that go handin-hand with taking steps towards sobriety.

“It’s getting to a point of addiction where you need to be sober,” he lists, “it’s dealing with it, it’s dealing with things for the first time sober, it’s hating sobriety and feeling like you’re overwhelmed, it’s loving your life in sobriety and how happy you are to see how far you’ve come...”

The journey away from addiction didn’t just influence Tyler’s writing. It also changed the way he approached making music.

“We would meditate before we’d do a session,” he recalls of being in the studio with John Feldmann.

Demonstrating a quick breathing

“I DON’T LIKE TO TAKE MYSELF TOO SERIOUSLY; IT TAKES THE FUN OUT OF THINGS” TYLER POSEY

exercise to aid with alleviating anxiety, his appreciation for what sobriety has taught him is palpable. “Any sort of negativity or any sort of anxiety you had before, you just shed that,” he grins. “Then you go into the studio, and you write some sick ass songs.”

So that’s exactly what he did. With just a few finishing touches left to be made, the first of two EPs should be expected for release this summer.

Promising “heavy, driving, don’t take themselves too seriously songs,” and even one that “sort of reminds me of t.A.T.u.” (keep your ears peeled for ‘Kerosene’), Tyler’s enthusiasm to share what he’s created with the world is boundless.

“Having people connect to your music is why you do it,” he exclaims. It’s been just over a year since Five North released their debut EP, and already Tyler can’t wait to get the ball rolling with his new creative outlet as a solo artist. “The outcome of somebody loving your songs and singing your lyrics back to you and it really resonating with them?” he questions. “It’s the best thing in the world.”

Reflecting on the time he’s spent touring in the past, his eagerness to get back to sharing the music he’s made – both

through releases and playing those records on the road – is entirely contagious. “People want to be connected with one another,” he conveys, “so when you’re in a room full of people who are all on the same wavelength, singing the same lyrics, feeling the same energy, it’s the greatest thing.”

What the imminent future holds for live music is still uncertain, but Tyler refuses to let that hold him back. “I want to be more creative and maybe do some live streams, find another creative way that we can bring music to fans without having to be in front of them,” he expresses. “The year is young, and I’m excited to keep releasing and recording.” Already in the process of recording with other artists and another producer, with a few different features set to see release soon, through the course of this interview one thing becomes clear: Tyler Posey is thriving.

“No matter what you go through, no matter how fucked up life can be, how hard it can be, how good it can be, just don’t take it too seriously,” he advises. “You can not take things seriously, but still have a huge heart and love, and know when to take things seriously. That’s what I want people to take from my music.” P

Upset 35

With bold new album ‘Nowhere Generation’, Rise Against continue their fight against injustice.

Words: Aleksandra Brzezicka. Photo: Jason Siegel.

“A

s the world changes, our albums help people to see what’s happening around them and in that sense, they helped us reshape our mission,” says Tim McIlrath. It’s a mission that led straightedge noisemakers Rise Against from day one of bumming around Chicago to breaking through mainstream stations and stages with a loud voice shouting for change. It was a call for arms in a fight for animal rights, against homophobia, environmental crisis and socio-economic injustice that struck a chord in scene kids’ hearts worldwide.

“Rise Against has always tried to be the voice of the underdog, unafraid to be a thorn in the side of the establishment. To sing about things that not a lot of mainstream bands are singing about. We want to always bring our punk and hardcore roots into the radio because that’s where we came from,” states Tim. After going AWOL for four years while a new legion of contemporary musicians picked up their battle, Rise Against are back. Filtrating modern issues through their veteran lenses, fuelled on the post-2020 revolutionary Upset 37

spirits, they’re bringing with them a ticking-bomb of an album, ‘Nowhere Generation’.

“The “nowhere generation” is really anybody who feels like they are swimming upstream against an insurmountable current. They’re trying to figure out why they can’t get ahead, why they can’t live the life that their parents live or their grandparents live, why it feels like there are obstacles on their way to success. It’s anybody who recognises that we’re living in a time of unprecedented concentrated wealth and income inequality and the rise of the 1%. We’re dealing with global warming and climate change. We’re dealing with the anxieties of social media asking us to live up to a lifestyle that nobody can live up to. It’s really anybody who looks at tomorrow and can’t quite focus on what it’s supposed to be and what is supposed to be for them. ‘Nowhere Generation’ as a song, as an album, is speaking to those fears and trying to identify the source of those feelings. Hopefully in identifying the problem we can begin to solve it.”

To crack the problem, they returned to a home-like studio, Bill Stevenson’s The Blasting Room. Having worked there on six of their previous albums, the band, surrounded by long-time collaborators, spent a few solid months blasting out sounds of ‘Nowhere Generation’ – urgent, ridden by thunderous drums and speedy riffs, all mixed up with a bit of hope for better tomorrow and packed into 11 neat tracks. They remind us that punk is indeed the music of the unheard, especially in ‘Talking To Ourselves’, an ode to shouting into the comfort zone-based chambers. “The best way to break out of those chambers is to communicate with stories,” Tim explains. “I feel like stories are the one thing that cuts through the noise. We can argue with each other about our points, how we feel about different issues, but storytelling is what really makes people on the other side of the fence think about your perspective.”

In ‘Broken Dreams, Inc.’, originally recorded for a new Batman animated comic, Dark Nights: Death Metal, they tell a most popular story of our age. The one about falling victim to the vicious doings of the system and setting yourself free. “The recipe for the American dream is broken. You no longer have to follow the recipe. You can now make your own. You can now 38 Upset

“RISE AGAINST HAS ALWAYS TRIED TO BE THE VOICE OF THE UNDERDOG” TIM MCILRATH

put in your own ingredients because what you’ve been told will create the American dream is no longer true. We’re waking up to that,” says Tim and points out the decay of the middle-class that is unable to provide for itself. “As people keep seeing that finish line moving, they are waking up to the idea that they’re going to have to fight for resources and fight for their governments to focus on more long-term and less on just shortterm shareholder capitalism.”

Though McIIrath sings ‘we are the nowhere generation’, it feels like he’s more of a spectator, reporting on dilemmas that millennials face. “At first glance, our instinct is to brush it off and say ‘well, that’s everybody’. Everybody feels like there’s something upstream.

That’s every generation. What you’re dealing with it is not unique, and you’re not special, and that’s where you get a lot of millennial jokes,” he says.

Getting a first-hand account of current issues from his teenage daughters and fans worldwide, he realised that the generational gap is narrow, so you can build a bridge on it. “The more I listened, the more I felt like I got a lot of sympathy for what people were dealing with now. That’s why the song wanted more of a sympathetic and less judgemental ear,” he says.

It’s not about the year you were born in; the Nowhere Generation recruits all outcasts. “Anybody who feels like they’re working really hard, but they can’t seem to get ahead and are wondering if they’re playing on a level playing field or if the game has been rigged,” Tim says.

Cards might be stacked against today’s youth, but Tim sees a light at the end of the tunnel in the efforts of some of his personal heroes. “I love young people like Greta Thunberg. I love activists. The Black Lives Matter movement was really inspiring, just to see people really rally around some basic common sense to say

‘we matter’. It was exciting to see a lot of people wake up to those ideas of institutionalised racism.

The environmental movement is still going strong. The people behind the documentary Seaspiracy; it’s the latest thing that I really was blown away by,” he lists movements and people with reality-altering potential, hoping that Rise Against can be a soundtrack to those changes.

It’s not enough to operate from the margins of society; the shift has to start from within. “The government needs to do better. They should do better,” Tim points out that the States have always had an issue with devaluing arts and paints Europe as handling it better, reflecting on the time on the road. “People respected the process of somebody committing their life to art.” He sees traces of similar progress on American soil, though it’s still not enough to shake up the ignorant structure of beliefs. “Hopefully, people will understand how important this is. Not just to society but even if you want to look at it from an economic standpoint. The arts are part of the economy,” he says.

The system won’t change itself overnight. It needs people determined to constantly poke it and triggers provoking responses at all times. Since their debut album ‘Siren Song Of The Counter-Culture’, Rise Against keep on experimenting with new musical methods of stirring the status quo’s pot.

“We’re never trying to simply rehash the past and be the band that we were, but we’re also not trying to go out of our way to reinvent ourselves either,” Tim shares.

There’s never a big game plan or a blueprint for what should come next.

Instead, the band embrace spontaneity.

“The songs just capture where we are and bottle it in that moment. It’s not even until we really take a step back that we’re getting perspective on

what we were trying to accomplish.

Sometimes it’s a journalist or someone who tells us, ‘I notice this in all your songs’. It’s like, I didn’t even think about that,” McIlrath says, before sharing the golden rule of making it as a band for almost two decades. “You’re always trying to make your best record. To me, your best record has still yet to come.

It’s the perspective you should always look out for when you go into it. It’s really exciting to be a band this long, to make this many albums and this many songs and still find things that to me sound pretty fresh and unique. To have any songs left up here at all. I’m always amazed when you put the key to the engine, and it actually starts up.”

Rise Against has been relentlessly fighting for a change in a wide sociopolitical area long before topics like environmental crisis or veganism went viral on social media. While this kind of revolting created a new generation of digital activists, it’s also partially responsible for the spread of false information. “There’s always more to do; it’s important not to be overwhelmed by that. Nobody’s ever doing quite enough. We’re not doing enough, but I feel that the more voices you add to the conversation, the more urgency

you add. There’s been a lot of amazing progress even in the last 20 years of just this band’s existence.”

Though his drive to always go an extra step to help seems never-ending, even he sometimes needs to lay low especially after pouring his whole soul out into a brand-new record. Luckily, Tim has a kind of secret hideaway to escape from the world when it gets too much. “For me, that’s always been nature. A lot of my life, I’ve spent in studios, on tours, on a tour bus and in a lot of big urban centres. If we play a show anywhere around you, it’s going to be in your biggest city. It’s always great to unplug. I’m kind of a cycling junkie; anytime you can find a place to meditate, reflect and enjoy the incredible world that we live in.”

After a year of taking a few steps back, along with the rest of the world, Tim is ready to get back on the road and give back to the community. Rise Against are done with silently scribbling down notes on the rotten system - it’s time to let it all out with a bang. To feel the cracked foundations crumble.

“These songs aren’t meant to just exist in your headphones or in your car.

They’re meant to be played live. They’re meant to really complete that cycle. The

song isn’t finished until we’ve played it in front of you.”

As long as there are issues worth fighting for and people wanting to outrace the system, there will always be a need for bands like Rise Against.

It doesn’t matter that the war zone got temporary transferred online and the battle language translated from the earth-shattering screams, once piercing through music venues stages, into anxious whispers among comrades too tired of waiting.

Maybe ‘Nowhere Generation’ is the one that will finally focus not on getting to some unattainable and, for now, utopian goal-point but is destined to fix what’s wrong with the engine.

Only then the generation after can go further and faster into a brighter future.

Rise Against might know what parts are flawed, but they need manpower to make the change happen. Tim is wellaware of that: “The audience has always been part of that because we were just blindly stabbing out in the darkness to see if anybody was out there that want to listen to a band like ours. When we found those people that helped us realise our identity.” P Rise Against’s album ‘Nowhere Generation’ is out 4th June.

TAPE

Essex newcomer Cassyette melds pop, rock and metal for a fearless new take on alt.

Words: Steven Loftin.

40 Upset

NOTES

C

assyette has been busy redefining herself.

Dripping in 90s goth aesthetic - blonde mullet and all - she’s rapidly gaining attention via where else but TikTok. After putting her impressively powerful, gale-force howls on the likes of Olivia Rodrigo’s super-smash hit ‘Drivers License’ and Billie Eilish’s ‘Bad Guy’, she’s here to beat some life into that old dog, rock ‘n’ roll.

Her music, engrained within the realms of empowerment - or more precisely, using it to kick a few teeth

in - is also centred around personal tragedy. After losing her dad at the beginning of last year, the pressure release valve holding all that raw emotion in needed turning.

Naturally, Cassyette blew the whole thing clean off. And appearing through the dissipating steam was a cataclysmic merging of rock with her teen years of genre exploration of pop, techno and everything in between.

“I got a lot angrier,” she reckons on her move into this raucously alternative-centred world. “Obviously, after something like that happening

- and then living through lockdown and being so isolated…a lot of stuff happened in my personal life [too]. The music is a reflection of that. I stopped giving a fuck about everything!” she cackles.

“It didn’t just come out of nowhere - I was a bit of a shithead as a kid. I’ve done a lot of stuff that my mum’s had to get me through. Bless her, she’s a saint!”

Raised on a diet of classic staples - yer Motley Crüe’s, Guns N’ Roses, Sex Pistols etc. - it’s no wonder the roads finally merged to this point. On Upset 41

“I REMEMBER SEEING HAYLEY WILLIAMS AND THINKING SHE’S SUCH A BAD BITCH!” CASSYETTE

a deeper level, though, the adoration for her beloved genre is all born from finding rock to be “the most emotive style of music.”

“It’s the darkest, most aggressive, and emotional,” she continues. “I mean, that’s my personal opinion, but I think you really feel something with it; even if you hate it, it makes you feel something.”

Remembering the feeling washing over her for the first time coming when hearing ‘Playing God’, from Paramore’s third album, ‘Brand New Eyes’: “I remember seeing Hayley Williams and thinking she’s such a bad bitch!” She says, still smiling with awe. “The way that she speaks, and her lyrics are incredible.”

“I also loved Katy Perry ‘I Kissed A Girl’, that was probably the first time I was like, oh my god, I can be okay with my sexuality,” Cassyette recalls. “I’d never heard anything other than like Tatu ‘All The Things She Said’, I’d never heard another woman in pop music speaking about another woman like that. It was a massive moment for me…”

Another raucously loud laugh surfaces.

“I went to an all-girls Catholic school, so you can imagine!”

Of course, with all that leatherwearing, boot-stomping, and snarlbearing comes a rebellious attitude, stringently refusing to conform with authority. Which explains why rock and religion have always gone hand in hand.

They’re ferociously polar, leading to the symbolism being nicked and becoming steely-etched crosses adorning rocker necks the world over.

Similarly, Cassyette’s experience at an all-girls Catholic school is something that not only lends itself to her extreme breaking out of the ‘light’ and into welcoming darkness but also ingrains it in the DNA of her debut single proper, ‘Dear Goth’.

Recalling a recent chat with a 42 Upset

student radio station, where the interviewer happened to pick up on one of the layered meanings that, for Cassyette, is in extremely specific relation to her time under the almighty’s watch. “I wrote the song about going through trauma when I was younger,” Cassy says. “And growing up within a Catholic church. I purposely wrote that song with a few things in mind so that it would relate to many different people, but the fact that she picked out something so specific was so amazing.”

Hearing about someone going through a similar situation and finding the same catharsis from Cassyette’s music as herself is what this journey all boils down to. Even if no one else were to hear her music, “that’s my one person who takes something from it,” she nods.

The lack of pointedness in this matter also stems from Cassyette still having friends tainted with the omnipresent and powerful Catholic guilt. Traversing the line from strict religion to the murky, anything-goes alternative world was easy from the moment she decided enough was enough.

“It was fucked up, and I saw a lot of fucked up stuff happen. So, once I made this decision, it was easy to believe what I wanted to believe - which was none of that!” A hearty cackle confirming her words.

“But, then changing, I think that’s been hard. I cut off a lot of stuff from my past and changed and grew up. I think that’s the same with anyone. If you don’t want to be a certain way or you don’t want certain things - when you’re young, you just move on from them, don’t you? It’s that freeing feeling.”

Indeed, it is these moments of epiphany - either for herself or for those listening - that embody the rock

ethos in Cassyette’s eyes. “Most [of it] is activism in some way, so that’s a very important thing for me,” she enthuses.

“I have a lot of opinions on things, and I am an activist. Something really important to me is my contribution to society. If any of my songs can make someone feel better, or change someone’s mind who might not understand something, then I’ll be doing something.”

Harking back to when all of these notions clicked into place, Cassyette says: “I remember feeling like there are people around me, especially in the school I went to, where they tell you what you can and can’t do - it was a bit rich coming from them.”

If ever there were a reason to grab your chain wallet, spike your hair, and kick a door in, then Cassyette has found it. The carefree nurturing of herself has been just as important to learn as it was discovering that raw, untethered howl of hers.

Still, with her debut album to come, after she’s sifted through “about two years worth of music,” the promise to keep on rattling cages and dismantling centuries-old systems remains front and centre. Keeping an ever keen eye on everything as she plots out her moves - everything from merch designs to video shoots, including for her current single ‘Prison Purse’ - it’s all in the name of exorcising those demons, and making them work for her.

“For me, even if it’s a really fucking sad song, I’ll still enjoy writing it because you’re still getting something off your chest,” Cassyette explains.

Similarly, that emotional payoff is what others are looking for in rock music. And no other sound captures it quite like the moment that a vocalist reaches deep into themselves, hunkers down and erupts with a guttural scream - that’s where it all comes together. On, ‘Prison Purse’ Caseyette explains: “It was necessary to have a scream because it’s like, how are you going to liberate the person listening to that song?

“That’s what it’s there to do; the song’s about taking back ownership of yourself after a situation where someone has forced themselves upon you, and it’s like the massive ‘fuck you’.”

And that’s what Cassyette is all about. Sticking a couple of middle fingers firmly in the air, ready for all to see and take note - she’s unleashed, and there’s no stopping her. P Upset 43

Rated.

THE OFFICIAL VERDICT ON EVERYTHING

cleopatrick BUMMER

eeeee

Two-piece bands that like to make a bit of a din are not a new thing. Far from it. There’s a lineage of duos that go loud; one which cleopatrick seem happy to add to. They’ve got an edge a bit different to most, though. ‘BUMMER’ isn’t a rock’n’roll cliché by numbers; or at least not in an all-surface, no depth fashion, anyway. It’s a record born of frustration, being ripped off, of striving to get somewhere when everything is against you. Sure, it’s a recipe that has to work hard to not fall on the wrong side of pious ‘authenticity’, but when delivered with such propulsive, fuzz-first force, it’s difficult to not believe.

Not the most varied palette, but a nourishing one all the same. Dan Harrison

Fiddlehead

Between The Richness

Waterparks Greatest Hits

eeeee WITH WATERPARKS, EVERY NEW THING IS THE GREATEST 44 Upset

Calling your album ‘Greatest Hits’ is a bit provocative, to say the least - but this is Waterparks. Kicking up sparks and keeping it loud, it’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from a day-glow trio that defy the forces of boring. But more than that, it’s a record that doesn’t just walk the walk it sprints it.

Successfully ticking both parts of its title (yes, it’s great, and yes, it’s full of hits), it’d be churlish to suggest it was the arrival of Awsten Knight on rock’s biggest stage - he’s been proving himself as one of the few legitimate icons of the past few years for a while now - but it’s dripping with his raw, unfiltered personality.

Never anything but in your face, it switches from pop-punk to full-on hyper-pop banger at will.

Its key moments are iconic from the word go. ‘Numb’ runs at a hundred miles an hour, knocking over the furniture on its way out, while ‘You’d Be Paranoid Too (If Everyone Was Out To Get You)’ checks round every corner. Even last year’s first taster ‘Lowkey As Hell’, while effectively still poppunk, defies all the lazy, backwards-looking genre tropes to become 2 and a bit minutes of so-rightnow brilliance. Refusing to stay stuck in the past, with Waterparks, every new thing is the greatest.

Stephen Ackroyd

eeeee The story goes that Fiddlehead weren’t supposed to make a second record.

The band - consisting of members of Have Heart, Basement and more gained such momentum from their first, organically formed record ‘Springtime & Blind’ that what started off as vocalist Pat Flynn just ‘working on a few songs’ with then-roommate guitarist Alex Dow has evolved into something much bigger than was every expected of it. It’s a good thing, too. Picking up where its predecessor left of, ‘Between The Richness’ is an album that deals with grief, and how it doesn’t

theme of the record; more personal songs are peppered throughout. Such as the emotional acoustic track ‘Forfeit’ which discusses the importance of perseverance in tough times.

Throughout eleven tracks the band laments on themes of loss, isolation, and hopelessness. The lyrics are mostly creative and thoughtprovoking but are at the risk of straying into cliché territory at certain points.

Full of catchy content, ‘Nowhere Generation’ will no doubt worm its way into the charts. Kelsey McClure

go away even if time moves on. Shone through a prism of classic emo and pleasingly discordant posteverything, it’s far from a morbid journey. Instead, it’s more poignant - a story of heritage, lineage and moving forwards while never truly being able to leave the past behind. Crucially, though, it’s one delivered with such undeniable quality that it resonates hard. For anyone who has ever lost someone close to them, ‘Between The Richness’ is as important as it is impressive. Dan Harrison

Mannequin Pussy Perfect EP

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Philly punks Mannequin Pussy’s latest EP is a necessary eruption of passion and anger, and a visceral reaction to the stir-crazy existence that has become the norm across the world the past year. It stokes a fire in retaliation of the strange, virtual world that has taken root, and fractures the insta sheen with its restless fury and heated sound. The ferocity of the eponymous track ‘Perfect’ screams against the cyber state, shattering the screens of our phones as we pour over social media and disrupting the stillness with a vitriolic call back to the force of live shows. It is an animal feat, and one that is overtly physical as it pushes back against the illusory world of picture-perfect lives touted online. It conjures up images of a punk underworld and invites you in, rocking back and forth between the raw, flaming energy of ‘Pigs Is Pigs’ and the softer, melancholic sprawl of

Walter Etc There There

Cleotparick ‘Darling’. It’s the digging of jagged fingernails into the soft flesh of your palm, an action simultaneously both anxious and angry. The EP arrives on the scene with all guns blazing and a playful, scornful attitude, planting both feet in front of you; it’s not going anywhere. Edie McQueen

Our Hollow, Our Home Burn In The Flood

eeeee Metalcore isn’t a quiet patch - neither in terms of the volume of bands, or the music itself. To punch through a crowded field takes a special something, and there’s no doubt Southampton bunch Our Hollow, Our Home have that x-factor about them.

Remaining fearsomely independent, their third fulllength ‘Burn In The Flood’ is exactly the sort of cathartic war cry that feels so vital right now. A record caught in its own emotions, it’s raw, honest and determined to

eeeee make itself heard. Showing both progression from what came before, and a fire burning hotter than ever before, it could well be their strongest work yet. Dan Harrison

Rise Against

Nowhere Generation

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“There was an expectation that the next generation would be better off than the one that had come before.

Instead, their era has been defined by mass instability,” states Rise Against in their latest manifesto. Produced by punk legend Bill Stevenson (Black Flag, The Descendents) ‘Nowhere Generation’ is a record inspired by the issues young people face today.

As a band known for their politically-charged content, it is no surprise that this album takes aim at corporate greed. Feelings of anguish and anger are clearly expressed against the 21st century pursuit of wealth.

While this is the unifying

After the breezy summer pop of ‘Gloom Cruise’ and the buzzing indie-punk of ‘Dark Comedy Performance Piece of My Life’, it would be difficult to second guess what Dustin Hayes might do next. Certainly, a largely acoustic outing wouldn’t have been top of the pile of suggestions to take to the California-based artist.

Yet, despite the change in sound, ‘There There’ still embodies the same soul as its predecessors. There’s still a resigned and world-weary humour at its core, offset by a sense of boundless optimism that things could be better. In this tension – as in their previous efforts – Walter Etc. frequently strike gold.

Light enough to dance on sunbeams, ‘There There’ is the most perfect headphone music for reflective summer afternoons. Sure, some weighty ideas are neatly spaced throughout, but these are merely ballast for the record’s quiet, understated beauty. Rob Mair Upset 45

EVERYONE HAS THOSE FORMATIVE BANDS AND TRACKS THAT FIRST GOT THEM INTO MUSIC AND HELPED SHAPE THEIR VERY BEING. THIS MONTH, CONNOR HALLISEY FROM OUR HOLLOW, OUR HOME TAKE US THROUGH SOME OF THE SONGS THAT MEANT THE MOST TO HIM DURING HIS TEENAGE YEARS.

WITH... CONNOR HALLISEY, OUR HOLLOW, OUR HOME PARKWAY DRIVE Romance is Dead I hadn’t really been listening to heavy music that long when I discovered this band. I think I bought this track and another from iTunes when I was like 13/14? Something about the emotion in the vocals and the melody of the guitars combined with this overall crushing metal sound had me hooked immediately.

A DAY TO REMEMBER The Danger In Starting A Fire My mum still says this song reminds her of me. When I first heard ‘For Those Who Have Heart’ at 15, everything else went out of the window for months. I couldn’t put the album down! I became obsessed with this sound of pop-punk being mashed together with metal/ hardcore.

UNDEROATH A Moment Suspended In Time I can remember discovering Underoath like it was yesterday. I just loved how different the band sounded to anything else I was listening to at the time. It took the essence of my favourite emo/posthardcore bands to a whole different level.

Lyrically this song used to resonate with me and my teen angst, and feeling like I didn’t fit in even with my own friends.

LINKIN PARK Somewhere I Belong My older cousin was a massive Linkin Park fan, so automatically, I thought they were really cool growing up. Then my parents got me the ‘Live in Texas’ album one year for my birthday, and I was genuinely hooked. I’m not sure if it’s the relatable lyrics or the atmosphere, but in particular, the opening track of the album just hit me really hard.

NIRVANA Lithium Nirvana were arguably one of my first real loves in music. I just found Kurt Cobain to be a really unique, captivating and remarkably talented person. I was never that popular at school, and I got 46 Upset

bullied pretty badly, so seeing this guy who had unapologetically worn his heart on his sleeve and kinda made up his own definition of “cool” really inspired me.

DEAD SWANS Ascension This song and album remind me of a time when I was really just trying to figure life out. I remember going through my first proper break-up, and this album was there for me. I felt like the words were being plucked right of my own mind.

The way this song specifically explores depression and anxiety really captivated me and helped me realise that I wasn’t the only person who experienced these thoughts and feelings.

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE Room 409 I got this song on a compilation CD with Kerrang! back when I was at school.

I remember putting the disc into my Walkman and feeling like I got punched in the face when it played this track. It starts with a little build-up that teases you before it just unleashes upon you.

Maybe it’s purely for the nostalgia, but this is still up there as one of my favourite heavy songs ever, hands down.

THE AMITY AFFLICTION Youngbloods If it wasn’t for this song, I might have

never made it into Our Hollow, Our Home. I was 16 and super into TAA at the time, and I got a message from the original bassist (who I’d never actually spoken to before) asking me to come audition for a new band called Deadlines.

I agreed to the audition purely because he’d sent me a demo of a track they were working on, which instantly gave me ‘Youngbloods’ vibes. A week or so later, I’d auditioned and joined the band, which many years later went on to become OHOH! CIRCA SURVIVE Living Together I went to a show at Southampton Guildhall, and Circa Survive opened. I think I was the only one of my friends who was excited for their set, and it honestly blew me away. They have such an atmospheric sound that flows between emo/post-hardcore and experimental/rock that just really struck a chord with me. I even got to meet their guitarist after the show and get my ticket signed. My friend took the picture in a hurry, so it came out a little blurry, but Fightstar were playing too, and I didn’t have time to be sad about it, hahaha. P Our Hollow, Our Home’s album ‘Burn In The Flood’ is out 28th May.

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