Upset, November 2022

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** Plus ** Sle eping With Sirens

Brutus

Big Joanie

Martha

Wild Pink

Pre ss Club

DEADLET TER

+ loads more

Boston Manor De’Wayne Pinkshift

UK 2022 TOUR

NOVEMBER 2022 Issue 82

RIOT 4. SLEEPING WITH SIRENS 8. PRESS CLUB 10. MARTHA 12. WILD PINK ABOUT TO BREAK 16. DEADLETTER FEATURES 18. WITCH FEVER 26. BOSTON MANOR 30. PINKSHIFT 34. BRUTUS 38. DE’WAYNE 46. BIG JOANIE

Upset Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Ali Shutler

Scribblers Alexander Bradley, Dan Harrison, Kelsey McClure, Linsey Teggert, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin Snappers Frances Beach, Kemizz, Leigh Ann Rodgers, Mitchell Wojcik, Nic Bezzina, Nick Manuell, Shai Paul, Spela Cedilnik, Victoria Wai PUBLISHED FROM WELCOMETOTHEBUNKER.COM PO BOX 420, HASTINGS, TN34 9LZ

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.

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a million times. Nothing beats a new band, fresh out of the traps, with genuine promise.

While that might be unkind to those who have slogged their way through to album five - and they can still be thrilling, brilliant, shocking and the rest. But that first big statement. An announcement to the world. That’s something else.

This month, we’re delighted to welcome Witch Fever to the cover of Upset as they

drop an album that’s sure to transcend boundries and announce itself way, way beyond the walled gardens of heavy music. They’re a band on the rise. We’re lucky to have them.

S tephen

Editor / @stephenackroyd

Riot.

THIS MONTH >>>

Aussie foursome PRESS CLUB offer up some behind-the-scenes titbits from the making of their new album. p.8

EVERYTHING HAPPENING IN ROCK

COMPLETE

SLEEPING WITH SIRENS are forging ahead with a new evolution.

Words: Steven Loftin.

4 Upset

COL

MARTHA are back to turn despair into joyous defiance. p.10

WILD PINK have produced what might just be their most ambitious album yet. p.12

E

LLAPSE. Upset 5

of getting all that out’. It’s therapeutic in that way.

And who were you when you started ‘Complete Collapse’?

Man, I was a dude that was toured into the ground. We had come off a record – ‘Gossip’ – which was a really dark time for the band. I think it was probably my lowest. And then doing ‘How It Feels To Be Lost’ and feeling that record and the impact – like two tours and seeing shows 6 Upset

start to fill up again and people coming back – and then all of a sudden, that’s gone. So a part of it is bittersweet because I feel like we never really gave that record its due, but at the same time, I think that we all in the band needed to go home and just figure out who the hell we are.

Like I figured out that Kellin Quinn is a version of me, but it’s not everything. It’s not all of me, you know what I mean? It’s just a part of me, and it doesn’t

have to be my everything, and I’ve figured out how to associate that and not be so caught up in this character that I’ve basically created over the years.

It sounds like there’s an irony in the title of this new album because you appear to have found yourself?

The name is kind of a play on words in the sense that basically what the record means is if I had continued down the path that I was

on, I would have completely collapsed, you know what I mean? So it’s looking at that and realising you either change for the better, or you change for the worse – there’s no in-between. And then I also think that it’s a play on – especially with the album cover, which, you know, like is perfect – but the way that we’ve gone through this pandemic, and just we’re sitting by the pool with our martinis, while everything’s burning around us and we’re

‘Gossip’ was just a lot of people in our ears telling us who we were supposed to be or what we could be like, “Oh, if you did a song like this, you could be like this band” or “you could be like this band”, because of all the other bands and artists that were on Top 40… I’m thankful for that record, because if it wasn’t for that record, I don’t think it would have kicked us in the ass to really go back and rethink who we were and what we want to do, you know? I think that we realised that ‘How It Feels To Be Lost’ was our lane. I feel like it was us getting back to the roots of who we were before making ‘Gossip’, and then this new album is just a continuation of that. And I think it’s even more so, like some of the songs are almost a nod to older records. We’d be writing a song and be like, man, this kind of sounds like ‘If You Can’t Hang’ a little bit, or this song kind of sounds like ‘Trophy Father’, and maybe we can tie in some lyrics from that song and bring it into this one. So it was almost just like finding yourself again and just having fun.

just kind of like casually ignoring the elephant in the room, which is we just went through a really disastrous, mindfuck of a thing and I don’t think we’ve completely digested it. It’s just kind of like, ‘Oh, we’re back to normal again.’

It’s like, what the fuck has happened?

Moving forward from ‘HIFTBL’ after ‘Gossip,’ how much did that play into the sounds of this record?

Is it important to feel that being so deep into your career?

I think that music should be a growing evolution.

For instance, I’ve been wanting to learn guitar and get really good at doing that because I want to incorporate that into the writing aspect. Like I feel in the studio with writing, I have all these ideas in my head, but I can only convey them with my mouth or singing things, and there are ideas that I have musically that I want to incorporate too. So I’m learning all of the basics through a bunch of songs; right now I just learned ‘Loveblood’ by Sundara Karma – I love that band – and just playing with power chords. If I get to

“BEING A SINGER FOR LIKE 12 YEARS HAS BEEN COOL, BUT NOW I’M READY TO GROW AS AN ARTIST” - KEL L I N QUI N N the point where I can play a few of our songs live, then hopefully, by the next record, I can incorporate some riffs and some ideas into the mix.

It sounds like you’re chomping at the bit to grow?

I just want to have fun and enjoy it, you know? I feel like being a singer for like 12 years has been cool, but now I’m ready to grow as an artist and to do more things with music than just standing up there and singing – which is a skill in itself, it’s hard to do what I do, but at the same time, it would be awesome to incorporate other instruments. And I’d like the band to grow out of being a Warped Tour band or a scene band. There needs to be an evolution of sound, there needs to be an evolution of playability and character and things like that. So I’m just thinking ahead in terms of like, who do I want to be in like four years onstage? Do I still want to be punk-jumping off bass cabs, or do I want to sit there playing guitar or maybe some synth and doing some cool shit with instruments and making it more of an intimate, live show instead?

Having dedicated fans and a level of expectation, is that restrictive at all?

We’ll do what we feel is necessary first without getting in that position where we’re getting a lot of voices in our ears. I

think that it comes down to thinking about who we would want to use to produce new music and things like that. So there’s a lot of ideas that we’re already kicking around and ideas that we have for what we want to do in the future to kind of like elevate the bands while still being like who we are with these last few records especially.

It sounds like the future is promising for Sleeping With Sirens, then.

I feel like the last one, and this one, are a great jumping-off point. As our band is getting older and we’re getting more mature, and we’re all listening to different shit now. I’m not listening to really anything within our genre. Most of the stuff I listen to is completely different than what I listened to when I wanted to start making music like this; it’s like, I’ll go back and listen to like that first US record or like, you know, we’re just talking about like, art and stuff, but I’m listening to like tonnes of different shit. I’m listening to Velvet Underground all the time and to Radiohead and stuff like that. So those are things that I would love to mess with and incorporate and just have fun. And if it doesn’t work, then cool.

We’ll move on to a different song, but at least try it, you know? ■ Sleeping With Sirens’ album ‘Complete Collapse’ is out now.

Upset 7

Riot.

Everything you need to know about...

PRESS CLUB’s

‘ENDLESS MOTION’

Photo: Nick Manuell,

new album

Aussie foursome PRESS CLUB offer up some behindthe-scenes titbits from the making of their new album.

Produced In-house

We wrote and recorded ‘Endless Motion’ in our studio in Melbourne. We were planning to record an album in Berlin in 2020, but those plans were disrupted. In response, we set up our own studio within a warehouse in Port Melbourne. This had a huge effect on the album’s trajectory; once we heard the songs back, we realised that they needed a LOT more work.

The System

To try and keep our emotions out of the songwriting process, we analysed

8 Upset

and codified a system that replicated our natural instincts. When we became unsure or despairing over a song, we just ran it through the system to bring it to completion. This got us dozens of songs that we whittled down to the 10 that appear on the record.

Sleep-Writing

To combat the rigidity of The System, we started pulling in ideas from existential sources. A few songs were written either just after, or even during particularly provocative dreams. We filled up notebooks with mostly garbage, but there were a few gems in there.

Samples

In pre-production, we tried to pull in some new sounds to give each song a signature

feel. These ranged from instruments we’d never used before to obscure samples of police chases and church bells. The album even features a field recording of the war-band of seagulls that infests the warehouse we recorded in.

Recorded VERY quick

Towards the end of 2021, we were told the warehouse was closing down, so we had to move out. This put a bit of time pressure on the end of the album. So while we had over three years to write the record, we only had a couple weeks to record it. All of the hard work we’d put in really came off.

After 10 days of thrashing, we got to work tearing down the studio that had been the birthplace of ‘Endless Motion’. ■ Press Club’s album ’Endless Motion’ is out now.

THE HOPE

GETS

MARTHA are back to turn despair into joyous defiance.

Words: Linsey Teggert.

Photo: Victoria Wai.

HARDER. 10 Upset

.

T

hough things have been feeling somewhat apocalyptic of late, Martha aren’t ready to soundtrack the end of the world quite yet. With their fourth full-length, ‘Please Don’t Take Me Back’, the Durham power-pop quartet are back to do what they do best: turn despair into joyous defiance.

“I think we’ve always been about despair: the first track on our first album is called ‘Cosmic Misery’, so that was a prologue to everything,” laughs guitarist and vocalist Jonathan Cairns (aka. JC).

Take a quick glance at the track list for ‘Please Don’t Take Me Back’, with song titles such as ‘Every Day The Hope Gets Harder’ and ‘Total Cancellation of the Future’, and you may be inclined to think that Martha have chosen to lean further into the abyss, but drummer and vocalist Nathan Stephens-Griffin insists they remain buoyant.

“I hope there is some hope in there. There’s a song called ‘I Didn’t Come Here To Surrender’, there’s ‘Beat, Perpetual’ - these are songs about keeping going.

It felt more and more surreal and weird to make music when there’s a pandemic killing millions of people and trying to tour and release an album when there’s a Cost of Living crisis; there are so many weird contradictions.

But the point is that we should do it: we need music, and we need art and friendship and all the things that this band has brought us.”

While they have always focussed heavily on nostalgia, “singing songs about the past through rose-tinted spectacles”, as Nathan puts it, and using old photographs as record covers, after over ten years of being a band and given the current circumstances, it was important that Martha looked to the future with ‘Please Don’t Take Me Back’.

“WE ARE POLITICAL PEOPLE, BUT THE SONGS HAVE TENDED TO BE MORE PERSONAL” - NAT HA N ST E P HE NS- GRI F F I N Indeed, the infectious titletrack sees the protagonist long for glory days before begging their ex-significant other not to take them back, realising, “I was really fucking sad; the old days were bad.”

“It’s an album about the future. About what the future is and how we need to make our own because they’ve cancelled ours,” states Nathan. “There is a future! The defiance of it is to be in the present now after all the shit that has happened and things seeming so bleak. Saying let’s not go back; it wasn’t good enough before, so let’s make it better.”

It was inevitable that the album would feature the theme of loss: both personal grief and what we have lost as a society, but in true Martha fashion, the band have chosen to take that sadness and spin it into gold. While the band all struggled, JC in particular really felt the difficulty in things coming to a grinding halt with the loss of his livelihood.

“My whole life before the pandemic was touring, I’ve worked in live music for years now alongside being in a band, and when that suddenly disappeared, I really didn’t know what to do with myself,” he explains.

“The track ‘Beat, Perpetual’, came right at the start of lockdown. It’s a trucking song - God, I was going stir crazy in the house, and that’s what I tried to bring across. It’s a whole new world out there, there’s all these new roadblocks,

but the future, which is the recurring theme in this, isn’t looking as bleak as it once was. There are some boxes to tick and hoops to jump through, but we’re going to keep the rock’n’roll show on the road.”

Though politics have always played a big part in Martha’s music, with all band members sharing a passion for political activism, the issues have always been framed quite subtly through a personal lens in their songwriting.

The new record, however, is perhaps the first time that the band have made an overtly political statement.

“Yes, I suppose if you call a song ‘FLAGBURNER’...” ponders Nathan. “We knew what we were doing in that respect. This record generally, particularly ‘Every Day The Hope Gets Harder’ and ‘FLAGBURNER’ as a pair, are the first Martha songs that are just straightforward, overtly political with a capital P. ‘FLAGBURNER’ is more of a story about two people who have known each other for a long time and have been through a lot together but have found their love for one another in politics and resistance to the shit that we’re living through.

“We are political people and are always doing political things, but the songs have tended to be more personal with the politics in the background.

There are a couple on here that are a lot more to the front.”

Having been a band for over a decade, you

can track the evolution of Martha’s sound through their releases. Of course, that sense of fun, of tongue-in-cheek mischief is ever-present, but ‘Please Don’t Take Me Back’ feels like a much more grown-up version of Martha.

“Whether it was fauxnaivety or actual naivety, our earlier stuff had that freshness; it was a little ramshackle,” says Nathan.

“We were never the band turning up to a gig with the snare drum in a Bag for Life, but we were from a world of music that was very DIY and very organic. Now I think we’re quite a ruthlessly welloiled machine in terms of writing power-pop music - in a good way.

“I think this is our best record yet. We’re lucky that we’re four songwriters, four singers and creative people (the band is rounded up

by Daniel Ellis on guitar and vocals and Naomi Griffin on bass and vocals) who all bring demos to the table and rather than there being a big argument there is a complete lack of ego. We have to actually convince each other that what we’re doing is good.

We’ve become very good at writing within the idiom where we exist, and we’re happy to be in that place.

If in twenty or thirty years people remember Martha as a power-pop band, I’ll be extremely happy about that.”

Martha have always felt like an ‘Our Band Could Be Your Life’ type of band: never quite hitting the mainstream but attracting an army of die-hard fans.

Given their ability to write absolutely life-affirming bangers (“What’s the point if it doesn’t bang?!” laughs JC), it’s hard to believe they’re not pop-punk mega stars. With what we’ve all been through in the last few years, Martha feel more vital now than ever. ■ Martha’s album ‘Please Don’t Take Me Back’ is out 28th October.

Upset 11

WILD

WILD PINK have produced what might just be their most ambitious album yet.

Words: Rob Mair. Photos: Mitchell Wojcik.

12 Upset

WORLD. Upset 13

T

rying to understand Wild Pink is like looking at the night sky through a broken telescope.

Backwards. There’s beauty in the music, but it’s so light and delicate – almost ethereal – and much too far away to ever be considered ‘real’. Furthermore, the profound nature of that beauty is offset by obfuscations – in Wild Pink’s case, forays into film and pop culture references or humorous song titles – all of which mask the deep vulnerabilities held within.

And while vampires, ghosts and spirits still haunt Wild Pink, the bogeyman in the corner is much more real this time.

In 2021, with last record ‘A Billion Little Lights’ just starting its breakout journey, Wild Pink’s John Ross received a cancer diagnosis which would ultimately colour every aspect of writing and recording ‘ILYSM’. The diagnosis came in June, and although an operation to treat the cancer was successful, he was devastated to learn that it had spread to his lymph nodes.

A subsequent operation was needed, meaning treatment would be much more challenging.

“It definitely informed the songwriting, for sure,” he says. “But by that point, everything had intensified with the songwriting. I’d already booked studio time, but I definitely debated whether I should be making a record at that time.

“But it was actually really helpful to just dive in. It made the whole process more focused. I guess I knew the surgery I was facing in the back of my mind, but I don’t think it cast a shadow over the recording in that sense.

We just really enjoyed the process.”

After finishing recording, John would go for the

14 Upset

“THIS WHOLE EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN PRETTY INTENSE BECAUSE OF WHAT I’VE CHOSEN TO SHARE” - JOHN RO S S operation on his lymph nodes within a week.

For Wild Pink (completed by drummer Dan Keegan and bassist Arden Yonkers), this is somewhat of a telling journey to completing

the album. Having been preoccupied with the micro and the macro – especially on ‘A Billion Little Lights’ – as well as asking abstract questions about the meaning of

life and humanity, such themes hit a little harder on ‘ILYSM’ when there’s the added context of personal connection and the power of human resolve to draw upon.

Fortunately, John has now entered the surveillance phase of treatment. “I’ve got two clean scans, I go for a scan every three months, and I have a third on Monday.

Things are moving in the right direction,” he says. It means ‘ILYSM’ – an album born out of the fear of the unknown – now stands as a testament to hope and resilience.

At the centre of this lies ‘Hold My Hand’, a duet with

Julien Baker which shows the power held within small interactions when you’re at your most vulnerable. It was inspired by a nurse who held John’s hand before he went into surgery. Like one of the major themes of ‘A Billion Little Lights’ before it, it explores the fundamental wonder and fragility of human life.

Profoundly moving and devastatingly poignant, it will resonate with anyone who has found themselves in a hospital ward holding the hand of a loved one.

“It’s a pretty simple song,” says John, somewhat humbly. “It came together pretty effortlessly, but for me, the worst part

was when it came time to release it. I got very uptight because it’s so personal.

“In fact, this whole rollout experience has been pretty intense because of what was going on and what I’ve chosen to share.

It’s been really nice to hear that this song resonates with people, though. That makes it worth it.”

Indeed, John’s never been particularly forthcoming when discussing the meaning of songs. Place and setting are important to him, but much of the beauty within Wild Pink’s work is that it’s never fully on the nose, which means reason and purpose are left to the

listener to riddle out.

Ultimately, the wizard’s curtain has remained shut.

But on ‘Hold My Hand’, when John goes personal, it goes deep. “Wherever I go, when I go down / Will you be there when I come around?” is as obvious as John’s ever gotten in his lyrics. Given that, it’s little wonder the press rollout has been so intense.

Yet not everything about making ‘ILYSM’ was quite so challenging.

John mentions that the idea of joy and discovery lies within the record, with these themes finding their way into the lyrics.

Equally, in collaborating with the likes of J Mascis, Julien Baker, Ratboys’ Julia Steiner and The Antlers’ Peter Silberman, he was able to tease much more out of the songs than was there in their bare bones.

In this case, the joy of discovery lay in the hands of his collaborators and the way they could shape the songs to something entirely new from the vision John had in his head.

Recorded in a live room, it means ‘ILYSM’ is far less studied and ‘perfect’ than ‘A Billion Little Lights’, but instead possesses an organic quality that makes the most out of the collaborators.

“It was a failsafe way to get these songs out of my comfort zone,” says John.

“I was really keen to have these songs transform themselves from when I wrote the demos, and they’ve changed so much from where they started.

That is really satisfying.

“I was actually talking to Justin Pizzoferrato, who engineered the record about this. I’m not a perfectionist in any way, but when I’m writing the songs – when it’s just me in the early stages – I really do edit them a lot, to the point the song is more or less done. But once it’s there, and I’m ready to share it or bring

it to the studio and get the collaborators in, I’m ready for everything to get turned on its head. Wherever the song goes, I’m ready to go with it.”

For ‘ILYSM’, such an approach has had profound implications. It’s far less polished than ‘A Billion Little Lights,’ and there’s a grittiness to it not yet seen in Wild Pink’s output.

It’s also serpentine and, at times, almost formless, as if songs have naturally expanded to fill the allotted space. Several of the tracks edge past the five-minute mark, often unhurriedly.

The languid style often masks the heavy themes when added to John’s hushed vocals.

In fact, it’s somewhat ironic that ‘ILYSM’ is finally the double-LP record John had wanted to make for so long – delivered at a time when he had no intention of writing a double album.

“I feel like a lot of the aspects of this record touch on what I wanted to achieve with the last one,” he says. “But I didn’t set out to make a double record this time. In fact, I’d say that making this record has been more satisfying than making the previous one. I think the way it was recorded gave everybody who worked on it a lot of room to experiment.

“And then I think the songs are not only longer, but they’re also bigger in scope than the previous record – even though that’s what I wanted to do last time. I think it’s been a really gratifying experience.”

Wild Pink’s ability to create wondrous little worlds has never been in doubt. They may be a little bigger this time, but they’re also much more defined.

They may remain little dots at the end of a telescope, but on ‘ILYSM’, they shine a little brighter…. ■ Wild Pink’s album ‘ILYSM’ is out now.

Upset 15

About Break. to

NEW TALENT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Words: Sam Taylor. Photo: Spela Cedilnik.

DEADL -ETTER Yorkshire-born newcomers DEADLETTER have moved on from busking around town centres in their early teens to making a racket in South London instead. The six-piece - newly signed to SO Recordings - are about to put their flag firmly in the ground with debut EP ‘Heat!’, coming this November.

Hi Zac, how’s it going?

What are you up to today?

Hello, we’re getting ready to support Tropical Fuck Storm at Studio 9294 this evening.

was it to form the band?

Did the others take much convincing?

I feel George (bass) and I grew together musically, having struck a real friendship after leaving primary school. I’d known Alfie (drums) all of my life prior to that, and he’d been playing drums with his older brother George, so when it came to forming a band, it made sense for the three of us to do so alongside one another.

Can you remember the first song you wrote together? What was it about?

I believe it was called ‘Oh Sam’ and was about an outlaw in Tennessee who was wanted for murder by a sheriff whose point of view the song was sung from. Not a trace of my actual accent stuck out.

What prompted the move from Yorkshire to South London? How are you finding it?

When did you realise you wanted to make music, did Living in small towns in North East Yorkshire left us you grow up in a musical with little hope of getting household? anywhere musically. George I regularly sang in school had moved to London for performances as a child uni, so it made sense for and then, at the age of Alfie and I to do the same. about 14, taught myself guitar. My mum always had It was a struggle at first to find and then hold down music playing when I was growing up; my earliest regular work, but five years musical memories being in, we’re just about used to The Stranglers, Bob Dylan, it now.

Prince, and David Bowie.

Tell us about your debut Most of you are childhood EP ‘Heat!’ - what’s it friends, right? Whose idea about? Where did it come

from?

The EP runs through various themes, from indulgence to materialism, the political climate to introspective reflection. It’s a collection of songs we’ve been performing over the past year and a half.

What’s been the highlight of your time as a band so far?

Selling out the 100 Club the other day has been our proudest moment up to now.

Music aside, what do you all do for fun?

I like to sit down with a good book. George and Alfie love watching and listening to the footie and the cricket.

Will has a passion for woodwork, Poppy’s a DJ, so regularly spins the decks at various events, and James loves a good night out in Soho.

What are you working on right now?

We’re working on a lot of new music, which is inevitably forming the backbone of our debut album.

If you could check one thing off your band bucket list right now, what would you go for?

Being the first band to play on Mars when Elon Musk gentrifies it. ■ DEADLETTER’s debut EP ‘Heat!’ is out 18th November.

Fever D 18 Upset

Dream One of the UK’s most exciting new bands WITCH FEVER are riding a wave of buzz directly towards their debut album, ‘Congregation’.

Words: Ali Shutler. Photos: Nic Bezzina.

Upset 19

ITCH FEVER’S DEBUT EP IS A FEROCIOUS SLAB OF FIERY ANGST, PUMMELLING RIFFS AND TIGHTLY-WOUND CHEMISTRY. Released last year, ‘Reincarnate’ sums up the Manchester fourpiece’s five-year journey to become one of the most exciting metal bands in the country. Twelve months later and their debut album ‘Congregation’ lays the foundations for what comes next.

The EP was the first time the band could afford to get into a studio and record five songs at once, thanks to a deal with Sony’s Music For Nations.

“That really helped us find ourselves,” says guitarist Alisha Yarwood. “That’s when we crossed the line between being an amateur band to becoming more of a professional band,” adds bassist Alex Thompson.

“Some of the songs are so old, though. It feels like it has very little relevance to us now.”

“I play in standard tuning across the record.

It’s so vile,” laughs Alisha.

“After that EP, we could move on and start doing things that sounded different,” she continues.

More progressive, more defiant, more colourful and more powerful in 20 Upset

every way, the thirteen tracks of ‘Congregation’ see the band shake off the Doom Punk tag without abandoning their roots.

“We went into the album with more confidence and with more of an idea of what we wanted to do, things we wanted to push. I don’t think we were confident in exactly what was going to come out,” says Alex. They knew they wanted to do something different, but, according to Alisha, “we just didn’t know what that difference would be until it was done.”

“It was the first time we’ve deliberately written a body of work,” says Alex, before describing their previous EP as “a bunch of singles just thrown together. Before we were always such like a live band that writing kind of took a backseat.” It’s meant that everything up to this point has felt “very thrashy” as the band set about trying to whip the crowd into a frenzy. “With the album, we wanted to incorporate more space and allow more dynamics. We were able to explore what Witch Fever was, what defined Witch Fever’s sound.”

“There are songs like ‘Slow Burn’ and the title track that I definitely couldn’t have seen us doing a couple of years ago,” says Alisha. “It’s got elements of both, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a Doom Punk record. With this album, and with whatever we put out in the future, we definitely just want to break the boundaries of genre and just do a mad mix of whatever the fuck we’re feeling.”

Despite the weight of a debut body of work, the band didn’t have a whole lot of time to get the album together – the joys of fitting in music around full-time jobs. The timeline was reduced even more when producer Sam Grant’s

PigsPigsPigsPigsPigsPigsPigs got a last-minute, post-pandemic tour, meaning Witch Fever had to record a month earlier than originally planned. They finished writing the album in the studio and only had a week and a half to get everything done. “There was definitely a time pressure on us,” says Alex. “It was a really good test for us, though,” and made sure the band couldn’t overthink anything. The end result is “a really good dive into our essence.”

Witch Fever finished recording their album almost a year ago, and have been patiently sitting on it ever since. There have

been moments where the band have wished they’d changed a tone here, a vocal line there, especially after playing the tracks live, but they remain unwavering in their confidence. “I know it’s good,” says Alex. They’re right, too.

‘Reincarnate’ touches on a variety of different tones and moods without ever feeling incomplete.

Each member of the group has their own specific influences. Vocalist Amy Walpole, for example, loves Pianos Become The Teeth (“at the start of their career, their vocals were so heavy, so painful and so emotional, and each album since has got

“I REALLY APPRECIATE AN ARTIST WHO DOESN’T JUST DO ALBUM AFTER ALBUM OF THE SAME THING” - A M Y WAL P OL E less heavy but no less brilliant”). Alisha, on the other hand, has “literally never listened to them.”

Across ‘Reincarnate’ there are nods to Black Sabbath, Warpaint, Talking Heads,

Depeche Mode, Show Me The Body, Rage Against The Machine, Self Esteem and Deftones, but Witch Fever always sound like themselves.

“We’re all very intuitive

with each other,” Alex continues. Rather than taking specific influences from other bands, “we write music based on everyone else’s reactions. The more experimental stuff comes from us bouncing off each other, trying to pump each other up. We influence each other a lot.”

“I really appreciate an artist who doesn’t just do album after album of the same thing,” adds Amy before asking if those that do play it safe “are not bored of doing that, cos I’m definitely a bit bored of that. It’s exciting that there are no rules.”

ACCORDING TO VARIOUS Upset 21

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“IT’S SUCH A POTENT GENRE, AND THERE’S SUCH A GREAT OPPORTUNITY WITHIN IT TO EXPLORE OPPRESSION, PAIN AND TRAUMA” - A M Y WA L P OL E PRESS RELEASES, ‘Congregation’ largely explores Amy’s experiences growing up in the Charismatic Church, a branch of Christianity that her parents joined when they were younger, and she was born into. She left when she was 16, the final straw being the lack of support for her mental health, while her parents followed suit two years later.

Across the record, themes of belief, abuse of power and control come up time and time again.

“It’s very obvious what the record’s about,” says Amy. “You’re dumb to think I would choose this,” she sings on the rumbling ‘Blessed Be Thy’ while frantic closing track ‘12’ features the lines “Don’t need to be touched for it to make an impression. I never got an apology. I carry it with me, the things that he said. Thought it was my fault, I was only a kid.”

“Some of the songs were very much written all about me,” Amy explains.

‘Congregation’ and ‘12’, those are selfish ones. But then other songs like ‘Sour’ were more for other people.

It’s less personal and more just like an expression of anger and wanting to fight back against oppression.

“I found the whole thing very cathartic,” she continues. “I feel

like I’ve drawn like a line underneath a lot of what I was writing about on this album. It wasn’t on purpose,” she explains. “It just happened to be that almost every song had the same theme, and I only realised when we brought them all together – I can’t believe it became my whole personality trait.”

“Emotionally, it’s been good to just get it all out… but we’ve been writing the second album, and I’ve been sat in the practice room thinking, what the fuck do I write about now?”

She goes on to say that despite the personal nature of ‘Reincarnate’, performing the songs live has been fine, but in interviews, she’s had to learn how to say no “because really, I don’t owe anybody shit. Some publications have explicitly told me they need more details about what I went through in order for us to get coverage. I’ve been asked specifically who the person I’m singing about in ‘12’ is – what, do you want the police report? It’s such a bizarre question.” She goes on to state that she will probably discuss things in more detail, but when the time’s right and on her own terms.

“It’s so unnecessarily invasive,” continues Alex.

“You’ve owned that thing and used it as a source of power. As soon as people

expect you to discuss it in a way you’re not in control of, they’re doing the exact opposite of everything that you’re setting out to do. It is important, and there’s a lot of weight to it, but it’s not trauma porn for someone to read and be like, ‘Oh, bless her’. It doesn’t define you as a person or us as a band.”

‘Reincarnate’ also pulls inspiration from horror in both its visuals and the music. “It’s such a potent genre, and there’s such a great opportunity within it to explore oppression, pain

and trauma,” says Amy. “It’s also problematic, though.

It’s fun to take a genre like horror that has oppressed women, queer people and people of colour for decades and use it as took to speak about the things we want to talk about.”

Despite the weight of what Witch Fever are singing about on ‘Reincarnate’, the album is a colourful journey of excitement. “I want people to be inspired by it,” says Alisha.” And feel empowered, not necessarily Upset 23

by the music but by what we’re doing as a band.”

“I want people to be excited as well. I want them to listen to it and have fun,” adds Amy. “It is an angry record, but we are enjoying ourselves. I wasn’t in the studio crying over everything that I’m writing about. Like, it’s fun. It was and is a positive thing.”

Some of the lyrics are tongue-in-cheek, while others take the religious phrases that were once used as a form of control and twists them. “It’s like we’re flipping the power.

I keep saying power, but we’re owning what’s happened and having fun with it at the same time,” explains Alex. “We want to encourage people to own their own stuff and have fun with it too.”

That doesn’t mean the band shy away from anger, though. As Alex explains, “there’s power in how you think and feel. And if people want to tell you differently, fuck them. Emotions aren’t a bad thing.”

“We want to prove that anger can be used as a positive tool, and it can be a positive emotion to express,” Amy continues.

“Especially when you’ve been told your whole life that you shouldn’t express it.”

Alisha grew up feeling pissed off but not knowing why. Anytime she expressed that angst, she was told not to because it wasn’t ladylike. “It’s really useful now to be able to tap into that anger in a way that’s actually going to do something, rather than just sitting there and it making me feel like shit.”

A FEW WEEKS AGO, Witch Fever put up a story on Instagram criticising the monarchy in the UK for their history of protecting alleged paedophiles, colonising nations and “along with the government, the church and the police, consistently holding 24 Upset

oppressive structures in place to varying degrees that are racist, sexist, classist, homophobic, transphobic and ableist for generations.”

Alex ended up having a row with her mum about it, with her saying how the band were going to lose followers for speaking out.

“Who fucking cares? It’s how we all feel. There’s this constant downplaying of opinion or expression where you have to keep everything to yourself in order to keep up appearances. I fucking hate that. You should be able to feel how you feel and express how you feel.”

They spoke about similar issues while on tour with Cancer Bats, and at one show, some clever dick shouted, “music, not politics”.

“We’re a punk band; you’re at a punk gig. If you’re privileged enough that you can separate the two, then you more than anybody should be listening to what other people have to say,” is what the band said at the time and what Alex reiterates today.

“It really pisses me off because there are so many levels of oppression that I have to deal with every day.

It’s so exhausting, and it’s so much worse for other people as well,” Amy adds.

“It doesn’t matter who you go out on tour with; there’s always going to be dickheads,” says Alisha.

“Just by the nature of being women and non-binary people, we anger people when we’re not even trying to. There’s a certain level of respect that those older moshers give to men that they don’t extend to us. We can’t control that,” adds Alex. So where does the energy come from to keep going and to keep fighting?

“Honestly, things like that are just going to fuel us to do it more. We got catcalled on stage the other week, and that’s exactly the reason why we always

“THERE’S POWER IN HOW YOU THINK AND FEEL. AND IF PEOPLE WANT TO TELL YOU DIFFERENTLY, FUCK THEM” - AMY WAL P OL E talk about misogyny in the industry. You have to press on and demand the respect you deserve,” says Alex before explaining that “as a band, we’re all empowered by each other.”

WITCH FEVER’S DEBUT COMES AT A TIME when a band like Crawlers are making waves with their emo anthems about depression and mental illness, Canada’s Spiritbox are touring arenas with Ghost while Poppy is out with The Smashing Pumpkins and Jane’s Addiction. Closer to home, Nova Twins have been shortlisted for the Mercury Prize.

“There’s definitely a new wave of heavy bands,” says Alex. At a recent awards show, they saw first-hand how all the legendary categories were full of white men being nominated “while all the new awards were much more varied.

I do think the tides are turning. There’s still the antiquated idea of metal, though, but it feels like an entirely separate scene.

We exist in a community of like-minded musicians. We know we have lots of peers that feel the same way as us, even if the music they make sounds different. That community is a nice thing to have.”

Heavy metal as a genre isn’t just getting more diverse either; it’s also going through a resurgence with more and more kids resonating with bands like

Witch Fever. “Heavy music unites so many people, and it brings so many people together,” starts Amy, before Alex explains how “it’s impossible not to be influenced by music in some way. It’s so direct, whether that’s purely the feeling it expresses or the political agenda it talks about. It’s a really direct way of sharing things with a community of people.”

“That’s so important, especially nowadays when there are so many horrible things going on in the world,” adds Alisha.

“When music and politics mix, it breeds a community of people who like the music, but also agree with what you’re saying. It’s just a super important and powerful thing to get involved with.”

Across ‘Reincarnate’ and throughout our hour-long interview, Witch Fever are excited about what comes next. “People keep telling us how mad everything that’s happening with the band is, but we’re just in it,” says Alex. “I definitely feel this buzz around us, though. I feel like we’ve got something special between us.”

“I’m excited to see where we go,” adds Alisha.

“There’s just so much potential. I’m excited for the gigs and tours we’re going to be able to do, and I’m feeling really positive about the future of us right now.”

■ Witch Fever’s debut album ‘Congregation’ is out 21st October.

Upset 25

Consistently picking apart the essence of their own musical DNA, Boston Manor refuse to play by anyone’s rules but their own.

Words: Steven Loftin.

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MERGING BACK IN 2016 with their energised debut ‘Be Nothing’, this was to be Boston Manor’s first and last foray into more standard fare punk. 2018’s follow-up, ‘Welcome To The Neighbourhood’, gave birth to the idea the Blackpool five-piece wanted to be more than another band in the same scene. It built a world that encapsulated a version of their hometown in a noir, watch-yourback landscape. Then, 2020’s ‘Glue’ took this even further, expanding upon the soundscapes through glitchy processed sounds. And now, ‘Datura’ is Boston Manor rejecting expectation.

“That’s probably why it’s taken until album four to do something on this scale, because I think it’s only at this point that we’ve felt confident enough to trust in ourselves,” opens vocalist Henry Cox. “Even when you’re making your third record, you’re not exactly tenured at that point. I don’t feel tenured now! It’s still kind of figuring it out, and the whole process of making an album is such a specific and long thing it takes practice to get it right.”

Indeed, with no two Boston Manor albums sounding alike, they’ve created an organic fanbase, one which falls in with them and respects whatever choices they may make (even if they can be a bit vocal sometimes. Henry mentions reading Reddit threads: “I thought it was really interesting to see people’s different takes”).

“Once we made the first record, we kind of knew that. I mean, in my eyes, that’s just as much an emo record as a pop-punk record, but it was definitely formed by that Petri dish of early-00s alternative music that we all grew up on – and I love it. I’m quite flattered actually that it’s

28 Upset

held in such high regard by that diehard pop-punk community, which we have pulled away from, and some people have come with us, and some people still cherish that record, but the rest of it isn’t for them.”

Pinpointing the turning point of their direction as ‘Welcome To The Neighbourhood’, while looking to just where Boston Manor wanted to progress, they realised “it feels different, and it feels like our own [sound] that no one else has.” A bold move that they happily pulled off, Henry and co.

– Mike Cunniff (guitar), Ash Wilson (guitar), Dan Cunniff (bass), Jordan Pugh (drums) – are thankful they get the opportunity to test different waters without severe backlash from their fans, that is “providing that the songs are good,” Henry reckons. Drawing an invisible Venn diagram in the air, his calculations lead him to believe that it’s the middle section – sat between their punk roots and their inquisitive nature – that they reside, often wandering into the outer sections because, well, they can.

For ‘Datura’, Boston Manor found a dichotomy between the natural and the industrial. Inspired, of course, by their hometown.

“It’s got a lot of nature to it,” Henry explains. “But it’s also crumbling and industrial, and a bit fucked up.” Relying upon the atmospheric as much as it does a crunching chorus, it is, by a large margin, the most experimental Boston Manor release to date, and unapologetically so. Having the confidence to, say, include a predominantly instrumental track when there are only seven total, stems from Boston Manor creating their own musical and visual language.

“Which is crazy to say,” Henry beams. “We do have some element of a blueprint when it comes to

making albums and writing songs.” He continues, “And anyone that knows us at all is probably sick with us bashing on about our hometown because it’s all we fucking talk about, but it is in a lot of senses a muse of ours.”

“It is part of our visual language and our musical language as well. So where we still write all our music, it’s where we practice, so it’s got a very big place in our hearts, and it’s very much at the centre of our kind of creative vision.”

The fictionalised version they first constructed with ‘Welcome To The Neighbourhood’ becomes larger than life with ‘Datura’. Through various field recordings – of hustle and bustle, and of nature, all straight from the source – Boston Manor are doing all they can to make their Blackpool tangible to the ears. Although, Henry is quick to add, “by no means is it a sequel to ‘Welcome To The Neighbourhood’, but it definitely feels like it’s part of the same canon.”

There’s also the fact that this is part one of two. With the second half still germinating in the minds of the band, just what it will sound like is anyone’s guess, but the cold hard facts are that it will indeed be flowing from the rapturous bird song of closer ‘Inertia’, and present the daytime to ‘Datura’’s encroaching and encompassing nighttime.

However, a case can be made for the success of an experiment having a say in any future endeavours. As if that’s the case for ‘Datura’ with Boston Manor? Henry doesn’t seem to think so.

“We’ve always tried to be on a little island in terms of what we’re creating,” he explains. “And not exterior influences or factors. But we’re only human, and if, for instance, there was a song that was panned, we probably won’t be able to help it; we’d be aware, we

run our social media.

“So if anyone is directly talking about us, then we’ll probably see it so, you know, potentially but to a small extent. We don’t write to briefs, and we don’t write to what’s popular at the time or any of that kind of thing. Otherwise, we would definitely have written more commercially viable music!” he laughs. “So I like to think, generally speaking, we always try to put the blinders on when we’re writing because there’s so much noise, isn’t there?

“People look at their contemporaries, and I think that’s a really bad road to go down because you really

“WE’VE ALWAYS BEEN THE BLACK SHEEP - TOO EMO FOR THE POPPUNK KIDS, TOO POP-PUNK FOR THE EMO KIDS” - HE NRY C OX shouldn’t compare yourself to other people because it’s not a useful exercise. Even if you sound similar to one band, you’re a completely different entity, and what would work for one artist would never work the same for you. I just think it’s very important to try and look inward rather than outward wherever possible. But

at times, it’s gonna seep through, isn’t it, because it’s crazy loud static.” But, being a band of straightshooters, Henry quickly adds: “We have a phrase that’s a bit of an in-joke in our band that’s, ‘I reserve the right to change my mind’.”

While at seven songs, it can feel like a short burst

compared to their previous efforts, the promise of more, as well as the might of the likes of the anthemic ‘Passenger’, prove Boston Manor are one of those bands it pays to keep an eye on. Few are finding the courage to explore sonics and visuals with such gusto – including touchpoints of Blink 182’s self-titled album and its use of interludes, and Burial, particularly his cut ‘In McDonald’s’ – but then Boston Manor have never seen themselves as being part of a particular scene.

On what it is about them that allows their experimentation to thrive,

Henry offers: “If I had to hazard a guess, we’ve always kind of been the black sheep of whatever ‘scene’ we’ve been a part of. We were too emo for the pop-punk kids, too pop-punk for the emo kids.

Going back to the Venn diagram, I guess we kind of sat in the middle of a bunch of different things, and that appeals to some people who maybe felt a little misrepresented in their tastes in this big old alternative bubble that we live in.”

There’s also a case to be made for Boston Manor being underdogs in this world, and it’s something Henry mentions readily.

“Some people may feel that we play into that, but we’ve always very much felt like that we’ve never had like any great leg up from anyone. We come from a very underrepresented part of the country, which is partly why we’re so proud.

And I suppose maybe that has attracted people that are into different things, and not necessarily the zeitgeist at all times. I don’t know exactly why that is, but I’m very glad.”

And when you boil it all down, Boston Manor are just a band. Four mates who set out on a mission to have fun and to see if they could change their lives while they’re at it. And while the sounds evolve at a rapid rate, as for if the band’s mission has changed, well, what do you think?

“No, and I’m very proud of that,” Henry says defiantly. “It’s never been about more than us writing songs to impress the other members of the band.

We’re all original members; we’re best friends – like best, best friends. We get on like an absolute house on fire. I just never tire of that company, which we’re very lucky to be 10 years in and still [having] that.”

■ Boston Manor’s album ‘Datura’ is out now.

Upset 29

FOREV FRIE 30 Upset

PINKSHIFT‘s debut has arrived - but don’t call it pop-punk.

Words: Alexander Bradley.

Photo: Leigh Ann Rodgers.

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HIS WASN’T THE PLAN WHEN ASHRITA KUMAR’S PARENTS LEFT INDIA FOR THE UNITED STATES. Or as Paul Vallejo’s family moved from Peru for better financial prospects in the US, while Myron Houngbedji’s folks left Benin, a country sandwiched between Nigeria and Ghana, with similar dreams.

They each settled in Baltimore, their children met, and that old-fashioned “American Dream” continued to burn bright in the hearts of the immigrants who found themselves in the land of opportunity. Their children got their degrees, and the prospect of long-term stability felt very real.

But then they started a band. Then the pandemic happened. They had one song, ‘I’m Gonna Tell My Therapist On You’, that went viral during the lockdowns, and Pinkshift gained an overnight following that chose to stick around. The offers for shows started coming in; they came to the UK for Slam Dunk and blew everyone away with their in-your-face, vibrant, grungy style. Things started getting pretty real for Pinkshift.

Now, Pinkshift are here on the eve of the release of their debut album, ‘Love Me Forever’. Medical school isn’t happening anytime soon.

Instead, they’re here to tear up any pre-conceptions that they’re just some one-hit-wonder, TikTok sensation, pop-punk band.

Pinkshift are not a pop-punk band, for starters, and this album settles that score once and for all. In fact, Pinkshift are music without borders, crossing lines between genres, gender, sexuality, race and their own geographical backgrounds.

So, here are Pinkshift ready to light the fuse on their very first album.

‘Love Me Forever’ is an interesting title for this

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album as there is a lot more anger and angst than there is love; how did you come to decide on it?

Ashrita: There is a lot of anger and angst, and sometimes anger is self-care.

A lot of times, there are a lot of emotions you suppress because you’re like, “Oh I’m not supposed to feel like this”, or “I’m not supposed to express this because it makes other people upset”, but it is a feeling you feel and suppressing that only makes it feel worse.

I feel like there is a lot of anger on the album, but more than anger, there is a lot of anguish. A lot of the album was written during the pandemic, and it was a really big time for self-reflection because you couldn’t do anything else. You were stuck with yourself for a really long time. So, there is a lot of coming to terms with yourself and loving yourself and all those pieces of yourself. I think that going through all those emotions and making something beautiful out of it that is still ugly, but it’s still whole; I still feel like it’s a journey to loving myself.

What specifically is making you so angry?

Ashrita: I don’t know, you tell me. I don’t mean that; I don’t mean to put you on the spot.

A lot of people are like, “why are you so mad?” and it’s like, “why aren’t you?”

It’s a reflective kind of anger.

It’s like a mirror. You can be mad at yourself, but you can be mad at a lot of what is going on in the world, and I feel like the older we get and the more of the world we step into, the more it is aggravating, and it isn’t fair, and you have to pay to stay alive, and all of that can really suck. There isn’t a specific target but what it is like to be alive sometimes.

The anger is continued in the sound on the album, but you’ve been adopted by this label of “pop-punk” with the festival line-ups

punk thing happened at “IF PEOPLE first, we just SAY WE ARE rode it out.

I was POP-PUNK, listening to THEN WE ARE ‘Saccharine” for the first time in a very ABOUT TO long time, I was like, CHANGE WHAT and “I get it. I get people POP-PUNK IS” why called it pop-

- AS H RI TA KUMAR punk.”

you’ve played and being mentioned in amongst this new wave of bands within that genre of music. Are you ready to tear up any pre-conceptions that you fit in with that crowd?

Myron: I am so excited. It’s fine to be associated and acknowledge that there are elements of pop-punk or any genre, but I feel like it is reductive to slap the poppunk label onto the band just because of one or two songs.

Hopefully, the album clears that up. And already with ‘In A Breath’ people are like, “I wasn’t expecting this”, and it’s like, well, you’re gonna have a good time with the album then. It’s a nice blend of our own growth and our influences of the last two years, and that really shows on the album. It’s nice to exist organically in a lot of different spaces rather than just be put into one pot.

Paul: Yeah, that pop-punk label is something we are definitely excited and eager to add onto with the album.

It didn’t personally bother me at the beginning because almost everybody has had a pop-punk phase, whether they knew it or not. And if that’s the first label people slapped on us, then it’s like who wouldn’t check it out?!

It’s not the worst thing to be labelled as, and it gives people the extra push to check it out. If we were called “hardcore” or something then that already limits the number of people that would want to check it out.

Ashrita: When the pop-

Sometimes people mislabel bands as “pop-punk” for any fun band that has a lot of vibrancy and energy.

Ashrita: I think we are excited about expanding the definition of pop-punk in 2022 because if people say we are pop-punk, then we are about to change what pop-punk is, and I think that is cool.

Was there any part of you following the viral success of ‘I’m Gonna Tell My Therapist On You’ that wanted to chase that success and try to recreate it?

Ashrita: Oh yeah, I think so.

I think that’s what we tried to do with the singles that came out after it. We were like, “Oh my God, people like ‘Therapist’? ‘Rainwalk’ is an even better song, and it’s going to be even bigger when we release this song.”

We thought about it, but we weren’t disappointed about it when it didn’t happen necessarily. I think the coolest part of ‘Therapist’ was that it jump-started this community around our music. We sold some shirts and were able to release ‘Saccharine’ independently.

It gets a lot of attention that you’re each the kids of immigrants to the US, which must make for an interesting dynamic with your parents as they moved countries for a better life, and then their children say they’re gonna be in a band rather than

go to medical school. That must have been a difficult conversation, right?

Paul: Yeah. Because our parents moved to this country for us, there is always a financial aspect to everything. One of the key reasons people emigrate from South America to the States is literally for better financial opportunity, so anything that I did was tied to “am I going to be financially sustainable for myself?” And obviously, music is not as cut and dry as engineering or medicine.

When Pinkshift started getting opportunities to play tours, record an album or do more full-time music things, presenting that to my parents (and I’m an only child), I had to frame it… You can’t really go with the excitement of, “I’m in a band. I’m going to do this.”

You have to go in with the financial aspects of it or here’s why this makes sense.

Ashrita: It’s like they planted their little seed here to grow, and we are in a rock band now. And they’re like, “Oh my God, you’re going to fall into poverty. This is not why we came here!”

Myron: Like Paul said, I’m an only child, so I’m like the only shot they have of generational wealth in this country. I know now my parents are a lot more understanding about it, but at first, I had to make a decision between doing the band and going to medical school. Med school was the goal for a while and had always been in their head; it had always been in my head, it’s what they tell their siblings and their older family, and so when it came down to that decision, it was like, “are you crazy?

What are you doing?” A lot of immediate backlash, and that was understandable.

I feel like I have to prove to them and show them the prospects of this financially and why this is such a rare opportunity for things to be growing as exponentially as they have been. We did our

first national tour a year ago, and since then, we’ve gone to the UK, and all this stuff doesn’t happen that fast [usually]. My parents coming to shows and seeing that people are actually excited to see us has eased my parents’ fears.

Ashrita: It’s very similar for me, but I have a little sister, so I’m allowed to fuck up a little bit now. I wasn’t allowed to fuck up for the longest time because I was the oldest. I got all A’s. I got a Master’s, and now I’m in this band, and now my family don’t know what to do anymore. There is a lot of guilt. And the guilt is they came all the way over here, and that’s so hard to do. To leave your parents and everyone you know and come here because you want to develop something in this country.

I was feeling really bad about it when we started the Mannequin Pussy tour, and I remember talking to an Aunty at Diwali because she seemed chill, and she said, “This is why your parents came here because you wouldn’t be able to do that over there. This is why they came here, so you could do this. They’re really proud of you for that, and even if they don’t say it right now, they will be.” I think it’s just keeping that in mind and also the small business model and having that ready and being able to back up what we do and, for the most part, our parents trust us. They trust that we are not insane.

For the most part…

It’s just maintaining that two-way street that they know what’s going on and that we still care about them and being financially stable.

We are all family-orientated people, so it’s important to us that everybody is okay, but there is still a lot of anxiety there.

So, do your parents like the new album?

Ashrita: I think so.

Myron: I played it for my parents, but I feel like they

don’t listen to music the way I do. They will like it, but it’s either because I helped write it or because I’m attached to it or because they truly, truly like it. I appreciate their support in general. I know they don’t listen to that music but whenever I play it they say they like it. My Mum does point out some specific parts where she is like “Oh I like that part” but she doesn’t know how to say it.

Ashrita: My family, we were in Florida and (my Mum is really supportive of the music, I think my Dad doesn’t get it as much) and my Mum was like, “let’s put on your album in the car”, and we sat in silence for 45 minutes listened to this all together in the car, and my Dad said, “this was nice. Why is it so loud?” I think that’s the general vibe with my parents: “why is it so loud? I can barely hear your voice.”

Obviously, they’re more concerned with my voice.

They really liked ‘In a Breath’ because they could hear my voice, and then when it came out, and they were able to listen to it on their own, my Mum texted me “, The song is so beautiful, but it’s so sad!” They’re really supportive, and they don’t listen to this music, and they really do try.

They came to the first show at Ottobar (which is in our hometown in Baltimore).

We sold it out, it was our first headline show, and all of our mums and dads came to this show. They had special reserved seating because Ottobar has that for some reason, and they liked it, I think. It was funny because during ‘Mars’, they started throwing dollar bills.

There are a lot of things traditionally that overlap between all three of us, and one of those is throwing money, but not in a stripper way, but in a good fortune way. We were playing the song, and we could see dollar bills flying down from the sky, and it was our parents - Myron’s Mum and my Dad - so they’re really

supportive, and they want us to excel and it’s really funny seeing them try. It’s great.

It’s awesome.

It seems like you have a good network of support that not only comes from your family but the fans of Pinkshift. In terms of representation for people under-represented in rock music, the positivity radiates from everything associated with your band. Is that true of your experience, and have you been wholly accepted everywhere you play?

Ashrita: Our shows are the best environments I’ve ever been in and I’m really thankful that the people we attract and some of the best I’ve met.

We have been really fortunate in that almost everybody that we have met on a professional level, and everybody that has come out to our shows has genuinely been there for us, and they’re good people. A lot of the time, I think as a band, you tend to attract what you put out, so we try to put out the best energy we can, and fortunately, we get that back a lot of the time. Honestly, it’s a high, and it’s so great to be in a space we can control.

Stepping out of that and opening for bands that don’t necessarily have the same kind of audience, being at festivals, is so different, but the people who stick around for us are here for us, and we are here for them. We don’t really care for anything else. If people don’t like us because they’re racist, then that’s weird.

That hasn’t really happened, but for Reddit and YouTube comments, it’s not even real because the spaces that we occupy and put ourselves in tend to be amazing.

I mean, if we were playing shows for assholes, then we wouldn’t have gotten this far. ■ Pinkshift’s album ‘Love Me Forever’ is out 21st October.

Upset 33

STILL Belgian trio BRUTUS are pushing themselves to the very limit.

Words: Steven Loftin. Photo: Kemizz.

34 Upset

LIFE. Upset 35

B

RUTUS HAVE BEEN WHIPPING UP A STORM FOR A WHILE NOW. Since 2017, the Belgian trio have been toting the kind of power that tears down houses and shapes landscapes. Yet, the biggest change has happened for its three core members – drummer and vocalist Stefanie Mannaerts, bassist Peter Mulders, and guitarist Stijn Vanhoegaerden – during the months when everything stood still.

Rearing its head while the trio were in the later stages of promoting 2019’s ‘Nest’, the largest tour they had planned to date was eventually cancelled.

Winding up with nothing but time on their hands, this not only allowed them to hone their perfectionism and produce their third album, ‘Unison Life’, but also gave them a chance to catch up as people rather than just bandmates.

As Stefanie mentions smiling, “This record felt like team building for two years because before the pandemic, we were at our busiest.” But with tours cancelled and nothing happening on the horizon, the three of them continued to meet in their rehearsal space. “Sometimes we played, sometimes we just talked for eight hours,” she says. “So, for me, this record is especially very important because it wasn’t only work, work, work!”

It also gave Stefanie a chance to check in with herself, as she readily admits while laughing, “I’m a person who is very good at ignoring stuff.” But with everything standing still, these repressed thoughts and feelings began to surface. “When you’re very busy, you can do that for a very long time,” she says.

“But when everything was gone, there were no impulses, no work, no friends, no shows, no music, and the only thing that was

36 Upset

“WE HAVE TO KEEP ON QUESTIONING OURSELVES AND NOT GET LAZY” - ST E FA NI E MA NNAERTS left was stuff in my head.”

Unable to skip it, she instead turned it into ‘Unison Life’. An album that continues Brutus’ trajectory of swirling, amassed sounds, but fine tunes and pushes it to new limits, while housing Stefanie’s amassed emotional junk.

Even the title refers to her ambitions for a “life that’s nice and in harmony and no discussions. But the reality is it’s not like that.”

This is where the fractious nature of the sound comes into play.

For instance, ‘Liar’ deals with “lies [getting] you eventually if you make something up it will always come back,” through searing guitar lines and barreling drums – but Brutus aren’t solely dealing in negatives. That would make ‘Unison Life’ a lie in itself. Through all this soul-searching and digging through the internal rubble, “you also discover positive things that you can do to try to balance everything out. It’s not all about lying and ignoring,” Stefanie laughs.

On the idea of reflection, just before the global lockdowns, Brutus released a book. Containing photographs from their very first show in 2013 all the way up to their largest headline show in 2019, it offered itself up as an unexpected project in reflection. While going through it with a friend, as they were asking Stefanie about the shows, she began recalling moments and locations with a fondness that only a life-changing decision to chase a dream can. She then realised that

something special had happened to the band – eventually (“It took us three hours to go through the book!”) .

“At the end, I was realising like, ‘Oh my God, we are so lucky’. We did so much stuff because I’m a very focused person,” she beams. “And in the beginning, sometimes I was like, it’s normal that we play a lot because we rehearse like 10,000 hours a year, and we give up everything for this and blah, blah, blah, but sometimes I was so blinded by playing good shows and very high focus that I sometimes didn’t see what we were doing. And when the lockdown made us pause everything, that’s the first time it really hit me what we did.”

Continuing, she mentions that “sometimes it feels that I just took a nap and I’m here like, last time I was awake I was 23,” she laughs. “And then now it’s the for, first time since I looked through that, I try to live life in the moment and appreciate everything and everyone and what we’ve done.”

While this is all well and good, without music – and new music especially – nothing will carry on.

Fortunately, with ‘Unison Life’, Brutus’ continuation is more colossal than ever, mostly thanks to that drive Stefanie mentions. Given they had so much time, it let the perfectionist in the three of them take over.

Recalling their first couple of records, Stefanie says of 2017’s ‘Burst’, “The first record was, oh, we can go to the cool guy, and we have to record a super tight

album – it has to sound super big, and we cannot make any mistakes… The focus was all on the quality of playing and technical ability.” For 2019’s ‘Nest’, moving forward looked like “maybe we should think more and talk more about the lyrics, or let’s search for different sounds. But those were just baby steps.”

Indeed, ‘Unison Life’ is quite simply a self-assigned challenge of “let’s try to

make the best songs we could ever make.”

No half-hearted attempts have been made. Brutus are a band built on drive – a steam-powered rattling and shaking fuck-off locomotive ready to bulldoze anyone in their way – and this resulted in the greatest revelation for Stefanie.

“I never thought we could make this record,” she says. “In the sense that there were so many

man-hours that came into this record. I’m not exaggerating, we were at least three days a week in the rehearsal room, and then I’m not even talking about the time at home, thinking about it, writing more… I was surprised by the amount of work we did, and we kept on questioning ourselves. Like it was never good enough.”

Certainly, when three perfectionists set foot

into a room to create the best songs they possibly can – and time isn’t an issue – what do you expect? But even Stefanie is surprised at their level of dedication and focus for ‘Unison Life’’s ambition.

“It just got worse,” she marvels at her admission.

“Like, you always are getting more and more yourself the older you get, and I think we get more and more perfectionist.” This

studious, focused nature has been with Brutus from day dot. “From the first demo we ever recorded, it was super serious. It was just like everyone’s life was depending on it.” They’d all dropped everything else to maintain the dream. “So I can say this band was very serious from the first show, but I think it’s for the better. This is what we do.

This is what we love. We have to keep on questioning ourselves and not get lazy or not get settled or comfortable in what this is because, in my opinion, it changes every record more into what we really are.”

‘Unison Life’ has ultimately led to Brutus not only understanding who they are – and most likely always will be – both as a band and as people, but it’s proved, and also tested, the essence of this Belgian trio.

This is something Stefanie relishes. “It keeps me sharp,” she says. “I always want to improve, and we always want to improve.

For me, the most beautiful thing about this band is we want to make each other proud - play good shows for my mum and my dad.

That’s still the power of the band, that we are always in the front seat like never sleeping in the back… but maybe sometimes on tour,” she laughs.

And, perhaps more importantly, for Stefanie, it’s resulted in her preference of backing away from confrontation or letting things wallow inside becoming – mostly – a thing of the past. “I still am struggling very hard to have discussions, but yeah, I’ve changed a lot,” she admits.

“A lot of people next to me say to me that some things have changed and that I’m not in my head the whole time, and now I just try to say something when I’m feeling something - but not all the time, because that’s annoying!” ■ Brutus’ album ‘Unison Life’ is out 21st October.

Upset 37

38 Upset

SING SING THE THE BLUES BLUES With a new album to round out the year, DE’WAYNE’s fighting fit and looking to the future.

Words: Steven Loftin. Photo: Shai Paul.

Upset 39

I

F THERE’S ONE THING WE’VE LEARNED ABOUT DE’WAYNE IS THAT HE’S NOT ONE TO REST ON HIS LAURELS. Hot on the heels of ‘Stains’ – his 2021 Upset Album of The Year debut – he’s already armed with his next instalment.

Where ‘Stains’ was a collection of his fraught and angry self, boiling away for years (7 while trying to be an artist and 25 years of just living), its follow-up, ‘My Favourite Blue Jeans’, struts around on the surface. But beneath, De’Wayne opens up. Battling insecurity while toting his trademark confidence, his reflection on his time becoming an artist is summed up with

40 Upset

an immediate, “The honest answer is pure hell, to be real with you.”

Currently whizzing around in a car, the De’Wayne of 2022 feels like a more charged-up version of the one we first met a couple of years ago. He’s now one album deep into the career he first began manifesting all those years ago, which means he’s an old hand at this now. De’Wayne Jackson, who first upped sticks from Texas for LA with stars in his eyes, is now bonafide De’Wayne the artist. Yet, those trials that wound up on ‘Stains’ live there now. The future is all about the present, and, as the man himself says, his next goal is “to

“BLUE JEANS IS JUST LIKE MY SUPERHERO. IT’S MY SUPERHERO FIT” - DE ’ WAYN E really cultivate something awesome and something that people could still feel inspired by.”

While the energy on ‘Stains’ was palpable, it was more of a release valve than a direct influence from the life around him. “I was kind of angry and just yelling,” he admits. “But with this new album, I got to talk about a

specific time in my life and put it on record like all of my favourites do, and I think it really just came across both in my writing and the growth of my confidence and everything like that.”

In good company on his return, a handful of guest spots from Good Charlotte (‘Take This Crown’) to I Don’t Know How But They Found Me (‘Simple’), and Grandson (‘Good Mood’) find their stylings lending a hand to De’Wayne’s punchy new groove. It’s bravura of the highest order, naming touchstones like Green Day, Bowie, and The Cars (“they made the most beautiful pop rock music, and they sang the biggest hooks”), De’Wayne the artist isn’t content to just be making songs, he wants to be taking them out into the world and make sure they exist. “I wanna be humping a stage and singing the biggest hooks, you know what I’m saying?” he says deadpan.

“I’m saying I have no shame about that. So I think once I went to that side of my brain and I was, ‘Okay cool, this is what I want to do’, that’s really helped me, and it really helped me with the new album. I think it’s helped me just in my everyday life – knowing where I want to take it and just having a sense of where I want to go in my career.”

Kick-to-the-face opener ‘Die Out Here’, featuring POORSTACY, concerns his pondering of his musical heroes who all passed tragically young. As an artist, De’Wayne is someone who reflects himself in his inspirations, and in this

Upset 41

42 Upset

“I’M VERY MUCH A TINY ARTIST, BUT MY ENERGY IS NOT THAT, AND MY SONGS ARE NOT THAT” - DE ’ WAYN E

instance, “It’s about me, fantasising and idolising. All of my favourite artists, they all died at a young age, or they overdosed, and then for me, it’s just like, do you really want to do that, bro?”

De’Wayne’s zest for life and love for his family are what kept him grounded.

Asking himself, “Do you really want to leave your eight brothers and sisters behind? Do you really want to leave your parents behind? For wanting to have fun and wanting to be stupid? I was like, no, I don’t… I don’t want to die at 30 in LA on some hill, you know what I’m saying? And

that was my idea; last year, I really wanted to kind of go... not in a dark way. But I was like, ‘Well, it’d be cool.’ Like it was really a thought that came to my mind, and that made me realise that I don’t want to do that. I want to be here for the long haul.”

Something he’s been reckoning with recently is his standing as an artist.

Discussing his life post’Stains’, De’Wayne’s energy bubbles, feeling like a solar flare ready to burst. “I know that I’m ill, and I know all these things, but I don’t want to be an indie artist forever,” he admits. “You know, I don’t want to do that

shit.” The frustration stems from his ambition, the scope of which is only limited by the physical world around him. “You gotta get up to the next level and the next steps, and I’m out of my deal with Hopeless next month, so I’m really excited about things. I could just keep on going!”

Forward momentum is all he knows how to do.

De’Wayne’s journey to becoming an artist, while tumultuous, has, however, meant that he’s been prepping for all scenarios.

From playing festivals to gigs around the world, dropping his albums and sailing off into the sunset ready to tote his songs to any who’ll listen has all been a part of the plan. Training with the manifesting ferocity of a Buddhist monk, he mentions that this time wasn’t “really uncharted because I’ve already done these things in my mind a million times. I’ve already practised these things in my mind, and that’s just as real to me as when it’s happening. So once it started happening, I didn’t freak out, and I still do call my mom and my friends and tell them things,” he continues. “And hear the songs on the radio, I cry a bit, but I practised all these things. To my mind, it feels right, even though it is a bit much for me. But yeah, I’m not content, bro.”

De’Wayne is refocusing himself. Gearing up to maintain his ambition and honing on the drive to break out of being an indie-level artist, these realisations

play into ‘My Favourite Blue Jeans’’ bravado (“Blue jeans is just like my superhero.

It’s my superhero fit,” he mentions). It’s seconds out, round two for De’Wayne, and he’s eyeing up the prize.

Mentioning the numbers his current three singles are doing – a few times during our chat – De’Wayne seems hellbent on not just being an artist, but being recognised. The frustration is palpable as he spills over himself, trying to get the words out. But, the guy from Texas still shimmers below as he admits, “Just making the second album for me is big bro, because, you know, I come from having to work for everything. So I’m glad that I’ve made it to my second one. It feels very special.”

“I have realised this year that I’m very much a tiny artist, but my energy is not that, and my songs are not that. I just want to keep continuing to do that, and I want to be very big, and I don’t feel weird about saying that.” Pausing for a moment of brief reflection, he continues. “Like, I think you know that – I’m sure you’ve heard me say that a million times, and that’s where I’m at with it. I’m not sad. I’m a tiny little baby that has a lot of potential, so I just want to keep going, and I just want to be able to do whatever the hell I want to do in my life. And I gotta do a lot of work, but I really just want to play big shows and make my family proud.”

■ De’Wayne’s album ‘My Favourite Blue Jeans’ is out 28th October.

Upset 43

Rated.

THE OFFICIAL VERDICT ON EVERYTHING

Architects

the classic symptoms of a broken spirit ★★★★

If there was any doubt Architects have their eyes set on the A list, one sprint through ‘the classic symptoms of a broken spirit’ should cast that firmly aside. With wild ambition laid out for all to see, it’s an album that runs through with propulsive immediacy. Like Bring Me The Horizon and Muse before them, the Brighton five piece are taking a go big or go home approach, each track rammed through with sky high riffs and big, synthy stabs.

Will it lose some fans of their earlier material along the way? Sure. But if the gamble comes off, you’ll not see them for dust.

Potentially massive. Dan Harrison

L.S. Dunes

Past Lives ★★★★

44 Upset

YOU CAN SPOT ALL THE HALLMARKS AND FINGERPRINTS of the individuals that make up L.S Dunes across this album, but they have still found a way to make something completely original on ‘Past Lives’.

Built on a rebellious punk spirit and held together by a sense of impermanence, this album has the visceral energy usually reserved for bands just starting out and ready to take on the world. Opening at the bottom, the raw and powerful ‘2022’ has Antony Green considering the frayed edges of his mortality. Ramping up into ‘Grey Veins’ and ‘Like Forever’, the band find their hooks before declaring all-out chaos on ‘Permanent Rebellion’. It’s an outstanding collection of punk and hardcore anthems from those who have shaped the genre in the recent years.

That said, the completely disarming ‘Sleep Cult’ is a woozy departure and a reminder that it doesn’t have to be so serious all the time too Alexander Bradley

Big Joanie

Back Home ★★★★

Drawing influence from ideas as diverse as gothic folk and grunge rock, Big Joanie have always been a band a little more special than most. New album ‘Back Home’ plays with the ideas of belonging in a world which both draws us closer together and further apart at every turn. What it results in is a record that shows not just genuine vision and ambition, but pushes beyond to something bigger. Dan Harrison

‘Datura’, they’ve created one in which you can get completely lost in.

Within a rain-soaked cyberpunk city with its neon-accented gloom, threat around each corner and the far-off churning of heavy machinery, you find Boston Manor navigating through these seven tracks. It may be lean in terms of numbers, but ‘Datura’ feels more like one whole sprawling metropolitan.

There is tension in the opener, violence in ‘Crocus’, dizzying heights in ‘Passenger’ and catastrophic lows in ‘Inertia’, ‘Datura’ has it all. This is Boston Manor at their absolute best.

Alexander Bradley

Brutus

Unison Life ★★★★

Brutus have built up somewhat of a reputation over recent years something their latest effort, ‘Unison Life’, will only bolster. An album that pushes at the edges, it mixes the heavy and the serene with a deft touch.

Crafting soaring, sweeping soundscapes, vocalist and drummer Stefanie Mannaerts pierces through at will. ‘What Have We Done’ feels especially epic, ‘Liar’ thrashes against the dying light, and ‘Victoria’ drives forward in a way that’s impossible to dislike. With a wider scope and a far higher ceiling, Brutus are a band at the top of their game. Dan Harrison

Crawlers

Loud Without Noise ★★★★

Boston Manor

Datura ★★★★★

Boston Manor have a knack for building dark worlds for their music to live within, and with

In the span of four years, Crawlers have amassed themselves millions of streams, a cult-like following and opened for My Chemical Romance in sold-out stadiums - all before they’ve released a debut album. And listening to ‘Loud Without Noise’, it’s easy to see why.

They feel like seasoned

experts in their craft, a clear vision executed and put on display. Pulling inspiration from across the alternative spectrum, this mixtape captures what it feels like to be in your early twenties.

Passion all but leaks through the speakers; Crawlers have given us just a taste of their potential, and we are hungry for more. Kelsey McClure

- featuring iDKHOW no less - every one’s a winner.

Two five star albums in two years? Wake up, world.

De’Wayne’s a-knockin’. Dan Harrison

Love Me Forever ★★★★

Martha

Please Don’t Take Me Back ★★★★★

De’Wayne

My Favourite Blue Jeans ★★★★★

De’Wayne is already a star.

Last year’s ‘STAINS’ proved as much. Upset’s Album of the Year for 2021, to say that ‘My Favourite Blue Jeans’ beats it would be quite the statement - and yet it quite probably does.

Sharpened up and aimed straight for the stars, it’s more immediate, more in your face and strapped front to back with bangers. From the addictive sugar rush of ‘Sexi Boy’, to the strut of ‘Thank You For Lying’ and smooth as silk ‘Simple’

Pinkshift

Four albums and several singles deep, Martha are, by now, venerated institutions of the UK indie scene. In many ways, ‘Please Don’t Take Me Back’ veers little from the tried and trusted – the harmonies bang, the wry, observational lyrics are as sharp as ever, and the songs are packed with immediacy and purpose – so far so Martha, then. But there’s also a sense that the Durham quartet aren’t content to rehash old ground. Indeed, Martha revel in grey areas and ambiguity, mixing the personal and political to great effect.

It means they continue to raise the bar, and ‘Please Don’t Take Me Back’ extends their long-running winning streak.

Rob Mair

Pinkshift come out kicking and screaming on their debut album. If you imagine the vulnerable and stark “in a breath” as a gulp of air in the middle of the album, then the remaining tracks are two long, frustrated screams into the void. While at times ‘Love Me Forever’ is unrelenting, the trio are in control as they switch from feisty in “i’m not crying, you’re crying”, to the crushing pulse of ‘BURN THE WITCH’ with ease. It’s an impressive first album that catches Pinkshift mid-explosion.

Alexander Bradley

band synonymous with the 2010’s post-hardcore scene.

Bouncy with breakdowns aplenty, ’Complete Collapse’ cements their place in this decade too. Opening track ‘Tyrants’ contains an aggressive urgency, while ‘Let You Down’ with Charlotte Sands is exceptional. With a rougher sound and relentless beat, ‘Bloody Knuckles’ meanwhile offers up thrashy fun.

‘Complete Collapse’ balances its time between heavier and more pop-driven tracks, often marrying the two to give a perfect partnership of sugar sprinkled screamo.

It’s a solid return. Kelsey McClure

Wild Pink

ILYSM ★★★★

Sleeping With Sirens

Complete Collapse ★★★★ Sleeping With Sirens are a

Like their songs, Wild Pink’s evolution from scratchy lo-fi indie-punks to indie-rock demi-gods has been slow, considered and deliberate.

Even then, ‘ILYSM’ – the group’s fourth record – feels a world away from previous effort ‘A Billion Little Lights’.

Indeed, it’s so far removed, it could have been lifted from a different continent. But, crucially, the fabric remains the same. John Ross has delivered something so moving and profound that it has the power to linger long after the closing notes of ‘ICLYM’ have faded from view.

‘ILYSM’ follows Ross’s cancer diagnosis, and this permeates every moment, but none more so than the extraordinarily beautiful ‘Hold My Hand’ (which features a guest spot

by Julien Baker). A staple of John’s writing is the ability to look at the minuscule and massive through the same lens; contemplating the vastness of the universe and the wonder of simple life at the same time. In this song in particular – inspired by a conversation with a nurse shortly before surgery – Ross has come as close to anyone of unlocking the truth and beauty held within a song.

It’s disarmingly devastating, capturing a momentous moment through microscopic actions and simple deeds.

While Wild Pink’s earlier output has possessed an immediacy, ‘ILYSM’ is a suitably challenging listen, and features the group’s most progressive and confident arrangements yet. Several songs slowly crash through the five-minute mark, and there’s an unhurried pace and a reverential tone to much of the record. Wild Pink have certainly taken their time to get there, but as they draw in more and more reference points, they’ve found a fine middle ground between slowcore, Americana and indie-rock. Rob Mair

Witch Fever

Congregation ★★★★★

There’s little more exciting in a band than potential, apart from perhaps potential fully realised. That’s the vibe check for Witch Fever’s debut album - a record that takes their early promise and cashes it in big time. Raw, rampant and unapologetic, it rattles and rolls plenty, but never once looks close to coming off the tracks. From the elastic twang of ‘Beauty and Grace’ to the stomp of ‘Market’ and the drone-tinged blast of ‘Bloodlust’, Witch Fever do nothing by halves. A stunning start from a band still rising fast. Dan Harrison

Upset 45

BIG JOANIE EVERYONE HAS THOSE FORMATIVE BANDS AND TRACKS THAT FIRST GOT THEM INTO MUSIC AND HELPED SHAPE THEIR VERY BEING. THIS MONTH, BIG JOANIE TAKE US THROUGH SOME OF THE SONGS THAT MEANT THE MOST TO THEM DURING THEIR TEENAGE YEARS. my Mum entering my bedroom while I listened to a Blood Brothers CD, looking disgusted and saying “this is just noise”, and feeling immensely proud to have finally reached that teen rite of passage.

The Blood Brothers were unlike anything I’d ever heard - they blew my mind and showed me that hardcore music could be wild, melodic, smart, catchy and cathartic.

YEAH YEAH YEAHS

Photo: Ajamu X

Date With The Night

BIKINI KILL Rebel Girl

Stephanie: I remember getting a Yamaha acoustic guitar for my 16th birthday and using it to play their songs’ Rebel Girl’ and ‘Alien She’. Bikini Kill were the entry point into so many of my favourite bands, feminism, the riot grrrl movement, and still define my music tastes today.

PARAMORE Conspiracy

Estella: I’ve literally grown up alongside Paramore. Seeing them live at Give It A Name Festival in 2006 was a pivotal moment, where I realised that I, too, could be a teen girl in

46 Upset

an emo band. Across the years, I’ve watched them grow and evolve as musicians and people, channelling a wide range of influences whilst creating their own distinctive sound. They offer something new to connect to with each album.

SLEATERKINNEY Dig Me Out

Stephanie: SleaterKinney were one of the first bands where I realised how important each member of a band is. They are such a powerful unit and created these emotional, multi-layered songs that completely blew my teenage brain to pieces. I

Estella: The YYY’s stood out from the slew of would spend hours noughties “the” bands trying to be Carrie and of my teen years - Karen Corin on guitar, but I’m O’s incredible stage not sure I fully got it. presence and attitude was impossibly cool, and I spent many years trying to shred like Nick So Here We Are Zinner. Getting into club Stephanie: During the British indie revival, I got nights underage and really into Bloc Party and dancing to ‘Date With their debut album, ‘Silent The Night’ played an Alarm’. I remember going important part in who I round my friend’s house am today. and watching their video for ‘So Here We Are’ on MTV and thinking the band all looked so cute.

Some Candy The whole album still sounds as good as when Talking Chardine: I remember I first heard it as well. this came on MTV2 late at night, and I wanted to record the video on VHS, so I worked out Fucking’s Greatest the MTV2 playlist ‘cause they used to play songs Hits Estella: I distinctly recall in the same order (took

BLOC PARTY

JESUS AND MARY CHAIN

THE BLOOD BROTHERS

me hours) just so I could record the video. I later tried to order the album from my local HMV. It took six weeks, and I had ordered the second album by mistake! Was very happy for streaming and other downloading platforms after that!

NIRVANA Sliver

Chardine: If there was a band that changed my life, this was it. It was the gateway band that got me into alternative music and opened up a whole new world. Someone lent me the tapes, which I then copied onto others (this was the early 00s!).

THE STONE ROSES

I Wanna Be Adored

Chardine: Being a teenager in the early 00s kind of sucked as you kinda felt a bit like you missed all the cool stuff in the 90s and was surrounded by Nu-metal bros! It was before the White Stripes, or the Strokes had really arrived, so when I was about 13/14, the big band for me was The Stone Roses. It’s still my favourite bassline. I was learning how to play the bass recently, and it was the first thing I learnt how to play because I know it so well!

Big Joanie’s album ‘Back Home’ is out 4th November.

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