Upset, October 2022

LP / CD / MERCH

OCTOBER 2022 Issue 81

RIOT 4. READING 2022 10. THE BETHS 14. FUTURE TEENS 18. LANDE HEKT 20. THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 22. NO DEVOTION 24. STRAY FROM THE PATH ABOUT TO BREAK 26. ARTIO FEATURES 28. THE WONDER YEARS 36. PARKWAY DRIVE 40. KID KAPICHI 44. COUNTERPARTS 48. DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE 52. VUKOVI 58. PULLED APART BY HORSES

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

Scribblers Alexander Bradley, Dan Harrison, Dillon Eastoe, Jack Press, Jasleen Dhindsa, Josh Williams, Kelsey McClure, Linsey Teggert, Melissa Darragh, Phoebe De Anglis, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin Snappers Adam Parshall, Andy Ford, Ben Ward, Christopher Kitchen, Dave Le Page, Frances Beach, Frances Carter, @gingerdope, Jimmy Fontaine, Liza De Guia, Patrick Gunning, Sarah Louise Bennett P U B L I S H E D F RO M

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

All material copyright (c). All rights reserved.

This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of The Bunker Publishing Ltd. Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, for which The Bunker Publishing Ltd holds no responsibility.

The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of Dork or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally.

HELLO.

It’s always a good month when we’re able to put The Wonder Years on the cover of Upset.

Over the seven and a bit years we’ve been making the magazine (no, really?), few - if any bands have come close to matching their consistent level of quality. With their new album ‘The Hum Goes On Forever’ that bar stays intimidatingly high. Not that that’s any surprise.

The same could be said of Parkway Drive, also dropping a remarkable new record this month, or any of our other featured faves. As the sharp end of 2022 approaches, the talent is stepping up. You lucky, lucky readers. Enjoy!

S tephen

Editor / @stephenackroyd

Riot.

THIS MONTH >>>

EVERYTHING HAPPENING IN ROCK

READING 2022 SEES OFF THE LAST NIGGLING WHISPERS OF IT STILL BEING A LEGACY ROCK FESTIVAL 4 Upset

With their third LP, New Zealand quartet THE BETHS are fighting anxiety and fear of change by embracing fun. p.10

Boston-based emo-pop-rock quartet FUTURE TEENS are stepping up to confront mental health struggles head-on. p.14

If their debut was an album of tough times, NO DEVOTION’s second effort is one of recovery. p.22

Words: Ali Shutler. Photo: Frances Beach, Patrick Gunning.

Upset 5

POPPY

Poppy is another artist who refuses to rest on her laurels. With 2019’s ‘I Disagree’, she blended industrial metal with pop long before Doja Cat started rumours of a nu-metal revival, while 2021’s ‘Flux’ took the same 00s influences that Olivia Rodrigo used for her groundbreaking debut album and twisted them into something more than simple nostalgia. Today’s mainstage set is another attention-demanding moment from a star who looks increasingly more comfortable in the spotlight. Sure, the terrifying might of ‘Concrete’ and ‘Bite Your Teeth’ might get a few bemused looks from people trying to enjoy a giant Yorkshire pudding, but closer to the action, Poppy’s got the festival eating out of the palm of her hand. New revenge anthem ‘FYB’ suggests another exciting new era is just around the corner. and ‘Drown’ incite some of the biggest singalongs of the weekend. The glitching drive of ‘Teardrops’ and the industrial rave of ‘Kingslayer’ see Bring Me’s more experimental 6 Upset

‘Obey’, the gut-wrenching sincerity of ‘Follow You’ and a triumphant ‘Throne’ closing out the set, Bring Me The Horizon raises the bar of what rock music can achieve in 2022 and comfortable claim their title as the biggest and best heavy band in the land. Somehow, almost 18 years after they first formed, it still feels like the band are only just getting started, though.

Also updating the history books is Halsey, who alongside Megan Thee Stallion becomes the first solo female headliner at Reading Festival since Bjork did it in 1995. While Megan’s set on the Friday is a celebration of sexuality, Halsey’s is one of rage.

Sure, Halsey is perhaps the most outward pop headliner the festival has ever seen, following a path blazed by Dua Lipa in 2018 and Billie Eilish in 2019, but there’s been a punk snarl to everything they’ve done. Tonight’s show is apparently “not what you’re

side shine while the no-nonsense emo rager of ‘Strangers’ and the hyper-pop-infused ‘Die 4 U’ suggest the best is yet to come. Straight to the point and full of grand emotion, it’s clear to see why so many people find hope in Bring Me’s nihilist anthems.

The biggest surprise, however, comes when Ed Sheeran rocks up for Willow is here single-handedly ‘Bad Habits’. representing the entire Bring Me pop-punk revival, but with The Horizon talk of wanting to write a came up at rock opera (“not a popular a time when opinion, but all of my opinions the Reading are unpopular opinions,” she audience would grins) and the unreleased, aggressively uptempo indie banger she bottle anyone performs, she’s clearly not that didn’t done with switching things fit within the up. “I’ve just been really festival’s ballsy lately,” she admits. Two narrow rock more tracks from upcoming credentials. album ‘CopingMechanism’ Tonight, confirms that, with ‘Hover Like the global A Goddess’ offering soulful megastar isn’t rebellion while ‘Maybe It’s My just tolerated; Fault’ is a dreamy burst of he’s celebrated. rock’n’roll.

It leads vocalist Oli Sykes to call Bring Me’s fans “the best in the world.”

With the gargantuan

WILLOW

expecting” from Halsey.

Taking the lead from 2021’s ‘If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power’, there’s an industrial might to the whole thing. Flames regularly engulf the stage, while horror visuals play on the gigantic screens.

A lesser artist might get lost in the expanse, but Halsey is a constantly commanding presence.

Opener’ Nightmare’ comes with historic protest messages in support of women’s rights (“end forced motherhood”, “the future is female”) that sadly feel more necessary than ever in 2022, while they scream “are you ready for me?” before the epic ‘Castle’ bundles all of Halsey’s ambition and fury into a searing three-minute riot.

“I think a lot of people thought that after I had my kid, I’d get really boring or something. I feel like it was the opposite,” they explain, before saying how she now gives less of a fuck and doesn’t take herself so

seriously.

Finding time for cinematic moments of calm (‘The Lighthouse’) and glitching catharsis (‘Experiment On Me’) alongside the grand pop might of tracks like ‘Without Me’ and ‘Bad At Love’, Halsey’s set is carefully crafted, complex and brilliant. It feels lazy to call Halsey a rock star just because she plays the guitar, because they’re clearly so much more. If you’re looking for an example of how rock can work within the mainstream while still being progressive, political and personal, this set is it. Another game-changer from an artist who’s always been in a lane of their own.

Across the entirety of Reading Festival, the next generation prove that this rock revival isn’t going to be a fleeting one.

At the heavier end of

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things are bands like Static Dress. Bringing together the blistering, emotional might of post-hardcore groups like Glassjaw but cutting it with big ol’ anthemic moments that gave the Brit-rock scene such a presence on the main stages at festivals like this, their set teeters at the edge of chaos.

Elsewhere, Witch Fever call out the “sexist, racist and misogynistic” history of the rock scene before promising to change things for the better. Musically, there are nods to the groove-filled angst of Deftones and the tightly wound fury of Rage Against The Machine, but there’s an agility to the way their songs about belief, power and rebellion are delivered that demands attention.

With just a handful of songs to their name, Crawlers have spent the

BEABADOOBEE Beabadoobee’s music might not be as aggressive, but it’s just as emotional. Latest album ‘Beatopia’ sees her continue to toy with grunge and 90s alt-rock, and based on the mighty singalongs throughout the packed tent, it’s clearly found an audience. On the BBC Introducing stage, Alissic delivers her morbid pop with an enthralling, theatrical edge. This is her third-ever show, but she’s already a pro, and it feels like a grander vision is slowly being revealed to the world. She’s already dabbled in emo, hyperpop and brooding rock, establishing herself as one of the most promising new voices on the scene.

festival season smashing every expectation that’s come their way. Today though, it’s on a whole other level. From the rumbling ‘Fuck Me (I Didn’t Know How To Say)’ through a soaring ‘I Can’t Drive’ to the urgent ‘I Don’t Want It’, there’s electricity in the air.

Rather than just a simple celebration of how far they’ve come, Crawlers use their set to announce debut mixtape ‘Loud Without Noise’. For a festival driven

by excitement, Crawlers feel like the shiniest thing going.

And it’s just not on the smaller stages that guitar music is thriving, either. A surprise set from Wargasm sees them continue their “sordid collusion of euphoria and violence”.

The duo are now so much more than the nu-metal nostalgia that they were branded as when they first crashed onto the scene (though today’s set does include a cover of Limp Bizkit’s ‘Break Stuff’) with plenty of nods to the rock’n’roll excess of Guns’ n’ Roses. Wargasm have quickly made a name for themselves within the Download faithful, but Reading is a different beast entirely. Still, Milkie Way isn’t fazed. “I don’t care if you don’t know who the fuck we are. That’s not an excuse. Show me that you’ve got,” she demands before a blistering ‘Rage All Over’.

There’s a similar energy to Scene Queen, who’s playing her first proper festival this weekend and will be back to the UK later this year to support

Wargasm. She’s already a hit online thanks to the irresistible chaos of her Bimbocore music and her no-nonsense attitude to social media, and it’s clearly translating to real life. Fans turn up wearing pink feather boas, and they need little encouragement to “clap some ass” in a Twerkle pit, which is exactly what you think it is.

It’s hard to think of another artist playing Reading as extreme as Scene Queen, but she fully commits to the larger-than-life demands of her ferocious pop-meets-metal, and the packed tent loves every minute.

Over on the main stage, De’Wayne has a tougher job. Bounding onto the stage and launching straight into the pulsating rage of ‘National Anthem’, he’s met with a lot of confused Bring Me The Horizon fans. Taking it all in his stride, he makes time to introduce himself and lets the crowd know what a dream today is for him.

“I know a lot of you are wondering ‘who is that, why is he dancing like that?’ but it’s nice to meet you guys,” he says. What follows next is sheer magic. Over the course of 35-minutes, De’Wayne delivers pop hits (‘Perfume’), punk snarl (‘Super 8’) and sexy rock’n’roll swagger (‘Family Tree’). With every track, the crowd gets bigger and more into it. By the time the explosive ‘Me Versus You’ closes things out, there are moshpits, crowdsurfers and people on each other’s shoulders, as De’Wayne ensures people remember the name.

And then we have The 1975, tasked with filling in for Rage Against The Machine. It’s hard to know where the legendary rock band fit in 2022, with even the biggest pop stars in the world delivering more nuanced political takes than “take the power back”, but over the past decade,

The 1975 have established themselves at the very forefront of popular culture.

Sure, their ambitious Music For Cars era saw their appeal buckle slightly under the weight of grand concepts and their desire to move faster than anyone else could keep up.

Tonight’s set, though - their first in the UK since 2020 - is a chance to reflect and reset with a rare greatest hits set. Anyone watching who doesn’t think they’re one of the best bands to come out of the UK… well.

The always self-aware vocalist Matty Healy wrestles between being a rock star and offering the crowd something more earnest (“the dichotomy of my life”) before deciding to keep the sunglasses on.

Elsewhere he shouts, “this is what self-indulgence looks like”, before a blistering, 80s-inspired breakdown and asks why anyone from Reading would want to live in Reading.

It’s impossible to argue with the back catalogue, either. From the punishing ‘People’ through the list of everything that’s wrong in 2022 (‘Love It If We Made It’) to the encouraging ‘Give Yourself A Try’, The 1975 can’t help but soundtrack modern life.

Then there are the all-out pop bangers like ‘The Sound’, ‘Love Me’ and ‘TooTimeTooTimeTooTime’ that couldn’t be more suited to a festival headline set. Sure, the old blokes on Twitter will complain no matter what but a socially-conscious rock band encouraging a generation of kids to think for themselves, to believe in something better and fight for positive change? Sounds like an apt replacement for Rage Against The Machine to us.

Reading Festival has undeniably changed in recent years, and the 2022 event feels like the start of a whole new, exciting era. ■ Upset 9

EVERYTHING

With their third LP, New Zealand quartet THE BETHS are fighting anxiety and fear of change by embracing fun.

Words: Linsey Teggert. Photo: Frances Carter.

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G

CHANGES. Upset 11

E

VOLUTION IS A WORD THAT SUGGESTS YOU’RE GETTING BETTER AND BETTER... and I don’t know if that’s true. It always feels like starting from scratch again.” Elizabeth Stokes, vocalist and guitarist of New Zealand quartet The Beths, is cautiously pondering the development of her songwriting.

“Sometimes it’s more an element of getting lucky. It feels like you can get lucky at different times, or just get lucky more often the more you do something. With my earliest songs, 90% of them were shit, and one of them was good: now I feel like the ratio is getting better!”

This earnest, self-effacing aspect of Liz’s personality often punctuates her songwriting, making The Beths’ joyous indie-pop all the more endearing. While Liz may play down her own progression as a songwriter, it’s clear for all to see that The Beths have captured the hearts of people all over the world in a way that few New Zealand artists have. Heck, they can even count Phoebe Bridgers amongst their biggest fans.

For the ever-modest Liz, it still feels incredibly surreal.

“It feels like it could all go away at any moment, and it could be fake - I’m constantly pinching myself.” The fact that she’s currently speaking from North Carolina, a stop on the band’s US Summer tour, suggests that she hasn’t jinxed things just yet, though it’s been a rollercoaster ride to get to the release of their latest album, ‘Expert In A Dying Field’.

After a hectic touring schedule in late 2019 that saw The Beths on the verge of burnout, they went straight into recording their second album ‘Jump Rope Gazers’, right before Covid hit. “It’s silly because, in the context of a global pandemic, your music album feels very insignificant,” Liz muses, as she explains how all touring of the record outside of their

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native New Zealand had to be put on hold. “We handed that album in on 6th March 2020 and were about to start rehearsing the songs and head straight out on tour, but looking back, I think if we’d have done that, we’d have burnt out. We might have made it, but we were already pushed to our limits.”

Shaking off “the hypothetical year of promo for ‘Jump Rope Gazers’ that never happened and is never going to happen,” The Beths returned to the recording studio in summer 2021 to track ‘Expert In A Dying Field’, but things weren’t going to plan.

“We were about halfway through when Jonathan [Pearce, guitarist and producer] and I started feeling that it wasn’t as good as we thought it would be. We were contemplating taking a couple of weeks to try and rewrite some stuff and see if we could make it better. It was quite existential; it’s depressing to look at what you have and think, ‘this isn’t good; this is actually quite bad’.”

It’s hard to imagine that anything The Beths create could be considered bad after two sparkling releases studded with killer melodies and irresistible pop hooks, but Liz’s struggles with selfdoubt are well documented in her songwriting.

“It felt like it needed more energy, but it was all foundational stuff, which was why it was so distressing,” she sighs. “If it’s just top layer stuff like producing or arranging, you can work and keep tweaking until you get it, but it really felt like I had to start again at that point. I had to write better songs.”

A day after this realisation, New Zealand was placed in a strict four-month lockdown, and while the band couldn’t see each other in person, it afforded Liz the time to write and re-demo. However, delayed deadlines led to a chaotic sprint to the finish line to get the record finalised on time.

“Jonathan started mixing the record in his studio in Auckland earlier this year, but then we had to leave to tour the USA, so he had to mix it while we were on the road, which ended with a mad dash to a studio in LA at the end of the tour. We feel like we made the album a lot better, and though it was stressful for Jonathan, we’re all really comfortable with the record now in a way that feels really good.”

While ‘Jump Rope Gazers’ took the scuzzy guitars and relentless tempo of debut record ‘Future Me Hates Me’ and transformed them into something more nuanced, ‘Expert in A Dying Field’ hones their craft even further. It’s still unmistakeably The Beths, but the uncut gems have been turned into gorgeous jewels.

Right at the front of the record, title-track ‘Expert In A Dying Field’, is the ideal song to showcase the band’s skill in crafting the perfect jangly indie-pop song that’s breezy on the surface but full of depth and emotion when you take a closer look. It also demonstrates Liz’s incredible songwriting and her vulnerability as she examines the end of a relationship and wonders what to do with the space now left behind.

As she softly delivers lines such as “I can close the door on us, but the room still exists,” the fragility is almost overwhelming.

“I never set out to write albums with a specific theme, but I can stand back afterwards and see what things have come out in the process. One of the main themes of this record is change and how you cope with it, and I suppose the idea behind the track ‘Expert In A Dying Field’ is something I’ve had on my mind for a while.

“I’ve had some acrimonious ends to relationships, whether friendships or romantic, but I’ve also had relationships that end amicably. You don’t

hate each other - maybe you still love each other - but it’s just different, or it just doesn’t feel right. Even though it’s not as dramatic as an explosive emotional break-up, it still resonates, and it’s still something that can be sad or bittersweet, or maybe it makes you happy to remember it. You pick up a lot over the course of knowing someone and what you do with that information afterwards...” Liz pauses. “I don’t know, I’m still not sure what you do with it, but you have it all.”

Though this all sounds rather melancholic and sure, The Beths know how to pull on their listeners’ heartstrings; it would be remiss not to point out just how incredibly fun the band are. If you need evidence, look no further than the hilarious video for ‘Knees Deep,’ perhaps the hookiest earworm on the album, that sees the band engage in a spot of bungee jumping.

“It’s fine until you look over the edge, then you’re like, ‘Nope, absolutely not’,” laughs Liz. “It was my idea, but when you come up with ideas, they don’t quite seem real. It’s all hypothetical until you’re actually on the platform looking over the edge, then you realise it’s not an idea anymore; it’s become real!”

Despite the struggles with writing for ‘Expert In a Dying Field’, Liz insists that for her, songwriting is still a fun process. “In terms of direction, I still feel like I’m mostly writing from the gut then arranging with my brain, which feels really fun.

The combination of writing instinctually and emotionally but combining that with the craft of building the song and the arrangement and working together with the rest of the band to create something that does what you want it to do and makes you feel the way you want it to feel - I still love that process.” ■ The Beths’ album ‘Expert In a Dying Field’ is out 16th September

“IN THE CONTEXT OF A GLOBAL PANDEMIC, YOUR MUSIC ALBUM FEELS VERY INSIGNIFICANT” - E LI Z A B E T H STOK E S Upset 13

Boston-based emo-pop-rock quartet FUTURE TEENS are stepping up to confront mental health struggles head-on.

Words: Rob Mair. Photo: Adam Parshall.

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SELF

HELP. Upset 15

I

F WE STOP TOURING, ARE WE EVEN A BAND?” considers Future Teens’ co-vocalist Amy Hoffman. They’re almost certainly joking, but Future Teens have built up so much of their reputation on their life-affirming live shows that there could be an element of truth to the statement.

Three-quarters of the Boston group – Amy, co-vocalist Daniel Radin, and bassist Maya Mortman – are on a Zoom call to discuss their excellent new album ‘Self Help’. Yet it’s also proving to be an opportunity to reflect on a successful debut UK tour and re-evaluate the group’s relationship with their ‘Deliberately Alive’ EP – arguably the most intensely personal release by the quartet (completed by Colby Blauvelt) to date.

Given the nature of the pandemic, the UK trek – which included a crowdwinning set at Bristol’s Booze Cruise – was a real road test for the songs from the EP. Getting to play songs like ‘Guest Room’, which ruminate heavily on mental health, mortality, and the meaning of life, also proved to be an eyeopening experience.

“It was really heartening to play those songs,” says Amy. “So much of that EP came from a place of utter despair, but that’s not the part of the songwriting process that rings true anymore. I came out of the other side of ‘Guest Room’ feeling extremely grateful.

Now I can think about how the place that song came from was really painful, and that was where I was at the time – but actually, so much of what I thought about myself was bullshit. It’s a very cool transition from the headspace I was in while working on that EP to now.”

And while ‘Guest Room’ is a song that connects thanks to its open-hearted honesty, the quartet have repeated the trick multiple

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“I DON’T THINK WE SET OUT TO WRITE AN ALBUM OF MENTAL HEALTH BANGERS” - A M Y HOF F MAN times on their new album’ Self Help’, crafting a record that digs into issues of sobriety, relationships, and mental health, often approaching such challenges in tactile, smart ways.

Most notably, this can be seen on the second single, ‘BYOB’. A clever play on

the notion of ‘bring your own booze’, instead it’s a deconstruction of sobriety and mental health and the role alcohol can play in these discussions. It was written mid-pandemic with Amy just four days sober.

“I will never be thankful for the pandemic,” they say. “But because of it, I

completely changed my life.

Sobriety would never have been a thing for me without it, at least not at this point in my life. Because of my sobriety, I got an important mental health diagnosis, and I could move forward knowing I had this awesome support group around addiction and sobriety and bipolar.

“I don’t think we set out to write an album of mental health bangers.

But somehow – despite Daniel having a completely different relationship with alcohol and mental health – we found that overlap. It was just another beautiful experience of trusting my friends.”

This sense of

camaraderie is fundamental to the success and appeal of Future Teens. It extends beyond the four people and out into the audience, thanks to the group’s ability to foster an environment that is welcoming, inclusive and fun. “Wholesome” isn’t in keeping with the dangerous image of rock’n’roll, but it also doesn’t mean boring or bland.

A Future Teens set often starts with a huddle, with the band members throwing hands in the air, and frequently features daft games of hide-andseek between Amy and Maya. Meanwhile, the crowd is encouraged to holler ‘Boston sucks’ in

increasingly drawn-out and elongated ways during ‘In Love or Whatever’. It makes for an enjoyable, fanfriendly experience.

“There are these rock’n’roll tropes, and we’re happy to play with them in our music videos,” continues Maya. “But I believe that the true spirit of rock’n’roll is in finding your inner child and just having fun and doing whatever we want in the nicest possible way.”

“If people want to mosh or have a wall of death at a Future Teens show, I’m all for it,” concludes Amy. “But I’d be constantly aware that there might be someone there who doesn’t want to be in something like

that, and they might get stuck. So, on the rare occasion it does get rowdy, my entire energy is like ‘who is uncomfortable’ or ‘is anyone upset’? – although it’s very rare when I’ve had to be like, ‘dude, are you good?’ People are ultimately good to each other.”

Ultimately, however, Maya’s comment about finding the inner child rings true for Future Teens in more ways than one. During the recording of ‘Self Help’, Future Teens were joined in the studio by Dan Campbell of The Wonder Years, who helped lay down some guest vocals.

Campbell brought in his son, Wyatt, who occupied Future Teens by giving them temporary tattoos and lifting the energy by bouncing around the room while his dad sang. For his part, Campbell Snr also served as a sounding board for the Future Teens songwriting process.

“He helped reign us in from being too wordy, and that’s really helpful,” says Amy. “We try not to get too precious about what we’re trying to say, but a little outside input helped, and I’m thankful for that.”

Like The Wonder Years, there’s also a positivity in Future Teens songs, even if it’s never openly apparent.

There’s also humour – even absurdity sometimes – that is often overlooked. The label’ bummer pop’ doesn’t really sell this – and Future Teens have leaned into this – but with sadness being synonymous with isolation, it fails to capture the sense of community – joy even – about finding kindred spirits and sharing in the experience.

Equally, there’s never a sense that Future Teens have all the answers.

There’s no manual about growing old, but there is an honesty and a purity to discussing heavy topics with a wry smile and self-effacing charm as they try to figure shit

out like the rest of us. This is especially true when it comes to tackling issues of relationships in song.

“I think we’ve always tried to avoid the ‘woe is me attitude in our songwriting,” says Daniel. “But no matter how hard we’ve tried, we still got labelled as ‘oh, they’re sad because they’re going through a breakup’.”

“What to us is something that was really tongue-incheek came out differently,” continues Amy with a somewhat rueful laugh.

“A couple of the songs on the new record are still about relationships, but they’re less lovelorn torch songs – that’s a new phrase I learned from Daniel yesterday – and more ‘here’s a thing that’s difficult in our relationship, and here’s how I’m processing it. So, on ‘Same Difference’, it’s going through: ‘this is what I thought about love, and here’s how I’m learning about how I was wrong’.

Or, as Daniel put it, it’s like the idea of a soulmate: it’s cool, but it’s not true. Or the last song on the record [‘Going Pains’]; it sounds like a forlorn heartbreak song, but it’s really about being thankful for how relationships grow and adapt while we’re away.

“Actually, while we were on tour, we were discussing these songs, and Daniel said that we’re all now like Version 3.0 of ourselves,” concludes Amy. “I think that shows through in our songwriting, and especially in the songs about our relationships and how we treat not only our loved ones but also ourselves.”

‘Self Help’ is ultimately the culmination of this levelling up, with Future Teens sitting on the cusp of a major breakout.

Considering their fight to reach this point, few can say such success isn’t richly deserved. ■ Future Teens’ album ‘Self Help’ is out 7th October.

Upset 17

HOUSE

For her second solo album, LANDE HEKT is looking inwards.

Words: Alexander Bradley.

Photo: @gingerdope.

MUSIC.

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T’S GETTING ON FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS NOW SINCE BOTH LANDE HEKT AND HER DEBUT ALBUM, ‘GOING TO HELL’, CAME OUT. “It was really exciting,” she reflects now as she approaches her second solo full-length.

“Things felt different.

“There were lots of things that changed my life for the better; it felt like a big deal.

Then, after a while, it felt like almost nothing at all, and it became a real normalised thing. That’s kind of the best thing I could hope for.”

“It felt really exciting and new, and now it feels comfortable and… not boring, but it is what it is,” she explains.

“I’m sure a lot of queer people and gay people who come out build it up in their head and think certain things. And, for the most part, none of those negative things happened.

“It was a great experience, and, for me, it’s important for me to share that because it might be important for people to know. It’s obviously not great for everyone, but a lot of the things that I was worried about didn’t necessarily happen,” she continues.

Leap forward to now, and she’s thriving. Lande and her girlfriend have a small but feisty cat, Lola, who rules the streets of Bristol where they live. The cat has a song in its honour on the new album, too. Lande’s busier than ever with music and other jobs and projects.

Confidence is at an all-time high, and, as she headed into the studio last autumn, she was more prepared than ever, demos at the ready, to record the next chapter of this life.

‘House Without A View’ documents all that time that followed after coming out. The first single and introduction to the album, ‘Gay Space Cadets’, was selected as it’s the perfect cross-section of where Lande is on this record.

“WE’RE GOING THROUGH SUCH AN UNBELIEVABLY TERRIFYING TIME” - L A ND E H EKT “It’s quite upbeat and quite lighthearted in places but still has the sad and gay vibes that I strive for,” she laughs. That’s the album in a nutshell: sad and gay vibes galore.

The wholesome closer’ First Girlfriend’ is pretty loud and proud, while a track like ‘Cut My Hair’ finds Lande confronting her gender and how to find comfort in her skin. For someone who has always worn their heart on their sleeve, it finds a way of going deeper than anything before, thanks to her ethereal falsetto performance.

“There is nowhere to hide in that song,” she admits.

“It’s the one I was nervous about recording in the style we did, but I did stick with it and not decorate it too much.”

And, as for the sad vibes, there are plenty that weigh on the middle of the album too. ‘Always Hurt’ maps out panic attacks while ‘Ground Shaking’ is vulnerable and worried about the golden days ending.

There’s a complete sonic shift too. “I wanted to make an indie-pop record,” Lande states. And that’s exactly what she has done.

Sometimes, life is simple like that.

Inspired by 90s shoegazers like The Sundays, honey-coated guitars flood the album and, in turn, pull off this breezy, summery feel that is a million miles away from the punk-edged stylings that are often associated with Lande or her band, Muncie Girls.

“It’s so bright that it’s a bit sickly,” she adds, discussing the saccharine quality of the album. “But I really love that sound.”

Achieved by bubbly rhythm guitars walking hand-in-hand with the acoustic guitar, less cymbals but more percussion and the space for her vocals to take centre stage, Lande Hekt, the storyteller and singer, is allowed to shine.

What you’d normally expect from Lande would often be some sort of scathing political commentary, but ‘House Without A View’ is much more introspective.

“It’s quite obvious in this set of songs that I’ve not delved into politics,’ she concedes. But it isn’t because she doesn’t think there is anything to shout about; if anything, there is too much.

“It’s one of those things where we’re going through such an unbelievably terrifying time, not just in terms of localised politics, but in a global sense, we are wondering if we are going to die from nuclear war or climate change. One of the two is definitely going to get us, if not our children. And it just came out of nowhere; the reality that life is almost unliveable happened in a period of about two years.”

While, on the one hand, her understanding of environmental politics is growing as we all sweat through a summer of record temperatures and droughts, there is an element of not having the energy to tread old ground with another song about Tories and party politics. Like most of us now, it’s sometimes too draining to keep up with.

“I commend people who are still pushing on with political issues so much,” she continues. “But, for me, it’s become such a challenge

to stay…you have to read and talk about these issues every day to stay on top of things. My mental health isn’t strong enough to keep doing that every single day, and I’ve not wanted to be pushing that onto people at this point because it’s just too much. I do think it’s important that people still do that. I wish it could be me doing that now with music, but it has just become too scary and overwhelming.”

Instead, the album focuses on the positives in Lande’s life. Even in those sad times - the panic attacks, the paranoia it’s all going to fall apart, or processing childhood trauma like in the title-track - there is a level of optimism and self-assurance that keeps the album on a level.

In the end, life continues to look pretty good for Lande. She is heading out to Canada for the first time to support Laura Jane Grace on tour. Muncie Girls keep talking about writing together soon. She is already writing what comes next; such is the skill of being able to translate her life into song like some musical diary.

“I do feel like the trick for me is to keep going with writing. I’m quite scared of having a break that turns into writer’s block. I definitely don’t want that,” she adds, which probably means we are probably never too far away from something new.

Oh, and as if that’s not enough, she has just started her own label too. Prize Sunflower Records was the “big learning curve” Lande undertook as she decided to set up the label for the album’s release.

It’s a tired cliché that “life begins at the end of your comfort zone”, but Lande Hekt is a glorious example of that. As for ‘House Without a View’, it is the sound of how good life can be once you embrace who you really are. ■ Lande Hekt’s album ’House Without A View’ is out 23rd September.

Riot.

Everything you need to know about...

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA’s new album

Now eight albums deep, The Devil Wears Prada are once again pushing forward with new full-length, ‘Color Decay’.

Jonathan Gering (keyboards, synth, programming) fills us in on some behind-the-scenes titbits from the recording.

‘COLOR DECAY’ WAS RECORDED MOSTLY IN AIRBNB’S We decided to try something different this time around and choose to rent houses to write and record the record in. We started writing at a house in Oshkosh, WI, which is where we did the final vocals and guitars for ‘Sacrifice’ and ‘Trapped’, but most of the album was recorded at a house in Desert Hot Springs, CA, which is just outside of Palm Springs. We all love big studios, but there is a sort of freedom and inspiration that comes from being on your own!

THE DRUMS WERE RECORDED LAST This was our first time ever recording drums at the end of the process. We made this decision because we wanted to keep everything flexible during our hybrid writing and recording sessions. We used

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‘COLOR DECAY’

programmed drums as a placeholder and then went into the studio when the songs were complete to lay down the drums. We did drums for ‘Color Decay’ at Steakhouse Studios in LA and at B24 studios in Kansas City.

WE VISITED JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK A FEW TIMES DURING THE RECORDING PROCESS The house we were staying at was only about 40 minutes from Joshua Tree, which was very convenient. Anytime we needed a day off to clear our heads, we would drive up there. It was all of our first time experiencing it, and it was out of this world. There is something so refreshing about the quiet and the desolation and it was the perfect place to reset and recharge our creativity.

THE SOUND IN THE INTRO TO ‘EXHIBITION’ IS FROM VIDEOS TAKEN AT THE LOCATIONS WE RECORDED The ambience you hear at the very beginning of the record is a mix of audio.

One is the sound of wind that I recorded on the property of our house in Desert Hot Springs, and the other is from a video outside the first house we recorded at in Wisconsin. In that video, Jeremy [DePoyster] says in the background,

“This is my actual dream, to go here and make music.” Even though you can’t really make it out on the record, I think it’s symbolic that it’s in there. I have no idea why I was taking that video, but to me, that really summed up the whole writing and recording process. We are all just so grateful to be able to do what we do.

‘CANCER’ WAS INSPIRED BY THE DEATH OF [FASHION DESIGNER AND ENTREPRENEUR] VIRGIL ABLOH ‘Cancer’ came about when I saw the news that Virgil had died. He had always been a massive inspiration to me, and my immediate thought when I saw the headline was that he had died by suicide.

So many of the people I look up to have ended up committing suicide, and that fact really makes you question a lot about your life path. That ended up not being the case with Virgil, and I selfishly felt some messed-up sort of relief when I found out he had passed from cancer. The song is not about wishing someone has a terrible disease, but more about coming to terms with how prevalent suicide is in creative professions and how it shouldn’t have to be that way. ■ The Devil Wears Prada’s album ‘Color Decay’ is out 16th September.

HERE’S WHAT YOU COULD HAVE WON

THE NEW ALBUM - OUT 23RD SEPTEMBER FEATURING NEW ENGLAND, ROB THE SUPERMARKET AND I.N.V.U.

IN A

If their debut was an album of tough times, NO DEVOTION’s second effort is one of recovery.

Words: Steven Loftin. Photo: Liza De Guia.

BROKEN

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LAND.

.

N

O DEVOTION’S 2015 DEBUT ALBUM ‘PERMANENCE’ introduced the world to the sounds of people exploring new territory and going through turbulent times rough enough to finish off even the best of us. While that record was a tentative foot forward, the story of No Devotion’s second outing, ‘No Oblivion’, is one of recovery. For two members, it was a continuation after the dissolution of their past, present, and future; the other’s was from addiction.

Initially, a band made out of the wreckage of lostprophets’ widely public and vicious end, Lee Gaze and Stuart Richardson’s next move was tentative, but with the help of Thursday vocalist Geoff Rickly, they managed to find a new lease of life.

“When we started, their old manager, who’s a friend of mine, said now that the band’s broken up, you should sing for them. And I was like, but I don’t like their music.

I’ve never liked what they were doing,” Geoff laughs.

Nevertheless, after hearing what they were working on, he signed up, and ‘Permanence’ was born.

That is, until it all fell apart again after the label they’d signed to – Rickly’s own Collect Records – collapsed on the week of the album’s release due to its investment from Pharma villain Martin Shkreli.

“It was this almost comical falling apart,” his own disbelief palpable. “Of the release date and everything else that was supposed to happen for the band at that point, and so there was a pretty strong feeling that that was going to be it. We would laugh and be like, ‘One and done, but it’s a pretty good record. So we should be proud of it’.”

During this time, Geoff was also in the throes of his own upheaval. A heroin addiction after the dissolution of Thursday in 2011 which, even in the grand

“WHEN YOU GO THROUGH A TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE, YOU START TO DOUBT A LOT”

embattled. For example, this is the first time Geoff has realised himself as a singer, thanks to the championing of Lee and Stuart, who’ve already had their well-oiled music-making certified by mainstream highs. “It’s the record that got me over my imposter syndrome of, what’s my purpose in life? I’m a singer who can’t really sing,” - G E OF F RI CKLY he divulges. “In Thursday, scheme of things, made him done in the past.” it’s like, sure, I communicate, “a calming presence for the Embarking upon this but my first nickname was most part,” he remembers. “It second outing, the band’s Tone Geoff,” he chuckles. “So was like one of those things frame of mind isn’t the only I think I internalised that for where the bar was so low thing that’s changed. It’s a long time and thought, well, that I was still a pretty good just the three of them now, I can’t really sing, so I’m not presence in their life.” where initially No Devotion really a musician.”

“I think I’ve tried to was a six-piece including No Devotion was born give them a little bit of a many past members of out of strife, finding energy foundation to not feel like lostprophets – “the other within the darkness. Their the world is crumbling under guys didn’t want to”, he debut was a criticallytheir feet,” he continues. offers on their decision – it’s revered album that “That there are people that a move that makes sense subverted expectation, and still know them for who they as Geoff explains, it was he, the follow-up builds even are and believe in them. I Lee, and Stuart who bonded further upon it - so, have No think when you go through the most.

Devotion found solid ground a traumatic experience, you “I think that for the three and meaning? start to doubt a lot.” of us, who work intuitively “I need to think more This is why this time together, it became a real because I still haven’t figured around, there’s defiance. For personal journey,” he says. “I that out,” Geoff musters after Geoff, it streams through don’t think there was ever a a pause. “Maybe it’s a calling as it’s his first experience point where any of us fought card for like-minded people recording as a sober member for a song to be different to find us. We aren’t really of No Devotion. Mind you, on than it was, which is my sure, but it’s very important a grander scheme, it’s not experience.” in my life, so it’s very hard for an immediately prevalent Recalling his episodes in me to imagine what it is to one. Instead, it simmers Thursday as being “a lot of people who see me from the beneath the confessions of everybody batting it back outside.” depression and reckoning and forth until finally, we “I’ve been able to think with the state of the world. can agree on something about that with Thursday.

“It’s almost that double that we all like…and it can But in retrospect, I can negative, just saying fuck be stressful, but that’s see the impact that it’s it,” says Geoff. “[To] the good.” He continues, “That’s made. I can see the outside rejection of sinking into our process. And with No influence that we’ve had on depression and drugs and Devotion, it just keeps going a generation of bands that suicidal stuff and just saying in the same direction, and have become the biggest no, let’s turn away from the I think there’s there’s pros bands in the world.” apocalypse.” and cons to both. We don’t “It’s much easier in It’s also a continuation get balance in No Devotion reflection than it is when of ‘Permanence’’s main because we all think so you’re examining your own objective, which was to similarly, so you get a very work,” he continues, “but tender authenticity to a pure, one kind of a thing on with No Devotion, it’s still group of people unsure each song. With Thursday, very current to me, and it of the world around them. the beauty of it is that doesn’t have as big of an Safe in the knowledge that there’s a tension between audience, so it’s harder to they were only catering for all the different ideas of the see the reflection.” themselves and those who song and in those tensions, An understandable would understand, with no you get lifelike shades.” response, but it would real mainstream ambitions, Given everything they’ve seem the only reflection No on what they were trying to each been through, it makes Devotion are, rightfully so, do with their debut Geoff sense that No Devotion currently concerned with is offers, “we were all so found themselves flourishing their own. ■ No Devotion’s adamant about not being in an environment that album ‘No Oblivion’ is out beholden to what we had encouraged instead of 16th September.

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TRACK BY TRACK

STRAY FROM

EUTHANASIA New York/ UK hardcore heavyweights Stray From The Path might well have created their heaviest work yet. Tom Williams (guitar) talks us through ‘Euthanasia’.

NEEDFUL THINGS The first piece Craig [Reynolds] and I wrote musically for ‘Euthanasia’.

Craig hit me with that drum beat, and I straight up just hit open string with a low octave on it, and it sounded so mean and perfect. It sets the tone.

Lyrically, ‘Needful Things’ is about how capitalism is a

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system that does not and has never worked for people. For it to “work” means that it must exploit people and destroy our planet. There needs to be a drastic systemic change, and people will either be “in” or “in the way”. This song is for Kenny.

MAY YOU LIVE FOREVER “The circle gets smaller as the days grow older” encapsulates the meaning behind this song.

Over the past few years, it is more apparent than ever that there have been instances where you know someone’s political standpoints, and they oppose your own. That used to be a thing that you overlook because someone is cool or nice, “agree to disagree”, but at this point, an opposing stance can affect people’s well-being.

If you’re against it, oppose it.

III The third instalment to our ‘Badge and a Bullet’ trilogy;

something that I didn’t even really want to do because it’s been done before. But with the state of law enforcement in this cursed country, and when I heard the lyric “part 3 cause fuck 1 2”, we had to do it. You can see the progression from ‘Badge 1’ where it was, “Hey, this is wrong, cops can’t do this! Not ALL cops!” to ‘Badge 2’, where it’s like, “Hey this is bad. People are dying. A 12-year-old kid was shot and nothing happened,” to ‘Badge 3’ where no words are minced.

Fuck them all. Defund the police. Abolish the police.

GUILLOTINE Over the pandemic, we are watching billionaires make trillions of dollars, and you’re seeing the American working class lose their ass. You are watching politicians flee their states when their plumbing infrastructures and heating infrastructures fail, and head to tropical beaches while

people froze to death. You are watching oil companies jack the prices of gas up to record highs for no reason at all, and they made hundreds of billions of dollars in a fucking quarter.

These people should be met with the Guillotine. Plain and simple.

CHEST CANDY It took me almost my entire life to realise how fucked up and predatory the US Military is with recruiting. Talking to some of my friends in Canada, I mentioned casually, “Yeah, like when the military would come to your school to get you to sign up,” and they went, “... what? That is fucking insane.”

It hit me right then and there how insane that is. What’s even crazier is that Schools are threatened with losing additional funding if they decline inviting the US Military recruiters to their school. It’s like working with the mob.

Writing this song was inspired

M

THE PATH Photo: Gaby Becerra.

by my friend Jordan Uhl, who took a harmless troll job on the US Military e-sports team (lol) that made him discover that they were using Twitch to try and recruit more kids to join. It’s disgusting, and most people who are signed up through a recruiter are lied to.

BREAD & ROSES If you know Stray, you know that since we first met in 2008 and throughout our whole career, Jesse Barnett is family. A person that walks the walk, and someone everybody should look up to as an example of direct action to help people in need. We had this idea for the song, and there aren’t many people that are more qualified for it than him. In addition to his voice being the perfect fit for the vibe, we wanted to do something that helps boost his efforts and supports his mutual aid projects in the Los Angeles community. We did a

special All Power Books vinyl variant of our new album, where all of the profit from these sales go directly to people in need. A lot of time, it is hard to feel confident where your money goes, but we’ve seen directly where this money goes with our own eyes, and you can also see by following them at @allpowerbooks and @apfreeclinic.

children’s school love to be political, their landlords love to be political, their city councils love to be political… and they are all trying to use it against you. You need to discuss these things with your community and not run from it.

‘Euthanasia’. The end of the song is to represent the ending of our planet as we know it.

Right before they hit that “button” to shed the Earth’s population like a snake sheds its skin. Right then and there, you look at the people around you, and you can’t help but think, “as the fires encase the NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH This was actually written about sky, I am reminded one last time, we could have gone in a neighbour of mine who put grace together, we could have some Christian propaganda thrived, we could have shined.”

LAW ABIDING CITIZEN on my property, suggesting People have been pit against Musically, this song is the that I needed “Jesus” in my each other since the dawn of most bizarre and fun. It’s like life. I’ve never even met this “civilisation”. And it’s all done ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ by person before because they in the name of capitalism. It Billy Joel meets RATM meets never left their house. After destroyed communities, it Royal Blood. This song is that happened, I went over to destroyed the environment, literally self-explanatory. We his house and asked him if he and it will be the cause of are literally naming off people thought I needed Jesus? He the end of the world one day, who are scum of the Earth, and said he thought I did. I said, all in the name of something in the song, it talks about them “What is my first name?” And that doesn’t even exist: the getting what they deserved. he had no idea. He turtleeconomy. Put the world out of shelled so hard, and that was it.

“I’ll lend you no sugar, only its fucking misery. ■ SALT IN YOUR SPIT Civilians love to run from hard salt for the slugs.”

Stray From The Path’s album conversations. People like to ‘Euthanasia’ is out 9th omit politics from their lives.

LADDER WORK September.

But they don’t realise that their Our apocalyptic ending to

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About Break. to

NEW TALENT YOU NEED TO KNOW

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A

ARTIO Words: Sam Taylor.

Newly signed to Slam Dunk Records, Leeds electrorock trio Artio have arrived with their debut single proper ‘Pyrokid’ - a seductively sinister and fiery release taken from a new EP of the same name.

Frontperson Rae Brazill tells us more about their band, following a day of visiting art galleries and museums to get some inspiration for new artworks.

chance. We wouldn’t be here without those opportunities from people such our label Slam Dunk Records, who have been supporting upand-comers in the Leeds alternative scene for years.

It’s an honour to be working so closely with them now on this project.

WHERE ARE YOUR FAVOURITE PLACES TO HANG OUT? We love to hang out at The Key Club when we DJ as well as Pixel Bar and Oporto. I’m also partial to a nice walk, like Meanwood Park or just chilling in a beer garden.

“OUR VERSION OF ROCK’N’ROLL AND CRAZY TOUR LIFE IS ALWAYS HAVING CEREAL BARS IN THE VAN”

worth it.

Our experience is probably quite different to a lot of other upcoming bands as none of us are big drinkers or anything, so our version of rock’n’roll and crazy tour WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES life is getting a new stuffed OUTSIDE OF MUSIC? animal at service stations I do a lot of graphic design. I and always having cereal GIVE US THE TL;DR OF did all the artwork for these bars in the van. Overall, we YOUR TIME TOGETHER are really enjoying what we SO FAR - WHAT HAVE YOU upcoming releases, as well as doing commissions for have and chomping at the bit BEEN UP TO? other bands.

I also enjoy to see what else we can do.

Artio have been a band upcycling and reworking since October 2018, but WHAT ARE YOU MOST we’ve been close friends and clothes to wear and sell.

DRAWN TO WRITING gigging together in other IS BEING A MUSICIAN SONGS ABOUT? projects since 2017. Since LIVING UP TO THE HYPE Just current issues either being together, we have SO FAR? I’m dealing with myself or done two UK tours, selfBeing a musician is in the wider world. I write released three EPs, played everything I’ve dreamed a lot about mental health, some great gigs and spent of since seeing PVRIS relationships (good and all our free time writing in Manchester in 2016. I bad), politics, climate music together. queued with my best friend change and just general life WHAT’S IT LIKE BEING AN for six hours, and since then as a 20-year-old nonbinary artist.

UP-AND-COMING BAND IN I was sold. So far, it’s been LEEDS? ARE THERE LOTS amazing, a bit challenging but rewarding; the need to WHAT’S THE BEST SONG OF OPPORTUNITIES? be constantly creating is YOU’VE WRITTEN SO FAR? Leeds is an amazing city to tiring at times but creating I would have to say the best start establishing a career. is also a great outlet. And song we’ve written so far, There are so many great that’s released, is ‘Pyrokid’. venues to play, like The Key playing shows with all our amazing fans and playing We’re so proud of this single Club or The Wardrobe, as Minecraft in our discord with and what it means, and how well as promoters always looking to give new bands a them just makes everything it sounds. But the rest of

- RAE BRAZI L L this era has some absolute bangers to come also.

WHAT OTHER BANDS ARE YOU ENJOYING AT THE MOMENT? Bands we’re loving right now has got to be: Jools, Yours Truly, Nova Twins, Static Dress and Boston Manor.

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR? We’ve got some more music to come for the rest of this year as well as next year and some awesome shows lined up. We’re headlining The Key Club Leeds on 21st October; that should be killer!

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW? We have a discord server that anyone is welcome to join (link found in our Instagram bio) where we do regular twitch streams as well as super fun Artio community stuff, and first access sneak peeks. Come join the Skeleton Crew! ■ Artio’s single ‘Pyrokid’ is out now.

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LOST IN TH LOST IN TH LOST IN TH LOST IN TH LOST IN TH

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HE LIGHTS HE LIGHTS HE LIGHTS HE LIGHTS HE LIGHTS THE WONDER YEARS are the definition of a beloved band, but as they prepare to drop their new album, they may be the best they’ve ever been too.

Words: Alexander Bradley. Photos: Christopher Kitchen.

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HERE IS SO MUCH WE DON’T KNOW ABOUT THE HUMAN BRAIN. It’s happy when we do Sudoku puzzles and read. It’s less happy when we don’t drink water and doom-scroll Twitter comments. But, from one person to the next, our minds work in entirely different ways. ‘The Hum Goes on Forever’ is the title for The Wonder Years’ newest album. It’s their best work to date. As for The Hum? The one that goes on forever? It’s how Dan Campbell knows his depression.

The expression comes from a poem written with the book that accompanied their last album, ‘Sister Cities’.

It goes: “The wind shakes loose teeth out of a tree above us and winter appears inevitable / The hum goes on forever / When I anticipate silence and am alone, it’s

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there with me.”

Dan is reading it from the comfort of his home.

The dog is barking every now and then. There are giggles and a few little cries from another room from one or both of his young sons, Wyatt and Jack. He has just re-strung his guitar ahead of practice this evening. The hum is low. At least, it seems that way.

“It was supposed to be this double entendre.

It’s both depression and tinnitus,” he laughs as he closes the book and sets it aside again.

“It’s a physical hum that I’m always hearing because I have destroyed my body through the thing that I love doing in certain irreparable ways. And then, it’s this understanding that this sadness is with me always.

“The thing you realise is that it can get louder and

quieter at different times.

The line in ‘Summer Clothes’, “I hate myself a little less when the salt air hits my skin”, is this understanding when I was young that I didn’t realise how bad I was until I felt better momentarily. So, it almost becomes conspicuous by its absence.

“I compared it to my kids having this white noise machine in each of their rooms, and you’ll be in there at night and notice it’s on, and then someone will turn it off, and you’ll be like, ‘Oh my God, now it’s deafening’.

It’s so loud.

“That’s how I generally feel about my depression; it is a constant thing that sometimes will be so overpowered that I will not be able to focus on or work through anything else, and sometimes it will get so quiet that I forget that it’s there.

“But, it’s not a thing you rid yourself of; it’s a thing you live alongside and the quicker you come to that conclusion, the faster the chance you will be able to build techniques for coping with it.”

In the years that have followed ‘Sister Cities’ and since he first identified “the hum”, so much has changed.

Not just for The Wonder Years, but the whole world has changed since 2018. In fact, it’s been closer to six years since the synapses first sparked for that record.

But the biggest change for Dan has been in the birth of his children.

Of course, his children are a source of happiness and wonderment, but he also refers to parenthood as “constant agonising anxiety punctuated with small moments of surreal joy.”

That is probably something every parent recognises, but when “it’s low tide / at serotonin bay”, as the track goes, he has struggled to adapt.

“I was having a lot of trouble with the sound of

my kid crying,” he explains.

“You are evolutionarily programmed to have alarm bells go off when your kid cries, and so when you can’t calm them, that anxiety gets so overwhelming to me. I start to freak out, and my fingers are going numb, and I’m like, ‘what should I do?’” In the end, his therapist (“shout out Melissa”) advised him to pop on some noise-cancelling headphones. And that’s what he does. He listens to a podcast and rocks his child back to sleep. It’s like not seeing the forest for the trees sometimes. The simplest solutions can seem like the hardest thing in the world when the hum is loud.

For every negative encounter with his brain, though, with anxiety, with depression, there is something utterly brilliant that comes from the way Dan’s mind works. The scrutiny he puts on his thoughts allows him to break down his emotions into all their elements and then put them back together in loud pop-punk songs. On this album, that happens more than ever. He likens it to a project local to him where they melt weapons down into farming tools. “I’m able to take something that is causing me anguish and take it apart into its component pieces and rebuild it into something that is useful for someone else,” he compares.

Taking apart the joy and absolute dread of parenthood, he opens the album on the line, “I don’t wanna die / at least not without you.” Dissecting it, he comments, “I didn’t necessarily want my own life to end as much as I want all of existence to cease at once. And you get that as the song progresses and I’m thinking about an apocalypse,” he reveals. At the source of it, it’s a lot of complex emotions butting heads; the love he has for his family but still the chokehold

“I’M ABLE TO TAKE SOMETHING THAT IS CAUSING ME ANGUISH, TAKE IT APART INTO ITS COMPONENT PIECES AND REBUILD IT INTO SOMETHING THAT IS USEFUL FOR SOMEONE ELSE” - DA N CA MP BEL L that depression has on him.

The reality is that these songs Dan Campbell writes as a way of trying to process his life and the world around him. He navigates a terrifying world of having children while school shootings, climate change and global pandemics become the norm. And he tells of his struggle to face that world and summon the strength to even get out of bed every day. But, he somehow finds

a way to keep struggling on and the flicker of hope stops the album from feeling lyrically despondent. These are his conscious reactions to the world.

But, what are the songs your brain writes when you’re not thinking? Well, this album has a few of those too.

“Sometimes your subconscious just hands you something, and I think that partially is therapy and is a method for dealing with

trauma where you don’t know what you’re writing until it all of a sudden clicks into place.

“It’s like, ‘oh fuck, I was being handed this by a part of my brain that I was not conscious was working on it all of this time / processing it all of this time’. And so, that song came into being in this interesting way where the song and verses were written for ‘Sister Cities’, and we couldn’t figure out where it would go,” Dan explains.

We are discussing ‘Cardinals II’. The song is the sequel to the track on ‘No Closer To Heaven’, but it wasn’t ready for the follow-up album as, “When I look back it, it was like my brain couldn’t finish the thought because something was wrong about it,” he Upset 31

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“WE ARE TRYING TO STRETCH NARRATIVE. WE ARE TRYING TO TELL STORIES. WE ARE TRYING TO BUILD THROUGH LINES. WE ARE TRYING TO BE SELFREFERENTIAL” - DA N CA MP BEL L considers. So he broke it down (like melting guns for tools again), and it became a different song, but a demo of the piano remained. It went to the back of his mind but, seemingly, it didn’t lay dormant there. Much like the hum lurking up there somewhere, there are some recesses of his mind that are constantly trying to figure out how to make a song come together.

Revisiting the demo ahead of this album, it started to click. “I had that chorus and I was listening to the verse and I started musing through lyrics and it was one of those where I don’t know what I’m writing about yet but my brain is just giving me things and giving me things.

“It starts to click into place what exactly I’m writing about, and I realise it is writing another piece of the ‘Cardinals’ narrative.

It’s a conversation with that song. And all of a sudden, it’s like, ‘oh my God, it’s in the same key, in the same time signature and at the same tempo’. It was like my brain had been telling me subconsciously, this is the next piece of ‘Cardinals’, and it locked into place to bring back that piece of the original song in the bridge of this and look at it and hit it from a different angle and a different perspective. It was opening up all these different parts of my past and parts of my history that my brain had walled off for my own safety for so long that had apparently opened back up.”

It’s amazing how the mind can work; how it can keep us safe from ourselves.

The outcome, the song, ‘Cardinals II’, ghost-written by some far-flung corner of his mind, is a brooding, tense mix of soundscapes that grows before erupting with white-hot intensity. “I had that nightmare again…” he cries, re-treading the footsteps from 2015.

Nightmares. They also played a big part in Dan’s subconscious writing skills on this new album.

References to dreams are smattered throughout, but the album’s penultimate track ‘Old Friends Like Lost Teeth’ has the singer diving into the dream journal he keeps on his phone.

He scrolls through his phone, not knowing what he will find. “I don’t remember this at all… Looking through to find a short one to read you.” He finds one from 22nd April 2018 that ends with someone he was trying to hug injecting themselves in the neck. He wakes up. He writes it down. This is just one of many that clog up his Notes app. “So I have weird dreams all the time,” he concludes and smiles.

And ‘Old Friends Like Lost Teeth’ is based on one of those dreams, but the dream-like qualities stop there. There is a strong possibility this track hammers heavier than any previous Wonder Years songs. Drummer Mike Kennedy had previously stated he wanted to “play really fucking hard again”

and according to Dan, “he goes all the way the fuck off on this record”, but the pinnacle of that might just be on this track.

There are the songs he needed to write to process life and, in turn, give to other people to help them. And then there are the songs his brain needed him to write to help deal with trauma and perhaps tell him some things he needed to learn. So then Dan is tasked with putting together ‘The Hum Goes on Forever’, and, of course, he had a unique perspective when it came to that too.

That’s just how his mind works. It is a blessing and a curse.

“I took every song we were writing or that we had written, and I gave it as score for brightness - like is it a dark song or a poppy song?

And I gave it a second score for energy - is it a high or low energy song? And I took those two data points, and I graphed every song like a X / Y graph so I could visually see what parts of the record was missing,” he details.

The description sounds makes him sound like some sort of nutty professor, but it shows an extra level of consideration that has gone into album number seven. A lot of care and a lot of selfevaluation.

On the one hand, that extra attention to detail is a great thing. It’s the care taken to make a real, cohesive album in the age of the single. It’s that care that makes the album’s finale, ‘You’re The Reason

I Don’t Want the World to End’ so rewarding. The payoff is spectacular. It ties the threads that make up the album superbly, and it’s subsequently earned the title of Dan’s favourite ever Wonder Years song, taking the mantle from the closer on their last album. There just seems to be something about ending an album that the band have perfected.

“We are trying to stretch narrative. We are trying to tell stories. We are trying to build through lines. We are trying to be self-referential.

We are trying to build something that crescendos and falls and moves with the lyrics, with the music, and then builds to a moment of understanding. And we’ve never done it better with ‘You’re The Reason…’” he declares, beaming with pride.

That’s where that extra attentiveness to see how the pieces of the puzzle fit together are signals of his incredible intellect. The times it can be a problem is when he is being his own critic. He had a lot of time to reflect following ‘Sister Cities’, and that is probably why this album does contrast quite dramatically with its predecessor.

That album was easily their most ambitious. It was a mature rock album with broad soundscapes and textures that weren’t made to come out swinging from sweaty basements but rather stride purposefully out across theatres and arenas around the world.

It came around with a new label deal which meant more money and time to make a record than ever before.

Plus, they wanted to work with a new producer and actively try to turn away from every comfortable decision they felt they had made on ‘No Closer To Heaven’ that time around. In every way, it became the biggest Wonder Years album they’ve ever made.

“I always want to selfreflect after a record. I want to go back and listen to it Upset 33

a year later and see how crowds react to it; think about, ‘what could I have done better?’ and critique myself,” he reasons.

Upon reflection, his big takeaway from that experience was that the extra gadgets to play with soundscapes and textures in the studio meant they forgot how what they were making would translate live.

“I think it was less audience participation orientated as our music normally is, which I think is so key. We are a band that exists so much in live, physical spaces and performing live is such an important part of who we are,” he concedes.

“That was my first big self-critique. I wanted to make sure, moving forward, that I remember to include that and not just exist within the in-ear mix and not just play with all these cool sounds we can make now and all these different things I can do with my voice, but remember that you’re a fucking loud rock band that plays loud rock songs for people that want to scream them with you.”

It’s a fair assessment of that album and a healthy practice to take off the rosetinted glasses once in a while to properly evaluate the art you’ve made. It’s always the ambition to be better than your last piece but how often is that actually the case?

But the self-analysis goes on, and as the foundations of their new album started to form and the pandemic took hold, a “crisis of self”, as he puts it, began to creep in. Describing that enforced live hiatus, he adds, “If we are not on stage, then I don’t remember who we are in a lot of ways.”

That small crack can grow if not fixed quickly. It’s even easier with a mind like Dan’s it seems. That small crisis of self of what a postpandemic, 2022 The Wonder Years would look like started to grow into a sense of selfdoubt.

34 Upset

Writing ‘Wyatt’s Song (Your Name)’, the chorus was not working. It was close but just not quite there yet. And without an audience to test songs out on, that self-doubt began to spiral, and he began to question himself.

“That imposter syndrome that we all have as artists of, ‘Is this good? Am I good?

Do I suck at this? Does it all work? Do I actually live in a simulation, and none of this is real at all? How could I possibly have a life and job, and how could people possibly like the art I make?

And who the fuck am I to say anything?’” he asks.

In the same way he has a therapist to help when his mind is stuck, he has an expert for when a song isn’t working, too: in walks Mark Hoppus. Or rather, he jumps on Zoom. Like with his noisecancelling headphones, all he needed was a slight adjustment to get him back on track. Mark didn’t do much, just pointed out the seemingly obvious - that the chorus structure needed tweaking.

With it started to click into place, Dan asked, “Do you want to hear another one? I feel pretty good about it. I don’t want to change anything, but just to get your opinion.” Mark agreed, and Dan played ‘Doors I Painted Shut’.

“From just slightly out of the frame, he slowly raised his arm, and all of the hair was standing up. He was like, ‘Dude, that song, are you fucking kidding me?’ and my confidence was back like, ‘Oh yeah, I can write songs’,” he grins.

Getting a picture of how Dan’s mind works, you see the cross-sections convene between soul-baring songwriting, careful planning and lessons from all his own harsh critique. From there, the album comes together.

And when he isn’t sure where to turn, he has coping mechanisms to steer him away from crashing against the rocks. Sometimes it helps from the band or pop-

“I DON’T FEEL THERE IS A BETTER WONDER YEARS RECORD THAN THIS ONE” - DAN CAMP BEL L punk legends or, in the case of “the hum”, it’s therapy.

In Dan’s words, the hum “oscillates between a malaise where it feels physically difficult to stand” and anger. “It’s just pin-ponging between those two things,” he adds.

“I just fucking hate me.

I hate being inside of my brain. Why do I have to process things like this? Why am I so miserable? Why am I so miserable to be around?

Everyone must fucking hate me,” are commonly floating around his thoughts.

It can be debilitating when the hum is at its loudest, but for every dysfunction and feeling of ennui, there is almost an equal and opposite power from how he thinks. It becomes a battle between loving and loathing the way his mind works, but when everything clicks together, he is unstoppable.

Determined to keep learning from every experience, ‘The Hum Goes on Forever’ is an amalgamation of everything The Wonder Years have ever done. Each album informs the next one. This album is urgent. There is a sense of life or death again. It sometimes feels like the microphone in front of Dan is like a bucket he needs to spill his guts into.

It’s reminiscent of those first few albums in that respect. And then there are the storytelling and self-referential moments of their breakout album ‘The Greatest Generation’ too.

Then there is everything from ‘Sister Cities’ too; that polish and finesse and

occasional restraint.

“We have a very big problem with restraint. In our whole career, we have never been able to write a ballad that has stayed a ballad.

They always explode,” Dan reflects. They cracked it on the last album, though, with ‘Flowers Where Your Face Should Be’ and then have perfected it with ‘Laura & The Beehive’ - a piano-lead ballad dedicated to his Grandmother. They keep learning. They keep getting better.

In the end, when you clear away all the thoughts that whirl through his brain, The Wonder Years only had one goal.

“Go and be the band we spent the last 17 years building ourselves into. We don’t have to be anybody else for anybody else. We can just make the best Wonder Years songs and, in my opinion, mission accomplished,” he states before concluding, “I don’t feel there is a better Wonder Years record than this one.”

Whether you believe him or not, there is a lot to learn from this album. It’s a guide for surviving a world when you seemingly have all you ever wanted but still feel depressed. It’s a lesson on listening to the important things your mind is trying to tell you. It’s a warning to value the time you have. And in its final lines, it’s a comfort that when everything looks endlessly bleak to keep going, “Put the work in / Plant a garden / Try to stay afloat.” ■ The Wonder Years’ album ‘The Hum Goes On Forever’ is out 23rd September.

Upset 35

DARKNESS

PARKWAY DRIVE have utilised a messy few years to delve deeper into sound than ever before.

Words: Jack Press. Photos: Dave Le Page.

36 Upset

Upset 37

“This is the first album we’ve ever finished where I can’t imagine what the next step is. We’ve pushed so far on this and ticked off a bunch of boxes in terms of songwriting and concept that, when we started, we knew existed, but we saw as unattainable because we didn’t have the skill or ability to write music in that capacity. This album has taken us twenty years of doing what we do and being dedicated to playing, learning, and pushing music.”

Parkway Drive’s dedication and desire has pushed them to the top of the pile. They’ve climbed the mountain, making leaps and bounds for Australia’s place in the heavy metal hierarchy, and made the album they’ve always wanted to. But if it started two decades ago, what would the Winston who could only make 2005’s ‘Killing With A Smile’ say if he could hear it?

“To show that to me back then and say ‘one day you’ll be able to make music like this’, I’d have laughed and told you to hop back in your time machine, whoever you are, buddy. Stop fucking with me!” he laughs, almost in disbelief that present-day Winston is experiencing this album. “It makes me proud because I know what we’ve put into this, and it feels pretty nuts to be able to finally reach our goals, which were so far out of reach that it wasn’t even a drum when we first began, just something that existed in another realm.”

If your expectations for ‘Darker Still’ aren’t giving you vertigo to match Parkway’s lofty ambitions, you might be wondering just what those goals are. They’re simpler than you think: to become this generation’s legendary band.

“We’re referencing bands like Metallica and Guns n’ Roses. These are legendary bands who’ve written not just iconic metal songs but iconic pop culture pieces.

They’re fucking royalty, 38 Upset

and when you look at the songs they’ve written, the idea of doing something like that, you don’t even look at it as an influence on your writing because you’ve got no fucking idea how to do something that incredible.

With this record, though, they’re the influences, and we’re not going to shy away from the challenge.”

It’s a challenge every band who’s ever heard ‘The Black Album’ or ‘Appetite For Destruction’ dreams of conjuring up. But so few ever actually go and do it.

‘Darker Still’ dazzles with its anthems, but it’s the title track that takes home the trophy. A monolithic seven-minute marathon that whistles its way into life before strings and synths serenade us out the pearly gates and into the depths of hell below. It’s the most ambitious song Parkway Drive have ever attempted and their most personal – on all levels.

“I did the same thing for 10 years: screaming with no vocal training. I didn’t express myself in any other way because I honestly thought I’d destroyed my vocal cords. And after 10 years, I got my throat checked out, and they’re telling me I’m all good, so I was like, ‘holy fuck, maybe I can learn how to do something else,’ so I went to a singing coach.”

That singing coach, whoever they may be, singlehandedly shaped the future of Parkway Drive in just a handful of sessions.

And it’s all thanks to a question: What do you want to do? “I said one day I want to write a song that sounds like this, and I showed them ‘Nothing Else Matters’ [by Metallica]. That singing style was something we tried on ‘Ire’ and couldn’t pull off, and we tried on ‘Reverence’ and still couldn’t pull it off.”

This time they most certainly have. So much so that it manifested itself not only into the album title, but into everything ‘Darker Still’

represents musically and thematically. Like sailing the seven seas in search of treasure, listening to this album is a journey through uncharted emotion.

“It’s about the journey that I’m on, which is one of recognising that the older you get, and the more that you take on in your life, the more you realise about the world – the weight doesn’t get any less, ignorance really is bliss. The most ignorance you have is when you’re a kid; the older you get, the more friends you lose, the more things start to decay, and it grows darker.”

‘Darker Still’ might be written with Winston’s journey in mind, but it’s one we all universally experience.

The growing pains of growing up leave scars on all of us, yet it was Covid that shot everything into focus for Parkway Drive.

“The big thing in Covid was like, ‘we can’t wait to get back to 2019 when this shit

wasn’t around’ - there’s no going back. You don’t get to go backwards. You only go forwards, and walking through that darkness is part of life, and it gets darker still – it’s just learning to see in the dark and learning that it’s not necessarily bad, it’s just a part of life.”

For Winston, that realisation wasn’t an overnight fix or spiritual epiphany; instead, it’s an ongoing journey of selfdiscovery. However, like all life lessons, it starts with a concept. For Parkway Drive, the concept that underpins ‘Darker Still’ comes from the same space that started Winston’s journey: the 16th-century poem ‘The Dark Night Of The Soul’ by Spanish mystic John of the Cross.

“It’s where you reach a point in your life where you’re confronted by an undeniable event, which tears down everything about you and everything that you

“YOU GET TWO SONGS WHERE YOU FEEL LIKE YOU KNOW WHAT PARKWAY IS GOING TO DO, AND THEN WE THROW A STICK IN THE SPOKES, WE HIT YOU WITH A BASEBALL BAT AND PUSH YOU OVER INTO THE MUD” - W I NSTON M C CAL L see in the world and your perception of everything that you hold there, and you’re left with nothing.

“And then you go on a journey to the rebirth of the next part of your life through the darkness. You have to find yourself and put the pieces together to form the new you, and that’s what this album is about. When I came across this concept, I was like, holy shit, because I’ve been going through that since all of the grief, and it’s something I’m still going through to a degree.”

If there’s anything we do know in this life, it’s that true art reflects its creator’s reality. ‘Darker Still’ is written in the blood, sweat, and tears of a band who’ve been through grief and trauma like they’re muddling through trenches. It’s an album that reckons with its demons, that puts your understanding of faith to the test. As much as there’s hope of walking through the darkness, there’s

a nihilism that lurks in the shadows. “’Imperial Heretic’ is a turning point,” Winston reveals. “It’s where the nihilism part starts coming in. I wrote it in the middle of COVID, watching George Floyd get murdered on live television as the world goes up in flames, and shit is not okay on any fucking level.

It forces you to look at the way the world is operating because right now, the whole thing’s malfunctioning.”

Winston’s inner nihilist was vying for attention as the world collapsed around him.

Rather than let it consume him, he rallied around his bandmates and created bangers built on strongholds of trauma. “You have to sit there and say, ‘well, this is what the empire is’, but I was like, ‘no man, I’m going through a mental fucking breakdown, everything is fucked’. When you’re at rock bottom, it’s very easy to see what is wrong and when

there’s more wrong than right, you can write a pretty damn good anthem about it.”

Writing anthems is Parkway Drive’s way of coping when life gives them lemons. But they know that ‘Darker Still’ has a deeper role to play than letting them launch some bangers at a crowd of people for 90 minutes. It’s the next step in their journey as role models, as conduits for raising awareness of mental health and destigmatising it.

“Pain and suffering is something you want to escape from,” Winston muses. We’re never taught to embrace it or express it.

You’re taught it all – don’t cry, don’t show weakness, don’t acknowledge it; just cheer up and put a smile on your face. When we’re confronted with the undeniable, art is the voice of the imagination, and the imagination is there because you don’t have a way of expressing something no

one ever truly explained to you, so it comes out of these dark times. People are going through trauma, and people with traumatic experiences write some fucking awesome records. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

Parkway Drive pull no punches when it comes to mental health. They don’t hide behind lies or don’t spin stories through smiles. This is a band who cancelled a tour and told everyone the truth: we’re not okay right now, so we’re going to work on ourselves. It was a pivotal moment that underpins ‘Darker Still’s learning curve.

“We wanted to set an example, that it doesn’t have to be the world is ending, like Parkway’s about to break up, and someone’s done something irreconcilable blah blah blah. It’s just that we know we need to work on some shit, and if we don’t work on some shit, there’s a good chance mental health will take its toll and none of us will want to do this anymore. No one wants that”.

When a band like Parkway Drive can sell out arenas and headline festivals while still singing songs for the common people, then it’s our duty to do what we can to protect them. But mostly, it’s so they can continue to spread their message - to be the voice of hope when all we see is darkness. Ultimately, that’s what ‘Darker Still’ exists to do, and what Parkway Drive have always done.

“There’s plenty of people in this world that just need someone to be able to go ‘yo, it’s acceptable’, and it’s okay to let someone help explain why you’re thinking that way, or feeling the way that you do, or even just give you a helping hand. Because life can be tough, man. I’m turning 40 in a month, and I’ve been doing this for 20 years, so to think 20 years has had no impact on me would be very, very naïve.”

■ Parkway Drive’s album ‘Darker Still’ is out 9th September.

Upset 39

KID

VICIOU

Can you hear that faint sizzling of a fuse? Don’t be alarmed; that’s just KID KAPICHI returning - and they’re ready to blow the bloody doors off.

Words: Steven Loftin. Photos: Andy Ford.

US

causing that kind of reaction because it’s making people think, and that’s all you can do as a band. All you can hope for is that people listen to it, and that’s your bit done. I’m not there to sit and debate in the YouTube comments with them about what’s right or wrong but to know people are questioning us, then that’s good.”

Indeed, it’s easy to see that ‘Here’s What You Could Have Won’ is the natural progression to ‘This Time Next Year’. That’s not to mention that these two phrases could easily open the future chapters of textbooks covering these unprecedented pages of history. Their second album is a sneering time capsule, bottling up the madness and putting it to ballads (‘Party at No. 10’) or anthemic calls to arms (‘Cops and Robbers’, ‘Rob The Supermarket’), and this is all with extreme purpose. “They are going to do their absolute utmost to make sure you don’t remember that, and if I can make sure a few people do remember that, then I’m happy.”

If this all seems a bit doom-and-gloomy, well, that’s because things aren’t great at the moment. But Kid Kapichi are also a dab hand at bringing a touch of joy to the occasion; no one likes being preached to.

“That’s why that tongue-incheek element is so strong in our songs,” Jack explains.

“Because we are talking about really serious issues, and we’re talking about stuff that fucks up people’s lives on a daily basis. You don’t want to sound like you’re taking the piss, but you also don’t want to sound like you’re telling people what to think and how to behave.

That’s a really fine line to try and get right, and with this second album, I feel like we did a good job on that; I feel like we honed our skills.”

It’s one thing to be a band charging towards the indifference that consumes many, but when there are 42 Upset

“THE ONLY WAY WE’RE GONNA SEE CHANGE IS THROUGH PEOPLE WORKING TOGETHER” - JACK WI LS ON

others not doing the same thing, it makes what you’re doing all the more important.

Indeed, when it comes to the landscape around them, Jack has a few thoughts. “I don’t get fed up when I hear pop music because it’s doing what it is designed to do,” he reasons. “It’s just there to be something to listen to, and I listen to pop music; we all enjoy it. I get sick when I hear bands being praised like, ‘Oh wow, these guys are really saying something.

They’re really punk,’ and I listen to it, and I’m just a bit like, this is drivel, you’re not saying anything.”

It’s the discussion around duo of the moment, Isle of Wight’ers Wet Leg, that falls victim to Jack’s crosshairs.

“I listen to [them], and I’m just like, what is this?” He questions, baffled. “I know everyone loves them at the moment, but I listened to it, and I’m just a bit like, how is this classed as edgy music?

How is this classed as saying something? That winds me up when I hear stuff like that more than anything.”

Clarifying, he says: “That’s no insult to them; I’m sure they’re amazing, but I hate it when it’s more commentary on that sort of stuff when people say ‘Oh yeah, and here’s this song, and it’s really edgy’, and it’s just like, how is it edgy singing about a chaise longue or whatever?!”

On the flip side, however, Jack does admit that he “would go crazy if every single band was writing lyrics like we write,” since too much of one thing can dilute the issue. However, there are a few up in the mainstream toting similar messages, but Kid Kapichi are certainly in the direct minority, which leads to comparisons that miss the mark for Jack.

“Everyone always thinks that we are a lot like IDLES, but I’ve actually, genuinely never actually got into them or listened to them properly.”

Experiencing their moments on the likes of BBC Radio 1, and with other

vocally dissenting bands getting some airplay, Jack reckons this is a sign of the times (“let’s be honest, Radio 1 are just trying to be popular, as they should”), and change is inevitable.

But he also reckons, “the only way we’re gonna see change and the only movement we’re gonna see is from ourselves and through communities and people working together.”

Seemingly, from music to the wider consciousness, it’s us against them, and at the moment, they’re winning.

It was realising how rubbish things were getting back when he was in his late teens that Jack first started using lyrics as a catharsis.

Under the control of the same Tory government, he noticed Hastings was changing, as it’s continued to do so. “The place it is now is not the place it was when I was growing up,” he reflects. “But it’s always had an attitude. It’s always been pretty punk in ethos and pushed to the sidelines middle-child syndrome, like no one really cares about us and we’ve always kind of had points to prove.”

Which is why it was easy for Kid Kapichi to manifest.

Each member - Ben Beetham (guitar), Eddie Lewis (bass), George MacDonald (drums) - brings their attitude to the mix, ultimately giving the band a master personality, one that feels like they could be your best friend or worst enemy depending on who you are.

“We’ve always had the problems that we face, with this town being so deprived and not looked after,” continues Jack. “Like a lot of towns, may I add. So it’s inherently within all of us in this band, because the town we live in is so inherently punk in attitude and ethos and antisocial in a lot of ways but also the most accepting group of people I’ve ever been a part of.”

As a by-product of the conversation, Jack’s able to rattle off the numbers

of Hasting’s political standing, and it’s here that Kid Kapichi’s power lies they understand. They’ve crunched the numbers and want to flip the switch on this current state of play in the only way they know how.

Similarly, there’s no one much like any of us, particularly anyone reading a music rag, in the big capital.

Which is the reason punk first existed and is once again finding its place as the piss and vinegar soundtrack to a disenfranchised nation.

Jack notes, “I see that with communities being built around the whole punk movement and everything. I see people getting together and making change through that.”

As for anyone at the top who can help, the ghosts of “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn!” linger in the air, “[but] that didn’t work,” he gravely mentions.

“And where we are right now, I don’t see anyone who is standing for the government that is going to speak or make any change that is relevant to my life. In fact, probably the opposite. And I don’t see anyone that could even possibly understand.

I think we’re in one of the worst governments we’ve ever had, and I don’t see any opposition. I can’t believe that we’re in that time right now.”

Not wanting to leave things on too much of a sour note, how does someone who’s put their bread and butter on translating the awful into raucous and digestible tracks stay sane when there’s so much going on? “Make sure you’re doing the right thing,” beams Jack.

“Take your trolley back when you go to Tescos, don’t just leave it in front of someone’s car. Just the little stuff, man.

Enjoy your life. Enjoy your family and your friends, and your loved ones. If you’ve got that, then you sorted, really!”

■ Kid Kapichi’s album ‘Here’s What You Could Have Won’ is out 23rd September.

Upset 43

STILL 44 Upset

COUNTERPARTS are back with a visceral examination of grief.

Words: Steven Loftin. Photos: Ben Ward.

Upset 45

I can’t put any more into this’. I hope that that comes across when people listen to it, and not in the sense that I’m like, ‘Hey, I’m done. I quit after this’. But, you know, our merch guy finding me in the vocal room face down because I’m running out of stuff to say and staying up all night, tracking at four in the morning… I did put a lot into it. And I hope that people can tell.

Is that how you feel about Counterparts in general, that you’ve given it everything?

I think I have given everything. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty paranoid; I do this with every record that comes out, but I’ve never really taken that into account in terms of writing before. I wrote this record from the viewpoint of, if this were the last Counterparts record, would I be able to close the biggest chapter of my life and feel okay with how it ended? And I would be. The only thing is, obviously, if we put this record out and everyone loves it, and we’re the biggest band in the world, you’d be stupid to just quit after that. We’ll see what happens. But if after this one, next time we go to write lyrics, if I can’t get it together and I am fully tapped, then I’m just like, ‘Alright, you gotta get someone else, guys’.

Do you feel freer after accepting all of this?

Yeah, definitely.

Counterparts started touring from the day I graduated high school, when I was like 18, so it’s all I’ve known. So having COVID take that away after doing it for so long…

This is album seven, and it feels like I can do whatever I want with it now because I’m not necessarily afraid of it ending one day like I used to be. I was terrified. I was like, when this is over, what the fuck am I going to do? I’m screwed. I have no chance.

But now, when I think about it, I’m just like, well, it’s gonna 46 Upset

go away anyway, so we might as well do whatever the fuck we want. I love that feeling.

From the day that switch flipped in my head, I’ve had more fun doing it because one day we’re not going to be able to play music anymore so we might as well leave something behind, like leave a legacy and a sense of ‘Yeah man, you know, those guys never they never got pushed around like they just did whatever the fuck they wanted. And that was really cool’.

Do you wish you’d figured that out earlier in your career?

I definitely wish I did realise it a touch earlier. But also, that

“I KNOW EVERY BAND IS LIKE, ‘THE NEW RECORD IS THE BEST THING WE’VE EVER DONE’, BUT I ACTUALLY THINK THAT IT IS” - BREN DAN MURP H Y could have backfired too, because we could have been basically not big enough to do whatever the fuck we want and talk our shit and just be free - everybody would’ve been like, ‘Well, I’m not working with this band.

Who the hell did they think they are?!’

This all plays into the idea that everything happens

for a reason.

That’s how I view everything aside from my cat and shit, where it’s like I’ll do anything to help him and make sure that he’s okay.

Everything else in my life, I’m just like, well, there’s no sense getting bent out of shape over stuff because these things happen, and it’s like, whatever. If, you know, this relationship ended or

being your dad and taking care of you, so that gave me a purpose’. So yeah, these things come into your life, and maybe they won’t be around forever, but they come into your life for a reason. Kuma’s doing well now, and I know obviously one day he won’t be here, but he saved me at a point when I was really low and didn’t have a lot of stuff to live for. There’s a perfect example of what can I do to immortalise him and show appreciation. Even though he can’t obviously understand - he doesn’t know what a breakdown is - but that was my gift to him.

something, then if it didn’t end now, it was like it was going to eventually. Even stupid shit where it’s like, ‘Oh, I missed my flight’ - well, whatever, I’ll figure it out, and I’ll get on the next one. Back in the day, I used to get really hung up on that and bent out of shape about it.

Speaking of, your relationship with your cat also illustrates the idea that things turn up at the right time.

For sure. I was really surprised at the reaction [to ‘Whispers of Your Death’]; it was an overwhelmingly positive reaction where people are like, ‘Thank you for the song, I know exactly

how you feel’. It’s a song about my fucking cat. I get it, it’s kind of weird, but he did come into my life for a reason, right? My ex and I got him during COVID, and it was right around the time when it was to be for a hell of a lot longer than everyone realised, and I was distraught about it. I didn’t have the band; I didn’t have an outlet for fun; I couldn’t see anybody. My ex was working, so I pretty much spent like 24 hours a day with this cat.

It was like he came into my life at the perfect time, and then he got sick, and I went to ‘my whole life is like taking care of you, and that’s what I have to do - the most important thing now is

Touching upon ideas like that, which are universal, does that help your understanding of your abilities as a lyricist?

That’s how I’ve always taken that approach to writing.

Every single Counterparts song is entirely personal, and it’s related to one specific thing that happened with my life, so it definitely is pretty vulnerable to do that. When I talk to people, and they’re like, ‘this song means a lot to me, and I can relate to it’, and the song helped me when I was going through the same thing, that’s the payment for me. I make enough to live kinda, but the reason I still do Counterparts is because we have that relationship with our fans almost to a fault where people don’t see us as a band; they see us more as friends and shit, which is cool.

Do you see yourself as a creative?

Me personally, not really?

When I think of the term creative, it’s somebody who’s always doing it, and they’re constantly creating, whether it’s art or music or photography or whatever. I guess I don’t really consider myself one just because I’m at the point where I lock myself in a room just to get it over with. But I will say, looking back and having an album done and listening

back to it, it’s not like I’m not proud of it or I don’t want to do it. It’s just, I think at this point now, the creation aspect, for me anyway, it’s more like, ‘Okay, I need to do this, or else I’m not going to be able to feed myself’, instead of just doing it because I want to do it.

Have you considered what the closing statement, or words upon the gravestone, for Counterparts would be?

That, to me, is the song ‘Mass Grave of Saints’. It would have to be a pretty fucking big gravestone to fit all the words on there. But it’s that song specifically - if we broke up tomorrow, and we had to come up with a closing statement, I would just say it’s the last song on the record. I would be cool with that being the last thing I’ve ever written for the band.

Most importantly, do you feel excited for whatever’s next?

I think a lot of the excitement comes from that feeling of I don’t care anymore. Not about the band, but I don’t care if it all goes away. That’s what excites me now. We’ve been a band for forever - this is our seventh album - I don’t think we’re going to get much bigger, and we’ve been around roughly the same size for the last couple of years anyway, so it’s just like, what are we doing? We’re not going to be the biggest fucking band in the world but as long as we can do this and be consistent, then who gives a shit? Let’s just do our own thing and have fun. We don’t have to play the game, and we can play by our rules instead of somebody else’s and I’m really looking forward to that. I know our fans are already on board they’ve been on board with it forever, and they know that’s how we feel. So, I’m really looking forward to that, for sure. ■ Counterparts’ album ‘A Eulogy For Those Still Here’ is out 7th October.

Upset 47

“I JUST WANTED TO PLAY SOME FUCKIN’ LOUD MUSIC...”

48 Upset

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE are kicking back against a quiet few years by embracing all things loud.

Words: Dillon Eastoe. Photos: Jimmy Fontaine.

Upset 49

of just stomping on a distortion pedal, making a large sound. A loud sound.”

After a teasing intro that’s classic Death Cab, opener ‘I Don’t Know How I Survive’ makes good on that promise, with a direct sludge of overdriven guitars and unrelenting drums. “[The album] at times is very violent and loud. For a band that has a reputation as being quiet and pensive and introspective, I just really wanted to do something different and make something loud.”

Lead single ‘Roman Candles’ is the exemplar, borrowing a drum loop from Krautrock group Faust in its downbeat verses. “I just came out the gates with the first thing on my mind, this rant about my anxiety and isolation, more maudlin feelings,” Ben explains. “But when I got to the chorus, I had this powerful drive to say something positive.

I feel like I’m really just spewing it in the verses.

It’s very self-effacing, very pathetic in some ways,” he admits. “I really wanted the chorus to say something that would pull me out of the verse.”

That chorus is a release, lyrically and musically, with the tension of those torrid verses (“It’s been a battle just to wake and greet the day, then they all disappear like sugar in my coffee”) giving way to acceptance (“I am learning to let go of everything I tried to hold”).

“One of the reasons I like writing songs linearly is that they become a conversation with yourself,” he reveals.

“It’s like talking through an idea with your therapist, and you’re going down this dark path with it. I catch myself and go, ‘Actually, I want to also bring some perspective to this. Things are not really this bad. I can pull myself out of this’.”

Death Cab are, of course, no strangers to writing about loneliness, isolation and self-doubt, but Ben was keen to avoid writing 50 Upset

“WE’RE NOT A PARTY BAND, BUT PEOPLE ARE GONNA WANT A FUCKING PARTY”

- BEN G I BBARD

what he calls a ‘pandemic record’ because of how it would land once released into a recovering world, audiences eager to make up for lost time. “I was very aware of how people would view material written about and in the time we were living. They weren’t going to want to revisit that two years later. We’re not a party band, but people are gonna want a fucking party. They’re gonna want to put on brainless dance music and go nuts and fuck strangers. That’s what people are gonna want to do. They’re not gonna wanna be introspective about this terrible period we just went through.”

While it would be a stretch to describe ‘Asphalt Meadows’ as “brainless dance music”, it is nonetheless an amped-up, in-your-face iteration of Death Cab’s characteristic songwriting that jumps out the speakers. Even the more laid-back ‘Pepper’ benefits from its acoustic guitar thrumming urgently at the front of the mix, the thwack of the plectrum pairing with the taut percussion.

Unable to write in their usual routine, the five members of the band (completed by long-time colleagues Nick Harmer on bass and Jason McGerr holding down drums, along with recent recruits Dave Depper and Zac Rae contributing guitar and keyboards) kept themselves busy by trying out what Ben describes as “chain-letter style songwriting”, with one person posting an initial idea, and the different musicians each taking 24 hours in turn to “add to it or subtract from it until everybody has contributed something to the song.”

“It feels like we’re building a foundation of the song in a way that we have never, never done before, and it gives everybody space to find their own place,” Ben says of that new

way of writing. “We found ourselves with some really wonderful songs that we otherwise wouldn’t have had.”

Across the record’s eleven tracks, the immediate standout is recent single ‘Foxglove through the Clearcut’, manifesting itself from a 1997 demo that Ben found while rationalising his collection of fourtrack recordings. If the instrumentals aren’t too surprising, Ben’s spoken word delivery of the verses is a welcome twist on a familiar formula. “I just found myself not wanting to sing,” he explains. “I felt myself wanting to tell some kind of story, and once I was relieved of the duties of writing a melody, it allowed my brain to go to places it never had before writing a song.”

“I found myself writing this story that I assumed was about some amorphous faceless character that I could kind of see in my mind’s eye, but it was kind of blurry,” Ben remembers of writing the song’s lyrics, in which he explores an allegory of the disconnect of European settlers from the nature and native population of the Americas and the colonisers’ failure to reconcile their impact on ‘this great land where we’ve never belonged’.

“It’s kind of a cheesy analogy,” he says of working the song out. “But it’s like if you watch Empire Strikes Back and Luke goes into the cave to fight who he thinks is Darth Vader, and he knocks the mask off, and it’s him. I had that realisation about the song.

‘Oh no, I’m writing about myself. I’m writing about myself from a distance’.

That realisation was something that I’ve never really had in a song before.”

“I’ve never found myself writing something that personal but not realising it,” he admits. “I could expound forever about

the lyrics on that, but the reality is I found myself psychoanalysing a lot of my choices in life and how I’ve ended up where I am by removing the first person.”

With two runs of US shows now under their belt and the new album out in the world, Death Cab For Cutie can look ahead to a solid year on tour, acquainting their eager fans with the new material. “You know, I think at some point deep in the lockdown, Nick and I were having a conversation, and one of us said to the other, ‘I’m never gonna complain about a sparsely attended Sunday show in a small city somewhere ever again.’”

“We certainly have a newfound appreciation for how fortunate we are to be able to do this in the first place, let alone be doing it after 25 years, playing to relatively large crowds still.

After having our livelihoods taken from us and, more importantly, the thing that we love to do, it’s just such a joyous thing to play music for people,” Ben admits.

“It wasn’t lost on us, and I got the sense from a lot of people coming to shows that they were on the other side of that coin after being at home and not being able to see live music, see the bands and performers that they loved. Every show has felt like a really cathartic release.”

Death Cab are lucky enough to enjoy a devoted fanbase with their own favourite tracks, nine beloved albums to draw from and ‘Asphalt Meadows’ arriving to swell their already overflowing catalogue of spinetingling songs. The most challenging thing will probably be cutting the setlist down to twenty songs. Still, a quarter century into making music together, that’s a nice problem to have. ■ Death Cab For Cutie’s album ‘Asphalt Meadows’ is out 16th September.

Upset 51

52 Upset

Glasgowbased duo VUKOVI are testing the extremes of pop with a sci-fi-inspired concept record.

Words: Jack Press.

Upset 53

WE BANG ON ABOUT IT A LOT, but the global pandemic really did throw everything into disarray, forcing many a band to put down their touring gear and throw out their carefully planned itineraries. When Vukovi were forced to take a breather just months after dropping an album – what did they do?

“I watched so much sci-fi!” enthuses Janine Shilstone, beaming in from her bedroom in Scotland.

“I rewatched all the Alien boxset, Star Wars, Fifth Element. It was escapism over lockdown from reality, and I loved it.”

Don’t worry, readers; Janine wasn’t nerding out for nothing. With no way to perform their second album ‘Fall Better’ live, Janine and guitarist Hamish Reilly banged their heads together and made a new record instead. And, it just so happens to be a concept record about “a colony ship” leaving “our earth that’s dying” - and there’s an “alien who was kidnapped on board”, too.

“I ended up injecting escapism into the album with this otherworldly space concept. I really want folk to imagine being there like they’re on this journey to the unknown,” explains Janine, who spent her lockdown walking down memory lane and doing a lot of self-realisation, which was fed right back into the songwriting.

“Sci-fi was such a huge thing for me growing up, comics and anime, and the pandemic makes you reflect - like, wait a minute, I loved all these things, it’s almost a core for me, so why am I not talking about it more or expressing it more or putting it into our music more?”

Like all good sci-fi adventures, ‘Nula’ leaves a lot to the listener’s imagination. There’s no ‘spoon-feeding’ from Vukovi on this one, they’ll help you along here and there, but this album is yours for 54 Upset

“I LOVE CROSSING GENRES. I WANT TO CROSS OVER INTO THE MAINSTREAM; I WANT TO BE A POP ACT” - JAN I N E S H I LSTON E interpreting. Take the title – it could be a reference to Irish folklore, meaning the perfect embodiment of elegance and etherealness.

Except, no, it’s not.

“I went with ‘Nula’ because it’s Serbian for zero, and Vukovi is Serbian for wolves, so it’s like she’s the original, she’s from scratch,” Janine corrects, but she’s happy people are going off and doing some Googling.

“This is the beauty of it, someone who’s heard the album has done their own research and looked for their own reason. That’s the beauty of watching sci-fi; I love the escapism, the want to find the core and the root of something.”

In a way, ‘Nula’ meaning zero makes a lot of sense. It feels like Vukovi are starting from scratch. This isn’t the band you heard push out synth-driven pop-punk on ‘Fall Better.’ This is futuristic alt-pop with rollercoaster riffs to ride through the cosmos on.

“It is a pop record! We want to be pop. I fucking love pop – it was my life growing up,” beams Janine, pleased to hear their guilty pleasure for pop isn’t putting anyone off. “That’s something I feel like I’ve watered down a lot. I’ve always wanted to go extreme pop, but then I thought, it’s not very cool, but now I love crossing genres. I want to cross over into the mainstream; I want to be a pop act.”

Whether it’s the Katy Perry-inspired futurism of ‘SLO’’s pulsing synths or the dance-punk club banger ‘QUENCH’, it’s undeniably pop that bites back. Starting life out as just another

riff on the cutting room floor, ‘QUENCH’ was “far too good to just write off”.

Thankfully, binge-listening to Britney Spears saved the song. “Randomly, I was listening to Britney Spears that week, so I was like, let’s just go for Britney verses.

Then I wanted Bobby Brown harmonies in the chorus to give it that 90s feel.”

So, if they were so comfortable leaning into pop music, just how did it all happen? Well, rather than rest on their laurels, they used their forced retirement from the road to reassess what it was to be Vukovi.

“We threw ourselves into bettering our songwriting and our craft. It was a sink or swim moment, we can’t fucking play shows, and we can’t leave the house, so let’s make our best music yet – it was very liberating to be unapologetically ourselves.

“You have that existential crisis of, what the fuck am I doing in my life? What is going to happen, and what’s the future? At that point, I felt like I had a lot of personal traumas that came to the surface, so that was something I had to face and finally get help for and try and be a better version of myself. I’ve made some positive life changes, and it’s helped the band too. Life is very fucking short; it made us think, how can we be the best we can be?”

Not only did all that selfreflection make them better musically, it gave Janine the chance to empower others.

‘Nula’’s story might spend its time sailing the stars, but its themes explore trauma, mental health, gender inequality, sexual liberation,

and violence. And with the world the way it is, Janine just had to say something.

While ‘QUENCH’ is “all about female empowerment for women that have been through trauma” to tell them “it’s okay to have desires, that’s fine, that’s okay”, closer ‘xx’ asks the listener to reckon with a question: what does the future hold?

“When you talk about my experiences in the industry and talk to other women about their experiences, you start to paint this picture of misogyny. I think there’s a massive imbalance of gender roles, especially in power and politics, and I’m not a fucking political expert, but there’s a lot of toxic masculinity in the world.

“I just want these songs to help the next generation of female and non-binary people to be like, ‘this is fucking badass’. I’m trying to inspire young women, young girls and non-binary people to believe in making that change because we just can’t stay this way. It’s very fucking scary right now, there’s just so much toxicity and ego, and that’s what happens when you have an imbalance of gender.” ‘xx’ isn’t just ‘Nula’’s defining statement; it’s a standout moment for Vukovi.

Originally written to include a two-minute monologue

by Lady Gaga that was eventually quashed by her management, it forced Janine into writing her own empowering speech in just two days. “I did it on a train coming home, and when I went into the studio with Bruce and Hamish, they told me to do it in my voice, in my accent. I really didn’t want to do that, but they really pushed me to do that, and I’m glad we did, because I wanted it to be that Trainspotting ‘choose life’ kind of theme.”

In the end, that’s what Vukovi embody on ‘Nula’: they’re choosing life, and this is their soundtrack. ■ Vukovi’s album ‘Nula’ is out 7th October.

Upset 55

Rated.

The Beths

THE OFFICIAL VERDICT ON EVERYTHING

Expert in a Dying Field ★★★★

By their third album, New Zealand quartet The Beths have already set a high bar of expectation. Such is their intrinsic power-pop prowess, ‘Expert In A Dying Feel’ feels like a classic in waiting from the very first play. Musing on the ramifications of fading and faded relationships - how do you cope when you know someone so well, and then they’re gone the album’s opening title track feels like an opening chapter on a master-class to follow. A warm embrace to some difficult thoughts, this is the Beths at their very best. Dan Harrison

Counterparts

A Eulogy For Those Still Here ★★★★ metal album the nine-piece have ever dared create, while all the usual elements are at play (syrupy thick assaulting percussion, wide-eyed guitars, Corey Taylor’s guttural screaming), the immediate welcome of opener ‘Adderall’ is the lightest and most straightforward yet. With a plodding bassline and ambling soft vocals, yet it’s within this context that ‘The Dying Song’ quickly finds a new lease as a brutal anthem.

The End, So Far The most interesting part of ‘The End’ is the emergence ★★★★ of each component. There AS ALWAYS WITH A NEW are vastly more electronic SLIPKNOT RECORD, the rumour flourishes from DJ and mill and opinion boards came sampler Sid and Craig, while alight with suspense. Following the newest components Vman the preview of teaser singles and Jay find new feet as the ‘The Chapeltown Rag’ and ‘The rhythm section, entering more Dying Song (Time To Sing)’, experimental territory than their there was a duality forming predecessors. These elements in the Slipknot army between are what bring a new lease of those of the old school and life to the older components of those living realistically in the the beast. modern world. And ‘The End, So ‘H377’ hits the closest to any Far’ is an album that will drive previous iteration of Slipknot. that wedge even further.

Featuring frantic spitting from The closest to a straight-up Corey amidst a torrent of

Slipknot

sounds, it’s proof there’s life still rattling around in the rusty cage. ‘Hivemind’ gets down on its haunches and leaps to the throat, and it’s these moments of familiarity that help the reasonably more considered and restrained sections sit easier.

Closer ‘Finale’ is an epic of Slipknot proportions, where once they went straight for the jugular, now it’s an all-over gentle butchering with doom coming through the soft vocals, and choral progressions as samples nip at the ear reminding you there’s always something lurking in the background.

Indeed ‘The End, So Far’ feels like a complete album. It’s Slipknot reaching their apex of creativity and culminating absolution of who they once were. This is a different band with different ambitions, even when compared to 2019’s ‘We Are Not Your Kind’. It may not suit all, but in over two-decades Slipknot have never stopped burning down boundaries.

Steven Loftin

If you’re going to go out, go out on a high. Counterparts have taken this idea for their seventh outing. It sears, twists and turns, while vocalist Brendan Murphy delivers what is purportedly all he has left, the addition of founding guitarists Alex Re and Jesse Doreen ignites a sizzling franticness that swoops as much as it soars. With ‘A Eulogy For Those Still Here’, the brutality remains brutal, the emotions run high and it’s all for a Counterparts that feels stronger and more unstoppable than ever.

Steven Loftin

Death Cab For Cutie

Asphalt Meadows ★★★★ Ten albums in, and indie favourites Death Cab for Cutie are nothing if not reliable. Still, on ‘Asphalt

Meadows’ they’re able to freshen up their formula with some new approaches to writing and some extra grit to their sound. Written remotely, then recorded together last year with producer John Congleton (St Vincent, Explosions in the Sky), it finds the Seattle band stepping on the distortion and turning up their guitars to make some noise. Another solid addition to the band’s canon, it’s great to hear them probing at the edges of their signature sound. Dillon Eastoe

is angsty and antagonistic for all the right reasons.

Opening with the politicallycharged ‘New England’, they really set the tone for what’s to come. ‘Here’s What You Could Have Won’ explores topics of racism, in-work poverty, mental health, violence, frustration and all-consuming love all while maintaining candid honesty and humour. It’s an excellent showcase for the band’s bigger, punchier new sound.

Phoebe De Angelis

a nice bow on top. This is a band who stared into the void and walked away from it. It’s a good thing they did too, because ‘No Oblivion’ is an absolutely fantastic second album. Josh Williams

The Paranoyds

Talk Talk Talk ★★★★

Future Teens

Self Help ★★★★

There’s no magic formula to writing the perfect indie-pop song, but Boston’s Future Teens have come as close to anyone of discovering such alchemy, with Amy Hoffman and Co. seemingly having an endless well of “mental health bangers” to draw upon. Front and centre of ‘Self Help’ is Amy’s journey to sobriety, which rings loud and clear on cuts like ‘BYOB’ and ‘Well Enough’.

Bruising and honest, there’s nevertheless a sense of hope and optimism, and Future Teens’ ability to marry these heavy themes with perky, crowd-friendly indie-pop songs remains peerless.

Equally, Future Teens may have embraced the label ‘bummer pop’, but such a description does a disservice to just how great a pop band they are. Sure, they go to some dark places, but a sense of fun underpins every song. It means that while ‘Self Help’ may be heavy thematically, it’s also chockfull of contagious punk-lite indie-pop hits. Future Teens remain the undisputed champions of writing indiepop songs with depth, heart and sincerity, and ‘Self Help’ is another high-standard knockout. Rob Mair

Kid Kapichi

Here’s What You Could Have Won ★★★★

Kid Kapichi’s new album

Lande Hekt

House Without A View ★★★★

Barely a year after the release of debut solo album ‘Going To Hell’, and Muncie Girls’ Lande Hekt returns with a second offering just as rich and wonderful as its predecessor.

Picking up where her last record left off, its a series of musings on selfidentity, development and understanding delivered in a way that feels both intimate and yet brilliantly addictive. Opener ‘Half With You’ grows with confidence as it progresses, while ‘Lola’ is quite probably the best song about a cat you’ll hear all year. If that’s not enough to get you listening, we don’t know what is. Dan Harrison

Not so sonically far off their 2019 debut album ‘Carnage Bargain’, The Paranoyds’ second release (and first on Jack White’s Third Man Records) ‘Talk Talk Talk’ is top-tier indie-punk transported right from the West Coast. ‘BWP’ opens the record as an escapist, quirky lo-fi ditty, followed by the angular, 80s punk energy of ‘Lizzie’. ‘Typing’ and ‘Over and Done’ fall more into 90s alt territory, with a The Breeders meets Veruca Salt-esque bittersweetness in delivery.

Throughout the record, The Paranoyds swim between these retro sonics that feel warm and comforting, while the lyrical and production matter seem otherworldly and left-field. It’s a concoction that palpably nods to the sci-fi and sentimental subject matter of the songs. ‘Talk Talk Talk’ is a solid record from the LA Based four piece; pleasantly experimental and a well-balanced composite of carefree youth and steadfast creativity. Jasleen Dhindsa

No Devotion

No Oblivion ★★★★★

Leaning more and more into the gothic sounds inspired

by The Cure (with a hint of Nine Inch Nails) that were showcased on No Devotion’s debut, ‘No Oblivion’ is a good record from a very good band. Songs like the title-track, ‘A Sky Deep and Clear’, and recent single ‘Repeaters’ drip with brooding dark synths, big echoing drums, and Geoff Rickly’s voice dripping with reverb. The album’s high point comes on ‘Love Songs From Fascist Italy’ with its dark romanticism feeling like the soul of the album and ties it all together with

Multi-layered with a string quartet and some absolutely magical work from lead guitarist Jeff Ling; the near seven-minute epic ‘Darker Still’ acts as the perfect title-track, while ‘Soul Bleach’ is a collision of chaos so intense you’ll get whiplash. Parkway Drive once again prove that they do nothing by halves.

Massively impressive.

Kelsey McClure

Parkway Drive

Darker Still ★★★★★

‘Darker Still’ is a masterclass in modern metal.

Cohesive and cinematic, each song paints a violently vivid scene, with the album playing out like the soundtrack to an anti-hero’s final battle.

Gorgeously gothic, it takes a clear influence from 90s metal. Despite the rawness of the vocals, this album is noticeably polished.

Stray From The Path

Euthanasia ★★★★

Sometimes, the only way to go is darker. Stray From The Path have always been a band who know how to find the function in fury, their mix of aggression and political prowess offering fertile ground for over a decade now - but latest album ‘Euthanasia’ is a new bar set. Built from a position of frustration as they watched the world around them break apart, this is Stray fighting back in the only way they know how, front foot first. A blast of bombast to clear the field, as opener ‘Needful Things’ poses - “are you in, or in the way?” Dan Harrison

VUKOVI

NULA ★★★★

Three albums in, and VUKOVI are a band still showing signs of growth.

Big, bright and always on blast, ‘NULA’ is a sci-fi inspired epic, built around its titular character.

Understanding the modern pop circus but with a determination to drive it into new, more visceral places, where many concept records might get too hooked up on that core narrative, ‘NULA’ manages to push beyond its story to find the personal too.

With the playful, taunting dynamics of sugar sweet hyperpop pushed through the grater of brutal riffs and soaring melody, VUKOVI aren’t keeping quiet for anyone. Dan Harrison

The Wonder Years

The Hum Goes On Forever ★★★★★

Dealing with the world and all that comes with it has been an integral part of The Wonder Years’ draw.

On ‘The Hum Goes On Forever’, they’re dealing with parenthood. Chucking all of their prowess into reckoning with needing to survive simply because you must, it’s this sense of urgency that emits like a solar flare through vocalist Dan ‘Soupy’ Campbell’s howls. While this sense of growing up to the point of needing to be responsible for another life form could potentially change the trajectory of The Wonder Years, ‘The Hum...’ is still chock-full of brash melodies powering through the internal inner-angst. The likes of ‘Wyatt’s Song (Your Name)’ rouse anthemically, while ‘Summer Clothes’ strips away the urgency for moments of poignant reflection. It sees the six-piece hone in on the most integral aspect of being a band: understanding their people. Steven Loftin

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Cool It Down ★★★★

Nearly a decade since their last album, New York’s coolest trio Yeah Yeah Yeahs are sounding as ambitious as ever with ‘Cool It Down’.

Having always dug into the emotional canvas of vocalist Karen O, it’s consistently resulted in an impossibleto-deny hook that holds you tighter than any fever.

Here, they swap the urgency they first emerged with for a more luxurious sound complemented by strings and indulgence, which, along with dancing electronic elements winds up creating the perfect soundtrack for a party at the end of the world.

Sitting at only eight tracks, it’s very much an all-killer situation; there ain’t no party like a Yeah Yeah Yeahs party.

Steven Loftin

PULLED APART

BY HORSES EVERYONE HAS THOSE FORMATIVE BANDS AND TRACKS THAT FIRST GOT THEM INTO MUSIC AND HELPED SHAPE THEIR VERY BEING. THIS MONTH, ROBERT JOHN LEE OF PULLED APART BY HORSES TAKE US THROUGH SOME OF THE SONGS THAT MEANT THE MOST TO HIM DURING HIS TEENAGE YEARS. an original old punk album, but when I got it home, I realised it was only a couple of years old. I played that single to death and learned the guitar parts by dropping the needle on certain parts over and over again. To this day, that riff sounds so vital.

SULTANS OF PING F.C.

I’m about to show my age here, but I was privileged to be a teenager during the 90s. It wasn’t as easy to find out about music back then, so I missed out on a lot, but looking back, it was a magical time for music.

guitar and make some noise. Especially when I heard the ‘Incesticide’ album, which has some rougher cuts on there.

We still play a cover of ‘Aneurysm’ in the set sometimes.

NIRVANA

SMASHING PUMPKINS

Nirvana is probably the main influence that we share in PABH. We were all fans from an early age. I was actually only 10 when I first heard Nirvana, and it instantly changed me.

I continued to listen to them obsessively through my teens and still do. They were the band that made me think maybe I could pick up a

Before streaming, we would swap CDs or tapes. We didn’t have enough cash to buy everything we wanted, so one kid would be the Metallica guy, and then there was a girl who had loads of Blur albums. A friend of mine managed to buy all the Pumpkins albums, and of course, the earlier ones are the best. So he let me hang

Aneurysm

Zero

on to this for a while. I mainly just played this song on repeat.

URGE OVERKILL

Tequila Sundae

Another way of finding music would be to dig through boxes of vinyl at second-hand markets or charity shops. Vinyl was pretty cheap back then because it was all about CDs. I found this on orange vinyl, and it was £2.

SEX PISTOLS Pretty Vacant

They re-released this on 12” in the early 90s, and I found it on another one of my junk shop hunts.

At first, I thought it was

Where’s Me Jumper?

I was never a fan of the band, but when I was 16, I joined a punk threepiece called PYG. We were all from different schools, so we used to put these gigs on in the back rooms of pubs and fill them out with our mates. We played a cover of this song, and every time it would erupt into chaos with all these teens on alcopops and cheap lager going mental.

of the crowd whether I liked it or not.

PEARL JAM Rearviewmirror

In my early teens, I was obsessed with the whole idea of the Seattle scene.

I’d seen some of it briefly on TV and in magazines.

It seemed like this whole other world that was happening somewhere else. I kind of lost interest after the third or fourth album, but this song really stirred something in me.

NIRVANA On A Plain

Yes, more Nirvana. I can’t explain how important they are to me. I had all the albums on tape, and I would constantly be on the hunt for 7” singles. I actually bought In-Utero first on a pirate tape from outside Sheffield market. It was hard to find Nevermind. It had sold out everywhere.

But when I finally got a copy of it, I had this Walkman with a little God Show Me case, and I took that Magic tape everywhere with They seemed to be on me. ‘Teen Spirit’ was just tour constantly, and they an intro track, really. To would play in Sheffield a me, ‘On A Plain’ was like lot where I grew up. The the real story. I found later albums are very it hypnotic and kind of eclectic and chilled, but meditative; I would just those early gigs were sink into it. insane. This track was always a crowd surfer.

Pulled Apart By Horses’ My skinny teenage frame album ‘Reality Cheques’ would be thrown on top is out 30th September.

SUPER FURRY ANIMALS

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