Upset, September 2023

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Spanish Love Songs

Be Your Own PET

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D ISRUP T T H E N O IS E

Speedy Ortiz

Caskets

Magnolia Park

Ratboys

+ loads more

HoldingEyes Absence Trophy Hot Milk Honey Revenge Movements Creeper

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upsetmagazine.com

September 2023 RIOT! 4. 2000trees 16. Speedy Ortiz 20. Caskets 22. Movements 26. Magnolia Park ABOUT TO BREAK 28. Enola Gay FEATURES 30. Empire State Bastard 40. Hot Milk 44. Spanish Love Songs 48. Holding Absence 52. Be Your Own Pet TEENAGE KICKS 58. Ratboys

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

Hi.

If you’re looking for icons in modern heavy music, you could do worse than Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil. But - because everything isn’t about how many units you shift - the band’s long time touring member and excellent solo artist in his own right Mike Vennart is a bit of a legend himself, too. Teaming up for their new project Empire State Bastard, they’re shooting raw adrenaline. It’s good to shake things up occasionally. On the cover of this month’s issue, it’s a message that’s especially relevant to Upset. Changes are coming, Dear Reader. Keep your eyes on upsetmagazine.com for more.

Stephen Ackroyd @stephenackroyd Editor

Scribblers Alexander Bradley, Alex Ingle, Dan Harrison, Kelsey McClure, Linsey Teggert, Melissa Darragh, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin Snappers Anthony Purcella, Frances Beach, Frank Fieber, Hannah Hall, Kirk Barnett, Sarah Louise Bennett, Shervin Lainez PUBLISHED FROM WELCOMETOTHEBUNKER.COM PO BOX 420, HASTINGS, TN34 9LZ

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

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

THE MONTH IN ROCK

2000 TREES Beloved and brilliant in equal measure, here’s what went down at this year’s 2000TREES. Words: Alexander Bradley.

Photos: Sarah Louise Bennett.

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→ 2000trees is brilliant. For 2023, they get it absolutely spot on, confirming the festival as a vital space for alternative music in this country and one that must be protected at all costs.

There seem to be two distinct camps when it comes to festivals recovering from enforced years off and the financial climate. There’s the “build it, and they will come” approach where they stack the line-ups but cut corners everywhere else, and too many people show up, ahem. And then there is 2000trees, who take on all the feedback from last year and set out to make an incredible festival-going experience while boxing clever on the line-up choices.

This year, Soft Play, Bullet For My Valentine and Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes headline while Bob Vylan are tasked with closing out the early entry Wednesday evening. But beyond those headliners is a solid undercard of some old returning favourites, some evergreen bands and a whole host of emerging talent. And that’s not to mention the dedication to addressing the gender balance on the line-up, too, with women and non-binary people represented across all the stages. Even Rou Reynolds does his best Dave-Grohl-at-Glastonbury impression, popping up here, there and everywhere.

There’s great food, decent beer (albeit a couple of poorly poured pints), some sunshine and just the one biblical downpour; lots of nice touches like the photo booths, seating areas and the new streamlined entry system. The forest remains a magical setting to enjoy music in too.

2000trees continues to be the best opportunity for alternative bands to have a moment feeling like absolute rock stars. Long may it continue.

The start of 2000trees also brings about the end of Press To MECO. Having planned to slip away at the end of last year, the trio were convinced to say a proper goodbye at the place that “has made us feel like a bigger band than we are every time we have played here,” in the words of singer Luke Caley. Bidding farewell with a final rendition of ‘Gold’, Press To MECO get the ending they deserve, but not before plugging Luke and Jake’s new venture, Unpeople, too.

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In the first of two appearances at Trees, Holding Absence take the chance to look back before the release of ‘The Noble Art Of Self Destruction’ at the end of the summer. Kicking off and bursting on stage with the monumental one-two of ‘Alive’ and ‘Cursed With A Kiss’, the Welsh rock kids flex their hit-making chops early on. With an eye on the Main Stage and the final show before the release of the new album, they choose to air out some deep cuts before closing on the enormous ‘Afterlife’.

Taking another big step forward in their ascendancy, Bob Vylan close the first night of the festival on the Wednesday before tearing up the Main Stage the following day. In the forest for their hard-earned headline slot, the duo seize the moment and excel. Violent and aggressive from the off, the singer describes it as “fucking pandemonium” as they wrap up ‘I Heard You Want Your Country Back’ for which bodies pile over the barrier

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as the crowd down front put the security staff to work.

Taking a breather between the chaos, the singer hypes up fellow headliners Soft Play and his role in advising the duo to change their name from Slaves. As they bring their set to an end, shirts off and down face to face with the crowd, they cover Nirvana’s ‘Territorial Pissings’ and watched the carnage in the forest (which used to be such a peaceful setting) ensue. Rest assured, Bob Vylan will be back at Trees in the future, and it won’t be long until they’re headlining the Main Stage.

You can count on one hand how many shows Exit Child have played before this set, but their showing on the Neu Stage came with the air of seasoned professionals.

Vibrant, energetic and in-your-face, guitarist and ringmaster Anya Pulver confidently commands the grungy circus of angst and anarchy. Their one and only released single ‘Dormant’ is just one standout moment in a set that assures there is

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plenty more where that came from in the months ahead.

Living up to the reputation as one of the most exciting up-and-comers in the alt-metal space, Lake Malice deliver a scintillating performance in The Cave.

Every song feels cinematic as they death drop from huge highs into mega breakdowns, spinning on a pinpoint from pummelling metal into sweeping electronics. The duo rifle through all their singles, including the latest two ‘Bloodbath’ and ‘Stop The Party’, back to back and signalling that this hot streak of songs shows no signs of slowing down.

Venturing out on his own, Dan Campbell as Aaron West finally makes it to 2000trees; without his band, though.

Acoustic and intimate with the trees as a backdrop, you can see see the veins and valves of the heart worn on his sleeve. In his freshly purchased wellies, the singer plays “really fucking dark songs” that are “devoid of joy” in his words, but it is much to the delight of the crowd that deputised as trumpet on the closer ‘Divorce and the American South’. And, according to him, as long as he patches up his relationship with his record label, the next chapter in the Aaron West story is ready to go, so hopefully, there is a chance of a full band show in the future.

Despite a technical gremlin in the works, Prince Daddy & The Hyena manage a stellar showing of both tenderness and force in equal measures. Spritely with scratchy guitar tones, they ripped through ‘A Random Exercise in Impermanence (The Collector)’. More mellow numbers like ‘Curly Q’ still capture hearts and minds, while the closer ‘El Dorado’ lives long in the memory and underlines that Prince Daddy struck gold when making last year’s self-titled album.

Brimming with pop star energy, Hannah Grae shines on the Forest Stage.

Bordering on the cheesy, Disney, Hannah Montanalike teen pop, she sings of prom queens and typical adolescent issues. But, as she explores her darker side, a cover of 4 Non Blondes” What’s Up?’ and a giveaway of a crochet hat for one lucky fan, Hannah Grae comes out

on top.

Finally! On the third time of trying, No Devotion make their way to 2000trees to drag the mood down. “We are not going to make anybody happy,” Geoff Rickly promises as they explore their brand of atmospheric misery with numbers like ‘Starlings’

and ‘Repeaters’ from their last album. A triple-header from their debut effort ‘Permanence’ featured the more optimistic ‘Permanent Sunlight’ but made sure to end on a bummer with ‘Grand Central’.

With only a day and a half in the country, The Wonder Years make a strong case for future Trees headliners and confirm they’ll be bringing ‘The Greatest Generation’ anniversary tour this way before the end of the year.

Opening with ‘Cardinals’ and its sequel from the latest album, it becomes apparent what a return to form ‘The Hum Goes On Forever’ is with how easily the new numbers slot alongside some of the older hits. Still, in the Main Stage sunshine, nothing could hit quite as hard as the pop-punk masterpiece ‘Came Out Swinging’ bring their set to a close, and the bar for any other band raised considerably. Not bad for a day and a half’s work.

The rise and rise of Skindred continues with the early evening slot on the Main Stage, and, oh boy, do they bring the party. With interludes and samples of Oasis, AC/DC and Van Halen and a barrage of abuse from Benji Webbe as he works the crowd into overtime, Skindred Upset 9

seem to have nailed the perfect festival slot. Sprinkle in feel-good new tune ‘L.O.V.E (Smile Please)’ and counteract it with pumped-up classics like ‘Nobody’ and ‘Warning’ (which features a sea of helicoptering t-shirts), and they make sure that everybody has a great time.

There were a few eyebrows raised when Soft Play were announced as the final headliner for this year’s festival. Maybe some people missed the memo about the duo changing their name from Slaves, but Laurie and Isaac bite back with a performance that ensures everyone knows Soft Play mean business. They may walk out to the sound of the ‘We Like To Party (The Vengabus)’, but there was going to be no jelly and ice cream here. Unrelenting in their aggression, blasting through short and sharp punk blasts ‘Fuck The Hi-Hat’ and three turns of the 15-second ‘Girl Fight’, it is a dizzying assault. Joined by Bob Vylan to spice up ‘One More Day 10 Upset

Won’t Hurt’ and a cover of Skepta’s ‘Shutdown’ for good measure, the pair seem to take this headlining lark in their stride when, in fact, it is only their second show under their new name. Managing to make one guitar and half a drum kit sound like heavy artillery, they finish up their set with a triple-header from the 2015 album ‘Are You Satisfied?’ with the snarling sound of ‘Sugar Coated Bitter Truth’, the snappy ‘Beauty Quest’ before, finally, the menacing sound of ‘The Hunter’ bringing the curtain down. The set is a defiant rebuttal to anyone who thought they weren’t ready to take on the slot. Question Soft Play at your peril.

Often criminally overlooked, Joyce Manor‘s chance on the Main Stage feels like a coming-of-age moment for the Californians.

In a bumper set that included crowd requests of ‘Leather Jacket’ and ‘Last You Heard of Me’, they showcase the full evolution of their sound as they revisit almost every

album from their punk origins on ‘Violent Inside’ right through to the power pop of ‘NBTSA’ and biting indie-rock of ‘Gotta Let It Go’ from their latest.

In one of the most hotly anticipated shows of the weekend, Zulu deliver with style. Showing off the very best of their debut album, ‘A New Tomorrow’, they start hard with ‘For Sista Humphrey’ and only continue to get more powerful, more guttural, from there on out.

The Los Angeles natives throw it back briefly to ‘Watching From the Sideline’ and ‘Straight From da Tribe of the Moon’ from their earlier EPs, but mostly show off why their debut album is already a standout moment for metal music this year.

It’s a fairytale return for

The Xcerts as they blow away all in attendance and usher in the beginning of the ‘Learning How To Live And Let Go’ era.

Wasting no time at all, the trio burst into life with the scuzzy sound of ‘GIMME’, and the crowd embrace the new tune with the affection usually reserved for classics. Chaotic and joyful, wild with smiles beaming, they revisited old favourites like ‘Slackerpop’ and ‘Crisis in the Slow Lane’ almost as yardsticks for how far they’ve come in this re-energised new sound.

Making every second count, they elect to close out the set by playing ‘Ache’ twice back to back to drill home the new number and the belief that The Xcerts are back and better than ever.

Employed To Serve put their best foot forward as

they take to The Cave with cuts of their latest, more progressive, more anthemic album, ‘Conquering’. Leaving behind the sound of their punishing earlier albums, they rip through hits like ‘Force Fed’ and ‘Eternal Forward Motion’ and newer numbers ‘Mark of the Grave’ and the expansive ‘Universal Chokehold’ which opens the set. The standalone single ‘Party’s Over’ is an appropriate end for which countless people surf over the barrier and spend the rest of their time running full pelt into one another.

Much talked about and super-hyped supergroup Empire State Bastard entice a huge crowd of curious revellers for an evening slot

at the Axiom Stage. They open with a rampant left and right hook that includes their first-ever single, ‘Harvest’.

Thankfully, they aren’t all-guns-blazing all the time, and there is a chance for some world-building with some moody, atmospheric brushstrokes. But, with Simon Neil in his short shorts skulking and hunting around the stage, another hammer fall and descent into the blackest of metal is never too far away.

Having resurrected Bat Sabbath in the forest the night before, Cancer Bats finish up their tour with a riotous set that caps off a hot and sweaty day over at The Cave. Always ready to go and up for a good time, the Canadians are, as ever, on top form. The rollicking fun of ‘Lonely Bong’ from last year’s latest album stands shoulder to shoulder with ‘Pneumonia Hawk’ as they rip through the hits. Their cover of ‘Sabotage’ has, over time, become their own and remains a truly awesome moment every time that bass line chugs into life.

Following the Beastie Boys tribute, the transcendent ‘Radiate’ and fist-pumping ‘Hail Destroyer’ marks the end but confirms that every Cancer Bats set is over far too soon.

The plan is to play “old shit, new shit and everything in between,” according to Matthew Tuck, as Bullet For My Valentine round off the Friday night. Opening Upset 11

with ‘Knives’ from last year’s self-titled album but quickly following up with the pulsating ‘Your Betrayal’, they’re quick to make that promise a reality. There is even a brief chance for an AxeWound reunion as Liam Cormier, who’s not long jumped off stage with Cancer Bats, joins the band for a rendition of ‘Cold’ and spends his time running circles around the stage. On either side of that special appearance, Bullet revisit their seminal 2005 album ‘The Poison’ as they crack out the timeless classics ‘All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me)’ and ‘Tears Don’t Fall’. It would be too easy to call upon the nostalgia of revisiting these breakout hits that are fast approaching two decades old, but Bullet For My Valentine are not a band spending too much time looking backwards, as the singer confirms they’ll be working on their next album throughout next year.

Serving as a double shot of caffeine, High Vis get the final day on the Main Stage off to a flyer. Bringing the best of the last record, ‘Blending’, to life, they swoon from shimmery indie-rock with touches of shoegaze into out-and-out hardcore nonsense. The drizzle on the Main Stage isn’t the ideal conditions for the band, who are better suited to smaller confines that allow the pits to come together naturally. Instead, taking a step back, it is a chance to really appreciate what a technically solid band High Vis are and enjoy singer Graham Sayle’s life lessons.

“Life’s hard. Work on yourself.

Don’t be a bellend,” he shares.

On their first visit to the festival, Koyo show that the Long Island punk scene is still turning out great bands.

Piecing together their set with high-octane cuts from EPs, they work their way up to previewing their upcoming debut album with ‘You’re On The List (minus one)’ and ‘Anthem’. Airing out 12 Upset

both singles acts as both a tantalising tease of what they’ve got up their sleeve and also a warning that when they inevitably return to Trees, they’ll be ready to unleash it all.

While many have taken the chance to be more experimental in the new and improved forest stage, Owen finds the original spirit of the forest sessions with an intimate showing. Armed with only his acoustic guitar, newer numbers like ‘A New Muse’ and older tracks alike shine with a newfound reverence and majesty. Ahead of the evening show with American Football, he includes a skeletal rendition of ‘Home Is Where The Haunt Is’, which only becomes more haunted with the gentle breeze and the trees for company.

Bringing their brand new album ‘A Fistful of Peaches’ to the Axiom Stage, Black Honey dive right in with the fuzzy ‘Charlie Bronson’ and feisty ‘Tombstone’ as an opening double act. While largely dedicated to showing off the highlights of their latest effort, there is a chance for the punchy ‘I Like The Way You Die’ and the shimmery ‘Corrine’ to shine.

“I’ve never played to this many people in my life,” claims Jessie Powell as Dream State triumph in The

Cave. Having undergone almost wholesale changes in the last few years, the Welsh outfit have practically started again over the last year but came out swinging as they showed off the whole of their ‘Untethered’ EP, and

the brand new single ‘Chin Up Princess’. As they look back at ‘White Lies’ and a few of the older songs, it feels more like a cover given the transformation the band have been under and, with the procession of new material, it

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could be one of the last times they get a live airing. The singer proclaimed that Dream State are “here to stay”, but it definitely feels like shedding their old skin will be how they fully realise themselves.

Continuing their return, Casey are living proof that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Expansive and textural but always on the edge of tipping on the edge of destruction, Casey showcased the best of themselves. New singles’ Great Grief’ and ‘Atone’ are played back to back early on, but they also find room for their raw first-ever single ‘Hell’ too. The remainder of the set is spent flying through numbers from both of their albums and reminding everyone in earshot what a truly special talent Casey are.

The heaven’s well and truly open as Deaf Havana made their Main Stage return.

A lot has changed for the band since they headlined the festival in 2019, but as they take to the stage, new tunes ‘The Present Is A Foreign Land’ and ‘On A Wire’ were an equal match for any other Deaf Havana hit. Just the two brothers started on stage as they performed a reinvigorated version of ‘Holy’ that aptly signalled the beginning of the biblical scale downpour. Genuinely blown away by those who stayed in the face of a deluge, the band seem buoyed by the commitment, and as the final chorus of ‘Kids’ rings out, it feels like a real moment that underlines how unmatched Deaf Havana remain.

Following the release of their first record in 16 years, Hundred Reasons return to 2000trees to take on the Main Stage. Despite the new album, they only play a handful of those tunes and, instead, dedicate a lot of their set to their debut album ‘Ideas Above Our Station’.

Bookending the set with ‘I’ll Find You’ and ‘If I Could’ from that album, throwing in ‘Oratorio’ and ‘Falter’ too,

those throwback anthems pay service to the fans that have been there from the beginning. Even Rou Reynolds from Enter Shikari pops up to join the band as they blast out ‘Silver’. It feels like an ideal festival performance, leaning into the safe bets that would get the crowd pumped as the penultimate performance of the weekend on the Main Stage. On the other hand, though, it’s perhaps a bit of a disservice to the new album.

“What kind of egomaniac comes to a festival and only plays his new album?” asks Jamie Leman as he brings proceedings in the forest to an end. Well, that’s what he does. He plays ‘The Atheist’ from start to finish in what is somehow his first appearance at the festival in five years.

The album includes a lot of

typically fun moments like ‘Lena, Don’t Leave Me’ and ‘This Town Will Never Let Us Go’ and even a Christmas song in ‘Hospital Tree’. He even manages to turn ‘The Wedding Ring’ into a folksy number too. An obligatory closer of his love letter to the festival is the perfect finale, but in such a prestigious slot, a few more of the hits wouldn’t have gone amiss.

A complete change of pace over on the Axiom Stage as American Football offers a wholesome ending to the festival. Drowned in light and sound, the seminal emo collective expertly and incisively paint vivid pictures of doom and gloom. That is until the very last moment when ‘Never Meant’ gets a false start thanks to a snapped string but, at the

second attempt, the anthem is a magical end to the festival.

Frank Carter has always been a showman, but this headline show feels like a true accumulation of close to 20 years of hard graft.

Pyro fizzes and confetti flying make the show as much of a visual spectacle as possible, but it is Frank and his Rattlesnakes that do the most of the talking as they barrel out, wild-eyed and menacing, with ‘Kitty Sucker’ and last year’s single ‘The Drugs’. Lynks joins soon after for a double of ‘Bang Bang’ and ‘Go Get A Tattoo’ as they tick off every box for what a headline festival show should be. ‘Wild Flowers’ takes some time to get started as Frank clears the way for all women and non-binary people to enjoy a safe space mosh pit, but then, later on, all hell breaks loose as a circle pit engulfs the sound desk for ‘Juggernaut’ so everyone gets a turn to lose their minds completely. It is a set with something for everyone. Slow dances to ‘Love Games’ and vein-popping vitriol for the closer ‘I Hate You’. As the pyrotechnics fizzle out and the crowd get a chance to catch their breath, nobody is disappointed with what had been a fine display. ■ Upset 15

RUN RABBIT SPEEDY ORTIZ find emotional catharsis and inventive musicianship in their latest album ‘Rabbit Rabbit’, inspired by childhood rituals, desert recording sessions, and confronting past traumas.

Words: Linsey Teggert. Photos: Shervin Lainez.

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→ Ever since she was a child, Speedy Ortiz’s Sadie Dupuis has repeated the superstitious incantation ‘rabbit rabbit’ on the first of every month. It’s said that the utterance will coax good luck your way, and as a child coping with OCD and early trauma, it’s a ritual that she found comfort in.

After delving into these difficult memories for Speedy Ortiz’s fourth record, which Sadie began recording demos for on 1st July 2021, it seemed like it was destiny to name the album after this habit. In a strange twist of fate, before Sadie had mentioned the name to anyone, guitarist Andy Molholt asked Sadie what was up with her ‘rabbit rabbit’ tweets every month and suggested it would be a cool album name.

“I’d never heard that phrase before,” recalls Andy. “I wondered what weird portal into hell I’d found on Sadie’s Twitter, so I casually asked her about it and said it would be a cool album title. She looked at me with total disbelief and told me it was already the name of the Google doc she was using for the demos.”

Chance coincidences like this are not something that usually occur in the Speedy world, with Sadie taking the same carefully meticulous approach to planning and demoing their new record as she had with previous releases. Having grown sick of what she jokingly calls “me-projects”, referring to her

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solo releases as Sad13 and her latest poetry collection ‘Cry Perfume’ (amongst many other pursuits), and desperate to hang out with friends after pandemic isolation, she began to demo and build the framework for ‘Rabbit Rabbit’.

“I spent a whole month doing pretty intensive preproduction for the record,” explains Sadie. “I had a whole routine where I’d wake up first thing in the morning, pick a colour and dress entirely in that colour, and then try to make the demo 18 Upset

recordings sound like that colour. It was very goofy but fun. I also had this sense that I was making pre-production sound like what I think would come out of Rancho De La Luna, so that studio became our first choice.”

So Speedy Ortiz headed to the desert, specifically Joshua Tree, California, and the famous music studio that immediately evokes a sense of the achingly cool and all things rock’n’roll whenever its name is mentioned. The Speedy Ortiz that headed to the desert, however,

was a different version to the band that had released their last record, ‘Twerp Verse’. Previous bassist Darl Ferm and drummer Mike Falcone had been unable to tour due to work and life commitments, so friends of the band Audrey Zee Whitesides and Joey Doubek had stepped in.

“Audrey and Joey shred and hadn’t actually been on any Speedy recordings, and Andy was only on about half of the last record despite being the longest-running member of the band apart

from me,” says Sadie. “I love playing with this line-up of the band, and it would have been a shame to not do it of course, we had to make another record!”

Known for being sonically ambitious, with Sadie admitting she can’t help but write almost unplayable parts, the musical pedigree of Rancho De La Luna suited Speedy Ortiz’s inventive musicianship down to the ground. A press release statement that recalls the band using 50 guitars, 100 effects pedals and 30 amps

THE ANXIETY OF WRITING THROUGH SOME OF THAT STUFF WAS REALLY HIGH FOR ME”

SA D I E D U P U I S

throughout the recording process seems like it could be a PR embellishment until you remember that Speedy thrive on making the most wonderfully wiry and tangled riffs possible.

“It’s true!” laughs Sadie.

“I made everyone write down exactly what they used on every song because there’s so much interesting equipment at Rancho De La Luna, and it’s all in really good playing condition.

David Catching, who runs the studio - he was one

of the first members of Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal - he just curates the studio. He doesn’t produce or engineer bands that come in, although he certainly can, but he’s like the vibes producer. He spends all day long tinkering and fixing this amazing collection of equipment, making everything perfectly playable, so of course we had to use it all.”

“I think we made a goal to use every single guitar there,” adds Andy. “I don’t think we did, but we did get to single digits. For each different part of every song, we would convene what we called the ‘tone council’, which was all of us sitting there evaluating with each other what each part needed to sound like, then try it on five different guitars and pedals. Every band should record at Rancho De La Luna at least once. After the pandemic, it was such a cathartic experience for us, and I think that really comes through on the record.”

With the whole process being so emotionally reinvigorating for Speedy, it was important that what Sadie refers to as “artefacts” from the trip also made it onto the album. You’d be hard-pushed to identify them on record, but that’s just testament to the layered intricacy of Speedy’s sound.

Such found sounds include a bed pan that had been converted into a guitar by Dave Catching, the noise of the plane they flew in,

a car wash they visited on the second leg of recording in El Paso, Texas and a bird that yodelled outside Sadie’s window at 6am every morning in Joshua Tree.

Lyrically, ‘Rabbit Rabbit’ contains all the vitriol and caustic wit that we’re accustomed to from a Speedy Ortiz record. Tracks such as ‘Scabs’ and ‘You S02’ take aim at union busters, ex-punks who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk, and just bullshit artists in general.

Sadie sees you mistreating others, and God damn right she’s going to call you out.

“Part of that coming through on this record really stems from some of the organising and activism work that we’ve all done, like the No Music For ICE campaign, which had musicians pulling music from Amazon and pledging not to create new work with Amazon while their tech is powering deportations, facial recognition that leads to arrests, and not to mention people dying in Amazon warehouses because they won’t let them leave in inclement weather, caused by climate change that I’m sure is caused in part by Amazon tech.

“We’d see people respond to this campaign in ways that were snarky and not respectful of human life; it’s fine to not sign a petition but to come after artists who do want to stand in solidarity with other labour movements, that’s disgusting to me.”

Outside of Speedy Ortiz, as well as her solo work and poetry, Sadie has also worked as an interviewer, writing bios for other artists. In recent years, one thing she’d noticed was the pandemic seemed to have caused a lot of people to reflect on their early traumatic experiences.

“I was hearing of stories like, ‘Here’s this horrible thing that happened to me when I was 9, and I’ve never been able to write about this before, but being at home forced me to reckon with it’. That was true for me as well. I’d written about other violent experiences in my music before, like being a survivor of assault and being a survivor of an abusive relationship, but there was child abuse in my past that I didn’t want to think about and certainly didn’t want to write about or admit to in a press release! So the anxiety of writing through some of that stuff was really high for me, but that was suddenly what was coming out when I was trying to write songs for this record, and I’m not going to lie about the meaning of it.”

Though these experiences are not explicitly stated, instead wrapped up in the same abstract, poetic nature as Sadie’s other lyrics, they very much shaped ‘Rabbit Rabbit’ - all the way through to the cover art. A truck on fire, painted by Sadie herself; she only found out recently that as a kid in therapy, she would compulsively draw trucks on fire.

“Out in Joshua Tree, there’s so much weird stuff abandoned in the desert.

Some of it is art, some of it is just abandoned. There were bowling balls in a certain place outside the studio, an abandoned boat, and then an abandoned yellow truck against this sunset. I was like, ‘Well, I think this is the truck that has to be on fire!”

■ Speedy Ortiz’ album ‘Rabbit Rabbit’ is out 1st September.

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CASKETS’ latest album ‘Reflections’ delves deep into mental health with a collaborative approach, offering a genuine and emotional journey.

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→ Leeds band Caskets are trying something new.

Following on from their 2021 album ‘Lost Souls’, which was a very personal record for vocalist Matt Flood, its follow-up, ‘Reflections’, is a more collaborative project than ever before, with guitarists Benji Wilson and Craig Robinson, bassist Chris McIntosh, and drummer James Lazenby each delving deep to leave their distinct mark on a record that gets up close with mental health.

Hi Matt, how’s it going?

What are you up to today?

I’m really good; I’m in Australia at the moment on tour. We have a headline show tonight in Wollongong, so we’re getting geared up for that and doing a little exploring.

When did you begin working on your new album, and what was your headspace like at the time?

It touches on some pretty dark themes?

We began working on the album just as our debut album was being released.

We wanted to make sure we had plenty of time on the album as we were touring a lot throughout the process.

It does touch on some dark themes as this album was written lyrically by all the members, not just myself... so we all had to put ourselves in some pretty vulnerable positions throughout What draws you to tackling difficult topics in your music? Do you find it helps you process?

It’s my escape from reality. I don’t do well sitting down and talking about my problems, so to put them down on paper and in words, that’s how I draw my emotions out. It can be difficult to put yourself out

there for the world to see, but I think that’s what you have to do for your music to seem real and genuine.

Is there anything else you lean on to help you get through rough patches?

Of course! I lean on my family and friends through my rough times. It’s no secret I’ve struggled with my fair share of problems, and the fact that I’ve always had people around me who understand and love me makes me one of the luckiest people in the world. Those people are my everything, and I owe everything to them.

Did you have any specific aims for what you wanted to achieve going into the album?

All I wanted to do was create a body of work that we could all call our own. I wanted every member to ‘have their say’ and be proud of the connectivity and openness we’ve created on this record.

How did you find the creation process? Did you hit upon any unexpected challenges?

There are always unexpected challenges that come up in the studio or even in your own head when writing lyrics.

The time frame we had was a worry at the start as we had probably half the time to complete this album than ‘Lost Souls’. It was a worry, but thankfully, we managed it well.

It sounds like the album was a real group effort - what prompted the change in process?

We just wanted to make an album that came from all of us collectively rather than another record about my past and the situations I was once in.

WE WANTED TO MAKE AN ALBUM THAT CAME FROM ALL OF US COLLECTIVELY”

M AT T F LO O D

What did you take away from this new, more collaborative way of working?

It’s shown me that as a group, we can work in more than one way; we can create a more open dialogue than before, which in turn will help us produce more creative music as we go further into our career.

‘More Than Misery’ features a guest appearance from The Word Alive’s Telle Smith - how did that come about, and what did he bring to the track?

So Telle and I have spoken for a while through social media. I’ve been a fan of Telle and his band for a very long time now. We wrote ‘MTM’ to have a feature on it, so we were scratching our heads as to who would fit the bill.

We went through a number of different options, but we felt Telle was the perfect person for it. Also, I thought it would’ve been a nice surprise for the fans as Telle doesn’t scream as much as he used to. By the time Telle comes in on the song, you could say it definitely needs the lift he gives the track. The song is almost always rising into

his feature, and he gives it the heavy impact the song needed.

Is collaborating with other musicians something you’re keen to do more of? Who else is on your bucket list?

100%. I truly believe music is a collaborative art form.

It’s also no secret I’m a very big fan of Charlie Simpson (Busted, Fightstar). If there was anyone I’d love to collaborate with, it would be that legend! But I’m up for working with anyone that would love to work with me.

Any style, any genre. I just want to write music and play live shows. Hit me up with that rap track, and we’ll get something going, hahaha.

What else are you guys working on at the moment?

Do you have a lot in the diary?

We’ve got a pretty hectic touring schedule at the moment, which coincides with the album release.

We’re out in the States next week with blessthefall for a six-week run, and then we’re going to plan a headline tour for the album! ■ Caskets’ album ‘Reflections’ is out now.

Upset 21

KEEP

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Exploring new territories with defiant abandon, MOVEMENTS shatter expectations and embrace new influences in their ambitious album ‘RUCKUS!’.

Words: Steven Loftin. Photos: Anthony Purcella.

ON Upset 23

→ MOVEMENTS AREN’T FUCKING AROUND. Four albums into their career and the California four-piece are tired of the sound they’ve been toting for nearly a decade. On ‘RUCKUS!’, they’re expanding into spaces they’ve never before dared tread, all with glorious abandon.

There’s the swinging ‘Lead Pipe’, the unapologetically romantic ‘Heaven Sent’, and even a touch of servitude to their old selves ‘I Hope You Choke’. These moments all feel a world away from the band who first delivered angsty melancholy with their aptly titled 2017 debut, ‘Feel Something’. But now, the only thing that matters to Movements is serving their creativity. This is something vocalist Pat Miranda is more defiant of than ever - a standard statement by most band album launches, yes - but ‘RUCKUS!’ backs up their claims by ambitiously envisioning a future Movements can be proud of.

Hi Pat, how are things going?

I’m feeling really good. I’m really excited for this new era of Movements. I think a lot of people historically have expected a certain sound from us, or a certain feeling or whatever it might be that is typical for a Movements album, but I think ‘RUCKUS!’ is the furthest out of our comfort zone that we’ve ever gone. When it came to writing, we were just like, ‘Nah, fuck that, let’s just write whatever the fuck we want - let’s make something cool’.

It’s a very fun and exciting time for this band, for sure.

I’m curious to see where it goes.

‘RUCKUS!’ certainly feels like an ambitious step forward. There’s a groove that bounces throughout; what was the starting point for that?

We’re all very inspired by a wide range of different music styles. We have played emo, 24 Upset

post-hardcore, whatever you want to call it for the last six-seven years, but we all listen to wildly different things. And that’s not to say that we don’t still listen to the bands that inspired us to begin with, but our music tastes have changed. As we’ve gotten older, we’ve tried to experiment with different realms of where our tastes lie. It’s hard to pinpoint where exactly the grooviness comes from, but we were listening to a lot of The Strokes and The Killers.

I was huge on 60s, 70s, and 80s pop-rock classics and that sort of thing. And I was just listening to, like, nonstop oldies for the whole time that we are recording. Hearing those different things, can really affect your headspace for writing your own music.

And on top of that, I’m a huge fan of pop music, and a lot of what we’ve written in the past is not very pop oriented, but I wanted to try experimenting with more pop influences on this record. I’m really inspired by artists like Justin Bieber; I think that he is phenomenal

- his latest record is one of the best records I’ve ever heard. I love that whole realm of things. Harry Styles, Ed Sheeran, that outlook on how to write music is something that’s very intriguing to me.

The pop comparison is funny because pop artists can switch lanes, but alt artists are beholden to wherever they began.

Right? That’s such an important comparison to make. Pop artists change their style all the time. I mean, look at Taylor Swift.

I AM A WILDLY, WILDLY DIFFERENT PERSON THAN I WAS WHEN WE STARTED THIS BAND”

PAT M I R A N DA

Look at where she started to where she is today. She’s bigger than she’s ever been.

Artists in pop music have more of that freedom and less of the pigeonhole effect.

It’s frustrating to me when people hate on bands like us or other bands in the quote-unquote ‘scene’ for experimenting and going outside of their typical realm of whatever they sound like. I don’t understand why anybody would ever want their favourite band to just sound the same every single

time they put out anything - I would get so fucking bored if my favourite band sounded the same on every record.

That’s not the way that I will ever be as an artist because the big thing for us is we don’t write music to pander to anybody. This is not for anybody other than us at the end of the day.

Do you remember when you first realised the limitation of the “scene”?

It came with age, but I think I

started noticing it on the last record because I think there were a few songs on ‘No Good Left To Give’ that I was in the headspace of I need to make this song sound like this because it needs to be impactful, or it needs to have some sort of deeper meaning or whatever. And I ended up being less happy with how those songs ended up. I still love that record, but at the end of the day, I think that I would have been more happy with them had I stuck to my guns a little bit more.

That’s another thing, though; some people can make the argument like, ‘Oh, these songs just don’t have the same emotional depth, or they don’t have the same meaning that Movements tracks have always had, and to that, I would just say, if you think that that is true, you just simply aren’t listening to the songs, you’re not paying attention to what the songs are about. My writing style will always be my writing style, lyrically. Sure, many of them are much happier than my typical, but at the end of the day, these songs are still very dense and have a lot of meaning to them.

Does it feel like people forget you change and grow, especially over nearly a decade?

I am a wildly, wildly different person than I was when we started this band. I was fucking 19 years old - I just turned 28 a couple wee ks

ago. Looking back to who I was when I was writing the early lyrics to the songs, sometimes I look back and cringe because I’m just like, ‘Man, that person was stupid.

That person was so angsty and emotionally immature’.

It wasn’t true to who I am as a person. So I think when people expect to hear that same tone out of these songs, it’s off-putting to me because I’m not that person anymore.

I fucking I grew up; I’m just not going to ever write like that again. And, if that turns people away, so be it.

Lastly, what’s the statement ‘RUCKUS!’ is making?

It’s very much intentional. I liked that ruckus means a bunch of noise, a bunch of racket like a bunch of shit that doesn’t even sound like anything. When I think about this record as a whole, and I hear all the different sounds and styles and influences and everything all come together into one, it’s really hard to define what this record sounds like. And I felt like ruckus was just the perfect name for that feeling. I also feel like it paid homage to the youthful energy of this record because I think that there is a more childlike fun on this record. It was just the sort of perfect overall feeling or encompassing word for what the record is. ■ Movements’ album ‘RUCKUS!’ is out 18th August.

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EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE NEW EPS FROM...

MAGNOL

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RIOT!

LIA PARK With two brand new EPs ‘Soul Eater’ and ‘Moon Eater’ to delve into, we asked MAGNOLIA PARK to tell us everything we need to know about the records.

→ HeartStopper Joshua Roberts: An interesting fact about this song is the band that’s featuring is called Grieve.

The vocalist Scott has been a long-time friend of Freddie and Tristan, dating back to their high school days. On top of that, Scott was the original drummer of Magnolia Park before being replaced with Joe, who is their current drummer. Also, the guitarist of Grieve is Evan Draper, who’s shot most of our music videos to date. So a lot of Magnolia Park family members are in this song.

→ Wishful Thinking Joshua Roberts: Something cool about this song is that the idea was conceived in the forest.

Freddie likes to go to this nature path sometimes to write on his acoustic, and he came up with the first draft of the chorus while sitting on a log. The next day he brought it to the studio, hoping there was time to write another song. Luckily we had a few days left, and we fleshed out the rest with the band and our producers, Andrew Wade and Andy Karpovck.

→ Soul Eater and Moon Eater meaning Tristan Torres: I was really inspired by anime and the Gorillaz while making the band, and I always wanted to do something like that for Magnolia Park. So I came up with our character Baku and started to build a world for him. Heart Eater, Soul Eater, and Moon Eater are antagonists in Baku’s story. I wanted to have songs that gave a vibe to what each character is and would be theme songs to who they are.

Both Soul and Moon Eater have completely different experiences while listening to the music. → Bludluv Joshua Roberts: A fun fact about this song is that the house beat at the end was not intended to be there. Towards the end of the creation of the song, Tristan came up with the idea of creating the house beat. So we completely scraped the ending that was already there while Tristan put together what would be the ending of the song. It was a pretty daring move, but we’re all glad it happened and worked out.

Magnolia Park’s new EPs ‘Soul Eater’ and ‘Moon Eater’ are out 18th August.

Photo: Jonathan Weiner.

→ Breathing tracking vocals was a hot experience Joshua Roberts: Vince brought in the demo to Breathing. We worked on it at the Audio Compound with legendary producers Andrew Wade and Andy Karpovck. While tracking my vocals, Andrew and Andy pushed me very hard and made me run half a mile before I could track. Sometimes they would bring in hot sauce, and I would take some before tracking. That day I was on fire, to say the least.

→ Unholy Heart Tristan Torres: An interesting fact about this song is that the hook was written to the 100 gecs instrumental of their song ‘Torture Me’. Freddie and I are huge gecs fans, so they wanted to see what they came up with while writing the instrumental. We wrote it in my girlfriend’s bedroom while on lots of caffeine, and Freddie was watching Twilight on his phone.

Upset 27

THE BEST NEW TALENT.

28 Upset

ENOLA GAY → BELFAST-BASED FOURSOME ENOLA GAY are gearing up to release their ‘Casement’ EP. The follow-up to debut EP ‘Gransha’, it continues their foray into politically-charged noise punk that seems them tackle everything from hypocritical politicians to the cost of living crisis, shining a light on the difficulties they see around them every day.

Joe McVeigh (guitar) and Luke Beirne (drums) tells us more.

Introduce your band - who are you all, and what are your roles within the group?

Fionn [Reilly (vocals)] is not a rapper, Joe barely plays guitar, Luke hits things, and Adam [Cooper (bass)] plays bass as if he’s in a metal band.

Can you remember the first song you wrote together?

What was your early material like?

Joe: The first track Fionn and I wrote was ‘Sofa Surfing’ from our first EP, ‘Gransha’.

I hit that intro note on the guitar with that sound, and Fionn just came in with that bassline. Thankfully my laptop was recording everything, and we just looked at each other like, “This is it; that’s our sound”.

Ironically every tune we’ve written differs from the next, but we discovered our writing formula through ‘Sofa’.

Luke: Since joining the band, we present ideas or collectively jam ideas in our practice room. Most times, someone plays a small idea then a 5-8 minute jam begins without anyone saying a word. Or it could be the very opposite in which we have an idea and someone has a very clear vision of what it needs to be.

Is being a musician living

up to the hype so far?

Luke: Yes, in so many ways!

Is it a dream come true?

Yes! But is it easy to make an income from music? Fuck no. The lifestyle is a bit of a balancing act of personal life, band work and work outside of music. The work needed to run a band at our level is very demanding.

That being said, the positives are immense. The thrill to play the gigs we play, with the crowd responses we get. The love and dedication of the fans we have is incredible! The travelling, the amazing festivals we get to be part of, is so much fun.

Meeting and seeing so many incredible acts, it’s incredibly inspiring and liberating.

Joe: I think that’s a hilarious question. Yes and no; it’s demanding yet rewarding.

Sometimes having a peak behind the curtain is fascinating, and sometimes, it’s just some wanker pulling favours. It’s a lot of deadlines and lack of sleep. Hearing your music has touched someone is indescribable; hearing a whole tent scream your lyrics back is surreal; making friends with artists you admire is motivational.

We have the best fans, but.

It’s all very grounding for when things are tough.

Tell us about your new EP, ‘Casement’ - what’s it about, where did it come from?

Joe: Thematically similar to the last EP; political and personal things that are pissing us off. We write about what’s around us, things we’ve witnessed and/ or experienced. ‘Leeches’ lambasts the recycled hypocrites elected every round who make it mockingly abundant that we are not their priority; we’re their poverty porn. ‘PTS.DUP’ is very much about our home and about young people left in the middle of the road

Words: Sam Taylor.

WE WRITE ABOUT WHAT’S AROUND US”

JOE MCVEIGH

who turn to alt-right political parties masquerading as conservatism such as the DUP, searching for a sense of belonging. The two-part track ‘terra firma’ is an introspective coming to terms with nostalgia being a facade and how you should cease dwelling on things once you’ve learnt and grown from your experience. I have to really let the music do the talking for that one. ‘terra firma’ also differs from the rest of the other two tracks, not just in terms of a sonic left turn but also how it came about. Fionn had written ‘terra’ some time ago, and it was debatable whether it would ever become an Enola track; however, upon hearing it, Mount Palomar sensed it was our chance to delve further into areas of our potential which, so far, have remained dormant. After a session of him sampling ‘terra’, ‘firma’ was born.

What is it about tackling hard subjects that appeals to you?

Joe: It’s not that they appeal to us, as it is challenging subject matter. However, challenges make you think

and reflect on how we as people approach aspects of life. ‘PTS.DUP’ was written after I got jumped in a sectarian attack after a rave, ending up with a fractured skull. It was tribalistic, and I woke up the next day raw with this primal rage of “fuck those cunts” that had come over me. After properly digesting what had happened, I thought to look to the sources of where such blind hatred originates. It’s generational trauma passed down from the North of Ireland’s The Troubles, with my attackers being victims of rhetoric themselves.

Probably doesn’t hurt as much as a boot to the head, though. What you could say appealed to us about that situation was how we could make something educational for listeners unaware of how things in Ireland really are and why they should hate political parties such as the DUP. It’d have been too easy and regressive for four Irish Nationalists to castigate a bunch of Unionists rather than their influencers. ■ Enola Gay’s EP ‘Casement’ is out 1st September.

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EMPIRE

S 30 Upset

E

STATE From a chance encounter to a seismic tribute: EMPIRE STATE BASTARD’s debut album ‘Rivers Of Heresy’ unleashes cathartic chaos in metal form.

Words: Alexander Bradley.

Upset 31

FEW DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS 2018, a chance encounter occurred between Mike Vennart, former Oceansize singer, touring Biffy Clyro guitarist, and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson). Mike called the English Defence League leader “a Nazi”, and the anti-Islam activist recorded that and posted the encounter to his thousands of followers online.

A deluge of vitriol followed in the coming days for Mike and his entire family. Death threats. Threats to burn down his house. They targeted his son. His wife. His Mum. Hate mail on Christmas Day. So much for Christmas cheer, right?

The match that was struck in that coincidental meeting didn’t just spark up for the far-right trolls, though. It ignited Vennart too. In his words, he was “mortally angry”. Pissed off to “a colossal degree”. He only had one outlet for that fury.

“It was in the middle of the night. I couldn’t sleep because I was so fucked off,” he relives. “Being terrorised by far-right trolls on the internet and various other places, and I just had this tune by this band called Siege going through my head. It’s a tune called ‘Cold War’, and I just had this “feel” in my head and there, and then I put down a voice memo of how a song should go, and I said, ‘Just write an entire fucking album that sounds like that’,” he explains.

That voice memo was enough to finally kick-start Empire State Bastard. Simon Neil, his Biffy bandmate, had been floating the idea of “ESB” in interviews since as early as 2011, but it was a name and not much else. The music wasn’t quite right yet.

“It was a blessing and a curse, to be honest,” Simon smiles. “I wish Mike hadn’t gone through all that because of all the trauma his family went through, but, my God, he just had something on his chest,” he remembers.

“And I could hear the change in Mike’s songs and ideas from that moment on. He got a real bee in his bonnet and thought, ‘I don’t want to live in a world where I’m scared to say the wrong fucking thing’, and he is absolutely right.”

EVERY FEW YEARS I NEED TO EMBRACE THE CHAOS AND THE NIHILISM”

SIMON NEIL 32 Upset

That voice recording eventually became ‘Tired, Aye’, which features on ‘Rivers Of Heresy’, the debut album from Empire State Bastard. It took right-wing extremists to get the sound of ESB and then the pandemic to make the album.

Maybe two wrongs do make a right.

Five years on, and Empire State Bastard are poised and ready to welcome anyone brave enough to step into their world of twisted metal. They’re a supergroup of sorts, but these are more the anti-hero alter-egos complete with a villainous sound. Simon Neil and Mike Vennart lead the line together, with their moustaches perfected and their respective Scottish and Yorkshire inflexions in sync, while Bitch Falcon’s Naomi Macleod and legendary drummer Dave Lombardo back them as fullyfledged “Bastards” in their own right.

You might know these names, but you’ve never heard them sound like this.

“Heavy and vital” were the instructions from Simon to Mike on how Empire State Bastard should sound. Vennart tried making something electronically infused and then some warped pop-sounding music, too, but it didn’t stick. And then Christmas 2018 happened, and it became about channelling his rage, fear and aggression, and everything started to click. The ideas and riffs began to pour out.

His knowledge of metal bands like Napalm Death, Sleep, High On Fire, Rolo Tomassi and more psychedelic music like Cardiacs were an inspiration. Add to that his love of Faith No More and pretty much everything Mike Patton does, Mr. Bungle and the more avant-garde, slightly zany, Fantômas too. They were the jumping-off point for making riffs that are “vaguely ridiculous”, according to Vennart.

As for Simon, the instruction for “heavy and vital” music came from a completely different perspective. Biffy had been through a purple patch for many years. Chart-topping albums.

World tours. Festival headlining. He had already done the whole side-project thing, too, with the indie-pop stylings of Marmaduke Duke, so Empire State Bastard needed to be drastically different.

“Biffy is my DNA. We’re quite an eclectic band, Biffy, and that kind of encapsulates everything about who I am as a person. When it came to Marmaduke Duke, that was about embracing the most eccentric parts almost everything I don’t get to do with Biffy, and there is very little I don’t get to

do with Biffy.

“I feel quite privileged that our band have somehow ended up in this place where we can make really heavy music and make something that’s as pop as fucking the charts.

“So, it is finding those things, things that I don’t get to do in Biffy, and that’s maybe why it took a little longer for Empire State Bastard to come to fruition.

I didn’t want the circles to meet. I didn’t want any kind of cross-pollination.

“It’s hard to know whether it’s something of my personality or just something that every few years I need to embrace the chaos and the nihilism.”

So for Simon, these extra projects have become the place to home the ideas that don’t fit under the banner of Biffy. “I don’t know if it’s different personalities or every couple of years I need to clear my soul of everything I feel is rotting it away,” he adds.

As the voice memos flowed from one inbox to another, as the pandemic forced us into our homes, as Empire State Bastard came to life, the VennartNeil marriage found them both adapting quickly to their new roles. Since the disintegration of Oceansize in 2011, Mike Vennart has spent a lot of time playing someone else’s music or on his solo project. His challenge in ESB was to write riffs and come up with ideas, all without the pressure to turn them into complete songs. In his words, “I could just throw a lot of shit at the wall or rather, throw a lot of shit at Simon, and see what sticks,” he laughs.

So, he flourished. “There have been a lot of good riffs over the years, and the gatekeepers of metal, God bless them, they’ll be the first people to tell you your riffs are tired, but there is no fucking way these riffs are tired,” he boasts.

“There’s no way! Nobody is writing riffs in 13/8 with blast beats like that. No way, man!”

On the receiving end, Simon found himself in new territory too. His inbox was blowing up with hundreds of different riffs that didn’t repeat. Twominute soundbites with 100 riffs. Sixminute epics with only one chord. It presented a much different challenge from the other band, where he is the sole creative force.

“Everything that we have [in Biffy] comes from me. So I always know the foundations and the inspirations of it all. Sometimes, I can be too close,” he concedes.

“I don’t know if Mike would agree, but it was quite nice to go, ‘That’s a great idea, but I don’t think it’s right for this’.

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34 Upset

The curator is a nice way to put it. Mike had so many great ideas, and he said, ‘Do whatever the fuck you want’.”

“I was doing the “Lars Ulrich” arranging. I feel like I’m the Lars Ulrich to Vennart’s Hetfield!”

“But it was a different way for me to create. I felt like I was moving different parts of a puzzle to see how they would fit and make sense with what I was trying to say, whereas, normally, I’ve created the actual puzzle pieces, and you know the destination. I found it liberating to not know the destination, and we ended up somewhere with each song, and each song spoke to one another, so there wasn’t a mad plan about the flow of the record. Once the ideas started coming together, it made perfect sense to me.”

‘Rivers Of Heresy’ quickly took form. It’s a gargantuan record. From the moment ‘Harvest’ erupts with a pulsating, chugging riff, it doesn’t look back.

“It is brutal all the time, but we do it in different ways,” Vennart explains. “Some of it really fucking grindy and fast, some of it is pure old-school thrash, and some of it is pure fucking New Orleans sludge.

But, to me, it all sounds to me like the same band and not some shit Spotify playlist.”

Before the dust settles on the opener, ‘Blusher’ ramps up further and tackles those right-wing ideologies that were brought about at the time of the band’s inception. Then the unrelenting sound of the first two tracks gives way to ‘Moi?’ and the slower, more ominous approach takes over, and it is evident that there are many shifting dimensions at work in this album. There are many ways to skin a cat, so they say.

The first voice memos, cooked up in the dead of night, delirious with rage, made it into ‘Tired, Aye’, but Simon pulled out the guitars and bass from it (there is an original version still floating about somewhere). ‘Palms of Hands’ has these punky guitars as Simon envisions a post-pandemic sex party gone wrong.

“Keys in the bowl kind of thing where it all goes drastically wrong because everyone has forgotten how to interact,” he explains. ‘Sold!’ wryly analyses our lockdown spending habits, but its chaotic energy brought Simon back to his teenage years when he first heard the music. “It made me want to be in a pit at a metal show,” he enthusiastically comments. And, before you know it, the closer, ‘The Looming’ marches into view with a foreboding tale of climate change.

‘Rivers Of Heresy’ has the feeling of

I COULD JUST THROW A LOT OF SHIT AT THE WALL OR RATHER, THROW A LOT OF SHIT AT SIMON, AND SEE WHAT STICKS”

MIKE VENNART

a bull in a china shop musically, while Simon has written an album that takes a long look at the ways isolation has affected us over the last few years.

He explains, “I like to think of myself as a bit of an optimist, but the last few years have knocked me sideways. For the first time ever, I have a fear that things are going to get way worse before they get better. I don’t want to be a cynic, but that’s what I’m singing about.

“After the pandemic, the first thing that happened was Russia invaded Ukraine. Like, ‘Really?!?’ Just things that shouldn’t have happened after the trauma that the world went through happened.

“It’s about this lack of enlightenment, I guess. That’s the general essence of the album. We should all be more

enlightened by now about every aspect of our lives, and it seems a lot of us are becoming more close-minded.”

It’s not always serious, though.

“There should be moments of fun,” according to Simon, looking back at the writing of ‘Sold!’ and his own impulsive consumerism during the lockdowns.

“There are bits of this record that are oppressive, deliberately so. And some of them should be that lightweight, ‘Let’s fucking mosh ‘til our heads fall off’.”

Simon can take a lot of credit for those lighter moments on the album.

In its raw, rage-filled voice memo stage, it was unforgiving, and that isn’t lost on the final recording, but, in his role as a curator of ‘Rivers Of Heresy’, the singer was able to sprinkle some magic throughout the album. Vennart, however, was a little apprehensive about Upset 35

what that would mean for his vision.

“When he said that he wanted to add synths on it, I was a bit like, I don’t want this to sound like Nine Inch Nails. I don’t want it to sound like ‘metal band goes techno’ because I fucking hate all that bullshit,” he admits.

But, he put his trust in Simon, who took up the challenge to build upon Vennart’s considerable foundations.

“The wrong thing has always appealed to me. I loved doing the wrong thing,” he says, looking back at the synths and backing vocals which pop up across the record.

“If a song is the most brutal thing I’ve ever heard, then I want to put something that makes it sound like a fairytale or a wee lullaby. And that kind of runs through all my Biffy songs as well.

Sometimes the most pretty songs will be about the darkest things. I like that juxtaposition.”

His aim, it seems, was to only add to the chaos while slightly sanding down the edges of some tracks. “I do love fucking with genres,” he considers. He fully leaned into his own eccentricity to run riot over the album. His track record for trusting those bold decisions has paid well in the past, though. It’s that eccentricity that took Biffy Clyro from quirky, math-rock newcomers to an epic rock band to then making small pop records or even a conceptual double album.

When it comes to those extra touches he brought to the Empire State Bastard record, he definitely comes across as proud of the extra dimension those flourishes have brought to the album. “I think it helps to give the record surprises and mystery, just that little bit of glitter on top that catches your eye on maybe the second time you’re listening,” he adds.

It makes for a reverently rich metal album, drenched in bruising moments while constantly shifting and evolving.

Vennart hopes the album is the gateway for armchair Biffy fans to listen to Napalm Death, and that’s quite the ambition, but Empire State Bastard has a sound that demands attention and further exploration.

So what happened to the right-wing trolls that abused and threatened Mike Vennart, then? The ones who ultimately inspired the brutal sound of Empire State Bastard? Well, they moved on and found something else to be angry about, but for the duo making ‘Rivers Of Heresy’, their fascist presence only grew and added more fuel to sustain the fire beneath this album.

36 Upset

I LIKE TO THINK OF MYSELF AS A BIT OF AN OPTIMIST, BUT THE LAST FEW YEARS HAVE KNOCKED ME SIDEWAYS”

SIMON NEIL

“At the moment, we are governed by the far right,” Vennart states, not mincing his words. “So many countries in the world are governed by the far right. You don’t have to look very hard to be inspired and to be appalled. I just feel very blessed that I do have an outlet, and that I am driven to do something about it rather than just shouting and bawling at people on Twitter who don’t fucking listen anyway.

It’s a fool’s errand. All you can do is just get creative with it.”

For a person so friendly, so genuine and humble, with the warming embrace of his Yorkshire twang, it’s almost impossible to believe him when he says, “I lose my temper very, very easily” when it comes to engaging in conversation with right-leaning individuals down his local.

Regardless of all that got the band

Upset 37

38 Upset

YOU DON’T HAVE TO LOOK VERY HARD TO BE INSPIRED AND TO BE APPALLED”

MIKE VENNART

going, Empire State Bastard are not a political band. Despite virtually every song having a political point to make, the duo do not consider this to be a political project. It’s an interesting distinction to make, but it is indicative of where we are in society.

Simon’s views on the matter are very similar to Vennart’s, albeit even more intricate with the added pressures of being Scottish too. As for not being a “political band”, it’s in his view that the “omnipresent” nature of politics has made it impossible to escape when it comes to his lyricism. “Sadly, it’s just the era we are in where everything becomes politicised,” he reasons, describing this album as a “spasm of rage and frustration” in response to that reality.

Continuing, he adds, “It’s hard not to be angry at our government. It’s hard when you see everything that has unfolded. All the warnings they had for years and years and the decisions they made regardless. Austerity. Every decision our government has made has been wrong. You see other countries that have made better decisions and have grown.”

But when it comes to putting that in a song, it’s not about picking a political side for him; it’s about being compassionate and picking to be on the side of decency and people. It’s about the “human” response to him.

That clears that up.

And what about the future, then?

Well, Empire State Bastard are not a flash in the pan by any means. They may have done everything wrong up to this point - started with just a name and no music, toured with two songs released, and made an album without a band but they’re here for the long haul now they’ve got that figured out.

Dave Lombardo, the pioneering thrash metal drummer, Slayer’s

backbone, is onboard and has never done anything like this before. “I nearly tried to get a selfie with him once in HMV in Manchester, and I chickened out!” Vennart admits. Dave’s work on Slayer had been the reference for how they dreamed the drums would sound on Empire State Bastard, so getting the man himself to sign up felt like a moment in which this passion project felt like it needed to be taken seriously.

Recalling approaching the drummer, Vennart reveals, “I’m so fucking naive I tried to hit him up on Facebook first.

What a fucking clown! As if that’s going to work? Imagine how many offers Dave Lombardo gets per day from people asking him to play on shit demos!?”

Thankfully, “the final part of the puzzle”, Naomi Macleod, was easier to sign up for and, in turn, secured a technically incredible rhythm section.

And so, when Empire State Bastard first played live back in the Spring, they did it as a full four-piece.

Moving forward, they move together.

Having spent years getting to the point where ‘Rivers Of Heresy’ is ready, they’ve already got firm plans for what the next album will look like.

“We are working on a second album.

We are just taking it a day at a time,” Vennart reveals. “There are three new songs in the set already. One of them has the best fucking riff I’ve written in my life. I’m so happy with it. It’s like if Dimebag went fucking stoner. I’m so happy. And that’s a song called ‘Corpse in the Château’. We’re making plans. The next album will be a proper band rather than just being me and Simon with Dave on remote control.”

As for Simon and his other commitments, his eyes are set firmly on ESB for now.

“I love Biffy, and I miss Biffy so much, but the vibe in this feels so right just

now. I think this is something myself and Mike need to do. I know it’s going to make the next Biffy record better for me.

I know I’m going to come back and have all these melodies swimming in my brain.

“But no, we really want this to keep moving. It’s breathing. It’s stomping, and I don’t want to put it in the garage just yet because it’s a lot harder to start it back up, so hopefully, you’ll hear newer tunes and a new record sooner rather than later.”

That’s the story of Empire State Bastard, a band that took seven years and a right-wing mob to decide what they sound like. A band that took 12 years to release their debut album and will take 12 weeks before they’re back in the studio to make the follow-up record. If you’ve been lucky enough to see one of their live shows or festival appearances in the last few months, you’ll know they’re chaos incarnate. As for their recordings, they’ve managed to bottle that pandemonium and dust it with these little extra touches of magic.

It’s catharsis; it’s relief in metal form. The best example of that is in Simon’s howling mad live performance.

He is conscious of the consequences of screaming like a banshee for 30-something minutes, but in the moment, that’s the last thing on his mind.” I love screaming, but I know I will want to come back and sing. I don’t want to kill my voice forever with this,” he admits. He goes into every performance thinking of the damage limitation he could do for his voice, but then something else takes over. “But the excitement is so pure and true, and that’s what music should fucking be. I should be carried away. I don’t want to think about what we’re doing next. That moment is all that matters,” he surmises.

There are no such worries for Vennart, however, who is revelling in the catharsis, playing his riffs and channelling his anger. “Everything is just a lot of fun,” he smiles. “I feel like, for a good few years now, I’ve been looking for the answer, and this is the fucking answer. This is what I needed to do for sure.”

Together they’ve taken a horrible situation and made something monumental. A seismic tribute to metal music in all its varying guises. A monolithic middle finger to the rightwing thugs who tried to silence Mike Vennart only for him to find his voice.

An Empire State Bastard, so to speak.

■ Empire State Bastard’s debut album ‘Rivers Of Heresy’ is out 1st September.

Upset 39

40 Upset

HOT MILK’s explosive debut album ‘A Call To The Void’ embodies their all-or-nothing attitude, channeling vulnerability and defiance into a genre-defying journey of emotion and self-reliance.

Words: Steven Loftin. Photos: Frank Fieber.

Upset 41

HE BURNING SUPERNOVA HOT MILK are pulling in whatever genre they see fit with their exploding gravitational pull.

Bolstering their bellowing jams of depression and darkness, the Manchester band have been threatening to explode throughout their three EPs, including last year’s ‘The King and Queen of Gasoline’. Now, with their debut album, ‘A Call To The Void’, locked and loaded, the flare is well and truly lit. The choruses are louder, the sentiments run deeper, and it feels like an impenetrable fortress of their design. That doesn’t mean there aren’t concerns that plague the pair: “Sometimes I’m like, have we like left it too late?” vocalist Han Mee starts.

Passionately earnest, Han, along with guitarist Jim Shaw have built themselves a fine standing that speaks as much to their give-a-fuck attitude as it does their sincerity. Confirming this, Han readily admits that “Hot Milk isn’t really a rock band or whatever. I just say it’s an emotion. Hot Milk is an emotion. It’s just what we feel.” Likening it to a “conduit to express drama and emotion has drama and tragedy,” they unpack everything, lopping it on the table, in the hopes of being able to sort through it all: “It’s just our thing to go, ‘Well, we’ve got these feelings, we’ll release it under Hot Milk’.”

Their journey from ambitious upstarts to newcomer heavyweights is down to their all-or-nothing attitude.

Since forming in 2018 in Manchester, Han explains that to get to this major career milestone, they’ve had to make sacrifices. “You know, the normal things that people do: buy houses, get married,” she recites. “Our friends are starting to have holidays, and we can’t do any of those things because we have Hot Milk, and that’s what we’ve chosen for our life.”

While this may feel like a heavy load to unpack, this cross of theirs to bear is precisely what they want.

No situation proves this more than when playing live.

Their shows are an explosive romp through the visceral reality they channel. “It’s real; I’m there giving my heart on a plate,” Han implores. “Ready for them to either throw up or send it back to the kitchen, it’s up to them how they absorb it, and most of the time, they feel it, and they give it back. That’s what the beauty of being in this band is, being so open and vulnerable and then people being open and vulnerable back.”

This idea is a point of contention. While it’s servicing a key purpose for the pair, especially Han, the vulnerability is inescapable. Likening it to “giving a diary to someone else to listen to and judge… we needed to write [these songs] for us,” Han affirms, “it’s exciting but also scary”. Jim adds, “[You] put your heart out on your sleeve for people to judge, decimate.” It’s here, Han sparks up. “That’s where I get upset because they’re not just songs to me; they’re little bits of my soul. So it’s kind of mad that people can just fucking rip them apart without absolutely no come up. That’s why I’m always like, ‘Would you say that to my face?’

Probably not, because you’re not a cunt in real life; you’re just a cunt on the internet, dickheads!”

Hot Milk are certainly a ferocious team. Their band is a blend of Han and Jim’s attitude and likeminded tastes, even when things might not be as straightforward as they may seem. “We’re so indecisive.

But I feel like that is kind of the beauty of Hot Milk,” 42 Upset

THEY’RE NOT JUST SONGS TO ME; THEY’RE LITTLE BITS OF MY SOUL”

HAN MEE

Jim reckons. “It’s just Han and mine’s vision, and whatever we’re feeling, we’re not pigeonholed.” This is why their album feels so focused. Driving like a ten-tonne truck towards the future, Hot Milk simply aren’t a band that glances back to the road they’ve chewed up already. They’re focused on the mission ahead, and in the case of ‘A Call To The Void’, that meant they wanted to hit the target first time: “We didn’t write a single song on that album that didn’t make the record,” he beams.

It’s littered with archetypal Hot Milk journalistic unloading, including Jim dealing with the loss of his grandfather on album closer ‘Forget Me Not’.

But sparking up around these are moments of joy (including Han’s laughter and in-studio sounds throughout) along with, erm, shroom-indebted fantasies.

‘Alice Cooper’s Pool House’ is a vivid depiction of a night gone awry, concluding with the titular event. The man himself even makes an appearance in the closing skit. “I would say it’s the mushroom trip that never ended,” Han laughs.

“Because that happened as well. It was like, ‘Okay, am I still on mushrooms?’ Because it’s so weird how this song flew out, and then suddenly now Alice Cooper is on it.” He decided to jump on the track after someone close to the

band managed to sneak the track out to him. Han and Jim had no idea what was coming back. “We were blown away by it,” Jim adds, “because it really ties the whole idea of the song together.”

As a result of their handwork and dedication, ‘A Call To The Void’ is a monument to Hot Milk. Not just that, but it’s also a testament to the self-reliance of a pair who have had a vision since 2018 and have followed that unrelentingly through thick and thin. Jim, who also helms production duties, proudly admits, “I’m a massive perfectionist, and I don’t have an ego, but I am super proud of what we’ve achieved against all the odds for this album to come out, and it has no right to be as good as it is.”

For Han, the sentiment also rings true. But as well as being defiantly confident in their opening major gambit, she also acknowledges the basis for their vision. “At the end of the day, what it always comes back to is [we’re] a good rock band, and its core is flirtations in different directions.” But it wouldn’t be a closing Hot Milk sentiment without that snarling smirk. “And that feeling of ‘Fuck it, here we are, and we’re being ourselves’. The ethos of it all has just been, ‘Let’s fuckin’ have it. Let’s go and grab the world!’” ■ Hot Milk’s debut album ‘A Call To The Void’ is out 25th August.

Upset 43

BETTER W

44 Upset

WAYS TO

HOLDING ABSENCE embrace their sonic evolution and chart a course for the future in their triumphant album ‘The Noble Art Of Self Destruction’.

Words: Steven Loftin.

Upset 45

pic trilogies play a major part in pop culture. From Lord of The Rings to the trilogy of Star Wars trilogies, these stories are all told to expound the humanity of it all. Naturally, Welsh rockers Holding Absence had to have a go.

However, this was not the initial idea when they released their self-titled debut in 2019. As they’ve progressed, Lucas Woodland and co. realised that entering album three, they’d best plot a course for the future. “The trilogy concept came about at the foot of this album,” he explains, “because we had the conversation [about how] we aren’t going to be a band that does the same thing forever - but we love what we do.” Knowing theirs is a place deep inside their fans’ hearts, ‘The Noble Art Of Self Destruction’ is the closing of a circuit, ensuring the foundations of Holding Absence remain lit up.

The original lineup formed back in 2015.

Lucas officially joined the sole-remaining early member Ashley Green (drums) in 2016.

They’re now completed by Scott Carey (guitar), who joined in 2018, and Ben Elliott (bass), who replaced founding bassist James Joseph in 2021. Throughout these roster shifts, one thing has always remained true their tireless work ethic and dedication.

“We know that our fans love what we do,” he continues. “We’ve still got a few more years of doing what we’re doing before we need to change. So for us, it was very much a case of let’s embrace the fact that this album is going to be a quintessential Holding Absence album as we know and love the band now. Perhaps in the future, it’ll change.”

Indeed, this is a time to celebrate. The album marks a keen point for the band: “I feel like there’s so much more hope and belief in the music that we make now than we had before.” Lucas attributes this to the Holding Absence journey. He recognises that delving deep into the humanity of grief and depression throughout the band’s first two records has allowed him to learn “a lot of positive emotion”. He also acknowledges that the “heavy, sad” music they make has resulted in this growth and contains a beauty: “When I look at who I was and who I am now, I’ve come an insane way, and I think the cool thing is you can hear that too.”

This is the key part of Holding Absence’s ascension from the Valleys to stages over the world - they speak to the deepest, universal truths. Lucas recognises this as a key aspect of his job. “I take on a lot more responsibility than most musicians do in that regard,” he says. “I’m very aware of how many people will be upset if we released a 46 Upset

bad album or an album that had nothing in common with our old stuff. But, for me, I just want to make sure that I’m doing right by our fans, and I hope that our fans trust us enough to do different things as well.”

Holding Absence will always give 110%. As a unit, Lucas recognises they’re “a group of people learning and changing.” This is where the band’s sonic evolution comes into play. “One thing that I’m very aware of is lots of people don’t know how to classify our genre,” he admits. “We’re either a metalcore band, or a pop-punk band, or a melodic hardcore band, or an alt-rock band - and there’s so much to it, but it doesn’t matter. To me, Holding Absence can sound like anything. Underneath, the soul of this band is very rich and very honest.”

Lucas knows that the soul that lies beneath Holding Absence is organic. Explaining he sees it as an in-motion entity, “by the time I feel like I’ve found it, it’s moved again.”

The symbiotic nature of this means that every step forward unfurls new territory for him and the rest of the band to explore. Importantly to this, he mentions, “That means that this experience will never end the same way. My experience will never end in the same way.

Us, as people, our experiences should never stop; we should never be willing to stop learning or to stop caring.”

This is an idea Lucas enthuses. “It’s easy to stop caring. It’s easy to keep doing the same thing over and over and to not pursue new hobbies or to not learn new skills, or to not try new television programmes; in the same way, it would be easy for me to not dig deeper into this band.”

Digging deep is Lucas’ bread and butter. While evident across ‘The Noble Art’’s runtime, there’s no moment more evident of this than when Holding Absence are on stage. While ordinarily, Lucas is a genial person who relishes in the quiet of his

THERE’S SO MUCH MORE HOPE AND BELIEF IN THE MUSIC THAT WE MAKE NOW”

L U CAS WO O D L A N D Welsh retreat, on stage, he admits, “there’s very little I have in common with the man you see because it takes confidence and it takes arrogance.” This means that once the tour bus rolls to a halt, he can exhale and leave his Hyde-ian presence behind till the next time. “There is a beauty to that because it means that I don’t have to experience any of that stuff when I’m home,” he smiles. “I can just enjoy my happy little life. It’s almost like I’ve stored up all that energy by being a whole different person on the days in between.”

It’s for this reason Holding Absence are still at home in their beloved Welsh Valleys.

“I always say I’m grateful that I don’t live in London or a big city,” Lucas reckons.

“I think I would actually get quite fatigued by socialising and trying to be popular or seeming publicly perceived in any way, you know what I mean? I come from months of touring in front of people in the public eye, and then I go back to my home in the Welsh Valleys, and I don’t see anyone for weeks, and I think that really helps me keep the duality healthy.”

It would be disingenuous of Holding Absence to play party to the biz side of being a band. That’s not why the fourpiece first gathered in 2016.

Theirs has been a journey to help and understand, and with this chapter closing, so comes an unapologetically earnest defiance.

“Every musician wants to be the biggest musician in the world; when you step into this big role, the sky really is the limit, and over time, you understand where you fit into all of this,” Lucas explains, symbolic arms gesturing around him. “But I think we’re really at peace with where the band is and the trajectory of the band as well.”

Acknowledging that theirs is a journey of ups and downs - though no flops, mind you “We have been slowly, steadily, patiently climbing,” says Lucas. “I’m just grateful to be in a position where me and my best friends don’t have to save up Christmas money from our parents to record music anymore, and I get to see cities that I never ever thought I’d go to because of the band.”

Sealing off this chapter, ‘The Noble Art Of Self Destruction’ sees Holding Absence in good stead, “We play shows, and I see the influence we have on people’s lives. More than anything, this band is in a beautiful place.” ■ Holding Absence’s album ‘The Noble Art Of Self Destruction’ is out 25th August.

Upset 47

JOY AS SPANISH LOVE SONGS embark on a profound and optimistic journey with their new album ‘No Joy,’ blending existential dread with themes of hope and compassion.

Words: Rob Mair. Photos: Hannah Hall.

48 Upset

AN ACT

Upset 49

50 Upset

F I WAS TO CONSTANTLY WORRY ABOUT THE PAST, I’D BE A WRECK,” laughs Spanish Love Songs’ Dylan Slocum, with something of an air of resignation.

“I’m really not concerned with looking back because there are so many things that you might do differently; it could drive you insane.”

While the Californian punks are the masters of existential dread, their new album ‘No Joy’ hits a little different – certainly compared to the bleak ‘Brave Faces Everyone’. Indeed, it’s not hard to see their latest album as something more profound – optimistic even – although you have to work through the layers to get there.

In fact, it’s not unrealistic to think of ‘No Joy’ as a companion piece to the Menzingers’ paean to lost youth, ‘After the Party’ – as if the two masterpieces form opposite sides of the same coin.

But, instead of looking back at the past and lamenting what has been lost, as in the Menzingers’ opus, ‘No Joy’ is a record preoccupied with looking to the future and thinking about what you could lose.

Both come from the same starting point and share philosophies beyond the blue-collar punk rock lineage, but the destinations are poles apart. While the Menzingers fight against the passage of time, Spanish Love Songs (completed by keyboardist Meredith Van Woert, guitarist Kyle McAuley, bassist Trevor Dietrich, and drummer Ruben Duarte) want to savour every moment for fear of never experiencing it again.

“What became crystal clear to me is that I have things that I can lose, and it’s going to suck when I lose them,” says Dylan. “Sometimes, it’s easy to forget about all the things you have and the things you would hate to lose. The flip side of that is, of course, that there are people who would hate to lose you.

“So, I pitched it as a collection of love songs to the band, and no one believed me.

It’s like, ‘This is going to hurt, I don’t want it to, but I know what I’m signing up for’.

It’s like that old Death Cab For Cutie line, ‘Love is watching someone die’. This is the precursor to that.”

Between these two ideas – the reluctance to look back and the desire to hold on to what you have – Spanish Love Songs cover an awful lot of ground on ‘No Joy’. From the precariousness of life on ‘Lifers’ to the notion of dying alone in ‘Pendulum’, or putting dreams on hold in ‘Clean-up Crew’, it’s an album of few laughs but unbelievable thematic depths. They’ve never sounded better, too; the raw punk

I’M REALLY NOT CONCERNED WITH LOOKING BACK”

DY L A N S LO C U M

edges of ‘Schmalz’ and ‘Giant Sings The Blues’ have been appropriately shorn to be replaced by a sound indebted to 80s power-pop and glitzy new-wave as it is punk rock.

In the case of ‘Clean-up Crew’ – the musical and lyrical standout – it’s easy to see Dylan’s journey in that of the protagonist. From a potential career as a baseball pitcher, via a journalism major and Hollywood scriptwriter, his route to punk rock stardom has been anything but straightforward. He jokes that he’s taken a “really dumb path,” but through a song like ‘Clean-up Crew,’ he gets to ask, ‘What if I stopped chasing all these unrealistic goals and settled for something simpler?’

“I’ve spent every ounce of energy since I was 12 chasing some sort of dream that no sane person should be chasing,” says Dylan. “The point of ‘Clean-up Crew’ is just like, instead of looking at the past thinking ‘what would that version of me have looked like’, it’s about thinking, ‘What would the me who moved to Des Moines, Iowa and bought a house in the suburbs and tried to forget chasing these dreams look like’?

“And I did that exercise, and I was absolutely terrified… I would love to do it, but it’s not how I’m wired. Most people don’t get to live out their dreams to the full extent, and I’m trying to do it for the fifth time. And I never made it any other time, so why should this time be any different?

It’s the delusion of trying to make it work – like chasing the dream is the dream itself.”

Given this, it’s unsurprising to learn that compassion also plays a big part in the record – both in terms of being kind to yourself and others.

The album is bookended by the songs ‘Lifers’ and ‘Re-Emerging Signs of the Apocalypse’. The former features the line ‘Don’t write yourself out of the equation’, the latter ‘We’re all part of the equation’.

Naturally, such a callback is deliberate, says Dylan. More such callbacks were planned, but Dylan jokes that “Other bands had done it better than us”. Nevertheless, such a trick plays well for someone with a literary background.

“I like to play around with words, like flipping a line or a sentence in a song

on its head,” he says. “Those two in particular – like ‘Don’t write yourself out of the equation’ – it’s a nice way to remind someone that you’re important and that you play a part in this system; but then, in the last song, it’s like acknowledging I’m part of this system – and we’re all part of that same system, but it doesn’t always run correctly. It’s beautiful, and it’s terrible, and we need to remember our place in it.”

Given the layers to the songs on ‘No Joy’, there’s plenty for people to latch onto.

Fans of wallowing in despair will find plenty to satiate their needs, while those who like things more optimistic will discover kernels of hope buried at the core of every song. Appropriately, Dylan’s not into telling people which is the truth, more that life is both awesome and awful in equal measure, and ‘No Joy’ reflects that dichotomy. “’Brave Faces Everyone’ was a pretty depressing album,” he considers. “It ended up being more depressing than I intended.

‘Schmalz’ has some humour, but ‘Brave Faces…’, I can’t defend how crushing it is.

On this one, the album title is meant to be a joke – or at least ironic – because it is a very joyous album, and there’s a lot of hope to be found in it.

“Somebody once asked me if I sit down and try and out-depress my previous stuff – and it’s a joke in the band, too – like every album must be more depressing than the last. This, I think, is a more hopeful album – and I hope people find that hope.”

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things,” goes the line in The Shawshank Redemption, as a way to close off the fact that the protagonist, Andy Dufresne, had to wade through literal shit to get to freedom. In some small way, this a parable on the journey of life; of appreciating the liberties and love it brings and being mindful of what you can lose if they’re taken away. Spanish Love Songs may, superficially at least, display all the hallmarks of an existential crisis set to three-minute punk songs, but hope, in some shape or form, continues to spring eternal at the core of their message. ■ Spanish Love Songs’ album ‘No Joy’ is out 25th August.

Upset 51

, PET Words: Linsey Teggert. Photos: Kirk Barnett.

BE YOUR OWN PET roar back with ‘Mommy,’ a triumphant return of ferocious garage punk and unapologetic control after 15 years of hiatus.

52 Upset

Upset 53

’M NOT YOUR VICTIM, I’m my own person,” snarls Be Your Own Pet’s Jemina Pearl on the band’s comeback single ‘Hand Grenade’.

“I’m not some casualty; I set myself free.” The Nashville four-piece’s first new music release in 15 years was a defiant statement of intent: Be Your Own Pet are back, but this time around, they’re completely in control.

When BYOP first burst onto the scene as teenagers in 2004, there was nothing quite like them. A scrappy whirlwind of garage rock, punk, and pop all bundled together with a chaotic energy, the band soon built a huge following and became known for their wild live shows. They burned fast and bright, but after releasing their second album ‘Get Awkward’ in 2008, the flame had burned out. The unhealthy pressures of a ravenous music industry and the constant judgement felt

by Jemina as the only woman in the group became too much, and the band called it quits.

“Until 2021, the four of us hadn’t been together in the same room since 2008 when we did our last ever tour in the UK and were flying out of Heathrow Airport,” recalls Jemina. “We’d all been in touch and hung out here and there, but never all four of us. During the pandemic, we had a group band chat to check in on each other, and we talked about how we’d seen peers of ours playing all these festivals, and we were like, ‘Huh, I wonder if we could do something like that?’ When we finally hung out together, we were so nervous, but we immediately fell back into feeling like close friends - that chemistry was still there.”

“Everyone was into playing live again, though I initially 54 Upset

thought we’d just play a few shows and play our old songs in a fun reunion style,” adds Jemina. “But then that kind of got all of our gears turning, and we wondered, ‘What would new Be Your Own Pet music sound like?’”

Though the wheels were beginning to turn, it’s partly Jack White who we have to thank for the full return of BYOP. Jemina is married to Ben Swank, White’s business partner in Third Man Records, and after hearing they’d been jamming together again, he asked if they wanted to open some shows on his ‘Supply Chain Issues’ tour. After those shows, it was full speed ahead, and the band headed into the studio for the first time in a decade and a half with their long-time producer and collaborator, Jeremy Ferguson.

The resulting record, ‘Mommy’, is the best Be Your Own Pet have ever sounded. Being older and more decisive has only bolstered the band’s garage punk ferocity, and the scattershot energy of their earlier material has transformed into some serious ‘we mean business’ attitude and strength. This is BYOP reclaiming their space completely on their own terms. It makes sense, then, that the album is pretty heavy on the whole dominatrix theme, with tracks such as ‘Worship the Whip,’ ‘Erotomania’, ‘Pleasure Seeker’, and ‘Rubberist’. The album artwork even sees Jemina donning a kick-ass rubber catsuit and standing over the rest of the band, who sit passively around a table.

It’s a bold reflection of the control Jemina and the band have taken back.

“I didn’t necessarily set out to write songs that had that energy; it kind of just unfurled that way,” explains Jemina. “Then, when making the album art and coming up with a name, looking at the big picture of everything we had created, it was a very

strong theme that revealed itself.

“Being a young woman in this industry at that time, I felt very vulnerable - we all did. We were all basically children when we did this the first time around. There were a lot of experiences I had that I didn’t feel good about, where I didn’t feel in control and felt taken advantage of. Now I’m a full-grown woman. I know what I want and don’t want, and I’m fine to have those boundaries.

Also, becoming a mother helped me get to that place in my life.”

Although Jemina’s bandmates, guitarist Jonas Stein, bass player Nathan Vasquez and drummer John Eatherly, perhaps didn’t feel the same pressure, they were ultimately still kids thrown in at the deep end.

“Looking back on everything, with Jemina being the only female in the band and being sexualised the way she was, I don’t think us boys had the ability to fully grasp it at the time,” Jonas explains. “But looking

back and reading some of the articles and seeing the way the social environment has changed over the past years (mostly for the better), we’re like, ‘Holy shit, what were people thinking back then?!’”

“We were pushed out of the crib a little too soon and expected to act like adults but also act like crazy wild performers and children at the same time, so it was very difficult to find a balance of what any sort of normalcy was. I was personally envious of getting to see my friends live a normal life, go off to college and travel on their own terms.

All that said, it was a really amazing experience in some respects, and we all agree we wouldn’t change it for the world, but looking back on it, I can definitely pinpoint some faults with the whole experience.

“Obviously, as a male, I didn’t experience it in the same way as Jemina, but we all got to experience the intensity of expectation and pressure on us, which played a big part in the band

burning out pretty quickly.

One thing that has been liberating for me is that we can run the band as a small business now; when we were younger, we had some major label advance money - ‘Here’s thousands of dollars to live off for the next album cycle, you go tour your fucking asses off until we tell you to stop, and then we’ll give you more’. We didn’t ever really know if we were getting paid for any shows at all or what our expenses were - we were totally blindfolded.

Now we can actually budget something out and see what we’ll be getting paid: we know how long we’ll work for and what money we’ll have in our pockets - it’s nothing astronomical, but it’s fair - and it’s nice to have our heads around that.”

When it comes to running a band, in the time BYOP have been away, the musical landscape has changed massively in terms of how bands are packaged and marketed. It’s crazy to realise that things like Instagram and Spotify weren’t such a big deal back then. And don’t

even mention TikTok...

“I’m definitely still trying to figure out TikTok!” laughs Jemina. “People are like, ‘You guys need to have a TikTok presence!’ There’s definitely a different set of expectations on bands now of having a social media presence and sharing a lot of yourself. It can be cool, but it’s also a whole other aspect to the job. That makes me sound really old!

“It’s interesting, in some ways, a lot of things have changed for the better in the music industry in the time we’ve been away. It still feels like small baby steps, but there’s more diversity and more inclusion of different perspectives, so it’s cool to come back and be part of that. It did feel like back in the day, it was a case of, ‘There’s only room for one band with a female lead singer, we’ve already got one, so we don’t need another on this festival’, even though our bands would be totally different.”

Musically, ‘Mommy’ demonstrates how the band’s tastes and musicianship

I CAN BE MANY DIFFERENT THINGS ALL AT THE SAME TIME”

JEMIMA PEARL have evolved over the years too. While tracks like ‘Hand Grenade’ and ‘Goodtime’ demonstrate the same riotous fuzz-laden, hooky garage pop that BYOP made their name with, ‘Pleasure Seeker’ is a sexy, stomping slice of glam rock, while ‘Rubberist’ has some serious Blondie-esque disco vibes.

“Even though I was raised on punk-rock, I’ve gravitated towards DJing disco music over the past decade, so that bassline Nathan came up with for ‘Rubberist’ really resonated with me,” says Jonas. “It invited some disco riffs to it, so it was a nice way to balance out all this deepcut style disco music I’ve been playing on vinyl.”

“It was completely collaborative this time around,” adds Jemina. “I didn’t write any of the music back in the day, just the vocals and lyrics, so to be able to have song ideas and bring them to the guys was cool for me to have those songs that I had the little seed for.

“I’ve always used lyrics and writing music as a way to process my emotions so that energy is still there, but of course, it’s about where I’m at now. I’m not trying to present myself as a teenager; it would feel very inauthentic to be like, ‘Let’s write more songs about zombies!’ Not that I

don’t still love horror movies, we’re just in a more adult mindset.”

Something that definitely hasn’t changed is BYOP’s ability to put on an incendiary live show. “I feel like our shows are better now,” Jemina states. “We’re more skilled at playing the songs how we want to play them while also putting on a really energetic show, instead of it just being 100% insane nonstop motion the entire time.”

One thing that Jemina became well-known for was her tendency to thrash about so intensely on stage that she’d often have to stop and throw up. Is this something else she’s gained control of over time?

“I puked in Barcelona!”

Jemina declares triumphantly, referring to their recent Primavera set.

“Like when you exercise too much, and you get the dry heaves! I’m just a puker. I could see Jonas saying, ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it!’ through gritted teeth, and I was trying to keep it down and ended up hurling all over the stage. Then I rolled around in it because I figured, why not? What would Iggy do?!

You can still be a mom and be punk rock: I can be many different things all at the same time.” ■ Be Your Own Pet’s album ‘Mommy’ is out 25th August.

Upset 55

Be Your Own Pet MOMMY

★★★★

→ Two brilliant albums in the 00s marked BYOP as indie-punk’s cream of the crop. A decade and a half later, they’re back, and just as bombastically brilliant as ever. ‘Worship The Whip’ reintroduces their razor-tongue rock in triumphant style, acerbic, loud and proud.

‘Erotomania’ bounces off the walls of garage rock with gleeful abandon, while ‘Pleasure Seeker’ thumps and roars as it ambles through the door to a sleazy, growling stomp. Let them never leave us again.

Dan Harrison

Caskets

REFLECTIONS

★★★★

Hot Milk

A CALL TO THE VOID ★★★★★

→ Hot Milk haven’t rushed themselves on the road to a debut album. Across three EPs, they’ve gathered a reputation as one of modern rock’s most likely, prepped

56 Upset

and ready for the big leagues. ‘A Call To The Void’ is their ticket in.

Understanding that heavy music is as much about attitude as anything, ‘Horror Show’ provides a rambunctious blast early doors, rammed to the rafters with attitude. A loud, proud, hedonistic counter-culture counterpoint to Billie Eilish’s ‘Bad Guy’, it takes that fuckit-and-see refusal to stay in its lane and writes it large. It opens a gate through which the bangers keep coming.

‘Bloodstream’, ‘Party On My Deathbed’, ‘Alice Cooper’s Pool House’ - it’s a relentless

front half, less setting a stall out, more parking a tank on the front lawn and letting rip.

But Hot Milk are a band of many tricks. ‘Zoned Out’ understands 21st-century pop perfectly, mixing genres for a future anthem.

‘Migraine’ pulses and throbs before letting rip with a razor’s edge, while closer ‘Forget Me Not’ shimmers into view before holding the lighters high. It’s a promise that, for Hot Milk, while ‘A Call To The Void’ might be one of the debut rock albums of the year, there’s far more potential still to come. Alex Ingle

→ Caskets’ debut album ‘Lost Souls’ certainly opened doors. What was once the personal experiences of vocalist Matt Flood are now those of the shared collective two years in tour buses, hotel rooms and venues pulling the band together in new and explosive ways. With interpersonal differences giving way to a new dynamic, the result is a bigger, more expansive sound. Opener ‘Believe’ shines with melody and ambition, while ‘Silhouettes’ sits heavy in the fog of introspection and self-worth, an atmospheric, haunting gem. It’s closer ‘Better Way Out’ that really shines though. Both personal and pushing for better times, it’s a shining light for a band who continue to expand their horizons.

Alex Ingle

RATED

charged, ‘Casement’ is loud and uncompromising, buzzing like a hive of hornets Kelsey McClure

Empire State Bastard RIVERS OF HERESY

★★★★★

→ Granted, it wouldn’t take much for a duo of Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil and scene stalwart Mike Vennart to get our attention, but with Empire State Bastard, they’re leaving nothing to chance. Drawing influence from the anger born of right wing ideologues, ‘Rivers Of Heresy’ is both heavy and vital in both sound and subject.

Emerging from a backdrop of political unrest and societal upheaval, it’s more than just an album; it’s a reflection of the times.

Empire State Bastard are adding a bit of glorious grit to the easy to swallow, difficult to challenge gloop of modern life. You’ll never feel more alive. Alex Ingle

Enola Gay CASEMENT EP

★★★★

→ Known for the whitehot energy of their live performances, Enola Grey bottle this energy and funnel it into ‘Casement’.

Opening track ‘Leeches’ pulses with a rabid intensity. Soaked in outrage and animosity, the equally fierce ‘PTS. DUP’ follows. The haunting ‘terra’ offers a rest stop from the chaos, with Fionn Reilly’s bassy voice fully enveloping the listener before bleeding into subsequent track ‘firma’. Blending together noise-punk, hip-hop and shoegaze, Enola Gay have created a sound that is proudly and unmistakably their own. Politically

Fiddlehead DEATH IS NOTHING TO US

★★★★

→ Every decade, a new generation of hardcore bands reinterprets the sound; it’s a genre in constant flux, fighting against its codified past and reinventing itself for the future. While Turnstile are the leading lights of the current hardcore explosion, Fiddlehead are doing things equally exciting with the sound, and ‘Death Is Nothing To Us’ serves as a glorious capstone to their evolution. It’s an album awash with vibes – some so heady, heavy and intoxicating they need to come with a gas mask and smelling salts. Of course, with a title like ‘Death Is Nothing To Us’, there aren’t many chuckles to be found, but it’s nevertheless a testament to spiritual resolve as it works through themes of death, grief and loss. Equally, Fiddlehead’s intense wall of sound lends itself well to such explorations – especially on opening cut ‘The Deathlife’ and standout ‘Fifteen to Infinity’. Rob Mair

The Hives

deliver banger after banger with a polished flair. Full of energy and angst, the album is an infectious testament to the band’s career, as their sound remains as fun and fresh as ever. There’s a sense of excitement throughout as the wit and charm of frontman Pelle Almqvist shines through. ‘The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons’ encapsulates the fun, raucous energy The Hives are known for. This is a high-octane celebration of all they have to offer - and they keep getting better and better. Melissa Darragh

Movements RUCKUS!

★★★★

→ You know what you’re getting with Movements, and on the surface, ‘RUCKUS!’ is no different.

There is that familiar hazy filter on their music where reflective numbers like ‘Coeur DAlene’ take on a dream-like quality and the breakout moments like in ‘Fail You’ arrive like a flood of sound. But underneath, there are flourishes of Movements taking bold and brave steps to see beyond their boundaries.

The extra venom in ‘I Hope You Choke!’, the elevator synths on ‘Heaven Sent’, sexy grooves of ‘AMP’ and the brooding neo-pop of ‘Tightrope’ are moments of magic that elevate ‘RUCKUS!’. Those touches turn this album from another solid Movements record into an exciting step in their evolution.

Alexander Bradley

THE DEATH OF RANDY FITZSIMMONS

★★★★

→ The Hives are back!

Delivering their first album in over a decade, the Swedish rockers certainly don’t disappoint.

Demanding your attention with every breath, ‘The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons’ sees them

translating their ragged and enthralling live show to their pristine recorded output. ‘The Window’ sees the Chicagoan quartet finally hitting the sweet spot in considerable style.

Produced by former Death Cab For Cutie man Chris Walla, it’s abundantly clear from the rollicking, fuzzedout intro to opening number ’Making Noise For The Ones You Love’ that Ratboys have never sounded more urgent, with Julia Steiner and Co drawing spectacularly on the influence of the indierock doyen to make their own personal homage to Death Cab’s indie breakout, ‘The Photo Album’. And if Walla has finally been able to tease the fulsome rock and experimentation out of the group, then it works beautifully throughout.

Rob Mair

Ratboys

THE WINDOW

★★★★

→ Ratboys’ biggest challenge has been

Spanish Love Songs NO JOY

Speedy Ortiz

RABBIT RABBIT

★★★★★

→ Speedy Ortiz have long been a high mark of quality in the realm of scuzzy, fuzzy indie-rock.

‘Rabbit Rabbit’ sees no slip in that standard. From the opening blast of ‘Kim Cattrall’ on, there’s an underlying vibe that feels like a welcome-but-nottoo-welcome home. Still spiky enough to move in all the right places, it’s a record stacked with future mixtape anthems. The brooding, brilliantly titled ‘Who’s Afraid of the Bath’, sharp edged ‘Ranch vs.

Ranch’ and slow burning ‘Brace Thee’ provide the texture in style, but it’s when they harness their full power they really shine.

‘You S02’, ‘Ghostwriter’ and ‘Scabs’ all hit the spot in a way few could match. Glorious stuff. Dan Harrison

★★★★

→ “Stay alive out of spite,” singer Dylan Slocum repeats on another album where Spanish Love Songs act as vital life-support for disenfranchised millennials worldwide. Despite the title, ‘No Joy’ fiercely holds onto those moments in which life feels worthwhile against the harsh realities of growing old, climate change, mental health and faded dreams. The lead single ‘Haunted’ perfectly bridges the gap from the standout ‘Brave Faces Everyone’, but this album is determined to go its own way. Bigger in every direction musically, more electronic, more dynamic from one moment to the next, it feels like Spanish Love Songs have tried to pack as much of themselves as possible into these 12 tracks. Still, no one can do doom and gloom like this band and throughout ‘No Joy’ they prove that their misery truly loves company.

Alexander Bradley

The Xcerts LEARNING HOW TO LIVE AND LET GO

★★★★

→ We thought we knew what to expect from The Xcerts. Turns out, we really didn’t. ‘Learning How To Live And Let Go’ feels like a big, bold reinvention from an act who don’t want to stay stuck in one gear.

From bratty, brash opener ‘Gimme’ through the makeThe-1975-pop-punk ‘Car Crash Culture’ and the Weezer-turned-Scottish ‘Jealously’, it’s an album which spits in the face of mild strength expectation.

While it may prove a shock to the system for some, The Xcerts are certainly never boring. Dan Harrison

Upset 57

Interpol

singing.

Sean Neumann: I was always enamoured by Carlos Dengler’s bass lines growing up.

Nothing he ever played was straightforward, but it always added this shade of moxy and mysterious personality to each melody he was complementing.

This was one of the first CDs I fell in love with as a kid, and it informed the way I prefer rock songs to be structured – poppy but a little smeared and disconfigured.

Of Moons, Birds & Monsters

Take You on a Cruise

Feist

My Moon, My Man

Sean Neumann: The way this whole record is just so cosy and filled with so many hooks!

Leslie Feist is my all-time favourite songwriter, but a lot of my adoration for her as an artist also comes from how she captures and presents her work. On ‘The Reminder’, there are all these little soundscapes that bring you into the environment of the house they recorded in – from the sound of footsteps to little bits of off-mic

MGMT

Julia Steiner: MGMT was my absolute favourite band in high school. Full stop. Their first LP, ‘Oracular Spectacular’, came out when I was 15, smack dab in the middle of my teenage years. My friends and I were completely obsessed; I have vivid memories of us hanging out in the country, sneaking out into the woods and dancing around in the dark to this song.

Air

Sing Sang Sung

Julia Steiner: I remember listening to it the first time I smoked weed when I was 17. We were in my friend’s car, and we all huddled around someone’s iPod Video (remember those?) to watch the music video. This song instantly transports me back to a time before I had a smartphone before social media took hold of my daily life.

It calms me down! I’ll always love it.

RATBOYS EVERYONE HAS THOSE FORMATIVE BANDS AND TRACKS THAT FIRST GOT THEM INTO MUSIC AND HELPED SHAPE THEIR VERY BEING. THIS MONTH, RATBOYS TAKE US THROUGH SOME OF THE SONGS THAT MEANT THE MOST TO THEM DURING THEIR TEENAGE YEARS.

Pinback Penelope

Marcus Nuccio: Really, the first time I heard this song was in the form of a cover by Saosin, and I was totally enamoured by it. It was so ethereal and beautiful and emotional. But when I heard the original Pinback version, I knew I had found my favourite band. The interlocking melodies and rocksolid rhythm section turned

on every light in my brain.

The lyrics are so touching and innocent and elicit such great imagery.

Braid

New Nathan Detroits

Marcus Nuccio: Hearing this album at 16 completely opened up a whole new world of what ‘emo’ could mean and what it could accomplish.

Damon Atkinson’s drumming is so creative and groovy, and the lyrics are so vivid yet mysterious; I felt immediately levelled up as a music fan upon hearing it. I’ll never forget the first time I heard this tune, full blast in my 1996 Dodge Caravan.

The Mars Volta Inertiatic Esp

Dave Sagan: I first heard the Mars Volta on a Yahoo Internet Radio station (before Pandora or anything), and it gripped me. Their kind of fusion of alt-rock, free jazz and opera was irresistible to young me. I know Cedric gets knocked for his weird lyrics, but I’ve always thought that level of imagery and abstraction was a perfect match for the music they were making.

Akron/Family

Everyone Is Guilty

Ratboys’ album ‘The Window’ is out 25th August.

Photo: Alexa Viscius.

Dave Sagan: So I know A/F is a Brooklyn band, but this tune and the record really capture the spirit of everything my friends and I were listening to in Chicago. This song, particularly, is quite wacky. The first time I heard this, I thought two things - “Wow, this is special” and “I want to make music like this!”

Grab back issues now. upsetmagazine.com

rivers of heresy

the debut album

out 1st september cd • lp • digital • cassette empirestatebastard.com

roadrunnerrecords.co.uk