Candy Hearts Interview

Roughly two and a half weeks ago, Candy Hearts commenced on their first ever run of the UK joining Only Rivals, State Champs, The Story So Far and New Found Glory on the Pop Punk's Not Dead Tour. The band recently released their second record 'All The Ways You Let Me Down' which was produced by New Found Glory's very own Chad Gilbert. We sat down with vocalist/ guitarist Mariel Loveland to talk about her time in the UK, the new album and being one of the only girls on tour...

PPUK: HOW'S THE POP PUNK'S NOT DEAD TOUR BEEN GOING SO FAR?
Mariel: The tour's been really great. It's really exciting to see people from a different country singing our songs and liking our band, it's really cool.

PPUK: IS THIS YOUR FIRST TIME IN THE UK?
Mariel: Yeah.

PPUK: HOW HAVE YOU BEEN FINDING IT?
Mariel: It's been great. I'm really glad it's not too different from America. There are still things that are familiar and a lot of cities remind me of New England.  

PPUK: ARE THERE ANY WEIRD DIFFERENCES THAT YOU'VE NOTICED BETWEEN THE UK AND THE US?
Mariel: There are! There's one thing I've noticed that is really different that I was surprised by. I really love cheese fries so I ordered them and they we're like 'what are you talking about?' so I said 'can I have chips and cheese' and they gave me french fries with shredded cheese melted on it. In America we melt it on instead of letting the hot chips melt it. We melt it on already we just put it in the microwave or put nacho cheese over them. And also, I noticed that your Chinese food in Ireland comes with french fries instead of rice. Ours never comes with french fries. You just never get Chinese food with french fries.

PPUK: WHAT DID YOU MAKE OF YOUR TIME IN IRELAND, WAS IT NICE?  
Mariel: Yeah, it's really pretty, it seems very similar to here.

PPUK: HOW HAVE PEOPLE BEEN REACTING TO ALL THE WAYS YOU LET ME DOWN ON THE TOUR?
Mariel: People have been really awesome about it, there are those original fans that we've had for years and then there are always those people who are always like 'Oh they're a little bit pop in this record', but we went in a new direction we wanted to go and the reception has been really incredible.   

PPUK: WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE SONG FROM ALL THE WAYS YOU LET ME DOWN?   
Mariel: My favourite song I think is Something's Missing. It was a song that I've written for our EP actually and it just didn't feel right for the EP and we reworked it and put it on our record. It's like a slow song and Jordan from New Found Glory sings on it.

PPUK: WHAT'S IT LIKE SHARING A TOUR BUS? ARE YOU SHARING WITH THE STORY SO FAR AND STATE CHAMPS?
Mariel: Actually, two of us are with The Story So Far and State Champs ad two of us are with New Found Glory. They were all kind enough to let us ride with them because we couldn't afford to do it otherwise. It's been really fun! It's like summer camp, I never really went to summer camp, but like you all lay in bed and gossip about girly things. I guess for some reason we bring out that girliness (laughs). I don't know, we just gossip and watch movies. I don't know what it's like for the boys though. There's like a full boy bus, there are no girls on that bus.

PPUK: ABOUT THREE YEARS AGO YOU WROTE A PIECE ABOUT SEXISM IN THE PUNK/ ALTERNATIVE SCENE. DO YOU THINK ANYTHING HAS GOTTEN BETTER?
Mariel: I've noticed the more we stray away from the DIY scene that we where in when I wrote that, that actually the worse it is and I don't think it's because it's getting worse in general. I think that it's just worse in the mainstream than it is in like a smaller scene were everyone's just like friends and working together, you know? And like, [in] the big world it's really brutal and really disappointing and annoying.  

PPUK: HAS ANYTHING HAPPENED ON THIS TOUR THAT YOU WEREN'T COOL WITH?
Mariel: Umm, not really. Every once in a while someone will make a comment that bums me out but they don't mean anything by it. It's just like, you know, you're making that comment but you don't know what it feels like to be a different person than everybody else on the tour. You come here, you're a white man and you're like everybody else here and I come here and I'm different and people can sometimes treat me weird. You know, there's always something where people have like, they don't know how to live with a girl. Everybody's like a man with a girlfriend, a wife or something and it's like you know finding out how to live with a girl and be nice to them. It's just a little strange. 

PPUK: NOW THAT A LOT OF CELEBRITIES AND PEOPLE IN THE MEDIA ARE COMING OUT AS FEMINISTS AND REMINDING US ABOUT GENDER EQUALITY, DO YOU THINK THE ISSUE OF SEXISM WILL GET BETTER?
Mariel: I do, it was similar in the 90s. A lot of punk bands and actors and famous people were talking about feminism. The Spice Girls were the biggest example. They were all about girl power and that really inspired me when I was a child and I think now it's the same thing. The 90s are coming back and I think there are a lot of people who are kind of realising  that not that much has changed since then. Things have changed but not as much as they should have and I think a lot of people are noticing it and really working towards that.

PPUK: HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU LEARNT TO PLAY THE GUITAR AND SING?
Mariel: I was between 15 and 16 years old when I started playing guitar but I started writing songs before I knew how. I was in a band with my friends and they wouldn't let me play guitar and it was when I'd just picked it up, and no one really knew how. We were just pretending we knew how to play instruments and kind of figuring it out. I was the only one who actually learnt how to play.

PPUK: DO BANDS HAVE THEIR OWN MUSIC ON THEIR IPODS OR PHONES ?
Mariel: I do because sometimes I nervously listen to it like 'is this still good?', 'do I still like this or do we suck?', you know?. So yeah especially when we first get it in and it's our record for the first time. I want to test it in a few ways to make sure that it's the record I wanted to make. I listen to it when I'm driving or on the subway to make sure it's the kind of record I thought it would be.

PPUK: SO YOU HAVE ANY FUNNY, EMBARRASSING OR WEIRD TOUR STORIES?  
Mariel: We're a very quiet band, nothing really too crazy happens. There was something where we accidently left somebody behind when we took the ferry we had to go back and get them. Just from Ireland to here. That was pretty funny, not for who we left behind.

All The Ways You Let Me Down is out now. Get it here.  
             


Candy Heart's Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Bandcamp

Six Time Champion | Expecting Honesty Review

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that the UK pop punk scene has somewhat exploded in the past few years. With Neck Deep, and recently ROAM, being signed to Hopeless records and As It Is being signed to Fearless, it would appear that pop punk is definitely back and stronger than ever. These bands have also paved the way for newer bands and it's awesome to see so many newer bands displaying their talents and building up a larger pop punks scene within the UK. One of these bands is Brighton's Six Time Champion who are about to released their new EP 'Expecting Honesty' on December 1st.

The EP starts off with Running Dry, one of the heavier songs from the EP. The song sets off Expecting Honesty with a fast tempo and catchy melody.  At times it almost mirrors Four Year Strong with guitar parts that chug along with an intense drum beat. The EP then leads on to Happiness is Emptiness and despite the pessimistic title, the song is a cheerful, upbeat and vibrant. Like Running Dry, it has a fast tempo and catchy melody. The song is a personal favourite and has elements of older pop punk while blending it in newer components.    

Up next is Expecting Honesty, the title track. The band have stated that the song is about ‘voicing a lack of tolerance for all the pointless dishonesty in life’ and that 'It pretty much sums up the entire theme of the E.P.’. The vocals on the track really do point to the theme of the E.P with them being vigorous and aggressive; enough to get the message across while being great to sing along to.

Dragging Feet is where the pace slows down. While it’s not as fast and intense as the other tracks, it still packs a powerful punch. It displays that Six Time Champion are able play around with the tempo of the songs without lacking an energetic sound. The closing track Separation picks up the pace again, with a return to the fast paced and authoritative drums and guitar. The chorus is resonant, and definitely one of the stand out ones from the E.P.

Overall, Six Time Champion’s new EP is an excellent showcase of everything that pop punk should be with fast paced, intense, drums, uplifting guitar parts, honest lyrics and melodic vocals. It's also pleasing to see another UK pop punk band doing a great job and  we can’t wait to hear more from these guys in the future.  

Stream the whole of Expecting Honesty here.



Six Time Champion's Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp | Youtube

New Neck Deep Album To Be Produced By Jeremy Mckinnon

Neck Deep have revealed that Jeremy Mckinnon, front man of A Day To Remeber, will be producing their new album alongside ex A Day To Remember member, Tom Denney, and Andrew Wade who has worked closely with A Day To Remember in the past. Jeremy had this to say about the album, which Neck Deep will start to record in five days time: "I was working with Andrew (Wade) on the new The Ghost Inside album (Dear Youth) when Tom Denney stopped by for a bit. He and Andrew were talking about having a meeting with Neck Deep about doing their next album. I overheard them, and pretty much forced them to let me be a part of the meeting. We met with Fil (Thorpe-Evans, bass) and we all hit it off. A few weeks later we heard back that the band had picked us! I think they’re one of the best new upcoming pop-punk bands in the world, and I’m pumped to make some music with them. They have their own sound, and it seems like they’re right on that edge of being a really big band. All it’s gonna take is a slam dunk record. I think they’ve got it in them'

Ben also had this to say: “When we started looking into recording album two we knew we wanted it to be bigger and better than Wishful Thinking. We wanted to step things up in a big way. Not only will we be stepping out of our comfort zone and finally recording outside of Seb’s (Barlow’s brother) bedroom, but we’ll be working with someone we’ve always looked up to. When we initially spoke to Jeremy about producing the album his enthusiasm was what caught us; not only is he someone who knows what they’re doing, and has achieved everything we could hope for, but he’s just as stoked on the album as we are, and that’s a huge thing"

Knuckle Puck To Play Fighting Cocks

After finishing their UK tour with Neck Deep, Knuckle Puck will playing their own headline show at The Fighting Cocks this February. Get Your tickets here. 

Firestarter Release New Music Video

Firestarter have released a new video for their song 'Forget the Past'. Check it out below:

Neck Deep to Record New Album

Neck Deep have announced that they will be recording a new album in 10 days time. The wait for album number 2 is on...

Up and Coming Pop Punk Bands | Get Up Go

Ever feel like your life may be in need of a touch more easycore? Well hold there my friends because we may have the answer. Manchester based pop punks Get Up Go have recently released their EP 'Calm Seas Never Made Good Sailors' which is the perfect blend of pop punk and easycore for your listening pleasure. The band also recently released their first ever music video for the track 'Tonight In Stereo' which you can watch above. 

Check out our interview with Get Up Go and Calm Seas Never Made Good Sailor's below...

WHEN AND HOW DID YOU GUYS FORM?

We got together in Dec 2012. After being in bands together in the past we had not played together for a couple of years. We were all still friends, so when Pommy and Anders started writing music again we decided to start a new band. Sye was the obvious choice to sing and play bass, and Dion was the best drummer we knew.

HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH YOUR BAND NAME?

Anders came up with it after quite a heavy night at Pommy's house. After having a little too much to drink and then waking up on Pommy's kitchen floor, with Pommy's girlfriend standing over him looking pretty annoyed. Anders decided it was time to Get Up Go, he tweeted this as he left and later thought it could make a good name for the band.

YOU RECENTLY RELEASED CALM SEAS NEVER MADE GOOD SAILORS, FAVOURITE TRACK FROM IT AND WHY?

Collectively I think our favourite song is probably 'Wolves Amongst Us', when we went in to record it this song was barely a song, we wrote it as we went along, and it turned out better than we could have hoped for.

RECORDING OR PLAYING LIVE?

Recording is fun, seeing something you've worked so hard on come together and having something awesome at the end to show for it. But nothing beats the buzz of playing live and seeing people enjoy your music.

YOU'VE JUST RELEASED A NEW VIDEO FOR TONIGHT IN STEREO, TELL US A BIT ABOUT IT...

It's our first music video, we chose this song because it was kind of a surprise favourite from Calm Seas, we never thought it would sound as good as it does. The song is about partying basically, living in the moment, and worrying about things later, so the video reflects that. It's also got a retro gaming theme to it as well, you see through the eyes of the hero who's doing his best to navigate a party where the band is playing, something that gets him into a few 'sticky' situations.

IF YOU COULD PLAY A SHOW WITH ANYONE ON THE PLANET IT WOULD BE?

A few years ago I would have said  Blink 182 or New Found Glory, those guys are our idols, but now I think we would choose to play with State Champs. They're the new pop punk kids on the block and they are, in our opinion, one of the most exciting band to come along in years.

TOP FIVE FAVOURITE ALBUMS?

Blink 182 -Take Off Your Pants And Jacket

State Champs - The Finer Things

Brand New - Your Favourite Weapon

Four Year Strong - Rise Or Die Trying

New Found Glory - Self Titled

Sum 41 - All Killer No Filler

I know that's 6 but there you go :)

Get Up Go's Twitter | Bandcamp | Youtube

Into It. Over It. Announces European Tour

Into It. Over It. has announced a European tour with Modern Baseball and Tiny Moving Parts as support. The tour will commence in March 2015. Check out the dates below:

Get your tickets here.

Save Your Breath Announce Tour Support

Save Your Breath have announced the support for their Farewell tour. As It Is and Cardinals will be joining them on their last ever run of the UK. The band recently announced that they were calling it quits after 8 years of being a band. Read their full statement here. 

Man Overboard Release New Video

Man Overboard have released a new video for their song 'For Vince' from new EP, 'Passing Ends. Speaking to Rocksound, Nik Bruzzes had this to say about the new video: "This song is dedicated to my father Vince Bruzzese. Without him I wouldn't be the man I am today. This is me coming face to face with loss. This song is also dedicated to anyone who has ever lost a parent". Passing Ends is out now via Rude Records, pick up a copy here. 

Save Your Breath Break Up

Unfortunately, Save Your Breath have decided to call it quits. After 8 years of being a band and two albums under their belts, SYB will no longer be continuing as a band and will embark on one last farewell tour next January. The band posted this statement on their Facebook: 

"It's not you, it's me…we're breaking up. After 8 years of the most amazing experiences we've had the privilege of taking part in, it's time for us to hang up the axes. Let's be straight about it, we still love music and we love being in Save Your Breath, but for a band at our level, sometimes life just gets in the way and you have to know when to say, well, when.

We will be heading out one last time for a final farewell tour in January, you can see the dates in our header and all details will be announced shortly.

I was walking the halls at my university in the winter of 2006 when I bumped into this idiot I knew from local shows called Tom. I hadn't seen him for months and so I asked him if he wanted to hang out before going to a show one night, he agreed and shortly after brought up the prospect of starting a band. That one single moment changed my life for the better and I can never thank him enough for that. So we discussed some of the bands we liked, what we'd sound like and our plan for world domination….or rather to support some bands locally and try and make some new friends who might help us out with realising our dream of going on tour. That was it, that was all we wanted, to play some shows and make some friends along the way.
Save Your Breath started in the summer of 2007. Sometimes that seems like yesterday, sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago. Sometimes we felt like we were riding the crest of a wave and maybe our dreams would come true at other times we may never play another show again. Someone once told me that you can't appreciate the highs without the lows. At the time I had no idea what they meant…8 years of playing in this band later, I realised how right they were.

Within a few months of releasing our debut record in 2011 we were headed on tour with some of our heroes in New Found Glory, we played to big crowds at both Reading and Leeds festival, we then headed straight back out on tour with our friends Kids In Glass Houses in the autumn. It felt like things were happening and we might make good on the early potential we showed and some of the openings we'd squandered. We didn't make good on them for many reasons, but that's not the point. These are and always will be amazing memories for all of us that lived them and by any right this should've been the best time we had as a band but they weren't.

We changed a lot of members over the last couple of years and it has been a struggle to the point where most of us felt like we'd rather be doing anything else than playing in a band. Then we met Owen and everything changed again. We're great friends, we get on better than we ever have, we're closer than we've ever been and we're finally at a point where we feel like a real band. Only now does it really feel like we're where we always wanted to be and I guess that's why the time feels right.

Over the last 18 months we've had the best time ever, doing things our own way and enjoying the experience every step along the way. We just finished the best tour we've ever done where we said goodbye to our best friends in Kids In Glass Houses and we realised that it's best to go out when you feel on top. We've travelled the world playing shows and been to places we never thought we would go, it's the perfect time for us to say thank you, and to move on with the next chapters in our lives.

I could write on and on because this band really has been my life and I know that Tom, Kristian, Dave and Owen feel exactly the same way. We lived for this band and the experiences it brought us. So thanks to all our friends and family for sticking by us, it's been fucking class. You can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes, you might find you get what you need.

Thanks Mark James for being the first person to believe in us and sticking by us through thick and thin, admittedly it was mainly thin.

Mike Lewis for picking up the reigns and pushing us in all the right ways. Without you maybe the last 18 months might well have been disastrous and we definitely wouldn't have got shelled then filled out a 5am application to get us in to States and realised one of our dreams.

Anna for the unenviable task of booking us and managing to always get us on great bills with great bands. Thank you for allowing us to do what we enjoyed the most.

Kids In Glass Houses for being there for us since day one. We played our first show with you in a kitchen in Cardiff and you've taken us to some of the most amazing venues in the country, shared your bus, beds, food and booze with us. Not just at a band level but on a personal level, you are our brothers in arms and we can't thank you enough for everything you've always done for us.

The Wonder Years, A Loss For Words, The Story So Far, Fireworks, Matt at Animal Style for putting out our record, Stuart Richardson for helping us in our hour of need, Rich Clarke, Jeff and Jennifer Dean, Basement, Decade, Man Overboard, Make Do and Mend, Young Guns, WATIC, Neck Deep, Seahaven, Light You Up, The Blackout, Funeral For a Friend, Cardinals, Ghost Agency, 4th N Goal, Now Here, Woodsy, Stanley, The Bollock, anyone who put a show on for us, booked us on a festival, gave us food, drinks, a place to sleep…thank you for everything and you made this possible for us"

We wish the band all the best for the future!
Check out the tour dates for Save Your Breath's Farewell Tour here.

ROAM Sign to Hopeless Records and Release New Song

ROAM announced today that they've officially been signed to Hopeless Records! They also announced that they will be releasing a new EP titled 'Warning Sign' on January 26th. Check out the first single from 'Warning Sign' with the same name below:

Six Time Champion – Expecting Honesty – Artwork Feature

Pop-Punk: just in case you missed the billboard sized memo, it’s back, hotter than ever, and it now comes in a fetching shade of British. Hot on the heels of fellow countrymen Neck Deep, ROAM, As It Is and Trash Boat, Brighton quintet Six Time Champion are making their presence felt with storming new five-tracker, Expecting Honesty. Released on the 1st December, the work is buoyant with hooks and drives its points home with fiery panache, Six Time Champion’s rougher edge reveals their boisterous live energy. Here STC talk through the artwork for Expecting Honesty...

When we first began putting some thought towards the artwork for “Expecting Honesty” we toyed around with a few ideas, mostly hand drawn designs at first as we had come across a number of artists, whose work we all really loved. We threw together a few sketches whilst at the recording studio but never really managed to create a rough design that we were all totally sold on, so eventually we decided to break the confinement of illustrated designs and look further afield. Watch the video for Expecting Honesty below.

A couple of weeks passed with nothing really springing to mind for any of us, until eventually Rich threw an idea out to us. The idea was simple and based around some of the lyrics in the track “Dragging My Feet”. To put it simply, the initial idea was to have a pair of hands full of ash, holding a gold object, to tie in with the lyrics “If you take all of your problems and burn them with the lies you've told, although the smoke might fill your lungs in the ashes you'll find gold”. Rich actually sent us all an amusing photo of himself holding rice as a substitute for ash to give us a solid idea of what he had in mind.

So we all agreed this simple idea had some potential, we also agreed that it should perhaps be photographed rather than illustrated to give it a more authentic feel. That’s when we turned to our good friend Jake Ratcliffe, having worked alongside him right from the start. We knew we could rely on him to take the idea and create something quality, and bring out thought behind the design. After gathering some ash, and an old pocket watch, the idea finally came together. As Jake sent over the final version it instantly became something we were all very fond of, especially seeing as it actually holds direct relevance to the E.P. itself.

Six Time Champion release ‘Expecting Honesty’ on 1st December

Six Time Champion's Facebook

Seaway Stream New EP

Absolute Punk are streaming Seaway's new EP 'All in My Head' a day before it's official release. Check it out here.