“We started to build a fan base with our original pop-punk sound and we haven't lost that completely, but we've just tried to and add an edge to our songs,” states Jason Bishop, frontman of Bath’s Montrose: “We don't want to just be another pop punk band; as much as we all love the genre and it's current resurgence, we wanted to make ourselves stand out.” Though Monster Under The Bed is still bristling with the kind of infectious vocal hooks most commonly brewed in the pop punk gene cauldron, it’s also laden with bursts of staccato, punchy guitar that wouldn’t be lost amongst the early output of the likes of Four Year Strong, Funeral For A Friend or Thrice, where riffs and memorable melody collided with kinetic synergy. Here Jason talks us through the creation of the artwork that accompanies this offering… In regards to the creation of our artwork, we saw a guy named MarkBell post in the UK Pop Punk group on Facebook, as he was looking for bands to do work for. After checking out his portfolio of previous work for a bunch of other bands, for both CD and merch designs, we knew we had to get him in to do our EP cover.
We basically allowed him to have as much creative freedom as he wanted, as a former graphic designer I know how much this can help certain artists get their best results!
The general idea and theme of the EP itself is around the idea of having "monsters" under your bed, and how as a kid you're kept awake at night by the thoughts of monsters coming to get you. As you get older these 'monsters' just become our real life worries that keep us up at night, and that's what each song on the EP is about.
With that in mind, we had a chat with Mark and told him exactly that, and he was stoked to be able to play around with the idea. As you can see, what we got what obviously a literal interpretation of the idea and we couldn't be happier with it. He's done a great job, and I seriously recommend him to any bands, brands or companies that are after artwork!
Monsters Under The Bed is released June 15th! Check out the video for Underperformer below:
On the first Wednesday of every month, The Bodega, located
in Nottingham, opens its doors to Sugar Ape, an alternative club night with some
extra entertainment thrown into the mix. Alternative nights seem to have become more
popular in recent years, proving that clubbing isn't just for those who prefer dance music.
Sugar Ape plays a
mix of pop punk, rock and metal while also having themes such as Mario Kart, beach party and even a onesie themed night. We headed down on the 6th of May, a
Mario-Kart themed night, to find out what Sugar Ape has to offer.
Upon entry, which was £2, and up a staircase we were greeted
with free shots, which is never a bad thing when you’re a poor student. We also
received a cup full of free sweets from the bar, in line with the Mario-Kart
theme. The venue was also a perfect size with the dance floor being spacious
enough to hold plenty of people without being smothered in a sea of bodies
throughout the night. Upon entering the dance floor was uninhabited apart from
a few eager souls. However, after about 15 minutes Sugar Ape soon started to
fill up with people swiftly arriving to liven up their Wednesday night.
Sugar Ape offers a great selection of drinks. You can buy
two Jaegerbombs for £3.50, singles are £2 and doubles are £3. We also tried
Sugar Ape’s own drink, Gorilla Piss which is a secret formula that vaguely
resembles orange juice and lemonade. The drink comes in a pitcher at £8 which
is a great choice to share with your mates.
The music at Sugar Ape is great. They play all sorts from
Set Your Goals, Sum 41, The All American Rejects to Drowning Pool, Slipknot and
Linkin Park. If you’re the person that grew up on Kerrang and Scuzz you’ll have
the greatest time with Panic! At the Disco, My Chemical Romance and Bowling For
Soup all featuring in the playlist. However, they don’t just play rock, metal
and pop punk, Sugar Ape throw in the occasional bout of dubstep and hip hop.
The Mario Kart theme
at Sugar Ape was awesome. They also
included a TV in the corner so you could play Mario Kart while listening to
great music. This was a nice touch and
meant that when your feet started to hurt from dancing too much, you didn’t
just have to sit down unoccupied in the corner.
Overall, Sugar Ape was a really fun night. The music was great,
the drinks were well priced, complete with an enthralling atmosphere. It was also refreshing to go to a club night that played enjoyable music while also having a unique theme that gave the night an extra exciting twist. My sole complaint is that it’s only occurs once a month.
The next Sugar Ape night is on the 3rd of June.
Check out the Facebook event here.
Earlier this year, Montreal band, Powernap released their debut EP Oreosmith. The band are a side project of The Saint Catherines singer Hugo Mudie who also provides the vocals for Powernap. Oreosmith is a collection of fast paced punk rock songs that never run low on energy while also attaining engaging and uplifting riffs. We asked Hugo a few questions about Oreosmith and all it has to offer...
WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
I’m from Montreal.
HOW DID YOUR BAND FORM?
We wanted to play songs together to have a reason to see each other.
DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND IN FIVE WORDS FOR SOMEONE WHO MIGHT NOT HAVE HEARD YOUR MUSIC BEFORE
veggie dogs with hot peppers.
YOU RECENTLY RELEASED YOUR NEW EP 'OREOSMITH', TELL US A BIT ABOUT IT...
It’s our first 6 songs. The artwork is orange and blue. If you put it in a record playing device it plays the music that we recorded. It sounds nothing like this.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG FROM OREOSMITH AND WHY?
Live Slow, Die Whenever. 'Cause it’s a good advice.
IF YOU COULD TOUR ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD WHERE WOULD IT BE?
Jamaïca, I’d love to smoke weed there, even though I don’t smoke weed here.
DO YOU PREFER RECORDING OR PLAYING LIVE?
Recording, the thing with playing live is that it involves speaking with other bands about gear and booking agents which I don’t care about, and also, you have to go to bed late. I don’t like that either. I can record during the day and not talk about much, cuz I’m too busy signing and faking that I need to rest my voice when I’m not signing.
WHAT ARE YOUR TOP FIVE FAVOURITE ALBUMS AT THE MOMENT?
1989 by Taylor Swift, Yours To Keep de Albert Hammond Jr, Ariane ZIta EP, Acidrap by Chance The Rapper, Bloom by Beach House. Oreosmith is out now via Asian Man / Klownhouse Recordz. Listen to it in full below:
If you're looking for some new pop punk to listen to over the summer months, you have come to the right place. Manchester four-piece, Get Up Go, are just about to release their sophomore EP, You Jump, I Jump. The EP consists of three songs which incorporate raw energy, infectious melodies and thrilling riffs. We asked Get Up Go a few questions about what we could expect from their new EP...
HOW ARE YOU GUYS?
We're fantastic with a capital F! How could we be any lower? I mean, we just dropped a new video, we have an awesome new EP coming out and we are still rocking out with every waking breath.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE NAME FOR YOU JUMP, I JUMP?
Anders. It's always Anders. He comes up with the names we just pick one that we like. He probably has some sort of soppy meaningful reason for it, or its a line from one of his favourite rom-coms but we all liked it. It's kind of a reminder that being in a band is the epitome of teamwork and if any of these guys said jump, the rest would ask "how high?", no matter what.
TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE RECORDING PROCESS...
It was really fun, as per usual. Granted, we had a couple of late nights and struggles with arrangement and such but on the whole we really love the whole process. We also noticed how much better at it we had gotten since last time. We were a lot better rehearsed and much more relaxed going in. It shows through in the recordings. We had no stress and lots of laughs.
IF YOU COULD SUM UP YOU JUMP, I JUMP IN 5 WORDS, WHAT WOULD THEY BE?
If you're looking for a statement we'd say... Fun loving, good time tunes!
Or were you looking for separate words? In that case Big, fast, bouncy, uplifting, singalong.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG FROM YOU JUMP, I JUMP AND WHY?
Collectively I feel it's 'BK, Like OMG!' Hence the reason we chose to shoot a video for it. It's about something we all hold dear to our hearts and that love will never EVER die. Not ever!
HOW DID YOU GO ABOUT PICKING THE ARTWORK FOR YOU JUMP, I JUMP?
We did what we always do, butt heads for about a week before someone says "Let's do this!" Then we all agree. We made it ourselves. We like to put that extra touch into the releases because we're proud and we want to show our creativity within every aspect of what we do.
You Jump, I Jump is out June 1st. Check out the video for BK, Like OMG! below:
Today for our up and coming post, we have Welsh band, Storyteller. The guys have just released their new EP, 'A Place By Your Hopes', which was recorded at Longwave Studios (Decade, Save Your Breath) and mastered by Troy Glesner at Spectre ( Neck Deep, Being as an Ocean). The EP is a mix of fast paced, intoxicating songs, perfect for fans of Knuckle Puck, Trash Boat or Such Gold. We asked vocalist, Finn Orrell, a few question to get to know a bit more about Storyteller and their new EP...
WHERE ARE YOU FROM? We live in South Wales! We're all scattered though. Half of us live an hours drive away from each other. We're based in Swansea mostly, that's where we practice. None of us live there. TELL US A BIT ABOUT STORYTELLER'S HISTORY, HOW DID YOU GUYS FORM?Me and [lead guitarist] Mason were friends in School. We used to come in to registration and get stoked on bands like Such Gold, Four Year Strong, The Story So Far etc. and one day we decided "we can do that!". We were probably like 15 at the time. We really wanted to be Four Year Strong so we played Easycore music for a while with some other school friends. We totally couldn't do it, we sucked to begin with. Then I met [rhythm guitarist] Alex through mutual friends one day and we were hanging out in some guys car and he put a Transit CD on and I was like "dude I love Transit!" he was like "no way?", then I found out he played guitar and I asked him to join my band. We had some other members for a while until me and Mason met our drummer Kyle in college and he joined the permanent lineup. We're actually down a bassist at the moment so holla if you play.
YOU'RE ABOUT TO DROP YOUR NEW EP A PLACE BY YOUR HOPES, TELL US A BIT ABOUT IT... Well, although it's only a 5 track EP, we sort of wrote it like an album. All the songs kind of fit together. The lyrics are about a certain 6 months of my life that weren't a good time for me. Each song sort of takes place in chronological order, looking at the events from whatever viewpoint I was looking at them from at the time. I think we pretty much wrote each song after the other so it does make sense. It's quite fast paced and aggressive, but the lyrics are mostly sad.
IF YOU DESCRIBE A PLACE BY YOUR HOPES IN THREE WORDS WHAT WOULD THEY BE?
That's a hard one! I hate when you get asked stuff like this in job interviews. I'd say it's say it's aggressive, honest, sad.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG FROM A PLACE BY YOUR HOPES AND WHY? Confines. It's probably the darkest song and it's got this massive part at the end where there's about 4 guitar layers and 3 vocal layers and it's just like this massive wall of sound.
HOW DID YOU GO ABOUT CHOOSING THE ARTWORK FOR THE EP? I actually designed it myself! We were originally going to have a snake coming up out of the water in the girls palms but I couldn't draw a snake so I did a house instead.
IF YOU COULD PLAY A SHOW WITH ANY BAND WHO WOULD IT BE?
Probably Slayer. How sick would that be?
WHAT ARE YOUR TOP FIVE FAVOURITE POP PUNK ALBUMS? This is a difficult one too because I don't listen to a lot of Pop-Punk bands anymore. Brand New - Your Favourite Weapon will always be one of the best. I still listen to TSSF's What You Don't See record, and their new one is tite. I'd say Floral Green by Title Fight and Colourmeinkindness by Basement, although they're not really Pop-Punk albums.. they're kinda in the scene though.
A Place By Your Hopes is out now! Check it out below:
Though only a year young, UK pop punk newcomers Trash Boat have made little short of a flying start. The St Albans based quintet came bursting out of the blocks in July 2014 with their debut E.P, the aptly titled ‘Look Alive’. Boasting buoyant guitar licks and vocal melodies custom built for impregnation on the temporal lobe, ‘Look Alive’ saw Trash Boat quickly capturing attention. A flurry of live activity followed, the band hitting the road to share stages alongside Me Vs. Hero, Light You Up, Roam, Homebound, Six Time Champion and Knuckle Puck. They then secured a sought-after place on the Hopeless roster, alongside such well respected names as All Time Low, Neck Deep, Taking Back Sunday and New Found Glory. Trash Boat have been hard at work on the follow up to debut EP, with brand new E.P ‘Brainwork’, which just saw release on 18th May. Here vocalist Tobi goes through the work, track by track…
"Compared to our debut release ‘Look Alive’ we actually wrote this EP fairly quickly. Our first EP was still fresh in our minds and we felt this was going to be a solid continuation of something we were pretty happy with and had received a really good response from so far.
Sound wise we were really going for that chunk, as if a hardcore band had just done a pop punk album, I’m stoked on the tone, I mean…listen to Taylor, that intro is phat as.
TAYLOR
Taylor was the first part of a longer song that I was writing lyrics for. When I laid down demo vocals over the riff we were trying out, it sounded huge and we were really pleased, we decided to keep it short as it was a perfect introduction to Brainwork, as it builds up the energy nicely.
It was the first song we heard with all the instruments recorded in the studio and it got us really excited as we’d been listening to our scratchy bedroom demos for so long, the difference was awesome and it really bought the tracks to life.
The lyrics are a reference to a certain group of medical ‘professionals’ who continuously let me down over the years, I will be writing more songs on this topic in the future, but for now it’s just this snippet.
SAVING FACE I was torn as to whether I liked Saving Face at first, but it has grown on me to the point where it is nearly my favourite track! It was originally going to be in the same key as ‘Perspective’ (I was suggesting this) but I’m so glad we kept it lower as it’s in a far more comfortable register live!
I try to make an effort to not ramble on about relationships, as its way too cliché and the topic doesn’t really hold enough significance to me to write multiple songs about, and that’s kind of what Saving Face is about: my general apathy towards relationships, my inability to voice my anxieties about them and how it has affected each subsequent relationship as they randomly appear in my life.
PERSPECTIVE (Check out the video here)
Perspective (lyrically) is probably the most emotive track on the EP andit took the longest to write as it was chopped and changed a lot. It was the last song we did and the studio was fast approaching, we were spending hours every day trying to get it right and we were close to being sick of, even on the way to the studio! Once we heard it recorded properly and started tracking vocals though we knew the hard work had paid off, banger!
The lyrics cover a specific day a few years back where I was woken from what was supposed to be routine joint surgery to having a group of doctors around me with varying sombre looks on their faces, along with my parents who had already been told the shitty news that I wasn’t going to be getting better anytime soon. It was pretty tough, it exposed me to emotional aspects of myself and my parents that I had never seen before. It was pretty overwhelming being confronted with it all at once, whilst coming to terms with the fact that I just had to deal with it. Lucky for me though I have some pretty awesome friends and family who were all there to help me slap a fat smiley face sticker on the whole situation!
AS SEEN ON SCREEN
As Seen On Screen is probably my favourite instrumentally, it’s got some real fucking bounce to it and is so much fun to jam live. That song just fell together like it was written for us, barely altered, it was pretty much there in the first draft.
I didn’t want this song to be another sad jam so the lyrics aren’t as brutally emotional as the rest of them, so it keeps up the pace of being honest and aggressive in some respects, but it’s much less personal. From the age of 15 I’ve been drifting from one mind numbing job to another, under the guise of finding a career as that seemed to be the thing to do. I felt I was too young to pursue higher education, along with the maturity it required, so I held off on going to uni and got a job. I know in some respects it can seem as though I’m coming off as ungrateful, I was always appreciative of the fact I had steady work, but I was always considering the fact that I could be doing shit like this for the majority of my life and that thought scared the shit out of me! So I saved up enough to support myself while doing band stuff and wrote a fucking song about it, chasin’ the dream.
ELEVEN
Eleven is my favourite tune overall, the energy is through the roof and that’s what I’m all about, getting a room full of people to kick off and throw themselves off stuff into stuff, expect the energy to continue to rise in our future records.
Again, this was a tune that really fell together, only some swapping of the structure closer to the studio. The lyrics to this song poured out, it was tough picking the right ones as I have a bunch more that will be the topic of some tunes in the future, they mean a great deal to me, but I’m afraid their content can’t be explained as I don’t feel it is my place.
Brainwork is out now! Check out Trash Boat's new video for Eleven below:
For Today's up and coming pop punk band post, we're bringing to you Sweet Little Machine who hail from Sheffield. The band have recently been in the studio recording a number of singles which they are releasing over the next few weeks. Sweet Little Machine have already released 2 singles; Save Our Bones and We Used To Own These Playgrounds. Both songs incorporate a mix of summery pop punk, both with unforgettable melodies. The two singles exert an abundance of energy mixed with catchy riffs. We asked the band a few questions about their new music, whether they prefer recording or playing live and how their guitarist/ vocalist Alex ended up singing on stage with Green Day...
WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
Sheffield, England!
HOW DID YOU FORM?
It all started from going to school together and growing up being in different bands that all played together around Sheffield. Over time people left those bands for various reasons and slowly we all started coming together to form 'Sweet Little Machine'.
It was a bit of a strange beginning. There never seemed to be a decision about starting the band together, it just started happening. At the same time it was quite strange for us as it was like starting all over again. We were writing, gigging and creating a band for the first time together. However, it seems to have turned out for the best and to become 'the band built on broken bands'.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH YOUR BAND NAME?
There are many different theories of where the name originated from. My favourite is that it's named after a certain adult toy commonly sold in shops like Ann Summers.
YOU'VE RECENTLY BEEN IN THE RECORDING STUDIO, TELL US A BIT ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE BEEN UP TO...
We have been in the studio with Jim Pinder at Treehouse Studios recording a bunch of singles we're going to release over the next few weeks, the first of which being 'Save Our Bones' which is available now, following up with the second release "We Used to Own These Playgrounds". As well as that we have been gigging, making a few music videos for the tracks and finishing writing some more songs we're going to record in June time.
YOUR VOCALIST/GUITARIST ALEX GOT PULLED ON STAGE BY BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG TO SING WITH GREEN DAY AT WEMBLEY AND SHEFFIELD ARENA, HOW DID THAT COME ABOUT?
Each time Green Day play, they pull people out of the audience to sing/play a song with them. While at Sheffield arena, Alex was lucky enough to be pulled onstage and get to play Longview with them before being crowd surfed away into the audience!
DO YOU PREFER RECORDING OR PLAYING LIVE?
We have always been more of a live band than studio band. Not because we prefer either of the two, just because there's something incredible about sharing what you have worked so hard to create, whilst being in the same room as others.
What is amazing about being in the studio is that's where the songs really become their own and they get their own personalities. What was great about working with Jim was he pushed us as far as he could, just to make sure that the recording's were the best they possibly could be. After all the writing and recording has been pieced together and you get to listen back to the finished product, it's probably the closest way we can listen to our own music as if it was an outside point of view and we get to really critic our own songs.
However there is still something you cant take away from getting to play live, like the moments just before you go on and your getting that rush of adrenalin from not knowing how its going to go, how the audience will react and if people will even like you. When you do get to play an amazing show and the crowd gets really involved its a felling that can't really be taken away from you whatever kind of day you have had, and even though we have played these songs hundreds of times by now, what through practising, recording and playing live, its just a feeling that never seams to get old.
IF YOU COULD PLAY A SHOW WITH ANY BAND WHO WOULD IT BE?
We're really digging a band called "I Am The Avalanche". Not only do we love their music, we think we'd fit pretty well on a bill with them! Their shows are really fun and energetic, you can sing along to every song, which is what we like in music and the direction that we try to take our live shows in.
WHAT ARE YOU TOP FIVE FAVOURITE POP PUNK ALBUMS?
Well split this one up and do one each and then one we have all been inspired by!
Alex: Danger Days - My Chemical Romance
Adam: Beautiful Let-down - Switchfoot
Lucy: Infinity on High - Fall Out Boy
Joel: Dookie - Green Day
Bands Choice: American Idiot - Green Day
Each one of our individual albums have a place in our hearts. Each of these artists and albums have given inspiration to us in the music that we write for the songs like "Saves Our Bones" and "Playgrounds". And as for the group album that's the one album that we've all been inspired by and got us into pop punk. Listen to Sweet Little Machine's new single, We Used To Own These Playgrounds, above! Sweet Little Machine's Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud
Pop punk bands can be found all over the world. One such example is Never Too Late who hail from Brazil. The band have just released their new EP 'Premiere' which is packed with five songs of poppy melodies contrasted with heavy and exhilarating riffs. We asked them a few questions about their new EP, the story behind their band name and what it's like writing songs in a different language... WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
All of us live in the same city: Sao Paulo, Brazil!
HOW DID YOU FORM?
The band was formed up in 2013 with Gustavo (vocals), Thiago (drums) and Rodrigo (bass). Jonas (guitars) joined us a couple months later, followed up by Tonon (guitars/backings) and here we are! We're all friends in common and we met each other from quite some time ago in the past, so it was easy to gather the idea of forming a band together.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH YOUR BAND NAME?
This name came from a tattoo on Gustavo's arm that says "Never Too Old" and after some debate we've finally got to "Never Too Late". That's basically our main goal as a band: it's "Never Too Late" to do what we like the most, whenever we want, and enjoy every second of it.
YOU'VE JUST RELEASED YOUR NEW EP PREMIERE, TELL US A BIT ABOUT IT...
Premiere marks the first time that we wrote in English. It was a big change to us, and a big step forward too, now we can reach many more people and spread our message to the whole world.We worked with the Brazilian producer Gab Scatolin to record these songs, who's played guitar for some great Brasilian pop punk bands ( Feijão com Arroz, Cueio Limão) and helped us very much on reaching the final result.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG FROM PREMIERE AND WHY?
I think it's very difficult to choose one favourite song from the entire EP, each song has a different message, a different feeling, every song in this record means a lot to us, but if this means something, our first music video from Premiere will be from "May the Force be With You"
THIS IS YOU FIRST RELEASE IN A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE, WAS IT A CHALLENGE TO WRITE THE SONGS IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE?
Yes, certainly it was a big deal because this isn't a language that we use a lot in our daily routine. This is the kind of challenge that was worth all the effort at the end of the process. We're very proud of what we have made for this EP!
IF YOU COULD PLAY A SHOW ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD WHERE WOULD IT BE?
It would be awesome being able to do a gig at Warped Tour, alongside the bands we like.
WHAT ARE YOUR TOP FIVE FAVOURITE POP PUNK ALBUMS?
Thiago: The Story So Far - What You Don't See
Mauricio: Blink 182 - Take of Your Pants
Jonas: Four year strong - Enemy of The World
Gustavo :New Found Glory – Resurrection
Rodrigo: New Found Glory - Catalyst Premiere is out now! Check it out below:
For a band that have only been around for a year, Trash Boat have already come a long way. Last year, the band released their first EP Look Alive which certified them as one of the foremost UK pop punk bands around at the moment. Now, a year later, the band have just announced that they've signed to Hopeless Records following in the footsteps of Neck Deep and ROAM. With the signing, the guys also announced that they would be releasing their new EP 'Brainwork' just in time for the summer months. Brainwork starts off with Taylor, a minute long opener which kick things off straight away. After a captivating start, the song shoots into a fast, up-beat, rhythmic section with fervent vocals. The EP then launches into Saving Face, another of Brainwork's rapid-paced tracks with an engrossing riff. The lyrics are self-loathing and sincere, structured into a melodic chorus. Up next is Perspective which Trash Boat have just released a video for. Lyrically, Perspective attends to vocalist Tobi Duncan's health issues and the torment and adversity can be detected through his fierce vocals. At first, the song starts off slowly but the pace soon picks. The song is a dynamic mix of energy blended with a powerful vocal melody. The fourth song, As Seen On Our Screen, deals with the struggles of a tedious job and trying to escape to find something better. The song is definitely one that stands out, with the opening riff instantly able to capture your attention. The chorus on this song is also striking, coinciding nicely with the catchy, intoxicating riffs and the wholehearted lyrics. The final song, Eleven, is definitely the most fast paced. However, it does slow down towards the end, combined with gang vocals which chant 'rip my heart from my sleeve, sinking deep inside my chest'. It's a vigorous close to the EP, with a profusion of energy which is ingrained with ardent lyrics. Overall, Brainwork is an EP loaded with rapid, breakneck songs which only slow down for a second or so. Every song is filled with enthralling guitar parts, earnest lyrics and a vehement tempo. The lyrics cover themes such as health, self-scrutiny and escaping terrible jobs; it's easy to depict a crowd of people shouting these lyrics back when played live. Brainwork leans more towards the punk than pop side of pop-punk and Trash Boat pull it off well. It's clear that Trash Boat have stuck to all the elements that made their previous EP Look Alive great, while also not becoming too repetitive. Brainwork is out on the 18th of May. Stream it below:
Manchester pop punks, Landmarks, have just released their brand new EP, Fighting Gravity, the follow up to their debut EP Running On Empty, which was released in 2013. Fighting Gravity contains five songs of zealous, up-beat vigour, proving once again that UK pop punk is really making a statement at the moment. The first track, '40mg', is a lively, energetic opener. It soon becomes evident, after about twenty seconds, that Landmarks definitely know what they are doing when it comes to writing pop punk songs. The guitar parts are sprightly, the lyrics are sincere and it also possesses a rapid tempo. The EP then launches into 'Comfort In These Chords', which is brisk from the start. The chorus on this track is outstanding, with the unforgettable vocal melody complimenting the heavier guitar parts well. The latter half of this song is filled with unrestrained energy which instantly grips your attention. Up next is 'Worse For Wear', which is a vivacious song, complete with a buoyant vocal melody and dynamic guitar parts. 'Worse For Wear' then leads into 'Bones' which, despite being a slower song, provides an abundance of energy. It contains a sense of ardent emotion integrated with candid lyrics. Sometimes it can seem a little cliché to throw in a sad song on an EP, but Landmarks pull it off well. You can hear and feel the raw emotion obtruding throughout the song, especially with the vocals. The last song on the EP, 'Catapults', displays Landmarks's slightly heavier side. Although it starts softly, it quickly transforms into vehement, energetic song, hampered with alluring riffs. Overall, Fighting Gravity is an exceptional EP. It's packed with fun, vigorous songs, whilst also obtaining forthright, honest and mature lyrics.Even though the cover is grey, this EP will definitely not leave you feeling sorrowful. Landmarks have incorporated a classic pop punk sound whilst also putting their own spin on things; the heavier guitar riffs in some parts add a nice touch and the vocal parts are impressively catchy. If you're a fan of bands like Boston Manor and Six Time Champion, then Fighting Gravity is definitely something you should check out... Fighting Gravity is out now! Check out the video for '40mg' below:
Fireworks are going on hiatus after they have embarked on their upcoming shows in the UK and the States. The band posted this statement on Facebook: 'There's no way to express how much your love and support has meant to Fireworks - and furthermore, to us as individuals over the last 8 years or so. After these upcoming gigs are ripped, we will be taking a break for awhile to give the other sides of life a try. We really don't know how long "awhile" is, but you'll be the first to know when we figure that out. Hope to see everyone this Spring and Summer. Fireworks Forever'. We wish them all the best for the future.
Two years ago, Birmingham based band, Light You Up, recorded their first full-length album at The Panda Studios with Sam Pura (Basement, The Story So Far, State Champs) in Fremont, California. At the beginning of the year the band finally released their debut album 'All We've Ever Known' to a warm reception. Following the release, the band embarked on the Pure Noise Records tour alongside Forever Came Calling, Hit The Lights and Four Year Strong. We spoke to Tom Napier (vocals), Drew Masters (guitar) and Rob Taylor (guitar), about their time with Sam Pura, their thoughts on meet and greets and all things tour related.
HOW ARE YOU GUYS TODAY?
Tom: The whole tour thus far has been sweet. It's the fourth day and I feel like we've been doing it for two weeks. We’re absolutely knackered but we finally got a good night’s sleep last night. Glasgow was a messy one, there was a lot of floor sleeping and stuff like that.
WE’RE REALLY INTERESTED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR TIME WITH SAM PURA, WHAT IS HE LIKE?
Drew: He’s like the most unique person.
Tom: He’s super, super passionate about making a perfect record. It was difficult sometimes, he was like ‘yo, come on, we've got to get this done’ but it definitely pushed us to get the best sort of sound. Pre-production was really useful as well and not really something we’d done before with previous records and stuff. So the song, All We've Ever Known sounded hella different to what it does now. Like now, it’s got quite a traditional song structure, whereas beforehand there was some like weird bridge between and a couple of verses before a chorus would come in and stuff and Sam was just like ‘yo, guys this doesn't make any sense at all’. So there was kind of a lot of passing the songs. He was like ‘this doesn’t need to be there and it’s kind of irrelevant’ and whatever. So that was a real big learning curve for us.
Drew: That pre-production side where we spent a week going through the songs ripping them apart, we’d never had someone external, as in someone not in the band, who comes along and gives their opinion into our dynamic which was great. He made a big difference. The album wouldn't sound how it does without Sam. Sam’s definitely got his way of working which we kind of had to learn and work together in getting at. We’re really proud of how the album's come out, a big part of that is him. On top of that, it’s not that publicised that we also had Romesha guy from Wales. He mixed the record and he also had a huge impact in making the album what it is. The combination of those two were a perfect storm for us. So it was really cool.
HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT PICKING WHO YOU WORK WITH? DO YOU PICK THEM OR WILL THEY COME TO YOU?
Tom: We picked,kind of I guess. It was a case of we were looking at doing the full-length or whatever and we we could have gone with Romesh. A big part of it for me was that I wanted to record somewhere out of the country because I wanted to be away from home-life distractions and stuff like that and really immerse ourselves in the recording process. So, being in a different country was kind of the big selling point for me.
Drew: That ended up becoming a really important element, being away. We lived in the studio for a month so it meant that even when Sam wouldgo home, we would still practise until like 4 or 5 in the morning and we could because we were there. Whereas, we’d normally go home if we were back in England. That was really important. At the same time, once we’d kind of shortened down the people we’d like to work with, the thing that really stood out about Sam was that he really, really wanted to work with us. As a young new band you don’t know if you’re ever going to make a record and when you do you don’t know if you’re ever going to make another one. So we wanted to make this one everything it could be and we wanted to work with someone who wanted to work with us and Sam really stood out for that, you know.
WHAT WAS YOUR DAY-TO-DAY LIFE LIKE AT THE PANDA STUDIOS? WAS EVERY DAY DIFFERENT?
Tom: Yeah definitely. The whole thing was a wicked experience. Sam would take us to go and see some cool places around the city and stuff. In the evenings he would be really conscious of if we wanted to stay and write or if we wanted to go and have some down-time and have some beers and see some cool places and whatnot. There was definitely no routine and I thrive off that sort of thing.
Drew: It was an energised environment. We were so excited to be there. Sam was hyped on the songs. During pre-production, we were in a room together playing the songs, recording the album live at the time so that we could listen back and kind of tweak things and change parts of the songs. You've got Sam like jumping around the room in excitement and you just feed off the energy, it’s an amazing thing. So we did have some kind of routine in a way, that about 7 in the morning, every morning, he would burst into our room and dive on all of us and wake us up, singing songs, singing our songs to us. So I think that vibe is something that we’ll never forget. He’s the most energetic person I have ever, ever met.
Tom: From sun up, till sun down he was jacked up.
Drew: While there was some sort of routine, it was the most unpredictable atmosphere I've ever been in. Which made it another cool experience.
DID YOU GET TO SEE A LOT OF THE AREA WHEN YOU WERE OUT THERE?
Tom: Unfortunately not, we saw bits but the studio was in Fremont which is like the country side of San Francisco. So it was a good hour, hour and a half to the city center. But he took us out we saw some cool places and stuff. I think if I went back there’s definitely a lot more of the city I’d like to see but that definitely didn't dampen the mood of the recording process for sure.
Drew: What we did see was awesome. Over near Fremont there’s like San Jose and Palo Alto. There’s Google and Pixar. It’s a really amazing place to be. Twice a week we’d maybe drive into the city and go to a bar or something. We didn't get to see as much as we’d like to, but we weren't there to do that. We tried to make the most of that but we were also trying to make the record but it just cool to be in such a different environment.
DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD WORK WITH SAM AGAIN?
Drew: We've talked about bringing him over here to make a record and I think we maybe know a bit more about what we want now. I think he helped guide us really, really well to get to what the record ended up being but I think we know about more about what Sam is now and a bit more about what we’re about, so I think we’d be able to use Sam a bit more to our advantage as well as him helping us so much.
Tom: It’s almost been two years since we did the record, so I think we've all grown up a lot since then and personally I think I just want to keep on working with different people. There’s a lot of awesome producers out there at the moment who I think it would be really, really cool to work with. So, as and when the time comes and if it does, to record album 2 then I suppose we’ll cross that bridge when it comes to it.
Drew: We’re already writing for the second record but once we've kind of got an idea of when that will be, we’ll figure out who’s best to facilitate that with us. But Sam’s definitely always going to have a place in our hearts.
Tom: I’m not going to forget the guy for sure.
WHO ARE YOU GUY’S FAVOURITE UP UK POP PUNK BANDS?
Drew: We do listen to pop punk but we listen to a lot of rock bands like Decade, who we think are fucking awesome. I don’t know if you would say that’s pop punk? But the UK rock scene is great right now. Decade great band, Verses great band. I mean, we’re good friends with a load of other UK pop punk bands but we’re more towards the Decade side of things, than the As It Is and ROAM side of things. However, they’re all great bands.
Tom: They’re all great bands, don’t get me wrong.
Drew: I think it’s one of those things where it’s great to be involved in all of those things right now. There’s loads of good bands, loads of good dudes, right? I’m trying to think of who else. Like Lonely The Brave.
Tom: That band man, are so good. Their most recent album is just wicked. I did a little run down on my favourite albums of last year and I’m pretty sure I put those guys at the top.
Drew: Yeah, I think you did.
Tom: Yeah that album is just really, really something special. His voice is really something.
Drew: And his style, the way he stands away from the front of the stage.
Tom: Yeah man. It’s cool, it’s really about the music, which I’m really on board with.
Drew: Moose Blood are cool, I like Moose Blood.
Tom: Definitely not a pop punk band but there’s a band called Black Peaks and their getting a lot of hype on radio one at the moment. If you don’t know that band they are weird as fuck but they’re cool. I get behind that a lot.
Drew: We do this thing where we have 10 songs each or something or 10 records each that we kind of throw around to each other, obviously not all pop punk, and it means it gives us all a chance to broaden our musical horizons so we all know the musical page each other is on. But right now, I would say there’s a lot of British bands. The British scene is really healthy right now. So we’re happy to be whatever part of it we are right now.
IF YOU COULD TOUR ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD WHERE WOULD YOU WANT TO GO?
Drew: I really want to go to Japan. We have a label in Japan who look after us really well. We can go there when we’re ready to go there. We've had a few tour offers there and we’re just waiting for the right time. Now that the records out I think hopefully we’ll be going in the foreseeable future and also the states I guess.
Tom: I would love to do the States. I think there’s so much to see and there’s so many different vibes and different cultures within one place. I’d really love to do that. Australia would be wicked to see. I just want to see lots of the world and meet lots of different people. It’s great that we can do that with the band and that would be awesome.
IS THAT ONE OF YOUR MAIN GOALS, TO TOUR AND SEE EVERYTHING?
Tom: Yeah pretty much. Personal goals, I just want to see the world and I love playing music so if we can do both of them at the same time, that’s great.
Drew: I mean, we’re not expecting to make millions doing this; we just do it because we enjoy it and it’s something different and interesting. It’s helped us as people. So I think travelling is a massive positive part of being in a band and I think we’ll always try and get to wherever we can.
DO YOU THINK A LOT OF PEOPLE MISINTERPRET WHAT IT’S LIKE BEING IN A BAND. FOR EXAMPLE, PEOPLE OFTEN THINK BANDS MAKE A LOT OF MONEY..
Rob: 100 percent.
Drew: I think that’s changing though but yes in general, the way I looked at bands when I was going to shows at 15, 16 to then realising that many of those bands that I loved and sang every word to, I thought they were rockstars, but they were actually struggling financially.
Tom: Your idea of making it changes so much. Like, from when I was a kid going to shows and stuff, if I was to see myself now I’d be like ‘wow dude you've made it, this is so crazy’ and yet I’m 24 years old and I live at home with my parents and I make fuck all money from this band. But, we make enough to put back into the band and to a degree, we’re self-sufficient. So I guess in that sense we've made it. I think that view's always going to change. Once you've got to the next level, you realise exactly where you’re at. I think the main thing for us is people giving an interest in our band, that’s the most important thing. It’s about getting your music out there and sharing it with as many people as possible.
Drew: I think a thing we've seen over the last few years is that, for some reason or another, bands seem to want to guard this rockstar lifestyle-like façade because they think it effects how people see them as successful or not, whether they’ll get into your band and maybe if you’re super, super young you might think differently; ‘well they look like rockstars, so they are rockstars, I want to listen to them rather than someone who doesn't’. Whereas, part of our thing that we do is that we want to let people know that the sole reason we do this is because we love to play music and there isn't anything else that we’re getting out of it other than interaction with the people that want to listen to us and enjoy playing music. Obviously we’d love to be comfortable financially but right now that’s the sole reason why we do it so why hide that, we’re proud of it.
Tom: I don’t ever want to be something we’re not and pretend to be something we’re not. My favourite thing is to come outside before shows and after shows and hang out with the people. The patrons who pay money to come see us, I want to give them something to take home. I want to get to know those people. I’m awful with names but I’m good with faces and there’s been people that, you know, have come seen our shows over the last 2, 3 years or whatever and we actually hang out as friends. They dig our band and stuff like that and I’m interested in what they do. There’s some people that we met 2 years ago who were in college, who are now going to university, following their dreams and stuff. That’s important to me too.
YOU GUYS SHARED SOMETHING A FEW MONTHS BACK ABOUT HOW FANS CAN COME AND MEET YOU FOR FREE, DO YOU GUYS HATE MEET AND GREETS?
Tom: Don’t get me wrong, I do understand meet and greets and stuff. Like Four Year Strong are doing a really cool thing this tour. It is a meet and greet, but also an additional performance, doing an acoustic set beforehand so that’s like an extra show, so I can make my piece with that kind of thing. But it’s the meet and greets where, I’m not going to name and shame any bands because I’m not about spreading hate, but there are bands who charge fans obscene amounts of money..
Drew: To have a picture where they’re an arm’s length away .
Tom: Two or three seconds of their time, that makes me sick because I don’t think you have to pay to meet someone at all. We give a fuck about the people who care about our music so we’re never, ever going to do that meet and greet thing.
Drew: The fans or the people that listen to your music, are the people that care the most about you. There’s a fine line between them supporting you and you taking advantage of that support and I think if you’re straight up with your fans or with the patrons that come listen to your band, they’ll always help you. I think that type of arm’s length, meet and greet type of thing is covering up the fact that the band is trying to maximise the amount of money they make out of it just because it’s harder to make money in the music industry now. I understand from a business point of view but there’s ways to go about that in a better way for your fans, the people that put you there in the first place. I think Tom feels very strongly about it as we all do. The post that we put out about the meet and greet was in response to seeing a lot of other bands totally unconnected with this scene, it was devoid of any emotion, of anything else apart from the fact that they wanted to make extra money.
Tom: It was like ‘oh you like our band? Sick, give us loads of money’ and that’s it.
Drew: It’s not all bands, we understand that we’re super young and naïve and as we get older we’re going to have to become more independent and I guess there’s more pressure on supporting yourself and sometimes there’s that fine line.
Tom: From a business perspective, it does make total sense in maximising your profit and whatever but then I think there’s a level of morality and it shouldn't ever be at the expense of the fans. Rou from Enter Shikari put up a really good post a couple of months ago and he was talking about meet and greets and stuff, and he was saying how you should never have to pay for being in the presence of another human being because that’s just stupid, they’re just another human being, just like everyone else. I really back that mentality.
WHEN YOU’RE ON TOUR WHAT DO YOU GUYS EAT? IS IT FAST FOOD 24/7?
Tom: We try to eat as healthy as we can but it’s tough you know. Like sometimes we’ll wake up super late and we've got 3 hours until sound check and the drive is 2 and a half hours or whatever so we've got to smash it on the road and maybe we’ll pass a petrol station and we’ll have a MacDonalds. You’re like ‘we don’t want to eat crap food again but I’ve got to eat’. But there’s times like today we got here a little bit earlier and we had a bit of time to walk around Nottingham and stuff and we get some slightly better food.
Drew: It just depends on the day, we try and eat healthily. Over time we've tried to have vitamins and stuff on tour.
Tom: Berrocas every day, man.
IT’S SO LUCKY THAT YOU’RE ON TOUR WHEN IT’S MACDONALD'S MONOPOLY.
Drew: I think a few people have won some stuff on this tour. Well you know, like a free big mac.
Tom: Do you remember back in the day when it used to be half a million? Then like a couple of years ago it was like down to 10 grand or something.
WHEN YOU’RE ON TOUR AND STUFF HOW DO YOU WASH YOUR CLOTHES?
Tom: You don’t!
Drew: We try and wash our clothes at friend’s houses and stuff if it’s longer tours. I was lucky enough to do some US tours tour managing for other bands before. It was cool and it was a great experience but touring for like three weeks on this tour it’s kind of like right on the limit of getting by and wearing other band’s merch and going to a launderette maybe once or twice but as tours get longer across the states and stuff, and its hotter and you have to wash your stuff because it’s just not comfortable otherwise. But we survive don’t we? We’re still young.
DREW, DO YOU PREFER BEING BEHIND THE SCENES AS A TOUR MANAGER OR BEING ON STAGE YOURSELF?
Drew: It was a massive learning curve doing the tour managing stuff because I learnt a lot of the politics behind this type of thing. Which has made us, touch wood, avoid some pitfalls other bands fall in to. But at the same time it made me appreciate playing a show even more because I did tours for months on end where I didn't play.
Tom: You get the itch right?
Drew: Absolutely. Because you see people play every show and singing along to those words and you want to be part of that. Especially when you feel you have an outlet for that but it’s not there yet or not ready yet. So now we've obviously worked on this band and we’re pushing it and that’s what we do now. It’s fulfilling and fun. Spencer who’s our tour manager, we kind of do everything together and I co-manage the band as well. I still kind of get to fulfill that bit of the business interest and also get to play as well.
Tom: The best of both worlds.
Drew: Exactly.
HOW OLD WERE YOU GUYS WHEN YOU LEARNT TO PLAY GUITAR AND SING?
Tom: Early teens I would say.
Drew: You came out singing didn't you?
Tom: Yeah pretty much. I probably abused my voice in ways that a singer shouldn't but I feel like I get by. I understand my body to a degree. When I was like 7 or 8 years old I was really into Linkin Park and I would just try and imitate Chester Bennington’s voice and I definitely wasn't doing that shit correctly but I think because I've always sung like that my body has kind of adapted to doing that. I came off stage last night and I was like ‘oh no, I can’t speak’ but today I’m absolutely fine so it is just kind of taking it easy and knowing your body and stuff. But, I've been doing this for as long as I can remember. I started playing guitar at like 13. You guys started at about what, 10?
Rob: Yeah I was about 10.
Drew: Tom our bassist and I started guitar lessons, like classical Spanish guitar lessons when we were like 9. We learnt like ‘My Heart Will Go On’ and stuff and after about a year we both gave up because we weren't enjoying that and we both still had guitars and started teaching ourselves. We've known each other for years and I suppose it has just become something we do.
WHAT ARE FAVOURITE ALBUMS OF ALL TIME?
Tom: In recent years, Deaf Havana’s Fools and Worthless Liars.That album came out at the perfect time for me. James’s lyrics had a big impact on me and that has influenced my writing style recently. The Goo Goo Dolls put out a record in ’95. That was the first album that came out and got me interested in music. It’s the album with Iris on, everyone knows that song and it has some wicked other songs as well. Those two records are really important to me even though they’re like 15, 20 years apart. I love acoustic-y rock kind of stuff but I love lots of hip-hop as well and pop music is a big thing for me. I love pop music.
Drew:The Beatles are my favourite band ever. But at the same time that’s part of my growing up and stuff. I grew up listening to bands like that and also soul and Motown. Stevie Wonder and stuff like that. I’d probably say for me in terms of importance in writing and stuff Revolver by the Beatles and Inner Visions by Stevie Wonder are what I remember music as in terms of my earliest memories. I guess as you move towards things that shape us as musicians now, I’d probably say Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World. That was a massive album.
Tom: Page Avenue, man. That record is something weird. I didn't know the guys up until about four years ago and interestingly we were all massive Story of The Year fans when we were teenagers. We watched this DVD they had like to death, all separately.
Drew: And we didn't know each other at the time.
Tom: We've come together and everyone has been able to bond over that stuff.
Drew: Maybe another pop rock album that shaped my song writing is probably Ocean Avenue by Yellow Card. Tom our bassist and I listened to that album to death when we were like 13 and that’s always had the right balance in the way of like pop punk style and also that kind of summery radio rock vibe so that was important. It’s weird because there’s so many different records and we listen to so many different things. There’s always like those foundation albums that are important but we’re always listening to new stuff.
Tom: We just love music, man. The main thing about music is that we just love good music and that’s not genre specific. Make a good record and we’ll appreciate it.
THIS TOUR HAS ONLY JUST STARTED BUT IS THERE ANY SPECIFIC SONGS THAT GET THE CROWD GOING?
Tom: There’s stuff we put out on the Broken Jaw record which we get like a wicked fan response from. Foxfire, which was the lead single from the first EP and we re-did it for the album as well. That’s a big crowd favourite and we love and that’s a good party vibe.
Drew: All We’ve Ever Known, the new single.
Tom: As I said before, we did the record nearly two years ago so we’ve been playing these songs on and off for like the past 18 months or whatever. It’s weird, even before the record came out, because we’d played these songs however many times, people had come to see us and they knew the words before the album even came out.
Drew: We put out like maybe a 30 second preview of All We’ve Ever Known about a year ago...
Tom: On the ROAM and As It Is tour we did last summer.
Drew: And we put a preview out and about two days after we put that preview out, everybody just knew that part of that song when we played it. It was really cool.
Tom: That was crazy.
Drew: This tour’s an interesting one because we've gone from playing tiny venues to no one that cares, to playing tiny venues to a lot of people that care to now bigger venues where we’re playing early and we’re kind of like learning to get everybody into the vibe of the show. That’s a really cool thing for us. So part of it is that crowd response. But it’s also learning the songs that pack the punch in different ways. All We’ve Ever Known is definitely one of those and it’s like a compact rock song.
DOES IT FEEL GOOD WHEN YOU SEE PEOPLE SINGING BACK THE SONGS YOU HAVE WRITTEN?
Tom: Dude, it is unreal. It’s just mental you know. Myself and Drew are the ones who write the lyrics for the band, so some of the songs we write together and some of them we write separately. But the stuff we've wrote on like a balcony in Texas together at like stupid o’clock in the morning or stuff we started writing in our bedrooms just about how we feel about ourselves and the world and these situations. So, to go to these different places and meet people you've never even like seen before, knowing the words and singing the words and singing them with as much conviction as you wrote them with is the most humbling, rewarding feeling.
Drew: Lyrics, to an extent, are quite self-indulgent in the way that really you’re putting your emotions out there on paper. There’s part of your brain that knows that they might become something that you sing to people. However when you’re first writing them down, it’s personal to you. So that journey from that point to now where people are starting to sing along to them is just such an epic thing to witness and be a part of that whole journey. It makes you feel like what you’re doing is doing something. All We've Ever Known is out now!
