UK Pop Punk Bands Suggestions 2

A few weeks ago we did a post about some awesome UK pop punk bands (which you can read here) which we thought you guys would like and because that post was so successful we thought we'd enter round two. We may have shit weather, a prime minister who's forehead shines brighter than the surface of the sun and Jeremy Kyle but at least we can be sure of one thing...UK pop punk is pretty damn good. 

                                                                     Wilson                                                                                                 

Wilson are from South Wales, which is pretty cool in itself and you can download their song 'The Underdog' free on bandcamp. 

      

Civilians

Civilians, from Manchester, recently released 'Be More' which you can watch below: 

Royal Fisticuffs

Londoners Royal Fisticuffs and have released their EP Outdoor Pursuits which is available available for free:

Royal Fisticuffs' bandcamp

As It Is 

As It Is are from Brighton and you can download their EP for free on bandcamp

As It Is bandcamp

Firestarter Interview

Firestarter, who come from Albany NY, have already released two EPs, and are soon to be releasing a brand new split with Old Again. The band kindly answered some of our questions about the new split, their favourite pop punk albums and if they'd ever venture to the UK...

1. How did you guys form Firestarter?

We came together / met after I, Matthew LaPerche (Singer / guitarist), moved up to the Albany, NY area in August of 2012 and began writing the songs found on our EP, New Beginnings. A few months went by and I met Zack, Jeff, and Matt B. through either mutual friends or mutual jobs and we started talking about getting the band together. Started jamming one day and boom, the rest is history!

2. How did decide on the name Firestarter?

Everyone asks us if the name came from that really strange song of the same name by Prodigy from the 90's or the Jimmy Eat World song and EP of the same name (Which would have been sweet), but it is honestly a reference to a song that I wrote in my old band.  

3. What is the first show you ever went to?

Personally? I went to my first punk rock show in 2002 when I was 12 years old to see Blink-182, Green Day, and Saves The Day at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was awesome obviously and still to this day one of the best shows I went to.

Firestarter's first show was the Team Pagano House Show on New Year's Eve with Pentimento, Candy Hearts, Modern Baseball, and so many more awesome bands!

4. You recently played a show with With The Punches and State Champs, how was that?

Absolutely incredible. With The Punches killed it in front of their hometown and played a lot of old songs I hadn't heard them play live since the first time I saw them. State Champs also killed it especially with their new track, "Elevated", that they just released. Since day one it has always been a pleasure playing with both bands but I am sad to see With The Punches go.

5. Are you disappointed that With the Punches are going on hiatus?

When the news broke that they were bowing out for a while, it seriously bummed me out. I have known that band for three years now since playing with them a bunch with my old band. Since we met, they have been the big brothers I never had. They have helped me so much with advice about a lot of different things over the years and are one of the reasons Firestarter is a band. Without them, I probably wouldn't be where I am today and I am forever grateful for that.

 

6. In the States, Pop Punk is usually associated with Pizza, can you shed some light on that concept for us? What does it mean?

Honestly I have no clue myself. All I know is, I REALLY like pizza. Probably one of my favorite things to eat. 

  

7.What are your top 5 favourite pop punk albums?

Not in any particular order but here are my picks for top 5 favorite pop punk records:

Blink-182 - Take Off Your Pants and Jacket

Fall Out Boy - Take This To Your Grave

New Found Glory - Sticks And Stones

Set Your Goals - Mutiny

The Starting Line - Say It Like You Mean It

8. Would you ever come to the UK? We have tea, crumpets and the queen....

Funny you ask that! We are actually getting some "tentative" plans to be over in your fine country by the spring of next year with the band Roam. And you do have tea...and crumpets even though I have no idea what that is.

9. Do you guys know what Yorkshire Puddings are?

Uhhh...if it doesn't involve poop from a Yorkshire Terrier. Then no haha

 

9. Do Americans actually give a shit about the royal baby?

I don't have cable and had no idea that there was even a royal baby, but I am not surprised if people do give a shit as all of the entertainment news shows over here always go on about what the royal family is up to next. 

 

10. Who are your favourite upcoming pop punk bands? 

A few up and comers you need to check out are Old Again, Sudden Suspension, American Verse, Of Fortune and Fame, We Still Dream, Batten Down The Hatches, Random Holiday, and way too many more to name. 

11. You're releasing a split with Old Again, can you give us some clues as to what the songs will sound like? 

A combination of Fergie and Jesus. Step Brothers reference aside, we worked really hard on these tracks and are super proud of them so we are excited to show these to everyone! If you like old school pop punk, you will love these tracks or at least hopefully you will!

We'd like to thank Matthew LaPerche for the interview and wish the guys the best of luck with their split!

Firestarter/Old Again Split

Firestarter and Old Again are releasing a new split This October!

Track List: 

Firestarter

1. Memories

2. This Is How

Old Again

3. No Touching

4. Roswell Mill Rapids

The split will be available digitally on October 1st and physically on January 10th.

Old Again's bandcamp

Firestarter's bandcamp

ROAM Interview

ROAM released their debut music video for the song 'Head Rush' last month which comes from their second E.P due to be released in November 2013, we sent some questions over to them and they told us about their upcoming EP, live shows, favourite Pop Punk albums and more!

Thank you to Inception Press for organising this and ROAM for the interview!

Tunes - http://roamuk.bandcamp.com/

Threads- http://roampoppunk.bigcartel.com/ 

Email - roam-uk@hotmail.co.uk

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/roamuk

Twitter - @RoamSE

We Still Dream Interview

We Still Dream formed in January 2008 in Jacksonville, FL and since then have put out several releases, their most recent being the awesome ‘Something To Smile About’ on Anchor Eighty Four Records. You can read our review of STSA here: http://poppunkuk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/we-still-dream-album-review.html

We caught up with We Still Dream to find out about the new record and upcoming tour plans!

Hey We Still Dream! Thanks for doing this interview, let’s start by talking about you’re new album ‘Something to Smile About.’ How long has this record been in the making?

We wrote most of the material on the record in about three months, and we were in the studio for a month after that.

When reviewing your album we picked up on the way songs were crafted to play live, so what is your favourite song on the album to play live?

Hmm some of our favorites right now are Tendencies, Closer Look, and Things You Do.

You have chosen to release STSA on vinyl, which is starting to see resurgence in popularity, what were your reasons for this?

We think it’s cool that people are buying records again, and we have never had them made before. So when the option came to us from Anchor Eighty Four we all wanted to do it… oh and because Snoop Dog did it.

Do you have any funny or strange stories from recording the album?

We camped outside of the studio in a small RV during the recording process. One of the nights we met up with our good friends in Heart to Heart, and we had an a little RV party! Also one of the last days when we were doing gang vocals (especially in "Back to Then") some of us were a little too tipsy haha.

Do you prefer recording or playing live?

Playing live will always be my favorite because of all of the energy that goes into it. Yet we do like recording as well and being able to experiment with different tones and sounds.

Does having 3 Mikes in the band get confusing at times?

We get this question all the time haha! It’s not that bad though. We just use our last names.

 What are your top five favourite pop punk albums?

This is in no particular order.

Daisy-Brand New

Pollyanna-Northstar

Self titled-Blink 182

Blue Album-Weezer

Say It Like You Mean It-The Starting Line

I don’t know if you can say all these albums are pop punk, but this is the kind of stuff we jam.

 What are your aims as a band?

We want to tour a lot, and go back overseas eventually. We all really want to play warped tour hopefully sometime soon!

Who does most of the song writing?

The 4 of us who play instruments write all of the music, and then Dustin will write lyrics and play around with melodies.

You toured the UK back in 2011, which town/city did you enjoy playing most?

We really enjoyed Kingston a lot. They guys over at banquet records put on the show and it was really fun. We also really enjoyed playing in Sheffield with The Wonder Years, and Hostage Calm. Really good turnout and everyone seemed to be into it.

What are your favourite things about playing in the UK?

Meeting and seeing people sing along at our shows is definitely awesome. We live so far away yet they still know the words to our songs. That is an awesome feeling. The after parties after the shows were always fun too!

How do the crowds in the UK differ to the crowds in the US?

They are not that much different. But everyone in the UK seemed to be really interested in watching our set as well as other bands. No one was really on their phones texting or anything like that. Which was nice. But they were relatively similar.

And finally, do you have any plans to tour STSA in the UK soon? We’d all love you back!

Most definitely! We are trying to get something planned right now. Hopefully sometime soon. We can’t wait to come back! It was so much fun for all of us.

Thank you very much for granting us the interview!

Check out our review of We Still Dream's new album at: http://poppunkuk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/we-still-dream-album-review.html

Seaway: New Album Release

Seaway are releasing their debut album Hoser on October 15th, via Mutant League records. The record was engineered by Anton DeLost at Lost recording in London, Ontario and was mixed and mastered by Jay Maas at Getaway Recording Studios. Who's stoked? We definitely are. 

 Track listing:

01. Expectation

02. What's Really Good

03. Keep Your Stick On The Ice

04. Too Fast For Love

05. Puddles 

06. Slowing Down 

07. Shy Guys

08. No Direction 

09. The Weight (Ft. Shane Told)

10. Hourglass

11. Deferral

Seaway's previous releases: 

http://seawayoakville.bandcamp.com/

Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! UK Tour, September 2013

Love them or hate them, Chunk! No, Captain Chunk are coming to the UK in September with support from Climates and Light You Up. 

Tour Dates: 

13th Southampton, Cellars

14th Bristol, Exchange

15th Birmingham, Asylum 2

16th Manchester, Alter Ego

17th Leeds, Cockpit

19th Glasgow, G3

20th Nottingham, Rock City

21st Cardiff, Moon Club

22nd London, Borderline

Dear You Interview

After releasing the inspiring video for If Worries Were Weights, Dear You have really captured our attention. With Alt. Press likening them to Valencia and Hit the Lights and AbsolutePunk.net warning us not to 'sleep on it' we'd be fools not to check these guys out. Be sure to download their new EP 'Faith, Fear and Hope' coming later this year.   

1. How Did Dear You form? Louis and Chris started writing back in 2009, and mason joined in early 2011/late 2010. from there we just started piecing together what Dear You is today! 

2.Your Facebook page says that your influences range from 90’s rock to hardcore, out of all of your influences who has had the strongest impact on Dear You? It really is very equal. We like to be very open with each other, there are no stigmas with anything each of us bring to a song. We let each other go nuts with creativity, so it comes from all directions and backgrounds. 

3.Where did the video idea for If Worries Were Weights come from and what inspired it? Mason had the idea when we were in the studio recording the song to put a video together for it, and he started suggesting trying to get fans to involve themselves in the final product. So we started thinking about what the song meant to us and what it could mean to others, and we started reaching out to people to send us words of inspiration. We kind of knew what the video would be, but we had no idea it was going to come out THAT great. The words of encouragement make the video, by far.

4.You’re currently advertising to do acoustic shows in your fan’s homes, are fans a crucial factor for Dear You? Fans are everything for us. As they should be with any band. We've got some CRAZY good support from our fans, we make ourselves accessible to them as people, because at the end of the day, they're just people. We all are. So there's no need to make that weird connection of awkwardness that sometimes ensues with bands and their fans. We are just open and available. And we look to our fans for everything, we are still trying very hard to grow what "Dear You" is, and we need all of our fans for that. We would never turn our back to these people

5.How and when did you learn to sing/play guitar/ bass and drums? Chris started playing guitar when he was 7, just picking it up and teaching himself. Mason started at guitar around the age of 10, he recently jumped into bass when he joined Dear You. Louis started really playing drums at the age of 12, where he and Chris had started various little bands together. There has been a strong connection between the guys even before Dear You was a thought

6. In August of 2013 you’re going on tour, is touring daunting or exciting and do you have any tour stories? Tour is exciting and daunting, scary and embracing ,all wrapped into one. For the most part, we just want to play some music for people, and this is going to be an amazing trip. Our go to story that probably scarred us the most, was our trailer opening on the highway. Nothing can prepare you for sheer terror like that. Haha

7.Would you ever tour the UK or anywhere else in Europe? Absolutely!! We've noticed a spike in interest towards Dear You in the UK as of lately. We would do anything to get out there and play some shows. Anywhere in Europe would be amazing. Same for the Philippines actually. We have a lot of fans there! 

8.Does anyone in the band have any weird habits? We all probably do...Honestly they all seem so normal now that I can't even decide what to point out. Watch videos of us or come hang out at a show. You'll probably pick up very quickly on all the weird habits, jokes, and quirks that we have individually and together. 
9. If you could have a superpower for a day what would it be? Louis would probably want to incur all of Spiderman's powers. I can comfortably say that I would like to be able to produce gourmet food as a super power. No idea where it would come from or how it would be made, i would just have the ability to make it appear. Mason would probably like the ability to speak to fish. He doesn't know that I'm answering this for him, so I doubt that's really what he wants. Too late, Mason, I made the decision for you! 


Dear You's Album is officially released on August 13th, but you can pick it up early here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/join-dear-you-on-tour-in-your-hometown-and-in-the-studio

                                              

The Wonder Years UK Tour 2013

Alongside their Warped Tour appearance at Alexander Palace, The Wonder Years have added a few more UK tour dates. Catch them from the 12th of the November.

 

The Story So Far Announce Tour October 2013

The Story So Far have announced a European tour this October. After their last tour and dates at Slam dunk which were quite frankly amazing, TSSF are returning to play on UK soil on the 8th of October. Cannot wait.