Up & Coming Pop Punk Bands | Unamused Dave

Unamused Dave are a band with the most impressive EP artwork we have seen in a while. Described on their bandcamp as your 'basic rock band that spends their time doing their homework two weeks in advance and wiping their feet before entering the house', Unamused Dave are a band you'd be silly to miss out on. They kindly answered some questions for us about their recent release Leroy, their magnificant artwork that accompanies it and how they came up with their unusual name...

WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

We are from Germantown Hills, Illinois. It is a suburb right outside of Peoria, Illinois.

WHERE DID GET THE NAME UNAMUSED DAVE FROM?  

One of our frontmen, Bryson Maddock, has a dad name Dave. We found some old family pictures of him just staring at the camera, and that is how the name "Unamused Dave" originated.

IF YOU COULD DESCRIBE UNAMUSED DAVE'S MUSIC IN THREE WORDS, WHAT WOULD THEY BE?

 Emo Pop Punk.

YOU RECENTLY RELEASED YOUR EP LEROY, TELL US A BIT ABOUT IT... 

Well 90% of our album was written by our other frontman Seth Wagers. Bryson sings on it too, and he wrote his own lyrics, while our drummer, Jack Dintelman, chipped in a little too. Seth gave our bass player, Brayden Lambiase, a simple bass line and Brayden branched off from there. The EP was started back in September of 2014 and ended up being released on May 29th, 2015. The drums were recorded in a church, while the rest of the EP was recorded in Seth's bedroom.

HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE ARTWORK FOR LEROY? 

It is actually an old picture of Seth's uncle, Scott Wagers. Seth saw it at his grandparent's house and thought it would be perfect for a cover. 

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG FROM LEROY AND WHY? 

It is hard to pick a favorite song. It would be like choosing your favorite kid. We love every song equally. 

TELL US ONE THING ABOUT UNAMUSED DAVE WE MIGHT BE SUPRISED TO KNOW?

Most bands buy a big van and a trailer to tour in. We fit all our equipment, clothes, food, and ourselves all into a mini van and just recently toured the Midwest. It was all in a mini van.

IF YOU COULD PLAY A SHOW WITH ANY BAND WHO WOULD IT BE?

The Story So Far or Title Fight. 

Unamused Dave's Facebook | Twitter

Up & Coming Pop Punk Bands | Where There's Life

For today's up and coming post, we have Where There's Life who have just released their new self titled EP (Check out our review of it here). We asked the guys a few questions about themselves and their new EP... 

WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

We're all from around Edinburgh!

HOW DID YOU FORM?

Edinburgh has quite a small music scene for the kind of stuff we play so most of us knew of each other from being in various bands. When Dann and I (Bruce) left our previous band we called up some friends to start something new. Callum and I had played in a band years ago and we all knew Cammy from playing in his other band "Hold Up! There's Hope". Cammy introduced us all to Jack and the whole group just came together really well after a couple practices.

DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC IN 3 WORDS FOR SOMEONE WHO MIGHT NOT HAVE HEARD IT BEFORE..

Heavy Pop Punk.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEW SELF TITLED EP...

We all just wanted to write music that brought together all of our favourite aspects of the bands that we listen to. So with these 5 tracks we feel like we really captured the catchy melodies and happy, nostalgic vibes of pop punk but still scattered in some moments that are slightly more serious and stray more towards the rock side of the spectrum and mention things like coping with sadness and feeling like you don't really have a place in the world quite yet. Alongside this, we're all big fans of heavier music and we really wanted to bring that energy and aggression to our sound so we incorporated the screamed vocals and the heavy breakdowns and riffs in almost every song to give the EP a lot more of a punch and a lot more energy. The overall feeling of the EP is really saying life isn't always easy and sometimes you get knocked down but stay hopeful, there's always a reason to get back up and fight for what you want and try to live a happy life doing what you love.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG FROM THE EP AND WHY?

Out of all of the songs on the EP the lead single "Where We Go" really encompassed what we wanted to do with the sound of our band. It's energetic, it's catchy, it has a huge breakdown, the middle section of the song really brings the more serious feeling into it and then it all rounds off with a huge sing-a-long. Everyone was really happy with that song in particular.

DO YOU PREFER RECORDING OR PLAYING LIVE?

We actually haven't played a show yet! We wanted to release music first so people could decide whether or not they liked us before they paid for a ticket to come see us. We're in the process of organising our first show now and we're just about to announce all of the details, everyone is beyond excited to play and we can't wait to let people hear our live set, we've tried to make it as fun as possible for anyone that comes to a show. The recording process was great though, our guitarist, Dann, produced the entire EP in his bedroom and he's incredibly talented and really passionate about that side of music so it was great to see him doing his thing. I think you can really tell he's put a huge amount of time and effort into it.

IF YOU COULD PLAY A SHOW WITH ANYONE WHO WOULD YOU PICK?

It's between Four Year Strong or Blink 182!

WHAT ARE YOUR TOP FIVE FAVOURITE POP PUNK ALBUMS?

- Rise Or Die Trying - Four Year Strong

- Homesick - A Day To Remember

- Enema Of The State - Blink 182

- Under Soil And Dirt - The Story So Far

- From Under The Cork Tree - Fall Out Boy

Check out Where There's Life's self titled EP below:

Where There's Life's Facebook | Twitter | Youtube | Soundcloud