Up & Coming Pop Punk Bands | Stay Gone

Stay Gone, who hail from France, seem to be set on one main goal; to leave their hometown of Lille and play music. The band have recently released a new video for their song Suitcase Cellar which is set to appear on their upcoming EP Charades. It's clear from Suitcase Cellar that Stay Gone draw their influences from newer pop punk, something that fans of ROAM, Boston Manor and Six Time Champion will be eager to listen to. We asked guitarist Tom a few questions to get to know a but more about the band and their upcoming EP.

WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

We are from Lille, North of France

HOW DID STAY GONE FORM?
Stay Gone formed a little over a year ago. We all met back in 2009. Jeremy used to play guitar in a pop punk band, Yo and David played in a metalcore band and I had a pop punk band with Max. Last year, we decided to begin a pop punk band together and formed Stay Gone. We wrote our first EP in only 3 months, our goal back then was more to have fun and drink beers with friends, we didn't really take this project too seriously . Now, the band is taking another turn and we actually want to go somewhere with this band.

YOU'VE RECENTLY PUT OUT A VIDEO FOR SUITCASE CELLAR HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE VIDEO IDEA?
The project has been directed by our singer Max. For the technical aspects, we're lucky to have some good friends in the audiovisual field, they mobilized their skills for us, and we're very proud of how it came out ! We wanted something that defines us : friends, booze, pizzas, that's kinda who we are, it takes place in the nineties cause we're old ans we loved it back then aha.

SUITCASE CELLAR COMES FROM YOUR UPCOMING EP CHARADES, TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE NEW EP...
Charades will be way more aggressive than our previous EP. Guitars will be louder, heavier, vocals will be way angrier... Less pop and more punk I guess..

IF YOU COULD TOUR ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO GO?
First, we would really enjoy touring the UK. The scene is incredible over there, you guys have some of the best pop punk bands in the world in our opinion. I should even say THE best pop punk band in the world... Neck Deep! They are fucking killer right ! Then we would like to tour Eastern countries such as Poland and Austria. Germany would be a great experience! They're nice people (and they drink a lot, I'm sure we'd fit in pretty well)

IF YOU COULD PLAY WITH ANY BAND WHO WOULD IT BE?
We'd love to support Neck Deep or The Story so far someday, which are our main influences in the genre. Sharing the stage with bands such as State Champs, Roam or Real Friends would be sick as well. But really, we just want to play around and share our music, as much as we can.

WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR GUYS' FAVOURITE POP PUNK BANDS?
We love listening to modern pop punk : The Story So Far, As it is, Roam, Neck Deep or even State Champs are bands we listen to every day ! We also enjoy listening to smaller bands like Melrose or Landmarks, they're great lads and they play killer music, check them out. By the way, we're sharing the stage with them on Tuesday May 26th in Antwerp and on June 4th in Lille ! We do not only listen to pop punk tho... we love all music genres, some of our favorite bands are : Architects, Gorilla Biscuits, Agnostic Front, Mastodon, Seahaven, Jay-z, Expensive Taste and more... (I personally dig Martin Solveg's Intoxicated hahaha).

Check out the video for Suitcase Cellar below:

Stay Gone's Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp 

Montrose | Monster Under The Bed | Artwork Feature

“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:

Montrose's Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp

Sugar Ape | Club Night | Review

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 6^th 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 3^rd of June. Check out the Facebook event here. 

Up & Coming Bands | Powernap

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: 

Powernap's Facebook 

Get Up Go | Interview

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:

Get Up Go's Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp

Up & Coming Pop Punk Bands | Storyteller

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:

Storyteller's Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr

Trash Boat | Brainwork | Track By Track Guide

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 18^th 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: