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K BLAC VEIL S BRIDE ALBUM FIVE IS GO! ISSUE 231 £3.99 OCTOBER 2017 USA $9.50 / Can $10.99 / Aus $9.99

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frank iero

“I’M JUST TRYINLGD, TO WARM MY CO.” BLACK HEART SAME. SAME.

ENTER SHIKARI MAYDAY PARADE THE MAINE KNUCKLE PUCK MARMOZETS SAINTE SEAWAY MAKEOUT ROAM STICK TO YOUR GUNS

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WELCOME TO CONSUMER MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR

Rock Sound, Unit 2.38, East London Works 75 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1DU Tel: + 44 (0)20 7877 8770 Fax: + 44 (0)20 7377 0455 THIS MONTH’S BIG QUESTION: You can bring back MTV Unplugged for one episode and one band… who is it? PUBLISHER: Patrick Napier (Twenty One Pilots) Tel: 0207 877 8779 patrick.napier@rocksound.tv Editorial Director: Ryan Bird (This Wild Life) ryan.bird@rocksound.tv PRINT SENIOR Editor: David McLaughlin (Deaf Havana) david.mclaughlin@rocksound.tv

REINVENTION – EVERYONE’S AT IT. REWIND FIVE YEARS AND COMPARE WHERE THE BIGGEST BANDS OF THE ERA WERE WITH WHERE THEY ARE NOW AND THE CONTRASTS ARE QUITE STARK. This issue’s cover stars Sleeping With Sirens are the perfect example. But new album ‘Gossip’ wasn’t so much an opportunity to put a bunch of fresh songs out into the world as it was a once in a lifetime chance to entirely remake what the band stands for and sounds like. It’s a major roll of the dice that puts everything we used to know about Sleeping With Sirens and bets the house on black. It’s a pretty

bold call, but it’s also one the five-piece felt that they simply had to make. It’s no wonder then that they’re in fighting form as they prepare to show off the fruits of their labour. Kellin Quinn and the gang are no strangers to adversity or batting away criticism. This time though, the stakes are higher than ever and this is a whole different ball game. It’s what makes our catch up with them so fascinating – because they’re aiming for nothing less than legendary status. With sights set as high as the sky, in a way they’re already winning. Until the next time…

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Rob Sayce (Hatebreed) rob.sayce@rocksound.tv JUNIOR EDITOR: Will Cross (Don Broco) will.cross@rocksound.tv ART EDITOR: Tom Morgan (The 1975) tom.morgan@rocksound.tv DIGITAL DIGITAL EDITOR: Andy Biddulph (Attila) andy.biddulph@rocksound.tv ACTING Social media executive: Jack Rogers (Malevolence) jack.rogers@rocksound.tv COMMERCIAL ADVERTISING DIRECTOR: Ben Crudgington (Madball) Tel: 0207 877 8776 ben.crudgington@rocksound.tv CONTRIBUTORS WRITERS: Matt Ayres, Alex Deller, Jennifer Geddes, Candice Haridimou, Chris Hidden, Josh Hummerston, Andrew Kelham, Emma Matthews, Niamh Moore, Heather McDaid, Mischa Pearlman, Gareth Pierce, Alex Reeves PHOTOGRAPHERS: Corinne Cumming, Adam Elmakias, Kevin Estrada, Tom Falcone, Mark Forrer, Steve Gerrard, Ben Gibson, Kane Hibberd, Elliott Ingham, Carla Mundy, Ashley Osborn, Nathaniel Shannon, Giles Smith, Justine Trickett, Mitchell Wojcik Newstrade distribution by Marketforce. If you have any trouble getting hold of Rock Sound in the shops please call: 020 3148 3333. Subscription rates are as follows: UK £37.99, Europe / US / Canada £49.00, Rest of world £69.00. To subscribe or if you have a problem with your subscription please call: 01293 312091 or email: rocksound@subscriptionhelpline.co.uk. All calls are charged at local rates. Rock Sound cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited manuscripts and photographs or for material lost or damaged in the post. All material remains the copyright of Rock Sound Ltd. No part of Rock Sound may be reproduced in whole or part without the prior permission of the publisher (that includes uploading it online, kids). Our lawyers will be round (and they’re dead scary). ABC Member of The Audit Bureau Of Circulation Jan-Dec 2016: Average net circulation 14,057 ISSN: 1465-0185

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NEWS AND REGULARS 6 THE BIG PICTURE #1: CREEPER

Vans Warped Tour + Creeper + a huge rainstorm = an incredible spectacle. 8 THE BIG PICTURE #2: SAINTE

This is what Tay and the gang’s first ever show looked like. 10 THINGS WE LEARNED THIS ISSUE

This month we learned that Eminem is planning to move to Scotland. Here’s what else happened. 18 TELLING IT AS IT IS

Starting at a new school? Can’t decide between cats or dogs? Wondering why Smarties are just the worst? Patty has the answers you need. 20 TALK, TALK, TALK

Chrissy talks about the complexity of emotions and how Against The Current’s second album is shaping up. 22 TAKE MY MONEY

Because winter is coming and we need some new threads.

BREAKOUT 28 CHAPEL

Sick of everything being so serious? America’s new pop-rock heroes are here to light up your life. 30 WORLD WAR ME

If you’ve ever wondered, ‘What if My Chemical Romance went pop-punk?’, you need to hear these guys. 32 BLINDWISH

Sharp, passionate and impossible to pin down, this Texas crew could be on to something special. 34 STATESIDE

This Australian pop-rock gang are bouncing back from heartbreak and dreaming big. 36 ACROSS THE ATLANTIC

If you think music should be about breakdowns , huge choruses and building bridges, give this lot a listen.

FEATURES 38 LIFE LESSONS: JOHN O’CALLAGHAN

The Maine’s frontman lays down some hard-earned life advice. Like his Twitter account, but… longer. 40 MY TUNES: DEREK SANDERS

From ‘Miserable At Best’ to ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’, the Mayday Parade man’s playlist is an emotional rollercoaster. 42 ASK ME ANYTHING: FRANK IERO

Dogs, pizza and the first song Frank ever wrote: you asked, he answered. 56 SLEEPING WITH SIRENS

It’s the start of a new chapter for Kellin, Nick, Jack, Justin and Gabe, but will ‘Gossip’ send them into the stratosphere? From insecurity and struggle to their boldest change in direction yet, this is its revealing story. 68 ANDY BIERSACK

When is the new Black Veil Brides album coming? Is more Andy Black music on the way? Find out from the man himself. 72 SEAWAY

They’ve been everywhere, man, and here are the stories to prove it. 76 JEREMY McKINNON

Here’s your guide to the best songs that A Day To Remember’s frontman has ever been part of. 78 MAKEOUT

From working in McDonald’s to collaborating with Blink-182’s Travis Barker, this is the story of their incredible rise. 98 WOULD YOU RATHER: OLLIE BAXXTER

Coming soon: the Broadside vocalist buys a library and turns into Arnold Schwarzenegger? That’s what he told us, anyway.

REVIEWS 80 KNUCKLE PUCK 82 ENTER SHIKARI 84 7 MINUTES IN HEAVEN 86 MAKEOUT 88 AUGUST BURNS RED 90 STICK TO YOUR GUNS 92 ROAM 4 rock sound

IN ROCK SOUND

THE NEW ALBUM

IN STORES 22 SEPTEMBER A TT U UR R II N NG G TT H HE E TT R RA AC CK KS S L LE EG GE EN ND DS FF EE A S ,, E EM MP P II R RE E TT O O A A SS H H EE SS & & C CH H EE EE R R SS D II G G II TT A AL L • • C CD D D • • V V II N NY Y LL

S LL E EE EP P II N NG GW W II T TH S HS S II R RE EN NS S .. N NE E TT

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CREEPER CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY, USA JULY 07, 2017

PHOTO: Ellie Mitchell AND IN THE RAIN, THEY SCREAMED THEIR NAME. Despite it being the middle of summer, Creeper managed to bring a touch of the UK to Warped Tour this year as the heavens opened during their set at Camden, New Jersey’s BB&T Pavillion. Rain at an outdoor music event – imagine that...

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SAINTE HOXTON SQUARE BAR & KITCHEN, LONDON AUGUST 11, 2017 PHOTO: Ben Gibson It’s been a lonngggg time coming, but in a room filled with anticipation, atmosphere and excitement – we finally got to see Tay Jardine return to the stage with her new band, SAINTE. After launching surprise EP ‘smile, and wave’ in June, Tay and fellow We Are The In Crowd bandmates Mike Ferri and Cameron Hurley hit the stage after more than two years away to remind us exactly why we missed them. And the best part? This is only the beginning of the SAINTE story.

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ALL TIME LOW ANNOUNCED ‘SO WRONG, IT’S RIGHT’ 10th ANNIVERSARY SHOWS

Ten years? Yep, the record that brought ‘Dear Maria, Count Me In’ into our lives and set Baltimore’s finest on course for stardom has reached the decade milestone, and to celebrate Alex, Jack, Rian and Zack will be playing three nights at New Jersey’s Starland Ballroom in December. There will be laughs. There may be tears. There could possibly be an encore for Jack Barakat’s comedy moustache. Maybe.

MISS MAY I WERE ROBBEd

NECK DEEP SCORED A UK AND U.S. TOP 5 ALBUM

This was huge. The Wrexham crew’s brilliant third record, ‘The Peace And The Panic’ won them their highest chart positions to date. In the UK it came in at #4 – four places up from ‘Life’s Not Out To Get You’, which reached #8 back in 2015. They also hit #4 on the U.S. Billboard 200, and #2 on the Top Albums Chart (which tracks traditional, non-streaming sales). “We are eternally grateful to everyone who picked up a copy or gave it a spin,” commented the band.

In incredibly shitty news, the Ohio metalcore crew had their trailer and gear stolen in Milan, Italy. It happened in “broad daylight”, and everything was lifted in “less than 60 seconds.” They opted to continue their European tour using borrowed equipment, and are selling a range of special 10th anniversary merch items to help cope with the financial blow they’ve taken.

BRAND NEW DROPPED AN ALBUM OUT OF NOWHERE

The one thing you can guarantee about Brand New? They’re always full of surprises. After hints that they may be calling it a day in 2018, some standalone shows and a lot of confusion, the Long Island crew dropped their first album in eight years, ‘Science Fiction’, pretty much out of the blue. It’s a dark, dense, complex record, but one that, if it does turn out to be their last, will have brought down the curtain in style.

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JAKE FROM BLACK VEIL BRIDES STARTED A NEW BAND

When not setting the world on fire with Andy, Ashley, Jinxx and CC, Jake Pitts has been recording songs with his wife, Inna. Their band seems to be called Aelonia, and as Jake wrote in an Instagram post, they’ve been busy putting together their first ever music video. “I’m stoked and cannot wait to be playing live again for you all,” he said, and the feeling’s very much mutual.

THERE IS GOING TO BE A PARAMORE ARENA TOUR

Tour Three is ON. Following the release of ‘After Laughter’ and their run of more intimate shows a few months ago, the band will be hitting arenas across the UK in January. If recent setlists are anything to go by we’ll be getting some newer stuff, some older stuff and new takes on old stuff – so something for everyone, basically.

THE FEVER (JASON AALON BUTLER) REVEALED THEIR FIRST VIDEO

DALLON WEEKES(PANIC! AT THE DISCO) OPENED UP ABOUT HIS NEW PROJECT

Featuring long-time Panic! multiinstrumentalist Dallon and Ryan Seaman (formerly of Falling In Reverse), I Don’t Know How But They Found Me released their first single ‘Modern Day Cain’. “It’s a little project that I’ve been working on in secret for the last year or so,” Dallon told the Rock Sound Podcast. “I’ve known [Ryan] for like a decade but we’ve barely gotten to see each other, he was in a similar situation to me, working in touring for another band.” Their album is almost done!

ANGELS & AIRWAVES RETURNED WITH A NEW ACOUSTIC EP

Tom DeLonge has been up to all sorts recently, from working on a movie, Strange Times, to putting together various books and musical projects. This month he released an Angels & Airwaves acoustic record, ‘We Don’t Need To Whisper Acoustic’. It was like AVA but, y’know, quieter. A new full-length is reportedly in the works too, but this’ll tide us over for now.

Some things never change. One of them is that, if you put a mic in Jason Aalon Butler’s hand, something both brilliant and chaotic is bound to happen. letlive. may be over (noooooo) but with his new project The Fever – completed by drummer Aric Improta (Night Verses) and guitarist Stephen ‘Stevis’ Harrison (The Chariot) – the frontman is raising hell once more. They’ve unleashed their first song, ‘We’re Coming In’, and are currently working with producer John Feldmann. Which is all kinds of exciting.

REAL FRIENDS HELPED OUT THEIR GRANDPARENTS

We already know that the Illinois crew are one of the nicest bands around, and this just underlines it. One of the band members’ grandparents needed a tent for their church’s senior picnic, so they stepped in and provided one – their very own merch stall from Warped Tour. Grandpa even turned up wearing a Real Friends hat, and it was adorable.

For all the most up-to-date news as it breaks, be sure to stop BY

www.rocksound.tv rock sound 11

ISSUE 231

RYAN BIRD

WAGE WAR ‘Deadweight’ KNUCKLE PUCK ‘Shapeshifter’ IN HEARTS WAKE ‘Ark’ BURY TOMORROW ‘Earthbound’ (HED)P.E. ‘Broke’

DAVID McLAUGHLIN JULIEN BAKER ‘Turn Out The Lights’ BRAND NEW ‘Science Fiction’ RACQUET CLUB ‘Racquet Club’ KNUCKLE PUCK ‘Shapeshifter’ STICK TO YOUR GUNS ‘True View’

40+

7 MINUTES IN HEAVEN ‘Symmetry’ SLEEPING WITH SIRENS ‘Gossip’ ROAM ‘Great Heights & Nosedives’ ENTER SHIKARI ‘The Spark’ WORLD WAR ME ‘Break A Leg Kid’

STICK TO YOUR GUNS ‘True View’ KNUCKLE PUCK ‘Shapeshifter’ ARCHITECTS ‘All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us’ PROPAGANDHI ‘Victory Lap’ PVRIS ‘All We Know of Heaven, All We Need Of Hell’

WILL CROSS STAND ATLANTIC ‘Sidewinder’ KNUCKLE PUCK ‘Shapeshifter’ PVRIS ‘All We Know of Heaven, All We Need Of Hell’ THE MAINE ‘Lovely Little Lonely’ WAGE WAR ‘Deadweight’

TOM MORGAN SEAWAY ‘Vacation’ STAND ATLANTIC ‘Sidewinder’ SLEEPING WITH SIRENS ‘Gossip’ GHOSTEMANE ‘Plagues’ THE STORY SO FAR ‘Under Soil And Dirt’

BEN CRUDGINGTON THE BRONX ‘V’ CONVERGE ‘I Can Tell You About Pain’ PROPAGANDHI ‘Victory Lap’ QUICKSAND ‘Interiors’ THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. ‘Ready To Die’

JACK ROGERS ITHACA ‘Trespassers’ KNUCKLE PUCK ‘Shapeshifter’ THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER ‘Abysmal’ ONE OK ROCK ‘Ambitions’ STICK TO YOUR GUNS ‘True View’

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Times we’ve played Stand Atlantic’s ‘Sidewinder’ EP in the office. Seriously, you need this band in your life.

ANDY BIDDULPH

ROB SAYCE

How ready the Rock Sound office is for Christmas – yet bands like Taking Back Sunday and While She Sleeps have already announced festive shows. Summer, where’d you go?

Llama people that Fall Out Boy brought with them to the MTV Video Music Awards. That is the best kind of entourage.

Bands joining Good Charlotte on their upcoming UK tour: Against The Current, Milk Teeth and nothing,nowhere. Which sounds a bit good.

Cities that One OK Rock will hit on their December European tour, including three in the UK. Time to get excited.

Members of Sleeping With Sirens who must have had sore heads the day after filming their ‘Cheers’ video. Hey, ‘Do It Now…’

Times we punched the air listening to Knuckle Puck’s new record, ‘Shapeshifter’. Difficult second what?

OVERHEARD

“Can we listen to Fred Durst’s podcast now?” Andy Biddulph had the right idea here: it’s pure gold.

Hours of work lost, as the whole Rock Sound office got distracted fighting aliens and cowboys on Don Broco’s ‘Technology’ mobile game one afternoon.

2018

10,000°C

Speaking of, that’s how warm it felt at Against The Current and SAINTE’s intimate London show last month. Worth it though.

IN THE OFFICE

When the next Black Veil Brides album is coming, according to Andy Biersack. Turn to page 68 for more.

2:46

Length of Charli XCX’s ‘Boys’ video, which features Oli Sykes, Brendon Urie and Taka Moriuchi among many others. It’s really quite something.

“I’m a naturally warm person. I exude heat” Will Cross is so hot right now.

1/6

Of Eskimo Callboy won Germany’s latest series of The Bachelorette. Really. Take a bow, drummer David ‘King Bachelor’ Friedrich.

“Wait, are we playing footsie?” You know when you bump feet with someone under the table… but you’re not sure if it was an accident? Jack Rogers does. “Okay, I’m going to towel down the Kraken” As Ryan Bird discovered, rum sometimes sweats. Weird.

AEG PRESENTS & DHP FAMILY, IN COOPERATION WITH X-RAY & THIRTY CENTURY MANAGEMENT, PRESENT

NOVEMBER 16 17 18 19 21 22 24 25

LIVERPOOL ECHO ARENA CARDIFF MOTORPOINT ARENA NOTTINGHAM MOTORPOINT ARENA NEWCASTLE METRO RADIO ARENA MANCHESTER VICTORIA WAREHOUSE BRIGHTON CENTRE BIRMINGHAM ARENA LONDON ALEXANDRA PALACE

ENTERSHIKARI.COM/SHOWS AEGPRESENTS.CO.UK AXS.COM TICKETMASTER.CO.UK ALTTICKETS.COM NEW ALBUM THE SPARK OUT 22 SEPTEMBER

NEVER MISSES AN ISSUE ND RANDOM RANTS, RAVES A OF YOU! NONSENSE COURtESY

Hey! This is some of my Rock Sound magazine collection! Keep up the good work. CAITLIN RS: We will, Caitlin. As long as people like you keep giving us a reason, we’ll keep on keeping on.

SHADING WITH SIRENS

Here’s something I’d been working on for around two weeks. Kellin is such a big inspiration to me and he even liked this piece while I was still working on it which made me so happy. BORI RS: That’s awesome, Bori. There can be no bigger endorsement than the man himself giving your artistic skills the thumbs up. So we won’t even try to outdo him!

MORE OK ROCK

Please, please, PLEASE cover One OK Rock more regularly. I saw them in Atlanta (a 10 hour drive from where I live), and I was lucky enough to meet them, and they were freakin’ amazing. Everyone should have them in their lives. ALANA RS: You know what, Alana? That’s not the worst suggestion in the world. We’ve got all the love for the One OK Rock boys here at Rock Sound. The next time we can do something more on them we certainly will. Just. For. You.

DRAWING WITH THE WILD THINGS NOT SO HIDDEN COLOURS

‘Paradise’ by Broadside is such an incredible album, so I did a flash sheet inspired by the lyrics. BECKY @hopelesscase RS: Nice. We were wondering what to get inked on our sleeves, so this is the perfect solution. Thanx, Becky. 14 rock sound

I started this art piece of Chrissy Costanza a while ago and just finished it. I hope one day she will see it and I can give it to her. ABBEY RS: As close personal friends of Chrissy’s we can assure you that she would love this, Abbey. Fingers crossed she gets it someday…

FISTFUL OF COLOURS

Hi Rock Sound. Art is my passion, and I especially love drawing band members. Here are my drawings of Frank Iero, Oli Sykes, and the ROAM boys (signed by them!) KATIE @s0uthdrive RS: Sick art skills, Katie. We’re particular fans of Costello from ROAM’s sweet cowboy look here. We do like cowboys a lot.

MY CHEM-INK-AL ROMANCE

Hi Rock Sound. I am a big fan of Gerard Way and of My Chemical Romance. I usually re-draw covers or pages from Gerard’s comics, but sometimes I try to do some portraits. So I would like to share with you some of my work. Thank you so much! ALESSANDRA RS: This is ace, Alessandra. It’s incredible to see that band continue to inspire so many people to express their talents after all this time.

WATER…WHAT?!

Hi Rock Sound! Here’s my artwork of Awsten from Waterparks! I included the reference photo too…. SOPHIE RS: What can we say, Sophie? You’ve nailed it. The likeness is uncanny. If Awsten ever needs to prove his identity, he won’t need a photo ID, because this piece of art would suffice. Top work.

TØP INK

So, on my 18th birthday I decided it was time to make Twenty One Pilots a part of my life forever by getting a tattoo. Not only is this a tattoo dedicated to the boys, but also to show my relationship with my dad as we got matching ink. We’ve gone to every Twenty One Pilots concert together, so this tattoo means ‘we did it’ – from the perspective of Tyler and Josh and mine and my dad’s. TUCKERSTOSICARTWORK RS: Wow! This is dedication to the cause. Consider us mightily impressed. And more than a little jealous. Also, your dad sounds like a total hero. Congrats to you both.

DO YOU WANT TO BE IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF ROCK SOUND? EMAIL US YOUR LOVE, HATE, SUGGESTIONS, FAN ART AND ANYTHING ELSE THAT YOU THINK WILL BE OF INTEREST TO

RSVP@ROCKSOUND.TV

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MARMOZETS

E STU

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IF IT FEELS LIKE AN AGE SINCE WE LAST HEARD FROM MARMOZETS, WELL, THAT’S BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN. WE HAVE A LOT TO CATCH UP ON. NOT LEAST THE BAND’S MUCH ANTICIPATED SECOND ALBUM. FINALLY! INTERVIEW: Mischa Pearlman

IT’S BEEN A WHILE, MARMOZETS! WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO?

SAYS GUITARIST SAM MACINTYRE: “Becca was in hospital quite a bit. She ruined her knees quite badly, so she was having operations on both her legs and she took a while to recover.” SAYS VOCALIST BECCA MACINTYRE: “They were like, ‘Basically, your knee is fucked and you need to go get operations.’ So that became the number one priority, to get my knees fixed. But to be honest, it was a blessing in disguise. We always try to stay positive, and we did get to be at home around family for a while, which was very much needed as we’d been on the road for years.” SAM: “Also, the stuff we were writing was good, but it wasn’t good enough. We’re not about any sort of halfarsed measures. We couldn’t release something until we were totally happy with it ourselves; that we had total confidence in.”

DID THE KNEE PROBLEM WORK ITS WAY INTO THE NEW SONGS?

BECCA: “Definitely. I think I was containing all this energy without realising for so long – energy I’d normally be using on stage every night. I think I went a bit quiet, so it was good to be able to put everything into the songs and the music. So I’m happy!”

WHO PRODUCED THE RECORD AND WHERE DID YOU RECORD?

SAM: “Gil Norton. He did ‘The Color And The Shape’ by Foo Fighters, and he worked with Pixies, to name a few. He’s an absolute wizard. We’d tried with a couple of different producers and it just didn’t sound right, so we decided to get someone a little more old school, who’d understand the sound and direction a bit more. We didn’t want to come back with something half-arsed.” BECCA: “We recorded it at Monnow Valley Studios in Wales. It was pretty flipping awesome. The team there is incredible. It was a really nice, chilled experience, and one that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”

LEAD SINGLE ‘PLAY’ IS PRETTY ELECTRONIC. IS THAT AN INDICATION OF THE DIRECTION THIS ALBUM IS GOING IN?

SAM: “It’s not necessarily the direction we’re going, no. The way we work, we don’t stick to one sound. My brother Josh showed me this French producer called Sebastian and ‘Play’ took inspiration from that. Compared to other tracks on the record, ‘Play’ is completely different, but that’s what Marmozets is about. There’s definitely an electronic vibe on ‘Play’, but the two tracks after that go somewhere else completely.” BECCA: “Basically, we just bring stuff to the table individually and put it together like a puzzle. Compared to the last record, we’ve definitely matured sound-wise and structure-wise, but it’s still upbeat and it’s still gnarly. We’re singing about our lives and shit that we’ve been through and how we look at the world and how we see things. People have said they don’t understand how the first album worked because each song is so different. Yet somehow they sit together and it works. It’s the same thing with this, but I don’t know how we did it, to be honest!”

IT’S BEEN A DECADE SINCE MARMOZETS FORMED – THAT’S QUITE THE LANDMARK. HOW DOES THAT FEEL?

SAM: “Oh, you’re right, we’ve been together for 10 years! That’s so bizarre. Flipping heck! But the first 10 years have been interesting. It’s good to start young so you can get the experience and train yourself as a musician.”

BECCA: “I’m definitely the same person. I think I’m just a little bit wiser.”

YOUR FORTHCOMING TOUR IS ALMOST SOLD OUT. THAT MUST FEEL GREAT TO COME BACK TO.

BECCA: “It does. It’s like I’m living in a dream now. When you’re in the storm you can’t really see yourself coming out of it sometimes, but I’m a fighter. I don’t give up! And I truly believe that our fans are our family. We’re very blessed to have fans that don’t just switch with the trends.” SAM: “It’s weird to think that we can go away for that long and come back and announce a tour without any new music or anything and people want to be at the shows. It’s a great feeling to know that people still care. SAM: “I’d say everyone has matured. Especially so when it comes to the music. But when I say that, I don’t They probably just want to hear some new tunes now. And I don’t blame them!” mean that we’re completely grown up and it’s boring now! I actually think as a band we’re a lot tighter, Lead single ‘Play’ is out on Roadrunner on because we’ve spent so much time together. But no September 29. Marmozets tour the UK in one’s really changed! We’ve just grown up a little bit.” October; see the Gig Guide for details.

HOW HAVE YOU CHANGED AS PEOPLE SINCE YOUR DEBUT CAME OUT?

I truly believe that our fans are our family B E C C A M AC I N T Y R E

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T I S I S A WITH

PATTY WALTERS

I’M STARTING A NEW SCHOOL THIS YEAR AND I’M TERRIFIED. DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS ON HOW TO SURVIVE IT? RYLEIGH “The best advice I can give you is to just be your totally awesome self! Wear your passions and your personality with pride. If you’re confidently and unashamedly yourself, people will understand and value the real you. I’m sorry I can’t offer you a more wildly original answer, but clichés are clichés for a reason, after all.”

“If starting a YouTube channel is something that will make you happy, then who gives a shit what anyone else thinks? Sure, maybe that’s easier said than done, but it’s also totally fucking true. Regardless, whether you’re an average or an awesome musician, the more you do a thing, the better you become at that thing over time. I don’t think I’m particularly great at anything I do in life, but I have an insanely fun time doing it, and I encourage you to do the same.” WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU HAVE DONE TO I WANT TO START A YOUTUBE CHANNEL, GET THROUGH TOUGH TIMES IN YOUR BUT I KNOW EVERYBODY AT SCHOOL WILL LIFE? THERE HAS BEEN A LOT GOING ON; FIND IT AND LAUGH AT IT. I’M NOT EXACTLY IT’S BEEN REALLY STRAINING FOR ME GREAT AT SINGING OR PLAYING, I JUST RECENTLY AND I’M KIND OF STUCK. COULD ENJOY IT. ANY ADVICE? YOU HELP? LILY DANI “It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that music has always been the biggest source of comfort for me. Writing and listening to songs that embody the frustration and desperation I feel in such times, have always provided me with an important and cathartic outlet. I’m really sorry to hear that times are especially tough right now, but all GOT A things, good and bad, never stay the QUESTION same for too long.”

FOR PATTY? EMAIL: PATTY@ WHAT BOB’S BURGERS CHARACTER ROCKSOUND. DO YOU RELATE TO MOST? YOUR TV ANSWER IS CRUCIAL. CALLIE “I definitely identify with Tina the most. On tour, everybody else is like Tina’s family, constantly shouting and farting and burping and laughing. Then there’s me, daydreaming for hours and hours in silence. Tina is a modern-day hero, and I aspire to embody as many of her qualities as humanly possible.”

I’VE NOTICED THAT YOU’VE BEEN WEARING THE SAME FIFTIES INSPIRED OUTFIT FOR ALMOST A YEAR NOW. DO YOU WANT ME TO BUY YOU SOME NICE CLOTHES? MARIANNA 18 rock sound

“I’m sorry, but I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. I’ve always dressed like I’m from the 1950s, and I’m extremely hurt and disheartened that you don’t like the way I choose to present myself. However, being in a band doesn’t always pay particularly well, so yes, you can buy me nice clothes.” HI PATTY. SMARTIES OR M&MS? HANNAH “Smarties taste fucking awful. They’re very possibly, almost definitely, the worst candy ever made. They taste like someone melted crayons all over some really shit chocolate. Like, I don’t particularly care for M&Ms either, but at least they don’t taste like dog shit dipped in nail polish. If I had to choose between eating Smarties and starving to death, I’d 100 percent choose death every time. Fuck Smarties.” IF YOU COULD COMBINE ANY TWO ANIMALS TO MAKE ANOTHER ANIMAL, WHAT WOULD THEY BE? BOBBIE “I’m equal parts dog-lover and cat-lover, and for some unfathomable reason, that seems to bother most people. I would choose to combine a cat and a dog to either satisfy or further annoy idiots who invalidate my perfectly sensible lack of preference.”

If PATTY couldn’t answer your question THIS TIME, but you’re still in need of help, advice or SIMPLY someone to talk to, help is at hand. Samaritans are here to talk 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. All queries are strictly confidential and there is no religious affiliation whatsoever. If you need guidance, call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90 (UK) or contact them on email via jo@samaritans.org.

FOUR YEAR STRONG SOME OF YOU WILL LIKE THIS // SOME OF YOU WONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T

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Chrissy Costanza In my last COLUMN, I chatted briefly about expectations going into Against the Current’s second record. I think I may have also been having an existential, “who am I?” crisis as well. That was a couple of months ago and now we’re deep into the recording. It’s strange, a lot of the things I thought I’d be more prepared for after the first record still knock me off my feet now. I’m exhausted after every day of writing. The process of writing lyrics is very much like journaling for me, except this journal is going to be publicised and read by strangers. It’s a strange feeling. There are things I write about that I never speak to anyone directly about, yet I openly share them with the world. It feels like every time I go to write, I have to rip off a scab or slice open an old scar. Even with happy songs, digging into the deepest fundamental building blocks of who you are is tough, and like I said last time around, I have no idea who I am. My goal with this record is complexity. We as humans feel so many things at once. It’s as if emotions are not notches on a line, but a whole spectrum of colours. You can feel any combination of emotions at the same time, regardless of how contradictory they are. I’ve been listening to artists like Lorde and Bleachers a lot lately. They both do this incredible job of making depressing lyrics sound hopeful, or whimsical and fantastic ideas sound tragic. Nothing about their music is just black and white. And so, in listening to music like that, I found that it spoke to me so much more than anything else because more often than not, I feel many things at once. There’s a song that I’m pretty sure is going to be on the record (we haven’t decided yet which songs will make the cut or not) that is about a pretty heavy issue. I don’t want to reveal too much until you have heard it, but, at first it seems to be about falling out of love. It’s not just that though, it’s about feeling like you’ve just woken up after being asleep for an entire relationship and realising that this person was a complete stranger all along – that the love

was all in your imagination. I realised that I had been taken advantage of and manipulated the entire time, everything I was feeling was based on lies and façades. It’s a feeling I had never experienced before and I found it to be strange and disorientating. I felt anger and sadness, of course, but there was this other thing I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I still don’t really know how to truly explain it; maybe disgust, or embarrassment. For a while it was like I couldn’t shower enough times to feel clean again and rid myself of the presence of that person. But the song itself doesn’t sound heavy, it’s upbeat – you can even dance to the chorus. Because while I was experiencing that I also had many great things going on at the same time. I was truly happy in one realm, just not in another. I wanted to feel that while I talked about something painful, I could feel hopeful and good and remember all of the other things I had going on that pulled me through it. In a sense, a lot of the record will be like that. There won’t be too many songs that are overly obvious. I always want there to be something to discover on the second or third listen that maybe you won’t pick up at first; a deeper message, perhaps. It feels more natural that way because that’s how we process things in life. Last year I was in Japan when I found out a good friend of mine had passed away. I was devastated. But I played a show that night, and it was one of the best of my life. I didn’t realise I could be so elated yet torn to pieces at the same time. I didn’t know I had the space to let those two feelings coexist, but they did. I’m loving the way the record is shaping up. It’s different from the first, but not insanely so. It’s a natural progression from where we started, it still sounds like us, but better. The songs are more intelligently written, we pushed our boundaries, and avoid writing ‘In Our Bones’ Part Two. I think we’re well on our way to that.

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GET KITTED OUT IN ALL THE BAND GEAR! Another issue, another sick merchandise giveaway? Don’t ever say we don’t spoil you lot. This time we’ve teamed up with the gang over at Pure Noise who are kindly offering one Rock Sound reader the chance to go wild in their online store racking up $300 worth of stuff. State Champs, Four Year Strong, Seaway, Counterparts, Knocked Loose and Boston Manor are just some of the bands whose threads you could soon be decked out in. And all you have to do to be in with the chance of winning is enter at the link above and to the right. In the meantime, start making a wish list of everything you might spend it all on over at purenoise.merchnow.com and keep everything crossed.

Closing date for entries is October 11 and winners will be notified by email. GOOD LUCK! 24 rock sound

WIN AN AUDIO TECHNICA TURNTABLE AND HEADPHONES WORTH £398!

HEAR YOUR MUSIC THE WAY IT SHOULD BE HEARD. What do you mean you still haven’t invested in a turntable and a decent pair of headphones? You do realise that’s the best way to listen to your favourite bands, right? Time to get on board. Thankfully we’ve got you covered. Our

friends at Audio Technica are giving one lucky Rock Sound reader an awesome ATLP3 turntable and a pair of ATH-MSR7 overear headphones. They look pretty sweet but that’s nothing compared to how they sound. Seriously, there’s a reason everyone says music sounds better on vinyl. Add in state of the art headphones and that’s a winning combo. Enter at the above address to be in with a chance of scooping both prizes and the very best of luck!

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rock sound 27

CHAPEL

MEET THE COOLEST NEW BAND IN TOWN

FROM: Athens, USA RELEASE: ‘We’ve Got Soul’

(Single, Rise. Out now)

chapelusa

HAPEL aren’t An ordinary band.

Disillusioned with their roles in heavier bands and bonding over a cocktail of pop, funk and a whole lot of Prince – vocalist / guitarist Carter Hardin and drummer Kortney Grinwis decided to follow their mutual passions and start something new. “We were just playing music to play music,” begins Carter. “We both knew the sound that we wanted to do, we just weren’t doing it at all.”

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As the frontman of metalcore act Nightmares, Carter felt stuck in a scene he didn’t feel passionate about any more. And as tubthumper of equally heavy act Favorite Weapon, Kortney felt the same. “Carter and I aren’t the most serious of people,” she nods. “So what we’re doing now is a little more goofy and feel-good. I kinda grew out of what we were playing before; it was so angry and everything just started to blend together. This us trying to do something a little bit different that feels better.” It was a perfect moment of realisation and meeting

of minds, with the duo immediately taking their newfound spark to the practice space. “I wanted to write stuff that reminded me of growing up in the ’90s – so Outkast and Prince, there’s a big funk element!” grins Carter. That shows in the three songs the band have released so far. ‘Caught Up’, ‘Fools Gold’ and the aptly-named ‘We’ve Got Soul’, all shine with irresistible pop melodies that weave in and out of funky grooves and rhythms made for the dancefloor. The sweet spot coming in the way that they can appeal as much

N TO ‘WE’V E GOT S O ON O UL’ UR SM

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AGAINST THE CURRENT

to a Waterparks fan (who the duo tour the UK with this month) as they can a fan of The 1975 – such is their versatility. “I think it’s cool when each song is different and has its own thing,” confirms Carter. “But at the same time you should try to stay cohesive with your band’s sound – if not you’re all over the place!” And he feels that unique touch comes from the edge that both members bring from their heavier pasts. “Pop drumming has its own style, and that’s

awesome,” he continues. “And Kortney brings some of that. But crucially it’s with her own twist and that’s what makes it interesting.” “My drumming style comes from that heavier background,” she nods. “So I feel like that translates into our songs and helps us create a more unique style.” It’s something undeniably fresh and there’s much more to come very soon. “We’ll definitely be playing new stuff on the Waterparks tour – there’ll definitely be something new

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out by then too,” says Carter. And with tours alongside the likes of Good Charlotte already in the bag, we can expect a live show that matches the quality of the songs. “Kortney and I have really discovered who we are as live performers,” finishes Carter. “When we first started touring we brought out live members, which was cool at first but kind of odd. Through touring, we’ve realised how important it is to be your own band live.” It may be early doors, but CHAPEL are standing in a field of one. Let’s get our dancing shoes on. WORDS: Will Cross rock sound 29

LISTE

WORLD WAR ONE PART EMO, ONE PART POP-PUNK, ALL AWESOME

FROM: Chicago, USA RELEASE: ‘World War Me’ (Album, SharpTone. Out October 06)

worldwarme

s beginnings go, World War Me’s was less ‘love at first sight’ and more ‘total disaster.’

“The first time the whole band met me, they thought I was just a drunk asshole,” laughs frontman Stephen Krypel. “When we went out on our first tour, I told myself, ‘Either everyone will quit at the end, or we’ll finish it as best friends.’ Luckily it was the second one!”

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Lucky for us too, because the Chicago quintet’s debut album sounds like everything great about the ’00s Warped Tour days, rolled into one. Originally conceived by Stephen a half-decade back, World War Me sparked into life in 2015, following a chance encounter with Get Scared vocalist Nicholas Matthews (who produced the record). Together they recruited band members from the local scene, and began piecing together what would become their self-titled debut.

“It was a tough, stressful process getting the right people, but it worked out so well,” recalls the frontman. “It’s important, because I suck at almost everything – but I can be pretty fucking good at writing music! This is something I have to do; I’ll live or die by it.” Channelling ‘Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge’-era My Chemical Romance, the darker end of pop-punk and a whole lot else besides, they’ve carved out a sound that’s both nostalgic and forward-thinking. As Stephen explains, those musical roots run deep.

R ME

LIS

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MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE

“I was a weird, lonely-ass kid growing up, so I fell in love with the whole Warped Tour scene. It felt so open and accepting, a space where I could be comfortable. That’s one of the reasons I feel like we have so much potential. We make music for all ears, and if you build a family around that, it can become something truly special.” “It’s also why the album starts with ‘The Good Enough’,” he continues, “me saying that I don’t know if I am good enough, that I’m not sure if I’m going to make it. I’m throwing it out there, being vulnerable.

Writing, I felt a bit like Heath Ledger locking himself away for months before playing The Joker in The Dark Knight – accessing this different personality inside of me, fighting myself and my inner demons. There’s a real honesty to this.” That shines through on candid but catchy songs like ‘Warzone’ and ‘Break A Leg’, too. But although he’s not pretending to have all the answers, the vocalist isn’t encouraging anyone to wallow in misery. “It’s been a hectic road,” he laughs. “Drugs, heartbreak, struggles with depression, but then a new

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FALLING IN REVERSE

confidence came afterwards – maybe a false sense of confidence, I’m not sure! I know I can be cocky and a narcissist sometimes, like lots of people. But I’m just describing my raw emotions, really. “Getting signed and seeing this thing grow has made me feel like there are no limitations on how big it could get,” he concludes. “If you get involved early, it’ll start off as such a tight-knit group and that’s really rewarding. When it all blows up, you’re going to be the ones who can say, ‘Yeah, I was there.’” You know what? He might just be onto something. WORDS: Rob Sayce rock sound 31

FROM: Dallas, USA RELEASE: ‘Good Excuses’ (Album, Rise. Out Now)

blindwishband

BRAND NEW

Blindwish are far from wide-eyed up-and-comers. Well, at least when it comes to

them personally. The five-piece have been in and out of bands their whole lives and despite only forming last year they know exactly how to create a killer song. “This band came together via other bands in the scene,” explains vocalist Zackary David. “Like, our bassist Kendrick [Nicholson] was in The White Noise, our guitarist Billy [Barber] was in At The Skylines and our other guitarist Dakota [Dufloth] was in Alive Like Me.”

With pedigree like that, it’s no surprise that the five-piece’s freshly released album ‘Good Excuses’ is a debut like no other. The 10-track offering is packed with Brand New-isms and saw the group work with multiple co-writers including the legendary John Feldmann. “The theme of the album is anxiety and unknowingness,” says Zackary. “‘Good Excuses’ comes full circle with that – it’s the things that you do and you don’t know why.” And that came through especially while working with

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EMO-TINGED FIVE-PIECE DESTINED FOR BIG THINGS

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TAKING BACK SUNDAY

TOO CLOSE TO TOUCH

Mr Feldmann… “One of the songs we wrote with John is called ‘The Maze’ and that’s pretty personal to me,” he continues. “I’ve been in bands since I was 14, but this is my first band that’s got a record deal, a booking agent and management. It’s about everything that it took to get to this point.” And with work already starting on album two, one thing’s for sure – they aren’t going to be slowing down any time soon either. WORDS: Emma Matthews

Phantoms

Storyteller

Assuming We Survive

Cedar Green

For Fans Of: Asking Alexandria, Ice Nine Kills, Thousand Below

For Fans Of: Neck Deep, ROAM, As It Is

For Fans Of: Four Year Strong, A Day To Remember, For The Win

For Fans Of: Grayscale, Sleep On It, State Champs

Formerly known as screamy posthardcore gang Camisado, Florida’s Phantoms have just released their ace new EP ‘Screaming On The Inside’. The likes of ‘There Were Once Birds That Sang’ and ‘Dark Secrets (I’ll Never Tell)’ are pure circle pit fuel with dramatic emo choruses wrapped up in horror movie vibes. Missing Warped Tour? This lot will sort you out.

Germany isn’t always known for its pop-punk, but Dessau’s Storyteller are looking to change that. Touring across their homeland alongside WSTR and Weatherstate next month, songs like the mega ‘Slow Lane’ and ‘Travel Bug’ pack punches, bounce and melody to boot. Check out latest album ‘Problems Solved’ to keep the summer months going.

Want some mosh with that poppunk? Assuming We Survive are your band. The pop hooks are out in force on songs like ‘Home Is Where The Heart Is’, but don’t let that make you think the California quartet can’t bring it heavy too, as the breakdowns all over current album ‘All Roads Lead Home’ prove. And the artwork is Jurassic Park themed so even better.

Openers on the awesome upcoming Silverstein, Seaway and Creeper tour in the U.S., Philadelphia’s Cedar Green bring a danceable bundle of pop-punk to proceedings. Tracks like ‘Hit The Deck’ glide with dual-vocal harmonies and sugar-sweet choruses while still bringing riffs and energy. Check out EP ‘The One You Feed’ and get there early.

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STATESIDE

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AGAINST THE CURRENT-APPROVED AUSSIE POP-ROCK

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FROM: Brisbane, Australia RELEASE: ‘Naïve’ (EP, self-release. Out now)

statesideofficial

Tonight Alive

“We’ve been ready for THIS for so long. It’s all we want to do and it’s all we dream about,” gushes Stateside

frontwoman Erin Reus. Rewind to 2014, when that dream began for this bunch of music college students from Brisbane as they found themselves performing in front of 200 fans as part of an assignment. Not bad for a first gig, eh? But as Erin admits, it took a little more time for the new band to figure out their calling… “When we first started, we were pop-punk. Like

generic pop-punk!” she chuckles. “We released an EP and it wasn’t great, but after that our music tastes evolved and we ended up writing our second EP ‘Naïve’, which was a lot heavier.” Released in May, the record boasts sizzling riffs and sparkling pop hooks in songs like ‘This Is War’, all undercut by a heavy tale of heartbreak that Erin remains tight-lipped about. “Unfortunately for the person who hurt me, all of these songs are built around that,” she sighs. But now those demons have been put to bed and that personal struggle has been transformed into

Pvris

Dream State

excitement, passion and huge tunes – with the band bagging one of the hottest support slots of the year in the process. “I am so excited to support Against The Current! It’s such a huge opportunity and they’re one of my favourite bands, so we are beyond stoked.” And could global domination come next? “We have band dates every week and we watch Warped Tour documentaries together – it looks like a lot of fun. There’s so much we’re missing out on in Australia and we’re so keen to take on the world.” Get there early – literally and figuratively. WORDS: Candice Haridimou

Picturesque

Homebound

7 Minutes In Heaven

“I think Picturesque are great and have a really bright future. They’ve got great songs, loads of catchy hooks and Kyle has an amazing voice – a lot of people are getting on board with them already. They’ve just released their debut album ‘Back To Beautiful’ and it’s awesome. My favourite songs are ‘Honestly’, ‘Believe’, ‘Who We Are’ and ‘Speak Softly’. I haven’t seen them live yet and really want to! Their performances on YouTube look so great.”

“I think Homebound are just incredible. They recently released an EP called ‘The Mould You Build Yourself Around’ and it’s great. I only discovered them a few months ago after they were announced for the Slam Dunk line-up and decided to give them a listen – I fell in love straight away. I can’t wait to see them with Trash Boat and Broadside this month. If you are looking for a new band to listen to, I strongly recommend them.”

“I love 7 Minutes In Heaven. Their music is amazing and has gotten me through some rough times. I’ve been listening to them for two years now and it feels like their songs get better and better with each one that’s released. ‘Symmetry’ has lyrics that are relatable to most people. We’ve all been through some kind of hard split – with a siginificant other, friend or even family member. It’s hard to find a band that’s authentic nowadays, but they really are.”

Check Out: ‘Speak Softly’ picturesque

Check Out: ‘Headspace’ ukhomebound

Tovik Budiman

THE NEW STARS

OF YOUR STEREO

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Rebecca McEwan

Jordan Ackhart

Check Out: ‘Symmetry’ 7mihband

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TEN T ‘P SA O YING FORLK ON OEEPS’ UR SM

playlist

FROM: San Antonio, USA RELEASE: ‘Works Of Progress’ (Album, SharpTone. Out Now)

A DAY TO REMEMBER

acrosstheatlanticband

SOMETIMES a band’s name exists purely to catch the eye or fit a particular mould. For Across The Atlantic

though, their name is a fitting description of what the band embodies. “Every member of our band is of a different ethnicity,” nods vocalist Jay Martinez. “I think diversity is great and one of our priorities has always been to celebrate ours. Everybody is so open-minded and that’s why our music sounds as varied as it does.”

But even calling the sounds that make up the band’s second full-length ‘Works Of Progress’ varied is a hell of an understatement. With crushing breakdowns one minute and rousing pop hooks the next, it’s a body of work that’s as brilliantly uplifting as it is gloriously brutal. According to the frontman, it also features the most honest music the quintet has created in their five-year existence. “I went into writing this record without an agenda,” he reveals. “I was battling with the pressure of fulfilling my passion or doing what was expected of me, so I

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made sure I could take pride in what I was saying if this was going to be my last shot. It gave me a true sense of freedom.” This no-holds-barred approach shines through vividly in the songs, but it also demonstrates how this band means way more than just album sales and soldout shows to Jay. “The best part of music is the emotion and the connections you build,” he finishes. “If we’re able to motivate somebody to make their life better, then we’ve done our job.” WORDS: Jack Rogers

YOUR FAVOURITE bands’ new FAVOURITE bands

Hundred Suns

Microwave

Decade

Loz Taylor, While She Sleeps

Henry Cox, Boston Manor

James Veck-Gilodi, Deaf Havana

“I’m going with Hundred Suns. After hearing and loving their new songs ‘Fractional’ and ‘Last Apology’, the rest of the new record that they’re from – ‘The Prestaliis’ – is just as amazing, with the same attitude and groove holding onto a strong and sinister lead vocal – it’s wicked! The band self-funded the album via Indiegogo, so it feels great to be a part of that journey. I’m looking forward to hopefully getting to see them live in the near future too.”

Check Out: ‘Fractional’ hundredsunsmusic 36 rock sound

“I’ve been listening to this band a lot lately. I had the pleasure of sharing the road with them this past summer on Warped Tour. I was immediately drawn in by the looseness of the vocals, interesting melodies and lyrical poeticism. There’s a kind of suburban folk element of storytelling present that I just love. Their album ‘Much Love’ is a soundtrack to having your heart broken, but also for sharing a beer with a friend. Go listen to it.”

Check Out: ‘Lighterless’ microwavetheband

“My favourite new rock band right now is Decade. I first saw them randomly, in a bar in Gothenburg and have been hooked ever since! They bring together elements of ’90s swagger reminiscent of Oasis and Blur and fuse it with more contemporary pop melodies – for me the outcome is irresistible. They just have that spark that I’m constantly searching for with new music and their album ‘Pleasantries’ has been on repeat for months.”

Check Out: ‘Daisy May’ decadeofficial

t h i s

JOHN O

i s s u e

’CAL A G A L N

the maine INTERVIEW: Andy Biddulph PHOTO: Stephen Denton

THE MAINE’S UH, MAIN MAN TALKS FIRST IMPRESSIONS, HARD WORK AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO STAY TRUE TO YOURSELF. LESSON #1 WORK HARD. REALLY HARD

“The hard work… it’s intended to be difficult, because if anything specific were easy then everyone would be professional athletes, or movie stars, or rocket scientists. If things were intended to be easy then the world would be a much different place. Obviously what separates a lot of people is their work ethic, and what you put into whatever it is that you’re pursuing.”

LESSON #2 FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT

“We learned on the road that when someone meets you after a show for a 12-second interaction… if you’re a negative person, then you’re gonna be a dick forever. If you spend two weeks on tour being a dick then you’ll be a dick forever to [those people].”

LESSON #3 LETTING GO IS OKAY

“I think there’s a level of letting go that needs to happen as well. If there’s someone that can do your job better than you, then you have to make room for that and swallow your pride a little bit and allow people to help. You know, it’s okay for people to help you if you trust them and you believe that they have your best interests in mind as well.”

LESSON #4 BE YOURSELF

“We execute whatever we’re feeling in the moment, and that doesn’t always translate to

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progression or evolution, but I think it translates to people believing you at that given time. I don’t think we’ve ever abandoned our instinct, and even though sometimes those intuitive feelings might not have been the best choice for that given period or that given moment in time, if nothing else we’ve stuck very true to whatever it is we’re feeling in the moment. There are positives and there are negatives, but we can at least stand proudly and firmly in front of the mirror and say that whatever [we did] in the moment was what we were feeling, and we’re not ashamed of it or embarrassed by it. I think that that’s something we can also try to preach to people, that it’s important to not abandon your instinct and to try to stay as true to who it is that you think you are.”

adolescence and my early twenties. That was a rough time for me. I had music as an outlet, not only just writing and creating, but also listening. That’s important when society is kind of doing everything to almost kill the ‘teenager’. There is no youth any more, it’s kind of, ‘Grow up now, you’re an adult, here’s a computer in your hand and here’s this competition to be the hottest and coolest, and who has the best car and the biggest house.’ I think we’re trying to combat that; it’s important to have youth, to have young love, young heartbreak. It’s important to have those things as you only learn from them. Growing up is not fun. There’s a lot of negatives about growing up, but at the same time there’s a lot of beautiful parts about just being alive.”

LESSON #5 TRY TO FOCUS ON THE POSITIVES

LESSON #7 It’s OKAY TO NOT KNOW WHO YOU ARE

“I can vividly remember the low points in my life more than I can the highs, because when things are great, you don’t ever question them and cloud nine feels normal. When the bottom falls out, then that’s the baseline. Now it’s my goal to appreciate the positive moments and not dwell on the negatives. I feel that if the brain is that keen to exploit the negative, then it can do the same for the positive. You’ll never truly appreciate what you have until it’s gone.”

LESSON #6 THERE’S NO RUSH TO GROW UP

“It’s important to push the idea that you’re not alone. That’s one of my staples. I still feel that way from time to time, but I did moreso in my

“Identity crisis is important, and 100 percent part of the process of learning who you are. We’ve not entirely figured out who we are as a band. Obviously 10 years down the road we’re far more comfortable with who we are, but I think that the identity crisis at the beginning was part of the process. It’s a painful part of the process and it can sometimes be embarrassing, but it’s part of it and it wasn’t embarrassing at the time. I think we still have a lot to be proud of.” ‘Lonely Little Lovely’ is out now on 8123. The Maine tour the UK this month; see the Gig Guide for details.

ITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S IMPORTANT TO HAVE YOUNG LOVE, YOUNG HEARTBREAK... rock sound 39

T H I S

I S S U E

DEREK SANDERS MAYDAY PARADE INTERVIEW: Jack Rogers PHOTO: Mike Wilson

THE FLORIDIAN VOCALIST REVEALS THE SONGS THAT HELPED SHAPE THE MAN HE IS TODAY. AND THERE ARE CLASSICS AT EVERY TURN.

…I HATE THAT EVERYONE ELSE LOVES BOBBY McFERRIN

…I COULD PLAY ON REPEAT

“This is a stone cold classic. I’m 31 years ‘ C A N ’ T G E T A W AY ’ old and I’ve got a family. I feel like I look THIRD EYE BLIND LUIS FONSI FT. DADDY YANKEE & JUSTIN BIEBER at things differently to how I did 12 years “It’s tough to say really, because I don’t “This is super catchy and feel good. It’s a ago when we started Mayday Parade. hate many songs. This song is slightly song you just want to sing along to. I Everything feels good now…everything annoying at most. I don’t listen to a lot play it far too much, my wife probably seems to be in its place.” of Top 40 stuff usually, but there are hates it with the amount that I have it on songs that do grate on me. I think it’s a in our house. They are one of my all …HAS MY FAVOURITE LYRICS EVER cool song, but you hear it so much now that I just want it time favourites. They are one of the only bands that have ‘LAND LOCKED BLUES’ to go away. It’s hit that point with me.” stuck around for so long and can still put out music that BRIGHTS EYES is just as good as their best stuff.” …I FIRST REMEMBER LOVING “That song has some of the most incredible lyrics. ‘The world’s got me …REMINDS ME OF HOME ‘ T O D AY ’ dizzy again, you’d think after 22 years I’d ‘ C A L I F O R N I A’ THE SMASHING PUMPKINS be used to the spin’ is one of my COPELAND “I remember my older brother playing favourite lines. Conor Oberst is such a this song to me when I was pretty “I got into them when I was about 15. strong lyricist. He’s a talented guy. I also love Jesse Lacey young. It was one of the first things I Being from Florida that song is really of Brand New and Stephen Jenkins of Thirds Eye Blind. remember listening to again and again. important to my friends and me, and That trio is my favourite. Imagine that tour!” It piqued my curiosity about music in we’d always go to see them together. general, especially alternative rock. Even now all that ’90s When they play it live now it always …MAKES ME WANT TO PARTY stuff is still some of my favourite music. It kick started a takes me back to those days. It’s such a perfect song.” ‘ FA I N T ’ lot of things for me.”

‘ D E S PA C I T O ’

…I CAN NAIL AT KARAOKE ‘MY OWN WORST ENEMY’

LIT

LINKIN PARK

“What an incredible band. They always knew how to bring the energy. When they play Linkin Park in clubs there’s a switch flipped and you can feel everyone getting so stoked.”

…I AM PROUDEST OF ‘ M I S E R A B L E AT B E S T ’

MAYDAY PARADE

“It may be cliché or an obvious choice, but it’s true. The number of times that “It’s so fun to do. I’ve tried doing tougher we’ve played it to a room full of people things like Queen in the past, but this singing along loudly is such an song is my go to. It’s got a great chorus …BREAKS MY HEART incredible feeling. If we’d known what it and everybody loves it. It’s got a real feel ‘ A S L E E P I N T H E H E AT ’ would become, we would have messed good vibe to it. It’s crazy how old that it up and overdone it. The stripped back, simple way we song is now. I think that they could have been the same PUP did it was the way it was meant to be.” size as Blink-182. That song was such a huge hit, but I “I believe it’s about the singer’s pet guess it’s just one of those things.” dying. The video is also incredibly heart wrenching, but so beautiful. I got into Mayday Parade tour the UK this month playing ‘A Pup about six months back and that Lesson In Romantics’ in full; see the Gig Guide …SUMS UP MY LIFE RIGHT NOW song has become one of my favourites.” for details. ‘ D O N ’ T W O R R Y, B E H A P P Y ’ 40 rock sound

EVERYTHING FEELS GOOD NOWâ&#x20AC;¦EVERYTHING SEEMS TO BE IN ITS PLACE rock sound 41

“Singing with my kids was the happiest I’ve ever been in my entire life” 42 rock sound

FRANK IERO IN WHICH YOU LOT GRILL THE LEGENDARY GUITARIST ON EVERYTHING FROM REGRETS, ACHIEVEMENTS AND ART TO THE PERFECT PIZZA TOPPINGS. OF COURSE. GET READY TO LEARN A LOT... INTERVIEW: Mischa Pearlman PHOTOS: Mitchell Wojcik

WHAT DOES ‘KEEP THE FAITH’ MEAN TO YOU?

LIAM LUBITZ “It’s a Bon Jovi album, but it’s also a Bouncing Souls quote on ‘Maniacal Laughter’ – they yell ‘Keep the faith!’ at the end. The first time My Chem played a big show some kids asked for my autograph and I was like, ‘I feel weird about this.’ My friend Eddie was like, ‘Suck it up’ and the Bouncing Souls song was the only thing that came to mind, to basically say that this dream I’m having is so surreal and crazy, but to keep believing in yourself and the things you’re doing.”

WILL YOUR DOG SWEET PEA EVER STAR IN A MUSIC VIDEO? ZOE COOKE “I would love that. If I’d thought about Sweet Pea earlier maybe I’d have put her in the video for ‘Parachutes’. Maybe another time.”

IS ‘RAD’ YOUR FAVOURITE WORD?

VANESSA ERIC “Maybe! ‘Rad’ is definitely one of my go to sayings. Apparently I also tell my kids they have to chill lots. The other day my son took out stuffed animals and put them on the bed and said, ‘Later when we come home I’m going to go there and chill.’”

WHO IS ‘OCEANS’ ABOUT?

ELIZABETH BELLO “Oh, man. That’s for me. It can be about whoever you want it to be about, but ‘Oceans’ is for me.”

WHO’S YOUR FAVOURITE BAND AT THE MINUTE?

WHAT WAS THE LAST GIG YOU ATTENDED AS A FAN?

RYAN ANDERSON “I went to go see ’68, Listener and The Homeless Gospel Choir, and that night we also went to see the Pixies! It was great!”

IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD ON VACATION, WHERE WOULD IT BE?

CATHERINE MILNES “I can’t pick just one. There’s the staples: The Beatles, Black Flag, Black Sabbath, Bouncing Souls, but I also fucking love Culture Abuse. I thought the last Nothing record was phenomenal and the new The Homeless Gospel Choir record is unreal.”

JAY LACOSTE “The Big Island of Hawaii is my favourite place on Earth. It’s just unreal. My wife and I went years ago and I’ve been dying to go back ever since. It was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had.”

CAN WE WATCH WAYNE’S WORLD THEN LISTEN TO RECORDS TOGETHER?

WHERE DO YOU SEE YOUR BAND IN 10 YEARS?

AMBER FELLANO “Fuck yes! We probably won’t, but that sounds like a lot of fun.”

DO YOU HAVE ANY TATTOOS THAT YOU REGRET?

BREANN LONGMIRE “No. Even the shitty ones tell a story – like shitty experiences in your life make you the person you are. I like tattoos that look a little fucked up; all scarred, raised and blown. There’s something about those that’s kind of beautiful.”

KERRY DOUGLAS “I don’t know. I can’t do that kind of thing. I don’t do well with five or 10 year plans – I feel like art needs to be immediate and mortal.”

WHAT TOPPINGS DOES THE PERFECT PIZZA HAVE?

SAMANTHA RAINES “I like Daiya cheese – it’s like a vegan cheese that melts nicely. Marquis Pizza have a Daiya cheese pizza which I put buffalo seitan on top and it’s amazing! I’d probably add black olives because rock sound 43

I love them and no one else does. It’s like a bike lock for your pizza – put olives on and no one will touch it!”

WHAT IN YOUR OPINION HAS BEEN THE PEAK OF YOUR CAREER?

JORDAN GARCIA “You get moments. With records, it’s every 10 years. I love every record I’ve made, but coming out of a session, listening back and being like, ‘That was exactly what I had in my head!’ there were two: ‘The Black Parade’ and ‘Parachutes’. Those are the two that nailed it, and they were 10 years apart! But career highs are rarely associated with how other people view success. For me, it was getting to play a show when my kids came up and sang with me. It was totally unplanned, but they came up and did ‘Joyriding’ with me and it was amazing. That was probably the happiest I’ve ever been in my entire life.”

CAN YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST SONG YOU EVER WROTE? WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF IT NOW? DIRK WYNN “Kind of. I’m sure it wasn’t very good and I couldn’t even sing you a lyric or melody, but I remember playing it at my first ever show and being like, ‘Fuck yeah! I made it – I wrote a song and played it to real live people!’ I was about 12. It was less about it being good and more about it being possible, because that opened up a floodgate. The first song you write is going to suck, but you have to keep doing it until you eventually write something that doesn’t make you cringe.”

“I’m just trying to warm my cold, black heart”

DO YOU BELIEVE IN ‘GOOD’ AND ‘BAD’ MUSIC?

KAJA PRUCHNIEWSKA “The wonderful thing about art is that it’s subjective and there is no right or wrong. Whatever the intent of the artist was is how it should be. I would say you can break things into art-worthy; whether it’s made with the purest of intent or not. I’ll stop there, but will say that I think it’s real easy to smell bullshit.”

WHAT’S THE BEST ITEM OF MERCH OR MEMORABILIA THAT YOU OWN?

TEIGEN ENDERWICK “I’m a big fan of band merch. I think it’s another extension of the aesthetic and artwork and I don’t understand bands that don’t care about that. I like being hands-on and I still do all of my own merch. I own a pair of Descendents Vans that I fucking love. And a pair of Bouncing Souls Vans they made for their 20th anniversary that are phenomenal. I like when bands do stuff that isn’t the norm. I also have a really great Behemoth T-shirt that I love.”

IF YOU COULD OFFER ADVICE TO A STARVING ARTIST, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

LILIAN LEWIS “Get used to starving! And not just for food – I mean for attention and love and feeling comfortable in your own skin, because that’s the life you’ve chosen. Don’t get into art because you expect anything back, because rarely will it love you the way that you love it. It will take everything 44 rock sound

you’ve got and give you just enough to keep you hooked. It’s an addiction as opposed to a love. You’re always chasing that high, because when you get it right there’s nothing like it. But rarely do the stars all align. Do it because you have to, not because you expect fame, fortune or adulation, because you will not receive that.”

WHY DO YOU WEAR SO MANY LAYERS OF CLOTHING ALL THE TIME? HOW DO YOU NOT DIE OF HEAT STROKE?!

LYNN PLANSAK “I don’t know, I’m just cold! It’s weird. I like clothing and I like to wear it all at the same time! I’m just trying to warm my cold, black heart.”

ARE YOU GOING FOR THE AWARD OF TWITTER’S BIGGEST SAVAGE?

SOPHIE MATHLIN “The only award for having Twitter is that ultimately the power will go out and no one will give a shit. It’s silly to me and I treat it as such.”

WHAT WAS THE FIRST SONG YOU LEARNED TO PLAY ON GUITAR?

ERICA VILLANI “The first song was probably ‘About A Girl’ by Nirvana. But my thing wasn’t learning songs, I wanted to learn components and take two or three chords to write my own stuff. I didn’t want to be a musician or a virtuoso guitar player – I wanted to be a songwriter.”

IF YOU COULD BE ANY CHARACTER FROM ANY MOVIE, BOOK, TV SHOW OR SONG, WHO WOULD YOU BE AND WHY?

MADISON WALTERS “I’d like to be someone happy! So I’ll be Batman! Fuck it.”

‘Keep The Coffins Coming’ is out on Hassle on September 22. Frank Iero And The Patience tour the UK this month; see the Gig Guide for details.

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verybody has something to say about Kellin Quinn. Depending on who you ask, he’s a visionary, or a fake. An inspiration, or a cynic. A man devoted to his family, his bandmates and his art, or a social climber with dollar signs in his eyes. More than almost anyone else in our world, Sleeping With Sirens’ frontman divides opinion just by existing in the public eye – but the one thing you can say about him for sure? He’s only human. “Part of me thinks, ‘Well, if you’re being talked about, you’re good,’” chuckles Kellin, with a hint of frustration in his voice. “It’s when nobody says a damn thing that you’re in trouble. But I’ve read online that people think I’m mean; maybe I haven’t stopped to take a picture

with someone, so they say I’m an asshole. On the other side, there are people saying I’m really sweet and nice, and I’ve had a positive impact on their lives. I have good days and bad days, and I’m just a person like everyone.” He draws in a breath. “What they don’t know is the conversation in my head. ‘Gossip’ is me telling myself, ‘Don’t believe everything that’s going on in here. That voice that says you’re worthless, that you could do better, that you’re not doing it right…. Don’t believe the lies, dude. You do deserve to be in this position, you do deserve to be happy.’ Over the last year I’ve done so many scary things – things that make you feel like you’re floating above the ground, and you don’t know if you’ll be able to touch down – but at the end of it all, I’ve learned that I’m capable of more than I’d ever imagined.” Forget what you thought you knew about Kellin, and Sleeping With Sirens. ‘Gossip’ is almost here… and one way or another, it’s going to change everything.

rom the outside, 2016 looked like a pretty typical year in the Sirens camp. The Orlando crew – completed by guitarists Nick Martin and Jack Fowler, bassist Justin Hills and

SLEEPING WITH SIRENS drummer Gabe Barham – were still riding the wave of their ultra-polished fourth record ‘Madness’, which had dropped a year earlier. They spent the latest of many summers in carparks and amphitheatres across the United States, as one of the biggest draws on Warped Tour; playing shows, meeting fans, and quietly demoing songs for album five. Yet behind the scenes, it was becoming clear that something had to change. “For me it was a dark year, actually,” sighs Kellin. He and his bandmates are spending some rare downtime at home with their families, before the ‘Gossip’ machine truly kicks into gear. The frontman sounds relaxed, assured and excited about the challenges ahead – far removed from the mindset he was in 12 months ago. “It all started when me, my wife and kids were told that we needed to find a new place to live,” he recalls. “We’d been renting, the owner wanted the place, so there wasn’t much anyone could do about it. That was right at the beginning of the summer, as Warped Tour was kicking off… so I had to go out on the road and figure out what we were going to do. Even though it eventually got sorted, it put a lot of stress on my shoulders, plus we needed to start thinking about the next record. “At the same time, I was feeling this sense of… coming of age, I guess,” he continues. “I was starting to recognise how much I’d changed. Turning 31 was a lot different to turning 21. When I was younger I had worries and cares, but it felt easier to conquer them,

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like I had all the time I needed. Now I had a family and bandmates relying on me to maintain a livelihood, I was dealing with a lot of anxiety, and insecurities I’d never experienced before were starting to come through. It became this moment of, ‘Who actually are you, dude? What do you really want?’” It was a time of extreme contrasts. The fivepiece inked their first ever major label deal, for example, signing on the dotted line with Warner Bros. – but the question of what kind of band they wanted to be, and where they would go next, was still playing on their minds. “The problem was that a lot of the ideas we had back then… they just felt very safe,” reflects Nick. At 34, he’s considered the ‘dad’ of the group – and as the other members attest, brought a grounding, (slightly) more responsible influence to the ranks when he joined in 2014 (“I’m the guy who goes to bed early and makes sure everyone’s doing okay in the morning!”). “We were just continuing on the path we’d 60 rock sound

SLEEPING WITH SIRENS

been taking before, and honestly, it was pretty boring. The songs were ‘good enough’, but we weren’t pushing ourselves. I’ve been touring since I was 17, and if you’re not having fun, doing new things, there’s no point. I think we all realised that with the Warner Bros. deal… if we didn’t take a risk, we were in danger of becoming bullshit artists, and would kick our own asses for it further down the line.” “For most bands, there’s the start, the upward climb, and then the middle bit where it levels off,” nods the vocalist. “We’d reached the middle, which is when you start basing your decisions on everyone except yourself, taking other people’s opinions, and the roots of why you began making music in the first place can get lost. On Warped, kids would come up to me and say, ‘Hey, you made a difference in my life’, but part of me was like ‘Fuck, I can’t even make a difference in mine!’ I was still figuring out what I needed to do, where my life was heading, and what came

next for the band was going to be a big part of that.” eciding which producer to work with is a huge decision for any band, regardless of what’s going on for them. When Sirens opted to team up with David Bendeth towards the end of 2016 – the man who worked on everything from Paramore’s ‘Riot!’ to All Time Low’s ‘Nothing Personal’, and has a reputation as one of the industry’s hardest taskmasters – it had huge repercussions for everything that followed. “It was pretty eye-opening,” laughs Nick. “We thought we were going to go into the

studio with some older song ideas, come up with some new ones and by January, we’d be right on it.” He grimaces. “It didn’t really work out like that.” “Early on, Bendeth organised this kind of group therapy session,” remembers Justin. The bassist comes across as one of Sirens’ most unassuming and softly spoken characters, the guy who’s just as happy snowboarding and hitting the beach with his dog as he is travelling the globe. “He made us sit down and be honest with each other, because he felt like there was some distance between us. We talked about things that frustrated us about the band and we had to figure out how it all worked again. It was like going back to basics: what’s the reason we’re doing this? Did we forget how to have fun? Honestly, I did reach a point where I kind of dreaded every day, but this whole process reminded me how to enjoy it all again.” rock sound 61

Holed up at the producer’s House Of Loud studio in New Jersey, the quintet started to question all of their assumptions about what Sleeping With Sirens could be: the sound, the image and everything in between. Slowly, but surely, they made a conscious and collective decision to tear up the template they’d trusted since 2013’s commercial breakthrough, ‘Feel’, and build something radically different. Something that would get the world talking, that even their detractors couldn’t ignore. Considering how much pre-planning went into their previous album campaigns – so much that they even shelved a whole record ‘Wasted Generation’, because it didn’t quite feel right at the time – this was uncharted territory. “Our intention was never, ‘Dude, we’ve got to be like Fall Out Boy and Paramore!’” insists Kellin. “It wasn’t like, ‘We gotta be one of those bands who totally change their sound to get on the radio.’ It was more about taking our hands off the wheel and saying, ‘Let’s not worry what anyone else wants: what music do we really want to make?’ I’m in my thirties, we’re all getting older, and we don’t want to be one of those bands still writing songs about girls and high school, pretending like nothing’s changed. Everything has changed. I was sick of coasting and acting like everything was cool.

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If that means going back into the trenches, having to prove to people why they should care all over again, that’s exciting to me.” As the weeks and months rolled by, that process became half creative experiment, and half impromptu road trip. The band bounced from the New Jersey gloom to the sunshine of Los Angeles, took a detour down to the very different Southern metropolis of Nashville, before Kellin and Jack jetted all the way back again to add some final touches. At the same time, they were coming up with songs unlike anything they’d crafted before; stripped back, unashamedly radiofriendly, but also with a newfound sense of rawness and swagger. Not that they were entirely out of the woods yet… “All in all, we were making ‘Gossip’ for something like six months,” chimes in Gabe. As one of the band’s founding members, the drummer has the air of a guy who’s been everywhere and seen everything there is to see in this corner of the world, but still hasn’t lost his love for what he does. “David Bendeth is one of those people who wants to break you down to build you up again, and at times he was a monster! I’ve been recording for 10 years, and I’ve never had anyone give me such a hard time. I’d definitely have moments where I’d think, ‘Oh my god, you’re such an asshole’… but

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SLEEPING WITH SIRENS we going too far?’ But this is our band, this is our art, and fuck you if you don’t respect that. I love every single song on this album, and think this is still barely scratching the surface of what the band could be.”

then I’d listen back to the finished product and think, ‘Whoa, this sounds amazing.’ It was cool, because I could also see how Kellin’s passion was being reignited. I hadn’t seen him so excited about new music for a long time… maybe even since the start of the band.” “Things got a lot better when we all decided to just kill people’s expectations… to jump right in and see what would happen,” remembers Kellin. “Okay, I was still the one freaking out, calling people and going, ‘Dude, I don’t know…’ but at the same time, I was starting to understand that I can’t please everybody, and that’s okay. We’ve been doing this for seven years, so it’s all or nothing now. I’m cool with the fact that people are going to hear ‘Gossip’ and go, ‘Sirens? There’s no way this is them.’ I think a lot of fans might be confused at first, but when they hear the songs live they’ll be like, ‘Oh, I get it now!’ Man, the reason it’s called ‘Gossip’ is because we know people are going to talk about it.” Though it’s not short of anthems (hell, ‘Legends’ is already the official song of the U.S. Winter Olympic team), that sense of fearless, even headstrong creativity runs through every song on ‘Gossip’. It’s certainly not the slick, box-ticking sequel to ‘Madness’ that some were expecting – and that they came close to making – but while Kellin’s right that it won’t please everyone, it’ll keep things interesting in the years of touring ahead. Lyrically too, Kellin’s let himself off the leash. Whether channelling his experiences in the run-up to making the album (“‘Trouble’ captures that vibe of, ‘Shit, now we’re on a major label and there are all these people with their hands in the pot, this is a whole different world,’” he explains) or attacking the toxic rhetoric of a certain President Trump (“If you feel like you don’t belong in the country where you live, or you don’t feel accepted,

‘War’ is for you”) these songs reveal aspects of the frontman that we’ve never seen before. “I feel like there’s a ‘shut up and play the music’ culture now,” muses the vocalist. “The world is in such a state of what-the-fuckness, but everything on the radio is about going to a club and getting fucked up. At the same time we’re all glued to social media, and it’s so fake. Of course we become insecure… when I was younger, once in a while I’d walk by a mirror and check my hair was alright, but now there are pictures of me eating half a hamburger online for anyone to comment on! Especially when you’re struggling with insecurity, anxiety and depression… it’s in front of you all the time. I just want to be honest and talk about this stuff. Maybe music can start saying something again, maybe we can help speak for people who can’t.” That sense of honesty extends to the way ‘Gossip’ was recorded: largely free of overdubs or autotune, everyone involved hammering out take after take until they got it right. “I was lucky enough to go back up to New Jersey with Kellin when we were finishing the record,” says Jack. “We were completely isolated up there, which we needed. It’s funny, because me and Kellin are basically the exact same person. Any type of distraction and we’re gone. And the things he was recording up there were just amazing. “We wanted to make music that reflects where we’re at, that we’re not 18 year old kids any more,” continues the guitarist. He describes himself as the “tough big brother of the group, the tough love guy who’s always got your back,” and that sense of sharp, biting humour shines through. “I don’t even think it’s a big departure in that way, no matter what anyone says. It’s just a Sirens record that we really needed to make. There were times when I thought, ‘Are

iven all that, it’s tempting to see ‘Gossip’ as Sirens’ attempt to break free from the Warped Tour ranks and take their stab at the world’s biggest stages. And sure, the stomping stadium rock of ‘Cheers’ and confessional balladry of ‘Hole In My Heart’ sound custom-made for arenas. But while the five-piece make no apologies for their ambition, Kellin insists that they’re not trying to burn any bridges. “I would fucking love to take this album on Warped,” he nods vehemently. “We’re not trying to escape that. But this record should open up a lot of new opportunities too. I remember playing somebody ‘Gossip’ on tour, and their response was, ‘Holy shit man, if this takes off and becomes the new sound, I don’t know what everyone else is going to do.’ We could tour with bands like Fall Out Boy or Twenty One Pilots, or bring out artists that kids within our scene might not know about. Some cool bands get set aside because a few others get the front pages the whole time. I want to change that.” “There are definitely times where I’m like, ‘Fuck, I need to pay my bills, I really hope this record and this year of touring works out,’” he continues. “And of course it’d be awesome if we get to play Wembley Stadium one day! But the biggest thing now is experiencing it all. This band has been one ‘holy shit’ moment after another – right from the first show, when we played in front of 15 people, and there was just one dude singing every word to ‘If I’m James Dean, You’re Audrey Hepburn.’” He pauses. “I just want our fans to grow with us. A lot of the people who started out listening to us now say, ‘I really loved your band when I was 17, now my younger sister likes your band.’ That’s awesome, but I really want that person to say, ‘I still love your band, I come to the shows with my sister and we experience it together.’ Hopefully we can make that happen.” And the challenge of taking their poppiest, most commercial sounding songs to date and putting them in front of Rise Against fans, as they support the Chicago four-piece on their European tour? Apparently, it’s another attempt to shake things up, and make life interesting for themselves. rock sound 65

“I can see why it’s raised some eyebrows,” shrugs the frontman, “but I grew up listening to that band every single day. This way we get to watch them every night, and maybe reach a few new people along the way. Again, it’s exciting because it’s different.” Whether ‘Gossip’ is the album that sends Sleeping With Sirens into the stratosphere or is just another stop off on their journey, making it was clearly something they needed to do. Say what you want about Kellin Quinn,

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his band or the music they’ve created – they’re facing the future on their own terms, with their destiny in their own hands. In a world where talents can fizzle and burn out in an instant, and so many artists allow their careers to be mapped out in boardrooms, that counts for a lot. “It’s great to inspire other people, but we’ve got to be inspired too,” argues Nick. “Though it was such a gruelling experience making the record, in a way I feel like the stars aligned for us… this is the perfect step forward for us right now.”

“I genuinely believe we’re capable of so many great things,” nods Kellin. “This is the first time we’ve really gone for it, and it’s been a huge growing process for everyone. I’m so proud of us for pushing those boundaries.” Maybe, just maybe, this time you should believe the gossip. ‘Gossip’ is available through Warner Bros. on September 22. Sleeping With Sirens tour the UK in November supporting Rise Against; see the Gig Guide for details.

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DrNaoww It

Remember It Later

After designing a tote bag for this very issue, Kellin tells us about his passion for art. “I started creating visual art before I ever got into music. My grandma introduced me to drawing and painting when I was really young, so it’s always been an important part of my life. It’s a relaxing thing to do to get my mind off of everything else. Music is my career, what I do for a living, as well as something that I love. With art, I don’t have to find out what everyone thinks, I don’t have to show everybody all the work that I do. I display some of it, but some is kept just for me. The visual aspect of this band, shirt designs and our look, the album art, that’s mostly been based on my visual concepts too. I even wrote the concept for our ‘The Strays’ video. It all goes hand in hand with the music.”

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AFTER A LONG SUMMER ON WARPED TOUR YOUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;D THINK ANDY BIERSACK MIGHT TAKE SOME TIME OFF TO REST. NO CHANCE. THE BUSIEST MAN IN ROCK HAS A LOT ON. INTERVIEW: Will Cross PHOTOS: Kevin Estrada

68 rock sound

ANDY BIERSACK

My brain goes nuts if it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have something to work on

rock sound 69

70 rock sound

ANDY Biersack

I’m doing some pretty crazy, emotional heavy lifting in American Satan WHAT’S UP NEXT FOR YOU, ANDY? “I’m really excited to get back in the studio. One of the things about the first Andy Black record is that it was uncharted territory and I was trying to make something that felt representative of the emotions and ideas that I had. That’s why the record had so many different flavours on it. Obviously we had a lot of different people come in and help us too, which made it a fun experience. On the next record, I’m a little more focused and I understand the project a little more.”

WILL YOU BE WORKING WITH JOHN FELDMANN AGAIN? “Yes, Feldy and I are starting on it in the fall. That will be completed in time for the holidays and then the Black Veil Brides tour will kick off. About four or five months ago, the label hit us up and said they were very interested in re-examining Andy Black for a second go around, and they seemed to like what ‘The Shadow Side’ had done. That made me thrilled, because I like making stuff more than anything – my brain goes nuts if it doesn’t have something to work on. I love playing and I love entertaining, but making records is one of my favourite parts of doing this for a living – especially with John. He and I have a great friendship. Going to his house and spending a couple of months making things every day is my idea of a great time.”

HE WORKED ON THE NEW BLACK VEIL BRIDES ALBUM AS WELL, RIGHT? “Yes, he produced the new Black Veil Brides album – and in an interesting way. The short version of the story is, we’ve been doing it for a long time. It seemed like the right time to sink our teeth into something and spend time cultivating it. Not to say we didn’t do that before, but we were a young band on deadlines – we’d never been afforded the opportunity to take our time. We wound up doing it in three different locations because John actually moved studios while we were doing the record. So it was a fun experience in the sense that I did the vocals in a bunch

of different places over the course of a year. I think we’ve evolved significantly from record to record and this album is a nice culmination of the many different eras of the band. It represents all the different places that we’ve been, mixed with that Feldmann touch that I don’t think anyone else even comes close to. He just knows how to make things huge, so to come back into the world of darker, heavier rock music after doing a pop record together was a lot of fun. And the five of us have been in a band together for a decade so we know each other pretty well. So all in all this record is representative of where we are as a band after a decade together. I’m not going to tell you it’s our heaviest and most melodic album or the best thing we’ve ever done, but it’s a great record that we’re really proud of and I think the fans are really going to like it. It’ll have been four years since the last album by the time it’s out...”

HOW MUCH CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE UPCOMING TOUR? “Well, I can’t tell you too much! If I could I would, but I will say this – it’s a tour that the fans have wanted for a long time, it’s something that we’ve been hearing people asking us to do for years and I think it’s going to be something special.”

AND YOU’RE MAKING YOUR MOVIE DEBUT IN AMERICAN SATAN. HAVE YOU ALWAYS FANCIED TURNING YOUR HAND TO ACTING? “Most people don’t know that when I first moved to Los Angeles, I survived by doing acting work. I went to art school and was a drama major. I did commercial work to make ends meet. I’ve always had a passion for acting, but music was the thing that drove me more. I’d receive scripts and I would go in to read, but the agency would see this guy from a rock band with a bunch of fucking tattoos all over his body. I’ve got a little bit more time and security in my life now, so why not give it a shot? Ash Avildsen – owner of Sumerian Records and Films – was actually Black Veil Brides’ first booking agent and the first person we ever signed with officially. He

went to battle for us and although we don’t work with each other any longer, we’ve always remained close. In Summer 2015 on Warped Tour, he told me he’d written a movie with me in mind as the lead character. I read the script and was immediately excited. It was a real treat to do. I can’t tell you how much fun I had. It’s something I’ve wanted to do my whole life and I’m doing some pretty crazy, heavy lifting emotional stuff like drug use; this kid’s life goes off the rails and to be able to do that opposite people like Malcolm McDowell, Denise Richards, John Bradley West from Game Of Thrones and of course my friend Ben Bruce, was a real dream come true.”

WHAT MORE CAN YOU REVEAL ABOUT THE MOVIE ITSELF? “I believe we’re calling it a rock ‘n’ roll thriller – it has horror elements in that it’s a dark subject matter, but there’s no gore or bogeyman – it’s meant to be a psychological ride for the audience. This kid becomes rich and famous, but he pays a price and goes through shit to get to that point. And it has a pretty crazy ending...”

WITH ALL YOUR BIG SCREEN AND MUSICAL COMMITMENTS HOW DO YOU FIND TIME FOR THE ANDY SHOW PODCAST? “I don’t know! We’ve done two seasons of 14 episodes. It’s an hour-long show on Patreon and then we put up a six-minute mini show every week that’s us playing a funny game or doing something silly. That’s all a work in progress truthfully, we started with nothing and said, ‘Hey, we want to do this.’ So we took a room in our office building in L.A. where we run all the Black Veil Brides and Andy Black business stuff and basically converted a conference room into our studio. It’s a fun way of talking to people, telling stories and having guests on. We don’t take it too seriously. What we take seriously is the work put into it. Our scene doesn’t really have a talk show as such; there’s not an opportunity for people to come and sit at a desk and talk about their shit or promote a new thing, so my goal is to build it up over the next few years.” rock sound 71

IF A PICTURE IS TRULY WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS THEN WHAT BETTER WAY TO RECOUNT THE S E A W A Y STORY THAN TO LOOK THROUGH THE MOMENTS THAT MADE THEM THE BAND THEY ARE TODAY. AS THEY PREPARE TO EMBARK ON THE ADVENTURE OF NEW ALBUM ‘VACATION’, THIS IS A TASTER OF HOW THEY GOT HERE… INTERVIEW: Jack Rogers

52 7 6 rock sound

First photo we ever took together in the summer of 2011, looking like a couple of waste cases at a party in Oakville.

RYAN: “I’m proud when I look back on it and see where we are now. I feel that we stayed true to what we wanted to do, even though there was a movement in the scene to a more aggressive sound. We started with ‘Sabrina…’ and we are still doing what we want, not what everyone else is doing.”

c video i s u m t s r i f of our ge Bitch’. We shot t e s e h t m o Fr up Teena d e e h d T n a e n t i i r b d a n for ‘S yard a as a band. k c a b s ’ n a y this in R lot of doors for us opening a

Summer 2013, Un Lou’s, Orlando, Florida oncle f irst tour. We didn’t thinkour an e would show up, but it wasyon of the most memorable shoone we’ve ever played. ws

Ryan: “For three years we really grinded, playing a lot of support tours, so we thought we should try doing a big headline show to see how well we have built the band up. We were all pretty floored by how many people came out.” ANDREW:“With it being close to the end of the year it was cool to feel like you had accomplished a lot. I think we are going to keep doing that.”

SAYS GUITARIST ANDREW EICHINGER: “This was taken at a party. We had just got together and I think we’d just realised that we were actually going to do it for real. We used it for the first couple of months of being a band – our first promo!” SAYS VOCALIST RYAN LOCKE: “I feel as though the first few conversations we had as Seaway were always after a few drinks. Like, when we decided to be called Seaway we were all pretty wasted. Then there was this party where we decided to actually start writing music. I think it adds to the lighthearted, fun nature of our band.”

RYAN: “This feels like a lifetime ago…” ANDREW: “There wasn’t really a plan going in with this video. We just set up in Ryan’s backyard and did it. It’s kind of silly, but it also defined us for a while. It went online and ended up doing pretty well on Tumblr. As much as we don’t really like playing the song any more, we still do because we know the video helped us get a foot in the door. I’m still pretty proud of it.”

SEAWAY

RYAN: “On our first tour we did a week of shows with Knuckle Puck in the northeast of the U.S. and then they went home while we continued down towards Florida on our own. Tons of kids showed up. There were people jumping off the bar and walking on people’s heads. I was just in shock. I’d never been a part of anything like it. That was the first time we really went, ‘Okay, let’s fucking do this!’”

t the Mod a 16 0 2 , 3 2 r e b m Toronto, Dece ver Seaway Holiday Club. The f irst egest headline show Shaker. The big te. we’ve done to da rro occkk sso ouunndd 7537

RYAN: “This was another risk. In Toronto we could at least rely on our family and friends coming, but we were across the Atlantic Ocean on this one. It definitely paid off though.” ANDREW: “It’s by far my favourite show that we have ever played. The Underworld has such a great vibe. It’s small and intimate, yet you can still fit a lot of people inside. Everything just lined up perfectly. The kids went off so hard, as well.” © Taylor Ra

mbo

Cornhole is the most essential tour game. This is all we do on the road.

First UK headline tour. This was in London at the Underworld and one of the best shows we’ve ever played. RYAN: “It was our first time on Warped Tour that we seriously got into playing Cornhole. You have a lot of free time in the parking lots, so it’s a good way of filling it. We started playing with Transit a lot, who we had toured with before but weren’t the best of buds with yet. It got to the point when we were playing every single day. We became really good friends with them because of Cornhole. It’s now a Seaway tour staple.”

gham

ANDREW: “On Warped there is always going to be someone who wants to play. It’s an easy game to just have a beer and relax with.”

roof Hanging out on thLeA on of our air bnb inays of one of the last dtion’ recording ‘Vaca

RYAN: “We really wanted to be prepared for this album. We figured out lot of our other releases in the studio. We wanted to have our shit figured out before recording this time.” ANDREW:“It gave us time to sit on the songs and figure out changes rather than rushing things. There was a lot less pressure than in previous years, where we had done a lot of things very last minute.” RYAN: “At this point we were feeling really optimistic for the coming months. We are all really excited for the way that ‘Vacation’ ended up. It’s the record that we have been working towards for the last few years. When we started we had an idea of what we wanted Seaway to be and I think we really captured it on this record.” ANDREW: “Because we weren’t stressing and trying to cram everything into the last week, it gave us some time to enjoy what we were doing. Everything feels so exciting at the moment…”

‘Vacation’ is out on September 15 through Pure Noise. 54 7 6 rock sound

Having a beer with producers M e Green and Kyle Black on the laik day of recording ‘Vacation’. st

t h is is

the house that

y m e r e J built

When he’s not tearing up stages the world over with A Day To Remember, frontman Jeremy McKinnon somehow finds the time to produce CLASSICS with a whole bunch of other bands. Busy guy. Here are our picks of the best songs he’s had a hand in… WORDS: Will Cross PHOTO: Adam Elmakias

WAGE WAR

‘STITCH’ Jeremy’s most recent collaboration saw him lend a helping hand to fellow Ocala natives Wage War as they returned with an absolute monster of a second album in the form of ‘Deadweight’. One listen and you’ll quickly realise why everyone has tipped the metalcore crew for big things. That and you’ll be disrespecting your surroundings and then some. The record was always going to be a total winner with this as the lead single, wasn’t it?

NECK DEEP

‘KALI MA’ Neck Deep were already making their name as one of the hottest prospects in the pop-punk game, but their decision to team up with Jeremy on 2015 second album ‘Life’s Not Out To Get You’ proved to be a match made in heaven. Mr McKinnon even pops up for a guest vocal on this one. And when that familar voice kicks in this one goes to a whole new level. 7 6 rocksound.tv rock sound [76]

THE GHOST INSIDE

‘ENGINE 45’ Arguably Jeremy’s heaviest venture to date. The Ghost Inside stepped up as major league heavyweights on 2012’s brilliant ‘Get What You Give’. This was its standout track, becoming an instant classic for beatdown junkies everywhere. Like a freight train? You better believe it.

A DAY TO REMEMBER

‘ALL I WANT’ He may be in the band, but we couldn’t leave this classic cut out, could we? Turning his hand to the A Day To Remember production desk for the first time on the band’s 2010 chorus-fest ‘What Separates Me From You’, the Florida fivepiece came back with one of their biggest hits. A bona fide banger.

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

‘MAMMOTH’ Testing the waters of his collaboration talents, Jeremy lent additional vocal production to the

Ohio crew’s 2011 album ‘Dead Throne’. The result? It saw them step up from being a young band filled with promise orbiting the Warped Tour scene and into straight-up, all conquering heavy world titans. Nice one, Jeremy.

NECK DEEP

‘CAN’T KICK UP THE ROOTS’ Even two years on, this is still one of Neck Deep’s biggest and best songs. We’ve done the maths and we can show our workings on that if you doubt us. But with Jeremy involved, you don’t need any further proof really. Adding that midas touch helped provide a watershed moment for the UK crew. Not bad, eh?

A DAY TO REMEMBER

‘END OF ME’ He’s pretty much got pop-punk and metalcore down to a tee, but Jeremy’s always had an ear for a ballad as well. So on 2013’s triumphant ‘Common Courtesy’, he got in touch with his softer side and turned that dial right up to 1,000 on this 10/10 slow jam.

JEREMY McKINNON

WAGE WAR

‘THE RIVER’ Clearly a man with an eye and ear for talent, Jeremy has been helping Wage War write mosh anthems since (almost) the very beginning. Been wondering why the band have become stars of the Warped Tour scene in recent years? Here’s another reason why. If you’re yet to hop on board the hype train, it’s not too late to lace up and join the Wage War ranks.

THE GHOST INSIDE

‘MOVE ME’ Teaming up with the band once again for 2014’s ‘Dear Youth’, Jeremy helped The Ghost Inside up their game even further, and ‘Move Me’ is a perfect example. Still heavy as a tonne of bricks but incorporating huge choruses into the mix too (“brick by brick by brickkkkk”), together they created a moshpit masterpiece.

A DAY TO REMEMBER

‘RIGHT BACK AT IT AGAIN’ We had to finish on a big one, didn’t we? ‘Right Back At It Again’ encapsulates everything great about A Day To Remember. Massive chorus? Check. Savage mosh call? Check. Tonnes of bounce? Check. It acts as a prime example of why the band, and Jeremy McKinnon, remain so important in the Rock Sound world.

r o c krocksound.tv s o u n d 7[77] 7

lf s e yOur 78 rock sound

MAKEOUT

POP-PUNK IS ONE OF THE MOST COMPETITIVE GENRES OUT THERE. WHICH MEANS IT TAKES A SPECIAL BAND TO PUSH THEMSELVES TO THE TOP OF THE CLASS. BUT SLAM DUNK ROCK SOUND BREAKOUT STAGE STARS MAKEOUT MIGHT JUST BE THAT BAND… WORDS: Jack Rogers

THEY STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM No matter how big they become, a band’s story has to start somewhere. For singer and guitarist Sam Boxold, the story of Makeout begins with flipping burgers and dreaming big. “I don’t regret my time at McDonalds but the longer you work in a place like that, the more you start to feel worthless. There was a moment of clarity when I woke up super miserable one day and I just didn’t go to work. I don’t think I would have any standing with Makeout now if it wasn’t for that hardship though.”

THEY’VE BEEN HUSTLING FOR YEARS… Makeout isn’t the band members’ first venture into the world of riffing. They’ve done it all already in the form of now defunct easycore heroes Trophy Wives and know things aren’t always a walk in the park. “There were a lot of hard times,” Sam admits. “We were super independent and had to learn how to work through our problems alone. You have to learn to roll with it, because you don’t always end up where you want to. I would do literally anything to be able to share the stage with my best friends though.”

…AND HAVEN’T RUSHED INTO THIS When things start feeling a little stale, it’s easy to make rash decisions and jump ship without a life jacket. Sam made sure that when Trophy Wives started to wind down they saw things through properly. “The transition to Makeout was a very steady process. We seemed to be

heading in a much more pop direction, so felt it was best to jump onto a new wave. We’re always progressing and growing. I think an important part of life is evolution. You could die tomorrow, so why not flip things on their head and just go for it?”

THEY LOVE MUSIC AS MUCH AS YOU As well as churning out brilliant pop-punk, the band are huge fans too. According to Sam, his childhood was a real education. “My brothers were metalheads and my parents were into classic rock. They taught me a lot about how to appreciate things from different genres. I discovered All Time Low when I was learning how to play guitar. They are a huge influence on how I write lyrics and also how to do things properly. I’ve never limited myself.”

JOHN FELDMANN IS THEIR BIGGEST FAN The man who has mixed and penned bangers for everyone from Beartooth to Blink-182 is on board the Makeout hype train too. According to the man himself, it’s a total BFFL situation. “Makeout fucking crush live,” he beams. “They’ve opened for both Blink-182 and Goldfinger, which already puts them on legendary status. Sam lives and breathes pop-punk, Scott [Eckel, drums] fucking slays, Alex [Lofton, bass] is a sex machine and Tyler [Young, guitar] is a huge man-child in the best way.”

you write it's probably a fair exception to the rule. “Working with Travis Barker was crazy,” Sam grins. “He showed us that there are people who love to create things just for the sake of creating. Not putting too much thought in, yet still trying to create something completely new. I think that’s totally priceless.”

...AND HE’S JUST AS OBSESSED WITH THEM Alongside helping with writing and crafting the band’s output, it seems that the Blink man is also a massive fan of the band in general. Don’t just take our word as gospel though. “Makeout is next!” Travis promises. “Songs like ‘Secrets’ and ‘Crazy’ are stand-outs that are both fresh and honest.” You heard the man – endorsements don’t get much bigger.

THEY’VE WRITTEN WITH 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER There are parallels to be drawn between Makeout’s journey and lots of bands. None more so than 5 Seconds Of Summer. It only seems right that the bands have worked on some audio gold together. “We worked with Ashton [Irwin, drummer] and Callum [Hood, bass] and hanging out with them, you wouldn’t know they sell out arenas worldwide. They’re just regular dudes. That gives us hope that we can blow up too.”

THEY’VE BEEN MENTORED BY A POP-PUNK LEGEND…

THEY’RE NO ONE TRICK PONIES

They always say don’t meet your heroes, but when the drummer from Blink-182 is helping

Sure, ‘Crazy’ may be one of the year’s most fun songs, but that doesn’t mean Makeout just want to goof off at every opportunity. There’s a lot of depth to their debut album. “We’ve written songs about life, death and all the little challenges that get thrown at you in between. I hope people listen to [‘The Good Life’] and understand that we have a lot to offer. We are trying to put wisdom into what we’re saying, rather than just bullshit.”

“We have a

r” e f f o o t lot SAM BOXOLD

‘The Good Life’ is released on 29 September through Rise Records. rock sound 79

knuckle puck ‘shapeshifter’

(RISE)

“

You’re never gonna get the girl / You’re never gonna change the world.” Of all the lines on ‘Shapeshifter’, the second album from Illinois pop-punks Knuckle Puck, this is perhaps the most intriguing. Delivered moments before the conclusion of ‘Gone’ – one of the finest slabs of emotional pop-punk anybody has produced in years – it’s a line that inadvertently sums up the band’s place in the world in just a few seconds. In a hollow and superficial industry that concerns itself more with star quality and marketable looks than anything else, they are indeed a band unlikely to get the girl; certainly compared to some peers who are as easy on the eye as they are on the ear. Where they might just triumph, however, is in changing the world. Because for anybody who is still interested in music for music’s sake, it’s unlikely that too many albums will top this in 2017. Where 2015’s stellar ‘Copacetic’ established 80 rock sound

them as new kids on the block, ‘Shapeshifter’ sees Knuckle Puck making a grab for the crown of emotional and abrasive pop-punk – a crown that until recently was safely the property of The Story So Far, so much so that it’s a wonder it hasn’t already been sealed in a protective case. Front to back, start to finish, this is pop-punk for those who have lived, loved and lost and aren’t afraid to contemplate the fact that maybe, just maybe, it isn’t going to be their weekend or their year. From the moment the jarring opening guitars of ‘Twist’ give way to a desperate refrain of “I’ve been wandering hopelessly, lost in my own skin”, the quintet barely put a foot wrong. ‘Double Helix’ boasts a chorus that is sure to see sweaty hordes desperately grabbing for the microphone and screaming until they’re red in the face, joining the likes of ‘Stuck In Our Ways’ as a surefire live favourite in the making. Melodically it’s damn near flawless – not least when they turn back time on the sublime ‘Want Me Around’ which strays perfectly

into nineties romcom territory – but there’s also a grit and rawness that sets the band apart from so many. ‘Everyone Lies To Me’ offers a subtle nod to hardcore influences with its rumbling bass lines and dual vocal trade-offs, while the red-raw vocal yelps that appear on penultimate track ‘Wait’ recall Rise Against’s Tim McIlrath in his prime. It’s varied, brilliant stuff, and by the time closing track ‘Plastic Brains’ wraps itself around you, all expansive guitars and sweeping melodies that squeeze you tightly before gently releasing, it’s hard to know whether to press play again or simply have a lie down. Forget the girl; the world is what really matters. And with ‘Shapeshifter’, it’s something that may be closer to Knuckle Puck’s grasp than they think. FOR FANS OF: The Story So Far, Seaway, Real Friends RYAN BIRD

Moments on ‘Shapeshifter’ where you’ll go, ‘Whoa, Knuckle Puck are a really, really great band.’

WALL TO WALL (APPRECIATION FOR KNUCKLE PUCK) YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO WHAT TO EXPECT ON ‘SHAPESHIFTER’. REALLY, THIS IS ALL YOU NEED.

Times we’ll turn around and say, ‘Yeah, we told you so. This is sick!’

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THE KNUCKLE PUCK YOU’VE ALWAYS KNOWN AND LOVED

Slow jams that’ll hit you in the feels and then the ears. Not necessarily in that order.

100

Times we’ve listened to this album already. Seriously, this is album-ofthe-year-contender stuff. Love you, Knuckle Puck <3

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rock sound 81

enter shikari

‘the spark’ (Pias)

nter Shikari have never played by the book. Even On Their Debut Album, ‘Take To The Skies’, they sounded like nothing else out there. Ten years on, Rou Reynolds’ crew are still entirely unique. ‘The Spark’ both nods to that past and looks directly into the future. Opener proper ‘The Sights’ kicks in with sci-fi synths that’ll make you want to fly headfirst into the cosmos to explore; Reynolds’ chorus of “I’m searching far and wide to find a planet to orbit” emphasising that while the world may be in a terrible state, not everything is lost. From then on it’s a classic Shikari melting pot of styles. ‘Take My Country Back’ tears away with incredible pace (and packs a genius hook of “we’ve

36 CRAZYFISTS ‘LANTERNS’

(SPINEFARM)

really gone and fucked it this time”), ‘Rabble Rouser’ captures them at their lairiest, with more nods to grime than ever before, and ‘Revolt Of The Atoms’ sees the band at their most eccentric – throwing a huge curveball into the mix. ‘Undercover Agents’ is the jewel in the album’s crown though, shining light on a vulnerable side that we haven’t heard before, as the song grows into a beacon for togetherness and perseverance. Shikari may be ever-changing, but they’ve never once dipped in quality. Hold them dear.

FOR FANS OF: Bring Me The Horizon, JME, Gorillaz

ARCANE ROOTS ‘MELANCHOLIA HYMNS’

WILL CROSS

(EASY LIFE)

Metalcore veterans 36 Crazyfists are back with the follow-up to 2015’s excellent ‘Time And Trauma’, and it might just be their most candid release yet. Striking a reflective tone, ‘Lanterns’ documents what it’s like to hit rock bottom, and rarely pulls its punches. From the fiery ‘Damaged Under Sun’ to the full-throttle ‘Laying Hands’, it packs some real heart-stopping moments, and features the kind of no-holds-barred fury that fans have been hankering for. They even tone down the mayhem with calmer tracks like ‘Sea And Smoke’ and ‘Dark Corners’, making for a solid if often harrowing listen. On this evidence, there’s life in these guys still.

As its title suggests, there’s an air of sadness pulsing through Arcane Roots’ enigmatic second album. These 10 tracks spiral through a multitude of genres, emotions and sounds that include (and combine) wistful post-rock, post-hardcore-infused electronic soundscapes and futuristic electro-soul. Yeah, really. All of that stuff collides to create an album of incredible widescreen scope. And while they’re not immune to putting experimentation ahead of emotion, on the likes of ‘Indigo’ and the epic and ambitious musical journey of ‘Half The World’, the Kingston trio get the balance just right – to truly devastating effect. It’s a record to savour.

FOR FANS OF: Killswitch Engage, Deftones, Alexisonfire

FOR FANS OF: Thrice, Radiohead, Muse

82 rock sound

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Photo: Teri Cwiek

7 MINUTES IN HEAVEN ‘SYMMETRY’ (RUDE)

aised on mid-2000s pop-punk and fine-tuned by today’s scene, Chicago’s 7 Minutes In Heaven encapsulate everything that’s great about the genre in six short songs. The fist-in-the-air, scream-at-thetop-of-your-lungs chorus on super-posi opening track ‘Better Off’ is the most potent example, while on the other side of the coin lead single ‘Symmetry’ displays their introspective side (but boasts equally

ASTROID BOYS

[6] AWAKEN I AM

‘BROKE’

FOR FANS OF: Sleep On It, Grayscale, State Champs

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‘BLIND LOVE’ (MUSIC FOR NATIONS / SONY)

massive hooks). There’s genuine power to their energetic, wistful songcraft too, meaning the earlyPanic! At The Disco-on-caffeine vibes of ‘LOTL’ feel all the more potent. Into pop-punk? Get in on these guys early. They’re going places.

ANDY BIDDULPH

[6]

‘THE AMULET’

(VICTORY)

(HOPELESS)

CITIZEN [8] ‘AS YOU PLEASE’ (RUN FOR COVER)

After 2015’s chilled ‘CF10’ EP saw Astroid Boys journeying far away from their hardcore roots, this debut album sees them dipping their toes back into the sound that made them so exciting in the first place. Though they still throw in a boatload of grime to make you sit up and take notice – on the bubbling ‘Mask’ and ‘Free’ – it’s with the swinging riffs of ‘Money’ and groove-driven ‘Kill’ that their venomous crossover style really comes into its own. Call it rock, rap or anything else you like, but ‘Broke’ will no doubt be a catalyst for chaos at parties for years to come. And at this point, that feels like a big step in the right direction.

As Sleeping With Sirens move into a whole new world, Brisbane’s Awaken I Am are looking to take their throne. Blending those familiar, catchy lead guitar lines with sky-high vocal hooks and heavy breakdowns, the band update a much-loved formula for 2017. ‘Walk My Way’ shimmers with atmosphere and screams to be sung by Warped Tour crowds, the title-track paints a whole lot of widescreen drama and ‘Be Still’ throws in a seductive curveball. ‘Hindsight’ even ventures into dancefloor territory – while crucially never binning the guitars altogether. Don’t be surprised to see them on a stage near you very soon.

Three years on from ‘Descensus’, Circa Survive opt for atmosphere over aggression on sixth album ‘The Amulet’. Where the Philadelphians have previously delivered knee-jerking intensity, their progressive sound takes a restrained, nuanced form here. Whether it’s airy indie patter (‘Lustration’) or more familiar alt.rock (‘The Hex’), the results are intriguing, but there’s little heaviness until ‘Rites Of Investiture’ lands with bone-rattling bass and Anthony Green’s famously piercing vocals. Fans may not always appreciate the record’s subtlety, but it’s another haunting and intricate soundscape from a band still colouring outside the lines.

For this third full-length, Michigan’s Citizen have thrown the doors of their identity wide open. Embedded within these 12 dark, unsettling tracks are stories of people struggling, searching for room to breathe in the world among others who are dragging them beneath the waves. ‘In The Middle Of It All’ and the title track glower with sinister intent, while ‘I Forgive No One’ documents a harrowing crisis without even attempting to find a spark of redemption. It all combines to make Citizen’s gloomiest, most atmospheric record yet – and also one of the most disturbing of the year so far. It’s a memorable journey.

FOR FANS OF: Hacktivist, Enter Shikari, Limp Bizkit

FOR FANS OF: Sleeping With Sirens, Picturesque, Too Close To Touch

FOR FANS OF: Thrice, A Lot Like Birds, Coheed And Cambria

FOR FANS OF: Balance And Composure, Brand New, Manchester Orchestra

JACK ROGERS

84 rock sound

WILL CROSS

CANDICE HARIDIMOU

MISCHA PEARLMAN

PRESENTS

MAKEOUT

‘THE GOOD LIFE’ (RISE)

link-182’s Travis Barker says they’re the future. 5 Seconds Of Summer love them. Pop-punk legend John Feldmann rates them so much, he produced and co-wrote songs alongside the four-piece. But beyond all the hype and suspense, can Makeout deliver where it really counts – on this, their debut album? As they tear out of the blocks with the fizzing, playful hooks and truly massive chorus of ‘Childish’, the early signs point to ‘yup’. Swerving from the blink-andyou’ll-miss-it sugar rush of ‘Crazy’ to fast and fiery cuts like ‘Lisa’ (which has more than a hint of Blink’s ‘California’ to it), the Massachusetts gang sound like a cross between All Time Low and the aforementioned 5SOS. ‘Open Minded’ and ‘Ride It Out’ show off their more thoughtful side – while still packing choruses

COLDFRONT ‘FLOAT AROUND’

(EQUAL VISION)

the size of their home state – and it’s easy to imagine ‘You Can’t Blame Me’ reverberating around arenas everywhere. It’s not perfect, though. Closer ‘Blast Off’ might prove too much for those without major sweet tooths, ‘Where’s My Charger’ is throwaway and many of the harsher lyrics leave a sour taste in the mouth; ex-bashing ballad ‘Secrets’ in particular falls on the wrong side of candid and really not okay. But these are still early days, and Makeout’s potential is so big, you could see it from space. Strap in, it could be an incredible ride.

FOR FANS OF: All Time Low, 5 Seconds Of Summer, State Champs

FOO FIGHTERS ‘CONCRETE AND GOLD’

ROB SAYCE

(COLUMBIA)

From its angsty dual vocal attack to its skyscraping, sun-baked chorus, this album’s standout track ‘Everything You Want Me To Be’ is an amalgamation of about three different eras of pop-punk – and one of the entire genre’s standout songs of the year. So much so that the rest of ‘Float Around’ fails to live up to it. The title track bounces along nicely but feels a little one-dimensional, while a rumbling ‘Spit Me Out’ threatens to break out into a proper radio rock anthem without ever quite managing it. With a few more big hooks though, these Canadian lads could really be onto something.

Everything about Dave Grohl and the gang’s ninth album is big. From the strutting, cocksure grooves of ‘La Dee Da’ to the scope of slow-burning epic ‘Sunday Rain’, and even the number of band members involved (following the addition of keyboardist Rami Jafee), making ‘Concrete And Gold’ has clearly been a grand undertaking. While that’s not always for the best – ‘Arrows’ meandering into bland classic rock territory, and ‘Make It Right’ outstaying its welcome a little – the Foos remain as solid and inherently likeable as ever. They’re a band with nothing left to prove, so it’s admirable that they’re not acting like it.

FOR FANS OF: Like Pacific, Seaway, Decade

FOR FANS OF: Queens Of The Stone Age, Green Day, Queen

86 rock sound

ANDY BIDDULPH

ROB SAYCE

AUGUST BURNS RED ‘PHANTOM ANTHEM’ (FEARLESS)

eeing how they’re one of the most innovative and technically crushing bands in modern metalcore, a new August Burns Red album is always something to be relished. The band’s eighth full-length is another decadent smorgasbord of fret-mangling riffs, wall-toppling breakdowns and brain-frying experimentation – and it’s unlike anything other bands in this scene have attempted. FRANK IERO AND THE PATIENCe [6]

‘KEEP THE COFFINS COMING’ (HASSLE)

KUBLAI KHAN ‘NOMAD’

‘Phantom Anthem’ is an awful lot to stomach in one sitting, but those prepared to strap in and take the ride from guttural beginnings to dramatic conclusion will be rewarded with an album of intense grandeur and unmatchable ambition. FOR FANS OF: Bury Tomorrow, Parkway Drive The Devil Wears Prada

JACK ROGERS

[7] MY TICKET HOME ‘UNREAL’

(RISE)

[6] NIGHT RIOTS ‘LOVE GLOOM’

(SPINEFARM)

[5]

(SUMERIAN)

Coming in at just 12 minutes total, this new EP is more of a blink-and-you’llmiss-it Polaroid snap than a portrait – but ‘Keep The Coffins Coming’ represents another raw and restless blast from Frank Iero nonetheless. With producer Steve Albini (Nirvana, Pixies) on board, it conjures up the frenzied chaos of his live shows too. On the heels of a recharged ‘I’m A Mess’, he peaks with the bittersweet angst of ‘BFF’ and spits fire on ‘No Fun Club’. Despite Frank’s aching and ironic delivery though, a sluggish ‘You Are My Sunshine’ feels a little out of place. Could this EP be a little too scrappy and rough around the edges? Perhaps, but it certainly has its charms.

If you’re looking for an album to shock you into life, Texas-based hardcore crew Kublai Khan are on hand. From opener ‘Antpile’ to the slowburning climax of ‘River Walker’, Nomad doesn’t let up for a single second. Everything about this is brutal through-and-through, given an extra edge by Nolan Ashley’s disgustingly gritty chugs of guitar. The pacing is impeccable for an album of this style, and vocalist Matt Honeycut skillfully unleashes his aggression on every track. Even if it’s a little one-note at times, single ‘The Hammer’ is undoubtedly the highlight here, and is definitely worth a listen for any fans of this scene. This is truly crushing stuff.

Incredibly, four long years have passed since My Ticket Home blessed us with their brilliant, boundary-smashing second album ‘Strangers Only’. It’s nice to know that on ‘unReal’ the band are just as unhinged and discomforting in their output, as different – and frequently confusing – as it may sound on paper. Where once there was an all-out nu metalcore assault, a more considered and atmospheric approach has gradually emerged in its place. Though it doesn’t pack the undeniable gut-punches that many may have hoped for, there’s still plenty of early ’00s worship on the likes of ‘Redline’ and ‘Gasoline Kiss’ ready and waiting for you to get lost in.

Night Riots’ debut album under the Sumerian umbrella is a tale of two very different halves. The Californian five-piece stir up the spirit of the ’80s for the best parts of ‘Love Gloom’, with harsh electronics and shimmering synth lines weaved into their smooth but sinister pop-rock. Meanwhile ‘Nothing Personal’ and ‘Contagious’ pack thrusting guitars, precise beats and a gothic romanticism in vocalist Travis Hawley’s intriguingly shaky performance. But the danger and gloom dissipate into thin air halfway through, with the band taking more cues from The Killers’ dull radio-rock (‘All For You’, ‘Pull Me Down’). The potential is there, if only they’d stick to the dark side.

FOR FANS OF: Alkaline Trio, Beach Slang, Jeff Rosenstock

FOR FANS OF: Knocked Loose, Desolated, The Acacia Strain

FOR FANS OF: Cane Hill, Deftones, Ded

FOR FANS OF: Blaqk Audio, The Maine, Depeche Mode

CANDICE

88 rock sound

JAMES

JACK

ROGERS

CANDICE

STICK TO YOUR GUNS

‘TRUE VIEW’ (END HITS)

o life is free of doubtS, missteps, or regrets. But how do you come to terms with the history you drag around behind you – as we all eventually have to? That’s the question posed by Stick To Your Guns’ challenging, yet ultimately life-affirming sixth album. Inspired by conversations between frontman Jesse Barnett and his mother, as well as the world’s general state of fuckedness, ‘True View’ is a profound as well as a pummelling listen. Building on the caustic, socially-engaged rage of 2015’s ‘Disobedient’, but with an added emphasis on world-warn melodies, songs like ‘You Are Free’ and ‘Doomed By You’ are intense in very different ways – some because of their implications, and others through sheer brute force. While they’re still fans of a crushing breakdown (or 50), the Orange County

NOTHING MORE ‘THE STORIES WE TELL OURSELVES’

(BETTER NOISE)

crew bring an added maturity into play – songs like ‘Owed Nothing’ and ‘56’ acting as a more troubling counterpoint to older cuts like ‘We Still Believe’. In the quieter, more downbeat moments, they even sound a whole lot like post-hardcore pioneers Thrice. Fortunately that evolution is mostly for the good, as heart-rending closer ‘The Reach For Me: Forgiveness Of Self’ underlines. This album represents an incredible, introspective journey – and one that we could all benefit from taking.

FOR FANS OF: Stray From The Path, Being As An Ocean, Silent Planet

ROB SAYCE

PRAWN ‘RUN’

(TOPSHELF)

For Nothing More, rock music goes beyond composing a catchy chorus or a killer riff. Their sixth album is steeped in the influence of psychologists and philosophers, from Carl Jung to Alan Watts. These tracks challenge you to look deep inside yourself and challenge whatever emotion you may be feeling. ‘Funny Little Creatures’ addresses the inner demons that latch on and refuse to let go, while ballad ‘Just Say When’, explores the frustration of a failed relationship. Combine these thoughtful lyrics with the kind of infectious energy fuelling Go To War’, and you’ve got an enjoyable fusion.

Up until now, New Jersey emo crew Prawn have been something of a well kept secret. Where 2014’s criminally underrated ‘Kingfisher’ lingered in the air with its dreamy atmosphere and haunting undertones, this third album takes on a much more direct but no less beautiful route to tug at your heartstrings. ‘Snake Oil Salesman’ twinkles like the brightest star in the sky, while the delicate patter of ‘Short Stem’ proves hugely moving. It all makes for a gorgeously stirring listen from a band who have far more star quality than they’re given credit for.

FOR FANS OF: Starset, Young Guns, Thirty Seconds To Mars

FOR FANS OF: You Blew It!, Tiny Moving Parts, The World Is A Beautiful Place…

90 rock sound

EMMA MATTHEWS

JACK ROGERS

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ROAM

‘GREAT HEIGHTS & NOSEDIVES’ (HOPELESS)

ollowing up the scrappy but nevertheless enjoyable ‘Backbone’, ROAM have some meat on their bones this time around. Opening track ‘Alive’ signals a new era for the South Coast lads, its hefty chorus and chunky riff meeting with Alex Costello and Alex Adam’s classic vocal gymnastics. The melodramatic ‘Curtain Call’ strays more to the All Time Low side of the spectrum than Sum 41, while the pure pop gold of ‘While The World Keeps

PROPAGANDHI ‘VICTORY LAP’

[7] The Bronx ‘V’

(EPITAPH)

Spinning’ serves as a reminder there’s so much fun to be had here. It caps a sunkissed, convincing progression that keeps ROAM at the forefront of the UK pop-punk crowd. FOR FANS OF: Seaway, As It Is, Sum 41 ANDY BIDDULPH

[7] The Movielife

[8] WORLD WAR ME ‘WORLD WAR ME’

[8]

‘CITIES IN SEARCH OF A HEART’

(COOKING VINYL / ATO)

(RISE)

(SHARPTONE)

Over the course of three decades and seven albums, this Canadian crew have evolved into one of the smartest, sharpest and most eloquent bands that punk’s ever seen. Not always as fast as their blistering ’00s masterpiece ‘Potemkin City Limits’, but just as furious, this latest release tackles everything from the worrying revival of fascism worldwide to the passing of loved ones – and even, on surprisingly tender closer ‘Adventures In Zoochosis’, the troubled world their children will grow up in. For all the slamming, technical riffs and stop-on-a-dime tempo changes, it’ll likely be those insights that will stay with listeners the longest.

The Bronx suck at naming albums, but this fifth record shows their music is still full of the fire and rage that’s made them so great. Riffing on old school rock ‘n’ roll – ‘Stranger Danger’ could be a long-lost Iggy & The Stooges cut – these 11 manic punk tracks surge with one eye on the past and one foot kicking down the future’s door. It means ‘V’ treads a thin line between sincere, life-affirming homage (‘Side Effects’, ‘Sore Throat’) and anaemic pastiche (‘Two Birds’, ‘Cordless Kids’), one that Mariachi El Bronx have (arguably) often been caught on the wrong side of. ‘V’, however, does enough for The Bronx to remain pertinent and potent.

It’s been 14 years since The Movielife released their last album, ‘Forty Hour Train Back To Penn’ but the gigs they’ve played since reforming in 2014 showed they’re back on splendid form. These 10 new songs serve to underline that fact. In typical style, these are vicious yet vulnerable punk rock cuts bursting with gruff passion, playing out in a world crumbling before our very eyes. But beneath the rubble, there’s strength and hope, love and solace to be found, not least in the boisterous ‘Lake Superior’ and the creeping, formidable closer ‘Hearts’. It’s a long overdue comeback that’s arrived just as the world needs it most.

My Chemical Romance stan? Can’t get enough of Falling In Reverse? Well, you’ve just found your new favourite band of misfits. Blending the bold drama of the former with the eccentric bounce of the latter, World War Me have crafted a brilliant debut. ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’ encapsulates all of that to a tee – and is absolute hook central – while ‘Mr Misery’ showcases the self-deprecating, troubled and sometimes unhinged performance of frontman Stephen Krypel. Elsewhere ‘Fire And Flames’ is allout fun with an almost Motown vibe, and ‘Warzone’ ups the ante with a chorus of violins. This is a superb start.

FOR FANS OF: Rise Against, Gnarwolves, A Wilhelm Scream

FOR FANS OF: Iggy & The Stooges, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Fucked Up

FOR FANS OF: I Am The Avalanche, Crime In Stereo, Jawbreaker

FOR FANS OF: My Chemical Romance, The Used, Falling In Reverse

ROB SAYCE

92 rock sound

MISCHA PEARLMAN

WILL CROSS

AEG Presents, DHP, DF Concerts & PVC in association with X-Ray

NOVEMBER THU 23 SOUTHAMPTON O2 GUILDHALL

plus guests

FRI

24 MANCHESTER ACADEMY

SAT

25 BLACKBURN KING GEORGES HALL

MON 27 LEEDS O2 ACADEMY TUE

28 NEWCASTLE O2 ACADEMY

WED 29 GLASGOW O2 ACADEMY

DECEMBER FRI

01 STOKE-ON-TRENT VICTORIA HALL

SAT

02 NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY

SUN 03 NORWICH UEA TUE 05 GUILDFORD G LIVE WED 06 MARGATE WINTER GARDENS THU 07 SOUTHEND CLIFFS PAVILION

Photo: Simon Emmett

SAT

09 BIRMINGHAM O2 ACADEMY

SUN 10

LONDON EVENTIM APOLLO

MON 11

BRIGHTON DOME

WED 13

CARDIFF ST DAVID’S HALL

THU 14

BRISTOL COLSTON HALL

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WATERPARKS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. t h e m a i n e v e n t. . .

THEY’RE BACK FOR THEIR FIRST PROPER UK HEADLINE TOUR! HERE’S WHY WE’RE COUNTING DOWN THE HOURS…

WE’VE MISSED THEM AND THEY’VE MISSED US It’s been waaaay too long since Parx were last in the UK. Well, like… four months actually, but that still feels like forever. “Lowkey I do miss the UK hard,” admits Awsten Knight. “Now that I’ve figured out where cool food is and I don’t spend weeks at a time hangry, it rules!” Pretty much.

S.O.L.D. O.U.T., LET’S HEAR IT Yep, the whole of this run is going to be packed out – making it one big celebration. Just look how far they’ve come since debut album ‘Double Dare’ dropped last November. “The fact that it’s sold out makes me all giddy. People say giddy sometimes I hope,” nods the frontman. We can confirm they do.

SONGS. ALL OF THEM. Most of the times we’ve seen Waterparks in the UK, they’ve either been supporting other bands (shout out to All Time Low) or playing festival shows. This time we’re getting a full headline set – which could mean old stuff, rare stuff and who knows, maybe even new stuff as well as all the anthems. Keep ’em peeled for surprises.

CHAPEL ARE ALONG FOR THE RIDE… … And they’re one of the most exciting new bands around right now. Just take it from Awsten. “I love Chapel so much,” he grins. “We had, like, 10 bands to choose from for this tour. I saw them and was like, ‘YUP.’” Seriously, check out the Breakout section for more on why you should be all kinds of stoked for this.

IT MIGHT BE THE LAST TIME THEY PLAY VENUES THIS SIZE Awsten, Geoff and Otto have come so far, in so little time, that there’s no telling how big they’ll be when they’re next back in the UK. Or even how soon that will be. So this might be our only chance to get up close and personal with them for quite a while. We’ll see you down the front row, yeah?

Catch Waterparks at the following: SEPTEMBER BRISTOL Fleece (21), NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms (22), NEWCASTLE Academy II (23), GLASGOW King Tut’s (24), LEEDS Key Club (26), MANCHESTER Academy III (27), LONDON Underworld (28), BIRMINGHAM Academy II (29), BRIGHTON Haunt (30) 94 rock sound

PAPA ROACH

BLESSTHEFALL

JACOBY SHADDIX AND THE GANG PREPARE TO INFEST OUR SHORES

ARIZONA’S FINEST RETURN FOR A RUN OF INTIMATE SHOWS

From their world-shaking nu metal days through that scuzzy sleaze-rock era, right up to this year’s impressive ‘Crooked Teeth’, Papa Roach have been an unstoppable force for close to 20 years now. Time to celebrate that. BEST FOR: Yelling along to ‘Last Resort’. Yelling along to ‘HELP’. Yelling along to everything in between. OCTOBER BIRMINGHAM Academy (05), NOTTINGHAM Rock City (06), GLASGOW Academy (07), LONDON Brixton Academy (10), MANCHESTER Apollo (11)

It’s been quite a while since the Scottsdale mob played a full UK tour, which makes this run of up-close-and-personal shows all the more exciting. Oh, and they’re bringing the excellent Blood Youth along for the ride – so you can’t lose. BEST FOR: Holding a ‘who can start the biggest circle pit’ competition. SEPTEMBER YORK Fibbers (26), NEWCASTLE Think Tank (27), GLASGOW

G2 (28), MANCHESTER Rebellion (29), NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms (30) OCTOBER LONDON Underworld (02), BRISTOL The Fleece (03), SOUTHAMPTON Talking Heads (04)

H ER E’s WHA T ELSE I S G OIN G O N...

STRAY FROM THE PATH

IN HEARTS WAKE

COME HEAR THE REAL SOUNDTRACK TO 2017

BYRON BAY METALCORE CREW BRING ‘ARK’ TO THE UK

In ‘Only Death Is Real’, Stray have channelled the world’s current chaos and uncertainty into 10 tracks of fiery brilliance. Expect some of that, plus a bunch of classics and a whole lot of rage. BEST FOR: Not hating the player, hating the game. Also, throwing down. Obviously. OCTOBER LONDON Underworld (05), LEEDS Key Club (06), GLASGOW G2 (07), MANCHESTER Rebellion (08), CARDIFF Globe (09), BIRMINGHAM Mama Roux’s (10)

The five-piece will be playing the likes of ‘Passage’ and ‘Warcry’ from their fourth album for the first time on this the side of the planet. Ever. BEST FOR: Sailing the seven seas of mosh.

OCTOBER NORWICH Waterfront Studio (03), BIRMINGHAM Asylum (04), CARDIFF Clwb Ifor Bach (05), LONDON Underworld (06), SOUTHAMPTON Joiners (07), LEEDS Key Club (08), NEWCASTLE Think Tank (10), GLASGOW Attic (11), MANCHESTER Sound Control (12), NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms (13) rock sound 95

gig G ARCANE ROOTS

OCTOBER LONDON Scala (05), WOLVERHAMPTON Slade Rooms (06), MANCHESTER Academy III (07), GLASGOW King Tut’s (08), BELFAST Empire Music Hall (09), DUBLIN Whelans (11), LIVERPOOL Arts Club (13), BRIGHTON Haunt (14), BRISTOL Fleece (15)

GLASGOW Garage (05), MANCHESTER Club Academy (06), BIRMINGHAM Academy II (07), LONDON Electric Ballroom (08), NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms (09) DON BROCO

ARCHITECTS

WITH STATE CHAMPS & COUNTERFEIT NOVEMBER LONDON Alexandra Palace (11)

BLESSTHEFALL

NOVEMBER LONDON Underworld (09), GLASGOW Cathouse (10), MANCHESTER Sound Control (11)

WITH WHILE SHE SLEEPS & COUNTERPARTS FEBRUARY LONDON Alexandra Palace (03) WITH BLOOD YOUTH SEPTEMBER YORK Fibbers (26), NEWCASTLE Think Tank (27), GLASGOW G2 (28), MANCHESTER Rebellion (29), NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms (30) OCTOBER LONDON Underworld (02), BRISTOL The Fleece (03), SOUTHAMPTON Talking Heads (04)

OCTOBER CARDIFF Globe (08), NORWICH Waterfront (09), EDINBURGH La Belle Angele (11), ABERDEEN Garage (12), GLASGOW Garage (13), SHEFFIELD Plug (15), NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms (16), COLCHESTER Arts Centre (17), PORTSMOUTH Wedgewood Rooms (18), WOLVERHAMPTON Slade Rooms (19), ALDERSHOT West End Centre (20)

EIGHTEEN VISIONS

ENTER SHIKARI

WITH LOWER THAN ATLANTIS & ASTROID BOYS NOVEMBER LIVERPOOL Arena (16), CARDIFF Arena (17), NOTTINGHAM Arena (18), NEWCASTLE Arena (19), MANCHESTER Victoria Warehouse (21), BRIGHTON Centre (22), BIRMINGHAM Arena (24), LONDON Alexandra Palace (25)

BRAND NEW

NOVEMBER DUBLIN Olympia Theatre (16), LONDON Brixton Academy (18), GLASGOW Academy (19) BURY TOMORROW

OCTOBER DOVER Booking Hall (19), SOUTHEND Chinnerys (20), BRIGHTON Concorde II (19), NORWICH Waterfront Studio (22), PETERBOROUGH Met Lounge (24), DONCASTER Vintage Bar (25), YORK Fibbers (26), MIDDLESBROUGH Empire (27), ABERDEEN Tunnels (28), EDINBURGH Mash House (29), CARLISLE Brickyard (31)

NOVEMBER HUDDERSFIELD Parish (01), LIVERPOOL Academy II (02), STOKE Sugarmill (03), MILTON KEYNES Craufurd Arms (04), WORCESTER Marrs Bar (05), OXFORD Academy II (07), BRIDGEND Hobos (08), BATH Moles (09), EXETER Phoenix (10), PLYMOUTH Underground (11), BOURNEMOUTH Anvil (12) CITIZEN

WITH HONEY LUNG OCTOBER MANCHESTER Deaf Institute (03), NOTTINGHAM Bodega (04), LONDON Bush Hall (05) COUNTERPARTS

WITH NAPOLEON & POLAR NOVEMBER BRIGHTON Patterns (11), CARDIFF Clwb Ifor Bach (12), DONCASTER Vintage Bar (13), NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms (14), GLASGOW G2 (15), MANCHESTER Rebellion (16), NEWCASTLE Think Tank (17), LONDON Dome (18), SOUTHAMPTON Joiners (19)

EVERY TIME I DIE

WITH COMEBACK KID (24 – 28), KNOCKED LOOSE & HIGHER POWER NOVEMBER NEWCASTLE Riverside (11), ABERDEEN Tunnels (12), GLASGOW Garage (13), DUBLIN Opium Rooms (14), NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms (15), LONDON Koko (24), BRIGHTON Concorde II (25), BRISTOL Bierkeller (26), BIRMINGHAM Institute II (27), MANCHESTER Academy II (28) FIREBALL FUELLING THE FIRE TOUR

FEATURING REEL BIG FISH, ANTI-FLAG (EXCEPT 20 – 21), MAD CADDIES, SWEET LITTLE MACHINE & COMPETITION WINNERS OCTOBER MANCHESTER Ritz (11), BRISTOL Academy (12), LEICESTER Academy (13), LEEDS Academy (14), LONDON Kentish Town Forum (16 / 17), NEWCASTLE Academy (18), GLASGOW Academy (19), LIVERPOOL Academy (20), SHEFFIELD Academy (21) FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH

WITH IN FLAMES & OF MICE & MEN DECEMBER BIRMINGHAM Arena (17), GLASGOW Hydro (18), LEEDS Arena (20), LONDON Wembley Arena (21) FOO FIGHTERS

SEPTEMBER LONDON O2 (19)

GOOD CHARLOTTE WITH AGAINST THE CURRENT, MILK TEETH & NOTHING, NOWHERE NOVEMBER SOUTHAMPTON Guildhall (27), NOTTINGHAM Rock City (28), GLASGOW Barrowlands (30) DECEMBER BIRMINGHAM Academy (01), MANCHESTER Academy (02), LONDON Brixton Academy (03) HIM DECEMBER GLASGOW Barrowlands (14), NOTTINGHAM Rock City (15), MANCHESTER Academy (16), LONDON Roundhouse (17) IN HEARTS WAKE

WITH GIDEON & SILENT SCREAMS OCTOBER NORWICH Waterfront Studio (03), BIRMINGHAM Asylum (04), CARDIFF Clwb Ifor Bach (05), LONDON Underworld (06), SOUTHAMPTON Joiners (07), LEEDS Key Club (08), NEWCASTLE Think Tank (10), GLASGOW Attic (11), MANCHESTER Sound Control (12), NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms (13) IMPERICON NEVER SAY DIE! TOUR

WITH EMMURE, DEEZ NUTS, CHELSEA GRIN, KUBLAI KHAN, SWORN IN, POLARIS & LORNA SHORE NOVEMBER LONDON Electric Ballroom (05), MANCHESTER Academy (06), GLASGOW Garage (07), CARDIFF Tramshed (08) KNUCKLE PUCK

WITH TINY MOVING PARTS, HAVE MERCY & MOVEMENTS DECEMBER NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms (07), LEEDS Key Club (08), GLASGOW SWG3 (09), NEWCASTLE Riverside (10), MANCHESTER Club Academy (12), BRISTOL Fleece (13), SOUTHAMPTON 1865 (14), LONDON Electric Ballroom (15) MACHINE GUN KELLY

CREEPER

WITH CAN’T SWIM, MICROWAVE & NERVUS DECEMBER GLASGOW ABC (03), BIRMINGHAM Institute (04), BRISTOL Trinity (05), LONDON Shepherd’s Bush Empire (07), MANCHESTER Albert Hall (09), SOUTHAMPTON Guildhall (10) DEAF HAVANA

WITH BLACK FOXXES & DECADE NOVEMBER CARDIFF University (03), LEEDS Key Club (04), 96 rock sound

FRANK IERO AND THE PATIENCE

WITH DAVE HAUSE AND THE MERMAID (SEP 20 – OCT 16), THE HOMELESS GOSPEL CHOIR & PACESHIFTERS SEPTEMBER NEWCASTLE University (20), LIVERPOOL Arts Club (21), LEEDS Key Club (22), MANCHESTER Academy III (24), BRIGHTON Concorde II (25), BRISTOL Fleece (26), LONDON Dome (27)

SEPTEMBER DUBLIN Olympia (21), BIRMINGHAM Academy (22), LONDON Brixton Academy (23), LEEDS Academy (24), NEWCASTLE Academy (26), GLASGOW Academy (27), MANCHESTER Ritz (28), NOTTINGHAM Rock City (29), BRISTOL Academy (30) THE MAINE

WITH NIGHT RIOTS & THE TECHNICOLORS SEPTEMBER BRISTOL Thekla (14), LONDON Koko (15), MANCHESTER Club Academy (16), BIRMINGHAM Institute II (17), BRIGHTON Haunt (18)

GUIDE MAKE THEM SUFFER

WITH NOVELISTS & CURSED EARTH OCTOBER LONDON Boston Music Rooms (23), MANCHESTER Rebellion (24), GLASGOW Garage Attic (26), LEEDS Key Club (27), BRIGHTON Sticky Mike’s (28), BRISTOL Fleece (29), NOTTINGHAM Rock City (30) MARILYN MANSON

DECEMBER MANCHESTER Apollo (04), GLASGOW Academy (05), WOLVERHAMPTON Civic Hall (06), NEWPORT Centre (08), LONDON Wembley Arena (09)

NECK DEEP

WITH AS IT IS, REAL FRIENDS & WOES OCTOBER BELFAST Mandela Hall (04), DUBLIN Workman’s Club (05), NEWCASTLE Academy (07), GLASGOW Academy (08), NOTTINGHAM Rock City (09), NORWICH UEA (11), CARDIFF Great Hall (12), LONDON Brixton Academy (13), MANCHESTER Apollo (14)

MARMOZETS

OCTOBER HULL Welly Club (17), MIDDLESBOROUGH Empire (18), GLASGOW Saint Luke's (19), LEEDS Brudenell Social Club (21), MANCHESTER Academy III (22), BIRMINGHAM Academy II (23), LONDON Garage (25), NORWICH Arts Centre (27), BRISTOL Fleece (28), BOURNEMOUTH Old Fire Station (29), PORTSMOUTH Wedgewood Rooms (30 MAYDAY PARADE

PERFORMING ‘A LESSON IN ROMANTICS’, WITH WITH CONFIDENCE & ALL GET OUT SEPTEMBER NOTTINGHAM Rock City (18), LEEDS Stylus (19), NEWCASTLE Academy (20), GLASGOW ABC (21), MANCHESTER Academy (22), BIRMINGHAM Institute (23), OXFORD Academy (25), CAMBRIDGE Junction (26), BRIGHTON Concorde II (27), SOUTHAMPTON Engine Rooms (28), BRISTOL Academy (29). LONDON Forum (30)

MILESTONES & THE GOSPEL YOUTH

SEPTEMBER MANCHESTER Sound Control (16), NOTTINGHAM Bodega (17), SOUTHAMPTON Joiners (18), LONDON Camden Assembly (19), BRISTOL Exchange (20), BIRMINGHAM Flapper (21), NEWCASTLE Jumpin’ Jacks (22), GLASGOW Audio (23), LEEDS Key Club (24)

NEW FOUND GLORY

PERFORMING VARIOUS ALBUMS IN FULL, WITH ROAM SEPTEMBER CARDIFF Tramshed (20), OXFORD Academy (21), NORWICH UEA (22), LONDON Forum (23), PORTSMOUTH Pyramids (25), GLASGOW ABC (27), NEWCASTLE Academy (28), MANCHESTER Academy (29), BIRMINGHAM Academy (30) OCTOBER LEEDS Academy (02), NOTTINGHAM Rock City (03), BRISTOL Academy (05), LONDON Forum (06), LONDON Electric Ballroom (07), LONDON Underworld (08)

ONE OK ROCK

DECEMBER GLASGOW ABC (11), MANCHESTER Academy II (12), LONDON Shepherd’s Bush Empire (13)

THE MOVIELIFE

WITH WALLFLOWER NOVEMBER SOUTHAMPTON Joiners (14), LONDON Underworld (15), BRISTOL Exchange (17), LEEDS Key Club (18), LIVERPOOL Magnet (19), GLASGOW G2 (20), MANCHESTER Academy III (21)

WITH AFTER THE BURIAL, OCEANO & JUSTICE FOR THE DAMNED OCTOBER CARDIFF University (03), LEEDS Key Club (04), GLASGOW Garage (05), MANCHESTER Club Academy (06), BIRMINGHAM Academy II (07), LONDON Electric Ballroom (08), NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms (09) TRASH BOAT

WITH BROADSIDE & HOMEBOUND SEPTEMBER SOUTHAMPTON Talking Heads (17), CARDIFF Clwb Ifor Bach (18), LIVERPOOL Magnet (19), NOTTINGHAM Rock City Basement (20), LONDON Underworld (22), LEEDS Key Club (23), MANCHESTER Rebellion (24), NEWCASTLE Academy II (25), GLASGOW G2 (26), BIRMINGHAM Institute (27) WITH CHAPEL & THE BOTTOM LINE SEPTEMBER BRISTOL Fleece (21), NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms (22), NEWCASTLE Academy II (23), GLASGOW King Tut’s (24), LEEDS Key Club (26), MANCHESTER Academy III (27), LONDON Underworld (28), BIRMINGHAM Academy II (29), BRIGHTON Haunt (30)

PAPA ROACH

OCTOBER BIRMINGHAM Academy (05), NOTTINGHAM Rock City (06), GLASGOW Academy (07), LONDON Brixton Academy (10), MANCHESTER Apollo (11)

PVRIS

MOTIONLESS IN WHITE

STRAY FROM THE PATH

WITH OBEY THE BRAVE & RENOUNCED OCTOBER LONDON Underworld (05), LEEDS Key Club (06), GLASGOW G2 (07), MANCHESTER Rebellion (08), CARDIFF Globe (09), BIRMINGHAM Mama Roux’s (10)

WATERPARKS

NOVEMBER BRISTOL Academy (22), BIRMINGHAM Academy (23), GLASGOW Academy (27), MANCHESTER Apollo (28), LONDON Brixton Academy (30) JANUARY SOUTHAMPTON Engine Rooms (18), BRISTOL Academy (19), LEEDS Stylus (20), GLASGOW Garage (22), NEWCASTLE Riverside (23), LONDON Koko (25), BIRMINGHAM Institute (26), MANCHESTER Ritz (27), NORWICH Waterfront (28)

SILVERSTEIN CARDIFF Globe (26) DECEMBER SOUTHAMPTON Talking Heads (08), BRIGHTON Haunt (09), CARDIFF Globe (10), GLASGOW G2 (12), NEWCASTLE Think Tank (13), MANCHESTER Sound Control (14), HUDDERSFIELD Parish (15), LONDON Garage (16)

THY ART IS MURDER

THE MENZINGERS

WITH PUP & CAYETANA JANUARY DUBLIN Whelan’s (26), BELFAST Limelight (29), BRISTOL SWX (31) FEBRUARY GLASGOW SWG3 (01), MANCHESTER Ritz (02), LONDON Shepherd’s Bush Empire (03)

The shows you need in your life

RISE AGAINST

WITH SLEEPING WITH SIRENS NOVEMBER BIRMINGHAM Academy (01), MANCHESTER Apollo (02), LEEDS Academy (04), LONDON Brixton Academy (05), NEWCASTLE Academy (08) RYAN KEY & NORMANDIE

WITH GRUMBLE BEE (EXCEPT 07) DECEMBER CARDIFF Clwb Ifor Bach (06), LONDON Boston Music Room (07), SOUTHAMPTON Joiners (09), NOTTINGHAM Bodega (10), BIRMINGHAM Academy III (11), MANCHESTER Sound Control (13), GLASGOW Attic (14), NEWCASTLE Think Tank (15)

WEEZER

WITH ASH (28 ONLY) & THE ORWELLS OCTOBER LEEDS Academy (23), GLASGOW Academy (24), MANCHESTER Apollo (25), BIRMINGHAM Academy (27), LONDON Wembley Arena (29) THE XCERTS

SEPTEMBER BRIGHTON Haunt (29), NOTTINGHAM Bodega (30) OCTOBER LEEDS Brudenell Social Club (01), GLASGOW St Luke’s (03), ABERDEEN Tunnels (04), NEWCASTLE Think Tank (05), BRISTOL Exchange (08), BIRMINGHAM Flapper (09), LONDON Scala (10) YOUNG GUNS

SEPTEMBER SOUTHAMPTON Engine Rooms (21), LONDON Student Central (22), BIRMINGHAM Asylum (23), GLASGOW Garage (24), MANCHESTER Club Academy (25), CARDIFF Globe (26) rock sound 97

d l u o WY o u r e h t Ra

BE THE OPPOSITE GENDER OR A KID AGAIN FOR A DAY?

“I would love to be a kid again. Think about all the shows that were on Nickelodeon. Kids don’t watch things like Kenan & Kel any more. Everything is so serious now. Nobody wants to get slimed.”

ALWAYS HAVE TO SPEAK THE TRUTH OR ALWAYS HEAR IT?

“I would rather everyone told me the truth. If someone could tell me the truth I could learn a lot and improve. Nobody wants to tell anyone anything bad, because we’re all a bunch of fucking cowards.”

BE HALF YOUR HEIGHT OR DOUBLE YOUR WEIGHT?

“I’m already kind of small, so I would double my weight. I would just try to bulk up. I’d either be down at Muscle Beach pumping like Arnold Schwarzenegger or I’d be like one of those dads who you know used to be huge, but now are a bit floppy like Vince McMahon. I’m already 5’4” so I couldn’t accomplish much if I was any shorter – I’d be the size of a cat!”

BE A DOG WITH HUMAN THOUGHTS OR A HUMAN WITH DOG THOUGHTS?

“I’d be a dog with human thoughts. You’d be able to have the funny thoughts like, ‘Oh wow, I’m a dog’, but also the intellect to go, ‘One day I will figure out a way for me to become an actual dog man.’ Being a dog with human thoughts probably equates to being a rich attractive successful person in this world where everyone caters to your every need. I wouldn’t know though...”

HANG OUT WITH THE DEVIL OR GOD FOR A DAY?

“I think God would be chill. If you took the Devil out to dinner he would be the guy moaning, ‘What’s taking so long? I’m going to complain.’ God would be like, ‘Let’s just talk. Isn’t it mental how I taught you how to build houses and shit?’ The Devil would just be miserable and moan and want to listen to My Chemical Romance all day. He would suck. He would be the friend you have who you don’t actually like that much.”

OWN EVERY BOOK EVER WRITTEN OR EVERY ALBUM EVER RECORDED? “Every book. I have this weird fantasy of having a giant library that people can walk into. The ones you thought only existed in ’80s movies. Books 98 rock sound

B R O A D S I D E

OLIVER BAXXTER INTERVIEW: Jack Rogers

GETTING TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER ONCE AGAIN, WE QUIZ THE BROADSIDE SINGER ON SOME OF LIFE’S TOUGHEST CONUNDRUMS. LIKE WHAT HE’D DO IF HE WOKE UP AS A DOG…

I couldn’t

accomplish much if I was – any shorter the I’d be

size

of a cat!

always look really cool and make you look intelligent. I’ve listened to a lot of records where I only like two of the songs. My fast forward button would take a battering. You’d have to own every pop star and country singer’s album too. I just couldn’t.”

LIVE FOR ONE INCREDIBLE DAY OR 100 BORING ONES?

“I would have one incredible day. I would walk around all my favourite parks, then go to all my favourite food stops. Most importantly I would make sure I’m honest with everyone, no matter if it was good or bad. When it comes to it everyday is pretty boring, so why not put your character to the test when you have the chance?” ‘Paradise’ is out now on Victory. Broadside tour the UK supporting Trash Boat in September; see the Gig Guide for details.

The Spark The new album 22nd September 2017 On tour November 2017 w/ special guests

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