INHEAVEN
THE DEBUT ALBUM OUT 1ST SEPTEMBER “INHEAVEN are set to become indie megastars” Dork UK TOUR ON SALE NOW
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30th September – Newcastle – Think Tank? 1st October – Glasgow – King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut 2nd October – Leeds – Brudenell Social Club 4th October – Sheffield – Plug 5th October – Stoke-On-Trent – The Sugarmill 6th October – Liverpool – Buyers Club 7th October – Manchester – Neighbourhood Festival 9th October – Birmingham – Mama Roux’s
10th 11th 13th 14th 15th 17th 18th 19th
October October October October October October October October
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Leicester – The Cookie Bristol – The Fleece Nottingham – Bodega Social Club Cardiff – Clwb Ifor Bach Oxford – Bullingdon London – Scala Brighton – The Haunt Southampton – Joiners Arms
IN THIS ISSUE... upsetmagazine.com Editor: Stephen Ackroyd (stephen@upsetmagazine.com) Deputy Editor: Victoria Sinden (viki@upsetmagazine.com) Associate Editor: Ali Shutler (ali@upsetmagazine.com) Writers: Chris Cope, Danny Randon, Heather McDaid, Jasleen Dhindsa, Jessica Goodman, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin Photographers: Jordan Knight, Max Fairclough, Sarah Louise Bennett Cover Photo: Max Fairclough All material copyright (c). All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of The Bunker Publishing Ltd. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of Upset or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally. P U B L I S H E D F RO M
THE BUNKER W E LCO M E TOT H E B U N K E R.CO M
RIOT!
4 T H E B RO N X 6 RE A D I N G & L E E DS 9 JA M I E L E N M A N 10 CASS E LS 12 O F M I C E & M E N 14 M I L K T E ET H 16 TO N I G H T A L I V E 18 P L AY L I ST
ABOUT TO BREAK
20 I N H E AV E N 22 C U LT U RE A BUS E 23 F RES H 24 WA L L F LOW E R
FEATURES
26 38 42 46 50 52
PV RI S T U RN OV E R SA I N T E D E AT H F RO M A BOV E T I G E RS JAW P RO P H ETS O F R AG E
RATED
56 Q U E E N S O F T H E STO N E AG E 57 D OW N TOW N BOYS 58 PV RI S 59 T U RN OV E R 60 2000 T RE ES
EDITOR’S NOTE It’s taken us more than two years to get there, but a band has finally done it. PVRIS are the first act to score a second Upset cover, and with their new album ‘AWKOHAWNOH’ [Look, space is limited - Ed], they’ve earned it too. One of the most exciting rock-slash-pop-slashwhatever-you-want bands of our generation, they’re heading for the stars. Sadly, this month also saw Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington, another former cover star, pass away. RIP, Chester. You’ll be missed.
E V E RY T H I N G H A P P E N I N G I N RO C K
“IT “IT SOUNDS SOUNDS SUPER SUPER NASTY” NASTY”
THE BRONX ARE RARING TO GO WITH ALBUM NUMBER FIVE. IT’S THEIR MOST AGGRESSIVE YET,
E V E RY T H I N G H A P P E N I N G I N RO C K
SAYS FRONTMAN
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MATT CAUGHTRAN.
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veryone’s favourite punk rock party-starters The Bronx are back in town, and they’re finally ready to punch you in the ears all over again with their new record. The Los Angeles’ quintet’s fifth album, which is unsurprisingly titled ‘BRVNX’, is set for release in September, and frontman/lead hellraiser Matt Caughtran has already teased that it “sounds really fucked up”.
WORDS: DANNY RANDON.
“The record sounds super nasty,” he laughs. “The songs are fast and out of control. It’s a great record; we love it.”
“There are still choruses, but it’s more of an aggressive record,” he adds, following the bolder rock-oriented tones of ‘The Bronx III’ and ‘The Bronx IV’. That much can certainly be agreed upon hearing the first cut from the album, ‘Sore Throat’: it’s two-anda-half minutes of feral and scrappy
garage punk, fit for smashing a beer bottle against your own head before headbanging until you go dizzy, and then headbanging some more. It’s essentially The Bronx doing what they have done best for 15 years. It’s not only a sensational return from the band but a handsome payoff for the fans who have waited more than four years for the follow-up to ‘The Bronx IV’. “Of course the wait’s gonna be worth
it!” explains Caughtran. “It’s been a rough couple of years, and a lot of people in the band and the band in general have just been going through some stressful situations.” One of The Bronx’s biggest obstacles of recent was that ‘BRVNX’ is the first album that they will be releasing without founding Jorma Vik behind the drums after he departed from the band last year. Luckily, they’ve since partnered up with Social Distortion sticksmith David Hidalgo, Jr., who is on frantic form on ‘Sore Throat’. “We spent a lot of time finding the right direction for the record,” Caughtran continues. “We write songs, and we write songs, and we write songs until we feel like we know the identity of the record and where it is going. “In that sense, it’s a very meticulous [process], but once we figure that out, it’s just ‘go go go’, and once we actually start
recording, we fly through that shit.” Helping them ‘fly through’ recording this time around was producer Rob Schnapf, a man who first made his name in the 1990s co-producing the likes of Elliott Smith, Fu Manchu and Beck on his breakthrough debut ‘Mellow Gold’. More recently, he’s manned the production desk for Kevin Devine, Fidlar and Joyce Manor. “Rob’s a badass producer, and he’s just an awesome, sound guy,” says Caughtran. “On the second record, we took about a year [to record it], and we never want to do that again. Once you feel like you’ve got what you need to do, then you just focus on getting it done right, and then time just flies.” Although the last couple of years have been a period of uncertainty, The Bronx seem raring to kick-start their engines for another furious bout on ‘BRVNX’, and Matt Caughtran is especially stoked to be
creating music and generally ‘discovering stuff’ in today’s ever-changing world. “I’m excited about art,” the singer smiles. “I really enjoy the modern scope of things and how easily accessible other people’s art is, whether that’s music or painting or sculpture or anything. I love that you can sit on Instagram for a couple of hours and stumble upon this amazing artist that you’ve never heard of and they’ve only got around 1,000 people that know about them. “It’s one of the cool things about the modern era. Everything is at your fingertips, and if you wanna find some really cool shit or you’re doing some really cool shit, and you wanna put it out into the world, now’s the time. There’s just a lot of creativity going around, and that makes the world a better place.” P The Bronx’ album ‘BRVNX’ is out 22nd September. 5
ABOUT TO
BREAK THE BEST NEW BANDS TH E H OT TEST NEW MUSIC
INHEAVEN
INHEAVEN ARE ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING UP-AND-COMING BRITISH BANDS AROUND. WITH FANS IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES, AND A DEBUT ALBUM FULL OF 5* BANGERS, THEY’VE FINALLY ARRIVED. WORDS: JASLEEN DHINDSA.
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rom creating their artwork, merch and music videos themselves, to becoming a favourite of The Strokes’ frontman Julian Casablancas, INHEAVEN are one Britain’s coolest bands. It all started when the brains behind the group, guitarist James Taylor and bassist Chloe Little met at a music venue in London. “Me and Chloe have been in different bands before, and we never really got anywhere,” starts James. “We met The Lexington, and realised we had all the same influences, like all the same movies, and we started making music together. It was the only thing we’d ever done that worked instantly, and the moment we put out what we had been doing, we got all these things
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that we’ve always dreamed of.” “We made this website,” he continues, “and every week we were putting out self-produced music and video pieces. We’d post one once a week and then email all these blogs about it, and then we started to get picked up, and it was spiralling. We took everything down. It wasn’t until about a month later that Rory Attwell [who mixed the band’s demos] emailed me to say ‘Check this out’, and I scrolled down and I saw [Julian Casablancas’] Cult Records logo, and it said, ‘Who are this band? We really want to put out their first single in America’.” It’s no wonder The Strokes’ frontman wanted to work with them, their amalgamation of grunge, punk and Britpop is a revitalising ode to the eras when rock was at its best. “When I started writing the first few tunes, [those genres were] the style they
came out in. Me and Chloe were just huge fans of Creation Records [now defunct indie label home to the likes of Oasis, Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine] and Sub Pop [the label that popularised grunge], and that kind of scene. It came out naturally. I guess it’s a homage to our growing up and listening to angry guitar music, and we just wanted to recreate that. That was the music that struck us the most, and then as soon we came out, these other guitar bands in England came out at the same time. It seemed like a lot of people had the same feeling and vision.” “We just did it,” he says of their early success. “We did all of those things we were scared of, and people liked it. I guess it’s a validation and it by no means shapes what we do and the music we play. I can’t really ask for more; we seem to be ticking off all these things from our bucket lists day
by day. The Julian Casablancas thing… if someone told me that when I was 14 and obsessed with The Strokes, I would have just told them to fuck off,” he laughs. “That was a huge moment, and he was such a hero for me growing up.” INHEAVEN’s self-titled debut record is gargantuan and will let nothing stop its path. It’s an empowering record, and political themes that pop-up throughout. Take their music video for ‘Vultures’, featuring defaced images of Trump and the band snarling in front of the United States’ flag. “In this day and age, we are flooded [with news] from all around the world. You only have to look on Twitter to see the first trending topic, and usually, it’s to do with Donald Trump. A lot of the songs were written before he came into power. We were inspired by the late 60s rock’n’roll era of The Rolling Stones and The Animals, and all these bands speaking up about what was going on in their own countries. I guess it harks back to the flower power era, but we wanted to create our own sense of political awareness, and since we’ve been a band I think young people have become more politically aware, which is cool. I think if we can encourage that,
that’s what we want to do.” Even regarding how the band went about the recording their debut album, nostalgia lingered. “We had a very clear idea of how we wanted [the record] to be and how we wanted it to sound. [Early single] ‘Regeneration’ was one of our demos, it was more like getting in somewhere and recording all those parts to a much better audible standard. I guess we went from a lo-fi band to more of a hi-fi serious band. It was amazing to hear those songs at their full capacity. We worked with Tom Dalgety, and we really liked him as a person and the records he had done, like the Pixies. We just went for it. We did it Rockfield Studios, which has a lot of history of bands going mad there: Black Sabbath recorded there, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was recorded there, and it’s got this old school studio vibe. There’s nothing modern or new about it; it’s a real classic place.” Their style and DIY ethos also echo of the past, styling themselves in vintage clothes, photos painted with grainy filters telling of the 60s. Their aesthetics lie with punk too, in their handmade
merch that includes zines. “We’re just really hard to please,” James says of the band’s do-it-yourself nature. “When people did stuff for us, we never liked it, so it’s either my brother or Chloe’s sister or ourselves that take the photos. I design the artwork and Chloe does the fanzines, we both think about video ideas together, and Chloe will go off on one and make them. We just felt the only person who can do what you want is yourself at the end of the day. If you look back on bands, often a lot of them who created their own worlds are the bands that make more sense, whereas you can instantly tell if a band has been marketed by an A&R team at a major label, ‘cause it all looks the same. Also from all the bands we love, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, they all had really strong aesthetics, and we wanted to recreate that. “We do everything ourselves. People think that’s bullshit, but we really do. Every part of our band is created by us, and we hope people can see that from the outside.” P INHEAVEN’s self-titled debut album is out 1st September. 21
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SENT PVRIS’ BRILLIANT DEBUT ALBUM
M A D E T H E M S U P E R S TA R S I N A
WORLD OF THEIR OWN DESIG N.
N OW T H EY ’ RE ST RI PPI N G I T BAC K
AND EXPOSING THE BONES
U N D E R N E AT H .
WORDS: ALI SHUTLER.
P H OTO S : M A X FA I R C L O U G H . 27
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couple of years ago some friends made a weird little record. Wide-eyed, driven by a newfound belief in themselves and the want to create something they believed in, ‘White Noise’ was the start of the fairytale. Otherworldly, ignoring the rules and with an eye on dark escape, it took PVRIS around the world. Several times. Created with zero expectations it quickly morphed into something else. Lights shining, platforms raised and with their art embraced at every turn, it was a whirlwind that focused on the happy ever after. “We couldn’t have written a more ideal story,” offers guitarist Alex Babinski. “We got to tour with our favourite bands; we got to travel the world.” “We weren’t expecting anything from it. That’s not to say we weren’t happy with what we did but when us three just went into a room in Florida, we weren’t expecting to meet the people we met or see the places we’ve seen with that record,” continues bassist Brian MacDonald. “It’s still mindblowing. When we’re in it, we’re going day by day. We’re living in that moment and not taking a step outside of it and viewing it for what it is. Once we had time off, we got to decompress and look back on all the places we travelled, all the people we met, and wrap our heads around it. It truly was a fairytale; it was just an amazing experience we had.” And now they’re back with another fully realised block of art. ‘All We Know Of Heaven, All We Need Of Hell’ is fuelled by the same three friends. There’s still a belief in their abilities, a want to create something beautiful, and there are no expectations or pandering to their audience. It’s a different sort of PVRIS album, though. Darker and more exposed, it’s replaced the supernatural stories with something more intimate. It’s wrapped them into a turbulent new world. Existing somewhere between good and evil, right and wrong, it sees the band try and make sense of a universe that’s much more complex. Since the comeback of ‘Heaven’ introduced new shades of red to their world, PVRIS have continued to explore, change and grow. “It’s been crazy, but a good crazy,” smiles singer
Lynn Gunn. “I’m feeling stressed, just because we’re in the middle of tour dates and one-offs and festivals at the moment, between filming more videos and everything else that comes with the release. It’s all good work though; it’s all for the greater picture,” she promises. ‘White Noise’ was written when PVRIS were gazing out of windows at the endless horizon. Now they’ve seen what’s out there. It’s part of them. Instead of the daydreaming possible, ‘All We Know Of Heaven, All We Need Of Hell’ deals in reality’s touch. “We had great hopes when we made ‘White Noise’, but we had zero expectations,” offers Lynn. The thing about not expecting things is that there’s no time to prepare for what’s to come. No one who worked on ‘White Noise’ had a clue what to expect. “They had no idea what was about to come from it. It was honestly really confusing and just so overwhelming, it didn’t allow any of us to process what was going on until afterwards, and it was finished, and we had time off to fully process everything. I got pretty lost, especially towards the end of the record cycle, just in dealing with my own stuff.” That journey from being sure of yourself, to having the carpet ripped out from underneath as you’re swept up in a whirlwind of new demands and sudden exposure can be felt across PVRIS’ second album. There’s a pause, a sudden realisation of how did I end up here? Lynn’s found her answer. “I mean, I know how I ended up here. Over the past few years, all the chaos, stress and pressure of being in this band and the record doing so well and having to perform it for three years, I dug myself into a ditch. I became self-critical and put so pressure on myself. I became so attentive to the little details that anytime the little details were skewed or thrown off; it would throw me into a little black hole. I just really, really
became my own worst enemy over the past few years. I’m trying to work on that now and eliminate it.” But that doesn’t mean ‘All We Know Of Heaven’ is full of resolution and journey’s end. All that self-discovery, it’s still going on. “It’s interesting, as soon as we released ‘What’s Wrong’, I felt very, very vulnerable and very exposed and I got scared. I genuinely didn’t know what to feel, it was just this overwhelming feeling of being pulled in so many different emotions but none of them felt relieved or, ‘Okay, we can move forward now’. It felt really scary to put ‘What’s Wrong’ out. I didn’t think this was going to happen but a lot of the subjects on the record are still close to home. There are things I’m still dealing with and things I’m not ready to share or discuss yet. It’s going to be interesting when the whole record is out,” she offers. “The fact I felt really scared, vulnerable and exposed is good. When you do anything that scares you, that’s good for you. If you’re doing something that doesn’t scare you, you shouldn’t be doing it.” It’s easy to paint PVRIS as a gloomy band, all serious work, monochrome business and no play, but they wouldn’t hustle as hard or endure everything they have done if they didn’t enjoy it. “It’s all for enjoyment,” starts Brian. “We’re doing this with our best friends and we’re grateful enough to create music and put it out to the world with our best friends. It’s a fun experience. For Alex, Lyndsey and I, we take the image of the band very seriously, but we do love joking around with each other and being funny here and there. It’s a fun and amazing experience and we’re super grateful for it.” The three of ‘em are joined for life. Constantly impressed by one another and quick to make jokes, they’re musketeers and mates. “We all experienced tour differently,” reasons Lynn. “We all handle ourselves
“ I F YO U ’ R E D O I N G S O M E T H I N G T H AT D O E S N ’ T S C A R E Y O U , Y O U SHOULDN’T BE DOING IT” 29
PH OTO: SARAH LOUI SE B E NNET T
PH OTO: SARAH LOUI SE B E NNET T
PH OTO: SARAH LOUI SE B E NNET T
PH OTO: SARAH LOUI SE B E NNET T
PHOTO : SAR AH LOUISE BENNETT
PH OTO: SAR AH LOUISE BENNET T PH OTO: SARAH LOUI SE B E NNET T
PHOTO : SARAH LOUISE B E NNET T
“ I B ECA M E MY OWN WORST ENEMY”
D O GO NATURE
T U R N OV E R PONDE R ONE OF LIFE’S MOST IM P O R TA N T LESSONS : H OW TO BE HAPP WORDS: Y. JESS GO ODMAN.
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L E T I T GO
TA Y J A R D INE PULL ED HERSELF OUT OF T H E DA R KNESS A S SAINTE WITH BR I L L I A N T LY VIVID POP TUN ES.
WORDS:
ALI SHUT LER
.
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EV E
G N I H T Y R
! W O N
SKIPPING THEIR PR EVIOUS D ECA D E BETWEEN RECORDS D E AT H F R , O M A BOV E ARE MINUS A NUMBER, B U T R E A DY TO C O M B AT THE CHURN O N THEIR OWN TER WORDS: MS. STEV
PH OTOS:
EN LOFTI N. SARAH L OUISE BE
N N E T T.
A “THERE’S HERE T T U O E C I VO IS E N O O N T H AT O” T G N I N E LIST T
L AND DJ D, B-RE A K, CHUCK L I ND IN A A W D A E , BR F R AG . MERFORD PHETS O M O O AS EVER R C E P , V M I I D T N AT VO C W BA E L LO, E AS PRO P FOR NE TO M M O R R U ’ Y D E E H M T A , E TE TERMOIL L O R D H AV PE. O L I T I CA L CHRIS CO U E D BY P WORDS: I M E PL AG
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D E T A R THE OFFICIA
ING. N EVERYTH L VERDICT O
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
TH E O F F I C I A L VE RD I CT
VILLAINS
Y
eeeee
ou might not initially notice it, but Queens Of The Stone Age have always dabbled in controversy; from the drug-addled karaoke anthem ‘Feel Good Hit Of The Summer’ to that absurd video for ‘No One Knows’. However, the most recent act of boldness by Josh Homme and co. has proven much more divisive: the news that they were heading into the studio with none other than Mr Uptown Funk himself, Mark Ronson. Homme may have stirred the pot
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further by citing the aforementioned radio, chart and ear-bothering track as a huge influence on album number seven, but you need not worry about a super-producer like Ronson making the Californian desert rock monarchs sound like Bruno Mars. If anything, ‘Villains’ has a deeper, dirtier, downtown funk lingering around it. Four years on from the sprawling art-rock masterpiece ‘. .. Like Clockwork’, this is a continuation from its predecessor as much as it is a departure. Opening track ‘Feet Don’t Fail Me’ starts with a dark, suspenseful swell before giving way rather playfully into a disco-driven
groove. The pulsating basslines in turn segue into the sharp, wiry guitars and 1950s-esque production of ‘The Way You Used To Do’, and that’s only the slightest of curveballs that are thrown over the course of 48 minutes. The devil perched on his shoulder on the album’s artwork is clearly having his wicked way with the frontman, but it’s the influence of Iggy Pop’s ‘Post Pop Depression’ - an album in which he and multi-instrumentalist Dean Fertita played a key role - which has really strengthened the rugged charm of Homme’s crooning. If ‘Villains’ has any footing in Homme’s beloved Californian desert, it’s at the ominous site of a UFO landing. It’s a superbly spaced-out, funkadelic odyssey of an album which will be hard for some to stomach, but even harder for all to resist. Danny Randon
FRESH
FRESH
Specialist Subject Records
eeee Specialist Subject have previous when it comes to breaking underground bands, and the latest off their production line is London indie-punks Fresh. Fronted by Kathryn Woods, they’ve got a literate star in the making, and someone who can transform mundane moments into flashes of piercing insight. Like fellow 2017 stars Diet Cig, there’s a strong message of rebellion to Fresh’s tales of dissatisfaction. This is especially true on the raucous ‘Get Bent’, which recounts Woods’ experiences at high school. Here, where music taste is used as a badge of honour, she stresses her views are just as valid, important and relevant as the guys, and for anyone feeling marginalised due to their musical tastes in school it’s a riotous anthem of positivity. Yet, for these challenges, ‘Fresh’ is the tale of someone finding a way to thrive and doing so on their own terms. And it’s smart too. Cuts like ‘Goodbye Suckers’ and the summery ‘No Big Deal’ are simultaneously life-affirming and heartbreaking vignettes, fully-realised and intimate, but testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Even in its darkest moments – and there are certainly times where ‘Fresh’ cuts to the quick – the positivity that underpins the message can still be discerned. The result is a journey of self-discovery wrapped up in two-minute pop songs and, even in its quieter moments, it’s a blast. Rob Mair
INHEAVEN
INHEAVEN
PIAS
eeee Inheaven might have started off taking
DOWNTOWN BOYS COST OF LIVING
Sub Pop
eeee
There’s nothing that beats a bit of good old fashioned punk rock action. That’s something that Downtown Boys know well. ‘Cost Of Living’ opener ‘A Wall’ has barely got out of the traps before it’s throttling listeners around the noggin, demanding attention. Up front, full
DOWNTOWN DOWNTOWN BOYS BOYS A SHORT Q&A WITH...
WITH THEIR THIRD ALBUM, NEW SUB POP SIGNEES DOWNTOWN BOYS ARE FIGHTING BACK.
Hey Downtown Boys, who are we speaking to and how are you today? Have you had a good summer so far? Ruiz: This is Victoria Ruiz I am the vocalist in the band. DeGeorge: This is Joe DeGeorge. I play saxophone and synths in the band. I am doing well. With the band, we’ve been a little dispersed this summer so far, but we’re preparing for three months of touring in the States and Europe! I will say that last week, we had a great time together watching our music video be made. There were a lot of children smashing piñatas. What have you lot been up to since your last album, back in 2015? Any major life changes? DeGeorge: I joined the band in a
throttle, it drips with attitude. Attitude and infectious brilliance. It’s an energy that blasts straight past the language barrier (Somos Chulas (No Somos Pendejas)’). Even when delivered at a more deliberate pace, on the slow building ‘Because You’, the slow tempo can only last so long before ripping down the doors. A shot of pure adrenaline, Downtown Boys are an antidote to the carefully posed, cynical window of modern life. No time for frills, they’re true to their core. Start the riot. Stephen Ackroyd
more official capacity. Previously I had done a few tours filling in for members when the band needed a bass or sax player, but now I’m playing sax and synthesiser in the band. Mary Regalado joined shortly after this last record playing bass in the group. Members that have left the group are running youth arts nonprofits, studying whales and producing popular podcasts. Joey and Vicky have been writing and editing Spark Mag working in conjunction with Demand Progress. Norlan, our drummer, graduated from MassArt and got a piece of paper. The band signed with Sub Pop for this new record, so now we have a larger support network to increase our reach.
What’s the most important message for listeners to take away from ‘Cost Of Living’? “A public cop? Fuck it. A private cop? Fuck it. A Wall is Just A Wall And Nothing More At All.” What’s your favourite thing about the album? DeGeorge: I like that Guy Picciotto gave us some great gossip from 1992 and taught us this dice game that Fugazi used to play on the road. He also didn’t let me do any overdubs on my sax solos. So it’s raw with the exception of one squeal. How did you guys hook up with Sub Pop? DeGeorge: Victoria tweeted at them, and they took her seriously. Also, I think Norlan took them bowling when they came to visit Providence, and that helped. P 57