Upset, April 2019

** PLUS ** SIMPLE CREATURES // GRANDSON // AMERICAN FOOTBALL // LA DISPUTE // THE MAINE // EX HEX + LOADS MORE

April 2019 upsetmagazine.com

SWMRS INCOMING!

“THE WORLD IS F**KED UP”

ALBUM L AUNCH SHOWS APRIL 201 9 THURSDAY 11 TH APRIL

SOUTHAMPTON, CENTRAL HALL FRIDAY 12 TH APRIL

BRIGHTON, ST. GEORGE’S CHURCH SUNDAY 14 TH APRIL

CARDIFF, TRAMSHED MONDAY 15 TH APRIL

BATH, KOMEDIA TUESDAY 16 TH APRIL

LONDON, ISLINGTON ASSEMBLY HALL WEDNESDAY 17 TH APRIL

MANCHESTER, STOLLER HALL THURSDAY 18 TH APRIL

GL ASGOW, ST. LUKE’S CHURCH

ALBUM & TICKET BUNDLES: B A N D O F S K U L L S . C O M

Issue 42

THIS MONTH_

It’s no secret that SWMRS are one of Upset’s very favourite bands. Their last album, the fizzbanging ‘Drive North’, was the soundtrack to some of our early issues.

They’re a band with everything. Not just the exciting, immediate songs, but also The Right Sort Of Attitude too. Pushing to make the scene around them a better place, their first Upset cover has been a long time coming, but we’re stoked it’s finally arrived.

Elsewhere this month we’ve got two legit legends in the form of blink-182’s Mark Hoppus and All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth, who’ve joined forces to form Simple Creatures. If you’re after something from the very top drawer, the new albums from La Dispute and American Football will see you right, while Grandson definitely brings the excitement. And then there’s the new record from Pup... more on that next month.

RIOT

APRIL 2019

HELLO.

S tephen

Editor / @stephenackroyd

Upset

4. SIMPLE CREATURES 8. EX HEX 10. CROWS 11. AS IT IS 12. THE MAINE 16. MARTHA ABOUT TO BREAK 18. BADFLOWER FEATURES 20. SWMRS 28. GRANDSON 32. AMERICAN FOOTBALL 36. LA DISPUTE REVIEWS 40. PUP 44. THE XCERTS TEENAGE KICKS 46. LIGHTS

Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Ali Shutler Scribblers Alex Bradley, Dan Harrison, Dillon Eastoe, Jack Press, Jamie MacMillan, Jasleen Dhindsa, Jessica Goodman, Linsey Teggert, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin Snappers Sarah Louise Bennett P U B L I S H E D F RO M

W E LCO M E TOT H E B U N K E R.CO M U N I T 10, 23 G RA N G E RO A D, H A S T I N G S, T N34 2R L

All material copyright (c). All rights reserved.

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THIS MONTH IN ROCK

EVERYTHING HAPPENING IN ROCK

Mark Hoppus and Alex Gaskarth have teamed up for two-person supergroup, Simple Creatures. “I want people to say ‘Fuck, I had no idea these guys would make music like this’,” Mark explains.

Words: Ali Shutler

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Ex Hex’s most collaborative offering yet showcases them at their most dynamic. p.8

The Maine have reinvented themselves once again for their seventh studio album, ‘You Are Ok’ p.12

“T

he tour is over, I’ve survived,” sung Mark Hoppus all those years ago but today, those words still resonate. “I don’t know what happened but at the end of an amazingly successful album and tour cycle for ‘California’ and the rebirth of blink-182, I came home, and I felt strange. I fell into this weird depression. I felt really empty, and I didn’t know why. I needed

to do something to break that.”

Rather than choosing to spend time alone in his room, Mark got out of the house and started creating. In his head, it was going to be a solo project that saw him collaborating with a bunch of friends but after he clicked so well with All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth, the first person on the list, he realised they didn’t need anyone else.

“We wrote a handful of songs that I really loved. The music brought me around to a much

Martha are turning heartache into something uplifting. p.16

better place.”

After a couple of months, it was decided that this musical experiment should become a proper band. Welcome to Simple Creatures.

“From that moment we said, let’s make as much music as we possibly can,” beams Alex. “We locked ourselves in the studio, started tweaking the songs we’d already written and started writing more material.”

They’re still at it. There’s one EP finished, another due to come

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Riot_ out in summer and the pair were together a few days ago writing even more.

“We wanted this to be very agile, and it’s built into this thing we want to pursue even further. People see my name and Mark’s name attached to something, and they assume this is going to be some sort of pop-punk supergroup.

Obviously, we wanted to go beyond that. That felt a little bit played out and too easy. We wanted to showcase a different side of ourselves.”

“One thing that was important to both of us was that Simple Creatures sounded nothing like our main bands,” adds Mark who doesn’t see the appeal of a side-project that sounds like a watered down version of the day job. “With blink, I can do anything that I want. We’ve proved ourselves beyond anything we ever hoped to prove, and we write the music we love.”

“The first song we wrote won’t see the light of day because it sounds too much like what we both already do,” teases Alex. As soon as they hit familiar ground, they realised they had to do things differently.

“When we write music for blink or All Time Low, we’re always trying to push the envelope, experiment and do something new but there’s also a set of rules we live by,” he continues. “There are certain things you don’t do. This time, there was none of that. We could do whatever we wanted, and that was very freeing.”

As soon as they started heading in the opposite direction, “the songs started to take on this personality of their own,” Alex explains. “It’s this trashy pop thing with dark lyrical content. It felt like we had a sound. It felt like we’ve found something here.”

“The EP goes to a lot of places that people aren’t going to

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“IT WAS IMPORTANT TO BOTH OF US WAS THAT SIMPLE CREATURES SOUNDED NOTHING LIKE OUR MAIN BANDS” expect,” he promises, as Mark teases: “I want people to listen to it and say ‘Fuck, I had no idea these guys would make music like this, I can’t wait to hear more’.”

‘Drug’ is a ratty burst of defiance, delectable and charged with electric confidence. ‘Adrenaline’ is a haunted dance, controlled with puppet strings and the need for adventure while ‘Strange Love’ shimmers in the air.

“We spent a long time working on this music with literally no intention or purpose other than to vent some creative energy,” starts Alex. “The fact it’s now seeing the light of day and people are responding well to it, it’s really exciting.

“It’s the first time in a long time either of us has worked on a project that had no expectations or pre-existing weight attached to it. It’s been really cool just to make it and put it out.

“We’re super-lucky to be able to come at it from a place where we’re both established musicians. There is a built-in audience, but whether they like it, that’s another thing. At the end of the day, it still has to speak for itself. It still has to do something for people.”

Despite this band emerging from a need to escape the darkness, Simple Creatures is a romp of excitable energy, rediscovered joy and fullbodied embrace.

“It’s not meant to be a depressing wallow through self-pity,” offers Mark. “The emphasis was, I need to get out of this funk, so let’s go into the studio and make something really fun and awesome.”

Still, there’s weight behind what the pair are saying. The words aren’t throwaway.

Drawing from personal experience but dramatising it, ‘Strange Love’ is fantastical and grounded.

“We went to all the dark places in our minds,” explains Alex, “either telling stories about things we’d seen first hand or internal investigations into certain things we see in everyday life. Some of it is drug culture and addiction. Some of it’s about being consumed by things that control our everyday lives, like our desires and our carnal nature to want things that make us feel good in the moment but have a poisonous effect later down the line.

“We’re surrounded by those things a lot. We’ve seen artists and friends struggle with

Hey Mark, how does Simple Creatures affect blink?

“It doesn’t affect blink at all. And it shouldn’t. With blink, everyone has things they do on the outside, but we’re always very honest with each other that blink is our priority. The things we do outside weave their way around blink.

We take what we learn outside of blink and bring it back to the band. When you say you’re going to release music with somebody else, peoples first reaction is ‘what about blink?’ ‘What about All Time Low?’ People should know those institutions still stand strong and are our priorities.

As excited as we are about this and as dedicated as we plan on being, we will weave it around the schedules of our other bands.”

So how is the new blink record?

“We’ve been in the studio for months working on it, and I’ll be in the studio all of this week working on it. The new blink record is great. It’s ambitious. If you think of ‘California’ as akin to ‘Enema of The State’, this record would be closest to the untitled record. It is very different, very aggressive and a totally different mood to ‘California’.”

Alex, does Simple Creatures scratch a creative itch or are you discovering things you want to explore through the lens of All Time Low? “I would say a bit of both. I’m definitely learning new things, and I know I can then adapt them to fit through the lens of All Time Low, but at the same time, it does scratch a creative itch. It is something different, and it’s something new. It’s nice to be able to exist in these two lanes and have these things side by side.

I’ve already started working on new All Time Low, and I feel like Simple Creatures has given me a much clearer picture of what I want the next iteration of ATL to be because I’ve gotten this stuff out of my system.”

these things, and at times, we’ve struggled with them as well. Songwriting is always cathartic and therapeutic.

It’s always been a way for me to vent and get thoughts out in a constructive way. I think both of us were doing it at a time where we needed it, to look inward and figure out who we are and where we are in our lives. This project really allowed us to speak to that.”

“We’re fully committed to this project being a full-on thing,” Mark states. “We’re not just throwing it out there and going, ok back to our day jobs. This is a band. We want to grow it. We want to get it in front of people. We want people to come and experience it live because we both make music

to go out there and play it for people. Even though this band started as a studio project, the intention was always to figure out how to make it work live.

That’s the next phase, to get out there and play these songs for people and create a movement.

To see all the places Simple Creatures can take over.”

“I want to take it to cool places,” he continues. “I want to take it around the world.

There are really no barriers and no limitations. If something is cool that we wanna do, we can just pack up, do it without much fuss and have a good time doing it. I want it to be a party.” P Simple Creatures’

debut EP ‘Strange Love’ is out 29th March.

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A

HEX

More psychedelic, more punk, and more powerful than ever, Ex Hex’s most collaborative offering yet showcases them at their most dynamic.

Words: Jessica Goodman

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spaceship hovers over The White House: sending out bolts of neon light, it zaps the people it encounters into an instantaneous glam punk makeover. The video for ‘Waterfall’ might be slightly ‘out there’, but it serves as a surprisingly accurate depiction of what this Washington D.C. trio are all about: vibrant, electric, and out of this world, Ex Hex make rock and roll music at its finest.

“It’s like having a dream,” Mary Timony expresses of their inspiration. “It comes out of you, and sometimes you don’t know what the hell it means, but there it is.” Boasting larger than life hooks and an energy that blazes with every refrain, classic stylings have never felt so fresh.

“We wanted to write material that we liked,” the frontwoman describes.

It’s been a long four years since they first crash-landed into consciousness with debut album ‘Rips’ in tow. Now, with the release of second album ‘It’s Real’, Ex Hex have never sounded this cosmic. “We wanted to expand our sound,” Betsy Wright states. “The songs we were writing just lent themselves to that sort of feeling.”

The follow-up to 2014’s ‘Rips’ has been long-awaited, for sure, though the band have been far from idle. Taking time out to focus on different projects (Mary with Helium, Betsy with Bat Fangs, and Laura Harris with Death Valley Girls – to name just a few of their numerous creative outlets) before returning to

“LIFE REALLY HURTS SOMETIMES. THE MUSIC IS WHAT SAVES US” Ex Hex, the trio set about expanding their sound the only way they know how.

“The music we spent a lot of time arranging and rearranging,” Mary states. “We can get really, really fanatically careful about arranging,” she grins. “We just try to get it so that everybody feels good about it.” With hooks as bright as these ones, a feel-good energy is something the trio have no trouble creating.

“The lyrics just kind of happen,” Mary laughs. “They’ve got to be good, but lyrics are always the last thing I think about.” Having worked hard at expanding their sound following ‘Rips’, it was only natural that their lyrical stylings would evolve with them. “I feel like the first record is really super direct,” the frontwoman portrays. And with their new album? “I don’t know where our brains were,” she chuckles. “The lyrics come from a different place. This is much more in your head.”

In an increasingly confusing society, ‘It’s Real’ sees Ex Hex assert their sense of self in a world where the possibility that ‘anything can happen’ is as much a cause for concern as confidence. “It’s been a weird year, with Trump in this country, and all the fucked up stuff that’s going on,” Mary comments. “I guess ‘It’s Real’ tries to describe that moment where you’re just hit by crazy stuff happening, that moment where you have to pinch yourself because you can’t believe how crazy shit is around you.”

Turned up to eleven, Ex Hex’s music is as much of an escape as it is about what’s real. “We had a lot of heavy stuff happen this year, I guess - people passing and stuff like that,” Mary states, while Betsy affirms “it’s not just fun and games anymore.” “I think that’s kind of another title for this record,” Mary laughs.

“Our first record was all fun, and this one is just like, ‘yeah, it’s not just fun and games any more – this is real’.”

With a knack for being brazen in their composition and their music, it made sense not to shy away from anything in their lyrics too. “Life is real sometimes,” Mary comments.

“Life really hurts sometimes.

The music is what saves us.”

“Music transcends this earthly realm,” Betsy proclaims. “Then there’s the other side: music can help bring you into this ethereal place that you can’t get to normally.”

“A lot of the songs [on ‘It’s Real’] are kind of about that,” Mary agrees. “The creativity comes from the same place that’s destructive. The imagery is a little more cosmic.” “We’re feeling more spiritual,” Betsy asserts.

Whatever the driving force behind it, with ‘It’s Real’ Ex Hex have created a soundtrack of ardent emotions and out of this world energy that feels like nothing short of an adventure.

With tour dates ahead of them stretching well into October (and likely beyond), it’s an adventure we can’t wait to see unfold. P

Ex Hex’s album ‘It’s Real’ is out 22nd March.

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Everything you need to know about...

Crows’ We recorded the album in the dark. Being in a brightly lit room

just didn’t feel right for us or the record. I think we all felt a little less under pressure, like moving a spotlight off us and allowing us to get into more of an atmosphere suitable for our sound.

We were rescued by the fire brigade from the studio. We

managed to break the lock to the studio at 2am on the last day of recording. There was no fire escape, so the legends that are the men and women at Willesden Fire Station came and rescued us like the damsels in distress we are.

Crows guitarist Steve Goddard spills the beans on his band’s debut album, ‘Silver Tongues’, out soon via Joe Talbot of Idles’ Balley Records

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debut album

‘Silver Tongues’

During the guitar tracking, I had six amps in a row, using three at a time to save my sanity from the monotony of having to play each song the whole way through and then change amp and do it over and over. It saved me a lot of time, but I could feel my ribcage vibrating due to the volume when I was playing.

The studio we used is called Fish Factory. It is inside a fish factory

and fish wholesaler. You can buy fish right down the other end of the hallway to the studio. It was surprisingly not as fragrant as we had expected. We all loved the studio and their fishy neighbours.

James did his vocal takes on the stage at Moth Club. When

we came to record the final vocal takes we didn’t need as big a space as we had used for everything else, we wanted to allow James a space that didn’t feel too constricting either. He recorded on the stage at Moth Club, and it really helped get a couple of takes that were more like a performance and unhinged. P

Crows’ album ‘Silver Tongues’ is out 22nd March.

FIND OUT WHAT YOUR FAVE BANDS TAKE ON THE ROAD. THIS MONTH...

PATTY WALTERS

AS IT IS

YONAKA HAVE ANNOUNCED THEIR DEBUT ALBUM Yonaka have revealed their first full-length is titled ‘Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow’, and it’s due on 31st May. “[It’s] a message about reaching out to someone, picking up the phone and making a call,” says vocalist Theresa Jarvis.

PALE WAVES HAVE A NEW FOUR-DATE UK TOUR Pale Waves have a new UK tour: catch them at Glasgow Barrowland (23rd September), Birmingham O2 Academy (24th), London O2 Forum (26th) and Manchester Academy (27th).

DEAF HAVANA AND MORE HAVE JOINED 2000TREES 2000trees has announced its third main stage headliner, Deaf Havana. Also new to the bill are Turnstile, Drug Church, Can’t Swim, Dream State, Conjurer, Allusinlove, Sœur and more.

11 UPSETMAGAZINE. COM

A book. If I lose my book, I lose my mind.

Ever had to pack for a tour? You’re gonna be spending weeks in a small, intimate space with several other smelly people and - for hours a day, not a lot to do. You’re gonna need to be prepared. That’s why we’ve asked our fave musicians for tips.

Take it away, Patty.

Healthy Snacks. Just because everyone around you is fuelled

by McDonald’s, Pringles, and Red Bull doesn’t mean you have to be.

If I eat like shit, I feel like shit, and I consequently sound like shit. It’s not impossible to eat well on tour; it just takes a little practice.

Lyric Notebook. My lyric notebook, a handful of pencils, and a pencil sharpener go absolutely everywhere with me, both on tour and at home. You never know when inspiration’s about to find you, and there’s nothing I hate more than writing lyrics on my phone or laptop; it just feels so wrong.

Things that smell nice. Tour stinks… literally. I always pack my suitcase with as many sweet-smelling things as humanly possible; perfume, soap, deodorant, moisturiser, air fresheners, candles, etc.

Nintendo Switch. If Mario Party qualifies as partying on tour, then I party pretty fucking hard.

As It Is are on tour in the UK right now! (Unless by the time you read this they’re not, obv - Ed)

Upset 11

After twelve years together, The Maine have reinvented themselves once again for their seventh studio album, ‘You Are Ok’ - and they’re using it to spread a message of hope.

Words: Jack Press

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“IT WAS IMPERATIVE THAT I GOT UNCOMFORTABLE”

A

s the twenty-tens enter their penultimate year, the dynamicity of music has shifted. Some bands have broken their moulds to burst through the underground and into the mainstream with brand new pop-driven sounds, like All Time Low and Paramore. There are also bands who either broke up or went quiet and are now touring their debuts on unnecessary nostalgia trips, like We The Kings and Cute Is What We Aim For.

There’s one band ripping up the Venn diagram by both sticking true to their roots while optimising their sound for the necessary evolution all bands aspire to. That band is The Maine, and on their seventh album ‘You Are OK’, they’re opening the floor for guitar music, as vocalist John O’Callaghan explains.

“The biggest door that we wanted to walk through and felt like was wide open was rock music, like straight-up guitar music. I know that sounds so lame, but there isn’t a lot of bands doing that anymore.”

It’s a brave statement to make when describing an album that mixes the bubble-gum pop-rock of 2015’s ‘American Candy’ with the noir alt-rock of ‘Lovely Little Lonely’ in a coffee pot of orchestral strings, guitar solos and arena hooks; but one that allows the band to look to the future as much as it nods to the past.

“When we started in 2007, there was a scene, and that scene has since dwindled. That’s not to say there aren’t bands doing rock music or guitar music, there’s plenty sure, but in our world, in our small pond, there’s a lot of space for an album with guitars, and we felt like it was our time to step into that role.

“You think back to the My Chemical Romance days and the early days of Taking Back Sunday, and even earlier than that with Sunny Day Real Estate, and you think about what was it about

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Riot_ those albums and that music that made such an impact on their fans’ small worlds. It was that raw rock approach, and that’s what we wanted to bring it back to.”

‘You Are OK’ is The Maine’s bravest record in their twelve years as a band, painting messages of positivity across a canvas of colourful guitardriven alternative-rock that comes alive with string arrangements and hooks that demand bigger venues. For many, it would seem like the logical next step in their career progression, but for them, it was a make-or-break situation where writer’s block threatened to rear its ugly head.

“It stems from a desire to push ourselves. Life and habits and just the way you walk can just get so formulaic, and if you just punch in and punch out of a job for twelve years, you’re bound to run into some monotony. For me, it was imperative that I got uncomfortable and scared to death and manic and nervous.

“I was just trying to do something I hadn’t yet, and I wanted to keep this exciting because it can get stale and you can see how it can very easily become part of the job. Like, ‘Oh, I’m going to make a record, so I’ve got to go to the studio

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“OUR BAND IS CAPABLE OF SO MUCH MORE” because it’s part of my job’, and that’s bullshit because this is not a job.”

The Maine have explored as many roads as possible in achieving their guitar-driven vision. Using previous album closers, ‘We’ll All Be…’ (‘Can’t Stop Won’t Stop’) and ‘Another Night On Mars’ (‘American Candy’) as platforms to springboard off of, The Maine have evolved their defining sound beyond sing-along set-pieces into progressive territory.

“With those previous closers,

the sentiment was just about friendship, camaraderie and living for the moment. When I was writing this album, I knew I didn’t want to reach that 3.0 because it wouldn’t take away from the past, it would just add to it, so we made our longest track ever by far called ‘Flowers In The Grave’. It’s an odyssey, it’s the closest we’ll get to the spacey and the psychedelic, and it’s everything we needed to make sonically.”

Across ‘You Are OK’’s ten tracks and forty-five minutes, The Maine once more explore

the notion of existentialism through the concepts of life, loss and loneliness. The themes have notably been littered throughout their recent offerings, and yet this time around it’s presented with more conviction and importance, thanks in no part to their desire to share their experiences and tell the truth.

“I just try to focus on speaking things that I believe in and telling the truth; people can sniff out bullshit easily. Writing songs and writing poetry, that’s therapeutic for me.

It’s important to speak from experience and the heart.”

Each song on the record covers its own individual ground yet collectively centres around the album’s title and central theme: you are ok.

“It made sense to the sort of place I was in my life. I’ve been experiencing more anxiety

lately, and it’s become a sort of mantra and something that I wanted to share. I don’t think enough people hear that and I wanted to put an emphasis on mental health in the era that we’re living in; it’s important for people to spread positivity, there’s so much noise and negative space being filled up.

“The older I get, the more I toy with the idea of existence and why we’re here. There’s a song called ‘Heaven, We’re Already Here’, and that’s a representation of where my head is at right now.

I feel like for all the bad this is an incredible life that we live and we’re so fortunate to have breath in our lungs and vigour in our steps, so I think it’s less a biblical approach and more of a contemplative, old-age existential approach.”

Wearing their existential approach firmly on their sleeves like they do their hearts, The Maine are a band who’ve surpassed their own expectations time and time again yet remain humble throughout their journey. As they grow older and mature, they tackle the topic of their longevity while using ‘You Are OK’ and the 8123 community, they’ve spent twelve years growing as their need to continue to keep doing what they’re doing.

“I’m thirty now, the possibility of children creeps into your mind, and you wonder if you could keep up at the same pace that you have if you were to bring someone else into the world. My instinct says no, but you can’t help but think about the future.

“With that being said, I want so much more. Our band is capable of so much more. The message that we’re trying to spread needs to be heard by more people, and that’s simply that you’re not alone in feeling alone and that you are ok, so I feel like we’re ready to take that message and our music further. I don’t want the world; I just want most of it.” P The Maine’s album ‘You

Are OK’ is out 29th March.

FRANK IERO’S TEASING NEW MUSIC Could we finally be getting new music from Frank Iero and The Future Violents? On Twitter he responded to a fan saying they’re excited for new tunes with the tease: “Spring will be here soon...”

SWMRS, THE FAIM, PUP AND LOADS MORE HAVE SIGNED UP FOR READING & LEEDS More than seventy new acts have joined this year’s Reading & Leeds line-up, including SWMRS, PUP, The Faim, Milk Teeth, Boston Manor, Puppy, FIDLAR, Puppy, Press Club and Of Mice & Men.

SLIPKNOT HAVE SET A DATE FOR THEIR NEW ALBUM Slipknot have announced the release date for their new album.

The Iowa metal behemoths’ sixth record will be out 9th August, following their headline set at Download.

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INTO THIS MARTHA

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Martha are turning heartache into something uplifting. “We don’t want to be chucked out in the Marie Kondo sorting of things that don’t bring people joy!” they explain. Words: Linsey Teggert

f you need a band to restore your faith in humanity during these turbulent times, then look no further than Durham pop-punks Martha. Their third album, ‘Love Keeps Kicking’, explores the ways the world seems to kick us while we’re down, but it also sees the four-piece kicking back.

“It feels like a sadder, more sombre album than our previous records,” says drummer and vocalist Nathan StephensGriffin. “It wasn’t deliberate, but this is where we’re at as a culture, as a world - we’re in a really shitty place, but there are still things to hold onto.”

In many ways, ‘Love Keeps Kicking’ is a break-up record, though not just the break-up of a romantic relationship. “I think the world is breaking up, isn’t

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it?” asks Nathan rhetorically.

“We feel like a general negativity and sadness that’s being felt across the board has filtered into our songwriting. It’s not strictly a break-up album, but it might be a heartbreak album,” explains bass player and vocalist Naomi Griffin.

“We still love love, though!” she laughs. “We always try to find a bit of humour in sad or stressful situations. The band is meant to be fun; we want to have a good time. We don’t want to be chucked out in the Marie Kondo sorting of things that don’t bring people joy!”

What Martha have done with ‘Love Keeps Kicking’ is turn this negativity and heartache into something uplifting, right from the opening chords of ‘Heart is Healing’, with the scrappy riffs and irresistible

vocal harmonies that have become a signature part of their sound. As with their previous records, one of Martha’s greatest strengths is their storytelling ability, giving a voice to life’s outsiders to highlight everyday political issues. When speaking out as a band, Martha certainly don’t hide their political views, though in song form, they are framed within the narrative of everyday experiences.

“I believe that everything is political or can be viewed politically,” states Nathan.

“When Ed Sheeran gets up and

“IT’S NOT STRICTLY A BREAK-UP ALBUM, BUT IT MIGHT BE A HEARTBREAK ALBUM” plays a song about a woman, you wouldn’t think that was political, but it carries with it a backdrop of cultural ideals.

It’s rooted in a white, middle class, heterosexual experience.

Any expression of the personal is political. I’m fine with Ed Sheeran, mind, and actually, I love George Ezra. You can quote me on that!”

Recent years have seen Martha juggle work life with the demands of touring, and things are bound to get a lot more hectic in 2019, which, Nathan worries, “may be the year that is going to push me to the limits of my ability to not be insane.” Though fellow bandmate JC Cairns drives other bands around on tour, Nathan, Naomi and Daniel all work in academia, as a Criminology Lecturer, Research Assistant and University Librarian, respectively.

The surreal difference between working in a North East University to then flying to America and appearing on a TV show alongside Aubrey Plaza, is not lost on this pop-punk band from a tiny village in County Durham. “Sometimes it feels like

we’re peeking from behind the curtain into this world that we don’t have access to. Obviously living in Durham, it’s not the centre of culture, so appearing on The Chris Gethard Show in New York really wasn’t a normal experience for us,” says Nathan.

“Travelling the world is weird for us, but it’s even weirder for everyone we know,” adds Naomi.

“You tell everyone at work you’re going on holiday, and they ask what you’re up to. ‘Oh, we’re just going to sit in a van all day and sleep on a floor’.”

This unassuming wit and charm melts its way into Martha’s songwriting, making it nigh on impossible not to fall in love with them; the band are able to take their vulnerabilities and bottle them into the sound of sheer joy. Though Nathan jokes, “Who knows if anyone will make it out of 2019?”, there’s no doubt that Martha will still come out kicking. P Martha’s album

‘Love Keeps Kicking’ is out 5th April.

Upset 17

THE BEST NEW BANDS. THE HOTTEST NEW MUSIC.

WANT A NEW BAND CRUSH? CHECK OUT THIS LOT! >>>

TROPICAL FUCK STORM Riotous Aussie foursome Tropical Fuck Storm are making their way to the UK: catch them at The Great Escape this May.

BADFLOWER SO HOT RIGHT NOW

Newcomers Badflower are proof that music can get you through. Words: Sam Taylor

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THE MURDER CAPITAL FFO Idles, Shame and Slaves, The Murder Capital are quickly marking themselves out as one of Ireland’s best new rock bands.

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outhern California foursome Badflower have just released their debut album, ‘OK, I’m Sick’. It’s a record that sees them tackle anxiety head-on, navigating abuse (‘Daddy’), depression (’24’), social media stalking (‘Girlfriend’) and Donald Trump (‘Die!’) across the record’s thirteen tracks. Frontman Josh Katz tells us more.

Hi Josh, how’s it going? You guys must have a lot going on with the album coming out.

You have no idea.

Tell us about ‘OK, I’m Sick’.

What was your frame of mind like going into it?

We had just gotten home from tour, and I was in a pretty dark place in terms of my anxiety.

I’ve always struggled with that, but on that particular tour, it had gotten really bad, to the point where I wanted to run off stage every night. So when we got home, I knew it was time to write the record, and I just decided to tell that story.

How long have you been writing with a full-length in mind, and how did you approach curating the track listing?

We must have had 50 songs, maybe more, that we talked about putting on the album.

I’ve always wanted to put out a full length. It isn’t like we didn’t have enough material to do that, we just had to decide what worked and what didn’t. Beyond the songs we already had, we wrote or refined another 10. The ones that ended up on ‘OK, I’m Sick’ were the most relevant

PARTING GIFT Newly signed to Fearless Records, Manchester foursome Parting Gift are about to drop a new EP, and head out on tour with Dream State.

“BEING VULNERABLE IN FRONT OF YOUR FRIENDS IS HARD” to the time in which they were written. This is a very modern album; it encapsulates the era in which it was written and curated. That was important to me.

You’ve been very open about suffering from anxiety, when did you realise you might need a bit of help dealing with it and how did you go about getting that support?

I’ve had these issues since I was a teenager and I always knew I needed help or support, but I didn’t seek it, outside of confiding in friends, until very recently. It can be difficult to get that help when you don’t have the means. I’m lucky to have people in my life I could talk to.

That never fi xed it, and I never told them every honest detail of how I was feeling, but it helped.

What advice would you give others going through a similar thing?

Confide in someone. Anyone.

Talking about it helps.

What music did you listen to while you were growing up, and what drew you to becoming a musician yourself?

Movie scores. I listened to regular music too, but we watched a lot of movies in my

house and their scores - the way they captured the emotion of each scene- really inspired me.

Are you creative in non-musical ways too?

Yeah. I love to build things.

Building sets for music videos, lighting fi xtures for stage. I also love creating the story behind our music videos.

The Johnny Galecki cameo in the video for ‘Heroin’ was fun, are you guys buds? Was it a bit weird working on a filmed piece with an acting pro?

We are buds. He’s one of my closet friends so I’d say that was weirder than him being a pro on the set of ‘Heroin’. Being vulnerable in front of your friends is hard.

What’s the best thing you’ve done during your time in Badflower?

Write this record. Write songs that mean something to the people that hear them.

Anything else we should know?

We’re excited to come to Europe in April. P

Badflower’s debut album ‘OK, I’m Sick’ is out now. They’ll play Tufnell Park Dome in London on 8th April.

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Rallying against the world around them, but with hope in their hearts, SWMRS’ second album proper isn’t so much a spark that starts a fire as a personal pledge. Music that matters, but that’s not afraid to have fun.

Words: Ali Shutler Photos: Sarah Louise Bennett

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WMRS’ 2016 album ‘Drive North’ was a caustic, beat-up record of hometown frustrations, daydreamed adventure and mirror image unease. They wanted to get away. They wanted to figure it out. They weren’t even sure what ‘it’ was, but it drove the band forward.

The confusion, self-doubt and anxiety that zig-zagged through the album wound its way around the self-belief that SWMRS were going to find their own way. If there were answers to be had, the band were going to unearth them themselves. Riding ‘Drive North’ into the wild, SWMRS went out,

them versus the world.

It turns out they weren’t alone.

“We went through our early twenties during ‘Drive North’ and those years are so transformative,” starts guitarist/ vocalist Max Becker, “not only on the human psyche but also where your position is at in the world, what kinda people you want to surround yourself with and what values you hold dear.

“We saw so many places and met so many people. We were really fortunate to come out of that whole process more wellrounded with a more global, bigpicture perspective on things.

You realise you have way more in common with everyone than you ever thought.”

“We had this unique

opportunity to explore all these different regions of the world and listen to people’s stories,” explains guitarist/vocalist Cole Becker. “When people go to a show, and they feel they can make themselves vulnerable to you. You learn so much about these kids, what everyone is experiencing and how they’re interpreting the world around them as it feels like it’s crashing down. That had a big impact on us.”

“Going into ‘Drive North’, we were asking ‘how do we do this?’” continues Max. “Now it’s a case of ‘we’re in this’. It’s not finished, it’s not ever going to be finished, but we’re now in this zone with so many people, and it feels like we’re part of a big group because of that.”

SWMRS’ first record as SWMRS was fiercely independent. Partly to prove they could do it by themselves, without help from famous dads or major labels, and partly because they didn’t want anyone interfering with their vision.

‘Berkeley’s On Fire’ sees the band team up

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with Fueled By Ramen. It’s a partnership that’s opened doors and minds.

“What really shifted was when we started touring with All Time Low,” explains Cole. “We started playing really big venues with them, and I realised that the songs on ‘Drive North’ were written for 200 capacity punk clubs. Once we started playing with All Time Low, I realised that we had this potential to extend the reach and power of our music beyond that. We could invite anyone and everyone to enjoy the catharsis of a rock show.”

That scope, along with their ever-blossoming fanbase, meant that SWMRS started to think larger on ‘Berkeley’s On Fire’.

“We had big ideas and big hopes for it,” beams Max, “but once we got into the studio with Rich Costey, he took everything we’ve ever done to not only the next level but ten levels past where we were.

“This record exceeded my expectations and every day we were in the studio, we just felt like the luckiest boys in the world. I’ve been waiting for this my whole life. I’m 25, but I’m pretty much 60. We’ve been doing this for so long; we’re definitely ready.

“We’re a very energetic group of guys, and we want to perform in front of as many people as

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possible. We want to headline Glastonbury. We want to headline Reading. We’re ready.”

“We’ve been doing 200 cap rooms since we were 12 years old with [former moniker] Emily’s Army,” continues Cole. “It felt like we had an opportunity to move on and not a lot of people get that. It felt time. I was definitely terrified.”

The band know they’re not the only ones taking those risks and pushing things forward, but as with everything they do, it’s a community endeavour.

They want to be next in the long, interconnected line of bands pushing the envelope. They want to stand for something. They want to be there for kids like them.

“Teenage Shitpop, as well as being one of the potential titles for album, is the genre I would describe us as. It’s not really pop music, but it’s real energetic culture for teenagers who don’t feel like pop music is speaking to them. If you feel like pop music has nothing to offer you, then you’ll probably like SWMRS.” Most of ‘Drive North’ saw Cole singing which established SWMRS as “having this epic punk ethos”, but they finished the cycle with Max-penned ‘Lose It’. “All of a sudden people realised we had a soft side as well.” While that first record

established SWMRS as a gang, united by a dedicated vision and a lust for life, ‘Berkeley’s On Fire’ sees them comfortable as individuals.

“Being a band that functions as different people is fantastic,” grins Max. “I often feel we’re like a supergroup, but we’ve been doing it together since forever.

Cole and I have known each other since I was 4.”

For Cole, it was ‘April In Houston’. For Max, it was ‘Berkeley’s On Fire’. Either way, somewhere in the creation of this record, something clicked between the four of them.

SWMRS are a group of distinct personalities that celebrate the individual. They all pile on and want to be heard, as the record roars with tragedy, triumph and glee. There’s a power when it all aligns though.

“We know each other so well as musicians that we don’t have to rely on a computer or a light show, or something extraneous,” continues Max. “We just know the musical fusion that happens between the four of us” - five with drummer Joey Armstrong’s brother Jakob joining them onstage - “radiates outwards so powerfully and so naturally.

That’s what makes our shows so special and, without tooting my own horn, really fucking good.”

SWMRS sound bigger than

“WE WANT TO HEADLINE GLASTONBURY. WE WANT TO HEADLINE READING. WE’RE READY”

- MAX BECKER

they’ve ever dared to dream with ‘Berkeley’s On Fire’.

Deliberate and aiming high, it’s still feelings first.

“The three years between ‘Drive North’ and this album were far from easy. We weren’t taking a break,” grins Cole. “We were just taking our time to really craft the identity of these songs and turn them into something that not only we could understand, but that anyone can understand.

“That’s what makes good music.

It takes these abstract feelings that you didn’t know had words or sounds and puts them in a song.

All of a sudden, people can feel understood. That’s the power of music. Sometimes language isn’t enough. Sometimes the way we express ourselves every day isn’t enough.

Sometimes you need something like music to help you put a name to what you’re feeling.”

‘Berkeley’s On Fire’, despite planting its flag firmly in the ground, finds a balance between global anguish and private horror. There’s the solitary fear of ‘Lonely Ghosts’, the admission that “I don’t know if I’ve got this” in ‘Too Much Coffee’ while ‘April In Houston’ asks, “Is it wrong to be afraid of growing up?”

“I can’t speak for older generations, but I can definitely say that people my age, we’re getting a lot of panic attacks,” says Max. “There’s a lot of anxiety because

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“IF YOU FEEL LIKE POP MUSIC HAS NOTHING TO OFFER YOU, THEN YOU’LL PROBABLY LIKE SWMRS” - COLE BECKER

we’re inheriting this world that’s got so many problems, from the environment to the social systems to healthcare.

There’s a list of things that are so overwhelming, and we wanted to tap into that.”

SWMRS have always been a band that believed in more than music. Yes, the first musical partnership between Joey and Cole came about after watching School of Rock, but their first proper band name, Emily’s Army, was to help raise awareness of Cystic Fibrosis in honour of Max’s cousin, who suffers from the disorder. From the word go, they’ve been loud, proud and fearless in their

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beliefs. ‘Berkeley’s On Fire’ is the first time they’ve been pointedly political in their music though.

“You can go so many different ways with political songs,” offers Max. “You can be very literal - this is a revolution, fuck the man - but we felt that’s been done a lot. We’re not saying it’s a bad thing, but we didn’t think we’d make as big of an impact doing that. Instead, we tried to take very specific moments, like the Berkeley Riots, and make a song where people feel like they can apply it to their own lives, in their own way, and feel like it’s a song about them.”

“Everyone has Twitter these days,” continues Cole. “You

don’t have to listen to music to know that what’s going on in the world is fucked up. You don’t have to hear that in a song, so it’s important to talk about how it manifests in a personal way.

Any machine could write a song about the political moment right now, but personality is what makes us human.

“The only reason we’re talking about politics is that we want to make it ok for people to live their lives and be human. The light at the end of the tunnel is your own experience and how you’re moving through the world.”

“It took a long time for me to feel ready to speak out in a song, and immortalise the kind of discourse we’re having,” Max explains. “You don’t want to get it wrong, you don’t want to date yourself, and you certainly don’t wanna speak on behalf of people who you really should be letting speak for themselves.

That was the main hesitation, but we realised that we had this platform than kept growing, not because of the politics but because of the music.”

“Dear Vladimir Putin, stop fucking up my shit ‘cos I know I can fuck it up faster,” grins ‘Lose Lose Lose’. “[I’m] nervous to come out with that, because right now we have a gig in Moscow scheduled for June and I’m really hoping that we’re still allowed to play,” says Cole. That’s one of the few downsides of being so vocal.

“You can’t go to police states, or you have to be careful when you do. That man is so powerful; I doubt he’ll care.” But just in case - “Dear Vladimir Putin, if you’re reading this, just know I didn’t mean it, and I still wanna play in Moscow.”

“A big theme on the record is trying to sift through what the world is shoving in your face.

That’s a big part of being in your twenties,” explains Max, asking: “Who do I believe? Who do I trust? The news is very feardriven, so you have to take it with a grain of salt. You can’t trust

everybody.”

Never losing hope, SWMRS are adamant that there are people you can trust.

“Go find them. The world isn’t as simple right now. There are so many little ways to get information - do your research, find something you trust and be a positive part of society.

Contribute, and make the world a better place.”

The rich history of radicalism that can be found throughout Berkeley inspired ‘Lose Lose Lose’, which acknowledges that while there’s positive energy right now, “if shit doesn’t start changing soon, then it’s going to turn into negative energy. The idea of if I get pushed down one more fucking time, I swear to god I’m going to lose my mind.”

Elsewhere ‘Hellboy’ looks at school shooters, and what drives them to such extremes.

“One of the biggest and most horrifying things about growing up right now is the spectre of a school shooter coming to your school and murdering you.

That’s a real fear that everyone has growing up in the States.

All the coverage of it is really stupid; we never talk about who is responsible. Obviously, these kids are sick, they’re ill, but maybe because it happens so much, it’s something that’s in our culture, which happens to be a very violent culture.

“We’ve been at war for the past 60 years, pretty much continuously. For one reason or another, people have had the impulse to shoot up a school, and that’s fucking horrifying.

But if enough people have that feeling, maybe we should talk about why? I wanted to write a song that humanises that feeling without embracing it.

Humanising it so we can move through it.

“Maybe if a kid hears that who’s thinking about shooting up a school, maybe there’s one less school shooter, and that’s

more than just putting out hopes and prayers for the people is going to fucking do.”

There’s a sense of loss that hangs in the shadows of ‘Berkeley’s On Fire’. It acknowledges that somewhere, somehow we lost part of ourselves. A fracture in our collective soul, it’s never really given a voice or takes to the spotlight, but it’s there.

“You’re in your early twenties, and you’re not only losing your innocence, but as you get older people in your life who were a big part of it start to die. Things change. You’re at the end of the first quarter and all of a sudden, you realise things don’t stay the same. The loss, the uncertainty, it adds to the uneasiness of all the songs.”

SWMRS aren’t trying to mend

wounds; they’re just trying to hold it all together.

“The point of the record is that that’s life. You still have to do your best to be a positive member of society and be a good family member. It’s simple, but it’s hard to juggle with all the crazy shit that’s thrown at you.”

SWMRS still don’t know the destination, but that forward momentum is vital.

“All you can do is keep going, and try and fall asleep at the end of the night without too much regret.”

Taking that to heart, the band are constantly trying to be better; to do more. They’ve made a ‘zine to help their shows become a safe space for all, which includes the perspective

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of a femme who grew up in the punk scene and works in a venue.

“That’s the first step,” explains Cole. “There are other things I can start doing to stop this from happening at our shows, but the first thing I know how to do is make a ‘zine, and give it out for free so that everyone knows, and has all the information they can get on the subject. “’Zines were the first way I learnt how to express myself, and express ideas to people and I wanted to extend that privilege.

It’s so fucking lazy to not talk about

sexual assault at shows. It happens at every show. Even when we talk about it, it still happens. I’m not going to stop talking about it until people can finally go to any show and not get groped. People are such fuckers.

They’re gross, entitled mother fuckers but maybe, just maybe, we can stop at least one, and hopefully every fucking stray hand running around.

“I try and talk about it at every show because there’s always some fucker in the crowd who thinks that it’s cool to grab someone. It’s not cool. You’re fucking with someone’s head; you’re literally fucking someone up, it’s so violent to do that to someone. If you haven’t experienced sexual assault, it’s a pretty abstract idea, and people don’t wrap their head

around how incredibly violent sexual assault is and how it works on a survivors brain.”

It feels like things are shifting, though.

“Finally people are beginning to understand what sexual assault means. Finally, we’re getting some discourse, and young men are starting to wrap their heads around how awful it is. As a white man who has a platform, I want to help build a new culture for these young kids. Ultimately what we’re doing is trying to build a model of how to be a good fucking person. It’s way easier to be a shitty person, but the responsibility for us is focusing on being the best

“YOU DON’T HAVE TO LISTEN TO MUSIC TO KNOW THAT WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE WORLD IS FUCKED UP” - COLE BECKER version of ourselves.”

SWMRS are a band of brothers, blood or otherwise.

Growing up in DIY culture, in DIY households, the four of them were always moving, always doing, always creating.

“We’re restless,” smiles Max. “It’s not about fame; I’ve just always wanted to be a good person. As lame as that sounds,

that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.

I’ve been trying to do things and say things that others are afraid to say to push people towards a... not happier because life just is, it’s happy, it’s unhappy, and it’s crazy. I want us to push people towards a better, more understanding way of life.

“That’s what keeps me inspired, trying to reach as many people as possible with the band, help them and hold their hands through their daily life.”

“Anybody who is making music from their heart, is doing something so important,” continues Cole. “[I do sometimes believe that] I shouldn’t be doing something so frivolous right now.

“I had an opportunity to get a college degree, and I could have used that degree to do outreach work with migrants on the border or something. If you’re doing that, that’s an amazing thing, but making music and sharing it with the world, that’s such an important thing for people who don’t get the time to make their own

music.

“I want people to listen to this record and feel validated. I want people to feel that they’re in a place where they can be 100% themselves, and they can embrace all their feelings. I want people to know they can come to our show and they can let it all the fuck out and just really rejoice.

“We don’t have that much to look forward to, and to be happy about anymore so why not just be happy about the fact we can still dance and sing?” P

SWMRS’ album ‘Berkeley’s On Fire’ is out now.

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GRAND

AMBITION One of the buzziest up-and-comers around, and newly signed to Fueled By Ramen, Canadian-American artist Grandson is hoping to inspire a generation.

Words: Ali Shutler

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randson wants to offer “a sense of being understood,” he says. “A sense of catharsis. A sense of empowerment and maybe, just maybe, a slither of optimism.”

But if you’ve heard his music, you already know that.

Written in the trenches of the past few years, front line stories are flecked with grime and carry the weight of destruction. Jordan Benjamin couldn’t just sit back quietly and watch his generation drown in anxiety, confusion and grief. He had to get things off his chest.

2018 saw years of hustling come to a head as ‘Blood // Water’, a song about corporate greed, political corruption and daydream revenge, and the frustrated fury of ‘Thoughts & Prayers’ spread like wildfire.

Soon after, his ‘A Modern Tragedy Vol. 1’ EP proved there was much more to his music than fearless reflection and anger. He wasn’t just shouting to be heard; he had something to say.

This year’s ‘A Modern Tragedy

Vol. 2’ dug deeper into his fractured soul and found the strength to carry on. There’s probably going to be a Volume 3.

There’s definitely going to be an album.

Right now, Jordan is “enjoying the freedom of trying to make each song its own cohesive movie,” he explains. “I’ll keep doing that for a little, but by the end of this year or the beginning of next, I’m hoping to be able to present people with my first full-length album. I’m gonna make sure that when you hear it, it’s gonna be fire. I promise you that much.”

It’s already been a wild ride, and it’s barely even begun.

Grandson was very aware he was blowing up online. How could he not be? But rather than get sucked into a world of numbers and statistics, he spent most of last year on tour.

“What drives home the importance of what I’m doing is meeting the people who resonate with these stories.

Watching those streaming numbers go up is so gratifying

and might be indicative of some real momentum, but it’s hard to watch that manifest into actual change in your life, in the same way that being able to play a show does. That’s when it hits me just how this is touching people. It’s touching that such a broad array of strong, creative, passionate people are calling themselves The Grandkids.”

Of course, Jordan wasn’t expecting people to connect to his stories as wholly, passionately and as completely as they have, but that’s always the hope. “If that’s not even on your radar, then you’re probably better off finding a real job and just doing this on weekends.”

Ironically enough, back when he first started dreaming, Jordan didn’t always feel this way. “[I] wanted to be successful more than I wanted to tell anyone a particular story.” And no one wanted to listen. “Now, it’s more important for me to tell my particular story as honestly as I can and whatever follows from that will follow.”

“I feel like the first EP very

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much touched on the state of the world that I was emerging in as an artist in but didn’t really tell you a whole lot about who I am or how I navigate these things,” explains Jordan. “Volume 2 sheds a little more light on that, but it also has thoughts on truth, mental health, vice, temptation, violence and trying to understand the bad guy a little better.”

‘Overdose’ tackles both America’s opioid crisis and Jordan’s own experiences, “recognising it was time for a change in my life.” ‘Stigmata’ explores standing up for your beliefs, and the repercussions that shadow it while ‘This is What You Wanted’ is about being on tour and past relationships, but it’s also “a sarcastic response to people that have told me to shut up and make music when I have gotten political.”

“I just make songs about what I’m feeling. You might enjoy my music because you can relate to the shit I’m going through,” he says. But as ‘This Is What You Wanted’ picks at, “even to talk about those personal things feels conflicting for me because there is very real shit in the news that’s going on that I do feel a responsibility to talk about. It’s just really important for me to say what I need to say. “‘Blood // Water’ speaks of empowerment and accountability. I’ve watched people adapt that message in so many ways to fit their own narrative. I’d like to think that the reason my music has touched people is that it’s cathartic. It’s because I’m not bullshitting them. I’m not pandering to a broad audience. I’ve made peace with the fact that a large percentage of the world isn’t gonna like my music. I’d rather not appease anybody. I’d rather just keep it real and speak to my people.”

And his people are listening.

Intently. “It’s scary, but it’s also awesome. I’ve always wanted that opportunity to just speak

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“I FEEL OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE WINDS OF CHANGE BLOWING” my truth.”

Now, he’s determined to do as much good as he can. “I want to root this thing in service. How can I take this moment and run with it? If I am just a solar flare, here for a minute and gone the next, how can I take this moment and create the seeds that will one day sprout into change for these people?”

Raised on Limewire, stolen CDs from his sister and a landscape that had moved past the schoolyard divide of rock kids and hip-hop kids, Grandson sees the world as “a genre-less playground,” he says. “I make a conscious decision to play.”

There’s excitement behind every song, discovery in every bounding leap forward.

“A lot of my music is centred around empowerment.

Sometimes when I feel the least power is when I write these stories about taking back that power.”

Submerging himself in the muck of the world, it would be easy for Grandson to get disheartened. To get destructive.

To want to burn, instead of build.

“What keeps me optimistic is the time that I spent on the road meeting young people that are far more informed and engaged than I ever was at their age.

Based off those conversations, I do feel optimistic about the winds of change blowing in more of a holistic approach to how we take care of the world and how we take care of each other. I haven’t given up on our generation. But it is definitely more challenging on some days, especially here in the United States.

“The hijacking of truth, the blending of entertainment and journalism, these things have gotten a lot worse. It makes it really difficult to keep people’s attention on any one particular issue and galvanise them.

Sometimes change is not going to come with a hashtag; sometimes it’s gonna be a slow burn.

“As artists, we have a tremendous responsibility in 2019 to remind people of what’s going on and that they need to get involved or be informed. But I do feel hopeful.”

“I’m not selling nihilism,” he continues. “I feel like a lot of people right now in the world feel like none of it even really matters, so whatever. But it does matter. I haven’t given up that underlying sense of optimism, but I still get angry, and I still use my music to convey that.

“That cathartic release or feeling of defiance, it can take on a lot of different forms.

Sometimes it’s dark and sinister but on a song like ‘Apologize’, it’s more uplifting. It’s a reminder that we can do this thing.

“There are still a lot of battles to fight, and it feels like there’s a lot of tension bubbling to the surface, but as far as my role in all of that, being an observer and a storyteller, it’s cool to watch people get informed, get mad and get angry. I’m just trying to sell them a space to express that.

I want people to find the kind of release that I’ve found through making music. I want kids to pick up a guitar, pick up a pen and be better than me.” P Grandson’s

EP ‘a modern tragedy vol. 2’ is out now.

DDD OOO OOO MMM FFFUUULLLLLL B Twenty years on from their iconic debut, American Football return with a record that breaks new ground, and features a number of guest spots - including Hayley Williams.

Words: Alex Bradley

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T

he house you love is gone. The artwork for American Football’s seminal debut album became the iconic emo equivalent to Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ or Joy Division’s ‘Unknown Pleasures’ in the years they spent inactive following its 1999 release.

Their long-awaited return in 2016 saw the band finally inside the now iconic residence in Urbana, Illinois, with the accompanying album mirroring the sentiment by exploring the intricacies of the post-rock sound of their debut through the time-lapse of being away for over a decade.

Now, in 2019, for American Football’s third outing, the band have gone “post-house”.

The rolling fields of Urbana feature on the cover of ‘LP3’ and the band’s sound is equally expansive with new soundscapes, instruments and guest vocals shining throughout the eight tracks.

The decision to set the new album apart from its predecessors is clear, and the band almost took it a step further by not continuing the tradition of eponymously naming the collection had it not been for frontman Mike Kinsella’s love of Peter Gabriel.

“Some names were tossed around, and nothing really stuck out to me,” he explains.”‘It kind of seems inappropriate to name it in a weird way. It’s cool that its all part of a series but also I’m a big Pete Gabriel fan and he didn’t name any of his albums.”

Drummer Steve Lamos adds: “It’s harder to name records than to keep calling them ‘American Football’, so I think you know what every American Football record from now is going to be called.”

Regardless of its title, ‘LP3’ is a fresh start for the band and the enthusiasm for it rings clear down the phone line. It’s apparent that the band were

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“WE THREW AWAY A BUNCH OF SONGS”

allowed more freedom on this album; freedom in every sense - to choose the direction, to work without time constraints and away from the shadow that their first album casts.

Mike explains: “I’m way more excited than I was last time. Even if we didn’t admit it, there were some weird sort of expectations last time.

“It’s more what we want to do and are capable of doing if we take our time to do it. Last time, the second record was like a new band trying to write a record and put it out with an already built-in audience, so it was intense in that way.

This one was more, ‘okay, if we take away expectations and a timeline, what kind of music would you make?’”

The answer to that is an album which takes the bones of American Football - the spacious soundscapes and profound poetry - and pulls it wider in every direction.

The result is an album the whole band is proud to talk about as they list off their own favourite tracks, from bassist Nate Kinsella’s “straight forward pop song” that is ‘Heir Apparent’, Mike’s “very dark and heavy” album closer ‘Life Support’ and “the most traditionally ‘American Football’ track” in Steve Lamos’s pick of ‘Doom in Full Bloom’.

“We threw away a bunch of songs too,” Mike adds triumphantly. “We probably had twice as many going into it,

and we really picked the ones we thought were strongest or have been drawn to for a long time.”

It was essential for American Football to expand their horizons, but ‘LP3’ has managed that without losing any of the DNA of what made them so engaging either. Their debut album was acclaimed for the relationship between the guitars which created hypnotic, minimalist, compositions as a nod to American composer Steve Reich. The new album continues that gradual alteration and the conversation between instruments but takes it further with bells, flutes and even vocals all interacting through the tracks too.

Nate, who joined the band when they reunited in 2014, explains: “There is definitely a nod to Steve Reich for sure. The band has had that kind of thing going between the guitars since these guys started it, so it felt fun to bring it around again and nod to it and the

minimalism that I’m a huge fan of.”

Looking deeper into the mechanics of Steve Reich’s influence on the band, Steve adds: “Musically, it’s something we are interested in; something staying the same and something moving around instead of just ‘quiet, loud, quiet, loud’. It’s like, ‘well what if some things change and something stays the same and then it holds it?’ I think now we do that subconsciously maybe.”

Whether the result was subconscious or not, Hayley Williams’s inclusion on ‘Uncomfortably Numb’ is a perfectly “Reich-ian” relationship with Mike Kinsella’s vocals. The Paramore singer spent just one day in the studio with the band to help create another leap into the unknown. “[‘Uncomfortably Numb’] seems like a conversation, almost like a play,” Mike explains. “Me and Jason [Cupp - producer on the album] had

this whole talk about how it would be like the first verse with a spotlight on me singing and then the second verse would have another spotlight on Hayley’s chair or the girl/ boy next to me and then the housewife would come out for the third verse.”

Despite 2019 being largely focused on the release of the album, September will mark the 20th anniversary of the band’s debut. Seemingly reluctant to re-release the album again, Nate points out: “There probably aren’t any more demo tapes lying around, we found all of those,” but Mike does hint at the prospect of a few special shows to celebrate the occasion.

Whether the band do get round to commemorating the album or not, ‘LP3’ is the greatest compliment they could give to that first album. The house was only the beginning.

P American Football’s new

self-titled album is out 22nd March.

Upset 35

36 Upset

La Dispute are back with their most personal album for years: rich, wide-screen opus, ‘Panorama’.

Words: Steven Loftin

Upset 37

O

n fading Michigan evenings, somewhere between the cities of Grand Rapids and Lowell, and with the rhythmic rumble of tyres upon desolate tarmac, La Dispute frontman Jordan Dreyer would find himself whiling away the time by talking to his partner.

Conversation encompassed the benign, but predominantly it resided around those stories that often lay forgotten at the side of the rough road; in annually laid bouquets of remembrance, or just a passing news story.

It was in these true-life tales that Jordan found salvation after the collapse of his band’s first attempt at recording a full-length effort in late 2017, to follow up 2014’s ‘Rooms of the House’. When creation wasn’t coming, the band scrapped all they’d tirelessly worked on over the space of two months, leaving them with only a couple of short weeks to re-light the La Dispute fire.

“At that point it was either

“I HAVE ALWAYS HAD A TENDENCY TOWARD THE MORBID AND DRAMATIC” we start over, or we abandon the project as a whole and then what does that mean for our future?” Jordan begins earnestly. “That was in the back of everyone’s head when we spent two months trying and failing. What if ‘Rooms’ is the last thing we do?”

While this extreme scenario was never entirely on the cards, the resolve with which Jordan talks about that potential speaks more truth.

“If so, that [was] fine - this has been a satisfying and gratifying time in our lives, but I don’t think that any of us were prepared to stop. If we’d have spent that last month making no progress, then it probably would’ve been a more serious conversation. Like, maybe this

is all we had? I’m glad it wasn’t.

I still really love doing this!”

What they love doing is creating vast epic soundscapes that call as easily to posthardcore experimentation as they do lyrical psychological trappings. ‘Rooms of the House’ built itself around the cinematic concept of a relationship, capitalised Kubrick-esque signposts included, but it’s back in 2011 with ‘Wildlife’ that ‘Panorama’ really harks back.

It introduced Jordan’s ability to snapshot an emotional, or traumatic, moment and create a vast cityscape from those words, all the way “down to the local news coverage,” but ‘Panorama’ dives even deeper to the personal aspect. “In some

ways, it’s like the synthesis of the last three records that we did - that’s only just occurring to me now!” he chuckles.

“A lot of the stories I learned along that drive were ones I heard from my partner who lives outside of Grand Rapids.

It was interesting to hear her recount her personal history, and the history of a particular local, not a major metropolitan area where these things happen so frequently that it’s lost in the noise.

“Whereas in a smaller town, everybody knows somebody who lost their life, or knows about the body that somebody found. ‘Wildlife’ was all these different peoples stories, a wide shot. This was that long photograph of the drive from point A to point B which was the impetus for the record title.”

Echoing across the vast landscape of ‘Panorama’ there’s an eerie sense of impending darkness. While there may be moments of ethereal electronic symphonies that offer a glimpse

of light, truthfully, the real instrument at the La Dispute helm is the starkness of reality.

We’ve all driven past roadside tributes, or been held up in traffic due to an accident, but for someone like Jordan, who’s never been one to shy away from such observations, its second nature. Even an unnamed body found on a local road in the nineties bore two tracks (‘Fulton Drive I’ and ‘Fulton Drive II’).

“It’s a thing I think about reasonably often,” he pauses.

“I immerse myself and have always had a tendency toward the morbid and dramatic. As a function of storytelling for one, but also because we started making music and writing music in our mid-to-late teens, there was an immediate gravitation to the over-the-top.”

Exploration is a key component to the future of La Dispute. The two months that lay waste before came as a proponent of their time together. Ten years is a long time for any

relationship, especially a creative one.

“I was a junior in high school when we played our first show and put our first thing out; we did it for so long it was daunting the possibility of it coming to a conclusion.

“When I think back to writing our earlier records when we were young and didn’t know what we were doing, there was a recklessness - it was a spark. We were being hyper-analytical, no one felt happy with what we were doing, so it was like, fuck it, what’s the worst that could happen if we start over?”

Roads will forever be travelled, wearing themselves down as further tragedies strike, but time moves ever forward, just as La Dispute have managed.

“I always feel corny saying it, but you have to do what feels right.” Jordan ends. “You can’t over-analyse the direction you’re going in. You have to just let it happen.” P La Dispute’s

album ‘Panorama’ is out 22nd March.

Rated_ THE OFFICIAL VERDICT ON EVERYTHING

T PUP MORBID STUFF e eeee

oronto’s PUP have always thrived in adversity, channelling the fuck-it-all nihilism of Hüsker Dü and refracting it through threeminute-long pop-punk gems.

‘Morbid Stuff’, the group’s third full-length, is bleaker than anything they’ve done before – and that says a lot considering last time out vocalist Stefan Babcock wanted to murder his bandmates…

But, while ‘Morbid Stuff ’ is dark, it couldn’t really be

40 Upset

called brooding. Instead, PUP fill the time with gallows humour and infectious poppunk that comes alive in a sweaty mosh pit. And, when it’s funny, it strikes gold.

“Your little songs are getting way too literal, how about some goddamn subtlety for a change,” muses Babcock on ‘Kids’ – an outstanding moment that considers the meeting of minds between two nihilistic depressives.

This ability to turn the lens on themselves shows a considerable amount of selfawareness – something not

AMERICAN FOOTBALL

AMERICAN FOOTBALL (LP3) eeee There were 17 years between American Football’s first and second albums. Just three separate the second from the third – but ‘LP3’ is light years ahead. Incorporating fuzzy shoegaze and metronomic post-rock, expanding the palette with rich and vibrant colours, it sounds fabulous; languid and deliberate but bursting with ideas. At times, it washes over rather than sinking soul deep, but this intangibility just adds to the drama. When it does become too pedestrian, the voices of Elizabeth Powell (Land of Talk) and Hayley Williams (Paramore) snap things back to life. P Rob Mair

ANGEL DU$T PRETTY BUFF e ee e

necessarily associated with pop-punk.

But then PUP, have always been different. From receiving a nomination for Canada’s Juno Awards and Polaris Prize (and sending their parents on their behalf to the latter), to donating $1 of every ticket sale for their forthcoming tour to The Trevor Project, they’ve achieved cultural acclaim and given back – even though they remain something of a cult act, existing beneath the mainstream radar.

‘Morbid Stuff ’ might change this, however, and

from the production (which is stellar) to the more ambitious songwriting and arranging on the likes of ‘Scorpion Hill’ and the riff-heavy dirge of ‘Full Blown Meltdown’, it is a genuine attempt at growth.

For the most part, it succeeds too, broadening the appeal from that of a snotty, smart-mouthed, punk band into something much more polished. That it achieves this without dulling the edges of the group’s serrated sound means ‘Morbid Stuff ’ should find happy bedfellows in fans old and new. P Rob Mair

When two of hardcore punk’s current visionaries divvy up their members for a supergroup, you’d assume Turnstile and Trapped Under Ice’s lovechild wouldn’t be painfully average.

Unfortunately, Angel Du$t’s third album proper, ‘Pretty Buff ’ is the opposite of its namesake. Jangly lo-fi guitars fuzz over old-school infused 70s and 90s punk, at war with the off-pace mid-noughties indie jams that infiltrate throughout. It’s a record longing to be loved that often loses itself in its rough edges; its lack of sonic innovation a frightening prospect considering Turnstile’s genredefying ‘Time + Space’. P Jack

Press

Upset 41

Rated_ frontman and lyricist James Cox, it is both the perfect introduction to the group and a perfectly-pitched progression for the faithful. As the opening title-track rumbles in on a huge and heavy riff, it is an uncompromising welcome to their world. Spikes of Steve Goddard’s guitar leap out of a gargantuan slab of noise rock, a song so impossibly heavy as it reaches its crescendo that it feels like a mountain has landed on your skull. If the first half is the perfect summation of what makes the band such a vital live presence, then the latter ‘Silver Tongues’ sees them try out some new threads. ‘Chain of Being’ starts with a flurry of pounding drums before a devastating, gripping motorik beat rushes in. A dream state is reached with the brooding ‘First Light // False Face’, holding you tightly in its death grips, noise levels swelling around the vocals as the final tracks crash into each other in a glorious flurry of riffs. It’s a flight worth waiting for. P Jamie

MacMillan

BRUTUS NEST eeeee

Belgium may be better known as the home of chocolate and rather good footballers than it is for Quality Rock Music, but if Brutus carry on their charge, that should all change before too long.

The trio’s second album, ‘Nest’, is nothing short of remarkable.

A progression from an already formidable debut, ‘Burst’, they’ve spent the time since its release honing their craft - and it shows.

Fully inhabiting their own skin, ‘Django’ is the sound of a band taking flight. With an other worldly confidence, there’s no by-the-numbers shuffle to be found. Instead, every song soars.

Occasionally, like on the incendiary ‘Cemetery’, they drop bombs too.

Drawing influence from across the board, Brutus are quickly pulling

42 Upset

away from the pack. Take cover. P

Stephen Ackroyd

CROWS

SILVER TONGUES eeee Freshly signed to IDLES Joe’s record label, London’s Crows have finally taken flight with their long-awaited debut. Delving into the mind of

EX HEX IT’S REAL eeee

Ex Hex know their way around a riff - but then, that’s no surprise to anyone.

With vocal harmonies layered ten deep, ‘It’s Real’ isn’t so much a record with meat on its bones, as a whole banquet table. Solos run free and power chords reign supreme as

JAWS

THE CEILING e eee Jaws may have suggested that their third album is about ‘feeling lost’ (see our ‘a short Q&A with’ to the right), but if anything this is the most aware of themselves the band have ever sounded. ‘Feel’ strides confidently in its own space, while ‘Do You Remember?’ kicks off with a scuzzy, super-fuzzed guitar part that shows genuine grit.

More comfortable in their own skin than any awkwardly constructed scene to envelop them, that ceiling needs raising. P Dan Harrison

opener ‘Tough Enough’ sets the stage. In an era of shinily assembled designer music, ‘It’s Real’ does exactly what it says on the tin. P Stephen Ackroyd

FREE THROW

WHAT’S PAST IS PROLOGUE e ee e A lot has changed over the past few years - some of it for the better. Rock music is a lot more at home talking about its own mental health - and not just in an all surface ‘struggles’ way, either. By Free Throw frontman Cory Castro’s own admission, on the band’s last fulllength, he was addressing the subject while also going through it.

‘What’s Past Is Prologue’ is a tale from the other side, and it shows. A palette of emotions, but subtle and direct, there’s self-judgement and sincerity at every turn. Drawing the strands together, it marks a new maturity for a band more than ready for their happy ending. P

Stephen Ackroyd

A SHORT Q&A WITH...

Birmingham/London dream-pop group JAWS are making another leap forward, battling with the ups and downs of growing up, with third album ‘The Ceiling’.

Hey Connor, how have you all been since ‘Simplicity’?

Real life has been thrown at us all since the last record, good and bad. Band wise, we’ve noticed the live show is now bigger and a lot more fun. When you all work jobs you almost forget that people are into your band, so when you turn up to towns you’ve never been too, and there are 600 people going crazy, it’s mind-blowing.

Was putting the new album together more challenging for being split across Birmingham and London?

Yes and no, we had more free time to write, but we had less time to play songs together in a room, so it’s 50/50 but I think we got there in the end. We’re happy with everything and are all real proud of it and how it’s sounding.

You’ve said ‘The Ceiling’ is largely about feeling lost, were you having a difficult time of it going into the release?

I guess so; I think being in your mid-20s in 2019 is maybe more

difficult to past generations, that or everything gets real quickly. Sometimes when you’re not on a set path you can feel lost, especially in the social media era being constantly force-fed things. But whatever, we have a new record out, it’s all good.

What sets this record apart from your first two?

This record start to finish is probably a better listen, and the general quality of the songs and production has stepped up. Honestly, we wouldn’t be putting an album out if we didn’t think it was better than the last one. That’s the way it should be, right?

Who do you think is doing interesting things with music at the mo?

I love what The 1975 are doing; they’re changing what the general idea of a modern pop band is and should sound like, which is great. P

Jaws’ album ‘The Ceiling’ is out 5th April.

Upset 43

Rated_

THE XCERTS TRACK BY TRACK

Vocalist Murray Macleod lifts the lid on the band’s latest offering.

Closing up the ‘Hold On To Your Heart’ era, The Xcerts are offering up one final collection of new tracks before heading to the studio. “I actually want to record two new records…

Maybe,” claims frontman Murray Macleod. Before that, he’s running us through the songs that make up the band’s new ‘Wildheart Dreaming’ EP. Take it away, Murray...

You Mean Everything

Initially written as an ode to my family and friends, once finished, it kind of took on a new meaning in regards to me feeling like it should belong to other people who are in need of hearing the words: ‘you mean everything’. I also wanted this song to sound like it could soundtrack a 90s romantic movie, Sliding Doors, Jerry Maguire, Cruel Intentions... you can tell me if you think we came close to achieving this.

Ready To Call

This song features one of the best choruses we have ever written. Certainly one of my favourites, at least! It was inspired by a phone call I received at 2am one night and

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THE XCERTS

WILDHEART DREAMING EP eeee Keeping up the momentum from last year’s brilliant LP ‘Hold on to Your Heart’, ‘Wildheart Dreaming’ collects four more slabs of 80s pop-rock to tide us over to the next full-length.

Lead single ‘You Mean Everything’ follows the over the top 80s obsession of the main LP with a big chorus and bigger heart while ‘Ready to Call’ deals in the same kind of E-Street widescreen romance.

However, with headline tour round the corner, the hint is in the defiant refrain of ‘Fight or Run’. “Scream your heart out, scream your heart out,” because these songs were made for it. P Dillon Eastoe is closely connected to ‘Fight or Run’. Mysterious or what, huh??

Fight or Run

This is perhaps the most storyteller-esque I’ve been with lyrics, and it’s something

I want to indulge in more. The verses are pure Springsteen worship, and it’s a factual tale. It’s a pretty heavy story, and I’m glad I could bring some light to the song which is something I couldn’t do in reality. I also drove everybody nuts while in the studio as I said we shouldn’t record it at the start of the ‘HOTYH’ sessions, and then at 11pm one night I got into my head that it would be a universal smash and we had to record it there and then.

I legitimately thought Dave Eringa was going to slap me, but he dealt with it like the true professional he is. Obviously, it didn’t make the album, but there is still time for it to be a universal smash.

Real Love

Initially written for Tom’s wedding, our manager convinced me to record it. The lyrics were overly intimate, so I rewrote them, and I must have re-recorded this thing five different times. The best version turned out to be an iPhone demo, and that’s what you hear on the EP. It’s raw, tender, heartfelt and good to slow dance to with a partner or by yourself. Totally up to you. P

‘Strange Love’ sees the duo heading far more to the former end of the spectrum than the latter. It makes sense - both of their day-jobs have been built around an ability to subvert the hook friendly mainstream to maximum effect. ‘Adrenaline’ in particular sounds like a polished gem aimed straight at pop’s dark heart. While Simple Creatures may seem direct, it’s their ability to navigate one of the most complex songwriting mazes that proves there’s more depth to this one than might meet the eye. P Stephen Ackroyd

THE MAINE LA DISPUTE PANORAMA eeee

Panorama. An unbroken view of the whole region surrounding an observer. A picture or photograph containing a wide view. A complete survey or presentation of a subject.

So much, so typing out the definition of a word from Google - but it makes sense when it comes to La Dispute’s latest album. Gifted a title which sums up its place in their lexicon, it matches Jordan Dreyer’s storytelling with an intricately stitched, shifting soundscape that knows exactly when to push and pull. With producer Will Yip letting both aspects of the band fight it out, ‘Panorama’ is a record on the highest tightrope - occasionally swaying one way or the other, but never once losing balance. From up there, it can see everything. P Dan

Harrison

MARTHA

LOVE KEEPS KICKING eeee If ‘Courting Strong’ was an ode to school and childhood, and follow-up ‘Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart’ an examination of finding

your place in the world, then ‘Love Keeps Kicking’ can be considered as Martha’s missive to love, relationships and broken hearts. It’s also, unquestionably, the group’s most rounded and ambitious record to date, marrying their big themes and grand ideas with fully-fleshed characters that delight and enthral. Once upon a time, The Weakerthans’ John K Samson sang about being in love with love and lousy poetry, and ‘Love Keeps Kicking’ feels like an empathetic consideration of this thought (although the poetry is not so lousy). This, combined with Martha’s innate talent for crafting delightful pop songs, means being lovelorn has never sounded so alluring. P Rob Mair

SIMPLE CREATURES STRANGE LOVE EP eeee

Recorded in the downtime between blink-182 and All Time Low albums, Mark Hoppus and Alex Gaskarth’s Simple Creatures aren’t lacking for raw star power on their debut EP. Responsible for multiple generations of pop punk mania between them,

YOU ARE OK eeee

Evolution can go two ways: either you alienate your fans for a shiny, brand new ones, or you can continue to move from genre to genre, scene to scene, building up your fanbase and your critical footing. For The Maine, the latter that applies more than ever on their seventh album, ‘You Are OK’. Taking a departure from the noir of 2017’s ‘Lovely Little Lonely’ in favour for the bubblegum pop that made ‘American Candy’ shine, The Maine allow crisp guitars and funky basslines to lead the way. ‘You Are OK’ is by far the most confident album The Maine have made, stacking risk after risk up on a pedestal from EDM-wrapped orchestral strings (‘Numb Without You’) to nineminute alt-prog jams (‘Flowers On The Grave’). It’s clear from the offset that they’ve developed ten-fold as songwriters, dismaying trivial pop-punk clichés in favour of ambiguously colourful storytelling that narrates the plights of a millennial struggling with love, loss, and loneliness. With everything sounding bigger and better than ever before, ‘You Are OK’ is The Maine’s definitive soundtrack. P Rob Mair

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EVERYONE HAS THOSE FORMATIVE BANDS AND TRACKS THAT FIRST GOT THEM INTO MUSIC AND HELPED SHAPE THEIR VERY BEING. THIS MONTH, LIGHTS TAKES US THROUGH SOME THE SONGS THAT MEANT THE MOST TO HER DURING HER TEENAGE YEARS AHEAD OF HER APPEARANCE AT THIS YEAR’S SLAM DUNK. WITH... LIGHTS CRADLE OF FILTH Gabrielle

I had a strange obsession with this song. It was equal parts beautiful, dark, and spooky. I remember putting this on and telling the screamer of my horrible old metal band that this would get played at my wedding as we swigged tequila from the bottle in his parent’s hatchback.

THE STARTING LINE The Best of Me

Back when I used to listen to music on PureVolume (dating myself here), this was in heavy rotation.

I think between the melody and his voice and the lyrics I felt both emotionally moved and inspired to crank on my acoustic and try to write something like it.

BLINDSIDE Shekina

I loved the traditional Swedish part and orchestral bits mixed with a contemporary song, I’ve always been a sucker for these hymn-like melodies, and this song reeled me right in. I loved most of this record.

Blindside was my favourite band for a time.

TATU Perfect Enemy

TATU was my all-time guilty pleasure until I realised I wasn’t ashamed of loving them. I had every record, complication, and DVD. I was just fully intrigued and loved the music. All the songs were part of this bigger forbidden and oppressed love narrative, but they stood strong and fought against it like these beautiful little superheroes. The electronic production was way ahead of its time for pop also in my opinion. I was heavily inspired by this when I

46 Upset

made ‘Drive My Soul’. Wait maybe I shouldn’t say that...

HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS Silver Bullet (acoustic version)

Wait… maybe I can partially thank this song for me making acoustic versions of all my music. I never liked the full version of this song as much as I liked the acoustic version. There was so much to feel, so much more to hear, so much more intimacy in this version. This was the front fucking page of my MySpace for a while.

TAKING BACK SUNDAY Ghost Man on Third

As far as I was concerned, this song invented phasing clean tone. Can’t tell you how many horrible songs I wrote trying to replicate this guitar sound. I remember being fascinated with the lyric because it feels like a never-ending thought, that doesn’t really punctuate or resolve often. I liked the emotion in their voices in this song. Emo me FELT that.

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE Killing in the Name

This and a few of their other songs were the first time music made me feel like a fucking boss. I was so motivated by the political messaging and intensity and simple but powerful riffs. I think this band taught me a lot over the years.

LESS THAN JAKE The Science of Selling Yourself Short

I didn’t listen to a ton of ska, but this song was perfect as far as I was concerned. Made me feel so many things, and the lyrics were on fire and the melodies were so lit.

I remember meeting them for the first time when I was on Warped

Tour in 2009, and I nervously collected the courage to introduce myself to them on the big bowling day, and they made fun of my name. So I’m still annoyed with them for that, but this song is good and made an impression on me, so I fucking forgive you okay.

Lights plays this year’s Slam Dunk, which takes place in Leeds (25th May) and Hatfield (26th).