THE NUMBER ONE ALBUM OUT NOW 9/10 Rock Sound ★★★★ Upset 4KKKK Kerrang!
TWIN ATLANTIC
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upsetmagazine.com Editor: Stephen Ackroyd (stephen@upsetmagazine.com) Deputy Editor: Victoria Sinden (viki@upsetmagazine.com) Assistant Editor: Ali Shutler (ali@upsetmagazine.com)
EDITOR’S NOTE August means
one thing. OK, several things, but some of us can’t take time off for summer holidays - after all, it’s Reading & Leeds at the end of the month. With Biffy, Fall Out Boy and Foals all taking headline slots, there’s a lot to be excited about. Elsewhere on the bill there’s Twenty One Pilots, Tonight Alive, Frank Carter, Modern Baseball, Creeper, Milk Teeth and loads more of our faves. One band who won’t be there are our cover stars Twin Atlantic. They’ve got other fish to fry, like their brand new album ‘GLA’. Turns out it stands for Glasgow, and not Glam Lads Assemble. You’re fooling nobody with that haircut, McTrusty. Elsewhere we’ve got the brill Field Mouse, plucky upstarts Black Foxxes, Frank Iero’s Death Spells and some lot called A Day To Remember? Never x heard of ‘em.
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IN THIS ISSUE RIOT 4. BIFFY CLYRO 6. GOOD CHARLOTTE 7. ROAM 8. WATERPARKS 10. TONIGHT ALIVE 12. GREYWIND 14. FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES 16. CROWN THE EMPIRE ABOUT TO BREAK 18. PUPPY 20. PARTYBABY FEATURES 22. TWIN ATLANTIC
30. FIELD MOUSE 32. A DAY TO REMEMBER 36. BLACK FOXXES 40. DEATH SPELLS RATED 44. MOOSE BLOOD 45. OWEN 47. FIELD MOUSE 48. TRACKS OF THE MONTH 49. PUPPY LIVE 50. 2000 TREES VS THE INTERNET 54. ALL TIME LOW
Contributors: Amie Kingswell, Corinne Cumming, Danny Randon, Heather McDaid, Jack Glasscock, Jade Curson, Jade Esson, Jasleen Dhindsa, Kathryn Black, Martyn Young, Phil Smithies, Poppy Waring, Sam Taylor, Sammy Maine, Sarah Louise Bennett, Steven Loftin, Tom Hancock 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 Upset. Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, for which Upset holds no responsibility. 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
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B I F F Y C LY R O Main Stage Reading: Sunday Leeds: Friday
& G N I D A E R “AT D N A B Y R E V LEEDS, E ST SEE!” IS A MU FY YEAR BIF IME, THIS T D N O C M C DA I D THE SE H E AT H E R ING FOR WORDS: HEADLIN . T C E P X H AT T O E A C T LY W KNOW EX
RIOT E V E RY T H I N G H A P P E N I N G I N RO C K
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t’s 31st December 2015. After a year in hiding, Biffy Clyro emerge triumphant to a euphoric Hogmanay crowd, and bring with them a teaser of 2016, launching their new album, aptly, with a bang. That show in the cold Edinburgh streets was, as frontman Simon Neil explains, “like a pressure cooker. We finally let the pressure off. We needed that show; this is when music becomes a living, breathing thing, when you share it with people.” Fast forward to the present and their year’s work ‘Ellipsis’ is out and their new trilogy is officially, by their own terms, alive. “I think this is our grimy, anything goes trilogy,” he says. “I feel like the first three albums, we couldn’t top that kind of aggressive prog posthardcore sound. We peaked out on that. I felt the same after ‘Opposites’. I’ve no interest in retreading ground as a band. I would much rather make a huge mistake and make a terrible record than just play it safe. “These three records will probably be, in inverted commas, ‘studio albums’, where we’ll fully explore what the studio brings, very much be like a rock band but for the 21st century. This will be three studio records, I guess, the least organic trilogy. The nonorganic trilogy!” The ‘non-organic trilogy’ faced some
E V E RY Y E A R R E A D I N G & L E E D S I S O N E O F T H E M O ST I M P O R TA N T W E E K E N D S I N T H E R O C K C A L E N D A R .
T H I S Y E A R I S N O D I F F E R E N T. F R O M H E A D L I N E R S B I F F Y C LY R O A N D F A L L O U T B O Y , T H R O U G H T O T W E N T Y O N E PI LOTS , C RE E PE R , ROA M , F R A N K C A R T E R A N D M O R E , I T ’ S A W H O ’ S W H O O F AW E S O M E .
creative hurdles in its early days, with Simon finding it difficult to pin down songs. “When I started writing, I wrote with the stage and really big shows in mind, and I’ve never written music like that. Or rather, any of the music that I’ve written that’s any good is never with ambition in mind. I needed to basically sit my guitar down and not think about Biffy. “As soon as I did that, I started writing songs for me that were just kind of electronic songs and I fell in love with the innocence of writing music, and also enjoying writing shit music as much as writing good music. I know that sounds like a weird thing to say but if you imagine every song you’ve ever written to be the best thing ever, it can be an awful lot of pressure.” Location helped. He headed to Los Angeles where he has a lot of friends who are musicians. They’re not necessarily in bands, touring and making albums, and it was liberating to write with people who write for different reasons, for the love of it, he says. “I ended up writing about 15 or 20 songs, recorded at some of my friends’ studios, wrote some songs with my pals. I just wanted the music to flow and as soon as I did that I got back on track with Biffy. I remembered the joy of writing, and that pressure and ego is the enemy of good music. “Ambition is important once you’re recording a record, or bringing an idea to life, but when you’re actually coming up with an idea it needs to be
naive and innocent - unspoiled. That was basically why it took me a wee while. It took a synthesiser to get the fucking Biffy album on the go.” When it started going, little could stop it. Their lead single ‘Wolves of Winter’ spiralled from a defiance and protectiveness of what they’ve created. “It’s the first song that’s come out defending our band and our lives, saying ‘The only people that know our band is the three of us, myself, Ben and James’,” Simon explains. “It means everything to us. The one tough thing about any band getting slightly more successful and playing bigger shows is more and more people stick their nose in, and that’s something that I’ve always struggled to deal with. “I reached a breaking point this time and thought, you know what? I make music for myself. I make songs because that’s what I have to do. It’s not to make fucking money, it’s not to reach deadlines. It’s because we’re fortunate to have fans that care about what we do and we love what we do, and that’s what I wanted to take ownership of again.” The love of what they do is no more evident than when they’re on stage, and their upcoming tours are where Biffy really look to embrace themselves as a band. “This is the first album where we’ve already visited every part of the world, so it feels like everywhere knows our band now and that’s what’s quite exciting. I’m more excited at this point than potentially 5
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“I’M REALLY EXCITED TO COME BACK!”
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imitless’ is Tonight Alive at their most open. With its release earlier this year, the band left themselves exposed to criticism but connected to a wider world. It’s a gamble that’s paying off every day. “We understand that with an album like ‘Limitless’, it provokes a lot more than just listening to songs and liking them. I feel like that record is part of people’s lives now,” starts Jenna McDougall. “I feel like we’re past the point of critiquing and reviewing it. I think it is part of who I am now and part of the fibre of my being. I just feel like I’m a vessel for the album.” Currently bouncing around America as part of the Warped Tour, ‘Limitless’ has provided a grounding for the band to host daily workshops with their fans. They light incense, they sit in a circle and they talk. “Every day is different because fans relate to what we’re saying in different ways. There are new insights to share and that makes my day every day. This lifestyle can get very wearing if you’re not centred, which is why I wrote songs like ‘Human Interaction’ in the past.” Face to face with the world, there’s nowhere for Tonight Alive to hide with ‘Limitless’. Not that they’d want to. “Having all these opportunities to meet fans where we talk about the album, life, happiness and fear, we’re
getting a lot of feedback on the way our fans’ lives are changing; their journey towards finding their true self and living up to their fullest potential. ‘Limitless’ is like a soundtrack to our spiritual evolution. “We had a transgender man in our group and it was amazing because the first topic that we were talking about was feeling like everyone’s trying to change you, how our greatest fear is judgment and not being accepted. He just said ‘yeah, I hear that’ and showed us the scars on his chest from his mastectomy and talked about the past two years of his life on testosterone. People get to the point. People get real, really fast and I think that’s because of the album. People feel safe to talk about their experiences.” As Tonight Alive open up and accept who they are, they encourage others to do the same. There’s a Limitless lifestyle that goes hand in hand with the record. “The relationship we have with our fans and the type of fans that Tonight Alive attracts is really in sync. We never have fans that are rude or arrogant, the people that come to our shows and listen to our music are on a path to becoming a better person, to finding happiness and joy, and letting go of fear. I feel like we’re all on the same page. “‘The Other Side’ was the beginning of that, but it’s been a step-by-step thing. The message has always been there. With ‘What Are You So Scared Of?’ I was just figuring things out. I don’t know how I wrote that song at 18. I love it. I‘m so proud of the lyrics and I credit
RIOT TO N I G HT A L I VE A RE BRINGING THEIR ‘LIMITLESS’ AMBITIONS TO R&L. WORDS: ALI SHUTLER PH OTO: SA R A H LOU I SE BENNETT
so much of myself and my philosophies to that song and that point in my life. But I think since ‘Limitless’ everyone is blossoming and blooming.” Tonight Alive have been on a journey – literal, emotional, and spiritual – for eight years now. While the nature of the game means that a lot of it is a blur, Jenna does have “a really clear memory of when we were just about to go onstage in Newcastle earlier this year. I thought to myself, this is the happiest I’ve ever been. The album was just about to drop and I really believe in what we’re doing. I’m super grateful to be at that stage in my life. I feel really lucky.” Before the band take a break from a relentless year, there’s a return to the UK for Reading & Leeds on the cards. “I don’t want the year to be over,” admits Jenna. “I definitely have more fire in me. We played the festival two years ago and I’m really excited to come back. I remember watching The 1975, Don Broco and Die Antwoord in that tent and it was a great feeling. I’m pumped. The energy in the UK is so different, in the best possible way. I feel as excited as everyone else about music. You guys got a very special chemistry at shows. “It’s really exciting because the set’s shorter, you get to have a huge burst of energy in a short amount of time and excite people. Festivals are days that you never forget for your whole life. Even if you go to festivals every year, there are going to be moments. I want to make sure our show is a moment people don’t forget from that day on.” P
ABOU T TO
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THE BEST NEW BANDS TH E H OT TEST NEW MUSIC
PUPPY T E AC H I N G A N E W D O G SO M E O L D T RI C KS . WORDS: ALI SHUTLER
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fter a triumphant set at Download, Puppy stayed for the rest of the weekend, and had a lovely time. On the Sunday night Will Michael burnt his tent and the band got rid of most of their camping stuff. Their festival season was over. They’d conquered it. Except, they’d forgotten they were playing 2000 Trees a fortnight later. It was only as the band drove onto site that Will realised he didn’t have a tent. See, Puppy aren’t the most organised of bands. But who needs organisation when you make music this good? With their first track only released at the start of last year, Puppy are growing up fast. They’ve got one EP to their name with a mini-album, ‘Volume II’, out this month. And it’s with this that their story really begins. “The main thing starting this band was having that metal influence and wearing it on our sleeve,” starts Jock Norton, before Billy Howard takes over: “Jock and I have played together since we were thirteen. Whenever we’d be rehearsing, we’d always end up doing a Van Halen riff, or a bit from Pantera. The most fun bit of rehearsals was when we would just fuck around. That became the ethos behind Puppy.”
trees,” concludes Billy, as the trio fall about laughing. Turns out Puppy aren’t all that serious either. “The first EP was bang, bang, bang, bang,” explains Jock, composing himself. “The songs were all a similar tempo. We essentially tried to write four singles and make that into an EP. With this one, we weren’t able to write four singles.” “There’s a lot of filler,” laughs Will. The wicked grin returns. “There’s a bit more light and shade to it,” continues Jock. “Listening to the album start to finish, you get the whole journey, ‘Here At Home’ is probably the lightest thing we’ve done.” “But similarly, that song is very metal,” explains Billy. “You used to get that on a lot of metal albums, where they’d have one instrumental track. That song was an attempt to do something like that but make it into a full song,” explains Jock, letting the jokes drop and exposing
SO, PUPPY. WHAT MAKES A MINI-ALBUM A MINI-ALBUM AND NOT AN EP? Jock: “One extra track.” Billy: “Did we ever call it a minialbum?” Jock: “Nah, someone else called it that.“ Billy: “But I quite like that.” Will: “There’s literally no difference.” Jock: “Four tracks is an EP, five is a mini-album. Between five and seven, you’re in mini-album territory. Eight tracks onwards is album. Black Sabbath’s ‘Master of Reality’, The Stooges’ ‘Raw Power’. Will: “That’s a great album. We should have just written three more songs and called it an album.”
of the volcano,” interjects Billy, which would certainly explain the band’s unpredictable style – if only the band weren’t taking the piss. “We funded it ourselves, we did a bit of a Kickstarter and the Pope was involved because obviously, Vesuvius is in Italy and he wanted to have a say in that. He’s very liberal for a pope.”
“LET’S BE WEIRDOS.”
Writing pop songs as metal songs and being totally unashamed of it, Puppy stand out in their London scene. And they play up to it. “Let’s be weirdos in the scheme of these other people,” grins Jock. “I’m real proud of it. It’s everything we like, it’s quite unique which is never a thing I’ve really had before. It’s great to feel that, maybe not that we’re onto something but that we’re in this weird corner of the musical landscape.” “But we’re still saplings,” grins Will, as Jock promises: “One day we’ll be a mighty oak tree…” “…amongst 2000
the forward-facing brilliance of Puppy. “Then we’ve got ‘Entombed’, which is the heaviest song we’ve done. It’s a bit more of a spectrum. As a body of work, it’s got a bit more of an art to it. It ends with a real quiet song, and starts with a real loud song. For us, that’s a journey. That’s us trying our hardest to be Pink Floyd and having a concept mini-album.” “And we recorded the whole thing in Mt. Vesuvius, obviously. In the shadow
But ‘Volume II’ didn’t come from some grand vision or quest for greatness. “Being sad and stuff, that was a major theme. That’s our go to, being sad.” From there, Puppy “just started writing more songs, recording more songs and just boiled it down to a bunch that we were happy with. “We went into the studio with about seven songs we wanted to record and whittled it down. And it feels nice. It’s got a nice arc to it. Maybe that’s not the sexiest answer to give,” admits Jock. “Mate, maybe you should run with the Pope answer,” offers Billy. “That makes us sound like badasses.” P
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CIT SLICKERS
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T W I N AT L A N T I C ’ S L A S T A L B U M S AW T H E M C R O S S A T H R E S H O L D . W I T H T H E I R N E W O N E , ‘ G L A’ , T H E Y ’ R E T RY I N G S O M E T H I N G D I F F E R E N T. W O R D S : H E AT H E R M C D A I D .
PH OTOS: PH I L SM ITH I ES + JA D E ESSO N.
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n Glasgow there’s a spaceship. It glows every spectrum of the rainbow on dark and drizzly nights, and inside it is a stage that’s a bucket list goal for most bands in these parts. In May 2015, Twin Atlantic walked triumphantly onto that stage after years of hard work, and saw off their ‘Great Divide’ tour run in style.
There were a few other events – the odd gig here or there, and the small matter of headlining the second stage at T in the Park – before the run really ended, but that Hydro show was symbolic of how far the album had catapulted them. “It’s funny,” notes singer Sam McTrusty. “I’ve actually been able to relive it quite a few times because we filmed it all and made a documentary. When I was watching it back, I felt as nervous as I was going out on stage because we’re obviously not a band who signed a record deal a year ago, made an album and then the album got big or something. It’s a seriously long build up to that moment – I felt emotional, proud, scared – it was every emotion you can feel. I was probably hungry, because I was too nervous to eat. “I’ve got this thing that as soon as I take literally one step on the stage, like [snaps fingers] I’m fine. It’s a bit cheesy, a bit of a cliché, but my adrenaline just spikes so high that I
go into like super focus animal beast mode, so it’s pretty good.” Super focus animal beast mode was activated and Twin rose to the occasion and then some. Job done - for the time being. “We don’t even drink champagne or anything like that,” he laughs, “but there’s always someone who opens one when you do a big gig like that. Even if the band goes for another twenty years or something, that will be a landmark moment, coming off the stage, sitting in the dressing room and just looking at everyone, our friends and family. We got to close down a bit of the Hydro and there was like, I guess, 150 people, all our friends, and their friends and cousins there.” But when they walked outside the Hydro and back into the real world, the obvious question was, what next? Unlike most tours, they got to close it off at home, “so we actually got to stay in Glasgow. I got a new flat. Ross and I got into the production side of music and we were buying bits and bobs and setting up home studios. Life kind of happened, and then we started digging into music, production, which we’d always kind of done, but we’d always started with a full song and then done it. I had ten or twelve acoustic demos on my phone, and half of them sounded like us, and the other half sounded like this interesting new thing. We just decided - we didn’t even decide, we were just drawn towards the most interesting stuff.”
In a whirlwind week in summer 2016, that interesting new thing was brought to life with a vengeance, a red and black, capitalised vengeance. ‘No Sleep’ was unveiled, a tiny King Tut’s club show was announced, and news of ‘GLA’, their new album, was everywhere – their fleeting break was over. The 0-100 nature of the album’s unveiling is pretty on point. Their last album took months upon months to record, ‘GLA’ took six weeks. They were on fire, and trying anything that took their fancy “I’ve learned to embrace that it’s 2016 and that I can actually use some of this shit to help us,” he says. “On all of our other albums, we wanted the same experiences as our favourite bands that we’d read about in books. We wanted to make an album the way the Foo Fighters made a record – that was like, what, 25 years ago? It’s kind of stupid when you kind of think about it. “Once we got over that, Ross started writing songs by himself, which probably gave him a bit more confidence. Like, ‘Gold Elephant Cherry Alligator’, Ross did all of that by himself, and it gave me space to be more like a music producer. Sometimes I don’t play guitar on any of the songs so I got to totally focus on the words, the melody, make it a bit more unpredictable - that’s what made it fun and challenging.
WANTED TO TRY AND SCARE OURSELVES.” “WE
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FIELD DAYS F I E L D M O U S E ’ S N E W A L B U M ‘ E P I S O D I C ’ W I L L D R AW Y O U I N Q U I C K E R T H A N Y O U C A N S AY ‘ H E Y L O O K , I T ’ S A N O T H E R G R E AT B A N D F R O M P H I L LY ’ . WORDS: SAMMY MAINE
“W
e have never been a scene band.” Rachel Brown is the vocalist and guitarist of Field Mouse – a band who have just made one of the best albums of the year with their third full-length ‘Episodic’. As a semi-Philadelphia based band, it’s easy to lump them in with the (very good) bands that have been pouring out of Philly for the past few years but as Rachel insists, they’ve never really seen it that way. “We’re all totally fine with that,” she continues. “Some of our members live here, and some live in Brooklyn still. While I do hang out at a lot of Philly shows and have a lot of friends in bands here, I don’t think that Field Mouse is a ‘Philly scene band’ at all.” Scenes aside, Field Mouse do have some great friends in high and helpful places. ‘Episodic’ was recorded by Hop Along’s Joe Reinhart, with the band approaching the record for the first time as a five piece. Rachel explains that their previous releases were often “some older songs and some things we did last minute,” describing the last album as a sort of “hodgepodge” but with ‘Episodic’, the band wanted to produce a fully cohesive record. “I cannot say enough good things about Joe Reinhart,” she enthuses. “He was so fun to work with, and it’s cool recording with someone who is a producer but also has to record his own band, and has to think about new ideas that maybe no-one in our band had come up with. It was like having another member come in with cool potential ideas. Super fun.”
wasn’t there. They thought they were ruining my album, but then said ‘oh, we’ll just come and sing on it!’ so it was a good trade-off. I love everything all three of those people do, and was so glad they were into it.” Moving from a two to a five-piece is going to bring along some bumps and bruises but as Rachel continues, it sounds like it couldn’t have been easier. “There were never too many cooks. The first week was rhythm stuff so Timmy came down and did a few weeks of drums, and Saysha did bass, and because they live in Philly, they just kind of did their parts and peaced out. Andrew and Zoe and I were there every day with Joe, and I don’t think that was too much. Just a lot of me and Joe gently arguing. Nothing hostile.”
During the writing and recording process, Rachel’s family were dealt a blow with a sudden and very real illness; the recording process, she says, was a way to feel normal. “You’ll do anything to distract yourself from what’s going on, so I use writing and playing music as a way to detach myself momentarily from that stuff,” she continues. “It was a crazy year and I’m not sure if it’s obvious that that’s what a lot of [‘Episodic’] is about, but it definitely is.” And it’s not just songwriting that Rachel finds a cathartic process – if you head over to her website, you’ll find a selection of abstract landscape paintings and a wealth of original poetry. Describing herself as a “hobbyist” painter, she explains that she often paints the “woodsy” areas of her youth to escape her now industrial surroundings. Rachel also finds her fun in hunting down her one true love – the burrito. As she discuss her sheer outrage over the extra-charge on guac – “it’s always something about the avocados being more expensive because they come from Mexico or whatever, and it’s like, just get it together” – she says silly stuff like this is a welcome escape from our often nightmarish surroundings. “One day, I’ll wake up and read the news and think ‘what’s the point?’ and think that I need to go and be a nurse and do what little I can to help like a hundred people in my lifetime,” she says. “I think some days you’re able to ignore it, and some days you’re not.” She’s also pretty passionate about star signs, using a star sign app when she feels a little lost in life. “Usually it makes a lot of sense. I think a lot of these experiences are totally universal, and they’re going to be helpful no matter what your star sign is, but they definitely interest me.”
“I TRY NOT TO TAKE MYSELF TOO SERIOUSLY.”
Hop Along aren’t the only band connected to Field Mouse on this record; Speedy Ortiz’s Sadie Dupuis, Swearin’s Allison Crutchfield, Cymbals Eat Guitars’ Joseph D’Agostino and Palehound’s Ellen Kempner can all be found collaborating in some wonderful shape or form. But instead of this being a planned get-together of some of the greatest artists around, it turns out to be just a couple of buds having some fun. “One day – I think the day after Christmas – I went on a hike with Sadie, Joe and our friend Ellen, and it was the first day of recording and I
The band introduced the album with ‘The Mirror’ – a song that quite literally tells you to fuck off within the first line. It’s this kind of vigour that makes ‘Episodic’ a stand-out effort but as with almost any project Brown puts her hand to, she brings a certain unabashed vulnerability that makes that juxtaposing bite all the more encompassing. Andrew [Futral] brought the song to the table musically, with Brown bringing the lyrics later. “I think it was always intended to be the first track. I was a little trepidatious about having those lyrics as the first on the album, but usually everyone votes against any kind of trepidation I have. I guess it’s attention grabbing if nothing else,” she laughs.
With Jurassic Park band t-shirts – “my sister and I were obsessed and used to dig for dinosaur bones in our backyard” – it’s clear that Field Mouse are here to have fun. Something that Rachel concludes is hugely important, “I actively try to not take myself too seriously. I don’t see another way in this state of the music industry.” P Field Mouse’s album ‘Episodic’ is out now.
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IF N E “EV E, S O L E W
WE WIN. ”
N MOST: ARS THA G FEW YE N I Y R T E ON MOR W ALBUM E HAD A AND A NE B E R H AV , M D E A M E E H R TO A A D AY T O COMING RT CAS E HEIR COU T H T I W D. BUT ING GOO ’RE FEEL DS, THEY T H E CA R ASSCOCK JAC K G L WORDS:
X X FO IN
THE
BOX
IRDOS R THE WE ING IT FO O D E R A OX X ES B L AC K F XPLAIN. ,” THEY E NUMBERS LER ALI SHUT WORDS:
MFOR . “IT’S CO
T IN
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D l u CoIt Be ? A c i g M A KING MORE OF ES DEWEES MA IERO AND JAM K N A R F : S L L R E E UTL D E AT H S P WORDS: ALI SH INK POSSIBLE. YO U ’ D E V E R T H N A H T T E K C A R
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eath Spells’ debut album is disgusting. From the goose-bump fairytale of ‘diluted’ through the broken anarchy of ‘why is love so disastrous’ until the droning pendulum of ‘i don’t know much but i know i loathe you’, ‘Nothing Above, Nothing Below’ is twisted. In this world, hooks don’t exist. It’s noise upon dirty noise and the whole record feels grimy. But that’s sort of the point. “It’s not the type of music that I expect anyone to enjoy. The original idea was that Death Spells was anti-everything,” explains Frank Iero who, alongside James Dewees, created this monster. “It was a reaction to our surroundings, a reaction to the music and the people we were meeting at that time. I think it’s also a reaction to the feelings we were having, just with our own worlds crashing down around
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us. What you have are these people who are, on a constant basis, creating in a stasis where they’re told they’re not really allowed to create. It’s a rebellion against that.” Starting in a Hollywood apartment in 2012 while Frank and James worked on the fifth My Chemical Romance album, Death Spells was a knee-jerk push back against the world they went back to each night. “It was never supposed to be a band. It was us two locked in this weird apartment, feeling like two strangers in a strange land. And that was our battleground. We were just trying to create noise and trying to offend as many people as we could.” Going back and forth, Frank and James would add layer upon layer, trying to be more offensive with every turn; a nuclear arms race of noise and din. It only became something more when Frank realised he had something to say. “And then, the songs started to take shape. It started to be less of just retaliation and reaction and it started to be more of a stance.”
‘Nothing Above, Nothing Below’ was finally finished this spring. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for years. There were times when I didn’t think it was going to happen and I was able to move on from there, but not fully. I would always come back to it. I felt like there was something really special missing. This feels like a completion of sorts.” But instead of the shapeless anarchy that sparked it, this Death Spells record comes complete with a purpose. The message that “things need to be dirty, they need to be ugly,” rages throughout. “Life is just not about what comes after and the bliss. Life is all over the fucking place and what’s important is what we have right now. We can’t concern ourselves with what comes next if we’re not prepared to deal with what’s here.” On first glance, the grime and the darkness that clings to Death Spells makes it look bleak and uninviting but just below the surface, lies a clarity. “It started off as this retaliatory reaction
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RATED MOOSE BLOOD BLUSH
Hopeless Records
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ome bands emerge from the underground. Others break through. With ‘Blush’, Moose Blood are unlocking the door and strolling in. From the sunshine grin of ‘Pastel’, the band settle down with who they are. Set amongst wide-open spaces and battling an ever-growing distance, Moose Blood manage to maintain that feeling of intimacy while going bigger and getting better. While their debut, still fantastic, had moments that sent your mind drifting to their points of influence, ‘Blush’ makes sure you’re wholly 44 upsetmagazine.com
theirs for the duration.
while ‘Freckle’ hammers it all home.
Cutting themselves open and putting it to paper, ‘Blush’ sees Moose Blood baring all. There’s blood, guts and spirit but there’s a control to it. A confidence in exposure. From the fizzy sparseness of ‘Shimmer’ to the clenched fist of ‘Honey’, the band fit together as one. Moose Blood have played a lot of shows to get to this point and each and every one can be felt in this unity. Emo might be a gang but Moose Blood are one.
There’s an intensity across ‘Blush’ that’s a new look for Moose Blood. Energetic but never in a rush, every idea is developed but not over-saturated. The record shines bright but still has that rough and ready glint in the corner of its eye. The band have managed to carry forward every single reason people fell for them in the first place, yet ‘Blush’ feels new. It sparkles in the spotlight and feels warm in darkness. Despite the expansion, the changes and those choruses, ‘Blush’ is a still a Moose Blood record. They own their evolution. It’s just that this Moose Blood, comfortable and with a hint of confidence, aren’t afraid of growing up. Ali Shutler
“I guess it’s time to write another one about being drunk,” start the band on ‘Sway’, self-aware but still exploring. Elsewhere, ‘Spring’ is sheer heartbreak, all lost questions and confused looks
Q+A
OWEN OW E N - A K A C H I CAG O’S M I K E KINSELLA, ALSO OF A M E RI CA N FO OT BA L L - H AS JUST RELEASED HIS NEW A L BU M ‘ T H E K I N G O F W H YS ’.
HELLO MIKE, HOW ARE YOU? I’m good, thanks. Just got home from a kidless vacation. ‘THE KING OF WHYS’ IS YOUR FIRST ALBUM FOR WICHITA RECORDINGS. WHAT BROUGHT YOU GUYS TOGETHER? I’ve been way into a bunch of bands of theirs and my manager knows them from working on other bands together, and then they said they’d do it and I’m super stoked! HAS THE RECORD BEEN A LONG TIME IN THE WORKS? WAS THE PROCESS AN EASY ONE? Yeah, the writing part doesn’t come too easy to me. I sort of struggle getting motivated to organise / finish any of the millions of guitar noodles and/ or drunken notes I have written down. Eventually (hopefully...) things start to fall into place and some of the noodles get paired with some of the notes and the songs start to take shape. WHAT DID YOU FIND MOST CHALLENGING? This was the first time I left home to track an Owen album, as well as the first time working with Zach and Sean,
so I was a little nervous wondering how it would go and if our processes were compatible. I was already a fan of their music, so I knew I’d like their ideas. But it was a bit of a trial by fire, being dropped into a situation I’ve never been in before with people I didn’t really know. WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT CREATING MUSIC SOLO? I get all the beer at the shows. YOU’RE PRETTY PROLIFIC - FROM WHERE DO YOU DRAW YOUR INSPIRATION? DO YOU WORRY YOU’LL RUN OUT OF IDEAS? Oh, I’m pretty sure I’ve run out of ideas a long time ago. I used to travel a lot more and meet a lot more people, so there was always new first-hand or observable interactions to ponder. But as I’ve become more old and sedentary I find myself rehashing a lot of the same subjects. The goal now is to approach familiar subjects (family, friends, mortality) with different perspectives as my role as a father, friend, and ageing human keeps changing. HOW MANY MUSICAL PROJECTS DO YOU TYPICALLY HAVE ON THE GO AT ANY ONE TIME? I’m really only playing with Owen and American Football now. Owls is on an indefinite (until we all get bored doing what we’re doing at the same time, which seems to only overlap every 12 years or so...) hiatus, and I think Their They’re There is done? It’s pretty easy to stagger the work between the two, as AF has to plan everything quite a bit in advance (due to different work / kid’s schedules / cities) and then I can concentrate on Owen stuff in the
interims. Every so often I’ll pack up to play a show and have to pause to remember which songs I’m supposed to learn to play the shows. It’s like having two awesome part-time jobs. WOULD YOU SAY ‘THE KING OF WHYS’ IS YOUR FAVOURITE OWEN ALBUM TO DATE? Yeah, it’s (obviously) the one I can relate to most, and maybe the most satisfied I’ve ever been lyrically with an Owen album. And I’m really in love with a lot of the tones and flourishes that Sean and Zach achieved. WHAT’S THE MOST EXCITING THING - ALBUM ASIDE - YOU’VE GOT PLANNED FOR OVER THE SUMMER? I’ve got a family road trip / tour planned in a few weeks! The wife is spending a week in New York for a history seminar (she teaches high school history) and the kids and I are going to drive out there and pick her up. Then we’re going to take the long way home, stopping in Niagara Falls and playing a couple solo shows on the way. IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE UP TO RIGHT NOW? ANYTHING AMERICAN FOOTBALLRELATED, PERHAPS? I’m really not supposed to say anything, but I think we’re going to add La Croix to our rider... P
OWEN
THE KING OF WHYS
Wichita
eeee Were it not for Mike Kinsella, the North Eastern US scene (and indeed its many uprising emo darlings) would be little more than a speck on the musical map. For his eighth solo full-length, relocating to Wisconsin and taking a deep breath of brisk winter air has allowed him to embrace some of the textures that have previously taken a back seat. ‘The King Of Whys’ is a far more expansive record both in terms of its personnel and its palette of sounds, but it still has the intimate and intoxicating charm that allows Owen to consistently burrow deep into your soul and invigorate your most tender of feels. Danny Randon
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