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AUGUST 2021 Issue 68
RIOT 4. DOWNLOAD PILOT 12. SUPERMILK 14. AS DECEMBER FALLS 18. CHUNK! NO, CAPTAIN CHUNK! 20. LAKES 23. CAPSTAN ABOUT TO BREAK 24. WITCH FEVER FEATURES 26. DAINE 38. JXDN 42. CREEPER 46. DC DARK NIGHTS 52. YONAKA 58. PRESS TO MECO
Upset Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Ali Shutler Scribblers Alex Cabré, Alexander Bradley, Dan Harrison, Edie McQueen, Kelsey McClure, Martyn Young, Jamie MacMillan, Jasleen Dhindsa, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin Snappers Cynthia Parkhurst, Dave East, Debbie Ellis, Dieter Unrath, Dylan Nolte, Joe Brennan, Julie Ernie, Tom Goddard 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. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of The Bunker Publishing Ltd. 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 The Bunker Publishing Ltd holds no responsibility. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of Dork or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally.
HELLO. There’s nothing more exciting than the new. The chase for the freshest blood is something which has dominated the world of alternative music for as long as any of us can remember. From that desire to be one of the four people at an early show to the lustre of those rare early releases, or just the chance to brag to our mates about being cooler than them - we’re all notactually-that-guilty of it. But there’s a difference between ‘new for new’s sake’ and genuinely show stopping. That’s where this month’s cover star daine comes in. Impossible to strap
inside one genre-labelled box, she draws from rock, punk and emo just as much as she does the bright neons of hyperpop and beyond. With no need to bridge divides and a licence to experiment at will, she’s not just new; she’s potentially revolutionary. What could be more exciting than that?
S tephen
Editor / @stephenackroyd Upset 3
Riot.
THIS MONTH >>>
Ex-Doe drummer Jake Popyura gets up close and personal with a new album under his Supermilk moniker. p.12
EVERYTHING HAPPENING IN ROCK
FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES
At the best of times, Frank Carter has the raw, dangerous, energy of a caged, provoked animal, so it’s to no one’s surprise when all social distancing goes out of the window the second he appears on stage. Half running through a rendition of ‘Trouble’, Frank and guitarist Dean Richardson pile straight into the crowd. As they settle in, Frank calls on a few friends with IDLES frontman Joe Talbot joining for new single ‘My Town’ while Cassyette and Lynks come out as The Rattlesnakes tease their impending fourth album. Sitting modern rock classics like ‘Wild Flowers’, ‘Kitty Sucker’ and ‘Juggernaut’ side by side, Frank Carter earns the right to take on a cover of ‘Ace of Spades’ as they bring a truly wild set to a typically chaotic finale.
4 Upset
As they approach their second album, Nottingham powerhouse As December Falls are the epitome of doing it yourself. p.14
Parisian favourites Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! run through their new album, front to back. p.18
After a year with little to no live music, and a whole festival season lost to Coronavirus, Download is back with a special test event set to help work out how we get a whole nation’s summer back underway. With Enter Shikari, Frank Carter and loads more signed up, this is what - fingers crossed - festivals could well be like in 2021. Words: Alexander Bradley.
F
rank Turner sang, “Now who’d have thought that after all / Something as simple as rock ‘n’ roll would save us all?” And when we all needed help to get our lives back on track, up stepped the Download Pilot. The three-day festival is, in fact, a data-gathering exercise, the maskless music fans the guinea pigs for eventual government guidance on the safety of mass gatherings in the future. It’s easy to forget that though in a chorus of 10,000 people singing their hearts out. Admittance on-site starts from home with uploading two pictures to an online portal: one, a photo of your confirmation text from the NHS that your lateral flow test is negative; the second, a selfie with your test strip. A quick questionnaire on if you feel okay, have been told to isolate or been in contact with anyone who has tested positive, and you’re good to go.
“It feels like a birthday party in someone’s garden” Han Mee
Once at Donington, there’s an extra wristband to confirm you have indeed tested negative, the QR code on which getting you through the gates with no need for a mask or social distancing, as if stepping into a time machine that takes you back to the carefree, unsanitary, days of two years ago. With only a tenth of the usual Download crowd in attendance, the festival site is just the two stages, with the camping area a fraction of
the size too. Friday’s proceedings only kick off at 5pm, giving time for people to erect their tent in the driving rain atypical of the unaffectionately known “Drownload”. The later start to the music gives a chance for everyone to adjust to
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Riot.
14 Upset
As they approach their second album, Nottingham powerhouse Falls are the epitome of doing it yourself.
As December
Words: Sam Taylor. Photo: Tom Goddard.
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Riot.
20 Upset
Watford-based post-emo troupe Lakes are about to drop one of the albums of the summer. Words: Rob Mair. Photo: Dylan Nolte.
“N
ot how we planned it?” consider Lakes on ‘No Excuses’, the second track on second album ‘Start Again’. Taken out of context, it’s an inspired insight into the group’s growth from bedroom project to twelve-legged ‘glock rock’ indie/emo juggernaut. Barely two years after releasing their debut album, ‘The Constance LP’, through their local record store, the group now has transatlantic deals with America’s Know Hope and the UK’s Big Scary Monsters, as well as a notable collaboration with former Real Friends vocalist Dan Lambton under their belts. In fact, Lambton was so enamoured with the group, he now sports a Lakes tattoo. But heavyweight endorsements don’t end there, either; they can also call on American Football’s Mike Kinsella and Garrison/Gay For Johnny Depp’s Joseph Grillo as notable fans – both of whom appeared in the video for recent single ‘Start Again’. Even set against their wildest dreams, this success is testament to some stellar songwriting and perseverance of the craft; the sort of stuff you dream about and work towards, but which you can never truly plan for. “Before we ever released any music – so pre-first album – we’d decided where we wanted to go with Lakes,” considers vocalist Roberto Cappellina. “We always knew we wanted to release an album with Big Scary Monsters, and we started conversations with labels and blogs before we really had anything to show – and that set the tone. But it is pretty surreal; like, have you seen the Big Scary Monsters
Upset 21
In a time where genre means nothing and attitude means everything, daine’s universe simply refuses to be labelled. One of a new breed of artists who draw from the underground to make something exciting and new, meet your next icon in waiting. Words: Martyn Young Photos: Joe Brennan
26 Upset
T
he rise of Australian/ Filipino 18-yearold prodigy daine from unknown bedroom experimental creative to rising alternative icon has been swift and striking. Taking the time afforded to her by the global shutdown of the pandemic, daine has spent the last 18 months cultivating her own unique and idiosyncratic world full of evocative imagery, darkness and light and the wide-eyed optimism of a musical vision of infinite possibilities smashing through genre boundaries. It’s impossible to sonically categorise daine’s music as she experiments with
all manner of progressive sounds, but there is an adventurous spirit that courses through everything she does is influenced by her childhood loves of midwestern emo, hardcore and a punk and DIY aesthetic that encouraged her to follow her own bewitching alt-pop path. And all of this without ever really leaving her bedroom. Musicians in 2021 are good at improving, and daine has already packed a lot into a short period of time as she has risen to become one of the most exciting new artists on the planet. “It’s been a really interesting journey,” she begins from the creative hub of her bedroom in Sydney.
“I’ve had to learn a lot as a person. I feel like I was thrust into being a musician before I knew how to perform.” Like many emerging new artists, the enforced lack of live performance has given them a different perspective on their music and style. “It’s been really fun. In that way, the music is a lot more genuine because I was just a kid writing songs, and I was able to develop all these songs over the past few years, and it was just a really worthwhile process.” daine is an artist who has strong convictions and knows exactly who they are. Committed and focused, daine is passionate about advocating for what
she believes in and the music that she loves. It’s something that she puts down to her formative years in Australia’s heavy music scene. She cites her vegan lifestyle as an example of her commitment to going against the mainstream. “I’m pretty into veganism,” she explains. “I love cooking and a plantbased lifestyle. That’s pretty common in the heavy scene. Heavy music has always been a counter-culture, so if the mainstream is patriarchy and sexism, hardcore will be avidly feminist. If the mainstream is capitalism, then the hardcore scene will be super communist. I think that’s the same with veganism; that’s just another
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38 Upset
jxdn cements himself as a forerunner in the pop-punk revival with his debut album ‘Tell Me About Tomorrow’, out via Travis Barker’s DTA Records. Words: Steven Loftin. Photos: Cynthia Parkhurst.
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42 Upset
“Any time you have rules, it just sucks”
A year on from their second album, and Creeper are furthering their story with new EP, ‘American Noir’. Words: Jamie MacMillan.
I
f ever a band understood the power of a good death, then it’s Creeper. And if ever someone understood the even greater power of a good resurrection story, then frontman Will Gould is the one. After a spectacular on-stage ‘break-up’ and subsequent rebirth for the band with ‘Sex, Death & The Infinite Void’, a record that culminated in the tragic death of its hero (spoiler warning), it’s perhaps no surprise to find that there is a sting in the tale. Catching up with Will in a noisy Southampton rehearsal studio a few days before the trial Download Festival event, it is time to say hello and wave goodbye once more to Roe, Annabelle and the world of Calvary Falls.
There’s excitement in the air as we speak, the background hum of rehearsals resonating down the phone as Will searches for a quiet place to chat. Finally, after what feels like more than an eternity of silence, Creeper are playing a real-life show reconnecting with their fans, the passionate force that breathes continual life into the band. There’s a lot riding on the weekend; the eyes of the music world turned firmly towards Download to see what the future of festivals could look like. “No pressure at all,” laughs Will, admitting to feeling nervous after his longest spell without a gig since he was a teenager. There are bold plans for the show in place, plans that mean that the festival will
cost the band more financially than they’ll gain. But he’s not worried, eager as he is to get back to work. He’s hardly been sitting still for the last year or so, though - starting a new band at the same time as releasing a flood of new Creeper material. “I’ve just kinda embellished my regular hobby rather than getting a new one,” he smiles. “So it has all become a lot more stressful for no reason!” Riding high from the critical success of the playfully dramatic ‘Sex, Death & The Infinite Void’, a tale that culminates in a tragic ending for its protagonist, returning to that fertile storytelling soil for the ‘American Noir’ EP is perhaps both the most perfectly natural and equally unnatural Creeper thing to
do. Gaining its title from the record’s original name, it returns to Calvary Falls one last time for what Will calls an epilogue rather than a sequel. “We’d had a line-up change,” he begins (drummer Dan Bratton left the band suddenly last year, replaced by Jake Fogarty). “The world was reopening. The record had been out for a year, and it was time for a refresh. Coming back with the same imagery just felt a bit stale, you know? I felt we were at risk of becoming a bit predictable.” For a band that pretty much have their entire future mapped out in the most exact detail, it would have felt entirely un-Creepery to not keep pushing forwards. “Exactly! We always want to be thinking two steps ahead,
Upset 43
Dark Nights...
Mastodon, Manchester Orchestra, Soccer Mommy and more have come together for a soundtrack of epic proportions. Words: Alex Bradley.
46 Upset
...Rising!
D
avid Hasselhoff is Superman. Chelsea Wolfe is Wonder Woman. Andy Biersack from Black Veil Brides? Yeah, he is Batman, of course. Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull is the villainous Lex Luther. Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains is Captain Cold, while Maria Brink is the otherworldly HAND, and rapper Denzel Curry is Darkseid Batman. And that’s just the beginning. This is the Sonic Metalverse. There is a multiverse, and different versions of Batman; one of them is a dinosaur (Batmansaurus Rex obviously), another is a baby, and one version of Batman is a cybernetic vehicle. If none of that makes sense, then that’s okay and, frankly, understandable, but there is maybe some reading to be done. Luckily, you don’t need all that information to enjoy this soundtrack. The ‘Dark Nights: Death
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52 Upset
Yonaka are a force to be reckoned with, promoting empowerment, hopefulness and acceptance across their new mixtape, ‘Seize The Power’. Words: Alex Cabré. Photos: Dave East.
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