Upset, February 2021

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Lonely The Brave

Lande Hekt

NOAHFINNCE

Kid Kapichi

The Xcerts

Normandie

+ loads more

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You Me At Six The Pretty Reckless

Frank Iero

THE DIRTY NIL

Fuck Art

January 1, 2021 Scan Me!

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FEBRUARY 2021 Issue 62

RIOT 4. THE PRETTY RECKLESS 9. NORMANDIE 12. THE XCERTS 14. KID KAPICHI 16. DRONES 18. CHEAP MEAT ABOUT TO BREAK 20. NOAHFINNCE 22. FOR YOU THE MOON FEATURES 24. ARCHITECTS 34. LONELY THE BRAVE 38. LANDE HEKT 42. FRANK IERO 46. YOU ME AT SIX REVIEWS 52. YOU ME AT SIX TEENAGE KICKS 54. LAURAN HIBBERD

Upset Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Ali Shutler Scribblers Alex Bradley, Connor Fenton, Dan Harrison, Dillon Eastoe, Edie McQueen, Jamie MacMillan, Jasleen Dhindsa, Kelsey McClure, Linsey Teggert, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin, Tyler Damara Kelly Snappers Alice Dennt, Carla Mundy, Daniel Harris, Ed Mason, gingerdope, Indira Cesarine, Kamila Cwiklinska, Katy Cummings, Rachel Kiki, 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. 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. OK, so 2021 hasn’t magically fixed everything overnight. It was a long shot anyway. Still, as we embark on the 2020 DLC nobody asked for, there are still so many things to look forward to over the coming months.

Prime amongst them are this month’s returning cover stars.

Architects are a band who have had to deal with tough times themselves, but that’s not what defines them. Continuing their ascent as standard-bearers of a whole scene, we get the story behind new album ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’.

They’re not the only beloved act returning with fire in their veins either.

You Me At Six are back with an album that hits way differently to how you’d expect. Add to that Frank Iero, The Pretty Reckless and so much more, and there are plenty of positives to focus on.

Every cloud, and all that.

S tephen

Editor / @stephenackroyd

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THIS MONTH IN ROCK

The Xcerts run us through their brand new covers EP, track by track. p.12

Kid Kapichi have arrived. With their debut album, they’re trying to find some fire in an otherwise bleak world. p.14

Drones excel in the kind of punk that lives in the darkness but points towards the light. p.16

DEATH BECOMES HER Words: Ali Shutler. Photos: Indira Cesarine.

Is it too early to start thinking about Christmas?

With their brilliant new album pretty much finished at the start of last year but with no touring to back it up, The Pretty Reckless had to look elsewhere to stay excited. “I’ve been trying to use this weird, horrible time to inspire something different,” says Taylor Momsen, speaking over the phone from her snow-covered home in Maine. Instead of dwelling on how weird it is to have released a chart-topping single that they still haven’t played live, Taylor has released acoustic versions of their own songs alongside collaborations with Alain Johannes (covering Chris Cornell’s ‘The Keeper’) and Pearl Jam’s Matt Cameron (reworking Soundgarden’s ‘Halfway There’). There are still plenty more surprises to come, though.

“AS CLICHÉ AS IT SOUNDS, IT REALLY WAS ROCK AND ROLL THAT SAVED ME” TAYLOR MOMSEN

“I don’t want to spill the beans,” starts Taylor before spilling them anyway. “But we’ve been talking about covering ‘Where Are You Christmas?’ [the song Taylor sang as Cindy Lou in the 2000 live-action film, How The Grinch Stole Christmas] in The Pretty Reckless style for years. It might be something that’s in the works. Again, I’m not confirming or denying anything, but I’m putting it out there - 2021 is going to be a fun year.” Here’s hoping.

Her attitude of “in times of strife and struggle, you just have to find the positives of the situation you’re in,” wasn’t just a lesson learned through lockdown anxiety though.

In 2017 The Pretty Reckless were on tour supporting Taylor’s childhood heroes Soundgarden when Chris Cornell took his own life (“I’d hugged him the night before, it was devastating and crushing in ways I can’t put into words”). Less than a year later the band’s unofficial fifth member, producer and Taylor’s best friend Kato Khandwala died following a motorcycle accident.

“Those hits took me into a very dark downward spiral of depression, substance abuse and all the shit that comes with that,” says Taylor. “I didn’t know how to handle anything, I couldn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel, and it felt like there was no hope. I’d given up on life.”

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How The Grinch Stole Christmas (and Made Taylor Momsen Want To Be A Singer) Before The Pretty Reckless and Gossip Girl, Taylor Momsen played the precocious Cindy Lou in the 2000 Christmas staple, How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Looking back on the movie twenty years later, Taylor tells us that she “was very fortunate to be a part of a film that became such a classic.

I love Christmas, but it’s always a little weird when it comes around because there’s no way to get away from The Grinch.”

Filmed when she was five or six, “I don’t know how many of my memories are real because it almost feels like a dream. They’re all fond memories, though.

I love the holidays, and I’m very proud of this film, I think it’s fantastic. Jim Carey’s performance alone is incomparable. It’s very weird to turn on the television and see my six-year-old self, though.

I generally change the channel because I 6 Upset

get very embarrassed watching myself but once every few years I do watch the film again for the nostalgia, and I reminisce. It’s always a good time.

“The biggest thing about working on that film was that it was the first time I ever entered a recording studio [to sing ‘Where Are You Christmas?’]. I fell in love with it straight away. It’s a moment I’ll never forget.” Taylor knew, “I want to sing, and I want to make records. I was so young that I don’t think I even knew what that meant, but it’s a memory I’ll always cherish.”

“I’d always sung. I was singing before I could speak,” says Taylor, telling us she was humming songs before she could form full sentences, “so it felt very natural to me.

At five years old, did I know that it would turn into my career? No, but I knew that I had a love affair with music even at that young age.”

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“As cliché as it sounds, it really was rock and roll that saved me.” Her ongoing recovery started when she began to listen to music and that slowly “brought the spark back to my eye”.

Eventually, Taylor picked up her guitar and after a while, started writing songs again.

“Music has always been my salvation. In times of great joy and great struggle, It’s the one thing I’ve always turned to. To this day, it’s never let me down.”

Making a new record “was the farthest thing from my mind,” she says, as Taylor still wasn’t sure if she had the emotional energy to continue with The Pretty Reckless, so she wrote for herself. “I had all these things in my head, and all these things I needed to get out.” The catharsis worked

though, and by the time she’d put her feelings to paper, she was ready to put the work in and make them into the best The Pretty Reckless record possible.

“I put everything I had into this album – emotionally, physically and mentally, so there’s no way I was going to keep that to myself. Music has such a healing power. If making an album can save my life, then why would I not put it out in the hope that it will do something similar for other people. It seems selfish to keep it private.”

Taylor is doing better now but knows “mental health is a lifelong struggle.

It’s something you have to consistently work on,” which is why she was so keen to share those cathartic songs of death, life and rebirth. “I

“IF MAKING AN ALBUM CAN SAVE MY LIFE, THEN WHY WOULD I NOT PUT IT OUT” TAYLOR MOMSEN

again. There are certainly moments in the past few years where we did not.

hope people can connect to it in some way.”

Despite the circumstances surrounding the record and it’s oh-somorbid name, ‘Death By Rock and Roll’ is actually a celebratory album. The tracklisting takes you on a journey from defeat to hope, and the title is something Kato used to say all the time, quickly becoming the mantra behind The Pretty Reckless - “I’m going to live my life my own way, I’m going to go out my own way, and I’m not going to let anyone tell me differently. Rock and roll till I die.” As Taylor explains, “This record is very much an homage to him.”

Despite her doubts about the future of the band and the painful losses now attached to it, at no

point did Taylor think about going it alone, though admits that “maybe one day I’ll do a solo record, but I’m not there yet. I never wanted to be Elvis Presley, I wanted to be The Beatles.

You want those kindred spirits, that camaraderie and people to share it with. Ben, Mark, Jamie, we’re such a family that if we weren’t making music together, it would feel like a death.”

After feeling like it was the end of an era and perhaps the end of the band itself, ‘Death By Rock and Roll’ is proof that The Pretty Reckless can endure. “We came out the other side of it all, stronger and closer than we were before,” with their best record to date. “It does feel good to feel alive

TEN YEARS AGO, THE PRETTY RECKLESS BURST ONTO THE SCENE WITH DEBUT SINGLE ‘MAKE ME WANNA DIE’. In some ways, “so much has changed since then that I don’t know where to begin and yet, nothing has really changed. The strange thing about rock and roll is that it keeps you young.” The band’s ambitions remain the same as they always have done: “continue to push yourself to be better than you are. Do that forever”, and their desire to show, not tell, remains paramount to what they do.

“When we first formed, I was coming off of Gossip Girl and that tabloid fame.

There were certainly a lot of misconceptions about me, the music and the authenticity of it all. There were a lot of people who doubted it, thinking this was some sort of fleeting vanity project.” Taylor knows how it must have looked but also “the older I get, the more I look back on it and realise there’s definitely sexism in rock and roll and there was definitely some misogyny involved in that stuff.”

“There’s no way to explain to people that it is a real deal, the only way to do

it is to do it.” So instead of arguing her case to people who’d already made their mind up about the former actress fronting a rock band, The Pretty Reckless recorded albums, toured the world, worked hard and proved the doubters wrong along the way. “There are no shortcuts in rock,” she promises.

Despite a decade of unwanted opinions, Taylor’s never felt like she’s had to prove things to other people. More confident than she’s ever been (“There’s nothing more empowering than fronting a rock band”), she’s still her “own worst critic, which is tough when you’re constantly trying to push yourself and be better. You can’t control what people are gonna say, or what people are gonna think so if you like my band, fantastic. If you don’t, then there’s probably something else out there for you. I don’t do this for people to like me, I do this because I need to. It’s who I am. If it connects to you in some way, fantastic, I did my job well, and that’s the highest compliment you can get as an artist, but as far as proving myself goes, I just have to keep proving myself to myself.” P The Pretty Reckless’s album ‘Death By Rock and Roll’ is out 12th February.

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Swedish alt-rockers Normandie are taking back control with their third album, ‘Dark & Beautiful Secrets’.

Words: Sam Taylor.

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“This is a really dark album to me,” Philip explains. “We decided to be as intimate and personal as possible, sharing true stories from our past for the first time.”

“Everyone has secrets,” he considers, “each and every one of us has something buried deep down inside that we desperately keep hidden away from the judging eyes of the world.”

It’s a step up for the group, and potentially along with their recent signing to Easy Life Records - a sign that we’ll be seeing a lot more of them on UK shores very soon indeed.

Well, when we’re not all stuck at home, anyway.

When did you start work on your new album, and what was your mindset like going into it?

We started working on it as soon as we delivered LP2 ‘White Flag’ to mixing. It’s nice to start playing around with new ideas when you’re the most sick of your songs and sound. We usually delete all presets and start buying new plugins/synths 10 Upset

ready for the next one.

What was the timeline like putting it together? Did social-distancing impact you much?

It’s always the same, it’s all cool and chill until it’s not anymore. All of a sudden it was two months to mix deadline and we had to start narrowing down a 15-20 tracklist to about 10-12. Then came corona and saved our asses kinda. So we went back to the studio again to see if we could find new ideas, and we did! ‘Babylon’ was born post-deadline, thanks to corona.

We’ve met up every Wednesday, cause in Sweden we haven’t had any

Did you set out to do anything new with this one, that you hadn’t tried on the first two?

Oh, yeah, just about everything. We mixed it ourselves this time, I did a bit of screaming again (first time since our first EP), and we drew influences from early musical experiences like Toto, Metallica and Tool.

this record?

Since I also write for pop artists, I cover pretty much every subject that is love-related, so I’ve tried to stay away from that on this album. Up until this point, I’ve been wanting to write songs for the fans, songs that people can relate to and easily feel attached too, but this time I felt like I wanted to write about something that was very personal to me, write about personal growth, life and death and everything in-between.

Hopefully, people can relate to that too.

What do you enjoy writing about at the moment?

Does that come through on

It sounds like you’re really putting yourselves out there emotionally, how

lockdowns. The restrictions have pretty much been “Keep your social circle tight and avoid public transport.”

I got my first mask a few weeks ago!

“WE MIXED IT OURSELVES THIS TIME, I DID A BIT OF SCREAMING AGAIN” PHILIP STRAND

do you translate difficult feelings and events into lyrics? Does it come easily to you?

Initially, it was very hard for me because I didn’t want be too direct, but also not make it unrelatable. As soon

as I got into it and found a rhythm, it all came at once.

Did working on this album help you resolve any of the personal issues you cover on it?

Yes and no. It’s more about

understanding HOW I’ve become the person I am.

Looking back and reflecting on my past, finding small clues in my personality. For example, I’ve always had people around me since I grew up in church, so now when I’m older, I love being alone, and I can even feel very lonely in a social setting.

Which bands or artists do you listen to yourself when wrestling with dark periods?

I don’t listen to much music at all, especially when I’m down. That is when I turn to writing music instead.

But I do have a playlist for sleeping/calming myself in busy environments. Two songs from there are The 1975 ‘Me’ and Jordan Rakei ‘Tawo’.

Have you thought about where you might like to go with your next lot of music?

Just touring would be nice.

Intimate, sweaty venues or arenas are both appreciated right now, very surreal to get back on stage. I think 2021/2022 will be the best live experiences ever, the suspense is killing me...

Do you have a lot planned for 2021?

My 2021 is gonna be crazy...

I’ve got a bunch of surreal releases on the pop side that are lined up, including going to Eurovision as a producer/songwriter. Can’t say who the artist is yet, but it’s been a cool experience so far! But the thing I’m looking forward to the most is, of course, our album, ‘Dark & Beautiful Secrets’.

We still have one more video to shoot and a new setlist to prepare for the tours next year! P Normandie’s album ‘Dark & Beautiful Secrets’ is out 19th February.

AFI look like they’re set to release a new album in 2021.

The band’s 11th full-length was teased with a short trailer, a snippet of music and a statement that claims “before the year’s end, our 11th album will follow”. Seems pretty cut and dried, then?

As It Is have announced that drummer Patrick Foley has departed the band to embark on a new career as a firefighter. “We could not be more proud of him (and are keeping him on speed dial for when we next use pyro in a live show),” they explain.

Good Charlotte have released their first new music in two years; ‘Last December’ also marks the 20th anniversary of their self-titled debut album.

“We hope it brings some solace to anyone who needs it,” says Benji Madden.

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ARTIST’S GUIDE

THE XCERTS SO NO ONE TOLD YOU LIFE WAS GONNA BE THIS WAY EP

What do you do when the world stops for a massive global pandemic? If you’re The Xcerts, you get creative.

With their next album demoed, they’ve decided to be a bit more playful with their brand new covers EP. Here, frontman Murray tells us all about it.

‘So No One Told You Life Was Gonna Be This Way’ was born out of a want to be busy again. We demoed the entirety of our next project pre (first) lockdown, so there wasn’t a mass amount of work to focus on. Obviously, many of our plans have been derailed / pushed back, so we took this opportunity to make something a little more hushed and carefree to reconnect with our following before we unleash the next ‘big’ release. Here is a track by track rundown of the EP. We Built This City This was actually the first song we recorded for the EP.

“‘SO NO ONE TOLD YOU LIFE WAS GONNA BE THIS WAY’ WAS BORN OUT OF A WANT TO BE BUSY AGAIN.” MURRAY MACLEOD

Our manager pitched it to me and initially it was going to be a one-off single, but we had so much fun in the studio with our bud Ryan Burnett, we decided there and then to make an EP. The original is a stone-cold classic, and I still find it kinda funny we were able to strip everything back and turn it into an emotionally charged acoustic number. The production on the original recording is the wildest thing you’ll ever hear. I highly recommend listening to it with really good headphones.

It’s a cosmic 80’s journey that makes you feel like you’re inside a pinball machine made of cocaine.

The lyrics are really poignant for a time like this relating to the live sector of the music industry and this song very much inspired us to form an EP of songs that lyrically

hit differently during this unprecedented time.

I Wanna Be Sedated I’ve loved The Ramones for as long as I can remember, so I’m really psyched this cover worked out. Written in 1978, the lyrics hit harder than ever! We put a slight country spin on it with the slide guitar, and I think it’s a testament to how brilliant the songwriting is that we could incorporate a part like that so effortlessly with the original being a scuzzy punk anthem. At the end of the track, you can hear me mumble “that’s punk as fuck”. Why, you ask? Tequila.

Complicated Goddammit, I love Avril Lavigne! When we discussed covering ‘Complicated’, we all agreed it would work perfectly with a female

singer to give the rendition more of a conversational feel.

I’ve been friends with Chels (Heights) for a long time, and her voice is so beautiful, it was a trip having her sing on the track. I also love documenting friendships with recordings, so I’m over the moon this now exists for everyone to hear.

Inbetween Days We are all enormous fans of The Cure, but Tom is borderline fanatical, needless to say, covering this was a no brainer. Having said that, initially, we had the idea to cover ‘Easy’ by Troye Sivan, but when ‘Inbetween Days’ was mentioned, we immediately started working on it. It’s the only loud / upbeat song on the record, and I love the lo-fi immediacy of the recording. At the end of this track, you can faintly hear me whispering something nonsensical to make the boys laugh, and then we spliced in an offcut recording of me singing the Friends theme tune. We thought it was a really funny idea to name the EP after that specific line and so you were probably all correct in thinking that’s where we got the title from. Here’s to The Rembrandts! P The Xcerts’ EP ‘So No One Told You Life Was Gonna Be This Way’ is out now.

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WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? Words: Sam Taylor. Photos: Alice Denny + Kamila Cwiklinska.

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This time next year, we’ll be millionaires! If there’s one thing you could never accuse Del Boy of, it’s a lack of optimism. The past year, however, well that’s a different story.

It’s something Hastings bunch Kid Kapichi are throwing themselves into with their debut album, ‘This Time Next Year’ - a bright, cheerful beacon of hope in an otherwise bleak landscape. Vocalist and guitarist Jack Wilson fills us in.

It’s debut album time then, when did you start piecing the record together?

We went full-throttle on the album in March 2020. There wasn’t much else to do as you can imagine, but I guess it had been building up to it for a few months before then. We had already been thinking about songs and vibes, but we attacked it head-on in the spring.

What was your mindset like going into it?

Well, it was a tricky one.

It’s safe to say, none of us thought we’d still be in the same situation on the turn of the new year, so I guess we were hopeful and optimistic, and we still are I suppose.

At the time we just thought, look we’re never going to get a golden opportunity (time-wise) like this ever again. So let’s make this album the best we can possibly make it. I think I speak on behalf of all of us when I say, we all agree it’s a better piece of work as a result. Not to mention it gave us loads to stew on and write about.

How did you decide which of your songs made the cut, and which didn’t?

I think we thought we had

the album wrapped up three or four times before we actually shut the door on it. We would have a load of tunes, then write one more, fall in love with it and have to bump one of the previous ones off. That probably happened to half the album.

As time stretched on, we decided to say enough is enough and stop writing for that particular album. I think we would have kept going forever otherwise.

The album title isn’t an Only Fools and Horses reference, then?

It is as much as it isn’t. In a literal sense, we all were wondering where we’d be this time next year. Where the band will be, and where it would have been. It’s also a mindset we can all fall into. A glimmer of hope that tomorrow will be better than yesterday. But it can be a toxic mentality.

As musicians, you’re often looking to the next big thing, and you forget to look at how far you’ve come. I imagine that’s the same for most walks of life and professions. Plus we love Only Fools and Horses, so that was an added bonus.

You did pretty much everything yourselves, right? Did you pick up those skills out of necessity, was it about retaining control, or do you just really enjoy every aspect?

Literally all three of those things in perfect harmony.

We owe a lot to Ben Beetham (co-vocalist and guitarist). He’s been quietly working away on production and recording. We always did our own demos, and over time they became pretty decent. So we talked about recording our own stuff, we just didn’t think it’d be our debut album, so that’d be the necessity side of things.

Retaining control was also

“THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL ISN’T TOO FAR OFF NOW, WE HOPE” JACK WILSON

a big big plus for us. We love working with different people, but we had such a clear idea in our heads for the debut, that cutting out the middle man would probably prove beneficial.

We hope everyone else agrees when they hear it.

Did you consider delaying the record due to the pandemic?

We secretly did delay it.

It was meant to be out in September 2020. We just kept that on the down-low.

It’s been a really tough time for all bands. Luckily we have a great team around us, and we’ve managed to keep our heads above water, and we hope that everyone else is managing to get by also. The light at the end of the tunnel isn’t too far off now, we hope.

How’s social-distancing gonna affect your upcoming tour?

We genuinely have no idea.

We keep asking our agent and manager, but nobody knows still. We have two sold-out socially-distanced shows at the De La Warr Pavillion [in Bexhill-on-Sea] near our hometown for the album release. We’re planning on booking a lot more similar things to that, but how the tour is going to go down during this whole thing, we’re still not 100% sure. But as soon as we find out, everyone else will be told immediately.

How far ahead do you lot plan, do you already have ideas for album two milling about?

We’ve already started writing album two. We already have a strong idea of how we want it to sound and the production. I don’t know if that’s abnormal or not. It’s always onto the next thing. I guess with an album, it takes such a long time to come to fruition, you have to start mega early.

But yeah we definitely plan a lot ahead, that’s why the pandemic has been so hard, because it makes planning pointless. So now we’re double planning for the alternatives and plan Bs. What do you most enjoy writing songs about?

Genuine experiences from ourselves and the people around us. The angry songs are normally the most fun and the easiest to write. It’s cathartic. I guess lyrically my favourites are the ones that make people come up to us and say, ‘that’s exactly how I’ve felt but didn’t know how to say it’. Those are the best.

Are you booked in for many festivals?

We’re booked to play 2000trees, with a bunch more to be announced. P Kid Kapichi’s debut album ‘This Time Next Year’ is out 5th February.

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Drones excel in the kind of punk that both readily talks about pertinent issues such as depression, abuses of power, struggles with alcohol and the like, but also, somehow, makes you feel a lot better? It’s a special kind of magic, really.

Now on their second album, ‘Our Hell Is Right Here’ sees vocalist Lois McDougall get into the nitty-gritty of a bloody difficult period that saw her go through a divorce, lose a family member, and grapple with mental health.

Plus, y’know, the world is falling apart. “It’s been a pretty rough ride for the past couple of years,” she says.

What was the timeline like for putting together your new album, was much of it done around lockdown and social-distancing?

Most of the record had been written by the start of 2020, and we were well into the recording process by the time the first lockdown kicked in. There was still a lot to get recorded though, and there were even some vocal parts still unwritten, so trying to get all of that finished over lockdown and record parts here and there when we were allowed to was pretty stressful. It was made easier though by the fact that we recorded the album with our own guitarist Tim at Signal House Studios.

Has having to work through the challenges of 2020 given you any new skills you’re going to take forward, such as new ways of working or the like?

Along with the rest of the planet, we ended up having Zoom calls rather than meetups in pubs for band chats.

That’s definitely something I reckon we’ll keep doing. It’s funny, we seem to get a lot more done when there isn’t a bar involved…

Did you have a firm idea of what you wanted to do with the album before you got started?

Not really! This record is definitely more of a collection of songs that we wrote freely rather than a constructed album like our last record ‘Exiled’, which is a concept album. It was nice to just be able to write whatever we wanted and instrumentally I think the moods we were in at the time of writing are more identifiable on this record.

How do you start working on a project like this?

We began writing for this album at the start of 2019, so the tracks have been created between then and mid-2020.

That’s over a year in which they came together, and I think that’s why the topics on this album are so varied.

It was a rough few years for me, and there are songs about depression, divorce, binge-drinking, death, abuse, as well as body positivity and climate change on this album. There’s a lot on there… I had a lot to say!

‘Our Hell Is Right Here’ is pretty heavy stuff, how do you feel listening to it back now?

We love listening back to it.

We’re very proud of what we have achieved, and there are so many different levels to this album. I wrote a lot of these lyrics as a release for what I wasn’t able to really say out loud, and although a lot of it was painful at the time, it makes me happy to know that we have managed to create something positive and fun from some pretty horrible times. I get a sense of closure listening back to it.

“THERE’S A LOT ON THERE… I HAD A LOT TO SAY!” LOIS MCDOUGALL

Do you turn to sad music yourself when you’re feeling in need of reassurance? Any particular faves?

I definitely listen to sad music when I’m sad, which considering I have a depressive disorder is a lot. Haha. Recently I’ve had ‘Keeping Up’ by Microwave on repeat. Also love a bit of Soccer Mommy, Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, Explosions In The Sky, Death Cab For Cutie. I’m definitely an emo at heart… My favourite band when I was 12 was Dashboard Confessional.

What’s your lyric-writing process like? Do you have any tips or tricks for conveying difficult feelings?

For me, it’s usually very one way or the other. Either I’m in a sort of out of body state where the words all just fall out, and the whole song is suddenly staring back at me, or I write one-liners here and there and then piece them together. I much prefer the former way as the latter actually gives me pretty bad anxiety sometimes because I tend to overthink everything.

What led to the collaboration with Ren Aldridge on the titletrack? How much did she contribute to the track?

We’re so happy that this happened. When writing the single ‘Our Hell Is Right Here’ we very quickly knew that we wanted a different voice for those parts of the song. We’ve played shows with Petrol Girls before and

admire them. Ren is not only a great singer, but the band are also activists and avid fighters against sexual harassment, and so that was even more reason to have them involved.

Have you done much collaborating with other artists otherwise? How do you find it, generally?

We had a friend record live cello on this record which was fun and adds a nice layer to a few of the songs.

I think all good collabs, like ours with Ren, come about organically. There are loads of artists that we’d love to create with given the chance like Dinosaur Pile-Up, AntiFlag, Rise Against, The Bronx and Marmozets.

Do you already know where you want to go next, musically?

We’ve recently been joined by guitarist Tom Thain, so we’re excited to see what he adds to the songwriting process. He’s sent a few riffs over already, and they sound HUGE. We’ve already started throwing ideas around, so we’ll see what happens…

What does 2021 look like for you?

Fingers crossed it will be full of shows! We’re so ready to get gigging again as soon as it’s safe. We’re so excited to play these new songs live and of course, bring back the older ones. P Drones’ album ‘Our Hell Is Right Here’ is out 12th February.

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Riot_

Everything you need to know about...

CHEAP MEAT’S ‘PEOPLE ARE THE WORST’ new album

London trio Cheap Meat are good for unexpected stories, like how they met at a pub quiz hosted by ex-Coronation Street star Martin Hancock (yes, really). With their 18 Upset

debut album now here, Ross Drummond (vocals and guitar) lets us in on a few behindthe-scenes tidbits from their time putting it together.

A lot of life happened

between recording the album and releasing it We made the record back in 2017/2018. Simpler times; Trump, Brexit you know, the classics!

We were geared up to make things happen, but between label partings and life happening, we got waylaid... Matt had two kids, Ross created a

Comedy Label (which is releasing this LP) as well as a successful monthly night, and Pete found success with his Afrobeat hip-hop alter-ego Makola.

What else? Pete got diagnosed as bi-polar and Ross with severe depression and anxiety.

When life calmed down (ok, came to a juddering

“VAN HALEN ARE THE GREATEST ROCK BACK OF ALL TIME” CHEAP MEAT

halt) with lockdown, it gave us the headspace to finally take stock, plan and execute the album on our own terms.

‘November Rain’, ‘Hotel California’, ‘Champagne Supernova’

Pete and I became obsessed with massive, end of album songs, we recorded in Cambridge with Matty Moon (Lonely The Brave) and drove there each day. Whilst driving we’d unpick all the parts from the epic works of ‘November Rain’, ‘Hotel California’ and ‘Champagne Supernova’. A rock band with a key-change AND duelling guitar solos in 2021? You got it!

We blew up an amp that belonged to The Kinks

When it came to recording, I called in all the favours I had with folks over the years, one being with a chap that used to be an engineer at Konk and for Jimmy Page, who happened to own a bunch of gear belonging to the Kinks and Led Zeppelin. I borrowed a Rosewood Fender Tele from the 70s (that I had to insure for 30k) and a Vox

AC30 that belonged to Ray Davies, that I subsequently put a bunch of fuzz pedals through and blew the thing up. Thanks, Steve!

Cheap Meat Book Club

Reading books is cool.

Going back and checking over the lyrics for the album I was reminded of all the books that I read.

Do rock bands have book clubs? We’re starting one. First assignment?

Check out Don DeLillo’s White Noise, Miranda July’s The First Bad Man and David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.

(Which got me kicked out of another book club, I guess I’m the Tommy Lee of the 00s.) Lines and ideas from those books have all snuck their way into the lyrics through the album. See me for more homework. There’s a song that didn’t make the album that I actually got approval from David Foster Wallace’s estate to use a line as a lyric, very cool. Maybe we’ll release it one day.

Bowling with Bob Mould

One of the best and strangest gigs we ever played was when Bob Mould asked us to support him at Brooklyn Bowl (RIP). We got to

drive into the O2 Arena in our VW Golf, bass drum kit firmly on my lap. And park next to two HUGE sleeper coaches that belonged to All Time Low. We then got introduced to Bob Mould who then said, “Nice to meet you guys, I’m off to go bowling”, and then preceded to watch Hüsker Dü legend smash some strikes. Pretty surreal. THEN on the way out, some All Time Low fans thought we were roadies and were sorely disappointed when we didn’t have knowledge of the afterparty. Nor did they want to buy any of our remaining merch.

Gutted.

Van Halen

Van Halen are the greatest rock band of all time. And losing EVH in 2020 absolutely broke my heart. In 2015 I flew to Toronto and spent four figures on a ticket so I could be front row and see my hero, Eddie Van Halen. I dreamt that night that my teeth fell out. According to the internet, that means a significant life moment had occurred. I don’t believe in that nonsense, but I do believe in the power of the mighty Van Halen. I have a (bizarrely) semi-successful podcast about Van Halen. My fandom stretches so much that I wrote a love song about the Late Eddie Van Halen and his now ex-wife Valerie Bertillini. I always want to write these serious, cool, indie rock songs that end up as big dumb pop ones instead. P Cheap Meat’s debut album ‘People Are The Worst’ is out 29th January.

YUNGBLUD has extended his upcoming UK headline tour.

Hitting the road this autumn in support of latest album ‘weird!’, he’ll now also perform at Manchester’s Victoria Warehouse on 8th October, and Birmingham’s Institute on the 15th.

Palm Reader are going to perform their just-dropped new album ‘Sleepless’ in full at a couple of shows later this year. They’ll perform at London’s Garage on 25th November, and Nottingham’s Rescue Rooms on 14th December. “I can’t wait to finally celebrate this release with our fans,” says vocalist Josh McKeown.

All Time Low are going to hit the road for a new UK tour this September, performing five shows - catch them live in the following cities: London (22nd, 23rd September), Manchester (26th), and Glasgow (27th, 28th).

19 UPSETMAGAZ COM Upset 19

About Break_ to

Photo: Rachel Kiki.

EVERYTHING HAPPENING IN ROCK

SPRINTS Ending 2020 with a one-two of startlingly good singles ‘Drones’ and ‘Manifesto’ Sprints offer up a much-needed, totally fresh take on post-punk.

DAINE Billed as the next big thing in emo-pop, 18-year-old Melbourne-based artist Daine has found inspiration in the likes of Code Orange and Basement.

NOAHFINNCE

If full-on, capital letters FUN is something you felt was seriously lacking in 2020, here’s a bright spark of hope for the months ahead. Multiinstrumentalist and pop-punk newcomer NOAHFINNCE - aka Noah Adams to his mates - burst through at the end of last year with his new single ‘Life’s A Bit’, a sassy, irreverent takedown of everything overserious and a bit meh. Inking a new record deal with Hopeless Records, home to Stand Atlantic, Sum 41, The Wonder Years et al, he’s got big things a coming.

When did you first realise you wanted to be a musician?

I’ve always been really into music and, for as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be in a band but that never ended up happening. I think I maybe realised I wanted to be a musician when I was 5 and obsessed with Busted. I asked for a guitar for Christmas. I wanted an electric but ended up getting an acoustic and my friend

“I’VE ALWAYS BEEN DESTINED TO BE A POPPUNK KID” NOAHFINNCE

managed to snap the neck from tightening the tuning screws too much. Didn’t get a guitar again until I was 14 and I’ve been teaching myself the thing since.

What drew you to poppunk?

I first got into pop-punk after a solid two years of ONLY listening to Fall Out Boy - I decided it was time to branch out to more than just one band. I’ve always really liked whiny voices, emo lyrics and loud drums, so I feel like I’ve always been destined to be a pop-punk kid. I wasn’t in the greatest place at school and seeing music videos like [Sum 41’s] ‘Fat Lip’ and [Neck Deep’s] ‘Gold Steps’ where kids would just hang out and piss around with their friends seemed so inviting to me.

Never got to have that until I met my pop-punk friends, haha.

Can you remember the first song you ever wrote?

Yes. Apart from silly little ones I made as a kid, the first song I wrote was called

‘Swimming Alone’, and it was a little song about me and one of my best friends drifting apart. Sent it to my mum and she cried but looking back, it just sounded like I had found a bunch of words that rhymed and made a song out of it.

What do you most enjoy writing songs about?

The majority of my songs are just about how I’m feeling.

I’m not very good at telling people how I feel because I tend to forget an emotion after I’ve felt it, but I find that putting those emotions into song form really helps me figure out how I’m feeling.

It’s therapeutic in a way because I really have to think about how to verbalise what’s going on in my brain, and I guess it helps me understand myself more. I enjoy that even though it can be scary.

How did you start getting your music ‘out there’?

I started my youtube channel to post covers, so my followers always had an

interest in the music-related stuff I was doing. I used to post demos on SoundCloud when I was maybe 16, but they’ve (hopefully, I don’t remember) been deleted. I uploaded my first properly recorded original, Asthma Attack in 2018 and it kinda blew up on Spotify because of the algorithmic playlists, so I’m very grateful for that!

What have been the highlight of your time as a musician so far?

Oh god, there are too many happy moments to talk about. Obviously signing to Hopeless Records was CRAZY to me because I’ve been listening to Hopeless bands since I was teeny.

Everybody at Hopeless has been so great, I was terrified of labels beforehand, but it’s been so positive! Another highlight is the people I’ve met since properly trying to do music. I’ve made some great friends and gotten closer to other friends who really inspire me to keep being creative!

What are your plans for 2021?

I’m not entirely sure how 2021 is gonna pan out because of Covid, but I’m hopefully gonna be able to tour at some point! I’ve never played a live show yet so that will be interesting. Also planning to keep writing and releasing more music, I’m sure 2021 is gonna be busy for me, but I’m excited. P Upset 21

FOR YOU THE MOON

Newly signed to Slam Dunk Records with their lovelorn single ‘Lost Without It’, pop-rock newcomers For You The Moon are bursting into 2021 with bundles of potential and debut EP that’ll be here very soon indeed.

Isaac Cooter (vocals/ guitar), Jordan Balla (guitar), Tim Drucker (bass) and Mike Evans (drums) tell us more.

How did you get together?

Whose idea was it to form a band?

Isaac: We all met on a night out in Leeds, we were all at university at the time.

We’re pretty sure it was at a house party, but it could have just as likely been at a show. I think we were a little intoxicated at the time either way! During the first few years of university, we were all going to loads of gigs watching each other’s bands. We actually used to be in two different bands.

The formation of the band came about after both our respective previous projects died. Myself and Mike were in a band together, and so were Tim and Jordan. We all adored the same kind of music, YMAS, BMTH, Dangerous 22 Upset

Summer. All that kind of vibe, so it made sense to join forces!

Did you know what kind of music you wanted to make right from the start? How did you find your sound?

Isaac and Jordan: As much as I’d love to think that we have found our sound, I think it’s definitely always changing and altering a little. But I reckon that’s what makes making music exciting, right? You don’t know what you’re going to get, I think if there was a straight-up formula for how to make a FYTM song we’d get super bored super quickly! However, when we’re banging our heads against the wall trying to make a song work, I probably wouldn’t say that!

What’s the best thing you’ve done with the band so far?

Isaac and Mike: We all are super happy with how the official music vid for ‘Lost Without It’ turned out. It is the first video we have done as a band, and the end product is something we are super proud of. It does a good job at prefacing the energy you get at an FYTM show; with 2020 panning out the way that it has done we’re all absolutely itching to get back up on a stage.

What do you most enjoy writing songs about?

Isaac: Hahaha, all the guys are looking at me to

“WHO DOESN’T LOVE AN ANGSTY HEARTBREAK BANGER?” ISAAC COOTER

see how I respond to this.

I’d like to say something profound, but yes I do tend to write songs about girls 99.9% of the time. But hey who doesn’t love an angsty heartbreak banger?

How have you found trying to work on material while social-distancing?

Isaac: It has definitely been a challenge for us all.

We all worked in a close environment working on the single ‘Lost Without It’, which we’d finished before lockdown part one came about. I think the most challenging part of lockdown was just staying motivated to write. Most of our songs come from real-life experiences, and when you’re waking up and staring at the same four walls, it doesn’t make for a particularly engaging storyline!

You’re working on your debut EP, right? How’s that going?

Jordan: It is going very well, we’ve been working hard

on getting each track to sound exactly how we want.

We’ve been lucky enough to work with some amazing recording engineers and producers that have really helped us push our music to a whole new level. The issue we have is that our music taste and influences fluctuate so much that we sometimes change our minds on how we want something to sound, but this does benefit the songs as it gives them their own unique vibe. It’s a mismatch of all of our influences throughout the songwriting process.

What else do you have going on at the moment?

Isaac: The lads are all still working full time, but I work in hospitality, so I’ve been furloughed for what feels like forever! It’s been nice to have time to write and still be able to pay my rent at the end of the month. Since releasing ‘Lost Without It’, this huge burst of creativity has come over me, which feels so good. P

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COVER STORY

24 Upset

ARCHITECTS

Architects have already secured their position at heavy music’s top table. With their latest album, they’re letting instinct reign supreme.

Words: Tyler Damara Kelly.

Photos: Ed Mason.

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COVER STORY

How do you decide which direction to go in once you’ve crawled out of rock bottom and reached the pinnacle of your career thus far?

Quite simply, you don’t. Instead, you search for the ability to let yourself to surrender to whatever may happen, and hope that it might just elevate you one step closer to enlightenment on the human condition.

“The only plan with this record was not to have one,

the emotional density that came in the wake of dealing with the death of Dan’s twin brother Tom Searle, in 2016 after a battle with skin cancer; the album is an uncomfortable listen at the best of times, but beneath all of the insurmountable pain is a state of catharsis to be found. Within it all, there’s an underlying sense of hope.

Architects might have been clutching at the remnants of what once was, and struggling to contemplate the possibility of ever being able to continue without their founding member and creative visionary, but it meant that they were able to throw every ounce of energy

“BIFFY WERE SUCH A MASSIVE INSPIRATION TO US” SAM CARTER

as ridiculous as it sounds,” laughs Dan Searle, founding member and drummer of Brighton’s behemoth metalcore band Architects.

“I said to all my guys: when we finish ‘Holy Hell’, let’s just start left-field and, as we go, we can listen back and ask ourselves honestly if it feels like we’ve strayed too far or if it was going to be too alienating, but that never really happened — we never really had to course correct.”

The release of ‘Holy Hell’ saw Architects explore the multitudes of grief, whilst coming to grips with their own mortality and the impermanence of all that is around us. Rooted in 26 Upset

into creating a bruising tribute that solidified the legacy of their brother and bandmate, whilst giving themselves the creative license to put the pieces of the band back together in an entirely new way, which in turn opened more doors than they’d ever thought imaginable.

As Sam Carter’s eviscerating vocals let loose on ‘Dying to Heal’ (“We’re all refusing to feel and yet we’re dying to heal”) in a song that echoes the fateful ambition of Icarus, it also served as a reminder that to get closer to the light, and moments of hope, you must be open to embracing the darkness and accepting that there is an ebb and flow in

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all earthly matters.

In the making of ‘Holy Hell’, Dan became primary songwriter of the band.

Whilst he is grateful to have had the outlet for “free therapy” which ultimately served as reprieve and catharsis from the grieving process, he was unaware of the responsibility that would come from having a such a platform handed to him. “[In the writing process of] ‘Holy Hell’ - I can’t stress how much I didn’t have a clue what I was doing - it was a massive learning curve, and I just felt like I was under so much pressure to figure it out in no time at all,” he says.

“I was trying to communicate the most brutal end of grief in certain songs, and I went back, and it sort of sounds like I’m telling the listener: ‘It’s ok, just kill yourself’. I felt [similarly] about naming the song ‘Dying Is Absolutely Safe’. That’s not really what the family of the suicidal person is going to want to have that person hearing,” he ruminates. “It’s tough, but I feel like that kind of self-censorship is not really conducive to an honest, authentic piece of art either.”

As such, their ninth album ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ sees Dan more at ease in his role as primary songwriter. While he isn’t completely comfortable with having a platform or a voice (“I’m terribly concerned with inadvertently getting myself cancelled or something.

It’s like that’s my real phobia, because I’m a wellintentioned person”), his lyrical style is still critical of the human condition, but from a perspective of trying not to point fingers anywhere other than himself.

“I might write these things in the song, but I don’t necessarily embody Upset 27

COVER STORY

them in my day to day life,” he says earnestly. “The album is contradictory all the time. I constantly hold different sorts of viewpoints on the record, even if it is just in small ways. I accepted that was just the nature of being a human being - you feel different things, day to day. Some days something might really resonate with you, and some days it might not.”

‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ retains the elements of a dichotomy that tackles both mortality and existentialism, but there is also what can only be described as a battle cry for our need to enact environmental change.

Recorded during a period of time where we’ve all been mostly confined to our homes and forced to watch the unravelling of the world around us; it instils and promotes a healthy sense of introspection that we’ve all been needing to address - both within ourselves, and the way we co-exist on a grander scale.

Sonically inhabiting a disparate world from the overwrought, guttural emotional of ‘Holy Hell’; ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ is built on foundations of culpability and aggravated observations as despondency takes hold.

Completely embracing Architects’ endeavours to never make the same album twice, ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ leans into the synthesised and cinematic components that were teased within the Armageddon of ‘Holy Hell’, yet it takes these integral pieces and branches out into a completely different direction.

Over the course of 15 songs, Architects combine elements of orchestral choirs, industrial breakdowns, and shimmering synth-pop 28 Upset

verses in a way that feels monumentally innovative for a band who are over 15 years into their careers.

“The necessity for the evolution was that it had almost gotten too simple; too easy. I don’t think we felt challenged or excited about doing the same [thing] again,” says Dan on the band’s shift into new sonic territory.

Noting that it was something they were hinting at on ‘Holy Hell’, he explains that his interest in “the contrast between really earthy, organic orchestral instruments, and the mechanical synth instrumentation” is because of its ability to capture the essence and feel of a movie soundtrack. For Sam, the band’s ability to make something as grandiose as ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ is something that sets them apart from a lot of other bands, and is a rewarding progression to look back on.

“When I look back at records like ‘Daybreaker’, I think back to how we wished we could’ve had real strings then. Moving [forward] and going into ‘Lost Forever // Lost Together’ we had one guy that would play everything [that would eventually be] layered on top of each other. Gradually we’ve been able to push that budget of recording,” he says. So, does that mean the band are now all rolling in cash and able to splash out a little bit more? “It’s not like we’re all rolling in money at all,” he chuckles matterof-factly, “it’s just that we always put in the maximum amount that we can.”

To reflect on and critique previous albums is something that Architects have been more than vocal about in the past, and understandably so — how else do you expect to grow if you do not pay any attention

to older versions of yourself so that you can learn from your own mistakes?

Following the success of 2009’s ‘Hollow Crown’, the band strayed away from the mathcore/hardcore punk roots of their first three albums and instead ventured into a melodic, almost emo sound. ‘The Here and Now’, when listened to amongst the rest of their back catalogue, comes across more akin to a heavily diluted version of Alexisonfire than it does to anything that Architects had ever created. Though it is somewhat discordant and cacophonous as a full body of work, it does still retain elements of the band

that sit before us today, and is a testament that the journey of an artist is just as important as the concerted thought process that goes into creating their most recent creative ventures.

“I think I was dog shit on ‘Ruin’. Listening to it back, it sounds like someone who doesn’t have a fucking clue what they’re doing, and I didn’t - I was so young!” Sam tells me when I ask about the progression of his vocal style. “My mum always says that I screamed for the first two years when I was born I cried and screamed for two years - then I just stopped, so I guess that was vocal training!”

Having gone from a focus

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on classic hardcore growls to using a combination of vocal fry’s and short false chords; he has become one of the most respected and easily recognisable vocalists in the metalcore

scene, and whilst ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ contains more clean vocals than ever before, (fans of the infamous “BLEGH” might be disappointed to learn that it doesn’t make

an appearance), it seems as though there are no limits to his vocal range.

“Over the years, you get more confident and figure out what works for you,” Sam humbly admits. “I think

“I’M OFTEN JUST TRYING TO MAKE IT THROUGH THE DAY, AND I KIND OF KNOW EVERYONE ELSE FEELS THAT WAY” DAN SEARLE

if you played both records [back to back], most people would be pretty surprised that it was the same singer - or even the same band - but I’m proud of that progression. We were all in a really small studio drinking cans of K Cider because we didn’t have enough money to actually buy a decent amount of drinks, so we would just drink one of them and then be shitted whilst trying to make it work. It’s amazing to look back on that.”

Architects have more than paid their dues, having been through the wild and youthful days of scraping by to make ends meet so that they can cram into a studio and create something that might bring them closer to simply surviving, so that they could feasibly become a prolifically touring band.

All cards on the table: Architects were already planning to have a quiet year, so that they could get on writing a new album.

As it turns out, their plans weren’t completely derailed by the global pandemic, unlike most musicians. As Dan puts it: “It was all very separate – just how The Beatles did it, you know? It was all very modern; very 2020.”

After the making of ‘Holy Hell’, the band realised that being crammed into a studio for a few weeks at a time wasn’t conducive to their mental health, so to be afforded the time and space for making an album during 2020 meant that everybody could simply get on with their jobs. Though, with most ideas shared back and forth via WhatsApp, it was far from the perfect way of collaborating.

Whilst Dan and Josh (Middleton, guitarist) wrote and produced the album together, they didn’t actually get to see each other until after it was Upset 29

COVER STORY

mastered.

“It’s just a strange thing because rock and metal tend to be, historically, about being the same room with each other and getting the vibe [from your bandmates]. That was not the way it was, but truth be told, it never really has been - it wasn’t that much of an adaptation from what we would normally do, it just pushed us a little bit further,” says Dan on the creative limitations of working remotely.

While there were a few constraints in the writing and recording process, the fact that the music industry had essentially been held at a standstill for a few months meant that Architects were afforded the ability to reach out to some of their musical friends and contemporaries for some long-awaited collaborations. The band have given themselves a lot more breathing room for experimentation on ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’, so when each distinctive guest vocalist has their moment on the songs, it’s almost as if you’re stepping into the world of their respective bands. This is something that Dan says is totally by accident: “It really sounds like they were purposely written for them, but that’s not the case.”

Parkway Drive, Biffy Clyro, and Royal Blood have all been influential in members of Architects lives over the years, and it could be said that each of these collaborations were a long time coming.

Sam grew up on the same street as Royal Blood’s drummer Ben Thatcher, in Rustington - a small town of just over 10,000 people.

He recalls the days that they would play gigs at local Scout Huts together, and is incredulous that they’re both in successful bands to this day.

30 Upset

ARCHITECTS

“MOST THINGS WE FEAR ARE BECAUSE WE’RE AFRAID OF DYING ON SOME LEVEL” SAM CARTER

Perhaps one of the most surprising collaborations on the album, for both fans and Architects themselves, is with Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro. ‘Goliath’ is a searing crossover that contains some elements of math rock guitar that each band has respectively slipped into their sound over the years, as well as a symphony of strings that are directly contrasted with Simon’s black metal-inspired screams. Both Dan and Sam amusingly express shock and awe at Simon’s eagerness to jump into recording his vocal takes, and the outcome is a bloodcurdling moment that is sure to appease any old-school Biffy fans.

“Biffy were such a massive inspiration to us when we first started, and still now, but it felt like there was a long time where they weren’t taken as seriously or worshipped as they are now,” Sam begins, as he explains the prominence of having Simon feature on the album. “We’ve done nine records, and for the first five, it felt like no one gave a fuck. Looking at bands like that inspired us to just keep going. We’re not in it to get big, we’re in it to try and make ends meet, be able to stay on tour and create music.”

The connectivity of being a musician and to have an acknowledgement that your music will outlive

your memory is something that Sam thinks about, often. “When we’re gone, and all that’s left are these records and the time and effort you’ve put into the songs, there will be three people and their bands who have been very influential and important to us as musicians, and as friends, and that will just live on,” he muses. “Some kids, like me, listen to loads of records from the 70s and 80s and you’re like: ‘What!? They recorded together - that’s so cool.’ You can hear those friendships, and I love that it’s on paper forever.”

Having supported Parkway Drive on their first-ever London show in 2006 at The Garage, and subsequently toured around the world with them, it’s a surprise that the two bands have never collaborated before. As Winston McCall’s bellowing voice poses the question: “Do you really wanna live forever?” on the song ‘Impermanence’, it’s actually the following statement – “cause those afraid to die will never truly live” – that resonates even deeper, still.

When asked if he recalled the moment those lyrics came to him, his tone grows sombre. “Thematically, it’s still a hangover from ‘Holy Hell’. It’s [about] processing losing Tom and understanding or contemplating mortality – it’s almost become more Upset 31

COVER STORY

relevant this year with the pandemic,” Dan says.

“Most things we fear are because we’re afraid of dying on some level, and a lot of these fears don’t come to fruition. I feel it, certainly in my own life. I see the irrationality of it and how much energy one can waste worrying about whether something might go wrong or you might die. It’s not just some phobia I have; I feel like it’s a very prevalent lowlevel phobia that is common throughout the West.”

It’s almost as though shedding all of the guilt and rage that they possessed on ‘Holy Hell’ has led them to finding introspective acceptance of their mortality and stumbling into a newfound sense of vulnerability along the way.

With this understanding in mind, ‘Flight Without Feathers’ offers the first insight to a languorous and stripped back version of the band. Contemplative and mellow as it contains echoes of past lyrics and comes to terms with hardships enriching life (“nothing’s ever tasted half as good as grief”), it allows the listener to seek solace from the barrage of intensity that ‘Impermanence’ has left in its wake, and truly question what sustains their spirit.

“Doing the acoustic songs felt incredibly taboo for us. This was us trying to be brave and try our hand at something that is totally out of our comfort zone,” contemplates Dan as he assesses the risks that were involved in these songs.

Sam wholeheartedly agrees that these were risky to pull off, but believes that they add depth to the album as a whole: “The thing is, when you’re doing an album that is 15 songs long, there has to be movement,” he admits. “I spend so much time listening to records, and I think about bookends 32 Upset

- finishing one side and turning over to the other.

‘Flight Without Feathers’ in the middle of the record really felt like a moment of: ‘Ok, we’ve hit you with a lot of shit. There’s a lot going on so far; take a minute and digest…’”

In contemplating the journey of the album, and the idea that Architects are moving onto a new chapter in their lives, it’s impossible to overlook the residual energy of ‘A Wasted Hymn’ as the final song on ‘Holy Hell’ being reflected in the hallowed soundscape of ‘Dying Is Absolutely Safe’.

Where the former opens with a litany of “All is not lost”, almost as if trying to convince themselves of something that they cannot see; the latter is complete acceptance of surrendering

to that which cannot be changed.

Dan channels nature and religious iconography to personify the binaries of existence, in the lyrics, with ravens (death, desolation and darkness) invading the scene as doves (hope, love, optimism) all fly away.

It promotes the idea that sedation feels safe because nothing hurts as much as the realisation that you’ve lost the closest thing to you. As a symphony of strings swell around you, and eventually erupt into a state of euphoria when Sam sings: “Death is not my enemy” in quiet defeat, it’s almost as though they’ve reached that enlightened state of catharsis via the sanctified spaces of the instrumentation.

“I think sometimes

space is key. With ‘Dying Is Absolutely Safe’, it was so exciting for us to be able to do something like that after the ‘A Wasted Hymn’ acoustic and the ‘Doomsday’ reprise. It was so cool to know that the songs that are quite full-on can be moved into this soft direction and still sound like us,” Sam says. “It sounds like Sigur Rós come in the room at the end, and it feels so powerful. I think after the record really hitting you with a lot of home truths; the little break in the middle and the easing out at the end is important for the journey of the record.”

It goes without saying that music is universally relatable in terms of catharsis when going through grief or tackling other important subjects

Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett.

ARCHITECTS

such as environmental crises. Where ‘Holy Hell’ was entrenched in so much of that trauma, the album permeated with a sense of being the embodiment of grief, whereas ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ sets its sights on a future that still maintains the possibility for positive change, rather than dwelling on a past that you no longer have control of. It speaks to the notion of fighting for, and choosing to better, your existence.

This inherent sense that everything you do is plagued with the thought of responsibility for making sure our lives are not halflived, but also not lived too richly, because God-forbid we set ourselves up for circumstances that we cannot come back from, lives within the lyrics of

‘Black Lungs’. “Post-love, post-truth, justice lays bound and black-bagged ready for the guillotine. We can all plead guilty when they ask where were you when the Gods clipped the wings of the Phoenix.” In a sense, it permeates the album as a whole.

Was it difficult to set boundaries of responsibility when speaking out on such complex yet universal subjects? Dan retorts that it’s easier to point the finger inward as opposed to pretending that we all have everything figured out. “I wrote this record saying that we should really be saving the planet because we all know it’s dying and we’re all marching towards the edge of the cliff, looking at our phones – I do it too!” he begins.

“Do I put my daughter to bed and start planning my next environmental initiative? No! I sit down and put Netflix on because I’m fucking tired and I want to check out for a bit… I’m often just trying to make it through the day, and I kind of know everyone else feels that way. If I haven’t got myself figured out, how can I figure out saving the planet?

I was trying to express a more honest assessment of why I suppose things are going so awry, from my own perspective, rather than it being a rallying cry for my next political campaign as the Prime Minister of England,” sighs Dan with an air of despondency.

‘Demi-God’ feeds into this notion that we all have an element of selfawareness that we ignore because we find ourselves trapped in the pretence that we put on for the outside world. While some choose to plead ignorance at the steady degradation of our planet, Architects have used their platform over the years to try and highlight

“THIS ENDLESS CONQUERING THE PLANET FOR PROFIT WILL ONLY LAST SO LONG” DAN SEARLE

organisations, both online and at their shows, in order to instil a sense of community that want to enact change.

Sam notes Hunt Saboteurs, Sea Shepherd, Girls Against and Safe Gigs for Women as some of the organisations that give him hope for a better future. “It’s not like we go on stage and I’m like: ‘Right - better put on the Architects frontman coat. It’s time to be eco and try to save everyone’.

This is my life. I want to help as many people as I can,” Sam says defiantly. “I don’t consider it a massive platform, and I don’t think that highly of myself that I can save the world, but I have a small platform that I can use to try and do things to better the world - even if it’s one or two people - if it makes them think differently then that’s a win for me.”

Throughout ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ is an urgent message to be more present to your surroundings and truly feel your way through the world. To go inward and open yourself up to the multitudes of existence is to be open to a better future, and refuse to be complicit in watching the world burn. Architects do not claim to have the answers because there are no simple answers to such complicated questions, but

Dan offers his own opinion on the matter: “I think we all need to introspect. Know ourselves; own up to our flaws; see therapists; take psychedelics – all these other things that help us understand ourselves better. This endless conquering the planet for profit will only last so long,” A disconnect from what makes us human, and truly provokes emotion within us, is something that we’ve all found over the last year or so. With the ability for real connection taken away, we’ve found ourselves increasingly looking for means of escapism through a technological lens which is often detrimental to the connection we have with ourselves. “You have to ask why we divorced ourselves from sanity, logic and reason - we only get like that when we’re out of balance,” Dan continues.

“I feel like our individual psyches sort of coalesce into this mess of irrational behaviour; greed, anger, hatred - none of us want to feel these things; none of us wants to be that way, but yet we continue to do so. Fix our heads and fix the planet – that’s the political campaign motto. That’s what will be behind me on the podium!” P Architects’ album ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ is out 26th February.

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LONELY THE BRAVE

HOPE IS MPOR TANT Returning with a renewed energy and focus after a tumultuous few years, Lonely The Brave are striding out into 2021 with their new album, ‘The Hope List’.

Words: Steven Loftin. Photos: Carla Mundy.

Upset 35

When founding vocalist Dave Jakes parted ways with Lonely The Brave back in 2018 to focus on his mental health, the appointment of Jack Bennett, aka Grumblebee, didn’t come with any sense of servitude.

Instead, the band have become braver. As well as signing to new label Easy Life Records, the current road the five-piece are travelling is one that feels as optimistic and evolved as it does familiar.

The five years between their last outing ‘Things Will Matter’ in 2016 and their new effort ‘The Hope List’ have been filled with life, essentially. With members of the band also working for the NHS, everything boiled down to seeing just where Lonely The Brave would go next.

“Changing singer is a massive thing, and obviously a few bands have done it over the years with varying degrees of success,” bassist Andrew ‘Bush’ Bushen says. “But definitely from those few [early] shows we managed to do - the reaction was amazing. That’s what those shows were all about, letting people know we 36 Upset

were back and a strong live band.”

Referring to the handful of gigs the band managed to play in 2018/19, including Jack’s live debut at London’s Omeara - a moment of trepidation as much as it was a celebration - “it was incredibly important to just to get a reaction from those shows,” Bush continues.

“Recently, it’s been more about social media reaction.

That’s been overwhelmingly positive in terms of the new songs, which is what I was looking forward to seeing.

It’s a different thing from having someone coming in and singing the old songs.

When you put yourself out there with new material, it’s a whole different pressure that you put on yourself.”

His gravelly voice ascending to rapturous moments, Jack slots in neatly as an evolution to Dave’s soaring vocals. A passionate person, even when discussing ‘The Hope List’ - his first with them, the band’s third in total - his voice darts rapidly when describing the production process he helmed.

From the first steps of “trying to impress the band [and] letting them know what I’m hopefully capable of, as opposed to being like ‘Oh, I can sing your songs’” to becoming an embedded component to the band’s process seamlessly by just “sitting back and listening to what we were doing,” according to Bush.

“It was a case of, what are these guys doing, and what can I do to work with it? You know, rather than as a guest,” he affirms. “If we had a fear as a band that would be having to change, or to come out not sounding like Lonely The Brave, which would have been a bit of a disaster and probably wouldn’t have worked.”

Jack adds: “If the band

is on a footing where we don’t have to worry about, ‘oh here’s a new album, it doesn’t sound as good’, all you’re doing is just limiting the number of people actually listening to the song.

“They’d be looking for more problems; whether it be lyrics about something really controversial or something that they don’t care about - we’ve already changed the fucking singer, d’ya know what I mean?

Give us a fucking chance!’”

Lyrically, ‘The Hope List’ finds itself skulking around the same arena as the previous Lonely The Brave releases - lamentations of epic proportions, be they romantic, personal or just observational. On returning single ‘Bound’, Jack mentions he wrote the words with the band’s debut single ‘Backroads’ in mind. “Like a big open arms thing,” he excitedly says.

“I was thinking, I’ve got to come up with something with vocals that sounds like that - past that point, I don’t really care.”

That’s not to say Jack is phoning it in by any stretch. The passion that flows elegantly through the Lonely The Brave modus operandi stems from the heart, so for Jack to transition in completely, the most obvious move was to apparently dig into whatever bubbled to the surface during the process since he had some things to get off his chest anyway.

“For me, personally, when I listen to music, I listen to people’s lyrics. I love that side of it,” Jack says. “But especially with the way the Dave wrote stuff, there are so many metaphors and stuff going on, and so many weirdly archaic wordings and really strange kind of poetry. That was always a bit like, ‘oh this sounds incredible’, but if I

tried to emulate anything like that - one, I would come off as pretentious straight off the bat, because I don’t have that level of, not even just interest, but a passion to sing words like that.”

“The important thing with lyrics is it comes from the heart - it comes from experience,” Bush adds.

Those passionate fans, the kind who can make or break a new member, have all clambered aboard the Lonely The Brave Jack is fronting, due, in part, to Jack’s ability to strip away those pretences and to offer up himself as a new chapter.

‘The Hope List’ itself is just that; Lonely The Brave processing the musical and lyrical output that’s come to the surface and managing to eke out a vision of hope - if you look close enough, you’ll find victory waiting.

With no discernible overarching topic, getting to the point of figuring out just what ‘The Hope List’ represented was a journey itself. Lyrics referencing animal rights and going allin on your beliefs, coming from the sort of person who feels like he’s a “happy person most of the time.

I don’t really get sad too often, and if I do, I just tend to write a big emo track.”

“That fits in nicely with the Lonely The Brave thing because we always thought we wrote really miserable music, and then somehow ended up sounding quite hopeful,” Bush laughs.

“They probably came from a miserable place to start with. It’s definitely a theme that runs through the band!”

“Hopefully it’s like the happiest album anyone’s ever heard!” Jack chuckles.

They can chuck that on the hope list, then. P Lonely The Brave’s album ‘The Hope List’ is out 22nd January.

LONELY THE BRAVE

“WE ALWAYS THOUGHT WE WROTE REALLY MISERABLE MUSIC, AND THEN SOMEHOW ENDED UP SOUNDING QUITE HOPEFUL” ANDREW ‘BUSH’ BUSHEN

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LANDE HEKT

Muncie Girls’ Lande Hekt is going it alone for what might just be her most personal record yet.

Words: Linsey Teggert. Photos: @gingerdope.

“I want it to be clear that this is a queer project and make it about being a queer artist.

I really want coming out to be the main theme of the album.”

Muncie Girls’ Lande Hekt has never been one to shy away from sharing personal experiences via her songwriting. Known for her candid and relatable lyrics, her debut solo album and first release as an outwardly gay person, ‘Going to Hell’ is her most honest offering to date.

“Basically, I couldn’t help it, even if I’d tried to make a record that wasn’t about

coming to terms with being gay, it would have been about that,” explains Lande.

“Even if it’s not the main topic, a lot of the songs are about either coming out or looking back to times when I was trying to pretend to be straight.”

“Though I’m not coming out late in life (I’m still in my 20s), I’ve been in a band publicly and not known I was gay, so I wanted to

do this in the best way I can - by writing songs so I can be totally open about it and hoping that some people will be able to relate.

I’ve always written super personal things, there’s a song on the last Muncie Girls record, ‘Jeremy’, that was a big fuck you to my dad who I hadn’t spoken to in ten years! That was slightly terrifying, but this was more exciting than Upset 39

scary.”

True to her confessional style, the first single from her debut and also the album opener ‘Whiskey’ sees Lande immediately address the realisation that pretending you’re not gay can’t go on forever.

Starting intimately with a simply strummed guitar, the track builds into a delicate euphoria, ending with the repetition of the line “the feeling of not having to pretend.” It’s a celebratory introduction to the record’s theme of self-acceptance and all the vulnerabilities that are laid bare along the path to finding freedom.

“I knew I was gay when I was a lot younger, but I did some serious work to try and bury that when I was a teenager. It was very easy to do it because I wanted to be straight so badly. I had this sort of internalised homophobia, I thought being gay was a bad thing.

It took nearly ten years of being in the punk scene and hanging out with queer people to realise that this is the coolest thing ever, that I do want to accept this part of myself!”

“It feels like the alternative music scene is on more of the right track now, there’s been a massive uprising of queer artists and support for queer artists, so I didn’t doubt that there would be support. I’ve always wanted to be part of the queer punk scene as I admire it so much, but I’ve never been brave enough to deal with my own shit to be able to warrant being a part of it.”

“Of course, it’s easy for people who are involved in the alternative music scene to romanticise it all and assume that everyone is forward-thinking and there’s so much unity, but there are obviously still a lot of problems when it comes to homophobia. That just 40 Upset

makes it more important that there are more queer musicians and that we’re more visible and louder.”

If it wasn’t for the support of other awesome humans in the punk scene, we might not be experiencing Lande’s stunning solo work.

When she released her first solo EP, ‘Gigantic Disappointment’, in November 2019, there was simply an online release with no expectations and

in February 2020, so we thought, let’s just make an album because, why not?!”

While Lande admits that there’s something gloomy about recording in the cold of England which works well with her music, recording in Australia with koala bears in the trees next to the studio is certainly a much more exciting prospect. Though COVID-19 restrictions almost scuppered plans, the lack of time constraints due to working in Ben’s home

people are listening and we’re a group of people pushing a message, so I feel I’m in more of a position to be saying more political stuff in general, whereas this is much more personal.”

One thing that both projects have in common, is a sense of hope and positivity that shines through even in darker moments, and with ‘Going to Hell’, Lande wants the listener to know she is so much happier.

“THERE’S BEEN A MASSIVE UPRISING OF QUEER ARTISTS AND SUPPORT FOR QUEER ARTISTS” LANDE HEKT

no label. Lande had planned to release ‘Going to Hell’ in the same way, until chats with the Philadelphiabased, queer-run Get Better Records led to plans for a physical release. In fact, if it wasn’t for Muncie Girls’ friendship with Australian band The Hard Aches, we may not have been blessed with ‘Gigantic Disappointment’ to begin with.

“I was staying in Australia a little bit longer after one of the Muncie Girls tours, and I decided to record some of the solo songs I’d written with Ben from The Hard Aches in his home studio in the Adelaide Hills. We’d made great friends with the band through touring and tour swaps. I had the opportunity to record with him again

studio suited Lande as a solo musician, allowing her to play pretty much every part of every track.

“With Muncie Girls, we plan things because we have to: there are three of us, four when playing live, plus a manager and booking agent. Everyone needs to fit to a schedule, or it doesn’t work, whereas there’s no pressure to plan anything when it’s just me. I definitely don’t enjoy restrictions of time, it gets in the way of creativity.”

In taking a step back from Muncie Girls’ anthemic blend of power-pop and punk in favour of a gentler sound, ‘Going to Hell’ allows Lande more room for introspection. “The main difference is the themes of the songs. With Muncie Girls, I’m aware that more

“I’m definitely a happier person being more open.

One of the things about my experience was the fact that I actually got sober over three years ago, and it wasn’t until I’d been sober for a while that I started to accept that I was gay. I feel way happier, and I don’t know what part of that is being gay and what part of that is being sober! For me, they’re both the same thing - I’m not able to just drink and ignore things about myself anymore.”

“This is exactly what I want to be doing right now: playing music as a queer artist with other queer artists, being more open and supporting something I actually believe in.” P Lande Hekt’s debut solo album ‘Going to Hell’ is out 22nd January.

LANDE HEKT

Upset 41

What’s that, new music from Frank Iero you say? Go on then.

HEAVE SEN Words: Alex Bradley.

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EN NT

FRANK IERO

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FRANK IERO

everyone knows it, and then also we’re gonna be at BBC, and we’re gonna cover The Beatles! How could you get just more cocky and ridiculous?!? It’s very much my MO to do the thing that scares the shit out of me,” he adds.

But, the magic of that cover is brought by Kayleigh Goldsworthy whose mandolin takes charge before her backing vocals haunt the later choruses in the track. The plans for recording the ambitious cover date back to 2017 when Frank first resumed touring following the nearfatal accident he and his bandmates in The Patience suffered in Sydney the year previous. The band, lucky to be alive, toured with Dave Hause’s group The Mermaid with whom Kayleigh played guitar, and from there she and Frank hit it off with their shared love for R.E.M and the song they’d first cover in a stairwell in San Francisco on the last night of that tour.

Now, with Kayleigh Goldsworthy as a fullyfledged member of The Future Violents, releasing the cover was about representing the ragtag nature of this band and the opportunities that are made for Frank through his many reincarnations in different bands.

‘Losing My Religion’ went from “a no, and I would never even go near it” to an iPhone notes recording to being released thanks to Frank’s determination to eventually work with almost all the friends he’s made over years as a touring musician.

“That’s the great thing about touring and meeting fellow artists and musicians and people that are on the same wavelength as you,” he starts with a detectable note of yearning in his voice; lamenting a year where he has been little more than a homeschooler to his kids,

dog Dad and turtle rescuer.

“It often happens with friendships, but I think it’s a whole different level when artists meet other real artists, and you kinda pass by each other. Because the touring community really is not that big, we kinda all know of each other and what’s going on in everyone else’s business so when you meet the real ones you hold them close, and that’s how really I think this whole band came about.’

‘With knowing Tucker [Rule of Thursday] for so many years and Matt [Armstrong of Murder By Death] of course, I met both those guys back in 2001 and back then the seed was planted that “oh I would love to write music with these guys, how cool would that be.” And so, just do the thing that you’ve always wanted to do, don’t wonder, do it and fail at it because at least if you fail at it, you’ll know. I think the idea of never knowing and always wondering or wishing is the killer.”

With the R.E.M cover justified with not a new lease of life but rather a Frank Iero special dose of melancholy weighted on top of it, the EP reaches otherworldly heights with the epic, soaring, finale of reductively titled ‘Record Ender’.

The track is the “alternate ending” to ‘Barriers’; the song emotionally married to the actual record ender ‘24 K Lush’. “I had to kind of split them, it was one of those where “this record ain’t big enough for the two of ‘em,” Frank comments.

It’s essential to know that the tracks for ‘Heaven Is A Place, This Is A Place’ are not the B-Sides, the trimmed fat or even the leftovers to wipe the slate clean again for Frank Iero. Instead, they’re the remnants of what could have been a

“IT’S VERY MUCH MY MO TO DO THE THING THAT SCARES THE SHIT OUT OF ME” FRANK IERO

double album from The Future Violents but time was against them as they headed to Electrical Audio Studio in Chicago when making ‘Barriers’.

“I genuinely think if we had the luxury of more time, there would have been at least another 5-10 songs,” Frank reveals. “We didn’t stop writing because we ran out of inspiration, we just ran out of time.”

With producer Steve Albini, the band recorded 17 songs in 13 days at “breakneck speed” Frank remembers. From there, his artistic vision and borderline obsessive-compulsive tendencies to make a 12 track album worked to whittle down what was recorded.

“I kinda had to allow myself the extra two [tracks], I felt like the record deserved it,” he confesses, and ‘Barriers’ became the 14 track album we’ve come to know.

And that means, once ‘Heaven Is A Place, This Is A Place’ is released in mid-January then every song The Future Violents have ever made is out in the public domain. So, what next? “I don’t know. I really don’t,” is his answer.

“I know I’m hungry to do more, to write more and do something else. There are a couple of little projects I’m working on at the moment, who knows what or if they’ll turn into anything?” he

continues.

Having already transformed from andthe cellabration to The Patience and, now, The Future Violents, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to imagine another iteration of the Frank Iero solo series is beginning to chrysalis.

Teasing, seemingly tethered to the liberation that has been The Future Violents where there were no rules but to do the unexpected, he adds, “I think the idea of a trilogy is really nice. I feel like it’s kind of classy and classic, but for me, I have a weird superstition about numbers and things of that nature, and I don’t like to leave odd numbers of things.”

So it would have to be another album and EP then? Or even another two albums? “Weirder things have happened, but we’ll see how it goes. I definitely have some stuff,” he replies, less convincingly.

In truth, the release of something new for Frank Iero and The Future Violents may also signal the end too but in no way does that seem to phase the singer.

“It’s nice to have that clean slate you can go anywhere you want from here, even if maybe what you want to do is just shut up. I think the future is yet to be written, so we’ll see.” P Frank Iero’s EP ‘Heaven Is A Place, This Is A Place’ is out now.

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PUNCH

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YOU ME AT SIX

HER’S

CHANCE Seven albums deep, and You Me At Six are still pulling out surprises - their bold new record ‘SUCKAPUNCH’ sees them once again embracing change.

Words: Steven Loftin. Photos: Katy Cummings, Daniel Harris.

Upset 47

Ever since their beginnings back in the hazy early ‘10s, You Me At Six have dug their heels into doing whatever they want - and the Surrey five-piece are here still with gritted teeth, determination and experimentation, just for the love of music.

“We’re not trying to steer clear of the past in a negative way,” frontman Josh Franceschi explains of their ever-expanding sound, particularly on seventh outing ‘SUCKAPUNCH’. “It’s more just that we don’t want to repeat ourselves. We see that as a healthy challenge.”

And You Me At Six are more than up for the challenge. They’re ready to carry on proving they can be more than just ‘that band MySpace pop-punk band’; they’re in this for the long haul. Referring to the new, wider-genre reaching sounds like a “crosspollination”, Josh recognises the band want to ensure that they “have our place in that”.

After going through simultaneous romantic breakups, and then relocating to Thailand to record ‘SUCKAPUNCH’ (“everybody wanted to get out of London, and England in particular”), the resulting collection of songs is You Me At Six as you’ve never heard them before. Well, almost.

“I think fundamentally you have to keep it interesting for your audience, you know, old and new,” Josh says. “Sometimes 48 Upset

you can shake a stigma that surrounds your music and your band and just try and do something different.”

That difference comes in the form of similarly biting guitars, while Josh’s vocals are snarling and finding vicious new temperaments still housing that same melodic deliverance. But it’s the ready mix of electronic elements - beats that thunder and pulsate, even

occasionally smoothing proceedings - that give ‘SUCKAPUNCH’ a bang up-to-date edge without feeling too trite, and just like its title, delivering a swift one-two to naysayers of this band of mainstays.

“We had to figure out what You Me At Six was going to mean, not just to us, but to people who listened to the band in 2020, and now 2021,” he

says. “It was something we were quite open about - the desire and the reasoning for keep making music, as it were, other than the fact that we love each other, and we love making music together. What would be the purpose and the point in putting out You Me At Six music?”

It’s not as if You Me At Six haven’t been making edges toward challenging

YOU ME AT SIX

“EVERY STEP OF OUR JOURNEY HAS BEEN NECESSARY - THE GOOD AND THE BAD” JOSH FRANCESCHI

expectations. Over the years they’ve expanded from their Americanised pop-punk beginnings, into bonafide penners of fully-charged rock sounds, and dabbling in collaborations with a pre-mainstream Bring Me The Horizon, and even 00s rap one-and-done wonder Chiddy Bang. “Our label were like ‘are you sure you really want to be doing that?’” Josh says of the

latter. “But we didn’t second guess what we were doing.”

Ever the keen one to give an understanding of what they’ve been through, Josh describes the years of You Me At Six building to this point as: “There’s not too much that anybody can say to us that we haven’t heard already. When it comes to making music now, we’re not 50 Upset

really in a position where you feel too disturbed by any sort of outside influence.”

“I think it’s important to know where you’ve been to kind of have an understanding about where you can go as well,” Josh considers of he and the band’s outlook. “I always enjoy that process and in

respecting that nothing’s changed about You Me At Six. There’s a lot of similarities to me as a lyricist from when I was 16 and writing the songs, and to now - the way I am and how I feel.”

Given he and the rest of the band are now in their thirties, they’ve all grown as You Me At Six figuratively

and literally. Josh reckons he can “see the evolution” but recognises that “to some people, we’re always going to be one thing.”

“Then there are new people that are discovering the band now,” he says. “I think rock music as a whole is in a really interesting place where the whole idea, and the things that we used

YOU ME AT SIX

think that’s a really exciting thing to be part of.”

Even the flack You Me At Six received in their early days for daring to look to heavier or even completely different genres has helped them grow to the point of being fearless in touching new territory.

“When we collaborated with Bring Me The Horizon on by ‘Bite My Tongue’ - at the time, Bring Me weren’t the band they are now, they were still very much solidified in a metal/ hardcore scene - and us collaborating with them or Winston [McCall] from Parkway Drive... I remember when Your Demise had me sing on one of their songs.

an appreciation of good music and haven’t worried too much about what would be expected from our quoteunquote ‘lane’.

“Whether that’s from our peers, or the industry I think that’s really important, and should be celebrated. Music should be celebrated as long as it tells the story that is worth listening to.”

And that’s what You Me At Six are trying to do with ‘SUCKAPUNCH’ - they’re celebrating. Not just their music, but that which they also love and seek solace or escapism in. The next chapter beckons, no matter what came before.

“Every step of our journey has been necessary

“EVERYTHING WE’VE DONE HAS LED TO THE POSITION WE’RE IN NOW” JOSH FRANCESCHI

to go through as a band when it came to putting music together; how you’ve got to stay in your lane and if you’re part of that scene that’s your band sort of thing.”

The tribalistic aspect of music has certainly caved in as the internet has taken hold and burst open the doors to genre expectation

and understanding.

“You’ve just got to look at what some of the younger generations as they’re coming through now,” Josh says. “I think it’s creating an environment in which there’s a tribal cross-pollination between different genres, different themes and different kinds of cultures within the music, and I just

The way that their fans reacted... a lot of them were like, ‘What the fuck are you lot doing, why have you got baby voice in You Me At Six singing on your record - he’s in a pop-punk-emo-poprock band!?’”

But ever the stringent optimist Josh declares: “We’ve never really been transfixed on what others are needing from us. It’s more about what we need from ourselves.”

It all boils down to being fearless. He mentions the “MySpace generation”, of which You Me At Six, along with Enter Shikari and Bring Me, according to Josh, are some of the few still around. “[It’s] because we’ve all had

- the good and the bad.”

Josh summarises. “I always find the question of ‘what would you do differently if you could go back in time’, a really interesting one, whether it be personally, in my life, or with the band.

I’m always saying nothing because everything that’s happened has happened for a reason.”

“The fact is, everything we’ve done has led to this position we’re in now.

I’m sure that things that happened 10 years ago without knowing the reason are why we are who we are and where we’re at right now.” P You Me At Six’s album ‘SUCKAPUNCH’ is out now.

Upset 51

Rated_ THE OFFICIAL VERDICT ON EVERYTHING

YOU ME AT SIX SUCKAPUNCH eeeee It’s hard to come at 2021 with the same outlook that would have been in place just twelve months ago. Optimism replaced with frustration, happy thoughts swapped in for despair, vitriol and anger. Even the best of us - those with the sunniest of dispositions - have felt the pressure of nearly a year of lockdowns, restricted lives and missed opportunity. It changes us.

Why such a doom-laden scene-setting? Well, You Me At Six have changed too. It’s fair to say that over their last few albums, a band who once sat at the front of a UK pop-rock invasion shifted progressively more towards the mainstream.

Often drifting away from their roots, individual perspectives will dictate on if that was moved as smart evolution or a watering down of what 52 Upset

made them great. One thing that isn’t up for debate - their latest full-length is a record with teeth.

From the opening gut-punch of ‘Nice To Me’, there’s no mistaking You Me At Six for MOR unit shifters. Nor does this feel like a band not taking risks.

Yelping in a way reminiscent of math-rock titans Foals, it’s a wild turn left on the wheel, glued tight to a chorus that sings loud and direct.

Title-track ‘Suckapunch’ throbs with the lost energy of now empty clubs, all strobing lasers and pulsing potential, while closer ‘What It’s Like’ finds fertile ground in modern, front-foot focused industrial alt-pop.

Times may be hard, but with enough pressure, the odd diamond might be formed.

This time around, You Me At Six shine bright. .Stephen Ackroyd

BLACK HONEY WRITTEN & DIRECTED

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Black Honey are reborn.

Their 2018 self-titled debut was a stellar introduction bathed in glamour; its follow-up, ‘Written & Directed’ is a cinematic collection that sees the Brighton four-piece bolder than ever before. With the title inspired by Tarantino classics, it has a hedonistic and retro feel, demanding attention and packed full of theatrics. ‘Run For Cover’ is a standout, a quintessential Black Honey banger that’s rough and ready, driven by dirty hooks and a cut-throat chorus.‘Disinfect’ leads the final act; the heaviest song they’ve done to date, it’s loaded with as much fuzz and grunge as you can handle, while still Black Honey through-and-through.

Influenced by grindhouse cinema, female cinematic representation and kitschy pulp films, with ‘Written & Directed’, Black Honey continue to prove themselves. Jasleen Dhindsa

CHEAP MEAT

PEOPLE ARE THE WORST

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People are the worst?

If we’re playing with obvious statements, here’s another: Cheap Meat’s debut album is great. Created in the hellscape haze of broken discourse, polarised opinion and all-out culture war, it’s a juxtaposition of heavy lyrical content and a super-sonic fun house. With the slacker crunch of power pop titans, there are echoes of Weezer or Jimmy Eat World to be heard. Even the most

difficult periods are allowed a moment of triumph.

Stephen Ackroyd

FRANK IERO AND THE FUTURE VIOLENCE HEAVEN IS A PLACE, THIS IS A PLACE EP

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A companion to 2019’s ‘Barriers’, Frank Iero and co’s brand new EP is a release of two halves. Leading on the front foot with sharp teeth, and finishing up with delicate heart, there’s even room for a cover of REM’s ‘Losing My Religion’. While Iero’s 2020 may not have gone exactly as we so excitedly expected twelve months ago, gems like this remain a welcome comfort.

Dan Harrison

GOAT GIRL ON ALL FOURS

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Having previously found lyrical inspiration in the grime and dirt of everyday life, now it is the entire western world that falls under Goat Girl’s unblinking gaze. Themes of gentrification, homelessness, anxiety, depression, the damage and destruction wrought by generations of climate change denial run through each and every track. In the hands of a less surefooted band, the weightiness of these huge issues could easily overwhelm a record, but Goat Girl carry them deceptively lightly on a record that shows a stratospheric leap forward in sound. While it may not be as immediate and inyour-face as the debut, ‘On

All Fours’ is a record that hits harder and holds infinitely more weight behind it. Jamie MacMillan

HOSPITAL BRACELET

SOUTH LOOP SUMMER

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There’s a strange trope in music that paints summer as a time of joy; there’s little rose-tinted reminiscence on Hospital Bracelet’s biting ‘South Loop Summer’, however. Throughout, Eric Christopher tackles topics such as relationships, loneliness, sobriety and abuse with unflinching candour. These may be emo staples, but don’t expect any angsty melodrama here. For all the positive feelings conjured by a sunny Chicago, ‘South Loop Summer’ is less coming of age drama, more psychological horror. It might make for a difficult listen, but these Tales from The Loop demand to be heard. Rob Mair

LANDE HEKT GOING TO HELL

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Taking time out from fronting Muncie Girls, Lande Hekt continues to refine the empathetic, brutally honest songwriting that made her name. Her first solo fulllength, ‘Going To Hell’ finds the singer opening her diary to share stories of isolation, anxiety and coming to terms with sexual identity. The songwriting tics will be familiar to fans of Muncie Girls but are given a more considered approach here, guitars not needing to battle for attention and rather grounding Lande’s stream of consciousness lyrics. The

title-track snarls at religious conservatism, ‘80 Days of Rain’ expresses pity for the wildlife being obliterated by climate change, and standout ‘Whiskey’ casts around for answers to the weight of it all. Lande Hekt is becoming one of punk’s vital songwriters. Dillon Eastoe

LICE

WASTELAND: WHAT AILS OUR PEOPLE IS CLEAR

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LICE’s debut album ‘Wasteland’ stirs to life with an original brand of art-punk that quickly explodes into a dystopian soundscape.

Paired with their lyric pamphlet, the album acts as the score to a profound allegory for the power of music over ideologies. It’s a musical satire about satire in music. Without the accompanying text, ‘Wasteland’ still has a unique, jagged punk approach that makes for immersive listening. The message can be hard to decipher at times when the narrative gets caught up in its own lore, but that seems to be the point, highlighting music’s inability to convey more than a chorus worth of ideology. It’s an experience to listen to the sinister, demented vibe that LICE have tapped in to.

Connor Fenton

LOKOY

BADMINTON

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Sløtface bassist Lasse Lokoy has traded his usual punk rock for something altogether more experimental. His debut solo album, ‘Badminton’ features snippets from a real conversation with an LA

Uber driver in a move reminiscent of The 1975’s ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ (‘[weak soup]’, ‘[freaking disaster]’), deceptively dark subjects like his complex relationship with his father (‘badminton’) and the strain sickness has put on a close friendship (‘limbo’), plus numerous collaborations. Each artist brings a different flavour; Emilie Østebø lends gentle vocals to toe-tapper ‘a mistake’, while Safario helps single ‘both eyes’ buzz with infectious energy.

‘Badminton’ is for sure a worthwhile prospect for electronic-pop devotees.

Kelsey McClure

LONELY THE BRAVE THE HOPE LIST

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For an established band to switch singers is no easy task, but Lonely The Brave are hurtling forwards with new vocalist Jack Bennett.

Recorded at weekends when day jobs and family life permitted, ‘The Hope List’ finds the band surging back and sounding invigorated by the hardships they’ve overcome. ‘Bound’ is a vintage track that should assuage any fans worrying that they’ll have lost their way between records and frontmen. Rather than try and ape Dave Jakes’ booming vocal and lyrical idiosyncrasies, Bennett offers a leaner approach, with melody first and foremost, the rhythm section proving a formidable engine no matter who takes the spotlight of the mic stand. Mark Trotter’s chiming guitar lines still take the songs to stratosphere, the choruses of ‘Distant Light’ soaring in trademark fashion. It’s good to have you back, guys. Dillon Eastoe

TEEN CREEPS FOREVER

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Teen Creeps get the job done on their second album, ‘Forever’. The job, of course, was to masterfully craft a 90s alt-rock inspired sound filled with walls of guitar, rambunctious percussion and fearlessly impassioned vocals. The record blasts open with a sprinting start that rarely stops to take a breath. A steady stream of fast-paced, grungy rhythm and unstoppable drums makes the album seem like a soundtrack for rebellion, dying to be played at full volume while thrashing your body in dance. Teen Creeps have made an album that stays true to its alt-rock roots with little need for bells and whistles. Connor Fenton

VIAGRA BOYS WELFARE JAZZ

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‘Welfare Jazz’ sees Swedish misfits Viagra Boys put a Hollywood slant on furious guitars, gilding their brawling, disordered sound with the sordid grace of early MGM pictures. When Sebastian Murphy drawls “Jesus Christ I feel alive”, it’s uplifting, and when he paints a picture of riding off into the sunset, it’s hard not to really believe in him. The whole record deftly alternates between seismic, spasming punk and silver screen beauty, rounded up with a dose of Americana longing to complete its charm and eclecticism. It’s more than the bloodied grin of post-punk; behind the rough exterior, notes of romance hide in every grunt and wail.

Edie McQueen Upset 53

EVERYONE HAS THOSE FORMATIVE BANDS AND TRACKS THAT FIRST GOT THEM INTO MUSIC AND HELPED SHAPE THEIR VERY BEING. THIS MONTH, LAURAN HIBBERD TAKES US THROUGH SOME OF THE SONGS THAT MEANT THE MOST TO HER DURING HER TEENAGE YEARS.

WITH... LAURAN HIBBERD AVRIL LAVIGNE My Happy Ending

This was probably my teenage theme tune. Avril was my world; I remember asking the hairdresser to cut my hair like hers. I used to listen to this song on the way to school every morning. It made me feel super alternative and cool, but I was 100% the opposite of that.

BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB Shuffle

A teenage MUST back in the day. I just remember it being cool to like it and I used to air play my Argos guitar in the mirror to it at home because I just really was that teenager. I was a die-hard indie 14-year-old.

BON IVER Holocene

Really a turning point for me; I remember wanting to cry on the bus home, but I had to wait until I got into my room. At the time, I convinced myself it changed my life, and then I became obsessed with folk.

LANA DEL REY Video Games

Like the bible for teenage girls (or at least it was).

I remember becoming obsessed with being a singer at this point. I used to dance around my room in obnoxious dresses and sing it to any family member that would listen. I am just that overdramatic.

BEST COAST Boyfriend

This was on repeat for me as a teenager. I remember 54 Upset

thinking I’d never really heard anything like it before but really I just always had terrible boy band syndrome until then. I was sort of at the age when boys stopped have cooties, and I actually wanted to roll up my skirt and wear lipstick.

power’ and probably intro’d me into being a little less weak and easily influenced as a younger girl. I wanted to really be in a band at this point. (Cough cough, a girl band.)

THE TING TINGS Shut Up and Let Me Go

Basically the whole ‘Dookie’ album was a teenage discovery for me. It was when I started learning to play guitar, and found myself being taught Green Day tracks by my guitar teacher

This was probably my most played song of 2008. I used to just walk around like I was queen after listening to this. Think it felt super ‘girl

GREEN DAY Basket Case

before instantly obsessing over everything they had ever done. I legit thought I was punk.

LUCY ROSE Middle of the Bed

This was a music college staple. I loved folk music at the time and was amazed at how she made it seem cool.

(Folk music is cool, just not when you’re in a room of diehard Foals fans.) I met her at Bestival the year after and I got the picture framed haha, she’s sick! P

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