D ISRUP T THE NOISE J U N E 2018
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“I’M STILL HERE ” THE FEVER 333
BIG UPS
QUIET SLANG
NOW, NOW
THE WORD ALIVE
THE REGRETT ES
OF MICE & MEN
“THERE’S A VAST, UNEXPLORED ROAD IN FRONT OF ME”
ISSUE 33 JUNE 2018
MIKA SHINODA, P.24
UPSETMAGAZINE.COM EDITOR: Stephen Ackroyd (stephen@upsetmagazine.com) DEPUTY EDITOR: Victoria Sinden
(viki@upsetmagazine.com)
ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Ali Shutler
(ali@upsetmagazine.com)
CONTRIBUTORS: Alex Thorp,
Chris Taylor, Dan Harrison, Danny Randon, Dillon Eastoe, Jack Press, Linsey Teggert, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin
PHOTOGRAPHERS: Nathan Roach, Sarah Louise Bennett All material copyright (c). All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of The Bunker Publishing Ltd. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of Upset or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally. PUBLISHED FROM
W E LCO M E TOT H E B U N K E R.CO M
DEAR READER,
THIS MONTH RIOT!
4 DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 12 PETAL 13 COMING UP 14 THE WORD ALIVE 16 BIG SCARY MONSTERS 17 FANGCLUB 18 ROLO TOMASSI 19 PLAYLIST
ABOUT TO BREAK 20 THE REGRETTES 22 INTECHNICOLOUR 23 WOES
FEATURES
24 MIKE SHINODA
32 BIG UPS 34 CANCER BATS 36 THE FEVER 333 40 QUIET SLANG 42 NOW, NOW
RATED
45 COURTNEY BARNETT 46 CHVRCHES 47 DREAM STATE 48 CANCER BATS
LIVE
49 THE WONDER YEARS
TEENAGE KICKS
It’s just over a year ago since we welcomed Mike Shinoda to the cover of Upset for the first time as part of Linkin Park. Since then, obviously, a lot has changed - especially following the tragic passing of bandmate Chester Bennington. It’s something which obviously plays a huge factor in Mike’s decision to deliver his first solo album under his own name. Dealing with his thoughts, feelings and processes through his art, we’re happy to have him back. STEPHEN ACKROYD, EDITOR
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ING IN RO CK. EVE RYT HIN G HAP PEN
ON THE
THE HIGHLIGHT OF JUNE’S ROCK CALENDAR, DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL IS BACK FOR ANOTHER YEAR OF THE LOUDEST MUSIC, THE MESSIEST MOSH PITS AND SOME OF THE BEST BANDS AROUND. AND SO, WE’VE HARASSED A FEW OF OUR FAVES - FROM PARKWAY DRIVE TO MILK TEETH, FROM THE FAIM TO YOU ME AT SIX - TO ANSWER A FEW QS ABOUT THIS YEAR’S EVENT, WHICH RUNS FROM 8TH-10TH IN DONINGTON. IT’S GOING TO BE A GOOD ‘UN. 4 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM
PARKWAY DRIVE WINSTON MCCALL
HI WINSTON, ARE PARKWAY DRIVE READY FOR FESTIVAL SEASON THEN?
No! How can you ever be ready for festival season? Isn’t the idea of festivals being spontaneous and all that stuff? We are preparing as best we can, but we have one hell of a show for this festival season so we are still tinkering around the edges making sure we can pack everything we can into those gigs. We are really looking forward to it. WHAT’S YOUR TOP TIP FOR SURVIVING A SUMMER SPENT IN FIELDS AND ON THE ROAD?
Sunscreen and water. Also, grass is more comfortable than you think so you can always take a nap on the grass in the shade. DO YOU HAVE ANY FOND MEMORIES OF PREVIOUS DOWNLOADS?
OH YEAH. Download was the first UK festival we ever played, and at that point in time, we didn’t even know what Download was and when we walked out on stage it was the biggest thing we had ever seen and that was at 2pm on the second stage. The last time we played, we played in the rain and we were able to use Muse’s catwalk so I got to slide down the catwalk in the rain while everyone say along to ‘Wild Eyes’ and we got to play Vice Grip for the first time and watch it level all of Donington, so we have some very good memories. WHICH BANDS ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING THERE THIS YEAR?
I am looking forward to seeing Guns n’ Roses! That’s it! I can look forward all the other bands in the world, but I’ve never seen Guns n’ Roses and the fact we get to play on the same day as Guns n’ Roses is absolutely mental. I honestly never thought I’d ever get to see that band in my life and at Download it’s going to be insane! WHAT ELSE ARE YOU UP TO THIS SUMMER, DO YOU HAVE A BUSY FEW MONTHS COMING UP? We are basically on tour for the next year. We will have just released the best album we have ever made, and we are about to play the biggest shows with the biggest set up we have ever played and it’s going to be nuts. Can’t wait! P DISRUPT THE NOISE 5
THE BEST NEW BANDS. THE HOTTEST NEW MUSIC.
WANT A NEW BAND CRUSH? CHECK OUT THIS LOT! >>>
MEET THE LA TEENAGE GANG EVERYONE WANTS TO BE PART OF. WORDS: ALI SHUTLER.
L
YDIA NIGHT HAS ONLY JUST LEFT THE CHAOS OF THE COACHELLA DESERT BEHIND. THE REGRETTES’ FIRST WEEKEND PERFORMING AT THE FESTIVAL WAS “SUPER FUN”, BUT IT FEELS LIKE EVERY OTHER WEEK THE BAND ARE SOMEPLACE UNEXPLORED, DOING SOMETHING NEW, EXCITING AND POTENTIALLY TERRIFYING.
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Their first time on live TV, performing the joyous ‘Hey Now’ on Conan, was the most scared Lydia has ever been. “I was so nervous, I was flipping the shit,” she laughs. Since the release of The Regrettes’ debut album ‘Feel Your Feelings, Fool!’ at the opening of last year, things have constantly been changing for the group. “We’ve grown a lot, and also, our fanbase is growing a lot which is incredible and bizarre to see,” but they’ve
DON’T WORRY
This Essex group are newly signed to Specialist Subject Records (also home to the excellent Muncie Girls) for the release of debut album ‘Who Cares Anyway?’. It’s full of lovely, chilled out guitar pop about the trials of youth.
taken every twist, step and shout in their stride. Their debut album sees the band toy with what’s expected. Frontperson Lydia is seventeen, the rest of the band aren’t much older, and across ‘Feel Your Feelings, Fool!’ they prove those expectations wrong. It wasn’t intentional, though. “We do that on our own just by being good at what we do; we prove people wrong through that. I don’t think we need to try really. People underestimate you because of your age or your gender, and I think it’s stupid. Once they see us play or listen to us, most of the time, they understand that we deserve the spot we have just as much as anyone else.” That debut album is defiant, but The Regrettes aren’t afraid of their feelings. “I’ve just noticed how people are so scared to be vulnerable and really admit how they’re truly feeling and I have felt that way in the past too. I was just sick of it. I feel like a lot of our songs were extremely personal and I’m a super personal writer, I felt like it made a lot of
GLOO
Noisy Sussex trio Gloo are the perfect accompaniment to messy evenings of spilled beer and sweaty clubs. You can find them at 2000trees this summer, and there’s a debut album on the way, too.
sense to make that the whole message of it.” The band are already on the move; earlier this year they released their ‘Attention Seeker’ EP. “I myself am definitely an attention seeker,” laughs Lydia, “and I think a lot of people are. It can turn into a super unhealthy thing, and I’ve been discovering a lot of that recently and learning a lot about that. The two songs [‘Red Light’ and ‘Come Through’] show two very different sides of a relationship. I felt like the title tied into that because in relationships, people just constantly want attention and when they get it, they’re over it.” Album two is already in the works, but they have no idea what shape, direction or colour it will take. The excitement about the unknown crackles in her voice. “When I was younger, when I was really little, I went to see The Donnas in concert. It was an all-female band, and I thought it was the most badass thing ever, and I want to do that,” starts Lydia.
More recently, she draws inspiration from everyday life, she says. “Just what I’m going through and the things I see around me.” She wants people to get “a sense of more self-love, or acceptance” from their music. “If they listen to a song that talks a lot about emotions they’re going through, you probably feel a lot less alone in it, and it’s a lot easier to love yourself in that way. That’s what I’ve learned anyway.” The Regrettes are spending most of this summer on the road. From The Great Escape to Reading & Leeds, they’re keeping themselves super busy. Getting onstage in a strange place and playing their songs, which are direct, vulnerable and personal, to a bunch of strangers sounds like one of those things that should terrify the band. “I’m used to it, so I don’t really care anymore,” shrugs Lydia. “I honestly don’t even think about it anymore, because we’ve just been touring and playing these songs for so long. It’s easy; it’s not
QUEEN ZEE
On a mission to capture the hearts of all who see them with their incendiary live shows, Queen Zee take on the ills of the world via an all-out punk rock racket crossed with pop sensibilities that packs a real punch.
scary anymore.” Having fun is crucial to what The Regrettes do. It’s driven their story so far and is how they’re going to change the world around them. Alongside bands like SWMRS, they’re leading a generation of artists who aren’t waiting for permission to speak their mind, or be told what they can or can’t do. “We’re in a time where it’s needed,” Lydia asserts. “With our president and things that are coming up in politics and social situations, people are a lot more aware now. It’s a lot easier for young people to stand up, stand their ground and be open with their opinions. I feel very lucky to be a part of that.” There’s an understandable anger in The Regrettes’ music, but they use that energy to create something welcoming and encouraging. They’re determined to have a good time, despite the bullshit. “I think turning that into a good time, using that energy and turning it into something positive is really important.” P THE REGRETTES TOUR THE UK FROM 19TH MAY.
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M A T I C LAST YEAR, EVERYTHING CHANGED FOR MIKE SHINODA. WITH HIS DEBUT SOLO ALBUM UNDER HIS OWN NAME, HE’S FINDING CATHARSIS IN MUSIC. WORDS: ALI SHUTLER.
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HERE’S A VAST, UNEXPLORED ROAD IN FRONT OF ME,” ADMITS MIKE SHINODA. Last year, he lost one of his best friends to suicide, and it changed his world. His debut record, ‘Post Traumatic’ deals with that loss and the journey that follows. It’s personal, as all grief is, but it also taps into something bigger. See, Chester Bennington meant a lot to Mike, but he also meant a lot to the world at large. As the twin peaks of Linkin Park, the pair had worked side by side for almost twenty years, becoming one of the biggest, and most successful rock bands in the world across a legacy of seven albums, countless world tours and a connection with the people who were listening. Linkin Park changed the game time and time again while standing for something real, vulnerable and important. The loss of Chester was felt around the world; people had lost a hero, a role model and someone who they felt understood them. Mike though, he’d lost family. He lost purpose, too. For almost half his life he had been ‘Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park’. Now, he wasn’t so sure. Initially, Mike didn’t know what to do. His usual method of dealing with emotion was to get into the studio and use it to create, but now it scared him. For nine days he let that fear control him until he decided to face it head-on. At first he just started playing around, creating for creation’s sake, but eventually, the music he enjoyed began to appear. That’s what ‘Post Traumatic’ is; snapshots of what happened next, as Mike comes to terms with the past and looks to the future. Right now, he’s in LA, putting the finishing touches to the record and talking about the weather. “I’m doing pretty good; I’m in the finishing stages. We’re starting to get the mixes, we’re getting into the rest of the record in terms of finishing, and I’ve got maybe a song or two left to do. One song that’s 90% done and there’s another song that’s maybe 75 or 80% done, and the rest is finished. It’s close. “Right now though, I’m just hanging in LA enjoying the sunshine and rain at the same time. It’s weird, I woke up this morning, and I thought it was going to be pouring all day, and now it’s hot. It can’t make up its mind.” It’s the same in England, as London gets its first real taste of warm weather. “My brother used to laugh because he lived out there for many years, and being a California kid he really missed
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the sunshine, but it was hysterical to him that it would get sunny, and people would literally pull their car over on the highway just to get out and enjoy the sun.” Mike talks about his experiences without a filter, and when he can’t find the words or words just won’t do, he uses stories to mirror his own journey. From the opening steps of ‘Place To Start’ and on into the unknown, everything about ‘Post Traumatic’ finds him facing the world head-on. “At some point I got curious, and I looked up other artists and other bands that went through a similar situation that I went through. I looked at what they did next. How soon did they play music, play live, or write or release an album? “It was all over the place, obviously. Some people never did, some people took ten years off, and some people, AC/ DC, for example, turned around and put out ‘Back In Black’ in less than six months [after the death of singer Bon Scott]. I relate more to the AC/DC version, but in a sense, the thing they had going for them was that they already knew [new vocalist] Brian Johnson.” It’s not like Linkin Park found themselves alone though. Their tribute concert to Chester at The Hollywood Bowl saw everyone from Bring Me The Horizon’s Oli Sykes, A Day To Remember’s Jeremy McKinnon, and blink-182 share the stage with Alanis Morissette, Daron Malakian and Shavo Odadjian from System Of A Down and M. Shadows from Avenged Sevenfold. “The primary focus was honouring Chester and giving the fans a memorial event for him and for them. We know lots of people that sing, and they’re great, but we got onstage at the Hollywood Bowl, sang a lot of songs with a lot of people, and, after we got offstage and in the week after, I was reflecting on the show that had happened. I was thinking god, all those singers were great, and none of them were Chester. “Besides being such a unique human, he was one of the world’s best rock singers ever and one of the most versatile. He had such a unique voice. It’s been very hard for me to wrap my head around doing anything in that lane. We don’t have plans with Linkin Park, but meanwhile, I was working on these songs on my own and feeling really passionate that if it was therapeutic for me, it would probably be therapeutic for fans to hear. That’s how this whole solo album business came together.” In making this record, in touring it, in sharing it, there’s a hope that Mike will find the answers he currently doesn’t have.
“I don’t know if I could have done anything else,” he continues. “The only other things that occurred to me were, I love writing with other people, and I’d be happy to produce people’s albums or write with other artists, and I love to paint, and I’d have loved to have done some gallery art shows. “But, those wouldn’t have given me the catharsis and therapy that this album has, not only for myself but to also catch the fans up on where I’m at. That conversation is happening in real time, and that’s something that has been important to me.” From the ‘Post-Traumatic’ EP, the first solo songs Mike shared alongside shaky, home studio footage for ‘Crossing The Line’ and ‘About You‘. They were just as intimate and confronting as the ongoing conversations he was having online and in person. “I’m trying to be more open about how things are going. Inevitably, I have to talk about it in interviews and talk about it with fans, and I’ll have to get onstage and play these new songs and our old stuff too. “I really took a long, hard look at all that. I made sure that as we go, I’m prepared to do that. I can’t prepare for every possible outcome or every situation but I wanted to feel like I thought it through and I was going into this with a certain sense of knowing what I was getting myself into.” “One of the things I was most nervous about was seeing fans on my own,” he continues. “I would be singularly responsible when they come up and start talking about Chester, crying or asking me questions or whatever. I would be responsible for having those conversations. “At first, I was concerned that it would be draining, that it would be hard to do. I’ve had lots of fans come up and say, ‘I’ve had depression my whole life, I’ve tried to commit suicide more than once, so this whole thing has been hard on me, and I relate to it’. “They’re just telling me things; they’re not asking me to fix it or give them advice or solutions, they’re just telling me things. That can be really, really difficult you know, but I remind myself
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THE NEW PROJECT FROM LETLIVE.S’ JASON AALON BUTLER, THE FEVER 333 ARE HERE TO SOUNDTRACK THE REVOLUTION. WORDS: LINSEY TEGGERT.
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D. THE ONLY VER DIC T YOU NEE
BIG UPS
TWO PARTS TOGETHER eee
ON HER SECOND ALBUM, COURTNEY BARNETT CATCHES US FEELING PRETTY FINE.
I
n the build-up to ‘Tell Me How You Really Feel’, Courtney Barnett posed that simple suggestion on her website. Fans could share their innermost thoughts directly with the Aussie songwriter providing they could condense them to no longer than 250 characters. It would probably have been dismissed as a simple PR exercise for most artists, but not Courtney. She’s built a reputation on her earnest songwriting, brutally acerbic lyrics and wholesome tunes you can cling to when life seems to be pulling away. Quite simply, she doesn’t do bullshit. In some ways ‘Tell Me How You Really Feel’ is a slightly darker, heavier and more mature record than Courtney’s debut. Where ‘Sometimes I Sit…’ often felt like listening to an internal monologue, its follow-up is more extrospective; Courtney’s songwriting remains deeply personal, but she has an eye on wider themes. In the excellent ‘Nameless, Faceless’, she tackles misogyny by paraphrasing novelist Margaret Atwood: “Men are scared that women will laugh at them… women are scared that men will kill them.” ‘Tell Me How TELL ME HOW YOU You Really Feel’ is REALLY FEEL littered with wry MARATHON / MOM + POP / MILK lyricism. eee e Musically, Courtney IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU’LL has stuck with LIKE... KURT VILE, JULIEN BAKER, SUNFLOWER BEAN what she knows; her grungy guitars and occasional punk thrash don’t tread new ground, but Courtney has always been more of a storyteller - and, judging by this latest effort, there are currently few songwriters who can match her. ALEX THORP
COURTNEY BARNETT
‘Two Parts Together’ is a misnomer of a title, a thematic misconception of the underlying narratives running throughout Big Ups’ ocean-like body of work which is more like twenty parts together than two. An expansive rewriting of the post-genre rulebook, it’s difficult to quite describe whether disorientation through sound is something to praise or critique, and yet that is where the magic of ‘Two Parts Together’, and Big Ups as a whole lies: it doesn’t make sense, and that is okay. JACK PRESS
COLUMBUS
A HOT TAKE ON HEARTBREAK eeee Aussie three-piece Columbus’ second album knows how to pull the right influences, drawing from mid-nineties college rock royalty. Everything from the iconic melody of Weezer (‘Don’t Know How To Act’) to a lexicon of pop-punk perfection (‘Care At All’) nudges the direction of ‘A Hot Take On Heartbreak’. At times it’s stupendous, at others kind of generic - but with a sunny disposition in the face of adversity, Columbus are never without a knowing honesty. DAN HARRISON
GALACTIC EMPIRE EPISODE II eeee
Star Wars-themed progressive instrumental bands would feel to be a remarkable oddity just a few years back. Now, Galactic Empire seem less like a novelty joke and more like a perfectly sensible suggestion. With their second full-length, ‘Episode II’ (Obviously - Ed), the band claim to be “confident that any rebel strongholds that remain after the last cycle will soon bow before the Empire”. While at times, such as ‘Scherzo for X-Wings’, this ends up with familiar refrains linked by increasingly massive riffs and solos, ‘Episode II’ is delivered with a sense of knowing fun and ambition that resistance seems futile. These are the bangers you’re looking for. DAN HARRISON DISRUPT THE NOISE 45