** Plus ** Evanescence Manchester Orchestra Gojira Ricky Himself Destroy Boys August Burns Red + loads more
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upsetmagazine.com
The Offspring While She Sleeps All Time Low
MAY 2021 Issue 65
RIOT 4. ALL TIME LOW 8. BABY STRANGE 10. STARS HOLLOW 12. CHAPEL 14. THE PALE WHITE 16. AUGUST BURNS RED ABOUT TO BREAK 18. BOY DESTROY FEATURES 20. LILHUDDY 26. MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA 30. EVANESCENCE 34. RICKY HIMSELF 38. THE OFFSPRING 42. WHILE SHE SLEEPS 46. GOJIRA REVIEWS 50. ROYAL BLOOD TEENAGE KICKS 54. DESTROY BOYS
Upset Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Ali Shutler Scribblers Dillon Eastoe, Edie McQueen, Finlay Holden, Jack Press, Jamie MacMillan, Jasleen Dhindsa, Jessica Goodman, Kelsey McClure, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin Snappers Daniel Blake, Daveed Benito, Gabrielle Duplantier, Giles Smith, Jeremy Deputat, Jimmy Fontaine, Nick Fancher, Nolan Knight, Olof Grind, Rushi Rama 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. Times, they are a-changing. Long gone are the days that the only route to rockstar fame was through a good, hard stint on the live circuit, a catchy song and a strong album behind it. Those ideas of selling out, authenticity and ‘real music’ are - thankfully - are being seen for the tired old nonsense they always were. While there’s nothing bad about paying your dues, and talent is vital - there’s more than one way to arrive at that end goal. Especially now, in an era of streams, videos, social networks and viral buzz. So let’s get this straight LILHUDDY’s star power is undeniable.
Starting as a TikTok sensation, does his route to the top invalidate the music he makes? As he features on this month’s cover, we talk to one of the hottest new acts on the planet who has everything and nothing left to prove. One thing’s for sure, though - he’s happy being himself, ignoring any haters along the way. You can’t get more rockstar than that.
S tephen
Editor / @stephenackroyd Upset 3
Riot_ EVERYTHING HAPPENING IN ROCK
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THIS MONTH IN ROCK
Baby Strange are taking the difficult times and turning into something positive. p.8
It’s taken Stars Hollow five years to get round to releasing a debut album, but taking the more considered route is sometimes worth the wait. p.10
The Pale White have been building a reputation for a while - but now it’s time for a debut album. p.14
“YOU ONLY HAVE ONE SHOT AT THIS” I
After the weirdest year, All Time Low are back with a new pandemic penned single
f you rewind a year, what you would’ve seen in the All Time Low camp is a band getting ready for action. Having not long released their eighth outing ‘Wake Up, Sunshine’ - and after performing a couple of tiny shows in the UK, even gracing the cover of this very magazine - they were raring to hit the road with an album that was to be a celebration of the band they’ve poured so much love and energy into. Obviously, the world had different plans. Fast-forward back to now, and it’s time for a brand spanking new single from our favourite Baltimore four-piece. Not one’s to hang about, ‘Once In A Lifetime’ is not, in fact, a cover of the Talking Heads bop, but comes fresh from the foursome’s pandemic writing sessions. A luscious burst of their signature bright pop-punk stylings swirled with a nod to the undeniable darkness that’s seeped into our world, it’s an Oreo of All Time Low proportions. Frontman Alex Gaskarth gives us the lowdown on what’s going on. It must be nice to be back in the
swing of things again, even though you’ve not really stopped over the last year? It’s felt amazing. The few opportunities that we’ve had throughout this to actually come together safely and do something as a band have been amazing. We just performed on Ellen, and that was really cool, [and] we went to Nashville and shot a music video for this new song. Obviously, we’re being very careful and conscious of how we’re doing it because while things are starting to feel like they’re opening back up, and we’re getting back to some semblance of normalcy, we still have to be really cautious travelling as much as we are and being around people - I’ve had a lot of things put up my nose lately... not drugs!
So, are we looking at the next chapter for All Time Low? What made you want to start up again? It didn’t feel like we had much control over things; tour kept getting pushed back [and] there was no concrete evidence of when we’d be able to get back to a semblance of normal tour life. The one thing that
Words: Steven Loftin. Photo: Nolan Knight.
we realised we can control in all of this is our creative stuff, even if it’s being done like this, remotely. That was the one thing that we said: ‘Okay, we can still do this, and there’s still more stories to tell’. We don’t know what it’s all for; I don’t know if we’re making a new album or if it’s gonna be for a deluxe edition, but we just said ‘Fuck it, let’s keep writing songs’ and ‘Once In A Lifetime’ was one of the first ones that was born of that. How has ‘Wake Up, Sunshine’ affected the band musically? What’s amazing about where we are now creatively is that it’s allowed us to take the momentum that we’ve created with the album and what we learned because ‘Wake Up, Sunshine’ really felt like a celebration of what All Time Low was all about through the years. Where it ended up leaving off was with ‘Monsters’ having the level of success that it’s had, and that being the standout song on the record in that it feels like that was where we were going - we progressed into that song as we made the album. Getting creative again has allowed us to Upset 5
AMERICA SWEE As the world around us evolves, LILHUDDY represents a new breed of rock star - and he’s not backing down.
Words: Ali Shutler. Photos: Jeremy Deputat. Fashion Director: Nicola Formichetti. Hair: Johnny Stuntz.
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A’S ETHEART Upset 21
Six albums deep, and Manchester Orchestra remain one of the most wellloved and consistently great bands around. Words: Dillon Eastoe.
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“MUSIC KEPT
Evanescence’s first album of original music in a decade is a statement of perseverance and hope. Words: Jessica Goodman. Photo: Nick Fancher.
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T ME GOING”
“I
’ve been really thinking about feeling,” Amy Lee explains. At her home after visiting a park “just so I could look at different trees” (“I’m so tired of being home,” she laughs), the Evanescence frontwoman is in high spirits. With the band’s first album of new material in a decade about to be released, the enthusiasm surrounding them is almost tangible. “Every time we’re about to do a [single] release, just a few weeks before it’s like, ‘okay, what’s the feeling? What is it that we can
share with people on a deep level?’” A sense of connection is something it’s been all too easy to feel like we lack of late. Unable to get out and play shows, unable to meet up and record together in the same room, the group quickly found that the best way they could communicate and connect was the same way it always had been: through making music. “Through the last year, the music has become, again, this thing that I needed and relied on,” Amy portrays. “It kept me going and kept me sane and gave me a place to run to when I just wanted to Upset 31
“BEING NORMAL AS FUCK IS THE WEIRDEST SHIT YOU COULD DO”
Spending his early days immersed in hip-hop, Ricky Himself is bringing a fresh approach to poppunk. Words: Steven Loftin. Photos: Rushi Rama.
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P
op punkers in the studio with rappers. A common scene in recent years, but step back to 2006, to Fall Out Boy’s reappearance with ‘This Ain’t A Scene’. In the accompanying video, they’re set in a darkened room with a hot hip-hop producer and his entourage on the mock-quest to understand and push themselves beyond the success of 2005’s ‘From Under The Cork Tree’, to an almost successful result. Ricky Cano has lived that. While his burgeoning breakout track as Ricky Himself, ‘I Know You Like Black Flag’ - a poised and primed satirical missile aimed at the poseurs and surface-level punks he sees around his native LA - is finding him gaining some attention, in actuality, he’s been kicking around the music industry in various facets for a fair few years now, predominantly under the wing of producer Hit-Boy (Travis Scott, Kanye West, Beyonce). “To see it kind of just starting now is a bit odd because I’ve been around [music] for so long that it felt like it just might not ever start to happen,” Ricky softly admits, but something indeed appears to be happening. It would seem the world needs a laugh as much as it does the reminder that sometimes, what came before doesn’t necessitate how you’re perceived. With hip-hop and the like undoubtedly embodying the renegade punk spirit more than its founding counterpart, Ricky’s seen first-hand “the real punk attitude through those artists - they’re breaking the rules over there!” he says. “That’s how you get to the 5am sessions and guns in the studio - all that crazy lifestyle stuff, that’s so not me! I was around it every single day. Going to this world,” he says of his new pop-punk surroundings, “it’s so tame in comparison that it’s almost funny, which is what ‘Black Flag’ is poking fun at.” Someone who’s confessed to being obsessed with pop culture, not only is his break out track littered with references, but our conversation pinpoints to various moments that have heavily influenced the world surrounding Ricky. This all makes him a rather apt candidate to properly take a look
“FOR THE MOST PART, IT WAS LIKE STARTING FROM ZERO AND LEARNING ALL OVER AGAIN” RICKY HIMSELF
at just what’s going on, and what’s helping Ricky pick out the road to travel on this journey he’s taking front and centre. “That was my angle: where’s the humour in this?” He asks. “It’s just more fun to make music for me personally that way too, [especially] coming from a background in rap where it’s serious all the time.” On his reasoning for why the rap game carried a heftier weight, Ricky reckons: “The stakes are a lot higher for a lot of the artists in that world. So, even though the music might be upbeat, the real-life story behind the stuff creates a serious day to day energy - on top of that, they don’t ever want to leave the studio.” Figuring out who he wanted to be as an artist involved Ricky heading back to square one, even if that’s proving a bit more difficult than anticipated. A victim to all-night sessions, and an impressively determined work ethic, is why we end up chatting at the reasonable 10am for Upset, but the ludicrous, sun-scratching 4am for Ricky, because he’s used to “hanging out until like 3am to get something done.” “I’ve been in a room with a lot of dope, successful rappers and a lot of them work around the clock,” he explains. “Leaving at 7am, 8am, and then go right back and then do 10 hours again. They make like eight songs a day because they need to get out of where they’re coming from. “That’s the total opposite of where I’m at now,” he continues. “More established people, or younger artists being discovered earlier by a label - the people I’m coming in contact [with] more often - it’s just not as tense of a feeling in
those rooms. In some ways, I prefer that; in some ways, I don’t. I still miss part of the high stakes of feeling.” Ricky’s seen a lot, but he’s now more keenly focused on Ricky Himself, a figure making his way in the new-pop punk world, where beats are as consistently prevalent as are four hyper-powered palmmuted chords. “I don’t know how much of it crossed over because the worlds are so different that it felt like I couldn’t take much from it,” he mentions on what he’s bringing with him after leaving the hip-hop world behind. “It almost felt like four years kind of thrown away.” All wasn’t lost, however. “I got a lot of insight of how I could abstractly view my career through a different lens - removing myself from it,” he explains. “But for the most part, it was like starting from zero and learning all over again. All the producers I’m working with, and all the songwriters and artists I’m meeting, have their own experience and view of music in such a different way. I need to learn from these people even though I do have years of experience under my belt.” In fear that holding onto anything on a conscious level too close would impede his progress, he mentions that whatever room he enters, his mindset is always: “let’s start at zero”. But there is something he can’t control. Obsession is the world’s new obsession. With characters, TV shows, musicians; if you can think of it, there’s someone in some corner of the internet whose life revolves around it - but a strange facet that’s appeared over the years is an obsession with having people obsessed with other, regular people. Upset 35
“PUNK ROCK TAUGHT US TO QUESTION EVERYTHING” With the world perpetually in a bit of a mess, Californian punk rock legends The Offspring are incredibly unimpressed. Words: Steven Loftin. Photos: Daveed Benito.
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“WE THOUGHT STUFF WAS MESSED UP BACK THEN, LITTLE DID WE KNOW - OH MY GOSH THAT WAS NOTHING” DEXTER HOLLAND
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BIG BIG SO BIG SO SO While She Sleeps bolster their reputation for being one of the most innovative bands around. Words: Steven Loftin. Photos: Giles Smith.
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OCIETY OCIETY OCIETY Upset 43
“GOJIRA IS MORE THAN A METAL BAND; IT’S A WAY OF LIFE”
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With their new album ‘Fortitude’, Gojira are looking to the positives. Words: Jack Press. Photo: Jimmy Fontaine, Gabrielle Duplantier.
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