Upset is a new rock mag. Hello. This month in Upset Riot!
4. DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 2015 12. NO DEVOTION 13. CANDY HEARTS 16. ENTER SHIKARI 17. PVRIS 18. DON BROCO 19. TELLISON 20. TWENTY ONE PILOTS 23. NECK DEEP 24. DESAPARECIDOS 26. BRAWLERS
Features
28. MOOSE BLOOD 30. BULLY 32. BLACK PEAKS 34. MILK TEETH 36. WOAHNOWS 37. CREEPER 38. ALLUSONDRUGS 39. CASSELS 40. REFUSED 46. ROLO TOMASSI 48. FRANK IERO
Rated
52. ALBUM REVIEWS 58. LIVE REVIEWS
upsetmagazine.com Editorial: editorial@upsetmagazine.com Stockist enquiries: stockists@upsetmagazine.com Advertising: ads@upsetmagazine.com This month’s edition of Upset is brought to you by... Ali Shutler, Andy Ritchie, Ben Tipple, Dan Richards, Emma Swann, Heather McDaid, Jessica Bridgeman, Louise Mason, Ryan De Freitas, Sarah Louise Bennett, Sarah Jamieson, Shiona Walker, Stephen Ackroyd, Tom Connick, Viki Sinden All material copyright (c). All rights reserved.This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of Upset. Disclaimer:While every effort is made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, for which Upset holds no responsibility.The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of Upset or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally. 3
Riot! THE LOWDOWN ON EVERYTHING HAPPENING IN ROCK.
On The Download
Rock’s old guard rubs shoulders with future stars at Download 2015 and we were there for every minute. Words: ALI SHUTLER. Photos: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT
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ith its carefully curated lineup branching across all sections of loud noises, the spiritual home of rock threw open its doors to veterans, newcomers and those floating in the middle for the 2015 edition of Download Festival. Blending nostalgia, vitality and bristling excitement throughout the long weekend, Download remains both showcase and rite of passage. As bands make either opening statements or repeated promises, Donington embraces them all.
Friday 14:58: God Damn let it burn. “This is fucking beautiful, you’re fucking beautiful,” shouts Thom Edward before God Damn drop into their set. Air raid sirens, howling screams and an airborne drum stick, the Wolverhampton duo aren’t making their Donington debut a subtle one, but this is Download Festival.
The much rumoured hot weather has put in an appearance – a sunnier performance than normal – and half the crowd are proudly wearing Slipknot tees, masks and boiler suits ahead of their return this evening. That crowd is currently spilling out of Jake’s Stage as the two piece take the chemical spark that zips through debut album ‘Vultures’ and toss it into a pile of sun-bleached notes of garage rock. Building tension before crashing down in a swirl of thrash and refrain, God Damn are on fire. 15:35: Gnarwolves 1 - 0 Download. If last year’s triumph on the Reading & Leeds Main Stage belonged to everyone present, today’s victorious bounce is wholly Gnarwolves‘. Commanding the space with a smile and a laugh, the Brighton three-piece are beginning to look at ease with an ocean of people before then. Thom Weeks is playing it cool though, “Honestly, honestly, honestly, this is so cool,” he beams. Starting small, Gnarwolves are presented
with isolated outbreaks of physical activity but by the roaring crunch of ‘Melody Has Big Plans’, there’s chaos throughout. The rag tag band have never sounded more together as the scratched frustration of ‘Smoking Kills’ unites in vocal harmony. Today is a clenched fist reminder of Gnarwolves’ brilliance. “You should stay here and watch Defeater,” suggests
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19:43: Baby! Metal! Dragon! Force! DragonForce, that technically proficient yet hyper fun band credited with the air-guitar revival, are happily tearing through their set when Babymetal decide to join the party. Entertaining? You bet. DragonForce’s skill merrily dances between madcap and genius. “This song is about blood, vampires and darkness,” they explain at one point before leaping into an electric ‘Symphony of the Night’. Carrying themselves with such joy, it’s never anything but a pleasure to witness. Joining with Babymetal may seem strange but that message of entertainment through music and fantastical storytelling is not only empowering, but shared. Running onto the stage to create Baby Dragon Metal Force, the super group lean into a playful rendition of ‘Gimme Chocolate’ that sends waves of excitement through the overflowing tent. They came, they conquered then Babymetal are off, smiling and waving at the biggest reaction of the weekend yet. It’s left to Dragonforce to follow that. There’s only one song for it; the epic ‘Through The Fire And The Flames’ ensures that not a single person escapes without a grin.
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No Devotion:
“We’re figuring this one out realtime.” A year on since making their arrival, No Devotion are planning to unleash their statement of intent.
“I
t’s pretty easy to say we are excited about this record coming out,” starts Stuart Richardson, bassist and producer of No Devotion. The band have just confirmed plans to release their debut album, the aptlytitled ‘Permanence’. Set for release on 25th September, the full-length will not only be their first album proper, but it stands as a victory of its own, before it has even hit shelves. “The inception of this band has been well documented,” Stuart - formerly of Lostprophets explains.“The making of this record and our lives have
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been rife with problems, both public and personal – setbacks, heartbreaks, health issues and general frustrations. It has only made us more determined to put this out there. We believe in this record; at this point for me it is critic-proof. We finished it, we fucking won already. I feel like we have everything to prove and I can’t wait for it to come out so we can get back to playing live shows.”
people try to turn that place into a punchline but fuck that, it was great. The atmosphere is so different from LA, where we usually record. I was getting sick of recording there so the change was welcome. We were sleeping on floors and sofas in AirBnBs and we were working 16 and 18 hour days. We had five or six days to finish the record so we made every minute count.
Recorded in-part in Brooklyn with both Stuart and Alex Newport taking on production duties, it was an experience that the band truly enjoyed, even when faced against time constraints. “I loved recording in Brooklyn,” he offers. “I know
“It was a fantastic experience - aside from the studio, we got to hang out with our Collect Records family. We played a show at Glasslands just before it closed and Sick Feeling lent us all of their gear to play the show. It just felt right.”
The album also marks the departure of the band’s drummer Luke Johnson, but boasts performances from both him and Bloc Party’s Matt Tong, who stepped in to complete the drum tracks. “I was stoked to get Matt Tong to play drums on a few of the songs,” Stuart says, “and it was amazing for me as the engineer and producer to record one of the most influential and most recognisable drummers in recent history. He killed it.” As for Stuart’s favourite part of the whole process – aside from first meeting No Devotion frontman Geoff Rickly and realising that the ball was starting to roll – it was getting
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“If the album does alright, do you think we should, y’know, redecorate?“
The Ins and Outs Of...
Candy Hearts’
‘Acoustic Hearts’ As the band gear up to release their new acoustic EP out on the Warped Tour, Mariel Loveland offers up some of its defining details.
to work with Dave Fridmann, who mastered the album. “It was the mixing,” he says, “and seeing it all come together so I could take the backseat. Dave is just someone I have always admired and I love his attitude to making and mixing records. He doesn’t give a fuck; it’s a very simple process for him, or at least he makes it look simple. He’s a genius. “I guess people are just trying way too hard to make things happen musically now,” he goes on, “and sweating the small stuff. Dave will just point a microphone at something, process it in a way that is just mind-blowing and have the balls to say it’s done. He commits, and I guess that’s a pretty old school way of
doing things now.” As for what they want ‘Permanence’ to say about their band, Stuart’s hopes are simple. “I would hope people will have an open mind about this record. It is a statement of intent that has been caught in its earliest form. I’m not some hollow hype guy who’s going to tell you we are the best thing since whatever the fuck the last best thing was… We’re figuring this out realtime. We’re proud of what we’ve done and we would hope people like it. We want to grow.” P No Devotion’s album ‘Permanence’ will be released on 25th September.
Hey Mariel! How did you come up with the idea for ‘Acoustic Hearts’? I was trying to think of something that would be really cool to release on Warped Tour, something that could be for our fans and would go with the record we had released at the end of last year. It was kind of almost like the record and this sit together because it’s three acoustic songs from ‘All The Ways You Let Me Down’ and two brand new ones. What made you decide to include some new tracks in the mix? I wrote one of them for ‘All The Ways You Let Me Down’ but I realised it didn’t make sense for the record. I realised it didn’t make sense any other way than acoustic and thought, ‘Yeah, I could change it for the record,’ but I liked the way it was and didn’t want to. The other one I wrote after the album came out, but I really thought that those two songs wouldn’t work any other way
but acoustic and I really love them so much. They’re so different from what we usually do that I didn’t feel like we could put them on the regular record, but I felt like our fans would like them and that we should put them out there. And what was it like to translate the tracks from the record back into acoustic renditions? Was it a challenge? Even though I did write them acoustically, I felt that it was a little difficult. Difficult in the way that I have to sing them differently; when we originally recorded them, I was singing that little bit louder but this time, I wanted to match the vibe. I’d been singing them for about a year, so I was having to relearn singing them in a different way, which was hard when I was stuck in the habit of singing them in a more powerful, accented way. P Candy Hearts’ EP ‘Acoustic Hearts’ is out now. 13
FIDLAR get ready for album ‘Too’ LA punx FIDLAR will release their second album ‘Too’ on 4th September. “We could have made record number one again… but instead we decided to challenge ourselves and admit that we don’t know everything,” says guitarist and lead vocalist Zac Carper. Check out the (AMAZING) video for first track ‘40oz on Repeat’ on upsetmagazine.com now.
“I read a couple comments today about how I can’t be feminist or whether or not I’m a “good” feminist.To speak specifically to one of those comments, I’ll say this: ‘Misery Business’ is not a set of lyrics that I relate to as a 26 year old woman. I haven’t related to it in a very long time.Those words were written when I was 17… admittedly, from a very narrow-minded perspective. It wasn’t really meant to be this big philosophical statement about anything.” Hayley Williams from Paramore on online comments about the lyrics of ‘Misery Business’.
Twenty One Pilots’ genre defying second album feels like something new. To them, it’s just a product of their generation. Words: ALI SHUTLER.
Twenty One Pilots
Live & Kicking
Photos: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT.
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wenty One Pilots exploded into focus with ‘Vessels’ in early 2013 after years of self-released songs, relentless touring and accumulating anticipation. On their Fueled By Ramen debut, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun captured the essence of what they wanted Twenty One Pilots to be and showed it to the world. The world was divided. Now, two years later, they’ve come back swinging with ‘Blurryface’, a fourteen shot attack that pits insecurity against self-belief in bare-knuckled combat. There’s blood, guts and spirit throughout but while Fight Club is governed by rules, Twenty One Pilots don’t concern themselves with such frivolities. “I don’t think Josh and I ever set out to be rebellious,” starts Tyler, sitting backstage at The Boston Music Rooms in London. Tonight, the pair will play their fourth sold out headline show in a row as the release of ‘Blurryface’ looms. Sitting side by the side, Josh and Tyler are far more reserved than their onstage antics and clenched fist recordings would suggest. Hands are wrung as they discuss the platform they find themselves on but throughout, they ensure that one another is given space to talk. “It’s hard for us not to see things through the filter of live music,” he continues. “We’re not intentionally trying to write the next song different to the last.” Instead what drove the sonic landscape of ‘Blurryface’ was the need for certain songs to fulfil their live desires. “We just want people to get the music however they can so they can come to a show and experience that music with us. That’s really where it all comes together and makes sense,” enthuses Tyler, “Face to face.”
“...and then he pulled a face like this... “ 21
THI S AI N ’T A SC E N E . . .
Palm Reader With new album ‘Beside The Ones We Love’ taking centrestage and being pretty much the only good thing to come out of Woking, Palm Reader are taking their furious, complex hardcore to wider stages than ever before. Loud, heavy, hard and fast – basically everything you need from a hardcore band. Up Next: Festival and national dates are racking up.
John We really are carving away at the bottom of that band name barrel now. John’s music is every bit as baffling as their name is the opposite – all crunching time-signature changes and throat-shedding vocals. That Blakfish reunion may be a way off, but this duo are doing a valiant effort of holding the torch. Up Next: Probably returning the cymbal they borrowed off Rudimental for our launch show. 30 upsetmagazine.com
L bul vy
The Nashville four-piece have been cooking up a storm of buzz, but grunge is not a dirty word for BULLY.
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Words: TOM CONNICK. Photo: EMMA SWANN.
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ully are a sucker punch. Barely stopping for breath since their emergence last summer, it’s little wonder the road to debut album ‘Feels Like’ has been so swiftly-tread – anything less than 100mph is dawdling for this lot.
As such, ‘Feels Like’ is a record trimmed of any fat – something reflected in the writing process. “I would write something and then bring it to the band and tell them how I wanted it to be and they would just play along with it,” explains guitarist, vocalist and primary songwriter Alicia Bognanno with an almost comically deadpan simplicity. She’s quick to deny any clashing of heads or ego-massaging though – “that’s why we’re a band! Because we all like stuff that each other likes, that’s why it works!”
but I don’t think the band would have gone anywhere if we weren’t in such a serious music scene, music city, where we could take music seriously.”
The city’s musical pedigree certainly helped when it came to the practicalities of building the band, such as finding jobs that would allow them the time off for their swiftly-filling touring schedule, but ‘Feels Like’ ended up coming together in another city – and as a result of another job – entirely.
But first and foremost, Bully is Alicia’s baby; an outlet for independence that sticks itself to Electrical Audio – the famed studio of Steve three-chord, Japandroids indebted euphoria Albini, and swelters producer like the heat of Nirvana’s of their ‘In Utero’ Nashville – was the ‘music city’ place where home – Bully and listening in ‘Feels Like’ on her odes found their to “spinning footing. Alicia around STEWART COPELAND, BULLY interned in my there in the underwear” summer of and “praying for my period all week” feels 2011, using her spare time to get to grips almost intrusive, such is the minutiae of with the intricacies of Albini’s direct-to-tape her white-hot reflections on youth. It’s a recording facilities and feeding this all back kaleidoscope of influence, manifesting itself in into her home recordings of early Bully a tumbling collection of fuzzed-out pop-rock material. hits.
“We wouldn’t be a band if it wasn’t for Nashville.”
“We wouldn’t be a band if it wasn’t for Nashville,” starts drummer Stewart Copeland when quizzed on their hometown’s influence. “We wouldn’t have met each other. Alicia and I ended up there together in Nashville proper,
“I knew I would be comfortable working there,” she explains of the recording process for the album, “I had interned there, and knew everybody that worked there was really awesome and incredibly smart. I knew
it would be the best way to free myself of the distraction that I would have doing it in Nashville. And also I wanted to do it all on tape machines.” “I’ve just always done all our stuff on tape – this was the only record that we had the budget to go and do it there and mix on a console and send it to the half-inch machine and send that reel off to be mastered,” she spirals off, visibly excited by the tech side of the recording process. She bemoans the sadly necessary use of Pro Tools in their earlier material – “I knew that if I had the option to not do that, I didn’t want to do that, because I’m very indecisive and it would just take me way too long and I’d keep coming back to it.” “I just like the method of it,” she continues on the subject of tape. “Committing to
what you want to do instead of like, ‘we could try this’ or ‘let’s see what it’s like to cut this bridge!’ It’s like; no I’m just going to do it the way it was written.” Stewart picks up the baton; “I think as far as performance and stuff, I think before we went in Alicia definitely talked a lot about her really wanting the record to sound like it’s us playing the record and not like it’s super worked-over. We didn’t have Pro Tools or have to lay down a million tracks and pick the best ones. There’s no effects afterwards, they just spent a couple of days finding all their pedal chains to make the sounds while they’re doing it live and did it live.” “It’s nice to just have 24 tracks and have to work with what you have and figure it out from there,” smiles Alicia. “Not be like ‘maybe we should throw on just a little
Bellevue Days Soaring sonics and main-stage baiting singalongs – Bellevue Days are gunning for that Deaf Havana crowd with their upcoming EP ‘The Sun
bit of synth over this’ of something – we knew that wasn’t what it was and that wasn’t the kind of record we wanted to make.” It’s easy to look at Bully’s fuzzed-out aesthetic, links to the ‘In Utero’ producer and aversion to overly pernickety production methods and draw upon that ever-lingering buzzword, ‘grunge’. That’s not a pegging that Alicia will settle for though. “I think lots of times we just get thrown in with that label, cause a lot of people think that it’s reminiscent of the 90s,” she shrugs. “I’m not saying it’s not! But it was never intentional.” True to Bully form, bassist Reece’s word on the matter is as no-frills as it is final: “It just feels better to hear it called grunge than hear it called “indie-garage-pop” or something like that.Y’know - adjective party!” P
Came Up When We Were Young’. There’s no reason they shouldn’t capture those hearts – these tracks were festival anthems the second they left the practise room. Up Next: EP two is on its way. 31
TH I S A I NT A SC E N E . . .
p k c a l b peaks Words: ALI SHUTLER
Photo: EMMA SWANN
As approved by Mr Zane Lowe himself, Brighton rock crew BLACK PEAKS are gearing up for their next astronomic leaps.
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elcome to the inner workings of Black Peaks,” laughs Joe Gosney as his bandmates break away from the conversation and start arguing amongst each other, all playful smiles and knowing jabs. The band are back home in Brighton for a handful of appearances at The Great Escape, bringing to a close a lengthy UK tour that’s underlined the excitement surrounding the four-piece. A brief rest period awaits before festival season kicks off proper with Black Peaks playing everywhere from Nass 32 upsetmagazine.com
and Boardmasters to Hevy and Reading & Leeds. Then there’s the small matter of that debut album that’s been a glimmering source of anticipation ever since Zane Lowe played its first single ‘Glass Built Castles’ to the nation. “We had a clear plan for this year,” starts Andrew Gosden. “Well, we thought we did and then that happened. Scrap the plan, let’s roll with it,” he says with a hint of disbelief still present. “It’s been a whirlwind.” The storm isn’t over yet though, it’s just getting started. Formed in 2012, Black Peaks
were originally an instrumental band called Shrine. Will Gardner joined on vocals, the band released their ‘Closer to The Sun’ EP and everything was growing nicely. Then at the close of last year the band changed their name to avoid confusion with other acts and retreated to work on their debut album.
in the studio was terrifying. We didn’t know what was happening,” admits Joe. “But we had to keep writing this music.”
“For us, there hasn’t been any other change apart from branding,” explains Andrew. “At the end of all the Shrine stuff, we had to go quiet for a few months to finish writing and recording the record. That period of no gigging and being
When asked about the reaction they’ve received, essentially two songs into a new band, all four admit feelings of pride, surprise, excitement and overwhelm. “We never really thought our type of music would get that
“When Zane heard ‘Glass Built Castles’ and it blew up,” starts Liam Kearley before pausing. “It was brilliant, faith restored,” Joe concludes.
TH I S A I N’ T A SC ENE...
reaction, especially radio,” admits Andrew. “I never thought we’d appeal because it’s quite complicated,” continues Will. “It’s not straight 4/4 rock, there’s a lot going on but we’ve had so many young people that have just absolutely loved it. In Aberdeen these two kids, maybe 14 years old, came along and it was the first show they ever went to,” he says before having to repeat it, in a bid to make sense of the situation. “In Aberdeen as well. We’re from Brighton. All the way up there, there was two kids that had heard us on the radio.” “We probably ruined their idea of live music,” says Andrew with a grin before Will admits that his first gig was Brighton’s Party In The Park with B*Witched and Gary Barlow. It doesn’t seem to have affected his artistic direction though. “We’ve been asked a few times if we’ve written to a specification or to fit radio and it’s honestly never been the case with us,” Joe clarifies. “We’ll go into a rehearsal room and make music. If it makes us happy and excited, to us that’s a good song and we’ve tried to make as many of those good songs as possible. It just so happens that the two we’ve chosen as singles, ‘Glass Built Castles’ and it’s follow-up, ‘Crooks’, have stood out,” he reasons. “It’s surprising and humbling. We’re really stoked on that but we never wrote those two songs as singles.” “It’s nuts because we wrote the album as a different band,” muses Will. “We were three-quarters through writing it this time last year and nobody’s going to hear the whole thing until the end of summer.” “We haven’t got a release date yet but we’re working really hard to make sure that happens,” adds Joe “It’s a piece of work,” gushes
“We probably ruined their idea of live music.” ANDREW GOSDEN, BLACK PEAKS Will. “There’s segues and we’ve written sections where certain tracks all connect up. It’s not just ten or eleven songs mashed together; it’s a rollercoaster. The two tracks we’ve released are fast, hard hitting and they’ve got a lot of momentum. After that, it goes a lot darker,” he emphasises. “A hell of a lot darker, a hell of a lot heavier,” “It’s darker in the sense of expression, rather than metal,” adds Andrew before a chorus of Slayer roars. “As the album progresses we get experimental and at the end, there are some brighter songs that are more reflective and anthemic. It’s a real journey.” “As a whole, it is quite relentless, Andrew states. “We’re super proud of it and I don’t think we could add anything or take anything away,” he says, dismissing the idea that this newfound level of exposure will affect the album. “It’s good to know you can be proud of that one piece of work,” explains Liam “We went and recorded it with blood sweat and tears. At the time, we could not have done anything better or anything more to add to that and we wouldn’t want to,” defies Will. “It represents that moment in time, of us as four people as well as the other people we have as part of our team. Everything is part of that sound.” An instant and enthusiastic chorus of yeses show the bands excitement to share this record before Will adds “I’m really nervous as well. We put our hearts into that, it’s super sensitive.” “I think it will resonate,” starts Liam. “Hopefully it will, but I don’t really mind if it
doesn’t.” “The way I see it is that everyone has the kind of emotions that we express in our music,” interjects Will. “All the darkness in our music and in our performance is in everyone. It keeps me and everyone else in the band sane by being able to express that frustration, that sadness and all of that exuberance. It’s this massive release and to be able to do that live is amazing but that expression is real.” “I think there’s more room for bands with a heavier nature so, if anything, now’s the time. If we work as hard as we can, at least we’ll find out how far we can take this, that’s always been our ethos. Not to be pessimistic but if it doesn’t happen, at least we know we’ve done everything we can.You can try and you can aim high and see what happens,” challenges Joe. “I still wouldn’t say we deserve or have earnt anything though,” says Will. “It’s just luck, it’s just a game. There’s all sorts of stuff under the surface with us that’s really difficult to manage in our own personal lives but we do it.You get thrown some awesome cards, you keep working as hard as you can and you hope for the best.” While Black Peaks are still making sense of the spot they’ve been thrust in, there’s a sense they’re comfortable basking in it’s light. They are, after all, four friends at the start of a grand adventure. Welcome to the world of Black Peaks. There’s a storm brewing. P
Napoleon With as many vocalist swaps under their belt as timesignature changes in their songs, Devon melodi-posipassion-groove peddlers (their words, not ours) Napoleon are gearing up for their first full length. Expect raging vocal catharsis over twisting guitar/ drum arrangements as new vocalist Wes Thompson stakes his claim. Up Next: The album’s on its way.
Great Cynics Scratchy and sketchy indiepunks Great Cynics have been plugging away on that infamous toilet circuit for years. With their third full length album ‘I Feel Weird’ now out in the world, they’re set for more globe-trotting runs. Up Next: They’ve just wrapped up yet another UK tour with The Sidekicks - more dates surely await the eagle-eyed. 33
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NOTHING HAS CHANGED It may have been almost two decades since the release of their iconic record ‘The Shape Of Punk To Come’, but now, Refused are here to show exactly why they’d rather be alive. WORDS: SARAH JAMIESON PHOTOS: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT
“T
hey say that the classics never go out of style, but they do.” The first words uttered by Dennis Lyxzén on the opening track of Refused’s undoubtedly seminal album have always stood as a potent, taunting opening gambit.Yet, with almost two decades between then and now, if time has taught us anything, it’s that perhaps on this occasion Dennis wasn’t entirely correct. Seventeen years ago, a punk band from Umeå, Sweden unleashed their third album into the world. They would find their successes in playing to rooms of a few hundred people, but remained unsurprised when they arrived in North America to perform
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for a fraction of that. Then, just as soon as it really began, it all fell apart. The legend of Refused was born. The show that went on to become Refused’s final live set - taking place in Harrisonburg, Virginia back in October 1998 - has safely gone down in history. An already fraught band - one, some would believe, were already broken up - were infamously greeted by police sirens just a few songs into their set. It was there that the young group decided to call it quits and mean it.
“IT’S NOT NOSTALGIA OR. TRYING TO RELIVE SOMETHING.” DENNIS LYXZEN, REFUSED Since then, bands have come and gone but Refused’s presence has always been felt in the background. While ‘The Shape Of Punk To Come’ began its life as a failure in almost every right - doomed to die in that same Virginia
basement - it’s since gone on to become the inspiration, the lifeblood, of some of modern day rock’s biggest bands. Luckily that’s no longer where the story ends, but rather, where it all begins once again.
Stomachaches and heartache couldn’t stop FRANK IERO from answering his calling. Now he just needs to get used to the limelight. Words: SARAH JAMIESON. Photos: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT.
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or someone who’s only 33 years old, Frank Iero has done a lot. Having grown up in the midst of a musical family, his path was set from an early age and since entering into the New Jersey punk scene barely a teenager, his life has gone from one musical juncture to the next. “That’s the thing, I’ve always been in bands,” begins Frank, on the other end of a phone line from somewhere in his native New Jersey. The guitarist has just returned home from a lengthy jaunt around the UK and Europe, and he’s contemplating just what drove him to get back on the road. “Towards the end of my other band [My Chemical Romance], I was doing a project called Death Spells and then when James [Dewees, his collaborator] went on tour with The Get Up Kids, I immediately went into making this record. Then, as soon as I had done the record, I ended up getting a deal and putting it out. I don’t think I know how to do anything else, you know?” Since his early teens, Frank has been in and out of more bands than some people can even think of. From his early groups I Am A Graveyard and Pencey Prep – who released their only record back in 2002 – to the multi-million-selling beast of My Chemical Romance, he has had his fingers in many pies over the years. It was only when his former project wound down in 2013 however, that he realised he had different priorities to take
into consideration. Despite already having begun his aforementioned electronicfused Death Spells, he was also enjoying being a husband and a father to the family he had spent so much time away from already. It was the music, though, that really pulled him back out onto the road. “It wasn’t a decision to make lightly,” he admits, opening up about how touring was back on the table once again. “It was definitely something I had to sit down with my wife and think, ‘I don’t know if…’ I didn’t know if I wanted to do this again, especially in the capacity of how I was gonna do it now. I’ve always been very happy being the guitar player, being the ‘other guy’ who’s a little bit more in the background. To be a focal point or a mouthpiece for a band has just never been a goal of mine. We sat down and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I should do this, and I don’t know if I want to do this.’ She was just like, ‘Well, you’ll never know unless you try it and if you don’t try it, you’re gonna hate yourself for it.’ She just said, ‘See how it goes; if you like it, great, if you don’t like it, come home.’ That’s what I’ve been doing. The second it stops being fun, you have to go home. If I could choose where I would rather be, I would rather be with my family, but this is all I’ve ever known and all I know how to do.”
“THIS IS ALL I’VE EVER KNOWN.”
The very fact that music was all he
TALK TO FRANK 4 8 upsetmagazine.com
F RA NK I ERO
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LIVE The Movielife with Gnarwolves and Apologies, I Have None Electric Ballroom, Camden
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ever mind the last 12 years, The Movielife have spent the 24 hours prior to tonight’s show making sure it even happened. Factor in a cancelled flight, a handful of last minute cab rides to JFK and five new plane tickets, and it feels as though the strains of their entire career have been condensed into one day for full dramatic effect. While the fans may be oblivious to how close they came to clutching a defunct ticket, the look of relief across the band’s faces suggests they were all too aware. First though, London trio Apologies, I Have None warm up the crowd on home-turf. It’s a little empty and there’s an undeniable need to hurry along the headliners, but when you’ve waited this long to see The Movielife, a charming set from AIHN is no biggie. For those who listen, there’s a dull air of The Menzingers about this triplet that makes them viable openers for such an occasion. Similarly, Gnarwolves are suitably modest about their main support billing, not that you’d expect much else from the Brighton three-piece. “This one’s for the skate rats,” proclaims bassist Charlie, before singer and guitarist, Thom, remembers to plug their upcoming tour with Anti-Flag. The UK punks leave tracks like ‘Bottle To Bottle’, ‘History Is Bunk’ and ‘Melody Has Big Plans’ to warm up everyone’s vocal chords. Job done. It’s all go from the crash of Evan Baken’s cymbals on ‘Face Or Kneecaps’, as the familiar lyrics – “all those fucked up things you put me through” –
PHOTOS: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT
levitate the 1,100-cap venue. From there, The Movielife – Vinnie Caruana, Brandon Reilly, Dan Navetta, Phil Navetta and Evan Baken – look to ‘Pinky Swear’, ‘I Hope You Die Soon’ and ’10 Seconds Too Late’ to lead the ‘This Time Next Year’ section of the set. 2003’s ‘Forty Hour Train Back To Penn’ proves more popular with fans here, as ‘Kelly Song’ provides the real pinch me moment everyone’s been waiting for. “We’d like to come back and see you soon, if that’s okay?” asks frontman Vinnie. “It’s a date,” he adds, as the room erupts with cheers. Frankly, any other response would’ve been downright awkward. So as he mouths ‘this means the world’ after the final notes of ‘Jamestown’, it’s clear that The Movielife’s comeback won’t be a short-lived affair. As special as tonight will be for fans, this isn’t the last we’ll be seeing of the Long Island legends in London. With time to settle in their roles, and to turn their minds to new material, their next visit to the UK stands to be even sweeter. Jessica Bridgeman
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Gnarwolves If you believed everything you saw on Instagram, you’d probably think that when DIY punk bands aren’t touring the world relentlessly, they’re at home living off mum and dad, perfecting their kick-flips on time-lapse and eating pizza in their pants. For Gnarwolves frontman Thom Weeks, his Brightonbased reality couldn’t be further from the lo-fi filter. “I’ve got a really good job,” he explains en route to Buckingham Palace. “I’m a mental health support worker.” When he’s done detailing his band’s plans for another phenomenal year ahead,
he plans to head off for a day of sightseeing around London, with stops at Westminster and Camden Lock. “Really bad time management is how I get through it all,” the 27-year-old admits, adding that his employer of five and a half years may only be lenient of his punk-rock double life for so long. “I guess there will be a day when they tell me I’m not allowed to come back to work, because I take too much time off, but I really hope not.” If ever there was a time when Thom’s nine to five could well feel the weight of Gnarwolves’ success, it’s now.
There’s a fine line that separates a reunion show from the full-blown effort of reforming a band for good. When influential Long Island mob The Movielife took their second attempt at getting back together in December 2014, their initial run of live shows, along with the prospect of UK tour dates, were at the forefront of fans’ minds. For band members Vinnie Caruana, Brandon Reilly, Dan Navetta, Phil Navetta and Evan Baken, there was a much longer game plan in mind. “In 2011 we reformed to try and do this,” singer Vinnie explains. “It quickly dissolved because we just weren’t ready to do it and we were forcing it to happen. “This time, there’s no forcing anybody to do anything.” The mere thought of The Movielife writing new material in 2015 may be enough to dub this a permanent proposition, but as they explain, their future lies in the hands of fans. “This isn’t a thing where we’re opening the door and then shutting it again,” says Vinnie. 59