upsetmagazine.com Editor: Stephen Ackroyd (stephen@upsetmagazine.com) Deputy Editor: Victoria Sinden (viki@upsetmagazine.com) Associate Editor: Ali Shutler (ali@upsetmagazine.com) Writers: Alex Bradley, Danny Randon, Jake Richardson, Jasleen Dhindsa, Jessica Goodman, Martyn Young, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin Photographers: Mac Praed, Phil Smithies, Ryan Johnston, Sarah Louise Bennett Cover Photo: Mac Praed 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. P U B L I S H E D F RO M
THE BUNKER W E LCO M E TOT H E B U N K E R.CO M
IN THIS ISSUE... RIOT!
FEATURES
6 D OW N LOA D 2017
42 T H E G OS P E L YO U T H
14 T H E XC E RTS
52 M A N C H EST E R
16 C RE E P E R
O RC H EST R A
17 CAS E ST U DY
54 S H E E R M AG
18 WA X A H ATC H E E
56 FA N G C LU B
19 RO C K DJ 20 B EST E X
RATED
22 P L AY L I ST
60 T H E G OS P E L YO U T H 61 S I LV E RST E I N
ABOUT TO BREAK
62 G O L D F I N G E R
24 EST RO N S
63 US & US O N LY
26 DAS H E R
64 M I L K T E ET H
28 P I L LOW Q U E E N S
65 L I N K I N PA RK
EDITOR’S NOTE Truth is, the UK rock scene has been throwing up great bands for years now. From Creeper to Milk Teeth to Boston Manor, they’ve got to their debut album and smashed it out of the park. You can add The Gospel Youth to that pack now. Their first fulllength ‘Always Lose’ is - spoiler alert - a five star instant classic, which is why we’ve taken them straight to the cover. And to think they once complained we weren’t covering them much. We remember lads. We always remember. x
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BIFFY CLYRO
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MAIN STAGE, SATURDAY
espite everything Biffy Clyro have achieved, they’re still the underdogs tonight as they headline the main stage of Download. There are whispering doubts about their ability to pull it off and the opening moments of ‘Wolves of Winter’ feel apprehensive, despite the pointed finger cry of “We have achieved so much more than you possibly thought we could” and the tongue in cheek spell-check of brilliance. Taking their own words to heart, from the stuttering cinema of ‘Living Is A Problem’, Biffy Clyro are simply magnificent. We’ve seen the band on the biggest of stages but fuelled by a need to prove themselves once more, they find a higher gear.
NGERS AS FUCK BA NDS, HEAVY BRILLIANT BA HERE NEAR YW AN T ULLY, NO OAD AND, THANKF - IT’S DOWNL IN AS IN 2016 E E’R W S AS MUCH RA GE W PA THE NEXT FE 2017. OVER EVERYTHING U THROUGH YO N RU A GONN . AR YE IS DOWN TH THAT WENT ON. DANNY RAND I SHUTLER, UISE WORDS: AL , SARAH LO ON ST HN AN JO PHOTOS: RY BENNETT.
Everything Biffy have done, has been done their own way. Weird, wacky and unashamedly bizarre, even in their most poignant moments, there’s a quirk to the way they dance forward. As the hammering intro of ‘Who’s Got A Match?’ rings out, Simon Neil staggers down the catwalk, playful and over the top. Later on he stands tall over everything and name-checks the likes of AC/DC and Black Sabbath. He sings a bit of Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing’ that accidentally leads to something more. “That’s the biggest singalong we’ll get tonight,” he laughs. There’s a ceremony that comes with tonight’s set but the band never let it get in the way of their twisted grins and wicked desire for a good time. Leaning more towards the heavier end of things, ‘There’s No Such Thing As A Jaggy Snake’ gets a rare airing alongside the more modern rampage of ‘That Golden Rule’, ‘Animal Style’ and ‘Stingin’ Belle’. Biffy have never bowed to anyone’s weight though and they’re not going to start tonight. The ghostly threat of ‘9/15ths’ sits alongside the agile ‘In The Name Of The Wee Man’ and the acoustic, heartfelt powerhouse of ‘Many Of Horror’. Tonight wasn’t about proving anyone wrong. It was about proving those who believed in the biff, right. There are streamers at the start and fireworks upon fireworks at the end. This was always a celebration of the road less travelled. Biffy Clyro have always done things their own wonderfully weird way and tonight is no different. P
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he last time we heard from The Xcerts, Murray McLeod and co. were in the midst of touring their outstanding 2014 album, ‘There Is Only You’. It was a record that arrived to critical acclaim and saw the band playing bigger stages than they ever had before, but as Murray explains, the reception to the album – particularly in relation to the frontman’s emotional wellbeing – got rather personal. “Stuff started to get a bit odd,” he remembers. “We’re so grateful that people connect with that record, but then people started asking me really personal questions, and they’d shout out people’s names that are mentioned on the record! We were playing in Glasgow, and people were shouting out, ‘Who’s Emily?’ [in reference to a person name-checked on the album]. At that point, I thought things had maybe gone a bit too far. The story got a bit mixed up with ‘There Is Only You’ – it wasn’t quite the break-up record people thought it was. The songs were actually written while I was still with my ex, and they were more about going through rough times together, as opposed to my feelings after the relationship ended.”
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It might seem like The Xcerts disappeared for a while – a threeyear gap between albums would certainly suggest so – but Murray is quick to point out that the success of their last album meant he, bassist Jordan Smith and drummer Tom Heron had to spend much of the two years following its release on tour. Not that the Aberdeen native is complaining, mind.
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“We’ve had no time off!” he declares. “‘There Is Only You’ came out in Autumn 2014, and then we were on tour for pretty much the whole of 2015. The aim was to do 18-months of touring, following which we’d go into the studio to get a new album out much quicker. But we kept getting offered tours that we couldn’t turn down, and the album seemed to gain real momentum about half-waythrough the campaign. So, our new album ended up being recorded in December 2016.” About time, lad. But while one might expect The Xcerts’ new
material to sonically pick-up where ‘There Is Only You’ left off, their new tunes, particularly new-single-come-mega-banger ‘Feels Like Falling In Love’ see the three-piece reaching for the stars. It remains heartfelt, honest emorock at its core, but these songs are bigger, brasher, and… poppier. It’s a transition not too dissimilar from fellow Scotsmen Twin Atlantic’s development between 2012’s ‘Free’ and 2015’s ‘Great Divide’, and it’s a step forward which should see Murray, Jordan and Tom finally take their place atop the Brit-rock pile. “We thought we’d written a blockbuster chorus!” gushes Murray when speaking of the single. “It’s a slightly different flavour for our band – it introduces the 80s inspiration that’s across the record. We really believe in it – it’s a fucking great pop song! ‘Feels Like Falling In Love’ sums up the album nicely. This song will take us up a few levels and allow us to compete with the big boys!” But while there are sonic changes when it comes to these new tunes, Murray still recounts the creative process of this new album as one of catharsis. “‘Feels Like Falling In Love’ is about falling back in love with your life,” he explains. “For a good spell from the making of ‘There Is Only You’ to making this record, I spent a lot of time in total darkness; I was going through a lot of stuff, and while that was happening I realised that I was falling in love with the notion that I was a tortured artist. I was relishing being this wounded person. But my friends and loved ones pulled me out of that, and I started falling in love with the good stuff again. I fell back in love with life, basically. That’s what this record is about.” Hope. That’s the word that comes to mind upon hearing Murray tell the story of the last few years of his life. The Xcerts and their frontman have always been the underdogs, always touted for success but not quite reaching the dizzy heights their talents deserve. But this new record breathes new hope, new life and new love into the band. It’s time to fall head over heels for The Xcerts all over again. P The Xcerts’ new album is due later this year.
LEVEL UP
THE XCERTS ARE BACK. WITH NEW BANGER ‘FEELS LIKE FALLING IN LOVE’ AND AN ALBUM TO FOLLOW, THEY’RE STAKING THEIR CLAIM TO BE 2017’S MOST REVITALISED BAND. FRONTMAN MURRAY MCLEOD EXPLAINS HOW… WORDS: JAKE RICHARDSON.
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Hey Mariel, you’ve recently signed a new record deal for an EP, and a publishing deal too - it sounds like everything’s pretty full on at the mo? It’s been pretty go, go, go lately. I always feel like there’s more I could be doing, though. The publishing deal was really the icing on the cake. I’ve always wanted to be a songwriter, even before I ever started playing in front of other people and going on tour. I actually started playing in front of people and going on tour because I wasn’t sure how to just be a songwriter otherwise. If someone wants to forward that information, I’d really like to be the next Sia or something. Just saying!
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So you’ve switched names, from Candy Hearts to Best Ex - is this a continuation of what you were doing before, or a whole new thing? Can it be a little bit of both? Candy Hearts was so much of myself, packing up and pretending Best Ex is this brand new thing would be really weird to me. It’d be like taking on a brand new identity, moving to a new city and pretending I was this entirely different person who had an entirely different life all along. It’d feel like a con. I’m still the same person who wrote those Candy Hearts song. They’re still about my life and still what the inside of my brain sounded like at the time. Best Ex is that same voice, but the sounds in my head changed a bit. I’m older. I feel different now, and I just don’t identify with what Candy Hearts was. To be honest, Candy Hearts felt really confining and was tainted with anxiety. It got to the point where I was terrified to really do anything, including going on tour, release a song or really just reading the YouTube comments section (which by the way, one should never do when they’re already feeling sorry for themselves). I really like our old catalog though, so I still want to play it. I just want to move past those negative, anxiety-led feelings. Anxiety will not be the front-woman of Best Ex, even if she was an unofficial member Candy Hearts. You already seem to be trying out new ideas, do you have a set plan for what Best Ex is, or are you going with the flow a bit? I’d be lying if I said I had plan for anything I do creatively. I have a business plan, yes, but creatively, I don’t want to box myself in. I’d hate to think that this record would have sounded different if it was a “Candy Hearts” record, like there’s this sound I am married to and forced to play even if I’m not into it anymore. I love the music we’re making now. I love heavy synth bass, and I love fuzzy guitars. I also love that sparkly, 90s Gin Blossoms
type guitar we had on our first LP and I think maybe it’d be cool to bring that back on the next record. I can say that some of the next record already sounds similar to this EP (we currently have enough for a full length just sitting around) but with more of a rock edge. At the same time, I want to be able to do what I want to do. I reserve the right to scrap everything and start over if I wake up one morning and the inside of my head sounds different. For example, I’ve been listening to a lot of Pinegrove and The Weakerthans. I’ve thought so much about adding some pedal steel to the next record or a slide guitar if I can come up with a really nice ballad. This would feel totally out of place on Ice Cream Anti Social, but we did that years ago in our demos, and I loved it, but the idea somehow got lost. It’s better to reinvent yourself than to keep making the same record again and again. What made you settle on the name Best Ex, and where did it come from? I’m not exactly sure how I thought of it. I think I said it in conversation talking about one of my ex-boyfriends who I’m still friends with, but when I stumbled upon it, it just sort of felt right. I really like the idea of being the best of something someone threw away or didn’t want. To me, Best Ex is the best thing you gave up on. It’s the underdog who really shouldn’t be an underdog at all. It feels empowering. You’ve just started touring again after a bit of a break - how’s it going? Well, we hit our first city tomorrow. Hopefully all goes well! We’ve definitely experimented with some new things in rehearsal so I’m so excited to show everyone. I feel like as I get older and become more experienced as a musician, I’m getting a bit better at planning our stage show and being prepared. I think there was a turning point before we went to the UK two years ago where I really just felt like I was flailing around with a malfunctioning GPS, but I started feeling really in my rhythm on the Pop Punk’s Not Dead Tour. It continued that way on Warped, and now I hope it carries over to this, though it’s been about two years! It’s like riding a bike though, right? What can you tell us about your new EP, ‘Ice Cream Anti Social’? What’s it about? I think the EP covers a lot of topics in my life! A good chunk of it is about learning to deal with how life is full of things you can’t control and also full of things that sort of suck. It’s also full of great people who make it sting a little less, or at least laugh about when it
does sting. The other half of the record is about romantic relationships, about uncertain futures and people having wishy-washy feelings. I hold a lot of the record close to my heart because most of the songs are autobiographical and pretty specific. For example the computer I talk about in “Lonely Life” is the one I’m typing on right now (which literally may fall apart before I finish this). When I talk about the sky in Salt Lake City in “See You Again” it’s this gorgeous sunset I saw on Warped Tour. I still have the photo on my phone, but I never really much-appreciated stuff like that until the person the song is about showed me. You’ve said before that the EP touches on the idea that we’ll “always be sort of alone” - are those feelings that particularly resonate with you? Yeah, they really do. It’s unfortunate. I don’t want to spread negativity, and I’m begging anyone to prove me wrong, but so far, that hasn’t been the case. People are a selfish species – not all of them, but a lot of them. It’s not even always malicious. Your best friends can lose touch without a second thought just because they’ve got a new job or a new boyfriend. They just don’t need you around anymore, they stop answering your texts and stop asking how you are. Maybe they move to a different state or have a baby. Whatever it is, you are probably not someone else’s first priority (and not for nothing but if my pal has a baby then I certainly would hope that baby is their first priority!). I’m not saying I’m mad at it. The truth is that you are the only real person who will always be there for you. You are your own best friend. Once I was finally able to admit this to myself, it made me a lot tougher and more able to handle what I’ve got to handle on my own. The truth is that most people just look out for themselves, and you can count on a very small handful, but I do think you should make every effort to look out for other people. Don’t be the selfish one. Be the good in the world you want to see. Maybe I’m wrong though, and I just haven’t found that type of mutual love or friendship. Maybe it is just me who’s always sort of alone, and I hope for the sake of everyone else, that’s the case because I can handle it. So after this EP, where next? What are your plans? I’d like to release another EP! These songs were originally a full length, that I cut in half. There are some things I want to add. There’s a lot more I feel like I need to say. P Best Ex’s EP ‘Ice Cream Anti Social’ is out now.
BEST IN SHOW
MARIEL LOVELAND IS DITCHING HER CANDY HEARTS BAGGAGE AND EMBRACING A FRESH NEW START AS BEST EX. IT JUST FEELS RIGHT, SHE EXPLAINS.
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ou should never judge a book by its cover, but sometimes you just know. From the firm insistence of ‘Rats’, all space, swells and impossible melody, it’s painfully and perfectly clear that Pillow Queens share something very special. The three tracks that make up their ‘Calm Girls’ EP might show off different sides, but there’s a wondrous spark to every angle. Say hello to your New Favourite Band. Hey Sarah. How did you get from Sarah, Pamela, Cathy and Rachel to becoming Pillow Queens? We met through an all-girls basketball team. People think we’re making that up, but it’s genuinely how it happened.
There’s a lot of frustration on the record, but there’s also a lot of power and defiance. Was that a deliberate inclusion? We definitely had a sound we were aiming for when making the record. We wanted it to be strong and heavy which counterbalances some of the writing in the songs. ‘Wonderboys’ in particular is intentionally defiant because it’s just a giant fuck you (pardon me) to capital B Blokes. Whereas ‘Rats’ is a lot more personal and just ended up evolving to become quite chanty and aggressive.
Your debut EP ‘Calm Girls’ is getting a Specialist Subject Records release. What’s that record about? The record started to be written in the summer of 2016 while Pamela and I briefly lived together. We had a pipe dream of making music and forming a lovely little band. I suppose the record itself was inspired by how overwhelmed we both coincidentally felt at the time, and the record feels to us like it’s a cathartic release of a
What inspires you to write songs, and then what inspires you to share them? Do they come from different places? It’s usually a lot of sore hearts and discontent that gets our songwriting engines revving. Pamela and I are both Virgos, so we keep a vat of secret feelings deep inside of us that’s always fully stocked for another song. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to share those sensitive tracks, but we really trust each other when it comes
DUBLIN FOURSOME PILLOW QUEENS HAVE JUST RELEASED A NEW EP THAT WILL BOFF YOU IN THE FACE, AND NOW THEY’RE TAKING IT ON THE ROAD. WORDS: ALI SHUTLER.
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lot of pent up emotions. Calm girls is exactly what we weren’t at the time and still fail to be. I might add that none of those frustrations were due to us living together. We were both delightful roommates.
to putting forward ideas. Plus our overwhelming urge to show off will always win over being embarrassed about our feelings. What do you want people to take away from your music? It’d be cool if people were able to take exactly what they needed from the songs at any particular time. It’s funny, some people have come to us and asked if the songs were about x, y or z - and usually, they’re totally missing the mark - but it’s great that there’s a familiarity there and a sense of being able to relate to the songs. We also really like the idea of people seeing us or hearing us and feeling like being in a band is something they could do and eventually starting projects of their own. What’s next? Tell us secrets. We’re about the embark on a UK tour this July which is so daunting but also really cool. We’re playing a handful of Irish shows before we head off and we’ve a few more unannounced shows for later on in the year, but when we get back off tour, we’re going to be a bit quiet for a while and polish off some new songs and get back in the studio. P Pillow Queens’ EP ‘Calm Girls’ is out now. The band tour the UK this July.
PH OTO: SAR AH LOUISE BENNET T
PH OTO: SARAH LOUI SE B E NNET T
PH OTO: PH I L SM ITH I ES
PHOTO : SAR AH LOUI SE BENNETT
PH OTO: PH I L SM ITH I ES
PHOTO: RYAN JOHNSTON
PH OTO: SARAH LOUI SE B E NNET T
PHOTO : SARAH LOUISE B E NNET T
L E P GOS
P OWING U BEEN THR S A H E N K SCE UND ROC E NDERGRO OV E R T H THE UK U FAS H I O N F O T U O ING E IT’S GO UR ANDS LIK RPE D TO G R E AT B VA N S WA S ’ R E M M U EIR S THIS S DROP TH YEARS. A PA R E T O E R LAST FEW P H T S P E L YO U U T E LY , THE GO S ABSOL TO G E A R N I S K C L E R T, I T ’ I A K R E L I O SE’. SP W AY S L O L B U M ‘A L DEBUT A FUCKING
BRILLIAN
ANDON DA N N Y R WORDS:
T.
: . PH OTOS
E D. M AC PR A
A REALLY HARD PATCH LOST EVERYTHING
t’s a balmy 38 degrees in California. The air is dense, the heat stifling, so much so that it makes the UK - even on some of its hottest days in more than 40 years - look more like a scene from The Day After Tomorrow. What better temperatures for The Gospel Youth to endure a 1,379-mile drive in? “We stood outside of the van earlier, and I think I instantly got sunburnt,” laughs Sam Little, the lead singer for the Brighton pop-rockers, stood at a truck stop in an unknown part of the Golden State. “I’m absolutely boiling!” “This morning, we woke up and went diving off some waterfalls,” grins drummer Kurtis Maiden, shamelessly confessing to going full tourist during his first ever trip stateside, let alone the band’s first American tour. “That was an awesome start to the day.” Despite piling into a stuffy van, which they had to sleep in the back of before self-driving for 12 hours a day to stick to their schedule, the band - Sam, Kurtis, and guitarists Julian Bowen and Kev Deverick, plus live bassist James Dixon - wouldn’t have it any other way. That’s because, on the end of that particularly arduous journey from Eugene, Oregon to Albuquerque, New Mexico lay the second leg of the Vans Warped Tour. For 22 years, landing your first stint on the travelling festival has been a rite of passage for bands like The Gospel Youth, but to fly over from the other side of the Atlantic without so much as releasing a debut album at that point - by the time you read this, their astonishing first full-length ‘Always Lose’ will be in the public domain - seems absurd even to the band themselves. “I still get shivers whenever
anyone mentions it,” Sam admits in the weeks before celebrating ‘Always Lose’’s release with a show in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania. “I thought we’d maybe be playing to a couple of friends who would tell us that our album’s not completely terrible.” “For as long as I can remember, it’s been the dream to travel around for two months and see stuff that people would never see in their lifetimes,” Kurtis adds. “Most Americans won’t even see this much, you know? I can’t think of anything that would be better than this…” or those who have followed The Gospel Youth since their genesis in November 2014, ‘Always Lose’ is an album which has been a long time coming. However, there’s nobody who has waited longer for a full body of work to be put out than Sam. “I’d just finished recording a solo record,” he says, having already made a name for himself performing at local gigs and uploading videos of himself performing covers and original songs to YouTube. “Julian said that, while he hated to say it, he didn’t think the solo thing was working and that I should either give up, or that we could start a band.” “It wasn’t even tough love,” Sam chuckles. “He was just trying to get me to be in a band with him!” The first song born from that collaboration, simply titled ‘Kids’, was a golden nugget of shiny power-pop, clearly unearthed on an adolescent diet of Jimmy Eat World’s ‘Bleed American’, ‘Something To
Write Home About’ by The Get Up Kids, and ‘Everything In Transit’, the debut album by one of Sam’s biggest influences, Andrew McMahon (AKA Jack’s Mannequin). Heading up a three-song EP of the same name, ‘Kids’ turned many heads in unison in Brighton’s burgeoning pop-punk scene and beyond. Amongst those with interests piqued was Kurtis - at the time drumming for the band Midday Committee just along the south coast in Portsmouth before jumping behind the kit for The Gospel Youth in 2016 - who claims that he “fell in love with the band that day” he first heard the single. It looked like following Julian’s advice, sacking off his solo album and forming The Gospel
Youth was the start of a fruitful chapter in Sam’s career as a musician - even if he wasn’t so convinced… “There were 100% points in the early stages of the band where I didn’t think it was going to last. We wanted to just do it because we loved it, but there were points where we thought that it wasn’t working out or sitting right. “As time’s gone on, we’ve been so fucking lucky. Everything’s just kind of fallen into place; we’re now seeing that this is what we
FANG FICTION
H O W E V E R P R E PA R E D YO U T H I N K YO U A R E F O R T H O U S A N D S O F A D O R I N G FA N S , N OT H I N G Q U I T E C O M PA R E S T O B E I N G O N S TA G E W I T H H O A R D S O F G I G - G O E R S S C R E A M I N G B A C K AT Y O U . I T ’ S A P R O B L E M F A N G C L U B A R E J U S T G O I N G T O H AV E T O G E T U S E D T O . WORDS: STEVEN LOFTIN.