THE THE
S SA AF FE E
NEW NEW
I IN N
ALBUM ALBUM
S SO OU UN ND D
INCLUDING ‘WORK ID NU CM LB U’ DIA NN GD‘‘ WH OA RD K ‘ ‘DUMB’ AND ‘HAD
OUT OUT
NOW NOW
FOR IT’ FN OO RUG IH T’ E ENOUGH’
CONTENTS CONTENTS M A RC H 2017
upsetmagazine.com
EDITOR’S NOTE
Editor: Stephen Ackroyd (stephen@upsetmagazine.com) Deputy Editor: Victoria Sinden (viki@upsetmagazine.com) Assistant Editor: Ali Shutler (ali@upsetmagazine.com) Contributors: Alexander Bradley, Corinne Cumming, Danny Randon, Dillon Eastoe, Emma Swann, Jake Richardson, Jasleen Dhindsa, Jessica Goodman, Nariece Sanderson, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Sarah Louise Bennett, Steven Loftin 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
Dear Donald Trump, Fuck off. Fuck off. Fuck off.
IN THIS ISSUE... RIOT!
4 SO RO RI T Y N O I S E 8 C O U N T E RF E I T 10 RO C K DJ : M A L LO RY K N OX VS G REY W I N D 12 JA M I E L E N M A N 14 LOS CA M P ES I N OS ! 16 B I G SCA RY M O N ST E RS 18 N EC K D E E P 19 F EST I VA LS
ABOUT TO BREAK
20 I D L ES
FEATURES
22 LOW E R T H A N AT L A N T I S 30 VA N T 32 C O D E O R A N G E 34 M E AT WAV E
RATED
36 LOS CA M P ES I N OS ! 37 CA N ’ T SW I M 40 D ECA D E 41 T R AC KS O F T H E MONTH
Fuck off. Fuck off. Fuck off. Fuck off. Fuck off. Fuck off. Fucking fuck off. Fuckity bye.
Sx
RIOT ING IN ROCK E V E RY T H I N G H A P P E N
FILL IN SORORITY NOISE UNDERSTAND THAT SOMETIMES LIFE IS A SHITTER - BUT IT’S IMPORTANT TO KEEP UP THE FIGHT. WORDS: ALI SHUTLER.
it is important that you tell the people you love, that you care about them and just be there when you see people struggling. Know it’s important to reach out. Even when you’re dealing with loss, it’s important to think about yourself and take into account how you can be a better person because of it.” “It’s just important to write for yourself,” he continues. “Writing is a pretty selfish act; it’s like therapy, you know what I mean? I don’t think about how people may perceive it because that compromises what you’re actually writing about. Then, at the end of the record when it’s mastered, I have to sit down and go, ‘Okay, this is what I’m doing. Maybe people will enjoy it; maybe people will take something positive from it’.” Instead of some grand message or conceptual theme, ‘YNA_AYT’ is simply ‘This is how I’m feeling in this moment, unapologetic or not’.”
orority Noise’s ‘You’re Not As _____ As You Think’ is an important album. Deeply personal, it sees Cam Boucher ask questions about survival, loss, addiction, self-destruction and salvation to the tune of incredible songs. All dynamic emotion and human want, you could hear it tremble and crack on your shoulder but also feel it in your bones from the back of the arena. It’s a record that could change everything for the band. Not that they know it. “I feel like we made something that was to the best of our abilities and the most concentrated effort we’ve been a part of,” starts Cam, who’s getting ready to head the Women’s March nearby. “But I had no expectations, just like I have no expectations with anything I do. I get to do music, and some people listen to it, and that’s really cool. I’m eternally grateful for it, but I never think ‘Woah, we made a difference’. I’m proud of it, and that’s the most important thing.” The record is bigger than anything Sorority Noise have done before. It’s robust, intense and doesn’t stop shifting for the duration. “I spent four months of
my life fully and totally involved in it. I wasn’t talking to people; I was totally not myself. I felt like I was losing it trying to get everything out of my head,” Cam explains. Pressure mounting, he had forty or fifty songs written that he eventually cut down to ten. “I was pretty out of it. Recording them and putting it to tape felt like an exhale. ‘This is out; there is nothing more I can do’.” But it’s exactly what he’d been planning to do all along. “When I phoned Mike Sapone, who produced the record, I told him ‘I know exactly what I want this to sound like. I want you to help. I want you to know ahead of time that I could lose it’.” The edge is ever-visible throughout ‘YNA_AYT’. That teetering dance makes it that much more intense. It feels like these songs mean something. “It is very heavy-handed with loss, but I think that we, as a band and I, as an individual are much more than the loss of friends. It’s something I’ve been focusing on lyrically because I can’t really think about anything else. It’s important to know it’s not just a story, it’s real.” This isn’t a voyeuristic record. Death is never a selling point. “I don’t want people to listen to this because it’s sad. I do want people to know that
There used to be no filter to Cam’s words, but now: “I do just write things and throw them away. Some things are too real.” ‘It Kindly Stopped For Me’ almost crossed that line, he explains. “This album is almost too much, but there are things on top of this that don’t need to be in the public eye. It plays an important role in what I’m able to do and what I feel confident about. I don’t know where I draw the line; I just know it gets drawn.” “I’ve dealt with death and loss to a weird extent,” reasons Cam. He feels like he’s been running from it his whole life. Writing about that is an important mechanism for him, and this record sees Sorority Noise questioning the healing process. “It’s an interesting dichotomy. You never want to get over it because they’re so important and you know as soon as you get over it, that part of them will be somewhat lost in you, no matter how deeply crushed you are by their loss. But it’s also important to live your life positively, knowing that everything you do is going to have them by your side. You are the continuation of their life. It’s a weird thing to process.” As a Cradle Catholic, the losses also inspired questions about Cam’s religion. As well as conversations with friends, this album sees him talking to God. “When I started losing people, there was this teetering point where I wanted to abandon it.” Half of him figured, “there can’t be justification for this happening or there being a higher power. But on the other hand, if I don’t believe in a heaven or an afterlife, then my friends are just rotting in the ground. The idea
RIOT
LOS CAMPESINOS! “WE “WE QUESTIONED QUESTIONED WHAT WHAT THE THE POINT ANYMORE.” POINT WAS WAS ANYMORE.” our years between albums is hardly untrodden terrain, but for a band with such a tireless reputation for studio output, a new record from Los Campesinos! in 2017 might just leave the hiatuses of Dr Dre and Guns N’ Roses to pale in comparison. Their absence may be marginally less prolific, but in their sensational sixth album, ‘Sick Scenes’, the indie-rock septet have marked a return that’s not only unanimously welcome among their cult of admirers; it’s a reminder of simpler and more sincere times for the band, having independently funded the making of the record – with a little help from their friends and fans. “It was something that, in hindsight, I think we should’ve done years ago,” says frontman Gareth David. “We’re very proud to have started managing ourselves and going out on our own
to make an album. I feel like we’re a good example of how to stick to your principles and make sensible decisions that preserve you as a band.”
A reinvigorated compilation of eleven odes to their loves and loathes – relationships, depression and, of course, football – ‘Sick Scenes’ follows 2013’s ‘No Blues’ which, while undoubtedly charming in the band’s self-deprecating fashion, felt a bit deflated.
Another factor which further marred the band’s ability to show ‘No Blues’ to the wider world was something which has eroded the hopes of countless millennial mid-tier artists: the everpresent fact that being in a band won’t always pay the bills. When each Campesino! reached the daunting age of 30, this startling realisation, along with the financial necessity of ‘the day job’ became even harder to ignore.
It may not necessarily have been down to a waning in the energies that drive LC!’s flamboyant, excruciatingly honest choruses, but more because of the fifth album’s obligatory promotional cycle – or lack thereof.
“Once we had moved in that direction [of getting jobs], we all needed to take the time to get settled,” Gareth reflects. “Some of the band have mortgages and businesses and other non-musical projects that take up time and energy.”
“The sad thing was that there wasn’t really a ‘No Blues cycle’,” says Gareth. “It came out, and we only played about ten shows supporting it, which was a frustrating thing. We’d previously always done huge US tours.”
With their futures in mind, multiinstrumentalist Rob ‘Sparky Deathcap’ Taylor made a living as a freelance illustrator – his bold and brilliant work can be seen through the cover art for ‘Sick Scenes’ – and Gareth’s sibling
In retrospect, Los Campesinos! shouldn’t have listened when Dave told them it was a fancy dress funeral.
BELIEVE IT OR NOT, AFTER THEIR LAST ALBUM ‘NO BLUES’ LOS CAMPESINOS! WERE WONDERING WHETHER COMING BACK AGAIN WOULD BE WORTH IT. THANKFULLY, A RUN OF FOOTBALL SHIRTS PUT THEM RIGHT… WORDS: DANNY RANDON.
‘Hold On Now, Youngster’. That doesn’t necessarily mean that he’ll be dusting off his glockenspiel and re-treading the band’s ‘tweexcore’ roots anytime soon…
LC!FC are in the Premier League when it comes to kit design. keyboardist Kim Paisley opened a tattoo studio in the south coast town of Worthing with drummer Jason Adelinia. Meanwhile, bassist Matthew Fidler went into the marketing business, guitarist Neil Turner began working his way up in the restaurant industry, and other guitarist Tom Bromley set out to write music for television and adverts, as well as becoming a touring guitarist for Seattle chamber-pop artist Perfume Genius. “It was a frustrating couple of years, and it was kind of disheartening,” says Gareth, who “fell out of love with the music industry” while working for a record label, and now takes on managerial duties for his bandmates. “I don’t think we ever really wanted to finish the band, but the way things had gone had made us question whether people still cared or were even interested.” Nevertheless, it was their tenthanniversary celebrations last year – along with an indulgence in their love for ‘the beautiful game’ – that proved the band’s speculations over being gradually evicted from their place in their fans’ hearts to be somewhat unjustified. Releasing a limited line of 100 LC! football shirts which were authentically created with Adidas, it was hoped that the milestone celebrations would also make a dent in the studio bills. Within just one week, in a Leicester-esque victory for the underdogs, they had flogged 1,000 shirts. “We suddenly had enough money to record a whole album,” beamed Gareth, “and buoyed by that faith from our fanbase who, after a long wait for a new album, were still sticking by us, we were impassioned.” Gareth would even go so far as to compare their attitude towards making the record as they would’ve done when they were just delightfully naïve students penning their animated debut,
“We’re all in our 30s now, and while that’s not over-the-top old, it’s conceivable that we wouldn’t have the same energy and enthusiasm that we once had for being in a band. I think we still do have that energy, albeit we’re just a little bit slower at everything we do.” The darkest recesses of death and other depressing matters have always given Los Campesinos! a bitter but palatable undertone to their quirky pop noises. With Gareth writing lyrics for the record while battling the notion of “having no fucking clue” what to do with his life, ‘Sick Scenes’ is far from becoming an exception to their rule. “I’ve got less of a clue now than I ever have!” Gareth chuckles. “I’m at a point now where there are a number of elements in my life which I’m incredibly happy with, but then there’s always this lingering illness and depression that just, however good you’re feeling, is always there in some areas [of your life], it
NEED TO KNOW
doesn’t shift.” In the absence of any particular trigger points for his anxiety, Gareth was left having to channel a general social malaise into his contributions towards what might be the band’s most personal record yet. “As far back as seven or eight years ago, I was singing about the same feelings, but I guess I was thinking that it was all going to be alright in the end because I’ll get older and I’ll grow out of it,” he ponders. “Then, in reality, I’m realising that the older you get, it’s actually more difficult to deal with because you keep thinking, ‘When is it going to end?’” His voice perks up quickly to make a crucial point. “There’s been a massive improvement in bands writing about depression and mental illness these days, and that’s a huge positive, because it’s breaking that taboo and it’s allowing people to talk more openly about it. They can see that if bands they like are singing about it, then it’s okay to feel however you feel.” Of the generation of bands that emerged out of what Gareth derides as the “stupid NME-indie boom” before filling every available corner on festival bills in the latter half of the 00s, Los Campesinos! are one of a few which have been granted the luxury of longevity – even if it’s not on a commercial level.
Upset faves (and former cover stars) Bully have confirmed they’re currently in the studio working on an upcoming new album. Posting on Instagram, they reveal: “Been making a goddamn record.” The Nashville band are working on the follow-up to bloody excellent debut ‘Feels Like’, released back in 2015. There’s no new music to hear as of yet, but it’s expected to land later this year, so watch this space.
However, if there’s one thing that they’ve learnt after eleven years, it’s that everything has a shelf life. Gareth levelheadedly accepts that Los Campesinos! is something which he may not be able to do in ten or twenty years’ time, but that’s a bridge that he needn’t think about crossing just yet.
Bleached have announced a new EP, ‘Can You Deal?’, for release on 3rd March. The release will be accompanied by a ‘zine that features contributions from Hayley Williams, Tegan Quin, Alice Glass, Julien Baker, Alicia Bognanno, Hinds, Kate Nash, Lizzo and loads more. All net proceeds from the ‘zine will go to Planned Parenthood.
“We used to be happy to sleep on sofas and have no money, but now we can’t really justify that if we’re thinking about having families and things like that.
“I think we’re very sensible about [the future of Los Campesinos!]” Gareth admits. “We know that gone are the days where we’re going to be able to go on tour for 75% of the year because people’s mortgages and businesses won’t allow it.
“Making this album has shown us that we still really like being in the band, and however long it takes between albums, there’s absolutely no reason for us to stop being a band as long as people are reacting to the music and wanting to hear more from us.” P 15
ABOUT
THE BEST
that we weren’t proud of.”
NEW BANDS
Listening to the grieving yet purgative debut, you wouldn’t NEW MUSIC think that the Bristol five-piece started off as a passable indie lot of my friends band. “[When we started] we came fresh have been playing from a lot of indie bands around at that in bands since time. You speak the language of what they were kids, you’re surrounded by, and we were trying [but] we all new things out all the time. We were started out late, probably accidentally mimicking [the so we wanted to bands we loved], and it just took a long get it right, and if we released an album time to find our voice. With the early four years ago it would have been shite.” stuff, it was us treading shallow water, IDLES frontman Joe Talbot explains why not going in too far, and I just found with it’s taken his band seven years to release time, I have more to say with aggression their debut album, ‘Brutalism’. behind me. I felt more driven to write things when there’s a more formidable He continues: “We needed to find what we rhythm section behind me. ‘Two Tone’ were good at, it takes a long time to learn about yourself, and we didn’t want to just waste an album and make it a piece of shit
TO
B R EAK
TH E H OT TEST
“A
[taken from 2012’s ‘Welcome’ EP] was when we managed to meet in the middle, and write something that we were almost all appreciated on; we all wrote our own parts, and there’s this more aggressive side of our music from early on.” Aggression is the most obvious thing that comes to mind when listening to IDLES as they are in present time. ‘Brutalism’ presents a new assertive punk that’s as witty as it is savage and valiant. “The concept of ‘Brutalism’ is about three years old. I was fascinated with Brutalist and Modernist architecture and the idea of reforming architecture. We wanted to get a whole body of work together under the guise of ‘Brutalism’, and I was messing around with ideas and more industrial sounds with our rhythm section and giving ourselves a brief.” He talks about the initial stages of the album. “With things like subject matter, I’ve always wanted to talk about the same things politically and emotionally. I’ve always been interested in grief and expressing pain through an immersed perspective. It all came together, and my mum
IDLES
BRISTOLIANS IDLES HAVE CHANNELLED THEIR ANGER INTO A FURIOUS DEBUT. WORDS: JASLEEN DHINDSA.
“NONE OF IT M AT T E R S I F IT’S N OT
F U N .” died, and everything just started to move a lot quicker.” The album’s lead single is the mocking and boisterous punk anthem ‘Well Done’, where Joel quips about The Great British Bake Off’s Mary Berry and a man called Tarquin – they’ve got degrees, jobs and like reggae, so why don’t you? “What we have received [with ‘Well Done’] is massive, it’s life changing really,” Joe admits. “This is all mental, you want it to happen, and you work for it, and I don’t think it’s not deserved, but it feels like a lottery. We’ve been playing for six years, and I know for a fact for half that time we were shite. After that, you think why did I just support that band? They don’t give a fuck; they don’t care, they’re clothes horses, they just look good, they just play boring, tepid music, they look bored on stage. You just have to wait for your turn, keep working hard, keep turning up, keep being polite, remember the sound engineers name, write better songs, and enjoy yourself. But none of it matters if it’s not fun. I’ve always wanted it because it allows us to go to other countries and spend more time together, and have fun on a better platform.” “I wrote it [‘Well Done’] as a grime song, I sheepishly brought it to the rest of the band, but we all thought it worked well. It’s the first time I’ve injected humour into our songs, [but] it’s got that spite in it that still comes across. I’m not a spiteful person, but I do fucking hate that attitude people such as Tories have towards the working class like, just get on your bike and if you don’t have a job get a job.” “It’s all a bit of a blur, where we are,” he infers. “We’d never have guessed, especially from ‘Well Done’. It doesn’t matter where it came from; we were never going to stop making music. Our reactions from our live shows are always so positive, and we get so much love [from them]. You’re never going to fail, as long as you enjoy what you do
you’ll retire happy.” Subject matter for IDLES on ‘Brutalism’ manifests itself in the form of politics and in parts pop culture figures. “I think people might misconstrue why I write what I write. It’s not important to me for a song to be political, it’s just important for me to write about what I’m interested in. When I’m in a pub with my friends, I’m not saying lines from a Black Eyed Peas song; I’m saying lines from my own songs. I’m not there saying tonight’s going to be a good night, I’m saying, I hate that Tory prick. I’m not forcing myself to be political in my songs; I use whatever’s in my head which is normally what I’m interested in or pissed off at, or find funny. There’s more validity in political songs than there are in love songs, [but] they all mean something, it’s just at [that time] I’m going to write about grief and politics because that’s what my life was about at that time.” “It wasn’t ever difficult, it felt the best way of release,” Joe says about expressing emotions on the album that came from the time of his mother’s death. “It felt like a natural progression from spending five years looking after her and walking back and forth from the hospital every day. I did a lot of my writing in transit, so it was a good time to reflect. I don’t think anyone should feel ashamed, nervous or worried about expressing grief or anger, as long as it’s not violent. As long as you’re expressing yourself in a way that doesn’t harm anyone else, then go for it. I’ve never been one to shy away from expressing myself, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like to shut the fuck up. The album’s just perfect timing, it helped me.” For Joe, the song on ‘Brutalism’ that immediately comes to mind in terms of importance is ‘Divide & Conquer’. “There are only two lines in the whole thing, but it’s something I cried a lot about in frustration, just knowing our NHS is fucked. Half the country doesn’t seem to give a shit, and the other half are laughing at us, and it makes me sick. I watched someone deteriorate in that situation; she probably would have lived longer had there had been more funding for better drugs to keep her comfortable and alive for a bit
PE A N ESS SI G N TO A LC O P O P ! Indie-pop trio Peaness have signed to Alcopop! Records for the release of a new EP. Titled ‘Are You Sure?’ and due later this year, the release follows on from AA Single ‘Same Place’ / ‘Seafoam Islands’, released back in January via Odd Box Records, and has a “coming-of-age vibe.” “‘Are You Sure?’ is a continuation of the sound we started to create on our last EP [2015’s ‘No Fun’],” the band explain. “All our songs have similar themes and subjects, we write about the things that frustrate us, the things we love… “It has a coming-of-age vibe which we feel that most people at the moment, not just our generation, can relate to. There are tracks about wasting resources, a particular group of politicians, staying in the same town for years with the same group of friends, and escapism.”
longer. My mum was lucky, but there are people who are dead because they make cuts, and it’s happening all the time. ‘Divide and Conquer’ is this monolithic thing that says, ‘What the fuck is going on?’” “I’m really looking forward to touring [the album],” he concludes. “The hometown show at The Fleece in Bristol is on the anniversary of my mother’s death. We’re going to play the whole album in full, all my family and friends will be there, and it’s going to be the start of the end, in a way.” P IDLES’ debut album ‘Brutalism’ is out 10th March. 21
22 upsetmagazine.com
“J U S T P U T I T O N A N D F O R G E T
A BO U T T H E R E A L WO R L D, YO U ’ R E
SAFE IN SOUND WITH US.” EVEN BIG BANDS HAVE ROOM TO GROW. LOWER THAN ATLANTIS JUST WENT SUPER SIZE. WORDS: ALI SHUTLER. PHOTO: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT.
23
“W
e just worry about making good music and being legends,” exclaims Mike Duce, leaning back in his chair. Turning on a frontman bravado that’s never far away, it’s exactly the sort of statement you’d expect from him. Even offstage there are still people to entertain. Maybe he’s outspoken and mouthy; maybe he’s just a little more honest than most. Either way, Lower Than Atlantis know what they want. Very much a gang of four, Dec Hart sits next to him shaking his head while Ben Sansom and Eddy Thrower are grinning a little way down the table getting a head start on signing a mountain of preordered albums, the band have weathered, endured and grown. They’re a tight-knit group, but there’d be no issue asking them to borrow a lighter. Hell, they’d probably let you keep it. Earlier in the day, all four were joking about getting a stamp to make the job of signing records easier, but it was just that. The band care too much about their audience to cheat ‘em because a few years ago, they were the same kids getting excited about music. As Lower Than Atlantis open the boxes containing their new album, seeing the physical copies of ‘Safe In Sound’ for the first time and pouring over the pictures, words and eagerly taking pictures to send to friends, family and anyone who’ll listen, maybe they still are. “A lot of people use music as an escape,” starts Mike, still leaning back. “For me, I do my thinking when I go running, and I’ll have headphones on. I’ll listen to music, and I’ll escape. Whatever you’ve got going on in your life, for those three and a half minutes of a song it doesn’t matter. You feel safe in sound, that’s what the title means to me and maybe this album could be that for people. It could offer that escape. Just put it on and forget about the real world, you’re safe in sound with us. It’s kinda cheesy, but it is what it is,” he shrugs. Even when the band are being sincere, it’s with a devil may care
24 upsetmagazine.com
attitude. “At the end of the day, our full-time job as grown men is to play rock music,” laughs Mike. “You can’t take that seriously. We’re not doctors.” “You just look like a dickhead if you take it too seriously, continues Dec. “Once the dust has settled after that first year of the album being out, you look back and question what the fuck you were saying if you take it too seriously.” ‘Safe In Sound’, a record that’s never anything less than seriously good, just sorta happened. Building it bit by bit, the band focused on writing good songs and let the album take care of itself. There was never any discussion or well-laid plans announcing “this album needs to sound like this”, and for good reason. “If you do that and it doesn’t go to plan you’re just going to be disappointed,” ventures Dec. “It never works like that. Just go and see what happens. “Yeah, just do whatever,” adds Mike. “Do whatever and fuck it.” For better or worse, it’s an attitude that Lower Than Atlantis have lived by. Drawn to music for no greater reason than the simple fact they’ve always loved it, the band have remained rock steady and determined together for a decade but “only ‘cause we had nothing else going for us. It had to work out, or that was it.” It never works out according to plan, though. “[Success] is not what I thought it would be,” reflects Mike. “But it rarely is. The grass is always greener, but that makes us want to make it like we saw in that dream, y’know? I always thought if you’d sell out [London venue] KOKO you’d be driving around in a fucking Bentley, snorting cocaine off of someone’s bumhole.” “Did you really just say that?” asks Eddy, laughing. “Huffing farts out a bong in the back of a transit is the reality,” Mike continues. “When you start a band, your dream is to play The Underworld. That was the goal. Then it was to sell out The Underworld. It’s just a bucket list you keep adding
things onto. You’re never quite where you want to be, which is good ‘cause you’re always achieving things in life. You’re always enjoying the journey to somewhere. Everyone’s trying to get to the top, but once you get there, the only way to go is down. You can’t get any bigger than the biggest so just enjoy it on the way up there.” Getting to this point has been hard work, but the band don’t believe they’re owed anything. “You can’t think like that,” ventures Mike. “Don’t get me wrong, there have been a million bands that have come overnight,” he says; groups with the excited hyperbole of being the new best band ever, which means LTA have to deal with talk of being shit or not liked anymore. “[But] you see those bands shoot up and then shoot back down again. The first time you see a band blow up, you think you’re doing something wrong. Something really wrong. “It used to piss me off but once you see it happen two or three times… We’ve always been on this steady progression. You’ve just got to be confident in what you’re doing. If you think it’s good personally, that’s all you can do and,” pauses Mike, distracted by Eddy and Ben. “I can’t remember what I was saying.” Lower Than Atlantis don’t really take anything seriously apart from their music, and they’re confident in ‘Safe In Sound’. “The first thing, the natural thing is that we wanted to top our last record,” explains Dec. The band’s 2014 self-titled album saw Lower Than Atlantis play with the big boys. Well loved across the board, it gave their steady progression a grand leap forward. “I remember Eddy saying ‘I’m actually pretty scared’ before we started the writing process. There was this realisation that we’ve got something we have to beat now. We’ve never had that before.” “Smashed it though mate,” grins Mike. “You smashed it out the park.” Coming back with ‘Work For It’, the band launched ‘Safe In Sound’ with a clear focus. Bigger, better, wilder and with those big shows in mind, it’s the sort of track that makes people stand up and take notice. “It’s heavy, innit,”
“ W E K N O W W H AT W E A R E N O W.
W E K N O W W H AT P E O P L E
WA N T F R O M U S . ”
PLAN E T EARTH IT CAM E FROM
WATCH OUT WORLD, MATTIE VANT IS TAKING YOU ON.
V
ANT come from Planet Earth. It seems an obvious statement, but that mantra represents everything the band stands for. They believe in unity, that our similarities are vastly more powerful than our differences and that they speak for the majority of us. “I’m glad we stuck with that philosophy,” admits Mattie. “It’s something we believe in, and it’s a very simple way of provoking the idea of unification in a global species.” As expected, standing up has come with its share of raised eyebrows, criticism and doubts. “The first radio play we ever had was with Zane Lowe. As much as he loved the track [‘Parasite’] and played it three times in one show, he started reading our bio ‘this band is from Planet Earth’ and you could tell his tone was initially sceptical. ‘Oh, one of those pretentious, bullshit bands’ - but I feel like it’s become a thing now. People can relate to it wherever we go in the world, this representation that we are all fundamentally the same. Just ‘cause we were born somewhere by chance doesn’t mean we should be tied to the ideals and practices of that country.” As the Doug Stanhope saying goes,
WORDS: ALI SHUTLER. PHOTO: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT.
“Nationalism does nothing but teach you to hate people you never met, and to take pride in accomplishments you had no part in.” “You are only going to exist for a very short period, so why not embrace the world and the beauty of it and look to make a positive impact on it, rather than a negative one?” he offers. He’s not just paying lip-service either; it’s a determined feeling that endures throughout VANT’s debut album ‘Dumb Blood’. Energetic, snotty and a whole lot of fun, the record is held together by numerous threads. Frayed at the edge, whichever one you choose to pull will lead you down a rabbit warren of conversation, discussion and challenge. It’s an important record if you want it to be. It’s entertaining, regardless. Formed in 2014 with Dalston’s Birthdays as a backdrop, VANT quickly worked out what they wanted to be. A debut album was written, recorded and then put on the back-burner as major labels came calling. ‘Dumb Blood’ is what they’ve been working towards as a band. “We thought it would be a lot sooner, but it’s how things go. [The record has] a lot of importance and relevance to the current climate of Earth.” Not all the original songs have survived the past two years, but across both the standard album and the “directors cut” twenty-two track record,
their vision has remained pure, honest and uncompromising. “I don’t come from a theatrical place; I come from a place of playing what sounds good. Keeping that naivety of what we’re creating makes it way more honest and real. When you start overcomplicating things, it becomes too formulaic, and that’s something I never want to be.” Presenting challenges on record, the band have also pushed themselves out of their comfort zone with touring. Supporting everyone from Royal Blood, Biffy Clyro and You Me At Six to Blossoms, Hinds and FIDLAR, the band haven’t gone near a pigeonhole. “It doesn’t matter who you support; it’s just going out and playing to people because you can’t take people for granted and assume they’re not going to like you because of the band you’re supporting. Now you’ll have the same kids going to a Wolf Alice show as a Skepta show. It’s just getting out and playing to new audiences and challenging yourself. We want to be like Biffy Clyro where there’s no one who sounds like them; they always had difficulty being part of a scene when they were younger. They just carved their way and did whatever they wanted, and that’s what we are doing. You’ve just got to concentrate on the people that believe in what you do.”
,, There’s no competition with VANT, just support for the scene. “It’s a good time for guitar bands. People are making music that’s honest to them instead of trying to follow what’s on trend. I don’t think music has been this honest for a long time.” But there’s no other band quite like them. ‘Dumb Blood’ is brash, bloody and beautiful as well as being delicate and thoughtprovoking. It’s designed to evoke opinion, and it’s perfectly formed. Mattie writes about politics, but he’s never arrogant or condescending with it. “Just because you write about the things we do, it doesn’t mean you’re better than anyone else. That’s just ridiculous. Don’t shout at other bands because they don’t write about politics, or they don’t want to. Everyone is entitled to do what they want to do.” There’s an acceptance to VANT. On tracks like ‘I Don’t Believe In God’, even though Mattie has never resonated with religion.
WH EN YO U D IE, YOU RO T IN T H E ,, GROUND.
“I remember going to church with the school or when I was in the Scouts, and I’d purposefully fart or shout the wrong hymns just trying to make light of the situation because I thought it was so preposterous.” There’s no malice or hate. “It’s an atheist anthem that wasn’t at all negative towards religion but celebrated the beauty of my beliefs. When you die, you rot in the ground, and your molecules become part of The Earth, and the grass that grows from those molecules will be eaten by an animal, and then that animal is eaten by another animal. The fact there is that interconnectedness with the planet, whether you like it or not, is just amazing to me. It’s almost a form of reincarnation, but the reality is you’ll never witness it. That doesn’t mean it’s not beautiful. We try not to be overly preachy about the subjects we talk about; it’s more about looking at the beautiful side of things. I never wanted us to be intruding with our music.”
Elsewhere the record deals with anxiety, existential crisis and a general feeling of hopelessness, but throughout there’s the belief that “there are things you need to address in life, but there’s no reason why you should become upset about it, ‘cause you have the power to change it. Then if you take it the other way round, you have the power to change everything else.” For VANT, “politics is secondary to the wonders of the universe. The idea of never being able to truly understand something - that’s my spiritual calling. We have this world of opportunity to learn new things, and that’s amazing. We’re philosophers rather than politicians. It’s all totally unfathomable, and you just have to make your own sense of the situation and, in a way, this is our platform to try and make that sense.”P VANT’s debut album ‘Dumb Blood’ is out now. 31
“We wanted to DROP THIS THING like A BOMB.”
WITH THEIR NEW ALBUM, CODE ORANGE ARE WINNING OVER NEW FANS IN RECORD TIME. GIVE THEM A CHANCE AND YOU’LL SOON BE THEIRS.
T
Pittsburgh four-piece’s drummer and lead vocalist, Jami Morgan. “But I feel like a lot of the bands that are more artistic in some kind of way lose that love for those hard parts. To me, though, those harder parts are still something we’re all totally in love with.”
It’s this love for hybridity that Jami, guitarist Eric ‘Shade’ Balderose, bassist Joe Goldman and guitarist Reba Meyers push to its gasping limits on ‘Forever’, an album that nails a tricky balance between intricate and incendiary, perplexing and punishingly heavy.
Jami speaks as passionately about Hatebreed and Earth Crisis as much as he does Sonic Youth and Nine Inch Nails.
Not convinced? Look at the likes of Converge, Botch, The Dillinger Escape Plan, even the less complicated bands that toy around with unexpected turns of pace, and with their third album ‘Forever’ now firmly under their belts, Code Orange could be next to ascend to that league.
“I feel like that was the line I wanted to walk,” he says with vehement pride for the band’s Pennsylvanian upbringing. “Being from Pittsburgh, we learned about the most violent forms of hardcore, and we also learned about art music in the same city. Both of those scenes kind of thrive in that city, so it almost creates these sort of hybrid people.”
While most bands from the north-eastern states – now, more than ever – favour heart-on-sleeve ideals and lyricism, Code Orange prefer to communicate in a more enigmatic dialect; rarely speaking about their personal lives, and sharing cryptic lines and lyrics that are almost biblical in tone on social media.
he best hardcore bands are the ones bold enough to look at the line that borders their designated genre with an eye of disdain, before taking a defiant step over it. One foot may still be planted firmly in the hardcore camp, but they’re not afraid to have a kick around with other challenging tones and techniques with that liberated appendage.
“We love hard, heavy music,” says the 32 upsetmagazine.com
WORDS: DANNY RANDON.
“I think [being private about our lives] is a calculated part of what we want to do,” suggests Jami. “The whole marketing standpoint of everyone having to know when you’re recording, what you’re
lot of people fuck up. “I think we put it together in a way that we like. I feel like there’s a lot more we can do, but I don’t really care; people tend to be cynical anyway, so it doesn’t bother us so much. “If the record was awesome when we listened to it, then a lot of people were going to like it too. I think our ears are pretty close to the ground in that sense. I knew that some people wouldn’t like it also, but who gives a shit? I just want to do something that I would like to listen to!” So, when the time eventually came to reunite with producer and Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou in the studio, ‘Forever’ was clearly an album that Code Orange were going to make on their own timescale and their own terms…
F recording, what you’re doing, what you’re eating is super lame, I think it sucks. We didn’t want to release a bunch of pictures of us in the studio, we just wanted to drop this thing like a bomb. “People don’t need to know about the work that’s gone into it because we know that we put a lot of cold, hard, calculated work into this record, and that it conveys the moods that we wanted to convey. We’ve definitely taken things from our [personal] lives and from our lives as a band, and I wanted to make a broader, wider-scoped record through the eyes of not just a hardcore record, but where every vocal sounded furious and urgent.”
or all the skull-crushing riffs and sludgy beatdowns that it has to offer, the true heaviness of ‘Forever’ lies not only in the crunching of Reba’s and Eric’s guitars and the pummelling of Joe and Jami’s rhythms, but also in the cinematic electronic elements. Code Orange have had their flirtations with synths and samples on their previous records, but here they add a daring and disturbing new dimension to the band. “People have used electronics in really dark ways over the years, and I knew that we had our own take on it,” explains Jami, while mentioning the likes of Godflesh and the ever-influential Trent Reznor as reference points. “Our goal was to take those things that we like and inject them into what we’re doing but in a different way to what we’ve seen being done before.”
Something that Jami also speaks candidly about is the amount of will that Code Orange have in compromising, whether it’s with their most fervent fans or harshest critics. That, of course, being non-existent. Even after setting the bar to a practically unreachable height with 2014’s ‘I Am King’, and upon enticing larger and more diverse audiences with their new record, pandering to the masses is a move that’s out of the question.
If the double kick-drum barrages of ‘Kill The Creator’ and ‘Real’ are the aural equivalents of a perpetual facial bludgeoning, then the industrial churns, swirls and pulses that are woven into them represent the menacing, nightmarish glare of your assailant. Fuelled by his love his soundtracks and dark electronic music, guitarist Eric put in the hours and elbow grease into learning how to operate the software and synthesisers, slowly but surely making them an integral part of Code Orange.
“The only pressure I ever feel is our selfpressure,” Jami says confidently. “I feel that I will know if [the record] is not good, and I’ll know that it’s not what it needs to be in the current music landscape. I always knew what ‘Forever’ needed to be, it was just about putting all the puzzle pieces together, which is hard and it’s where a
“It was something that I thought could thicken everything up and make it feel more like records that are sort of out of our world,” says Jami. “The reason why I feel like people connect with those records so deeply is that, even with rap records, when you put your headphones on, there’s so much going on and the
production is so deep that it touches places sonically that you can’t touch with guitars and drums and bass.” If the abundance of electronics doesn’t offer up enough curveballs, then one track that serves as the defining moment of ‘Forever’ in terms of its unfettering attitude is ‘Bleeding In The Blur’. A rock anthem of cataclysmic proportions, Reba takes centre stage in spectacular fashion prompting thousands of fans to rummage for their phones to check that they hadn’t put all their artists on shuffle. However, taking into account the dalliances that they have had with alternative rock, shoegaze and emo, is ‘Bleeding In The Blur’ really even that much of a risk for Code Orange to have taken? “Hell no!” laughs Jami. “It’s just what we do, it’s what we’ve always done, and we’re good at it, and we’re getting way better and more focussed at it. Even the last record has a couple of those moments that just weren’t nearly as put-together because we’re still growing and we didn’t go as out on a limb with them. “This is really what I’ve wanted to condition people to all along. People see as like some big turn, but to me, it’s just natural, it’s always how we’re going to be, but the difference with us is that we’re not fully going in that direction. We just want to show people how good we can be in that direction... and then just take it away! That’s kind of like the sick thrill that I get out of it. Touring in their native USA is yet to push Code Orange beyond the dingy clubs riddled with stage divers, but with a European and UK tour in support of the titanic Gojira looming, audiences of 200 will soon be replaced by audiences of 2,000, and the band will find themselves faced with a fresh crop of the uninitiated and the unassuming. “We’re going to win those fans; I’m telling you now,” Jami promises with not a scrap of insincerity in his voice. “We’re not going to win them all, but anytime I’ve been at one of those kinds of shows, all I can sit and think about is ‘If we were up there, they’d be mine’.” With each and every step they make on both sides of that hardcore line, we can only hope that there’s a generation of interesting hardcore bands that look up to this band in the same light that Jami regards his peers. For all the complexities, the courage, and the downright chaos created by their hands, Code Orange really might be Forever. P Code Orange’s album ‘Forever’ is out now. 33
RATED
“THE BE T H E YS T SOUN ’VE DED IN YEAR S.”
LOS! CAMPESINOS SICK SCENES
Wichita Recordings
eeeee eing one of Britain’s most impulsive bands, Los Campesinos! set a challenging precedent where one can never quite guess what on earth their next record will sound like. However, it is unlikely that even the widest medium could’ve prophesied that Sick Scenes was going to be as much a humdinger as it is. Opening the album with a vibrant vocal harmony which is so classically Campesinos!, ‘Renato Dall’Ara (2008)’ might just be the best song that the seven-piece have written in this decade, with frontman Gareth David especially back in his sassy, snarky prime. The opening track joins ‘I Broke Up In Amarante’ in reaching seldom-heard levels of aggression for the band. They fizz with that same juvenile enthusiasm that made their earlier works sound so fierce, but the inevitability of becoming thirty-something has given their choruses a tone of realism. Even the slower moments on Sick Scenes are performed with a noticeable increase in conviction. ‘A Litany Heart 36 upsetmagazine.com
Swells’ cascades into an impassioned campfire singalong, while ‘A Slow, Slow Death’ is testament to the band’s generosity in lashing of layered instrumentation - something which has never faltered in LC!’s eleven years. You may not know it yet, but you need Los Campesinos! more than ever in 2017. Their self-deprecating accounts of banal day jobs and debilitating bouts of depression offer a tonguein-cheek contrast to the sobering state of current affairs and, as a result, this is the best that they’ve sounded in years. Danny Randon
THE OBSESSIVES
THE OBSESSIVES
Lame-O Records
eee
Washington DC duo The Obsessives sound a bit like a lot of acts that are making waves right now. There are moments on this self-titled album that echo the likes of FIDLAR, Modern Baseball, SWMRS and Jeff Rosenstock; it treads that indie-comeemo line pretty nicely, and when Nick Bairatchnyi and Jackson Mansfield break away from the safe confines of lo-fi garage-rock, they show signs of true musical potential. Jake Richardson
MINUS THE BEAR
VOIDS
No Sleep Records
eee
It’s been five years since Minus The Bear last released a full-length. Long-standing staples of the alt scene, it might have been an unnaturally long absence for the four-piece, but ‘Voids’ can still roll with the punches of 2017. Opener ‘Last Kiss’ fuzzes, ‘Take Beasts’ sparks and ‘Give & Take’ gathers up a whole world of influence and crushes it into one tiny, mind-warping pill. Fifteen years in, Minus The Bear still count. Stephen Ackroyd
CAN’T SWIM
FAIL YOU AGAIN
Pure Noise Records
eeee
Last year, upon releasing their debut EP ‘Death Deserves A Name’, Can’t Swim hadn’t so much as played a live show. Now they’re releasing an album that’s packed with the kind of fire most bands would kill to put on stage. ‘Friend’ sparks with tales of loss, an echo of past regrets; ‘Quitting’ pulls things back from the brink, showing Can’t Swim have more than a single gear, while closer ‘All The Moves We Make Are In The Dark’ moves from slow burner to towering inferno. Safe to say, ‘Fail You Again’ is lit. Stephen Ackroyd
DAVE HAUSE
BURY ME IN PHILLY
Rise Records
eeee
A fixture in the East Coast punk scene, on the surface Dave Hause’s third solo album is a no-nonsense collection of blue-collar rock songs in the vein of Brian Fallon and Frank Turner. But dig a little deeper, and the lyrics reveal a brutally honest account of his struggles with sobriety and finding his place in the world. ‘Bury Me In Philly’ sees Hause focused on the future, while acknowledging where he came from. Dillon Eastoe
KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD FLYING MICROTONAL BANANA
Heavenly
eeee King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s ninth effort is a mirage in a desert acid trip. From opener ‘Rattlesnake’, a hypnotic and psyched up garage fuzz pop journey, you get the illusion of being windswept, caught up in the sandstorm the septet concocts with their wizardry. The breadth of inspiration is endless on ‘Flying Microtonal Banana’; it’s another incarnation of their ardent and eccentric mind. Jasleen Dhindsa
A SHORT Q&A WITH...
CAN’T CAN’T SWIM SWIM
CA N ’ T SW I M S I N G E R C H RI S LO P O RTO RE F L ECTS O N A B L O O DY G O O D D E B U T.
Oi Chris, what are we interrupting? I was drinking a coffee. ‘Fail You Again’ is massive - when did you begin working on it, and what was your starting point? A lot of the demos were written very shortly after we recorded Death Deserves A Name. I think these songs took a little longer to figure out and took a few months of being a “real” band to get right. How easy did you find it all, was there much of a learning curve? For me, it was a lot easier to write this record because I had such great help on board. Having the rest of the guys a part of the writing process was a real blessing. Whenever I would hit a roadblock, they were there to give suggestions and jam out ideas, which is far more healthy than me pulling my hair out in my bedroom at 4am trying to figure out the songs on my own. What inspired you to make the kind of music you do? Inability. When I first started writing songs for Can’t Swim, I really didn’t know much about notes or guitar or singing in general. I grew up playing the drums, so I think I relied a lot on rhythms and feels to write the parts. Now, I think I just want to make something kids can enjoy and feel a part of, have a reason to go out on a Friday night and sing along with their friends. Music was such a big part of my life growing up, and I would love for Can’t Swim to be that for someone else.
Did you have a mission statement for ‘Fail You Again’? What do you want fans to take from it? Lyrically, it’s about these events that happened to me in my early 20s and having people tell me that it’s “okay” and “time heals everything” and I would get over it sooner than later. Now, in my late 20s, I’m still haunted by all those feelings from years ago, and whenever I go to write a song, that’s what always seems to come out. The whole lyric is “You’re searching for truth, and it will fail you again.” I’d like it to give kids the reinsurance that they aren’t alone and find solace in the fact that I’ve gone through this stuff too, and was able to make it into something very enjoyable by doing this band. And they should do the same. How much does the present climate of society/politics/social issues affect the tone of what you do? I don’t think it comes out in my writing at all. I write about things that have happened to me, not necessarily “world” issues. I do really respect when bands do that, though; I think it’s actually the most powerful thing you can do with your writing, is to use it as a voice and to try and make a change, but Can’t Swim just isn’t that band. Do you have big plans for the rest of 2017? Trying to tour as much as we can, and get closer to the band we want to be. P