INTERVIEWS: Slam Dunk 2022 Artists
June 3rd & 4th kicked off the official Slam Dunk Festival weekend held in Hatfield Park & Leeds over in the UK. This annual summer music festival has made its reprise for about 15 years, bringing in some of the greatest names in the alternative rock, metal & pop punk scene. This year’s lineup was no exception, with rock pioneers like Sum 41, Dropkick Murphys, The Used, & Alexisonfire as some of the headliners. Noisescape was lucky enough to sit down with some of the other alternative acts that made up Slam Dunk’s iconic roster including Knuckle Puck, The Amity Affliction, Set It Off & Counterparts. We caught up with each of them on their personal festival experience & future plans.
A Chat With Nick Cassanato & Ryan Rumchaks
of Knuckle Puck
Photo by Alex Basse
Disposable Life has been out for a little bit now. How has the reception been so far?
NICK: Really good. Yeah. I think people are excited just to hear some kind of classic KP tunes.
As it’s an EP, can fans see this as a prelude to a longer album?
NICK: I think so, we’ve been in the studio a couple of times since. Originally, we were going to do Disposable Life ‘Part 1’ and then ‘Part 2,’ kind of like a record in two parts, but I think we’re going to go right into doing another record. It just kind of makes sense with touring and now everything is back in full swing.
So do you have the songs ready to go or are you still in the process?
NICK: We’ve been writing a lot, we have a couple of songs in the bag from our last release that we didn’t record and have continued to write since then. The plan is to have something to record by the end of the year.
Were the songs on Disposable Life written in isolation? Do you think that period of time made an influence on what was being written?
NICK: Absolutely. I was across the country when the guys were getting together and writing songs. Joe did a lot of the lyric-writing in isolation as well. I think that time away did great things for the writing process.
RYAN: It was different with not living in the same state – we’re in Chicago and Nick lives in California.
NICK: Joe & I record and send things back and forth so the distance didn’t throw a crazy wrench in the gears. I looked forward to all the times I’d go to Chicago and we’d get together and play and I’d hear the songs, throw ideas.. it was a lot of fun.
And you’ve just finished a European tour! How was it being on the road?
RYAN: Well, our drummer broke his hand on our last tour in the states, so our singer [Joe Taylor] played bass, I played drums, so that was wild…
Do you have much experience as a drummer?
RYAN: Yeah I’m a drummer first, but never played for the band. And our drummer [John Siorek]’s a lefty! His hand just healed so he only took over two days ago. Yesterday was his second time playing drums in two and a half months but it went super well.
I think your fans would just be happy to see you play regardless, in any capacity, would you say the
same?
NICK: Oh, definitely. It made for a really cool show. For me it was no added pressure!
RYAN: ..And not every day your drummer gets to watch you play drums.
You’ve toured a lot, and with some great bands – The Maine, Neck Deep, State Champs, Hot
Mulligan… what has it been like touring with them?
NICK: When we got asked to go on tour with The Maine I was excited. Both the band and that tour did incredibly wonderful things for our band and it’s one of the best we ever did.
Do you feel touring with different bands has set you up for a festival like Slam Dunk? With Neck
Deep & Hot Mulligan also playing this weekend, have you been hanging out?
NICK: Neck Deep were the first band we saw when we got here. We heard them sound checking— it was like a high school reunion! We hadn’t seem them in like, five years. We did our first tour with them so it felt kinda surreal, but in the best way! Nothing but good vibes.
WHERE TO FIND KNUCKLE PUCK
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify | Apple Music
A Chat With Ahren Stringer of The Amity Affliction
Photo by Wyatt Clough
You’ve been and will be touring a lot, and now Slam Dunk. How has that been?
As soon as the world opened up we went full steam ahead. We did six weeks in the states and as soon as we get back we’ll put out our new record and tour Australia. And then back to the states, and then a month in Europe. And festivals in Australia in December. We’re making up for lost time!
Can you tell us about any new music you’ve been writing?
We’ve written almost an entire album, I think we have 9 finished songs. We’ll continue when we get back to AUS.
Will you be playing any of the new songs on tour?
I don’t think we’ll have anything released to play new. We did just put out a 3 song EP [Somewhere Beyond the Blue]— I was in Canada, Joel was in Tennessee, the others were in Australia so we had to write over the internet but we usually do. I moved back, it was lockdown in Australia for another year. But we’ve been writing the whole time.
Did you plan to have an album release in 2022 or did it come about due to writing in lockdown?
I think we did, yeah. We always have a two year gap between albums which hasn’t really changed. But it’ll be 2023 when we do release it, so the pandemic did kind of mess up the schedule so we released the EP, which we hadn’t done for a long time!
What inspired the Lo-Fi remixes as they’re very different from your usual sound?
Our label asked us if we wanted to do it, they’re really cool. Because we write it all we know what it would sound like as a softer song but it’s hard to imagine it as a fan.
It’s cool to hear those songs in such a completely different way.
Yeah, absolutely.
Do you think the new songs you have coming up will be similar to previous records?
Similar, but more heavy. We’ve been going heavier and heavier for the last two released and this one is going to be even heavier again. We write the songs we want to listen to and we’re in that mood at the time.
I think the fans will be very pleased to hear that!
Yeah they do respond to the heavy stuff.
So did you have a good set in Leeds? Did you get a good response?
We really did. It was hot but fun. We did a signing, it was great people came to see us. And we’re only here for two shows so wanted to do anything we can to make it worthwhile.
Do you have a favourite kind of crowd to play for?
Well we like to feed off the energy of the crowd – the rowdy crowds. Having fun and not afraid to dance. After coming off our headline tour, this [Slam Dunk] is a bit different, not everyone is here to see our band but we see the people singing their hearts out.
WHERE TO FIND THE AMITY AFFLICTION
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify | Apple Music
A Chat With Cody Carson, Maxx Danzinger & Zach Kenneth
of Set It Off
How was it been since arriving in the UK?
CODY: It’s been good. We finished our set last night at 10pm, drove straight here, and slept for 3 hours. It’s been fun.
Let’s talk about your new album, Elsewhere. What inspired you do include so many songs?
CODY: The whole inspiration is because we wrote so many. We wrote 40. We wanted to narrow it down but liked all of them so much. There’s quality and quantity, so when it came to narrowing them down we didn’t want to have a skippable song and felt like the best chance of doing that was if we wrote that many. We had to ask our label, ‘can we do 16?’ We like them all!
Are you excited for your set tonight? How was the fan response in Leeds?
CODY: Amazing. Everyone in the UK gives a shit about music and it’s really cool to see. Here, it’s energetic and passionate so it’s good to experience this again we’ve missed it a lot.
You recently toured with Sum 41 and Simple Plan, how was that?
CODY: It was amazing— I remember watching them on TRL thinking I want to do that, and now we get to share a stage with them, it’s really cool. The fun part is convincing the crowd to be [our] fans, who might not be into us in another circumstance and I think we did a good job at it. We design our set to be high energy so we can get them moving, clapping, singing along. It was perfect. We would do a thing at the end and say “raise your hand if you’ve never seen Set It Off… now keep them raised if you had an amazing time” and every hand stayed up.
So how did that tour come about?
CODY: It’s interesting! We toured with Simple Plan before and heard they were touring with Sum 41. We met Dave [Baksh] on Warped Tour, he was really friendly, and said he liked our music. We’re big fans. Our producer who produced a lot of Elsewhere works with Deryck [Whibley] and asked if we wanted to do vocals for a Sum 41 album. Deryck was very appreciative of that and they all agreed to have us out.
Going back to Elsewhere, do you take any inspiration from other artists/music when it comes to
songwriting?
MAXX: We try not to say ‘lets go for this type of sound.’ I’ve been writing since I was 19 and the more I go in it’s with no expectations of anything, just what are we feeling. At lot of the time it starts with a guitar riff or some sort of lyrical concept and goes from there. Every now and then we get weird influences – for our song “Projector,” we were referencing Dr Dre’s The Chronic, so it rarely bands within our scene. When we started we wanted to write like the bands we loved, so to find our own sound we do that by using inspiration from outside of our genre and merging different ones together.
Any cool makeup looks planned for your set tonight? Do you feel more comfortable on stage with it?
CODY: Oh yeah. I’ll be doing a pink, maybe a slash through the eyebrow. It’s very new for us! It’s the visual word that Maxx created. It’s like warpaint almost. It’s fun.
Do you see the fans recreating looks?
CODY: Yeah, that’s the fun thing about this album cycle. Seeing fans come in our makeup and doing their own designs too, incorporating all of the colours. It’s really cool. They fully buy into the new era every time in the coolest ways. Three different fans made us custom Funko Pop characters of ourselves in Elsewhere. They get really involved in paintings, drawings, everything about them. It confirms support.
It seems you have a fanbase that will always keep that support going.
CODY: That’s always been really important to us. We’re really proud to be able to say that.
WHERE TO FIND SET IT OFF
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify | Apple Music
A Chat With Brendan Murphy & Jessee Doreen
of Counterparts
How was the set in Leeds yesterday, I saw you talking about it on Twitter?
BRENDAN: Today was for sure better. It was cool but maybe we’re not a festival band, we’re definitely a club band.
So are the crowds at club shows and smaller venues different to festivals you’ve played?
BRENDAN: I would say so for sure. The vibe is very similar but of all the people watching us today, how many of those know who we are and know the words to sing along so, I get it, I understand. Any time you play a fest it’s like a new fanbase. I thought it was good but at the same time I’m not gonna lie and say that was the best, I’d much rather be honest ya know. We’ve toured with bands who say every night ‘this is the best city on tour’ and I’m like, ‘you’re a liar,’ I just don’t wanna do that. For Counterparts, this is truly a passion project. We started this band when we were 16 and I want to be able to be honest with people. I do think our fanbase appreciates it. It’s cool being close to our fans because of how honest we are but it does hurt us sometimes. I’ve heard people say ‘I can’t believe somebody would talk to a crowd like this.’ But you’re either in or you’re in the way.
What you’re doing must be working because with “Unwavering Vow” the response has been incredible, how has it been going? Were you expecting it?
JESSE: I had no idea what to expect. I had just re-joined the band so my expectations were, like, ‘oh shit if we get 500 plays I’m stoked,’ but then it just boosted. Given the fact that covid happened it was a weird thing. We put out Nothing Left to Love 2-3 months before covid hit and didn’t get to tour with it. It’s a weird scenario, we can’t be mad the entire world shut down but we worked on that record just as much as we did on the others so it felt like our hard work didn’t pay off with it. But now with “Unwavering Vow” we have festivals, shit’s opening up. The response has been really good after taking a step back.
How does it feel to now finally play the songs you didn’t get to play before?
JESSE: For me, I judge a show based on crowd participation, that’s how I know if we had a good show or not. These songs are older at this point it’s been almost 3 years, it’s cool they get to see the light of day. At the Four Year Strong show we played “Cherished” for the first time and people were stoked; it’s cool that people do care. It’s nice to see people be into it.
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the title and what inspires the names for your albums?
BRENDAN: I write everything in the studio – before I show up I don’t have a word written and do it all on the fly and go over it with Will. I know it’s stupid. Obviously I work well under pressure. I didn’t really realize until later in the recording process that all of these songs were about me mourning something that hasn’t really left. Whether it’s the band, my cat, my old relationship, my friendships. I started to realize ok, this is a common theme. I do think with Counterparts, every album does capture where I am in life at that certain point. I thought it was kinda cool; the idea of mourning something that’s still around. Every song followed the same idea. The first song I wrote was actually about my cat.
You’ve always ended your shows with “The Disconnect,” would you ever change it or is it a fan favourite?
BRENDAN: We’re sick of it. The song came out in 2011. It’ll stay a staple in the setlist but it might change. But at the same time if we take it out and the sets suck I’m good with that.
WHERE TO FIND COUNTERPARTS
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify | Apple Music
Photo by Bethan Miller