With just two singles to their name so far, the band already has a buzz around them after being spotted by Justin Lockey of Mastersystem and Minor Victories, who went on to produce their music. “To be honest I wasn’t that familiar with Justin’s work when he got in touch, I was just happy someone was interested in working with us. I’ve enjoyed working with him though, we both have very similar outlooks on music and recording so it made the whole process very easy.” Recent single ‘Wilson’ comes in at just 1 minute and 45 seconds – “I don’t think I consciously made it short, but it’s pretty tiring to play/sing so I think that probably sub-consciously affected its length” – and packs in all of the band’s wonky post-hardcore influences into that time, the ideal way to introduce themselves and leave people wanting more.

Both tracks have had well-deserved support from radio, too. “It’s been a pleasant surprise. We’ve had really good support from Huw Stephens since we put out our first single ‘Simmer’ last year and it’s great that its continued with ‘Wilson’”. This is despite a considerable gap between releases, which the band explain as taking “a bit of a step back to reassess what we wanted to do. We had some line-up changes and wanted to experiment with things a little so we were just quietly working on that”.

It’s not looking likely that we’ll have to wait that long between releases this time around, as the band promise that there are “some hot cuts coming out later this year”. With their influences ranging from Pile, Fugazi and Shellac to Robbie Basho and John Fahey – “I like interesting guitar music with odd compositions, anything melancholic and slightly out of the ordinary, basically” – what’s coming up next is sure to be just as replay worthy.

Check out the band’s latest single ‘Wilson’ and their upcoming shows below.

MAY
14 LONDON, Waiting Room
17 BRISTOL, White Rabbit

https://open.spotify.com/user/punktastic-spotify/playlist/4ZmOSRLPu9PHB6naxQQJbR?si=mMNQJs0mQX2yRLKTOF1tDQ

Blink-182 – ‘Anthem Part II’

This song really cemented pop punk as a genre. I remember jamming this with all my friends and even in the car with the family. The melody, harmonies, beat and lyrics are just so infectious! It gets us hyped every time we listen it, even to this day.

Green Day – ‘Jesus Of Surburbia’

Few bands achieve twisting pop punk into a full scale concept album that then goes on to become a musical. It is an amazing feat. This track blew me away and I feel like it hacked my brain because learning it when I was young really opened up doors for me creatively.

Muse – ‘Stockholm Syndrome’

When I sneakily put my headphones in and clicked on this video in the computer lab of my school I had zero expectations, yet very quickly it felt like air was blasting out of the screen and pummelling me. Their ethos of taking any genre they care to and messing around with it till people love it or hate it is admirable.

Nothing But Thieves – ‘Ban All The Music’

One of the most original indie bands I’ve heard in a long time and that is partly due to the incredible vocals, production and soundscapes they provide. It would be pretty awful if we actually banned all the music but I do sometimes find myself frustrated when I listen to the charts

Highly Suspect – ‘My Name Is Human’

This song… it’s very special in terms of the vibe it creates and the statement. It’s sexy, groovy and smart so it gets listened to a whole lot.

Alexisonfire – ‘This Could Be Anywhere In The World’

One of the most perfectly crafted songs ever! This band opened a lot of doors for us in terms of creativity and Dallas Green has a voice that makes you feel at home.

Enter Shikari – ‘Anaesthetist’

These genre benders have always been one of our favourites. We listened to it in the studio it was recorded at when we were recording our album. It was a special moment for us. More and more people are starting to question and have doubts regarding parts of the medical industry and this track is just great.

Nothing More – ‘Ripping Me Apart’

These guys came out of nowhere for us and we were really shocked as to how well they have managed to explore rock and metal so diversely, all whilst producing themselves. Very inspiring and very, very dirty.

Periphery – ‘Marigold’

I just can’t get this damn song out of my head recently. They really have a knack for making technically magical music that also seems to have cheeky hooks and catchiness left, right and centre.

Northlane – ‘Quantum Flux’

Even though Marcus is incredible, we were already floored by Adrian and his efforts with the band. From the spiritually inspired lyrics to the dynamic shifts that throw you into an absolute frenzy of confusion and disgust… this really raised the bar for us and a lot of people

Check out Winchester’s video for ‘Life Begins’ to hear these influences come together:

https://youtu.be/2j-F1O5QLIs

You can follow Winchester at Facebook, Twitter and Instagam.

“Musically, the idea came from the work of Icelandic composer Olafur Arnalds, who is one of my own inspirations, mostly his albums ‘Island Songs’ and ‘Living Room Songs’”, Defer explains. “I’m also really influenced by writers like Dustin O’Halloran, Max Richter, Johan Johansson. It’s been a while since I wanted to do a more Neo-Classical project; the creative process is completely different than with Fall Of Messiah. Here I’m the only writer, and once I’m happy with it, I submit my ideas to my strings and we see together if it sounds nice or not!”

To help bring this idea to life, Defer enlisted the services of Juliette Vasseur (cello), Milena Leclere (violin) and Rim Kheirallah (viola), who each brought their own expertise to the project. “Obviously writing for guitar is completely different than writing for violin, so Juliette, Milena and Rim really helped me understand their instruments and what it’s possible to do – or not – with them. Also, they understand quickly what I want, which helps, considering I have no classical music education.”

Defer intends to unveil ‘Damnatio Memoriae’ – a Latin phrase meaning ‘condemnation of memory’ – as seven video chapters, releasing one per month till July. The videos are shot in a very deliberate style, tapping into more of Defer’s influences: “I’ve always been fascinated by single sequence shots, like in Gaspar Noé’s ‘Irreversible’ or Alejandro Innaritu’s ‘Birdman’, so it’s nice to experiment with it on my songs.”

As with the musical side of the project, Defer tapped into his network to help shoot the video sequence. Florent Gerbault, who has co-directed all of Fall Of Messiah’s videos, worked alongside friends Paul Ellis and Yaniss Lambin, with sound recording assistance coming from Clément Decrock, who recorded Fall Of Messiah’s latest album ‘Empty Colours’ and Maxime Urbaniak. “They are all really professional and put so much effort into the project. I’m really lucky to be surrounded by such a talented team.”

With the details of this first release planned, Defer is looking ahead to where the project may go in the future. “I’d like to find some labels to make a co-release on vinyl and a CD for ‘Damnatio Memoriae’. Recording a full studio album would be nice in the future, something more ambitious with more instruments.”

With his base in Northern France, Defer plans to perform a few shows in his native country in 2018, but plans to take the project further afield next year, including a visit to the UK. In the meantime, things aren’t stalling in the Fall of Messiah camp either. The band are working on their fourth album, which they hope to record towards the end of the year. Also involved in side projects are bassist Sylvain Moulin (Colibris) and drummer Pierre Bailleul, who is heavily associated with En Nord Beat Festival in Northern France.

Chapter 2 of ‘Damnatio Memoriae’ will air on February 11 exclusively with Punktastic, so make sure you return to check it out!

‘Silhouette’ is available now at Bandcamp

You can follow Benjamin Defer’s solo project on Facebook here and his band Fall of Messiah here.

Queen – ‘Spread Your Wings’

This has always been one of my personal favourite tracks, I constantly find myself drawing inspiration from it. The way Brian May manages to weave different licks together in an almost orchestral sense, has really had a massive influence on my phrasing when it comes to guitar. [Alex]

Def Leppard – ‘Photograph’

I was listening to this around the time we wrote ‘Truth’. I remember wanting a song with a big catchy riff in the intro and that’s kind of how that came about. We obviously went down a very different root with regard to the final product but that influence is definitely there. [Alex]

Angels & Airwaves – ‘The Adventure’

We drew a lot of inspiration from bands like Angels & Airwaves when creating the more ambient sections of the record. The way they manage to create such a massive, spacey sound never fails to realise the sense of wonder that you get when listening to them. [Alex]

Lower Than Atlantis – ‘Here We Go’ + 30 Seconds To Mars – ‘Kings & Queens’

For me, these both fall under the same category. We were definitely trying to move towards a more Stadium Rock vibe for this record, so I tried to create some big anthemic vocal hooks that you could imagine 30,000 people shouting back at you, which both of these songs showcase very well. [Sam]

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“About a year ago we thought we had the songs ready, however they just didn’t seem to work together as an EP, something was missing. We wrote a new EP with the help of our awesome friend ST£FAN, this time with a running theme that reflected our views. We then began to have more of a connection with our own work,” they tell us of the journey they took to release ‘Famous First Words’. Influenced by pop-punk giants such as All Time Low and Green Day, the band are also less obviously influenced by jazz and Justin Bieber, making for those massive hooks that are a prominent feature throughout the release.

“This has been an exciting point in our careers and has motivated us to keep on bringing our best music to the table. We have a huge long list of songs which we have either finished or nearly completed,” they continue, clearly excited for what lies ahead for them. As for gigs, the band recently played their first show outside of Glasgow at The Fiddlers Elbow in London. “We love just messing about, having a fun time being weird and enjoy a good laugh – all whilst bringing as much energy as we can to liven up our show and break a sweat”.

It’s been a big year for the band, and 2018 is looking like it will be even bigger, with more music to be released and undoubtedly more shows to be announced. One thing they would people to know about them? “We like pineapple on pizza and sometimes anchovies. Thanks!”

Check out ‘Famous First Words’ below:

Completed by the recent addition of Jacob Morris, also on guitars, Never Hill have spent the last few months touring their debut EP, ‘Epilogue’. “We want people to get just as excited listening to our tunes as they do when they first heard their favorite bands,” Thomson continues. “We write music about our own issues in life and hope this helps people relate to it. We have had feedback from people about how it has helped them and so to know we are having this effect means more than anything.”

Having released lead single ‘Fire’ back in the early summer, Never Hill are embarking on a more concentrated push towards recognition. “The song is about growing up and knowing what is best for yourself even if it means losing friends who aren’t the best influence on yourself,” Thomson says of the track. “We portrayed this in the music video with the boy who gets the courage to stand up for himself and save his friend.”

Taking that message and focussing on themselves, Never Hill are excited about the immediate future. “We are very strong believers in our own music and know that we have some great tunes that people can relate to! We are working with some great people helping us and have played some great shows and have some great ones coming up so definitely excited about our future as a band,” Thomson concludes.

‘Epilogue’ is available now both physically and digitally. Find out more about Never Hill via Facebook.

As a band making contemporary pop-punk, a genre with a reputation for being as much about friends and fun as it is about introspection, the only way Homebound’s conception could have been more appropriate would be if it had involved pizza.

“Some of used to rock out in a metalcore band with terrible breakdowns and numerous synths,” says vocalist Charlie Boughton. “After a few years – and a look at ourselves – we joked around with the idea of forming another band one night…after a few drinks.”

Unlike the countless bands ‘formed’ over one too many fermented beverages – and let’s face it, we’ve all been there – the idea outlasted the night that birthed it and Homebound emerged, blinking, into the Surrey sunshine. Completed by guitarists Tom Mellon and Chris Wheatley, bassist Joe Aspell and drummer Sam Taylor the band have spent the last few months gearing up for the release of second EP ‘Permanence’, released on 17 July through Failure By Design Records.

Having recently completed a UK tour with Six Time Champion, the band are full of praise for their touring partners – and just about everyone. When they’re not actively trying to freak them out, that is.

“Ourselves and Six Time Champion recently made a spontaneous trip to Manchester on a day off on tour to see Trash Boat, Waster and Best Years to see how weirded out they’d be to see us there. No surprise that they were just a bit confused! We ended up all staying out way past bedtime at Deadbolt”.

If the peers cited in that anecdote are giving you an idea of Homebound’s sound, you’re at least half right. Unmistakably taking their influences from the current crop of world-beating Tr00 pop punk contenders, Homebound nevertheless manage to put a uniquely British spin on the fast-paced palm muting peddled by their contemporaries.

‘Permanence’ showcases a polished and assured take on the form – but for Homebound, it wasn’t a case of immediately finding their feet. “It took us a very long time to find our sound,” Boughton admits. “When we first started practicing we sounded like a completely different band; we didn’t really know what sound or style we wanted to go for.”

The process of collating their respective influences into a congruent sound has, Boughton says, been a “natural progression” leading to the release of ‘Permanence’. Rather than aiming for a specific sound, the band “wrote what we all thought sounded good and didn’t really stick to any guidelines, which brought out the best in us creatively.”

It’s an approach which stands in stark contrast to their method for 2014 debut ‘Coming of Age’ (which you can download on a pay-what-you-like basis at Homebound’s bandcamp page). Just don’t ask them how they use toilet roll.

“The worst question we ever got asked in an interview? We once got asked whether we Scrunch or Fold. I mean, for starters – who asks that? And secondly, who scrunches?!”

“With our first release there was definitely a game plan, which looking back was very forced and unnatural,’ reflects Boughton. “With ‘Permanence’ it was more about honing in on what we thought was our sound.”

With the EP available to stream now, you can judge for yourself whether Homebound’s sound is your sound too.

“For a bunch of chancers playing a few decent numbers, with no dude in a ponytail that calls everyone “baby” reppin’ them, we´ve certainly had enough times where we felt like champions” says guitarist Charlie Wyatt when asked about London garage-punks Thee MVPs short career so far. It is a touching sentiment that is echoed by the furiously D.I.Y ethos that the band maintains, and has done since their inception in 2012. During some drunken conversations while hanging out watching some bands in Philadelphia between Wyatt and Daniel Bishop – who hadn’t picked up a bass guitar before this – the boys returned to the South East of England and set a plan in place to make one hell of a racket.

Looking back at bands humble beginnings, Wyatt says “It first started when I recorded some demos after leaving my “serious noise band”. Firstly by myself with a kick drum and hi-hat, then I got a short lived gigging group together before forming the first consistent band after a trip to the states”. From there they would be joined by Alex Ives and Jack Spencer-Davis, and began to channel the raw punk of Hot Snakes and Drive Like Jehu, a New York style rock n’ roll swagger, wrapped in a distinctly British charm, and they would start to make a name for themselves playing sweaty, tiny shows to anyone who would listen.

However things didn’t stay contained for long, and even in the bands infancy they have travelled to Europe, and even got noticed by Ty Segall before the number of shows they played had even hit double digits. “The amount of countries we´ve played has been the biggest highlight for us really, which includes France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. We´ve also been flown out to Barcelona twice for two sold out shows” muses Wyatt when looking back some Thee MVP’s highlights so far. “Very early on in the band we played our 8th show opening for Ty Segall. He picked us from a demo I gave him when I saw him in New York, so that was a pretty big deal/blag” he adds, before clarifying how the bands D.I.Y work ethic has paid off, saying “We host warehouse shows too. We had Twin peaks play in our rehearsal room to 200 drunk underage kids, who were coming up to us after thanking us because they couldn´t make the 18+ show at the 100 club the night before, That was very humbling”.

This has led to Thee MVP’s playing over 100 shows in just under 3 years, and resulted in them working with both PNKSLM in the UK, and Nevada based label Slovenly Recordings, who released their ‘Oh Sally’ 7” last year. This apparently was one of the bands modest aspirations from the early days as Wyatt remembers “Dan said “I want to get a record out on Slovenly” then it actually happened, that was tight”. The band also shows no signs of slowing down, and while their mantra of rarely turning down shows has led to the writing process take a bit of a hit, they are determined to change that in the future. “We´re looking to record and release a single and an EP before the year is out and then proceed to have an LP cut and released by the New Year” says Wyatt of what’s to come for the band. “We intend to record these with a few people including Jim Riley in Medway who cuts a lot of Billy Childish records. The stickler with us is we rarely turn down a show but also have day jobs so for a long time we haven´t had the opportunity to get into writing new material. However saying that, we all believe you only really find out what you´re strengths are and what the audience receive better through gigging anyway”.

Of course with age comes experience, and as the band further their abilities they plan on refining their own sound that people can identify as Thee MVPs. “It was about a year into the band we remembered we also really like 90s groups like the Hot Snakes and Fugazi, and a lot of classic rock or proto-punk, or whatever like The Stooges/MC5/Hendrix” says Wyatt of the direction the band is heading. “The influences became less narrow, but the strengths we were able to identify through all the gigging lead us to exploit ourselves into making something that’s far more like us! Also we use to be very anti guitar solos, now we can´t get enough!”

So with plenty on the horizon, and some shows with their Slovenly label mates Useless Eater in September, Thee MVPs will surely become are far more recognisable name in the UK’s ever growing punk rock scene. Regardless of where the band have been, and where the band will go, Wyatt remains modest about their accomplishments, as he closes “Cheesy as it is, we feel really lucky still being around after three years; managing to have some records out, played with so many groups we´ve looked up to, end up having them groups become peers/good friends, and to play outside of London so much already and not even feel bored or tired from it”.

You can pick up the bands self-titled EP via PNKSLM Records, and their ‘Oh Sally’ 7” is available via Slovenly Recordings.

Thee MVPs Facebook Page.