Warped Tour, the travelling rock festival that’s been bringing rock music to fans across the United States and beyond since 1995, is holding its final cross-country run this summer. Over its 24-year history, the tour has featured massive rock bands like Blink-182, Fall Out Boy and Paramore, as well as more unexpected acts like Katy Perry, Eminem and the Black Eyed Peas. So why is a festival that boosted so many musical careers on the down and out?
The main answer is that Kevin Lyman, the man behind the massive musical undertaking, has burnt himself out, and understandably so. Before Warped Tour began, he was working on Lollapalooza for three years – after 27 straight summers on the road, it’s no wonder he told Billboard in an interview that he was simply ‘just tired’. Lyman included over 90 non-profit organisations and charities in Warped over its lifetime and will be moving on to an anti-opioid initiative called Full Energy Not Drugs (FEND), as well as a 25th-anniversary celebration for Warped Tour next year, which will continue running on a smaller scale.
why is a festival that boosted so many musical careers on the down and out?
Pennywise performing at Warped Tour
Despite this, it would be naïve to attribute the slow death of Warped Tour solely to Lyman’s need for new projects – the bread-and-butter of the travelling festival is music which no longer captures the public spirit. Pop punk, Metal, Ska, emo and endless other subgenres of rock have gone from the frontrunners of the music world to an underground and somewhat ridiculed community over the last twenty years. This community is strong and loyal, but people with eclectic tastes no longer include bands of the Warped Tour ilk in their playlists. Lyman revealed that on 2017’s tour, attendance significantly dipped; but the bands and sponsors didn’t notice, because their dedicated fanbases still turned up in full force. Warped Tour is no longer the trendiest or most relevant place to be in America when discovering new artists; in Lyman’s words, “that casual fan that’s learning how to go to a music festival — they were not there last summer”.
Warped Tour is no longer the trendiest or most relevant place to be in America when discovering new artists
Lyman also proposes that it is not just the popular genres in the music industry, but the attitudes which have changed; he suggests that going to shows, even in more active genres like hip-hop, is no longer part of the DNA of young fans. It’s undeniable that live music as a whole is dying, with barely a month going by without news stories of another historic small venue being threatened with closure; the renowned Fleece in Bristol being a recent example. Young people seem far more likely to watch a massive stadium concert than a small local show. The whole culture around festivals is also changing, with most line-ups diversifying rather than focusing on particular genres – in this new landscape, a ‘punk rock summer camp’ could never maintain its status as a giant.
However, I think it might be too soon to declare a time of death for Warped Tour. We shouldn’t forget that the festival is continuing, just not across the whole of the United States – it was an astoundingly ambitious project even in its heyday, steered impressively by Lyman. Bands on this year’s line-up like All Time Low, A Day to Remember and Don Broco have headlined arenas across the pond and in the UK, so rock music certainly has a healthy share of fans. Warped Tour deserves to take a final bow with its head held high and should be remembered as a Herculean logistical accomplishment that changed the lives of countless musicians and fans.
It could be any time – it could even surprise me! We’re in a position where we can do what we want now.
Mallory Knox has been at the forefront of British rock music for years, and now bassist and former backing vocalist Sam Douglas is stepping into the limelight after the departure of former lead vocalist Mikey Chapman. With the band starting a new chapter and about to tour for the first time as a four-piece, Music Editor Alex Wingrave caught up with Sam to discuss the band’s fresh start.
Obviously, it’s a big transition for you guys at the moment with you moving into the frontman role. How’s it felt seeing such a positive reaction from fans to that?
It was weird, the day of the announcement I’d forgotten that people didn’t know about it, because we’d known for so long, just under wraps. We’d known Mikey was leaving properly in September but we’d heard whispers about it since April. We did a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure when the announcement came we had songs to back up our reasoning for carrying on. When ‘Black Holes’ came out it was a weird moment. I used to obsess over what people would say but I’ve learnt to realise not everything you read on the Internet needs to define you. I couldn’t help but dip back in with ‘Black Holes’ and the reaction’s been really great. You had people ‘ah this isn’t right without Mikey’ and then a week later when the dust had settled saying ‘I was wrong, this is a banger’. It was always going to be a weird time but I can’t fault the support.
Speaking of ‘Black Holes’, your first single without Mikey, I think it’s got a darker, heavier feel to it. What inspired you to take that direction?
I actually wrote the chords and the bassline about a year ago. It wasn’t actually the song I wanted to release first, but management and the people around us pushed it, and I think it was the right decision. The energy and aggression is perfect and people have been comparing it to Pilot [their 2011 EP], and while I don’t really hear that, the fact that fans can link back to our old stuff is cool. The best is yet to come by a long way, but it was an energetic song to lead with and one I was passionate about lyrically, in terms of people on social media saying misinformed things – give people 280 characters and they’ll say what they want.
You’re re-releasing Signals, your debut album, on vinyl for World Record Day – what motivated bringing that out, five years on? Also, what’s your favourite song off that album?
We questioned the timing, considering we’re trying to push ourselves without our old lead singer, but people had been asking for it and really wanted it. We always like doing something to get involved in World Record Day. In terms of a favourite song, I do love ‘Lighthouse’ as it took us to the next level, but it’s been played to death at this point. I’d say ‘Creeper’; I originally wanted that to open the record but we went for ‘Beggars’ as a more energetic start. I don’t think we pushed ‘Creeper’ half as much as we should have, it’s a great song.
With the upcoming tour, you’ll be playing a lot of your old material but with yourself on lead vocals for the first time. Has that changed the vibe of the songs a lot, and what’s been your favourite song to step up and take charge on?
Its changed our songs a lot, we’ve had to muck about with key changes and stuff. For example, ‘Shout at the Moon’ now sounds a lot sadder, and my voice obviously changes the songs. The thing is, I’ve heard most of the songs like this anyway, as I used to write everything before Mikey would come and put his voice on them, so it wasn’t a big shock for me. But people have listened to our songs with Mikey as the voice to sing along to for years, so I’m not expecting people to take to the new sound instantly. I think it sounds great, we wouldn’t be doing it otherwise. There are some songs like ‘Lucky Me’ that are impossible to do that just don’t work within my range, but we’re trying our best to play what fans want to hear. I don’t want to give too much away, but we’re playing songs we haven’t played in 3 or 4 years, so there are a few surprises in there – we’re really hoping to play ‘Mother’, which we’ve never played live before, and that’s been my favourite to step up on.
Are you looking forward to playing more intimate venues on this tour?
It’s something we were thinking about a few years ago, after playing all these big rooms and doing American and European tours. It makes sense to do this run with the new state of the band now so it was killing two birds with one stone, and I can’t wait to get back into it.
You’ve been refreshingly open about not being completely happy with Wired [their previous album]. What are you doing differently this time to make sure your new material doesn’t have that feeling again?
I’m using that experience to not allow myself to settle. With Wired I was just lazy and I didn’t try their best, I’ll hold my hands up and say that. I did try but I know I could have done more, and this time, I’ve got no idea what’s in store for Mallory. We don’t know what the future holds so I’m treating this as if it were our last record and putting everything into it, I’m not cutting corners. With our previous albums, the songs that you hear were pretty much all we’d written, but this time we’re writing so much that when it comes to a new album we’ll have 30-40 songs to narrow down. We’re writing five days a week and if songs don’t fit in with what we’re trying to do, even if they’re incredible, we’ll put them aside. The focus and the drive in the band is the strongest it’s ever been.
If you could tour with any band who you haven’t been able to yet, who would it be?
Ooh, that’s a tough one. I would normally say blink-182, but I’m bored of saying that for every answer, everyone knows I love them. I’d probably say the Foo Fighters, it’d be nice to hang out with them every day, doing Wembley Stadium, that’d be insane.
Who’s your favourite up and coming band?
Another honest answer for you – I don’t listen to much music, which is terrible! It’s rare that music impresses me anymore, but I do champion Judas, who we’re taking out on this tour. John, their singer, messaged me to thank me for taking them out, and he said no band had ever taken them out. I was blown away and confused, as when I saw them at Reading and Leeds last year they were so good.
What’s next for Mallory Knox, and when can we expect new music?
It could be any time – it could even surprise me! We’re in a position where we can do what we want now. We were aiming to release something before the tour, as we recorded three more songs when we did ‘Black Holes’, but the second single needs to be right. We’ve already written four or five more since then, and from the demos, we’re now thinking one of them could be the next single. We’re hoping to release music consistently all year and the album might not even come out until 2019. It’s an exciting and refreshing way to be thinking about our band.
Black Holes is out now on A Wolf At Your Door Records. Mallory Knox’s UK tour begins April 16th, including Exeter Cavern on April 18th.
I remember exactly where I was when I found out that Chester Bennington, vocalist in world-famous rock group Linkin Park, had taken his own life. I was at a blink-182 concert at the O2 in London, and in an arena full of excited music fans, it was a strange and heavy atmosphere to be in, as I watched other people around me check their phones in shock. Anyone who enjoys rock music will have loved Linkin Park at some point in their lives, and Bennington’s death certainly affected me and millions across the world.
Anyone who enjoys rock music will have loved Linkin Park at some point in their lives
Bennington’s tragic death on 20th July raised much awareness about depression and mental health, and inspired solidarity across the music industry, with everyone, from Rihanna and Stormzy, to Nickelback and Imagine Dragons, paying their respects to the singer. It’s only fitting that Linkin Park’s first performance since their vocalist’s passing was a titanic memorial concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, dubbed ‘Linkin Park and Friends – Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington’. The event featured over twenty guest musicians and raised money for the group’s One More Light Fund, a mental health branch of the Music for Relief charity. The band live-streamed the October 27th concert on YouTube, allowing fans across the world like myself to watch the show.
And what a show it was; led by the band’s other frontman Mike Shinoda, remaining members Brad Delson, Rob Bourdon, Joe Hahn and Dave Farrell powered through nearly 3 hours’ worth of an extensive back catalogue, providing soaring highs and contemplative emotional lows. Early in the night, the stage was emptied save for a lone microphone stand, spotlighted, as the band’s hit ‘Numb’ played instrumentally, leaving the 17,500-strong crowd to belt out Bennington’s lyrics in an incredibly powerful moment. I’m not ashamed to say I shed a tear or two here, as I did when Shinoda later performed a new song written eight days after his friend’s passing, ‘Looking for a Answer’, alone on piano in solemn dedication. Frequent cutaways to the crowd by the camera showed I was not alone; there was barely a dry eye in the arena.
there was barely a dry eye in the arena
However, despite the heartbreak, this night was all about having fun and celebrating the life of Chester Bennington, as Shinoda himself made very clear. By bringing out stars from all corners of music, Linkin Park kept the evening fresh and exciting, giving the fans watching and attending a once-in-a-lifetime performance. Highlights included: Alanis Morrissette joining the band for ‘Castle of Glass’ and a yet-to-be-released song from her, ‘Rest’; Oli Sykes of Bring Me the Horizon belting out quintessential angsty anthem ‘Crawling’; and the aforementioned blink-182 forming a supergroup with the band to perform ‘I Miss You’ and the epic ‘What I’ve Done’. The revolving door of vocalists certainly made for a great show, but they also highlighted what a talent Bennington was, with very few performers managing to capture the same magic and power that he brought to these songs.
After an encore including collaborations with Steve Aoki, Bebe Rexha and Avenged Sevenfold, all the musical guests of the night flooded on stage to close the set with ‘Bleed It Out’, and end the musical proceedings on a euphoric high. This was an incredibly important night in music, both for memorialising a man who made an impact on so many people, and for showing that Linkin Park will continue as an icon in the industry for years to come. Rest in peace, Chester.
Punk is dead!”, cry the forlorn dad-rockers lamenting the loss of their Buzzcocks and Dead Kennedys only to be displaced by Fall Out Boy and Twenty-One Pilots. There’s no shortage of punk-rock-loving individuals nostalgically fetishising the bygone age of battered leather jackets, colourful Mohawk sand metal spikes as long as your fingers while the current fan base for the new age of ‘pop-punk’ dance around to ‘Thnks fr th Mmrs’ as though it were Taylor Swift’s latest single. Inevitably, there will be those that question whether punk is truly dead if these bands are the representatives of punk music in 2017.
Pop-punk is a heavily commercialised, well-produced, major label-driven version of the punk rock sound of the 70s/80s. The songs typically consist of ultra-compressed vocals, guitars as thick and gutsy as good custard and some of the most anthemic, festival-headliner-ready choruses ever written. For me personally, pop punk has never appealed. This is for a couple of reasons that I can aptly justify: 1) I don’t like heavily compressed rock music. It feels soulless and flat. Rock music that has more dynamic range and a grittier quality to the production is far more appealing to my ears. 2) It has always bothered me that people insist on calling the music “punk”. Pop-punk, in itself, is oxymoronic. Punk is the subculture/genre of oppressed, alienated minorities. Individuals who don’t fit in, who have something to say (either personally or politically) and who want to deliberately challenge the norms that they reject. To me, pop-punk is a sterile “up yours” to everything that the punk movement has ever represented.
pop-punk is a sterile “up yours”
Before I get crucified by the masses of pop-punk fans out there for slamming their favourite bands, I would like to clarify that my perspective is NOT simply that the music is inherently bad. I don’t like it, for sure, and I can give my reasons, but I cannot argue that pop-punks are not good musicians, songwriters or performers because that would be a cruel lie. There are even a handful of pop-punk albums I genuinely do admire, Green Day’s Dookie and Jeff Rosenstock’s Worry being examples of this. I also respect the devotion of pop-punk fans to their favourite artists. My argument, in fact, is aimed at those who look at these examples of modern ‘pop-punk’ bands and make the sweeping statement that punk as a movement or as an ethos is gone. Likewise, that too would be a cruel lie. To say that punk is ‘dead’ and cite Blink-182’s California as your only real justification is plain stupid. Pop-punk is supposed to appeal simply because it is more ‘pop’ than it is ‘punk’, and ‘pop’ isn’t even inherently a bad thing. However, the mere presence of loud guitars and shouty vocals is not what constitutes music that represents punk. In 2017, we have to look outside the limited sphere of rock music as our source of angry, politically-charged and identity-affirming music.
It must scare, it must annoy and it must be abrasive
Punk is not a rational force. It is not about logical structure, rather artistic anarchy. It is about disturbing the confines of mainstream media. Punk, regardless of genre, must be immediately obnoxious. It must scare, it must annoy and it must be abrasive. Death Grips are one of the most relevant, genuinely punk acts to be active in 2017 and yet, this is a group built on the principles of hip-hop. They use samples, rapped vocals, synthesisers, drum machines – everything indicative of a hip-hop act. However, when you listen to ‘Hot Head’ from 2016’s Bottomless Pit you’re not exactly listening to Drake. It’s an abrasive whirlwind of anger. Grinding synthesisers, screamed and shouted vocals, pummelling drums; to say it’s an easy first listen would be a brave statement. It’s freaking crazy, and fundamentally, ‘punk’. Their performances are punishingly loud, sweaty and dangerous experiences. Having had the privilege of seeing the band live, it was the most intense show I have ever witnessed. Never before have security guards look so terrified, with one poor staff member exclaiming, “why can’t people just be nice to each other?!”. To answer his rhetorical question with another: when has punk ever been about being nice?
Death Grips: not the kind of ditties your Nan wants to hear
To emulate the old-hat ideas of 70s punk rock in 2017 would yield a product wholly pastiche. While I would disagree with anyone who says modern rock music can’t be boundary pushing: that is not the only form punk music can take. It is a liberating idea to me that punk is less of a form or genre than an ethos, a subculture and a mind-set. Look outside the confines of traditional punk-rock. Look to Crystal Castles’ experimental take on dance music, Sleaford Mods’ unique spoken-word-post-punk blend, indulge in G.L.O.S.S. with their extreme, gender- political, hardcore rock sound. Punk, as an ideology, is not threatened by commercialised pop-punk. Punk is, in fact, alive and kicking.
alifornia, the new album from pop-punk legends Blink-182, is everything a comeback album should be. It blends punk guitar riffs with pop melodies and maintains the spirit of ‘zero fucks given’ that Blink are famous for. California sounds more like their old sound than anything they’ve had for a while, but it doesn’t feel regressive.
The forerunning single from the album, ‘Bored To Death’ (BTD) which came out in May, suggested a broodier, more mature direction for the band. The opening track ‘Cynical’ initially fools us into thinking the whole album is going to follow this serious theme, however, 28 seconds into the song hyperactive drums and guitars abruptly kick in, assuring us that Blink-182 will never really grow up. And thank god for that.
Fans might have been concerned that with the exit of founding member and predominant voice of Blink-182, Tom DeLonge, the band would never compare to their younger years. You can put your concerns aside. California is brilliant. Mark Hoppus has slipped effortlessly into role of lead vocalist, supported by Travis Barker on drums and newcomer Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio on guitar and vocals.
The album is a wonderfully energetic collection of some of Blink’s best, most mature writing to date. It also includes some seemingly meaningless and immature interludes such as the 17 second long ‘Built This Pool’ and the 30 second long closing number ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ on which Hoppus sings the single line “there’s something about you that I can’t quite put my finger in.”
Blink-182 will never really grow up, And thank god for that
But jokes aside, California carries with it an important message. This band might have been, gone and come back several times. They might have lost and gained members. They might have done some growing up along the way, but as ‘Teenage Satellites’ and ‘Left Alone’ tell us, they haven’t forgotten what it was like to be a teen; misunderstood, misrepresented and brushed aside. They are no longer kids themselves, but they want to assure us that they haven’t left us behind; instead they have become the leaders they called for in ‘Anthem part. 2’ back in 2001. However, do not be mistaken in thinking that Blink have gone all soft and want to be everyone’s Dad. No, they’re the kind of role models that won’t sugarcoat the truth, as the upbeat ’No Future’ tells its audience bluntly: “let the music seal your fate, yeah, you can run but life won’t wait, yeah, they don’t care about you”, Hoppus sings. Translation: in the real world no body is going to give a truck about your future so stop complaining and go and make it happen for yourself.
‘Bored To Death’ is the band’s first number one single in a decade. Guitar riffs reminiscent of their earlier sound are welded with the sound of anticipation and looking forward. The lyrics offer an ironic juxtaposition to this as Hoppus laments the struggles of growing up and no longer being seventeen. “It’s a long way back from seventeen, the whispers turn into a scream, and I’m not coming home”, he sings.
With themes of young love, partying and mental health, Blink remain as accessible as ever
‘She’s Out Of Her Mind’, ‘Sober’, ’Kings Of The Weekend’ and ‘Rabbit Hole’ provide the album’s catchiest pop melodies, reflective of the fast-paced recording process that pop-punk producer John Feldman insisted upon the band. With themes of young love, partying and mental health, Blink remain as accessible as ever. ‘Los Angeles’ and ‘San Diego’ are the heaviest, darkest moments on the album. With the album title being drawn from the band’s home state, these songs create a more negative, and perhaps more realistic description of the sunshine coast; a sobering reminder that nowhere you call home can you also call paradise.
California is their first number one album in over a decade. Maybe this is down to working with their first new producer since the death of their long-term producer Jerry Finn. Or perhaps the album’s success is a result of the fact that music charts seem to be making room for this genre again, and therefore bands like Blink-182 are being better received than they have been for years. Whatever it is, Blink-182 are back. Their lineup may have changed, but they know how Blink-182 should sound, and that is what California is. Welcome back the kings of pop-punk.
