My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 212 - STATE CHAMPS

Episode Date: June 9, 2022

The State Champs boys drop by Barstool HQ to discuss their latest album, ‘Kings of the New Age’, with Robbie! 3Chi: Use code STOOL5 at checkout to receive 5% off at 3Chi.com Gametime: Download the app and use promo code MMB for $20 off your first purchase! HelloFresh: Go to HelloFresh.com/ROBBIE16 and use promo code ROBBIE16 for 16 FREE MEALS! American Handball Company: Follow @official_tahc on Twitter and Instagram! **************************************** Subscribe to My Mom's Basement on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeZ96PqdsJYQ7DFLRx6MHw My Mom's Basement Merchandise: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/my-moms-basement Intro Music: “Basement Noise” by All Time Low Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/basement-noise/1499013757?i=1499013968 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3Aq9W9BBCjsFOQqcYyO6IA?si=d9d0f74cf54a48deYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey, My Mom's Basement listeners. You can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Just stupid boys making basement noise in the basement, noise in the basement Just stupid boys making basement noise in the basement, yeah, yeah Hello and welcome back to My Mama's Basement presented by Barstool Sports and 3C It is Robbie Fox and I am here with State Champs, one of my favorite bands, one of my favorite pop punk bands especially And you guys are coming fresh off a show at Red Rocks, an awesome tour in the UK. I want to talk about Red Rocks, the new album, Kings of the New Age.

How was it? How was the experience? What was it like? It's been really, really cool, man. This is our fourth album. Not a lot of bands get to make four albums into their career and be doing it. A lot of people were making fans for the first time, but they don't realize we've been a band for over 10 years. Yeah, it's definitely a thing that happens.

We'll make a new fan, they'll be like, oh, you have to come to Des Moines or some kind of out-the-place. And we're like, we did. You just didn't know. We played a lot of cool venues, but yeah, this was a bucket list one for us. We just played Red Rocks with Black Bear, Neck Deep, and Mod Sun. And it's really cool. I told myself I would never want to go to Red Rocks ever

until we maybe had the chance to play one day, and we finally did. So it was cool to explore the grounds, and we had friends and family out there. It was special. In the rain, too. Red Rocks in the rain. Not everyone gets to do that, right?

It was pouring rain. There was a sea of ponchos, but it was sold out, and it made it more fun almost. The videos looked awesome, doing everybody but you for the first time and everything with Ben. That was cool. So it's like, what's the actual reception to the album been like since you put it out? Because you guys were sitting on this for a while.

Yeah, it's killer, man. It's really good. I think we finally have a song that's beaten our last hit, Secrets, for like the most wild live song ever, which feels really good. Yeah. Because it took a while to kind of finally beat that. Fans have been screaming the lyrics back. Crowds have been wild.

And post-pandemic, I think kids are just really excited about live music in general, which makes it way better. Yeah, it was cool to do the UK Euro tour and see how the reception was there. But we haven't really played any of the new songs here yet. That's true, up until these past couple festivals. So we're excited to get going on a full summer tour in the U.S. Sad summer, yeah. Everyone's got to look out for that.

Sad summer to you guys, neck deep against the current. Who else is on the card? Mayday Parade, Hot Mulligan, and then a few others as well. Pier 17 if you're in New York, Asbury Park, Stone Pony, Summer Stage, right, if you're in Jersey. Pier 17 here sold out yesterday. Oh, nice. So we're excited about that. So sorry if you missed out.

You'll have to come to Asbury. I think I'm going to have to go to Asbury. I think I'm going to London. No, I think I'm going to be in London. Oh, you will? Yeah. It's a UFC fight. Yeah.

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Get 5% off all products at 3chi.com with promo code STOOL5. This stuff will give you a buzz. It will make you fail a drug test, so please use it responsibly. You must be 21 or older to purchase. What's the timeline on when this record was actually written and recorded? That's a great question. Does anybody know? It's a really great question. I mean, yeah, it's a little jumbled, but I think we started in what, 2019, would you say? Yeah, 2019. We all live across the country from each other now.

So we plan these trips to get together and write and focus. And I know we did one in 2019, then again in January and February of 2020. And we were ready to go record in like April of 2020. And then COVID said said uh-uh so uh we went in august of 2020 only did the instrumentals and then like sat on it with lyrics and melodies and when did you go was it i don't even remember march 2021 but it was great because it gave us a lot more time less deadlines less like strict like you know like time to just pump things out, which has been the case before with all the rest of our albums.

So the fact that we could kind of sit on things, refocus on it, dissect the songs a little bit, add more ideas to the fact, it made us really come together with this track list for the album that we think deserved the time and effort for it. Did you go into this record with a different mindset from the last record at all yeah it's absolutely definitely with our last album it was like our third one that we like had a little bit more pressure than usual so we wanted to make like a mature album and like be like cooler and like older and sound you know mature cool guys but but and like that did okay and that was cool but this one, we wanted to be more, like, immature, not take ourselves so seriously,

and kind of go back to our roots a little bit, show the youthful, nostalgic side of us, and, like, remember what put us here in the first place. So that's kind of, it was a little bit more laid-back process. Try to, like, channel all the bands that we liked growing up. I mean, you're wearing a Blink-182 shirt, obviously. Yeah. We're big fans as well, and they never made it terribly complex,

and I don't know why we ever did. Who were the other direct inspirations for this album? Oh, wow. We've always liked the starting line and Paramore and old Fall Out Boy, all the old greats, Good Charlotte and Sum 41 and whatnot, but we take influence from so much other things as well. People don't realize that we're a pop punk band, but we don't always listen to pop punk. We like pop music.

We like country music. Clearly, yeah. We like pop music. We like country music. Clearly, yeah. We like hardcore music. We like metalcore stuff. So everything comes into the influence of State Champ. And your producer on this usually did more heavier stuff, right? Yeah, Drew Folk was his name. It was our first time doing an album with him.

We did a writing session with him for the album a year before we went in to record the album. And I think that's what kind of made us really bond with him and create some chemistry. But it was his first time doing a pop punk record, which I think was cool, make him step outside of the box and try something new. And it made it better for us. It felt super natural with Drew.

I mean, it was cool because he focused a lot on how the energy of the song made him feel. Because we had, what, 30 songs going in, so kind of sifting through that was really tough. and drew made the experience really great because he was just like oh this makes me feel something i love this and working with him was awesome 30 songs is crazy are we gonna get like uh use your illusion back-to-back albums next what's going on there double lp or something but a lot of them were just kind of like skeleton ideas that we took stuff from and then added them to the songs that made

the album. But there are other ideas out there that people haven't heard yet that probably will see the latter days. Oh, sweet. Once we're old and washed, you'll get like B-sides very nice. That'll be a golden era for fans. Talk to me about the aesthetic of this album, too. I feel like

I saw an interview where, Ryan, you were heavily involved in that, right? Yes. I have to apologize because I feel like I saw an interview where, Ryan, you were heavily involved in that, right? Yes. I have to apologize because I feel like absolute shit right now. I went out last night. You were with Tommy Falcone, right? He'll get you hung over. Yeah, he fucked me up. I was looking

so forward to this interview and I was just like luckily you guys have like Advil Pez dispensers. Oh, we do. Yeah, well, you're a barstool, yeah. You know what? We should have got you... We have, like, a Revitalite drink for hangovers. Dude.

Can we get some of those in here? This is... Oh, Ryan. Holy shit. That's tough. Ryan, go to the kitchen. There's Revitalite drinks. There's blue drinks.

I can't believe it. This makes all the more sense that we're here. This feels good. This feels right. I'm so sorry. No, don't apologize. You're good. I got a weird stomach.

I've thrown up on air before. This is good. No, this is not the first time it's happened on the show. This is the worst time for's happened on the show. There couldn't have been better clickbait. This is going to be clickbait. This man keeled over in the corner. I'm putting the sunglasses on.

The aesthetic of the record, I guess, is partying, having a good time. The thing is, though, this kind of does tie into the aesthetic. It does. Everybody but you. This is the music video. Go to the kitchen. Get a Revitalite. There we go.

You need one. There you go. Dude, it's so funny. Poor Ryan. I feel bad for him. I've done that before before I know how it feels I mean it's funny like we did

like our our biggest single Everybody But You on this album we wanted to channel the early 2000s American Pie and Not A Teen Movie

and you know the Project X and do a like everybody used to in the pop punk space do the house party video right like in the

Sum 41 and Yellow Card era and like no one's really brought that back because they thought it was cheesy like everybody used to in the pop punk space do the house party video right like in the sum 41 and yellow card era and like no one's really brought that back because they thought it was cheesy or they thought it was too on the nose pop punk we're like well that's what we're best at oh yeah we're good at yeah we know this shit so we wanted to do it and do the best house party video that has ever been done and i think we kind of nailed it it's sick yeah i love like the way you incorporated the facetime and all that into it. Like, that was a cool... We couldn't get Ben from negative to the States

at that point. It was, like, at the end of COVID, but it was still COVID, so there were still rules, so we had to make it work via FaceTime, holding a phone up

and kicking it around the party. Putting them in the chip bowl. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I liked how we got that together. Yeah, Ryan had a great, like, Ryan and Gabby, his girlfriend,

did a really great job. Yeah, Ryan's been, like, directing the videos the videos part of the aesthetic like you were talking about heavily involved with the design stuff and we've been working together on like the merch since i do a little bit of the design oh cool as well um it's been really cool for us to be like super involved with the business and the decision making this time around i think that's what keeps us together as well it's like a lot of bands do it for so long and then they kind of check themselves out of the decision making and stuff.

Or they got to where they are because they were never doing it in the first place. True. And then they're like, I have no control over my life. I'm leaving this right now. And we're like,

that's not going to happen to us because why would we ever let that happen? So with us being involved, we keep it fresh and exciting and new and it's what we want it to be. We know so many people

that are like, I didn't want to have to do that. I didn't want to do that. And it's like, we don't do shit we don't want to do. I know so many people that are like, I didn't want to have to do that. I didn't want to do that. And it's like, we don't do shit we don't want to do. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know why anybody would. We try not to be like, I mean, we don't want to be like assholes about it, but it is our business and it's our lives. I don't think that's being an asshole.

No, I don't think so too. It's just owning up to what you don't do and don't want to do. You think the fucking CEO, I can swear, right? Oh, big time. You think the fucking CEO

of these companies and all these fucking things are not doing what they want yeah fucking multi-millionaires just doing whatever they want and it makes it fun too because you know

we're on year what 12 of being in a band so having creative input of coming up with these videos and having fun with it just adds I don't know just adds more fun to it

and pop punk used to be a dirty word for like there was like like four years there where it was like, Oh, you're a pop punk band. Oh yeah.

Cool dude. And now, and now that it's like cool again, we can do the shit. That's like everything we've always wanted to do. We're always trying to not be this because we weren't like allowed to be. And now that we can be, we're going to do the fucking house party video.

Brian's going to throw up on camera. That's awesome. And that's what we want to do. We're going to have Derek dress up party video. Brian's going to throw up on camera. Because that's awesome. And that's what we want to do. We're going to have Derek dress up like Bob Ross. Why not? Yeah. I didn't want to do that. He didn't.

But the video was great. And it was amazing. Extremely low budget. And honestly, performing. Are those just all your friends in the video? Yeah. Well, some of them, yes. A lot of them, yes.

We had good cameos. But then a lot of the times, too, we would reach out to social media and be like, we need extras. Come through. But we had to do, like, not background checks, but we had everyone RSVP with a photo. I want to be an extra next time we film a music video. Let me come be an extra just in the background. Yeah. I want to do that.

Do an extra video here. Yes. Fuck yeah, you can. We filmed music videos here. We have, like, a fake pop punk band, Pup Punk Punk here, where we do covers and our own random songs and stuff. And the dream has always been either a house party video or a skate park video. Oh, sick. We haven't done either.

That's a skate park. But you need to. You must. I found a sick skate park in Louisville, Kentucky. That would be perfect for a video. I sent it to you. I don't know if you remember the one I sent to you. I was like, why didn't we film here when we did the video on Axe Mart?

Well, you guys did also like a motocross video for this one. We did. That was my – That was crazy. I don't think I've had more fun shooting a music video. Do you guys cover motocross here? No, we don't. Could you start?

We could, yeah. Evan will do his own room. If you want to blog about motocross, yeah, we could get you set up. Dude, Pop Punk is doing great, man. You guys are playing fest now. We're playing our first festival. It's crazy. Yeah,

it's a real festival which is daunting but, you know. It's in the northeast or is it in Maryland? It's in Maryland, yeah. It's like OAR's festival. They're putting it on.

That's cool, man. Good for you guys. We gotta play together sometimes. I would love that. You know what? Pub Punk should play our yearly holiday fest.

Yes. Oh, I think that would be a perfect setting. Upstate in Albany called Frozen Fest if you want to go i think that would be that would be a perfect setting upstate in albany called frozen fest oh yeah that would be the spot oh absolutely let's go yes there we go consider this an official informal offer we're in we're in this stuff really fucking works right baby he's back he revitalized. Let me tell everyone about HelloFresh. If you don't know already, HelloFresh is America's number one meal kit, and they deliver fresh quality produce from the farm to your door

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Do I know what the gifts are? No, but you're getting them. Perfect timing. Let's get into the album. I want to go track by track through it. I asked Ryan, I was like, have you guys done this before, going track by track through it? I didn't want to do it if you were sick of doing it.

No, we haven't really done like a breakdown of each song. So this is cool. So let's get into it first song here to stay is this just about you guys the state of pop punk and and just that in general here to stay kind of goes back to the our start when we first started like getting some buzz as a band and it talks about our first time that we ever went to the uk we played this festival called slam dunk so that's what the first lyrics of the song are new blood in london yeah it talks about people stage diving and crowd surfing to our band what the first lyrics of the song are. New Blood in London. It talks about people stage diving

and crowd surfing to our band for the first time. Us realizing that people give a fuck about us other than in upstate New York where we come from. So it was kind of our breakout and then why after so long we're still here, we're still doing it, and still really proud of what we do, aka we're here to stay.

Was it written to be the opener or no? I think so. Once we heard the riff. It just kind of felt like it. I was going to say it sounds like it. Because we did the track listing really early. Yeah, we did some finagling of the track list, but it seemed like Here to Stay was always the general one.

Well, it was the big statement, plant the flag in the ground. Yeah, that's what it sounds like. Wasn't that the first one that we did with Drew as well? It was, yeah. One of the first ones that we wrote with Drew, our producer. What is the actual first song that came did with Drew as well? It was, yeah. One of the first ones that we wrote with Drew, our producer. What is the actual first song that came together

for this entire album? It might have been the second song, eventually. Yeah, eventually is one, or I wrote Just Sound in like 2019.

Oh, okay, true. Oh, wow. A lot of these riffs and little nuggets, if you will, of each song started a long time ago. Just Sound and

Yeah, those are I would say. But Here to Stay, though, first, yeah. And then, yeah. But Here to Stay, though, yeah, clearly in our eyes, we're like, oh, you hear that riff, and it's like, okay, album opener. Yeah, it just sounds like that. I was going for a good Charlotte kind of anthem. Yeah, it's like our, this is the anthem.

I was going to say, the bass tone is awesome. Were you going for something specific on the bass tone? I always just reference Spitalf the bass tone is awesome. Were you going for something specific on the bass tone? I always just reference Spittlefield. Yes, sir. It's a very deep cut old Victory Records band from back in the day. It never ends up being that. Because no one will ever let us do that. Yeah.

Because it's just absurd. It's just ignorant. What's the song that we referenced from Spittlefield? It's such a, the bass song is unbelievable. It's just anything on Remember Me. Five Days and counting Yes That song's

Yeah Cool Eventually the second song Did I read this is about you losing your voice? Yeah That's about me My like Just during pandemic

Pandemic was kind of blessing in disguise Because we were touring our asses off Before everything shut down And I started to notice my voice changing finally And I never had professional help I never took lessons or anything So it was nice to kind of sit back Kind of of like, you know, dive into what's going on with me, with my body, with lifestyle stuff. And that talks about that journey and kind of overcoming that.

Finding my voice again and, like, getting back into shape, which feels really good right now. And especially to talk about it and be open about it, vulnerable about it in a song. That was something I'd never done before. So eventually it's kind of like my little baby song that I love. I like the glitchy vocal effects on it too. That's like a really cool fold to it. That was something that Drew, our producer, was kind of about. Try these little things that I do with my other bands

that might work with pop punk. Sometimes it would go a little overboard. But it was cool. I remember we did four different attempts at making the glitchy thing work. Yeah. Is it like the timing? Is it that what you're trying to get right? You know how it ends like, can't keep hiding me, hiding me.

Yeah. Before it was like, I think there was like a glitchy eyes trailing off into the last chorus and I was like, ah. We got a couple mixes back. We were like discussing it pretty heavily. Cut it off. A little too dubstep-y. Dial it back a little bit.

Everybody But You, this is the first one with a feature. There's a bunch of songs with features on this record. This one with Ben from Neck Deep, obviously. Unreal drums. The drums on this whole song I think are awesome. Yeah, I absolutely love that. I feel like it's simple but effective. I think it's the ultimate way to do it.

It's air drummable, I think. Oh, totally, yeah. I mean, yeah. Even down to, like, the riff, you know, like, I mean, I was listening to a lot of Seaway, and they do a lot of that, like, downstroke. And I was like, we should do something like that. That would beat ass.

That'd be cool. And then a little bit of influence from, like, All-American Rejects. Oh, yeah, I could hear that, yeah. Gives you hell vibes. Definitely. A good dynamic of dynamic of like old school pop punk meets new school pop up because it's got like a little bit of hip-hop influence too with like tracks and stuff but then hits you in the face like a weezer song and the way that the melody kind of bounces in and out like especially ben's verse where it goes like that the part of milan is great i'm sure everyone loves that yeah there's tribute to their stuff all in all

it comes together to make like a pop punk anthem that we kind of knew once it was done that we're like oh this one's gonna go don't forget

the Sugar Ray the Sugar Ray it's a little bit of a formula that came together yeah was this the one you were like

the most excited to play live I don't want to put words in your mouth but yeah it was supposed to be the lead single too and then like

stuff happened where we couldn't put the record out back in September, so we put out Out of My Head and Just Sound. And we were like, well, this wasn't planned, but these songs are doing great. But we wanted everyone to hear Everybody But You first, because we were so proud of it, and we really felt like it encapsulated what the record was all about and what we want to be about. I still feel like that's the best song we've ever written.

Wow. And honestly, I think it surprised me, because when we played it live every single show that's the loudest song which i didn't expect right off the bat it's a big sing-along one so we were excited to finally have it out and that was the one that triggered the album rollout and that's when we announced yeah name and did the pre-orders and stuff so it all worked out really well what song have you guys not played live from this album yet that you're itching to play live? There's a bunch we haven't played from the album yet. I want to play Fake It pretty bad.

Yeah. Fake It. I'm excited about Where Were You. Okay. Some Minds Don't Change. Some Minds Don't Change, man. That's going to be so much fun live. Just fast, energetic, stoked for that one.

Because we've only played like four or five new songs so far. Yeah. So it's's gonna be nice to finally get in a rehearsal room and hash out the summer set list that we're gonna be playing

on the Sad Summer Fest I can't wait for that incorporate some new ones out of my head the fourth track tasty bass tone on this one as well during the verses

I like that awesome solo at the end too this is a great track this was more solo yeah the solo was actually like too this is a great track this was yeah yeah the solo was actually like

kind of not a symptom but a result of being able to take it home I did it at my house and I got to like sit with it I mean I have a little bit

of anxiety in the studio where they're like hey do something cool I'm like okay oh my god I can't do that especially because we're a fake band so like we're not actually talented

once the lights are on it's like oh, oh, fuck, everyone's watching. We've worked with some producers that'll even, just with me as a singer, just throw me in the vocal booth and be like, okay, sing. It's like telling a comedian, tell a joke. It's kind of crazy to be that vulnerable and in the moment, and sometimes you do get something cool out of it, but it's very nerve-wracking so it's tough but as far as the song out of my head this is our like our blink 182 style like earwormy like give us pop punk yeah and that's super catchy yeah yeah

super catchy sing-alongy finger pointy and it's like by the by the last chorus out of my head that's the chorus it's just out of my head out of my head anybody can sing that by the end yeah that's what we were going for and if you can't sing it you can circle pit to it yeah fact fake it the fifth track

this is crazy vocal track for you like crazy talented with the vocals on this one this one is cool this one is like I mean a lot of people

are talking this is just a pop song or like a pop country song but it puts our state champs pop punk like energy on it and uh but this is a different one this one was our first like outside of the box one like a nostalgic feel yeah yeah yeah i mean it's a pretty intricate guitar song but i'm not sure if that's

exactly like uh prevalent considering all the shit that's happening derrick's ripping on it bass is ripping on it drums are ripping everything is just ripping the entire time so when we play it we have to play it extremely good. I will. Is that a thought when you're recording a record? Like, is this going to be too hard to play live at any point? Not hard, but, like, you have to consider, like, how do I do this live? So, like, sometimes I'll record stuff a certain way, and I'm like, okay.

I definitely think about it. You need to sit with that for a minute. I think about it from a vocal perspective when I'm in the studio. I'm like, fuck, this is going to suck to sit live. Yeah. I get mad at myself after the fact. That's what I was just going to say. Why the hell did I do, like, this is.

Every time we go to rehearse a new song, Evan's like, what's my problem? Why did I do this to myself? What about you? Are you, like, making sure you could spin during your parts? Yeah, I never really think about it until, i actually we rehearse and then i'm like how do i move to this song so for that for that one i'm not gonna be moving yeah like we yeah this one we've never played together yet so we don't really know how it's gonna feel we might just be like standing still yeah we always do the first time we play something that's what always

happens and then we loosen up a little bit we learn how to move around and engage with the crowd so yeah this one's gonna be fun to play up next we've got half empty bittersweet vibe on this one but also like keeps like that stadium rock feel kind of exactly what we're going for like this is a stadium song yes and it has chrissy costanza on it i saw her at a bar called mexicali in new jersey oh yeah 2011 we played there before and it was like immediately she's opening for a band called before you exit do you remember them i remember that yeah and it was like immediately opening for a band called Before You Exit. Do you remember them? I remember them, yeah.

And it was like me and my friends were there. We were like, no, this band Against the Current, they are the one that's going to blow up and be something. So it's crazy to see you guys collabing on this, and it's a great song. Yeah, this one's cool. This one's a little bit darker for us. And like you said, stadium or arena rock vibe. And we kind of knew, especially with the concept of the song, Half Empty chorus is on the glass half empty but you're the other half of me so we thought okay this maybe needs to be a duet so we started reaching out to chrissy and she was down to do it

obviously she recorded her part we kind of worked together on like lyrically and the message of it and she killed it man it was super cool it was really fun so and this is another one against the current it's going to be on our summer tour, so now we're talking about, okay, we've got to give the crowd what they want. Of course, yeah. And if I could say, it's my favorite bass song. Oh, is it? This one does have cool

licky bass on it. You listen to it, just listen to the bass. It's funny, because this is my favorite drum song for you. The drums there in Chrissy's part are huge. Just like the biggest sound. For me, I just wanted to make it sound big. Because when we're like, yeah, we could see this being sung in an arena.

Just big open drums. We're fucking sick. Every time I listen to that song, I'm like, man, that bass part is so much fun. It's because nobody told me no. So I just kept going for it. Sometimes you start doing something and someone's like, told me no. Yeah, I love that. I just kept going for it. Sometimes, you know, you start doing something and someone's like, I'm not sure if that's the vibe. And then I just,

nobody said anything. So I just, yeah. I think we got sidetracked with everything else. You forgot to tell me no? And then we forgot about that he was walking the dog all over the place. And then it got done and I was like, oh, that works. That's my favorite is when Derek's not

in the room yeah not to rag on this guy but like there was a moment not to jump ahead to Sundress here but like

me and Drew were just in the room alone and he was like okay bridge time what are we gonna do and I was like we're gonna play a breakdown and then you guys

heard you were like fuck yeah let's go yes but if you would've suggested that with him in the room maybe it doesn't get passed

he's not that bad. I don't know if he's not that bad. But he might not have let me do it. He had to hear it. Once he heard how. I can be a little bit of a stickler sometimes. I can. Which is good, I'm sure, in some situations.

It kind of keeps us all at it. But they do it to me, too. So it's full circle. Yeah. I think that's what is great about our writing. We are the lyric police when it comes to dinner. Oh, my God. Because I'm not a writer.

I'm a singer, and I love melodies, but when it comes time to writing lyrics, like, I take a long time, and then I'll show these guys things, and then I'll just be like, that doesn't even make any sense, bud. What are you trying to say? How can I help you say it? They have to help me make sense and, like, be grammatically correct and, like, that kind of thing. So you guys write all music

first, and then the lyrics come later? Usually. Yeah, usually. Sometimes we'll start with a little bit of a top line or like a chorus idea and then build a song around it, but there's no right or wrong way, especially with us. So most of the time it's skeletons of instrumentals and then we start building melodies first

and then lyrics come after that. Just Sound, the seventh track, about long distance relationship, I assume? Yeah, it's a song about FaceTime sex. Being on the road. Oh, nice. I don't know if you've publicly said that before. You've publicly said it.

Honestly, you know, I are. I mean, it's so like, it's right there. Without your touch, yeah, the reflection. You actually listen to the lyrics. You're like, oh, shit, this is corny. Still enough, yeah, yeah. It's vague, but it's very good. With your face reflected, you'll stay connected until it all comes back around.

It's just a song about FaceTiming. And the song explodes. Yeah. It's really cool. We opened with this song at two festivals. Well, at the So What Festival, and then we opened with it at Red House. This is a good opener. It's a really good opener.

I might be, like, vouching for it as the opener for the SAD Summer Tour as well. But we're going to have multiple set lists throughout the summer. Oh, yeah? Mix it up a little? Yeah. We're not going to play the same thing every day. So if you are coming to SAD Summer Fest, maybe think about coming to multiple sets. Just saying.

There will be multiple sets. If not, no complaining. I don't want to hear it. You didn't play this. You didn't play that. You're going to hear that. Oh, God. We'll hear that no matter what.

No matter how many sets we play. You can't appease everybody. We didn't see you play this. We have too play that, you're going to hear that. We'll hear that no matter what. No matter how many sets we play. We didn't see you play this. We have too many hits. It's hard. I saw you guys on Paste yesterday doing the live set and you guys joked about, oh, play something from your first record, whatever. Do you guys actually get that? Dude, we do. We still get it.

You guys really peaked on your first record. They want to hear the EP stuff. I was like, dude, I don't even know those guys. But that's just, like, people, like, kind of gatekeep bands sometimes.

They're like, I knew them before they got big. Did that make you look at music differently when you got into that world and people started talking about you like that? Kind of, but it's funny because I do that still

to some of my favorite bands. So it's like, you know, but I'm not the guy online saying that. There's songs you want to hear, but you're not, like, pissed if they don't's like, you know, but I'm not the guy online saying that. Yeah, of course you're not. You're not here, but you're not like pissed if they don't like,

whatever. Yeah. Yeah. A band's going to do whatever they want. Yeah. They're going to play what they want.

So at the end of the day, like most bands that I thoroughly actually love, I love their entire catalog. Like, you know, Jimmy World

or the starting line. But when it comes to a band like Under Oath, like I might be a little bit in that like play to find the great lines. Play the older stuff. Yeah.

But you just don't want to be that guy that's trolling the internet. Yeah, I would never. No, he never would. Yeah, you guys fucking lost it after your first album, but that was nine years ago. I think we're doing just fine, buddy. Yeah. I would never shit on someone's progress,

but in my head I would say, oh man, it would have been nice to hear. Of course. Yeah. All right, if you don't know already game time is the new ticketing sponsor of barstool sports what is game time they are the best website at getting last minute low price tickets it's kind of the best kept secret you know if you go to secondary market ticket sites as an event is starting the ticket prices will drop well GameTime has mastered the art of this and they cracked the code on how to score deals

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everything. Go to Game Time. Put in the promo code MMB. Go to a concert this summer. Paul McCartney's coming to MetLife next week. I can't wait for that. It's going to be my first time seeing the guy. He's on my arm now. There he is. So go get some Paul McCartney tickets. Last minute Paul McCartney tickets. Act Like That, one of my favorite songs in the album really groovy intro awesome country feature where did the actual like country vibes come from did you write this and think like this could use a country singer so this song was the only was a one like we we wrote this song with a separate producer and friend of ours his name is courtney ballard and uh we spent a day with him and this song came out of it as well as some other cool ideas as well but i think the reason that this song came out of it, as well as some other cool ideas as well.

But I think the reason that this one sticks out is because it was written with a different friend of ours. But yeah, it started with some pop influence and a beat, and it wasn't intended to have a country beat. It was a little more like 80s pop. Almost like 80s pop rock. Like power pop-ish. Yeah, kind of. We kind of beefed it up.

Yeah, so we took it a step outside of the box from the normal on-the-nose pop punk that we do and tried something new, and it was cool. And by the end of it, we were like, it was a little too poppy at first, too. There was not enough State Champs energy guitar-driven song. The bridge was like some sort of weird, I don't know what the right word is. Remember, it was just kind of like a droney kind of pshh. It almost sounded like a Duran Duran song. Oh, wow. Yeah duran duran song oh wow yeah i want to hear that version of it yeah so we had

to really like turn it into more of like a i don't know like it almost sounds like like it sounds like a forever the sickest kid song now or something like that the solo into the feature is really cool too yeah i mean yeah we had we had to we had to make the bridge rock so that's kind of what we did we threw a solo into the feature and the feature came about like it was, I mean, we spent freaking hours just talking, which was like, who should we go for? And, you know, we were throwing around like the Dan and Shays of the world. But I remember he was like, do you guys like Mitchell Tenpenny?

And I was like, I love Mitchell Tenpenny. And he's like, my friend is like best friends with him. I'm going to text him and just actually happened. We weren't friends before. We were just introduced. I'm going to text him. And it just actually happened. We weren't friends before. We were just introduced. I was introduced to him in a group chat with our producer. And he was just like, hey, man, I love your band.

Like, send me the song. And we were like, okay, sick. So that started coming together. And like you never hear country voice on pop punk. It's just very fresh. It's new. But how cool does that work? Like we're breaking down boundaries a little bit. And like we're all for the fact that like you can mix whatever you want these days.

Genres are kind of dying. And like everything is coming together and fusing together so in pop punk especially everyone's mixing hip-hop right now why can't you mix other genres exactly so like let's be the first to try something like that and i think it worked and you guys didn't really do the hip-hop feature on this one you were like well yeah we're not going to do what everyone else is doing we could have gone there yeah did you think about it was there a song that got cut with the hip-hop feature no no there wasn't one that we did but we thought about it for sure um we thought maybe even everybody but you were gonna have somebody like initially it wasn't always been it was just like maybe we'll do some kind of like rappy thing here yeah some hip-hop yeah and like

that could still work today who knows true we can do a remix if i was gonna say did you do the open verse one for that we did yeah for everyone to throw a rap if we wanted to. I was going to say, did you do the open verse one for that? We did, yeah. Someone could throw a rap one in there. We got so many TikTok replies to it. Some of them were pretty sick, actually. Which is cool, yeah. Some were so bad. Some were really bad, too.

Absolutely. But we appreciate you guys. Were there any that were so bad they were good you could sit on the bus and laugh at them? Some of them were jokey, like trolly ones. Some of them, yeah. But it's kind of cool. You've got to kind of play ball these days with social media. Of course. So we had to hop on the bus and laugh at them. Jokey, like trolly ones, some of them, yeah. But it's kind of cool. You've got to kind of play ball these days with social media. Of course.

So we had to hop on the TikTok wagon. Ryan's been kind of leading the way. I've seen you guys on the TikTok wagon doing your dances. We've been trying to gain some traction on it. We've been slacking lately now that the album's out. I can't do TikTok. Like, that's what, you know, we're all told, you know, get on TikTok, but I just forget every day.

It's so hard. And, like, we're grown-ass men, too. It feels kind of weird yeah and that goes along with our mindset as a band it's like

we don't want to do things that seem jobby or too try hardy but it's so hard to be in the music industry and not do that finding a way

to make everything content is absolutely exhausting yes but you gotta do it you gotta do it and if we can make it fun which we do normally once we just

sit down and do it and make our own ideas, then it's like, okay, this feels like us. As long as we're having fun doing it, we like to do it. And this song, Ryan's been crushing live. The live versions of it have sounded awesome. Stepping in, surrogate for Mitchell. Even the acoustic version I liked yesterday. That sounded really cool.

Yeah, it's been working acoustically. It's cool to kind of strip some things down and do different settings of stuff because it shows that we can actually play our instruments too a little bit. Yeah. Just think like, oh, you've got backtracks and stuff. It's like, no, we can play the songs. Yeah. Where Were You?

This is a super energetic one. You guys said you're excited to play it live, and that makes sense to me. Yeah, this one's cool. This one is very like, you could have heard a song like this on our past albums as well, which I think works on this one as, like, a late in the track list song. We did this song with our friend Mike Green, and it's cool.

This kind of talks about pandemic and stuff, but I think it's almost got, like, a boy band-y pop rock vibe. We talked about this one as it kind of sounded like a Jonas Brothers song almost. I remember when we came into the studio that day, I was listening to a lot of Fall Out Boy. And I was like, I want to write just a fucking upbeat Fall Out Boy type song. I do remember you saying that. I think that's kind of what we tried to channel. I'm not sure that it really turned out that way. No, but I remember specifically Mike kept trying to pitch these more indie riffs.

And I was like, I said, listen, man, I need Windows Down, Summer Vibes. Go back to your early all-time low records. Like let's do that. And he was like, cool. And then me and him started jamming and that's just kind of how it came out. Yeah, I love that riff. It's awesome. Up next, Sundress.

This was the one we were talking about a little earlier. This is a great one. The four-year strong feature is awesome. Breaks down a little bit. What do you got to say about Sundress? You know, I have to say that it absolutely kicks ass. I will say that I'm very

proud of that drum beat. Some of these nugs started as Evan would send me a drum beat and I would put a riff over it and I wrote this riff for something completely different, not at all in this style of music. Then I just put on my Dirty Channel and played it at the tempo that he was playing.

I was like, ah, it sounds pretty good. Yeah. And then, you know, we just fucking smashed it out. We did never bridge for the song. So this was what Tyler was talking about before. I had left the room, came back 15 minutes later, and we got a beat-down breakdown. And it worked well.

And we're like, so what are we going to do here? Are we going to have somebody scream at it? Or like, what are we going to do? Should have thrown a fake scream track for him to check it out. So then we're like, okay, what makes sense in our space? For Your Strong makes total sense. So we hit them up and this came out. It feels like you just hand the song over to them for a bit and then they hand it back.

Yeah, it almost sounds like they wrote the part. Yeah. That fits the For Your Strong, like, rise or die trying. Totally. For sure. Yeah, I mean, I'm a huge For Your Strong fan. I've been honest with them about that

throughout the course of our friendship like I like everything they've ever done so we're on the same record label we've done tours

with them we just did one in the fall of last year so it only made sense for us to reach out and they were like

what do you guys think can you just want to hop on this and they were like yeah it's cool and it's cool

that it's featuring 4 Year Strong it is yeah featuring the whole band just like a singer or something so that worked out awesome no that's the whole band. Just like a singer or something. So that worked out awesome.

No, that's definitely cool in the back of a CD or a vinyl. And then the final track, Some Minds Don't Change. I wrote, this sounds like Don't Panic era, all-time low to me. Really? That's cool, I haven't heard that. You're not the first person to say that either, and I don't agree. No, you don't. I don't, yeah.

You guys should fight. We should, yeah, rough and rowdy. We have a boxing company. There's a wrestling ring somewhere, right? Yeah. Cool, cool, yeah. You guys should fight. We should, yeah. Ruff and Rowdy. We have a boxing company. There's a wrestling ring somewhere, right? Yeah. Cool, cool, yeah. One thing we hadn't done for a song like this is use like a ballad timing. It's like the song's in 6-8 for music nerds, but it's fast.

Very Paramore of us. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's got some Paramore vibes, but then it's got like a very anthemic last track vibe. I was going to say, I asked the first track, was this written to close the album? This wasn't, though. No, this was written over Zoom. pair more vibes but then it's got like a very anthemic last track vibe i was gonna say i asked the first track was this written to close the album this wasn't though no this was written over zoom this was our uh this is our this is our zoom right where we were like we're not getting to make a record anytime soon but we should still write songs and i was like doing this session on my

computer he was sending me drum midi and these guys were like doing other stuff and i mean the demo sounds horrible but the song turned out good. Honestly one of my favorite guitar songs like how it slams in the intro and how we end it which makes it a great close up. The opening that was from my demo and then same thing with like the pick slide into the second verse that was

just chopped out of like the home demo that we did together. The original one that you did. Yeah which is I guess a fun little fact. That is cool. Yeah and And it is kind of a bittersweet ending to the album. Obviously the, like, there's a lot of positivity in this album lyrically throughout it, but in the end it's like the world's

gonna be the world and you can't always get what you want. So it's kind of like a bittersweet ending to the album. It's definitely not like a concept record, but I think if you listen pretty, like, intently, you can kind of sense a theme across the songs where, like, things might be getting better with the person, or or you know i'm at war with myself now and then at the end you're just like you know what if i can't change you still i don't think anyone else will yeah and then bam you're done like you're kind of just like concluding the entire record with like

well it's like i'm gonna be good i'm gonna get over this wait i'm in my head now just like modern day problems that everyone deals with and it's like great we're gonna get through this wait the world is fucked no matter what so let's just live is that narrative that you have like is that a big part of putting the actual track list together or is it more musical no that was accidental i think yeah i think it just kind of fell into place and then we're listening to it it's like wow this does tell a pretty cool story actually yeah so when we finished that song though we knew immediately that was gonna be the last track. And all of us were like, the way that it ends, too, just makes you want to start the record

over. It does. Because that ends kind of so broadly. And it feels so cohesive. The whole record feels like one big work to me. Thank you. Where it's like everything works like a puzzle fits together. That's true.

Anytime you can do that, it works out. It's an insane pinch. I've never got to put a pinch on a record before. It's very cohesive. Me, I'm stoked. Nice. Listen, guys, if you're not watching team handball yet, I don't know what you're doing.

You're missing out. You are. Handball is obviously one of the best Olympic sports, summer Olympics, combination of soccer, football, and hockey. And it's one of those sports where every time you watch it, you're like, why is there not more of this? Well, there is more of this. It's super popular worldwide.

And the American handball company or the talk, that's how you pronounce that. It's a little acronym for you for the us handball guys is bringing it to the U S and North America in general. There's a ton of teams, Miami, Detroit, New York, Toronto. They're all battling it out for the team handball championship. And this stuff is amazing. Listen, if you're a gym teacher, you want to incorporate it to gym class. If you just want to watch it, if you want to get into playing it, like Billy Football,

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The highlights are amazing the teams are amazing get in on Team Handball and help us grow the game. What is your favorite lyric on the album? Question for each of you Okay, good question I gotta think about this I haven't thought about this at all

We better start, this is a popular VIP question What do you got? I mean, the one I just said is, like, pretty awesome. If I Can't Change You Still. Yeah, it's a great one. I do like the I'll Be the One Who's Lifting Me Up thing, which is, like, you know, self-empowerment vibes. I would use one from Fake It, I think, the bridge in Fake It.

We're more than the words that we say in the end. We bend and we break, so there's something to mend. I think that's very poetic. That is. It's a good one. That's cute. I see you guys buying time. What do you got?

These guys are thinking about it. They're like, what are the lyrics? I don't know. I'm curious to hear Evan's because we put a lyric on a shirt one time, and he's like, what does this mean? I was like, what's the lyric? I was like, no, it's a lyric that we wrote. Literally our song.

Did you hear the drum parts in Frozen? I didn't. He wasn't listening. The way Evan listens to music is so interesting, because I always listen for lyrics and melodies off the jump. Even as a guitar player, I'm not like, I don't really care what's happening at first. He only listens for drums. No, I listen drums. I think a lot of drummers are like that.

Drums and melody. It's so interesting to me. There's like the famous video that went re-viral when Taylor Hawkins passed away of him trying to sing times like these for Dave when his voice went rough.

Oh, I've seen that. And he just didn't know the lyrics and he's been playing it for 25 years. I don't know the words. He's like, I don't know the fucking words. Oh, that's right.

That does make me feel better. Yeah. So it's like, I think that's just a drummer thing. All right. He's a hell of a singer too. I got one. That does make me feel better. Yeah. So it's like, I think that's just a drummer thing. It's a great drummer. Yeah. All right. He's a hell of a singer, too, too. Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Mine's not necessarily like a tattoo lyric or whatever is what we kind of call it, you know, like a statement lyric, but from an act like that, falling in love, couldn't have planned it, caught me like a thief in the act, red-handed. Yeah, I do love that one. That one's cool. That one's kind of cheeky. I just like that lyric and the way that it's sung is like got some some swag on it it does the harmony's nice too i have to agree with that one

the rhythm section and state champs is locked in yeah there's a lot of good ones we're kings of the new age we're excited to hear everyone else's opinion of favorite lyrics yeah leave it in leave it in the comments. Yes, please do. That'll be a good thing for everyone to comment. And then my final question for you guys, I ask this to all the musicians

that I interview. I'm a big Oasis fan and Noel Gallagher of Oasis says that Cigarettes and Alcohol, Live Forever, and Rock and Roll Star are the three songs that sum up everything

he's ever wanted to say. If you had to pick three songs from State Champs that sum up everything you've ever wanted to say, what would they be? Man, that's a solid question. That is a pretty cool on some jeopardy music because uh we're gonna need a minute well i think we would probably use here to stay yeah okay speak for yourself i'm talking about lyrically i guess some things we want to say

everybody but you everybody but you is probably the middle finger one I was looking for. I don't know. I feel like Secrets is the middle finger song. True. Yeah, I'm just trying to plug the new album. Go to Target, get the bonus tracks, right? And then I'm just trying to think from a message standpoint, an older song. Oh, plug the new album.

Plug the new album? Yeah, plug the new one. Kings of new album? How to plug the new one? Kings of the New Age. Kings of the New Age. Out May 13th. Yeah, we'll put this out retroactively. And act like that. No, seriously though, I don't know.

That's a great question. I would maybe use Losing Myself from Around the World and Back. That's a good one. Yeah, the whole down for life sentiment. Yeah. Because we're still here. That's a good one. Yeah, the whole down for life sentiment. Yeah. Pretty good. Because we're still here. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. So I'm using Here to Stay, Losing Myself, and Secrets. I could honestly get on board. We happy with that as a band?

Yeah. Those picks? I think that's cool. We might need to sit with that one and come back. It'll probably change, you know, daily. Every day.

Oh, yeah. We can give you a different answer every time, but that's a good start might need to sit with that one and come back to it. It'll probably change, you know, daily, every day. Oh, yeah. We can give you a different answer every time, but that's a good start. All right, I appreciate you guys coming in. Check out the new album out May 13th, like you said.

So go check that out. And go get it at Target for the extra tracks, right? Yeah. It helps physical copies. Yeah, it's in Target. It's in Urban Outfitters. You know, go check it out.

Go check it out. It's that summer. Of course. We'll see you guys on tour this summer all throughout the U.S. Check the dates, check your city

because we're probably coming to it. So, see you then. That's right.