My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 254 - YOUNG CULTURE

Episode Date: January 6, 2023

Robbie is joined in the Basement by one of his favorite new bands in the pop punk scene, Young Culture! Alex, Gabe, and Troy discuss how they initially met and got together as a band in “Music Camp���, the evolution of Young Culture from there, touring with State Champs last year, and more! Plus, Robbie takes the band through their latest album, ‘You Had To Be There’ track-by-track for a full breakdown of the writing/recording process. Stream ‘You Had To Be There’ by Young Culture on Spotify now! https://open.spotify.com/album/5vc7fba5pVlwYcDbbQc7Ma?si=YN7r4X-ETmOeJHk4h9BSig HelloFresh: Use code ROBBIE21 at HelloFresh.com/ROBBIE21 for 21 FREE MEALS plus FREE SHIPPING! **************************************** 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-basementYou 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. Hello and welcome to My Mom's Basement presented by Barstool Sports. I am your host, Robbie Fox, and today I am bringing you a special interview show with Young Culture, one of my favorite bands in the pop punk scene. They just put out a kick-ass album last year called You Had To Be There, and I take the band through the album kind of track by track, and we break it down. The whole songwriting process, the recording process. It's a great interview with three great guys, and I hope that you check out their band after listening to it. I'm not going to waste any more time though. Let's get right into the interview here. All right. Hello and welcome back to My Mom's Basement. It is Robbie Fox and I am here with one of my favorite new bands, Young Culture. We just saw them on tour with State Champs. They were on the Kings of the New Age tour and I think you guys had one of the best pop punk albums of the year last year. One of my favorite albums of the year and you had to be

there. Now I want to ask first, how do you guys feel about like the pop punk label when i say one of the best pop punk albums are you guys cool with that i love yeah i love that dude i think that like when we were like going out to make you had to be there it was kind of like let's make a pop punk album cool like let's see what worked in the past and what we kind of started with. And like, let's just ride with that. Like 10 rock pop punk songs. Yeah. I feel like some bands shy away from it because it does in pop punk go from like a genre to a label for some. Oh, you're a pop punk band or whatever.

Like, I love pop punk bands. I love all pop punk bands. So I like when bands embrace that. Same. Like, yeah, that's the stuff that we love. And, you know, I think that we did try to shy away when we started it, you know? Really? But I think that we just kind of came up with, like, this is, like, who we are.

This is what we want to do. So, yeah. And also, I feel like right now, pop punk is also more in than it has been in a while. It's back. Yeah, it is. Like, for the first time in a while, like, with, like, the MGK stuff, like, there's, like, a pop punk song's on the radio. Guitars, drums are on the radio there's like number one songs that are pop punk energy it's crazy you guys like mgk i like the i like the one the first one was better the first touchy subject with

everyone yeah no yeah i really fuck with like black bear put out a pop punk album and i really like that one yeah i had riffs on it like really good riffs i like black bear on his features too he's got a great oh yeah oh yeah dude oh yeah he's got like bayside on it and um the used right like he has a few like really cool and it's cool to see that kind of stuff like in a mainstream artist right a big major label artist because like i feel like guitar music's coming back after like a 20 year period probably and you guys were just on tour with one of the bands that i feel like is really carrying that torch state champs how was the tour that had to be huge for you guys it was great it was awesome

it was like the biggest tour we we've done yet and day one of that tour was the day we dropped the album so yeah and we have never done like an album straight into touring before because i kind of got fucked with covid your first album was what october 2020 yeah yeah so that's like was your first big show before covid or after covid probably after um i mean like your first great show when you think that we i mean we've had some really good headlining shows uh in albany where the band's originally from and we've also uh we toured before covid we were actually on tour when covid happened yeah so we were yeah we were in toronto yeah so we got kicked out you get like stuck or they were like get the fuck they were like get the fuck out yeah you guys gotta leave yeah it was a little little touch and go um i remember remember basically we got off stage and they were like, yeah, the tour's over.

There was like a week left, right, of the tour? Yeah, yeah. Better than most, but it definitely kind of was a bummer because, you know, like I think we made the album like at the end of 2019, and then, you know, like all the planning and we were like, yeah, you know. It was summer. Everything's going to come back. It was going to be summer.

We were going to go on a big tour. Actually, we were going to go on tour with the band we're about to go on tour with, Meet Me at the Altar. Yeah. That was going to be the summer tour. We were going to put it out, and then everything happened. Speaking of pop punk music coming back, Meet Me at the Altar is a song on a Taco Bell commercial.

Yeah, I just saw that. Holy shit. And then Turnstile had one before that. I know. Whoever's in the music department at Taco Bell is crushing it. PBR, too. Yeah. They're re the music department at Taco Bell is crushing it. PBR, too. Yeah. They're repping all sorts of, like, pop punk stuff.

They gave Hot Mulligan that, the 1776. Did you see that? Yeah. What is it, like, 99 beers or something? No, no, it was 1776 PBRs in, like, a brick case. They've always had, like, interesting marketing, because I'm a big wrestling fan, too. Yeah. Oh, yeah? They've sponsored, like, really, like like punk rock wrestling companies before too they seem to be like on like the like kind of

like that level of culture yeah pop punk and wrestling has always kind of oh it's the best it's like always been a thing right i remember like being younger and and like looking at state champs and like seth rollins would be like tweeting at them or something and i'm like how the hell he's a huge yeah he's a huge wonder years guy like i remember interviewing him one of the first times i interviewed him i was like hey what have you been listening to recently he's like a day to remember in the wounded years only people that are talking shit about the sister cities they don't get it so he's like really yeah yeah that's so uh before we get into the most recent album i'd like to go back with you guys and talk about the Young Culture origin story.

I feel like it's good to let everyone know how you guys started as a band. So how did you guys meet in the first place? Yeah, so the three of us all met at actually a music camp. That one time at a band camp. Literally that one time at a band camp. Me and Gabe started the band. Gabe and I started the band in what year? Probably like 2016.

Yeah, that's when we like put out music I'd say Yeah And then Troy hopped along And it's been that way ever since You know, yeah What is music camp like? Like dude, we did not want to go So basically like my dad was like

I was, I used to go to this This was a decade ago Yeah, this was like we were in middle school Yeah And like I used to go to this. This was a decade ago. Yeah, this was, like, we were in middle school. Yeah. And, like, I used to go to this skateboarding camp called Woodward. And my dad did not want me to go there anymore. He thought it was, like, all you do is smoke weed, waste of time.

Yeah. Sounds like a movie. Which, like, I was not. The start of a teen movie. Yeah, right? I was like, stop, dad. And, like, I never smoked weed. I didn't even see weed before and then so he was like you got to go to this music camp and i was like i don't want to go to this fucking music camp so

alex like really good friend he was like dude i'll go with you it'll be we'll make it it's just like a week or whatever yeah and then funny enough respect we meet troy who also didn't want to go to that camp no and then we're all forced into this, essentially. You don't have a passion for music. It was like band camp. It was like, I want to play power chords and look up tabs online. I don't want to sit and learn technique, which I look back and I'm like, I should have learned technique. But, dude, funny enough, the first time I ever saw and smoked weed was at that music camp.

Wow. There you go. Out of a hot battery. Have you guys written a song about that? Because that is the song. Smoking weed at band camp. So what was, like, the first, when you guys get together and start playing, what were the first songs that you guys were playing together?

Oh, my God, dude. We did, like, we did do, like, a cover band thing at that camp. We did, like, in the Data Remember. We did a Data Remember style cover of Little Lion Man. Oh my god. Mumford & Sons. This was like 2011. I think there is on Facebook or something.

Dude, I would love to find that. But the funniest part, like it's funnier than the fact that we're doing Pop Punk Mumford & Sons. It's because at the end of the week at band camp, you all perform. Yeah. So it's like a recital. And that was ours. So we had to wear like suits, basically. Like button downs.

Did you at least wear like a red tie like Billy Joe? I think everyone looked like they were dressed for like Sunday school. It was like pretty brutal. And we're like doing like, you know, we we're doing power stances and breakdowns and shit. Just rap real low. So that was middle school. Troy was probably in middle school. I was 16.

Yeah. So then fast forward to 2016 is when we're going on our first real tour, like DIY tour, but we were going to Texas. And we needed a guitar player, and Alex posted on Facebook. And we hadn't talked to Troy in like four years. Yeah, it's we were going to texas and we needed a guitar player and alex posted on facebook and we hadn't talked to troy in like four years yeah wow yeah i'm actually from kentucky so i was going to uofl yeah i was i was at louisville and like i was going into my senior year of college and i was like i don't really like want to do anything besides play music yeah and then they literally like it was like the same day that i was having like a quarter life crisis right and they hit me up yeah uh where i i like i saw

alex's facebook post i was like i'm doing it fuck it i'll drop it all cool you guys serendipity yeah there we go literally yeah and it's kind of crazy because like you know like like right place right time and you know like took a chance i remember like us facetiming him being like yeah do you want to do this tour with us and then like at the end of it, we were all like, dude, you got to stay. You got to stay. Troy was literally like he had a semester left at college, and he was like, I'll drop out right now. Don't do that. Just finish your semester.

So I was in school for jazz guitar. Oh, wow. And my professors were like, yeah. So it was really cool. You know, at the time I felt like I was like, maybe I should like go into like business or something. You want to be a lawyer, right? Yeah. I was like studying for the LSAT and stuff.

But, you know, ultimately it felt like I feel like I actually learned a lot and it like actually helps me like write and perform and stuff. Yeah, I believe that. But my professors were like i told them i was like because i went on three or four tours while i was still a senior in college and i told my professors like can i go do this like would you guys care and they're like of course you can go do this it's like it's like an internship yeah they're like they're like nobody goes and does this yeah it's like as long as you get your work done it's fine i was like fuck yeah i can't believe there's like a multiverse where troy goes off and he's a lawyer yeah that that is crazy because i hope you don't mind me saying this

first time i met both of you was at the brooklyn state champ show oh yeah and i saw you go up and crowd surf yeah and go down hard oh it was so bad it was a jack black in school of rock oh no he's down it was a moment where it was like everyone kind of tippy toes. Is he okay? Then he gets up and everyone, okay, he's up. My back felt weird the next morning. The fact that you were almost a lawyer, that would have been such a tragedy. Yeah.

Oh, God. Yeah, thank God you didn't go down that path. So when you start writing as a band, who do you feel like your actual biggest inspirations are? That's a good question um well like to go back and touch on like when we started working with like get getting troy involved like i feel like the band really started elevating when troy and us three started writing as like a as like a group like the first song was it drift was the first drift and then deluxe were the two ones that we like wrote together yeah and i think like what i mean, we pull from, like, all, like, the old, like, early 2000s.

Like, I know Alex. All American Rejects. Yeah, all the, like, the old drive-thru bands and, like, Starting Line. Fall Out Boy was definitely, like, first big band for me. And, you know, like, those first three, four albums, you know. Of course. I still think hold a lot of identity for it. Dashboard Confessional was, like, a big one for me and you know like those first three four albums you know of course i still think hold a lot of identity for it uh dashboard confessional was like a big one for me like growing up so taking back sunday then we have like bands that aren't pop punk like the 1975

that's everybody though that's pretty universal you say that the first song on the new record yeah is reminds me so much of like the 1975 energy and style and i love that i just got into the 1975 this year i was really late on them oh my god dude i got to see them at msg oh you saw that i think it was like the most i've ever seen msg like moving like you looked up to the rafters and people are dancing and it was like oh so it was eye-opening my wife went and she went to one of the harry styles shows like the soul that ones and she said that people were way more hyped for the 1975. It was crazy.

They're my girlfriend's favorite band, so I always kind of looked at them like, oh, yeah, they're nice. They have nice love songs. And then I went and saw them live and was like, I'm a fucking Mattie Healy stan. Yeah, baby. I'm following the stan accounts. He's eating that raw rib eye.

I'm making a stan account. I'm in on it. I run them now. What are your favorite memories of writing and recording the new album? Well, you know, it's funny because when we went out there, the last few records we did were in Toronto, and we love Toronto and stuff. But it was lockdown, so every day we would just go from the studio

back to our Airbnb. I'm pretty sure we were sober for most most of that drink on saturdays yeah we kept it to the weekend plan i like yeah yeah we do things like that together you guys are really all like a tight-knit group yeah oh yeah oh definitely yeah dude it was the like the there was some good movie nights you know so many get back in the studio. Troy would cook some food. Yeah, we did like a steak night dinner one night, like legit, spent like $200. I want to be in your band. What the fuck?

Come on, bro. Come on tour, baby. I'd love to. Don't threaten me with a good time. The issue was, was like, there really wasn't much we could do because of lockdown. And then there was a blizzard, too. So we literally, it was in January. It was a year ago.

A year ago, like now? We would be in the studio a year ago and do you go in having the songs written and you just got to record them or do you go in with the process of like hey these songs are half written let's figure them out yeah so this was my favorite memory from the studios that we went in with like 60 songs that we wrote through the pandemic and uh, you know, we went in there and then the engineer that we worked with, who actually worked with State Champs as well, he did Kings of the New Age. He was like, why don't we just, because we had a lot of time,

we had a whole month. He was like, why don't we just write the first week or like see what we can do? And we ended up writing basically the whole album in a week. Yeah, dude. And throwing out the songs. Most of them. So this is the first time we ever did co-writes, too, like prior.

So, like, out of the 60 songs or so, we had, like, five or six. We were, like, writing with other people. A lot of people that we look up to a lot, too, as mentioned. Did you like that? It was cool. It was great. Like, only two of them were used like we like we wrote a song with the all-american rejects like their guitar player nick wheeler and we we didn't

use it like it's good but we didn't end up using it because like what we wrote in that week like we wrote not in love in in a day wow and like it was just like kind of over it all the songs that like we put out of singles We pretty much yeah Yeah Were quick writes for you guys Oh yeah Yeah Tattoo we wrote in like Literally probably an hour That's my favorite song on the album

Yeah Ryan's on that song Is he really? He's in the He's on the He does the bridge There's a lot of little like Sprinkled in

Yeah Yeah we didn't like List the features But we put like We had a bunch of like people Seven features I think I was gonna say I feel like there's a couple I i had one written down on uh we're on fire who's on

we're on fire oh that's kaylee spivey they rock they're from um i think south carolina like really close they're la oh yeah yeah yeah they they used to be in a band or i guess it was like a solo band thing called small talks uh-huh and they're dope very cool like very pop like kind of like the main kind of like us i love the main but it was just like you know like reaching out to um you know like people and being like hey like you want to just like sing this one line on this song you know like so we had like uh derrick do and we had ryan do one we had joe taylor from knuckle puck do one um and just like a few few other people yeah eggs on the album oh yeah yeah but like you know like not listed on it's just like hey like let's just I like that. A lot of Easter eggs on the album. Oh, yeah, yeah. But like, you know, like not listed on it.

It's just like, hey, like let's just have like some friends and stuff. Yeah, Chris Freeman from Hot Mulligan does the bridge for non-love. Yeah. Yeah. So since you started, obviously you've grown like a pretty dedicated fan base. When I tweeted that we were doing this, people were stoked. Yeah. People were like, oh, my God, Young Culture deserves all the shine they're getting.

I feel like people like appreciate the grind they see the grind totally what is it like post-covid like as a pop punk band what is that grind like so i'd say like you know like during covid was a tough time because you know it just felt like really dull but post-covid has been like the best time ever for us and like you said like it's like we do have like really dedicated fan base you know it's like may not be like the biggest yet but like the people who are in it are so in it and it's like just i think i would take that over like the other way definitely a thousand percent yeah i'd rather have a vertical slice than like you know like a very dedicated slice of like the like scene totally cared about us rather than a bunch of a bunch of fans that didn't really care about

us you know and obviously with all that didn't really care about us. And obviously with all the features you're talking about, you have the respect of your peers, which is also a huge thing. It's definitely cool, yeah. It makes us feel like we have a seat at the table, you know what I mean? And it's all about just now we're here, so now that there's nothing stopping us from going on tour and playing shows, let's do it as much as we can.

This opportunity is awesome. Like, the fact that we get to be here, talk to you, fucking rocks. We're back at it. It feels good. You know, we played 100 shows in 2022. Oh, wow. Just about. It's like 96 or something.

So, yeah, we did, like, four tours. We recorded an album. We did two music videos. I feel like we're finally, like, got the... Did you record this in 2022? Yeah, we recorded in January of 2022. Wow. And that's what, like, just felt really good is, like, after, like, a couple kind of discouraging years,

like, being able to come back and have, like, the best year, like, ever. Yeah, I think, like, a lot of it was, too, is, like, we... So we started in 2016 doing a lot of, like, DIY touring and stuff like that. Right when like a lot of it was too is like we so we started in 2016 doing a lot of like diy touring right when we got out of high school too like you know and uh right before covid we actually like got our first booking agent like uh and so we got on we started getting like actual tour offers like on the regular and then covid hit and so we couldn't do them you know what I mean? And now that,

uh, tours are back, like we're getting these offers in our email and we're like, yes, yes, yes. Like, let's just keep rocking.

So when you're right out of high school, you three are the ones like calling people, booking shows and everything like that. Yeah. Just like show, show swapping, hitting up friends from like, you know,

we started doing a lot of like weekend stuff, like Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And we'll do like because we're from albany like albany long island i don't know maybe like a connecticut day or something and then eventually we go down like the east coast and like yeah like the first tour we did was with a band called above it all like uh uh they were just like hey they were from te, hey, they were from Texas and they were like, hey, we're doing shows in Texas.

Do you want to come? And we're like, yeah. So like, and then we had a show. Yeah, we drove. And then,

and then we had a show in Albany and had them play it. You know what I mean? Yeah. It was just so much fun. And now it's like, now it's like we're getting

these tour offers like sent to us and here's the routing, here's the venues. And a lot of that work is lifted from our shoulders yeah it's really nice excited for the next door to meet me at the altar yeah mercy theater in new york yeah yeah first time we're doing manhattan yeah which is kind of crazy yeah like we played brooklyn a bunch probably like 10 or 12 times yeah we've never played manhattan but we've always just been like um like the type of

people where it's like you know we had the mentality it's like never say no to any offer you know so it's like any shows like i can think of very few things that we've turned down you know like it's like we always just want to say yes you know like do anything and i think that's just like a real defining factor of what we did the four year strong show we just did like we got asked three days before it. Well, I was going to say, I didn't see that advertised or anything until it was right up against the show, essentially.

It was sick. It was super punk rock. We weren't allowed to use our in-ears or anything. Really? Because the venue was so... I'm so spoiled. I know. Pop-punk has never used them, and every band that we play with is like, you guys need in-ears. Oh, it's a game changer.

It's a little scary. We have them. We don't know how to use them. No, you know how to use them. We need to figure out a click. That's the next on our bucket list. We can help you with that. Yeah, straight up.

I definitely want you guys to help us this year. Like, help us write a catchy Pop Punk song. Let's do it. We'll be one of the, can we do a collaborative thing yeah absolutely in a heartbeat okay i feel like this album you listen to once the next time you listen to it you know the the hooks and that rocks like honestly i'd love to talk to you about the album itself kind of go track by track if that'd be great um who plays drums on it first

of all our drummers simon simon hachime. Hachianu. Hachianu. We don't know how to say his last name. Hachianu. Is this the same drummer you have on tour? Yeah. He's a beast. Oh, he's insane. Awesome drums on the whole album.

Oh, yeah. He hits so hard. Like, you know, they always in the studio, engineers are always like, we want a drummer to hit hard. Our engineer, like Anton DeLost over in Toronto, he said that he, Simon Slime, we call him Slime. Great drummer name. So good. He hits almost

too hard. He's like, I've never seen that before. And he really does. His snare heads have like craters in them after one show. My brother is 12 years older than me. He's like the reason I love music. He's a drummer. And he toured and stuff and whatnot and Tommy Lee was his inspiration.

So he hits hard as a motherfucker hell yeah that it was growing up with him i heard so many fights between him and my dad between like you broke another symbol how did you break another symbol i love slime though that reminds me of like brain yeah yeah yeah just such a good name oh it's awesome it's like yeah it's like a band nickname like you know how like like avenge sevenfold has like all their nicknames and shit. Shout out, Simon. So Not In Love kicks this one off. Was this written to be the first song, or did you guys just kind of listen to it and say this is natural?

When we were writing it, I think that the working title was Radio Song. We were like, we want to make a boom clap radio hit type thing. Indie pop, for sure. But I know it has a really special place in Alex's heart. Yeah. I mean, I remember the day that we spent writing that song. The whole day, I was like, this is such a waste of time. I don't like this song.

And then, I don't know, something switched, and it's actually my favorite song probably on the album. Wow, really? Yeah, yeah. It's funny how that works, right? Do you two have a favorite, or is it like picking your babies? I go back and forth between three, which is Serendipity,

Different Now, and Silver Lining. I think Different Now is my favorite because it has a dope-ass guitar solo. I was going to say, how much does the most fun song to play live influence that? Dude, we started playing Different Now, and I mean, it rocks.

Yeah, that's nothing. Yeah, live. But we've never done Serendipity and shit. I think Serendipity will go off. Yeah. Maybe like Boom Clap. I mean, Kinda Over It is fucking insane. Yeah.

So Kinda Over It's the next song in the album. It's a bit heavier. You get that distortion. You get that great sloshy hi-hat sound. What do you have to say about this song what do you remember i wish i wish i had the uh the original like instrumental because when we were driving to toronto like gabe had like because he makes beats and stuff and he had this beat and it was like this really soft like poppy beat and i was like dude like we have to make this a song and and that's what we brought to the table was that

beat that was the first thing and then anton was like nah let's make it like a a rock song make it like a blank 182 so that like the first little part is that like the beat that i had but just like like crazy distorted like eight bit kind of sounding thing warped it and all that stuff when we were doing kind of over it like in the studio it was my favorite and i like even like these guys know i was pretty adamant like i want this one to be the like lead single like video like here's the big push announcing the album with that song kind of thing it's a great song for that especially like coming second it kind of like opens you up to the heavier side of the album opens that door and everything yeah is that how songs come together for you generally,

like with a beat to start? Dude, it could be. Like sometimes that, sometimes Troy has a whole fully fleshed out, like instrumental. Sometimes Alex writes a whole song on his guitar or like it's like, or us three are just together

and we write something. Yeah. It's usually different every time. Yeah. I don't think that like, I think the interesting thing about us though is like it comes a different way every single time when we write a song. And ironically, the way, like, that we make songs the least is, like, in a full band room, you know?

Really? Because, like, yeah, usually, like, we're all kind of, like, in different places. So it's usually, like, a lot of scent things. And then when we got in the studio, being able to be in a room and write was just, like, an awesome, like, time. Yeah, that was awesome. in the studio being able to be in a room and write was just like an awesome like time you know first time that we really decided we're like yeah let's go and like write a bunch of shit from scratch like in pre-production and do it so i really enjoyed that part of it you know yeah and kind of over it was definitely one that just came super naturally from from a beat and then became this

huge like pop punk like banger and it's kind of funny too because like the first three songs are the ones that we like definitely just wrote like in the studio like in like not in love kind of over in tattoo and those are three of the singles and like those are just ones that like first week we just wrote and we were like okay like those are great you know and then the rest of the album kind of is stuff a mix of stuff that we we had thrown together from pieces of what we had written before. As you mentioned, the next song, Tattoo, I said is my favorite song on the album. That's cool. The chorus is so catchy.

I love the chorus of this song so much. Is that something that came naturally to you, is writing catchy melodies? I feel like one thing about especially this album and just songs that we write is we're like, all right, we just want to make choruses that kind of soar and take off. That's a perfect example. thing about especially this album and um just like songs that we write is like we're like all right we just want to make like choruses that like kind of like soar and like take off you know that's a perfect example of like a soaring oh yeah having it start like yeah it's got to be like a moment it's got to like be uh juxtaposed to the verse it's got to be so much bigger yeah that's like kind of like our goal is always to have like a huge chorus i think one big thing

about young culture too is like i think we pride ourselves as like a live band and like the type of band where it's like you know you're gonna see us live and like hang out with us and like and meet us and stuff and like you know like you had to be there and the whole idea of like making songs that are gonna hit live was just a big part of what we want to do with this album you know like we're like we want to make songs that we can like play live and are just gonna like slap like in tattoo like you're thinking about the crowd moments yeah totally the parts like where the drums drop out and like everybody jumps you put the mic out in the crowd that kind of thing like you gotta kind of have to plan for that it's like it's not corny it doesn't sound corny but like you have to think about that like

before you ever even play it live definitely was a huge part of the identity of this album where like as the first one we really want to do like a lot of like pop inspired stuff and like you know and that was cool and i'm really glad that we did that you know because now we're kind of like putting ourselves in a position where like i think that we can go any direction and not have to worry about like keeping ourselves in a box like you're talking about like oh being a pop punk band it's like yeah i think that we are but it's like you know like it like we can be more versatile than that and and people won't like be like oh that's weird coming from you guys are left field you know i was gonna say your first style on this record we'll get to whiskey later but that's yeah that goes in a different direction and i yeah yeah um different now yeah first thing i gotta say about this as a

bass player i love the bass whoa yeah this is t did the bass on the record I love the tone oh so what is that like is that something you bring to the engineer and you're like chase down this sound like a song that was Anton yeah we like we had an idea well he basically just took like we were like one and one with Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. And Guitar Town. We like went to Spotify. I'm so glad you said that. I just had a post where I said I feel like all pop punk bands should just try to chase down the Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.

It's perfect. It's perfect. I was bumping it at work yesterday. We like went to Spotify and like A and B'd it. And we were like, yep, this is it. No Pressure guys actually responded to that tweet and they were like, that's what we did. Yeah, yep, this is it. The No Pressure guys actually responded to that tweet and they were like, that's what we did. Yeah, dude. I mean, that's what No Pressure is.

It's like Blink-18. It's like... Totally. It's Stories So Far, but more Blink. Yes. And it's like, I can't... That's why it works. Give it to me. It's crazy. Yeah. An awesome guitar solo in this song, too. Oh, dude, thank you. Oh, thank you. Give it up for Troy. Yeah.

Guitar tone-wise, is that something where you say i want to sound like tom from blink is that like the sound you're chasing um well that was kind of like more anton was looking for that kind of like really bright but like full rhythm tone that like tom has he was kind of looking for that like yeah kind of the take off your pants and a little bit of with the fuzz and stuff a little bit of um the untitled record yeah like yeah we were you know um because there was a favorite to be honest that's awesome people don't people don't uh oh he's agreeing with that that's my favorite yeah i think got to appreciate it that song was really really special to me because um that was one of the ones that was written before and was one of the co-writes that made it.

And I wrote it with this guy named Jesse Barrera, who is also like a Filipino-American artist that I looked up to a lot when I was a kid. Probably like the only one that I knew of, you know? And that was so cool to me. And I reached out to him. I was like, hey, would you want to do a co-write with me? Did a Zoom write. We wrote that song. And definitely a favorite for the three of us.

Oh, yeah, dude. And I was like, I want to make a song that was your solo stuff that I listened to when I was younger. And we made that. And I think that it's just so much like that. And it's perfect. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah. Also, just like a two and a half minute song.

So short. You know what? I appreciate that in my older years. yeah yeah also just like a two two and a half minute song so short you know what i appreciate that yeah in my older years i used to be like jesus of suburbia oh yeah seven now like like a no pressure record i think it's like 20 minutes i'm like yeah it's fine or like all the turnstile songs they're that short and i've been now i'm like listening to music and sometimes i go back i was listening to uh a something corporate record which is like awesome fucking rocks but then some of the songs are like four minutes and 30 seconds I'm like why does it have to be this long you know what I mean I mean that was that

they need you know they needed all the like a full intro you know I think like a lot of songs don't have instrumental intros anymore they just get right to the verse we have a lot of like our joke songs are short obviously because we're very like elementary songwriters, songwriters. So we at one point were like, let's write a longer song. Let's write like a four minute song. We wrote a song with like four verses in it. We can never play it live because it's just too long and complicated. Oh, the classic fourth verse.

And also it's a song about like us having to write a popular song, but us being too lazy to do it, so we outsource it to a Russian click farm. That's funny as fuck. And subtly, they slip more and more propaganda into the song as it goes along. It gets more communist. That's a good name. You don't get to the joke until verse four. It's like, we waited too long. That's so good.

Is that recorded? Yeah, it's called Song of the Summer. Okay. Let's go. Song of the Summer. Did we just write the Song of the Summer? Did we just make a hit? It's so good.

It's something. As the video goes on, too, we have Saturdays are for the boys t-shirts. Let's go. That just translate to Russian by the end of the day. Dude, that's hilarious. Do you have a video for it? Yeah. It's so good.

Dude, yeah. And like you were saying, yeah, I would love to co-write a punk song. Yeah, let's go, baby. Honestly, we would love to co-write a pop punk song. Yeah, let's go, baby. Honestly, we would have so much fun because we could just lean into the worst of the tropes and everything. Yeah, let's dive into it. I love that. I would love to do that.

I love it. Defend pop punk. And I think we do a good job of doing that unironically in our own way. Yeah. All right, I hate to cut off this awesome interview with the young culture guys, but I've got to throw it over to our sponsor, HelloFresh, for a second. year's goals and hello fresh is here to help you achieve them skip the grocery store and take control of your time and budget with delicious recipes delivered straight to your door fast and fresh recipes hello fresh latest line of meals featuring robust flavors and filling proportions are ready in less than 15 minutes. Less than 15 minutes.

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I can't remember. I know Anton used a lot of this plug-in called Arcade, which would have a lot of cool vocal chops. I was going to say, it's such a cool effect that works so well with this. Was this a harder song to put together? No. Because it has those elements? Really?

Easy. Yeah, it was. Alex had an acoustic demo demo and he was like because we always like we always kind of like the way how some songs they'll have a chorus but it's like an edm thing yeah it's like the chorus is just like everything drops out and it's just like a huge like um drop and we were like he had this acoustic demo and he's and he's like kind of like explaining how he wanted it to be. And it's like, this is where I want the buildup to be.

And then it's like a huge drop. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And we were kind of going for like a band Camino, kind of like. Another band I love, yeah. Sounds so good. We like all the same bands. Yeah, there was that song that they did a collab with, I think the DJ group was called Noted no td yeah um never a good time and i like heard that

and i was like i want my version of that yeah and so like went and i wrote that and i was like guys like you know like i want a song where it's just like has like an edm drop like like vocal chops and shit so but it's still got guitars and drums yeah but it's another sick guitar solo yeah yeah that one i actually recorded so i actually had to quarantine for the first week of the album in alex's childhood bedroom because we like were crossing the border cute and i uh text uh tested positive and i recorded that solo in his bedroom yeah and like we didn't re-record in the studio because anton was like why would why do you did it perfect and like into like uh just like a scarlet scarlet wow yeah classic red scarlet yeah it was just the i think he put like crazy effects on it but it is crazy like and that's another

thing that's cool is like you know for people that like want to do music it's like you know there is no one way to like do it you know and i think that we like like one thing that we always joke about is like nothing ever like goes as planned for us never does like there's always something that happens and like you know he like tests positive so the whole first like week or two we did without him just on zoom and he was writing shit like at my parents house and like it worked out because we wouldn't get over it when the album wouldn't sound the way it does if I didn't get COVID. It's ironic. You had to be there, but you weren't. I wasn't even there.

I wasn't even there. I like that. That was my lot. I went a little crazy in that bedroom. Were his parents there? Were his parents taking care of you? Yeah, they were. In their meals?

Yeah, so Alex's parents are the band's parents, and they're the sweetest people ever. They always take... Glass mom type stuff? Oh, my God. Oh, yeah type stuff. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah, dude. Oh, my God. They love this shit.

Hi, Mom. Hey, Gina Mike. Shout out to Gina Mike. What's going on, guys? They love it, yeah. They're the best. They've always been hyped on us doing it. That's awesome.

And super supportive about it. So that rocks. Silver Lining. Great bridge on this one. I love the guitar leading into the bridge on this one i love the guitar leading into the bridge on this one and i love the little bass thing at the end there hey flare on the end there this guy told me to get rid of it i didn't say to get rid of it i just said to turn it down which i still agree we did that it was loud as fuck yeah yeah i don't know i was like

it sounded like a it sounded like a 1975 thing to do. So I was like, fuck it. Let's do it. Yeah, that song and We're On Fire I wrote in the same day, actually. Sent them both over to these guys. And it was like right before we left. And they're like, yeah, these two have to be on. And I was like, really? And I'm really glad that we did them. Because I love those songs.

Yeah, that's one of my favorites. That's probably my second favorite. Very young culture. Does this play at one live? No, we haven't yet. We want to. I first heard that song when we were driving to Toronto, and Alex was like, oh, yeah, it just played a voice memo in the car.

And I was like, that's what we've been missing. Because we had all these songs, right? We had the 60 songs or whatever, but we were all a little kind of nervous because we were like, we don't have an album. We just have songs, you know what I mean mean and there still felt like stuff you want to have that feel of like connectivity through yeah and it was just like kind of not knowing and like when he played that one and i was like that's like the alex magnet like true and tried like young culture sound yeah that's written from an acoustic guitar very simple you know no no like you know no frills

just straight up uh like a pop rock kind of song uh the like when we actually got to like kind of making the sound for it our engineer was like we should go for like a tom petty thing and that's kind of like the verses are kind of like a Tom Petty. 12 string. 12 string. Pseudo 12 string. Oh, you played 12 string on it? So it was. We like faked it. It was a, it was a, I would play like the acoustic on like, like the, like the original like frets.

And then we capoed the 12th fret on the, on the acoustic. Studio hacks. I love it. But it was like so high that the capo was like breaking. Remember we had to like hold it. Yeah. And capo's holding breaking remember we had to like hold it yeah another another example there's no right way to do anything in the studio yeah we do a lot of slide guitar with batteries yeah

yeah because you can use it as like a slide so another another interesting thing about doing that what like this album was like we weren't in one place you know like we were in the studio he had it at the time room 21 and that's where we've done most of our stuff but only for like a week and then we like went to like just like a little room studio called good people for like majority of it and we're just in like a little room you know and then for drums we went to a sick huge studio called noble street which like who was there before The Weeknd Like right before Yeah So like This is the like

Premiere studio In Toronto It's like If you look at the wall All the shit that's been Recorded there Like Drake

Drake Weeknd Kanye did Life of Pablo You know we don't like Kanye right now But he did it there Who

We don't like him But Ultra Light Beam It's a bop So like the most recent Weeknd album was done there And so it was legit It was Shawn Mendes Yep There was We don't like him, but Ultralight Beam is a bop. Yeah. So, like, the most recent Weekend album was done there. Yeah. And so it was legit.

It was the... Shawn Mendes. Yeah. I was hooked on that one. There was Bieber, too. And there's something to be said about just, like, being in, like, rooms like that, you know? And, like, granted that we only went there to record drums because they have, like, a sick live room for it, and Anton was very insistent about doing it there.

We recorded a grand piano there, too. Yeah, yeah. We... Yeah, but, like... Which song? Silver Lining has some. Silver Lining. We're on fire.

Did we re-record? Like the, like, EDM piano. Like, we doubled it with like a synth and then the real piano. That's cool. And then. Who plays piano? Oh, dude. And that's like, that's like another thing.

It's just so fun. Like watching this dude like, like work, you know, like in the studio. Like watching him. Jazz mind. Yeah. Yeah. Like, yeah. Crazy.

Just fucking like, like wild to watch. You have those like La La Land moments where you're like taking the guys to watching jazz mind yeah yeah like yeah just fucking like like wild you have those like la la land moments where you're like taking the guys to a jazz club you're like you gotta appreciate i love that we've been to a jazz club so do i trash that's a great movie it was fun oh i do remember we were on tour we were in dallas yeah yeah oh my shout out dirty uncle al if you're in this oh dude another cool thing about that studio was like the noble street studio um it was dude they would like we had assistance they had like a runner there's like anything you want you want drugs you want vegan food drugs or vegan food yeah uh they would like open doors for us they would like and actually they were so sick yeah oh yeah uh uh one of the homies dewey like

that uh dex that we uh worked with us came to our toronto show with state champs and we got to kick it again and anton came to the yeah that show too yeah that's awesome yeah that's like the the cool thing about tours right you just like have little reunions every night it's incredible yeah we have all these friends like all over like we have friends in like fucking like Portland, you know, all over the place. Once a year or whatever. Yeah, it's cool how

everywhere we go like we know somebody, you know. Shout out Toronto because that's like a big place for us. If I've ever been, I'd love to go.

Oh, you'd love it. Sucks in the winter, but I mean, yeah, I can't do, I can't do cold winters. Yeah. We got rain odds, you know.

Dude, we're crushing this winter. Yeah, January rocks a lot. Today feels great. That's a W. Feels real good, yeah. Global warming? Yeah, kind of sick. Kind of sick.

We were chilling with someone last night, and they made that joke. Yeah, they were like, people are dogging on global warming. This shit's going to rock for like 10 years, and then it's not. Yeah, yeah. We'll enjoy it while it lasts. Whiskey, what kind of guitar is that in the beginning? That's the guitar that sounds like whiskey. It's a banjo.

We layered it with midi banjo. It was like banjo, mandolin, acoustic guitar, and then a telecaster. All layered together. And that was another one that Alex had before. That was a Frankenstein song. We stitched two songs together like the verse and the choruses

yeah it was a verse from like something that I'd written with a friend like the verses were and then a chorus of some absolute throwaway song that I thought would like never ending and like you know like we just have like a million voicemails like hey this is one that I wrote like in 2020 like you know

does it taste like whiskey and it's like but it was like different like chords and in 2020 like you know does it taste like whiskey and it's like but it was like different like chords and stuff and like you know one of those moments were like why didn't you show us that before like that's sick like totally like the nashville like like pop country yeah i was gonna say did you approach it like i want to write a pop country song or were you like the lyric whiskey i don't think that we did for that but i think that anton was more like let's make this a fucking yeah yeah it started taking like we started like listening to a bunch of like dusted lynch and like we're gonna use dan shay we're like we're gonna use that shit like i'm all about if you strip those songs down like they are pop punk they're pop punk

it's crazy how you look at country and pop punk and like they are similar there's that guy alex melton yep on uh who does like the country pop punk yeah that stuff works so well dude if alex had a little twang it's crazy does he taste like a northeast and i like that we're like building the pop punk uh country library we got this we got act like that with uh mitchell tim and then yeah like we're we're slowly but surely getting enough for a greatest hit album. I guarantee all those country songwriters, they definitely used to listen to Dashboard.

Oh, Dashboard. Dan and Shay, weren't they in A Rocket to the Moon? Some of the guys, yeah. Their drummer and their bass player played in Rocket. It's an interesting, you wouldn't expect it. They're friends with Champs. We actually went to... The reason we like country music is because Derek brought brought us to a dan and shay show really

and uh the whole time derrick like broke it down it was really cool he was like check it out like this is songwriting gold like check it out verse chorus like no pre-chorus straight back to like quick second verse straight to the second course and the whole time we were watching dan and shay he's like listen listen, listen. And then, yeah, we were like, oh, is that not infectious? Yeah. And, you know, it's funny, like, the way you were talking about, like, you know, like, pop punk tropes. But it's like, dude, like, a song like Whiskey is just, like, got, like, it's just like a pop punk song with some country tropes. Think how many, like, pop punk, like, songs talk about, like, you know, your hometown.

How many fucking country songs talk about your hometown? And like, you know, I'm leaving it because you're, you know. Because you're here. You broke my fucking heart. Yeah. It's the suburbs and the trailer park. Yeah. Very similar.

Substitute the little words. Good Karma. Maybe the most punk song in the album. I would say so, yeah. It's a fast one. Goes hard live, I would say. Our drummer hates it. Slime hates it.

That's one of my favorites to do live that one we wrote with Paul Mark Russo from Silverstein and my brother helped a little bit too

which was really cool is your brother a musician? yeah dude he fucking rocks shout out Avowed New York

man Tony he fucking he's the man we recorded our Godspeed EP with him we like tracked our godspeed ep with him because oh cool we uh we like tracked it in a room with him yeah that was during covid because he's he's like a very

talented engineer he actually worked on kings of the new age oh shit he did he's an engineer too yeah that's awesome yeah he was like very i mean you're in a band with an engineer as your brother like yeah oh we're set up we're actually going to philly that is so useful in a month to do start writing for the next project with him we're gonna like do like a whole week yeah yeah that one was cool though because that was one of those ones where it's like you know like we just did a zoom session and you know like that song came of it and you know like really rocked you know like we did like i said we did the one with nick wheeler from american rejects we did one with nick santino from rock to the Moon which rocks because that's another huge inspiration for us did one with Cody Carson

from Set It Off yeah just like a bunch of like really really dope artists and it's like really cool to be at this place where it's like

oh like these people that like we grew up like really like loving like have respect for us yeah oh they're all down

to like they just want to write like they just love music like Paul Mark like it was like a Sunday and he was like yeah let's just write for like six hours that's like the cool thing is Oh, they're all down to like, they just want to write. Like they just love music. Like Paul Mark, like it was like a Sunday and he was like, yeah, let's just write for six hours. That's like the cool thing is like,

yeah, they're like, they're not, they're like, they're just to write music. You know what I mean? Like they're just down. And it's like,

that's like inspiring as well, you know? Definitely. Yeah. Cause that's what we want to do. Right. Yeah. Like you'd think they'd have some sort of like,

I don't know, ego, but there was none. No, it's just like a matter of reaching out a lot of times, right? Yeah. If you reach out, they're probably down to do it. Yep.

We haven't had anyone say no, so. Oh, the first one you'll have to tell me. Oh, I'll be Harbrook and I'll do a hit piece podcast on them. Yeah, actually, the funny thing about Good Karma, one last thing, is that you say it's punk, but you should have heard the original version because it was full on. had like like a punk beat oh yeah it was faster it was me the original version that's us that's us that's us trying to be like trying to do like we're like yeah let's make a like a blink 182 song like you know like uh there was like i mean still i'm still pushing for a punk beat in the yc song listen we'll do it one day actually paul mark told us

not to do it that's why he was like don't do the punk beat i'm likeC song. Listen, we'll do it one day. Actually, Paul Mark told us not to do it. That's why he was like, don't do the punk beat. I'm like, but we're bringing it back. We're bringing it back. It's coming back. I was like, thank you. Well, I'm sure Slime is saying thank you, which is so funny. Because Simon used to be in another band called Parkside, and all their songs are fast as fuck and have punk beats.

So I don't know why he's complaining, if you hear the Slime. No better. Nice romantic song at the end of the album what were the inspirations behind this one because i feel like this is like another one where it goes in a different direction yeah yeah no um that was one that like started um and before we even were talking about doing the record with anton did a writing session with him via zoom and we wrote it and you know like i was like really wanting i actually really i don't know if i ever told you guys this but i really want to make a song like this song called sgl by a band called now now now now yeah it's like just like acoustic guitar power chords like indie pop like which you

know like it's like like a very us thing to do but like in a different way so and we were just talking about like going to parties which like you know we were like yeah like you ever like go out and like all you can think about is like man i can't wait to like go home like you know so it's just about like you know being with a significant other sweaty pants line yeah yeah like like yeah go back just go home and just like door dash and like you know that's my wife's favorite song because she's like that is so true. Like now that we're approaching like our 30s, I'm like, I can't fucking do this shit anymore. I'm like All Time Low's got a song, Sleeping In, where they drop Seamless on their last album.

And I was like, fuck yeah, I relate to that. Yep. True. Yeah. Very like, yeah, I don't know. That's very relatable. It's super relatable. And like, you know, it's like, yeah, I think like we've all been there you know it's like oh when's this function like order

order mexican food yeah how do we like how do we like uh like sneak out of this like you know irish goodbye yeah oh i love the irish goodbye you know what i like to do the irish hello the irish hello this drink this drink is tasting that's great i'll see you there that's what i was just yeah yeah so like i i almost did it last night where like The Irish Hello. This drink is tasting like I'm about to Irish Hello. I'll see you there. I'll see you there. Just show up. That's what I was just, yeah. So, like, I almost did it last night where, like, or not last night, two nights ago. Say you were with these guys. Yeah, yeah.

Don't tell them that. Where did Gabe go? But it's like, they're like, oh, we're going to another bar. You want to go to this bar? And it's like, yeah, dude. I'll be right there. I'll be there. I'm going to drive my, or not drive.

I'm going to walk myself or whatever. Just go home. That is the move. 100 times out of 100. That was the last pop punk show we did Gramercy, and it was so much fun. Really? That was sold out, right? It was close. Yeah.

It was like – Roundup. Roundup. Yeah, yeah. We wrote 100 songs. It was one of those. But as soon as it was over, the band was like, we going out? And I looked at my girlfriend.

I was like, Taco Bell and Almost Famous looked at my girlfriend, and I was like, Taco Bell and Almost Famous? Oh my God. How about that? One of those is objectively better. One of those scenarios is objectively better. I agree with you. Serendipity. Was this one written to be the final song on the album?

Because it sounds like it's the perfect final song. Dude, this song, I actually did the instrumental with my brother uh like way in covid like lockdown like march practically times you know what i mean and uh it was totally different too like yeah it was more along the lines of like a classic yc kind of like kind of third eye blind yeah i wish we could find the instrumental for that too because it's a completely different thing like the the teenage dirtbag

like yeah Beverly Hills that was brand new like you know what I mean and that was the identity that we took from that and I remember

like us like going through the um whatever like the archives of these 60 songs that we wrote and like them being like yeah we should do

something with this and I was like the chorus was just like Alex wrote this crazy chorus over it yeah and we were like it's undeniable you know the melodies were too good yeah we couldn't like good like note to end the album on yeah yeah it's your little end of hope so yeah that was one that i feel like when we finished record like when we got the songs back we were like oh that is a that is the last song yeah and uh sometimes you just hear it yeah and with a banger yeah and with

a bang don't they say that yeah because like we we usually end projects with like the acoustic song right and that was kind of like a whole concept for this record was like we don't want to have an acoustic song we don't want to have like a dip in the energy little ballad yeah you mean the boring song like it's very rare rare. Sometimes it goes two ways. You either have a song like... A part of me, like Neck Deep. Like, yeah, the acoustic, whatever that grayscale song is. And it's your biggest song, right?

Or it's the sleeper that no one listens to on the record. You know what's crazy with Neck Deep, too, is... You look at their Spotify streams. I think Wish You Were Here in December. They're two, like, in December. It's their two acoustic ballads. And it's, like, interesting if you're just a new Spotify, I don't know this band, you click on the first two songs. It's not necessarily very representative.

It's misleading. For sure. No. It's so funny. Because we were just like, let's not do an acoustic song. Like, the chillest song is no better yeah yeah but that still has like full band and like it has yeah and that that kind of that just brings it back like you know like we were like well more than anything we had an idea of like what what we wanted this to like feel like and like

what we wanted out of like our lp2 was to be like just like fun songs that are gonna like you know hit live and like you know represent just like like the be like, just like fun songs that are going to like, you know, hit live and like, you know, represent just like, like the name, like, you know, like you had to be there.

What were we going to call it? We were going to call it, you can't make this shit up. All like one liners. Like we were like drunk one night and we had like, God, you didn't name it that for SEO purposes. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, everyone always says that we have bad, bad SEO for our band name, but I don't think so. Cause if you look up young culture on Google good. It's like it's good I was able to find image. Yeah, cuz like all other musical artists They instead of using the proper way to spell young they spell it in Yeah, yeah, so it's like we kind of stand out true. Yeah, I mean it was dumb to call ourselves pop punk

That's horrible for SEO It was originally because our boss Dave is from Boston and he has a really heavy Boston accent I mean, it was dumb to call ourselves Pup Punk. That's horrible for SEO. Really? I feel like, really? It was originally because our boss, Dave, is from Boston, and he has a really heavy Boston accent. He can't say pop. He says pup. Pup. He says, like, oh, I love popcorn. So we were like, that's funny shit. You can't say pup.

That's a bad name right there. So good. I don't even know if he gets it. It's been like six years or whatever. I don't think he gets that that's why we call ourselves that well if he watches yeah i think now you know if you look it up like i think hot topic has a shirt of a dog wearing like a uh pop punk shirt or something it says pop punk there you go we take credit for that yeah you should give him a season yeah hit him with that scene you already have a shirt in hot topic well and's also, there's a band called Pup. So it's like, you look up Pup and you look up Pup.

Pup and Pup. Yeah. There you go. Pup and Pup. That's a sick ass band. Canada? Great band. Great band, yeah.

I think they were upset with us when we named our band. Well, dude, that's a whole point. I hope they're not still. I like you guys. You and the Seasons are still friends. Like make waves in the scene, you know what I mean? Well, there is a reggae band called Young Culture Band, and I know that they're pissed.

Really? I know for a fact because one of their fans commented on our video, I feel like forever ago, and they were like, this shit's whack, man. You were like, that was a scent hit on our comments. Did you guys go through band names before Young Culture? We had some bad band names. Originally, we had some really bad band names.

Well, me and Gabe were in other bands that pretty much ended up being reincarnations of eventually Young Culture. Bring Home Ohio. Was the first one. Bring Home Ohio. Makes no sense. which actually opened up the finer things release show yeah yeah true true in 2013 really yeah we're talking so much about champs too like they are they are hometown friends and and so like a shout out to them just for always helping us i feel like we brought them up a lot so yeah of course love those boys

i had a band in middle school and when i tell you we went through a band name a week, it was crazy. And it was always me being like, guys, we need to just stick with something. And every week I would come to practice, they'd be like, we got a new name. New name. Dude, fucking solid rebrand. We eventually wound up sticking with Fixed at Zero, which was a Versa Emerge song. Oh, yeah. Versa Emerge. Dude, I do remember.

I remember that band. The singer was on a Day to Remember song. I remember Versailles. They were doing the break contest a couple times. Remember the break contest? I do remember that. You guys did that? Yeah, when I was in sixth grade.

We made it to the final round. Because of that, we got to play Stone Pony three times. There you go. Before I was in eighth grade. That's pretty gnarly. Dude, Stone, that's iconic then. We did that. That was the first time.

Especially being like a Jersey guy growing up in Jersey. Right on the beach. There's little things like my dad's not super stoked on the band, and so there's little things that he can relate to. So when I told him, oh, we're doing Stone Pony, he was like, Boss. Springsteen. Boss.

All right, cool. All right, glad it's working out totally yeah those are the things what 55 year old dad doesn't fucking love boss that's gonna get them stoked dude i was at mccartney at metlife this year he brought springsteen out yeah i've never seen so many old people lose their mind it's like it's like casey musgraves bringing out harry styles or something like that. I think I saw some people convulsing. A couple hard times. This was great, guys, though. Thank you for coming in.

Yeah, man. Everyone check out that album that we were talking about. I hope that this breakdown gave you a little more insight into it. You could appreciate the songs a little more. And check them out on tour with Meet Me at the Altar. Tour dates on all your social pages and stuff like that. Like I said, if you're in New York, Gramercy Theater in March. I don't know what the actual date on that one is.

I think it's the 4th. March 4th. I'll be there. You had to be there. You had to be there. Come see us, the band. Let's go. Robbie will be there.

Robbie will be there. Robbie, he had to be there. Dude, thank you. All right, thanks, guys. That rock. All right, thanks for listening to that interview with the Young Culture guys. I hope you check them out on tour, and I hope you check out that album we were just discussing,

You Had To Be There, on Spotify or Apple Music. I will catch you guys with Clem next week.