THE NEW BREED!
‘ALEX SIMMS, MADDIE URIE, MY GIRL FRIDAY, PIERCED SOULS BURN BRIGHTEST’



“From the outside looking in, the sudden re-emergence of pop-punk and alternative rock appears to be a relatively quick-fire and surprising descent onto the mainstream. For a two to three year period, it seemed like the only consistently brilliant rock acts in the industry were Reported Failure, Riot! In The Boulevard and Misery Loves Company. The likes of Mind, Infinite and Reckoner were beginning to fizzle out and evidently made way for the next power three in the form of Riot!, Reported Failure and MLC, of course there were a smattering of other bands that went through the motions, Suburban Sunrise had many a dalliance with fame and mainstream glory, likewise The Verdict Is Vengeance and Fathers of Fury but none of those acts dominated quite to the level of that aforementioned power three. Pop music has really won the battle and dominated pretty much since the 70’s, of course there’s been waves of rock revolutions from 80’s Glam Rock and Hair Metal, to 90’s grunge and into the new millennium with a pop-punk resurgence and of course the emo scene, but really what we’ve seen is an overall pop music dominance.
But the playing field is definitely beginning to even out in time, this year in particular has been a good one for rock fans, with the likes of Reported Failure hitting the number one position on numerous occasions, Riot! In The Boulevard who have been constantly trying to push their way into a mainstream crowd, Ryan Williams returning with new band PURE, the re-emergence of Matt and Nicole to form ‘Mannequin Religion’, let’s not forget James Urie who has become so much more than just a Rockstar, Blood of Wecz showing these young upstarts how it’s done and with such a remarkable outcome. Yes, it all signals to one thing, rock music is mounting one of the most epic fight backs of recent times.

The mix of aggressive, romantic and often tragic lyrics all set off to a perfect backdrop of thrashing guitars and pounding drums is what people need. Sometimes you just go into work on a Monday morning feeling completely p*ssed off and unmotivated, you put your headphones in and blast some angry tunes and it really sets you up for the long arduous week ahead. We all need rock music in our lives, it’d just be empty without it. Whether it’s songs that you can directly relate to, tracks that take you back to your youth, a punchy anthemic tune that reminds you of a miss-spent weekend that you only remembered as mostly a blur. It’s not just a case of being different and rebelling against the mainstream of pop and RnB, it’s about helping you to just get through the day.
And we firmly believe that this is something that ‘Amy Meyer’ knows better than anyone, she’s almost single-handedly been fighting to keep the rock scene ticking over since ‘Riot! In The Boulevard’ broke out back in 2011. Most recently she’s given youthful enthusiasm back to men and women in their mid-twenties with the release of ‘Wild Young Things’ a record that has been described as the soundtrack to modern day youthful rebellion, the band are a huge draw when it comes to live performances, a key ingredient of the rock genre. But it’s with the unspectacular launch of her own independent record label ‘Songs to Love and Die By’ back at the beginning of the year which has helped Amy re-ignite a fire under the asses of the rock scene and it’s passionate fans. A string of the most promising rock and alternative acts to come into the music industry have arrived through the doors of the label. ‘Calling Captain’, ‘Mannequin Religion’, ‘Maddie Urie’ and of course the years breakthrough star ‘Alex Simms’

We met up with the new breed of pop-punk in Manhattan, New York recently to get to know the people that are set to take on the music industry, check out how our interview with Alex Simms, Maddie Urie, Amelia Fontaine and Austin Bowen (My Girl Friday) and Tyler Sawyer and Jacob Santino (Pierced Souls Burn Brightest) went.

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Walking into the building that has now became the headquarters of ‘Songs to Love and Die By’ you instantly notice the unique design and detail of almost all quarters of the three story building located just minutes away from Central Park. As soon as you walk through the entrance and into the lobby you’re met by the quirky and very enthusiastic voice of a neon-blue haired angel, dressed in a very punk style with piercings and a few noticeable tattoos, she’s already been made aware of who myself and my three person team are and why we’ve arrived on the premises. She makes a quick phone call in order to check that the musicians that Rock Sound are speaking to today are ready, she receives the go ahead and leads me and my team down a narrow hallway, through a cafeteria and into what is referred to as the den.
She knocks once on the red door before walking inside. The room itself is not what was expected, it has the appearance of an underground rock club, band posters sprawled across the wall, a couple of tables and benched seats and a hosting area very much like a bar, only with slightly less alcoholic drinks. There is a total of six tables in the room and I find the six musicians all gathered around the one table, laughing and joking at something. It very much brings to mind memories of college, a group of misfits sat around a table just generally messing around. As myself and my team assemble in the room, we go through the customary greetings, all handshakes and high fives before we begin our interview;

What does rock music mean to you?
Amelia (My Girl Friday): “It’s absolutely everything, it has been for as long as I can remember! I have super-cool parents that were big rock fans back in the day and I grew up on the likes of Zeppelin and The Ramones and all of this iconic music. It just makes you think, it’s been such an important part of my life, that genre of music has sound tracked almost every important moment of my life, it’s helped to pull me through the sh*tty times and helped make the better times even more memorable.”

Jacob (Pierced Souls): “It’s not just rock music though, it’s the experimental and alternative side of music. I think the label ‘rock’ can sort of confine you and limit you a little at times, I think the term ‘Alternative’ is definitely a better description for this music. You look at Maddie and I’m sure she’ll be with me on this, her music isn’t ‘Rock’ in the sense of yanno, the likes of Zeppelin or GnR, but it has the lyrical structure and the influences from the genre, which I think is why the term ‘Alternative’ is a better way to put it.”

Maddie: “Agree, I’m not sure anybody has made a firm decision on what my music is, I don’t even think that I have. But in terms of influence, then yeah, it all comes from Rock music and Alternative music, but you could describe it as Electro-Pop or Electronic Rock. What you start to get bogged down in the what to call it, that’s when you just need to sort of say ‘it is what it is, deal with it’”

Amelia (My Girl Friday): “The music makes you feel something more than pop music does, basically if you don’t understand the importance of rock music by the time you’re 16 or 17 then you’re probably never gonna get it.”



So why do you think Rock music has stagnated in recent years?

Alex: “Longevity is maybe a lot more difficult in that genre, by the time you finally make it to the highest point, you’re already too burned out to take it to the next level or even enjoy it. I’m sort of generalising here but I see more popstars working with songwriters more than rock stars, that probably makes it a little more easier, it’s more of a collaborative process, so it’s slightly easier than doing it all on your own. I’m not saying being a popstar is a lot easier, I couldn’t do half the sh*t that they’re capable of and I have admiration for what they do, but I think you can get a lot more burned out a lot quicker. I also think that you’ve got to try a little harder to make it as a successful rock musician. I definitely think that music is starting to become more diverse and rock music is coming back stronger”

Austin (My Girl Friday): “I don’t see it so much as a competition between pop and rock, I think the two can blend well together. But I personally tend to find pop music bores me, songs like ‘Blurred Lines’ and ‘Get Lucky’ are huge but just god-awful. I don’t get the same feeling when I hear a pop song”

Maddie: “I happen to like pop music, providing it is interesting and unique enough. There’s some incredible pop songs out there and some of the most crazy talented people are in the pop scene, I mean look at someone like ‘Vanity’, just about the most creative person there’s ever been in the music industry. But there’s also like one hundred songs that just sound the same and that’s what puts me off from a lot of pop music.”

How important is it to form relationships with other rock acts?

Tyler (Pierced Souls): “I don’t think it’s an absolute must. I think it would definitely help make things easier, but I think you could get by without friendships with other similar musicians. I think you can bounce ideas off of each other and get a good idea whether what you’re doing is good or bad. But it’s not massively important I don’t think”

Amelia (My Girl Friday): “I think I definitely prefer it! It helps a lot, I think for all of us at the same label, we definitely feel like we have a strong support system. We’re in almost constant contact with each other, also we’re all very new to the industry and we feel like we’re in it together. There’s been a couple of times already when I’ve called up Alex or Maddie for advice and help and it’s made things easier to have people you can call upon. I think we’ve all got a strong bond and friendship with each other and to an extent it feels like we’re a group, I know we look out for each other’s music and we support each other like that and I think it’s a definite help.”

Alex: “Of course, I think myself and Maddie were lucky to get signed around the same time, both our debut albums came out within a month of each other and there was a point where we were hanging out on a daily basis, we became incredibly close and that’s continued throughout the year. Amelia on the other hand, we’ve known each other for a while, she helped me out when I was struggling to break through and I recommended her band to Amy.”

So there must be a lot of stories you could tell us about each other?

Alex: “Oh, absolutely. I’ve received the late night drunken phone calls and been the shoulder to cry on!”

Austin (My Girl Friday): “Yeah, Amelia gets sorta emotional when she drinks”

Alex: “Yup, there is nothing Amelia can do that would surprise me, seriously. I’ve seen her at her best and I’ve seen her at her worst”

Amelia (My Girl Friday): “Okay, it’s starting to feel you’re ganging up on me now”

Maddie: “Alex isn’t always so cool and calm either though, I’ve had to pretend to be his girlfriend after a one-night stand sort of out-stayed her welcome. Poor thing didn’t know what to do! Oh, he’s been kicked by a Midget before, yeah that was a pretty funny moment. You aren’t completely innocent Mr. Simms!”



So Alex and Maddie have debut albums released, this leaves My Girl Friday and Pierced Souls Burn Brightest. Do you guys have any time frames for your debut albums?

Austin (My Girl Friday): “We definitely see 2014 as a big year for us, we’ve almost got the perfect amount of songs ready to be recorded for our debut album and we aim to get that released at the beginning of the new year which would then mean that we could focus on touring it for almost the whole of 2014. I think 2014 is definitely gonna be a massive year for rock music, I can sort of feel the waves starting to move beneath my feet.”

Jacob (Pierced Souls): “I don’t have a cheesy line like that to add to the conversation”

Tyler (Pierced Souls): “It’s pretty much a similar situation to Amelia and Austin, we’ve released our debut single. We’ve shown a glimpse of what we’re about, most people said ‘Meh, we’re not so bothered’. But we’re working on the songs that will form our debut album and just like those guys, we’re hoping to get started early next year. It could hopefully be a very big year, for all of us really.”



And Alex and Maddie, how about you guys?

Maddie: “I’d like to tour a little more for a while. I’ve got something lined-up and I’d like to release a couple more singles from my debut album maybe. I think I’d start working on my second album around the summer time next year. Possibly hope for a Christmas 2014 release.”

Alex: “What about that song we recorded together? You ever gonna release that”

Maddie: “You’d get half of the royalties, so … no!”

Alex: “Show me the money!”

Maddie: “Not happenin’ dude”

Alex: “Fine! I’ve got an E.P out now and I’ve been working on some songs with Julia Volkova. We’re hoping to release our debut album in January and we’re planning on touring it like crazy. I think we’re really gonna go hard on this project because the songs we’ve written together are just so … it would be wrong not to really go all out.”

How big do you think the impact Amy and ‘Songs to Love and Die By’ have had on the genre?

Maddie: “I think it’s had a big impact because she’s brought music that she’s passionate about to her label. I think that’s what a record label has needed for a while, somebody who brings music that they’d want to hear to the label rather than bringing music that they think will sell. That’s the difference”

Alex: “I agree with that. I don’t think Amy would want to be seen as some sort of rock saviour, I’m pretty sure she’d hate that. But the passion that she has for Alternative music has helped diversity in the industry. I think that before she started the label, you had Chaos, Studio60 and North Hill and they dominated, those are the labels where the acts would go in order to achieve success, because those are the labels with the connections and know-how. Amy’s started out as an indie label and it remains an indie label. The label has a team of three people, Amy, Christian and Elise and it works because they have the same vision and there aren’t too many people involved which can lead to a chaotic mess behind the scenes.”

Amelia (My Girl Friday): “There are no crazy attitudes involved in the label. There’s no diva’s or anything like that, it’s just people that want to make music being supported by people that want to hear that music. It’s refreshing.”

Finally, how excited are you about rock music in 2014?

Alex: “It’s there, the anticipation is definitely there and everything is in place for the genre to really go all out for success. You’ve got ‘Riot!’ on a world tour, they’re promising to take some incredible bands with them as support, you’ll no doubt have something amazing coming from ‘Reported Failure’, you’ve now got ‘Fathers of Fury’ back in the running, you have ‘James Urie’ heading out on a world tour. You’ve got debut albums from ‘My Girl Friday’ and ‘Pierced Souls Burn Brightest’ and that’s gonna something new. Maddie’s gonna be killing it, Julia’s gonna do her thing and turn teenage boys into timid little girls. It’s gonna be an amazing year for rock music.”

Amelia: “I’m most excited about ‘Fathers of Fury’, I so hope they dominate 2014. I also wanna see ‘Lily’ and I’d love to see more of ‘Miss Way’ and ‘Escape Artists’. There is so much to look forward to in the new year, I hope it lives up to my expectations. I’m pretty sure I’m gonna turn into a wreck if the new year doesn’t get here soon”