The angst-ridden band performing under the stage name, Southbound, is here to lay claim over the Dominions of Pop-Punk's woe-jockeyed sounds.
Not to be confused with the Ottowan country-band sharing the same name; this quartet of young-budding juvies manifest addictive energy through their devotion to traversing the simmering sonics between Pop's carbonated top-lines and Punk's industrial riffs.
The first teaser cut from their anticipated Debut EP, 'SANDALWOOD,' is an eponymously titled super-hot-blooded sensory escapade that buckles our knees from the first moment of the opening drum-fills and to the final up-ending guitar squalls.
In between it all, the lead vocals on this track sell the aesthetic and effectiveness of the entire playback's affecting nature, with a hint of rasp and screech on each upswelling vocalized crescendo that garnishes our ears.
The Pop-punk reflective mix stands as inventive and inspiring for all young-up and coming bands from the Western world's suburbias. By the time we reach the mid-way mark, we find ourselves sucked into the nucleus of a half-time breakdown, with a measure that has us throwing off our shoes and moshing in the center of our living room floors.
It's a steady and adhesive song from a youthful band full of self-discovery and development ahead of them. Even at the antecedent of their blow-up, their productions stand-true to their Genre's aesthetic. The drums are fiery, the guitars feel close-knit and sticky, and the bass forms a low-end boom that lands in our centers with a healthy weight.
What was the story behind "Sandalwood," and how does it fit into the playback narrative of your upcoming Album?
The story behind Sandalwood actually dates back to 2012-2017, Sandalwood being the name of the street. I, (Austin Berry, singer) moved into around that time. Living with a bunch of new roommates and acquaintances, I quickly made the wrong choices of putting everybody’s happiness before my own in hopes to keep a positive living environment. Little did I know this would result in the following 5 years to be full of backstabs and me being pretty taken advantage of, unfortunately. After taking the last 3 years to rebuild my life after the endless mistakes I made on Sandalwood, writing, and sharing these songs has been one of the best and most therapeutic methods.
Is this a song conjured-up from your collective personal experiences, or is it merely the compartmentalization of fictitious pleasantries from your imaginations?
Sandalwood as a single along with all the tracks on the upcoming EP all come from Austin’s personal life experiences. The lyrical songwriting process for Southbound usually consists of gritty and personal details surrounding the life of the band. Sometimes we may exaggerate something to make it sound bigger at the end of the day or something but usually, everything we lay down is 100% raw emotion and is pulled from real-life thoughts and experience.
How do you go about fueling your Punk performances throughout your record's hot-blooded playback, while still rendering up a carbonated persona?
Positivity is key in life in our opinion. Obviously, days are going to hit you like a ton of bricks sometimes, but we’ve learned to take those emotions and pour them into our music turning that negativity into something positive that we’re proud to share with the world. Taking something that angers confuses or upsets you, and then turning it into something we hope can ring true to others as well. In conveying that message too we do our best to send our emotion and energy straight through our recordings and into the ears of the listener.
Can you tell us about some of the Milestone you have as an up-and-coming band? How have you been working towards that goal this year?
We definitely have a lot of goals set as a band, some attainable, some probably not haha! Seriously though, we were planning on our biggest tour yet for summer/fall 2020 to help with the promotion of this EP but obviously due to current worldwide situations that kind of got kicked to the curb. We have had successful runs of shows within Ontario in the past and were ready to take the next step this time around to bring ourselves outside of Ontario as well as hitting the US for the first time. Next summer! As a couple of pretty emotional dudes who just love nothing more than playing music for people, our biggest and truest milestone goal is just to hear that we’ve made somebody feel something with our music. That’s the biggest goal.
What has been keeping you inspired throughout 2020?
So obviously 2020 has come with an abundance of confusion, fear, and uncertainty due to the state of the world around us, but Southbound has taken it upon ourselves to push through and stay positive. And that can be attributed to everyone who listens to Southbound. Anyone who’s ever been at a show grabbed a shirt, streamed a song, asked us a question, or just said hello, you’re the reason we made this single and EP as best as we can. We made these songs to help people who may be in a bad spot, or maybe doubtful of something. We’re here to tell you it’s okay, we’re in this together and want to help however we can. So not pushing through and finishing this EP amidst COVID would have gone against everything we stand for as Southbound. We’re very excited for everyone to hear what we have to say on our latest upcoming single "Sandalwood."