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Photo credit – SOB

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Always pushing boundaries with each new album, the upcoming album ‘Was Here” by pop punk sensation Stand Atlantic is a kaleidoscope of genres, reflecting their unwavering commitment to evolve and experiment. Bonnie Fraser chatted with Amnplify on how this came together.

“We just fully experimented with every sound we wanted to try and tried to incorporate that into what we’re already doing. We pushed the boat out sonically on this record. And I’m really proud of it, proud of us for just sticking to it and not backtracking and being like, it’s too different. Let’s go do the old stuff.” [Bonnie]

Written over 2 years, there were different points where it came together. “We started writing in LA, we did Warzone and Killer, the end of 2022, and then the rest was written throughout 2023. We had a month off in Manchester where me and Stevie … wrote a bunch of the songs. The meat of the record was written there. Then we had an Australian tour, and we wrote the rest of it. It’s cool we’ve hit three major points” [Bonnie]

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Steph: You’re on tour around the US. What’s been the highlight so far?
Bonnie: Definitely the shows and the fact that we are back on tour. We took a huge break at the start of this year. So, it feels so good to be back out and playing shows, and I feel like we’ve even seen some growth which is really cool.

Steph: You’re coming back to Australia very soon, then heading off to the UK and Europe. How do you stop yourself from burning out when you’ve got such an intense touring schedule?
Bonnie: You don’t, you just burn out (laughs). Downtime is important, but a lot of us are kind of the same, where we don’t really like being at home for too long. We enjoy being on the road and busy. I feel like recently we have taken more time off.
Before COVID, we were touring so much that we didn’t even realize, but we were definitely starting to get burnt out. And now that we’ve been doing this for a while, we just pace ourselves in different ways. Don’t get drunk every night. Just choose certain nights to go out. But yeah, other than that, we enjoy being on the road so much that I don’t feel like we just don’t get burnt out.
In the bandwagon when we’re touring the US, you’re essentially in a truck that has bunks built into it. You’re never getting a full night’s sleep, it’s so bumpy and you’re waking up all the time. You kind of just like get used to running on fumes. And yeah, I don’t know how we do it. We shouldn’t be alive, really, to be honest.

Steph: What can you tell us about the album in terms of what you’re looking forward to? Will you be playing songs from the album on your Australian tour dates?
Bonnie: Yep. Even if it’s an album, we always try and make sure we’ve got older songs mixed in. That just makes sense. But we’ve got some non -singles off the album that we’re going to play and are super excited. That’s probably the songs I’m most excited to play.
I feel like fans aren’t going leave disappointed from the shows at all. I feel we’re trying to hit every single every single mark and make sure people are hearing enough from the new album as well. We’ve got some insane stuff planned, it’s going to be absolutely chaotic, and I cannot wait. It’s so stupid, it’s great Yeah.

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Steph: You start writing “Was Here” few months after f.e.a.r how were you not drained of creative energy starting something so soon?
Bonnie: Fun fact, I was, but I feel like that’s just the nature of the way we do things. We’re always touring so much, it’s so hard to fit time in. So, you kind of just have to do it when you do it, just see what comes out. We ended up having so many songs. I think we must’ve had like 40 or something, I don’t know, just a lot. And we had to cull it down.
We managed to have a good mix of what we have done in the past and just really, really going to town on new sounds. Yeah, people will hear something very, very different from us as well. So, I’m excited and nervous.

Steph: Was there any songs that was meant to be for previous albums that you brought back?
Bonnie: No, but the pre -chorus for “LOVE U ANYWAY”, that melody was one I’d written for a song that didn’t make it on f.e.a.r. Other than that, we didn’t reuse anything.

Steph: What was the goal of yours during production of the album?
Bonnie: Well, the main goal is always just to like be happy with it, obviously. But we’ve said from the start, we never really wanted to be boxed in as a band and we just believe that you should be able to write any kind of music you want, and you can make anything kind of sound good as long as it’s a good song at its core. I think the goal for this record was just to prove that even further. And we’ve always talked about pushing the envelope as a band sonically.
We really stuck to our guns on that. And we’ve, experimented way more and gone further into that whole kind of ethos. We’re taking a lot more risks on this record.

Steph: Why do think that is?
Bonnie: Just over not taking risks. I feel like you can’t win either way because if you write, pretty much the same record, same genre over and over again, fans will be happy with that, but there’ll also be fans that are like, my God, you don’t progress and you aren’t showing off like what else you can do, at least for us anyway.
I know we like to experiment, and we love so many different genres of music as well, like collectively that why wouldn’t we want to like incorporate that into what we do?
And then if you do change your sound and like you do experiment, people go, the old stuff’s better. And like you’ve changed blah, blah, blah. And I’m just like, you can’t win anyways. So may as well do something that we enjoy and is refreshing for us.

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Steph: There’s quite a few feature tracks on your album. How did you choose the people that you wanted to feature?
Bonnie: Well, it’s cool to be able to say a lot of them are just friends that we were just like, do you want to hop on this song? And they said yes. And we love their stuff, obviously. For the Polaris feature, for example, we’ve always wanted to work together and it’s never really like worked. But with Criminal, we had this breakdown section in this crazy synthy pop song, but it’s also industrial. We had this breakdown thing. And originally, I was just screaming on it. And then we just thought we should ask Polaris. Jamie’s screams are amazing, and they said yes. A lot of it was just very organic.

Steph: Did the band come together to choose who they thought would best? What’s the collaboration process like with the band in creating, going into creating a new album?
Bonnie: Generally, me and Stevie are writing a song and we’ll send it to the guys. I think we’re always thinking about features in general anyways. Me or Stevie will think of an artist that we think would suit this part, then the guys will say yes or no, or the guys will think of something. It’s just, it’s different every time. Usually the conversations aren’t, very long and we usually agree unanimously.

Steph: Is there a track from the new album that you’re most excited to play live?
Bonnie: There’s two, “FREAKING OUT”, I don’t want to give too much away. “KISSING KILLER COBRAS” I’m also really excited to play live.

Steph: What about throwback songs that you’ll be bringing out or unexpected tracks that you’ll be playing? Are you allowed to say that?
Bonnie: I’m allowed, but if I want, do I want to? There’s question. There will be a couple of throwback songs that we’ve not played in a long time.
I’m trying to even remember the set list now. There are so many songs that I’m just like, what are we even doing? Yeah, we’ll be throwing in some unexpected songs for sure. So that’s all I’ll say.

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Steph: What track are you most proud of on the upcoming album, Was Here?
Bonnie: I mean, most of them, to be honest. I think one that really sticks out to me is “SEVENTEEN”. It was a difficult topic to write about and I didn’t even want it on the album really at all, because I didn’t want to have to like talk about it. But I’m proud of the fact that we ended up putting it on because I think it’s a cool song, I think the message is very clear, very strong, and I hope it can help other people who have gone through similar things.
What else am I proud of? Girls with a Gun, or Gag, whatever we’ve called it, I can’t remember. Love that song, Freaking out, Kissing Killer Cobras, all of them. I’m just so proud of every track, because we spend a lot of time on every song.
Sometimes it was a very gruelling process to get the songs over the line and to a place where we were all happy with them. And lyrically, I think on all the songs, I have had to kind of dig into a place that I’ve not really gone to before. Or extra vulnerability that I had been sheltering myself from for a while, the whole like process of writing, was therapeutic for me.

Steph: Is being vulnerable or in that space where you feel you create the best music?
Bonnie: Always, I feel like you can’t really create anything good. Well, I can’t personally, I don’t think without feeling vulnerable and going to that place where you’re willing to divulge what you’re feeling. And I feel in the past, I numbed myself quite a lot where I didn’t even know what I was feeling. And that was super fucking scary. Cause I’m like, damn, well then if, that’s how I’m feeling then or not feeling, then I can’t write songs and then the band will break up and then people will be out of jobs.
It’s special when you can be so vulnerable, and you think no one else is going to feel the same way. And then you get people come up to you and tell you how much a certain song means to them or help them through something.
Even if they have a completely different interpretation of what the song’s about. It’s like, it’s cool. And that’s what this whole thing is about. I feel like it’s like connecting.

Bonnie Fraser goes rapid fire with Amnplify:
Favorite venue to play live? Pier 17 in New York. In Australia, the really pretty one The Forum
Favourite food? Chocolate
Favourite ice cream flavour? Chocolate
Favourite holiday destination? Chocolate, no. Somewhere that’s sunny and I can get some, good cocktail and just chill the heck out. I don’t have a specific favourite or like a caravan park.
Favourite tattoo if you’ve got one. It’s our fear devil. It’s my favourite one in terms of the way it was done, this guy in Philly who does a bunch of our stuff we go through every time we go to Philly. He’s really, really good. But that one particularly is my favourite and it is meaningful as well.
Favourite dance move on stage? I’ve been doing this winded stomp thing lately it’s not my favourite but I keep doing it and I don’t know why I feel like a horse.
Favourite album or song that you’re listening to at the moment? We’ve been listening to a lot of the Charlie XCX album

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Stand Atlantic are

Bonnie Fraser // vocals, guitar
Miki Rich // bass
Jonno Panichi // drums
David Potter // guitars

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Follow STAND ATLANTIC
Website – Instagram – Facebook – Tik Tok

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Press Release 11th April 2024 (below) HERE

STAND ATLANTIC
announce
‘WAS HERE’ Tour
with support from 
SLY WITHERS & VANA

New studio album
‘WAS HERE’
out August 23

ON HOPELESS RECORDS

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Lonely Lands Agency & KMGMT Presents

STAND ATLANTIC
“WAS HERE” TOUR

W/ SLY WITHERS
VANA

August 28 – The Forum, Melbourne – Tickets
August 30 – Roundhouse, Sydney – Tickets
August 31 – Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane – Tickets

For More Information.
www.standatlantic.com

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AMNPLIFY – DB