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Interview with
RYAN and DEREK
from
STATE CHAMPS (USA)

(8th August 2022)

Interview with Laura Hughes

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About STATE CHAMPS

State Champs are a Pop-Punk act from New York, who originally started out in basements in 2010 before quickly gaining a name for themselves in the scene and playing shows with acts such as 5 Seconds of Summer, A Day To Remember, and Fall Out Boy; as well as performing at three different Warped Tours. State Champs have been described as “one of the most authentic and well-respected bands in pop-punk” by Kerrang! Magazine, and they prove that with their dynamic and energetic live shows. With their new album ‘Kings of the New Age’ released in May this year, they are bringing the album to life in September with their Australian tour.

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How does it feel to be touring again, after a global pandemic?
Derek: It feels great. I think a lot of people were, like, very curious to see what the vibe would be like with people coming back to shows and if there would be restrictions, if there would be rules if people were excited again, if they’re over excited. And I think it’s pretty much what we expected. Kids were really, really excited to get back into a live music scene and to and to, you know, appreciate the value of live music and their favourite bands, seeing them live in person. And it’s good for us, especially when they’re going away for a year or two. We it’s been very, very refreshing to be on stage again, and moving around and seeing everybody screaming the lyrics back at us, especially with these new songs from the new album.

Have there been any challenges or struggles that have come up during touring after the pandemic?
Ryan: I mean, you know touring is touring, there’s gonna be obstacles and like random bullshit is always going to happen, obviously. But for the most part, it’s been really, really amazing aside from some like bus conundrums that we’ve had.
Derek: stuff that we can’t really control a lot of the time, but that stuff has always happened, whether it’s before a pandemic, or after the pandemic, I think we were definitely like, worried about maybe, I don’t know, certain restrictions that involve being post pandemic, but everything feels like it did, which is great. And yeah, like, you know, fingers crossed, that everything stays that way.
Ryan: Yeah, it was tough, because we did a tour in October. And that was, you know, kind of during the second wave, and we weren’t really meeting fans. And we were wearing masks and it just like, the feeling of touring wasn’t really there. You know, and so being back on Sad Summer, I was like, so excited to finally like, interact with fans again, especially after having a new record out. And, you know, they want to see their favourite band and talk to them again. So, that’s been a nice part of it, I guess. Not necessarily struggle.
Derek: It’s a big part of our live experience. And touring is being able to hang out with the fans and being able to, like see people face to face. So that’s, that’s been nice to be able to do again.

Doing shows during a pandemic, it must have been very different to what you were used to.
Ryan: Yeah, I mean, we did a lot of online stuff, you know, during the pandemic, try to provide for the community and be there and you know. We did some Twitch streaming, and we did some acoustic sets and whatnot. And you know, it’s it was fun, but it’s obviously not the same.
Derek: Doesn’t scratch that itch that we need as a band like State Champs, you know, we need the big crowds, and we need the live energy, the live show in person more than anything. So, it’s been great to have it back.
Ryan: You can’t really crowd surf in your living room, you know.

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You’ve got your Australians who are coming up and you’ve got a pretty good line-up of pop-punk acts. Do you think that the scene is back in full swing or is it still a bit heavy going for bands coming back to touring?
Derek: I think it’s back in the swing. And it’s great that we finally get to come back to Australia. It’s been what like four years since we’ve done a proper tour there. We had a little bit of a tease right before pandemic whenever we came out for that unify fest, but we flew in and flew right out. So, it that definitely, it was like a little bit of a while, we really need to get back here and do a proper tour and see all the major cities again, it’s been one of our favourite destinations touring to come to. So, I mean, I’m ready to come back with a nice package that we have with The Maine and with Hot Milk, both bands that we like and that we’re friends with, and I think it’s gonna make for a proper gig, you know?

You’ve got a new album out. It’s absolutely amazing. It’s so good to hear you guys writing again. What was the writing process like for the new album was anything different or new that you tried out this time around?
Derek: What was different about this process is how long we had to write and record it since we started writing it a little before the pandemic. And then when everything shut down, it eliminated all of the stress and rush that we would have had like in a normal writing process, because there’s always deadlines, and you have to go on tour at a certain time and the label wants the album out at certain date. So, you got to kind of think like that, and you have to be proactive to the deadlines. So, this time, so it’s all went away, and we got to sit back and really take our time and enjoy the writing process together and spread it out over a long period of time. And we wrote more songs than we usually did close to like 30 song ideas. And then we got to like chop at the bits that were that needed more work, and kind of dissect more songs and you know. And then it started really to take shape, what would become Kings of the New Age. So, it was nice to kind of experiment in different ways and take our time on this one, which we’d never done before.
Ryan: And kind of like decide when we think that it should come out to because like I said we weren’t touring. So, you know, why would we put a record out when we’re not we’re not able to play the song. So, we kind of got to decide when we wanted to come out, we spent a little bit more time on the mixing in the mastering and just making sure every little bit was, you know how we wanted it to be. So that was pretty exciting.

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You wrote so many songs, how did you figure out which ones that you really want on the album?
Derek: It was a cool, like exercise that we did when we had all these different song ideas. We wrote them all down on flashcards and put all the song names, or the working titles at least, on a coffee table in the control room of our studio. And then we just started putting them in certain orders and like listening to them in that order switching stuff around eliminating some bringing other ideas in. And that was a cool way to kind of see it in front of your eyes, like how to build a tracklist for an album and what works, what doesn’t work. And we would argue over it between us guys in the band because that’s just what we do. And but since we had the time to really like, make sure that it was right. We you know, we didn’t argue too much when we found the chemistry to make the right tracklist.
Ryan: Everything at the end of the day was based on a song kind of making you feel something. We’re like does this song make you feel something, no matter what the emotion is? If it does, then it deserves to be on the record. If it doesn’t, then maybe we go back and work on it a little bit more.

Were there any songs which I didn’t think would make the album?
Ryan: I think there were songs that we wrote like at the very last minute that we were just you know, just experimenting with that ended up making the record. “Everybody But You” was like one of the last songs that we wrote because we realized we were missing a type of song. And that was the type of song that we were missing. wrote that one in one day. And then it ended up being kind of, you know, the big single of the record.
Derek: Yeah, so that one maybe could have never even seen the light of day if we didn’t take that one specific day and try to achieve a sonic sound that was missing from the record. So I’m glad we did that.

What song off your album would save you from Vecna?
Derek: I would say the cheesy answer is “Here to Stay”

What’s the best way for fans to support you guys as a band?
Ryan: Please come see us. It’s you know, it’s not always very easy for bands to kind of come down there [Australia] and put on a show. So, you know, we’re excited to be back and we’re going to kick some ass obviously. But like, yeah, please just come support live music again. And make sure that you know, international bands are still able to come do this. And buying merch at shows is the best way that you can support any band.

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STATE CHAMPS
AUSTRALIAN TOUR:

THURSDAY 1 SEPTEMBER – THE TIVOLI, BRISBANE (18+)
FRIDAY 2 SEPTEMBER – FORUM, MELBOURNE (18+)
SUNDAY 4 SEPTEMBER – ROUNDHOUSE, SYDNEY (LIC AA)
TUESDAY 6 SEPTEMBER – THE GOV, ADELAIDE (LIC AA)
THURSDAY 8 SEPTEMBER – MAGNET HOUSE, PERTH (18+)

tickets on sale NOW

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Follow STATE CHAMPS
Website – Instagram – Facebook – Twitter

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Press Release 27th June 2022 (below) HERE

STATE CHAMPS (USA)
announce Australian Tour
with very special guests
THE MAINE (USA),
HOT MILK (UK) & PAPERWEIGHT (AUS)

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AMNPLIFY – DB