Action/Adventure: Surviving Through All The Madness
ACTION/ADVENTURE have had a pretty wild ride in the industry so fa.! This year marks eight years since their formation and the Chicago based pop-punk five piece are ready to make a stand more than ever. It seems as though they have ticked off one of the major highlights on their career bucket list; going on tour with two of their favourite childhood bands HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS and ARMOR FOR SLEEP.
Vocalist Blake Evaristo sees this experience as one of the most recent ‘pinch me’ moments of ACTION/ADVENTURE’s entire musical career so far. “It’s definitely a dream come true. These were bands that all of us really listened to growing up, so to have that opportunity and play to a lot of their fans, it’s just been a really surreal experience. It has been awesome!” The chance to play for the fans of two of their favorite names in music is clearly an awe-inspiring moment, especially as they surprise people and gain new followers along the way. Blake compares it to the thrill of stumbling upon a casino avec bonus sans depot, where the unexpected rewards make the experience even more exhilarating. “Everyone’s been super cool and receptive,” Blake notes, adding that one of the funniest comments they’ve received during the tour is, “‘You guys are all really smiling on stage,’ and we’re like, it’s easy to when you are playing with two awesome bands you grew up with and living these kinds of dreams.” The support they’ve received has been overwhelming, making the journey all the more special.
In the space of two years, ACTION/ADVENTURE have released EP Pulling Focus and most recently their debut studio album Imposter Syndrome. Whilst it is definitely not unusual in this day and age to have two releases in close proximity to one another, ACTION/ADVENTURE have clearly made the most out of the endless COVID-19 lockdowns making a lot of brand new music. Evaristo talks about the inspiration behind all these fresh tracks, stating, “we always drop a name in every interview we have, a lot of it is FOUR YEAR STRONG for sure. Also, we grew up listening to bands such as THE STARTING LINE, SENSES FAIL, THE STORY SO FAR, old FALL OUT BOY even, so it’s definitely a variety of stuff. That’s what we like about a lot of singles we have released. We kind of released a bunch of singles that touch on different genres, just to give everyone a taste of what the album has in store.”
Carolina Reaper is one of the sure-fire highlights of their first album Imposter Syndrome. However, the infectious, memorable chorus of this track isn’t the only standout feature as Blake Evaristo explains. “It’s one of our harder songs for sure. The funny origin story was that we were having band practise and I had a neighbour that grew them, so I brought some to the band, cut it into little slithers and was just like let’s have a hit of this – it was definitely hot! The music definitely reflects that, they go hand in hand for sure. But yes, we did indulge in the pepper and that’s why it has earned the title!”
It has to be said that ACTION/ADVENTURE‘s biggest success to date has come from their 2020 track Barricades. After the impromptu posting of a snippet of the single on TikTok, the band were shocked to discover that they had received a total of 60,000 views on the clip after just 24 hours – absolutely mind-blowing! This sort of instant success on the platform is something even to this day that the band can’t seem to get their heads around. “It’s been crazy how far that got us and we are really grateful for that.”
However, ACTION/ADVENTURE most definitely haven’t let this uncharted viral phenomenon get to their heads, still remaining humble and grateful for all that comes their way. This almost instant rise in their popularity online seems to come at a price for the band though, as they definitely feel the pressure to maintain this level of hype, whilst still wanting to be themselves in the evolvement process. “We were so grateful that Barricades blew up the way it did, but it’s a crazy machine to feed, this social media game. We feel the need to feed that audience for sure, but we also want to maintain things that still have ethic to us, it’s the balance. We understand the importance and we’re not going to take that lightly.”
However, it’s not just the ongoing success of Barricades that is just pushing them forward on social media. They also are a completely POC pop-punk band; something that is almost unheard of in the genre. ACTION/ADVENTURE are helping to raise awareness, making a very important and crucial stand racially. “It’s been cool, because in the music scene you see a lot of POC bands that are just killing it like MEET ME @ THE ALTAR, PINKSHIFT and MAGNOLIA PARK, it’s kind of like rising the tides. Even on tour we want to address that. People stop us and say ‘that’s so cool, because I felt the same way in high school, you know people not looking at me’, so getting that reception is a really good feeling. Especially on this tour we have a lot of people that tell us ‘I wish your band was around when I was in high school’ and we’re always like we’re here now, so lets rock! They are really good comments to hear, because that’s the important thing, just raising awareness and representation is really important.”
From their pure dedication taking a stand for POC pop-punk artists on social media to playing dream shows with HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS and ARMOR FOR SLEEP, it is vital to remember that the band are still incredibly grateful and humbled to be where they are today and they aren’t forgetting that.
Imposter Syndrome is out now via Pure Noise Records.
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