downcast: Fronting The Pop-Punk Revival
For so many, the nostalgia of bands like BLINK-182 and SIMPLE PLAN bring back some of our fondest memories of baggy jeans, flannel shirt collections, and tattoos of pizza slices. Bristol based four-piece DOWNCAST are hoping to resurrect these exact feelings with their debut album i saw hell when i was with you. A band that has high-energy shows, devoted fans and driving music, they are bringing about a new, yet familiar, wave of nostalgia with their own brand of pop punk.
“Half of the album is about a bad experience in a relationship,” says lead singer and frontman Liam Edwards, which is exactly where the album name comes from, though Edwards claims that comparing a relationship to hell could just be his “dramatic” side coming out to play. “With my writing process I try to just be as honest as possible and just write about whatever is happening in my life.” The relatable and honest nature of their lyrics are helping to draw in new and old fans of the genre, with some finding solace that they are not suffering alone in a lot of situations. “People can tell when it’s bullshit,” says Edwards. “If it’s about real stuff that they’ve experienced, it’ll be more appreciated in that way and it resonates with a lot of people,” proving that honesty truly is the best policy. This is what really sells the band to its listeners.
Instead of adopting the often melodramatic or melancholic nature of many within the same gig circuit as them, DOWNCAST have chosen to use storytelling elements so their listeners can appreciate their lyrics further, believing that even if a scenario is hypothetical people can still tell when a story is shrouded. This comes through particularly in track number six; if u want 2. Edwards used it as an opportunity to combine elements of anger, romance, and self-reflection to create a narrative for their listeners to follow. Though it may be a hypothetical tale, Edwards says that using an element of experience helps them to reach the main goal with his song writing – just “trying to keep it real.”
The space between releasing their debut EP and this latest offering has allowed the band to become surer of themselves as musicians and question their own skillsets less. “Ian Sadler embraced our mad ideas,” says guitarist Ben Lucas, of their time in the studio. “He even makes them sound good.” Edwards verifies, claiming that “even with vocals, he’ll have us doing the same line for an hour if it sounds shit so we can get it right.” This duo in particular has worked extremely hard throughout the early years of DOWCAST’s formation to create a name for themselves. Having known each other for years they are the last two remaining original members of the band, using the Coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to solidify their dynamic and find the right lineup after the release of their debut self-titled EP. Even in the space between this release and the dreaded pandemic the band had little to no rest, returning to the studio almost immediately to record Catharsis. Though most of the music is fresh for us, it is anything but for the boys of DOWNCAST.
“The stuff on this album we started releasing in 2020 – some of it doesn’t feel new to us,” says Edwards. Using the two-year hiatus that many of us had to write music, they came away with something that was truly special. “We’ve been trying to make sure every song doesn’t sound like the last so we can cater to different people,” he claims. Though they have been lumped in with many of the other pop-punk bands emerging from the UK right now, the band are adamant that they are anything but. “We’ve got a couple of pop-punk songs, but so does everyone,” they say. Granted, this genre label is entirely subjective and seems to fit the “mid-west emo” aesthetic that some of their songs produce, just making them a little easier to categorise instead of using the usual ‘alternative rock’ label. Though it is not all bad – this description has aided the band in scoring some high profile shows with bands like AS DECEMBER FALLS and helping DOWNCAST gain a lot of traction. These gigs are allowing them to play their music to wider and newer audiences, “not just family and friends,” laughs Edwards.
It’s at this point that Lucas begins laughing and chimes in with “our family and friends aren’t the only people that come to see us play.” Though this is something we were fairly certain of, it is always nice to have it verified. In an age where so many bands of the same genre are writing songs that are intended to be popular on TikTok, it’s great to see a band like DOWNCAST do the opposite and create music for themselves. Their hearts are clearly in their music, writing with pure honesty and devotion to their craft. As one of the frontrunners of the pop-punk revival in the UK, they have really shown dedication to the cause with their expression of nonconformity and opposition to the mainstream culture we have all come to live with.
i saw hell when i was with you is out now via self-release.
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