INTRODUCING: Action/Adventure

It’s the middle of the work day when we catch up with guitarist Oren Trace and drummer Adrian Brown of fast-rising Chicago pop-punk stars ACTION/ADVENTURE – proof, if any was required – that the glamorous rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle of yesteryear is well and truly gone. Regardless, they’re both in high spirits even if Adrian’s connection isn’t quite as cheery as he is. 

The band’s somewhat meteoric rise into the collective consciousness is thanks to TikTok and the hashtag #PopPunkInColor going viral. It’s not a recent hashtag though. “We’ve been using that hashtag for a few years now. If you go on Instagram and search it, you can see every post in that is us!” explains Adrian, “but it finally started getting big on TikTok.”

This couldn’t have come at a better time for ACTION/ADVENTURE as they found themselves on the cusp of releasing latest EP Pulling Focus and needing to find a way to promote it, TikTok and their hashtag just so happened to be the perfect vehicle for it. The song that kickstarted their rise, Barricades, is a sixty second burst that neatly encapsulates the band and details, briefly, a few of the issues they’ve encountered in the scene. 

It’s only two sentences: “Would you listen / If we looked any different / ‘Cause these are all the things / That we can’t change / Would you listen / If we all looked the same / Cause it’s getting so much harder / To pass through all these barricades” and it wasn’t initially intended to be the song for the this particular video that went viral, though TikTok’s video limit is a minute. As Oren explains, “it was supposed to be roughly a minute long. We didn’t have in our heads that this is going to be the TikTok song. It’s kind of like, taken that on now. We did intend for it to be short, to the point song that showcased everything we did as a band.”

The EP itself was born out of a sense of frustration at the barriers in their way including a lack of inclusivity and diversity in the scene, leading to people making assumptions about how they sound. When we put this to them about breaking down the barricades in their way, Adrian recounts, “I don’t think we individually have broken down any barriers but it seems to be a time where there’s more people of colour around. It’s not like they weren’t there in the first place but maybe now, I don’t know, people aren’t afraid to show themselves. It just seems to be a lot more inclusivity going on as of late. It was very timely for us; we had been feeling it for a while and just decided to say something. It seems like this whole wave.”

This wave has raised up a number of phenomenal new bands alongside them, from MEET ME @ THE ALTAR and PINKSHIFT, that are helping to lead the way for representation and inclusivity in the alt scene. The response to this has been overwhelmingly positive, as Oren says, “getting the response we did was very validating and it helped us know we were able to reach those people that felt the same as us and they kind of echoed that in the comments [of their TikTok video]. It was really cool to see!”

Part of this has been an ongoing reckoning in the scene to deal with the myriad of issues, especially around inclusivity and diversity. It’s something that they agree has come to the fore over the past year – due in part to everyone spending a lot more time disconnected from each other. Reflecting on this past year, Adrian says, “when you’re in your house a lot, it’s hard not to reflect on things and not to see things going on outside and if it has anything to do with what’s going on within. One thing that definitely played a factor is that when you’re in you’re house you’re on your phone! I know me, I spent so much time thinking about myself, thinking about the music scene, just my place in in many different things.”

The place they talk about is also their band’s place in the music industry itself. As Adrian explains, they found themselves at a make-or-break point in their career. They’ve been doing this now for around fifteen years “but [they] weren’t going to keep putting in the time investment, the financial investment to move the project significantly forward after this one if it wasn’t going to take [them] anywhere.” It’s a stark reminder that the music industry is unforgiving. But despite this, ACTION/ADVENTURE remain positive about their experience and are very upbeat and grateful for the opportunity they’ve been given. “For fifteen years I wanted to be a Pure Noise [their new label] artist!” Adrian exclaims. “To have them seek us out, I was like damn, I’m so glad I don’t have to quit! It literally changed everything.”

Oren echoes his sentiment. “It was pretty much this record or we would significantly slow down how we operate as a band. Just do practice, write some songs, do some local shows.” But they’re incredibly happy to be where they are, and to be playing the music they are. Pop-punk has seen a resurgence as of late despite somewhat dropping off the face of the earth, at least in the mainstream, for a good few years. “When I was a kid, pop-punk was the genre of music,” Adrian enthuses. “Everyone was in a pop-punk band, you turn on a movie it has pop-punk songs in it. Then in high school, no one cared anymore!” But it didn’t dissuade them and the new wave of pop-punk – a much more inclusive wave – finally started. And we can all agree with Adrian and ACTION/ADVENTURE here; “that’s awesome!”

Pulling Focus is out now via Pure Noise Records. 

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