It’s safe to say the UK pop-punk scene is brimming up-and-coming bands, and today we’re putting the spotlight on Alaska! Alaska!. Based out of South Wales, Alaska! Alaska! are set to release their new EP, ‘Never Thought We’d Get This Far’, this Saturday (September 17th) but Already Heard is premiering the full EP today.
With influences including Latterman, the Gaslight Anthem, the Menzingers and Bangers, ‘Never Thought We’d Get This Far’ sees the quartet produce four slices of raw, upbeat pop-punk that avoids the genres lyrical clichés, favouring a more positive, occasionally sincere, outlook.
Along with a stream of ‘Never Thought We’d Get This Far’, we spoke to Jamie Murphy and Dave Morgan from Alaska! Alaska! for a detailed track-by-track of the EP.
Can’t We All Just Get Along and Make a 90’s Emo Band?
Jamie: This song was just about being angry at the world. It’s about when you’ve lost yourself and you’ve let yourself down enough that you actually start to believe that your life is meant to be filled with this chaos, Its like you’re expected to embrace it, then you have all these people who care about you watching you lose yourself and waiting to see if you can bring yourself out of that chaos. Maybe they’ve tried to help but sometimes you need to pull yourself out from it.
My Lovely Horse (Derek)
Dave: I wanted to keep it simple and not over think too much with it. The first version I wrote was about twice the length with a billion other parts, but I scrapped it all so it would be comprehensible on the first listen. I omitted a third chorus because it felt unnecessary. I think the standard verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus that is so common nowadays is a bad habit we’ve slipped into. I feel like people throw in three chorus’ without much thought because “that’s how songs are supposed to go”. There’s this weird unwritten rule everyone abides by. Unless you have a killer hook, I find the third chorus can drag. Ultimately I was aiming for the song to be short, punchy and a taster of things to come.
N Is For North
Jamie: I named this song after a line from ‘Into The Wild’. This film is brilliant, the story behind it is amazing and I advise anyone who hasn’t watched it to watch it! This song is about living for the moment and not worrying about the future. It’s about not letting your past rule you. It’s shall i say a “moving on song” but at the same time it’s about seeing people in my hometown force themselves into these stereotypes where they either grow up far too soon by following the expected stages of life; the perfect job, a car, kids and a house. Realistically just live your life how you want it, you only got one crack at it, after that its over.
A Soap Opera About How Much Our Lives Suck
Jamie: This song is literally the deepest and most personal song I’ve ever written. It’s about seeing my mum throughout suffering from a mental illness and seeing how it affected my family. It scared the hell out of me! I mean was this going to happen to me? Would this happen if I have a family of my own and would it do to them what it did to me?
At the time I wasn’t in a good place myself and every time I let myself down or a friend or a family member, it just made think “yeah this is going to happen to you.” Every time life started to get back to normal, something else would just beat me back down and it was exhausting. This song is about that struggle, along wth what mental illness does, not only to the people affected personally, but the people around them.
‘Never Thought We’d Get This Far’ by Alaska! Alaska! is released on September 17th.
Alaska! Alaska! links: Facebook|Twitter|Bandcamp
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