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Pop-punk and emo have been intertwined for decades. The combination of punchy rhythms and soaring melodies goes hand-in-hand with deeply personal songwriting. It's something that's threaded throughout the July Crowd's latest EP, 'The Way That I Felt Last Year'. Hailing from British Columbia, Canada, the trio's sound has evolved to become sonically richer while maintaining their pop-punk roots. It allows tracks such as 'Like Home' and 'One of These Days' to thrive with an abundance of energy, yet contain lyrical sincerity. Across its five tracks, it sees Dom Walters (vocals), Max Perestrelo (guitar), and Nicholas Faller (drums) reflect on experiencing loss, grief, and trying to cope during some of the most difficult moments of their life. On the surface, the July Crowd's brand of emotive pop-punk is influenced by a whole host of bands from the past decade or so. So much so, when we asked Dom Walters to pick out a selection of tracks that inspired 'The Way That I Felt Last Year,' he struggled to choose which five songs he deemed influential. Thankfully, after much deliberation, here's Dom's picks as he discusses five tracks that influenced the July Crowd's latest EP. Real Friends - Cold Blooded While I’ve enjoyed the arduous task of narrowing down hundreds of musical influences over the years to just five, I have to start somewhere, so it makes sense to start with the band that has probably influenced the sound of the July Crowd’s new record the most: Real Friends. The track 'Cold Blooded', as well as the entire 'Blue Hour' album, was released at just the right time for me. At a time when my life got much harder, the songs on this record helped me heal through some of the most traumatic and difficult moments. It felt appropriate to write a meaningful record that could do for others what this band’s songs has done for me. Poetic lyric content, vivid imagery, and a willingness to be truthful, vulnerable and real are probably our biggest takeaways, but the musical style similarities are inevitable too. https://youtu.be/036AOJosUfk?si=flmtGheZuEYfmcKa Knuckle Puck - Disdain This band is probably the most comparable in terms of emo/pop-punk musical style. Knuckle Puck is a massive influence on all the musicians in the band, so it stands to reason that the very core of how we play our instruments may be derived from years of exposure to this second Chicago band on the list. Great harmonies, momentum, and dynamics delivered on tracks like 'Disdain', 'The Tower', and 'Untitled' have heavily corrupted how we write songs. https://youtu.be/dAGcWrgYY9c?si=H9jEn8mhXZP8i4kL State Champs - Easy Enough Even though we’ve been listening to bands like All Time Low, Blink-182, Green Day, Sum 41, and everything else you’d expect since we were kids, this is the band we’ve probably collectively been listening to the longest that made this list. One of the bands riding high (and arguably co-pioneering) the pop-punk/emo resurgence of the 2010’s, we have them to thank not just for great songs, but for setting a gold writing standard of "if the song doesn’t at LEAST feel as good as State Champs does, it probably still needs work!" This is living proof you can write songs about hard, gut-wrenching moments, and still rock out to it in the most enthusiastic, therapeutic way. https://youtu.be/j3axgE_AFPg?si=GkBSX6AlLFe72PS- First and Forever - Let This Love Lie Dead I remember stumbling across this band in 2021 or so. The debut EP was an absolute tone-setter for the future of emo / pop-punk music. Bands like Real Friends and First and Forever really push their vocal abilities to the extreme, which is why I had to include them in this list. Hearing songs like 'Let This Love Lie Dead' helped me feel more comfortable writing about my vulnerabilities, but I also felt exposed by my underwhelming vocal ability in my early writing. This is one of a few bands I must credit for pushing me to work my tail off on improving my vocal ability, technique, and control so I can begin to deliver meaningful vocal performances like the ones on the new 'The Way That I Felt Last Year' EP. https://youtu.be/lILv_fGDjTw?si=ycmYdDGTrNGTHfNr Stand Atlantic - Coffee at Midnight While I filtered through probably 10-15 different artists for this last spot, I had to settle on Stand Atlantic for a few reasons. I wanted this list to be the most honest representation of our influences as possible, and I believe the “heavier music” shift in our direction from our older work to our newest release has much to do with exposure to this band. While many alternative artists over the generations have been criticised for “selling out and going poppier” (I don’t know how much I agree with that, but anyway), this band continues to trend towards heavier-influenced music, album after album. You can tell they pull ideas from post-hardcore, metalcore, nu-metal and the like and shove it right into their emo/pop-punk writing style. Vocal delivery, constant evolution, and a complete lack of fear when it comes to trying something new forced my hand to credit Stand Atlantic on this list. https://youtu.be/Ls_RQiP71pY?si=jTlneFn_cPh4kGlb https://open.spotify.com/album/4tG3KdUEWFIAh0FuhA0HKN?si=Yw6cQ0lSQMGSJ4erXnrBww 'The Way That I Felt Last Year' EP by July Crowd is out now on Manic Kat Records. Find July Crowd on: Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Linktr.ee

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