North Wales quintet Everyone & Anyone aim to stake their claim amongst the sea of UK pop-punk bands this week with the release of ‘Anything Worth Having’. The five-track EP is a snappy set of straight-up pop-punk. Songs such as ‘History’ and ‘Rainy Days’ are inspired by the bands that served as the soundtrack to their youth, with hints of current bands such as Neck Deep, WSTR and Seaway throughout. The end result is an EP that any pop-punk fan will instantly gravitate to; crunching guitars, bouncing choruses and insatiably fun.
With the release of ‘Anything Worth Having’ just days away, we spoke to four-fifths of Everyone & Anyone as they picked out five songs they consider influential.
Sum 41 – Rhythms
Rob Grey (vocals): The first pop-punk album I ever got my hands on was ‘All Killer No Filler’. ‘Rhythms’ has always stood out to me for the catchy vocal work and vibe in general. The album sounds like the epitome of misspent youth and captures the essence of everything I love about pop-punk music as a genre. This album regularly comes up in conversation when Gary and I are writing for the band. It’s an absolute classic.
Blink-182 – Obvious
Aaron Richards (drums): Travis laid down some of his most intricate drumming on this album – it inspired me to push hard at my playing. It has everything I love in a Blink song, it is a straight up banger. ‘Obvious’ balances some interesting stroke rolls as well as syncopated grooves that work heavily on the washy hi-hat and ride. This song gave me the tools I needed to unlock a new expressive feel in my playing.
You need those “go to” songs that you can pinpoint as inspiration. I always go back and work through ‘Obvious” and listen for ways to tap into what a drummer can offer in a composition.
AFI – Days of the Phoenix
Matt Browne (bass): This is like a coming of age song for me as I first came across AFI during that very anxious time for any teenager, transitioning from high school to college and leaving behind all those familiar things for total uncertainty about how life was going to pan out from here on in. I discovered this accidentally when watching MTV2 and I was just in total awe.
I rushed out immediately to buy the album (‘The Art Of Drowning’, which was way more difficult to get hold of than I first thought as you couldn’t just find it in the local Woolworths! I loved the punk element of their music and the whole vibe was scary, aggressive and beautiful all at the same time.
Being a bass player at the time, I enjoyed what Hunter (Burgan) brought to the band. It really taught me that you can hold down a solid rhythm section but also how to fill the space in the songs with runs and fills. ‘Days of the Phoenix’ always provides me with comfort and positivity and has very much shaped the person and bass player I am today.
New Found Glory – Better Off Dead
Gary Whitehead (guitar): This track was the first NFG song on their Self-Titled album and it instantly struck a chord with me. It was the first time I ever heard a more beat down style of sound in a pop-punk song. When vocalist Jordan sings “she said I’m better of dead” before the jumpy beat down comes in, I heard something I’ve never heard before in the genre and feel like this completely set them apart from bands like Blink-182. I feel that there will always be a slight presence of New Found Glory within my songwriting and they have definitely inspired me to do what I do today.
KC and the Sunshine Band – Give it Up
Rob: We had to include this in our influences because it’s a really important song to us. We have the sound engineer play this over the PA before we walk on stage at our shows because it’s an absolute banger, and it puts everyone in a good mood. It doesn’t matter if we’re tired, stressed out, or whatever when this song hits we instantly feel the good vibes and know it’s time to go have a sick time ripping a show!
‘Anything Worth Having’ EP by Everyone & Anyone is released on 14th September.
