In The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, when Don Quixote affirms for Sancho Panza the reality of the proverb, “The place one door shuts, one other opens,” he’s steeling himself for a extra thrilling journey than the exploits that didn’t materialize or resulted in setbacks. In the character of Quixote, Cervantes creates a determine who is not going to quit, who’s his personal hype man, dedicated to his chosen beliefs, and greater than somewhat mad.
A cynical spin on that saying about doorways closing seems in “Hallways”, from PUP’s new album Who Will Look After the Dogs?, illustrating that even a hard-charging punk band can acknowledge the limits of a quixotic lifestyle in the face of break-ups, growing old, and different occasions that sign a loss of management: “‘Trigger when one door closes / it would by no means open / there is perhaps no different doorways.”
“Completely Nice”, the remaining single from the band’s excellent 2022 album The Unraveling of PUPTheBand, already articulated the skinny line between life and dying, victory and defeat, being at one’s worst or completely positive, suggesting that, with a sufficiently resigned angle, these dichotomies may not matter. Revisiting PUP’s discography reveals fatalism as an everyday function, if not a guiding philosophy of the songs. PUP’s music has usually served as a counterweight to the lyrics, providing memorable melodies, gang vocals, and ironic compositional parts that mitigate the isolation and harshness of the songs’ narratives.
The Unraveling of PUPTheBand was an idea album that imagined these disparate parts and expert musicians at the mercy of a company mindset, full with a board of administrators. The instrumental palette was additionally significantly expanded, leading to what the group’s lead singer and songwriter, Stefan Babcock, calls a “maximalist” work. Certainly, The Unraveling of PUPTheBand is one thing like the group’s Sophtware Droop, although not as revered inside their discography for no matter cause.
We start this dialog about Who Will Look After the Canine? discussing what Babcock thinks connects that album to PUP’s newest, each in content material and in the band’s course of of creating it. He says, “I believe you’re in the minority of individuals who say that they actually like the final one. I’ll be trustworthy. I additionally find it irresistible. We made The Unraveling of PUPTheBand throughout COVID, and we have been simply caught on this home for six weeks collectively, making this document.
“We had all this time, and we had all this artistic vitality, and we needed to make the PUP model of a maximalist album, which isn’t a maximalist album for most individuals, however for us it was. That’s what it was, and we took it to rather a lot of completely different locations, some of which have been well-received and others which weren’t. It was a bizarre document to make as a result of we have been actually type of locked up collectively, going loopy and engaged on it night time and day, no days off, not leaving the home.”
Babcock factors out that, against this, Who Will Look After the Canine? is an try “to virtually do the reverse: to make a document with only a few overdubs that basically seemed like the greatest model of the 4 of us taking part in in a room collectively”. As for what The Unraveling contributed to the band shifting ahead, he says, “I believe we gained rather a lot. I performed piano for the first time in my life, and we had a saxophone on it. We experimented with all these things and realized rather a lot from the expertise, however while you spend that a lot time beating songs to dying, it’s actually onerous to maintain the pleasure and the spark that made them particular.”
“So, on this document,” he explains, “We simply needed to protect that pleasure that we really feel in the room collectively once we’re first writing a music and protect, like, the love and the spark for these songs, and simply make a document and not fear about it being excellent, and we’re all proud of the document. It’s an imperfect, scrappy document that I’m so proud of. I imply, I believe it’s some of our greatest songs, and we actually did seize this, the spirit of this band and the spirit of our stay vitality, and the pleasure that we really feel collectively and the battle that we really feel collectively.”
Since pleasure and battle are a great way to explain the chaotic brew of PUP’s songs, with every pressure threatening to spill over into the different, I ask Babcock if he thinks some listeners is perhaps too centered on one of these parts to understand the different. That’s, would possibly the abrasiveness of the lyrics and some of the manufacturing make it troublesome for informal listeners to sense the enjoyable? “Perhaps,” he solutions. “There are lots of informal followers who perhaps don’t dig in that deep, and that’s additionally positive.”
“However,” he continues, “I believe in case you’re a fairly deep listener to PUP, these folks admire the proven fact that these songs are darkish and coming from a tricky place, nevertheless it’s additionally a celebration of life in a method. We take these darkish topics, and then the 4 of us attempt to have enjoyable with them. The one method I’m succesful of coping with life is to snort at it, and it’s such an incredible factor about this band for me. This band has been so good for my soul, having the ability to take these darkish issues and have enjoyable with my associates, creating one thing hopefully constructive out of it.”
PUP’s music movies usually emphasize the humor and coronary heart of the band. Babcock describes their music video creator and “fifth member”, Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux, as a “genius” with “this unbelievable storytelling potential and [able] to do it in wild methods like that ‘Paranoid’ video, a sensible lyric video that’s largely carried out in a single shot. [It’s] psychological that he may pull that off, and I’ve by no means seen something like that earlier than. A lot work went into it.” The music video for “Paranoid” gives one other variation of the wild vitality of a PUP stay present, beforehand despatched up in a violently darkly comedian method in the video for “Reservoir”, a single from their debut album.
For a interval in the group’s earlier days, the singer says, the intense surroundings of their stay reveals impinged on the positivity. He describes these reveals as “actually violent, perhaps not by hardcore band requirements, however by our requirements. It’s fairly violent, and that has not been the case for the final six, seven years. Persons are going onerous, nevertheless it’s all smiles, and I believe folks really feel actually protected at our reveals, and it appears like neighborhood. There’s simply a lot positivity popping out of these songs about the burning world, you recognize.”
Babcock’s emphasis on his band’s pleasure, neighborhood, and positivity brings to thoughts the joy-focused Craig Finn of the Maintain Regular. Whereas PUP’s pop-punk musical lineage consists of all the pieces from well-liked acts like Weezer to lesser-known acts like Ovens, Babcock’s spoken-singing model on a number of songs resembles Finn’s attribute supply. Given these resonances, I ask him whether or not Finn is a acutely aware affect or no less than a determine he appreciates.
“I do love the Maintain Regular, he says. “I really like Craig’s solo stuff, too. I noticed him play two weeks in the past. He was nice. He’s one of the greatest lyricists, I believe, of our technology. I do know him, so I hope that if he does learn this, he takes this the proper method, however he has taught my technology of songwriters that being the greatest singer is just not as necessary as writing nice lyrics and delivering these lyrics with absolute conviction. He’s the greatest in the world at that. His songs are extremely musical, but the most necessary components are the lyrics, supply, and the feeling they offer you.
“We’ve adopted that into our band, not simply with lyrics and vocals, however with all the pieces. That’s the thesis of this new document. Crucial factor is, ‘Did that really feel good? Does the music really feel good? Does the music have a spark? The take that we selected? Does that really feel good? Does it have magic?’ As a result of you’ll be able to play issues completely, and they are often soulless.”
Who Will Look After the Canine? sees PUP veering again after the maximalist/conceptual departure that was The Unraveling, however their adherence to the thesis Babcock lays out yields so many memorable moments, with the always-strong rhythm part (drummer Zack Mykula and bassist Nestor Chumak) dynamic as ever and guitar solos (Steve Sladkowski) that typically go rogue in the greatest method potential. In contrast to so many different teams, PUP stand out for not utilizing quantization or different instruments which may create a extra optimized product.
“We’re not a quantized band,” Babcock confirms confidently, “not even on our maximalist information. Even our ‘perfection’ information are sloppy as hell. However no, I imply, there may be some magic. You identified guitar solos… there’s some magic on some of these solos that Steve rips on this document which might be extra magical than something he’s carried out in the previous. I believe we’re responsible of pushing one another to be higher and to be excellent. If, in the previous, Steve didn’t nail a solo, like one thing was off, we’d return, and we’d attempt to do it once more and do it once more and do it once more, and we simply let him prepare dinner on this one.
“Additionally, when he was like, ‘I type of messed it up’, we’d be like, ‘You messed it up completely.’ Some of the solos on this document, like I’m considering of, like a music referred to as ‘Merciless’ and a music referred to as ‘Starvation for Demise’, are two of my favourite Steve solos, 5 information deep. These are my two favourite solos he’s carried out so, yeah, proud of him. [I’m] proud of everyone on this document for letting issues go off the rails simply the correct quantity.”
“Hunger for Death” is an outlier on Who Will Look After the Canine?, which begins like a specter of a pop music from the Fifties or Sixties, propping up a doubting, misanthropic narrator who doesn’t overlook to indict himself as he dismisses everybody round him. “That was an fascinating music,” Babcock observes, “as a result of we organized it in a way more regular PUP method and performed it a 12 months earlier than we made this document. It simply didn’t really feel proper, and we tore it aside and redid it, and it didn’t really feel proper, and once we went into the studio, we have been like, ‘That music wasn’t even on our listing.’ It wasn’t on our radar. It was straight in the rubbish.”
Later, although, “on perhaps the final day or the second final day” of recording, Babcock recollects, “it was the final music we recorded. We determined to only give it a attempt. I had this completely different thought of the association in my head, of simply stripping it method down and then punching it actually onerous, like, you recognize, with the again half of the music. So we simply gave it a shot, and it felt actually good. The entrance half is like an previous drum machine. I’m unsure. I don’t need to misspeak. It’s a drum machine that John Congleton, who produced the document, had mendacity round, and there’s a Farfisa on it.
“It’s a extremely bizarre mixture of devices, particularly for this document. It’s one of the solely songs that has something apart from drums, guitar, bass, and vocals. Sonically, it’s positioned proper in the center of the document as a, ‘Let’s take a second right here.’ Yeah. I actually love that music. I believe it’s fairly magical. I don’t assume it’s a single as a result of it’s probably not consultant of the relaxation of the document, however I do assume it’s obtained the identical type of sloppy, bizarre attraction that the relaxation of the album has, simply offered in a unique context, another way. So spiritually, I believe it suits completely on the document.”
After I carry up the phrase about closing and opening doorways on “Hallways”, which, like “Starvation for Demise”, gives a central half of the album’s lyrical considerations (and, certainly, its title), Babcock explains his selection to include “a phrase that everyone knows” into the refrain: “You understand, ‘when one door closes, one other one opens.’ I believe I used to be shifting by life. I used to be in a fairly bleak place, writing that, as you’ll be able to most likely inform from the music, however I believe I used to be simply on this place the place it’s like, perhaps as you grow old, doorways simply shut and nothing else opens. I simply felt like the alternatives and paths my life may have taken have been type of closing off. I had imagined this complete future with this individual [and] simply obtained the rug pulled out, and that door is simply closed.”
As an album coming to phrases with breaking apart, Who Will Look After the Canine? is a (a lot) rowdier model of the territory Beck coated on Sea Change or Islands with A Sleep & A Forgetting (which, coincidentally, additionally featured a music referred to as “Hallways.”) Nevertheless, the encompassing theme is maturation, which Babcock likens to a narrowing of choices or readability about one’s selections: “Perhaps as you grow old, life simply turns into a protracted, Severance-style hallway. You understand, the place you’ve made your selections, and selections have been made for you, and you’re on a path. Whether or not you supposed to be on that or not, you recognize, that’s half of rising up, is accepting that, ‘Right here I’m. That is the path I’m on, and I’m simply gonna do the greatest with what I obtained.’”
One essential half of Babcock’s method to lyric writing is his use of quotations attributed to different characters inside the narratives or representing his ideas or spoken phrases he regrets. This function is just not at all times noticeable until one is studying the lyric sheet. Nonetheless, it contributes to numerous views inside the songs or an accountability or examine on the character he embodies. Whereas he says he doesn’t got down to use that approach when writing every album, he’s motivated to keep away from turning into too inward-looking.
He explains, “I believe songs can get type of one-dimensional in case you’re simply speaking about your self, and particularly, you recognize, in case you’re the type of lyricist that does write largely from a private place. You understand, we have been speaking about Craig Finn earlier. He’s an unbelievable storyteller. I’m positive rather a lot of his songs are about him, however many of his songs are about characters he’s made up or folks he’s met, and I don’t do as a lot of that.
“Ninety p.c of PUP songs are about me and issues I’ve skilled. That may get boring as hell to jot down about, particularly if it’s simply from my perspective. Additionally, I don’t know if that is true, however I wish to assume of myself as an empathetic particular person who understands that, even when I’m pissed off about one thing, there’s at all times a unique aspect to it, and simply because I write songs shouldn’t imply that I simply get to rewrite my model of historical past.”
Now embarking on a tour for Who Will Look After the Canine?, PUP will play reveals in the UK earlier than heading elsewhere in Europe and onto Australasia, with North American tour dates scheduled by the fall. Babcock factors out that the group has “so many reveals between now and 2026 that we haven’t even introduced all the excursions.” As for the way he feels about making ready for one more spherical of intensive touring, he says, “We’re doing a lot. I’m actually excited. I’m nervous however excited. I’m nervous as a result of touring could be taxing on the mind. But it surely’s additionally simply actually enjoyable and rewarding.
“As we have been speaking about earlier than, the sense of neighborhood round PUP has simply gotten stronger and stronger over the years, and I’ve observed extra ‘outsiders’ at our reveals, which makes me so completely happy. That so many individuals of completely different walks of life can really feel snug at our reveals and watching that neighborhood develop, each in phrases of dimension, however extra in phrases of like…I’m struggling to search out the proper phrases. However the neighborhood rising stronger, taking care of one another, and getting greater and extra inclusive has been actually one of the most rewarding components about being on this band, and so I’m excited to exit and expertise that.”
Babcock says he’s notably enthusiastic about the North American tour with Jeff Rosenstock (a visitor on “Get Dumber”), one of his and the group’s greatest associates. “I’m excited to spend a month with him and all the fantastic folks in his band.” Of the potential toll {that a} tour takes, he says, “I’m doing my greatest to only actually have enjoyable and take pleasure in it, which is usually a wrestle for me as a result of of the psychological well being stuff that I’ve and how a lot it’s exacerbated on tour.
“However I’m actually making an attempt to be thankful for the alternative and take pleasure in it, and I can’t wait to play these new songs and hopefully have folks screaming the lyrics again in our faces. It’s a sense in contrast to every other, and I’m at all times nervous that it’s not gonna occur once we put out a brand new document, however at all times, someway, the information appear to search out their method into the arms of individuals who will admire them. So, fingers crossed that’s going to occur once more.”
