Pop Evil

After a very successful debut Australian Tour in 2019, Michigan’s own, POP EVIL, have released two new singles Let The Chaos Reign and Work, marking the first taste of new music from the band since their Pop Evil full-length in 2018. The new tracks arrive as a twin assault of invigorating, ready-made hits for 2020, from a forthcoming album filled to the brim with a dozen tracks each worthy of a dedicated spotlight.

Let the Chaos Reign is the heaviest single the band has ever dropped, a rousing fight song of self-determination about rising to meet any challenge with courage and strength. By contrast, Work puts its heavy guitars atop a grooving rhythmic punch, as it champions the working-class heroes struggling to persevere across all industries today. Hi Fi Way spoke to front man Leigh Katy about releasing two single in the midst of a global pandemic.

How’s the band going navigating its way through the chaos?
Just trying to be safe man! We’re in Michigan and have been hit pretty hard here, so it’s about resting the body, resting the voice and making the most of the time with friends and family taking it one day at a time.

Have you kept writing new music during this time also?
It is still hot and heavy with the pandemic trying to flatten the curve, look most of us I’m just as confused as the next person. We were the first to close as concerts and will probably be the last to come back. We’ll just have to see it out for the rest of the year, you never know, if this thing tapers off that would be a warm welcome and nice surprise. I’m trying not to get my hopes up, as soon as you start thinking you’re going to come back by the end of the summer and it doesn’t I’ll feel even more let down. I’m trying to stay positive about it all, I have a lot to do around my home town.

Was it a tough decision to decide between the two singles as opposed to going one at a time?
We wanted to do something different this time, we swing to the complete left and then back to the right then right to the other of the spectrum. We are a band capable of putting out different styles of music, we have always done that making sure there are guitars present, soaring melodies and catchy songs. Going with an experimental song such as Work we wanted to throw it back with a heavier song Let The Chaos Reign. Melodically when we wrote these songs we had no intention of them making sense but now this pandemic has taken over the world it is funny how these songs are more relevant than before. It is weird how this stuff works out.

Do you think that’s the exciting part of being in a band and watching these songs take shape?
The response we have had so far has been so overwhelming and I can’t wait for these songs to be more familiar with everybody. We can’t wait to play them live. It has to start off with your swagger and confidence, we know who we are and that’s what makes Pop Evil. We always tread the line differently to others and we’ll put these songs out. Now more than it’s important. It seems like people are waiting around to hear it on radio or TV as much as they going to find it. They are finding it on social media, we’re doing Facebook live concerts, just because we aren’t working doesn’t mean that we don’t have to work. It is definitely different times for the music business and with Pop Evil we’re trying to stay ahead of those times. Having two songs out is exciting for me personally and as a band member it has been something to look forward to. We don’t know how long this is going to go and how long it will take for us to get the album out.

Will be there be more new singles in the lead up to the album release?
I don’t know yet, we have a lot to finish up. We don’t know with quarantine how long it will take to get these little things done. We’ll see how much we are able to release, we haven’t talked about any of that stuff yet. Part of me wants to put more new music and part of of me doesn’t want to put it out at the same time too. I don’t think we want to be in the worst case scenario where we can;t play for two years or more. We don’t want the album to be over before we get a chance to play it. Hopefully we won’t be out for that long but you can’t help not think about those things. There are so many unknowns it is hard to know where you will be in a month or longer. Right now we have two great songs out, let the fans get to know us and take it one day at a time after that.

Do you see this album as a significant departure in the Pop Evil sound?
Every album there is a shift, we had multiple producers which was a huge a shift. There’s always shifts, you always have to get better, the band is a part of our lives and whether it is social media or interactive meet and greet experiences where you meet your fans, we’re talking about things we want. We shift in a way where we make music for ourselves and we want our set list to grow and to show more peaks and valleys. We don’t want to play fifteen to twenty songs and sound the same. That’s not the band we want to be. We want to make different music and challenge our music catalogue so we can have those ebbs and flows in our set that make people go ‘that was awesome, I got to feel excitement, I got to feel pain, I got to be said, I got to cry and point my horns up to the sky, I got to have my first mosh pit’. You get to experience all those things at a Pop Evil show. We want to keep digging for more music to bring to the table to create more moments for our fans.

Interview By Rob Lyon

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