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Interview: Dan Shepherd of Across All Oceans

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Across All Oceans are a pop-punk band from Middlesborough, UK. With the release of their new EP, Homegrown, set for this February, the five-piece are sure to have a busy 2016 ahead of them. Recently, Legendary Kids Press was able to speak with bassist Dan Shepherd about the EP, the band’s upcoming tour plans and who their current influences are.

How would you describe your music to those who have never listened to the band before?

A mixture of melodic emo and pop-punk; completely depressing, but fun to move around to. Recently, we’ve been compared to bands from Brand New to Being As An Ocean, all the way to As It Is. If you like bands like Brand New and Moose Blood, then hopefully, you’ll dig us.

How did the band come together?

Myself and Kyle [Davies, guitar] were in an old band together and we always used to play with Andy [Thomson, vocals] and Ste’s [Wetherell, guitar] old band around our hometown. So when those bands broke up, it just kind [of] made sense to give it a go with the four of us. We all had a passion for the pop-punk scene and festivals like Slam Dunk, so we fit together really easily. Jono [Wetherell, drums] is Ste’s younger brother, so it was a no brainer to bring him in to complete the line-up.

You’ll be releasing your new EP, Homegrown, on February 22. What was the recording process like?

The recording process was great. We did it over three days with Drew Lawson down at Steel City Studios in Sheffield. Before we even started recording, he sat us down for a couple of hours and asked us a load of questions about the EP, just so he could get a vibe for what we wanted, and everything seemed comfortable from the start. He definitely brought out the best of us and we’d recommend him to anyone. 

What was the inspiration behind the lyrics on the EP?

In general, the lyrics on this EP are mostly about the dealings of home life, hence the title, “Homegrown”. The title track is about people moving away and having to deal with not having them around anymore. It also talks about the troubles of growing up. With most people our age having kids and moving away for university, I chose to stay here and it’s just about my feelings around that.

The other tracks touch upon things like dealing with issues, such as depression or losing a loved one. There’s the typical depressing break-up song on the record, but I feel it takes a different slant compared to other songs of the same nature.

How would you say the tracks on Homegrown differ from those on Looking Back?

They’re a lot more mature. The songwriting on Looking Back was more traditional and we wrote that EP to kind of fit in with the UK pop-punk scene. The lyrics deal with more adult themes, rather than the typical break-up song. We experimented more with guitar tones, lead lines and time signatures. This time around, we wrote songs that we would want to listen to ourselves, closer to what we grew up on, rather than trying to fit into a specific genre or [to] please a particular crowd. We’re completely comfortable with what we’re doing now and that’s the first time we’ve ever been able to say that.

You released the EP’s lead single, “Monophobia”, at the end of last year. How has fan reaction been?

The reaction we got was incredible. We weren’t expecting much after being rather quiet in the months before, especially with the dynamic shift of our old guitarist Brogan leaving and the track was completely different to anything we’ve done before. We made the decision to change our sound almost a year ago and we’ve had these songs to listen to for months now. The last thing people heard from us was larger-than-life posi pop-punk songs, so to have [them] really get behind it was incredible. We’ve received more positive feedback from that one song alone than our entire last EP.

Will you be touring in promotion of Homegrown?

That’s the plan! We’ve got management and a booking agent on board now. He’s working hard to get us out as much as possible. However, due to certain commitments, we can’t go out for weeks at a time, so we’re organizing more than our fair share of weekenders with a lot of cool bands. Hopefully, we can announce some stuff soon. We’re trying to hit as many places in the UK as we can in 2016 though. We had a fairly stagnant 2015 and we don’t want a repeat of that.

What bands in today’s scene do you take influence/inspiration from?

The answer to this question will vary, depending on what member you ask. Generally, we tend to take a lot of influence from current pop-punk/emo bands, like Knuckle Puck, Turnover and Mooseblood, but at the same time, we idolize older bands, like Brand New and Taking Back Sunday.

Any last words?

February 22nd. Stay miserable.

Homegrown is set for release February 22. Those wishing to stay up-to-date with Across All Oceans can do so via Facebook and Twitter.

By Clare Fitzgerald