The UK pop punk scene is stronger than it’s ever been with a wealth of great bands emerging from all corners of the country. Six Time Champion from Brighton are one of the breakout bands who are on the tips of the tongue of the UK Pop Punk scene at the moment, fresh from releasing their second EP Expecting Honesty.
We caught up with the guys just before their gig at South Sea in Sheffield to talk about the band, their future and the state of the UK pop punk scene
PPD: So how are you guys doing?
STC: Yea, Good Good, It was a bit of a mission though, traffic was shit haha.
PPD: Do you want to go around and introduce yourselves and say what you do in the band.
STC: Will, I play guitar. Rich, I play drums. Steve, I’m on bass, James, I Sing. Simon, I play guitar
PPD: So Last year you released Expecting Honesty, Do you want to tell us a bit about the EP?
STC: We’ve kinda taken influences from pop punk and also heavier influences from hardcore. We set out to up our game from the last EP really. It’s something we’ve been working on it for quite a long time. And Influences really is as it said , expecting honesty. Most of the lyrics are evolved around that, about being honest and expecting honesty from people.
PPD: What sort of bands have influenced you as a band or the EP?
STC: (James)A wide variety really, we all listen to different stuff. On the EP stuff like Such Gold, A Day to Remember, The Story So Far, Set Your Goals. (Will) Some hardcore influences too, me and Rich used to play in a hardcore band. So we take it from there and bring it all together.
PPD: How’s the year been for you so far, you’ve been received in such a short amount of time?
STC: Really good…we’re just booking as much as we can, just wanting to get on the road. We see these good reviews about the EP right, we’ve done a press release with Inception Press and got a lot of reviews through that, the response has been pretty awesome
PPD: How would you say the EP has compared your first release Old Friends, Loose Ends? Is their a contrast in styles?
STC: We’ve just taken it further and beefed it all up really.
PPD: Honed your sound a little bit?
STC: The songs were the first we’d ever written and the first we’d put together as a band but Expecting Honesty we took that, grew the sound to be bigger and louder angrier. (bass) yea we just got angrier. It sounds more band like, fuller
PPD: Like the kind of bands you would listen to?
STC: Essentially yea. A lot more thought was put into it (Expecting Honesty) We already had the tracks before, we just worked on them together as a band. This time we worked them from scratch together.
PPD: Last year you supported Bayside and you’re supporting Real Friends on the upcoming tour, how did that come about? How does it differ fro local shows?
STC: We just got a little lucky I guess, with Real Friends they just asked us if we want to support them. (Rich) I hassle people with emails and it seems to work haha
PPD: In May, you’re back in Sheffield for the Empire Festival, there’s a lot of decent bands on the bill like Trash Boat, Milestones, Homebound. The UKPP scene seems to be a lot healthier than it has been in a long time. How do you see the Pop Punk scene at the moment?
STC: I don’t know, pop punk is a weird one. After TSSF and Neck Deep, they made that sound quite popular and I think a lot of bands copied that and made a few bands really successful from it. I think a lot of bands right now are trying to get away from that and that preconceived notion of pop punk
PPD: Maybe developing our own UK sound rather than the transatlantic sound like the Wonder Years etc…What bands around at the moment do you think we should be taking notice of?
STC: Personally Homebound are really good, I think their new EP is going to be something special and Trash Boat are starting to break out a little bit. Both are actually good friends of ours. We did a weekender with them (Trash Boat) In October and played three dates on the south coast with them and from there became good friends with them.
PPD: What can we expect from you in the future or where do you plan to be in, say, a years time?
STC: Angrier music hahaha and play a hell of a lot of shows and get to as many different places as we can and to as many different people that we’ve not been played to before. Maybe the start of next year put out some new material (Will) We’ve written bits and pieces but it’s a case of supporting the new release and play as much as we can and we’ll be touring pretty heavily this year which is a lot of fun.
PPD: So what have you got up coming?
STC: We’ve got another weekender booked in March and a bits booked over the summer, but yea hopefully more tours.
PPD: What about bigger festivals?
STC: Definitely yea, just making a name for ourselves to get there.
PPD: And a full length at some point?
STC: hahaha yea but we’d need the money for that first.
PPD: Moving forward, are you happy as a band with the direction you’re going in?
STC: Yea, we think so. I think our main problem with records at the moment is that we don’t diversify them. So that’s something we want to look to, maybe drop some slower songs in, some heavier songs in.
PPD: Like we said before, you don’t want to be defined by a genre and have freedom to create your own sound.
STC: Exactly, pop punk is so varied…
PPD: Exactly, is there anything else you’d like to get out there?
STC: Come to our shows and shout in our faces haha yea, that’s it. All our shows and songs are on our Facebook and Bandcamp. We’re not pushing any new material yet, we’re just going to be playing these songs until people are tiered of hearing them haha. We haven’t ventured far from the south coast before so this is the furthest we’ve been, and this year is all about going further afield. This is the first time we’ve played further away than London.
PPD: So it’s just a case of touring relentlessly?
STC: Yea, so at least this way if we gain enough new fans, when we next release something we’ll actually be releasing it to a lot more new people who want to hear it and not just hoping people will hear it.
PPD: So have you seen your self picking up a fan base recently?
STC: yea it’s weird because we see ourselves mentioned more on social networks and stuff which is weird because you never really think about people listening to you when you write your songs, you just don’t contemplate it.
If you haven’t had a chance to see the guys play yet, make sure you do and witness first hand the incredible talent that is rising out of the UK. Be sure to check the guys out on their Facebook for all up coming shows and head over to their Bandcamp or Spotify to listen to their tunes. It’s promising to see a bunch of great dudes with great tunes starting to make some waves and are a testament to the UK scene.
http://sixtimechampion.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/SixTimeChampion
Words by Matt Henson
