"This is not the right terminology, but I appreciate the fact that I have a chance to defend myself before people can form opinions… I can bask and be proud a little bit before the anxiety hits. Like, when you see the 300 comments on YouTube, and there's the one that says, 'Why doesn't he scream as much on this?' Before I see that, I have a chance to be proud about it."
It's a good time to catch Prince Daddy & the Hyena's Kory Gregory. This is the very first interview to promote new album 'Hotwire Trip Switch' and Dork's well in the weeds of artistic anxiety and creativity – perhaps before emotional burnout turns the album promotion process into a chore.
And it's pertinent too, because Prince Daddy are jumping into the unknown. They're a band that's grown bigger with every release. They're survivors of the post-emo revival boom, and as they grow artistically, those roots that tie them to the past continue to be severed.
With a beloved debut behind them, an astonishingly brave concept album and a stellar breakout, they've continued to evolve while successfully bringing the fans with them every step of the way. The only way to top that is to successfully land the album of their career. Shout it from the rooftops, but with 'Hotwire Trip Switch' it might just be mission accomplished.
It means that Kory and the good ship Prince Daddy – crewed by guitarist Cameron Handford, drummer and vocalist Daniel Goreham and bassist Jordan Chmielowski – have every right to be proud, despite the anxiety around any negative responses when the album lands.
Interestingly, despite this obvious musical growth, 'Hotwire Trip Switch' lacks the narrative scope of the group's previous efforts. Instead of layered themes and 'shroom-induced indie-rock musicals, it's a record that doubles down on what Prince Daddy & the Hyena do best: writing banger after banger after banger.
"I think, every record leading up to now was kind of… heavy-handed sounds a little too insulting, like I'm hitting down. How I'd describe it is that I would write the record before I wrote any songs for the record. I had an outline, and I knew what I needed to say, and I knew what the concept was. I knew what I wanted to accomplish, and then had to write 9 to fifteen songs to fit that vision.
"Whereas this one took actual effort. That [the old way] was how I learned to write music, so it took actual effort not to do that. It was a challenge to myself. I think it ended up with me realising that I still love conceptual records, but I was also able to be a little bit more sincere and more transparent than I was with the other ones. Not because I wasn't on the other records, but because I was able to talk about and write about things that I was feeling and not have to be worried about what its role was in the album or where it fit in the vision."
"I was also able to be a little bit more sincere and more transparent"
When Kory speaks of this notion of anxiety, it's perhaps not unfounded. The longstanding perception of Prince Daddy & the Hyena is that they're the "weed and pizza" band, even though their lyrical output is often wrapped up in overanalysing the world around them.
But they're also rowdy and fun to mosh to. They're party punks with Big Feelings. And while this may be true on their debut 'I Thought You Didn't Even Like Leaving' and to a lesser extent 2019's 'Cosmic Thrill Seekers', it was largely jettisoned on 2022's phenomenal self-titled effort. In that case, a broader sound – with nods to the Goo Goo Dolls, Fountains of Wayne and Third Eye Blind – made for a far more dynamic and textured experience.
This time, the gloves are well and truly off. Sonic touchpoints abound, from Green Day to Good Charlotte and from Joyce Manor to Jeff Rosenstock. There are even meaty riffs that recall Queens of the Stone Age, and playful pop-rock that's in the same ballpark as the All-American Rejects. In short, it's a kaleidoscope of modern rock, genre-hopping with abandon but remaining rooted in Prince Daddy's traditional world. It's a perfect example of how to showcase growth while preserving what made the band special in the first place.
"Realistically, this was what was gonna happen, regardless of what people thought about the record before, or the record before that, or the record before that," says Kory. "I always feel like there's some kind of insecurity – because I'm an insecure little boy – but this outlet is an exception to that insecurity, where I can fight back.
"I think people could see through it if, at the risk of sounding pretentious, our artistic integrity was capitalised for fan service. A big part, at least as I see it, is that if you're still a fan, the charm [of our band] is transparency, realness, or not having a wall between us. So, beyond being the pizza and weed band, or writing fast songs, or the lyrical content, I think if it was that that was sacrificed, that would be the most polarising thing – but I think we've done a pretty good job in maintaining that relationship."
A good example of this transparency can be seen when the discussion turns to lead single 'Big-Box Store Heart'. A quirky toe-tapper with a driving chorus, it's equal parts Fountains of Wayne style geek rock and Motion City Soundtrack alt-punk. With each song on the album about whatever Kory was feeling and thinking at a certain point, a love song would always be treacherous water to enter. And so it proved: just a week after deciding it was a single, Kory and the person in question split up.
At that point, it might have been easier to pivot to a different single or junk the song altogether. But in the spirit of being truthful to the ambition of delivering a record that charted the immediacy of the feelings, it made the cut. The album is undoubtedly better for that selfless decision, too.
A further example can be seen in the incredibly fun 'SHITSHOW or Boulevard of Soaking Dreams' – a song about super-luxurious showers. There's a cheeky nod to Green Day's 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' in there, too, but it's also the perfect example for a peek inside the mind of Kory's songwriting process. Be warned, things are about to get meta…
"More or less, it is a song about savouring my time in the shower," says Kory. "My form of isolation is long ass indulgent showers, and having that be my moment where the 'world is off'. I have an Apple Watch, and I'll have a lot of ideas – either a melody or a lyric – when I'm in the shower or on a walk. In fact, 90% of my songs start either in the shower or on a walk. And I'll record it as a voice memo.
"In the shower, I also have a Bluetooth speaker in there, and for the hour I'm in there, I'll listen to music, and that Green Day song was playing while I was singing the melody to the voice memo, so you can hear 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' playing in the background. I love Green Day, and it's obviously a tongue-in-cheek joke in referencing it. I'm sure at some point, on our Patreon, I'll post that watch memo," laughs Kory.
Ultimately, the freeness suits Prince Daddy & the Hyena, and regardless of concepts and high ideas, the music biz is about the songs. Just as on the group's self-titled album, here, they are smart, funny, littered with name-checks and references and in-jokes, but – most importantly – they rock.
It's funny to think that by making such a stark 'anti-concept' concept record that Prince Daddy & the Hyena struck gold, but that's the truth of the matter.
"Imagine saying I wrote a song today because I was so fucking annoyed by being on the phone with my internet provider," laughs Kory. "Even on the first record, that just wasn't even an option, because 'pizza and weed' was the concept." Indeed.
Here, though, such insights feel both life-affirming and revelatory. It means that Prince Daddy & The Hyena's open-world adventure might just be the best punk album of the year; it's certainly the ultimate realisation of Kory's abundant songwriting talents.
Prince Daddy & the Hyena's album 'Hotwire Trip Switch' is out now.
