When you load up Spotify, a great big chunk of the time you can’t think what to play, right? You default back to your old favourites, those albums and songs you played on repeat when you first discovered you could make them yours.
This isn’t about guilty pleasures; it’s about those songs you’ll still be listening to when you’re old and in your rocking chair. So, enter Teenage Kicks – a playlist series that sees bands running through the music they listened to in their formative years.
Next up, Honey Revenge.
SLEEPING WITH SIRENS – ‘POSTCARDS AND POLAROIDS’
Devin: This song “scratched my brain” before that was a thing people said. My infatuation with Sleeping With Sirens took over a large portion of my high school years. I found out about them the summer going into 9th grade, and it completely changed the trajectory of my life. I’d never listened to music with screaming in it before, and I thought I was so tough. ‘Postcards’ was a song, however – that really made me want to sing though. I was definitely the annoying kid singing in the hallways with headphones in that people made fun of.
YOU ME AT SIX – ‘THE DILEMMA’
Devin: I discovered YMAS in the winter of my sophomore year. I distinctly remember because now, whenever it starts to get cold, I feel compelled to listen to them. There was something about the ‘Sinners Never Sleep’ record as a whole that rewired my brain. It was the perfect combination of riffs and melodies for my little pubescent emo brain. I always got iTunes gift cards for Secret Santa in choir. That year I used my gift cards to buy the entire You Me At Six discography.
CHIODOS – ‘EXPENSIVE CONVERSATIONS IN CHEAP MOTELS’
Devin: Now, THIS song made me feel edgy. I would walk to my classes, glaring at everyone to the songs on ‘Devil’. I worked at Hot Topic and got a sweet deal on the vinyl, and I still have it to this day. I swear, when I listened to this track, I had steam coming out of my ears and nose; it was so aggressive to me. I still stand by this album being a masterpiece.
PARAMORE – ‘TURN IT OFF’
Devin: A fun fact about me is that I didn’t really understand the concept of albums until high school. I’m the oldest child in my whole family, so I didn’t have anyone to show me music growing up. I discovered most of my favourite artists on my own, and so despite listening to Paramore since middle school, I had mostly been listening to individual songs.
Don’t get me wrong, I listened to most of their songs. I just hadn’t heard ALL of them until I got control over my mom’s iTunes account and started sneakily buying the full albums. ‘Turn It Off’ was one of the songs I missed out on. The first lyric, “I scraped my knees while I was praying”, messed me up so bad. I was so consumed by my love for the song I obnoxiously made my email: inallmyspiteiturnitoff@gmail.com. Funny enough, I used the same email to buy my first Paramore concert tickets and was randomly selected to meet them before the show.
BUCKETHEAD – ‘SOOTHSAYER’
Donny: Like a lot of kids my age, I originally started playing guitar because of Guitar Hero. I remember playing one day and coming across this song called ‘Jordan’, and it blew my mind. So naturally, I looked up the artist and found more! ‘Soothsayer’ was the second Buckethead song I listened to, and it immediately inspired me. I loved it at the time because chicken man fingers go brrr, but it tells a story that can be understood without language, and that’s what kept me invested. The beginning sounded super easy, so I tried to learn how to play it on real guitar and did not get very far at all. But it was a challenge that has stayed on my playlist since 2016.
STATE CHAMPS – ‘MINE IS GOLD’
Donny: Okay, so I joined my first band in high school. I was a freshman, a group of seniors needed a guitar player, and I was the only candidate. We start practising together, and the drummer starts harping on us about this thing called ‘Stage Presence’. I wasn’t comprehending, so he brought me to a State Champs show, and I got bit by the live music bug. The energy in the venue wasn’t like anything I had ever felt before. Hearing everyone scream those words together, jump up and down at the same time, push each other around and help each other up… That was it for me. The entire ‘Living Proof’ record went on my playlist; this riff is just the one in my head while I’m writing this.
THE OFFSPRING – ‘BAD HABIT’
‘Smash’, ‘Americana’, ‘Ixnay’ and ‘Conspiracy’ were angry, loud and sweary, the perfect mix for angsty teenagers. Apart from being one of the most disappointing gigs of my young life (enough said about that, the better), Offspring’s albums were constantly playing in my house and in the car. We used to pack the car with sleeping bags, a tent, all the family, and drive to France. The car would be so stacked that, as the youngest, I’d be sat in the middle seat, on top of a bunch of stuff, and the whole family would belt out the words to Smash. Which in itself was pretty amazing, but Bad Habit stuck out as the song that brought us the most joy. Mum would try and turn down the middle bit (“You stupid dumbsht goddamn motherfcker!”), but half the time would get it wrong, which meant we got to shout swear words at the top of our lungs. Mint.
CHUNK! NO CAPTAIN CHUNK – ‘TWIST THE KNIFE’
Donny: My homies and I used to share earbuds on the bus, and this song was everything I was looking for. I was already into pop punk and mainstream metal, but this song put my favourite elements of both into one place. Super cool intro straight into the circle pit. Hit a lil 2-step in the pre-chorus, then jump for the chorus! But in the bridge, we’re throwing elbows and pizza parties! This song was kinda my gateway to metal music; this was the point of no return.
BORN OF OSIRIS – ‘MACHINE’
Donny: All of my teachers were telling me that I could go after music; I just needed to make sure I had a backup plan! So I joined robotics, I didn’t learn much, but I did see someone walking around at a competition wearing a Carnifex hoodie. I was too nervous the first day, but on day two, I walked up and was like, “hey, I saw your hoodie; I wanna get into music like that, can you give me a good place to start?” Except it didn’t come out smoothly at all. They gave me some bands to check out, and first up was Born of Osiris. The intro to ‘Machine’ was just suspenseful enough for the guitars and drums to pull me straight down into the metalcore scene. I had never heard riffs like that, and I’d never heard shred guitar like THAT! I spent so many hours playing this song so wrong, haha.
INFECTIOUS GROOVES – ‘VIOLENT AND FUNKY’
Donny: My uncle and I are into a lot of the same music, so we became pretty loyal concert buddies. On one of our many adventures, he told me to check this out, that he had something I had never heard before, and he was right! This song is a trip; it starts with a nice lil guitar riff, the drums introduce themselves, and then you get slapped with one of the fattest baselines you’ll ever hear. Unrelenting and bursting with raw energy and groove. What really got me (that I didn’t learn until after I graduated) was that the drummer on this song is now in Avenged Sevenfold, and the bassist is in Metallica. Insane to think about how their paths led them to where they are today.
Taken from the May 2023 issue of Upset. Honey Revenge’s debut album ‘Retrovision’ is out 23rd June.
