'Let's Start Degeneracy' finds Atlanta-based trio MICROWAVE getting older. Mind you, there's no mustiness here. This is a record that strips away the bullshit to see the band at their most liberated and, as vocalist Nathan Hardy says, "self-actualised". Check out our latest Upset cover story.

Words: Steven Loftin.
Photos: Bridget Craig.

'Let's Start Degeneracy' finds Atlanta-based trio Microwave getting older. Mind you, there's no mustiness here. This is a record that strips away the bullshit to see the band at their most liberated and, as vocalist Nathan Hardy says, "self-actualised".

Following their 2014 debut 'Stovall', the group - completed by bassist Tyler Hill and drummer Timothy "Tito" Pittard - have been on a journey, particularly Nathan. Having grown up in a Mormon household, his breaking away from that led to 'Stovall' being a masked revelation - through fear of giving too much away to his family and peers who didn't know he'd jumped ship. 2016 follow-up 'Much Love' turned away from this entirely.

"I wanted it to be straight up, autobiographical, personal anecdote type thing," he recalls. "That album was written in the time period that I talked to my parents about the fact that I wasn't a Mormon and left the church and felt empowered by doing the thing that I wanted to do; touring around in a band and not being Mormon."

Since then, Microwave have become a much-loved entry in the canon of mid-10s emo-affiliated bands. Their 2022 rollout of 'Let's Start Degeneracy''s first single 'Circling The Drain' found an awaiting eager audience, which Nathan puts down to a bustling interest in touring mates such as Modern Baseball, Pinegrove, and Hot Mulligan, as well as a shaken-soda-can-effect post-pandemic with gigs roaring back to life. But before they could embark on this new endeavour, there was som