Pop punk without fake nostalgia.
Before its presentation on the return of Vans Warped Tour in Mexico, Joyce Manor talks about their creative process, their relationship with nostalgia and the raw energy that still defines the band almost two decades after they began.
Since their beginnings in the California punk scene, Joyce Manor has built a short but intense discography, marked by fast, emotional and deeply honest songs. With almost 20 years of experience, the band continues to find new ways to channel the energy of pop punk without losing the rawness that characterizes them. In conversation with Indie Rocks!the group talks about memories of their early days, the way they write songs, their relationship with the past, and what it means to play at festivals as diverse as Coachella and the Vans Warped Tour Mexico.
Indie Rocks!: Something that I have always really liked about his music is how he manages to capture the drama of a very everyday life. Nostalgia and looking back seem to be recurring themes in your work. So I'd like to do just that for a moment. You guys have said that Joyce Manor started after a pretty chaotic trip to Disneyland with Four Loko. If you could talk to yourselves at that moment, what do you think would surprise you most about where the band ended up?
Joyce Manor: Many things. What of Mark HoppusFor example. That would have blown our minds. The day we went to Disneyland we talk all the time about Enema of the State. We were nerding out about Beach Boys and Blink-182. If someone had told us: “they are going to write a song called 'Heart Tattoo'to Mark Hoppus he's going to like it and then they're going to play it with him live at the Hollywood Palladium” would have been completely surreal.
We would also be surprised if we are still making this band, a band that hadn't even started at that time. If someone had told us that almost 20 years later we would still be spending time together making music… it would have been amazing. Honestly, everything about this band would have been impossible to imagine at the time.
GO!: After so many years, the band has gone through different stages. What has changed the most in your creative process?
JM: Nothing really. For us it has always been important to maintain the same ambition: to write the best songs we can, but according to our own standards. The only thing that matters is making something that excites us and that we feel is worth adding to our catalog.
The process remains basically the same. I write songs, I rewrite them, I change them, I throw them in the trash and start again. Sometimes three different songs come from a single idea: a part of one, another part of another. I was doing that before anyone even heard our music. Nobody heard those songs, but I still wanted to make them the best possible.
Live it's something similar: we simply want to put on a great show and be completely present with the audience.
GO!: So at the end of the day, it seems like you've always made music for yourselves and not to meet someone else's expectations.
JM: Completely. It has always been like this. Sometimes it happens that some bands have people around them telling them what they should do to be more successful. That can corrupt the original idea. It's something that happens a lot in cinema too: producers or people from the studio who want to change your vision.
We've seen that happen to other bands. Suddenly someone tells them: “you should sound more like that band that is having success.” But it has never happened with us. We have always been happy doing our thing.
Furthermore, our seal has always been very respectful. They have supported us to make the albums we want to make, but without trying to change us.
GO!: Speaking of nostalgia, your music seems to have a very strong relationship with the past. But looking back can also be dangerous. How do you handle that tension?
JM: It's something we are quite aware of. We didn't want to make a record that simply romanticized the past. Looking back too much can be an uncreative place to be.
What we tried was to reflect on our youth without those “nostalgia glasses.” Remember that, in reality, not everything was as incredible as we sometimes remember. We wanted to avoid that idea of “the old days were the best.” That would have been a very uninteresting album.
GO!: One of my favorite songs on the album is “Whatever It Was.” They once said that this song would work perfectly in a movie. Shrek. Did you have a specific scene in mind?
JM: The truth is that I have never seen Shrek in my life. I tried watching it recently and lasted about eight seconds before turning it off. But we know the type of music that appears in those movies, like “All Star” of Smash Mouth. That kind of pop rock from the late '90s or early 2000s.
While we were recording the song in the studio, the working name was “Shrek 5”. And right at that moment they announced that they were actually doing Shrek 5. So we still have hope that the song ends up in that movie. Maybe we need to start a petition on Change.org.
GO!: If Joyce Manor had to write a song specifically for a movie, what kind of movie would it be?
JM: I think we have several songs that could work in movies. “Falling in Love Again” It could be very good in a style movie John Hughes. For years we were compared to bands that appear in teen comedies or movies about teen parties.
There are also songs like “Gotta Let It Go” that could work in an action movie, like a scene where a car explodes in the trailer.
GO!: For someone who has never heard Joyce Manor, what song would you recommend as a gateway to their music?
JM: “Constant Headache.”
IR!: Why that?
JM: I think it encapsulates everything our band is. We recorded it when we were young and didn't really know how to make records. It sounds completely chaotic, but it has a lot of energy. The lyrics are very good and the strength of the song cuts through even the messy recording. It sums up very well what we were at that stage.
It's raw, emotional, very visceral. It has that feeling of sharing too much, but at the same time it's very anthemic.
GO!: This year they will play both in Coachella as in the return of Warped Tour. How do you prepare for such different festivals?
JM: Honestly, we treat them like any other show. But we do find it curious to be able to play in both. I think there are few bands that fit Coachella and also in Warped Tour.
We like to think we make pop punk approved by music critics. We are a little proud of that idea.
GO!: In “Whatever It Was” there is a line that seems to reference Sisyphus pushing the rock up the mountain. Was it intentional?
JM: Yes, although my writing process is quite chaotic. Many times I simply make word associations, looking for rhymes. I improvise ideas and then eliminate what doesn't work.
Sometimes I feel like I'm pulling things from my subconscious. In that song there are many images of everyday life: working in Little Caesarsdrinking to forget a toothache because you can't pay the dentist… That kind of thing.
Then I go through everything and put together something like a poem with refrigerator magnets until something makes sense.
GO!: Do you prefer the studio or the stage?
JM: Probably the studio. Finishing an album and hearing the final result is incredibly satisfying.
But playing live is also incredible. There is a phrase from the guitarist of The Damned who says: “I would play the concerts for free; what they have to pay me is the entire trip.” The moment on stage is incredible, but the rest of the day on tour can be a long time waiting.
Both things are very rewarding, but it's also nice that they have an ending. You can't stay in the studio forever and you can't play forever either.
GO!: Last question: When you write a song, do you sometimes think about how it will work live?
JM: Yes. With “The Possum”For example. While we were recording it, I was thinking: “I hope this causes a huge circle pit.” I imagined people doing a giant mosh.
If that happens one day, I'm going to enjoy it very much. Since we were recording it I thought: this song is going to light up the pit.
Joyce Manor will be part of the Vans Warped Tour Mexico which will be held on September 12 and 13.
