Stand Atlantic refuse to stagnate with their excellently eclectic fourth album ‘…WAS HERE’. Check out our new Upset cover story.
Words: Ciaran Picker.
Of all the problems bands face, there’s one that remains a plague upon musicians across the genre spectrum: is it better that you keep changing your sound, or do you stay the same? Nowhere is this conundrum felt more strongly than in the all-encompassing realm of pop-punk. Bring in electronic elements, and you’re accused of jumping on a trend. Use an acoustic guitar and a key change, and suddenly, you’re too soft. Lean into metalcore with a screamo section or thrash guitar, though, and you’re too heavy. But do all of that, place it behind venomous yet vulnerable lyricism, and mix it all in a cauldron powered by the fiercest of friendships, and the result is Stand Atlantic at their biggest and best.
When the Australian four-piece released their debut album, ‘Skinny Dipping’, in 2018, they were placed firmly in the pop-punk box, with their mix of infectious choruses and heartfelt lyrics landing them tours with all-stars of the game, such as State Champs and Knuckle Puck. Their sophomore record, ‘Pink Elephant’, made clear that they weren’t just going to sit around and go through the motions, though, playing at the edges of electronic rock, messing with song structures, and ultimately growing into the band they actually wanted to be instead of what was prescribed to them.
“I never wanted the pop-punk label in the first place, man!” vocalist Bonnie Fraser reveals. “People latch onto it so hard and decide that’s all you can ever be. I see so many comments that are like, ‘What the fuck are they doing? They haven’t made good music since their first album’, and I just think, ‘Have fun being a 40-year-old child, dude. We’ll see you in two years when you realise what we’re doing is sick!’”
Exactly what Stand Atlantic are doing is hard to narrow down into a single definition, but that’s the point. The transformation that began on their 2022 third album, ‘f.e.a.r’, has taken full flight, punching in electronica to dial up the malevolent forces at work across their brand new fourth LP ‘…WAS HERE’, from the blood-soaked front cover right through to the headbang-heavy closing track, ‘KILL[H]ER’.
‘…WAS HERE’ highlights Stand Atlantic at their most experimental, drawing on both their previous work and an array of external inspiration to keep twisting and turning away from any expectation. Whether in the form of blaring heavy metal guitar solos, electronic vocal distortion, or a brief visit by Australian metalcore titans Polaris, Stand Atlantic have grown into their position as a torchbearer for the new wave of alternative heavyweights, and they don’t care what you think of them anymore.
The album title itself can be read in a few ways. It could act as a Bart Simpson-esque graffiti tag, stamping their authority over the album and letting you know who’s in charge. Alternatively, it could act as a break from the past, as a document of all the playing around that ultimately led them to become the accomplished, adventurous, and arguably eccentric band they are today. Either way, it re-establishes that Stand Atlantic are done treading on eggshells; they’re here to throw some knockout punches.
This ballsy, headstrong approach can be heard in bucketloads across the record, but single ‘SEX ON THE BEACH’ is a case in point. Released in November 2023, it’s a song that was as baffling for fans as it was exciting. “In hindsight, I’m not sure we should have released that track when we did,” Bonnie laughs, “just because it’s super weird, and I think it confused people. Basically, it was a statement that said, ‘We’re putting our foot down, we’re gonna do whatever the fuck we want’. We were showing that we’re totally fearless.”
Arguably more than any of their previous work, ‘…WAS HERE’ highlights immense personal growth for Bonnie and the wider band, both musically and personally. Bonnie freely admits that writing this record didn’t come without struggle, forcing her to delve into issues that not only had she failed to solve, but that she didn’t know how to even begin to deal with.
“It was one of the hardest times of my life,” she recalls. “Me and [producer] Stevie rented this place in Manchester, and he could tell that I just wasn’t on form.”
“I couldn’t really write any lyrics, and the stuff I did write just sounded lame, and it didn’t really say anything, so Stevie asked me what was wrong, and I just broke down. I had all this stuff going on in my personal life that I’d numbed myself to because I didn’t want to face it at that point. On top of that, I was thinking, ‘If I can’t write, then we can’t make music, and we’re all out of a job, and there are all these people relying on me’. I just had to get real with myself and suck the venom out of my life; then, eventually, it began to flow again.”
“I never wanted the pop-punk label in the first place, man!”
Bonnie Fraser
Soul-searching has always been a part of Stand Atlantic’s raison d’être. Fan favourites like ‘Toothpick’ poignantly explore all the things Bonnie could only express through writing, and it was through this more direct lyrical approach that she was able to drop the façade and confront her demons.
“People say, ‘You have your whole life to write your first album’, so ‘Skinny Dipping’ came super easy because I could basically just write about all the stuff that had made me sad, but then on ‘Pink Elephant’, I had to dig a little deeper, and honestly, it meant I just hid behind metaphors because I wasn’t ready to get really vulnerable.”
“‘f.e.a.r’ was a bit easier because I felt like I lost the part of myself that I’d put into the band during Covid, so I just channelled all the anger I felt at the world, but this time, I just had to be super blunt and get to the point. Some of my hardest months came when writing this record, and obviously, there were growing pains, but I’m back to myself, and it’s pretty much thanks to this album.”
These inner battles manifest themselves as a flamethrower of an LP that jolts back and forth between existential fears (‘KISSIN’ KILLER COBRAS’), feminist rebukes (‘GIRL$’), and a searing sense of self that could only come from a band that had completely loosened the shackles of self-doubt and unapologetically unleashed their true power.
You can only really begin to get close to what Stand Atlantic have achieved on this record if you really and truly trust the people around you. The four-piece have always been band over brand, which is why they remain one of the closest groups of friends in music – something which not only allows Bonnie to feel totally secure in her emotional deep dives but that also turns what could be a super intense day job into a total joyride. Have a quick scan through their Instagram page on any given day, and you’re almost bound to see one or all of them laughing until they cry or inexplicably doing a shoe-y on stage.
“We’ve been friends for over ten years now, and every tour we do is just like a summer camp. We’re the four dumbest idiots on the planet. We’re all equal; it’s all a group effort; everyone’s a part of the family.”
Having that tight-knit friendship at the core of the band is exactly what’s needed for a band to keep pushing boundaries and trying new things, to bring ideas to the table and not be afraid of having them shouted down.
“We’ve always said that we don’t want to be boxed in. We always want to reinvent our sound and what we do, but equally, we’ve tried stuff that isn’t really us, and we know our fans will know it’s not legit; we’ve only ever wanted to be ourselves.”
In being wholeheartedly open and honest, Stand Atlantic have been able to create an atmosphere on ‘…WAS HERE’ that only they could. Drafting in help from the likes of alt-rapper Sueco, Mexican singer-songwriter Bruses, and certified rockstar Lynn Gunn of PVRIS – a vote of confidence for anyone on the scene – the Australian four-piece amalgamated a soundscape that paid tribute to all the music that inspires them to keep evolving.
“We keep maturing, and our tastes keep evolving, so we’re never going to create a record that’s solely one genre,” Bonnie puts it. “We basically put together a playlist of all the stuff that we’ve thought was sick and use that to create a vibe.”
“It can be as small as liking two seconds of synth in one track or liking how the tempo suddenly changes, and it ends up being this super weird list of artists that don’t really belong together. For this record, we had Deftones, Korn, and Metallica next to Kasabian, Diplo, and Skrillex.”
With all this background, the album’s driving drums and melodic breakdowns hit even harder, as the band ensured that any computerised rhythms and complex layering could always be both replicated by a live band and stripped back to bare bones and still ‘slap’, to quote Bonnie.
“This record probably has some of the poppiest songs we’ve ever made on it,” she continues, “but we’ve also got some super heavy shit and some stuff like ‘WAKE UP-SIT DOWN-SHUT UP’ that’s basically all electronic. We’re trying to please our fans and keep experiencing new stuff, but I feel like as long as you’re making songs that are undeniably good songs, there’s nothing more you can do.”
And that’s exactly where we find Stand Atlantic in 2024: making really, really good songs in whatever style they want. They’re a testament to how truly diverse alternative music can actually be, in spite of what tribal fanbases may have had you believe throughout the 2010s. Picking and choosing from whatever genre they want, they’re even harder to define than ever before, but that just adds to the exhilaration that ‘…WAS HERE’ provides.
This is Stand Atlantic at their most confident, and it’s a place that a younger version of Bonnie and the band could never have imagined.
“I was a super shy child to the point where my parents thought I was mute because I didn’t speak until I was four. I always gravitated to writing as a super cathartic form of therapy, really. Live shows are also kind of exposure therapy, just breaking myself down and rebuilding. It’s super humbling that people still care about our band at all, especially in places like the UK and the USA. Like, ‘You guys actually care about our stupid band? Damn, we’re actually not a joke?!’ It’s so sick.”
Stupid or not, there’s no doubt that Stand Atlantic represent, in many ways, the very best alternative music can be. Being free of fear, letting their true selves shine brighter than ever before, and creating music that is as deep and dark as it is fiery and fierce, they’re not only the band that they were born to be, they’re the band that the scene desperately needs. ■
Stand Atlantic’s album ‘WAS HERE’ is out now. Follow Upset’s Spotify playlist here.
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