This month Junior will be taking the spotlight as our band of the month. Check out why we think you should be giving them a listen.
When most people think of pop-punk, they think of the old school Blink-182, Bowling For Soup or for the newbies the likes of Neck Deep, All Time Low and State Champs. Lurking in the shadows of these bands is a whole host of incredible pop-punk bands that you should check out with South Wales trio Junior being a prime example. The trio, vocalist/guitarist Matt Attard, bassist/vocalist Mark Andrews and drummer Si Martin, while predominately residing in Cardiff, were a trans-Atlantic band for a period as bassist Mark was also living in America to pursue his wrestling career (which he proudly regularly uses his own band’s music as his theme, the current being Fall To Pieces). So what do the others do? Well Matt is a children’s author and Si is the head of Heads Above The Waves, a not-for-profit organisation that aims to help raise awareness of depression and self-harm in young people.
So they have all have pretty cool day jobs but what about the band? Well Junior formed in late 2013, early 2014 immediately standing out in the clichéd and over-saturated pop-punk world of songs about pizza and girls with their upbeat, more story-like (albeit heavily Blink 182 inspired) pop-punk. They released their first official music video They Don’t Make Them Like Kelly Kapowski No More in early 2015 to a rapturous reception (so much so that two years on when the band played a Heads Above The Waves charity event, fans spent a lot of the time asking for the song). Their first record This Town Sucked Anyways was released on March 2, 2014, followed by October 2015’s highly successful JuniorLand which shows the storytelling in a true manor. September 2016 saw the band link up with Sheffield skate-punks Fierce Morgan to create the Split EP. You should check them out because they aren’t your average pop-punk band and are like a nice sex on the beach on a boiling hot summers day when everyone else in pop-punk are sipping pina coladas (btw that is a compliment as I don’t like pina colada, I prefer sex on the beach).
Junior took some time out of their hectic lives to answer a few questions for us to help you get to know the better!
Describe yourself in 3 words for people that don’t know you?
Nice Welsh adolescence
What band/album made you want to get into music?
Mark – Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (Blink 182)
What was the first gig you attended
Mark -Deep Purple
Matt – Mindless Self Indulgence
Si – Funeral For A Friend
If you could only listen to one album forever, what would it be?
Matt – Radiohead – Ok Computer
What is the best thing about being in a band?
Drinking way more Dr Pepper than normal.
Check out the band’s latest video for track Fall To Pieces featuring Sean Smith (formerly The Blackout) below;