There is an honesty elicited by the pummeling intensity of Comeback Kid’s music that is admittedly fearsome, but there is also a purity to be found within its power
There is an honesty elicited by the pummeling intensity of Comeback Kid’s music that is admittedly fearsome, but there is also a purity to be found within its power. Andrew Neaufeld is the bands vocalist, as well as Comeback Kid’s founding member, alongside guitarist Jeremy Hiebert. Neaufeld took some time to speak to Beat from Germany to discuss Comeback Kid’s special relationship with Melbourne and the song that means the most to him from their latest album Symptoms & Cures .
How’s Germany?
“Germany is kind of grey but it’s not bad. I’m in Frankfurt staying near the main station, having just finished a tour around Germany and for the next week until I come to Australia I’m just kind of chilling around Europe.”
You’ve played in Melbourne quite a few times in the band’s eight-year career. How do you describe Comeback Kid’s relationship with this country?
“We have a long history of coming to Australia, I think this is Comeback Kid’s sixth trip out there – almost every summer we’ve been there. The first time we came to Australia was 2005 and we’d just written some songs for an album that was to be called Wake The Dead (that came out later that year on Victory Records). We played our song – which is kind of like the song that has turned out to be our most popular song – that’s also called Wake The Dead… but at the time no one had heard it before, but it got such a massive response at this all ages show we were playing, in like, a community show. That moment sticks out in my mind as a pretty cool memory of Australia. We always really like playing Melbourne.”
Where do you see yourselves sitting in the current global hardcore scene that seems to be crossing over so much into metal?
“We’re very much straight up traditional hardcore. We’re just off tour with Parkway Drive and, you know, I don’t think the hardcore sound is a nationality-based thing. However, we do try and bring a fresh vibe to hardcore in what we do but we’re definitely not a ‘metalcore’ band or interested in heading in that direction, [which is] something that it seems a lot of new hardcore bands are doing.”
Your album from earlier this year, Symptoms & Cures , sounds like it’s a harkening back to that traditional hardcore sound you’re talking about…
“It was kind of a throwback to our earlier songs; musically there’s a lot more of a punk rock twist to it and my vocals have got a lot more heavier, which is true to how I sing live. I think that every Comeback Kid album has turned out differently and Symptoms & Cures is a lot more raw, production-wise, and has a little bit more of a punk twist to it… but I think it’s our most powerful record.”
I understand that the song G.M. Vincents & I is about a car accident that you were involved in. Can you tell us about what I am sure is a very personal song?
“One time on tour I was riding along in a van with another band called Grave Maker which ‘G.M.’ stands for. We were riding through the night in Canada on this one road that kind of twists and turns between around B.C (British Columbia) and in the middle of the night we spun out and flipped down a hill about five times and one of my friends who was in shotgun (front passenger seat) at the time, ended up getting tangled up in the wreckage with just his head and shoulders outside the van… he was stuck like that for about an hour until the fire-trucks and ambulance came. It was probably one of the most dramatic experiences of my life, so I wrote a song about that – watching my friend and not knowing if he’s gonna live or if he’s paralysed. That song refers to how now we keep passing that same place on tour and therefore it’s a celebration that he’s okay and we’re still doing what we were always doing, but it’s also reflective of that time and that night.”
With the live set that you’re bringing to Melbourne next week what material can fans expect to hear?
“We’ll be playing a pretty even mix of all four of our records (Turn It Around 2003, Wake The Dead 2005, Broadcasting 2007, Symptoms & Cures 2010) so that normally works out to three-to-five songs from each record. We know that a lot of people that listen to Comeback Kid like a lot of the earlier stuff, but then a lot of people have just heard of us in the last couple of years. And there will be some new songs that will be exciting.”
It seems like a lot of hardcore bands at the moment are incorporating covers into their sets. Are you planning on doing so on this tour?
“We have before but haven’t for a long time. We were on a Sick Of It All tribute album and we used to cover 7 Seconds back in the day, but we haven’t done that for a while. We’d like to relearn some covers to put in our sets though. Covers are always just fun. We sound checked to Say It Ain’t So by Weezer which was really fun [he then starts singing the chorus from Say It Ain’t So].”
With that in mind, it looks like the hot tip is to get down to Billboard The Venue on Sunday December 5 for sound-check and hear COMEBACK KID blasting out a Weezer classic! They play two shows that day (2pm for U18s, 8pm for 18+) with Architects, Rolo Tomassi and This Is Hell. Tickets and info from ticketek.com.au, 132 849 or billboardthevenue.com.au. Symptoms & Cures is out now on Victory Records.
