At Punk Rock Philosophy, we love championing the DIY punk rock spirit. Starting a band with nothing but a bashed-up guitar and a dream is pretty much the punk way of things, so nothing super surprising in that origin story. But what if you and your bandmate don’t live in the same city? What if you’ve actually never met, never even been in the same room? Well Popclaw- that’s Chris Bird and Dan Lawley- haven’t let that stop them! The punk duo have been making music remotely for a few years and the momentum is only increasing- they have their first EP release due in the new year.
Punk Rock Philosophy spoke to 50% of the band (Chris) via Zoom (maybe I’m part of the band now?) to satisfy our curiosity as to how you maintain a long distance creative relationship…
I first came across Popclaw when they released their Christmas track ‘Stocking Filler’ in 2023 in order to raise money for the Trussell Trust. The band themselves labelled it ‘the worst xmas song of all time’ (not even remotely true when that Paul McCartney track exists) but the point was to do their bit for a good cause:
Chris: “I did a lot of songs at the time that were really short [‘Stocking Filler’ is only 1 minute long] because my son was going to bed and I had a limited time to when he would wake up! It was like ‘that’s the verse, chorus, bridge… that’ll do’. ‘A song would literally be about 45 secs long and Dan would say ‘can stuff be a little longer’? I’d be like, ‘no its oomph- it is in and out!
I sent Dan ‘Stocking Filler’ and he said ‘where’s the rest of it?!’ We had a chat about it and he said he should just shout some hardcore vocals and we’ll release it as a Christmas single. We both like the food back charity Trussell Trust and people really responded to the track and the cause so it raised a bit of money. It made its point and did what we wanted it to do.”
If what they want to do is provide listeners with that punk ‘oomph’, then their new EP ‘Atomic Summer’ certainly does that. It’s four tracks of anger, energy and a nod to the classic punk era but with modern themes. It will be out on 3rd January so when you’re in your post-Christmas slump, this will be sure to shake you by the shoulders and start 2025 off with a bang!
And it bears repeating, that all of this has been achieved with the help of email, Zoom calls, MP3 exchanges and home production. Chris and Dan have been close to meeting up but so far, the magic is in the mystery and independent parts of the tracks are being brought together piece by piece. But how did this whole arrangement get started anyway?
Chris: “In lockdown, I was furloughed. I got bored and once my son was 1 year old, he went to bed and I just did the same thing night after night. I picked up my guitar for the first time in 5 years to have something to do. I started messing around and set myself a challenge of doing a little demo. I was on the website ‘Join My Band’- and after a while Dan replied to my advert and we just hit it off! He had similar taste in music, he liked the demos I had done and it just started from there really.”
And the pair have a pretty good system going now, having been making music as Popclaw for a couple of years. So what’s the actual mechanics of developing a Popclaw track?
Chris: “We generally just send stuff- like this EP- I just did the rhythm guitar, bass and drums and send to him and he’ll add on. It goes back and forth, back and forth… and then I do more of the mixing. I am still living in 2020! Dan is vocals and he can also play bass and lead guitar. I do the backbone of the track and he does the fancy parts! It is quite a fluid arrangement, we just sort of do a bit of everything.”
And this lack of in-person ‘jamming’ or recording started out as a reflection of where we were in the UK with Covid restrictions but now…there’s the very adult reality of having to juggle jobs, kids, family etc, leaving little time for rock n roll unless you utilise the tools that enable you to be punks in your own time:
Chris: “Is the universe telling us we need to stay remote? Ha ha.. I have been in bands before where sometimes, someone gets on someone’s nerves and it impacts the band as a whole. We don’t have that because we are both working, both have families, so we can do this in our own time as it suits us and enables us to fit in around our commitments.
The flexibility is what has helped keep it going. And we’ve both been in bands before in our younger years and you have that pipe dream that you’re gonna get a record deal, gonna make it big and you can become disillusioned if that doesn’t happen. Now we’re older, we come from a different place- it is just about the music. That’s what we’re happy with and that’s the crux of it and what keeps us going. We are not chasing an end goal. We just do one song at a time, that’s the goal for us. You can trace that back to punk- it is the purity of it I suppose”.
It’s creating music for the love of creating and finding time to indulge a creative outlet…the punk ethos in a nutshell!
Back to the EP release which is imminent. It’s a significant milestone for the band and one that made them toy with the idea of meeting up in person but there’s no solid plans for that yet. But there has been a lot of prep going into ‘Atomic Summer’. Chris and Dan are excited about unleashing it on the world as it signals a momentum and development that pushes them onto the next iteration of Popclaw’s music:
Chris: “We have had a bit of a chat over the Summer about how we were going to release it. Someone did the artwork for us for the first time, we got some t-shirts as well. It is going to be on all the streaming platforms, we might make it go physical I don’t know! It is only 8 mins long, based on The Ramones but also got more of a 90s/00s pop punk influence. Dan has added some great bits in terms of guitar and vocals. Everything we release is better than the last thing so we’re going in the right direction! Together we could eventually write a song together in a room, instead of in our sitting rooms when the kids are in bed. We’ll see….”
Well if it aint broke, then maybe don’t try and fix it? But who knows what the future holds for Popclaw but right now, there’s their fab new EP to celebrate!
‘Atomic Summer’ will be available on all major streaming platforms on 3rd January 2025. For more information about Popclaw, their previous releases and where you can find the new EP, click HERE.
