WATCH: State Champs promise “a new chapter” and collaborations on their new album
They chat to Kerrang! Radio at Download Festival
Last updated 10th Jun 2017
State Champs promise their third studio album will be an exciting “new chapter” for the band.
Speaking to Kerrang! Radio’s Jack Wood ahead of their inaugural performance at Download Festival, singer Derek DiScanio and guitarist Tyler Szalkowski say that emboldened by recording two tracks with All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth, they’re lining up more collaborations for the record.
“We gotta finish making it like and writing it first and then we’ll track it,” Derek told Jack. “We just put out a deluxe edition of our last album (October 2015’s ‘Around the World and Back’) and that came with a DVD and two brand new songs (‘Hurry Up and Wait’ and ’Slow Burn’) and those songs are a bit of a segue into what the new stuff is gonna sound like.”
Tyler adds: “Those two songs were written back in October to put in with the DVD but they’re not like b-sides or whatever.”
Derek continues: “So we’re doing a lot of demoing and writing. Normally we write all the songs ourselves, this time around we’re starting to collab with our friends and stuff like that – the two new songs (on the deluxe edition of ‘Around the World and Back’) we wrote with Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low and that was a really cool thing to do.
“He’s a really good friend of ours obviously so it was great to get in the room with someone else and get their thoughts. We’re still sticking to our roots and we’re still sounding like Champs but it’s a new chapter y’know.”
You can watch our full chat with Tyler and Derek below where they also chat Download Festival debauchery, dropping out of college, losing track of the days of the week on tour, wellies, their blossoming bromance with Neck Deep including getting tattoos of each other, The Mighty Boosh and more.