UK Pop Punkers, Project Revise, “Hold” Their “Ground” on new single.
UK Pop Punkers, Project Revise, have been making quite a name for themselves since their formation in 2017. With features in Kerrang! Magazine, Alternative Press and on BBC Music, it’s clear that these dudes are on their ascent to becoming the next pop punk band you need to know about.
The rockin’ three piece pop punk outfit from Worcestershire/Redditch UK featuring Chris Tamburro on guitars and vocals, Rich Marshall on bass and vocals, and Dave Yarnell on drums has already released two EPs and a slew of singles. If you haven’t listened to their first two eps ( Songs That Sound Like Songs & Songs from the Shed) or their other singles (Downside Up, Borderline) you have definitely missed out on a lot of pure power pop punk reminiscent of The Wonder Years, A Day to Remember, The Story So Far, and State Champs.
The guys in Project Revise know how to get their fans pumped up and into the moshpit. And they’ve done it again on their latest single, “Hold Your Ground” produced by Dave Draper — the band’s go-to producer. Dave’s the guy behind all of Project Revise’s kick ass tracks.
“We started writing “Hold Your Ground” in October last year, straight after we had gone in and recorded our previous single Downside Up,” Chris told me in my recent interview with him. “It was a pretty quick turnaround for the song. Due to not having any upcoming shows to rehearse for, we were finding some considerable free time for writing. It’s been pretty tough for much of the past year to stay motivated enough to keep on writing. But we’ve been doing our best to turn many of our feelings into creative material of some kind.”
On “Hold Your Ground,” Project Revise are through being pushed around by the mystery person they speak of in the song. They’re taking a stand against allowing themselves to be pulled into the quicksand, and are asking you, the listener, to join in their fight against that person/situation in the moshpit, and “hold your ground from all those people in this town” in a very let’s-all -band -together -and -fight-this-together kind of way. Filled with all the classic pop punk elements — the driving bassline, the classic aggressive chord progressions, the in your face vocals, the tell-it-like-it-is, no nonsense lyrics — if you didn’t know this band, you just might mistake this song for a new single by The Wonder Years, The Story So Far, State Champs, or A Day to Remember. Because Project Revise is on that level of producing pop punk. These aren’t just guys making music in their basements or bedrooms; no, these are guys with full on talent for making music in the the genre. “We're all really inspired by bands like Less Than Jake, Goldfinger, Blink 182, New Found Glory and many more...anything from the early 2000s era of Punk Rock is a HUGE influence on us,” Chris explained. And the influence of all that “early 2000s era” punk is definitely noticeable in so much of Project Revise’s catalogue. And “Hold You Ground” is no exception. You can hear the influence of every band from Blink to New Found Glory on that track — especially in the delivery of the lyrics.
Lyrically, the song very literally speaks to taking a stand against something (or someone) and walking away from it — putting the weight down and holding your ground. Chris explained that the song is “not really about anyone in particular,” further stating that, “I think many people could apply our feelings which come across, to various people or situations in their lives. It is certainly open to the listener’s interpretation.” And hey, whatever inspired the lyrics, it doesn’t matter. The song is good. Like, really fucking headbanging, shout- the -lyrics-in-the car-with-the-stereo good. But surprisingly the chorus didn’t come together so easily in the beginning. “Rich had come up with the chorus for Hold Your Ground and I wrote the verses about a week before we recorded the song. I seem to remember it taking quite a while to come up with vocals to match how intense he had the chorus sounding,” Chris explained. But despite the difficulties, it all worked out.
It should come as no surprise that these guys were able to easily catch the attention of pop punk royalty, Jaret Reddick (you know, the guy from Bowling for Soup) with their song. “We approached Jaret (over social media) after noticing that he had been following the band for a while on Instagram! We sent him over a personalized link to the song at the start of February — and after saying that he digged the song, he then agreed to being in our video!” And yes, Jaret does make a very noticeable cameo in the music video for the track (out now on YouTube). The video is also cool because it features a total of 67 fans including Reddick. “It’s been so difficult to get together and film something with only the band involved, due to all of the lockdowns,” Chris said. “So we felt it was the perfect opportunity to involve our fans once again. We’re so grateful to 67 of our followers who took part in this one — they all rock so much!”
While “Hold Your Ground” is easily Project Revise’s most hyped song right now, it’s not their only really, really, really good song. This is a band that produces hit after hit of pop punk future classics and they keep on hitting. I can’t find one song in their catalogue I don’t like. Few bands are able to pull that off, but Project Revise did. So in case your wondering if pop punk’s dead in 2021, I have news for you, it’s not. Project Revise have saved pop punk, and are proving they have what it takes to “hold” pop punk’s “ground.”
Check out all of their music on all streaming services and on social media @ ProjectRevisePunk
