PUP have come a long way since their days as Topanga. After ditching the old name and opting for a more anthemic, ear-wormy punk approach, the newly branded PUP released their exhilarating self-titled debut album. While the album gained them some buzz on its own, they were ready to promote the hell out of it and hit the road for a relentless tour cycle.
Over the past two years, the Toronto four-piece have played over 250 shows across North America, Canada, and Europe. It's an accomplishment achieved through blood, sweat, and hatred, as documented in the video for "If This Tour Doesn't Kill You, I Will" (and, come to think of it, most of their music videos). Their road warrior status has become legendary.
Today, PUP is back with their sophomore album, The Dream Is Over. After almost destroying his vocal chords on the road, lead singer Stefan Babcock was advised by a doctor to retire from playing music for the sake of his health. Obviously that didn't stop them — the doctor's exact words became the title of their new record. Consider it a big middle finger to the the disastrous diagnosis.
Listening to the anxiety-ridden lyrics on The Dream Is Over, you get a sense that these songs are a therapeutic release of bottled up self-criticism. It's raw, honest, and totally cathartic. No sign of the sophomore slump.
"It's the first second record I think any of us have put out," said Zach Mykula, PUP's drummer. "It's definitely more stressful, but I think we're more focused, more confident in what we're playing and how we want to express ourselves. That's a cool thing."
That confidence didn't come easy. Considering the hardships that PUP have endured while battling it out on tour, it only felt right to get some of their stories for Touries. I spoke to drummer Zack Mykula, who shared three of his most memorable and awkward tour moments from the past few years on the road. He could have shared about 100 more.
Zack Mykula: I'll preface this by saying that at this time, I had been taking depression medication for two years and it had been reading havoc on my lower bowels. I'd been contending with that, so being any distance away from a bathroom was always a gamble. Sometimes it was fine, sometimes it wasn't.
We were driving through Alabama, it was around Canada Day. We wanted to get some fireworks because we were heading to Florida and we wanted to celebrate. We wanted to show off and say, "look how Canadian we are," and do something with fireworks, which coincidentally is very illegal unless it's an actual day of celebration. Obviously Canada Day is not a day of celebration in Florida.
So, we were driving through Alabama, and we spotted a fireworks depot because, I mean, they're everywhere. We decided to stop to pick up those fireworks and suddenly it came upon me that I really had to use the bathroom.
We pulled in, and even though we were so close I wasn't sure if I was gonna make it. We pulled into the parking lot and there was a moment of indecision because we were basically equal distance from the fireworks store and a gas station across the road. I would have to run across a highway and go there, so I had a moment trying to figure out whether or not there was a bathroom in the fireworks store.
Finally I was like, "screw it," I'm just going to run to the gas station bathroom. I run across the highway, I get in there, and I'm really relieved, but suddenly as I'm pulling my pants down to sit and actually do it, the urge just overcomes me and I totally shit my pants as I was about to sit down onto the toilet.
It was disappointing for numerous reasons. The primary reason was that I had bought these awesome batman underpants at Walmart for like $3 and I was wearing them. Obviously I had to ditch those, sheepishly clean up and then walk back to the van. I got there and Steve was like, "yeah, there was totally a bathroom in the fireworks place." I was like, "well, it doesn't really matter now because I shit my pants anyway."
To kind of add onto that, we had finally gotten to Florida, and we had our fireworks with us and we wanted to just hang out with our friends on the beach. It was night time, and we were trying to gather something that could create fire so we could shoot the fireworks off. As we're doing it, we find out that it's illegal to shoot fireworks in Florida. It also turned out that we were right next to a police station when we did it. So, we had to shoot them off and immediately book it because they were going to see that, obviously, because that's the point of fireworks.
We made it out unscathed. All we wanted to do was celebrated Canada Day. I'm sure they would have let us off, but yeah. It was a calculated risk and I guess it payed off.
Zack Mykula: So, we got asked to open for The Hives at the Brixton Academy. Obviously we said yes. We were doing soundcheck, and [Hives lead singer] Pelle [Almqvist] comes striding through the guest area. He just stands there and watches us soundcheck. When we finished the soundcheck song he was like "sounds good guys, how's it going?" He was super nice.
That was crazy to me, because we idolize The Hives. That's one of the bands that a lot of people came up listening to and inspired them to play music. That was very surreal. He walked off whistling the melody from "Mabu." Very surreal.
We were definitely starstruck, like, we couldn't talk to them. They were very nice and inviting, but we were all totally dumbfounded. You always think you're going to play it cool, but it never happens that way.
Also, getting to watch The Hives from stage was nuts. They're like, one of the best bands, period, so it was insane. They had all these techs working for them that were all dressed as ninjas. The entire package has this crazy theatrical component. Everything is always part of the show, which is super cool.
Zack Mykula: It was Nestor's birthday, and we were in Amsterdam at an awesome beer bar that had all this Trappist Belgian beer. It was pretty classy for people like us.
We were having a good time, all drinking copiously. Steve went to the bathroom, this innocuous moment, and somebody followed him in. It was this girl, Steve described her as a "skinhead." I guess she was just like, a punk. So she walks up behind him and asked, "are you not here to finger me?" He was like, "uhh, no, I'm not." He zips up and goes back to the table.
I don't know what happened, whether she worked there, or we were being too raucous with our drinking, but almost immediately after he got back from the bathroom we got kicked out of the bar. We were all like "what the fuck?" and Steve told us, "yeah, I went into the bathroom and this girl came in and asked if I was going to finger bang her and I said no." We just figured that she knew somebody there, so we got kicked out for some reason. I guess it was either from humiliation or from anger. Maybe Steve went in the wrong bathroom.
That's actually in the "Dark Days" video, animated for everybody to see. People have asked me if all those events happened. By and large, they're all true stories, barring us physically getting into an altercation. We barely like touching each other let alone hitting each other.
Touring didn’t kill PUP, but it did give them a lot of good stories by Adam Pugsley | Chart Attack.
