Upside Down is a pop-punk band from Spain and have been making waves with their 2017 debut LP Scars Are Forever. We got the chance to talk to them about the elements of their sound, their writing process, touring and more!
Scars Are Forever does a great job of balancing pop-punk and rock without leaning more towards either genre. How do you keep your sound from straying away from that balance?
We try to mix all the influences of each member of the band. We listen to very different music and you can see that in the final product. We don’t think we have our own sound fully developed, so it’s better to keep adding elements we consider suitable FOR it so we can have our sound one day.
Although each song is consistent in its genre, every track is still unique from the other. No song sounds repetitive, which is hard to accomplish especially on a debut LP. How did you keep your creative ideas organized so that sounds didn’t end up clashing?
At the start of the writing process of every song we discuss about the direction we want to take that song and we start listening to bands with a similar sound that the one we are looking for. Then, we begin to write the song.
What inspired the lyrics for Scars Are Forever?
‘Scars are Forever’ is inspired by our lives in general. We talked about different subjects that everyone has been through, love, friendship, pain, depression, nostalgia and many more things.
What is something that you hope fans and new listeners take away from the record?
We hope our fans appreciate the change we have made and hope they understand we cannot get stuck in a genre. For the new listeners, we would love if they relate to any of our songs and feel a connection with us, that’s the main goal of our music, to create a community where we can help each other.
While your sound is fresh and unique, there’s still a sense of familiarity, who are some of your biggest influences?
Our influences are kind of mixed. We take things from the old pop punk like Blink 182, New Found Glory or Good Charlotte and some elements from the new wave of pop punk, bands like Neck Deep, Real Friends, The Wonder Years or Knuckle Puck.
Noticing that you just recently hit the road on a Spanish tour with ROAM, how did that boost your fan base?
Every show we have is a boost for our fan base, every band we play with bring people that could listen to our music after the show. But it’s true that a band like ROAM is a bigger boost for us and we couldn’t be more grateful to them for counting on us.
What is your favorite song to play live?
“Growing.” It’s a song that has been with us since the beginning and it has become like an anthem for us. We play it as our last song on the shows and it’s great to see everyone giving one final effort and jump like it was the last day on earth.
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