This year marks the 15th anniversary of Comeback Kid’s debut album Turn It Around. Since then, they have gifted the world of melodic hardcore with six full-length and more lung-bursting choruses than your puny body can handle. Don’t believe us? Well, let vocalist Andrew Neufeld educate you. To get you pumped for the band’s UK shows next month at Slam Dunk Festival, Andrew has picked his ten favourite CBK songs of all time. Start stretching those mosh muscles.
All In A Year
“All In A Year was the first song that we ever wrote. I think it really captures the foundation of what Comeback Kid was intended to be – energetic melodic hardcore and a big breakdown. We wrote this song at our first practice in our old drummer Kyle’s parents’ house. Jeremy, Kyle, and I playing in his bedroom. We even tried out a couple of singers before Scott – our original vocalist – joined because he would always bail on coming to practice. There may have been a recording with some other vocalists on that song somewhere."
False Idols Fall
"The first song from the Wake The Dead album. I remember writing a lot of the riffs for this song in Texas on tour somewhere. We recorded this one with Bill Stevensen (Descendants/Black Flag) and Jason Livermore at The Blasting Room; they really brought out the strong points in this song. It's another high energy straight-up hardcore-punk song. I think we were almost going to get Tim from American Nightmare to help produce the record before Bill and Jason got in the mix, so maybe I was listening to the new Give Up The Ghost album when writing this song."
GM Vincent & I
"This song was inspired musically by the Dropkick Murphys. I remember seeing them open with For Boston at the Back To School Jam in Worcester. I loved the gang vocals right off the bat and the commanding presence. I wanted to take that vibe and put our twist on it – a fists/beers in the air, anthemic festival punk song. The lyrics are written about a van flip accident I was in with my best friend Matt Vincent while we were doing a night drive through Canada with Grave Maker on tour. Matt was stuck underneath the van while it was crushing him for an hour before the fire trucks came. It was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. So 'Grave Maker, M. Vincent, and I' is the title."
Broadcasting
"The title-track off the Broadcasting album. This is the only song off that record that we have been playing live lately. Released back in 2007, I had switched from guitar to vocals the year before when Scott quit. You can hear me trying to sing in the 'Comeback Kid' style, kinda doing Scott’s thing. In the last decade I’ve been able to morph it into my own style, but this was my first go at singing on a CBK record so I wanted a smooth transition."
Absolute
"This one is from the new record Outsider – Jeremy came in with most of the riffs for this one. Originally the intro stomp was only in the middle of the song and it took a bit of convincing to have that open up the song, but I thought it worked perfectly! For the lead up to the breakdown I was doing a layered vocal thing in a Devin Townsend style. We were doing it in the studio and the guys were like, 'Why don’t you see if Devin wants to guest on this?' He had produced my other band Sights + Sounds and Stu’s band Misery Signals albums, so we kinda knew him. I wasn’t sure if he would be into it, but I texted him and he liked the song, so he did his thing on it and sent back a whole slew of tracks and said we could use whatever we wanted out of it. We were pumped!"
Surrender Control
"This one originated with Stu, our guitar player, and morphed many times before it became what it was. The chorus gangs originally were 'Whoas' but Jeremy hates 'Whoas', so we had to come up with some words for it. The chorus riff changed a few times. This was CBK trying to be a bit more obvious in our song writing and fit three choruses in a tune. It’s one of my favourites to play live."
Talk Is Cheap
"Another old one from the Wake The Dead album. This is a straight-up balls-to-the-wall hardcore song – no frills about it really. It's very straight-up lyrically and musically. We’ve played this at almost every show in the last 10 years, I still think it’s probably one of the most fun breakdowns we have to play. It goes off every time."
Wasted Arrows
"This is one of those 'less is more' type songs where we tried to strip back parts to be only vocals and percussion, and I guess one guitar. The song structure took a lot of back and forth but we finally got it together, and it is now one of the strongest live songs in our set. When writing it I was always kinda inspired by Madball’s Smell The Bacon in the rhythm of the vocals. I know it doesn’t really sound like that, but I definitely took a cue from that song somehow. We recorded the video of this in London, Brighton, and Manchester."
Should Know Better
“Should Know Better is a party song, it’s a caution to the wind song. We shot the video in Winnipeg at our friend’s motorcycle shop and told people to bring electronics and furniture to break. We had TVs, toilets and everything! We even threw a 200lb TV off a balcony, but I don’t think we got the shot properly unfortunately. Some people almost got seriously injured during the shoot but eventually came away unharmed."
Wake The Dead
"What can I say about Wake The Dead? This song really gave CBK legs and probably gave us opportunities that we may not have had without the song. It’s our biggest song and if we’re ever playing a 'whatever' show, this is the song that saves it. It’s the song that we are most known for and I think it embodies the era that it came from. You could call it a gateway hardcore song, maybe. It had all the elements that it needed to catch people’s attention at the time and we pretty much always wrap up our sets with it."
Comeback Kid are playing this year's Slam Dunk Festival over the May Bank Holiday Weekend.
Slam Dunk Festival North: Saturday, May 26 - Leeds City Centre
Slam Dunk Festival South: Sunday, May 27 - Hatfield Park
Slam Dunk Festival Midlands: - Monday, May 28 - Birmingham NEC
