Let us take you on a trip back to the good old days of 90s skate punk and punk rock with the fast-paced, catchy sound of US and UK digital music project Digital Feedback.
The quartet, formed of New Jersey-based brother John (bass) and Joe (guitar), Southampton, England-based Lucas (vocals) and Alabama-based Nick (drums), are another example of an internet band that collaborates remotely. As a result, John and Joe have never met Lucas or Nick but they’ve been creating music together for a year or so.
The result is a fun melodic skate punk sound that, as they say, wouldn’t be out of place on any Tony Hawk game. They’ve released eight singles through 2020, with the most recent being Work Harder at the start of this month.
It opens up with a quick drum blast that gives way to Lucas’ catchy vocals, punky guitars and driving drums.
But we first discovered the band with the track So Far Away, which opens up with a cool guitar lick and driving drums. That drops into fast punky guitars supporting a catchy verse that feeds into a fast-paced chorus with the line “Feels like the good times are so far away.” It features fun vocals that are the hallmarks of any good punk track, such as “Growing up there wasn’t much to do, Throwing rocks at the window smashing through, Oh shit the neighbour’s pissed off again.” Give it a listen here:
The band’s already built a back catalogue of great tracks, including the delicious Better at the Start and Young At Heart, the more laid-back debut single Shotgun, and Destination Anywhere, which features a really cool Yellowcard-esque spinning guitar lick.
We had a chat with bassist John to find out more about the band. Read on below…
GR: Who are Digital Feedback?
John: “We are an internet band so we are from all different places. My brother and I had a few songs laying around but had no time to do anything w/ them. Plus neither of us can sing in key. So we decided to look on FIVERR for a singer. What we found was Lucas. Not only did he have this poppy voice we were looking for, but he also could write great lyrics and vocal melody’s. Nick ‘the drummer’ is an audio engineer and has an online business. I play bass and my brother Joe does all the guitar work.”
GR: We’ve met a few ‘internet bands’ that collaborate remotely. How does it work for you guys creatively?
John: “Generally Joe and I write the progression with a guitar lick to kinda give it a feel. We send it to Lucas and he works out the vocal melody and the lyrics. After that, Nick pretty much has free range on how the drums should sound. I always tell him he’s the best musician in the band. So yeah, it’s pretty simple stuff.”
GR: You sent us So Far Away. What should people be expecting from the song?
John: “So Far Away musically is a standard skate punk song. It’s got the catchy guitar lick, the bass sticks out and is not just a frequency and the drums just rock. It fits right in line with any Tony Hawk video game theme song. We love that 90’s pop punk. New pop punk has a much different feel to it.”
GR: How would you describe the Digital Feedback sound to people that haven’t listened to you yet?
John: “Take out an old Bay City Roller album and play it at 78rpm.”
GR: What influences you to write music? Any key themes or topics that you write about?
John: “My brother and I come from the Dee Dee Ramone school of song writing. Kody Templeman from Teenage Bottlerocket writes great pop songs too. Lucas is much more developed as a writer. He went to school for it.”
GR: Which bands/musicians are/have been your strongest musical influences?
John: “I think I named most. Ramones, Teenage Bottlerocket, Green Day, Blink, Weezer.”
GR: What have you got coming up this year and into next year?
John: “We have about 10 songs that are in Demo versions right now. We plan on releasing about a song every month or two. That seems to be the trend these days.”
You can follow Digital Feedback on Facebook and Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify and Apple Music.
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