{"id":22338,"date":"2018-05-08T19:40:39","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T18:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=22338"},"modified":"2018-05-08T19:40:39","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T18:40:39","slug":"state-champs-premiere-new-single-crystal-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/state-champs-premiere-new-single-crystal-ball\/","title":{"rendered":"STATE CHAMPS &#8211; Premiere New Single &#8216;Crystal Ball&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pop punk\u00a0heroes\u00a0<strong>State Champs<\/strong>\u00a0have premiered new song, &#8216;Crystal Ball&#8217; on Radio 1&#8217;s Rock Show last night as &#8216;Rockest Record&#8217;. &#8216;Crystal Ball&#8217; is taken from the bands\u00a0recently announced new record\u00a0<em><strong>Living Proof<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0\u00a0which will be released on June 15, 2018 on\u00a0<strong>Pure Noise Records<\/strong>. Pre-order is currently available for the upcoming album via the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/littlepress.us1.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=53988077f9c04730c7150cd9f&amp;id=6b2ea55d6d&amp;e=ce92e5edb3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">label&#8217;s site<\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: 'lucida sans unicode', 'lucida grande', sans-serif\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Crystal Ball is a song about personal investment of time and effort while questioning the outcome and worth of it all. Everyone has to find their own way to seize the moment and stay on their path. Musically, we tried some new things and thought outside of the box to bring a catchy, yet technical dynamic to Champs which we are very excited about.&#8221; says singer Derek Discanio.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"State Champs &quot;Crystal Ball&quot;\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2Fdx4TcQFe8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The band will play Slam Dunk Festival this month:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Slam Dunk Festival:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>26th May Leeds Slam Dunk North<\/p>\n<p>Sun 27th May Hatfield Slam Dunk South<\/p>\n<p>Mon 28th May Birmingham Slam Dunk Midlands<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: 'lucida sans unicode', 'lucida grande', sans-serif\">Additionally, you can also watch\u00a0State Champs&#8217; previously\u00a0released video for &#8216;Dead And Gone,&#8217; taken from\u00a0<strong><em>Living Proof<\/em><\/strong>,\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/littlepress.us1.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=53988077f9c04730c7150cd9f&amp;id=25400f5468&amp;e=ce92e5edb3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/div>\n<p>Over the past decade, Albany, New York\u2019s State Champs have become a major player in the world of pop-punk, helping define the shape of the genre for a new generation of fans. And on June 15,\u00a0<em>Living Proof<\/em>\u00a0will push pop-punk forward.<\/p>\n<p>Formed in 2010 by vocalist Derek DiScanio and guitarist Tyler Szalkowski, the pair began laying the foundation of State Champs in garages and basements throughout their hometown. The band\u2019s lineup would shift a bit, but DiScanio and Szalkowski were always at the helm, crafting the band\u2019s 2013 debut,\u00a0<em>The Finer Things<\/em>, along with guitarist Tony &#8220;Rival&#8221; Diaz and drummer Evan Ambrosio. They\u2019d add bassist Ryan Scott Graham the following year and, in 2015, they\u2019d release\u00a0<em>Around The World And Back<\/em>, a record that elevated State Champs to a frontrunner in the genre.<\/p>\n<p>The band\u2019s third album,\u00a0<em>Living Proof<\/em>, will be released June 15 on Pure Noise Records, and it\u2019s the most ambitious and cohesive work in the band\u2019s catalog. \u201cIt was like, let\u2019s take as many swings at it, try as many new things and experiment, until we get to the point where we could start searching through it all and then find the album,\u201d says DiScanio of the writing process. After touring for\u00a0<em>Around The World And Back\u00a0<\/em>wrapped, the band returned to Albany, headed back into the garage, and started writing songs for what would become the framework for\u00a0<em>Living Proof<\/em>. Getting back to their roots paid dividends, as the band had a new batch of songs ready, and once they linked up with the album\u2019s producers, they wrote even more.<\/p>\n<p><em>Living Proof\u00a0<\/em>was recorded in two different sessions with different teams assisting the band. The first session saw John Feldmann producing, who brought his knack for writing hit records\u2014which he\u2019s done for bands like Blink-182 and Good Charlotte\u2014into the fold. But State Champs wouldn\u2019t let their old-school roots die, teaming up with Mike Green and Kyle Black, the pair that shepherded\u00a0<em>Around The World And Back\u00a0<\/em>across the finish line. \u201cIf there was only one chance we had at beating the sound of\u00a0<em>Around The World And Back<\/em>, we still had to have them involved,\u201d saud DiScanio. With the recording process split in two, it allowed State Champs to write and record more songs than ever before, culling it down to the most potent batch possible. \u201cAt the end of the writing and recording process, we had 19 or 20 songs. We looked at each other like, \u2018Holy shit. What the hell? This has never happened before,\u2019\u201d he said. .<\/p>\n<p>Not only that, State Champs collaborated with some of pop-punk\u2019s heaviest hitters, as the band co-wrote songs with Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low and Mark Hoppus from Blink-182. Though State Champs had no intention of working with Hoppus, the punk legend stopped by Feldmann\u2019s studio while the band was recording and quickly took a liking to them Before long, Hoppus was helping the band write a pair of songs, working with DiScanio on the lyrics, and then jumping in the vocal booth to lay down some parts of his own. \u201cWe had no idea he was even coming in,\u201d said DiScanio, \u201cThen the next day, me and Mark Hoppus are just sitting out by John Feldmann\u2019s pool writing lyrics from scratch. And that ultimately ended up being \u2018Dead And Gone,\u2019 which is the first single on the record.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This chance encounter speaks to what\u2019s at the heart of\u00a0<em>Living Proof<\/em>, and that\u2019s DiScanio\u2019s embrace of the things you can\u2019t prepare for. \u201c<em>Living Proof<\/em>\u00a0has a lot to do with independence, and finding the independence within you, embracing the mixed emotions that fall in your lap a lot of the time,\u201d said DiScanio, noting that the album\u2019s title is taken from the song \u201cCut Through The Static,\u201d where he proclaims, \u201cLet\u2019s cut through the static and be the living proof.\u201d On an album full of go-for-broke moments, State Champs pushed themselves to new heights without ever forgetting where they came from.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are songs on this album about everything,\u201d he said, \u201cThere\u2019s break-ups, and flings, love, loss, all of that. I\u2019ve seen a little bit of everything through this writing process.\u201d\u00a0<em>Living Proof\u00a0<\/em>is a record about coming out the other side those experiences, both triumphant and humbled. That growth as palpable, as State Champs made a record that\u2019s like nothing they\u2019ve done before, but is still an an album that only they could ever make.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2018\/05\/unnamed.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22339\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2018\/05\/unnamed.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"534\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pop punk\u00a0heroes\u00a0State Champs\u00a0have premiered new song, &#8216;Crystal Ball&#8217; on Radio 1&#8217;s Rock Show last night as &#8216;Rockest Record&#8217;. &#8216;Crystal Ball&#8217; is taken from the bands\u00a0recently announced new record\u00a0Living Proof\u00a0\u00a0which will be released on June 15,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":22340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,92],"tags":[1638,1755,3749,5869],"class_list":["post-22338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-music","tag-crystal-ball","tag-dead-and-gone","tag-living-proof","tag-state-champs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}