Boys Like Girls - The Speaking Our Language Tour presented by Emo Nite

If it's true what they say—that there's something in the dirty water of Boston's Charles River—then Boys Like Girls drank up.  Little else could explain the band’s meteoric rise after forming as teenagers in 2004. In the modern age a story like their’s is designed in boardrooms over speakerphone. The story of Boys Like Girls, however, was forged from the very beginning in the damp basements, garages, and VFW halls of the Massachusetts coastline over tattered lyric books, guitars, drums, and a collective dream. A half billion Spotify streams later it‘s clear this was a fairy tale in its first act, and the world was about to find out.

What followed was the platinum-certified self-titled debut Boys Like Girls [2006] and its chart-topping successor Love Drunk [2009]—which bowed at #1 on the Top Rock Albums Chart and Top 10 on the Billboard 200. There was a slew of successful singles, including the platinum-certified “The Great Escape” and “Love Drunk” as well as the gold-certified “Hero/Heroine” and “Thunder.” There was the platinum-certified, BMI award-winning Hot 100 duet with Taylor Swift, “Two Is Better Than One.”  There were sold-out shows, international tours, and unforgettable moments everywhere from Madison Square Garden to Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia.  But by 2012 lead singer and song-writer Martin Johnson was beginning to feel the universe pulling him into a new arena.

Collaboration was nothing new to Johnson, but for the first time he began writing and producing music not intended for his own band.  What followed was another string of wild successes with hits from Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Blink-182, Avril Lavigne, Jason Derulo, Daughtry, Christina Perri, Gavin Degraw, Pentatonix, and more.  This—along with Johnson’s bandmates’ own successful musical endeavors—lead to a years-long hiatus for Boys Like Girls. 

In 2016 the band would return to the road for the 10th Anniversary tour of their debut record.  While fans across America were ecstatic for the reunion they’d been waiting for, internally it felt more like a farewell. “It was important to us to leave it all out there for the fans,” Johnson says.  “To really give them the ‘thank you’ they deserved.” 

“At a certain moment, your songs are no longer yours,” Martin observes. “I don’t even remember writing our first couple of records, but I do remember going around the globe and singing them. If I look into the audience, I know it’s not really about me; it’s about them. Over the years, I’ve realized the importance of being a vehicle for their soundtrack. At the end of the day, music needs to bring joy and escape. That’s something we can do to be of service, make people happy, and make ourselves happy.”

In 2019 Boys Like Girls plotted another return to the road—this time to Australia and Asia. However, their plans would be delayed due to the global events of 2020.  After  making good on their promise to return in 2022 and punctuating the tour by playing both weekends at Las Vegas’ When We Were Young Festival, Boys Like Girls meant more than ever not only to Johnson and fellow co-founders Paul DiGiovanni [lead guitar, backing vocals], and John Keefe [drums, percussion], but to the fans as well. 

“We got out there, and it was euphoric for all of us,” smiles Martin. “Getting rowdy with the guys again, it felt like everything I was chasing with a solo project or by making music for other people had been fulfilled by Boys Like Girls. I realized how much fun, youthful, and beautiful it was to be on stage with my best friends. Seeing the state of the audience, it was deeply nostalgic, but there were also all of these kids who had never seen us. I looked at the boys and said, ‘We need to make a record. I’m going to put everything on hold until we go and say what we need to say’.”

It’s for this reason that Boys Like Girls has signed with Fearless Records and will release new music again for the first time in over 10 years. The band now works out of Johnson’s Nashville recording studio and has embraced a newfound sense of creative freedom rooted in the same energy that sparked their seminal output.

“It’s been so fun since that clarity and freedom came into play,” he goes on. “It was like, ‘Let’s play whatever the fuck we want’. That’s what we did with the first record and why it was fun. We weren’t thinking about what genre we were playing. We were just rocking. As a kid I thought I was right about everything. Now, I’ve had enough failures that I know how to doubt myself. So, it’s like, ‘Fuck it. If it sounds good, let’s go for it’. This approach has made us feel like the band we were and are.”

They ignite this era with “Blood and Sugar”—their first single in over a decade. On the track, neon synths wrap around a stomping guitar as the chorus cleverly reminds, “Even though the girl’s a looker, we’re only blood and sugar, right?”.   With a swaggering bridge punctuated by warbling synths and howls straight-the-heart, it’s classic Boys Like Girls with an infusion of experience and wisdom. “I think of it as a relationship with a bunch of empty calories,” Johnson reveals. “You’re talking about how human beings are just blood and sugar. You might fear this girl, but we’re all just skin and bones, so why can’t you move on? Sonically and dynamically, I hope it’s like getting shot out of a cannon ten times. It’s something we can’t wait to go out and play.”

It’s safe to say the engine of Boys Like Girls is primed and ready for new magic.

Album four is often when a beloved rock band shifts gears, frustrating longtime fans, searching for a more “mature” sound. STATE CHAMPS raise a joyous middle finger to that trope with Kings Of The New Age, an enthusiastic and confident reminder of what the Upstate New Yorkers do best.

Younger than Gen X punk heroes like Billie Joe Armstrong and Mark Hoppus; older than Willow and Trippie Redd; the foursome balances energy and experience. As a new generation resurrects angsty unrest on TikTok and Machine Gun Kelly puts guitars back on the mainstream chart, STATE CHAMPS double down on the vibrant pop-punk they’ve championed for a decade. They were several steps ahead of the seismic sonic shift. Kings Of The New Age will now claim the crown.

Produced by Drew Fulk (Lil Wayne, A Day To Remember, Ice Nine Kills) aka WZRD BLD in California, Kings Of The New Age is bigger, brighter, and more focused than its predecessors, without sacrificing an ounce of the sincere emotional heart a legion of fans recognize and cherish. Derek DiScanio, Tyler Szalkowski, Ryan Scott Graham, and Evan Ambrosio deliver a strong message.

“Kings Of The New Age is our fourth album, the one that we spent the most time on and the one that makes the biggest statement. After writing over 30 songs, we narrowed it down to 11 that best represent our mission as a band and sonically match the energy level we wanted to capture heading into this new chapter,” the group shared in a joint statement. “Lyrically, Kings Of The New Age is a reflection on the past few years during a very weird time. However, it is also a reminder that we’re only here for so long. Although we will always live and learn by trial and error in areas like friendships, family, careers, relationships, etc., there’s no time for toxicity and negativity.”

The optimism and urgency roar into focus from the record’s first moments, as album opener “Here To Stay” plants the STATE CHAMPS flag firmly into an uncertain 2022. “Outta My Head” and “Just Sound” cement the band’s musical identity with undeniable hooks and inspired energy.

Friends join the proceedings as well: Neck Deep’s Ben Barlow guests on “Everybody But You,” a track destined to become a game-changing scene anthem; Against The Current’s Chrissy Costanza performs on the fast but heartbreaking “Half Empty”; Four Year Strong combine forces on “Sundress”; and the adventurous “Act Like That” features country star Mitchell Tenpenny.

“Drew Fulk is mainly a hard rock producer, but we took a chance, as he came highly recommended by friends of ours in other bands,” DiScanio explains. “When we ask ourselves, ‘What do we want to sound like?’ The one thing we always say, in unison, is ‘high energy.’ We wanted to challenge ourselves a bit by establishing chemistry with someone outside of our wheelhouse, and it worked.”

Graham adds: “We definitely had a pretty in-depth discussion at some point. ‘What kind of band do we want to be?’ Do we want to do the pop thing? I think we could, but is that really what’s in the bloodstream of STATE CHAMPS? I don’t think so. Let’s just stop taking ourselves seriously. Let’s make pop-punk music, and make sure it’s good. Our attitude right then and there changed.”

Starting in bedrooms and basements in 2010, STATE CHAMPS quickly ascended as leaders of a new scene owing as much to early Fall Out Boy and Green Day as latter-day Warped Tour bands.

In 2022, Kerrang! declared them “one of the most authentic and well-respected bands in pop-punk,” a reputation established with anthems like “Secrets,” “Elevated,” “Dead and Gone,” and “If I’m Lucky.” Over the course of their career, STATE CHAMPS delivered their music and heartfelt message on extensive tours with bands like Fall Out Boy, 5 Seconds Of Summer, A Day To Remember, and Simple Plan; three different Warped Tours; and a co-headliner with Neck Deep.

Kerrang! gave the band’s first album, The Finer Things, a rare 5K review in 2013. Aquarian declared them “one of the most high-energy, fresh, and respectable pop-punk bands of the decade.” Rock Sound and Alternative Press served up adoring cover stories. Around the World and Back entered the Billboard Current Rock Albums chart at No. 3 and made Rock Sound’s Top 10 Albums of 2015.

STATE CHAMPS won Best Breakthrough Band at the Alternative Press Music Awards in 2016 and a trophy for Best Music Video at the following year’s ceremony. Kerrang! doled out another 5K-rating, too, this time for a sweaty, cathartic, triumphant headlining show in London, England.

The ambitious Living Proof followed in 2018. Riff Magazine celebrated the album’s “magnetic empathy.” Billboard called them “modern-day pop-punk torchbearers” the same year.

The band made Living Proof in two chunks – the first with multiplatinum producer John Feldmann (Good Charlotte, The Used) and the second with Kyle Black (New Found Glory, Set Your Goals, Boston Manor) and Mike Green (Paramore, A Day To Remember, All Time Low). “Choruses collide like a tsunami, ready and waiting for the arenas they should be headlining,” Upset Magazine raved. “On Living Proof, STATE CHAMPS sound bigger than ever, with a songbook of anthems stacked up higher than the Empire State Building.” The next burst of energy followed in 2019.

“Where I Belong,” an epic collaboration between STATE CHAMPS, Simple Plan, and We The Kings, arrived alongside a massive joint tour. In late 2019 and again in early 2020, they visited producer Seth Henderson (Real Friends, Knuckle Puck, The Devil Wears Prada) to make Unplugged. The EP coincided with the band’s 10^th anniversary and reflected each band member’s unapologetically diverse listening habits, indulging in everything from pop music to country.

Henderson was there again for album four’s early songwriting sessions. The ideas and song skeletons made with Henderson in Indiana came with the band to California. “Drew is an awesome songwriter,” DiScanio says of Fulk. “Some days we’d work on one of those skeletons, some days we’d write something totally fresh, starting with Ryan writing a riff on an acoustic guitar. Or I’d go through my notes on my phone and find a solid line or lyric in there to build a song around.”

Written the height of the lockdowns, “Fake It” is about how “we’re never going to complain about being on tour, or say we hate our lives or take this for granted ever again.” The singer adds, “It touches on heartbreak, but it’s ultimately about trying not to go crazy during the pandemic.”

Arguably the catchiest and most danceable song, “Act Like That,” arose during songwriting sessions with Courtney Ballard, whose credits include work with Grayscale, Stand Atlantic, and Waterparks.

Fulk helped push the band into stadium rock territory with “Half Empty.” It’s a fast song but carries dark emotional weight more akin to a somber ballad, destined to resonate with many people. “I’m the glass half empty with every drink,” the chorus says. “But you’re the other half for me.”

The album’s mission statement revealed itself a few songs into the process.

“We’re a pop-punk band that comes from the world of Warped Tour, with an awesome and devoted fanbase,” DiScanio says. “Warped Tour is gone now. Culture is changing, with guitars and drums coming back into the mainstream. This is our fourth album. Where do we fit in?”

The group chose to tell their story in what became “Here To Stay,” reassuring longtime fans while introducing themselves to newcomers simultaneously, with confidence and attitude to spare.

“For whatever reason, it wasn’t ‘cool’ to be in a pop-punk band,” Graham offers. “But now it’s so in vogue. So, let’s lay into it and embrace who we are. Let’s go for it. We know how to write a great pop-punk song, and there’s no denying that. We’re the best at what we’re doing right now, and we’re not afraid to say it. Let’s just own it. And let’s have fun with it from here.”

DiScanio adds: “It’s basically opening our eyes, too, to what we’re still capable of doing. We could stand aside and let the new wave of artists take over, but we are not done. We have a lot to say. That song is a reminder, and a promise, that we’re here to stay and not going anywhere.”

They are an arena-ready rock band with the freedom of punk’s soul. Now is the moment for STATE CHAMPS, one they are eager to share with the world. “Never waste a moment that can be seized,” the group statement concludes. “Times are changing, culture is evolving, and we’re happy to provide the soundtrack and let you know that we’re ‘Here To Stay.’ Welcome to The New Age.”

SHORT BIO

Album four is often when a beloved rock band shifts gears, frustrating longtime fans, searching for a more “mature” sound. STATE CHAMPS raise a joyous middle finger to that trope with Kings Of The New Age, an enthusiastic and confident reminder of what the Upstate New Yorkers do best.

Younger than Gen X punk heroes like Billie Joe Armstrong and Mark Hoppus; older than Willow and Trippie Redd; the foursome balances energy and experience. As a new generation resurrects angsty unrest on TikTok and Machine Gun Kelly puts guitars back on the mainstream chart, STATE CHAMPS double down on the vibrant pop-punk they’ve championed for a decade. They were several steps ahead of the seismic sonic shift. Kings Of The New Age will now claim the crown.

Derek DiScanio, Tyler Szalkowski, Ryan Scott Graham, and Evan Ambrosio deliver a strong message. Produced by Drew Fulk (Lil Wayne, A Day To Remember, Ice Nine Kills) aka WZRD BLD, Kings Of The New Age is a big album, without sacrificing the heart cherished by a legion of fans.

Starting in bedrooms and basements in 2010, STATE CHAMPS quickly ascended as leaders of a new scene owing as much to early Fall Out Boy and Green Day as latter-day Warped Tour bands. In 2022, Kerrang! declared them “one of the most authentic and well-respected bands in pop-punk.” Over the course of their career, STATE CHAMPS delivered their music and heartfelt message on extensive tours with bands like Fall Out Boy, 5 Seconds Of Summer, A Day To Remember, and Simple Plan; three different Warped Tours; and a co-headliner with Neck Deep.

Kerrang! gave the band’s first album, The Finer Things, a rare 5K review in 2013. Rock Sound and Alternative Press served up adoring cover stories. Around the World and Back entered the Billboard Current Rock Albums chart at No. 3 and made Rock Sound’s Top 10 Albums of 2015. Living Proof followed in 2018. Billboard called them “modern-day pop-punk torchbearers” the same year. They are an arena-ready rock band with the freedom of punk’s soul. 2022 belongs to STATE CHAMPS.

If it’s hard for you to believe that Four Year Strong have been a band for nearly two decades, you’re not alone because its members feel the same way. Since forming in 2001 in Worcester, Massachusettes, while the members were still in high school, Four Year Strong have carved out their own niche in the music community by merging the infectiousness of pop-punk with the aggression of hardcore and never shying away from breaking with creativity-limiting conventions. This is evident on the band’s fifth full-length Brain Pain, a collection of songs that retains the qualities of the band that fans have grown to love while pushing forward the band’s effort to continually redefine their sound. “One thing we’ve struggled with in the past is writing in a way that’s personal to us that our wide range of fans can find a way to relate to as well,” vocalist/guitarist Dan O’Connor explains. “On this record we really tried to find the thing that connects us to our younger fans or the people who have been listening to us for a long time who still see us as younger kids despite the fact that we’re now in our thirties.”
 
The band -- which also features vocalist/guitarist Alan Day, bassist Joe Weiss and drummer Jake Massucco -- began conceptualizing the ideas for Brain Pain two years ago and for the past year-and-a-half have focused on bringing those thoughts to fruition. “We probably had 40 song ideas to get the creative juices flowing and some of those grew into the songs that are on this record,” Day explains, adding that it was important for the group not to rush the album or go into it with any musical or logistical limitations. “We didn’t want to set a strict deadline for this album because we wanted to be sure we took the time to write the best songs possible. In the past our writing and recording was so dependent on getting something out in time to go on tour; this time we really had the opportunity to take our time and work through these ideas.” In order to capture that sound the group enlisted producer Will Putney, who was an engineer on 2010’s Enemy Of The World and already had a relationship with the band. “We were really emotionally invested in this music so we wanted to go with someone who we knew would care about it as much as we did and Will was that guy,” Day says.
 
From the off-time breakdown of the opener “It’s Cool” to the orchestral balladry of “Be Good When I’m Gone” to the midtempo groove of “Get Out Of My Head,” Brain Pain sees Four Year Strong showcasing the various aspects of their sound, which ranges from catchy to chaotic, yet all sound undeniably like Four Year Strong. “I think ‘Get Out Of My Head’ holds a special place in our hearts because it was the first song that we finished front-to-back with all the pieces in there,” Day explains. “Almost none of it changed from when we first wrote it to the finished version of it and it felt like a turning point in the writing process.” Alternately “Seventeen” evokes the best parts of nostalgia without sounding dated while the syncopated riffing on “Usefully Useless” crafts a sonic maelstrom that’s as inventive as it is infectious. Finally old-school fans will love songs like “Mouth Full Of Dirt” which showcases the melodic hardcore style the band helped pioneer and sounds absolutely massive thanks to Putney’s production.
 
Vocally Brain Pain sees the band being more direct and carrying over cohesive themes in a way they haven’t done in the past, making for a more complete narrative. “I think that from a lyrical perspective this is the most thought we’ve ever put into a record,” O’ Connor explains -- and it shows. Sonically the album’s vocals also sit in the mix in a way that they aren’t battling with the other elements, making Brain Pain the band’s most dynamic release to date. “There are a lot more bands doing the heavy-but-poppy hybrid thing now than there were when we started out and we just really wanted this record to stand out and be its own version of that,” Massucco explains. “Our goal was to make a record that felt authentic to who we are, not pander to some version of us that we thought people wanted to hear,” Day affirms. “I think we did that this time around.”
 
“We always try to evolve the sound of our band,” O’Connor adds. “I think that's one of the things that has separated us from some of the bands who are around for a long time because you can get kind of sendenary and happy with where you are. We always say, ‘if Four Year Strong is a box we're always trying to push the edges of that box out a little bit of what the band can be’ and I think that's keeps it exciting for us,” he summarizes when asked about how the band have managed to stay relevant for so long. “A lot of the things we did when we were younger kids were throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks. Now we're trying to come to a place with everything we're doing where it's a little more thought out… which is what old guys would do,” he adds with a laugh, “but we’re really happy with how it turned out.”

Born and raised in Toronto, LØLØ has become an undeniable gem in the city's pop scene. The singer-songwriter has created a striking presence with her effortlessly cool attitude and alluring ability to captivate an audience. Between her witty lyrical style and infectiously catchy production, LØLØ's music has garnered critical praise, including Billboard, who noted she "further evokes pop-punk icons like Avril Lavigne and Paramore.

In 2021, LØLØ signed a publishing deal with APG and a record deal with Hopeless Records, before embarking on her first tour, The Pop Punk's Still Not Dead Tour, with New Found Glory, Less Than Jake, and Hot Mulligan. In 2022, she performed on Sad Summer Fest, Lollapalooza, and toured with Leah Kate in the UK/EU. This year, LØLØ will be touring Europe with Sueco, before a lengthy North American Tour this fall with Boys Like Girls, State Champs, and 3OH!3. 

In late 2022, LØLØ collaborated with Simple Plan for a re-release of their classic track "I'm Just A Kid." LØLØ's first release in 2023 "5,6,7,8" featured Travis Mills of girlfriends, and her latest single "omg" was released May 12th.