#the college scenes all take place during the mid-00’s

[annamariedarkholmes]

three tickets to challengers please

[alaskaar]

(Photo credit to Rosie Verney Photography)

“We’re putting punk back in pop punk,” High Visions said in an interview with Live A Little Bit Louder, and their latest EP, ‘Waving the White Flag’ has definitely started them on the right track. The EP has copious amounts of highly energetic guitar riffs, strong bass lines, outstanding contrasts of vocals all complimented by the drums. The trio have mixed and blended each instrument together to cultivate an awesome and unique recipe on their take of pop punk. “I feel like our sound is separate from that of other pop punk bands, particularly in the music scene we’re in. We’ve tried to avoid the more well-known pop punk tropes with our music, and we definitely enjoy the style of music we play,” Zyggy, bassist of High Visisons says, “We take a lot of influence from the late ’90’s and early 00’s pop punk, such as Sum 41, Brand New and The Offspring. I don’t know how pretentious this could sound [and even though] we’re not pioneers within the pop punk scene or anything, we do feel like our sound is a way of putting the punk back into pop punk!”

“We’d love to collaborate with our friends in the pop punk scene, particularly the boys in Safeguard. Especially in the North, there’s such a supportive community, with so many bands looking out for each other – it’s such an encouraging environment.”

Drunkenly meeting at Leeds’s dedicated rock venue, The Key Club, the guys started High Visions through the enjoyment and passion they share for music. “We were all in different projects at the time – Louis and Alex were studying at Leeds College of Music, and I was at Leeds University,” Zyggy explains, “[High Visions started] as a fun project that came out of a couple of impromptu jam sessions and Leeds College of Music.” He adds. “Now that we’ve all finished University, it seems like the perfect time to start taking things to a new level and although our schedules are quite tight nowadays – with myself and Louis in Leeds and Alex in Rotherham – we still try and go to Key Club when we can for old times sake.”

(Photo credit to Martin Crandon)

One track that stands out the most on the EP, and not for a catchy chorus that gets stuck in your head, is ‘Not Bent, Just Broke.’ “We challenged ourselves to write a song that was under a minute long, and we (just about) succeeded!” The song is of high, completely wild energy. “It’s the song that goes down the best at live shows. I remember joining a few too many of our own mosh pits during the final moments of the song!”

‘I’m Scared of What Might Happen’ is a showcase of the bands creativity. “‘I’m Scared of What Might Happen’ is my personal favourite; it’s a real grower,” Zyggy starts, “Louis came up with a lot of the initial concept which we then spent quite a lot of time developing into the version that’s on the EP right now.” It starts like an old movie theatre, with the sound of a movie reel in the background. It’s relaxing, it’s like the bands five minute breather from all that high energy. You imagine the boys in a black and white, stuttering film as they climb over into a coloured motion picture as the drums kick in and contrasts the old with the new. It feels like old school pop punk, in a modern world. “The lyrics are also pretty special to me as well. I rewrote them quite a lot over the perioud between writing and recording the song; it’s mainly about being far away from home and leaving people behind. Although I love living in Leeds, it’s hard having to leave people you love when you start moving on with your life. That’s basically what it’s about to me.”

The six track EP is taken from a selection of the guys influences, and each of their preferences shines through. “We’re all into different styles of music – Louis is into hardcore and metal, Alex is into mid-00’s pop punk and I’m into the more modern style of pop punk and emo. To me, the songs highlight all the difference influences that our playing styles encompass. I like to think of it as a mission statement or something, like “Hey we’re High Visions and this is what we do. The EP is a collection of songs that we wrote in the first months after High Visions formed.”

“‘Waving The White Flag’ sets the ground for how we’re going to be developing our style in the future.”

“Our debut single ‘Amy,’ as well as the first track on the EP ‘Speakeasy’ are song I’d suggest to new listeners,” Zyggy says. Apparently, the best way to review an album is to listen to it ‘in the wild.’ This means, listen to the album away from notebooks and laptops, and to just simply enjoy it. And do that on repeat. Do it when you’re simply just living. Little did I know, during a game of Rocket League whilst trying to save a goal, I would be screaming the chorus of ‘Speakeasy’ at the top of my lungs. A cliche, but this song is so insanely catchy that  it stays with you. It’s excitingly powerful and aggressive, and the vocals only enhances the attitude of the song. This EP needs more than just any old headphones to listen with. There’s a huge difference between the iPhone headphones I used to initially listen, and the Audio-Technica’s I’m using now. A strong sound system changes everything – and all I can say, that hearing every single note of the guitar; every strum of the bass and every beat of the drum makes the listening experience of ‘Wave The White Flag’ unforgettable. It’s found it’s way into my daily playlists, or even going out of my way to stick it on. “The first song we wrote was ‘Head Underwater,’ and the initial idea for the song came to us in the first ten minutes of us jamming together,” Zyggy remembers, “That song kind of laid the foundation for the type of music we wanted to play, I think. It is definitely reminiscent of Teenage Kicks though – I can’t deny that!” Much like bands such as KoRn and Neck Deep taking nursery rhymes and spinning them into something almost entirely new, ‘Head Underwater’ proves that even though it shares similarities to The Undertones hit single ‘Teenage Kicks’ that their imagination can take them to different places. Despite the energetic and playful song, there are some real feeling behind the song. “I ended up writing the verses about how I was feeling about being in Leeds for the first time, struggling with anxiety and trying to find my feet. As far as songs go, it’s one of our most straightforward, and one of our favourites to play live.”

High Visions ‘Waving The White Flag’ is only the start of the bands journey, and happy with the foundations they’ve laid for themselves and their growing fan base, and whilst this adventure is only just beginning, the guys behind High Visions are already planning what’s to happen next. “We’ve written a couple of new songs already. They’re harder hitting than anything on ‘Waving The White Flag,’ with heavier riffs from our guitarist, Louis. We’ve also incorporated some melodic hardcore and early post-hardcore into our sound,” Zyggy says, “but in the meantime whilst we’re writing material for our sophomore EP, we’re planning on playing a few shows over the summer and also start playing outside of Leeds as well! The next few months are definitely a big turning point in all of our lives, due to two of us graduating, however High Visions is staying a constant in our lives.”

Click HERE to listen to High Visions ‘Waving The White Flag’ on Spotify and follow them on FACEBOOK to stay up to date with their music. 

  High Visions ‘Wave The White Flag’ Review & Exclusive Interview (Photo credit to Rosie Verney Photography) "We're putting punk back in pop punk," High Visions said in an interview with