Almost a decade after they originally began, Brisbane pop-punk band Set The Record recently released their debut album, 'Time To Breathe'.
Hook laden and polished to perfection with catchy choruses and boppin' rhythms, the album was produced by Troy Brady (The Amity Affliction, The Brave, Stateside) during recording sessions in 2019/2020."'Time To Breathe' signifies a watershed moment for us, stepping out from the shadow of our youth to embrace a deeper, more honest side of ourselves," lead guitarist Bec McCall says.
"This release has been very considered; and it is very personal. Each of us have songs on there, or parts of songs that are real life.
"Whether that be heartbreak, falling in love, or looking at where you've come from or where you might be in your lives – it's a release for all of us. "We've put all of that into our music, so from that standpoint, it has more maturity and meaning to us as a band."
Adds drummer Ian Collins about focus track 'Give Me A Second': "We played around a lot with our sound on this one.
"The track is about being shut out by an ex-partner, and the desperation to be close again, and it was important to us that the urgency and emotion builds throughout the track.
"We even got Bec on the mic screaming in the background on the bridge of this one.
"It's got a lot of light and shade, and I think it's a good representation of our more mature sound."
Set to play Fireball Festival at Greaser in Brisbane (29 April), here Bec shares her love of 2000s pop-punk bands with her top 5 favourites.
1: Mayday Parade
This band is just exceptional at marrying heartfelt lyrics with beautiful melodies, and epic sounding instrumentation full of energy and emotion.They've been a massive inspiration for our new album. I was listening to these guys a lot throughout my last relationship, which I wrote 'Remember You Always' about.
I think they've been one of the greatest bands in the emo scene to release consistently great albums over the past 15 years.
2: blink-182
We can't say our top 5 bands without mentioning one of the most influential pop-punk bands ever. . . blink-182.Their famous live shows full of jokes and fast, fun songs captured the attention of so many kids in the late '90s/ early 2000s, giving rise to so many rock bands that are around today.
You can hear elements of blink in our songs 'Answer My Call' and 'Flashback'.
3: Real Friends
This band is not quite as well known, but they're one of the more modern bands within our genre.Their sound guided us to shape a song we had been rewriting over and over again for about a year. We couldn't find the right feel of a particular song, experimenting with a funky '1975' sound, to super-fast punk rock, before finally landing on a 'feel good' pop-rock chorus combined with dynamic verses.
4: Jimmy Eat World
Jimmy Eat World – just exceptionally well written songs. They've been around since the mid-'90s and continually release banging albums every couple of years.When you listen to their songs, they may not seem too complicated or technical at first, but they're crafted so cleverly, and never cease to pull at those heart strings.
Our latest song 'Give Me A Second' I think has a big Jimmy Eat World-esque feel to it.
5: Paramore
We've always referenced the sound of Paramore for our own recordings, and we've covered more than one of their songs in our live shows. Their punchy and angsty energy just slaps so hard.This band inspired so many rock bands coming out of the 2000s, and you can still hear it today in mainstream music by such artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Machine Gun Kelly.
