Nearly fifteen years into their journey, The Rallies are back with their fourth album, No Better Time. Rooted in the timeless appeal of melodic guitar pop, the record finds the band embracing both their musical influences and the unexpected turns of the creative process. We caught up with frontman Steve Davis to talk about the making of the album, finding inspiration across generations, the enduring spirit of power pop, and the magic of connecting with listeners around the world.

No Better Time is your fourth album, and after almost fifteen years as a band, there’s a real sense of a sound that has become your own. When did you feel that The Rallies had found that sound?

My taste in melodic pop music spans way back to the 1950’s and every decade after, up and through today’s music. And I’m sure that “that sound” you’ve mentioned in The Rallies music can be tied to so many of those artists that I have listened to and have been inspired by. What’s been really cool is reading some of our album’s music reviews, and to have a few of these historic artists referenced, such as; The Beatles, The Turtles, The Monkees, The Raspberries, Big Star, Tom Petty, Squeeze, The La’s.

And what were you trying to capture with this album?

I think going into the studio to work on this album was pretty much the same as the previous albums. We’ve fully rehearsed the songs we want to record, and feel that we have a pretty good understanding of how the songs should sound and how to record. And that might be the case for most of them, but then there are the exceptions that can end up sounding entirely different from what you had imagined. I think that being open to that and having a willingness to try out ideas to find out where it can take a song might be what we are all trying to capture, the unexpected.

How did No Better Time come about?

Well, to be honest the album almost didn’t come about. That’s what I was thinking back in the summer of 2024 when our guitarist of six years left the band. But as fate would have it, the open position was filled almost immediately by Brian Chase and we picked up where we had left off without missing a beat! We were in the studio by the end of the year to record a few songs. And then throughout 2025 back in the studio on several occasions to finish up recording the entire album by year’s end.

When did you realize you had the songs and the idea for another Rallies album?

For me the idea of making an album is always there, it’s the endgame of why I’m doing this. So, it’s more about making it happen, that’s the challenge, and that turned out to be easier than expected on this album. For the song selections I have a stockpile of recorded demos that I share with the bandmates. And the ones that get the most positive responses we’ll try out together to determine if we want to pursue recording. It’s a democratic approach for the most part and it worked really well on this album.

And how did the record take shape from those first ideas to the finished album?

For this album and the previous one we worked with producer Johnny Sangster at his Seattle recording studio. He is a very hands-on engineer at the mixing board, and works with us to flesh out arrangements and the sound palette on his cool vintage gear. We’ll usually grab a solid rhythm track with drums and bass and basic guitar, then start filling in the landscape with some tasty overdubs and harmony vocals…sometimes it’s hard to stop adding new ideas! Lead vocals and acoustic guitar are usually recorded in the same take in hopes of bringing out the immediacy and emotion.

The Rallies were included in Bandcamp Daily’s “Why Power Pop is the Sound of Now,” alongside a whole range of other bands. Did that make you feel part of a wider power-pop scene or community?

It was wonderful to read that power pop music might still have a place in the enormous landscape of today’s music. And it’s wonderful that other contemporary artists are still out there making the kind of music that I grew up listening to. It makes me hopeful that power pop music will keep living on well into the future.

And were there any of the other bands mentioned in the article that you were particularly excited to find yourselves alongside?

The article talked about the “waves” of power pop by the decades and listed featured artists for these periods. Everyone they mentioned was spot on, I loved them all! “The First Wave (The Raspberries, Big Star, Todd Rundgren), the Second Wave (The Cars, Cheap Trick, Nick Lowe), and the Third Wave (Teenage Fanclub, Matthew Sweet, Fountains of Wayne)”. I also loved the article mentioning the following great bands; Nada Surf, Sloan, and The Lemon Twigs.

Did the Bandcamp feature actually change anything for The Rallies? Have you noticed new listeners, messages, sales, radio play, opportunities — or reactions from places and people you wouldn’t normally have reached?

Bandcamp provides statistical data to artists and I noticed that our play count was much higher than normal, and that’s when I discovered the article. So yes, it’s helped us reach way more listeners than we would have otherwise. Here’s one delightful message for example that we received from one of those new listeners, “Hey. Your music sounds great. I’m a Beatles fan, and your band captures that vibe. I never heard of you till this week. My college age daughter got me listening to The Lemon Twigs, so I investigated their stuff on Bandcamp and I came across your band, and I liked what I heard. Anyway, you’ve got one new listener from the Midwest. Keep up the good music. -Joe D.”

No Better Time is out now, and the songs are no longer really yours — they belong to the listeners. What does it feel like to let the album go into the world?

It’s a very gratifying feeling to finish an entire album of songs. A lifelong accomplishment for me, and one of the most rewarding things that I’ve done in my life. It’s also really rewarding seeing that people are listening to your album, hearing their positive reviews about your music, and then spending their own money to purchase it. Some of these moments are quite unexpected and hard to believe, like internationally mailing CDs and vinyl records around the world to places like; Austria, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. I do feel truly grateful for having this shared life experience with people from around the world brought together by their love of music. I’d some it all up as something magical, that’s how it feels to me.

And is there a particular song you’re especially curious to hear people make their own?

I’m always curious to hear what songs connect with people, and also find out why they do connect. And I’m especially interested to hear if our songs reach listeners emotionally, that they actually felt moved by a song. But the truth of the matter is that I’m attached to all of our songs, so with that in mind I hope that each and every one of them can attach itself to someone else.