Fuzz, Hooks & Prescriptions: An Interview with Ram Vela

Posted on by patrickdonders

There’s plenty of ’90s alternative rock and power pop running through the music of Ram Vela & the Easy Targets. You can hear echoes of Weezer, Fountains of Wayne and The Replacements, alongside the loud, melodic guitar attack of Sugar and Bob Mould. But on their new EP RX, those influences are only part of the story.

Built around the theme of prescription medication and mental health, RX finds Vela writing from a very personal place. Anxiety, depression, medication and therapy all enter the conversation; subjects that can still feel uncomfortable or even taboo to talk about openly. We spoke with Ram about putting those experiences into songs, keeping the recordings rough around the edges, his love for a great Power Pop chorus, and where the Easy Targets go from here.





RX has a really rough-around-the-edges sound that I really like. How did that become such an important part of the Easy Targets’ sound, and how do you balance that rawness with the catchy side of the songs?

That’s awesome you think the EP sounds a little rough-around-the-edges, because I am self-conscious of our recordings sounding TOO polished. While working with Matt Parmenter at Ice Cream Factory Studios, we took a live-band feel approach to tracking these tunes and overdubbing additional instruments later. Personally, I like incorporating additional guitar feedback in some spots to give songs some extra depth and hearing what sounds best/makes sense for each individual track. A song like “Alprazolamania” comes to mind (especially during the verses). Writing a catchy melody to an uptempo song or lyrics you can shout/sing-a-along to has always been important to me. Taking that songwriting philosophy(?) and combining it with what Dan, Nathan and Rachel (aka the band) bring and “Baby, you’ve got a stew going!” (RIP Carl Weathers)

RX tells a concept story about using prescription medication to treat mental health. Is there a personal story behind the EP, and if so, what made you feel that this was a story you needed to tell through music?

Yes, this EP is loosely based on my own personal experiences taking prescription drugs to treat my anxiety and depression. In 2022, I started Zoloft and it has really helped me navigate the stresses of day-to-day life ever since. While I’m grateful to have access to these types of medications, I know there are so many out there that don’t have that same privilege. I didn’t take all of the medications listed in the song titles, but know several friends who have, and thought it was important to tell these stories in a creative way to continue normalizing mental health.



“Buspirone” is one of my favorites on the EP. The staccato guitar and punk energy give it this incredibly catchy Power Pop feel. Did you realize while writing or recording it that you had something special with that song?

First off, thank you so much. Secondly, this was an extremely difficult song to write because 1.) it’s very personal to me and 2.) delicate subject matter. I remember it starting with that guitar riff and just building from there. During the recording of this song, I was worried that the more sections we added, the more it would potentially drag. I am thankful we didn’t cut anything, because it flows so well! The outro is the sentimental cherry on top leading to the automated phone message.

How did Ram Vela & the Easy Targets come about, and did you know from the beginning what kind of band you wanted it to be and what you wanted the music to sound like?

Yes, we definitely had an idea of what we wanted to sound like. I’ve been playing in bands in Austin for 20+ years and with Dan and Nathan for 10 now, but it took a while to realize what style of songs I was comfortable writing and performing. I love bands like Cheap Trick, Marshall Crenshaw and The Replacements but wanted to add some 90’s alt-rock madness to the mix (Weezer’s “Blue Album,” Fountains of Wayne, Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta”). I think our band is a solid representation of those styles of rock/power-pop. Also, I just love choruses you can sing-along to, dammit!

Now that RX is out, what does the future look like for Ram Vela & the Easy Targets? Are you already thinking about where you want to take the sound and the story next?

Writing new music! It’s funny that I shared a voice memo of a new song on Instagram stories today and somebody already messaged asking if this next album is gonna be about therapy. As someone who sees a therapist regularly, I’m definitely not opposed to it! As for the future of the band, I would like to continue making music and collaborating more as a group. It helps that we’re close friends, so rehearsing/creating new material comes naturally and isn’t a stressful process. But yea, the future is still terrifying. In the words of Garth Algar, “Live in the Now!”

Radio Days: Still Chasing the Perfect Chorus

Posted on by patrickdonders


For more than two decades, Milan’s Radio Days have remained devoted to the timeless pleasures of Power Pop: sharp melodies, ringing guitars, big harmonies and choruses that refuse to leave your head. With their fifth album, Off The Record, arriving on September 4, the band sound as energized as ever, connecting their love of ’60s melody and late-’70s Power Pop with the renewed enthusiasm surrounding the genre today.

We caught up with Radio Days singer, guitarist and songwriter Dario Persi to talk about the making of Off The Record, how he knows when a song is really working, the band’s upcoming touring plans and why, after more than twenty years, the search for the perfect Power Pop song continues.

You’ve been making Power Pop for more than two decades now, and the sound you love is rooted very much in the late ’70s and early ’80s. What is it about that particular sound that has kept you inspired for so many years? Has your idea of what makes great Power Pop changed over time?

It’s true, time flies when you’re having fun! Haha!

Joking aside, we’ve always loved this music, and even though there have been some stylistic differences from record to record, we’ve kept playing it because it’s the music we love and the music we would want to listen to ourselves.

I think that, fundamentally, Power Pop is all about the songs. Without great songs, you can’t really go anywhere. So, for us, it’s about having a great, catchy but intelligent melody, some beautiful ’60s-style harmonies, and the energy and attitude of the late ’70s. That combination still feels perfect to us today.

How did Off The Record actually begin? At what point do you realize that you have enough new material to start thinking, “Okay, this is going to be a new Radio Days album”?

It was actually quite a planned and structured process. In mid-2023, we finished the tour for Rave On!, our previous album, and decided to take a break from touring to focus on writing a new record.

It took us about a year and a half, between writing the songs — which I mainly do at home with an acoustic guitar — and arranging them, which we do all together in our rehearsal room.

We wrote around 20 new songs and recorded pre-production demos of all of them. Then we selected 15 to officially record in the studio.

From those 15, we eventually chose the 10 that would make it onto Off The Record. The other five will be B-sides for some of the singles or will be released in the future!

Off The Record is coming out soon. When is the release date, and what are your plans for the rest of the year? Are there concerts, touring or other Radio Days activities we can look forward to?

Yes, we’re almost there! Our final single, “Another Lonely Night,” will be released on August 21st, and then Off The Record will be out on September 4th.

We already have a few shows booked in Italy, and at the end of October and beginning of November we’ll be doing a 10-date tour in Spain. We’ll be announcing those dates in the next few days.

After that, we’re working on a tour of Japan for April/May 2027 — exactly ten years after our first time in the Land of the Rising Sun!

“Flying High” sounds like the ultimate Power Pop song to me — immediate, melodic and incredibly catchy. When you write a song, how do you know when you’ve got something really special? Is there a moment when you realize, “This one is better than the rest”?

Thanks, I’m really glad you like it! It was actually the first song out of the 20 or so that we wrote for Off The Record.

Usually, I can tell pretty quickly if something is working when I come up with a good chorus or a good verse. I record it right away and send it to the others, and if they don’t shoot it down and everyone likes it, then I know we’ve got something!

It’s a strange process. Sometimes I can’t come up with anything for months, and other times I manage to write two or three good songs in a single week. It really depends on my mental state, my mood, my motivation… It’s not easy to figure out!

There seems to be a renewed interest in catchy, melodic guitar Pop at the moment, with bands like The Lemon Twigs, Mod Lang and others attracting a lot of attention. Do you feel that this new enthusiasm for Power Pop and ’70s-inspired Pop has reached Italy as well? And do you feel part of a new wave, or do you see Radio Days as continuing something you’ve been doing all along?

It’s great to see these younger bands getting into the genre. The Lemon Twigs have changed quite a bit compared to their early days and have become more Power Pop and ’60s-influenced, and I absolutely loved that change. Mod Lang have also made a fantastic record.

There has never really been a big scene for this kind of music in Italy, but I’ve definitely noticed more people becoming interested in it over the last few years.

I’d say we’re probably too old to be part of this new wave, haha! But we’re also really happy to see a bit more interest in a genre that we’ve been carrying on for so many years. I think it’s good for everyone.

Kiwi Jr., Without Overthinking It

Posted on by patrickdonders

Four years after Chopper, Kiwi Jr. return with Blowin’ Up, an album that finds the Toronto band moving forward without losing the restless charm that made them so appealing in the first place. Their familiar mix of jangly guitars, scrappy garage pop and sharp-edged rock is still there, but this time the songs feel more open, confident and lived-in.

That change didn’t happen overnight. After years of moving quickly from one record to the next, Kiwi Jr. allowed themselves time to stop, write, discard ideas and eventually rediscover what excited them about making music together. The result is a record shaped by ten years as a band, but also by the willingness to try something different without overthinking it.

Ahead of the August 14 release of Blowin’ Up, we spoke with singer and guitarist Jeremy Gaudet about that four-year gap, getting the band tight before heading to Detroit to record, the evolution of his songwriting, putting Kiwi Jr. themselves on an album cover for the first time, and why sometimes the best way forward is simply to trust what works.

When I saw Kiwi Jr. on the Chopper tour at EKKO in Utrecht, and now looking at the artwork and presentation around Blowin’ Up, I get the feeling that the band is entering a new chapter. Even the choice to feature the band itself on the cover feels like a different statement. Is that something you recognize yourselves, and does it reflect a change in how you see Kiwi Jr. as a band?

It’s been 4 years since our last album and ya some things have changed. With every new album we try to put a slightly different flavor forward. Cooler Returns had a particular garage rock fidelity, Chopper introduced the moog, Blowin’ Up I think provides a freshness and open-air quality that the band hasn’t explored that much in the past. For this album cover, I wanted the band to be photographed on the front cover because all of the great bands have at least one album where they are on the cover. It seemed liked the old school way to do it – photograph the artist for the cover and don’t think about it too much. We tried to approach the recording of the album the same way – get the band tight, hire a good engineer, and don’t over think it.

Listening to Blowin’ Up, it feels like Kiwi Jr. has taken the foundation you built with your previous albums and started exploring it with more confidence and a greater sense of adventure. I hear a change in sound and storytelling, but maybe that is just my impression. Do you recognize that, and if so, where do you think that change comes from?

We are older now and I think that comes across in certain ways. We took a few years between albums and I think we were wary of certain traps we maybe would have fallen into had we tried to make an album immediately after Chopper. We’ve been a band for ten years and we know what works and what doesn’t work. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and this allows us to steer the ship with greater confidence. There are some new things we’ve tried to do on this album, with time signatures, and bringing in an outside mixing engineer etc. But overall the process is sort of familiar to us now.

Four years is a long time. During that period, not only can a band change, but your view of the world, yourself, and your place in it can change as well. Has that period influenced the way you write songs? Are there different subjects or ideas that play a role on Blowin’ Up?

I try not to look too closely at my songwriting process and subjects with a lot of scrutiny because creativity is a delicate thing for me. There are times I will go months without writing anything, and other times it comes pouring out. I’m afraid if I start to analyze it, I’ll become too aware of it and fumble it. Like when you’re trying to fall asleep, you can’t think about how you are trying to fall asleep. It will never happen like that. And of course I have to follow what gets me excited and what I’m interested in, otherwise it becomes work.

Every album has its own story behind it. Can you take us back to the beginning of Blowin’ Up? When did you realize that you were creating a new Kiwi Jr. album, and what was the process like from the first ideas to the finished record?

We had been moving very quickly from Football Money through Chopper and I think we just needed to sit down and breath for a bit. Even though Chopper was finished in 2022, I didn’t start to write the songs that ended up on this album until 2024. There were two years of failed attempts and distractions. The first two songs were Blowin Up and World Like Polly. Once we had those two, we essentially were starting work on a new album. We rehearsed a lot and spent a long time getting the arrangements and songs together before going into the studio. Lots of phone recordings, for example. We went to Detroit record the album in March 2025. So the songwriting and arranging process took a complete year pretty much.

When the recordings are finished, Blowin’ Up is still a very personal project of the band. By the time it is released, other people already have expectations about it. Is that a thrilling transition, or does it simply feel like the natural end of the process?

It feels good to release something we’re proud of. As I said, it’s been two years since we started to write the songs. I get a bit of a thrill releasing it now because we’ve been sitting on the songs for so long. I hope people take notice and respond to it. We’re excited to play the songs live too.

With Blowin’ Up being released on August 14, what does the rest of the year look like for Kiwi Jr.?

European/UK tour in November. Some North American dates sprinkled all around. One day at a time!

Scott Gagner on Sweet Tooth, Pop Music and Finding the Bright Side

Posted on by patrickdonders

With Sweet Tooth, Minneapolis songwriter Scott Gagner has delivered one of this summer’s most infectious pop albums. Across ten concise songs, he combines sunshine pop, power pop and psychedelia into a collection overflowing with irresistible melodies, rich harmonies and colorful arrangements. But beneath its candy-coated surface lies a clear message: choosing joy can be a powerful response to an increasingly troubled world.

We caught up with Scott to talk about the philosophy behind Sweet Tooth, the artists who inspired the album, how it came together in the studio, and whether, after releasing so many records, making a new album can still surprise him.

On Sweet Tooth, pleasure almost feels like an act of resistance. Do you think making joyful pop music in times like these can be an act of defiance? 

Indeed. Any act of creation is an act of good. If that creation can spread a little joy, positivity, and hope — when all evidence points to the contrary — then you are doing a tiny part to redress the balance. People have been bombarded by more than enough misery these days — we certainly got our share in Minnesota this past January. It somehow felt like the most radical and generous thing I could do was make Sweet Tooth an uplifting, earworm-rich pop record. 

You’ve said it would have been easy to make an album full of sad ballads. Why did you consciously choose not to? Was there a specific moment or event that inspired you to make a record filled with color, energy and hope? 

Truth be told, I love writing sad ballads. Maybe it’s the Ron Sexsmith fan in me. But I wrote so many that they started piling up in one corner of the studio. After a few months, they started to smell funny. Meanwhile, in the opposite corner, a pile of bright, shiny, candy-coated pop songs started piling up. They smelled sweet and delicious. Then I wrote “Sugar Rush.” That song seemed to embody everything that the “pop pile” was going for. In fact, it declared itself so strongly, that I decided to change the title of the album from “Technicolor Eyes” (a phrase from leadoff track “Beyond the Blue”) to “Sweet Tooth.”

Listening to Sweet Tooth, I hear touches of sunshine pop, power pop and psychedelia. Were there specific artists or records that inspired you while writing and recording the album, or did those influences emerge naturally? 

My daughter is a fellow Beatles freak like me, so that’s what we listen to in the car on the way to her swim practices. After witnessing an absolutely incendiary show in Minneapolis, I’ve been on an extended Guided by Voices kick. It certainly helps that they keep putting out incredible records every year. Other recent favorites include Mike Viola, Super Furry Animals (plus solo Gruff Rhys), Father John Misty, and Aimee Mann. For the more synth-based songs (“Purple Heart” and “Where Do We Go From Here”), I was influenced by some Norwegian Disco that my brother turned me on to (Todd Terje, Lindstrom), pre-1982 Devo, and Tubeway Army. I love the juxtaposition of live human drums with robotic synth arpeggios.

Can you walk me through the making of Sweet Tooth? How did you choose the musicians, the studio and the producer, and how much of the album’s sound was already mapped out before you started recording?

All the songs began in my home studio, often originating with a title phrase, and then brought to life while strumming my favorite nylon-string guitar. By the end of the initial writing day, I’ll have a pretty fleshed-out demo, including drums, bass, guitars, piano, synths, and vocals. That exact demo remains the basic foundation for what you hear on the final album, and I simply replace any instruments that need improving along the way. That way I can retain plenty of the initial inspiration and excitement of the demo. In the case of this album, I wanted to use my incredible rhythm section of Tim Zhorne (drums) and Sam Graber (bass) playing together. I also wanted to try a studio in Minneapolis called The Library. The owner/engineer, Matt Patrick, has created an incredible space — all the walls are lined with books for acoustic dampening. We replaced all the drum and bass tracks in one marathon day. I then took an additional studio day to replace some guitars that needed improving. Then I continued to polish at my home studio, overdubbing any final touches, and adding additional players, including Aaron McCabe on trumpet and Rachel Hunter on backing vocals. 


You’ve released quite a few records over the years. Does putting out a new album still bring surprises, either in the reviews or in the reactions from listeners? Were there any responses to Sweet Tooth that really stayed with you?

I’ve been pleased with the reactions thus far. The word “irresistable” has popped up in a few reviews, which is what I was going for. After all the bad news that has swirled around us in recent years, it seems like people were ready for something upbeat, positive, and hopeful. 

The Goods: Finding Hope in Goodbye Summertime

Posted on by patrickdonders

The Goods return this September with Goodbye Summertime, the follow-up to Don’t Spoil The Fun, one of my favorite albums of last year. Released by Dandy Boy Records, the new record builds on everything that made its predecessor so memorable: instantly gratifying guitar pop packed with irresistible melodies, but with an emotional depth that reveals itself the closer you listen. Much of that comes from Rob Good’s lyrics, which are remarkably honest, direct, and unafraid to be vulnerable.

Ahead of the album’s September release, I spoke with Rob Good about the emotions behind Goodbye Summertime, writing some of its most personal songs, and what lies ahead for The Goods.

Goodbye Summertime is such a melancholy album title to me. Was that the state of mind you were in when you wrote these songs, or is it more the atmosphere you wanted to convey?

It’s a melancholy album, really. It does have a lot to do with the state of mind I was in when writing it. A lot of the album is about change, and although change can be good it can also be painful, and you can mourn the loss of what you had to leave behind to get to a better place. But saying “goodbye” to something also means saying “hello” to something new, so it may be tinged with some sadness but there’s optimism in there too. To me, the title Goodbye Summertime captures those bittersweet feelings.

“Wing” is a song I keep coming back to, especially because of the lyrics and the line about asking someone to take you under their wing. It feels very vulnerable. Was that your intention when you wrote it?

“Wing” is definitely me at a vulnerable moment. The lyrics are very direct and honest. Sometimes in my writing I’m just trying to express a feeling that’s difficult to put into words, but in this case I was being more autobiographical. A lot of the songs on this record were written really quickly, in heightened emotional states, and then recorded right away. This is one of those songs. I don’t know about the intention because “Wing” just kind of spilled out – I think I needed to write it at that moment.

On parts of “Ginger Rose” you sing noticeably higher than usual. As a listener, that has a huge emotional impact on me—not just because it sounds beautiful. Were you deliberately trying to add an extra emotional dimension, or did the melody simply lead you there and require you to sing in that higher register?

When I’m writing, I just try to follow the melody where it wants to go. I don’t think I necessarily set out to write a song where I sang in falsetto, but as I was feeling my way through the chords it just seemed to take me there. I can remember around the time of writing “Ginger Rose” I was obsessed with several songs that featured a falsetto vocal – “Here There and Everywhere” is an obvious touchstone, but also “Tell Me Have You Seen Her” by the Chi-Lites and “How Deep Is Your Love” by the Bee Gees – so that influence must have crept in. I do love a falsetto vocal, and it was fun to explore that part of my voice.

“Waiting” feels quite different from the rest of the album. It’s just you and your guitar, I assume. Because it’s so brief, it feels more like a short story than a full novel—to use a slightly clumsy comparison. What made it such an important piece of the album as a whole?

I like that comparison! “Waiting” was just a song-fragment that was rattling around in my head, and that seemed to be all that it wanted to be. I think it’s okay for songs to be short. Sometimes you just have a snippet of a melody and it somehow feels complete – like if it were any longer it would somehow lose something. Tony Molina is obviously the master of this. I also love Pink Flag by Wire and of course “Your Majesty” at the end of Abbey Road. Not that I was explicitly thinking about any of that when I wrote “Waiting,” but I’ve just always found that short songs can be really impactful and beautiful. As far as its importance on the record, over the course of an album I feel like the little moments are just as important as the big swings, and “Waiting” is just one of those little moments.

When is Goodbye Summertime being released, and what do the next few months look like for The Goods?

Goodbye Summertime comes out on September 16, and our record release show is on September 11 at Little Hill in El Cerrito, CA. Then, starting September 24 we’re heading out for a European tour with Joel Cusumano. We’re currently looking at visiting Germany, Spain, France, Belgium, and the UK, and maybe a couple other places too.

Flipping the Script: How Adversity Shaped Skeletons

Posted on by patrickdonders

Sometimes the best records are born from the worst circumstances. After a frustrating battle to restore his previous album to streaming platforms following a false accusation of artificial streaming, David Woodard channeled that anger, urgency, and renewed sense of purpose into Skeletons. The result is his rawest and most immediate collection yet—a record where power pop hooks meet punk energy, and where vulnerability is worn as proudly as defiance.

Skeletons has quite an unusual backstory. What happened, and how did you arrive at a sound that leans just a little more toward punk than power pop?

Two months after releasing Everything Belongs, I got an email from CDBaby telling me Apple Music had removed the album for irregular streaming activity. They listed bots, fake accounts, and playlist manipulation as possible infractions. None of which I had done.

CDBaby told me to contact Apple Music directly. Apple Music told me they only deal with distributors. I went back to CDBaby. They ghosted me. For weeks. I tried social media. I filed a BBB complaint. I watched my weekly streams drop to zero. Eventually CDBaby replied, reiterated why the album had been removed, and closed the case.

So I reopened it. Filed another BBB complaint. Kept pushing. A few days before Christmas they agreed to resubmit. The next morning it was back.

I tell this story because the system is designed to make you give up. If this happens to you, don’t. Keep pushing.

As for the sound of Skeletons, that story starts a couple of years earlier. I randomly picked a music documentary one night and landed on Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All. I had never heard of the Descendents. I watched it eight times. Listened to their music constantly. Fell down the rabbit hole of everyone they influenced. Even travelled to Chicago to see them.

I grew up in the suburbs in the late seventies and eighties. Punk was happening but I was too young and too removed to get it. So, I feel like I am living my musical life backwards. Discovering at 57 what I should have found at 17. Skeletons is what that sounds like.

On the title track, you really go for it vocally, making the performance feel incredibly powerful yet also very vulnerable. Was that contrast intentional, or did that tension simply emerge naturally as you were recording it?

I don’t consider myself a vocalist. I spent twenty-five years playing with people who were real vocalists and learned what I could from watching them work.

When I stepped out on my own, I had to make peace with having a limited set of tools. I have some range (I can squeeze out a high A# if I must), and I like what my voice does when I am pushing hard. There is something that comes out under pressure that I find more interesting than anything I produce when I am comfortable.

For the studio-philes, I also switched from a condenser mic to a dynamic mic for vocals. Condenser mics reward control and precision. Dynamic mics reward commitment. For a rawer record it made sense.

The vocal on Thus Far is probably the best example. The inspiration was a YouTube video of a street band in the UK performing U2’s With or Without You. The singer is just singing his guts out on a street corner. Everything he has. Perfectly imperfect. I wanted to chase that feeling.

Whether you call it power pop or punk pop, the music lives and breathes through irresistible hooks and catchy choruses. It must be a wonderful feeling to write a sad song where all those elements come together so perfectly. What does that feel like as a songwriter?

You have to have songs people want to listen to. That’s it. Nothing saves a record full of songs no one wants to hear.

I’m grateful I can do what I do. Modern technology is remarkable. A guy in a room in Nashville makes a record and someone in Sweden finds it and plays it on their radio show. That still gets me.

And when someone tells you a song meant something to them, that’s the whole reason you pick up the guitar in the first place. Every musician reading this knows exactly what I mean.

Given the way this record came together, I imagine there was an even stronger desire to prove yourself and make sure people heard it. Did you feel that, or was it still most important simply to make the record you truly believed in?

The initial impulse was about flipping the script. I had been accused and effectively convicted of something I didn’t do. That is a peculiar kind of shame and embarrassment. The quickest antidote I could think of was to get something new into the world as fast as possible.

The irony is that urgency probably helped the record more than any deliberate artistic intention could have.

Everything Belongs was me trying to be edgier, and I like what I did. But looking back I was reaching for some low hanging fruit of politics to feed a sense of discontentedness.

With Skeletons the urgency and discontentedness was personal. I wasn’t trying to sound productively maladapted. I just was.

David Woodard and the band sound absolutely huge on Skeletons. How did you achieve the sound you had in mind?

Less was more. That’s the honest answer.

Fewer takes. Less processing. More economy in the sonic space. The blueprint is basically two guitars, bass, and drums. The vocal harmonies are sparser with more duets than trios and less stacking. Everything that remains is working harder.

A lot of this was unintentional. Recording fast to flip the script on a bad situation produces its own kind of serendipity. Some of the things I like most about this record I didn’t plan.

Paul Collins on 60 Minutes of Power Pop: From the Stage to the Screen

Posted on by patrickdonders

On Sunday, April 6, 2025, Paul Collins played at the new dBs here in Utrecht. He had promised “60 Minutes of Power Pop” beforehand, and that’s exactly what we got: in a blistering one-two-three-go rhythm, he blasted through nearly all the classics from the first two The Beat albums, along with a handful of gems from The Nerves. Collins was the undisputed King of Power Pop, urging his much younger backing band on with infectious energy, never letting the pace drop for a second.

Next to me, I saw my two sons, aged 21 and almost 23, watching it all with big smiles. During “Hanging on the Telephone,” a spontaneous family dance broke out, and for a moment, we found ourselves in Power Pop heaven.

What an amazing night!

That Utrecht show was just one stop on a unique tour in which Collins performed with different backing bands. The entire adventure has now been captured in a wonderful documentary, following the tour from rehearsals to performances around the world.

I spoke with Paul about how the film came together, what it was like working with so many different musicians, and why the project has already been attracting attention from film festivals. He also shared some exciting news about an upcoming release celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Nerves.

How did the idea for the movie come about?

Paul Collins: I was in Mallorca after I did that show for Paco, and one morning I said to myself, “I really want to document this. I want to let everyone know that I did it.”

I thought it was a tremendous undertaking, and I really surprised myself with how well it turned out.

I’d collected clips that people had posted about the different shows, so I thought I would use those as the basis for putting everything together. One of the clips was done by the filmmaker Tom Fleming, and it was of a very high quality. So when I got in touch with him, I thought I’d ask, “Do you want to help me make this into a film?” His immediate answer was yes, and I’m so glad that he did, because I think it turned out great.

60 Minutes of Power Pop is such a great concept. Did the idea come together all at once, or did it evolve over time?

Paul Collins: Yes, it all came together at the same time.

I was thinking about how I could improve the shows, which is something you’re always doing. How can I make it better? How can I get people to come out?

And it just came to me in a flash. Why don’t I just do the best songs by The Beat and The Nerves? There are so many, and that would be non-stop power pop!

Just one great song after another.

So that was the inspiration for everything. Once I had that, everything else just snowballed.

In the film we see you performing with a number of different backing bands, and it all seems to come together effortlessly. I imagine organizing that must have been quite a challenge. How did you make it work?

Paul Collins: I surprised myself with how easily it fell into place, although I knew each time I was taking a tremendous gamble that it might not work out.

I vetted the bands as best I could. Toyozo I knew from Japan, and I knew he was serious about this music. I had total faith that he would come up with two guys of the same caliber, and they were amazing. We really could have done it after one rehearsal. After the first rehearsal, I said, “Wow, it’s done.” But we did the second one just to be on the safe side.

It was more or less the same thing with every band. The Manikins, again, I vetted them. I saw that they were touring, and they were from Switzerland. The Swiss are famous for being very meticulous. Once again, when I showed up, they had everything locked down, and it was really amazing. I gave myself a number of days in their hometown. They put me up in a very nice place, so I got to hang out there. We had a buffer in case there were any problems, but we really didn’t need it.

It just kind of went on like that. The guys in France, The Sutles, were the same way. I did two rehearsals with them, and we were really ready to rock. We were supposed to do more shows, but unfortunately two of them got canceled. One of the clubs closed—those kinds of screw-ups.

I loved playing with them. I was really hoping we could do more shows, and hopefully we will in the future.

The same thing happened with the guys in California. That was another case where a club owner sent me a video of them doing “Working Too Hard,” and I got in touch with them. They immediately said yes, and I went out there. Again, I had a buffer. I think I was there for almost ten days, just hanging out with them.

That was really a lot of fun. I stayed with Dustin and his family, got to know his wife and his kid, and we did it Long Beach style.

We had time to do a couple of rehearsals, but basically I didn’t do more than two rehearsals with any of these bands, including the guys in Mallorca. We’re old friends.

The film is currently being booked for several film festivals, and there already seems to be a lot of enthusiasm from festival programmers. Why do you think it has struck such a chord with them?

Paul Collins: Well, it’s been a real eye-opening experience submitting to festivals because of the way they go about things. You have to submit, and then you have to wait a long time before you find out whether you’re even in.

So far, we’ve been lucky. We’ve been accepted in Los Angeles, Berlin, Paris, and, most recently, Tokyo, and we’re hoping for more.

We’ve also submitted to Barcelona, the Woodstock Festival here in New York, and the Long Beach Festival, so hopefully we’ll get some more acceptances.

To date, the only showing we’ve had in a movie theater was in Los Angeles. A bunch of my friends went, Tom Fleming went, and Softjaw went too. It was great. They saw it on the big screen, and everybody loved it.

That’s the caveat, though, because getting accepted into a festival doesn’t always mean your film gets screened. They can only show a certain number of films.

So the second tier is finding out whether they’re actually going to show your film, and we’re still waiting to hear about that from some of these festivals.

At a certain point, we’ll just turn it over to our own platforms and let everybody see it.

We have a two-year license to do that, and we will.

Looking back at the past few years—the touring, the recording, and now the film—what keeps you inspired and gives you the energy to keep going full throttle?

Paul Collins: That’s the easy part. What keeps me going is that I love it.

This last show, The Best of The Nerves and The Beat, is also coupled with the fact that Third Man Records is releasing the 50th anniversary edition of The Nerves on October 8, which they’ll be announcing soon. It’s a double album with all those great songs.

We included some of the Breakaways songs along with the Nerves songs—everything from the vintage 1974 to 1978 period. We found the source tapes, and most of it is studio material, so the sound is incredible. It’s a great document of the work that Jack Lee, Peter Case, and I did.

So it’s a great impetus to go out there and perform this stuff.

The last show I did here in New York was my best show in New York in many, many years. We played TV Eye, it was sold out, and the audience was just fantastic. There were people like yourself with their kids, people on first dates, young kids, older kids—kids my age. We’re all kids.

So it’s a very nice situation now. The people who follow this kind of music, and the people who follow my music, are great. It’s just wonderful. Without sounding corny, it’s a loving crowd, and I really enjoy it. It gives me a tremendous amount of satisfaction to be able to do it, and I’m happy with the place I’m in now.

I’m able to do what I do, and I have no trouble surviving these days, so it’s all good.

When Autumn Feels Like Spring: Splitsville’s Mobtown

Posted on by patrickdonders

When old heroes release a new album, it’s often unfair to compare the new work with what they created in their glory days. But because they’re heroes, you accept a new standard of quality—just as you do with autumn when thinking of spring. None of this applies to Mobtown: Splitsville’s new album sounds as fresh and exciting as their releases from the turn of the millennium. Maybe Cold Open isn’t the perfect opener, but after that, it’s nine straight hits—flawless, brilliantly executed, and perfectly produced power pop, with Perry Hall and I Hate Going to Hutzler’s as two random highlights that I was singing along to after just a couple of listens, coloring my day in bright tones. In all this excitement, I’m tempted to say it won’t get any hotter this year—but maybe it goes even further, and I’m ready to label it a Modern Power Pop Classic right now.

A Grand Night Out: Das Pop’s Triumphant Return to the Stage

Posted on by patrickdonders

Bent van Looy, who in recent years has released a handful of beautiful solo albums in collaboration with Jason Falkner, is often perceived as a dandy—an intellectually vain figure—and rightly so. Much like Jarvis Cocker, he embraces this persona with flair, and in both cases, it’s a joy to witness and to listen to. That was certainly true last Wednesday, when Van Looy led the long-awaited return of his band Das Pop after a 14-year hiatus.

In the late ‘90s and early 2000s, following the decline of grunge, Belgian indie pop experienced a golden era. Bands like K’s Choice, dEUS, Soulwax, and Das Pop released unique and compelling music that reached far beyond Belgium’s borders.

Now, with just one new song in hand, Das Pop is staging a reunion, and their performance at De Roma in Antwerp felt like a triumphant homecoming. Van Looy called the stage—set in a venue with the grandeur of an opera house and the acoustics of a premier pop temple—his home.

Van Looy clearly understands the unwritten rules of pop band reunions: it’s not just about playing the hits. Of course, the hits are there—sung loudly, danced to, embraced in moments of shared nostalgia—but it’s during the deeper cuts that the bond between band and audience grows strongest. The hall fills with a sense of intimacy and devotion. This is no place for critics; this is a gathering of true fans. A celebration of recognition, of recent nostalgia, and of the vibrant legacy of Belgian pop music.

The Guess Who’s Erased Era: Rediscovering Plein D’Amour

Posted on by patrickdonders

The Guess Who, the legendary Canadian rock band known for hits like “American Woman” and “These Eyes,” is back together! Original members Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings have announced that they will go on tour in 2026 under the name The Guess Who. This reunion follows a years-long legal battle over the use of the band name, which was settled in September 2024 in favor of Bachman and Cummings.

What’s strange, though, is that in recent years there was a really solid version of the band recording new music and playing live extensively. Plein D’Amour from 2023 is a refreshingly strong album, with a sound that blends the playful ’90s power pop of Jellyfish with the early ’80s AOR of bands like Dakota, Donnie Iris, and Franke and the Knockouts—all delivered by Derek Sharp, a fantastic vocalist.

After Bachman and Cummings reclaimed the band name, the recent history was wiped from social media, and suddenly everything is about American Woman again. But Plein D’Amour is too good to be forgotten, and has now been re-released as the debut of Derek Sharp and the Champagne Jam. Go listen to it!