Lessons From A Life On The Road

The first lines Stefan Babcock sings on The Dream Is Over, the second LP for Toronto punks PUP, are: "If this tour doesn't kill you, then I will/I hate your guts and it makes me ill/Seeing your face every morning." These are, indeed, fighting words, especially given that PUP's line-up remains unchanged since their self-titled 2014 debut. What exactly inspired If This Tour Doesn't Kill You, I Will?

"There's also this dark side to touring that's really tough, and lonely, and filled with petty resentments. Touring is both the greatest thing in the world and a total bummer."

"There was no one experience that inspired that song," says Babcock. "Touring can be rough. PUP has toured so much. In 2014, we played 250 shows. [And] when you're in such close quarters, it's the little things that get on your nerves. Like the way somebody chews, or the weird habits they have, or having to change their socks twice a day; that's the kind of shit that gets to you. That song wasn't a burn on my bandmates, I just wanted to convey that feeling that all of us have on certain days on tour. People have the idea that touring is awesome: that you get to travel the world, play shows, party with your friends. And, sure, a lot of it is like that. But there's also this dark side to touring that's really tough, and lonely, and filled with petty resentments. Touring is both the greatest thing in the world and a total bummer."

Babcock is only 28, but already he's spent half his life on tour. He grew up in a family of "braniacs" — his dad an engineer, his mum an actuary, his sister a nuclear physicist — initially dreaming of being an ice-hockey player, but then two things changed his mind: he stopped growing at 5'6", and heard Built To Spill's There's Nothing Wrong With Love. "My first girlfriend showed it to me, I was 14," Babcock recounts, "that was the first time I ever had a real emotional connection to music."

But when he started his first band, at 15, they were ska-punks named, amazingly, Stop Drop N Skank. "A bunch of stupid, stoned kids having a good time," they played with Bomb The Music Industry! and Streetlight Manifesto, and toured all over Canada. After a string of "go-nowhere bands", Babcock started PUP in 2013, under the name Topanga, first writing songs on an acoustic guitar, and instantly felt something was brewing. "From the moment we first jammed, I knew it had the potential to be better than anything I'd ever done," he says. "Not that that meant I thought that it'd work out. I'm still not sure that it will. Anytime anyone ever shows up to any of our shows, it's like a nice surprise."

PUP immediately hit the ground touring, and, while the grind would eventually inspire If This Tour Doesn't Kill You, I Will, their 2015 Australian tour supporting The Smith Street Band is the exception to those experiences. "I think the four of us would agree that it was the best tour we've ever done, a total highlight of our lives," says Babcock. "We got to spend two days a week on the beach, which for four pale Canadians coming from the middle of winter was a dream come true. We can't wait to come back to Australia. And, trust me, I don't say that in every interview about every place."