State Champs Name '5 Kings Of The New Age'

US pop-punks State Champs will hit Australia next month, joining forces with The Maine, Hot Milk and Paperweight for one of the biggest pop-punk tours of the year.

Starting in bedrooms and basements in 2010, State Champs quickly ascended as leaders of a new scene owing as much to early Fall Out Boy and Green Day as latter-day Warped Tour bands. Over the course of their career, State Champs have delivered their music and heartfelt message on extensive tours with bands like Fall Out Boy, 5 Seconds Of Summer, A Day To Remember, and Simple Plan; three different Warped Tours; and a co-headliner with Neck Deep.

Billboard recently called them “modern-day pop-punk torchbearers” and in 2022, Kerrang! declared them “one of the most authentic and well-respected bands in pop-punk”. 

Before hitting Australia in support of their new record Kings Of The New Age, State Champs guitarist and founding member, Tyler Szalkowski shared with us his thoughts on who the kings of the new age of pop-punk and rock are.

Tyler Szalkowski's '5 Kings Of The New Age'

Post Malone

"I feel like a really good place to start would be Post Malone. I'm not his biggest fan, I do like his music a lot, - but I feel like, maybe this is just because I'm not in that scene, but I feel like he was really instrumental in creating a little more…not “rock” necessarily, but a lot of guitars in rap, he’s like the singer in the rap world. I don't know what that genre is specifically called, but there are people that are trying to sound like him all over TikTok right now, you know? I mean he does Nirvana covers, and I saw a picture of him hanging out with Dave Grohl. He’s obviously a rocker, but he is also an emotional guy, a rapper and a singer."

"It’s that multiplicity of artistry that really expands the possibilities. When we were making the last record, we all kept saying genre is dead. And although Kings of the New Age does sound a lot of one genre, we did take a couple of steps in a couple of different directions with some demos that didn't make it. For the song Act Like That, it’s kinda like a pop song and we took notes from people like Post Malone where it's like: you can do literally whatever you want, he can sing a song about objectifying women, and then he can also sing a song like Stay, which is the most emotional song I've heard of his. Not that I wanna see songs about objectifying women, but as far as doing whatever you want and doing it really well, and showing people that you can do whatever you want - Post Malone is a great place to start." 

"Now you have people who make trap songs, but they also have acoustic or emo songs, it’s crazy! And that helps us because then more people come into everything. During the Lil Peep era of stuff, there was a lot of crossover between SoundCloud rappers and pop punk – and we’re friends with a lot of them, they come out to the shows, and we’ve done festivals with a lot of them. I think we have Post Malone to thank for that, and I feel like as time goes on, this man just becomes more and more 'rock'."

Fall Out Boy

Fall Out Boy are definitely a band that we've always looked up to business-wise, they're a really easy one to go for here. And it is impressive to watch a band make music exactly like we make and just become absolutely fucking massive, to having a song on the soundtrack for Big Hero 6 and selling out arenas worldwide; just four guys from Chicago, kind of like the four guys from Albany in this band, it's a real girl next door story for me, that's how it feels. 

They really were just naturally “them” and it just really actually worked out. They're definitely a group that I think is really cool and still…I don't wanna say pushes the envelope, that makes it sound like they’re doing some avantgarde-type shit. But I do really think that they take more risks than people might realise, they also make borderline pop rock/pop in general. And I think that's cool that they just said: we're gonna do whatever we want, it's awesome! If you can't tell, I like when bands do whatever they want.

Paramore

Kind of riffing on that same thing, it's really hard not to put Paramore up for basically the same idea where it's like: here's a group that instead of really going, like, straight pop, even though they've had songs on pop radio and whatnot; this is a group that has leaned more towards the indie rock side of things. But it was after their fifth record After Laughter…you know, you’re five records in, and here you are just making something completely different,  and to me, it's just like real artistry, it's just really nice to see.

Hayley Williams continues to be a standup person and seemingly always on the right side of history, as far as those things are concerned. She's also mega accomplished in other realms. The same thing with Fall Out Boy too, Pete Wentz is super accomplished and has a bunch of really cool stuff that he does that I think is really awesome. A lot of questions I ask myself lately are…I mean I'm 30 years old, I have two kids, you know: what else can I do? We all know this can't happen forever. I most likely will not be in a band when I'm 55 or 60, that would be crazy. But I don't know?! I remember we did a week of shows with Fall Out Boy, and they're really good friends with our photographer who used to tour with us,  and he was talking to us backstage and we were like: yo, where are they at? Let’s hang out because, you know, we're eager and whatever, and he's like: "you wouldn't even believe the things that they're doing". 

You know, Patrick Stump’s in the middle of scoring a movie and he has a setup on the bus where he just is scoring this movie, and I'm like, 'how does one even get into scoring movies?' It's cool to just see what people do and know that if I ever make a friendship with them, they would be a really good resource to figure out how to do something else with music. It’s the same thing with Hayley too, she’s got her Good Dye Young stuff going and I know she does other stuff as well. They just do what they want, and they do it so well. It’s fucking awesome."

The 1975

"An artist that I think is really, really interesting and really cool is The 1975. I know they’re popular, but just the stuff that they've done over the years, sonically, they’re obviously an incredible band, I love all of their stuff. But the things that I'm thinking about that make the list…I forgot what festival it was, but they were using upcycled garments and screen printing directly onto recycled and upcycled garments. For me, it’s just things like that at that level. Like - that band makes some serious, serious cash off their t-shirts and they could if they wanted to continue to, just print on whatever and cause more harm to the environment." 

"I'm impressed when bigger groups or acts or whatever you wanna call 'em do the thing that most people wouldn't. We all know what needs to be done to save the planet, right? Or what we could do for civil rights, we're all well aware of what should be done. But the folks in Congress here in the States don't seemingly want anything to be equal or ethical, and all of these companies seem to just wanna pollute the fuck outta the earth. So, when an artist who, at a festival where they probably made over a hundred thousand dollars…when they decide: we're gonna go out of our way to source all of these garments and we're gonna bring a screen, print or press there, and we're gonna make all the shirts there on different garments? That's really impressive, and that's really cool to me."

People that disrupt the norm are fucking awesome to me because I very much hate the norm. I hate when everyone is just like 'oh, this just is what it is, this is just society', you know?  All the plastic gets thrown into the ocean. It's like: why? I mean, power to the people, man. You march in the streets for a few weeks and then they don't fucking care. So, when a band like The 1975 step up, I think it's really awesome." 

Dave Grohl 

"Probably because he’s still around, but another one has to be Dave Grohl. I don't really know much about the guy, but honestly? He seems like a standup guy, everybody that has talked to him really likes him, and he's apparently a really good influence. I've heard stories about him being backstage at a Billie Eilish concert, and I just think that's really cool that the vibe that I get off of someone like Dave Grohl is: he's obviously in one of the biggest rock bands in the world and he just seems like a cool fucking guy and I just wanna praise him for being fucking cool when he really doesn't have to be. I know for a fact…well, I don't know personally, but there's no way someone like Mick Jagger's cool. You won’t be hanging out with Mick Jagger going: wow, I can't wait to see Mick again. But with Dave, you're like probably praying to hang out again. Plus he was in Nirvana, so…"

STATE CHAMPS
AUSTRALIAN TOUR

WITH VERY SPECIAL GUESTS
THE MAINE
HOT MILK
PAPERWEIGHT

THURSDAY 1 SEPTEMBER – THE TIVOLI, BRISBANE (18+)

FRIDAY 2 SEPTEMBER – FORUM, MELBOURNE (18+)

SUNDAY 4 SEPTEMBER – ROUNDHOUSE, SYDNEY (LIC AA)

TUESDAY 6 SEPTEMBER – THE GOV, ADELAIDE (LIC AA)

THURSDAY 8 SEPTEMBER – MAGNET HOUSE, PERTH (18+)

Tickets on sale via Destroy All Lines.