Jake Wilson – Between You and Me ‘Undermining Vanity in a World That’s Going To Hell’

Australian pop punk outfit Between You and Me unleash their long awaited sophomore record, Armageddon this week (our review here), and they must be that stoked that the day is finally upon them. Having been biding their time ever so patiently to release their follow-up to 2018’s Everything is Temporary, they’ve watched their peers around them go through smooth waters to release records, but for these boys? Between You and Me have been through a heck of a time just to get their second studio album to fruition. For a hot minute, vocalist Jake Wilson (who we can all refer to “JT”) wondered if the songs would ever come to fruition, and although album release week is FINALLY here, it still hasn’t quite sunk in yet:

“It’s felt like that for a long, long time. I think it still won’t even feel like it’s out until we can actually play shows and start playing new songs, to be honest. They don’t exist in my head yet.”

The band, consisting of Wilson, bassist James “Bassy” Karagiozis, guitarists Chris Bowerman, Jai Gibson and drummer Jamey Bowerman caused a ruckus in the local scene back in 2016 with debut EP, Paper Thin. Catching the attention of US independent label, Hopeless Records, they dropped their debut full-length Everything is Temporary in 2018. The world has had three and a bit years of the band’s debut album, so you can bet by now that Jake and the rest of the guys are pumped to retire an overdone setlist:

“It’s going to be three and a half years by the time Armageddon’s out. Which is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. But you know what? I think it was worth the wait. I’m just so excited to have more songs to add into the set list instead of playing the same couple from the first cycle over and over again.”

As I stated in my review earlier in the week, Armageddon builds on the foundation that the group set on the first record, however this time they’ve produced bigger hooks and expanded on their songwriting. In saying that though, it’s still very much a Between You and Me record — even through all the pessimism Wilson puts on paper:

“There’s plenty of songs that were more chipper that didn’t make the record, but for me anyway, I didn’t want to put all the negative songs at the start. What a buzz kill. I like to put all the moodier songs at the back and put the high energy songs at the front because that way, it’s a good listen. You get hyped, you get in your feels by the time you get to track 8 (‘Better Days’), which is my absolute favourite.”

The first time we witnessed Between You and Me really nail catchier elements though was during the bout of 2019 when they unleashed the explosive, tongue-in-cheek anthem, ‘Famous’. It was here where they first tried new things musically, like dabbling in poppier melodies. This style proved a hit with BYAM fans all around and thus spurred the band’s leading single this year with ‘Supervillain’ and another stellar track, ‘Goldfish’:

“We wrote the album in the same week as we wrote ‘Famous’. Which was, years ago, and the first one to be written was ‘Goldfish’. We still wanted to do pop punk, just with more production. I wrote the demo and then didn’t really touch it until we recorded it in the studio. It’s been two years since we did the demo, but it’s a different track to us. It feels more similar to the first record. Very pop punky, but it’s a good one. I reckon that will be a crowd favourite.”

With singles ‘Deadbeat’ and ‘Butterflies’ already proving to be huge fan favs, I doubt the band has to worry too much about the rest of Armageddon being likeable. Yeah, the album’s very much got its familiarity with the pop punkier elements of the first album, but if you were expected an Everything is Temporary Round 2, you’re in for a bad time:

“There’s been years of songwriting growth and taste changes and stuff like that. If anyone was expecting us to do the first record again, they’d be bloody laughing. For me, I could listen to The Story So Far do The Story So Far every single day. They can keep releasing the same album and it wouldn’t bother me, but I wouldn’t want to do it for my band because like, I’ve got so many different things that I want to try and feel like I’ve got so much lost time to make up for, with recording music.”

We all know change is scary, but it can also be pretty exhilarating, and for Jake, an opportunity to look outwards. The band’s current single, ‘Change’ takes on quite a different persona and stylistically, new territory for Between You and Me. That song kinda felt like a prelude to the title track for me, but contrary to what I picked up on while listening, that actually wasn’t the case at all:

“I kind of wanted to write about more worldly issues. I had that kind of idea or theme in mind when recording a lot of them, but each song was recorded so far apart. It was hard to link them together. I guess it is a part one, part two, one is a bit more happy, the other not so much.”

While the band have been breadcrumbing singles all year in the lead-up to the LP, they’re keen to unleash one more cat outta the bag before Friday. ‘Go To Hell’ is the fifth track to drop from Armageddon, and is possibly the band’s best single thus far. Radiating big emo/rock energy, JT has called upon his best mate, Yours Truly vocalist Mikaila Delgado to make this track shine even brighter than when he appeared on ‘Delusional Paradise’ in 2019 (off Yours Truly’s first EP, Afterglow):

“To sum it up ineloquently, ‘Go To Hell’ is about people being vain as fuck. Whenever you see a big social event happen online, and people pretend to care about it, they make a few posts about it and then they’re done talking about it forever. I think people will really like this one. It’s one of the more moody and broody songs, but I have a feeling it might pop off live. But that could be with some help from Mikaila if we ever get to play it live together one day.”

While that would be an exciting occasion to witness on next year’s tour, it’s going to be a tough gig to get both Yours Truly and Between You and Me in the same city, let alone the same venue next year. With their friends’ touring schedule already filling up rapidly, the Melbourne-based pop punkers’ return to overseas doesn’t look too far off. As WoS’ 2021 pop punk breakout act who hope to follow a similar trajectory to Hopeless labelmates Stand Atlantic next year, we sure know how to pick ’em!

Interview by Tamara May @citylightstam

Stream ‘Go To Hell’ featuring Mikaila Delgado here

Between You and Me’s new album, Armageddon drops this Friday on Hopeless Records. Pre-order here

Between You and Me – Armageddon tracklisting:

1. Pleased To Meet You
2. Deadbeat
3. Butterflies
4. Change
5. Goldfish
6. Supervillain
7. Real World
8. Better Days
9. Go To Hell (featuring Mikaila Delgado of Yours Truly)
10. Armageddon