Neck Deep have spoken to NME about their huge 2024 so far, the ongoing resurgence of pop-punk and their love of Blink-182.
The band’s guitarists Matt West and Sam Bowden and drummer Matt Powles caught up with NME backstage at Reading Festival 2024, shortly before they took to the stage for two sets at the festival. The first was held at the main stage, where they broke out some of their biggest hits, and the second was at the Festival Republic stage later that night, which included more rarities from across their catalogue.
During the interview, the band also reflected their huge headline gig at London’s Alexandra Palace — which marked their biggest show to date — as well as their hopes to organise some tour dates with other heavyweights from the pop-punk genre.
Check out the full interview above, or read it below.
NME: Hi Neck Deep, tell us about the idea for you to play two sets at Reading arose.
Matt West: “We got an email and were like, ‘Yeah, that sounds like it could be fun’. So we’ll see what happens really.”
Matt Powles: “When someone says ‘Here’s the proposition to play twice in a day’, you’re not going to say no, are you! It’s a compliment for sure.”
Sam Bowden: “Especially at this point, we have a new record out [self-titled], but it’s also been an anniversary for some old stuff and it’s coming up to an anniversary of ‘Life’s Not Out To Get You’. So it’s a chance to play a good amount of the catalogue. We’re doing no repeat songs, completely different sets. There are a lot of songs we’ve had to practice so we’ll see how they go today.”
Are there any this time round that you’re going to break out for maybe the first time in a while?
M.P: “Definitely. ‘Crushing Grief’ is one that’s not been played for a long time. ‘The Beach is for Lovers’ has never been played in the UK other than at a record show. ‘Haunt You’ has never been played on UK soil. ‘Serpents’ hasn’t been played for [a while] because Slam Dunk 2022 was the last time we did that. There’s quite a few different ones.”
How does it feel for you as the artist to introduce lesser-played tracks into your set?
M.W: “Maybe nerves on some of them, but it’s still exciting though because it’s songs that we’ve not had the chance to stick in the set for a very long time. Like Sam said, with it being like the anniversaries of certain things it makes sense more than ever to put them in now. It’s exciting.”
M.P: “I think if you’re a Neck Deep fan and you’ve come to many of our shows throughout the years, there are going to be four or five songs you’ve never seen us play. So I’m pretty sure they’ll be highly welcomed.”
The last time we spoke it was just before you played your biggest show to date at Alexandra Palace. How did it go?
S.B: “Amazing, it couldn’t have gone better. We were stressed for a solid eight months going into that, debating about what songs to play and the production. Even at the soundcheck on the day of the show, things were still not completely ready! It was like right down to the minute getting ready for it, but the show went great. It was really, really special to be able to do that. I wish we had two nights because it was over before we knew it.”
M.W: “Yeah, I remember it was the first three songs and then next thing I was waking up at home the next day being like, ‘Whoa, what happened there?’ It was probably one of the best nights of my life.”
S.B: “We’d been just wanting to do something like that for a long time, and to have that kind of production. It was how we’d always envisioned being able to showcase the band. It felt like ‘If we could do this every show, this is how we would want to do it’, so to be able to do that once is amazing. But it was also a huge headache. I can’t imagine doing that every day! It took an army to get that together.”
M.P: “I remember a few of us the day after the show spoke about how it was such a high that it felt like the band was now over. We now have that hunger to get up and do it again and plan something better.”
2024 has been Neck Deep’s year. We’ve had a new album, plans for a UK and US tour, support slots with Sum 41 and more. What’s it like to be hitting all of these milestones?
S.B: “Crazy. I think the biggest milestone after Ally Pally was headlining a festival in Jakarta to – we were told 10,000 people – but allegedly there were 25,000. Either way, we went to the other side of the world and played one of the craziest shows, so we’re still trying to process that. Soon it’ll be onto the next album and some more milestones, just trying to keep going.”
M.W: “One thing that we’ve been consistent with is that we’ve never really wanted to stop. It’s always just been like, ‘We can do more, we can do bigger, we can keep going.’ That’s always just been the M.O. from the beginning. We want to see how far we can go and then keep going.”
What’s it like to see this huge pop-punk resurgence over the past couple of years?
S.B: “It’s good, there’s been some strange pockets in the scene, but it’s all still contributing to more fans being introduced and making the whole scene more popular and relevant than ever. There have been some really sick bands that have come out of it in recent years. We’d love to put together a few sort of classic pop-punk tours as well — try and get some older lineups that we’ve had before in the past. I mean, having The Wonder Years on the UK tour next year is crazy, I can’t believe that that’s actually happening.”
M.W: “We did our first proper full UK tour opening for The Wonder Years, so it’s a very strange, full circle moment where we’re now taking them out on tour. Like Sam said, it’d be cool to get some of our mates together with us and to tour with them again. Hopefully, we get to do that soon.”
Also here at the festival are Blink-182, have they been an influence on your sound?
S.B: “Yeah, I think for a few of us they’re our favourite band ever! GOATed band. So we’re all very, very stoked to be watching them two nights in a row. We’ll be hanging outside their dressing room trying to say hello for sure.”
M.P: “I was late to Blink! I was a metal kid when I grew up, so I had to force myself upon it. I was always like, ‘Joey Jordison [late Slipknot drummer] is better than Travis Barker!’, then I grew up a bit and was like, well, no he’s not. Travis Barker is the best. I’m stoked, they’re awesome.”
Visit here for all the latest news, reviews, photos, interviews and more from Reading & Leeds 2024.