BEHIND THE MUSIC: PUP Debuts New Album 'WHO WILL LOOK AFTER THE DOGS?'

Photo by Vanessa Hines

Toronto punk heroes PUP - compromised of Stefan Babcock, Nestor Chumak, Zack Mykula and Steve Sladowski - have released their highly-anticipated new album Who Will Look After The Dogs? via Little Dipper/Rise Records.

Reminder to call your dogsitter, because PUP will bring Who Will Look After The Dogs? on the road all year, touring North America, Australia and of course the UK/EU. The UK/EU run will feature support from Illuminati Hotties and Goo, while the North American tour will see them co-headline with long-time friend and collaborator Jeff Rosenstock.

PUP's pummelling and cathartic fifth LP, is their most immediate, no-frills, and hard-hitting full-length yet. The album was recorded in Los Angeles with producer John Congleton over the course of three weeks, and it's the culmination of PUP's past decade of constant touring and their palpable, livewire chemistry. The album envokes the lightning-in-a-bottle intensity of their self-titled debut and finds our self-loathing frontman Stefan Babcock at his most reflective, vulnerable and prolific. Over 12 tracks, Babcock excavates his life's relationships - romantic, with his bandmates, and most ruthlessly, his relationship to himself. There's plenty of growth, but also plenty of unpredictable mayhem in the arrangements and an acerbic bite in the writing. And while PUP historically are at one another's throats during the album process, this time they scrapped their tedious perfectionism and rediscovered the joy of making loud music together.

Over the past decade, PUP have thrived on volatility. It's not really a joke when the Toronto punks release songs like "If This Tour Doesn't Kill You, I Will" or albums called The Unraveling Of PUPTHEBAND. Though its four members are all best friends, creative dysfunction and interpersonal friction make their snarling and self-prefacing songs thrilling. To their shock and occasional dismay, it's why their four albums are critically acclaimed and the crowds at their galvanizing live shows have only grown. It hasn't gone off the rails yet but it definitely could. The possibility it could all blow up at any second is the band's magic.

Following the release of 2022's The Unraveling of PUPTHEBAND, their most adventurous and maximalist full-length, the band's lives changed significantly. Guitarist Steve Sladowski got married, bassist Nestor Chumak settled into being a dad, and drummer Zack Mykula moved to a new place in Toronto that allowed him to expand his home studio. As the others were making big decisions and getting their acts together, Babcock felt isolated. He has just ended a decade-long relationship and cut himself off from his bandmates. "We don't get along when we're making records, so I tend to retreat," says Babcock. "In the past, I'd find comfort in another person, but this time I was alone. Being bored and lonely I just started writing music nonstop."

While writing, Babcock had time to reflect and maybe even grow up. "So many early songs were about how I'm a complete fuck up," he says. "While that remains true, I stopped hating myself as much as I did when I was younger and the people around me accepted me for who I am." Where PUP's previous LPs served as a window into six months of Babcock's life, the songs here take a holistic view of his romantic partnerships, his friendships and how he treated himself from his youth to now. In a way, writing this album served as a mirror to his emotional growth. It was hard, occasionally sucked, but was ultimately worth it.

Babcock began to view these songs chronology: the first few songs were written from the perspective of his past youthful naivete, the middle third from frequent bouts of self-loathing, and the final few cuts from the acceptance that comes with finally getting your shit together. "There's a lot of sadness in the back half of the record, but there's a lot more hot here too.", Babcock states. "I'm just coming to peace with who I am."

When Babcock brough what he wrote to the rest of the band, they all agreed to let the songs develop as organically as possible. "We realized it should be four people in a room playing.", says Chumak. "The most important thing was trying to do the most with just us." Historically, the band's jam sessions are contentious affairs but here, everything fell into place for once in the most quintessential PUP way. "We straddle the line between it falling off the rails and then being totally in the pocket.", says Sladowski. "But our four disparate personalities are what make it interesting."

They decamped to Los Angeles to work with producer John Congleton. In the studio, he helped the band work through their nagging tendency to overthink things. When they'd like how a take sounded, he'd remind them that they didn't have to try it again. He'd tell them when songs felt overwritten and to trust each other in the moment. "If we can't slove an arrangement or songwriting problem in the room between the four of us in a few minutes, then it's not really worth solving because we'd just get into a hole and lose perspective.", says Mykula. "Thanks to John, getting out of our heads made it fun."

"With the band, I have such an intense, personal connection with those three guys that I don't have with anybody else in my life.", says Babcock. "Sometimes you have to really go through the shit to have that big high of creating something with your best friends that you could never do alone."

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