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the humor found in the song are a staple of the album .
“ There ' s a lot of moments [ in that song ] where we tried stuff that sounded really shitty and we decided to keep it because we felt it fit the aesthetic of the song ( laughs ). There ' s something I love about that . We ' re a very imperfect band . There ' s a scrappiness to PUP I didn ' t want to lose just because we had more time in the studio . So , the scrappiness is still there . It ' s just presented in a different way . We had more time to get the right performances , but the right performances don ’ t mean the technically best performances . It means the sound like a band . Nobody was perfect but it wasn ' t about that . It made me feel like maybe this is a thing I could do , and I never had that feeling with any of the cleaner stuff . So , I want to make sure we maintain a little bit of that aesthetic .”
“ I didn ' t even think about making music until I heard " shitty " sounding music ,” he continues . “ I didn ' t even consider it would be a possibility for me . It just seemed so unattainable to make a song you hear on pop radio or whatever . So , it ' s nice to hear some of my favorite bands botch the chords on their record . It ' s like I could probably play guitar that well ( laughs ).” While the band ’ s scrappy aesthetic was left intact , other things were fair game . The new recording environment and the onset of cabin fever also the band to make some of what Babcock calls questionable decisions , particularly two songs he thought he ’ d never want to release , including “ the stupidest piano ballad of all time .”
“ The first song on the album is called ‘ Four Chords ’ and it ' s a very dumb piano ballad ,” he says . “ There has never been piano on
22 illinoisentertainer . com may 2022 onesthatfeltright .” Babcockiscorrect . That scrappiness is part of what makes PUP so distinguishable . And it ’ s a part of the band he wanted to hold on to . Reflecting on the band ’ s unpolished , raw sound he says “…[ it ’ s ] really important to me because when I was growing up listening to very polished pop-punk , I never felt I could do it . I never felt like my musical abilities were represented in the , I ' m not throwing shade or anything , in the Good Charlottes of the world . I just couldn ’ t understand how bands could sound like that . When I started to hear this grimier kind of punk or scrappier indie rock bands like Built to Spill and Interpol , I could pick out the individual instruments and how they came together to
photo by Vanessa Heins
a PUP record , nor has there been a ballad . It was a song I wrote as a joke originally called ‘ A Dumb Song for My Dumb Friends .’ I wrote it for my bandmates to make them laugh and it was never intended to be a PUP song . I sent it around long before we went into the studio , and they were like yeah that ' s funny . Then we forgot about it .” But bassist Nestor Chumak didn ’ t forget about it and suggested including it on the album . Babcock insisted it was a bad idea . “ I was like no no no that song is too stupid . That can ' t go on this record . But we ' d also been stuck in the studio for five weeks , experiencing cabin fever and they somehow convinced me this really stupid tongue-in-cheek piano ballad should start the record .”