Vanessa Heins
The four members of PUP under an umbrella at outdoor seating at a hot dog stand.
During the almost-decade since they formed, Toronto quartet PUP established themselves as the breakout punk rock act to watch. Along with amassing a loyal fan base, PUP garnered a Juno Award (Canada’s Grammy) and Polaris Prize (for best full-length Canadian album). But the true heart of PUP lies within the friendship between the band members, maybe even more so than their music.
“The whole point of our band — and rock bands broadly — is about human interaction, and the different personalities contributing to make this song better than the sum of its parts,” says band member Steve Sladkowski in an interview with Isthmus in advance of the band’s headlining show at The Sylvee on Sept. 8.
PUP formed in 2010 under the name Topanga (a reference to the Boy Meets World character Topanga Lawrence, the band’s collective first crush). Nestor Chumak (bass), Zack Mykula (drums), and Sladkowski (lead guitar) all met in elementary school. Vocalist Stefan Babcock joined during their college years. By 2013, Topanga reintroduced themselves and released their debut album under a new name: PUP.
As the story goes, PUP is an acronym for “Pathetic Use of Potential,” taken from a comment made by Babcock’s grandmother — just one example of the tongue-in-cheek humor the band built their mythology on. After all, this is a band that led off their sophomore album The Dream is Over with “If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will” — a track that chronicles growing resentment among band members who spent far too much time on the road together during a 2014 tour.
A major part of PUP’s charm lies within this delicate balance. There’s a sense in their sound that the wheels could come off at any moment, the chemistry among the four being the only thing keeping them from descending into chaos. They’ve carved out a space to play serious punk music without taking themselves too seriously. Babcock has a knack for tackling serious subjects through honest, witty, and often self-deprecating lyrics. Like the relationships among the band members themselves, the melody and the instrumental noise in PUP’s music create a yin and yang.
On PUP’s latest album, they manage to walk the tightrope between that harmony and chaos.
Aptly titled The Unraveling of PUPTHEBAND, the fourth LP finds the Ontario natives more in sync than ever. The Unraveling stands out from their previous records in part due to their collaboration with superstar producer Peter Katis (whose resume includes producing albums from such bands as Interpol and The National).
For the recording process of The Unraveling in 2021, Katis hosted the members of PUP for a five-week residence at his Connecticut mansion, where they only went out for groceries. The band spent long hours working closely with Katis, experimenting with new sounds and smoothing out tracks.
“Sometimes he was very hands-on with the mixing and ideas and treatments,” Sladkowski says. “Then other times he’d be sitting back on a couch with his eyes closed like Yoda, just listening.”
As their residence continued, the band began to feel a bit stir crazy. For better or worse, that’s when the unraveling truly began — “a band losing our collective minds together,” in Babcock’s words. If any track embodies this sentiment, it’s the closer, “PUPTHEBAND Is Filing for Bankruptcy.” While the album’s standout track, “Matilda,” relies on a melodic guitar and a shout-worthy chorus, “Bankruptcy” is a noisier, more chaotic breakdown.
PUP felt freer than ever to embrace new ideas, including new instrumentation. The addition of saxophone solos, synths, and 808 beats feels like a natural progression. “That was a nice headspace to be in. Whatever works, whatever feels positive, and wherever that energy is taking you, let’s just go with it,” Sladkowski says.
Ultimately, the residency produced PUP’s strongest album.
“You can hear the band start to fall off the cliff, and because of that, I think this record is our truest and most genuine,” Babcock says. “There is nothing more PUP than a slow and inevitable descent into self-destruction.”
