Shawn Brackbill
Music
Some of us still remember where we were when Lawrence, Kansas’ pop-punk/emo forebears The Get Up Kids broke up in 2005. It was a dark time for people who feel feelings.
The band had already delivered more than enough material to love—beginning with its one-two punch of explosively influential full-length heavy-hitters Four Minute Mile (1997) and Something to Write Home About (1999), not to mention some excellent EPs, the divisively acoustic-focused On a Wire (2002), some amazing covers and the decidedly more complex Guilt Show (2004). There was more than enough material to tour with, too, with plenty in the hopper. Enter burnout and, at least according to interviews over time, tension between bandmates after years of travel, work and proximity. Some members retreated into bands like The New Amsterdams and Spoon; or solo projects like Reggie and the Full Effect. A whole generation of people who’d come up screaming along to lyrics like “I don’t want you to love me anymore!” sighed in exasperation. Some of us never got to see The Get Up Kids live before the split.
But in 2009 they returned to live shows, then in 2011 released There Are Rules, a record that band members have said didn’t do much, ultimately, outside of proving Matt Pryor, Rob Pope, Ryan Pope, (sometimes) James Dewees and Jim Suptic still had a spark together and still had something to say. And though the band released the EP Kicker in 2018, it took take eight years following the reunion before they hit the studio in earnest again. 2019′s Problems fared much better commercially and critically and maintained some of the old magic to boot.
Then the pandemic, blah blah blah, and before you knew it, the tour for the 25th anniversary of the band’s debut full-length, Four Minute Mile in 2022.
For the first time in a long time, The Get Up Kids are nearing uncharted waters. Unfettered by upcoming milestones (unless, of course, we get some kind of Something to Write Home About tour, which would be pretty cool, honestly, as pretty much all the bigger emo and pop-punk bands cite that one as a major influence and the song “Ten Minutes” is a banger), they’re on the road currently for a series of shows with either All-American Rejects, New Found Glory or both.
The band’s Albuquerque stop on Sunday, Oct. 8 (with NFG) marks their first time in New Mexico in they-don’t-even-know-how-long, according to guitarist Jim Suptic. He agreed to answer a few questions over the phone from a longtime fan and shameless devotee. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
SFR: OK, just to get it out of the way, I’ve been listening since I was, like, 15, and I just really love your music. Thanks for making the time.
Jim Suptic: Oh, yeah, sure. I’m just sitting in a dressing room that feels like it’s for a mix of hockey players and people from the future. I’m in Bakersfield, California. Home of Korn. The band. There’s a plaque outside about how Korn was bred here.
Wow. I’ve been to Bakersfield. You just keep winding up on the highway somehow. Anyway, thank you so much for doing this, I’m going to jump in if you’re set?
Sure. It’s been a long since Get Up Kids have come to New Mexico. I don’t know how long.
I know! My friends and I used to be like, “Why won’t Get Up Kids come here? It’s ridiculous!” But seriously, though, now that the band has been reunited for a minute—you are just, like, an active band, it seems—has that meant any changes for the songwriting?
No. I think we just always kind of write the same way, where either someone brings an idea fleshed out or a part, then we break it down and mix it all up and make it a Get Up Kids song. Maybe lyrically.
People seem to want to tack this label “mature” onto songwriters who aren’t 25 anymore. Do you feel like you’ve matured as a songwriter? A band?
I mean, we’ve matured as human beings, I hope. I don’t know, I think at least lyrically. When you’re young, everything is the biggest breakup, every emotion is stronger. There’s a little more subtlety as you get older.
Writers like to say bands become more vulnerable, but Get Up Kids were always pretty vulnerable.
Ha! Yeah. We’re pretty vulnerable.
Let’s talk about last year’s 25th anniversary tour for Four Minute Mile. Did that feel like the culmination of something, or the start of the next chapter? Neither of those things?
Maybe neither of those things. It’s what bands do now—you’ve got a big anniversary, you go play the non-hits, right?
The non-hits?
They’re all non-hits. I always say we’re very important. Ha! I always say, ‘We’re your favorite bands’ favorite band.’
Still, is it pretty wild to have a room full of people screaming along to every word you ever wrote? At the show I saw, [singer] Matt Pryor said something to the effect of, “Enjoy it while you can, folks, because we can’t keep singing this way forever!”
How do you think it makes us feel singing songs we wrote in high school? It’s pretty surreal. When we started, our only goal was to travel Europe on tour, but it’s nice that people still give a shit. We’re a little slower on stage. We still jump around and try to have a good time, but you’re sore the next morning.
I still think of 2019′s Problems as a newer record, but I’d assume there are also new songs in the works?
We were in the middle of a tour after that. We were [on the] tour circuit for Problems, opening for Dashboard Confessional, and we got the news in New York City that the whole tour was canceled. So we only made it through about halfway. But then we basically started practicing, because what you’re gonna do during COVID? We made a bunch of demos, and hopefully we’ll get back to those. Everyone is just busy in this band. Everyone has other things and sometimes it’s hard to get everyone together...but I don’t think we sat down and were planning on making a record. Hopefully someday, something sees the light, but…
Now that the anniversary shows are over, what’s a live show like? Do you pull from every Get Up Kids era, or are you more focused on the now?
There are songs we play every night for sure, always, and we try to play something off all the records. But then we start getting into a lot of songs. Some things aren’t going to get played.
Do you play anything from On a Wire? I’d love that.
Oh, sure, we do ‘Overdue,’ ‘Campfire Kansas; ‘Walking On a Wire’ sometimes. When you’re opening—this tour right now, we’re out with All-American Rejects, and we’re playing to people who don’t know who we are.
Some of us still think you’re super-dope.
Haha! We know we’re dope. It’s nice to hear that, though. It’s better than being dust in the wind, as that band says.
I read someplace that during the hiatus, some of you were farming and some of you were working office jobs.
I still do the office job. I work for a nonprofit, I can just do the work from anywhere. Matt worked on a farm for a hot minute, but I think he realized being a rockstar was a lot easier.
That’s cool you work for a nonprofit. What do y’all do?
We help amputees who don’t have insurance or have bad insurance navigate the process and cost of prosthetics.
*Author’s note: the nonprofit for which Suptic works is called Steps of Faith.
So what’s next?
The next tour we’re on, we’re opening for Manchester Orchestra, right after Thanksgiving, and we have some things in the works that we’ll announce soon enough, hopefully next year.
Can I ask you a dumb question?
Uhhh...sure.
Is there ever anything you wish an interviewer would ask you but they never have?
I’ve done a lot of interviews, so I’ve been asked a lot of things. Go ahead and ask me something.
Do y’all hate Morrissey as much as I think you might?
Hahahahah! No one has ever asked me that question. I like The Smiths. You can sometimes separate art form the artists, I think sometimes you have to.
The Get Up Kids with New Found Glory: 7 pm Sunday, Oct. 8. $37-$87. El Rey Theater, 622 Central Ave. SW (Albuquerque), (505) 510-2582.
Tickets here.
