Long Read - KOYO lay down their blueprints to start a legacy
Hailing from Long Island, KOYO have spent the last 3 years since forming instilling the pride and storied history of the areas hardcore and emo scene into their music. Now embarking on a European and UK tour, and the upcoming release of their debut album 'Would You Miss It?' on September 29th, KOYO are in prime position to continue that legacy. Shortly before their set at first ever show in Manchester at this years Outbreak Festival, I spoke with frontman Joey Chiaramonte.
Their time in the UK kicked off in Glasgow. Joey discussed the feeling heading into playing for the first time in a new place - “ Any place you go, like, for the first time, there's always an intimidation factor. Will it be cool? Or even more so, will it not be cool”. Living up to reputation Scottish crowds have garnered, it definitely did not disappoint. “ We had a really great reaction. Fleshwater had a great reaction. A lot of people singing along, like really grateful”.
Playing at Outbreak this year is the bands first experience of Manchester. Their previous tour of the UK came when “We did like a mostly mainland European tour with Silverstein, Comeback Kid and Senses Fail last fall. But it only went to Birmingham and London when it came to the UK. So this in my mind, is our first proper pass through the UK.” It's a real shame that tour never really came further up north either as it is a really great lineup.
The band fit perfectly onto what was another great lineup taking place over the weekend at Outbreak. Joey described his admiration of the festival from when touring with Vein helping selling merchandise “ I've been here five years ago on a different European tour and it just blew my mind. That was the only other time I've been to Outbreak.”
The feel of the festival can be infectious and this was spread to him instantly, “At that point I was playing in another band and the mission was like, yeah, one day we have to (play here). Now, years later, in KOYO, thankfully get to do such. I'm really excited about it!”
He mentioned the growth of the festival over years, and the popularity of it has really increased drastically over the years. “It's radically built up in scope and size. I might be wrong about this, but I believe it was something more to the effect of like 2000 people there. And this sold 8000.” Outbreak is one of a very limited amount of UK festivals that have no barrier, “Especially at this scope and scale” which is something that was a very exciting prospect to them “8000 capacity venue with no barricade, I can't even wrap my head around it's. Crazy.”
Following on from today the tour takes them to Germany, then to France and Belgium and then back to the UK, including another festival spot in the form of 2000Trees which they were particularly looking forward to playing. A big reason for this was that they were playing on the same day as American Football, who being able to see has eluded them since their reunion.
We got to the topic of inspirations and bands who made them want to make music and the Long Island roots are deeply weighted into what they set out to be, and hSow they have room to grow from this. “Long island has this very distinct flavor of more melodic hardcore. Long island has a long tenure of kind of like pop, punk and emo fused with hardcore.”
Bands such as Taking Back Sunday have demonstrated this over the years and have been able to adapt and change their sound and this is credited back to Long Island for them. “It's way more about your participation in the culture than it is like the sound. So it's like if you're a hardcore kid that goes to hardcore shows, you can make death metal, you can make pop rock, it doesn't matter. It's about the ecosystem.”
Looking forward to the completion of their tour, the next big step for KOYO is the release of their debut album. As a band, they understand and are grateful for the fanbase they have garnered, but absolutely are not taking anything for granted. “It still blows my mind when these songs get the responses they did because I have zero expectation for it at all.I figure my projections versus the reality is I predict an 8th of what we get.”
At this stage in the bands development, progression is super important and can really dictate a career for the years to come. Personally I am looking forward to the album and seeing what comes next over the years for KOYO, and hope to think we will be continuing to be seeing a lot more of them. Speaking on their plan for development, Joey believes “Everything we do just builds up a little higher where we were before, a little more foundation, which is cool because everything's exciting because there's always another cool opportunity around the corner.”
Rounding out my short time with Joey before he took to the stage, I asked them if they could play any festival in the world, what would their top 3 picks be? Without much hesitation, the selected options were Download as it has been “always been in my mind”, a now no longer running Big Day Out. This was due to his fond memory of Blink-182's legendary set as “watching when I was a kid was literally just life changing shit”.
The final choice for this further showed Joey's appreciation and humility for the position that they are in. “I'm lucky enough to say that my third answer would probably be any of the hardcore festivals we have the privilege to play or pending to play. Like they're all things I thought were inconceivable in my life, all the things that we've gotten to do back in the states.I'm very grateful we had the opportunity to do those. Because not so long ago, that was just not at all on my horizon.
That was never even in the cards. That would be good.”
KOYO are bouncing from strength to strength currently and that momentum looks to be propelling them higher and higher. Make sure to check out the new album 'Would You Miss It?' when it drops and if possible to go see them, they put on one hell of a performance. KOYO have the feel of a band who will be moving up festival billings for the foreseeable future!
Feature by Thomas Maclachlan
