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Music

Melodic Hardcore Heroes After The Fall Talk about Death, Grief, and Redemption Through "Twenty Nine"

Stream the new track from After the Fall along with an interview with the band.

Mike Moak of After The Fall used to cheat off my math tests, and sold me my first hardcore CD in the hallways of our upstate New York high school. I have been seeing his band play for 15 years in youth centers, skate parks, basements and bars around Albany. Through all this time, I’ve watched ATF steadily evolve musically while maintaining the exact same “keep doing what you’re doing no matter what” attitude and outlook throughout.

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Their upcoming LP on Bridge Nine Records (order yours) builds on their sing-along melodic hardcore sound. The band has always had strong emotional and nostalgic bent, but they have moved from the more politically driven themes of their earliest releases to more personal themes in recent ones. This record is their most poignant yet, as they pay homage to a fallen friend and bandmate. Stream the new track "Twenty Nine" below.

Noisey: Tell me who this song is about and what writing, recording and performing this song and album does for you emotionally.
Mike Moak: The song and the entire record "Dedication" is about our friend and founding member Brian J Peters who lost a battle with cancer October 1st, 2013, just one month shy of his twenty ninth birthday. Writing and recording these songs and this record has helped with the grieving process and has been quite cathartic for all of us. We all are best friends, we all grew up together. So this record has only made us all closer and sort of brought our band back to life after 15 years of doing ATF.

Tell me about where you are from and how that influences your music.
We all grew up in small suburbs outside of Albany. I think living here has allowed our band to exist easily. I currently live in a 3 bedroom house that costs $600 a month and we throw shows and practice in the basement. We started doing bands early in our parents’ basements and continued in our adult life in Albany and Troy apartments. It's really easy to be a weekend touring band; Albany is only three hours away from NYC, Boston, Montreal, and Syracuse. So I think that's a big part of how we've been able keep it going for all this time. And having cheap rent and places to practice has allowed ATF to keep going. We like it here. Upstate has some certain charm to it you can't find most places.

After The Fall has been playing DIY shows for years, but you have also played some really big shows around the world. What’s it like doing both?
DIY is what we know. We still play anywhere and everywhere we can. A good example of how it goes for ATF is like four years ago, our old bass player KC's last show was a Long Island matinee where four people paid. It was our worst show in years, and KC quit shortly after. Our next show right after that was opening for Lagwagon at a sold out show in Montreal, and that was our best show ever. Really it all comes down to friends, whether we're playing theaters with big stages every night, or basement and house shows, as long as good people are involved we are down.

AFTER THE FALL on TOUR
Apr 27 San Diego, CA @ The Hideout
Apr 28 Tecate, Mexico @ Licores La Esmeralda
Apr 29 Tijuana, Mexico @ You Revolution
Apr 30 Queretaro, Mexico @ Black Dog Live
May 01 San Luis Potos, Mexico @ Loud Open Stage
May 02 Guadalajara, Mexico @ Foro Independencia
May 03 Mexico D.F., Mexico @ El Cuartel
May 12 Allston, MA @ O'Brien's ^
May 13 Brooklyn, NY @ Acheron %
May 14 Albany, NY @ Low Beat *
May 16 Montreal, QC, Canada @ Pouzza Fest #
Jun 18 Syracuse, NY @ Lost Horizon@
Jun 19 Providence, RI @ Simons677@
Jun 20 S. Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground@
Jun 21 Portland, ME @ Port City Music Hall@
Jun 23 Buffalo, NY @ The Waiting Room@
Jun 24 Toledo, OH @ Frankies@
Jun 25 Columbus, OH @ The Basement@
Jun 26 Grand Rapids, MI @ The Intersection@
Jun 27 Erie, PA @ Basement Transmissions@
^ (w/ Heartsounds, Great Lakes USA, Tied to a Bear)
% (w/ Heartsounds, Ambitions)
* (w/ Drag the River, Heartsounds)
# (w/ 88 Fingers Louie, The Bruce Lee Band, The Planet Smashers, more)
@ (w/ Anti-Flag, The Homeless Gospel Choir)