Comeback Kid"You know what the best thing about coming to Australia is – apart from the fact it's a really cool place to visit with really cool people? It always seems to be your summer down there when we tour, which means we get sunshine instead of the absolute freezing cold of Winnipeg. We get to play shows and we don't get frozen – it's a win, win.”
Talking of Winnipeg, it's odd that one of the most isolated cities on earth has such a thriving punk rock and hardcore scene. Along with Comeback Kid the city boasts Propagandhi, The Weakerthans, The Rebel Spell, Bottle Rockets and Under Pressure (RIP) among its denizens. Neufeld explains the phenomenon.
“Because it's a cold city that is pretty isolated creativity really flourishes because there's not much else for people to do. Also I think Winnipeg bands have a pretty high profile because we have no choice but to get in the van and go and tour if we want people to hear our music. It's not like we live in New York City or Los Angeles where you can play a lot of local shows and then go and play in the surrounding cities with a minimum of effort. When you're from Winnipeg every tour counts because you're travelling so far.”
In between endless touring Comeback Kid have managed to churn out a string of highly regarded LPs chock full of top-notch melodic hardcore. They're now formulating a successor to 2010's breakout Symptoms + Cures LP.
“We're in the early stages of songwriting now,” Neubold confirms. “What we're trying to do is write songs that will translate well live. We're really focused on ensuring that we don't write material that will be great for the studio but really hard to do live. So although I can't tell you much yet, whatever we end up with will be above all fun to play live.”
Talking of new albums, we enquire about the state of Comeback Kid's relationship with the controversial Victory Records, which, over the past few years, has had bands as diverse as Ringworm, Streetlight Manifesto, A Day To Remember and Hawthorne Heights speaking out about poor treatment at the label's hands.
“Look we've been with Victory since 2005 and while there have been up and downs with the label I think the same thing would have happened no matter what label we were with,” says a diplomatic Neufeld. “We find that the people at Victory still care about this band and they let us know that. They're always eager to help us and give us what we need, so there are no complaints there. We have one more album with Victory and when that's done we'll see what happens I guess.
“When it comes down to it even though bands and labels are meant to be heading in the same direction together it's always the case that both parties have their own agendas. I hear other bands bitching about their labels all the time – so even though Victory has had some high profile stuff happen in the past I don't think they're necessarily worse than all the other labels.
“Comeback Kid isn't a complicated operation. We make our music and we get out and play it to as many kids as possible. We're really stoked to be coming back to Australia to play the Boys Of Summer tour with great bands like Deez Nuts. It's the greatest honour in the world to be able to do this and we're all thankful to have the chance to travel the world, meet cool people and play hardcore.”
Comeback Kid will be playing the following dates:
Wednesday 9 January - Capitol & Amplifier Bar, Perth WA
Thursday 10 January - YMCA HQ, Perth WA
Friday 11 January - The Hi-Fi, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 12 January - Beenleigh PCYC, Beenleigh QLD
Sunday 13 January - The Hi-Fi, Sydney NSW
Monday 14 January - The Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle NSW
Tuesday 15 January - Oasis Youth Centre, Wyong NSW
Wednesday 16 January - Woden Youth Centre, Canberra NSW
Friday 18 January - Central Ringwood Community Centre, Ringwood VIC
Saturday 19 January - Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Sunday 20 January - Uni Bar, Adelaide SA
