Rocket Gum talk about their debut EP “Keep the Smile”!
Hi Paul. Thank you for taking time to answer our questions! Could you please introduce yourself, as well as your band Rocket Gum? Hello Distrolution! I am Paul, the founder and frontman of the Pop Punk project Rocket Gum. The idea for the project as it is now, namely being studio-only and featuring an international line-up, was first formed in 2017. It then took its time to blossom into “Keep the Smile”, our first EP that we released a few days ago. Is it not a bit complicated to start a pop-punk band in the music business in 2018, knowing that there is a lot of "competition"? How did you indeed prepare your entry into the music industry? Rocket Gum is intended as an innovative project with distinctive features and I see what you mean more as a healthy emulation than a “competition”. Anyway, as long as it keeps inspiring the people involved to be nice to each other and do better, it is fine with me. To answer your question, I have been pouring my heart into my music for the past few years and it means the world to me. What more can I do? I must be confident that my determination will not go unnoticed. You recently revealed your debut EP “Keep the Smile”. Can you tell us more about this release? “Keep the Smile” indeed contains four fast and melodic tracks that span across several genres. From Pop to Punk with occasional hints of Ska, while keeping that specific “Pop Punk” flavor all along. The lyrics are about emotions and aim at conveying a sincere message of hope for the future. With our mixing engineer Scott Horton, we paid a lot of attention to detail production-wise and we are very happy with the result. What, or who were your biggest influences for this first release? Japanese Pop Punk bands like Back Lift, Northern19, Secret 7 Line and Totalfat, to which I feel I personally owe so much. And the intense drive to live my life to the fullest that their songs give me every day. Rocket Gum is my own way to pay tribute to their greatness. And how did you approach the process of composition and recording? Who takes care of what, within the band? I write 100% of the music and lyrics and invite friends of mine to join the adventure when it is time to record the songs. Rishi from Eternal Boy, Chris from Seven Spires and Fabien from Volfoni kindly accepted to help bring my ideas to life on “Keep the Smile”. Can we expect a little tour to promote the release of your EP? What are you planning for the coming months? Rocket Gum is a studio-only project for now. And it is likely that it will stay this way for quite some time. I am currently focusing on composing new, exciting material. And looking forward to sharing it with all the Pop Punk fans out there soon. Thank you for your time! Thank you very much for having me Valentine! Please give our music a chance by clicking on the player above. Cheers and keep the smile everybody!
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