Upchuck's KT: ‘You can’t be nice all the time’
Atlanta punk sparkplugs Upchuck talk their debut Australian shows and keeping calm in a disintegrating United States.
If your introduction to Atlanta punks Upchuck is their most recent studio album I’m Nice Now, you may naturally ask the question: ‘Well, what were they before?’
If you go back as far as 2020, the answer might be resilient: c.f. frontperson KT taking a hit from a shopping trolley and continuing to perform with a steady flow of blood cascading down her face (an image immortalised on their debut album cover).
Or, if you jump in at their breakout second album released in 2023, Bite the Hand That Feeds, you could say Upchuck were dynamic. The record is sharp and statement-making: guitarists Mikey Durham and Hoff rumble like supercharged engines, drummer Chris Salado manipulates the pace with ease, and bassist Ausar Ward gives Upchuck another layer beyond its straight-line fury.
Or, perhaps, you can just start with I’m Nice Now, released last October. Named in part to describe the exhaustion KT felt at seeing nothing come about from her anger, it’s a tight and nuanced project that sees Upchuck tap into new territory and turn the other cheek — at least, temporarily.
“I don’t know, I know I’m not nice anymore,” KT says over a Zoom call, grinning from a desolate room at the concert venue she works at.
“I definitely am not nice, but I’m calm, I’ll say that much. I’m more centred, but I don’t know about nice. You can’t be nice all the time, that’s what I’ve realised. That’s why I said I’m nice now, but that shit don’t last long.”
It is, after all, hard to be nice if you live in the United States right now. KT and I are speaking just days after Alex Pretti’s murder at the hands of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents, the latest in a long line of state-sanctioned atrocities.
“It’s literally all fucked, it’s been fucked for so long. The economy’s shit, it’s really just going to shit. There is a tiny bit of hope whenever I’m kicking it with likeminds and shit, but I don’t know,” KT says.
“There are points when I’m like, ‘Damn, can we even fucking do shit about this?’ Like, we’re protesting but it’s getting scary over here. Fuck ICE, fuck Trump.”
It’s little wonder KT is looking forward to escaping the US to play with Upchuck on their debut run of dates in Australia. Although they’ve never visited, Upchuck seems well-prepared to acclimatise fast: they’ve toured alongside Australian rock royalty in Amyl and the Sniffers, C.O.F.F.I.N. and Gut Health.
“I feel like, touring with them, we immediately clicked and synced up, and were all good people,” KT says. “It’s like, damn, every Australian we meet we just ride with each other immediately. I feel like we get each other … I’m excited because I haven’t met an Australian I don’t fuck with.”
The feeling should be mutual. The centrepiece of Upchuck’s visit will be Golden Plains, the iconic regional Victorian camping festival. Upchuck will grace the same stage as the likes of electronic legends Basement Jaxx and New Zealand singer Marlon Williams on an eclectic lineup that will put the band in front of plenty of new faces, something that KT relishes.
“It makes it even more fun to just wild out and be ourselves, and have people just walking past,” she says. “We play festivals and see people walking, stop, and then just walk into the tent and be like, ‘Oh shit, what the fuck is this?’”
I’m Nice Now gives Upchuck their strongest sell yet to any wandering newcomers. It retains the grit and nitrous of Upchuck’s earlier work, but there’s a captivating run of more gentle turns throughout the album. ‘New Case’ is a fun low-stakes listen built around a groovy bassline, while ‘Forgotten Token’ dials down the noise to clear space for KT’s most personal and nuanced songwriting yet.
The album was produced by prolific prog-rock maverick and fellow Golden Plains performer Ty Segall, who took Upchuck to Texas’ Sonic Range, a 1,700-acre orchard and residential recording studio complex. It was the band’s second time working with Segall, who stepped in after the band’s original pick — the legendary Steve Albini — passed away.
“Ty’s a really chill, weird guy, you know? I think regardless we would have clicked. We definitely were more casual with interactions, and also being at Sonic Ranch was also just an interesting experience, the man who runs it is a character,” KT says.
“Ty always does strange, different things. We were supposed to work with Albini before he passed.1 So I think this time, Ty was doing certain weird, quirky things that Albini would have done to honour him.”
An unconventional working style is nothing new for KT, whose pathway to punk is as unusual as anyone’s. Unlike her band, punk lifers who bonded through skateboarding, KT cut her teeth playing cello in all-state orchestra.
“My mom and dad threw me in that shit off rip because they literally heard it on NPR. They were like, ‘Your kid will be smarter if you put them in orchestra!’ and they just threw me in there,” she says.
KT fell into Atlanta’s DIY scene after high school, which she recalls was full of “mostly white boys”. She says seeing the now-defunct Trashcan, a prominently Black local hardcore band play live was a “pivotal moment” for her journey into music.
“The crowd there was so diverse. I was like, ‘Oh, this is a safe space’. Before, I would go to a show and literally point to one other person of colour there. We were welcome there, but I hated how gatekept it was,” she says.
“I was like, ‘Oh shit, if I wanted to do that I could’. And then a year later, I was in a band.”
Whether or not that band’s nice is immaterial. Upchuck have very quickly stacked up a discography that punches with the absolute best in punk and hardcore, and it feels like they’re only just getting started.
Upchuck are touring Australia and New Zealand from March 4. TIckets are available here.
Dear reader, please appreciate this answer came at the very end of my allocated interview time. I’m as desperate as you are to know more about Steve Albini/Upchuck connection.