Written by Susie Salva
Canadian power pop rock band These Kids Wear Crowns have released “Jumpstart,” on EMI Canada Records delivering energetic electro-pop dance music in the style of All American Rejects, Boys Like Girls and Panic at the Disco. With a generous use of auto-tune this party core band keeps the energy going in a positive direction. It’s the kind of album that is infectious it needs to be shared – blasted in clubs, beach parties and anywhere masses of people congregate and can dance, jump up and down and shout out the lyrics.
“The whole album is about getting people up off their feet,” says frontman/co-writer Alex Johnson. “It’s much more dedicated to dance than our EP, but still has the same These Kids flavor. It has our familiar melodies and sing-a-long lyrics for everyone. We’re big on alliteration and repetition and those things make our songs stand out.”
“We always said that we wanted our music to have great energy – nothing negative. We want everyone in the clubs to get on their feet and dance when they hear our songs played,” says bassist/co-writer Alan Poettcker.
The 11-song album — produced by Matt Squire (3OH!3, Panic At The Disco, Katy Perry), Gggarth Richardson (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Hedley) and Jeff Rockwell (Forever The Sickest Kids) — contains the energetic first single, “Jumpstart;” the electro-heavy “Don’t Sweat It;” anthemic “Lifetime”; and whirling electro cover of Whitney Houston’s ‘80s hit, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” Standouts from the band’s EPs, “Skeletons,” “Break It Up,” “Oceans” and “We All Fall Down,” are also included.
The six-piece band, comprised of Alex, Alan, guitarists Joshua “Gypsy” McDaniel and Joe Porter, synthesist/programmer Matt Vink and drummer Josh Mitchinson, live in a musical era where pop and dance dominate the charts and can’t help but be influenced by it. “Almost everyone enjoys dance music of some kind and everyone can get up and dance,” believes Alex.
This six-piece outfit kicks off this 11 track dance CD with “Skeletons,” which strips away elements where one needs to take the relationship slow, “This Party Never Stops,” is an ode to partying late into the night and the title track, “Jumpstart,” is the seminal dance tune all of these tracks use auto-tune to give the electro-beat sounds as a way to express themselves. “Lifetime,” slows it down with the obligatory ballad about a faltering relationship. “We All Fall Down,” caps off this delightful CD expressing the excitement of pulling an all-nighters.
Alex and Alan compliment each other as songwriters, Alan coming up with the more standard pop/rock songs, such as “Good Friends (With Bad Benefits),” and Alex with “crazier” ideas, such as “Let’s Ride,” says Alan. “Alex doesn’t play any instruments so he thinks about music a different way than I do,” he explains. “If I write a song, I come up with an instrument part and then put a vocal on it, whereas for ‘Let’s Ride,’ Alex sang the whole first half to me and it was up to me to fill in the blanks.”
“Jumpstart” is the only song on the album (besides “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”) they didn’t write. It was a collaboration between Matt, Damon Sharpe and Pebe Sebert (Ke$ha’s mother). “When we heard the song the first time, we knew the vocal melody and the chorus was unbelievably catchy and knew exactly what we would add to it,” says Alan. “Matt handed us a microphone and we just sang all these extra parts and things that our band would do for that song and made a rough recording of it.”
“Lifetime” – the only co-write on the album with the band — began with a chorus and vocal hook from Alex and Alan, and was completed with Matt. “The album was basically done and getting mastered and then we finished ‘Lifetime,’” says Alan. “We felt that we needed a song on the record that was gonna be a little slower and less party. Everything else on the record is so upbeat and fast and heavy and loud and we just wanted something that was a bit more laidback.”
Still, there is nothing laidback about These Kids Wear Crowns. The music is nothing short of pumping. It is big and buoyant, can lift people’s spirits and bodies out of their seats. “Jumpstart” is not only the launch of a new dance band, but the harnessing of youthful spirit. For all things These Kids Wear Crows go to www.TheseKidsWearCrowns.com.
These Kids Wear Crowns are: Alex Johnson, Joshua McDaniel, Alan Poettcker, Joe Porter, Joshua Mitchinson and Matt Vink.
