Photo credit: Clay Patrick McBride
Pop Evil
It has been said that people are products of where and how they grew up.
Leigh Kakaty, vocalist of Pop Evil, seems to buy into that idea, saying his group’s music is very much a product of his Muskegon, Mich., hometown roots. On a musical level, that experience translates into a rock band that is anything but a one-trick pony stylistically. The ability of Pop Evil to show musical variety within their melodic hard rock-metalcore sound and a cohesive point of view lyrically has never been more apparent than on the group’s fifth album, a self-titled effort.
“The big thing with Pop Evil is we’ve always been that band that had that yin and yang effect,” Kakaty said. “We never really got into music because we wanted to play one style of music all the time. We’d get bored. I think that’s a direct reflection that I don’t think fans always realize of the Midwest. It’s kind of like we’re the test market, especially Michigan, we’re the test market for a lot of things. So, we were always exposed to all kinds of different genres. Even on our local alternative rock or rock stations, it was always a bit of blend of rock, metal and alternative. So, we’re very much a product of that.”
Kakaty feels Pop Evil touched on different styles within the hard rock/metal spectrum on its first four albums. But the self-titled album (2018) is the best representation of the band’s music, particularly when it comes to finding a heavier and harder edge to the Pop Evil sound.
Working for the first time with a writing and recording schedule that didn’t rush the process, the group members—Kakaty, rhythm guitarist Dave Grahs, lead guitarist Nick Fuelling, bassist Matt DiRito and drummer Hayley Cramer—had enough time to explore the different directions that they could take the songs both musically and lyrically.
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One foray involved Kakaty, the band’s main songwriter, getting together with a couple of musical friends, whose backgrounds were more in heavy metal, to help him explore how writing songs in different keys might open doors to a fresh sound. He hit pay dirt early on with “Waking Lions,” which combines crunching guitars with melodic vocals sung by Kakaty in lower register. “Once I wrote ‘Waking Lions,’ it rejuvenated me all over again. I was like ‘Wow, this is finally the heavy with the melody that we always wanted,’” he explains.
That song set a tone for the rest of the album, which Kakaty feels is the band’s most fully realized effort. It’s the heaviest of the group’s albums, thanks to songs like “Art of War” and “Colors Bleed” boasting pile-driving beats and razor-edged guitars. But there are also slightly lighter rockers that balance pop hooks with heft (the mainstream rock hit “Be Legendary”), a lighter ballad (“Rewind”) and even a particularly ambitious multi-faceted track, “Nothing But Thieves,” which moves from ambient tones to industrial rock to metal-ish rock, topped off with a melodic chorus that verges on pop.
The musical range helps the Pop Evil album provide the kind of rich listening experience that the band intended.
“We try to spend a lot of time making sure we can give you an album where you can literally listen to ‘Waking Lions’ number one, listen all the way through to track 11, ‘Rewind,’ and want to start it over and listen again,” Kakaty said. “We have thought about that from the beginning, but hopefully we’re now able to steer it a little more directly and in that way, we can really identify ourselves with our fan base to know that when they think about Pop Evil, there’s going to be a little bit of mystery where they ask ‘I wonder what they put together on this album?’”
The next mystery from Pop Evil won’t be answered until the band releases album number six. That’s probably a year or so down the road. For now, their efforts are focused on touring and continuing to get the word out on the Pop Evil album.
“We’ve got a great stage show. The production is awesome,” Kakaty said. “Obviously, every band with a new album wants to play all the new stuff, of course. But we want to be responsive, too, because fans don’t want to be bombarded with all new songs. They want to hear old ones that they’re familiar with. Just kind of finding that blend has been a bit of a challenge, and finding ourselves with that new music on stage has been a bit of a challenge. But that’s what makes it fun.”
Pop Evil, Otherwise and Cold Kingdom perform at the WIIL Rock Summer Kick-Off, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 15, at 14001 Washington Ave., Sturtevant.
