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After a weekend under the sweltering Texas sun surrounded by mosh pits and thousands upon thousands of screaming fans, I have to say the only reason I have any functioning brain cells left is because of the copious amounts of Liquid Death I drank. (not sponsored, but please cut me a check.)

So What?! Fest was full of incredible highs despite the heat. We were lucky enough to catch up with several of our favorite up-and-coming artists like Heart Attack Man, Maggie Lindemann, and Sophie Powers, as well as fan favorites such as Simple Plan, State Champs, and 3OH!3 to talk about the festival, new music, tours, and more.

What were you doing immediately before this interview?

Sean Foreman of 3OH!3: We were sweating in the parking lot and used the beautiful porta-potties.

Nat Motte of 3OH!3: Yes, we did use the beautiful porta potties here in Dallas. They are simply built different out here.

Eric Egan of Heart Attack Man: I was watching Omerta and sweating my fucking ass off in the sun, and it was fucking awesome. They're one of the main bands, them and Hatebreed, I came to see today, and they did not disappoint.

Sophie Powers:  I woke up like three hours early to do my eyeliner because I suck. And then we drove the tour bus, I got sugar cookies, and then went on stage.

Maggie Schnider of glimmers: We were in an Uber with a super cute service dog!

CRAY: I was doing my set! It was amazing! I was on the Hot Topic stage, and that has been my favorite store since I was a kid, so I felt really connected to the stage.

Dave "D" Bellevue of Oxymorrons: Eating a lot of pasta!

Matty Mayz of Oxymorrons: Carbo-loading! (laughs)

Jafe Paulino of Oxymorrons: And enjoying beverages provided by our "sponsor"... Monster.

Crooked Teeth: I was smoking weed on the lawn. I just needed a break. I needed some reprieve from all the chaos.

Photo: @meaganbolds // Pictured: 3OH!3

How do you prepare for festival shows?

Sophie Powers: Well, this is only my second show, so I'm still kind of figuring that out! I think I do like having sugar or something to eat after just so I don't feel extremely, extremely wiped.

Pierre of Simple Plan: We fist bump first thing before every show.

Sebastian of Simple Plan: It's a silly thing we do without missing it on every show aside from warming up our vocals. 

Pierre of Simple Plan: Yeah, we don't have a chant or anything like many bands do. We do a fist bump, and it's kind of important that we do that, so someone who doesn't do it's like, "Whoa, dude, you're gonna fist bump before we go on stage."

Chloe Lilac:  Lowkey, I just have to remind myself over and over again that nothing matters. Like, "It doesn't matter, nothing matters, it's fine," and then that's that. I don't know. Maybe that's kinda lame. It's kind of sad and existential.

Crooked Teeth: It depends on time and place. I was just talking to Travis [Mills] from girlfriends, and I was like, "Bro, be honest. Do you ever have to use the bathroom right before you play?" And then he was like, "I'm gonna be honest. Yeah, like every time I play." And I was like, "Yeah, I just pretty much spend the 45 minutes before I'm playing trying to figure out if I should go or wait." So truthfully, I was panicking before. 

Nat Motte of 3OH!3: Mosh pit at the Revolver stage and slam dance at the main stage.

Sean Foreman of 3OH!3: I like to sit in a dark room and just cry.

How do you like to decompress after performing?

Nat Motte of 3OH!3: Mosh pit at the main stage and slam dance at the Revolver stage.

Sean Foreman of 3OH!3: I like to sit in a well-lit room and just cry.

Mothica: I actually like to decompress before I perform. I'm almost just having an existential crisis, and then, after I perform, it's almost like I just let loose. So kind of opposites.

Charlotte Sands: I definitely need to sit by myself for a quick few minutes, and just kind of decompress and think about the show and actually talk to myself about it. I just go over things that were good or how I could have done this differently or whatever. Then I like being around everybody and kind of just talking about the show. That helps kind of bring down stress, and everybody can be like, "We all did this together and enjoy it together," and then you can go out and talk to other people and do these things that are super fun because you were able to sit in that show and those emotions.

Photo: @meaganbolds // Pictured: Jeremy Russell of glimmers

Whose set are you excited to catch this weekend?

Sophie Powers: Probably LØLØ because she actually is my neighbor in Toronto, and I've known her since my first songwriting session ever. She's been such a cool mentor. I'm also excited to catch NOAHFINNCE. We're going on tour together this summer!

LØLØ: Simple Plan, actually! I've never seen them before. I was always too young to go to the concert, and my mom didn't want me to ruin my ears. But then I ended up being a musician and am now probably deaf. Sorry, Mom!

Charlotte Sands: I was just on tour with The Maine, so seeing them in a different setting is always so fun. We haven't seen each other in a few weeks because the tour ended. So seeing their whole team again and seeing all those guys has been fun. I can't wait to see their set. Also very excited to see Underoath. I love all those guys, and their show is probably one of the best live shows I've ever seen in my entire life.

Crooked Teeth: My new friend Emmyn has a project called Games We Play, and they're super fun!

Nat Motte of 3OH!3: We're excited to, as they say, catch 'em all.

Sean Foreman of 3OH!3: Yeah, we've been playing a lot of Pokémon GO on our phones, and it's been kinda hard because there are some places we're not allowed access to, but we're trying our best. It's been quite a journey.

Are there any upcoming tour dates that fans should definitely know about and come to?

LØLØ: I'm doing Sad Summer Fest, which starts, well, it starts earlier, but I'm doing the second half, so I'm starting July 23. It's fun because it's a traveling festival, kind of like a mini Warped Tour-esque situation. So I'm really stoked about that!

Pierre of Simple Plan: We just finished leg one of the Blame Canada tour. We're doing a West Coast US tour and making up for three shows that we missed on the East Coast: New York City, Worcester, and Asbury Park. So we're doing those at the end of August but hitting all the West Coast dates. Then we're going to Europe with Sum 41.

D of Oxymorrons: We head out on June 24 for our tour with Pop Evil. Shit's gonna be madhouse! It's gonna be a Midwest summer for your boys. It's gonna be great to be on the road before releasing all the new music we've been working on. We've been in the studio, and we've been cooking it up with Zach Jones, and there's a lot of heat coming. If you like Mohawks & Durags, we're gonna be leveling it up. That was the warm-up.

Can we expect more music soon?

Derek Discanio of State Champs: Kings of the New Age was the longest recording and writing process we've ever had due to the pandemic. It was just put on us that we had two years essentially to write and record this album, and with there being no deadlines and stuff, which is what we are used to, usually, we have to go fast and cram in a bunch of writing and just do the best that we can with the time given. So the fact that we had a lot of time to write more songs than we usually did was great, so we have plenty of "nuggets," as Ryan [Scott Graham] said, to work with and then mix and match and find which ones are better against which ones are a little bit stale and softer. And how do we make them crispier? And how do we make them hot and fresher? So it took a lot of time, but since we had the time, we ended up with the freshest, crispiest, most succulent nuggets that we've ever had.

Mothica: Nocturnal will be very different from my previous work. I wanted to see what I would sound like using a harder, metal guitar riff sound but with this pop and electronic lens. I did this Bring Me The Horizon cover a while ago, and I'd never sung over a track with that hard-hitting of a beat, so this album was kind of just a concept album of that and then playing into the dark side of why I'm Mothica. So yeah, Nocturnal has this whole concept to it, and it's going to be very different.

Maggie Lindemann: I think Sucker Punch is like Paranoia, but it has darker elements. I would say my recent single "break me" is kinda like "gaslight"'s older sister. Personally, I think it's cooler, but it's also in the same world and fits with the other songs because there are other hard songs on the upcoming album.

Games We Play: The songs I have coming out I wrote maybe like six months to a year ago with my best friends Max and Aaron. They're a big part of Games We Play, and we wrote "I Hope You're Happy" together. I have one coming out called "Saint Girlfriend," and I always introduce this one by saying, "this song is about shitting your pants," and it is about that. This happened to one of my friends, but it's about going on a date and shitting yourself. The girl didn't even notice, though. So like, the fact that the girl didn't notice and that the date went well, we just wrote a love song about it. So there's that. And then, on Fueled By Ramen and DCD2, I'm releasing my first major label record. It'll be a five-song EP, and "I Hope You're Happy" will be on there, which is out now. "Deadbeat" will be on there, which is out. Then three more songs, "Saint Girlfriend," which will be out in a couple of weeks, "Christina," and "Get A Job."

Maggie Schnider of glimmers: We're playing our single "Scared To Lose" for the first time here at So What?! We're super excited about it! I feel like people can expect definitely a matureness in our sound. I feel like we've progressed a lot, and we all like different types of music. We like everything from our pop-punk stuff to stuff The Band Camino, so we're melting those two worlds and like indie-pop, synthy vibes, and then still having that emo heart. I think that's what people should expect.

Crooked Teeth: I've got about 12 or 13 new unreleased songs outside of the singles I released last year and "I Want Out," which I released this year. I'm just getting really excited to drop more singles until the whole thing is out, and maybe out of nowhere, I'll just drop the entire thing. The creative process has been really long. It started in January of last year, and I'm like one song away and some mixing and mastering from having the whole thing done, so I'm really excited!

Damien Fagiolino of Felicity: I think we're most excited about the new elements in our upcoming record. There's a lot of traditional Felicity in there without question because our fan base always enjoys those singalong songs. So there's always that, but there are some new elements that we're really excited about. Generally, we all sit in the room during the writing process, and we work entirely on theories and concepts and ideas. I think that's a special thing in a band just to share that with everyone and have everyone's input. Sometimes it's just one person writing a lot of the songs in other bands, so I think everyone becomes invested when you all contribute. So that's something that I'm definitely excited about!

Eric of Heart Attack Man: The biggest development for right now, going forward for our next record, is that we're independent now. We're really excited about that and all the new music we've been working on. We're feeling like we're just getting started in a way because we've been touring steadily since 2017, and we've been just kind of grinding it out doing whatever has been thrown our way. It's all been amazing, but I feel like now we're good. It's like we've been building up to this point now where it's this distinct new chapter for us, where, going forward, we're independent and really branching out a lot musically. When a lot of bands hit their stride and get some momentum, it's easy to capitalize on what's already working and just release a "previous release part two." I will say that everything that we're working on for the new record is a pretty significant departure from what we just did. We just want to keep it fresh and keep it exciting. We don't want it to be predictable, so expect the unexpected.