The Wonder Years: “We only want to put out records that respect our fanbase and our legacy”

The Wonder Years
(Image credit: Christopher Kitchen)

Few bands have cultivated the same kind of reverence as The Wonder Years. The band cut their teeth on jokey pop-punk jams they’re admittedly embarrassed by, but over nearly two decades, they’ve grown into one of the most venerable forces in emotionally charged alternative music. They’d long stuck true to their pop-punk roots (albeit with increasingly darker tints), but on 2018’s Sister Cities, the band shed it entirely to explore a more strait-laced emo and post-hardcore sound. 

Though polarising for some, that one-off musical detour proved incredibly beneficial for The Wonder Years. They’ve returned to pop-punk for their just-released seventh album, The Hum Goes On Forever, but they’ve done so with a matured perspective and poise that shows the band in their strongest form yet. It’s led to their most surprising material – the pseudo-gothic ‘Songs About Death’ and soaring ‘Laura & The Beehive’ among its biggest highlights – which, as frontman Dan Campbell tells Australian Guitar, is a direct testament to the band’s constantly evolving ethos and chemistry.

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Ellie Robinson
Editor-at-Large, Australian Guitar Magazine

Ellie Robinson is an Australian writer, editor and dog enthusiast with a keen ear for pop-rock and a keen tongue for actual Pop Rocks. Her bylines include music rag staples like NME, BLUNT, Mixdown and, of course, Australian Guitar (where she also serves as Editor-at-Large), but also less expected fare like TV Soap and Snowboarding Australia. Her go-to guitar is a Fender Player Tele, which, controversially, she only picked up after she'd joined the team at Australian Guitar. Before then, Ellie was a keyboardist – thankfully, the AG crew helped her see the light…