Punk has been with Bryce Vine ever since he plugged in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (1999) video game and heard “Superman” by LA-based punk rock band Goldfinger.
While playing this video game, Vine digested the punk rock genre and the feeling it gave him, which he now recalls as the moment when music first took hold of him. As a depressed, confused kid, punk rock was the genre of music that gave Vine something to lean on in his childhood, which he used as an escape. “All this music [I was discovering] was super energetic and I could sweat it out on my own,” Vine says. “I felt related to, and it was just kind of low stakes, fun music.”
In high school, Vine had a band, but couldn’t afford to record tracks although he wanted to produce a record in light of his adolescent love for the punk genre. Fast forward to today, his new album captures his punk love that was with him ever since he was a kid.
Vine’s fifth album LET’S DO SOMETHING STUPID!, out this month, explores a punk edge to his pop and alternative influences. This album is one of a kind, according to Vine, because it experiments with the punk genre, reminiscent of the type of music the kid version of Vine would listen to.
Vine says that this record is for kids who “just need a place to put all that energy, where they can rock out and have some positive sad songs.”
Infused with both an energetic and nostalgic feel, the album’s tracks explore themes of relationship troubles, miscommunications, and wondering where people who were present in your life as a kid are now. With this album, Vine found a healthy balance in his artistry that allowed him to step back and make something that he would love.
“Everyone’s got an original story in life and mine started with pop-punk, and punk as a songwriter,” Vine says. “I wanted to kind of do [the album] for myself, for fun, instead of stressing myself out and trying to figure out what I want to do next as an artist.”
Sounds of eras past are constantly making their way into today’s music with the help of trends and platforms like TikToks. People who weren’t alive during these eras are now connecting with and even developing a longing for them, which is a concept intriguing to Vine. He says he hopes his fans will appreciate his 2000s-influenced album, LET’S DO SOMETHING STUPID!, as a time capsule of the era, and perhaps develop nostalgia for a time period they’d never known.
“I just figured that even though a lot of my fans weren’t around for the early 2000s, they’ll feel that energy I felt when I was young, because that’s where it’s coming from,” Vine says. “I needed that at the time, it made me feel better, and the fans tell me a lot that my music makes them feel better, so I keep trying to remember that as being a pretty important element…
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