Cover Story: South Arcade wields escapism with a pop-rock punch

In a time riddled with economic uncertainty, political chaos, and existential dread, it’s no wonder that escapism is on the rise. Nostalgia is one of the secret ingredients sprinkled across the music of today to wrap listeners in the sweet memories of when the streets weren’t always on fire (if there ever was such a time) and offer a reprieve, even if only for three or so minutes. Just take, for example, a look at much of the music being marketed across the internet and platforms like TikTok today, where virality is often the gateway drug to superstardom. Whether it be one band’s “reheated nachos” of music’s past or the endless stream of nostalgia-inducing edits that permeate public consciousness on a day to day basis, there has perhaps never been a time when nostalgia’s cultural cache has been higher. 

When dealing out the drug of nostalgia, there’s a fine line between offering sweet escape and losing oneself in the reminiscence of the glorified good ol’ days. British rock band South Arcade is one of the groups doing their best to walk that line and wield early 2000s nostalgia carefully while maintaining their identity as a forward-thinking foursome. “It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, let’s be a 2000s band,’” South Arcade bassist Ollie Green explains to Melodic Magazine. “It just naturally sort of fell in that way. I guess that there’ll always be a part of that that’s present, just because that’s just what we like.” 

“I think the 2000s was sort of a point where all four members of the band could cross over,” vocalist Harmony Cavelle adds. “We love to hop around all the [reference] points, it’s not just nu-metal, it’s not just dance. We could do dubstep if we wanted to. We’ll go wherever we want. That’s what I think we’re doing in these EPs, but another major factor for us is making sure when we come to do a live set, that there’s songs in there for every purpose and emotion.” 

South Arcade has been doing just that, with an opening slot on 5 Seconds of Summer’s European tour this past spring. “We’ve never played in arenas before, so [it has been] a bit of a learning experience,” Green says. “The scale of it is kind of something we’ve never [done]. Sort of like showing up and playing a festival every day.”

“I feel like we’ve gotten better as the tour’s gone on,” Cavelle says. “We’ve never played [for] this kind of audience before, so it’s been really great. There’s been no other opportunity where we’d have been able to get this many new fans.” 

This crash course in playing to different crowds has paid off, as the band headed out for a stateside run on idobi Radio Summer School Tour earlier this month through July. Playing alongside four other acts, South Arcade’s return to the U.S. reunites them with the up-close-and-personal crowds that they experienced on their first American headline tour last fall. The group will hit cities they’ve never played before, and return to some beloved towns they’ve been savoring the memories of since last fall. 

“When you go into a club, you can bounce off the people in [the] front row a bit easier,” Green says of the anticipated difference between the 5SOS shows and the Summer School run. “I’m used to getting down at the front of the pit [and] giving people the microphone,” Cavelle adds.

If the opening gig for 5SOS has taught them anything, it’s how to navigate the rooms that they aren’t as used to playing. “We’re quite used to a sweaty box of a room where everyone’s standing,” Cavelle explains. “But in these [arenas] you’ve got tiers on tiers of people sitting, you’ve got different areas on the floor. So it’s really just [about] making sure that everyone feels seen, and making sure there’s bits in every song for everyone to interact with.” 

But before South Arcade was opening up for 5 Seconds of Summer, they were a group of four Oxford-based musicians that came together and formed the band in 2021. With Cavelle leading the band with her voice and Green keeping the basslines running thick, Harry Winks contributes his crisp guitars and Cody Jones keeps percussion snappy. The group’s first release came in 2022 with “Bigger Than Anything Ever,” a song led by Cavelle’s high-pitched voice and backed by supercharged guitar and drum lines. In the five years since then, they’ve amassed over one million monthly listeners on Spotify, and earned viral success with songs like the 2023 single “DANGER.” 

The band’s recent single “SUPERMAN” turns things up a notch, with Cavelle’s delivery reaching Britney Spears-levels of head voice as she sings “Cause I don’t wanna save the day even though I can/So give this little red cape back to Superman.” The track is driven by propulsive electric guitar stabs and a sharp cacophony of percussion. Upon release in April, the song became the group’s biggest debut to date and has amassed over one million streams on Spotify since then. 

The viral success that the group has earned is something that the early aughts were, obviously, not quite conducive to. “If we were fully doing the 2000s thing, we wouldn’t even be online. We would just have a MySpace page and that would be it,” Cavelle says. “We’re not trying to be in the 2000s necessarily, but we’re definitely coining that energy…

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