“We're loud, fast and pretty unashamed of who we are.” Guitarist Sam O’Donnell talks about his band Willowside Park as more than another UK pop-punk band (“I like to think we go a bit deeper than that,” he says). On their latest EP Hollowed Out, the Cumbria six-piece—made up of Chris McQuire, Aaron Bisset, Tyler Bisset, Jonathan Turner and James Day—have a chance to showcase just how loud, fast and melodically infectious their style of pop-punk is. The EP drops on April 8, but premieres today on Myspace (listen above)! In this interview, O’Donnell talks about being a pop-punk band from a picturesque country town in the United Kingdom, wanting to be just like Blink-182 and plans for the future.

Hometown and homebase: We're from a very small town called Millom, all the way up in Cumbria, UK. Most of us are still living here. Only our guitarist Aaron currently lives away in Essex. He makes the drive to practice with us often, so we're grateful for him sticking it out with us to help continue this band. It's tough driving up and down the country regularly just to play music with your stupid friends, so he's the absolute best.

How do you describe your music to someone who's never heard you before?

People often compare us to bands like Fall Out Boy and Real Friends, so I probably somewhere along those lines. We got asked to describe ourselves in three words once during an interview and we responded with "ugly nerd rock," so I guess we'll go with that [laughs].

Why are you called Willowside Park?

When we first started out, we tried doing some heavy stuff just to mess around with new styles. We had a really long, stupid name so when we decided to take this seriously we elected to change our name to something that meant something to us. We chose the name of the street where we recorded our first ever shitty demo song together in one of our garages. It's a street in our area and we all regularly pass it by, so it has a bit of a special meaning to us all regarding where we're from.

How did you all meet?

A lot of us are friends from school. Most of the guys started a few cover bands back in their mid-teens and met our vocalist Chris through the (incredibly minor) local music scene. They hit it off immediately and he took over chief singing duties. We were all in two separate bands with some of the members playing in both, so we tried a side-project to write original music for with everyone taking part in some way. Eventually, we decided we actually wrote better music together, so all six of us got together in the current camp we're in now.

What inspired you to start playing music?

I attribute my interest in PLAYING music [to] watching Blink-182's tour documentaries and thinking "touring looks amazing". I'm completely self taught from day one and I've been playing for over six years. I'm still rusty [laughs].

What does the EP title Hollowed Out mean to you?

"Hollowed Out" was a feeling I held for quite a long time. I was living away from my girlfriend at a fair bit of distance; I was burnt out from studying; I was stressed from the lack of income I was receiving at that time and I pushed away some of the only people that love me in this world because I felt like a failure. It felt like my life was falling apart at the seams, but I kept a brave face throughout whilst juggling these conflicting emotions and perceptions of the real world and the future ahead of me. I felt like a shell of who I was, like I was just plain hollowed out. I'm doing a little better now, but you can't wash those feelings away so quick and it's something that will stay with me for a while. I'd rather write these feelings down in the form of lyrics than leave them bottled up. It's helped my songwriting and feels a little better than fighting it alone.

What was your creative process like for the EP?

We had originally been writing our first ever full-length album in the summer of 2015 and ended up with around 15-20 shells we were really happy with, but financial constraints meant only putting four tracks together for a short EP. We had spent a lot of 2014/15 sitting on a ton of tracks ready for release so we just wanted to get some new material out ASAP. We ended picking some of the most upbeat tracks we've written so far but kept the central theme along the lines of straining romantic and platonic relationships whilst you suffer dilemmas from your heart tearing at you for sticking around in a place that holds such golden memories in the past but now does nothing but pull you further down in your mind. It's kinda dark when you go into it which I guess is masked by how fast-paced and bouncy some of these tracks are, but rest assured we're gonna expand on these feelings more in the future.

Do you have songs that mean the most to you? Or is it like kids (you know, you can't just choose one you like the most?)

We've all got our own favorites from the EP. Some of the lyrics I wrote on "Embers" and "Fading" are pretty personal, so I'm always elated when I hear people enjoying the themes present in the songs. Chris and I share lyricist duties, so it's always cool when we write our own parts concerning our personal lives and are able to accept and riff off of each other's experiences. I've got a lot of great ideas for new songs that Chris and I have developed together and I couldn't be more excited to grow as a musician with these guys.

Who are your biggest musical influences?

There's loads of artists we enjoy that we feel has a direct influence in our playing style and attitude to music. Naming a diverse few would be along the lines of Brand New, NWA, Gaslight Anthem & even singers like T-Swift. Me and Tyler (drummer) bump a ton of 80s music together despite the punk rock exteriors we possess which gives us a bit of outreach when writing music.

How does living in Millom influence your music?

We meant it when we say that Millom is REALLY out of the way. It really is a quiet, pretty area of the country but it doesn't help us much when it comes to employment/musical resources/travelling to shows. You have to travel two hours plus before you reach any kind of expansive urban life so when we want to go see any kind of decent musical gig or event we have to really plan a day out with hotels and the like. It's expensive living and a constant burden/blessing, so we always try to make our music attain a certain theme involving the back and forth opinions on loving/hating your hometown and how to grow up and become an adult in a place which can feel so suffocating and so isolated at the same time.

Who would you love to collaborate with?

I've always had an attraction to getting guest vocalists involved in our music because I feel collaborative methods in the punk scene can be very effective in grabbing people's attentions and breaking the mould of your usual sound/songwriting tactics. If I had to choose one, I think I'd go for Jonathan Vigil of The Ghost Inside. That guy sure can belt it out on the mic. I'm glad to see they're recovering well from their horrible bus crash late last year. They've been incredibly strong through the process and I can't wait to see them back on stage again in 2017.

What's the best or craziest thing that’s happened to you as a band?

We've got quite a few supportive fans from all around the country that do their best to catch us on the road which we're very grateful for. We also got the chance to play Liverpool's "Fury Fest" 2015 alongside bands like Motion City Soundtrack, Moose Blood & Man Overboard which has been the biggest event we've been a part of and we're forever grateful for the people who helped us get onto the billing.

I guess the craziest things we do are usually just stupid drunken stuff. I won't get into details too much, but basically one of us got so drunk one night after a show that they ended up peeing on one of the other members in a busy nightclub. We're disgusting! (Laughs.)

We capture our escapades on tour and behind the scenes via our YouTube. There's a playlist you can view featuring a few videos of us on/off the stage.

If you were a hashtag, what would you be?

#worstbandever. We already use it regularly when talking about ourselves [laughs]. That, or #WillyPCru. We just joke around together about being a huge collective when in reality we're just a bunch of idiots who play crappy punk music. One of the earlier postings with that hashtag is a bunch of weird ‘90s US college graduates together. They look pretty goofy, I wanna hang out with them [laughs].