Interview: 8123 Fest Preview

8123

8123 Fest, the music festival curated by Arizona rock band The Maine, is making its highly anticipated return in January 2025. For the first time ever, the festival will span two full days, packed with incredible performances, exclusive events, and more. Taking place at the Mesa Amphitheater on January 17–18 2025, the festival offers a celebration of music, nostalgia, and community that fans won’t want to miss.

To highlight everything that is taking place during this two-day festival, I thought it would be cool to connect with some of the bands who would be performing. In this article, I have interviews with members of The Maine, Real Friends, and Bad Suns. Each of the bands I interviewed shared what the 8123 Fest means to them, the new music they are working on, as well as what fans can look forward to from their bands in the new year. 8123 Fest tickets are on sale here.

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Review: Real Friends – Blue Hour

Real Friends - Blue Hour

”Here’s to new beginnings” is a popular toast at weddings, job promotion celebrations, and retirements, and yet most bands don’t get the opportunity to experience this feeling themselves when it comes to reinvention. Real Friends are back with a slick emo-tinged pop-punk sound on Blue Hour, their fourth full-length studio effort to date, and their first LP with vocalist Cody Muraro at the helm. The 13-song album is packed with raw emotion, songs about relationships, and in many cases the theme of starting anew is prevalent. The band, whom have been around since 2010, seem to lock into a new groove on Blue Hour with a sound leaning closer to The Wonder Years and The Menzingers, rather than pop-punk bands like The Starting Line and New Found Glory. Real Friends are making the most of their opportunity to reinvent themselves on this record that is filled with depth, rich lyrical imagery, and hard-hitting tracks that demand to be taken seriously.

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