Skate punk has always been about the vibes, and the best records in the style’s heyday can clearly transport listeners to a California half pipe on a sunny day. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater may be a reason for the West Coast connection but considering many of the best skate punk records came from the Golden State, the video game only added a few kickflips to the fire. Few modern records so perfectly embody the best aspects of skate punk like CF98’s latest, This Is Fine, out September 2 via SBÄM Records, that one would be surprised to learn that the band hail from halfway around the world in that mecca of skate culture… Kraków, Poland?
This Is Fine is imbued with the sort of positivity and good vibes that this mid-30s writer can’t help but both appreciate and want to knock down a peg or two. Thankfully, vocalist Karolina Duszkiewicz and company know not only how to write the best skate punk since the ’90s, CF98 also understand how to tell wonderfully uplifting stories with depth and care.
“It’s not the easiest to always find that energy, positivity, and motivation,” says Duszkiewicz. “Sometimes it’s really fuckin hard. Sometimes seems impossible. It [all] took time, but at the end we just knew we couldn’t waste any more time. I believe we just wanted to write good songs. We were disciplined, and when I say we worked hard, I really mean it — we were writing almost every day, practiced almost every week. We wanted every song to be an adventure and have a story to tell. Plus, we like each other’s company, skate punk, and playing music together.”
“(“Double Sunrise”) was actually the one I wrote to cheer up myself,” Duszkiewicz continues, “We come from a country where November is the shittiest month — short, cold and gray days, long nights. I needed to put [the sunshine] into a song and to make myself believe [the darkness was] temporary.”
This Is Fine is more than fine, as it is easily my favorite skate punk record since some of the classics from Lagwagon, NOFX, or MXPX. Killer riffs, vocals that beg to be heard at an outside venue, and a wonderful, full rhythm section — everything’s on point.
“We wanted to make [the album] pop/skate punk but with our personal CF98 touch,” says Duszkiewicz. “I think this is our super-power, that we all listen to different styles of music, and you can actually hear that influence on This Is Fine. After 2 short EPs, which we wrote quite fast, we wanted to write a really diverse album with cool melodies, clear structure of the songs, and catchy sing-along choruses. We wanted to go back to the roots of ’90s skate/pop punk and to write more enjoyable, pure fun songs full of meaning. As you probably also heard on that record, I love harmonies!”
“I really wanted to write a completely different story in each song,” Duszkiewicz adds. “I wanted to have them about totally different topics, and this required time. I wrote about the girl who misses adventures, about being addicted to sports, about our van life, about being a villain in someone else’s narrative, about people who see just the dark side of the moon, about Judy and her coming out, about protesting an anti-abortion law in Poland. In terms of lyrics this is my 2021 diary, musically this is CF98’s diary. If people treat those stories like their own, if they can relate to it somehow, if those stories will make them feel a little less alone, it will be absolutely great.”
Their name, CF98, taken from the element Californium, evokes this concept of taking a sunny disposition as you are fighting oppression. It’s also an element used in metal detectors to find gold, which is what you’ll feel like while playing this record.
“We’ve always known that Californium could be used to produce pocket bombs, which we’ve imagined as an explosion of really positive and cool vibes, punk rock energy, and shining bright in sometimes shitty world.”
Watch the video for “Double Sunrise” here:
For more from CF98, find them on Facebook, Bandcamp, and Twitter.
Photo courtesy of Adam Mikołajczyk
