Field Day’s latest record is out now, the four-song, seven-inch WHY?, out via Unity Worldwide Records and Sense of Place Records. Bassist Doug Carrion and vocalist Peter Cortner, who played on Dag Nasty’s 1987 classic Wig Out at Denko’s and 1988’s Field Day, are joined by guitarist Shay Merhdad and drummer Kevin Avery. And as this record showcases, the four-piece are flawlessly carrying on the mantle of Dag Nasty’s dynamic, signature melodic hardcore punk sound.
“We like writing songs and singing and performing, and we wanna challenge ourselves,” Carrion explains. “And part of that is not going so far out where we turn fans off, but we’re expanding our range of what we’re capable of doing and what we think, first and foremost, is cool.” He marvels, “What’s amazing is that’s in 2022, that’s current. I’m not talking about songs I wrote in 1988. So, it’s kinda wild.”
“The motto in the band is to be humble, and don’t suck. So, we take that motto literally. That’s freaking gospel. We put everything into the live shows and everything into the recording. We throw the kitchen sink at it. And, as a result, people gravitate towards that. At first, people might say, ‘Oh, those guys are just trying to do a cash grab,’ or, ‘Those guys are just trying to do a reunion and why should I see this?’ And then they’re like, ‘Oh shit, they keep doing records. Those guys keep touring. Those guys are pretty crazy,’” he laughs. “So, we are really happy about the response and humbled at the same time. Nobody in the band takes things for granted.”
Explaining how he and Cortner evolved from getting back together in 2019 to play some live shows featuring the Wig Out material, he says, “Peter and I really wanted to continue the story, so we just kinda kept going. And we love the old songs! We wrote ‘em! We played on the records. We toured them. Iconic. We realize how important they are to fans and to us.
“But at the same time, there’s more to the story, so in a way, we’re continuing to embrace the previous work and then, at the same time, push ourselves forward to creating new songs.” He continues, “That’s the balance. And it’s fun, and it’s very exciting because five years ago, I would’ve said that story’s over. I wouldn’t have thought that I would’ve gotten back with Peter Cortner, and we were gonna start a new band called Field Day, and we’re gonna release music.
“Creating the spirited, compelling WHY? seven-inch “came about out of really wanting to continue or expand our aperture of writing and creating wonderful songs for people and getting out there and doing shows,” he says.
As has been the case for Field Day’s previous releases, Carrion produced the record, and it was mixed by Cameron Webb (Motorhead/Ignite/Pennywise).
In 2021, Field Day played 28 shows, including two sets at Punk Rock Bowling. So far this year, they’ve played shows in Southern California in February and hit cities in Florida in March. Next up, they are planning on touring the Midwest if everything goes according to plan, around Mother’s Day. The band are also hard at work writing their first full-length of all-new material. They are “five songs into the next batch of songs,” and Carrion predicts a possible 2023 release.
In addition to all this, they have an album titled Acquisition coming out. With a release date hopefully towards the end of this year, it’s “a reissue of all the songs we’ve done thus far plus two unreleased tracks,” Carrion reveals, saying the idea stemmed from fans who had been asking the band if there’d ever be a release with all their material—which so far consists of seven-inches and EPs—on one piece of vinyl.
Summarizing it all, he says, “We’re just really having fun, trying to put out good music, do great live shows, and appreciate the people who wanna come out and support that.”
Listen to WHY? here:
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Photo courtesy of Alan Snodgrass
