“That was the only thing that mattered, and that’s been the only constant in my life— music,” singer-songwriter Greg Antista confides. “Something about the honesty, something about how raw it is. Something about the rebellion and the outsider nature of it. It took over my life.”
And we must say, Antista had an incredible musical upbringing, having had the good fortune of coming of age during the golden era of Fullerton punk, with bands such as Social Distortion, Agent Orange, and The Adolescents all coming out of his high school.
“I think just in punk rock history, that’s ground zero for punk in Southern California,” he rightly states.
This lifelong love of music really comes through on the band’s latest release, Under the Neon Heat (out July 16 via Primal Beat Records), the follow-up to 2019’s Shake, Stomp and Stumble. The excellent musicianship and songwriting are on full display here, which comes as no surprise, as the foursome is assembled from a great cast of characters.
Antista is joined by punk veterans Warren Renfrow (bass and vocals), Jorge E. Disguster (drums), and for the first time, guitarist Frank Agnew, whom Antista met in the early Adolescents days, when the pioneering band would rehearse in the Agnew brothers’ garage.
“The fact that [Frank] was available and in a place in his life where he wanted to join the band full time, I jumped on the opportunity,” he says. “We’re having a great time.”
As for the process of putting this album together, the guys had the music recorded for a while, finishing that in early 2020. They were about to get the vocals down, but then, in mid-March, the producer, Paul Miner, advised against it. They came back three months after that and were able to record vocals.
“We had high hopes of releasing it in 2020,” Antista says. “We thought the record was going to be done by April 2020, and that all changed, just like everybody else’s lives changed.”
They decided to not release the album until the goal of playing shows to support the record was more within reach.
“We definitely want to hit the road to support it, so we just figured we’d wait,” Antista says.
And the band actually have played their first live show, this May at the Silverado Showdown festival in Orange County. The frontman says the venue normally holds 20,000 people, but they limited capacity to four or five thousand this year to keep things distanced.
“It was such a wonderful way to come back, too, just the best sound system in the world; the crowd was really happy to be there; it was outdoors,” he gushes. “So, we’re really fired up now.
As for his hopes for this album, Antista says: “I hope people hear it, and if they hear it, they’re going to like it. I think a lot of people kind of have the same heart and sentiments our band does, and I think they’ll relate to it and like it. I think the beats are undeniable, and I think the sentiments are kind of universal.”
Check out “Tijuana Jail” below, and pre-order/save Under the Neon Heat here.
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Images courtesy of Greg Antista.
