Back in December, I saw Yorkshire based pop-punk band Mr. Showdown opening up for Stu Blenkhorn at his album release party. Though I only managed to catch 15 minutes or so, I was thoroughly impressed. They had lots of energy, they rocked hard, and it was overall a lot of fun. Originally, I was planning to interview Stu here, but he told me that he didn’t really have anything “interview-worthy” to talk about. However, he did flair up that Mr. Showdown had some very interesting stuff coming down the pipeline, and suggested it was worth getting an interview. I couldn’t have agreed more. So, naturally, I jumped at the opportunity, and had a great chat with bassist Martin Perou. He told me all about the trio’s origins, the stories behind their lyrics, and even gave an exclusive announcement of some very exciting news…
How did a project like Mr Showdown come together? I know that you said you all met through work, but I wondered if it was a more recent thing, or if the friendship was more long lasting and the music thing was only a recent revelation. I had the conception that finding three people that were all into pop punk who worked in the same place might be quite difficult.
It’s an interesting story because I worked with Darren, who’s our singer and guitarist, years and years ago. We used to work at Morrisons together, I think we’re talking 2004 to 2006. For years afterwards, we always talked about forming a pop punk band, because we had similar tastes in music, but for a long time I was busy in other bands. I was playing with Uncle Frank with Stu [Blenkhorn], and then eventually Uncle Frank came to an end and I wasn’t doing any music for that period of time.
Around then, Mark, who’s our drummer, started at my current work. I actually interviewed him, and as part of his interview I found out that he was a drummer and into pop punk music. He listed Travis Barker from Blink-182 as one of his influences. So after he started the job, I kind of got talking to him about it, and we just all kind of said “hey, it would be cool to get together and play some music.” So I just messaged the two of those guys separately. We started a WhatsApp group, and we ended up getting together, started off with a few covers and eventually started writing our own stuff.
So I guess I brought everyone together, but it just was just a really nice fit that everyone was available at that time, and it was something me and Darren had always talked about doing.
In terms of the sound of the project, you talked about obviously a love for pop punk music, but was it ever an ambition of yours to try and push the sound of pop punk forward particularly? Or was it more just a want to pay homage to those classic groups?
I just love playing live music, and I’m into a lot of different genres, and whatever is available to me I’m happy to play, providing it’s something semi alternative that I’m into. Just the fact that I knew those who wanted to do it and [pop-punk] was one of my loves in terms of music, that’s just something that I wanted to do. So really, to me, the genre is a little bit superfluous, because there’s a lot of types of music that I’m into, but that was what was available at the time. That was something we all shared in common. So that’s the route we decided to take.
Do you find it difficult, playing in the pop punk style, to kind of stamp out your own lane? To be like “This is why you should listen to Mr Showdown instead of XYZ other band.” Is there anything in your head where you’re like, “this is what differentiate us from these people from these people”? Is that a cognitive thing for you guys at all, or is it literally just “I love playing rock music and that’s it”?
I don’t think we’re trying to compete with anybody. There’s plenty of room for bands of a similar genre to share a set together. We’re not out to say we’re better than anyone or “you should listen to us instead of these people.” At the same time, we’d love to have our name in people’s music tastes next to other people. We don’t want to displace anybody, we just want to get our music out there on a level playing field with everyone else. When we play with other pop punk bands, we see them as teammates rather than people we’re trying to compete with.
That’s one of the nice things, when you find another band who’s a similar genre. You might bring people along, and the people you bring along might like some of the other bands. So it’s just about sharing, sharing each other’s… I don’t want to say fans based because we haven’t really gotten any fans [laughs]. It’s just about sharing connections with each other, and putting that out to as many people as we can.
You released two tracks last year. There was ‘Fab Café’, and ‘20 Years Late.’ They’re both clearly quite nostalgic and self-referential. It seems like humour often times is quite a big part of what you guys do, because a lot of the lyrics on those two tracks in particular do have a kind of light-hearted, slightly cheeky tone
Absolutely. That’s not really deliberate, but it’s something which we’ve just kind of naturally anchored ourselves to. We definitely look back, and part of the joke with ‘20 Years Late’ was “why didn’t we do this 20 years ago when we were all younger? We were teenagers or in our early 20s, we could have had a much better stab at this.” That’s kind of part of the humour of that. We didn’t do it when we should have done it, and now we’re in our late 30s early 40s trying to do it, but it’s good fun, so we don’t mind that.
‘Fab Café’ is just a fun nod to days gone by really. Everything in that song is all written from our personal memories. Myself and Darren both used to go to Fab Café. It was a bar in the centre of Leeds which is now shut down. Me and Darren used to go to that bar on a Friday or Saturday night, and we used to have a great time. So everything in that song is in reference to that.
By contrast, though, it seems like the most recent single, ‘Time to Wonder’, is quite dark under the surface. Like it’s one of those songs where the music is quite bright and uplifting, but the lyrics are quite dark. What inspired that? Did the pandemic have anything to do with it?
To be perfectly honest, that song isn’t about a great deal, it’s just a bunch of words which sound nice together [laughs]. I wrote it myself. I suppose there is… there’s a few lyrics like “time to wonder why the other side goes under, now we suffer.” It’s a little bit darker. I guess it was about consideration for other people, but that’s quite a distant grab, I guess you might say. Yeah, so it’s briefly about consideration for other people, what with what’s been going on, particularly the way politics has been very divisive over the past few years. So it’s loosely about that but it’s quite a far stretch.
These three songs, are they singles from an upcoming larger project? If they are, do you have any more info on it? Like maybe a title, or a producer that you’re working with? Or a release date of some kind?
We are in the process of recording an EP. It’s about halfway done, and it’s been produced by Kurt Wood at Corner House Recording Studios, who’s done all of those tracks so far. We’re looking to get it released later this year. It’s going to have 7 tracks on it. We’ve recorded 4 so far, only three of which are available to the public at the moment. So we’ve got another 3 tracks to do, and the working title is ‘20 Years Late’, so that track would be the title track.
The man at the controls – Kurt Wood of Corner House
I’ve been to one of your live shows when you opened up for Stu in December, and it seems like they are very energetic shows. You’re up there just like rocking out, having a good time. What kind of vibe do you seek to create at a show? Do you want people jumping and dancing around? Because from what I saw it looked like playing live was a real outlet for you guys. It seemed like you really enjoyed it.
Absolutely. We love playing live, and the more people who come to our shows, the better. It’s definitely a case of “the more, the merrier.” We absolutely want people singing along. We want people dancing. All that fun stuff. Everything that makes a rock show a rock show. We want all of it. So yeah, we love it, and we’ve got some more coming up which we’re really excited for. It’s definitely an outlet and it’s a lot of fun. I loved opening for Stu. It was brilliant. I loved that show.
Speaking of other shows, you have an upcoming show at The Primrose in a couple of weeks in Leeds on Meanwood Road. Is there anything else you can tell us about it? Are there any surprises in store like track debuts or any particular thing you might be able to tell us about? Is it the biggest show you’ve done?
No, it probably won’t be the biggest show we’ve done, because we did a beer festival last year, which was in Rodley. That’s probably the biggest show we’ve done so far, and certainly the biggest crowd that we’ve played to. We’re really excited about this one because of the bands that we’re playing with. They’re some good friends of ours. Kamien. We’re playing alongside them, so we’re really excited for it.
We think it is going to be a busy show, because ultimately it’s in Leeds and it’s on a Saturday, and it just means that people are available without having to have to travel too much. So we think we’re going to have a really good crowd there. We’re excited about some of the other bands on the bill as well. Another one is Speno, and The Leodensians, who are a young, up-and-coming indie band, so we’re looking forward to playing with them. It’s going to be a great show.
You’ve alluded before to the fact that you’ve also got other shows coming up after that. Are there any plans for an actual “proper” Mr Showdown tour? Or maybe your own headline show that you’ve got in the works?
I think it’s something we aspire to do in the future. At the minute, we recognise that we’re a bit of an up-and coming-band, so we’re just trying to get our name out there, and share the stage with other people to get a bit of a reputation. It’s a slow process, but that is ultimately where we want to be.
Mr. Showdown are playing at The Primrose in Leeds on May 25th with Speno, Kamien, The Leodensians, and Merkai. Tickets are £5 on the door. The first three singles from their upcoming EP are available to stream now.
