PUP Front Man Stefan Babcock Confronts Guilt Over Neglecting His Once-Favorite Guitar in “Matilda” Video

Adrian Garroon March 1, 2022Categories:Latest News
Rock Cellar Magazine

Canadian punk/indie band PUP has been busy previewing a new album titled The Unraveling of PUPTHEBAND, due on April 1.

The latest song shared from the record arrived on Tuesday in the form of a music video for “Matilda,” which is essentially guitarist/vocalist Stefan Babcock coming to terms with the “guilt and sadness and shame” he felt after casting aside a guitar he used to play all the time:

Said Babcock, recounting his story:

“Matilda is the name of my favorite guitar. She was a gift from my friend Ryan, after watching me accidentally break the only guitar I owned in the middle of a long tour. I had no money to buy a replacement, and Ryan’s act of kindness is up there on my list of ‘nicest things anyone’s ever done for me’. I played Matilda nonstop for 7 years at every PUP show, even when my bandmates started complaining that she sounded like shit. As the band got bigger, the pressure to sound better was building and so I bought a ‘good’ guitar and played Matilda less and less. Before I knew it I hadn’t played her in over a year. I wrote this song based on this intense feeling of guilt and sadness and shame and nostalgia and regret, watching her rot away in a corner. I love this guitar and I love Ryan and wanted to do right by them, and I felt like I’d failed them both. I convinced the band that Matilda deserved one last rip on a PUP record, and I played her during the bridge of this song. It sounds so shitty. But good shitty. Great shitty. For me, it was the most joyful and cathartic moment in the entire making of this record.”

Recorded over the summer of 2021 in Connecticut at the “bat-filled mansion” of producer Peter Katis, The Unraveling of PUPTHEBAND was announced earlier and came with the premiere of a music video for “Robot Writes a Love Song,” which a news release describes as coming from “the perspective of a computer being overwhelmed unto death by actual human emotions.”

Click here to pre-order The Unraveling of PUPTHEBAND on CD from our Rock Cellar Store
Click here to pre-order The Unraveling of PUPTHEBAND on LP from our Rock Cellar Store

The circumstances of the album’s recording process, which came during the still-present COVID-19 pandemic and in the aforementioned “bat-filled mansion,” lent itself to a particularly inspired setting. As a news release states:

With more time in the studio, they were able to craft their songs sonically in a way they were unable to in the past, and allowed themselves to incorporate new instruments like piano, synths, horns, and more for the first time. Though made in madness-inducing isolation (aside from Peter and the bats, of course), PUP were remotely joined on the album by Sarah from Illuminati Hotties, Kathryn from NOBRO, Mel from Casper Skulls, and Erik from Remo Drive. The result is not just the next PUP record, but the *most* PUP record.

PUP’s most recent studio album is 2019’s Morbid Stuff, a record that pushed the band to new audiences.

The band also has a slew of tour dates coming up soon, including a coveted spot at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in April:

3/26/22 – Ottawa, ON @ Bronson Centre Music Theatre !
3/27/22 – Hamilton, ON @ Bridgeworks ! [SOLD OUT]
3/28/22 – Kingston, ON @ The Ale House  !
3/29/22 – Peterborough, ON @ The Venue !
4/1/22 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Roxian Theatre *^
4/2/22 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall *^
4/3/22 – Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre *^
4/5/22 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore *^
4/8/22 – Victoria, BC @ Capital Ballroom ^
4/9/22 – Victoria, BC @ Capital Ballroom ^ [SOLD OUT]
4/10/22 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo ^
4/11/22 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom +^
4/13/22 – Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades +^
4/15/22 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music and Arts Festival
4/16/22 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren +^
4/17/22 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah + [SOLD OUT]
4/18/22 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah ^ [SOLD OUT]
4/20/22 – San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield+^
4/21/22 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda #^
4/22/22 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music and Arts Festival
4/24/22 – Denver, CO @ The Ogden Theatre +^
4/25/22 – Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theater +^
4/27/22 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater +^
4/28/22 – Houston, TX @ House of Blues +^
4/29/22 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater +^
5/1/22 – Atlanta, GA @ Shaky Knees Music Festival
5/3/22 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel +^
5/4/22 – Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz +^
5/5/22 – Richmond, VA @ The National +^
5/6/22 – Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall +^
5/7/22 – Washington, DC @ The Fillmore Silver Spring +^
5/9/22 – Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom +^
5/10/22 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues +^
5/11/22 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5 +^
5/13/22 – Montreal, QC @ MTelus +^
5/14/22 – Toronto, ON @ History +^  [SOLD OUT]
5/15/22 – Toronto, ON @ History +^
6/3/22 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues $
6/4/22 – Royal Oak, MI @ The Royal Oak $
6/5/22 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s $
6/6/22 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall Ballroom $
6/8/22 – Indianapolis, IN @ Hi-Fi Annex $
6/9/22 – Lawrence, KS @ The Granada $
6/10/22 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant $
6/11/22 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl $
6/13/22 – Charleston, SC @ Charleston Music Hall $
6/14/22 – Columbia, SC @ The Senate $
6/15/22 – Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa $
6/17/22 – Holyoke, MA @ Race Street Block Party $
6/18/22 – Buffalo, NY @ Asbury Hall $
7/8/22 – Cheltenham, UK @ 2000trees Festival
7/23/22 – Byron Bay, Australia @ Splendour in the Grass
8/24/22 – 8/27/22 – Málaga, Spain @ Canela Party Festival
10/12/22 – Leeds, UK @ Leeds Beckett Students Union
10/13/22 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Ritz
10/14/22 – London, UK @ The Roundhouse
10/16/22 – Glasgow, UK @ SWG3 Galvanizers
10/17/22 – Dublin, IE @ Academy 2
10/19/22 – Brighton, UK @ Chalk
10/20/22 – Bristol, UK @ SWX
10/21/22 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institute
10/23/22 – Paris, FR @ Backstage
10/24/22 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
10/25/22 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
10/26/22 – Köln, DE @ Bürgerhaus Stollwerck
10/28/22 – Berlin, DE @ So36
10/29/22 – Warsaw, PL @ Hybrydy
10/30/22 – Prague, CZ @ Rock Cafe
11/01/22 – Milan, IT @ Bloom
11/02/22 – Munich, DE @ Strom
11/03/22 – Hamburg, DE @ Gruenspan
11/05/22 – Copenhagen, DK @ Pumpehuset
! with support from Casper Skulls
# with support from Skegss
^ with support from Pinkshift
$ with support from Oceanator
* with support from Cloud Nothings
+ with support from Sheer Mag

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