Like most scene-ior citizens, (and millennials specifically), who’s teen years were spent living on MySpace and Tumblr, I have a huge love for all the whacky subgenres that hardcore spiraled off into during heights of musical experimentation at the beginning of the internet. Typing that out pushed my hairline back a bit.. Where was I? Oh yeah..

At some point in the early 2000s I discovered mathrock and nintendocore and fell in love with them. As a big fan of mathy shit, twinkly riffs, jazzy patterns and intricately layered guitar work, I was intrigued by Phenoix Arizona’s Betting On The End. Doesn’t hurt that their guitarist Chris also plays guitar in my favorite mathy emo band of all time Celebration Guns and that they reference my favorite Canadian comedy show Trailer Park Boys on their song titles.

Betting On The End incorporates hardcore influence to their songs and their creative musicianship give lots of room to expand on their unique and experimental sound. Despite the sick title of 8 Bit Moshpit I regret to inform you there’s only a few bleep bloops on this release, there is also some wild guitar effects that make some weird noises on their song “Freedom 35”. All around this entire EP has scratched an itch for something I didn’t know I needed in my life, and now I need moar.

Betting On The End have a fresh sound but take on the age old tradition of adressing serious subject matter with very not-so-serious song titles. Songs about finding yourself and the strength to get through it all? “Chicken Fingers, The Good Kind (8 Bucks)” and “Freedom 35”.

“Freedom and chicken are pretty much about finding who you are and knowing no matter what happens, even if the world is ending, that you will be ok. You accept the things you can't control but still remain content and grow from it. Don't let life bring you down.” their guitarist / vocalist Chris tells us.

I had a chat with Betting On The End guitarists / vocalists, Chris and Andrew, to find out what inspires their eclectic style, how they’re writing it, when I can get more of it, and what their plans are for the rest of our year now..

THE STYLE YOU’RE WRITING CLEARLY PULLS INFLUENCES FROM MANY DIFFERENT EMO AND HARDCORE BANDS AND SUBGENRES, WHERE WOULD YOU EVEN START TO CITE INFLUENCE FROM TO DESCRIBE THESE SONGS?

CHRIS: “Mensrea and Freedom 35- Tera Melos and Fall of Troy. Chicken Fingers- Mini Trees’ song, Push and Pull. Second First Impressions- American Football.”

ANDREW: “Paralysis- Incubus, Thrice, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, and just any song with a creepy vibe to it. Deep Drunk- Paramore, Mayday Parade’s first EP “Tales Told by Dead Friends” and The Spill Canvas.”

HOW WAS THE WRITING PROCESS FOR 8 BIT MOSHPIT?

ANDREW: “Both Chris and Andrew write songs and bring them to the other guys to see how they vibe with them. We have a Dropbox folder full of song ideas that we throw in there as we write them, so we pretty much always have stuff to work on. Our bass player has started writing songs too. We are pretty open to whatever comes along, if we like it, it becomes a song as we all collaborate on the details/transitions/etc. We try not to have too many restrictions on what a song has to be.”

WAS THERE A SPECIFIC CONCEPT Y’ALL WERE GOING FOR WITH THIS RELEASE?

ANDREW: “The whole imagery and concept for this record centers around 8-bit video game nostalgia. It all really stemmed from Chris playing an N64 controller live for our song "Deep Drunk", and people loved it. So we essentially leaned into the old-school video game vibe and themed everything around that..”

“THE SONGS AS THEMSELVES ARE COLLECTION THAT SHOWCASES THE DIVERSITY OF WHAT WE WRITE - STARTING WITH THE PURE MATHCORE ‘MENSREA’ AND ‘FREEDOM 35’ AND FINISHING WITH THE LONG, ALT-ROCK/EMO BALLAD ‘DEEP DRUNK’”.

- ANDREW, @BETTINGONTHEEND

ASIDE OF THIS BEING THE FIRST EP, WHAT MADE THIS RELEASE SO SPECIAL TO YOU AS A BAND?

CHRIS: “You must keep the faith in yourself so that you can believe in yourself when you face many of life's problems.”

ANDREW: “This is our first record with Adrian on bass. He and Chris have been friends for decades and were in bands together a long time ago. It's really cool to see them kinda come full circle in that way, and Adrian's bass riffs are so sick to boot.”

ANY SHOWS OR TOURS COMING UP FOR THE EP?

ANDREW: “We have a show at Rebel Lounge on June16th but nothing past that for a bit as Enrique is leaving the band, so we have to lock down a new permanent drummer. Going to Salt Lake City later this year, though to record a live EP. We will be doing some weekend runs around then as well! And we will be closing out the year with the 2nd annual AZ Math Rock Mini Fest (more to come on that!)”

SO WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE BAND NOW?

ANDREW: “We're working on some new acoustic tracks to release over the course of the year and break into the acoustic/coffee shop realm. Our goals in the next year are to start regularly doing weekend tours, record and release a new record, and to play a festival. Just in general grow our fan base and have a kickass time!”

ANY CLOSING WORDS FOR THE READERS?

ANDREW: “Trailer Park Boys - we love the show and have named several songs after quotes from it. We used to call ourselves a Trailer Park Boys fan club. It would be so sick to play a show in Sunnyvale.”

Unrelated - we really appreciate everyone who checks out our weird songs. We don’t stick to one style or genre and that’s not for everyone. So it’s really cool that so many of our songs, someone has said ‘that’s my favorite one!’”

The EP was released on May 17th through “Okay I Pull Up Records” (a fake label name made by the band members) and it was recorded at Cole Hamilton Studios. Follow them online at the links below and go play their hits!