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105.7 The X and The Castle Welcome
POP EVIL
with Devour the Day and Oni
🗓 Sunday, May 18th
⏰ Doors: 6:00pm | Show: 7:00pm
➡️ 18+. Minors Welcome with parent or guardian
Passion. Dedication. Fortitude. Leigh Kakaty is the embodiment of these threequalities, and for good measure, too. For two decades, he has needed to mine thedeepest of reserves in order to drag Pop Evil up from the blue-collar grassroots of theband’s local Michigan scene to stand proud at the top of the modern rock game.Soaring successes, bitter defeats… Leigh Kakaty has stood face-to-face with it all alongthe way. Leigh Kakaty hassurvived it all.
What Remains, the band’s eighth full-length album, is the culmination and story of thisjourney with Pop Evil, laid bare like never before. Continuing in the recent vein of2023’s acclaimedSkeletons album,What Remains is both sonically and thematicallyPop Evil’s heaviest ever offering; a thundering collection of arena-ready modern rockand metal hits in which Kakaty opens heart, mind and soul – pulling no punches andtaking no prisoners in doing so. “There are a lot of issues and things that I’ve dealt within this journey of Pop Evil that I’ve buried for a long time,” the frontman explains of thisdocument of resilience, perseverance and accountability.
Pop Evil was born in North Muskegon, Michigan in 2001, Kakaty drawing on thelessons of a youth first shaped not by music, but by high school basketball –leadership, team work, the drive to improve in the lonely hours put in at the gym at5am, the will to win suppressing any fear of defeat – in order to fight tooth and nail fortheir break-out moment.
“I was hustling and learning every day to make my dreams come true,” Kakaty recallsof his time playing local bars and slinging early EPs out of the back of his truck.“Studying never interested me. Neither did getting a regular job. A knee injurywrecked my shot at playing sports. Music was all I wanted to do from that moment, andI didn’t give myself a backup plan. Pop Evil gave me a purpose, and a reason to get upevery day. It became a crusade.”Lipstick On The Mirror, their 2008 debut, and its follow-upWar Of Angels broughtacclaim and global attention; 2013’sOnyx delivered the first of the band’s nine No.1singles and six RIAA-certified gold and platinum plaques, but also a period of darknessbrought on by the grief of Kakaty losing his father. “I was completely lost … I had justmissed the last five years with my dad, chasing this dream when I could have been withhim. I didn’t know if I wanted or could do Pop Evil any more,” Kakaty admits today.The band’s 2017 self-titled album, opened by the smash-hit “Waking Lions”, waswritten “pretty much to save my life” – but in turn “reminded me of the fire I haveinside, and that God put me here to make music that could help people.”It’s a mission statement enshrined in Pop Evil to this day – and which provided thespark for the genesis ofWhat Remains.
“You’re always chasing that one song that can connect with that one person,” Kakatysays. “And that process has to start with yourself. There’s a lot of personal healing onthis record, a lot of things I wanted to get out for my own mental well-being. I’m finallyat a place where I can confront my demons.”For Kakaty, that one song isWhat Remains’ title track. Produced by Wage War’s CodyQuistad, the track began life with the chorus’ opening words:“I never meant to hurtyou / violence, my only virtue”. “I was writing those lyrics to everyone that has been apart of the Pop Evil journey, inside and around the band, but also to myself,” Kakatysays. “It felt like an enormous weight was lifting, and those two lines led to somepowerful and personal healing. When we had that song, the vision for the album cameinto focus immediately. It’s an introspective collection of chapters in my journey, andwhat I’ve been through to reach where I and Pop Evil is today. It’s everything I’ve neverknown how or felt able to say – until now.”It should come as no surprise, then, thatWhat Remains runs the full gamut ofemotions. Opener “When Bullets Miss” is a defiant war cry aimed at those who havesought to take their pound of flesh – or worse – across the past two decades. “KnifeFor The Butcher” and “Wishful Thinking” take a hard look at how the source of traumaand the road to recovery often begins within. “Side Effects” ruminates on how“sometimes the best things in life are hard to attain until you rid yourself of thingsweighing you down”. “Criminal”, meanwhile, is an ode to trusting your own instinctsand “following your own path” – regardless of outside opinion.Elsewhere, “Overkill” and “Death Walk” find Kakaty in a nakedly introspective mood,the former seeing the vocalist confront a deep-rooted depression from which he’s runfor too long, and the latter unpacking a new perspective on questions of mortality andlegacy. “It’s a theme that I relate to in my personal life and through the lens of PopEvil,” Kakaty says. “Your perspective on life changes through experience. We’re all onour death walk, but that doesn’t have to be scary. Once you embrace the inevitabilityof it, you start living in a different way – you’re liberated from fear, and are free to findthe best version of yourself and the best version of your life. That’s what a lot of theprocess of this album has been for me.“I feel like I am now the best version of myself as a creator, as a musician, as a writer,than I have ever been,” he adds. “I can see and feel the growth in me, because I’mconstantly trying to push myself into areas where I feel uncomfortable.”Sonically,What Remains finds Pop Evil – completed by guitarists Dave Grahs and NickFuelling, bassist Joey “Chicago” Walser, and newly minted drummer Blake Allison – incareer-best form. The album is a riotous explosion of life-affirming noise; a vortex ofscything riffs and gut-punch drum beats that regularly give way to Pop Evil’s hallmarkanthemic choruses. The 10 tracks occupy territory that will be at once immediatelyfamiliar to the Pop Evil family, but that has been refreshed and re-energized with helpfrom production from longtime collaborator Drew Fulk (Disturbed, Knocked Loose), theaforementioned Quistad, plus Zach Jones (Fever 333, Maggie Lindemann) and KJStrock (Ice Nine Kills, Motionless In White), and the Sparrow Sound team of JoeMcQueen and Spiritbox bassist Josh Gilbert (Bad Wolves, As I Lay Dying).“We set out to push boundaries,” nods Kakaty. “Metal has always been a part of ourDNA, but we’ve never made it such a focal point before. A lot of writing on this recordhas been about listening to what my soul is saying and letting the songs find their ownpath, rather than chasing a sound that might fit in on the radio. I think you can reallyhear the mood and emotion of the album’s themes in the music.”What Remains is the culmination of everything Leigh Kakaty has fought for his entirelife. It’s the dismantling of the armor he has adorned to survive the journey along theway. It’s the reckoning with the man he was yesterday, the man he has become today,and the man he strives to be tomorrow. It is at once the complete Pop Evil story writlarge, and its definitive release.“No matter how difficult the hard times you face are, what remains when you make it tothe other side is who you are, and it’s your story,” Kakaty says. “It’s not always going tobe written the way you want it to be, and it won’t always be pretty, but you hold thepower to define the next chapter.”