Even between tours, pop-punk band Like Pacific’s latest music aims to be honest and relatable.
After spending nearly three months off the road, the five-piece group from Toronto released In Spite of Me, their second full-length album. They followed it up with an eastern Canadian tour with fellow Pure Noise Records groups Seaway and Bearings, who are from Oakville and Ottawa, respectively.
An hour before the album’s release, lead singer Jordan Black was very excited.
“The first record was okay, I liked it, but this one is the fucking best thing we’ve ever done—it’s 10 times better,” Black said.
Having been through a difficult romantic experience, Black described the album as an emotional, but straightforward diary.
“When songwriting, a lot of things are metaphorical, but I try to make [my feelings] translate as well as they could,” he said.
Although the new album generally tackles more serious themes, it also gave the band the chance to show off their humorous side. The music video for their track “Self Defeated” accomplishes just that, as it depicts Black goofing off around Markham, Ont., before surviving being hit by a car, driven by some distracted bandmates.
“We made the idea up in like an hour, we filmed it pretty last minute, and we were all kind of worried about how it was going to look, but it looked really fucking funny—it was great,” Black said.
According to Black, pop-punk is an accepting genre, but it still lacks LGBTQ+ voices and representation. As someone who identifies as gay and has the Instagram username @hotgaydaddy, Black said it is important to be someone people can look up to or reach out to for support.
“We have some of the most loyal queer fans I’ve ever met in my entire life . . . I feel like I don’t deserve to be in this position, but I am in this position. Like I said, I have to voice everything that I say, and that’s pretty fucking cool that I get to do it,” he said. “We’re supportive of the fans, and they’re supportive of us.”
Black recounted an emotional encounter with a fan last month at the final Vans Warped Tour stop in Toronto. Like Pacific performed at the 2016 Warped Tour, but this year, Black just went to hang out with some of the bands, making a brief on-stage appearance with Movements, a band from California.
Walking around the venue, Black said that many fans recognized him, but one female fan started crying.
“I talked to her for like half an hour. It was super cool, and I think it was very overwhelming for everybody . . . it was a fucking amazing day,” he said.
Black said it means a lot to him that he’s able to impact people.
“I get that I serve a purpose, and to some people I’m important . . . It’s a reminder every day that even the smallest human being—me—can literally impact a large crowd,” he said.
Now that the eastern Canada tour has finished, Like Pacific is preparing to co-headline an American tour with Roam, a pop-punk band from the United Kingdom starting this fall.
Photo by Jeff Pelletier
