REBORN FREEDOM // Making Pop Punk Magic

If you’re looking for some fresh pop-punk jams, Reborn Freedom has got you covered.

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The Newcastle natives came together in 2018, and are now gearing up to release their debut EP, No Strings Attached. Before its official introduction to the world, we got the band to run us through what inspired it and more.

Hysteria: What’s the Reborn Freedom story?

Jacob: I started the band in early 2018. I put out a call on Facebook and a few groups wanting to meet people because I didn’t know anyone else who played music. We got a drummer in, and me and him played a few shows around Newcastle. He left to form another band, but then Isaac put up a post in a few Facebook groups. So I asked him if he wanted to join the band and we started playing.

We had a few bass players come and go. Then I met Jack in a TAFE course, and he ended up coming in full time. And then Bailey reached out to us wanting to join in, and that was how we formed the lovely four-piece that we are today. So I’m the lead guitarist and lead vocalist.

Bailey: I’m the guitarist and vocalist.

Jack: I’m the bass player.

Isaac: I am the drummer. Also, a little bit of the manager. I do all the behind-the-scenes stuff to make sure that everything runs smoothly and everyone can do what they love: play music.

Bailey: He keeps us on time.

Isaac: That’s right too. I’ve been playing the drums for like 95% of my life, so I’d like to think I know what I’m doing at this point. I’d like to think we all know how to play our instruments (laughs).

Let’s move on to the new EP, No Strings Attached. What experiences shaped it lyrically?

Jacob: In a lot of my songwriting, I like to touch on personal experiences. There’s quite a number of songs that talk about love and heartbreak. And also the good parts, like when you feel happy. There’s also one song on the EP, which I won’t go into detail on, but it was written about a very hard time in my life. When I think of the themes behind this EP, I like to use the term personal experience.

Isaac: I’ll use a particular example: Misconception, the first song we ever released. We wrote that at a time where we were getting a lot of comparisons to Blink-182. And we wanted to move away from being that band that just wrote that style of music. We wanted to write something awesome and unique. People say it’s about all sorts of different things. But personally, and I know for a few of the other boys, it was about moving away from what everyone expected us to be and becoming what we knew we wanted to and could be as a band.

Bailey: I’ll quickly touch on the EP itself. The whole idea behind our recording process and marketing and everything we designed for it was that it would come from us. We funded it ourselves, recorded it under our own roof, and it was all our vision and ideas. It was exactly what us four wanted it to be. There weren’t any strings attached.

Isaac: We didn’t have any external songwriters come in. We didn’t have anyone else playing instruments. It was just the four of us.

We funded it ourselves, recorded it under our own roof, and it was all our vision and ideas. It was exactly what us four wanted it to be. There weren’t any strings attached.
[Bailey, Reborn Freedom]

Give us a bit more insight into what that experience was like.

Bailey: A lot went wrong. There was a lot of back and forth in, you know, FaceTime calls and Google Docs and all that. There was a lot of mismanaging and a lot of stuff going on that it took a long time. But they were the cards we were dealt with the pandemic; we tried to make the best of it.

Isaac: Yeah, it was a big process, especially doing it all yourself, which we did for five out of the six songs. I was sitting there, especially in the months leading up to this release, sometimes for five, six hours a day on Pro Tools, mixing it all and listening to it and just trying to make sure that we were really happy with it. I’d send it to the boys, saying, how does it sound? Are we happy with it? The only song that we did externally was Perfect World. Jack organised that for us.

Jack: Yeah, we were fortunate enough to use a studio provided by my stepdad. It was good to have some experience there. It was quite strange because he’s a country music producer. But he was thrilled to have a different sound coming in for the first time. He pointed us in a few different directions. When you’re in the studio with someone, it’s good to have them say yep, don’t do that, or do this, or whatever. It helps things glue together really nicely. By the end of the day, everyone was so stoked on how it came out.

Isaac: We learned a lot as well, especially from a production standpoint. A lot of the things that we did there, we took away for the remaining songs we recorded and mixed ourselves. There were things we probably hadn’t considered, so it was a really good experience for us and helped bring the EP to that next level and improve the quality of it.

How’d you feel it compared to your past works?

Isaac: Most of the singles we’ve put out have been from the recordings we’ve done leading up to this EP. The only difference was the first release of Misconception, which Jacob and I did back in 2019. It was a very different scenario, everything was done at the producer’s house, and it was all recorded straight into Pro Tools. It was a different mix too. We’re still very proud of that, but we feel this release is more live and raw. You get a bigger sound with it.

Jack: And I also feel like the songwriting’s progressed. Like on Perfect World, I think Jacob really hit the nail on the head. He’s got a knack for catchy songwriting.

Isaac: It’s more of us now as well. There’s been more collaboration, and it’s been so satisfying to see it all come together. Listening to the final masters of the EP put a massive smile on my face.

Bailey: It was the highlight of my life, quite honestly.

Who are some bands that are on constant rotation for you all?

Isaac: We take influence from Simple Plan, Neck Deep and State Champs – modern-sounding pop-punk bands. We have all sorts of personal influences. For me, it’s rock bands like Matchbox Twenty, The Goo Goo Dolls and Blink. I look up to Travis Barker a lot, and all like the projects he’s done.

Jacob: I’m personally more influenced by the early 2000s pop-punk, so Simple Plan, Bowling For Soup, Blink-182 and Green Day – all those bands that are considered the pinnacle and the peak of pop-punk. And that’s where a lot of my writing stems from too.

Bailey: It’s really hard to nail down a sound because we all want something different. We all bring different things together. My playlist comes from everywhere. My pop-punk influences are Fall Out Boy and All Time Low.

Isaac: I’m pretty sure I’ve seen some Taylor Swift in there, mate.

Bailey: She’s there! As well as Katy Perry, and I’m also the biggest Cream fan you’ll ever meet.

Jack: If we’re talking about pop-punk, Blink is obviously up there. So are Fall Out Boy and Green Day. I also really enjoy modern Australian bands like Slowly Slowly, Trophy Eyes and Stand Atlantic. I’m also a sucker for sad boy emo-rap; that gets me every time.

What’s next for the band?

Isaac: We’ve got a few shows booked. We’ve got some ones that we haven’t announced yet but hopefully will soon. And then, we want to start working on more material. There’s going to be a more laid back acoustic style EP that we’re going to do early next year. After that, we’ll hopefully work towards a full-length album.