Knumears: "I think we’ve all grown personally and as musicians, and I think this is a good representation of who we are now."

Forged from the raw, erratic spirit of ‘90s screamo, KNUMEARS are a formidable force rising out of Los Angeles. The three-piece (originally born in 2018 under the name TURN AWAY) have spent years honing their craft, from SoundCloud demos to the stages of underground music’s most revered festivals, eventually landing on Run For Cover Records and Summer Shade, as well as recording with the legendary Jack Shirley (responsible for the sound behind DEAFHEAVEN'S Sunbather). Now, with their debut album Directions arriving tomorrow, they’re ready to show exactly what they’re made of. We caught up with them to talk about the record, their heroes, and why all-dayer gigs are a special kind of torture. 

When we jump on Zoom, the geographical split is immediately obvious. Matt is beaming in from a tidy, sun-drenched office in LA, the kind of setup that makes you feel vaguely unproductive by comparison. Meanwhile, Frankie is somewhere in Europe, phone in hand, wandering down a dark street like a man with somewhere to be and no particular hurry to get there. It’s a dynamic that feels very on-brand for a band who wear their chaos as comfortably as their charm.

But despite the chaos, there’s a clarity of purpose to where KNUMEARS are right now, and nowhere is that more evident than in Directions. Matt is visibly excited when the conversation turns to the record, and it’s easy to see why. For a band whose earlier material captured a snapshot of who they were at the time, this feels like something different: a document of who they’ve actually become. “I think we’ve all grown personally and as musicians,” he says, “And I think this is a good representation of who we are now.” From where we’re sitting, it’s hard to argue with that.

Screamo and post-hardcore have been having a moment, and KNUMEARS find themselves riding that wave at exactly the right time. Ask them why the genre has reconnected so hard with a new generation, and Matt’s answer is simple: people needed somewhere to put all these intense feelings. After years locked indoors from Covid-19, there’s something uniquely cathartic about music this loud and visceral. “It’s a pretty good, aggressive way to get your emotions out,” he says. Frankie, meanwhile, thinks the revival was almost incidental, and that post-lockdown energy could have swung toward hardcore or metalcore just as easily. Although, the timing couldn’t have been better for KNUMEARS. “It’s really rad that it was what we were doing at the time,” he grins.

Highlights, as it turns out, come quickly and genuinely. Getting the record deal ranks high, and signing with people they actually looked up to was, by Frankie’s own admission, huge. But just as significant was the more personal stuff, like the friendships built on the road and the slow accumulation of people you get to know. Matt goes a step further, pointing to the moments where their musical heroes stopped being distant figures and became actual people they could talk to. JEROMES DREAM were a foundational band for them early on, and now they’re friends, plus Matt got to sit down with Jeremy Bolm of TOUCHE AMORE. ‘Don’t meet your heroes’ is the conventional wisdom, but in this corner of the scene, it turns out, that rule doesn’t really apply. “Everybody’s pretty nice,” Matt laughs, and somehow, that says everything.

Festival season, though, is a slightly sourer subject. There’s a running joke in the scene that every all-dayer announcement is met with immediate complaints, and KNUMEARS are not here to push back on that. “Not every single show has to be a festival,” Frankie says flatly. “That shit is annoying.” Matt agrees: three bands maximum, done by 10pm. That’s the dream. The problem, as Frankie sees it, is well-intentioned but ultimately self-defeating. A big band comes to town, promoters pile on every local act they can, and suddenly you’ve dragged the night out so long that people actively avoid going altogether. “Nobody wants to sit through eight bands to see the one they actually came for,” Matt adds. The intention to put everyone on is understandable, but the execution ends up hurting the very bands it’s supposed to help. Keep it tight, keep it moving, get people home at a reasonable hour. That’s clearly not too much to ask.

It’s a perspective that makes more sense when you consider the scene they’re operating in. The LA landscape has shifted pretty dramatically – where screamo once had a real foothold, metalcore has largely taken over. Matt puts it down to something bigger than just music taste. “LA moves so fast with trends and pop culture,” he says, “No matter what it is, whether it’s music or fashion, everybody gets into it and then everybody moves on so quickly.” Outside the city, though, screamo is still very much alive. “It’s still pretty big, and people want to hear that,” muses Matt, but in LA, KNUMEARS were almost ahead of the curve without realising it. Luckily for them, the rest of the world isn’t done with it yet.

Not that Matt is particularly heartbroken about the metalcore takeover, mind you. “I don’t know, we’re just biased,” he shrugs, and when pressed on whether that’s going on record, he’s quick to clarify. “Not like biased, or partial to ourselves. We don’t think we’re the best band ever.” Just, apparently, not huge metalcore fans. For the record.

The best band ever, obviously, have one last thing to say. Matt takes the joke with the same easy good humour he’s carried throughout. “I just wanna say thank you to everybody for giving us an opportunity to play cool music for them and for listening to us,” he says, “And thinking... whatever they think about it.” It’s a quietly sincere note to end on. No grand statements, no hype, just genuine gratitude for anyone willing to give them a listen. With Directions out on April 3^rd, there’s never been a better time to do exactly that. Make up your own mind.

Words: Adrian Chapman

Photo: Kara Aguilera