Living in Chaos

In their latest, quite possibly greatest record, PUP have refined everything they are into one huge, chaotic chunk. Here, they tell the album’s story.

- By Ben Tipple. Photographs by Vanessa Heins

PUP’s career has been defined by chaos. The Toronto four-piece arrived with their frenetic, perfectly scrappy debut in 2013, going on to refine their sound across two further albums that culminated in the Juno Award-winning ‘Morbid Stuff’. Each record added another layer to their now-characteristic blend of fun and self-deprecation, and for vocalist Stefan Babcock, their most recent album marked a fitting end to a suitably chaotic chapter. “The first record... we didn’t know what the fuck we were doing, we were just stabbing in the dark,” he laughs, speaking from his home alongside guitarist Steve Sladkowski. “The goal of the two records that followed was to do what we did on the last one, but way better. I think we accomplished that, and reached a logical conclusion with ‘Morbid Stuff’.”