{"id":192994,"date":"2025-12-31T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/?p=192994"},"modified":"2025-12-31T16:17:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T23:17:05","slug":"localized-the-apathetics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/music\/interviews\/localized\/localized-the-apathetics\/","title":{"rendered":"Localized: The Apathetics"},"content":{"rendered":"

2026… Did you ever think we would make it? Celebrate this historic moment with a fist-pounding show of raw, aggressive rock and a few gut-bursting jokes in between. Kick off the night with Hangxiety<\/strong><\/a>, laugh your ass off with Punks & Punchlines<\/strong><\/a> and top it all off moshing to The Apathetics<\/strong><\/a>! Catch SLUG Localized <\/em>on Thursday, January 22 at Kilby Court<\/em> for a night that\u2019ll make you say, \u201chell yeah!\u201d Get tickets here<\/a>!<\/p>\n

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The Apathetics have come to rock the house! Photo: John Taylor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This story begins as any good one does: in a storage unit in Woods Cross, Utah. Guitarist Josh Leland<\/strong>, alongside his longtime friend and bassist Eric Norris<\/strong><\/a> and drummer Ben Frank<\/strong>, had been using the spot as a place to practice. Vocalist Tyler William<\/strong><\/a> found his bandmates through an ad posted on Craigslist: \u201cIt was dark, and [I was at the] gated entrance to a storage unit facility\u2026 and I said, \u2018Okay, this is either gonna be really cool, or I\u2019m going to get murdered,\u2019\u201d William recounts. Luckily, it was the former, and thus a punk band was born.<\/p>\n

Something that is immediately apparent when listening to The Apathetics play is that this is a band of people who love making music together. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of ironic \u2026 we\u2019re all very empathetic, but \u2018The Empathetics\u2019 wouldn\u2019t sound very punk rock,\u201d Leland says when I ask about the name. In fact, the only thing these guys seem to be apathetic toward is their naming scheme. \u201cComing up with a name is the hardest thing. I\u2019ve [nearly] gotten in fist fights over it [with] other bands. This was one where we were like, \u2018Okay, it\u2019s decent,\u2019\u201d Leland finished.<\/p>\n

When it comes to the type of music that The Apathetics play, even the band itself says it is hard to define. In a previous interview with SLUG<\/em>, Norris describes the genre with a title of his own: \u201csoft punk.\u201d When I ask if this is still the case, William says they\u2019re still very bipolar. \u201cSome of the new songs we\u2019re going to record are definitely on the pop, soft punk side \u2026 there\u2019s still some emo stuff there,\u201d William says. \u201c[It\u2019s] more structured, more developed,\u201d Frank adds. \u201cHalf of them are melodic and poppy \u2026 and half of them are more thrashy, metal stuff.\u201d Leland finishes, \u201cWe know how to bring them together, so it doesn\u2019t sound like two different bands.\u201d<\/p>\n