Pittsburgh's Old Neon releases new single 'Nobody's Burden' from upcoming 'Resolution' EP

In the early days of Pittsburgh’s Old Neon, the pop punk group aimed to put out a song every month.

“It was also something to push us too, to try and create more to try to figure out, what kind of band are we?” guitarist Mike McInnes said. “What is our sound? What do we sound like now that we’re all here? So it was really just kind of an impetus to keep working and keep trying to just improve from the jump.”

After a string of singles, including their debut “Highlights,” Old Neon released their debut album “Can’t (Expletive) Wait” in 2023, followed by their “Maybe This is All There Is” EP last year. Next up is their latest EP, “Resolution,” slated for a May 23 release, featuring the first single “Nobody’s Burden,” which dropped Friday.

“Now we have a catalog of things out, but we certainly still feel like the best stuff we can make is probably in front of us,” McInnes said of the group that started in 2021. “I think more so than any kind of quantity, we really wanted to make sure that the new music we’re putting out this year in ‘25, the EP we have together, was definitely a quality step-up. And that’s why for the first time we didn’t self-produce it.”

Old Neon — which also includes Bea Langer (guitarist), Sean Michael (bass), Zach Pollach (drummer) and Drew Sipos (lead singer) — worked with The Wonder Years guitarist Matt Brasch, who produced and engineered the EP in his Philadelphia studio. The outside voice provided by Brasch allowed the group to focus on quality over quantity.

“We would ask him, we have another half a dozen at least that were ready to record that kind of we just chose to start with these. And part of that was because of his opinions: ‘I like this better. That one’s cool too, if you want to work on it.’ You could just sort of pick up on the preferences. But for us, when we’re just looking for sort of a tiebreaker or someone to give a little more perspective, somebody that’s done critically acclaimed work, it’s easy to listen to their opinions,” McInnes said with a laugh.

Old Neon will play a pair of shows locally in the next two months, supporting Keep Flying on April 24 at Mr. Smalls Funhouse in Millvale and Afloat on May 23 at Bottlerocket Social Hall in Pittsburgh’s Allentown neighborhood.

In a Zoom chat Monday, McInnes talked more about working with Brasch, playing more shows and the Pittsburgh scene:

How do you think this EP compares to the previous efforts from the band? Is it more polished?

We recorded every part of it numerous times to just get it as absolutely perfect as we can. I think we’ve always played well, and I think we’re a group of pretty handy musicians. But the level of playing, we just took that up to another step. Beyond that, this is the first time, you’ll hear musicians say something trite like, “I don’t care if nobody else likes this. I made this for me.” And I always thought that was the stupidest thing.

Part of the reason you want to go play on a stage is because you want people to come watch. That’s part of it. But this truly was like, I know what the songs sounded like in our demos of them and I generally have a good idea of what they would have sounded like if we would have produced them ourselves like we’ve done everything else. And I just am so much more prouder with what we were able to accomplish. And I think part of that too comes from the way it was made, whereas before I was doing it here in my basement, the guys would come over for a few hours on a Saturday, or I’d just be down here by myself in the morning, our singer Drew would be working at home alone, our drummer would be working at home alone. I think in some ways, in retrospect, it’s like, well, duh, but there is a difference in creating it like that versus going somewhere for a week working 13 hour days doing nothing but focusing on making it as good as you can. We were lucky enough that we were able to do that this time.

How did it go working with Matt Brasch of The Wonder Years on the EP?

It was a dream come true. We didn’t know him personally, really, before we got started. But as soon as we reached out about working together, he couldn’t have been nicer and just more friendly and accommodating. Really, from early on, he was giving feedback on ways to punch things up, improve things. ‘Don’t try that again. Don’t repeat this. Maybe try this section.’ He was very involved from the get go. At the very minimum, we were hoping that we could find somebody with a little bit of a name to press record that we would at least have that to help open up a few doors. But what Matt did — the amount of effort that he put into trying to make this as good as any of us could imagine it could be — was just so well appreciated.

Is breaking out nationally on the band’s radar? Is that something that you are hoping to do with this EP?

Another trite answer, but we’ve never tried to really do anything other than get a little bit more popular or get on a little bit better shows or find a few more people to listen to us than we had at the last one or the last week. So it’s just always, OK, now what would be the most interesting next thing? There are certainly way more people in the Pittsburgh area who haven’t heard us than have. And there are bigger venues here that we haven’t been able to fill up yet that we’d love to, but at the same time, we want to play shows and that’s the key and that’s so much fun about it. But we can’t play in Pittsburgh every weekend because nobody would come. So it’s trying to find a balance of how often can we get away with this? And then where can we make some new friends somewhere that we can drive to on a Saturday morning?

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How important is it for you to be active and involved in the local Pittsburgh music scene?

I think it’s absolutely paramount. I mean, if we want anyone to come watch us, we need to go out and show up and support other bands too, right? Beyond that, everybody wants an audience to play for, but it’s even more fun when you start to become friends with these people. I’m going to Bottlerocket tonight to see Go For The Gold, and I’m expecting to see a bunch of people that I’m friends with there because this is just what we do. I don’t belong to the American Legion or the Elks Club. I go to shows and that’s just where our scene is and our friends are.

Are there any other Pittsburgh bands to be on the lookout for? Who do you recommend checking out?

Mallory Run, right off the top. I think they’ve been on several of the best shows we’ve ever played, including opening for Knuckle Puck, the Four Chord Festival with A Day to Remember and everyone. They’re just as great of guys as they are musicians. They have a new EP coming out this year that Seth Henderson produced. And he did a lot with Knuckle Puck and Real Friends over the year. Derek (DiScanio), State Champs’ lead singer, went down and participated in the session. So I’m just really excited for those guys. That’d be one.

I think Go For The Gold has to be, among at least who I’m aware of, the most underrated local band. Every one of them is an incredible musician and an incredible singer, they could all front their own project and you have four of them going at once.

And then probably I would wanna shout out Heading North. They’re among the bands that we play with often and probably the youngest, and they’re just so impressive again, as musicians, as people, as performers. They’ve always done a good job live, but like in the year and a half-ish that I’ve been seeing them, just to see them go from the first couple of early shows in front of small crowds to playing at the Roxian before the Punchline “Action” show, that’s what makes this stuff so much fun to see your friends growing and getting to do so much cool stuff.