Pittsburgh's Punchline returns with new album, old friends and Four Chord festival appearance

Punchline singer/guitarist Steve Soboslai believes the Pittsburgh-based band is in a very good place right now.

In the past few years, they put together a podcast series providing an exhaustive look at the pop-punk band’s history, marked the 20th anniversary of their “Action” album with a huge hometown show and reunited with guitarist Paul Menotiades. To keep the momentum rolling, Punchline will release a new album, “Somewhere To Land,” on Sept. 12, with a pair of Ohio shows followed by a spot at Four Chord Music Festival on Sept. 14.

“It’s crazy, because we go back (on the podcast) and we’re talking about 15, 20 years ago, and it kind of became like therapy for us. Our old guitar player, Paul, came back to the band. And I really think that it was, in part from, we’re all listening to the podcast and hearing for the first time how the other band members talk about those times back in the day. It was really good for the soul to make this podcast,” Soboslai said with a laugh. “I thought we were just making a podcast the whole time, but it turns out, I feel like it put our band in a really good place and internally just feel all very close. And our old drummer, PJ Caruso, has been playing some shows with us, filling in for our drummer, Cory (Muro), while he’s got some other things going on. Yes, it’s a very sweet time.”

Work on the new album, which has been in the works for around five years, began with a message from bassist Chris Fafalios.

“Chris, our bass player, texted me and said, ‘I think we should have a song called ‘I Don’t Wanna Live in this World Anymore.’” And as a band who always names their songs last, that was a really cool challenge that got the process started,” Soboslai said. “I think once that song started coming together, it was clear that it was, in essence, opening the door on continuing on to make the new album.”

“I Don’t Wanna Live in the World Anymore” became the first single off the album in July, followed by “Tunnel Vision” and “I Will Wait,” which features a guest appearance from Gin Blossoms singer Robin Wilson.

“Two of our guys went to see the band the Gin Blossoms play, and the singer has been a friend of ours, a mentor to us. I mean, it’s really cool how this guy’s taken us under his wing and always just gives us the nicest shoutout, introduces us to people, etc. But they went to see him play and told him, hey, one of our new songs kind of has a Gin Blossoms vibe, and he immediately said ‘Send it to me. I gotta be on it. I want to be on it.’

“How direct he was with that, it’s so cool because for the longest time I was a little bit baffled why he would always come around when we would play in Phoenix or where he was or when when they would come to Pittsburgh and we would go see them, he would just drop everything he was doing to hang out with us, in just the nicest sweetest way. It was after this one time he asked us if he could sing a song for us when we played together, and I said cool, we’ll practice it before the show. He said, ‘I don’t need any practice,’ and he went up that night and he sang our song a hundred times better than I ever could. I realized, oh, he likes our band,” Soboslai said with a laugh. “I don’t know, it just took a minute to accept that, but I really appreciate him, and he does the count-in on this song, and he sings in the background vocals and it’s just super cool to have him.”

In a call on Aug. 20 — the release date of “I Will Wait” — Soboslai discussed the podcast, trying to revive a band-favorite song, Four Chord Music Fest and more:

Could you ever imagine a podcast bringing the band back together like this?

No, I really didn’t expect it. And I really appreciate how many people were finding our band from taking a chance on a podcast, a band that they don’t know, because it definitely has some “Behind the Music” feel to it in that we get into talking about how we approached the music industry and really just tell it how it was, what was going on with us behind the scenes. And a lot of the stuff, people just never had any idea. I feel like now bands are a little more transparent about their drama to get clicks and whatnot, but we always tried to just make it about the song. So people are hearing about our retroactive drama now and I think they’re on the ride.

You also had the “Action” anniversary show last year, so did that further boost the morale among the band?

Absolutely. I think that was our biggest hometown show we’ve had since the early 2000s, and it was a great way to end the year. We’ve been working on the album and we were finishing it up so it was a great way to put a capstone on that to go into the new year. We’re very lucky to be able to put out music and have people listen to it and engage with it rather than it just go out into the void. I can’t believe some of the people who just saw us play one time and we shook their hand back in Little Rock, Arkansas, in the early 2000s who were still on the ride with us. I’m very thankful and I hope that we can find some new listeners, too.

What was the recording process like for this one, especially since you guys were doing it independently?

We worked with these two producers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and recorded some of it there at their recording studio, which is called The Kaleidoscope. And much of the rest of it, we recorded independently. I did all of my own vocals at my house. I like to have the time to do it and be able to sing a song 100 times, literally, before I figure out. It takes time to figure out how to sing it right. So I love doing the vocals myself.

One of the producers, John Smith, we met him originally in 2006. We were going on tour in two days, this Canadian tour, and our merch person had dropped out of the running. We really needed somebody to come with us to have one crew member, and found some guy, a friend of a friend of a friend. And all of a sudden, we’re leaving for tour this day, I meet this guy, I’m like, I hope this guy’s cool, because we’re going to be with him for the next month. He turned out to be the most down to earth, even-keeled person maybe I’ve ever met. But he got into audio production, and now he has a hand in producing our albums, which I think is super cool.

This album also has a re-recording of “Darkest Dark” from the “Lion” album. What led to that?

Very cool. I love that you caught that. “Darkest Dark” is, I would say, a band favorite to play. I can’t remember a band practice where we didn’t start with that song. Most of our sets start with that song. I think it gets us off on the right foot. And we thought, hey, we can do whatever we want here. So let’s give this song another chance. Because maybe I do feel like we like it a little bit more than our listeners do. So we’re going to put it in everybody’s face again and see if it resonates with people more. But we made some improvements to it. That’s always fun. When you’re working on your own music, you have the ability to update things. Back in the day, we do an album with a producer and then we don’t really have access to those recording sessions anymore, but it’s different now. So we’re giving it a whirl.

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You mentioned about playing at Four Chord and that’s seems like it’s pretty good timing coming two days after the album release. Have you played Four Chord before?

We did. We played two years ago at the same stadium, and I was just texting with Paul, our guitar player, the other night. He’s the old guitar player who just came back to the band in the last year, and I told him, I just realized — I was standing outside winding my day down — and I realized last time when we played, he wasn’t in the band. He was in the crowd watching us, and I told him, I’m so glad I don’t have to see you in the crowd anymore. (laughs) Even in times when he hasn’t been in our band and is in the crowd, I’m very aware of it, and it’s just funny. More importantly, it feels more right for him to be on stage than in the crowd. That’s what it’s about. We were texting about how cool it is, different from last time, now he’s on stage, and that’s how it should be.

With Four Chord, what do you think makes it a special festival, and which bands are you looking forward to seeing?

I remember when Rishi (Bahl) started this festival, and it was in a club and it was a tenth of the size. I knew every year when it rolled around the risk he was taking on and I would keel over and pray that there wasn’t a thunderstorm and that he could (do it.) You know, that’s a huge undertaking. These bands have guarantees, and it’s just a lot of risk and he has built it into what it is, and his favorite band, as everybody knows it’s Blink-182, are playing this year. Jimmy Eat World, one of my favorite bands, are playing. I mean the list is crazy. I don’t know if people realize this because they live in Pittsburgh, but this is one of the biggest pop-punk festivals in the country. Hands down, we’re just lucky enough to live so close to it.