“Bringing completely different worlds collectively has at all times been a pillar of Towards The Present’s profession,” says vocalist Chrissy Costanza from her L.A. house.
The band fashioned in 2011 within the Poughkeepsie basement of drummer Will Ferri. The day they launched their first single ‘Considering’ in 2012, in addition they shared a canopy of Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Good Time’ that includes Youtube musician Alex Goot. For the following few years, the band carried on sharing unique songs and collaborating with Youtubers on covers.
“We have been straddling these two worlds,” explains Costanza. “And it was powerful as a result of folks from the standard musical neighborhood actually had no respect for us. They didn’t suppose we have been an actual band, simply because we have been additionally on Youtube.”
By 2015, the trio had signed to Fueled By Ramen (Paramore, Twenty One Pilots) and launched their second pop-rock EP ‘Gravity’, adopted by a four-month headline tour that visited Europe, North America and Asia. “It was small rooms nevertheless it offered out and folks have been pissed about it. They thought we would have liked to pay our dues, to play to 30 folks an evening – which we have now accomplished,” guarantees Costanza. “Folks simply dismissed us as ‘The Youtube Band’,” however that didn’t cease their followers from giving a shit or connecting with the music.
Towards The Present have been then invited on travelling punk competition Warped Tour in 2016, taking part in 41 exhibits in 50 days and sharing a stage with the likes of Waterparks. However even then, Costanza nonetheless had folks speaking all the way down to her. Bands would come up and say Warped Tour was an opportunity for ATC to ‘earn their cred’ and the way good it should be for them to play gigs to precise folks. “It was actually discouraging,” admits Costanza.
“Folks simply didn’t like how we did issues and it felt like we would have liked to convey ourselves down, dismiss our personal achievements, simply to be accepted. I see the identical factor now with a brand new era of artists blowing up on TikTok. Persons are consistently criticising the content material business however actually, they only hate what they don’t perceive. I’m certain bands 20, 30 years in the past have been additionally doing modern issues that whoever had come earlier than, additionally hated.”
Which brings us to 2022. By now, Towards The Present have launched two full-length albums (2016’s ‘In Our Bones’ and 2018’s ‘Previous Lives’), toured with Fall Out Boy and performed the Fundamental Stage of Studying & Leeds Festivals. They’ve additionally remained energetic members of on-line worlds. To kick off the brand new yr, the trio teamed up with The League Of Legends’ European Championship to launch pressing new observe ‘Wildfire’ and a model that includes eSport casters Andrew ‘Vedius’ Day and Daniel ‘Drakos’.
It’s the third time the band have collaborated with League Of Legends. Towards The Present wrote and carried out ‘Legends By no means Die’, the unimaginable, stadium-sized anthem for the league’s 2017 World Championship whereas Costanza additionally supplied vocals for 2019 anthem ‘Phoenix’, a slow-burning chunk of hope and dedication.
Creating ‘Wildfire’ was “much less stress than a World’s anthem as a result of there’s such a excessive expectation round these,” says Costanza earlier than noting that the LEC sometimes make comedic or ironic music. “This was a departure from that, simply because it was extra severe. It meant Vedius and Drakos have been exterior their consolation zone however we taken care of them.”
The observe was initially written for the follow-up to Towards The Present’s 2021 mini-album ‘Fever’ (which is due out this yr) nevertheless it didn’t fairly match. The observe was co-written by Mako, who scored Netflix’s Arcane and has written each League Of Legends anthem, so when the LEC reached out, asking to collab, “it was a no brainer” to rehome ‘Wildfire’.
Lyrically, ‘Wildfire’ is about “fantasising how individuals are going to speak about you once you’ve ‘made it’,” explains Costanza. “Whether or not that’s being a rock star taking part in in entrance of 1000’s of individuals or an Esports participant out to win the championship, it’s that daydream of ‘simply wait till you see what I’m going to do’.”
Chrissy Costanza has been a gamer since she was 3 years outdated. At first there have been a number of CD-Roms (ask a millennial good friend) however the first sport that actually stole her coronary heart was Runescape. “That was the primary sport that actually ignited my love of on-line gaming and launched me to an internet neighborhood. I actually misplaced myself in Runescape.”
Then, following their collaborations collectively, Costanza was launched to League Of Legends by Goot. “That’s the sport that cemented me as a gamer. It was additionally the primary time I made associates by gaming.”
On current Twitch streams, Costanza’s been taking part in LOL spin-off Teamfight Ways (when she’s not constructing a Lego Millennium Falcon) and she or he’s dabbled with New World. “I had a variety of enjoyable however they should repair a variety of issues earlier than I am going again,” she explains. “I additionally at all times have a fantasy RPG on the backburner, like Dragon Age.”
“It’s actually superior that gaming has been a part of our profession and such a large a part of our success,” says Costanza. Attending to work with the LEC has felt just like the band “reconnecting to their roots” and gaming “has given us such an identification, that we actually really feel we belong right here.”
“Music and gaming are the 2 issues I like most,” she continues. It’s why Towards The Present retains getting provided the alternatives they do “as a result of we hand around in the scene and do no matter we will to provide again. That’s why it’s labored so properly for us, as a result of it’s one thing that’s very real. We’re not right here simply because gaming is the new new pattern.”
When the pandemic made touring unattainable, Costanza acquired quite a few messages from artists who wished to know stream – one thing she’d been doing for years. It was the identical individuals who’d criticised her for utilizing Youtube and “giving me shit for getting standard by League Of Legends”.
Costanza goes on to clarify how “there’s a variety of musicians who’ll simply take the paycheck from Riot and by no means point out gaming once more” however for the entire of Towards The Present, “we’ve actually discovered a house right here”. Guitarist Dan Gow is simply as obsessive about gaming as Costanza whereas Ferri is at all times the primary to arrange Mario Kart or Tremendous Mario Celebration on the tour bus.
“Gaming communities are actually welcoming however they’re additionally protecting of being exploited,” says Costanza. “Folks like people who make them really feel like what they’re doing is cool. Nobody desires to really feel like somebody got here in, took a examine however didn’t truly respect what they have been doing.”
Which looks as if an excellent time to convey up the viral video of Costanza instructing a senior citizen play League Of Legends. “We stan Glenn,” she grins. “He was the identical lovely outdated man on and off digital camera. I might take a bullet for him.”
Fearful about watching Arcane with out figuring out about League of Legends?
If a senior citizen can perceive it, so are you able to. Particularly with a trainer like @chrissycostanza pic.twitter.com/1MacUUzvsg
— Netflix (@netflix) November 24, 2021
She admits that LOL maybe isn’t as simple to select up because the video suggests “however they’ve simply launched Wild Rift on cellular which is the proper introduction.”
She believes the music business might study a factor or two from gaming’s openness to collaborations.
“Music has this bizarre shortage advanced and every thing has this bizarre aggressive edge whereas in gaming, it’s all about working collectively. I preserve anticipating somebody to ice me out however everybody I’ve spoken to about streaming, making TikToks or gaming movies with has been very nice.”
“Why can’t we have now the identical mentality in music, the place it’s nearly bringing one another up? The music business might afford to take a few ideas from the gaming business. There’s much more room on the high than you suppose.”
Costanza has been repeatedly streaming all through the pandemic on Twitch, simply because she was sitting round taking part in League for hours at a time anyway. “I generally is a very genuine model of myself once I’m streaming,” she explains. “I’m simply sitting round in sweatpants and minimal make-up, in comparison with the glammed up, heighted model of myself I should be once I play exhibits with Towards The Present.” In the course of the streams, she’ll discuss in regards to the upcoming European tour (which kicks off March 31 in Brighton) and talk about setlists, new music and gaming with followers. “It’s been a extremely enjoyable approach for us to attach with our neighborhood. We’ve at all times been shut, however now greater than ever, it seems like a household.” She attributes that to gaming.
Costanza sees Towards The Present on the sting of their scene. “We’ve got followers which might be very a lot followers of pop punk and that world, and we have now followers that need nothing to do with it,” she explains.
Costanza has fronted the band since she was 16 and has needed to develop up within the public eye. Final yr on the Babes Behind The Beats podcast, Costanza admitted that “there was a degree the place I so badly wished to be one of many guys however in some unspecified time in the future I realised, I’m not a dude. So, I began to personal the issues that made me completely different. I ended attempting to bury my femininity.”
Once more, that’s one thing that was helped by the broader gaming neighborhood. She discovered the “rise of the woman gamer actually inspiring” and loves the entire egirl aesthetic. “As a result of I went to an all-girls highschool, women terrify me. However I’ve met so many feminine associates by gaming, which has at all times been onerous for me however I really feel like I’m simply being myself round them, which has been nice.”
Towards The Present have constructed their profession on straddling the worlds between online game tradition and the rock scene. Prior to now few years although, these worlds have gotten nearer with digital concert events and soundtracks having an actual influence on a band’s profession. The connection between gaming and music “goes to develop into increasingly more intertwined,” says Costanza who believes folks have lastly began to take gaming significantly, particularly once they hear how a lot cash might be made.
“We already know that music is the spine of movie, TV and commercials – it actually does present the soundtrack to our total lives. And gaming is not any completely different,” explains Costanza. “Rocket League has a protracted historical past of breaking indie artists by their ingame playlists and Fortnite Radio is changing into so necessary to a band like ours.”
“Gaming goes to proceed to be such an important a part of the music business, and vice versa,” Costanza says. “Hopefully folks attempt to perceive the neighborhood behind it although.”
The Fever Tour takes place in April 2022.