Comeback Kid Make Comeback Album

11/20/06 7:00pm

by Jen Zoratti (CHARTattack)

When your frontman decides to ditch the band in the middle of a tour, it usually spells the end of things.

Luckily, Winnipeg's Comeback Kid aren't the type to give up so easily. Singer Scott Wade's departure earlier this year came as a shock to both the band and Winnipeg's punk scene, but the fired-up fivesome are a lot like their music: unrelenting. With guitarist Andrew Neufeld taking over behind the mic, the quintet are back in the studio and a new full-length album is slated to come out on Feb. 20. The band will spend the rest of the month in Colorado recording at The Blasting Room with Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore, who produced 2005's Wake The Dead for the band, before heading back out on the road.

"It seems pretty constant for us," Neufeld says. "We're going to Europe straight from Denver and playing a few shows there, and then we're staying on the road until the record comes out. It comes out on February 20, so we're trying to plan a Winnipeg CD release before that."

The hotly anticipated third album comes as a follow-up to the stellar Wake The Dead, a feral burst of pure punk rock energy that has sold more than 100,000 copies and snagged the band glowing critical acclaim. It's a hard act to follow, but Neufeld says that the band don't intend to ride on the same noise that propelled Comeback Kid into household name territory.

"I definitely didn't want to make the same record. I didn't want to make Wake The Dead: Part Two. I think all our albums differ from one another. Wake The Dead was a lot different than Turn It Around, and this one will be a lot different than Wake The Dead."

We're adding in a lot of different elements. Some sounds sound a bit more punk, some more hardcore. The main thing we always want to avoid is the songs blurring together. It's definitely a darker record, and I'd say it's our most well-written."

Differences are to be expected on the as-of-yet untitled record, especially since Comeback Kid are a changed band with a different voice. Neufeld went from guitarist to frontman, quite literally, overnight. But despite the lineup hiccup, everything's working out just fine.

"When he [Wade] quit we thought, 'Let's take it as it comes,'" Neufeld says. "We were on tour and he went home.

"He was singing with us one night, and then I was the next. We had to make some very quick decisions. It's different, but a lot of it isn't. I still play guitar on this record. I've always had a part in the lyrics process, so as far as writing goes it wasn't much of a change. Now I sing them instead of watching someone else do it."

It will be a new album for Comeback Kid — not just chronologically, but stylistically. "It's going to be a change," Neufeld says."If people like it, great. If not, whatever. We're just happy we're still able to be doing this."