Is it too early to start talking about 2018? I only ask because tomorrow, July 14, Punk Goes Pop Vol. 7 will be released, and once people hear it, the next band destined to dominate the alternative scene will be crystal clear. They’re known as Eat Your Heart Out, a five-piece pop punk act from Australia, and they just might change your life.

Formed in 2012, Eat Your Heart Out developed a dedicated following in their homeland before catching the attention of music fans around the globe. Fearless Records eventually took notice of the group’s rising popularity and signed them in late 2016. That lead to the release of their label debut, the three-song Carried Away EP, which arrived online and in stores earlier this year. Some of you may have heard, but if you haven’t, it’s easily found anywhere music is available.

Carried Away is a great release, but in an overcrowded scene like pop punk, it is very easy for new bands to release music without grabbing the attention of those unfamiliar with their sound. In these situations it takes something truly special to grab people by the collar and force them to pay attention, which is exactly what Eat Your Heart Out has accomplished with their contribution to Punk Goes Pop Vol. 7. The band covered Ed Sheeran’s seemingly inescapable hit, “Shape of You,” and when you hear it, you will never again second guess their impending takeover of all things alternative.

I reached out to the band earlier this week to discuss the recording of their Punk Goes Pop contribution, as well as their plans for the future. You can read highlights from our conversation below:

Substream: There is a very high likelihood that the “Shape of You” cover on PGP7 will be the first time many listeners have been exposed to your group. Did you take this into consideration when you were selecting a song to cover?

EYHO: We actually didn’t choose this song. Fearless asked us to do this one specifically which we were very happy with because we all like the song and it took some of the pressure off to choose a good one.

Substream: In your mind, what are the most important elements of creating a good cover song? Is it about paying respect to the original, or do you approach it with a mindset of creating something entirely different with the same source material?

EYHO: For our cover, we kept the original source material like the structure and melodies of the song, but mostly worked with the textures of the music, like changing out the marimba for a guitar line. I personally think, for us, a good cover should be recognizable as the original but also have plenty of new elements to make it recognizable as an EYHO song.

Substream: I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you are fans of this compilation series. What does it mean as an artist on the rise to be included on a Punk Goes Pop release?

EYHO: As a young band still trying to make a name for ourselves, it is incredibly exciting to be a part of something that we all grew up listening to. I don’t think any of us would have ever dreamed we would be a part of the Punk Goes.. series, especially not this early on in our career. We are super grateful to Fearless for giving us the chance to be a part of Punk Goes Pop and to hopefully gain some exposure from our cover!

Substream: Easy follow-up, but do you have a favorite(s) cover from a previous PGP record?

EYHO: We all enjoy Mayday Parade’s “Somebody That I Used To Know” and Tonight Alive’s “Little Lion Man.” There are plenty of other favorites, but those two definitely stand out to us.

Substream: Compared to the material found on your recently released EP, this cover is actually a bit more relaxed than the sound you typically create. How many versions of the cover did you come up with before settling on the one we hear on the record?

EYHO: We only had a week or so to actually create our cover, so we only really had the one version of it. We tried to bring our own sound to it from the start and just play it how we would play an EYHO song, and we liked how it turned out so we didn’t feel the need to rework it. I think it worked in our favour to have only a limited time because we might have started to overthink it otherwise.

Substream: With this song bringing new people to the world of EYHO, where do you go from here? How do you plan to leverage the momentum established between the EP and this song to help raise further awareness for EYHO in the future?

EYHO: We will have some new music coming out before the end of the year, so hopefully anyone who has discovered us off the EP and the cover stick around to hear what we put out next! We have no plans to slow down, we just want to keep building the momentum and get more people on board.

Substream: If you had a chance to speak to everyone who is learning of your music for the first time this week, what would you want them to know?

EYHO: We are super thankful that you’ve checked us out! We have plenty of new music on the way and we really hope you stick around to hear it because it’s pretty cool if we say so ourselves.

Love EYHO xo