Candy‘s third album It’s Inside You comes out Friday (6/7) via Relapse, and we’ll have a review up soon (update: it’s up), but spoiler: it’s really good and it finds the band covering a lot of ground, from hardcore to industrial and beyond. Vocalist Zak Quiram tells us that one of the goals with It’s Inside You was to make it a “a vocally-driven album,” and that they’ve got “an extensive list of songs and singers that we compiled” to pull influence from and use as reference points. Candy have now narrowed that list down to ten vocalists that “really stood out to [them],” picked one song by each, and told us a little about each one, and how many of them specifically inspired It’s Inside You. The artists represented range from Fugazi to Goo Goo Dolls to Bladee to No Warning to Buried Alive and beyond, and you can check out the full list below.
Candy are also opening two of The Dillinger Escape Plan‘s Calculating Infinity reunion shows In NYC, and also playing their own album release show at Lake Como, NJ’s Salty’s Beach Bar on July 6 with Everybody Gets Hurt, Division of Mind, Final Resting Place, Sector, and Last Man Out.
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Candy’s Top Ten Favorite Vocalists
In the form of a song by each
Goo Goo Dolls – “Long Way Down”
Buffalo’s Finest themselves. They came up playing local shows with Cannibal Corpse and Zero Tolerance (Robbie recorded a ZT 7”). Some of the best choruses and lyrics to me. Hypercore.
Kriegshög – “Paint It Black”
Seeing them around the time this 7” came out was one of the most impressive performances I’ve seen from a singer in a hc punk band. 100% the entire set. Absolute power.
No Warning – “Answer The Call”
Speak up! Some people have it and some people don’t. Ben Cook is it. Ill Blood is in my top 10 and so is Ben. Great lyrics, power, catchy, flow, swag – it’s all there. Touring Europe with them was bucket list for me.
Bladee – “Don’t Wanna Hang Out”
Blinds down in my house, I don’t wanna hangout. This song wasn’t out when we recorded It’s Inside You but sometimes you just know. Bladee singing through gritted teeth – that’s the vibe. Hypercore.
Crowbar – “Conquering”
One of the best voices in heavy music. This song is about perseverance and taking things into your own hands. Something I tried to achieve on “Faith 91.”
Fugazi – “Blueprint” & Ink and Dagger – “The Road To Hell” (Philly Vamp Anthem)
When starting to track vocals for “Love Like Snow,” we knew we wanted the vocal style to be slightly different. We were pulling from things that we felt were a little cleaner but still had grit to them. Someone in the studio mentioned Fugazi and Ben brought up Ink and Dagger. I don’t think I sound like either realistically but these references helped get me to the final product in my own way.
Psychic TV – “Godstar”
PTV always does a great job telling a story, this song is no different. A song so good The Rolling Stones were calling radio stations themselves to get it banned (I think? If not them then their manager was doing the blacklisting.) They threatened many stations saying if “Godstar” was continued to be played they would pull their own songs from the stations.
Oasis – “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star”
Rock n roll stars playing it however the hell they wanna play it. Definition of swag.
Buried Alive – “Watching You Die”
Another Buffalo legend. Vogel is the best at making you feel it.
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Listen to a playlist with 9 of the 10 songs (except the Ink & Dagger track, which isn’t on Spotify):