Kevin Day may just be a jack of all trades. Aside from fronting the punk band Aspiga, he’s also released two EPs as his solo project Graduation Speech. If you’ve followed the punk scene for the last decade, then you have definitely heard of Aspiga. You can find their music from A-F Records, Asian Man Records, and Paper + Plastic. The sincerity you hear from Aspiga albums followed Day over to Graduation Speech.
While the first two Graduation Speech releases were solo projects, the third EP, which releases everywhere on 4/30 digitally and as a cassette via Jetsam-Flotsam, sees Kevin bringing in some special guests in the form of Crucial Dudes members. What results is a three song exploration of the anxieties and feelings brought forth by the pandemic and related shutdowns. Day was furloughed from his job for a time, which gave him the time to work on the new EP.
The cool thing about Graduation Speech is that Kevin Day is able to evolve his sound each and every time. With Quiet & Calm, the result was a solo acoustic EP. Then came Maintenance Required, which, while still a solo album, sees Kevin doing more experimentation with sounds and textures. Private Anxieties feels like the natural progression for Day’s solo project. Adding members to the recording changes the dynamic again. I’d actually love to hear more from this iteration of Graduation Speech. The three-song EP left me wanting to hear more. Each song is crisp and musically tight. Imagine The Weakerthans meets Sundownwer meets The New Amsterdams. Dreamy, shoegazey emo pop perfection.
Ahead of his third EP’s release, Kevin stopped by to give us a glimpse into some of his musical tastes. Below, check out Kevin’s favorite, overrated, and underrated albums.
Favorite Album
“The Impossibles, Return. It’s still hard to believe that this band isn’t infinitely bigger. Whether they were writing ska-punk or Weezer-esque rock, The Impossibles always did it right and infinitely better than their peers.”
Overrated Album
“Green Day, Dookie. The only reason I say this is because it didn’t hit me the way it hit most people at a young age.”
Underrated Album
“Woolworm, Awe. Since this album has come out, I feel like I’ve listened to it weekly, and for a stretch, it was daily. Post-punk with dark lyrics out of Canada. I can’t wait to hear what they do next.”
