Review Fix Exclusive: The Split Seconds’ Drew Champion Talks Future

Review Fix chats with Drew Champion of The Split Seconds to find out about the band’s origin, sound and goals for the future.

Review Fix: How did you guys get together?

Drew Champion: Sean and I randomly met through family.  Sean was working at a car dealership where my Mom was getting her car fixed.  They got to talking and it turned out that Sean was a drummer and I was looking for a drummer. Alex was a craigslist diamond in the rough, and Stephen and I played in Boardroom Heroes and The Coastals together.

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound?

Champion: We call ourselves classic pop punk, which references bands like The Buzzcocks and Generation X.  The ‘70s groups that brought together good songwriting with a raw and energetic delivery.  A more apt description may be punky, garagey, powerpop.  Catchy tunes, played fast and raw.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Champion: I usually get a seed of an idea like a melody, or a lyric or something, then he builds it out into a full song on piano.  Then he makes a rough demo with just acoustic guitar and we jam on it full band to work out the arrangement.  Then we keep revising it until it’s on tape.

Review Fix: Who influences you guys musically?

Champion: Our main influences are ‘70s punk bands like The Buzzcocks, The Clash, Generation X, Dead Boys, Stiff Little Fingers, and The Damned.  That and DC DIschord bands like Dag Nasty and Fugazi are the core of the sound.  But there are a ton of little influences that poke through.  Our songs have chord progressions and melodies and song structures that can be traced back to classic pop like The Beatles, and George Gershwin.  Then there are touches from garage rock like The Sonics, rock and roll like AC/DC  and even some jazz, reggae, surf, rockabilly, and even classical music.

Review Fix: How do you want this album to be remembered?

Champion: Punk rock has gotten really wimpy, and lazy, and overproduced, and whiny, and self-indulgent.  We hope that people remember us as cutting through the bullshit that with some punchy, raw, ballsy music that recaptures some of that original defiant energy.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the rest of the year?

Champion: We’re just going to keep pushing and putting one foot in front of the other.  We want to get out of DC and do some touring and play some festivals.  Plus we’ve got a ton of songs that are about 80% finished that we’d like to finish up.

Review Fix: What’s the standout song here? How was it written?

Champion: There doesn’t seem to be one song that is a real standout, but Half of the Time is the song that is probably the most popular.  It was written after a tumultuous relationship that I had with a bisexual girl.  It’s a really simple tune. Just four chords but it’s got a cool little chromatic guitar riff that makes it stand out.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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