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We are excited to share ‘Fun Charade,’ the excellent new single by Louisiana’s Hey Thanks! along with a short Q&A with the Lousiana-based band! ‘Fun Charade’ is a bouncy song that manages to pull from the emo meets pop-punk vibes of the early 00’s as well as late 90’s alt-rock bands like Third Eye Blind and somehow sounds very much like today. It is taken off the band’s debut album, ‘Start/Living’, which will be out May 27 on Iodine Recordings. You can pre-order it here.

PRT: Can you give me quick rundown of how Hey Thanks started?

For sure! So “Hey Thanks!” was conceptualized in 2016 when three of the band members were going to college together out in a town called Lafayette. With everyone having played in previous other local bands, they decided to try taking a go at being an active professional band which later led to many tours across the country and other releases.

PRT: How would you describe your music to someone who doesn’t know the first thing about pop punk or emo?

We generally like to just go with the term indie-pop or alternative, due to the record itself being a little scatterbrained genre wise! Alternative Rock is a really general term that we feel is easier to understand though! Comparing us to a spectrum that lies somewhere between “Taking Back Sunday” and “The Maine” to “The 1975” or “The Strokes”

PRT: We are premiering your new single ‘Fun Charade’. Can you tell us a bit more about where that song comes from?

Lyrically speaking, the song comes from a place of people in relationships with the artist. Idealizing the idea of what you think it’s like vs what the reality can be. And also, the personal experience of feeling like you can’t fulfill your partners expectations because of the lifestyle as well.

PRT: You have been a band for over 5 years now. Does it feel like a milestone to finally have your debut full-length about to come out?

A huge milestone, we’ve put out little eps here and there, and with the pandemic taking two years from our belt, it feels like it’s only been two or three years doing this, so having this finally out is surreal.

PRT: ‘Start/Living’ will be out on Iodine Recordings. How did you end up signing with them?

Our producer Gary Cioni helped make the contact to get it all started and really went above and beyond to push us to the next step. Forever grateful of him believing in our music.

PRT: Speaking of Gary, what was it that he was able to bring to the equation?

We had worked on an ep previously with Gary, so going into this was a lot of fun because we were already comfortable with how he operates and we were able to articulate what direction we wanted a lot better than the first time, HA!. He really pushed us to get out of our comfort zone with how we might have something structured, or how we think of a song, but also does a great job at letting us try to figure it out as a band which feels genuine. He’s hands on and a great person to help guide the narrative of the song which is the most important thing.

PRT: You get to call Lafayette, Louisiana home. What is the music scene like there? Any artists we should keep an eye out for?

Although the band did originate from Lafayette, the band's existence only lasted about a year there before we all moved closer to New Orleans/Baton Rouge. And as far as the scenes there, there’s tons of great bands that really make up the strange little alternative community we have. Would keep eyes on bands like Riarosa, Baby In The 90s, Kawaii Af, Wonderkid, The Ivory Sons, and Shipwrecked just to name a few.

PRT: The album will be out later this month. What’s next for you guys once it’s out?

We’ve got a few tours in the works, some big show/festival announcements soon!