When pop punkers Meet Me @ the Altar appear over Zoom, their energy is infectious.
Fresh off their debut TV appearance on The Late Show with Steven Colbert, all three members are beaming, excitedly talking over each other. Drummer Ada Juarez is telling me that her father, who attended the taping, feels like he now has eternal bragging rights. “I know he’s not going to stop with it, too,” she says. “He'll be like, ‘Oh yeah? My daughter was on television.’” Lead singer Edith Victoria chimes in, “Everyone was recording and watching it. I got a million texts.” There’s something inescapably and effortlessly charming about a band on the precipice of blowing up.
But just as palpable as their excitement is the trio’s confidence in their work. “Do you have a favorite song on the album?” Victoria asks me, leaning toward her laptop camera and grinning ear to ear. Nobody’s ever turned the tables on me during an interview quite like that, and I truly appreciate her candor. “King of Everything,” I reply, selectinging a ferocious mid-tempo stomp about life’s many frustrations. “Cool, that’s my favorite,” she says. I’ve passed the test.
This self-assuredness is definitely deserved. As we speak, the band is on the verge of unleashing their punchy and earwormy debut album Past//Present//Future. Releasing Friday on Fueled By Ramen, home to emo icons Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco, MM@TA’s new LP fits in perfectly among those luminaries of the genre with an energetically propulsive and immaculately produced sound. “I want this album to be very, very big for us, which I think it will be,” says Victoria.
Past//Present//Future is much more than a pop-punk album; it is also a powerful statement from a band that is beginning to make their mark on radio-friendly rock, following in the footsteps of superstars like Paramore. “We don't really fully identify with pop-punk specifically anymore,” says guitarist Téa Campbell.
Still, the record has its fill of bombastic bratty moments; on lead single “Say It To My Face,” the band taunts and bites back at some of their haters. “I’m a bitch and my band is an industry plant. At least that’s what it says on the internet,” Victoria jokes wryly about the internet hate. But the band isn’t going to just take it on the chin. As Campbell tells me, “Especially as women of color, we’re not going to let them stifle our voices and we have the right to say shit back.”
Though there are plenty of head-banging moments on the record, the band isn’t afraid to slow things down like on the heartfelt semi-acoustic ballad “A Few Tomorrows,” which would make a perfect soundtrack for the next buzzy YA love story adaptation. Inspired by bands like The Fray, the melancholy track is about the passing of Victoria’s beloved dog Cassie, but she tells me that the song is open to multiple interpretations: “It could be a breakup, it could be someone passing away. It could be so many different things.”
By now, the band has shared stages with childhood heroes like Paramore, Green Day and Twenty One Pilots, but they seem to be more starstruck by their own fans on tour. Campbell recounts taking pictures with some fans after a show, “They’re shaking. You can really tell how much our music means to them and it absolutely fuels us to keep going and keep spreading those positive messages.”
And beyond taking up space in the traditionally white world of rock, the trio of POC women all agree on one thing. When I ask the band what’s next for them, they raise their arms in the air and exclaim in unison, “World domination!”
Below Meet Me @ the Altar talks with Them about their debut album, their love of Freaky Friday, dealing with Facebook trolls, and more.
Your lead single, “Say It (To My Face)” claps back at internet trolls, can you talk about that online hate?
Téa Campbell: After we signed with Fueled by Ramen and we released our EP, we were thrown to a whole new audience at this point. The Facebook trolls are inevitable. And our stuff ended up on the wrong side of Facebook. Those comments kept flooding in and we wanted to write a song about it. But we didn’t decide to make it the first single until our A&R [representative] heard it and he was like, “This has to be the first song that you put out.” Because it’s like, “OK, we heard what y’all were saying on the internet. Fuck you, here’s the album.” You know?
Was it kind of cathartic to write that? Did it feel like you felt like you were empowered by it?
TC: I think so. It felt good, too, because people like to hide behind a screen and think they can just say whatever they want without any repercussions. And especially for women of color, we’re not going to let them stifle our voices and we have the right to say shit back.
Ada Juarez: These types of people who want to just pick and point to something that they don’t like, for some reason they are always just so ugly on the inside. I don’t understand why people are so mean to people.
Edith Victoria: Never in my life have I been on Instagram or something, and I saw a song that I fucking hated — never would I ever comment on that. I’m not going to type it and send it.
“King of Everything” feels like it’s about how fucking frustrating life can be. Is there a specific moment that influenced that song?
TC: We just were in the studio and thinking about how there’s just some days where everything goes wrong and it’ll be those minor inconveniences that’s your “13th reason.” You stub your toe on your couch or something, and it’s like, “I am done. I am over it.” And instrumentally, that one was inspired by Freaky Friday. You know that band that was in Freaky Friday?
Yes, they're so fun! Speaking of Freaky Friday, is there something about Y2K culture that resonates with you?
EV: Growing up I just loved the idea of being in a band because every one of my favorite Disney stars was singing in front of a band. I think that really influenced me more than I knew at the time. When we were writing this album, I was like, “This part of my life where I was listening to the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato and watching Lemonade Mouth and Camp Rock really had an effect on me subconsciously.” Being in a band was so cool, every pop star was singing in front of a rock band. Now, we’re 22 years old and we want to create that again. And I think that balance is something that we really wanted to hone in on with this album.
TC: Especially because those bands didn’t really pass the torch off to anyone. That Disney era of rock just kind of died out. So the kids don’t have Camp Rock, they don’t have Lemonade Mouth. The Jonas brothers are old to them. And we hope that we get to be that.
AJ: Hannah Montana rock stars.
For me growing up, I didn’t see brown people in indie, emo, and pop punk bands. And I think now that’s not necessarily always the case. Do you feel like you’re sometimes pigeonholed or expected to be the spokespeople for women of color in punk?
EV: Sometimes it can get old and that’s all you're talking about. And I feel like we don’t need to talk about it as much anymore. ’Cause you can look at us and tell what we are. I mean, we literally can’t run away. It’s us. So I feel like sometimes talking about it too much can overshadow what’s most important, which is the music. I always say that the most important thing is us just being and taking up space. That speaks louder than words.
How does your queerness filter into the band? Is it something that you talk about?
TC: We’re super open about it. It doesn’t translate fully into the band just because Ada and I are the ones who are gay and Edith isn’t and she’s the one who’s singing. So we don't really write about it, but we always talk about it at shows and all that. Especially being queer, I feel like representation is a little bit more important just because of how much hate and how much insecurity people can feel, being told that your existence is a sin and it’s wrong. Us being open about it can hopefully make other people feel comfortable being open about it when the world is telling you that you shouldn’t be.
What's your favorite part about performing?
EV: I honestly don’t even know what I think about when I perform. I always kind of black out, but I just sound good. Most of the time I’m super focused. I also really love seeing people’s reactions. It's so adorable and cute because I don’t think most people have seen anything like us before.
TC: The stage feels like home for us. It’s so comfortable. Every time we’re up there, it feels like we’re exactly where we’re supposed to be.
What’s next? What are you excited about? What do you want to do?
TC: World domination!
AJ: We would literally do anything to ensure that. First of all, we keep having fun and second of all, we achieve world domination!
EV: I want to open up for at least two arena tours this year.
TC: I want to tour with the Jonas Brothers so fucking bad.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Past//Present//Future is out March 10 from Fueled by Ramen.
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