By Indi Tejeda — July 14, 2026
For The Upsides, the past two years have been about learning how to trust the creative process. The New York alt-rock/indie band has shifted from individual songwriting toward a more collective creative process, allowing each member to contribute ideas, influences, and personal experiences to the music they create together.
Made up of brothers Matt Fullam (lead vocals and guitar) and Dan Fullam (drums), alongside longtime friends Hart Mechlin (guitar), Pat Freeman (keys), and Matt DaSilva (bass), The Upsides have continued to expand their sound beyond their earlier indie roots. Through new influences and a songwriting retreat in upstate New York, the band has discovered a new sense of identity rooted in trust, experimentation, and shared creativity.
Ahead of their upcoming releases, Matt, Dan, and Hart discussed the stories behind “Very Bad Kids” and “Say Follow,” how their songwriting process has evolved, and what listeners can expect from the band’s next chapter.
Interview: The Upsides on Their Creative Evolution
Q: “Very Bad Kids” and “Say Follow” both deal with seemingly personal struggles. Did you know they would connect when you were writing them, or were they written independently with their own meanings behind them?
A: We always saw those two as kind of being cousins, if you will, and kind of speaking to similar content. It’s kind of both about questioning some of your life’s choices, making big life choices, and trying to feel as good as possible about them, but obviously the voice in your head is always doubting a little bit.
[We’ve] never been able to do the Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen ‘tell a story that didn’t happen to me’ kind of thing… Everything we write tends to come directly from our own lives. A lot of bands have a frontman who writes all the lyrics, and that’s cool, but you squeeze more out of the towel by having a group that can come to the table with ideas… It just puts more stories into the album. [We’re] not going to sing something [that we] don’t believe in… All the stuff on these songs happened to us.
Q: How has your songwriting process, both relationally and collaboratively, developed since your self-titled debut?
A: It’s gotten way more collaborative. The first album, we loved everything we put into it, but in hindsight it felt like there were some things that were just kind of just ‘good enough.’ This album, there were so many ideas that were scrapped because it wasn’t meeting the standard. It’s reached a point where the best idea wins. We went to Upstate New York… and we spent like ten days just working on new material. It was just write, record, write, record.
[For] the first album, somebody would come in with an idea, we’d tweak it a little bit, and then go finish it on [the] computer and make a demo… That trip was really cool to just be having a beer late at night, instruments in hand, trying to make the songs blossom as far as possible.
Q: Would you say that trip was a huge influence on how these songs, and your future releases altogether, have been shaped?
A: Living in New York City, the hours that we get to be together making music free of expectations are limited… We’re often on the clock for those hours. To go somewhere completely free of those pressures and have all day for eight days to just get together and make stuff that we thought sounded cool, it was a revelation.
In the past, somebody would show up with a pre-formed song, and everybody would be like, ‘Yeah, cool. Let’s go make that song.’ For the stuff that we’re working on now, it’s more like somebody brings a tiny seed, and then everybody builds around that seed, and the final product is the band’s product.
We knew we wanted to find a new sound. The first album was more feel-good indie rock, but we wanted to tinker with it and do something different. We grew up covering all those ’90s bands, particularly Incubus… and it was cool to kind of go back to what made us want to play our instruments in the first place.
Q: As you prepare to release a new album and singles later this year, what do you think fans will notice about where The Upsides are now compared to how you started?
A: These two songs feel a lot bolder, and we’re maybe less afraid of how they would be received. We’ve made some choices we would have shied away from normally. In years past we’d think about wanting it to sound like something [that’s a hit] on Spotify. Now we all just want the vocals to sound like us. We don’t want it to sound like anyone else. We just wanted to find our own sound with this new stuff, and we’ve really tried to tighten up our live set so you can feel that emotion.
Little things like that add up over time, and we do feel like the trajectory of the band is [consistently] going upwards.
The Upsides’ latest chapter is not defined by reinventing themselves, but by strengthening the creative trust that has shaped their music from the beginning.
As The Upsides continue to release new music, they are embracing the uncertainty of growth while staying committed to creating something that feels uniquely their own.
Check out The Upsides on your favorite streaming platform now!