rock

State Champs

2 festivals played

Albany pop-punk built on Derek DiScanio's sugar-rush hooks and guitar work tight enough to survive the breakdowns — a decade-plus of the genre's second wave.

State Champs formed in Albany, New York, in 2010, and became one of the more visible bands in the pop-punk revival that gathered pace through the 2010s. The group is fronted by Derek DiScanio, and its songs pair fast, treble-heavy guitar parts with vocal melodies built for group singing.

The band's records sit within a familiar pop-punk framework — clean, high-gloss production, verses that move quickly toward a chorus — with occasional touches of the heavier, breakdown-inflected style sometimes labelled easycore. State Champs has released a string of albums and EPs and toured widely alongside peers in the same scene.

rock