Key members of California punk bands Rancid, Pennywise and Suicidal Tendencies have formed a new supergroup called The Crew, and shared their debut song, “One Voice.” The members include Rancid’s frontman Tim Armstrong and bassist Matt Freeman, Pennywise’s guitarist Fletcher Dragge and drummer Byron McMackin and Suicidal Tendencies’ vocalist Mike Muir.
“One Voice” is an anthemic punk song about ignoring the haters and making your own choices. Muir and Armstrong sing together during the pre-chorus, “We don’t wanna know where we went wrong/For those that like to hate we wrote this song/Face our problems day by day/And we’re never gonna give a fuck what they say.” The chorus is a shouted call-and-response, “So fuck you/It’s our way/It’s our rules/One voice/One crew bonded forever/So fuck you.”
It’s a melodic song instrumentally as well. Armstrong and Dragge charge through two equally-memorable post-chorus guitar riffs and the rhythm section keeps the energy high throughout. Epitaph Records shared a lyric video for the track featuring black-and-white flashes of concert footage, skulls and different fonts delivering The Crew’s shouted words.
The choice to release the recording through Epitaph Records is another major connection to Californian punk, since the label was founded by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz and became a familiar label for all three acts feeding into The Crew, as well as other CA bands like NOFX, The Offspring and T.S.O.L., among others.
Dragge commented on the formation of The Crew, “Collaborating with Tim Armstrong, Mike Muir and Matt Freeman has been an awesome experience, obviously Byron McMackin and I go way back. Byron and I had a demo of ‘One Voice’ laying around for a couple years, and I thought it would be cool to bring a couple old friends in to breathe some new life into it. Watching these guys lay down their own personal trademark styles on this song was nothing short of amazing! I think it’s safe to safe we’re all pretty fucking stoked on the final product, and being able to donate proceeds to Musack feels pretty awesome as well. Find it, crank it up, and enjoy!”
Donick Cary of Musack clarified that Musack is an organization who helps to prevent teen suicides. “Musack started after a number of teen suicides in my hometown (Nantucket Island). The isolation and claustrophobia of the winter there and being a teen in general…I really thought about what got me through the long winters and the teen years – and the answer was music. A new band/song would somehow appear and change everything…”
“Anyway, ‘One Voice’ hits all the notes,” he continued. “And as Musack has grown from Nantucket to Alaska to the East Bay, the Pine Ridge Rez and Compton, Navajo Rez to Appalachia, Haiti and Cuba to indigenous kids in Australia, the islands of isolation are everywhere. Our mission was just to give voice through music wherever we could help, with instruments or supporting a teacher, or setting up a recording studio.”
“One Voice” already sold out on vinyl, but it was uploaded to streaming services as well. There’s also limited edition t-shirt with the single artwork on it that hasn’t sold out yet at the time of this story.
Photo credit: Marisa Rose Ficara
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