RVA pop-punk group Underdog Champs to shoot music videos for upcoming EP during Canal Club show Friday

by | Apr 14, 2016 | MUSIC

It’s not often Richmond residents get to be apart of a music video done by an awesome band.

It’s not often Richmond residents get to be apart of a music video done by an awesome band. Okay, maybe it is, but I think most of us hear about those opportunities after the fact and miss out on all the fun.

Well, this Friday you’ll have your chance to be in a music video and see a sweet show at The Canal Club. Local pop-rock group Underdog Champs will play their new unreleased EP, Skeletons in Daylight in its entirety and film the entire show to be released as individual music videos at a later date.

“We’re going to do a video for every song so we have a bunch of different people shooting,” said lead vocalist Mark Bradley.”We are a very high energy live band so we just wanted something to capture that. It’s a simple way to get videos to go along with the music and we want to be authentic.”

Underdog Champs formed in the summer of 2014 as a recording project by Bradley and guitarist Nick Jones.

“Nick and I wrote a bunch of songs and started demoing about a year ago in May we put out an EP in May called Picked Last,” Bradley said.

In September, Underdog Champs solidified as a four piece with Josh Bailey on drums and Justin Mason on bass and began work on their current album.

“Hopefully we’ll release it this summer, it’s eight tracks and we’ve been working on it pretty much this whole year since we put out the last EP,” he said. “We’re working on artwork and video concepts and things like that.”

The band recorded in a friends studio here in Virginia and then sent it off to get mixed and mastered at Summation Audio in Nashville.

Bradley describes their sound as pop-punk, reminiscent of the early 2000s.

“What we all love when we first got into music, {was} that really early on 2000 Warped Tour scene mesh of pop-punk, but a little more like on the frantic side, kind of like Thrice-influenced.

On Skeletons in Daylight, Bradley said many of the tracks are deeply personal.

“All the songs are about these dark personal things that I normally wouldn’t say to anybody,” he said. “In a song you can write something really brutal, really honest, really scathing.”

Prior to this EP, Underdog Champs released two singles, “Take Me Back” and “When the World Ends.”

Underdog Champs will play their new EP in full at The Canal Club this Friday, April 15th. There will also be performances by Relate, Brave Fire, and Hollow//Bodies. $2 cover. Underdog Champs take the stage at 9:30. Now go and be apart of a music video.

Amy David

Amy David

Amy David was the Web Editor for RVAMag.com from May 2015 until September 2018. She covered craft beer, food, music, art and more. She's been a journalist since 2010 and attended Radford University. She enjoys dogs, beer, tacos, and Bob's Burgers references.




more in music

Good Day RVA is Back and Bringing Friends Along

For four nights this weekend, bands from different generations of Richmond's music scene are taking over Get Tight Lounge. Called Tonal Recall, the series is part reunion show, part showcase and part excuse for a bunch of old friends to get back in the same room. ...

Deau Eyes Returns With New Album ‘To Grow Instead’

Four years is an eternity in today’s music industry, especially when algorithms reward content, not creativity. When streaming services punish silence, at the expense of artistic evolution.  In this disconnect, some artists race against trends, abandoning the...

Before Anyone Was Watching

I went to Virginia MOCA expecting to hear Andy Howell talk about skateboarding. Instead, I left thinking about community and how people find each other. Howell's installation opens Seamless, the museum's new exhibition exploring the overlap between art and design. At...

Lucy Dacus’ New Music Video is a Love Letter to Richmond

Richmond native and multiple Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus released the self-directed music video for her latest single "Planting Tomatoes" and every frame was filmed here at home. The video moves through some of the city's most recognizable places,...