Remember when pop-punk was powerful, heartfelt and honest? Remember when the scene was all about wearing your heart on your sleeve, building your band from the ground up and putting forward an authentic presentation?This Time Next Year certainly remembers.With roots in the hardcore scene and a wide-range of influences (their very name is a direct reference to one of their musical forefathers, The Movielife), This Time Next Year arrives with their debut full-length album for Equal Vision that's start to finish genuine and from the heart."I don't care who you are, at some point you listened to Blink-182, New Found Glory or The Movielife," notes guitarist / vocalist Brad Wiseman. "If you listen to any kind of alternative rock today, that was there in your youth." His band of Californians aren't shy about that lineage, putting their own creative spin on what can be a stale genre. Road Maps & Heart Attacks will surely turn heads with its fresh approach to the pop-punk sound.With a dual vocal approach reminiscent of bands like Taking Back Sunday, This Time Next Year has won fans the old-fashioned way -- through extensive touring in support of their early releases."We've met so many people that have helped us out -- booking shows, giving us food, places to stay," says singer Pete Dowdalls. "We've met amazing people on tour. I don't think a lot of kids my age right now have the opportunity to go out and live off a hundred bucks and see the entire country in a month."Wiseman recalls one touring adventure, early on, that pointed to great things for the future. "On our very first tour, we went out to West Virginia. We had just released the EP. We show up to this VFW hall and there was maybe 20 kids there. These 10 kids come in and they just lose their shit, singing every word. That was the first time I had ever been 3,000 miles from home and had any amount of kids so stoked on our band. To me that was mind-blowing."What truly sets the band apart from the pack is the well-crafted and hard hitting material all over their new album, like "New Sensation," with a big and epic opening riff Dowdalls knew should be some type of single when Wiseman sent him the first demo. "[Lyrically] it says how we feel about music right now," Wiseman explains. "We're not about gimmicks or fashion or talking about clubs or the dance floor. We just write music that comes from our heart, which is a rare thing right now.""New Florence" documents one of the toughest points in the young band's career. Broke and broken down in a town with a population of less than 100, the group realized they could handle just about anything that comes their way. "Out of Eastern" is a divergence for the group, taking influence from bands like Bouncing Souls or Lifetime, but compliments the traditional pop-punk found on the rest of the album. The genesis for the song was a phone call from one of the band's friends. "We were in the studio when he called and he was telling me about some hard times back home," Wiseman reveals.The intensely emotional "No Bed of Broken Glass" is one of the most deeply personal to Dowdalls. "Musically, it blew me away, it's just really, really catchy. Lyrically that's one of the more honest songs I've written. I never intended it to be anything profound, but it just kind of happened." Meanwhile, "Calling in Dead," put together mainly by guitarist Dennis Cohen, is straight-up fun, albeit with a spiteful bent. "It's mean as fuck," Dowdalls says with a laugh. "I really meant that song to be mean, honestly. It's just a pissed off song."Producer Brian McTernan (Thrice, Senses Fail, The Movielife) played a key role on Road Maps & Heart Attacks, particularly with the song "Liquid Diet." "There's a part in the middle where it's just a real fast beat and there's three-part harmonies between me and Brad," Dowdalls says. "It came out awesome."There's a prescribed method right now -- how band cut their hair, how deep their v-neck shirts need to be -- with a lot of kids jumping all over a band's image or their sugary sweet vocals. This Time Next Year intentionally strays from that mentality, crafting music that is as organic and natural as possible. "We tried to do what the bands we grew up with did," says Dowdalls humbly. "And that's to just make music. If people like it, awesome.""We're just five individuals who play the music we want to play. We don't wake up and make sure we're looking good for our set," adds Brad. "We're always open-minded to what we play and how we sound. We don't want to put boundaries on us. I feel like some bands now, if you have a breakdown every thirty seconds, you get stuck in that whole genre. It's just not our thing. Now everyone seems to be doing these electronic beats. I feel like once you get stuck in that, it defines your band. We don't want to fall into something like that. We want to be five genuine kids who play good pop-punk. That's all we've ever wanted to be and I think that's all you'll ever see this band be."At the end of the day, This Time Next Year doesn't care about being massive; they just care about being relevant. They'd like to be a band people remember in 10 or 20 years as having had an impact. With a record like Road Maps & Heart Attacks, This Time Next Year can rest assured they will accomplish that goal. (read less)