New EP 'Find Me Here' showcases High Wire's strengths

With four singles already out in the world, Chicago pop-punk band High Wire completes its five-piece puzzle with Friday's drop of "Find Me Here: Part 1," the band's newest EP featuring the final unreleased track, "When You're Gone."

The quartet - 2012 founding members Mark Nussle, Cameron Jones and Chris Rymer and Joe Corson, who joined the band in 2019 - continues to play to its strengths with all five songs on the release, showcasing delicious melodies and relatable lyrics all wrapped up in a fun, high-energy, crunchy candy shell. Like comfort food for punk fans' ears.

Before the pandemic lockdowns, High Wire found itself rocking under the lights with some big names on the Chicago punk scene. And now that we're seeing more venues start opening up for shows - along with the added boost of the band signing on with Adventure Cat Records last year - it's only a matter of time before High Wire can reclaim its place on those stages.

Members of the band spent a few minutes answering questions about the EP and life over the last year:

Q: Of the five songs on the new EP, several of them were released in 2020. How did this set come together? Was it all created during the pandemic? Beforehand?

A: The process of this EP actually started back in 2019. All of the songs were written and recorded prior to the start of the Pandemic, and the recording itself took about a year to finish. Part of the meaning behind the EP name "Find Me Here" represents the long, persistent process of creating it. We finished recording in January of 2020 ready to conquer the world, but unfortunately COVID-19 had other plans for us. We decided to release our music in a very different way that would give our fans consistent new content, while not knowing when we would be able to play a live show in front of them again. 2020 was a challenging year for all of us but we have never been more excited about the things to come.

Q: What's the biggest message you want people to take away from the new EP? And which particular song addresses that best?

A: Because this EP took much longer than we initially anticipated, there were a lot of frustrating points along the way, but it really is a story of persistence.

A lot of the songs on this EP deal with the idea about being stuck in a toxic cycle. This EP has a more aggressive tone than our previous release, "Different Places." And the song that best represents that is "Redcard."

Q: Does the "Part 1" of the title indicate a second EP coming soon?

A: Yes, there is a follow up EP that is recorded and ready to go, but it would be kind of funny if that was just a tricky EP name.

Q: How did you guys overcome some of the unique challenges 2020 presented in creating as a band?

A: Like everyone, we were at a complete stand still for the first couple of months. Fortunately Mark and myself (Cameron) live together and do the majority of the song writing, so there was never a real halt in our creative process. One of the biggest challenges has been planning and executing music videos under quarantine conditions. We obviously had to scale back on the amount of people allowed on set but have been fortunate enough to work with amazing directors and teams that have created safe shooting environments that can be practically done during COVID without compensating on the content.

Q: With most in-person performances and gatherings on the back burner for the last year, what have you done to stay connected to the scene and to your fans?

A: With in person shows out, social media has been our one source to play live music and all of our new songs to our fans. We have been fortunate enough to take over social media accounts from companies like Alternative Press, and Idobi Radio to play acoustic sets, which have kind of taken the virtual place of touring to play our music in front of new audiences. We've also been working on new content for our twitch stream and a band podcast that we will be announcing very soon.

Q: Other than writing new music, what have you guys been doing to stay sane over the last year?

A: A lot of video games, binge streaming and movies for everyone. Mark and I (Cameron) were learning to whittle for a hot second but it didn't last long. As this has stretched on I think everyone in the band has bounced between trying new hobbies and trying to keep productive and being complete bums catching up on our shows.

Collectively High Wire has/is - whittled, learning to code, learning Spanish, started entrepreneurships, gotten into chess, gotten out of chess, painted, started the violin, stopped violin, is considering getting into cello, and a bunch of other things.

Q: Now that it's starting to look like there's a light at the end of the tunnel, what are you most excited about for this summer?

A: Hopefully live music will be able to safely return as vaccinations continue to roll out and the weather makes outdoor and drive-in shows possible nationwide again. Sadly also just getting sunlight and some vitamin D is high up on the list.

Q: What can fans expect next from High Wire?

A: More music, live streams, music videos and social media content until we are able to play live again.