SPILL FEATURE: WAKE THE DEAD: THE PEAK, PIVOT, AND SUCCESS – A CONVERSATION WITH ANDREW NEUFELD OF COMEBACK KID

WAKE THE DEAD: THE PEAK, PIVOT, AND SUCCESS

A CONVERSATION WITH ANDREW NEUFELD OF COMEBACK KID

When it comes to albums that were the cornerstones of a band’s legacy, Wake The Dead was crucial to Comeback Kid’s rise, propelling them to greater visibility and allowing them to move beyond the hardcore-punk spectrum into more metallic and melodic sounds. After establishing themselves with the raw, DIY album Turn It Around, the band would display improved production, melody, and musicianship on Wake The Dead in a short timespan. The album set up their future direction and sparked wider interest in hardcore music, balancing gravid urgency with broader appeal. Released during a period of transition in hardcore, Wake The Dead gave the Winnipeg band the ideal platform for growth in a changing genre. Although it jump-started their success, the album was just the beginning, with their hard work and future evolution shaping everything to come. Coming into their 20th anniversary for the album, vocalist Andrew Neufeld wanted a celebration that would honor the legacy of a strong release and the album that trailblazed a career most bands dream of.

“For a couple of years, we knew we wanted to do a 20th anniversary tour. For Turn It Around, we had done something special when it came to the album’s 10th anniversary. For Wake The Dead, we felt like there was an opportunity after the album cycle of Heavy Steps. It’s a great way to celebrate a record that, for a lot of people, was the gateway record to hardcore music. Some of these songs are defining moments in the band’s career, especially the first half of the record,” Neufeld says. “It’s funny, we are about to do this Canadian tour, yet we have already done half a year of Wake The Dead stuff for the American tour. We are going to Tokyo and Australia, which is cool because we never played Wake The Dead in Melbourne. So, for us, it’s a full circle moment. It’s kind of crazy that we are having a full-album cycle of touring for an anniversary record. We have seen many bands do this, and to be honest, for us…I was pretty skeptical. But some of the guys in the band definitely convinced me otherwise and kicked us in the ass. Our new band members were not around when we wrote this record. But they were right. We needed to do this. It’s a part of our history as a band.”

While hardcore has long since been the epitome of emotional urgency, opportunity, and a slew of heartbreak and mistakes, such raw and reckless energies are the very things that Comeback Kid has come to represent behind its stage dives, lyrical screams of conviction, and sweat-soaked basement show aesthetic. It’s proven that for a band that has been around for this long, Comeback Kid was more than a phase or a blip in rock music. Comeback Kid was committed to Wake The Dead as not only an evolution to their sound, but an honest and intense story about a formative chapter in their lives before the success of their album would turn the page into a new world of newfound fame and the unknown. Since Wake The Dead, Comeback Kid has outlasted trends, lineup changes, and the common slump that sometimes comes with aging bands. Comeback Kid has defied such narratives. While many would have just thrown in the towel or pivot to softer sounds, Wake The Dead showed they were capable of having both worlds exist in their world, and since then, they have doubled down on their heavier roots, with Heavy Steps proving they are not a band that is clinging to the pearls of the past, but are continuing to dive into new, exciting, and heavier territories. In a genre that often burns hot and snuffs out just as quickly, Comeback Kid proves that legacy doesn’t mean diluting yourself to fit someone else’s expectations. It means evolving and being brave enough to say it’s okay to move in that direction, even if you stand alone. If being hardcore is for the young, they are playing it better than most, with the wisdom that comes with experience. It seems that hardcore is not just a young band’s game, but for veterans who know how to play to their strengths and are winning because of it.

“I think being in a band that constantly tours, especially being a hardcore-punk band, the fans have always kept us young. Do you know what I mean? We have always been committed to adaptation without compromise, being authentic in what we do, and having our communities’ respect,” says Neufeld. “We love this music, and we love the scene. It’s our whole livelihood. This is what we are all about. I always get excited about up-and-coming bands and always want to rub shoulders with all of them, and also the bands that I grew up with and respected. We are in the middle of this whole thing. We will be playing with baby bands, and then we will be playing with someone like Madball. They are 10 years older than us. We just played in Colombia with Madball at this festival, and Freddy [Cricien] is the greatest frontman of all time. It’s this kind of energy that keeps us young. It definitely gets hard as you get older, because you are constantly comparing yourself to other acts. If you slip up a little, especially live, it’s on display for everyone to see, and sometimes it’s hard not to abandon that youthful energy and give in to the insecurities at times. But we made it this far, and we haven’t given up. We love what we do, and that means more than the insecurities.”

SPILL LIVE REVIEW: COMEBACK KID w/ INCENDIARY, PROWL, PUNITIVE DAMAGE & MELT AWAY @ DANFORTH MUSIC HALL, TORONTO

While touring has been one of the major staples of what keeps these hardcore luminaries going, in the wake of Wake The Dead’s success, a quiet turbulence boiled under the surface. Comeback Kid had managed to create a 25-minute epinephrine rush that captured the raw and unrelenting energy of the hardcore genre, while delivering melodic anthemic hooks that would transcend the underground circles they once frequented. The album would become an anthem for any person who felt trapped and desired more from life. Two decades later, Wake The Dead remains a centerpiece at live shows across continents. But while Wake The Dead was a triumph on the surface, the band was quietly being crushed under the weight of its own issues behind the scenes. it would be the final album to feature their original vocalist, Scott Wade, a departure that, shortly after it was released, marked a turning point for the band. Wade’s gritty delivery had become an integral part of the band’s sound. His leaving the band would create a rift, leaving fans divided and a minutely successful band at a crossroads. Andrew Neufeld, the band’s guitarist at the time, would bravely step up into the role of being Comeback Kid’s new vocalist, a move that would reshape the band’s sonic identity but would provide the lifeline the band needed to continue. While Neufeld brought his own unique intensity to the group, the transition into this new role was not as seamless as everyone would believe. Coming from the magic that was captured in Turn It Around and Wake The Dead, Neufeld would have the complicated task of keeping the band’s newfound success going and shifting the band’s evolution into a different kind of raw spirit. Wake The Dead was a peak and pivot. It represented a band firing on all cylinders at a time when the band had hardly any energy to give if the release had failed. Even when threatened by the internal dynamics that almost tore them apart and could have derailed their success, the tension between success and instability gave them the strength, drive, and edge that still bleeds into their sound to this day. Wake The Dead would become the symbol of chasing dreams even when one was on their last legs of survival, showing the wear and tear of a long fight before reaching success. The drive to success can sometimes destroy bands completely, yet Comeback Kid found a way forward and a new way to grow and evolve as a band.

“For us, there wasn’t any no. There was no other choice. When Comeback Kid started to take off, it replaced the time and energy we were spending on a prior band, Figure Four. Around that time, Scott wanted to be home…he didn’t want to tour anymore. This was a year after Wake The Dead came out. In my head, I couldn’t believe what was happening. I didn’t want to believe he was serious. But we had to keep going, for me, that was never really a question. At the time, we considered hiring a new singer. In my head, that made a lot of sense. But the thought of me becoming a lead singer would become the route we would take. I had already sung in the previous band and worked on lyrics. In the beginning, when I started singing for the band, I would try to mimic him,” says Neufeld. This was for the album that would follow after Wake The Dead, which, to be honest, isn’t my favorite record. There is a couple of good songs on it, but for me, I consider that to be the stepping stone record. It was my first time singing for this group, and I was trying to find my place and my own voice, yet still trying to keep Comeback Kid what it was. Things progressed, we kept touring, and I felt like I found where I belonged, and you can see that in the evolution of this band. We grew from traditional hardcore to hardcore-punk with that melodic feel to it, and I feel now we have kind of veered into a different sound since that record was released. We still do some melodic stuff, but we have gotten heavier and played with the production a little more. We are still Comeback Kid, just Comeback Kid on crack,” he laughs. “It was a different time 20 years ago; we were using different producers, and recording is different now. There are so many more things at our fingertips, but we always try to stay true to the band and its roots.”

While anyone would have broken mentally from the kind of pressure that comes with resurrecting a band that was on the brink of collapse before reaching its second release, such trials and tribulations would give birth to a band and artist that learned the best results often come from going in the directions one is afraid to venture down.

“I feel the longer I am allowed to get to do this, the more complex everything becomes. When I think about writing and recording music, I get this feeling like I’m always flying by the seat of my pants. When you are a musician who’s been doing this for a long time, especially in a group like ours that’s been touring for many years, the decisions you make are more or less calculated and made on the spot because the situations you are in are more complicated and complex than when you started. We are currently writing a new record. When you have such a large back catalogue, you’re definitely comparing everything you do with your older stuff. The ideas don’t come as quickly as they once did. I think that when you’re starting out, there is an open canvas that remains untouched, and creativity seems endless. But once you’ve got some years on you, it’s hard to find that blank canvas feeling again, where everything feels fresh, new, and exciting. Whether you are an artist, author, or filmmaker, you are always going to compare your success or something meaningful you have done to the next thing you are working on. When you are older, it’s not about reinventing the wheel; you just want to do a good job, you know? We have so much touring going on, and I am hoping we can find the time to continue to write in between. We want to start recording in the Spring of next year. We are busy until February as of now. With Gojira at the end of the year, and some other great support tours, like Hot Water Music, it’s all just really cool stuff. But, once we get to take a break from all of this, we will be focusing more on this new record and want to start recording in April.”

COMEBACK KID WAKE THE DEAD ANNIVERSARY CANADIAN TOUR

09.06.25 – Toronto, ON – Danforth Music Hall^
09.07.25 – Montreal,QC – Club Soda ^
09.08.25 – Quebec City, QC – Salle Montaigne ~
09.09.25 – Moncton, NB – Tide & Boar ~
09.10.25 – Halifax, NS – Marquee Ballroom ~
09.12.25 – Ottawa, ON – Overflow Brewing Co ~
09.13.25 – Timmins, ON – Heart Of Gold Fest ~
09.15.25 – Winnipeg, MB – Park Theatre ~
09.17.25 – Regina, SK – The Exchange ~
09.18.25 – Saskatoon, SK – Coors Event Centre ~
09.19.25 – Calgary, AB – The Palace Theatre *
09.20.25 – Edmonton, AB – Union Hall *
09.22.25 – Vancouver, BC – The Pearl ~

^w/ Incendiary, Prowl & Punitive Damage
~w/ Prowl & Punitive Damage
*w/ The Flatliners, Punitive Damage & Prowl

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Main Photo Credit: Bethan Miller | Background Photo Credit: Avrinder Dhillon