Hi, my name’s Matt and I sing and play guitar in the Meanjin based Punk/Emo/Sook band Talk Heavy. To get right into it off the bat, I am someone that can easily be perceived as a sad sack - especially if you’re looking at my creative output and general taste.
I love songs that capture the feeling of sadness and angst, I love movies that make me feel dread and guilt and I tend to always write when I’m in a valley, rather than in a peak.
If I had to describe myself, I’d say I’m an optimistic nihilist. I believe life rules when you let it, and it’s something you should enjoy in real time. Feeling things and talking about them is natural and healthy - but zooming out, we’re all a speck of nothing, and that’s okay. In my 20s, I saw that as bleak - now I see it as liberating. What we do may not matter on a cosmic scale, but it does to those around us. I think a lot of those feelings come up in music, but especially in Pop-Punk, Emo and Punk Rock.
I love music that makes me feel deeply. While not being directly “punk” by any means, albums like A Crow Looked at Me by Mount Eerie show how grief and beauty can exist in the same breath. That kind of honesty sticks with me regardless. So here’s my take on a few songs that sit in that emotional space (even if there’s some that comfort me because of their emotional discomfort), so if you haven’t heard some of these, maybe this gives you a reason to.
1. 'Just Another Face' – Modern Baseball
The closing track from Holy Ghost - Modern Baseball’s swan song - 'Just Another Face' is a raw, gut-punch of a song that perfectly captures the suffocating weight of self-loathing and emotional burnout. It's raw, shaky, and unmatched in vulnerability. The chorus is desperate in the most human way, like a friend grabbing your collar and telling you, “You're not alone, and you can get through this.” - it’s truly a perfect modern pop-punk/emo song and a perfect ending to that band (but I still wish they’d come back).
2. 'Adam’s Song' – blink-182
'Adam’s Song' stands as one of the most emotionally resonant and vulnerable moments in blink-182’s entire catalogue (and Pop-Punk in general). Among the playful chaos of Enema of the State, this song slows things down to explore the realities of depression and suicidal ideation with heartbreaking sincerity. I still remember the first time hearing “please tell mom this is not her fault” and it still hits to this day if you’ve ever wrestled with suicide ideation, but the bleak reality of upsetting your family if you were to ever go through with it.
As a teenager, I would only focus on the first two choruses and completely neglect the important lyric changes in the third chorus. It was only until after living through serious bouts of depression, I finally paid attention to the redemption arc tucked into the final chorus and the resilience of someone choosing to keep going.
It’s a beautifully structured track, carried by some of Mark Hoppus’s best writing (only to be topped on the Untitled record and the +44 record, in my opinion) and brought to life by Jerry Finn’s flawless production. This was blink’s first step into darker, more mature territory, and there’s many more reasons it remains a cornerstone of the sad punk canon.
If you or anyone you know needs help with their own mental well-being call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 or find your closest Suicide Prevention/Crisis Support Organisation on Google…
3. 'Hold Me Down' – Motion City Soundtrack
This is one of my favourite “breakup” songs because it beautifully encapsulates that mutual unravelling - where no one’s necessarily the villain, and love has just run its course. It’s about how you and someone else can be both good and bad for each other at once, and no one ever gets to be the narrator of the “objective truth.” The bridge/verse that begins with “you’re the echoes of my everything…” is one of my favourite verses in all of Pop-Punk. I love when writers break the fourth wall and get a little meta with acknowledging what they’re doing in real time. That verse is entirely in metaphor, and then it ends by acknowledging that even metaphor isn’t enough to capture how he feels.
Justin Pierre is such a gifted lyricist, and Tony Thaxton’s drum work on this track is unreal - tight and creative without ever being flashy, he’s one of the most underrated Punk drummers ever. MCS has always felt to me like a perfect midpoint between blink-182 and Ben Folds Five, with some At the Drive-In chaos in the guitars in the early records and they’re such a criminally underrated band.
4. 'Big Bird' – AJJ
This song is sad, but it’s also angry - it makes you angry at yourself and angry at the world. I first heard it when my old band played a show with AJJ, and it was their closing song. I had no idea who they were before that, and it absolutely floored me. “I'm afraid of the way I live my life, I'm afraid of the way I don't,” might be one of the most resonant lines I’ve ever heard, let alone the choice to start a song with that completely acapella. That balance between being scared of living and scared of not living captures so much of the paralysis I’ve felt before.
The whole song is haunting and brutally honest, it’s a classic folk-punk power ballad.
5. 'Dark Days' – PUP
This song is rooted in sadness, but it’s ultimately really hopeful, which I think is also a big part of my own writing. 'Dark Days' is about surviving the grind, the burnout, the broke tours, panic and shitty nights of being in a band - while still being here and just doing the work. The music video brings it to life perfectly, showing how exhausting, chaotic, and deeply loving it is to be in a band with your best friends. That sense of chosen family, of suffering together for the sake of something you love, is so real. This song reminds me that success isn't just about “making it” - it's about pushing through the hard days and finding joy in the struggle. It's nostalgic, reflective, and full of little lyrical gems that look at pain with a shrug and a smirk.
Much like all the above bands, this is another song that taught me that writing about darkness doesn’t mean you can’t have hope at the same time.
Feature written by Matt Cochran
Check out Talk Heavy on Facebook | Instagram
The band's new single 'Die 4 U' is out now via Ninth Life Records and is about:
"... realising you’ve put so much effort into someone who isn’t giving the same effort back, hitting what feels like a point of no return, and finally accepting they might not care as much as you do.."
Wanna feel the music? Give it a spin here
