Draft:BBUD

BBUD
BBUD backstage at the Camden Shorts festival in 2024
Background information
Origin	Campbelltown, New South Wales, Australia
Genres	Punk rock skate punk alternative rock (Early)
Years active	2022 (2022)–present
Labels	Intox Records
Members	William Degeling Joshua Heylin Jacob Pace Harvey Clissold Jason Lee
Past members	Jude Potts Lachlan New

BBUD are an Australian punk rock group formed in 2022. They have become instrumental in the growing DIY punk scene in Sydney, notably through the foundation of their own music festival in late-2024.

Their comedic approach to songwriting and performing has garnered attention from groups such as NOFX, The Chats and Propagandhi

History

2022: 75% to BBUD

In April 2022, 75% formed as an "alternative rock disaster," with lead vocalists William Degeling and Jacob Pace, guitarist Lachlan New, bassist Jude Potts, keyboardist Harvey Clissold and drummer Jason Lee. Within a month of forming, they were asked to perform at the annual Champagnat Day festival at St Gregory's College. On June 9th, 75% performed for the first time, a cover of Smash Mouth's All Star. Following this show, the group would begin to morph into what is now BBUD.

On the 30th of July, Joshua Heylin officially joined the group after one practice where he performed The Chats' song 6L GTR.

2022–2024: BBUD's Foundation

On August 25th, the group agreed on the name Back By Unpopular Demand; and shortly after on August 30th, Lachlan New left to play baseball professionally in America. Left without a permanent guitarist, the band had to improvise during practices utilising assorted members on guitar. This also led to the groups first original song being written; "We Have No Guitarist (For Like 3 Terms)." Upon Lachlan's return to Australia in mid-September, he was unable to rejoin the group immediately due to a hand injury. In this period, Jude Potts was quietly fired from the group on October 21st, and due to the stylistic change Harvey Clissold was moved permanently onto bass. Lachlan New returned to the group on November 15th.

The period directly following this was one of little note. The group did not change line-up and was focused on practicing more than anything. Some of these practices were crudely recorded and released in early 2023 on Bandcamp through Intox Records as the groups first demos. These were "Back By Unpopular Demand" and "Still Unpopular."

These practices began to pay off as in April of 2023 the group began to prepare for their second show, and their second instalment of the Champagnat Day festival. On June 8th, the group performed their second show. The show was met with much praise and a very energetic crowd. The whole set was recorded and released as "Live in a Dive." Following the success of their first show as Back By Unpopular Demand, the group quickly went into preparing for more shows to come, and the band was met with exactly that. Asked to prepare a cover of Goanna's Solid Rock for a NAIDOC event on July 28th. Their cover of Solid Rock quickly became a cult classic within their fanbase, and was requested at future shows as a result.

Lachlan briefly left Back By Unpopular Demand again from October to November whilst recovering from surgery, the group took a break during this period. Occasional shows continued throughout 2023 including one in which they first played their now most popular song: "I Went To The Shop To Buy Myself Some Milk."

2024–Present: Growth and Demandfest

Early into 2024, the band began to see themselves in a period of unnaturally fast growth considering that they had laid dormant for two years. This culminated in being contacted by Camden Council about performing at their Cultural Fusion festival, which sold out quickly. Despite opening the festival, Back By Unpopular Demand's set was the busiest of the night; a fact that would not go unnoticed and would soon result in them becoming the headline act of future festivals.

Only a week later, Back By Unpopular Demand were included on the line-up for DIY music festival Scream It Out, held at Hurlstone Agricultural High School. Following their set, they received much praise; notably from progressive metal band Pyrefly. Pyrefly were later included on the Good Things 2024 line-up alongside Korn and Violent Femmes

On May 14th, founding member Lachlan New was quietly fired from the group amid minor controversy following a private performance. His final performance with the group had been on April 5th, prior to both the Camden Shorts and Scream It Out festivals. With this, Jacob Pace became the groups lead guitarist.

In June of 2024, William Degeling and Jason Lee went to Fiji which resulted in acoustic performances in Suva and Laucala Bay, mostly in the back rooms of houses to extremely small crowds. These performances occasionally contained the song "I Went To The Shop To Buy Myself Some Milk."

Back By Unpopular Demand began to commonly refer to themselves as BBUD particularly for promotional materials around this time, and continued to receive and play consistent shows, including the "unexpected return of Solid Rock" which was attended by South Sydney Rabbitohs player Jack Wighton. A notable performance going into the end of the year was that of the Spotlite event organised by Camden Council, which this time was co-headlined by Back By Unpopular Demand. The event sold out, however the event's success also highlighted a lack of local music events for Jason Lee, who shortly after commenced work on the bands own music festival.

After months of struggling with councils, pushing for a youth music focus; BBUD posted a teaser for their own DIY music festival on October 4th.. The festival went through a number of local bands before eventually settling on a line-up, venue and date and an official announcement on Demandfest was made on October 23rd. The announcement confirmed that the event would take place at Elton Chong, Penrith on February 9th, 2025 and featured the bands: ebolagoldfish, The Owen Guns, The Limited and BBUD. The event was met with an exceptional amount of interest, particularly from groups beginning to form in the Macarthur Region, and resulted in support act offers from groups like The Hard-Ons and Operation Ibis. The festival was created to become a recurring event, in the hopes that it could evolve to support a youth music scene, the festival also donated funds from ticket sales to assorted charities and is not-for-profit.

Musical style and influences

75%

As 75%, they were namely influenced by grunge and alternative rock such as Nirvana, Foo Fighters and Smash Mouth.

BBUD

As the group began to morph into more of a punk rock style, they became influenced by groups such as Descendents, NOFX, Circle Jerks and Pennywise as well as Australian groups such as The Chats and Bodyjar

Band members

Current members

• William Degeling – lead vocals (2022–present)
• Joshua Heylin – lead vocals (2022–present)
• Jacob Pace - lead guitar, rhythm guitar, lead vocals (early) (2022–present)
• Harvey Clissold - bass guitar, keyboards (early) (2022–present)
• Jason Lee - drums, backing vocals (2022–present)

Former members

• Jude Potts – bass (2022)
• Lachlan New – lead guitar (2022–2022, 2022–2023, 2023–2024)

Timeline