Pup

STEFAN BABCOCK AND STEVE SLADKOWSKI REVEL IN THE UNRAVELING OF PUP (THE BAND)

- Mike Huguenor

THE UNRAVELING OF Pup began with a piano.

“I bought this Fender Rhodes a year ago,” says Stefan Babcock, the band’s singer and rhythm guitarist. “‘Four Chords’ was the first thing I wrote on it because I literally knew how to play just four chords.”

The song, which opens the band’s new record, The Unraveling of PUPTheBand, started as a tossed-offjoke about the guitar-based punk band wasting money on a piano. Then, five weeks into their 2021 recording sessions, bassist Nestor Chumak suggested they use the song for real — as the album’s first track.