For anyone who was there last September, when Prince Daddy and the Hyena drew over 100 ecstatic kids to their raucous album-release show in Albany, N.Y., it was easy to believe that the quartet was onto something beyond its hometown. So far, 2017 has actually exceeded that suspicion.
The band’s been grinding extraordinarily hard — touring the entire country multiple times; popping up on three different splits, with Mom Jeans, Dikembe and Just Friends; joining buzz-worthy emo-punk label Counter Intuitive Records, which reissued its 2015 EP Adult Summers; and playing high-profile sets at both SXSW and FEST, the infamous Gainesville, Fla., punk gathering on Halloween weekend.
“The P-Daddy set at FEST was easily the craziest thing I’ve ever been part of,” says frontman Kory Gregory. “We played a venue that was four times the size of the one we played last year, and we ended up capping it. … As we struck the first chord, we all kinda looked at each other like, ‘OK, we’re fucking doing this for the next half-hour, baby. Here we go.’ Pretty sure there was so many people on stage at one point that someone actually crowd-surfed on stage.”
“I’ve never felt more validated in my whole life,” he adds.
The ever-goofy Gregory, who writes shreddy, catchy, exhilarating songs that are as much about anxiety and self-doubt as they are about chilling with a blunt, has never been one to brag, but now he has grounds. Last month, the split with Mom Jeans sold out 300 vinyl copies in less than 24 hours. He spoke with CP while the group was en route to the second date of its tour supporting Mom Jeans — one of the biggest names in emo right now.
“The shows on this tour have probably been the biggest shows we’ve ever played and the most positive response we’ve ever gotten. I expect to make some people’s ears bleed and make people reconsider their entire lives once our set’s over. … I want to convince everyone who sees us to start a band and have it be a better band than us. That’s my game plan.”
