Biography

Childhood friends Anika Pyle (vocals, guitar), Drew Johnson (guitar), and Dan Frelly (drums) grew up in the small town of Monument, Colorado, and while all three had been active in bands or had played solo, it wasn't until Johnson and Pyle upped sticks and moved to New Jersey that the idea of Chumped properly came together. Joined on bass by Doug McKeever -- whom Pyle had met while working at a farmers' market -- the threesome worked their way through drummers before Frelly decided to move to Brooklyn, and although he'd never played drums before, he joined the band. With an instant connection between the four, the bandmembers electrified previously acoustic songs that each had written during his time before forming Chumped. Recording songs initially for themselves and to share online, they met Neil Shulman, who offered to release their self-titled debut EP toward the end of 2013 on his own Anchorless Records. Playing a raft of gigs in their newly adopted home, they also headed out across the U.S. in support of their debut release at the beginning of 2014, becoming part of the growing re-emergence of the pop-punk and emo scene. The quartet headed into John Meredith's D.I.Y. basement studio at his apartment in Ridgewood, Queens in mid-2014 to start recording Chumped's debut album, with the resulting Teenage Retirement appearing in November of that year. The album was preceded by the EP That's the Thing Is Like.... ~ Rich Wilson, Rovi