How did four mates playing pop-punk versions of Disney songs become so massive? We try to find out…
If you've been to a British rock festival in the past year, you'll undoubtedly know the name Punk Rock Factory. If you have TikTok, you'll definitely know who they are. The pop-punk cover band who became a viral sensation during lockdown have somehow gone from strength to strength, with legions of fans around the world, who have found an unlikely connection through punked-up versions of the themes to Pokémon, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Red Dwarf.
The leader of the factory is the very smiley, very beardy Peej Edwards. A lifelong rock fan who discovered Nirvana in his early teens before moving onto the likes of Green Day, blink-182 and Alkaline Trio, he can't believe this bizarre bedroom project is now taking his merry men around the world and allowed them to quit their proper jobs.
Ahead of a 12-date UK tour, we caught up with Peej to find out what the hell is going on.
Okay Peej, tell us, how the hell has this happened?
“It snowballed in a way we never anticipated, to be honest. This was all just a little bit of fun with me and the boys chucking a track together and putting it on YouTube – we thought it'd get about 35 views and that’d be it. We did an album at the end of 2019 [The Wurst Is Yet To Come], which was a mixture of punk covers like MMMBop, Greatest Show, and a cover of Just Can’t Wait To Be King from Lion King. A couple of months after it came out, the first lockdown of 2020 happened, so everyone was at home and stuck, and TikTok was reaching its peak, so we put a clip of Just Can’t Wait To Be King on TikTok and it got like a million views within 24 hours!
"We decided to make [another album, 2020's A Whole New Wurst], and we ended up speaking to people online like Jaret from Bowling For Soup, Dennis from Ten Foot Pole, Steve from Belvedere, Adrian and Dan from Zebrahead, Spender from Ice Nine Kills. All these guests because people were stuck at home and bored, so when we asked them they said they’d jump on, and then we had this album of guests and it was unbelievable. From then it’s been crazy.”
Was the idea always to take in on the road as well?
“The idea that we’d become a legitimate band from it was never a thing, which is why the name doesn’t really sound like a band name. It was an ‘online factory’ where we make punk songs out of guilty pleasures. We got a call from Bloodstock in 2021 asking if we’d go and play – our first show ever – and we ended up playing to 8,000 people in the Sophie Lancaster tent. Since then it’s gone mental. We’ve embraced the live element, it’s now our favourite part of it, and to play the likes of Slam Dunk and Download is ridiculous. We’re living our dream.”
Have you managed to quit your day jobs?
“We haven’t worked for about two years now. It was about two years ago that we all quit our jobs and have been doing this ever since.”
You have two kids. What do they think about it all?
“My daughter is 11, she loves it and clings on to it. My son, who is 13, is a little bit too cool for it now. Don’t get me wrong, I rolled home the other day with our YouTube play button for reaching 100,000 subscribers, and he loved that! He’s taking selfies and sending them to his mates ’cause we’ve got a play button at home. He does love it, but he plays it cool.”
And you get a lot of youngsters at your shows.
“We find that people don’t want to love us, they just do. People don’t want to be known as, ‘I’m a massive fan of Disney’, or ‘I’m a geek that likes all this ’90s nostalgia stuff,’ but everyone loves it. People come and embrace their childhood and things they remember. We've found so much through speaking to fans that they’ve created this bond with their kids through music and through us. We’re in our mid- late-30s, people our age all have kids and families and stuff, and they want to listen to punk and rock music, and the kids want to listen to Disney soundtracks, and all of a sudden they have this middle-ground where the parents are happy because there’s guitar riffs in it and the kids are happy because they know the songs from the films. So often I look out across our crowds and you’ve got six-year-olds and 66-year-olds and every age in between. Who has fans like that? It’s so good to see.”
How do you pick which songs to go for?
“We do try and go with what’s trending. For example, we released a Little Mermaid EP when the new film came out. It’s whatever’s kicking off. Disney’s always a big hitter, musical stuff is a big hitter. The ‘90s TV stuff from your childhood, everyone loves it. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never heard us before, if you come to our shows you’re going to know the words to our songs!”
When you’re playing live, is there anything in the back of your mind like, ‘I wish people were going mad to songs that I actually wrote’?
“Originally when we started PRF and getting known for the covers, there was this kind of thing in the back of our minds like, ‘Okay, we’ll build it up with covers then we’ll chuck out an originals album.’ But we’re not gonna do it. For us, Punk Rock Factory is what it is. It’s punk versions of guilty pleasures. We’re not gonna say we’d never do an originals album, but if we did, it would be under a different name, maybe behind a mask. But who’s to say we haven’t already done that? There’s a lot of masked bands out there!”
Who is your dream artist to collaborate with?
“Personally, I’ve got a couple. If I could do anything with Dave Grohl – even if I just met the man I’d be happy, Dave Grohl is an absolute legend. I’m a huge blink-182 fan so if we could do anything with those guys it’d be so sick. And Billie Joe Armstrong."
Now you’ve done Download, Bloodstock, Slam Dunk... Where does it go now?
“We’ll just keep going. We’ll play Download every year if you want us to. We’ve got a UK tour, European tour, Australian tour, something going on Japan… We’re just gonna keep going until it runs out.”
Punk Rock Factory tour the UK in October and November – get your tickets now
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