Junior discuss Beautiful Life, working around Mark Andrews' schedule, NXT UK TakeOver and Triple H (Exclusive)

A little known fact about Junior. You have the wrestler in the band but, Matt, you also write a lot of wrestling entrance music - previously for Pete Dunne and Marty Scurll - under the name Hot Tag Media Works. What's your favorite entrance music you've created?

Matt: So, probably the biggest is Marty Scurll. It wasn't just that he was such a big wrestler and his career has blown up - it's huge - but it was such a fun song to do.

It was a long process but it was fun to do and to me, it's not just sort of. like him being such a big wrestler, it has sentimental value because it was the first turning point where I feel like Hot Tag really took off, so it has that. I would say, Marty's theme.

Mark: It's a great song as well. it's awesome! The 'whoop-whoops'! He did the 'whoop-whoops'!

Matt: It was all me! At 3 AM in my old uni house, it was definitely something. Every time I hear it, I occasionally just go to Google, watch it on YouTube to see where it's been used, and seeing it in these Madison Square Garden-size arenas, with this 'whoop-whoop' which I did when I was at my uni house, had a deadline tomorrow for a uni project and I was like... [Matt shrugs] That's my memory from it.

And who would be your dream talent to create a song for?

Matt: I don't want to dunk on Code Orange but I reckon I could do a pretty good hardcore song for Aleister Black. Code Orange, I'm coming for you.

I could do something even heavier.

Mark: It's so funny coming from a pop-punk band! We're like, "Hey!" [They sway and air guitar melodically] then "WHAAA!"

Well, Brick By Brick is kind of...

Matt: That's the gateway. We're unpredictable!

Mark: The next album could be super-heavy.

'The Music of Hot Tag' CD, featuring entrance music from Pete Dunne, Tenille Dashwood, CCK, Doug Williams and MANY more!Get yours now!https://t.co/OAXxh6TBJQ

— Hot Tag Media Works (@HotTagMediaW) October 24, 2018

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And I think it's important to mention your drummer Si as well, who's the founder of Heads Above The Waves - a mental health charity. In this day and age, I feel like it's particularly important to raise awareness of the importance of good mental health. Particularly in music and wrestling, there have been way too many losses of life recently - how important is it for you guys to promote the importance of mental health, too?

Mark: With Heads Above The Waves, it's crazy even just having a clothing brand, a company, or even a little shop in Cardiff that you can go to and see the messages that it's okay not to be okay, that self-love is important.

Just that alone helps people. It's the smallest little thing but people need to be reminded.

It was great writing this album about that exact topic because Si is very knowledgeable on it and it's something that everyone in the world can relate to. If they can't, then maybe they should think about it a bit more and try to relate because it applies to every single person.

As a charitable organization, Heads Above The Waves is a very important one and something we support massively as a band. They do really good things.

HATW is doing great work

Matt: It was kind of in the DNA of the record. We learned a lot about mental health through Si, whether it's our own or understanding others. We tried to make Beautiful Life as empathetic as possible with the ones nearest and dearest to you, so it was better to get that perspective from Si about how to better understand and convey those emotions. He's doing awesome work, so we're always grateful.

Because there's only three of us in Junior, everyone is important anyway but we are lucky that everyone is doing something really cool that we're all really proud of amongst each other.

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NEXT: How Junior cope with Mark's schedule