Ways Away

When Ways Away formed in California in 2019, the math on paper pointed toward something significant: vocalist Jesse Barnett brought his years of work with Stick to Your Guns, guitarist Sergie Loobkoff came with the deep catalog of Samiam and Knapsack behind him, drummer Jared Shavelson arrived with time spent in Joyce Manor and BoySetsFire, and bassist Chad Darby completed the picture. The band pushed back on the "supergroup" designation, and what the music reveals is why: the point of Ways Away has always been the songs themselves, not the pedigrees.

Their self-titled debut arrived in 2020 and established the tone: melodic post-hardcore shaped by the West Coast punk lineage these players grew up in, nervy and melodic and rooted in the 1990s and early 2000s without being nostalgic about it. "Everyone I Know (The Optimist)" landed as one of the debut's most lasting tracks, appearing regularly in their live sets and offering a kind of charged, forward-looking energy that became a signature. "Collarbone," also on the debut, co-written by Loobkoff and Barnett, demonstrates how their combined sensibilities translate into something that neither could have made alone.

Torch Songs followed in 2022, deepening their approach and confirming that the band had actual momentum, not just promise. Singles came between records, including "And for a Moment I Don't Wanna Die" in 2021, a title that holds nothing back and a song that delivers on the emotional register it announces. The lyrics in Ways Away's music have always been direct without being blunt, emotionally raw in the way that the best post-hardcore tends to be.

By 2024 they released "I Should Have Brought a Gun," another standalone single that sits in the catalog as evidence of a band that understands how to work between records, keeping the audience close without rushing. Their third full-length, I'm Not You, arrived in 2025 on Smartpunk Records, a label that has consistently championed this corner of melodic punk.

They have taken the music to festivals across Europe and North America, including Fest, 2000 Trees, Pouzza, and Jera on Air, building the kind of audience that shows up because the songs hold up night after night. "Customary Scars" is among the recurring live tracks, a title that captures something Ways Away return to repeatedly in their work: the marks that everyday difficulty leaves, and the question of whether you carry them or they carry you.

I'm Not You represents a band that has located exactly what it wants to be and continues to execute on that vision with craft and care.