Not only that, State Champs collaborated with some of pop-punk’s heaviest hitters, as the band co-wrote songs with Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low and Mark Hoppus from Blink-182. Though State Champs had no intention of working with Hoppus, the punk legend stopped by Feldmann’s studio while the band was recording and quickly took a liking to them Before long, Hoppus was helping the band write a pair of songs, working with DiScanio on the lyrics, and then jumping in the vocal booth to lay down some parts of his own. “We had no idea he was even coming in,” said DiScanio, “Then the next day, me and Mark Hoppus are just sitting out by John Feldmann’s pool writing lyrics from scratch. And that ultimately ended up being ‘Dead And Gone,’ which is the first single on the record.”
This chance encounter speaks to what’s at the heart of Living Proof, and that’s DiScanio’s embrace of the things you can’t prepare for. “Living Proof has a lot to do with independence, and finding the independence within you, embracing the mixed emotions that fall in your lap a lot of the time,” said DiScanio, noting that the album’s title is taken from the song “Cut Through The Static,” where he proclaims, “Let’s cut through the static and be the living proof.” On an album full of go-for-broke moments,State Champs pushed themselves to new heights without ever forgetting where they came from.
“There are songs on this album about everything,” he said, “There’s break-ups, and flings, love, loss, all of that. I’ve seen a little bit of everything through this writing process.” Living Proof is a record about coming out the other side those experiences, both triumphant and humbled. That growth as palpable, as State Champs made a record that’s like nothing they’ve done before, but is still an an album that only they could ever make.