Like so many musicians, Manic Third Planet guitarist/vocalist Adam Green emerged into the post-COVID world armed with a band name, a fistful of home demos, and one goal: to form a punk band. The Chapel Hill trio claims no qualifiers, just “punk”, like Descendents or The Clash. That said, to listen to the music or its makers unveils a line tracing back into emo and post-hardcore; there are elements of Fugazi and Jawbreaker packed around each in-your-face chorus.
The band’s 2024 debut Burn Bright follows the grand tradition of punk rock operas, pairing big hooks with a big narrative about one of the most punk things a person can do in America. Landon Johnson’s rock-solid drumming anchors Green’s pounding chords and pointed riffs across ten catchy tracks. 2025’s Halfway EP showcases Rob Richmond’s walking basslines and dynamic articulation as Adam refocuses his lyrical lens, turning inwards (“Halfway”) then outwards (“Heroic Fables”, “Acceptance”).
The band graciously offered to let me crash their studio session one hot Saturday in August, so we convened at Boared to Death Records HQ (aka Dan Mitre’s house) to chat. A huge “Thank you” to Dan, our host/label-man/studio engineer, who was exceedingly patient as we talked through valuable recording time.
What have you been listening to lately?
Adam (guitar/vocals): Lately I’ve been listening to a band called the Belair Lip Bombs from Australia. They’re an indie rock band with some good punk flavoring thrown in there. I think they have a very compelling vocalist.
Rob (bass): I’ve been listening to the newest Warning record, Rituals of Shame. They’re one of my favorite doom metal bands, maybe my favorite metal band, and this is their first record in twenty years. It’s so depressing, but it’s incredible. [To Adam] You remember that band we saw, 40 Watt Sun? That guy. I’d recommend it. It’s very textured music. It’s much like their last record, Watching from a Distance, five tracks, fifty minutes. It’s like watching a David Lynch movie. Don’t try to fight it, be swallowed; you’re going to go through it.
That and a lot of this 80’s new wave artist called Klaus Nomi. A lot of podcasts, too. Behind the Bastards, hardlore. And also “Weird Al [Yankovic].”
Landon (drums): I’ve been listening to Descendents. They’ve been my favorite band the last couple years. They are the band. I’ve been listening to a lot of Fugazi, Sleepytime Trio.
Rob: Have you listened to Smoking Popes yet? Shout-out Smoking Popes.
Adam: I’ve been listening to The Damned a good bit-
Rob: Fuck yeah.
Adam: Yeah, Machine Gun Etiquette is such a cool record. And I’ve been listening to old Bob Dylan records with my kid.
Rob: How old is he?
Adam: He’s eleven.
Does he get it?
Adam: Not in the way he will when he’s older, but he does get something out of it.
That’s all you can ask. What’s his era of Dylan?
Adam: He likes the early electric stuff so far. He hasn’t heard enough yet to really know the eras, but he likes Bringing It All Back Home. I told him that’s my favorite. I gave him the CD to listen to, so that era – Highway 61, Blonde on Blonde – that trilogy, if you will.
Rob: I remember going to your house two years ago, and he’s blasting [Bruce] Springsteen. I was like, “Whose kid is this?”
Adam: Yeah, he was really into The Boss for a while.
Are you into The Boss?
Adam: I like Bruce Springsteen.
You say that like it’s something your kid picked up on his own. How much of that was your influence?
Adam: I don’t remember how he picked up Springsteen. I don’t listen to Springsteen a lot but I like Springsteen. I actually thought the Springsteen movie from last year was a good biopic. [snaps] I know what happened. One year, for Christmas, I went to Schoolkids Records in Chapel Hill and bought him a bunch of CDs I thought he’d get into. Springsteen and REM were in there, and he really latched onto them. He’s around when I listen to my punk records, but those are two he really enjoys. He also really likes Weezer.
Of course he does.
Adam: He’ll pick out Weezer tunes on the flute; he really wants to play “Buddy Holly” for his next recital.
How did you all get together?
Adam: I had written a bunch of songs right before COVID, and I was putting them out independently. Some I put out acoustically; some I recorded with all the instruments played by me at my house. Along the way, I realized I was writing two different kinds of songs: straight-up rock and roll/indie rock stuff with acoustic guitar and loud punk songs. As I kept playing the punk songs, I realized, “This is more fun.”
I decided I wanted to form a band again. I recorded a demo of “Start a Fire” and shopped it around until I found Landon. He and I played together for several months, nailing down the songs that would become Burn Bright. We recorded that in the summer of 2023. We didn’t have a bassist at the time. We played some shows with other bassists before we found Rob.
Landon: I had a profile on BandMix, which is like Tinder for musicians, and Adam messaged me on there. I’d forgotten I had a profile there-
Adam: Too busy being cool, playing drums-
Landon: I had just moved back to Durham and I was in a band but wasn’t doing a whole lot. Adam messaged me on BandMix, he had a demo for “Start a Fire”. I listened to it and thought, “This is exactly the type of stuff I want to play.” So we met up a few times.
After the second or third time jamming, we decided to start a band. He had the name and the songs already. For a while it was just us two, and we weren’t going to play out until we had a bassist and had recorded, but my friend Nick from Worthington’s Law reached out to me and asked if I knew any bands who wanted to play a show on Father’s Day ‘23. I told Adam we got offered a Sunday matinee and he said, “Why not?” It was just us two, we played and people absolutely loved us.
Adam: That was cool, that was like “Oh, so people enjoy this music.” I was really gratified, it was really cool. Who knew people would like this? There are so many intangible benefits to making music.
Landon: We started recording the day after that show with Scotty Sandwich (The Sandwich Shoppe), who we played with the day before. We did that album in a week or something?
Adam: I’d say it was a little less than a week. I met Scotty for the first time, went to his house the next day, then spent the better part of a week with him.
Landon: It was a process, but we got it done fairly quickly. We had the first single [“With Friends Like These”] out by September. Then we got Rob, sold out our album release show at The Cave, we’ve been rocking and rolling ever since.
Adam: You had the Wario thing going on at our album release show at The Cave.
Rob: I remember I had overalls and a huge mustache. When I joined, I was already playing in two local bands, the job I was working was slow and I’m unable to be still or alone with myself, so I had to do something. I talked to Landon first on Bandmix-
Adam: -people talk about how Bandmix is lame-
Rob: -it works! That’s how I found my first band, which led to my second band, which led me to Manic. It feels like North Carolina is the Fertile Crescent for punk bands right now.
Image credit: Adam Green
Are you still in those other bands?
Rob: No. It’s funny. When I moved down from Chicago in ‘22, I wanted to do a hardcore band. That didn’t go well, I thought maybe I’d missed the boat on that, so I joined a thrash metal band, and the vocalist of that band invited me to his death metal band, Dunmharu, I played 70-something shows that year.
That’s when I ran into Landon, who said “Hey, we do punk music.” Punk music was my first love, and Landon sent me the demos and they sounded like Jawbreaker, so I was like “fucking rad.” When we first met at the old practice space. I was like “I got one song done” and they were like “We sent you a bunch,” but we kept at it, adding songs over time.
I think Manic Third Planet has been the longest and most consistent project and has offered me the most joy and fulfillment. The other bands were a grind, but Manic was the first band where I played music I liked, and I liked everyone. It’s not a hired role; these guys are my friends, and we play kick-ass tunes. Adam’s songs get all over the place, and I like that because they force me to be better. I always think, “No way Adam’s going to reinvent the Manic Third Planet wheel,” and every demo he does it again. Hold on tight. It’s a smooth ride, but it’s fast.
What were the first songs you learned when you were getting into punk music?
Adam: When I started playing guitar, I was twelve years old. I was really into Jimi Hendrix.
Rob: When you were twelve, the phonograph had just come out.
Adam: I was into Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. In seventh grade, I started seeing kids in band shirts with really cool art. I saw a guy in a NOFX shirt; I’d never heard of NOFX, but it looked so cool.
A guy I know let me listen to some records – a lot of Epitaph, NOFX, Bad Religion, Pennywise. I did not know that rock and roll could be this fast, exciting, and intimidating. There’s an edge to it, but it’s also really fun. I played in punk bands in high school, doing DIY shows at the American Legion until we were banned from playing there due to all the property damage. So many of my punk rock loves are from that era, bands that I continue to be enamored with. Fugazi and Jawbreaker especially.
Rob: The first time I heard of punk, I was watching Daddy Day Care with my family, and they have the scene with the Flash kid and the song starts “twenty-twenty-twenty-four hours ago-o-o” and my sister’s like ” oh that’s The Ramones“. We had on-demand, and my dad saw they had the documentary on The Ramones. I’m over here like “Who’s The Ramones?” I remember when my sister bought their shirt I thought “Those girls are ugly.” Pink Floyd is my dad’s favorite band, but also whenever we went up to Boy Scout camp he would bring this CD of another band called blink-182. My dad loved Enema of the State.
Adam: Really? That’s a weird thing for a suburban dad to be into.
You never know with dads.
Rob: I think it’s because much of it was tongue-in-cheek. I grew up on “Weird Al” and Doctor Demento. At Boy Scout camp, all the other boys played guitar, so I wanted to play guitar. My parents bought me a guitar, and my dad taught me my first song, “25 or 6 to 4” by Chicago. He said, “You’re from Chicago; you should know how to play this,” and I don’t think I’ve played it since.
What guitar was it?
Rob: I still have it; it was the Ibanez beginner series. It was cheap, and I don’t blame them; they wanted to make sure I would actually use it. It got so much that my dad would be like, “Can you put that down for two seconds?” A couple of years later, they bought me a Squier.
When learning punk rock, I would hear a song and try to figure it out. I started with Ramones songs, and that’s how I figured out that most punk songs go one way or the other. I saw an interview with Tom DeLonge (blink-182) where he mentions Stephen Egerton (Descendents), he says it sounds like they listen to the Beatles, and I love the Beatles. I told my friend I need everything by the Descendents, so he gave me all this Descendents stuff.
I was never into punk where they just do drugs and want to die. I have a strong bias toward waking up every morning, but I want to go fast, and that’s Descendents. That’s where I learned to play guitar. I didn’t pick up the bass until later, until I joined a band that needed a bassist because they were going to play on TV. I played with Chance the Rapper. Six-string bass, blisters all over my fingers.
Getting into bass, I went back to those Descendents records. When you listen to those songs as a guitarist, you hear the cool guitar stuff. When you listen as a bassist, it’s a completely different record. A lot of my Manic Third Planet bass playing is based on Tony Lombardo, Karl Alvarez, or Doug Carrion. Karl, he’s kind of driving the melody, but he’s so laid back. It’s all Descendents, All, and Bad Religion. I was like, “I need to get really good at guitar and also a PhD.”
Adam: I think the bassline you wrote for “Halfway” is very Karl Alvarez.
Rob: That album is my love of Karl Alvarez but also of Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order) and the idea of the “bass lead.” It’s not a solo, it’s just a lead. I always loved the sound of the bass playing on a higher register. It gives it more chutzpah.
What punk songs did you first learn, Landon?
Landon: Anything that challenged my stamina, and that was fast punk music. Punk isn’t that difficult a genre, but you have to hit those tempos, so that’s what I practice. I’m not a perfectionist but I try to push myself.
When you realized you didn’t have the stamina you wanted, what did you do to improve?
Landon: A lot of practice, a lot of watching other drummers to see how they do it. I’m a big fan of Bill Stevenson (Descendents). It sounds like he’s doing a lot, but when you watch him onstage he’s so loose and only his arms move. Punk is intense, but you have to stay loose with it.
Have you always been a punk drummer?
Landon: No, I took lessons my first three years; my first band was through my church’s youth group. Playing in a group helped a lot, it was a great learning experience. Then I had an alternative/grunge band in high school; we played three gigs.
Our first gig was at Cat’s Cradle in the main room. Our school hosted a Battle of the Bands every year. We had just started the band, threw our name in the hat, and got picked! I had only ever played at church and summer camp; we played first at Cat’s Cradle, and I was so nervous. We did great!
Around that time, I wasn’t sure music was something I wanted to pursue seriously, but after that I decided I wanted to do it more. I played some blues and country, rock, pop rock, most genres except for jazz.
Were these band jobs or hired gun jobs?
Landon: All of the above, or for fun. I’ve been a hired gun a few times; that stuff’s fun. And that’s how you get better, playing new genres with new people. Even though all my bands are punk, it’s still helpful to practice outside the genre.
When I’m at work, I listen to a lot of jazz. I love jazz drumming. The drummer for the Dave Brubeck Quartet (Joe Morello) is so fun; I love the solo on “Take Five”. Mostly it’s a snare roll but he’s also just smacking that floor tom. Jazz is like a whole different world. There’s a lot that I don’t understand.
Since two of you mentioned it, what’s your favorite Pink Floyd album?
Rob: I’m going to cheat. Classic era: Animals. That’s where I learned to play acoustic guitar. If I’m doing chord shapes, I have to really try. Other fan favorite: Momentary Lapse of Reason. I love the drum sounds, especially “Learn to Fly”. That floor tom sounds like it was recorded in the valley down below; it’s huge.
Adam: I love Animals, and I love Dark Side of the Moon. There are times in Dark Side of the Moon where I get very emotional and well up a little bit. It’s a beautiful record.
Landon: I wouldn’t say I’m a huge Floyd fan, I don’t have them on regular rotation. If I had to pick… which one has “Wish You Were Here”?
Rob: Wish You Were Here.
Landon: That’s how much I know about Pink Floyd. That record’s great. I have favorite songs by them.
Rob: What’s your favorite song?
Landon: Probably “Money”.
Let’s talk about the Halfway EP. It looks to me like you released one or two songs as singles steadily throughout the year and wrapped them into a “new” EP each time one dropped. Is that correct?
Adam: That was the strategy. We decided to put them out as singles to see if they would get more traction that way.
How did it go?
Rob: The algorithm giveth, the algorithm taketh away…
Adam: You know, it’s… ehh, it was fine; I don’t think I would do it anymore. The song we’re doing today will be a single, but if we’re going to record a bunch of songs, they’ll come out together.
How does Manic Third Planet write songs?
Landon: The way our songwriting process works is that Adam shows us a demo or a riff, and I’ll start coming up with stuff in my head. He writes everything except for the drums.
Adam: After Rob joined the band, he’s written all of his own basslines. I don’t, say, write all the parts on my own and assign them. Even for today’s song, I did a demo with guitar and bass, but when we got together, we all agreed on things to change.
Rob: Whenever I have a bassline for a song, they won’t see it until we record. Usually, the last two or three days before recording, I’ll figure out the general ideas. With the EP, these guys had only heard ideas.
Adam: We trusted you.
Rob: There was some tweaking here and there. With today’s song, they haven’t heard any of it yet.
Adam: If I hate it, you’re out of the band.
Rob: I like that gratification when someone hears your playing and gives you that “what the fuck?” look.
When you go to play the song live, after you’ve recorded it, do you have to learn the song again as you tracked it? Or is it that by the time you record the song, you have it down?
Rob: I’m just making it up. I will go back and listen, mostly just figuring out how to play with my fingers. I record with a pick, but I play live with my fingers, and that’s enough for me to get it.
Okay, Burn Bright. Ambitious! Where did that title come from, and how did it come together?
Adam: It’s funny, people often tell me it’s ambitious, but it didn’t feel that way to me. It felt like a normal way to go about songwriting.
Did you have the whole arc in mind from the start?
Adam: I started with one piece, then realized a whole story could be told. It came from “Start a Fire,” a song about a teenage girl from my hometown who tried to burn down a Wal-Mart and ended up setting a lot of it on fire. It was closed for several months. No one was hurt, thankfully. “Start a Fire” wasn’t exactly about that, but I heard about the event while I was writing the song and sort of incorporated that story into mine. I ended up writing several songs about the same fictional characters, and they’re all loosely based on what little is known about an actual event.
Have you ever written anything on this scope before, narratively?
Adam: I’ve written some short stories that haven’t been published. I’ve never written a bunch of songs tied together by a story.
The story comes through clearly; by the end of my first listen, I could tell it was a rock opera, whereas with some others you have to go find out. Had you done any narrative songwriting before?
Adam: I’ve definitely written songs about fictional characters before, some of whom are composites of people I’ve known in real life. It wasn’t my first time writing a song with a story, but it was my first time telling a story with multiple songs.
Now that you have the band together, do you think you’d do it again?
Adam: Possibly! Believe it or not, once I understood the story I wanted to tell, it was a smooth songwriting process without many major revisions. In some ways it was easier than some of the other things we’ve done.
Speaking of that, I’ve seen you play guitar. You can shred. You could be shredding all of the time. Why do you hold back?
Adam: Do I hold back?
I’ve seen what you can do, sometimes I watch and think, “Hit more notes, I know you can hit more notes.”
Adam: I have an aversion to guys, and it’s usually guys, going up and just hot-dogging it real hard on the guitar. It’s unappealing to me.
If you could open for any band, who would it be?
Rob: How about three?
I’ll take three.
Adam: If Fugazi ends their hiatus, they can go on there. Bad Religion. Alkaline Trio or Descendents.
Rob: I’m going to pick three that you didn’t. All, I love All, then Warning, best metal band, and Depeche Mode. I would love to see 80’s Depeche Mode.
Adam: I’d like to add Sleater-Kinney. I love that band so much.
Rob: I’m going to add one more then. “Weird Al”. I love “Weird Al” so much.
Adam: We went to see “Weird Al” last year.
Rob: I could do a whole deep dive on “Weird Al.”
What are your favorite songs from Halfway?
Rob: I was really proud of “Razors and Sunbeams,” but probably “Acceptance.” It reminds me of the first punk song I ever heard. It’s straightforward and fast. We play it so fast live.
Adam: That’s our most straight-ahead punk song with no noodling, but it’s the hardest for me to play. I can’t get the palm-mutes. It took a long time to record.
Rob: It’s punk rock as fuck, man. It’s a good end to the EP.
Adam: “Nosferatu” is my favorite song. I play a guitar solo in that song, a short one!
It’s good because it’s short.
Landon: “Razors and Sunbeams”. It’s a very straightforward, punk song. The guitar work is fantastic, and it’s got beautiful moments. There’s a lot of good musicianship; there’s a part leading up to the end of the song where Rob and I do this cool little groove thing [around 2:24], it sounds so good. It’s a small part of the song, but it sticks out. I think our collective musicianship really shines in that song.
Just for Landon, who is the best drummer?
Landon: I’ve always been a big Taylor Hawkins fan. For years, Foo Fighters were my favorite band. Even though I’m more into Descendents now, Foo Fighters will always have a place in my heart. Taylor Hawkins was a big influence on me. He played very heavy; it’s like hearing thunder. His style was so intense, but he wasn’t showy. He was doing what the music required. That’s what makes a good musician; you can have fun, but you gotta respect the song.
As we wrap up, anyone in the local scene you want to shout out?
Adam: I really like Alcantara.
Well thanks!
Adam: I really enjoy Coyotes, most of whom I understand are now in COGS.
Landon: Alcantara for sure. I want to shout out my friends in Moon Womb. I saw them at Slim’s several weeks ago, and they’re awesome. It’s a husband-and-wife duo with drums, vocals, and guitar. It’s like doom metal or slowcore. Narsick! And Tenderqueer!
Adam: I’ll second Narsick. I’m always afraid of questions like this because I always forget people.
Rob: Moon Womb for sure. Lowest Point out of Charlotte, and Middle-Earth, this grindcore band out of Fayetteville. I saw them play their longest set a couple years ago: 7 minutes. It was incredible; I think they did 25 songs. I don’t know if they’re still a band.
Any last words?
Rob: Fix your hearts or die, take care of each other, FLOCK cameras are stupid, go vegan.
Landon: We have a really fun political music scene, and we know so many talented people, and it’s important to support them any way you can. And give your friends a hug, too.
Adam: Take the time to listen to the people that you care about and affirm them for the things you appreciate about them.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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