[Photo Credit: Kyle Holmquist]

With emo pioneers The Get Up Kids and hardcore heavyweights Blood For Blood as their influences, it’d be impossible for Four Year Strong to not have an ineffable, hybridized sound.

But whatever you want to call their music (they say “heavier pop-punk” to make it easier for the label-obsessed), the five-piece band’s debut disc Rise or Die Trying incorporates the heavier aspects of their hardcore roots, while embracing upbeat tempos and soaring, sing-along choruses that puts them in line with like-minded peers New Found Glory and I Am The Avalanche.

In this exclusive interview, the band sheds light on what their band name means, leaking their own music, and what they’re up to next.