Light Years is a four-piece pop-punk band from Kent, Ohio. The band released a long EP in September called This Will Come Back To Haunt Me and have begun building a fan base ever since. Light Years will also be playing the PropertyOfZack Backyard BBQ on June 22nd with Maker, Citizen, and Fighting Words. 
For Fans Of: Late Nite Wars, The Story So Far, Maker
Responses From: Patrick Kennedy 

How did the band come together? How have you grown since you guys started? 
Light Years came together in 2009 when I (Pat) and our bassist Tommy wanted to put together a fast, catchy, pop punk band. We forced Dan (drums) and Billy (guitar) to join, Dan was reluctant at first because he tries to be a hardass, but his cold heart melted and now he is into it. Since we started we have been able to play a ton of shows and tour which I feel has made us tighter as musicians and as friends.
 
What do you have to offer that other bands don’t? What sets you apart from a lot of the other newer bands out there today? 
I think what sets us apart is that we are an honest band in many different ways. We make songs that we want to listen to ourselves, we don’t try and hop on any bandwagons to be trendy. I see lots and lots of new pop punk bands whether when we are on tour or when they come through our town and for the most part they all are exactly the same. They are just kids ripping off Four Year Strong and The Wonder Years with cheesy breakdowns that make no sense and run in place on stage. We also have a sense of humor about our band that I think lots of bands are lacking. We know our place in the world is a very small one and don’t run out on stage to the 13 people that came out to see us in Baltimore yelling “WHAT THE FUCK IS UP! LETS DO THIS!” that is always hilarious to see.
 
How is the live show compared to the general sound of material that’s been released?
We try and put as much energy into our live show as we can. I think the only difference from the record to what we do live is that we don’t fiddle around with any effects live. When we record we take a lot of time getting the right guitar tones and drum sounds, but when we play shows, we basically plug in, turn it up and fucking kick it out. It’s not like we are playing arenas, or places where anyone gives a shit what pedals we are using.
 
More times than not, influences tend to bleed through. What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?
The bands that I think influenced Light Years the most are Blink 182, The Get Up Kids, and Lifetime. It’s fairly obvious to hear these bands influence in our songs, but we didn’t set out to change the definition of pop punk we just want to carry the torch if you will.
 
What would you say the band has already accomplished and what do you have your eyes set on next?
When we started we always thought the coolest thing would be to get kids to come out to our shows that weren’t our friends that we begged to come. Once that started to happen we thought it was awesome that these kids we didn’t know knew our words and were singing along. Then it was even crazier when we played in like Oklahoma and some kids knew our words there. I feel that the fact that kids heard our band and liked it enough to learn the words and come out to shows is a great accomplishment in my eyes. We have gotten to tour with some awesome bands like True Things, and Mixtapes. Our goal is to be able to tour Europe someday, or Australia. Then there will be nothing left for us to do.
 
Thus far, what’s a favorite memory or something quirky that’s taken place with the band (in-studio, onstage, or elsewhere)?
You know when you are super tired and you are just slap happy and giggly? Well that is our favorite part of tour. Every night we are exhausted and we are usually crammed on someones living room floor that was nice enough to let us stay with them and we have what we started calling “giggle hour.” Everything is 10x funnier than it should be at this hour and you have to try and be quiet cause you are a guest in someones house which makes you laugh even more. One person in the band is always mad like “shut the fuck up!” and that makes you laugh even more as well. It sounds pretty pathetic, but it’s all we have….which is pathetic.
 
Is there anything in particular that you’d like people to take away from listening to your music?
Basically we just want people to not make fun of us. But seriously we hope that when people hear Light Years they don’t think we are a gimmick or a bunch of kids just trying to cash in on the pop punk train. I hope that people can see how much we love the songs we play and that we appreciate every single person that comes out to a show and supports us in any way. We have tried to do nothing but be ourselves and we hope people can relate to that.