Arizona is home to the mathy-emo band Celebration Guns, led by vocalist / guitarist Justin Weir. Since age 14 Justin has played in over 20 bands ranging from ska to post punk all the way to metalcore. While Justin’s current band Celebration Guns is heavily influenced by bands like Maps & Atlases, TTNG and Delta Sleep, they struck me in a familiar way. Reminding me of Elos Arma, who were a great local Toronto band that vanished as soon as I discovered them. Celebration Guns have been with Really Rad Records since 2022. The bands most recent (and perfect) EP Enough Already has been added to their 12 songs from ‘22 - ‘24 vinyl compilation, which covers all of their hits from Midlife Vices (2022), their split with A Place for Owls (2023), and The Ultimate Emo Album split with Swiss Army Wife & Avec Plaisir (2024). That’s a whole lot of twinkly and noodly tunes grooved onto a gorgeous deep green vinyl (limited to 100).

We interviewed Justin and got a track by track breakdown for the new songs appearing on Enough Already and an in depth look at the bands future plans as well as their writing and recording process.

HOW WAS THE WRITING PROCESS FOR ENOUGH ALREADY?

“Enough Already”: “This nutty and noodly song includes my lyrical attempt to justify why I decided to get married, and barely scratches the surface of my own insecurity that played a part in the inevitable divorce: being ‘enough’. ‘Enough Already’: a statement of resignation, feels representative of our collective feeling of relief when the relationship finally ended.” 

“If Only”: “This song was written around the time I was first starting to consider dating or getting close to someone again after the divorce. The manic lyrical energy and presentation with the dual vocals reflects how conflicted about letting myself trust and feel the same way again. Also, we got to beat sticks on a suitcase, a whiskey bottle and a few other things I can’t remember during the percussion sections, and toward the end of the song threw in some dueling bell kit parts at the end to bring the house down.”

“Cleaning House”: “This song was written when my ex’s furniture and items were slowly being moved out of the house and I remember how sad and also hopeful it felt. Chris came up with this super catchy riff that starts the song and then threw in more riffs that led to a fast punk rock tapping part that encouraged me to put on my angsty screaming pants.”

“Never Gonna Get It (Not This Time)”: “If you were looking for an emo cover of the En Vogue smash hit, you’ve come to the right place. In this song, we asked Tim how fast he could play on the ride cymbals and he responded very well. The extended ending to this song includes some of Garageband’s finest ambient sounds - Bending Leads, Retro Space Leads, Noble Organ and Pop Flute.”

“For ‘Cleaning House’ and ‘Never Gonna Get it (Not This Time)’: Our prior guitarist Chris sent me some tappy-mathy riffs and I would build the song around those. After some time in the studio with ‘Never Gonna Get it’, I decided to add a strange but oddly fitting outro to the song (originally we were just going to have it slowly fade all the way out).”

“We recorded these 4 songs in 2021, along with 4 other songs, with our friend Josh Medina at Old Hat Analogue Studios, (he recently became our bassist) . When we realized the recordings didn’t count as an LP since the total run time was under 30 minutes, we then recorded 4 more songs in 2022. When we realized that THOSE 4 songs don't really fit with the other 8, we released the 4 newest ones as Midlife Vices in late 2022. We slowly released all of the 8 other songs between 2023-2024 on 2 splits (2 songs with a band called A Place for Owls, and 2 songs with Swiss Army Wife and Avec Plaisir) and this EP Enough Already got pushed way way back until it finally released on May 2nd. I kind of consider these the best for last.”

SO WHAT’RE WE CELEBRATING NEXT?

“We definitely want to tour more but some members were unable / willing to tour so that was a primary reason for the lineup change, we plan to play more fests.”

“WE’RE COMING UP ON 11 YEARS AS A BAND, OUR FIRST 5-6 WERE SPENT FOCUSED ON BEING A LOCAL ARIZONA BAND. SINCE AROUND 2020 (GREAT TIMING) WE STARTED PUTTING MORE EFFORT INTO REACHING OUTSIDE OF OUR STATE AND WE WANT TO CONTINUE THAT GROWTH. ONE OF OUR BIGGEST GOALS IS LP2!”

- JUSTIN @CELEBRATIONGUNSBAND

“For as long as we've been a band, we've put out 6 EPs and 1 LP. When Mathcore Index talked about us, they said this is their 6th EP, called Enough Already and then he laughed a little. I totally got the joke and I hadn't thought of the connection with the EP name Enough Already. Enough EPs, let's make a full-length! We already have a few new songs in the works using mathy / noodly guitar riffs from our new guitarist. We are excited to see what's next!”

“The 12 songs from ‘22 - ‘24 were something we started writing in 2021 and comprise the only recordings with our original drummer. That drummer is no longer with the band and was not in the band or part of anything we released between 2018-2020 (one LP and 2 EPs), so these recordings capture a special magic of our original lineup that might not be heard again with our band. As of recently, our lineup has been completely refreshed (except for me).”

The Enough Already EP was mixed by Josh Medina / Old Hat Analogue and mastered by Billy Mannino of Two Worlds Studio. Celebration Guns have an upcoming tour that will take them over to Texas and Oklahoma in November and I am impatiently awaiting LP 2 while I continue to abuse their entire spotless discography. I’m beyond baffled that this band isn’t absolutely massive as they should be considered the quintessential example of what mathy emo should be. As far as I’m concerned Enough Already has set the bar and now Celebration Guns only have themselves to beat.