Hailing from Manchester, UK, Guilt Trip channel their city’s trademark grit into a metallic hardcore sound that’s equal parts crushing and catchy. For the last decade since forming, the band have put in hard work both in the studio and on tour, building out their fanbase via a steady stream of singles, EPs, and LPs along the way.
Their second full-length LP, Severance, caught a big buzz and eventually caught the attention of Roadrunner Records who signed Guilt Trip earlier this year. The group recently dropped their debut track for the label, a mid-tempo mosh beast called "Burn," and recently wrapped up a U.S. tour with Kublai Khan TX, playing big rooms like the Hollywood Paladium here in Los Angeles.
Just home for a quick break before their European headline run with Big Boy, Whispers, and Calcine, I caught up with Guilt Trip vocalist Jay Valentine to talk about growing up in Manchester, the influences that shaped him and the band, and some of the Roadrunner bands and records that had a big impact on his musical upbringing.
I think when people outside of the UK think of Manchester music, bands like Oasis, The Smiths, Joy Division, and The Stone Roses come to mind. What would be some of the hardcore and metal bands that came out of there that had a big impact on what you and Guilt Trip are doing?
As far as musical impact goes, Manchester has never been a hub for metal so growing up there wasn’t a sort of "local hero" for us until we delved much deeper into the subgenres and discovered bands like Broken Teeth and Survival just from attending shows.
We’d obviously see these guys play Star and Garter and Sound Control what felt like every other week so they inspired us to do this along with so many other bands, we never really cared where they came from though we just loved to consume whatever heavy music we could get our ears on back then.
Guilt Trip has been grinding it out on the road for years now. What has been the highlight of all the touring you’ve done so far? Does any specific performance or event stick out to you?
Every tour has been a highlight for us, it took us 6 or 7 years to even get onto the touring circuit so we’re just thankful to go out and play.
If I had to choose one specific highlight I’d probably say Hellfest 2025, the crowd felt immeasurable, the weather was perfect and everyone was getting involved it was the best 45 minutes of my life honestly and I’m still riding that high 4 months later.
How did the connection with Roadrunner Records come together, and what made it feel like the right next step for Guilt Trip?
The connection with Roadrunner came about organically I would say. Johnny [Minardi] reached out to us one day just to say he’d been spinning our record in the office all summer. I guess he came across us through word of mouth and just liked what we had going on.
We played it cool but that was a big moment for us. Our entire sound is based off some of the records Roadrunner has been releasing for the past 30 or so years. To get recognition from him felt very full circle and that’s sort of how we knew it was perfect for us, some things are just too particular to be coincidence, and once having that initial conversation with Johnny and Chris [Brown] we had absolutely no doubts this is where we want to be.
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So, what were some of the Roadrunner Records bands and records that had a big impact on you?
I’ve spun almost every Roadrunner release you could think of so it’s tough to land on just a handful of favourites but I’d have to say The Blackening and Burn My Eyes by Machine Head are our biggest inspirations as a band so they’d be Top 2.
Slipknot and Iowa are big influences for me personally as those are some of the first metal albums I ever got hold of then. Making my Top 5 would be All the Right Reasons by Nickelback, one of my all time favourite records and I still front-to-back it most weeks. Killswitch, Life of Agony and Gojira all have albums that would made the other guys’ Top 5 too.
As you tour more and play bigger festivals, are you finding that more people outside of the hardcore scene are getting into the band? Have you noticed more metalheads becoming fans?
Over time our demographic has definitely changed, there is always hardcore kids at our shows and that is something I’ll forever be grateful for but we definitely have more and more metalheads in the crowd these days. Honestly, ever since the beginning, we’ve always had those token older metalheads at our shows.
Literally, as long as I can remember, it was always a 40+-year-old coming over to me at merch saying we remind him of his favourite bands, I always appreciated it too and they just keep growing in numbers. Maybe one day we’ll just have a room full of Crowbar fans staring back at us every time we get on stage [laughs].
How tough has being away from home been on your relationships and friendships? Has your family been supportive all along?
I can’t speak for everyone when it comes to relationships and friendships, I just have a couple friends I actually see in real life outside of the band, a handful of Call of Duty friends and my close family, all of which are extremely understanding and supportive of me and always have
been. They all contact me while I’m away just to touch base and encourage me so I’m very fortunate to have that support system.
Since Guilt Trip has toured all over the place, what would be some cities/countries that No Echo readers should take note of?
Now we’ve had chance to tour a lot of the world I feel like I can confidently say there are specific cities and countries that just feel like second homes to us. Toulouse in France has been ridiculous for us the past couple of times we’ve gone through there. Tilburg is one of our most
anticipated shows on literally every European tour. Cologne has been showing out in force for us recently. Melbourne feels like Manchester without the rain.
We just got to play in Dallas, Denver and Los Angeles, the crowds there made us feel like regulars despite it being our very first time. The list goes on and on. Spain, Bulgaria, Belgium they’re always so generous to us but we’re grateful for every single country and city that embraces Guilt Trip.
Last question: what is your all-time favorite UKHC record (EP or LP)?
My all-time favourite UKHC record is The Few the Deep by Bun Dem Out I’m afraid of it to this day:
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"Burn" is out now via Roadrunner Records.
Guilt Trip on social media: Instagram
Headlining European tour dates with Big Boy, Whispers, and Calcine can be found here.
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