Rival Schools

Quicksand vocalist-guitarist Walter Schreifels used to read the horoscope section of the New York Post, utterly fascinated by the way those daily astrology wrap-ups always seemed to reflect exactly what was going on in his life. Though there’s a similar fortune-connecting energy coursing through the title of Bring on the Psychics — the legendary post-hardcore group’s fifth full-length, and third of their reunion phase — Schreifels confesses to Revolver that he’s not entirely embracing or even interested in finding out what could be foretold in a crystal ball. “I’m a little averse to it, because, I’m afraid of knowing,” he says. “What if they tell me some bad thing’s gonna happen to me? I don’t want to have that in my mind.” He concedes: “I really invited that into the world by calling the album Bring on the Psychics. I guess that’s a message to myself to not be afraid of it. On the one side, it seems like a scam. And on the other side, you’re playing with dark forces. But people use it to help themselves, they don’t see it in a dark way.” Quicksand’s latest album instead tries to make sense of the mystical and cultural forces around us, from social media, to geopolitics to our connections with family, friends and nature. With generative AI slop and online misinformation guiding us along our daily doomscroll, the idea of seeking answers in the stars seems all the more reasonable to Schreifels — still mysterious, yet decidedly more tangible than a deceptive data mutation. What the 10-song Bring On the Psychics perhaps reflects most is the deep, intuitive musical bond Schreifels maintains with bassist Sergio Vega and drummer Alan Cage — a kinship dating back to 1990, when the group (then also featuring guitarist Tom Capone) first transformed the speedy brawn of their New York City hardcore heritage into something magnetic and impeccably body-moving. Schreifels reflects on their process as “magical,” but it’s a psychic connection the trio had to build up over time. Released in 1990, the band’s three-song self-titled EP for Revelation Records quickly built steam in the underground, and led to a major label deal with Island Records, who released post-hardcore landmark Slip in 1993 and follow-up cult classic Manic Compression in 1995. Those albums coalesced cyclical hardcore chugs with mountain-moving grooves, scouring pad-abrasive rage-outs and one sincerely distortion-pounding Smiths cover. The band helped push post-hardcore into the mainstream, headlining the inaugural Warped Tour in 1995 and making converts out of future stars in At the Drive-In and Deftones (the latter of whom enlisted Vega on bass between 2009-22). Quicksand’s energy was loud, vibrant and kinetic, but hard to handle for a group of 20-year-olds. Personalities clashed for a moment. They imploded in the mid-Nineties, then tried to relaunch a few years later, and formally got back into the swing of things in 2012. “From our earlier Nineties run, we weren’t really aware of how we were working with each other — [we were] trying to antagonize each other. Power dynamics really tripped us up back then,” Schreifels explains. “We were burned out and pulled the plug on it prematurely. Had cooler heads prevailed, we would be on our 10th record by now.” Annette Rodriguez Schreifels’ personal discography is massive, preceding Quicksand in the Eighties with his time in youth crew hardcore bands Youth of Today (on bass) and Gorilla Biscuits (on guitar). After Quicksand, he formed the extra-melodic yet still-punk-rooted Rival Schools. While each of those bands broke up at some point, Schreifels has notably reconnected for reunion runs with each of them — he’s played gigs with all four acts in 2026. That accumulated experience and knowledge has funneled back into his partnership with Vega and Cage. “When we came back to it, we had more tools to work with, so we collaborated better,” Schreifels says of Quicksand’s current balance. While he confesses that he’d tried to be more in control of songs in the past, he’s more trusting of the collaborative process as time goes on. “Just because it doesn’t go my way, that doesn’t mean it’s an ‘L.’ In fact, it not going the way that I think it should means that I’m going to rise up to give better work to this new direction.” Quicksand’s first album back was 2017’s Interiors. Though marked with their signature post-hardcore feel, it also incorporated a spacey, psychedelic edge. 2021’s Distant Populations got a little heavier, but still propped itself up with pineal-gland-penetrating layers of sonic experimentation (see the guitar pedal-referencing “Phase 90”). Schreifels calls those “head” albums. By contrast, Quicksand wanted their Bring on the Psychics to be “very body-oriented,” a listening experience where people — the group included — couldn’t help but lunge along to the heavy beat. “We were like ‘What makes us want to fucking move?’ That’s what our criteria was. And how do we say that in the most concise, no-fat way?” Indeed, the album heaves towards some of the trio’s most intrinsically percussive thrusts. The Vega-penned “Agency” is perhaps Quicksand at their most thundering, a chugging pull-off riff and tom-tom-conquering rhythm reflecting, per Schreifels, serious “Viking energy.” Tracks like “Supercollider” and “Regenerate” shake the skeleton with hypnotic, distortion-bleeding propulsion. Schreifels adds that he leaned into the power of his screaming voice on this album, this in part inspired by the megaphone-loud howling he injected into their 2024 cover of Refused’s “Liberation Frequency” — the longtime friends linked up through the latter’s run of farewell dates in 2025. Schreifels also throws it back to his hardcore roots with “Cool Guy,” a classic punk “diss track” in the model of Minor Threat’s “Small Man, Big Mouth,” Youth of Today’s “Stabbed in the Back” or Gorilla Biscuits’ “Big Mouth.” Yet while the tune targets an arrogant fictional scenester messing up the vibe in the VFW hall, Schreifels also flips the narrative by questioning the nature of low-stakes hatred. “They’re living the way that they live, but they agitate something in you just by their walking in a room — or when they do something that you think is wrong, or stupid. But don’t you have a part in this?” he questions, adding that it could be healthier to “set new expectations” for those that raise ire in you. “I think it’s funny to put that into a song that’s meant to be… not dumb, but one-dimensional. A live-and-let-live mentality is also found in the record’s most urgent number, bronco-bucking opener “Get to It.” The song is driven by sonic ambition, explosive chord bombast and ka-booming drum rhythms that detonate behind Schreifels’ anti-procrastination narrative (“Time is running out!”). He describes it as a self-motivational call to action — a theme he’d famously explored with Gorilla Biscuits’ on their anthemic “Start Today” track back in 1989. “You ever see somebody really successful, but you don’t really appreciate their stuff?” he ponders aloud. “You think it’s cringey, yet somehow, they’re the ones that are having all the success. [It seems so] unfair and annoying, but those are highly motivated people. They might not have your cool taste, but they’re actually doing it. They’re putting out a vibration into the world. Some people are just wired for achievement.” To be fair, Schreifels’ list of accomplishments are pretty impressive, the hardcore musician amassing an enviable discography with a number of influential acts over 40 years of steady activity. He admits he sometimes feels like he’s fighting against that back catalog, and wonders if he’ll keep people’s attention with each passing release. But then, with gratitude, he propels himself forward to the next chapter. In other words, he gets to it. “I’m very happy in my life and contented in so many different ways… it’s not a grass is greener thing. It’s more recognizing what can drive you forward. You need to listen to that voice and push through. “Even just doing Quicksand at the beginning was me breaking through and taking a risk with the success that I had [in the hardcore scene],” he continues. “I was doing something [where] people could’ve said, ‘Fuck that; we don’t like it.’ But had I not pushed myself into the pool, all these other things wouldn’t have opened up to me.” Quicksand’s Bring on the Psychics is out Friday, July 17th, via Equal Vision Records. Exclusive “pink splatter” vinyl copies, as well as other Schreifels-related releases, are available now in Revolver’s shop.