Breaking out in the mid-aughts, CARTEL artfully threaded the space between the turn of-the-millennium pop-punk tidal wave and the widespread virality of the social media  generation, cutting their blend of hyper-melodic pop-rock with reflective lyricism and  ambitious sonic versatility.  

The Conyers, GA-based group quickly rose through the underground on the back of  their 2005 breakthrough LP, Chroma, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard  Heatseekers chart, bore the Gold-certified hit “Honestly” and launched the childhood  friends – vocalist/guitarist Will Pugh and guitarists Joseph Pepper and Nic Hudson – onto Warped Tour, TRL, Epic Records and millions of MySpace Top 8s.  

Nearly two decades and more than 250,000 copies later, the album still resonates as a  genre hallmark, hailed as one of the greatest pop-punk records of all time by Rock  Sound and Loudwire and a singalong staple at emo nights around the world. But while  the lightning-in-a-bottle energy of their debut took them from regional buzz band to  mainstream names to know, it’s their insatiable desire to never settle that’s kept them  one of the most respected acts in the genre to this day.  

From the moody, angular guitars and experimental song structures that colored 2007’s  top-20 debuting Cartel through the heavier impulses of 2009’s Cycles and  atmospheric, airy melodicism the group elevated on their 2013 self-released Collider,  the ebbs and flows of the band’s career have always shown Cartel’s desire to prioritize  their own self-fulfillment over critical and commercial acclaim.  

“There’s so many little things we pull from that I think often go unnoticed,” Pugh says.  “We love blink-182 and Green Day, but we don’t reference them; we reference  Soundgarden. ’90s grunge and alternative was the seminal stuff that spoke to us as  young musicians, and it’s given us a completely different toolbox in terms of how we  think about making music.”  

That evolution was once again on display in 2022 as the band released their first new  music in nine years, singles “17” and “The End” to accompany their spot as direct  support on the Hello Gone Days alongside Dashboard Confessional and Andrew  McMahon in the Wilderness.  

“Now that we’ve gotten away from some of the pettiness of the way things were in the  past, it’s given us more allowance to go back to the well and not have to feel like  everything’s a response to what we just did,” Pugh says. “When we were writing ‘17’ 

and ‘The End,’ all we were concerned about was what Cartel would sound like right now – not what we sounded like earlier.”  

This mentality has ultimately allowed Cartel to age with grace, resisting the tangles of  nostalgia. Instead, they remain focused on their position as elder statesmen of the  scene, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the bands that inspired them – look no further  than Pugh’s production work with New Found Glory – while also inspiring the next era of  acts to fearlessly chase their own muse.  

As the group stares down the 20th anniversary of Chroma in 2025, they do so with both  an appreciation for what their past has afforded them and an excitement for what the  future holds. More recent live appearances on Warped Rewind at Sea, Emo’s Not Dead  Cruise, Slam Dunk Festival, Is For Lovers Festival, and When We Were Young have  introduced Cartel to a whole new generation of listeners – some of whom weren’t even  alive when they rode the dual guitar intro of “Honestly” to the Billboard Hot 100 all those  years ago.  

“Thinking about having done this for over half of our lives sort of breaks the space-time  continuum,” Pugh says. “It’s so cool, because it constantly feels like being rebirthed  every time you hear the records.” ##