One cozy evening, I was scrolling through TikTok decompressing while eating dinner. Mixed with sports bros screaming at me, adorable animal videos, Alaska life and memes are bands and artists posting their music. Tale as old as time. Unsung Heroes, a rock alternative band from Rockford, Illinois, was one of those TikTok discoveries. They are not the first band I discovered because of TikTok and they won’t be the last.
I followed them because I liked what I heard and saw. They seemed like a band that knew what their sound was based on what I heard. Rock alternative also tends to catch my attention.
I have a soft spot for some post-grunge and modern rock bands, which is why it is one of my four core playlists. I was really into grunge as a teenager. The car we had in my teen years had a broken CD player, so our only option was the radio.
At that time, grunge was played on the modern rock station. Therefore, that was the radio station I listened to. There’s a nostalgic attachment to some of the other bands I heard. While I never got into Five Finger Death Punch, I have seen Shinedown live. I digress.
Unsung Heroes Band Background
Unsung Heroes is a three-piece alternative rock band comprised of guitarist/vocalist Bret Bunch, bassist/vocalist Connor McKinney, and drummer Zavier Phippen. Bret and Connor are cousins who had a common goal to play music.
Zavier: Connor and Bret started before I was in the picture.
Connor: We always grew up really close. It goes way back to listening to Green Day records in our grandma’s den when we were just little shits, you know. Always kinda being like “oh, we want to do this!” We always had a common interest. So then we just started doing it, you know.
Bret: We’ve always been able to produce and do stuff ourselves and we’ve learned a lot. Kinda through trial and error over the years.
Connor: When it was just us, we just put a click track, shitty drums on it, and by the grace of God, Zavier came along and absolutely spiced everything up.
Zavier: I didn’t formally join the band until 2014.
Connor: Just having another creative mind in the band is just awesome.
– Unsung Heroes Interview – TikTok posted 01/12/2024
While the band has a long history, the about section of their website implies they officially became Unsung Heroes in 2018. Throughout their tenure as a band, they’ve actively gigged around Northern Illinois and Wisconsin, citing festivals, charity organizations, bars, clubs, and colleges specifically.
Unsung Heroes Music Style and Influences
When asked about their influences in a recent interview, the members of Unsung Heroes didn’t dive into specific band influences. They indicated that they pull from multiple genres and multiple bands.
Bret: Our sound as a band is kinda an influence from all kinds of different genres. There’s roots of metal, punk, grunge…
Zavier: Every album we are kinda approaching a different sound, I mean, if you look at the history…
Connor: Bret brings a lot of the almost polished sound. He knows how to make it pop and sound really good. And then I’d say I bring more of the pop-punk element. And then Zav definitely brings the metal with the drums and double kicks and stuff like that.
Zavier: So I think at the end of the day, it all becomes a very good blend of different influences across the three of us.
– Unsung Heroes Interview – TikTok posted 01/07/2024
Their website indicates they are influenced by 90s and 2000s rock.
While songs like “Who I Used To Be” let their pop-punk influence shine, Unsung Heroes is very much a rock alternative band. More often than not, they have the post-grunge sound, and most of their lyrical themes fit right into what you would hear on modern rock radio.
Bret’s voice reminds me of Wes Scantlin from Puddle of Mudd. Of course, I have no doubt Unsung Heroes, as a band, would nail a Nirvana cover in 2024. #IYKYK
(…ok but Blurry is legitimately a phenomenal song.)
Unsung Heroes Albums and Tracks
Unsung Heroes has released two full-length albums as a band, Daze & Nightz on July 17th, 2018, and Bad Faith on February 2nd, 2024. They released their EP Spirit on January 1st, 2022.
They also have plenty of covers that are all available for streaming, including a cover of “Save Your Tears” by The Weeknd.
Some of their music is available for purchase on Amazon, Bandcamp, and is also available to stream.
In my opinion, Bad Faith overall is a solid album. The five songs that were released before the full album, “Pretty Little Lies”, “The Edge”, “Nightmare”, “Threw it Away”, and “Bitches Ain’t Shit”, gave a solid foundation on what to expect from the seven new songs.
My personal favorite new track from Bad Faith is their title track, which is the closing track. When listening to some of the lyrics, it was clear somebody had a bad relationship end and there’s a lack of faith that another person will be any different.
There is no happy ending to “Bad Faith” with the last line being “It seems like I’m still stuck in this maze.”
This makes me interested to hear the next album. Is the next album still going to be about getting over this relationship, or will we get glimpse of healing? Will it be something completely different? Time will tell.
Other Unsung Heroes songs that stood out to me were “Threw It Away”, “The Otherside”, “The Edge,” “Flea”, and “Nightmare.”
Last Night by Morgan Wallen Cover
At the time of writing this, my favorite thing the band has done is their cover of “Last Night” by Morgan Wallen. In my opinion, musically, it’s a well-written song, but Morgan Wallen is not on my “list of country artists I’m moderately okay with” list. There are some country artists and songs I don’t mind, but Morgan Wallen just doesn’t do it for me. I could go the rest of my life without hearing the original.
Unsung Heroes brought something to the song I thought was missing – drive.
They didn’t do a straight cover of this; they took an existing song and made it an Unsung Heroes song. It doesn’t feel out of place in their catalog despite it originally being a country song. It fits in perfectly and would fit right in as a modern rock radio hit.
I’ve been caught singing “Last Night” and proceed to get asked if I have converted into a modern country music fan, and it is all thanks to Unsung Heroes.
Unsung Heroes Music Videos
One thing that stands out to me about Unsung Heroes is their music videos. Overall, you can tell they put a lot of effort into their production quality. This especially shows in the number of music videos posted on their YouTube channel.
Their entire music video playlist is quite a trip. From “No Sense” to “Nightmare” there’s a dramatic increase in quality with time. Their music video for “TRIPPIN’” was a lot of fun and I was cracking up. On the opposite end of the spectrum, “The Otherside” was very visually appleasing and had more of a serious story line.
I think what Bret is doing is incredibly smart and creative. As seen on his Instagram and some of their earlier music videos, Unsung Heroes music videos are made through Pristine Visions, formerly known as Bunch Productions. Pristine Visions also does videography for weddings and advertisements.
In addition to releasing music videos, they’ve released behind the scene videos for the music videos for “Threw it Away”, “The Edge”, and “Bitches Ain’t Shit.” These videos show you, not only what goes into making a music video, but a glimpse of who Bret, Connor, and Zavier are as people.
Spoiler alert: they’re a bunch of goofballs.
What Do Other People Have To Say About Unsung Heroes?
On TikTok, Unsung Heroes have a series of videos where they react to YouTube comments. One user said “Man I heard this song a week ago and have been playing it on repeat every day. I learned it by ear and showed it to my buddies and they dig it.” Another commenter they picked out for the series said “Exelente version, 10 de 10 muchachos.”
Most of their comments are positive. Here’s what some people said about “The Edge” music video on their YouTube channel:
- “Your talents doesn’t go unrecognized”
- “Excellent job! I can see the growth in you all as a band. Really digging the harder sound on this one...“
- “love the new song guys sounds amazing”
Conclusion
Unsung Heroes are a rock band with The Edge because it is clear they are passionate about what they do and their production quality is phenomenal.
A lot of rock bands write about toxic relationships, betrayal, depression and escapism. However, they bring an extra level of dedication investing in themselves and their branding as a band.
They have strong ties with each other, they bring a variety of influences to the table, and they consistently release, not only music, but music videos to accompany some of their songs.
Also on the series of videos where they react to YouTube comments, they chuckle at this one where someone couldn’t believe they, at the time, only had 600 subs on YouTube. While this is a hilarious TikTok video, I agree with the user who commented.
For the most part, Unsung Heroes puts out quality across the board. Even though they are a band with an incredibly small following, it is clear they are investing in themselves as if they are a band with a larger following.
As a result, it seems like they should have a bigger following than they currently do.
I see a very bright future ahead for Unsung Heroes if they keep it up.
UPDATE 09/14/24: On June 9th, 2024, Unsung Heroes announced they broke up.
To support Unsung Heroes, below are their social media links:
