Joyce Manor started playing pop-punk when pop-punk wasn’t cool. Since releasing their self-titled debut album four years ago, the quartet from Torrance, CA has made as much of an impact in the punk and alternative scene as any band.

Now three albums and four years deep into their career, the group is performing at FYF Fest in its (kind of) hometown of Los Angeles this weekend for the fourth straight time in its young lifespan before heading out on tour. Frontman and founder Barry Johnson took some time out of his FYF preparation to talk to Myspace about the festival, the band’s new album and that whole stagediving incident.

From your perspective, what’s FYF Fest like?

The festival is cool, because I’ve really watched it grow. I went to the second one (2005) as a fan back when it was in Echo Park at a bunch of smaller venues. Now, we’ve played it the last four years, so it’s been cool to watch it grow from that side too. Sean Carlson’s done a great job of putting everything together and helping it grow. LA has always had a great music scene with a ton of great bands, so it wasn’t in dire need of something, but it’s really cool to have a big festival like this every year.

What advice would you give to someone playing or attending FYF for the first time?

I don’t know what I’d tell someone attending the festival, since I really have a different perspective on it now. For someone playing it for the first time, I’d tell them not to get overwhelmed by the amount of people who are going to be there. Also, don’t consume too much of the free alcohol and make sure you stay hydrated.

How has Joyce Manor evolved since the self-titled record came out in 2011?

When the first record came out, I was already 24. As the primary songwriter, I already kind of already knew what I wanted to do. I already had my songwriting approach figured out, so that hasn’t changed too much. The band had never toured before, so that’s something that’s changed, but there’s never been a major identity crisis. We brought in Jeff (Enzor) as a drummer next year, and that has probably changed things the most. We were maybe too comfortable with the songwriting process, so bringing in Jeff helped change that. We couldn’t see writing another record the same way.

Now that it’s cool again, how has the current pop-punk revival affected Joyce Manor?

When the band first started in 2008-2009, my friend said that it was weird to start a pop-punk band because no one really liked it at the time. He told me it died out in like 2006, but I didn’t care because it’s what I wanted to do. It’s all cyclical, so it’s not a huge shock for me that people like it again. It’s been kind of gradual. As the band has gotten more popular, people’s interest in the emo revival rose, more people were talking about Blink-182. The negative is that the band could get lumped in with the revival to some people, so when that’s over it could hurt the band.

A lot of people know Joyce Manor best as the band that made the news for your stance against stagediving last year, has that changed anything for yourself or the band?

Our shows have gotten a lot more fun for sure. About this time last year, we were on tour and there was a constant stream of people stagediving over and over again. It was always like the same five kids doing it, just being corny and going way too hard for a pop-punk band. They were ruining it for us, and they were hurting kids in the crowd. We were watching kids get hurt—not the kids stagediving, but the little 15-year-old kids who were getting front-flipped into—and we didn’t want that. I guess there are worse things to be known for, but it would be better to just be known as a great band or for having really fun shows.

What’s next for Joyce Manor?

After FYF Fest we’ve got a US tour coming up, and then once that’s done we’re going to make a record. We’re a couple songs into it, and it’s just starting to take shape. We’re yet to write that one song where it’s like “Yeah, this is what we want to do with this record,” but it’s starting to come together.