Junior discuss Beautiful Life, working around Mark Andrews' schedule, NXT UK TakeOver and Triple H (Exclusive)

Mark, Si

and

Matt

I think Beautiful Life is an incredible positive message and something that's maybe needed in the world right now. What does Beautiful Life mean to you and why did that phrase become the name of the album?

Matt: For me, Beautiful Life is supposed to be about appreciating the little things that make life beautiful. That's basically the overarching theme. Juniorland, our first EP, was very introspective. It was all about personal experiences of home, leaving home, just all those sort of issues which a lot of people go through, like leaving for university, breakups and stuff like that.

When we did Beautiful Life, we thought about taking in other people's perspectives. People who are going through circumstances like not being comfortable in your own skin or being uncomfortable as themselves so we wanted it to be the sort of record where we spoke to people and said, "We understand, it is okay to be uncomfortable or unhappy." It was supposed to just radiate positivity. Like you said - now, more than ever is when that message really needs to resonate, which we hope it has with some people.

Mark: I like to think it's an album which a lot of people can relate to - because everyone has had times where they don't feel comfortable in their own skin, or at least we have. Other people have struggled with that to a way bigger scale and it's a regular theme in their lives. The main theme of the album is not feeling comfortable in your own skin and overcoming that, but there are other aspects as well. It has a song about my friend Ricky's first crush, and a song about pro wrestling. There are other things in there, but the overriding theme is about being comfortable in your own skin, and the idea that it's okay not to feel okay.

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For me, it feels like you guys have been around forever but this is the perfect album to... Well, you've spoken before about not wanting to be a "wrestling band", but this is perfect because it addresses wrestling head-on with PYD, but it's also very well produced and just a great album musically.

Mark: Thank you! We appreciate that!

No worries! Mark, did you think that, with you being a wrestler, that you want to capitalize on that but not JUST be a wrestling band, and is that a difficult balance to achieve?

Mark: It has been a difficult balance. We've always had this thing. It is so hard for small, local bands to break out into a bigger scene so you have to latch onto what you have. For us, what we did have was wrestling fans and a lot of our shows are full of wrestling fans. They've been the most supportive fans, the most loyal fans - so I don't regret, in any way, us latching on to wrestling, and getting Matt Hardy involved and stuff like that because - why would you not want wrestling fans behind you? They are the most loyal fans in the world.

We said that the biggest curveball we can do to break out of being a "wrestling band" would be to actually release a really good album, so we just tried our best to release the best album we could. Obviously, some people will think it's good, some people think it's terrible - which is fine - but we want people to give credit to the music and not just the fact that I'm a wrestler in a band or we're a wrestling band. Even if they like it just for that reason, that's cool as well, as long as they can find something that they enjoy in the music.

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NEXT: How Junior convinced so many WWE, AEW, and NJPW wrestlers to be in their video for PYD

COMING UP: What wrestlers Matt and Mark want to duet and do cover versions with