We all know what SXSW is by now, but long gone are the affordable $10 tickets of yore. I had never even entertained the idea of going but this year a bunch of my friends were playing and my work in media got me a free platinum badge. And so, high off the post-lockdown urge to travel anywhere, I booked my Airbnb and a round trip to Austin, Texas, for my first SXSW experience. Given that I’d only been to and photographed one other festival, which was Gov Ball last year, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I mean, how crazy can a six day music festival spread throughout an entire city really be???
I didn’t sleep that night (insomnia fun!) and when I got to JFK the security line was the worst I’ve ever seen it, the signs approximating over a two hour wait time. I somehow miraculously made it to my gate well after the final boarding call, with about three minutes before the doors closed. Given that I had run the length of Terminal B in cowboy boots, I gave myself permission to keep the rest of the day simple. I took a Lyft straight to the convention center in downtown Austin where I picked up my badge and camera tags, noting that all NYC artists pretty much dress the same: we’re so tough in our leather jackets, lol.
After not hearing back all day, I realized my Airbnb host was ghosting me. I had a consolation taco at Veracruz All Natural to center myself, even though it cost me more than a Brooklyn taco. “SXSW menu,” apparently. I regretted my decision to bring a duffel and not a rolling bag for the next two hours but then thankfully a friend of a friend came through (thank you Sam) and put me up for next two nights. After I finished my claim with Airbnb, I met him at Hotel Vegas where, wielding my shiny new platinum badge, I paid the $10 cover fee because I didn’t care anymore, I just wanted to see some goddamn music.
DAY 1 – Monday, March 13th 2023
Razor Braids had just started playing inside and I felt grateful for familiar faces. A Brooklyn band I’m fond of, we’d crossed paths multiple TV Eye shows. I cracked my first Lone Star and settled into an animated set, all four members dressed head to toe in their signature red. Whenever I see a band like this play live I’m reminded of how much punk and panache can be lost in translation when it comes to having to record it. While guitarist Janie Peacock tore up the edge of the stage, Sid Nichols, on drums, kept the crowd in line with a smile on their face. I lost my phone in the crowd when bassist Hollye Bynum and guitarist Jilly Karande clashed instruments, but retrieved it later from the bartender who said someone turned it in. Not sure that would have happened in NYC. Razor Braids finished out their tour at TV Eye March 31st, with Closeby and Trophy Wife.
Afterwards, we caught back to back Austin bands at the patio outside, Billy Glitter and then Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol—sharing both a name, a city, and a genre. A small but obliging mosh pit had formed at the front of the stage, kicking up dust under the midday sun.
Billy Glitter is a newly formed group of five, brought together by frontman William Grover in 2021. A self-described prog rock band, I could hear the influence of the Stooges in their set, which was already the 2nd of five shows they’d play during SXSW. Gotta say I really dug the keyboardist’s style.
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol was similar in sound, if not aggressively more metal. They played fast and tight, with a Nirvana-worthy grunginess. The lead singer Leo Lyodon has a Jack White-like strain to his voice, cutting through Sean St. Germain’s shotgun spray drumming while the bassist Aaron Metzdorf deftly threaded through them. Put Turnstile and Wolfmother in a blender and I feel like you’d get Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol. Needless to say the mosh pit was loving them.
I caught the end of Pelvis Wrestley inside, a queer approach to country I can get down with. I realized I’d met the frontman, Benjamin Violet, at a wedding last year in Austin, but we’d never spoken. There is an epic glam to this band that’s hard to put a finger on, which feels all at once nostalgic and futuristic. This was my SXSW “one that got away,” I regret not catching any of their other shows, but I’m looking forward to whatever music they put out next. Pelvis Wrestley’s debut album, Vortexas Vorever was released this month on streaming platforms.
Last band I watched before leaving Hotel Vegas was Iguana Death Cult outside on the patio. I think they played like ten shows at SXSW; I saw them almost everywhere. A Netherlands band, they have a very juicy pop rock quality, reminiscent of early The Hives. I feel like they might not like the comparison but I mean it as a compliment. I would love to know more about their name though. Their forthcoming album Echo Palace is out May 12th via LA label Innovative Leisure.
Nearing almost 48 hours without sleep, I walked all the way to the British Embassy showcase hoping to catch Gen and the Degenerates for my final show of the night, but it wasn’t in the cards for me. I’m not sure what happened but it was no real loss because I caught Panic Shack instead, managing to get pretty close despite the room being at capacity. As I understand it, this group of four young women is blowing up back in the UK, much like Die Spitz is in Austin. They were having fun with their set, chatting amongst themselves and to a very responsive crowd between the thrashing explosion of each song.
They are a Cardiff, Wales based band that came up from the DIY scene in 2018 and you can feel that can-do energy throughout their music. They were especially fun to watch, the endearing charm of their chutzpah was lost on no one. During the finale of one song, all four lined up at the front of the stage and mimed shooting off AK-47’s with their instruments. What’s refreshing is that Panic Shack isn’t trying for “revolutionary all-woman punk band,” they’re just women, but more importantly, friends, having fun playing music together.
DAY 2 – Tuesday, March 14th 2023
After getting some food and coffee in me and feeling (mostly) rested, I headed straight to Cheer Up Charlies for their incredible line up as part of the Women Who Rock showcase. If only all venues made it that easy for me. When I got there, Barrie was playing, or rather, dancing, which is a big part of the set. The band is short for the artist behind it, Barrie Lindsey, who just released a new EP, 5K.
Cafuné was on next, a band I’ve really been looking forward to seeing live. I describe their sound as Japanese café lo fi meets electro-pop. The way Sedona Schat applies autotune selectively and tastefully throughout the set adds that little J-pop vocaloid touch to their music. Noah Yoo shreds so hard it’s incredible his glasses don’t just fly straight off his face (though they did come close several times).
Jaguar Jonze, the musical project of Taiwanese-Australian artist Deena Lynch, drew a large crowd with her defiant lyrics and rock n’ roll stage presence, playing banger after banger. It feels like Velvet Revolver meets Sasami in an eclectic genre mash up of punk pop. This cat screams.
Overcoats closed out the Women That Rock showcase, debuting some new choreography they joked about coming up with at the hotel. The duo is composed of Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell, Brooklynite singer-songwriters with an indie-Americana sensibility. Their gorgeous harmonies and catchy pop hooks are so infectious, they had the whole crowd cheering and swaying as the sun set.
As we moved into the evening showcase, Bailen, a trio of siblings from NYC played a lovely set of alt indie tracks. They were a great follow up to Overcoats, in the same vein of pop-Americana with particular attention to the percussion, manned by fraternal twins Daniel and David Bailen on bass and drums. Their younger sister, Julia, leads with vocals and winding guitar riffs.
Next, I checked out what was happening inside to find Charlotte Rose Benjamin on the stage, my friend Luc Swift opened for her at Brooklyn Made a while ago and I stuck around long enough to hear her hit “Slot Machine” before heading back outside to make sure I caught Model/Actriz.
Before their set, I ran into drummer Ruben Radlauer and congratulated him on their freshly release debut album, Dogsbody, which earned them a mighty 8.2 from Pitchfork (if that sort of thing matters to you). The man is a machine. Really, the whole band is;. Big purveyors of noise, something about the grind and wail of their sound just hits me right where I need to feel something. Model/Actriz is especially fun to watch live due in part to the frontman, Cole Hayden, and his off-stage melodrama. He crawls through the crowd, climbs picnic tables, and stares deep into the souls of strangers. Back in 2019, at the short-lived NYC venue The Dance, he scrambled up an amp in a blue sequin catsuit to hump a disco ball not unlike the one hanging up on the Cheer Up Charlies stage. Even if you aren’t into the genre, Model/Actriz has an intensity that even the most averse have a hard time turning away from.
Next, I headed to The North Door to catch Juice, a genre-bending group consisting of six musicians originally from Boston, now based in Brooklyn. The stage was a little cramped for such a musically expansive band, but they made it work with a smile. Through their soulful harmonies and vibrantly funky R&B riffs, I found myself smiling back.
Nearing 1am, I trudged down to Rainey St., dodging drunk people on my way to Half Step to see Adwaith. They came recommended to me by our EIC Kate Hoos, and for good reason. This indie rock trio comprised of Hollie Singer, Gwenllian Anthony and Heledd Owen champions the Welsh language and its cultural heritage with their music. The crowd and I perked up at the dreamy vocals and power-pop beats, all of us catching a second wind. During the set I found myself trying to make meaning of words that sounded familiar enough it seemed possible to sing along—and I really wanted to. (Check out our recent coverage of Adwaith in NYC at New Colossus Fest.)
DAY 3 – Wednesday, March 15th 2023
I’ll admit it, I started to lose a little steam by the third day but the band I was sharing an Airbnb with was getting into town later in the afternoon so I knew I’d get a breather.
I joined my friends at High Noon for Paste Magazine’s showcase because I’d told them Miss Grit was playing and their EPs had been on my heavy rotation for the past year. I’d just seen them at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn a month before but I’d really been enjoying their debut album that was just released in February called Follow the Cyborg (read our review). Miss Grit is the musical project of artist Margaret Sohn, whose nonbinary, half Korean identity fuels a lot of their work. As someone who is also nonbinary and half Asian, I find myself drawn to their themes around selfhood and liminality. I hear a lot of Mitski and St. Vincent in Miss Grit’s synth pop sound, and it really hits the spot.
The next band was a complete surprise. Somewhere between a gospel choir and an exorcism is where you’d find SUSU. I’ve heard people want to keep Austin weird, but I was really happy to see a band bringing NYC weird to SXSW. Soulful, psychedelic and seductive, the leading duo—Liza Colby and Kia Warren—had range in both a vocal and acrobatic capacity. Their set was a marathon of energy that left me feeling refreshed. Also, the body harnesses they were wearing? DIY’ed from store-bought back braces. Insane.
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I met up with Plastic Picnic afterwards at the convention center where snapped a quick photo in front of the official SXSW backdrop.
After grabbing a bite to eat, I rushed off to catch the second half of Ava Vegas at Las Perlas. Elfin and bathed in golden light, her ballads were luxurious and dreamy. The Berlin-based singer was giving German Lana Del Rey and the audience was rapt for it.
I booked it to Stubb’s next so I could see Hermanos Gutiérrez, which was the first SXSW official photo pit for me. The Swiss-Ecuadorian brothers have been enjoying the spotlight recently, and their music has been written about extensively. I felt lucky to catch the set for free, but wished I was more of an audience member than photographer because their music is a soundscape I wanted to be able to close my eyes and enjoy, especially as a live set.
Before I got to SXSW, Kate also recommended I check out M(h)aol, a punk band from Ireland that had just released their first full length album Attachment Styles, in February (read our review). I fell in love at first listen with Róisín Nic Ghearailt’s voice, her anger, and her optimism, especially when singing about the ubiquity of sexual assault on “Asking for It. ”I headed to their set at Mohawk and ended up in the front row, delighted to find that the singer was exactly the same in real life; a bubbly force of nature. In between songs she spoke fervently about abortion and trans rights being taken away, and how it was important not to lose hope because all our struggles were interconnected.
Before “Bisexual Anxiety” she asked everyone who identified to raise their hand and because I was in front, we high fived. She turned down a kiss from me, shouting “I’m monogamous!” “I’m greedy!” I shouted back, quoting a line from the song, and she winked. Later she told me that because of their Visa, they weren’t allowed to sell merch, so she gifted me one of their totes which reads “It’s not personal, it’s just vibes.”
Tired after a long day, I joined Plastic Picnic at Seven Grand where they were watching Overcoats play a late show. I’d seen them the day before but their music is so catchy and I liked their new choreography so I stuck around to listen again. Plastic Picnic will be opening for Overcoats on a six day leg of their tour in May.
Stay tuned for the second half of our SXSW coverage coming soon!
After moving to New York City in 2010 from her native Jerusalem, singer, songwriter, and guitarist RONI has been recording music ever since, both under her current moniker and as Rony’s Insomnia. Her newest single “Don’t Look At Me Like That” is a dramatic, dynamic soulful song with a bluesy feel and soaring vocals. The drums hit a particularly satisfying groove behind the layered guitar solos.
Of this track, RONI says “To me, after spending most of my life in male dominated fields and environments, being made to feel, or sometimes told, that I am not as capable or capable at all, ‘Don’t Look At Me Like That’ is the ultimate self empowering song, as well as an answer to toxic patriarchal stares.” The video was edited by RONI using footage from various live performances, with graphics by Toby Verhines and we have your exclusive first look here on FTA!
RONI will be touring in April this year along with her live band, which features Tom Shani on bass and Pat DiPaolaon drums.
Produced by RONI , Jason Alexander Reyes and Jonathon Meier.
Written by RONI with assistance from Thomas Barranca
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Pat DiPaola at 727 Studios in Brooklyn.
Full Time Aesthetic sat down with Brooklyn’s own doom punk band, Desert Sharks, to chat about their new album and new guitarist, plus their song writing process, wigs, and alligators.
How did you decide to choose “Sleepy Pie” as your first single to release?
Stephanie Gunther (bass/lead vox): This is the catchiest one on the new album, for sure. A lot of the songs are kind of heavy, not that this isn’t heavy, but it definitely has a dreamier sound. The backing vocals are more dreamy.
Cait Smith (rhythm guitar/backing vox): It’s got sort of like a familiar surf rock vibe while also taking a dark turn. Seemed like a good way to hook people.
The video was so fun, with, like, the sleepover thing, and then it quickly went into a horror thing. Are you all horror fans? How did you get the idea to take it to that level?
Stephanie: I think most of us are horror fans. We knew going into it that because the song is about being a dream girl, we wanted it to devolve in some kind of way. We weren’t sure exactly where we were going to take it, but then our friend Jeanette Moses who shot the video, came up with that idea. “What if you get possessed and there’s blood?” So we were like, that’s totally along the lines of what we were thinking, so it kind of just worked out that way.
Sunny Veniero (lead guitar): That’s also one of the reasons we released that song first, because we sent her the two singles and asked her which one she wanted to do a video to, and it was “Sleepy Pie,” so that’s what we released first.
Cait: Yeah, she’s a super pro. Excellent director and editor. We knew this video was going to be good, so we thought we should lead with that. It turned out, we were right!
[All laugh.]
It was great! And who played the mom character?
Stephanie: Emily from Substitute Scene, also Sunny’s gf.
Sunny: Head of our record label.
Stephanie: She wore my wig that I like to lovingly say—who did I say it made me look like? From Twisted Sister?
Everyone: Dee Snider! [laughter]
This is your first album since 2019, and we’ve all been through some things since then. How do you think the band has changed, and how have you changed as musicians? I know you have Cait now. How are things now?
Stephanie: I think the world stopping changed songwriting for us, for sure, because we always would practice in person, and then we were forced to start using technology more, like use GarageBand more. It ended up really serving us, because all our previous times going in to the studio, we didn’t have demos really. Like, we had phone demos from the practice space. Being pushed to work with GarageBand more, we switched our writing style to where it’s like, let’s actually record it out how we want the final product to sound. We experimented with it that way which was really helpful with backing vocals and guitar solos and stuff like that. I would say that was the biggest change in our process.
So what was that like, going with your own recordings where you laid it out, arranged it, composed the songs the way you liked them, and then you took them to [recording engineer and producer] Jeff Berner. How did that go?
Stephanie: It was amazing. Jeff is amazing. We did two cover songs with him in 2021 so we got to see how he works. The way it feels when you record with Jeff Berner is that you have this other member in your band who is just as excited and just as dedicated to getting the sound that you want. He’s helped capture exactly what we want. We show him the demo and we’re like this is the vibe and he’ll turn that up, you know? He gets it.
It sounds really good, what I’ve heard so far.
Stephanie: Thanks!
Cait: He knows the fun, weird pedals to pull out.
Sunny: Yeah, totally.
Cait: You know, to sound like a swarm of bees.
Sunny: Like, how do we make a weird spaceship sound here, and he’d be like I got it! And he’d come out with all these things.
Cait: Like pedals from the 80s…
Sunny: He had really great ideas, too, like the little things to add that we never would have thought of.
Stephanie: He’s 100 percent in. That’s why he’s awesome to work with.
How did you start working with Substitute Scene, your record label?
Stephanie: Emily [O’Brien] is just as excited and dedicated as we are. When we were deciding who to work with, even with Baby’s Gold Death Stadium we were like, we want someone who likes our band, who’s excited about the release. We’d rather work with someone we know who’s excited and wants to put in as much effort as we want to. Emily fits all of that. She’s awesome.
Cait: Every artist she works with, she really loves, and it completely shows. She totally throws herself in for these artists and it’s really great.
Stephanie: She’s, like, the nicest person ever. When you feel awkward and shy, she’s like, “I’m Emily! I have this label. Check out this cool band!” And you’re like, “Thanks, Emily! Thanks, Mom!” That’s why she was a great mom in our video.
Cait: She turned in an award-winning performance.
[All laugh.]
I was sold on it.
I saw that you have this cool shirt with the tower tarot card on it. Why did you choose the tower card in particular out of all the tarot cards?
Stephanie: It stemmed from when we were writing the album. The last song we wrote, I called it “The Tower.” I dabble with tarot. I’m not going to act like I’m an expert. I had a tower year. The tower card is one of the most intense cards because it represents major upheaval, chaos, and destruction. But on the other hand, it offers space for newness, enlightenment, and change. We were all going through all of that, especially during Covid and everything.
I knew I wanted to write that song specifically titled “The Tower,” because I was in a tower year in 2022. When we worked on it, we thought this would be a really good theme for the whole album because we all went through this massive change and massive upheaval. But then we also had positive change, like we had Cait join the band. This is the first record with Cait on it. It feels like we found our missing puzzle piece and our sound is finally complete.
How did you all find Cait and bring her into the band? How did you know that Cait was the one?
Stephanie: We wanted to give her a rose.
Cait: Like when you gave me the practice space key ceremoniously. We met many years ago, I guess, because I had a band that I fronted back in 2016 called No Honeymoon. I was playing around with that for a couple years. I had played with these guys a couple times. Seen them a few times. I always loved Desert Sharks. We were friendly from around. Then I saw that they were hiring for a new member. I was like [gasp], it’s gonna be me!
Stephanie: She was right!
Cait: I sent an email, a very professional email.
Stephanie: It was the sweetest email.
Cait. Such a nice email.
Stephanie: Then she came to the first practice and had like notes and knew every song, and we were like, oh my god!
Cait: I came prepared.
Stephanie: We fell in love very quickly.
Cait: It was great.
Sunny: I remember afterwards, the three of us were gonna have the conversation of what do you think? And we were all like, duh!
Cait: I came in prepared and it was pretty great! And here we are a year and a half later. An EP later.
You just had a release party for the “Sleepy Pie” video recently, how did that go?
Stephanie: It was awesome. We did a show at Our Wicked Lady’s rooftop with Big Oil and The Planes. For most of us, we hadn’t been to OWL’s rooftop in a really long time and it is nice up there! There’s fog machines and laser beam lights and things like that. But aside from that, a sea of friends showed up.
Sunny: We played the video before we performed.
Stephanie: Yeah, it was the best vibes you could hope for. It was really, really exciting.
So then next you have your EP release party at the Sultan Room April 1st with Choked Up and Kissed by an Animal? Are y’all super excited about that?
Cait: Super excited.
Stephanie: There’s some outfit planning for that.
Do you have any backstage rituals, like something you always do or a way to get yourself in the zone?
Sunny: We have to immediately find a drink ticket.
Cait: I’m with that one. Get the drink ticket.
Stephanie: A beverage or smokage will help. I forgot to mention this, we had this livestream yesterday and I put lapis in my pocket which is for your throat chakra.
Cait: I think it worked, because we sounded good. Like your vocals were super good.
Stephanie: Thanks! So I have to keep lapis in my pocket, is what I’ve learned. Although I might have lost it. Rebecca, tell us yours, you haven’t said anything.
Rebecca Fruchter (drums): My pre-show ritual is I don’t have one, currently. I just try to show up to the show on time.
That’s key.
Stephanie: You show up and you say you don’t want your drink ticket and you give it away.
Rebecca: And then I set up all the merch. And adjust the drums, as you know you have to do.
Stephanie: I think what we need to do is start planning some pre-show rituals. Like each show, we’ll introduce a new one and see which one works better.
Cait: Workshop it.
Sunny: We’ll hold hands in a circle.
Stephanie: Like before a game, when you put your hands in the middle.
Rebecca: What are we gonna say though?
Everyone: Um…
Stephanie: Tower!
What would you do if you got possessed in the middle of the show?
Stephanie: I think it would only add to the ambience.
Rebecca: Great energy!
Stephanie: I don’t think people would know the difference though. It would be lovely to be able to Alice Cooper it out and have a whole scene with blood and stuff, but we’re not at that level. Maybe in the future. Like for “Sleepy Pie.”
Sunny: Totally.
Stephanie: Maybe we should bring Toby though.
Rebecca: Yes, actually, my coworker was like, “Oh, is Toby going to be at the video release?” And I was like, “Oh no,” and he was like, “You should bring him.”
Cait: We definitely should bring Toby.
Sunny: Toby is the alligator in the video.
Oh! I love the alligator.
Cait: He really stole the show, him and Emily.
Stephanie: We should have a photo of Toby and Emily and be like, here are the real stars.
Desert Sharks in 2023 (photo by Kate Hoos)
I saw that you describe your music as gloom punk? What’s the distinction there?
Stephanie: Bandcamp called us gloom punk and we were like, ooh, we like that. People say we sound like this band or that band. We had a couple people say we sound like Ramones meets Black Sabbath. That was the highest, most beautiful compliment ever. I think gloom punk absorbs that. We have a little bit of metal, a little goth, a little punk, a little garage that we try to squish in together. I feel like it’s fitting.
Is there anything else you’re working on? Will you go on tour?
Stephanie: We have a couple small tours coming up. Just local stuff starting in April, hopefully Midwest in the summer, and more in the fall.
Sunny: For merch, we have a vinyl record that’s coming out and it’s on preorder right now.
Stephanie: The first 100 get a tarot card.
Cait: We have a long-sleeved shirt with tower card album cover.
Stephanie: And some stickers!
Sunny: Lighters.
Cait: We have two more shows in April after the release. April 6 at Pet Shop in Jersey City and April 8 in Philly at Dobb’s on South.
If you could guest star on any TV show or in a movie for any director which would you pick?
Stephanie: Do you mean like acting, or a song of ours is played on the show?
Yeah, either on the soundtrack or you perform as a band on the show, like in a party scene? It could be one that’s on air now or an old favorite.
Cait: So like, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Yeah, obviously Buffy.
Stephanie: I don’t know how it would fit in, but I like Yellowjackets a lot. They could have a flashback to high school and we’d be the 90s band.
Cait: That’s good.
Rebecca: Yeah, that’d be a good one.
Stephanie: Hey, Yellowjackets! Have us on your show!
The New Colossus Festival hit the Lower East Side recently for their annual showcase and festival of up and coming bands from all over the world, many of whom make the stop in NYC on their way to the much more heralded SXSW in Austin, TX. Taking place at Pianos, Arlene’s Grocery, Mercury Lounge, Berlin, Heaven Can Wait, and Bowery Electric, festivities kicked off on Wednesday 3/8 and continued on through Monday 3/13 with a closing event at Bowery Ballroom with Brooklyn’s own A Place To Bury Strangers.
In years past, I have always managed to make it to a show here or there, but this year I made an effort to clear my schedule and decided to do the full fest and check out as much as humanly possible. What that ended up entailing was a total of 47 sets over the course of five days. Of those 47, I ended up seeing one band three times (Plattenbau) and five others twice (Noah & The Loners, Ghum, Adwaith, J3alous, and The Pleasure Majenta). In total, I got to see bands from Calgary, Wales, Texas, Toronto, Berlin, Manchester, Sheffield, San Francisco, London, Copenhagen, Modena (Italy), New Jersey, Vancouver (BC), Athens, Ridgewood, Brooklyn, Dublin, Singapore, Hamilton (Ontario), Birmingham (UK), Vermont, Belfast, and Oslo. Needless to say, come Sunday evening, my legs were shot, my back was aching and my head was swimming in a pool of magical musical memories. What a whirlwind experience for sure. What follows is a day by day breakdown of my time at the fest.
Day One – Wednesday, March 8th
After doing some listening to as many of the bands prior to the festival as possible, I had a rough idea of what I wanted to see, schedules permitting and most importantly, sets starting and ending on time. I started off my festivities with Brooklyn’s very own Punchlove who were the opening act on Kanine Records’s 20th anniversary showcase at Mercury Lounge. With the half hour the band had to perform, the group offered up an enjoyably rousing set of shoegaze noise much to the enjoyment of the crowd which grew steadily as the set went along. Following their set, I walked around the block to Arlene’s Grocery to catch Athens, GA’s duo Monsoon. With guitarist/vocalist Siena Chandler’s effervescent stage presence, the duo provided the crowd at Arlene’s an energetic and passionate set of indie rock.
From Arlene’s, I headed on over to Berlin for back to back sets from Copenhagen’s Gäy and Boontown, NJ’s High. Before I go any further, I need to say that one of the greatest things about New Colossus is that all of the shows are within easy walking distance of one another making it quite easy to jump from one venue to another (provided that the sets were all on time as scheduled, to which they pretty much were all weekend long). Anyway, the set I got to check out from Gäy was my first true surprise of the evening and festival in general. Playing a brand of rock and roll which brought to mind the “pub rock” of mid 70’s UK, lead singer and guitarist Asger Overgaard and the rest of the band put on a fun filled raucous set (it seems like the band might have brought along its own little entourage of friends and fellow partiers for the show) which made me yearn for seeing them in some neighborhood pub back in their native Denmark. Following up was the shoegaze band out of New Jersey, High. Admittedly the segue to a sludgy shoegaze band after the rocking of Gäy was a bit awkward at first but High managed to pull it off without a hitch.
Once High had completed their heavy set, I was off to Piano’s Showroom for the synth pop group out of Oslo, Yndling. Now granted, synth pop isn’t exactly my thing, but front person and Yndling mastermind Silje presented the crowd to a groovy set of pleasant jams. Brooklyn’s very own Picture Show was next up at Pianos and they proceeded to treat the adoring audience to quite a wild and wacky set of live tunes as well as pre-recorded beats. FInishing off the evening, I planned to spend the rest of the night firmly planted front of stage at Berlin for a pair of local bands, Two-Man Giant Squid from Brooklyn and Asbury Park’s Teenage Halloween. Despite the silly name, Two-Man Giant Squid put on a seriously outrageous set which completely won over the legion of fans there to dance and scream along with them. Closing my night out was everyone’s favorite pop punk band from the Jersey Shore, Teenage Halloween. Their split 7” with Homeless Gospel Choir was a favorite release of mine from 2022 so I was quite stoked to be catching them live after having missed them too many times in the recent past. Luk Henderiks and crew did not disappoint as the band put on a scorching hot show with a handful of new unreleased songs along with the “hits” from the 7” as well as their two previously released full lengths.
PUNCHLOVE
MONSOON
GÄY
HIGH
YNDLING
PICTURE SHOW
TWO-MAN GIANT SQUID
TEENAGE HALLOWEEN
Day Two – Thursday, March 9th
Going into day two on Thursday, I wasn’t 100% sure what I would be getting myself into. Of the five days scheduled, truth be told I knew the least about the bands I’d be catching on day two. As it turned out, it would turn out to be an epic night of newfound music. I got to Berlin in time for the opening set of the Dedstrange Records party which would be taking over the space that evening. For those who aren’t aware, Dedstrange is the new label operated by A Place To Bury Strangers’ and Death By Audio’s Oliver Ackerman who himself would be a fixture in the crowd throughout the upcoming days.
Opening the evening up was Kamikaze Nurse from Vancouver, BC. Coming at the crowd head-on with the band’s mix of noise/post-punk/shoegaze, I made an immediate mental note to try to catch another one of their sets later in the weekend. (Unfortunately, this would not come to fruition for me.) After Kamikaze’s set was over, I headed “uptown” to Heaven Can Wait to catch a couple of sets there. I got there in time to catch most of boy wonder, a one man band from Toronto consisting of Ryan (who, in case you were wondering, is not Drake’s producer). Anyhow, his set was fun in a novelty kind of way. Next up was Shred Flintstone from across the Hudson in Jersey City. I didn’t know much about this band and with that name, I wondered if I might be getting another novelty act. I guessed wrong, as Shred, the nom du plum of guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Dan Barrecchia proved to be a very proficient punk garage band that filled the room with loud hooky tunes. Finishing up my stay over at Heaven Can Wait was the main reason I was in the building to begin with, from Belfast, Northern Ireland, Wynona Bleach. Fronted by lead singer Melyssa Shannon, Wynona bills themselves as alternative crunchy popgaze and this certainly works as a pretty good description of what this band delivers.
The next band that I planned on seeing wasn’t scheduled to go on until 11 back at Berlin so there wasno need to rush to get there. Arriving at Berlin shortly before 10, I was shocked to find the club absolutely packed and I mean shoulder to shoulder, can’t move an inch JAMMED. On stage was a band I wasn’t familiar with but even though I couldn’t see the stage or the performers, it was obvious they had the crowd in quite a frenzy. Anyhow, I pushed and squeezed myself toward the standing area to the left of the stage and giving my phone a quick glance, I saw that the band on stage was one called Plattenbau from Berlin. I ultimately got a bit closer to the stage in order to witness what was going on up there and it was pretty close to sheer crazed bedlam. Their lead singer, Lewis Lloyd, was all over the tiny stage, climbing on top of amps, jumping into the crowd, writhing and dancing like a manic contortionist. In any event, Plattenbau’s performance had just shattered the ceiling for best set thus far. The music itself—a dark, synth heavy, kraut rock post punk noise explosion—was a combination of disturbing rage and ecstatic glee. I knew immediately that if they were playing again, I would have to adjust my plans to see them again.
I felt bad for whatever band had to come on stage following that spectacle, but little did I know that next up was another band from Berlin and another Dedstrange recording artist Jealous (or J3alous, depending on where you’re looking). Jealous is led by vocalist/guitarist Paz Bonafil and bassist/vocalist, Dane Joe. Well let me just say that if Plattenbau had left any doors still on their hinges after their set, Jealous hit the stage and proceeded to blow those doors right out of there. They were absolute fire and a little bit of brimstone to boot. Their set was loud, abrasive, raucous, sexy, and generally out of control. Exactly how rock and roll should be. I now had a second band that I needed to make room to see once again that weekend.
Which brings me to my final band of night two, THUS LOVE. One doesn’t usually think of shoegaze when they think of Vermont, but THUS LOVE does and they do it quite well as a matter of fact. Admittedly, through no fault of their own their set suffered in the energy department following the chaotic sets from Plattenbau and Jealous, with their brand of sludgy drony guitar heavy shoegaze, but that’s who they are and they are quite honestly great at it. And just like that day two (for me at least) was in the books. With Friday’s shows starting at noon, there wouldn’t be a whole lot of sleep on the horizon so fingers were definitely crossed that the BQE would be smooth sailing back to Staten Island.
KAMIKAZE NURSE
BOY WONDER
SHRED FLINTSTONE
WYNONA BEACH
PLATTENBAU
J3ALOUS
THUS LOVE
Day Three, part one – Friday Afternoon, March 10th
Coming into day three, I knew I was in for a long one. My day would start with London’s Noah and The Loners at Berlin at noon and end at Mercury Lounge sometime around midnight with fellow London band, Ghum. In between the plan was for 13 bands at four separate venues. What exactly was I getting myself into?
Noah and The Loners just might have been the youngest of the bands which I got to see during the course of New Colossus, with all four band members clocking in at age 18 (or less). For their set at Berlin, it took the band a couple of tunes to work out the butterflies, but once they eased into their comfort zone, the band ROCKED! Make no mistake, if you’re a fan of loud, snotty Brit punk rock in the vein of fill in the bank with virtually any UK band from 1977/78, then you will love Noah and The Loners. They bill themselves as the punk sound of Gen Z and hands down these kids, Noah Lonergan (vox & guitar), Amber Welsh (bass & vox), Joe Boyle (guitar) and Noah Riley (drums) rock hard and loud with fun filled punk rock that also packs some powerful messages addressing topics that mean everything to the teens not only of the UK but worldwide. Topics like teen love, toxic masculinity, transphobia, racism, political corruption, and climate change were all addressed and shouted down within the Loner’s set. These kids are a band to which attention should be paid.
Following Noah would be Lauren Lakis, a dream pop outfit out of Austin, TX and Los Angeles. Lauren and her band offered up a nice nine song set which was highlighted by a screeching and soaring version of their just released single, “Take My Hand.” After their set, I quickly rushed over to Pianos to catch Bonnie Trash’s dark and brooding set in the Showroom. I would then catch electronica pop collective, Dirty Freud upstairs at Pianos who offered up an interesting and eclectic set. Then it was back downstairs to the showroom for Toronto psych rock band, Kali Horse, and after that was a quick jaunt back to Berlin for what would be three straight bands.
The first act, Singaporean pop band, Sobs, who put on a good set of sugary pop music. Next up would be one of my more anticipated bands of the weekend, Adwaith, from the town of Camarthen, Wales. Prior to listening to these women, I had never realized that the fine people of Wales had their own language, Welsh, which is completely different from the English which I always thought was their native tongue; you learn something new everyday! [Ed. Note: Welsh is a Celtic language spoken throughout Wales. Stay tuned for our upcoming interview with Adwaith.] The band, consisting of Gwenllian Anthony (bass/vocals), Hollie Singer (vocals/guitar) and Heledd Owen (drums), play a bouncy very danceable fun version of post-punk and all of their lyrics are sung in Welsh.
Their set at Berlin consisted of nine songs most of which were from their stellar 2022 release on Libertino Records, Bato Mato. Seeing the three members of Adwaith have an absolute blast on the tiny Berlin stage in the middle of the afternoon on a dreary mid March New York afternoon was certainly a sight to behold and no sooner was their fantastic set completed, then I was already looking forward to catching their second set of the festival the next afternoon. Dublin band, Silverbacks, had the unenviable task of having to follow Adwaith and they killed it with their eight song set of post punk anthems. With the polyrhythms of The Talking Heads crossed with the guitar dialogs of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd from Television, Silverbacks totally won me over.
To close out the afternoon portion on Friday, I headed back to Pianos Showroom for two more bands before I would grab some dinner. The first of two was UK rock and roller The Silver Lines. Formed a couple of years ago by the Ravenscroft brothers, Dan and Joe, these dudes know how to rock. They had the midday crowd at Pianos jumping all over the place throughout their super energetic set. And finishing the afternoon off was the art rock band from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Heaven For Real. With their bouncy infectious rhythms, they had the crowd swaying and grooving throughout their set and proved to be almost the perfect band to close out the afternoon. And just like that I was halfway through my Friday music marathon. But before things were to continue, I was going to enjoy a well deserved pastrami sandwich from world famous neighborhood deli, Katz’s.
NOAH AND THE LONERS
LAUREN LAKIS
BONNIE TRASH
DIRTY FREUD
KALI HORSE
SOBS
ADWAITH
SILVERBACKS
THE SILVER LINES
HEAVEN FOR REAL
Day Three, part two – Friday Night, March 10th
For Friday night, I would be spending the entire evening at The Mercury Lounge and first on the agenda was Brooklyn band, Slow Fiction. With a healthy crowd of friends and fans, lead singer Julia Vasallo and the rest of the band opened things up with an as yet unreleased song, “Monday,” followed by the lead track off of their recently released self titled EP. The band would ultimately play the entire EP to a crowd which was clearly well versed with the material (despite it only being less than a month old) as they sang and shimmied right along with the band word for word.
Coming on after Slow Fiction was another Brooklyn band, O.Wake. Again, the home court advantage for these locals served them very well as the crowd was quite familiar with the material and were by no means bashful about expressing this familiarity. In other words, O.Wake played their asses off with their funky, almost disco beat indie rock and the crowd ate it right up. Yet another local band, Namesake was to follow, this time from Ridgewood rather than Brooklyn. I was familiar with lead singer Patrick Phillips via his old band, Honduras, but didn’t know all that much about this new vehicle of his. Expecting more of the dark and sometimes abrasive post punk sound of that former band, I was quite surprised when Namesake presented material which was much brighter, peppier and downright up beat.
While their set ended up still displaying the post punk underbelly of their former selves, it is now presented in a bit more of a jangly fashion which worked great as far as my ears were concerned. Merely going off of the numerous band t-shirts being worn throughout the crowd, it was quite evident that most of the people at Mercury were in attendance to see the next band, from Austin, Blushing. Having played at last year’s New Colossus Festival, the band were old favorites and had the crowd on their side right from the get go. With set opener, “Surround (With Love),” off of their most recent LP, 2022’s Possessions, lead singer Christina Carmona started off with a quiet whisper like vocal atop her meandering bass line before Jake Soto jumped in with his pounding drum beat and from that moment on the band just kicked into a gear that just kept getting higher and higher. Blushing’s set was easily one of the most polished, fun and energetic sets of the weekend.
Closing my evening out was, Ghum, a band which I has been eagerly awaiting for some time. Quite honestly, if I had been able to go to only one show during this festival, it would have been to see London post punk band, Ghum. Since hearing their 2022 release, Bitter, I’ve been fixated on this band and who have a sound that is reminiscent of Savages. They opened their set with “Rivers,” the final cut from Bitter with its never ending guitar riff and pounding tom tom drum beat as backdrop for Laura Guerrero’s spoken word recitation of the words, “How can you be so evil, AND WHY!?” over and over. And so, hook line and sinker, I was had. The set would continue with a scratching version of “Get Up” from 2019’s EP The Coldest Fire, and they would play a healthy dose of songs from Bitter with a couple of deeper cuts added in for good measure. All in all, Ghum’s set was everything that I could have hoped for. And the good news was I was going to get an opportunity to check them out again on Saturday afternoon!
SLOW FICTION
O WAKE
NAMESAKE
BLUSHING
GHUM
Day Four – Saturday, March 11
Saturday afternoon was packed full and this string of sets promised to be an absolute pleasure being as most of the bands I planned to see on Saturday were repeats of previous days. I also got to sleep in a little later on Saturday being as the first set I intended to hit wasn’t until 1:45pm at Pianos Showroom. And as luck would have it, ALL of the bands I wanted to check out that afternoon were playing in the showroom at Pianos, so I pretty much set up camp when I arrived and settled in for what I expected to be a wonderful afternoon of glorious rock and roll.
Noah and the Loners started things off for me and whereas their set at Berlin the previous day showed the band to be (understandably so) a bit nervous, their set on Saturday was anything but. All four band members seemed to be relaxed and eager to enjoy the moment presented to them. Working off a setlist very similar to Friday’s, the band, to use a term which is very often overused, KILLED it. Starting with the crashing chords of “Just Kids,” an as yet unreleased track, they would then blow through another four or five unreleased songs before doing a blistering cover of The Sex Pistols’ “God Save The Queen” with a little bit of a change since, as Noah Lonergan bluntly stated, “but she’s dead now so now it’s God Save The King!”
At one point Lonergan asked from stage for suggestions as to what the band should do on their last day in New York City. Comically, Lawrence Fergus Goodwin from the band The Pleasure Majenta (more on them later) would yell out from the crowd “GO DRINKING!” Noah’s apologetic response was “unfortunately we’re not old enough to drink, I’m only 18.” To which, as if on cue, Noah’s mum who was in the crowd basking in her kid’s glory yelled out, “anyone know where they allow underage drinking in New York?” The band went on to close out their set with their two singles, “Teenage Tragedy” and “Protest Anger,” and just like that, four punk kids from London triumphantly—at least for one 48 hour period—took New York by storm.
The Pleasure Majenta were next up and while I’d been running into the various members of the band almost all weekend at other shows, I had yet to actually see them perform. They are another Berlin (by way of New Zealand) band signed to Dedstrange, and like the other bands that I’d already heard from the label this weekend, The PM fit in perfectly with the loud, abrasive and shambolic formula that Oliver Ackerman seems to be striving for with his new label. This trio of goth punks led by singer/guitarist Lawrence Fergus Goodwin put on a stellar set of noise infused punk which had the crowd of fans in a frenzy.
Following The Pleasure Majenta were their pals from Plattenbau, who as I previously mentioned, put on an incredible performance on Thursday night at Berlin. Well, performing in the middle of the afternoon did not present any kind of detriment to the band as the quartet slammed their way through their set with the ferocious energy of a band possessed. Jumping, writhing and shimmying all over the stage as well as in the crowd itself, lead singer Lewis Lloyd was absolutely mesmerizing as his bandmates provided a heavy bass and drum backbeat accentuated by pulsing synths to the utter delight of all who were there.
Adwaith took the challenge of following these three previous acts and raised the bar even further. Blazing through their set, they proved they could rock with the best of them. Guitarist and lead singer Hollie Singer and bassist/vocalist Gwenllian Anthony have been lifelong friends since they were mere toddlers and it is quite apparent as such watching them interact with one another on stage. Meanwhile drummer Heledd Owen, who has been with the band since its inception back in 2015, provides the backbone as well as the back beat which seems to keep the threesome in step. With a setlist of tunes quite similar to the one they played the previous evening at Mercury, they displayed an assured confidence that certainly propelled them into the hearts of the swinging and swaying crowd.
Next up was another of the Dedstrange artists which had wowed myself and many other audience members previously in the festival, Jealous. Donning a red latex nurses outfit, singer/guitarist Paz Bonfil and her onstage partner in crime, bassist Dane Joe, picked right up where they left off on Thursday night. With a set that was rowdy, raucous and rebellious, they once again had the crowd eating right from their hands. These women sure do know how to put on a show!
And to close out my Saturday was none other than Ghum. Coming off of their remarkable show the previous night, The band upped the anti by not only playing all of the songs from their Mercury setlist but on top of that they added off their most recent album, Bitter, two extra songs in “Echo” and “Some People.” While “Echo,” with its moody bass creates a bleak soundscape transfixed in the foreboding feeling of fear and regret, “Some People” features a pounding drum intro segueing into Jojo Khor’s reverb drenched guitar fills all while Marina MJ screeches out the words alternating between English and Spanish. Here we have even more fear and foreboding but in this case a much more aggressive and forceful version of the same.
And just like that, my Saturday of black lit punk and post punk, rock and sometimes roll, came to an end. Five out of the six bands were repeats and each and every one had taken the mantle from their previous sets and raised it to the next level.
NOAH AND THE LONERS
THE PLEASURE MAJENTA
PLATTENBAU
ADWAITH
J3ALOUS
GHUM
Day Five – Sunday, March 12th
My fifth and final day of the festival promised to be a hectic one as I planned on bouncing back and forth between Pianos (both the showroom as well as upstairs) and Arlene’s Grocery. Unfortunately, Sunday was the first day where I experienced scheduling issues. Understandably, the venue staffs and the band members themselves had at that point been going hard for the last four days straight. Many of these folks who put the thankless time and effort in for all of our listening pleasures were working on little to no sleep at all. As such, it’s not too surprising that things in certain cases might get off kilter and lose track of the schedule. Honestly when coordinating hundreds of set times in close to a dozen different venues, I was shocked these glitches hadn’t occurred sooner. All of that being said, the festival and venue staffs were amazing all weekend long and should get at least one huge shout out of thanks for making New Colossus 2023 possible!
But I digress. After having coincidentally run into an out of town friend outside of Katz’s, I arrived at Pianos Showroom just as His His was taking the stage. Not surprising being it was a Sunday noon set time, the room unfortunately was not very full but that didn’t stop the self described “lo-fi folk” band from Toronto from putting on a very entertaining set. I personally was thrilled to see for the first time all weekend, a lap slide guitar, not to mention a sax player as well. If one were familiar with the numerous singles which His His mastermind Aidan Belo has released on his bandcamp page, the moniker of “Lo-Fi Folk ” is quite apropos. However, with a five person band backing him up at Pianos, Belo’s songs came to life unlike anything in his recorded efforts. The set was full, robust and was quite a nice way to start off my Sunday afternoon (that still felt very much like morning considering daylight savings kicking in overnight).
Running quickly upstairs to catch Gossamer Blue’s set, I soon discovered that there was no rush due to some technical issues which were being worked out. After what turned into roughly a half hour delay, the band finally took the stage and offered up a competent and determined set of gloomy shoegaze sonic blasts. With things running behind at Pianos, I elected to see if I could catch Data Animal, another band in the Dedstrange stable of artists, over at Arlene’s Grocery. It is the project of Mitchell James O’Sullivan shredding on guitar backed by pre programmed loops of noise and the set was disturbingly dark, brooding, apocalyptic and absolutely astounding.
Back to Pianos, this time upstairs, I was able to catch most of Oh Imanuela’s set. Coming from the Mordor-like depths of Data Animal’s set at Arlene’s, walking into the sunshine laden upstairs room at Pianos was, if nothing else, eye opening. Add to this the visual metamorphosis, the startling contrast between the former band’s gloom and doom motif with vocalist Imanuela Oh’s bright and effervescent musical style, and you can say that Oh Imanueala’s set was a breath of fresh and revitalizing air.
Then it was another quick jump over to Arlene’s for Brooklyn based jangly shoegaze group Diary. With a set that leaned much closer in the direction of dreamy power pop than that of shoegaze, Diary treated the packed crowd to a nice mix of tunes mostly from their recent Kanine Records EP release, The Cutting Garden.
With the festival slowly but surely winding down, I still had a couple of bands to see and the next on my queue was a group out of Toronto, Keegan Powell. Named after lead singer Keegan Powell, with its two guitar attack, the group reminded me a great deal of their fellow Canadian forbearer Neil Young and his backing band Crazy Horse. Following their thundering set, I was able to rush downstairs to the showroom to catch most of Ten Minute Detour’s set. Hailing from Hamilton, Ontario, they offered up a set of country tinged rock which I’m sure would fit in perfectly at any of the clubs and bars on Broadway in Nashville. For this particular festival, with its heavy emphasis on the darker side of punk, they just seemed a trifle miscast. That’s not to say however, that they weren’t good. They were, but just a little out of place.
My second to last set of the festival was in the upstairs room at Pianos with Italian indie pop combo Her Skin. With a beautiful voice that filled the room with a feeling of warmth, lead singer, Sara and her three bandmates succeeded in transforming Her Skin’s music from the basic bedroom pop of her LPs to a much more lush and significantly less melancholy and sad sound.
Quite appropriately, I would finish off my five days of New Colossus with the band which I saw the most and easily enjoyed the most as well, Plattenbau. This crew of Berliners (although the quartet actually includes a Swede as well as an American in addition to two actual Berliners) succeeded every time I saw them in transforming the room into a high energy, jump up and down P.A.R.T.Y. They do not play a style of music that I naturally tend to gravitate to, but they still managed to make a believer out of me with their take no prisoners performance style. Needless to say, their set at Pianos Showroom on Sunday afternoon was not any less exhilarating than the two previous sets I had seen from them. Having started out as a three piece back in 2011, Plattenbau’s addition of Sally Brown on bass freed Lewis LLoyd up from bass duties and allows him to run free and rampage all over the stage and wherever his whims take him. Sunday’s set ws filled with the same let’s rock the shit out of this place that I’d previously experienced which begets the question, “Is this how it always is with this band?” I wouldn’t at all be surprised if the answer to that question was a resounding “Hell YEAH!”
HIS HIS
GOSSAMER BLUE
DATA ANIMAL
OH IMANUELA
DIARY
KEEGAN POWELL
TEN MINUTE DETOUR
HER SKIN
PLATTENBAU
And so, my time with New Colossus was over. 47 sets and five days later, my body ached and my head felt like mush but holy shit, was it fun! I make no bones about the fact that this was a quintessential experience of the festival. With as many venues and acts participating, it is humanly impossible for one person to cover it all. Truth be told, as good as these five days were for me, there was a LOT that I wish I had managed to get in which I just couldn’t pull off. When organizing my itinerary before the festival started, I made a tough decision that I would forgo many of the local artists in favor of the out of town acts, with the idea that the locals are just that, local. So I will always have an opportunity to catch them again (I hope). Nonetheless, I sure wish I’d been able to catch bands like Pons, Colatura, Beverly, Bummer Camp, and Jeanines to name just a few, but I’m only human. I wish that I’d had the stamina to hang in there for some of the later sets at night, but again, human…and a rather old one at that. But when all is said and done, I must say that my five day experience at New Colossus 2023 was absolutely awesome and while I might tweak my game plan a little next time, I have no real regrets whatsoever.
And on that note, thank you to all who helped put this behemoth of a festival together, you did good. See you all next year!
Raucous Bayonne NJ based indie-punks Crazy & the Brains made a name for themselves with their energetic live shows and a catchy sound that was built around the inclusion of xylophone. This was a major focus for them and gave them a sound unlike any other band I can think of. But now the band is entering into a new phase and will be retiring the xylophone as well as singer Christoph Jesus’ captain’s hat in triumphant fashion with the release of the brand new video for “Open Eyes.”
“Open Eyes” was released last fall and was produced by Pete Steinkopf (Bouncing Souls) at his Little Eden recording studio in Asbury Park, NJ. Today the circle is complete with the brand new video, shot by Jak Kerley at Shibby Pictures, and the band calls is “the last piece of business [they] will ever release featuring the instrument that was once the centerpiece of the entire band.”
They also share that the “shift away from the once-signature pieces of iconography is to show the band’s commitment to an ever-changing style that can’t be defined by any accessory or instrument. The band, which is often noted for their zany antics and frontman Christoph Jesus’s irreverent personality, is looking to veer off into a more serious style” and have plans for an upcoming as-of-yet untitled full length due out later this year.
The video stars Jesus and features a co-starring role from Ratas En Zelo vocalist, Yadee (Jesus also recently co-starred in a Ratas video to keep the punk love going strong), and you’ll just have to watch for all the action and the shocking conclusion!
Ammar Farooki is a singer-songwriter based out of Brooklyn, NY. But his story is much bigger than that. Born and raised in Pakistan, he released his first EP of original songs entitled Songs from the Cave in 2019. It was around that time Farooki with then girlfriend and now wife, Diane Desobeau, made the move to the States to pursue his dream, continuing his writing, recording and of course, playing live. Our photographer Kevin McGann covered his most recent show at NYC’s famed Rockwood Music Hall (coverage can be found here). We sat down with Farooki recently to discuss his background, his influences, and what he has in the works.
So, tell us a little bit about your background, where you grew up.
I grew up in Lahore, Pakistan and I spent all my life in Pakistan. My dad was in the army, so we moved around everywhere.
Within Pakistan?
Yes, within. I think I started traveling late in my teens or in my 20’s actually when I started working but before that I grew up in Pakistan and that was my universe. The nature of the military was that we were living in random towns.
Every week we would get in the car and ride and….so it was moving every weekend, and getting in the car and going on road trips was in my blood before I even knew what was what.
I remember it was a blue Datsun my dad had, and it didn’t have a cassette player. Later on, we had a cassette player and there was always music, and my mom jokes how my brother and I became singers at the expense of her ears.
What were your earliest musical influences? Was it more local/traditional music, music from the States, or a mix?
I’ve always been listening to a lot of music that was both local and rock. Rock has been somehow my main draw since I was a kid. So even growing up in Pakistan, listening to local Eastern music because it was always there but somehow, I think because of the writing and I used to write in English, I was pulled towards English songs and rock in the English language, be it British or American. And I was five when I heard my first Springsteen song and so there was always Springsteen, and my dad loved Elvis and the Beatles and the Carpenters so he had those cassettes. And those cassettes we used to listen to over and over.
When I picked up the guitar I think it started with a Springsteen cover. And I was like, if I can play “Thunder Road,” if that’s the only song I can play (laughs).
Ammar Farooki (photo by Kevin McGann)
When did you decide to move to the States? What was the main motivation?
There was always a fascination with New York. We were like a very academic family. My dad was in the army, my grandfather was in the army. My other grandfather was a judge in the high court, so it was a very career oriented setup. Mom was a school teacher who set up her own school, like a hardcore educationalist and educator. And everything was like, it has to be about the career. You have to get things right before you start fucking around with other hobbies.
In 2012 I wrote my first song while I was in business school. So, I did my Masters, went back and started working in marketing. I was working with a development firm, and I was working on like World Bank and all these agencies and I was doing development work in Pakistan. But by this time, from like 2012-2015 I had written like 15-20 songs and only played them to a handful of friends. And one of my friends, my bestie Farhad Humayan, who I really respected, was a rockstar back home. Like a huge star who gave me the time of day, heard my songs and was like “What are you doing with your life? These songs are important. You need to stop being a banker or whatever you’re doing and be a musician.” So, I was thinking about it, how I could do that, and that leap of faith almost took a few years. The funny thing is, that same friend pushed and pulled me onto this path of music, he made me my first music video. I think these people show up in your life for a reason. And so, he recorded my first song which was “Caveman.”
And then it was like, he kind of infected me like, dream bigger. Like nothing’s impossible. “Let’s go to New York” he’d say, “set up shit. I’ll be there, let’s play Madison Square Garden.” And I got here, and right before I came, he got diagnosed with cancer. And when I got here, within a year or so he was gone. So that’s one of my best friends who kind of almost pulled me from another life. He reconfigured my trajectory, set me on a different course and was like the single most motivating factor.
For somebody to see you and somebody that you respect and tell you this is more important than any of the other shit that you can do? So, that is the long and short answer.
What was the first show you played in NYC?
It was at the West End Lounge
Where is that?
It was Upper West Side and it also happened to be the first place where Patti Smith played her first show. But the pandemic killed it.
You’re working on a new album, yes? Tell us a little about it.
In terms of songs coming out because there’s a catalog. So, what I’m doing is, my first EP was five songs. Then I put out a single called “Inside” during the pandemic, so that’s six songs. And then there are about 31 other songs. So what I’ve done is, the earlier songs which are like love songs I’ve kind of clustered together as my third album. So, it’s not chronologically based. The sweeter songs will come later. Somehow there was a body of work in songs I was doing like “Blind Man” and “Faithful” and “Fools” so it’s like….
It’s more thematic.
Yeah, yeah it’s more thematic and it’s perhaps my most political writing in terms of “Faithful.”
What about sonically? Will there be a difference between the sound on the second and third albums?
The second album is heavier, and because it’s thematically heavier it also begs for a particular sound. I wouldn’t say it’s like all out rock. I still swivel between rock and folk, I love my rock and folk because I’m lyrical, like lyrics are very important—the bedrock.
This (second) album is going to be heavier and denser and more electric.
Ammar Farooki (photo by Kevin McGann)
In terms of working with your wife Diane, how is it working together both personally and professionally? Is it ever hard to separate the two?
It’s funny how, like I feel very fortunate with the relationship that we’ve built and that we are constantly building. Like we’re very close and we share a lot of interests and passions. And musically when I started playing music, Diane and I had just met a few months before and she was like “I used to play the piano a little growing up” and then she was playing a rock show for like 300 people and she rocked it.
She also didn’t imagine we would move so quickly and play so regularly. But over the years, I feel like I really like her decision making as well. There is a finesse to her classical music education. I never had a musical education so I can write a song and take basic song structures. But now in Diane I have this mirror where I can like, okay this is a song, let’s play it on the piano and she can add a little sophistication to it based on the way she’s playing it.
It there a tentative release date yet for the next album?
Because there’s so many songs, all my fellow musicians are saying, from a musician’s perspective they’re like forget albums—throw singles. Keep throwing singles every month for a year. That’s one approach. But I feel there’s something about a body of work and something that is thematically cohesive, that is conceived and written together. And I do love listening to records, like especially if you listen to records (vinyl), that’s a very beautiful, like throwback, unique—you make time to listen to something.
So, the album is intended for later or post, I would say later in the year. What I want to do is release singles right up until the album.
Any parting thoughts?
My parting thought is….it’s quite devastating to lose someone you were extremely close to in their prime. Anyway, he [Humayun] gave me a life lesson in his parting that maybe my grandfather or older people passing away didn’t affect me. And there’s been so many people. I’ve lost teenage friends in like bike accidents and things like that. But, in a way my friend leaving on that note, with two albums in the works, immediately put an urgency to my body. Like I also realize I don’t want these songs to just be here (inside me), or on my phone. So, there’s like an urgency now to the mission of getting these songs out.
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