Hey Stupid November and welcome to BuzzMusic. It’s a pleasure to have you!
For a group that's only been together for a few years, what kind of lives were you all living as musicians prior to forming the group and what lead you to become one?
We’re happy to be speaking with you, thanks for reaching out. We all went to Finger Lakes Community College near Rochester, NY, and all met each other outside the context of the band at school events and in classes. At this time we were all musically very different, with Elijah rapping and producing hip hop beats, Joel working on original production, Alan in a noise rock duo, and Charlie pursuing his love of jam band playing. However, when it came time for Joel to record some original songs for his final project at FLCC, we all came together organically. Joel brought in Elijah and Alan, and Alan brought in Charlie. Once we got in the studio we all sort of knew it would continue beyond just that project. The chemistry was there.
The song "Monday" has a very relaxing and deep chills vibe to it. By closing your eyes, you feel the essence of the song calm you right down. How do your other songs compare to it? Is there a common theme between your music?
Monday is definitely the most relaxing song in our discography. When we started as a band, we were playing a lot of jazzier stuff, and then moved more towards funk. That’s what you hear on our debut album Do Not Disturb. Monday is a different direction for us, moving towards our love of neo-soul and jazz-hop music. We also knew Mary’s voice would be a perfect match for that style, and that inspired us to pursue a calming vibe during the writing process. We all agree that the common theme throughout all of our music is us and the chemistry we have as a band. We have many musical interests that are not genre-specific and look forward to exploring them all while still sounding like us.
The lyrics to the song Monday seem like they come from deeply personal experience or the current situation. Can you give us more depth into the meaning of these words and what inspired you to write about them?
Monday is about missing someone from a past relationship, even when it was your idea to end it. They are kind of inspired by a lot of different experiences, as they were co-written by the featured vocalist Mary and our bass player Alan. We think Monday is an effort to show breakups from the perspective of a person who ends a relationship they’re not sure they want to end. We think many people have had a brush with that situation in one way or another.
Do you think your music style will change over time, and what qualities in a song do you feel are needed to make it connect and still be heard many years down the road?
Our style changes all the time. Monday differs greatly from our debut, and the music we have prepared for releases down the line is different from Monday. The constant in our music isn’t the style, but the mission to make music that we want to hear. We try to make songs that come about through organic inspiration and excitement. Capturing the excitement of the artist is what makes the music last, and that’s what we want to do regardless of genre or style.
Thank you so much for chatting with us and we look forward to hearing more from you. What can we, and your fans expect from you next? Any live performances in the planning?
Thank you for having us! We have a number of projects coming up. We just had a live movie of our album release party performance come out on our YouTube channel. We also have a hip-hop-inspired EP featuring Irate Musik and Modyst Vibes coming out on November 28th. As far as live shows go, you can always see where and when we’re playing on our website, stpdnvmbr.com