Top 10.
Thank you so much for joining us.
We'll be back with another episode of
The Top 10.
Hello, welcome to this episode of the
Top 10.
Today we are joined by Abby and the
Arsonist.
Say hello, Abby and the Arsonist.
Hi.
So we are joined by...
I'm Abby.
I'm Andrew.
Luke.
Kelsey.
Tell me a little bit about what you guys do in
the band, what your individual roles are.
I sing and I play guitar.
I play guitar and I sing a little bit,
but I mostly play guitar.
I play drums and cracktooks.
And I play bass.
Excellent.
So the name, just for basics,
it's Abby and the Arsonist.
Tell me a little bit about the band name,
the story behind it, and how you all came to be.
Like how you guys were introduced with each other.
I know Abby told me that you graduated from
Loyola, so please just tell me.
Are you all local from here?
No, me and Andrew are from Virginia.
We met because we're related.
We're brother and sister.
And then they met because they're dating.
Oh wow, okay.
So we all...
We have a mutual friend who introduced us.
I was friends with him in college.
They met through marching band,
and we just got introduced as a group together.
He moved away, but we stayed together.
When we first started playing together,
we were rehearsing in the tiny apartment
that was like crammed, like head to toe with like crazy stuff.
It was like the juggling house for two lanes juggling club
or something.
And in the studio.
So really did the band, the idea of the band,
start in Virginia while you two were living there together?
Well, Abby and I kind of always played music together.
Abby had a project in high school called Phoebe Water Shoes.
I was in a band in high school with my friends.
But throughout all that, we always played music together.
We did release a couple albums under a project called Bean Dream.
I think if you listen to that, it's like pre-Arsonists.
It has a lot of the same kind of similar threads.
And we even still, like we would perform a couple of Bean Dream songs
live as the Arsonists even recently.
So that was kind of how Abby and I started playing music.
And then when we started as a band, we were really,
it was really kind of coming out of COVID.
I was playing like really quietly in my bedroom for a long time.
I think we were like all rehearsing in mass.
When we first started, we were rehearsing in mass.
We were.
Wow.
And it was really just a way to like the way I saw it.
I was like, oh, I get to crank my amp up and play loudly for the first time
in a long time.
And I actually hadn't been in a band in like a few years at that point.
So I was just excited to play with other people.
And then we just kept playing.
OK.
And so then when there was a point when you guys were introduced,
were you guys introduced together at the same time?
Were you already dating at that point?
Tell me a little bit about that timeline.
Yeah.
So we were dating about maybe seven, eight months, maybe a year.
Yeah, before then.
Before then.
And Charlie had, well, a mutual friend through Tulane's marching band
reached out to us saying that Charlie was looking for some,
or the fifth member was looking for a drummer.
Yes, to me, if he was looking for a drummer.
And I said, I can't do that.
My boyfriend can.
Can I come too?
And I was playing keyboard at first.
Yeah.
Oh, Charlie was playing bass, right?
Yeah, Charlie was playing bass.
Yeah.
Yeah, our first jam, you were playing keys.
What were some of the covers we were doing?
We started out doing covers.
Footsteps in the dark was the biggest.
Yeah.
That was such a fun one.
The cranberries one.
Yeah.
The cranberry song.
Yeah.
That's cute.
Y'all were, okay, wow.
So footsteps in the dark, that's actually like a throwback and a half.
Yeah.
Like what, 60s, 70s?
Yeah.
I think 70s.
That's not Neville.
Yeah, eyes with brothers.
No, that's not Neville Brothers.
I was like, that's not Neville Brothers, but I knew it was somewhere.
It was fun to play that one because we would watch people in the crowd almost like getting
an argument where it was like, oh, that's Ice Cube.
No, the size of the brothers.
No, it's the Thundercats song.
Yeah.
So that one was always a fun one to play.
We should pull that out again.
Yeah, we should.
We should have for years.
Yeah.
All right.
So your first single, answering machine together as a group, it dropped in 2021.
Looking back, do you feel that it still represents the band, the energy and the sound of it represents
the band, or do you see it as a snapshot of where you wore at the time?
Well, it's like seven minutes long, so I'd say that's pretty arsonist-y.
Yeah.
We don't write such short songs.
You had like a six-minute song on your most recent album.
I think we have about like two or three six-minute songs.
You got a lot to say.
I don't know.
I think that at the time we didn't have the equipment that we have now.
And it was, you know, we were definitely, I mean, I don't know, you'd been mixing stuff
before, because you did the whole Bean Dream thing.
So I don't know if like your kind of like production skills have like changed so much.
But I feel like it sounds like that's our sound.
That's, you know.
I'm pretty proud of it, honestly.
Yeah.
We don't play it as much as it shows anymore just because we have to, we can only play so long and we can't, you know,
which I think is a good problem to have.
And, you know, I remember our first gig, we like had three songs or maybe four songs.
And I think the biggest difference between then and now is just that we've just continued to write songs.
And I don't really, I know a lot of bands look at their earlier work and they can say like, oh, that's not really us anymore.
You know, I don't feel that way about any of our songs. Like I just, I like all of them.
We just, we just have to pick and choose what we can play.
You know, I don't know how you guys feel, Lee and Kelsey.
I mean, there's no lack of creativity in this band.
Damn straight.
So with that being said, what is a creative process for you guys to collect?
Does someone take lead in the songwriting?
Does someone start with a riff?
Or does someone bring an idea to the table?
Or does it kind of merge in a jam session?
Tell me a little bit about that.
What's cool, I think is that I think everyone at this table is at one point been like, wait, I came up with this thing.
I don't know, we can like build something off of that.
But normally it starts like where somebody has like an instrumental idea and then we kind of like layer from there and then add on to it, like as a group.
Yeah, I think we have a pretty egalitarian, like I feel like part of why our band...
Hey, vocab words.
Well, egalitarian.
SAT prep word.
No, but yeah, I think that part of why we've, like I think so many bands fail because people like don't feel like they can express their vision, you know, creatively.
And I feel like we all feel like if we have an idea, it will be heard and we can, we all feel comfortable presenting our ideas and we're all, and it's not just that.
It's like we're all stoked on each other's ideas too.
So like it's, it's hard to find a group or that can continue for as long as we've been together for four plus years, which is cool.
And what's nice about it is just like we all come from different musical backgrounds.
So we each get to, yeah, we're making a song, but we each get to bring something that's our own to the table.
Yeah.
Wait, we're all wearing like different band shirts.
You got Ice Cube, you've got Yucks, you've got MJ Lunderman.
What's your shirt?
Oh, this is not a band actually.
It's a TV show that I used to watch with my dad.
Never mind.
What show is it?
It's called Spin Gully.
So it's like a, it was only on Chicago for a long time now it's everywhere, but it was this guy who would show like old horror movies from like the 50s through the 80s and then he would like make fun of them and resperse and have like jokes and stuff.
Oh, so like it was it like, so it wasn't like a scripted show.
How does that format work?
Say that again?
Have you ever seen like Mystery Science Theater 3000?
No, no, no.
I've not seen that.
So they would play like a full film and they have these like little dudes and it looks like you're like watching them in the theater and they're making fun of it.
So it's as if you're like in the theater with them and they're like talking shit about whatever's on.
Oh, that's interesting.
About how long ago was that?
It's still on.
It's still on?
Yeah.
Wow, I have never.
Have you guys heard of that?
Yeah, it's Spin Gully, it's great.
I haven't heard of it.
We got, you got to show it to us sometime.
I mean, that is so unlike TV now.
Like TV is just not having shows like that.
You know, I feel like our brains are wired for short term content now.
I know.
That's the talk of the occasion of everything.
Yeah.
That's interesting.
But yeah, going back to the band though, the name Arsonist, I asked a question earlier, but I was jumbling on a bunch of other questions on top of it.
Tell me about how the name Arsonist came about.
The fifth member that...
That was Charlie.
Yeah, that was Charlie.
All Charlie.
I get worried that I look vain because I'm like my band, I'm the front, my name's in the, I don't know, like I'm shy.
But I didn't come up with it.
Like the Abbey and the part?
Yeah, like, I don't know.
It's not all about me.
Well, I mean, it was collectively, it was like a group decision to kind of make that.
Charlie came up with it and then we were all like, whee.
That's the coolest one.
Yeah, I mean, and the acronym as well, the triple A.
It's pretty cool.
Like with your signature, it does look really, really cool.
It's also like we play with a lot of like kind of like punk and hardcore like bands, so it makes us seem like, you know...
Stands out a little bit.
We make sense on the flyer, even if we don't really, aren't so heavy.
Yeah, so when you all were introduced as a band, how was that initial chemistry and what has kept you guys together for the last, what, four years?
For four or five years?
Yeah.
Foreign change.
Well, it, Luke and Kelsey, what has kept you guys in the band?
Yeah, what are you hearing?
I'd love to know.
I guess, like, just how we mesh together so well whenever we like played, especially like when we first started getting together at the Juggling House, because it was a little different for me because I, like, I come from like a marching band background, but I was also like playing some drum kit for some friends that would, um, used to like sing or rap behind it.
So it was something that was very different for me, but like I said, like, it was just something cool because like me and Andy, we would all be playing and then somehow all four, all five of us would stop at the same time and look at each other and be like, Holy shit, that was really cool.
So there was just a really good chemistry, I think, from the jump and I don't know, I just, y'all are awesome.
I appreciate that.
Wow.
And also, like, we had a lot, we did, like you said, we came from different backgrounds, but like we did have a lot of overlapping tastes, like that we talked about from the jump, like, a lot of nineties, like all rock bands that we're all into, like, I don't know, like, Nirvana, obviously, like Pearl Jam, Chili Peppers, like that kind of thing is like, we were all into that stuff, Cranberries, like, it was just easy to talk about music, like, from the start.
How do those influences shape your sound?
I don't know.
I mean, I think some of the songwriting ideas from a lot of that stuff, I think at the end of the day, like, what shapes our sound, at least from my opinion on that is like, it's just stuff that, like, I like to play.
I don't really know how else to describe it.
I'm not saying, like, you know, I'm not sitting down and being like, let me write a Pearl Jam sounding song, or let me write a this sounding, like, I'll be like, I want a song that kind of has this energy and then moves into this, and then we kind of show it to the band, and then maybe it becomes something totally different.
But I, every one of our songs in our set, I'm like excited to play, because I'm like, you know, this song rocks, and I have fun playing it, you know, so I'm not like breaking it down or like parsing things out, like, oh, this is going to, you know, these are my influences and next wise, you know, but, um, yeah, I don't know.
Well, to add to that, Abby, when you're presented with a riff, what's your thought process on writing lyrics to that and creating a melody for a song?
That always ends up being like the last thing I do, because it's like, especially when we started getting towards the end of the album, I ran out of shit to say.
I don't know, like, I was kind of like, I was drawn from the, kind of like, I have a, like, a notes app, and I'll kind of have like a really long, like, continuous notes app where it's just like, if I have an idea, or I think of something, I'll write it down, something, something that helps me when I'm like stuck is I'll like, I'll take a song that I know, and I've been listening to a lot and rewrite the lyrics to be mine, to come up with something to say, and then I'll try to make it fit to whatever song we're working on.
But, yeah, that's, that's often the last thing that gets finished. I never really start out where I'm like, I have this idea for the song, it's going to be about this, and then I hope we can kind of like build something around that.
Normally it's like, we'll start jamming on something, some of it will hop a riff, and then we'll kind of try to, you know, make it a full song, and then I'm like, I gotta come up with something to say.
So do you feel that storytelling is often very much included in your songs and a key component?
Yeah, for sure. I think this past album, I have a few different songs that are like, about a movie or a TV show, or like a certain scene from something or something in a book that I liked.
Yeah, for Carmella, it's like the Sopranos kind of, I saw the art for the single, what made you guys want to go with that kind of layout?
Because the song was about, yeah, I don't know, I can't remember what season I was watching, I was watching the season where, I don't want to spoil anything, but...
That show has been out for eight years. If you haven't seen that show, like, bruh. What are you waiting on?
It's when they get separated and stuff, that's what I was watching at the time, and you know, it was just kind of funny because it's this really dark Bob story, and there's so much stuff going on that is not like, kind of soap opera, like over the top, like, kind of family stuff,
but I just feel like Carmella in the way she was written, and the relationship she has with Tony is so interesting, and then there's this season where she's trying to live on her own and struggling to maintain relationships with her kids during this divorce,
and it was just so kind of interesting to have that be in the background, meanwhile they're murdering people and throwing their body in the river and stuff.
Just kind of the stakes of those different situations were so different, and I was thinking about that a lot, and so I wrote this song about the Sopranos, but it's really about, like, this woman who knows she's getting teared on, and she doesn't really care, because it's like, well, yeah, I'm a mob wife, you know, that's what happens,
and then all of a sudden she's like, wait, this sucks.
And that's the reality of that. I feel like that show really depicted mob life really well.
Yeah, I wouldn't know from experience.
No, so I was reading that actual Mafia bosses would call James Gandolfini, and they would call him, and they would say that a Don would never wear shorts.
Yeah, I love that story.
Luke's family, what is it? Your dad wanted to talk to you?
It wasn't my dad, but okay, so when the Sopranos was out every Sunday, it would come on, like, the new episodes would come on, and my family would have family dinner and watch the Sopranos.
Well, my dad wasn't involved in this picture, but there was a contest to where if you submitted a picture, you get to meet the cast and eat at the fancy restaurant that they always eat at throughout the show.
So a bunch of my family got suited up and everything, and went and took a picture, submitted it, and won the contest.
So they flew out to, I want to say it was Newark, they flew out to Newark and went to the restaurant, ate, met the entire cast, James Gandolfini included, and there's a picture somewhere where it's kind of like all of them, and they look like a picture of the Last Supper.
And it's signed by the entire cast of the show.
Wow, that's awesome.
So going back on Caterpillar in the Walls, now that's in the Walls, not on the Walls.
They're in them.
So, like, why are they in the Walls? What is with the album name? It's awesome, it's quirky, it's funny. Tell me about the correlation with the song names and the album name.
Well, Luke came up with that album name, he came up with our EP name too, and I think what happened both times is I made the art and then we were like, ah, what, this doesn't, what do we do?
And then Luke comes up with something.
Well, I was looking at it, and if you look at the outside of the cover, it's an entire Caterpillar, like the entire border of it is a Caterpillar.
So I looked at it, I was like sending emails at work and I was listening to files and I looked at the picture and I was like, Caterpillar's in the Walls, and I sent it in the chat and it, it stuck.
It is the best, yeah.
It was the hardest part of the album, you know, was naming it.
We had a lot of.
We did everything before we named it, we were like, guys, we can't release it until we name it, whatever you're gonna name it.
I think it fits though, because the Caterpillar is like, he's eating himself, it's supposed to be like a Oraboris, but it's a Caterpillar instead of a snake.
And then also like, I don't know, there's a little bit of like a paranoid feeling to it, like there's bugs in the walls, but it's also like a little bit, I don't know.
Also, I think it reminds me of like the lyric in Scarecrow, where it's like, there's something under the house, something mysterious is, you know, in this house, which I think kind of ties into the name.
So that's a feeling that you were trying to evoke throughout the album.
No, there's a few different songs where it's like, I was trying to be scary, kind of.
I don't know if everybody gets scared.
So the album, it featured a few singles that you guys water-falled as singles.
Tell me about the strategy and why you guys went ahead with water-falling, because I see, I'm seeing that being increasingly popular.
Especially now.
Yeah.
Yeah, well, I think there's a couple of reasons why we did that.
I think first is, you know, it took us, we started recording this album in April of last year.
And if we just didn't do anything for a long time, it's like, I mean, I really hate that this is the way it is, but like, you kind of have to like remind people that you exist, you know?
Right.
And it's also like, it really stinks to like, have something that's ready and done, and then you just don't release like, what's the fun in that?
So I think part of it is just like, we have this song, like let's just put it out there. Why would we wait?
And then I think, yeah, I don't know.
You know, I looked up a lot of like, you know, strategy to release your album video.
I mean, everyone has an opinion on how to do that and a lot of some stuff that contradicts other stuff and like the right thing to do is always changing.
But, you know, it just felt kind of right. Like, you know, we released three singles last year.
They kind of came out as we, you know, recorded them.
And they were, they're kind of, you know, I don't want to pick favorites, but they were definitely the three that we were like, these are like singles.
It just kind of made sense.
And that was Carmela Scarecrow and Lala, right?
Yes.
All right.
So you're mentioning Studio Time. You've been recording that album since last April.
Yeah.
So you guys are a fully independent band, correct?
No label support.
So what, what does Studio Time look like for a fully independent band, four members, all different instruments?
It's crazy. It's hard to, about what you guys on Luke.
Oh, no.
You just give me a funny look.
No, no, no, no, no. I just, I know this is your forte, my brother.
Well, I just, I spent a lot of time thinking about how we're going to do this.
That is a great question. Like how do you record, because Studio Time is so expensive.
If you're lucky enough to, you know, go to Loyola and you have access to the studios here, that's a great option.
But if you don't, then your options are like, you know, you get on a label and they front for the Studio Time and then you're in, you know, owe them a lot of money.
You're still paying for that anyways, you know?
Yeah.
With the money that you have to give back to them?
Yeah, it takes, some bands like take their whole career to like pay back, pay off their labels.
And so, you know, then you just look in, okay, what's, can I just get a space?
Can I rent a space? And that gets really expensive really quick.
Also, it's like, we were looking at a lot of different spaces when we were looking to record and a lot of them are like, funky, stinky, like, creepy,
like creepy murdered rat fight.
It's like 900 a month for like a shed without any plumbing or electricity.
And it's your responsibility to fill it up with studio equipment as well.
Yeah.
Yeah, totally.
I don't know if that's you, Abo.
You assumed it was, but it's not.
Okay, cool.
That in fact was me.
I apologize.
Nice.
So good.
Now, just, yeah, so basically, like it just kind of landed, we have a rehearsal space, I'll shout them out.
It's spreading the music.
Yeah.
Some loads spreading the music.
It's right off for Rhett, right by Mojo.
Yes.
Yeah.
And we had been rehearsing there.
And it was just like, let's just set up our mics in there in our rehearsal space.
It's the most affordable like rehearsal space that we found so far that isn't like, you know, there's some places that you can rent out.
You can rent out and share with other bands, but like it floods and like all your drums get like water damage.
So it's just, yeah, so that's what we did.
We would pretty much, we'd find the free time between the four of us and get together and plop our mics down and get stuff tracked.
And it took us, you know, we, I very naively thought that we could do it in a month.
I don't know why I thought that.
That's always, that's always the case, man.
Yeah.
Always the case.
So yeah, I wanted to take it a little longer than that, but.
Okay.
So for a younger band that are trying to get to the next level, trying to start recording, you know, they've been playing in the local scene.
They're gigging.
It's going well.
People want to hear their music.
What are they expecting?
If they're going that route, what do you think in terms of actual money?
Like what do you think it will cost to finance just one month of building your own studio and recording in your own studio or renting as you, as you used?
It's expensive.
Yeah.
Very.
It's extremely, it's like prohibitively expensive.
So would you advise like they need to get jobs?
You can work like, well, how, how would you advise a younger band to finance something like this?
We have a band fund.
So every time we have like a gig or if we sell merch or do anything like that, then we put the money in like a pool that's like, this is the band fund for the band.
So we've, you know, use that to like fix amps by new equipment, by recording equipment.
It goes towards the rehearsal space.
Yeah.
I think get a digital audio interface that's, you know, there's some that are, you know, pretty affordable.
We bought an eight input digital audio interface for like $300.
We use that with band money just from playing gigs.
And that was kind of step one.
You know, just get your hands on some XLR cables, get an SM57, you can maybe get a used one for like, you know, 70 bucks, but you can get a new $100.
And honestly, like, you know, you can, you know, you have to make concessions with like what you have.
Like we don't, I can't like fully soundproof like a space that we're, you know, just there for a couple hours.
And it's just like at a certain point in a lot of this album, it's just like, this is how it is.
This is how it sounds.
It's not going to sound like it's recording a studio and that's okay.
Like we're all fine with that.
And we can, you can make music that you're proud of that you're happy with and you don't have to like spend a ton of money.
And I was, I was, I'd never recorded like an acoustic drum kit before this album.
And some things like, there's a really good series on YouTube.
It's a reverb.com and they do a series where they just try to recreate the way that a drum kit was recorded on a given record.
And they try to get it like exactly how it was.
And one thing that really opened my eyes was on the Amy Winehouse album, the drum kit is just an SM57.
It's one microphone.
And so like if you're starting out as a band, put, see how sound as good as you can with one microphone and then just go from there and then play some gigs.
And then you can get a second microphone and then build from there.
You know what I mean?
So start small, get really good with like one microphone and go from there.
That would kind of be my advice.
Did you face any challenge, any unexpected challenges I want to add while recording this album?
When I was recording, it was the end of Old Boy.
We were home for Christmas and so we were in my parents' basement and my mom was worried that the neighbors were going to think I was getting murdered because I was like yell a lot.
She was embarrassed.
So it was challenging.
That was funny.
So now if a record label were listening right now to this episode and listening to AAA, how would you market yourselves?
How would you sell yourself?
What would your elevator pitch if you had those 15 minutes?
Whoa.
Just listen to our come to a show and see if you like it.
I don't know. I think the music is the most cliche thing ever.
But I think it's true. It's really, really true.
And then going back on the advice to other bands too, the music has to be the first thing.
If you're playing stuff that you like and that makes you happy that you're excited about, that's the most important thing.
I feel very lucky that I can say that about our band.
I really like it and that's good enough for me.
And if a label is interested in that, then that's awesome and that would make me very happy.
But also, it's really for us first and foremost.
So yeah, I'm proud of our music and I hope that others like it too.
I like to think that people tend to like it, but I don't know.
I mean, what's not to like?
I was listening to the album throughout the week.
I think Lalo was kind of the standout track for me.
Nice.
Really, really good lyrics, drums, instrumentals.
So when you were getting your album on to Spotify, tell me about the distribution process and how that treated you.
Because you guys don't have a distributor.
What you posted, what the distro kit, I imagine.
So talk to me about that process if a younger artist was trying to understand it.
Yeah, I think distro kits pretty accessible.
I think they have some plans that are pretty affordable.
Like, I don't know, like 20 bucks a year or something like that.
Yeah, I would kind of go that.
There's other...
I haven't checked the market in a while, but DistroKid at the time made the most sense.
And yeah, it's pretty good.
And they can...
I honestly don't know how good it sounds, but they offer to like master your tracks.
Like if you want to do that, if you have a friend that's like an audio engineer, like hit up a human being first, I would say.
But yeah, I know we're pretty happy with DistroKid.
We're not sponsored.
Have you had any experimentation with playlist pitching?
Kind of, not really.
One time we posted our EP, when we released our EP, it just got picked up on a playlist.
We were like, holy shit, 7000 monthly listeners?
Like, whoa!
And then, you know, every day from then it just went down and went down and went down back to normal.
So, you know, I think...
I was saying this to you guys the other day, like, you know, DistroKid and Spotify for Artists or whatever, they have stuff where you can like pitch to labels.
And I did that for this album and for the singles and stuff.
But I don't know, I think you can do stuff on the internet, but like play gigs and get like actual people that will show up for you.
I think that's the most important thing, because like, I don't think really anything got put on a playlist from this album.
But I was pretty happy with the numbers after the first couple days.
I was like, that's cool.
And like this didn't get put on a playlist that someone's gonna, you know, maybe listen to once and then move on.
Like, these are people that, you know, over the course of like us being in a band, showed up to gigs and or found us from somewhere else.
And like, they're gonna listen to it, you know, here and there more than once, hopefully.
But yeah, so I was actually pretty proud of how I feel like we built kind of an audience for ourself, you know, a modest audience.
But an audience is an audience.
Like, I'm super... I could die happy.
Like, I'm super...
But yeah, I don't know.
I don't want to hog the mic.
But do you guys as a band feel like streaming platforms and services are doing enough to support small and independent artists?
Hell no, they're not doing enough to support big ones either.
Yeah, no.
Yeah, it's like famously exploitative. It sucks.
But you know.
I can say how much we've made in lifetime.
I actually found this the other day I was digging around.
We've had music on there for like four years.
We've made like $93.
Over the course of four years.
I mean, we haven't gotten that many streams, so I wasn't expecting much.
But I was actually like, oh shit, $90. That's awesome.
Yeah, that was a yes.
But hey, that is pretty cool.
But yeah, I mean, definitely not. Absolutely not.
What do you think are some of the biggest flaws currently in the music industry?
I mean, I think that unfortunately the way the world works is that you have to make money to do stuff.
That's just like, you know, how things are.
For example, if you want to make art, you do need to be making money to continue to make art.
And so, yeah, I don't know.
Just the whole thing of like when bands are trying to be like a professional indie band and have that be like their career.
You like the only real way you make money is like through, you know, like merchants and like ticket sales and stuff.
And it's like, I don't know, it's just a lot of pressure and a lot of bands like end up like barely breaking even when they go on tour and stuff.
And I don't know, it's sad. It's hard to make money this way.
Yeah, I think like going into being a band, I think you should, if you want to like get the most out of it,
I think you should be clear on like what you want to get out of it.
Like, and I think you, I don't want to say like, don't follow your dreams. I think you always follow your dreams.
But I think like, like there's so many talented, so many, so many talented people that like it's just they're not going to break through and it might never happen.
And it's, it's, and if that's your goal, then it's, you're going to be disappointed, you know, but if you're like, do I want to have fun and like make music with my friends,
maybe play some gigs and you know, see where that goes, like, you know, and just as long as you're doing it for yourself, like you'll be happy, you know, and yeah, the industry is, is right.
I should not have, I'm not qualified to give advice, but what I, what I am qualified to give advice on is, you know, just do it for yourself and the rest will come, you know.
Yeah.
Nice. Yeah, that's, I feel like that's the best way you can really put it.
So going back to shows, we are in New Orleans, the music playground of probably the world.
What has been your, your most favorite venue while, while playing here?
Oh, I really like Siberia because they always have like a chest full of Miller Highlights in the back rooms.
Really cool.
I'll give a shout out to this one because this one just reopened or is going too soon.
I'll give a shout out to Gossagoss.
Yeah.
That one's always a fun one.
Glad we got another uptown spot.
They also have a cool green room.
I like, I like when there's a green room.
The goats also really cool.
We always play at the goat and it's a lot of fun.
I love the goat.
The goat is awesome.
Yeah.
I like the way the room sounds.
It's not a very big room and I feel like sometimes, you know, if, if not everything's mic'd up, you can't hear, I can't hear Abbie on the other side of the stage.
Sometimes, you know, but I just feel like the room sounds good.
I can hear everybody and you know, there's the, yeah, I like the goat a lot.
Definitely want to show support to all the sound engineers throughout the city and definitely add all the venues too.
Yeah.
Shout out.
Absolutely.
What has been your most memorable show so far?
If any come to mind.
Muff Prom was really fun.
I feel like a lot of people I know, like saw some of Promo were excited about it.
Like the guy, our album release show, I met somebody.
This was, I don't know, maybe feel really special.
I was really excited.
I met somebody who has been putting early works on Genius and stuff.
Oh, cool.
Yeah.
Just like has been doing that because I don't know.
They just wanted to do that.
Abbie, do you want to tell what the good, the good people, what Muff Prom is?
Yeah.
Well, I was getting there.
Okay.
I'm so sassy.
But he saw us at Muff Prom and then like ever since then it's been like listener music has been a fan and stuff.
And I think I've met a few other people who said kind of similar stuff.
I didn't really know you guys, but I saw you at Muff Prom.
It was, oh my gosh, Oliver.
And this is so bad.
Quinn.
Yeah, it was Quinn and Oliver's movie.
And they had this big premiere party where they screened the movie and then they had, it was us and Evans band at the time.
I think it was just Chimney, Evan, Michelle, but it was still Evan and Emma.
It was at the broadside.
And who else played?
Bag.
Yeah.
So it was this big show.
We all wore suits and that was fun.
And it was a bunch of loyal bands and then a bunch of loyal people and everybody dressed up like it was prom.
Because the theme was prom.
And it was really fun.
It was a very fun night and the film was awesome.
Super cool.
Yeah.
Can I just say I thought our album release show was my favorite show so far.
I thought it was awesome.
You can say that.
Yeah.
It was really fun.
But was everybody's least favorite show?
Wait a minute.
Y'all didn't say your favorite shows yet?
I think my favorite show, I don't know exactly what it was, but it was a Mardi Gras show when we were with Panama Papers.
And it was at Gossagoss.
And the whole place was completely packed.
It was just really cool.
That sounds awesome.
It was fun.
A lot of energy in that show.
Lots of energy.
Nothing better.
You know there's nothing worse than a good show that no one recorded.
That's the worst.
I wish we had more videos and stuff from the album release show.
Because people were singing along and stuff.
Dancing crazy.
I think we might have some videos.
Cool.
More on that later.
Don't worry about yours.
I think mine was, it's a tie between this most recent album release show and that same Gossagoss show that Kelce was just talking about.
Just because the energy was different.
And for me it was crazy to hear the entire room scream lyrics back at us.
I don't know how you feel about that.
That was so cool.
I had goosebumps as I was playing and it was so hard for me to focus in and keep time because it was just such a cool feeling.
That was really neat.
That's been a little private dream of mine since we started playing together.
I was like what is one day?
I was playing and the audience knew my words and was taking back and stuff.
What a special moment.
Yeah, I've definitely, that's not so private dream of mine.
That's such a cool feeling and experience.
It's the best thing in the world.
Imagine now what's next?
They're probably going to harmonize like the guitar parts.
Shout the bass line.
I don't know about that.
Someone brings their rig in the audience.
I will respect the hell out of you if you do that.
I challenge anyone to do that.
So now that your album is out, what's next for the band?
Playing some gigs, hopefully.
Jimmy Fallon, I think.
Just kidding.
We've also been like, as we were rehearsing for different shows and stuff,
sometimes we would be like, hey, we have this thing.
So we also have a couple, maybe like three or so.
Three or four.
Yeah, quite a few new songs that are cooking up as well.
Yeah, I started to write again.
I really like doing that.
The process is definitely one of my favorites as being a band.
So new material in the work, are you going to be pursuing that?
Are you going to take a little more time and pushing this album more?
Or are you going to let the album kind of marinate?
It's already done its thing and you're just going to get it right back to being creatives.
I mean, I think we're probably going to be playing some shows
and trying to get people to listen to our album and stuff
and play the songs that are on the album.
We have time. We don't have to rush it anything.
I don't think we're going to start recording anytime soon.
God no.
We've had enough.
But I think that maybe next time we have a rehearsal,
we don't have a gig coming right up.
We should write again.
Definitely.
Nice, yeah.
I mean, have you guys had any tour plans played outside of the city at all yet?
We actually have not.
We haven't been asked to play, but something always comes up
when we maybe have an opportunity to play like Lafayette, Badm Rouge.
It's just never, it's always fallen through.
It's just kind of, it's going to happen at some point.
We're going to make it to Badm Rouge.
We'll make it there.
Absolutely.
What do you see yourself in five years as a group?
I hope we're still playing music and recording and stuff.
Is there any long-term plans that you guys are anticipating and preparing for?
I don't really see myself as like, I don't know,
I don't really consider, I think the music thing is very important to me
and it's like a big part of my life and I'm really glad I'm doing it,
but I don't really have big plans to like get signed and then, you know, go.
I know that you would love to go on tour and stuff.
But if it were to happen, you would absolutely pursue it relentlessly.
Yeah, that'd be awesome.
I'd be so excited, but I think for the most part, I'm in it for like,
this is kind of a fulfilling, like creative outlet.
But...
How would you guys feel if I was like, hey, we got asked to go on tour?
Like, what would you guys say to that?
I'd probably be down.
Do you want my honest answer or do you want my...
Because I have an honest answer too.
I feel like we have a similar answer.
You go first.
Well, I was just going to say, I mean, it's like, going on tour is like my life's bucket list item.
Like, I remember being in high school, just being like, oh my God,
like I wanted my band in high school to go on tour and like, it never worked out.
And I think the...
Again, I'm not qualified to speak on this, but like, touring costs a lot of money
and we live in one of the best cities in the world for playing live music.
And like, you know, as soon as the calculus makes sense to go on tour,
like that'd be great, but if we're going to lose like a ton of money
and be in a stinky van for like a very long time, like that might be tough.
Like, I don't know, like, I...
And like, I have a dog and a lovely partner that I live with
and just like, leaving that for an extended period of time would be very, very hard.
And, you know, I would love to go on tour.
Like, if I could snap my fingers and then like, figure all that out, it'll all work out.
Like, that would be awesome, but I'm not like, you know, we gotta, you know,
we gotta go on tour so then we can do this and so then we can do this.
I'm just like, you know what, like, let's keep playing gigs and let's keep having fun
and I'm happy with that.
We played with enough bands that are...
Like, we played with enough touring bands to kind of, the illusion of tour
has kind of been like a little bit shattered, which like, oh, you guys are like, so stinky.
Like, you're playing to like a small, like, kind of like,
like an almost empty bar on like a Thursday night.
I will also say though, like, to the people that are on tour, that choose to go on tour,
I respect the hell out of you and you are living my actual dream.
Yeah, and we've got to play with some really cool bands and I'm glad we got to see like,
I don't know, bands coming at a different sense.
This band, Yucks, was on tour and we opened for them and they were awesome
and they had really cool gigs.
Oh, shit.
So, yeah.
Billy Dume is dead and...
Yes, those guys are so cool.
Oh, yeah.
Young Cassidy for shout-outs.
I think both of them are out of Florida.
Yes.
Yeah.
Full of Shrelics.
Full of Shrelics has always been kind to us.
Yes.
Skoban.
Also in Florida.
No, it's been really cool to meet bands from other scenes and stuff and like, I don't know.
I think it's a very cool thing that people are doing, but I don't want to do it.
It's tough.
It's hard.
I'm leaving the door open, of course.
I would never say no to anything.
Well, that's not true.
It's a going on tour.
The door would definitely be open, but for the time being, I think playing gigs here
and it's been a blast.
I don't want for too much more.
I'm so excited to rehearse again with you guys this weekend or whatever it's going to be.
That's what I'm looking forward to.
That was sweet, Andrew.
Definitely some takeaways there, some career highlights I was hearing, some ambition.
To wrap things up, really, if you could collaborate with any artist from the past or present, who
would that be and why?
I want to hear a different answer from everyone.
Please don't make it hurt.
I can't think of a single musician all of a sudden.
I would record a track with Neil Peart, the professor, the late drummer from possibly
my favorite band, Rush.
Greatest drummer of all time for you?
I don't know that much about drumming, honestly, but he's up there.
Drummers say that he's up there, so I'll take their word for it.
He is.
Damn.
I'm trying to think.
That's a good question.
You stumped the arsonist.
I would love to.
I've always wanted to go straight.
I think it would be really cool if I could write a song for someone who's like, oh, it's like a singer.
You can hit some crazy notes.
Oh, interesting.
Like take it and go crazy with it.
Like write some arsonist-style lyrics and then have Sabrina Carpenter sing it.
Yeah, that'd be cool if a chapel-roan type was like, I don't know.
Start feeding a dog, start singing about scary shit.
Yeah, I think that'd be super cool.
That's a good answer.
I don't know if I would succeed in this collaboration, but I'd love to hang out with Keller Williams.
Keller Williams.
Yeah.
Well, how come?
He's just like a really goofy guy.
He seems like he'd be fun to hang out with.
He doesn't take himself too seriously.
Cool.
We're both live things.
Yes, we're both live.
I guess for me, it would be someone along the lines of like, I guess Kendrick Lamar or Tyler the creator,
just because I have a big love for West Coast hip-hop.
Yeah, I see that.
I've seen that.
And I would just love to play drums for like a live, like a big live thing like that.
So I feel like that would be pretty sick.
What initially got you into drums?
Really, just honestly, I would grab like whatever I could as a kid and just played pretend drums on a table.
And then soon enough around middle school, they had a pair of quad drums and like a marching band.
And I started playing those and then once I got into those, I got in the bass drum and then snare drum and then I picked up a drum kit.
And it just kind of like stumbled from there because I played all through high school.
I played for in college and then for a time I used to play for the New Orleans Saints.
I played in their drum line too.
Wow, that's pretty awesome.
Yeah, very modest.
You waited a long time.
I was waiting for you to drop that.
How did that come about?
So my instructor teaching me was the section leader for their quad section.
And they were looking for members at the time and I had just turned 18.
Okay, cool.
And I joined and it was very fun.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It was some of the most fun I've had ever.
I can imagine.
Would you travel with the Saints?
No, we never did travel per se, but we would always play at the two minute warning before halftime.
We would play on the field and we would go around during home games.
We would play in like Champion Square.
We would go play at different tailgates and stuff and we would just always have a good time.
And what was fun was we would like, we all knew all the parts to everything.
We would switch instruments in the middle of a song.
So I would swap with somebody and be playing cymbals and going crazy on those while somebody was playing quads.
I just have a lot of fond memories of doing it.
It was super duper fun.
That's amazing.
Thank you for it.
I'm glad I got to hear that.
I'm really glad I got to hear that at the buzzer.
You have your guitar here.
I think we mentioned something about you guys having a lot of performance in the talk.
This would be the first one.
I'm really looking forward to hearing this.
I'm going to tune my guitar.
Ask Luke another question.
Luke sing something quick.
No.
Luke has the voice of an angel actually.
We don't talk about it like that.
I do not have the voice of an angel.
No, that's not true.
He's being modest.
It's okay, I guess.
One thing we're going to do on the next album is going to be like we're all going to sing more.
Thank you.
I can almost guarantee that.
Well, Luke seems to...
I'm game with it, honestly.
I'll be cool with it.
Sometimes just hearing myself back and recording, I'm not too fond of.
I feel like that's for everybody.
You're drop C.
Should we just do mood ring instead?
It's like six minutes.
Are you like really drop C right now?
It's something.
There's something going on for sure.
I know time limit here on the talk take as much time as you need.
Okay.
So I am in drop C.
We could do mood ring.
Yeah, you're like a 12 string in drop C.
I think we should do it.
Oh, good God.
Dude, the live chat is saying for you to sing.
Luke, I'm good.
Come on.
Any upcoming gigs?
Yes.
We're playing March 11th at the free store.
There's like a thing being put on by...
Oh my gosh, is it killing records?
Yes, yes.
And it's for...
I think there's going to be some bands that are on the way to South by Southwest.
So I think we'll be playing some tunes there.
And maybe...
I think we have a couple other things that I can't remember.
Cool.
So, wow.
So I have a...
12 string.
I have a 12 string guitar.
So it takes a long time to tune.
It's also in like a weird tuning.
Don't mind me.
You're good at taking time.
This is cool.
No, this is really cool.
This is like my prized possession.
It was my big graduation present when I graduated high school.
Nice.
It's a beautiful guitar.
But the thing about this guitar and like the...
There's one string that is very, very thin and then also has to be tuned really, really tight.
So I've broken the last like four strings I bought for it.
And I buy them at glue because it's just close to my house and the guy's always like,
Hey, you're back.
And he's not so friendly to me, no offense to him.
But I was dressed super goth because I was wearing like a costume for the show.
And then he was like, what's up?
Like what kind of guitar do you have?
I don't think you recognize me.
Which is really funny.
My 12 string story is one time I was...
I had a guitar...
I was teaching guitar when I was in grad school and her dad, my student's dad was like,
Hey, I have this 12 string.
It's like really old.
Can you like, you know, restring it for me?
And I was like, yeah, yeah, 100% dude.
Like I would love to help you out.
Took the 12 string home, started to restring it.
And the nut of the 12 string just like just cracked on me.
And I was like, oh no.
I mean, like they commonly break and it was on the super long one, like the G string.
It's like really long and has a lot of force on the, you know.
So it kind of was my fault, but also kind of not.
But I feel bad about that.
But he was like, hey, can you just restring this old guitar for me?
And I came back and I was like, it's broken.
I'm sorry.
My bad.
Cool.
Cool. I was just cool about it, but yeah.
Sorry, Rick.
You guys ready?
Yeah.
Wow.
Yes.
Thank you.
I mean, wow.
Thanks.
I would, I would die a very happy death listening to that.
Well, not soon.
Now, hopefully not anytime soon.
That was great.
Abby and the R Sinus, thank you so much for taking the time to come out, guys.
This has been an absolute pleasure hosting you guys.
Thanks so much for having us.
And interviewing you guys.
Yeah, thank you.
This has been one of the most.
Thank you.
Any closing statements before we wrap it up?
Go ahead and listen to our album if you haven't yet.
Get up and get out there and go listen to it.
You heard it from Abby herself.
Get up, get out there and go listen to it.
Thank you all.
Happy great night.
Thank you.