Straight Up Random

Interview: Styrofoam Junkies

Interview with Rich from the Styrofoam Junkies Jeremy: One of the biggest questions we have, is how did you come up with your name?! Rich: Well, we were called the Standoff, but another band had the name trademarked, so one night we had a big bonfire with a bunch of our friends, and went through about 500 names making fun of every one we came up, finally our friend Nat said Styrofoam Junkies, and we made fun of it but not as much as we did every other name, so it just kind of stuck. J: That’s pretty random! Rich: Yeah, we have no clue where he came up with it. J: It’s unique though. R: Yeah that’s really what we liked about it. It’s very catalytic. People usually love it or hate it, but at least it sticks in their head. J: That’s true. So, I’ve been listening to your music a lot today, and I can’t help but notice some rap influences, like your needle scratching and some rap intros. How did this different sound come about? R: Well when we first started playing, we actually had a DJ. One of my best friends Sid was playing with us; we thought it added an interesting element. I actually listen to a lot of backpack rap so it was really interesting to me at least and the rest of the guys all like hip hop to a certain extent too. J: I’m not really familiar with backpack rap…would you enlighten me? R: It’s like Indie Rap. Like Little Brother, Brother Ali, Cage, Aesop Rock, Atmosphere, Sage Francis. Kanye West actually came from that sort of scene. That’s probably the most famous. J: So, what other musical styles or bands/artists would you say influence (or inspire) your band’s music? R: We all listen to very, very different music: Vinny - Blink 182, Gym Class Heroes, Paramore Ryan -Pink Floyd, moe., Radioheaad, Pantera, Umphrey’s Mcgee Steve - Latin fusion apparently Haha I’m [Rich] really into Indie Rock anything, and good pop. I’ve been listening to a lot of Battles, Yeasayer, Wilco, Atmosphere, the new Panic is incredible, [and] Pete Murray. Then our good friends in This Condition and All Grown Up are amazing. J: By Panic, do you mean Panic at the Disco? R: Yes I do. I looooove that record. J: All these different influences; how would you describe your sound? R: A melting pot of sonic absurdity. Haha J: Haha! I like that! It gives you room to explore. R: Exactly! J: So, you recorded you EP, Guided by Speciner, nearly a year ago. How was that? R: It was a lot of stress!! We only had 5 days to track all five songs. We didn’t do any demoing before so we just really lived on red bull for 5 days. This time around we’re going to do a lot of demoing, and take our time. We put together a little studio in Ryan’s bedroom, so before we even enter a real studio we can take our time and really explore. J: So you’re recording soon? R: In the fall. [We’re] gonna hit the road a lot this summer, and try to get our name out there some more than get back to the studio. We’re really stoked. J: Tell me more about this summer tour! Is it a tour? R: Well, we’re doing a TON of weekend warrior stuff, and then we’re doing a 5 day out through the Midwest and a 10 day, all the way down to Florida. Mostly Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights. J: So what do you do on the weekdays when you don’t have concerts? R: Well, Vinny’s in school, Steve does sales for a computer magazine, Ryan is a mechanic, and I manage the band and do temp work for The Agency Group (A booking agency) and throw some local shows in New York, but we’re all kinda preparing to leave our jobs. I had to leave my full time job first because I also manage our band. Once we finish the new record, we’re pretty much gonna live on the road. J: So, let’s say I’ve never heard your stuff before, and I’m going to one of your shows. What can I expect? R: Dancing, fun and free candy! We keep treats at the merch table. J: So, do you still cover Usher’s “Yeah!” at your concerts? R: Upon request sometimes. We’ve done it so many times. J: Where’d the idea come from? R: Just jamming on the song, one day we were like why don’t we do this live? We did acoustically a bunch of times first, and started jamming on it full band and figured to try it out. J: Sounds like a party! What do you say is your favorite song to play live (one of your own songs)? R: We have a little dive bar on Long Island called Patti & Johnny’s where we’ll go play for our friends sometimes and try new stuff out. Vinny/> - Come Alive Ryan/> - Drop Steve/> - Drop R: - probably Drop, but we’ve been playing another new song in practice that’s a lot of fun. Drop isn’t recorded yet but it’s a fun song! We play it live. J: Can we expect that on your album? R: Yup yup! J: Which song do the fans seem to enjoy most? R: I’d say Touch or another one that isn’t recorded called Glow. J: The video for “Touch” is pretty interesting. It’s like a montage of different movie clips. Can you explain the meaning of the video? R: It’s just a montage to a bunch of things we grew up on. No real meaning, and completely illegal because it violates a million trademarks. We’re shooting a real video for it hopefully in late May or early June. Steve put together that video over the course of a couple of days, just messing around with film editing. J: It’s pretty random! R: But the funny thing is, it’s not as random as you would think, because it’s all tied into random inside jokes. So it’s random to everyone else, but we watch it and giggle. J: So, how long have you been playing together as a band? Did you know each other before the band? R: This Sunday is actually our 1 Year Anniversary show! [As a band] But, Steve and I went to college together and played together there. Me and Vinny live around the block from each other, and so do Steve and Ryan. J: Have anything special planned for the one year show? R: Well it’s at the Crazy Donkey on Long Island which is a really cool venue! And we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves, involving party hats and other assorted random party accessories. J: You signed a “digital deal” with Takeover Records last month! How was that? What does that mean? R: It’s really cool! Ben and Warren are really cool guys! Well what it means is they acquired the rights to our EP, and are making it available through every digital outlet out there. We maintain the rights to our hard copy sales, so we still get a ton of freedom, and they help us with advertising and on tour and stuff. And they’re doing an exclusive merch line for us that will be available from their site, and will be different then what we have out on tour with us. It’s a very, very artist friendly deal. It seems like a very good option for bands that want to maintain as much power over their own career as they can but need a little help. J: Where can our readers buy your CD? R: www.takeoverdigital.com for digital downloads and www.cdbaby/cd/Richjunkies for hardcopies. We had to pull it off iTunes when we signed, but it will be back up on all those sites in a couple of weeks. If you go to www.takeoverdigital.com, it gives you a list of all the different places they have distro deals with. It’s basically any site you can get music on. We’re also currently building an online store where you can get our tour merch and hardcopies of our cd.