Neighborhoods Interview (New Jersey Pop Punk)

First off, state your name and role in Neighborhoods.

My name is Frank and I play guitar in Neighborhoods.

How would you describe your music to someone who hasn't heard it?

Definitely fast paced, old school style pop punk. Think The Movielife, Kid dynamite, Saves the day, New found glory, but all of their first releases. The first releases always seem to be the most raw. I think this is where we get most of our inspiration, even though we listen to so many different genres of music. We throw our own twist to it. Most of our songs are just about living life... And drinking beer. Fast.

Your album "Facing A Lifetime" is definitely in my top ten favourite albums of 2011. It has a really nostalgic feeling to it. How did that album come about?

First off, that is awesome, and I can not thank you enough for the kind words. Like I was saying, I guess the nostalgia would be us trying to bring back that old style. It's what we all grew up listening to so that's just what comes out. We spent about half a year in our old guitarist's basement just writing every night. We had the nine songs and just decided it was time to record them, so we set some dates at Gradwell house recording with our friend Dave Downham and just went for it. It wasn't super planned out, but I think that actually worked to our advantage. It kept that raw feel in the mix. You can tell by our intro. All of our friends came on the last day to do gang vocals, so of course we brought a couple thirties. Our drunk bickering was recorded while we were standing around doing the vocals. We ended up thinking it was funny and threw it on there.

You recently released a music video for the song "Finer Things", how did that video come together?

Our good friend Mike Carroll, who runs Love and Death records, was actually walking around at this halloween show we played in Atlantic City with a camera. He was pretending to take pictures of people the whole night, but he was actually just video taping the whole thing. It was actually kind of funny, no one had any idea. He took all the shots, plus the live footage and edited it all together. It came out awesome and we couldn't thank that dude enough. He's one of the nicest guys out there. He's actually the one that put "Facing A Lifetime" out for us. Definitely check out Love and Death Records!

This winter you'll be recording a brand new EP with Nick from Man Overboard. How did Nick get involved? Can you give us any info on the new material?

Well, the old Neighborhoods demo's were recorded with Nik, and we've always liked the style of his recordings, so we decided to go to him for these couple of songs. We feel like he'll be able to help us out a lot with what we want to achieve and get done with them. The new stuff is a little different, but still has that old school feel to it. Steve (vocals) and I do a lot more dual vocals back and forth. A lot more harmonies. A lot more hooks. It's still fast-paced, 2/4 time, good old pop punk, but I think there's a little more emotion put into this. Basically, we want everyone to feel the blood, sweat, tears, and beers. We're growing and coming together as a band, and I feel like that's what a lot of the songs are about. In fact, I'm pretty sure Steve and I state our age (23) in at least one line of every song. If I had to compare the songs to another band i'd say they remind me of The Movielife a lot (there's actually a Walking on glass reference in one of the songs. I'll be excited if people catch it.)


How would you describe the Pop Punk scene in New Jersey?

The scene is coming back and growing. It rules, because I have been in love with pop punk since I was in 6th grade. It's really cool to see how far bands like New Found Glory, The Wonder Years, Man Overboard, and Transit, just to name a few, have gone. It gives me hope. If we didn't have this music I don't know what we'd do. Regular 9 to 5's aren't for us. This is how we get away from it.


What's been your favourite show that you've played so far.

We're asked this question a lot, and the answer still hasn't changed. It was definitely the show we played with The Wonder Years and Man Overboard at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia. It was the first time The Wonder Years had sold the church out and it's something they've wanted to accomplish for a long time. It felt awesome to share that night with them. Although, every time i'm asked this question I always have to make it a point to say that there's nothing better than playing small basement shows in our hometown. One of our friends had our release show for "Facing A Lifetime", in his parent's basement. Within the first couple of seconds of our first song I was knocked into my amp and got hit in the face with my mic by kids rushing Steve and my mic to scream lyrics that we had written. There is absolutely no better feeling than that. So much sweat, haha.


What's the craziest thing you've seen at a show or while on tour?

We played a show at this small bar in North Philly called O'reilly's about a week ago. There were so many kids getting into the set and I was so pumped on it. Then out of nowhere a huge fight breaks out right in front of Steve and these kids are on the ground going at it. I'm guessing a kid got caught in the face by another one (moshing? haha) and he wasn't too happy about it. We had to stop in the middle of the first song of the set. I had one kid by his shirt with my guitar still around my neck, and Steve's holding another one. We gave a talk about how we don't condone that shit and then tried to figure out where the hell we were going to start the song from because that has never happened to us, and some kid screams "start it from the beginning!" The fact that kids were that amped up on our music makes everything worth it.


Do you plan on playing in Canada anytime soon?

We have yet to get over to the West Coast, so we're trying to conquer that first! Canada would be awesome though. As soon as we put this ep out we're ready to tour anywhere we can. Every day that I wake up and see our van parked out in my yard instead of out on the road, it's just more incentive to get out there.


What can your fans expect from Neighborhoods in the 2012

New songs, Tours, a lot of empty beer cans in our van, and possibly putting out a split with some friends. But we'll touch on that more later.

Any final comments for your fans?

Honestly, we couldn't thank everyone who has listened to our album enough, whether you bought it or downloaded it, thank you a thousand times. Also to everyone who comes out to shows and sing our songs with us. The most amazing feeling is writing something and having kids scream it back to you in your face. So to anyone that supports this band, we appreciate you more than you know. Like I said, this is our escape from all of the bullshit in life, so you're what keep us sane. Thank you.

http://neighborhoods.bandcamp.com/