Brooklyn – Locally based “goth synth” duo Weeknight have just completed a tour that saw them return to Brooklyn on May 5 to play a homecoming gig at hip Williamsburg venue Union Pool, which also doubled as their Cassette Release Party for two recent singles, “California” and “In The Dust.” Best New Bands caught up with band members Andy and Holly shortly before they performed to talk about finding inspiration from cold New York winters, making music as a couple, and finding their current sound.
R: This is the last stop on your tour, right?
Holly: Yeah, we just got back this afternoon. We just rolled right into here, actually.
R: So you guys have known each other for something like ten years?
H: We’ve been a couple.
Andy: She’s a really patient woman!
R: And you live together and record music together, so are kind of together 24/7.
A: We speak our own language now.
H: I would have to agree with that.
R: How do you think you balance that, your music and your relationship?
A: I think we’re completely co-dependent at this point.
H: We try to keep the music separate from our relationship. I mean we work together so well it’s almost the same thing, it’s always fun.
R: You guys released your debut LP [Post-Everything] around this time last year. Do you think the songs [“In The Dust,” “California”] on the new cassette tape are a departure from the LP or more continuing along in the same vein?
H: It’s just another step in what we were already doing. I think it’s definitely a new project; it has a new vibe, in some small way.
R: So what came about when recording these new songs, what was the process?
A: Honestly it was just a really shitty winter. We moved our studio into our house, and we probably couldn’t leave our house for like three months, so we just holed up and I was like hey, I’ve got some ideas and she was like, cool, I’ve got some ideas and we literally walked out of the bedroom across the hall into the studio.
R: One of your new tracks is called “California” which is quite the opposite of New York winter.
A: It’s kind of like that weird thing when you’re really cold, and you tell yourself, man, I’m really hot.
R: You seem to have this reputation for writing very dark music. Has that been your intention to write what has been described as “quite moody” by a lot of blogs?
A: We just found out about that when we played our first few shows, we had no idea. We didn’t set out to be that way; it’s just sort of what happened. I think that, just, my mind goes to a weird place.
R: Does one of you write the bulk of the lyrics?
A: No, it’s to the point now where, I don’t know where she stops or I start, or vice versa. Like, we had a fight… we had a couple fights where I was like, that’s my line! And she was like, no, that’s definitely mine, check it out right here in this book that I wrote.
R: Andy, you play guitar while Holly, you’re more synth driven. Do you both have backgrounds in those areas?
H: I grew up playing classical piano when I was very young, but that sort of faded away, and then I was a dancer and just sort of had that dance rhythm sort of thing. Once we started playing music together he always played guitar, it just kind of happened. We just figured out that we wanted to do this as a duo, and to do that we have to make all these things happen, and I just sort of slowly figured it out, you know, what it was that we were doing and how we were going to do it.
R: The two of you used to play with quite a few other people.
A: Yeah, we started off in a really big band, with violins and French horns. But we didn’t know how to be in a band yet. We went through this totally democratic process where everybody had a say and input and ultimately it just boiled down to being like I don’t know man, I don’t like that idea…but we were all in this together so we just kind of let them do whatever they wanted.
H: I mean at that point we didn’t know exactly what we wanted to do either, so it was just us figuring it out slowly.
R: So you guys are definitely comfortable with each other enough to say, listen, I don’t like that…
A: I mean, I’ll write stuff and be like oh man, I wrote this great song today, check it out and she’ll be like nahhh, I don’t know what you were thinking.
H: I mean, that doesn’t usually happen, to be fair. Sometimes it’s hard to be subjective about your own work.
R: You both have a fairly classical background. When did you think you were going to take this classical background and turn it into something more contemporary?
H: I think it was sort of based on our limitations, where we wanted to work together as a duo because what we do together seems to make the most sense, and had to decide how to make these songs happen when you’re two people making music. I don’t do a lot of instruments so we have these limitations between the two of us and I think those limitations, and our taste and the things that we like and the things that inspire us.
A: Like our record collection…
H: …sort of mesh together. So I think it’s more of an unconscious, sort of organic process.
R: Where did Weeknight come from as a band name?
A: We had a big list of like, way shittier names, and we just put them on little sheets of paper and then we listened to our songs and were like no, no, no.. fuck these names, get rid of these.. So then the last one we were left with was Weeknight. You know what it was, it was like, it didn’t have any meaning behind it. It was just a nice-sounding word.
H: It feels good, we like weeknights.
R: Weeknights are better than weekends sometimes.
A: This is true.
R: What do you feel makes a good venue?
A: I mean, for us sound quality is really important.
H: The vibe. It’s just unexplainable. Also, Union Pool’s kind of our go-to home.
R: So what are your summer plans now that you’re back in Brooklyn?
A: We’re generally open. I don’t think we’ve made any plans. We’ve got these two songs out in the world, and I think it’s time we start working on a new record. If any cool support things come up we’ll totally do them because we like to tour.
R: What’s your dream act to support?
A: Like right now, if they would ever have us… dude I would actually cut off my ear to be on that Jesus and Mary Chain tour right now. I would literally cut off my ear to play on that tour, and I’d even clean their tour bus…maybe.
R: What’s your favourite place you’ve played on this past tour?
A: Strangely… Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. We played there Saturday night and it was super dope.
H: We also love Montreal.
A: Every time we go there we have a good time.
Keep up to date with Weeknight via their Facebook and Twitter pages, and buy their limited edition cassette tape featuring “In The Dust” and “California” here, out on Dead Stare Records.
Ruby Hoffman
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