Tuesday 3 September 2013

Poor Remy Q&A

Your name:
Adrian Galvin.

Where are you from?
New York/Ohio.

Name of band:
Poor Remy.

Who else is in your band?
Andrew D’Amico and Kenneth Polyak.

How would you describe yourselves?
Indie folk, freak folk, desperate victory drinking music.

Who are your main influences musically?
The Avett Brothers, Akron/Family, Modest Mouse, The Beatles, Radiohead, Animal Collective.

What do you hope to achieve in music?
To be felt. We don’t think we are all that into having enormous fame or fortune (even though maybe fame without the fortune would be ok). But mostly we’re in this for ourselves. It may sound selfish, but music is an exercise in self-exploration for us, in challenging ourselves to take a risk, to jump. Making music is terrifying. We just want to be better at being who we are, and we think music is a way of getting there. It makes you constantly question yourself, and then asks you to put that doubt into the world. It forces a complete reckoning with all your bullshit every time you pick up a pen. We think its ballsy. Music doesn’t really have to give us anything, we are mostly just learning more about who we are by doing it, and we’re having a blast doing that.

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why?
This past year we returned to Kenyon College, where we graduated from, to play a show. It was pretty magical. Everyone we loved was there and screaming along with every word. It really put into perspective how much community and support we have behind us. We believe that music finds its most monumental role as a binding agent. And when we experienced our music doing that, man oh man weren’t we set at ease.

And what’s the moment you want to forget?
When we fight. I know that sounds stupid and childish, but we really are like a collection of three clingy girlfriends, and music is boyfriend to us all, and we all want him more than he wants us. It’s very frustrating. So you know we all have a very different relationship to music, so we don’t always see eye to eye. But its a shame when we feel ridiculed by each other and feelings are hurt. Like all people, we struggle to express ourselves in our relationships, and even though we can do it draped in spotlight in front of a crowd, its still really hard one on one, in the moment. When we respect each other and feed off of each others ability to communicate, it is reflected in our music and it’s awesome. When we don’t respect each other nothing gets done. That's our constant struggle, and its a struggle we think it’s worth constantly battling for. So, its not something we want to forget after all. Come to think of it, I don’t think I ever want to forget anything. You can learn and grow from anything you pay enough attention to, even if its a shitty experience.

If you had to choose just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why?
Well recently we released a single from our upcoming October release. The third track on the EP,  “Wrecking Ball” is a lot about a certain kind of self destruction. Not the violent pill popping kind or the deranged murderous kind. This song explores the idea of self sacrifice. Not like martyrdom, but a kind of letting go. It’s really hard to let go - of people, of habits, of your own feelings. Wrecking ball is a monument to the notion that there must be destruction for there to be re-birth, re-creation, re-invigoration. We have to sacrifice ourselves and whatever we’re holding on to in order to keep becoming. We’re always changing always growing, but that means we have to be able to shed the skin of a student to become a teacher, shed the skin of boyhood to become a man. This is really difficult sometimes. “Wrecking Ball” honors this struggle, and dares the listener to move on.


Where can we listen to it?


Where can we find out more about your music?
Google - they know all about us!

Anything else you’d like to say that I forgot to ask?
YES! Well other than gearing up to release our first music video and second EP, we have just joined an awesome community of local musicians to form a collective called ‘Garden Party’. The group is made up of some kids who came out of Berklee in Boston and moved to Brooklyn to play music. We’re honored to team up with the likes of Bear Language, The Rotaries, Tei Shi, Yellerkin, Figaro, Butta Baby and James Rapp in this effort to bring more music to the community by helping, learning from, and supporting each other. We’re pumped about it, so we wanted to let you know! Thanks so much for interest Greg, talk soon!

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