INTERVIEW: THE STORY OF "WOOHOO" - NIGHT SPINS' JOURNEY TO THEIR NEWEST EP
Header photo by Tyler Bertram
Walking through Blinky’s Bar in Brooklyn, I was welcomed by four artists enthusiastically. They all sat me down and showed me the latest edit of a music video they planned to release soon for their newest EP release. They turned my attention to a certain booth and skeleton in this bar. This was the place where they shot the cover of the Woohoo EP, as well as the home base for this New York garage pop rock band Night Spins.
The four-piece band started in 2014 with a gathering of Josh on vocals and rhythm guitar, as well as guitarist and singer Manq. The two have been friends for a long time, families being close and raising these two artists with a love for the stage. They moved to New York with years of playing together under the belt and decided to start a band. Enter Andrew on the drums and Jesse on the bass.
Andrew met the two boys first and happened to run into Jesse, who he knew from high school. Thus the duo turned from trio to a quartet and they hit the ground running. The band’s name changed from the Boobies, named after the blue-footed booby, to Night Spins, a name that everyone could agree upon. The name wasn’t the only thing that changes in a band throughout the years. The artists all looked to the past and how it led them to the present and the hopeful future.
Photo by Tyler Bertram
“When you first start a band, it's kinda like splatter paint, whatever ideas come out you're like, this is a song,” lead vocalist Josh explained. “Cause you're kind of just figuring out the personality of the band itself. And as we develop these songs further, we started finding our own voice. And even in finding that voice too, we were like, the name kind of needed to change too, to combat the kind of the seriousness that we wanted to bring of the sincerity of the music.”
With the growth came opportunities that the band seized. They took the stage at the No Cover competition before numerous judges like Izzy Hale and Alice Cooper. Bassist Jesse reflected on that experience,
"It's so weird because like having a competition with art seems very unnatural. So it was the first time we did it, we realized that we had to be somewhat methodical about like, okay, well these are the people listening and we're in this environment. So we kind of had to curate the set to match the moment and the bands that we were going against.”
Photo by Tyler Bertram
No Cover was only the first step in the band’s path as they entered Winter Madness at Our Wicked Lady in February 2023, successfully making it to second place while breaking a sweat and perhaps a seam or two. They used their new found confidence from No Cover to win the hearts of Brooklyn. Andrew, the drummer, said,
“So we approached this next round at Our Wicked Lady: Winter Madness with, it's gonna be different judges every time. Let's just hit all the bangers pretty much every time and just level up every show with more energy. And that's exactly what we did.”
Gaining that momentum in career they also saw Winter Madness as the perfect way to take over the Brooklyn music scene.
"Winter Madness was a more kind of important moment for us in terms of the audience that we were trying to reach, which was Brooklyn. Cause we've always played more so in the Lower East Side, Manhattan. And so it kind of just came at the perfect moment where we were like, y'all, we gotta hit Brooklyn,”
explained Andrew. But, after the competition and with the summer on the horizon, the band was about to do what they had been working on since No Cover and sneak peaked at Winter Madness. They were going to drop an EP. Closing our eyes and imagining a barn in upstate New York full of musicians just trying to figure it out, we see the start of an EP. The songs had been circling the minds of Manq and Josh for a while, especially during quarantine, and they had been considered if this was the end. But, one road trip and time spent with only creation as the goal, the band listened to some advice and got to work.
Photo by Tyler Bertram
“I think, you know, it was the first time that we had really had this much time together with the end goal being we're walking away with something that we’re creating,” reflected Jesse. “Cause we got confidence from Alice Cooper who said, produce yourself. Kind of hoping to take lessons of the past from recording experiences with like my passion and skillset and trying to like, okay, maybe we can like actually do this ourselves. Taking risks.”
Those risks involved many trials and errors. From standing around the barn to get the right sound to running to Best Buy an hour away, it was an experience that every member looks at with an admiration. Each song was conceived and born in the moments they spent there.
“A very strong memory for me is the process,” reflected Josh. “That being able to just, you know, sing the song over and over and over again and not have to worry about going anywhere. You know, like, crack another beer. Let's do another take, I think I'm ready this time. Let's try this sound one.”
On this music filled barn scene the night falls and a fire burns with all the members of the band and their significant others gathered around it. Josh took out his guitar and starts playing by the fire. They all start singing along a very catchy “woohoo” and a song clicks in Josh’s mind like a puzzle falling into place.
Photo by Tyler Bertram
“‘Woohoo’ was actually a song called I was working on beforehand called ‘At the Wake’. I was trying to work on a song, it wasn't really working out. It was about this people who drive into a lit into a river and they die and then you're at their wake.” Flash forward to their pandemic barn trip, “And then that kind of like, poppiness inspired me to be like, oh, this is what the song is about. We're out here stranded, no one's around. All our friends are gone and you want to be with them. You know it’s that nostalgic energy of the song that held the words.”
Manq was the creator of the second track on the EP, “Cereal” and expressed his fasciation with its dark topic.
“It was an idea, a chord progression that I had tried many different ways, like lyrics to many different concepts, to many different ways of organizing it. But I knew I wanted it to be, you know, I knew I wanted the lyrics to be dark, like bad stuff's happening in the song, but I wanted to keep it like this kind of like nice kind of groove so that you don't even realize that it's a song about bad things.”
Photo by Tyler Bertram
Using the band’s incredible chemistry, the songs play off each other’s energies and allow the listener become fully immersed in the fun and excitement of the music. From serial killers and missing your friends, to Josh’s last child on the EP “Big Black Book”. Created during the darkest time most people can think of in their lives currently, AKA the pandemic, Josh took the dark depression and formed it into lyrics.
“I feel like the pandemic just really like, kind of stripped you bare and had to make you look at yourself, you know. I noticed I had so much anxiety I didn't realize I had, especially when coming around people and, you know, just thoughts of like, Am I’m getting a job again?, Is music ever gonna be the same again? And, you know, start creating these dark thoughts and fears, which also brings up old fears about different things. And writing that song was more so, uh, confronting them and just instead of pushing them down, it's more of like playing Hopscotch Devil. Like, let's have a good time with it.”
These four artists of their crafts and genuine lovers of music only want to sweep the world into their storm of fun. Nearly impossible to not fall deeply into every part of the craft, they are honest and genuine about their music and it is evident in every part of their work. “So you have to remind yourself just to do it truthfully and be as genuine as you can and give it your best shot. And chances are it'll come out pretty damn good for a lot of people,” explained Manq.
Photo by Tyler Bertram
Jesse definitely concurs, saying,
“When you start being your own critic, I mean, it's good to critique for yourself until you just get to the point where you are inhibiting yourself from moving forward with your negative critic. There's no room for movement or flourish there, you know? You put it out there, it doesn't belong to you.”
Night Spins has released their EP “Woohoo” with three new songs. Their next release will be their music video coming soon. These up-and-comers are shooting for heights others might only wish to dream for. Do yourself a favor and sit down with a drink by an open window on a nice cool summer night and put on some Night Spins.