Three cheers for the hometown band! The indie world has recently been overtaken by a pack of SKATERS, who don't actually skate, in the form of punky, punchy rock. Full of New York City pride, a bit of a devil-may-care attitude and a slew of guitars, this alt-rock foursome released one of 2014's best breakout records in February, Manhattan.
Music Times sat down with SKATERS frontman Michael Cummings at Governors Ball to discuss the quick formation of the band, playing PIXIES live and whether or not The Killers could be actual murderers.
Music Times: You're from Boston and I know some other people in the band are from L.A. and England, so how did you all sort of center in New York City, which has come to define your band?
Michael Cummings: Josh and I met at a party in Los Angeles when I was living there -- lived there for two years -- and at that party we just kind of talked about our previous bands and how they were both just dying down, and I said, 'I'm moving back to New York and maybe you could come along.' Josh had been living back and forth between London and New York for a long time.
Sure enough, he shows up with like a day's notice, and we start the band that night when he shows up. Next day, we booked our first three shows. So there wasn't a lot of time to think about how it would all get formed. It just became a very New York-centric thing because we all just got back to New York.
MT: What would you even play after three days? What were those first gigs like?
MC: We played a lot of covers to fill that time up. Our first show was seven songs, five originals and two covers. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to write more songs, and we had to come up with something. It all came together, eventually.
MT: Who would you cover?
MC: Pixies, a lot of Pixies songs. We did a Joan Jett song, a Motorhead song, did The Clash. We were kind of all over the place.
MT: What was the first actual SKATERS song you wrote?
MC: It's called "Are We Just Doomed?" That was on our first EP that never saw the light of day, really.
MT: Your album is called Manhattan and is lyrically-centered on NYC. Can you speak more to the New York influence on SKATERS?
MC: When we moved back here, we all started working in bars, so we all stayed out every night, did a lot of stuff and met a lot of people, had a lot of experiences. That's when all the songs started to come. It wasn't a conscious thing. We ended up naming the record Manhattan because that's where we all met and played all our shows; we never left the city. For the entire first year of the band, we didn't even play out of town.
MT: So, how did it feel to play a big hometown show at Governors Ball?
MC: I mean, it's great. We haven't had a New York show in a while. It's cool to see kids out enjoying it; the all ages thing is cool. On top of all that, it's a warm crowd. Everyone's familiar with the music. We play a lot of other festivals, and people don't necessarily know us, so you go out for a lot of first timers and it's just a different reaction. This was more of a party.
MT: I saw you have a couple weeks break in your touring schedule. What do you have planned next immediately?
MC: I'm just going to stay home and write, and then we go to Europe and Australia.
MT: And how's the tour been going so far and all the festivals?
MC: It was mostly U.S. We did two U.S. tours back to back. A lot of different size cities, different vibes, different size crowds in places we'd never been before. It was nice to build new fans and see what else is out there. It's a funny thing when your record comes out you don't know who's going to really respond to it and in what parts of the country. The U.S. is so big that you get a totally different crowd 200 or 300 miles apart.
MT: I get that, and with your sound I can see you being really big in England.
MC: Yeah, there's a big alternative music scene over there. They like guitar bands.
MT: To wrap this up: I know you don't skate and that you named your band because you liked the skater culture, but I feel like you get that question a lot, "Oh do you skate?" So, do you regret naming your band SKATERS at all?
MC: A part of me does, only because I love the name... but a part of me is very aware of the fact that we started as an art project -- we didn't anticipate doing anything, we were just like "Oh, let's go to New York and start playing as a punk band and do lots of little shows." It was supposed to be just for fun. It still is fun but it became something else that it wasn't originally.
So, I don't regret it, I still feel the same way about the name. Though, I do feel like if we had a different band name those questions would never happen. But, what's in a name anyway, you know? You don't ask The Killers if they've murdered people.
