009: The Baxbys
"Three notes and a dream." - Alex, on how a song begins.
The Baxbys are an indie band from Connecticut who found their sound while hanging out in Amherst. We chatted with Alex, James, and Chris (Spencer was enjoying some downtime at Washington Square Park) before their show at Mercury Lounge. Their new single, “In a Cage,” is part of an upcoming album inspired by art, and everyday life. We also got to chat about pasta and flea market fun. Their music is honest, easy to connect with, and pretty much your next favorite indie boy band.
Edited by: Ashley Carvajal
Interviewed by:
Lili Leoung Tat & Ashley Carvajal
Photography by: Marisa Bazan
Band Line-Up:
Alex Nordlund (Far Left) – Lead Vocals/Guitar
James Miller (Middle Right) – Guitar/Vocals
Chris Sciucco ( Far Right) – Drums
Spencer Rosenfield (Middle Left) – Bass (Not Present in Interview)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Who are the Baxbys?
Alex: We are. The Baxbys.
Maybe even like star signs?
Alex: I'm Sagittarius, but I don't think that matters.
James: I'm a Libra, and I think it does actually. I feel like I'm very balanced in every way.
Chris: Yeah, you're here and there.
Chris: Yeah, I'm a Taurus, Aries cusp with a Scorpio rising and an Aries moon.
James: Okay, you know too much about this.
(Everyone Laughs)
Chris: I only know like whatever. I got bored one day. I bought a book.
What got you guys into making music and forming a band?
James: I think it's natural.
Alex: Yeah, everybody kind of wanted to do it, but then we all got together. Chris brought me into the band. James brought Spencer, which is the bass guy. And we all just like making music in a lot of different ways, but it's cool.
Chris: I think it all stems back to like childhood for at least a lot of us. Like I grew up around music.My dad was always playing. Alex's dad was always playing. Our dads were actually in a band together at one very brief point. That's how we met. So yeah, I think it's passed down in some ways.
When starting a new song, what usually comes first? A lyric, a melody, a phrase, or a specific emotion?
James: For me, it's never lyrics. It's usually just drums. It's any instrument really. It could be a melody, but it's usually just some sort of instrument. The words come after.
Alex: It's usually never lyrics first for me. It's like the general emotion or a title beforehand. That gets me started. Three notes and a dream.
People often assume you're British because of your name, your vibe, and even your sound. Have you ever just gone along with it?
Alex: Chris, can you tell a story? Yeah, we got called British when we went to Canada.
Chris: We got called the most British-sounding Canadian band. We are neither British nor Canadian. I love being called British. I think it's pretty cool.But I can't do the accent, so I've never gone along with it that way.But I won't correct people.We have gotten called brothers, which we'll go along with.
Alex: Yeah, we are the Canadians brothers.
Do you have a Canadian accent?
Chris: No. We went to Canada and they assumed we were from there.
Alex: I like Canada.
Are there any artists, albums, or genres you found yourselves returning to while writing or recording the EP Side by Side?
James: I feel like the first two EPs were kind of a similar vibe compared to what we're doing now. So I think it's kind of like we used to tell people our inspirations back then. They were pretty much the same.
Alex: I think during that time it was kind of like taking older songs anyways and reforming them. Making them have a rock kind of sound. So a lot of Strokes and then New Wave bands like The Cure.The Smiths at the time.
Chris: Yeah. I mean definitely the stuff we were playing together before we kind of worked on the songs. Which was all the Smiths, Strokes, Cure. A lot of people say Arctic Monkeys, which I hear too. I don't think anyone's like a diehard Arctic Monkeys fan in the band. But I hear why people would say that.
Alex: I was listening to a lot of the Shags at the time.
Did you have like one song on repeat?
Alex: Yeah, Philosophy of the World. That's just classical.
Your music often touches on themes of love and relationships as seen in tracks like Love Doesn't Talk or Damn Wrong. Do you find yourselves drawing more from personal experiences or observational narratives when crafting these songs?
James: Definitely observational narratives. I honestly don't have any experience. The lyrics always just come from somewhere else. I mean, once in a while it's like a personal thing. But usually it's not personal. But it's just fun to build a world of some imaginative thing instead of personal.
Alex: Sometimes it's personal though. feel like Love Doesn't Talk is a personal concept for me.
Chris: I don't tend to do a lot of writing specifically, like with the band. I don't know, I'm a drummer. It's easy to write a melody, but maybe I try to have experiences that they can observe.
Do you have an emotional feel to it? Because I feel like drumming is like with rhythm.
Chris: Of course. There's emotion in everything. I do try to pull from things there, but I don't know, just in general. Maybe that'll be my end of the bargain. I'll try to have more experiences.
Okay, so we talked about this before, but I know that some of you are from Connecticut. What would you say that the band's roots started in Amherst? And how has the community influenced or impacted your music career?
Alex: I think it's everything. I think it's definitely the starting point. Because we went from just nobody hearing us playing in a baseball field, and then we have this huge college scene going on. This inspires you to keep playing and keep looking for more shows, just from that one town's experience. There was a really cool community that we had back then. I don't know, right?
James: Yeah, I'd say our roots are definitely in Amherst, even though we're from Connecticut. But that was just kind of our little blossom moment, I guess.
Chris: Yeah. I mean, a big part of it was just how James and I lived together in this house, and our other roommates weren't there in the summer. So we spent a lot in the first summer as a band just sitting up there. So I think physically as a place, it means a lot to us as a band. I mean, we spent time hanging out there and really getting to know each other. And then Amherst is like a perfect... A lot of colleges, but that specifically, it's like a city in the middle of nowhere. It's kind of a... I just had the word and I forgot it. Like a model city. You can kind of just test things out there, because it's a community in itself. But I felt like we've tried out the band thing, and it worked out. We've taken some of the same practices from Amherst and moved it to other cities.
I know you guys have just released your new single “In a Cage” which will be apart of your upcoming album, which we're excited about. What can we expect from the new album?
James: Well, probably songs you haven't heard yet.
(Everyone Laughs)
Alex: it's good for a treat or something. It's going to be good.
James: Yeah, I don't really want to speak on any... give you any preconceived ideas. I want to let the music speak for itself, but I think we all are happy with where it's going.
Did any non-musical influences, like films, books, or weird life experiences, shape the direction of the new album?
Alex: I think just art in general is very profound in different mediums. You get inspiration from TV shows and various visual art. Definitely a lot of cool painters out there. That really helps with songwriting somehow, but it's good.
Chris: Sorry, correct me if I'm wrong, but I would say experiences too, I think, are going to end up shaping the album. Again, not to speak too much on that, let the music speak for itself, but as far as the songs that are going on, it all kind of came from very different... What's making up the album is a combination of experiences we've had over the past two years, three years since we've released anything.
James: Yeah, it is like a wide range of different experiences and songs.
What's your favorite track from the new album and why does it stand out to you?
James: Right now, my favorite might be Do You Love Who You Are, which isn't out yet, but we've been playing it live. Maybe I'm biased because it's my song, but yeah, I think it's cool. It's different from most of the other stuff.
Chris:I don't know. I don't know what my favorite is going to be yet.
James: The album's not done yet, so we still have some stuff to work on.
Chris: I think one of my favorites hasn't been worked out yet, but I will say I love human music. I don't know, actually don't quote me on that title. I don't know what the title is going to be.
Okay, so untitled.
Chris: Yeah, I love untitled. (Laughs)
That's one of Alex's songs that we've been playing and working on for a while. And that song from day one to now still speaks to me and feels like a really cool step for us.
Alex: Is The Masses on the album?
Chris: Yeah, Masses will be on the album.
Alex: I'm looking forward to that one.
What else do you guys find yourself doing creatively outside of the band? Hobbies?
James: I do a lot of cooking. I like to try new things, try new foods, make new things. It's just kind of like the only other, I guess you could call it like an artistic outlet. So that's kind of my main other thing. I'm kind of foodie.
What have you been making?
James: I started making fresh pasta recently.
Okay, like handmade?
James: Yeah. I've always made like, Chris and I both actually have Italian ancestry. So when we lived together, we were making a lot of like pasta and sauce. Stuff like that. Fighting over who's better. Yeah, who's better bolognese. Yeah, tough one.
Which one is better?
(We instigated)
Chris: Yeah, I mean his food overall. We have different approaches to cooking.
(Everyone Laughs)
Alex: I like Gardening. Growing plants.
What have you planted?
Alex: I don't know. Just some green plants that you can eat in some way.
Chris: I'm pretty cliche. I like thrifts. Not thrifts. I like flea markets and antique stores and coffee shops.
Have you found anything interesting? Have you like thrifted something that you're like, that was like a cool thing?
Chris: Oh yeah, I have so many things. Like I go like all the time. I went to the New Milford flea market in Connecticut. It was really cool. It wasn't even what I found. I talked to this guy for like an hour and just learned a lot about like counterfeit wine and stuff. And just like the things you can... The people you can meet at flea markets and like the conversations you have.
What's counterfeit wine? Is it just like...
Chris: So, interesting fact. I'm not going to dive too much, but basically counterfeit wine, this whole thing that happened. And they discovered it because wine and every living thing has a little trace of radiation ever since...
Chris: Was it Chernobyl or something? No, no. Since the bombs in Japan.
Hiroshima?
Chris: Yes. Since then, all living things have a trace of radiation. So they caught the counterfeit wine by not...
James: So it's bioengineered?
Chris: Well no, because they realized it wasn't prior to 1945, I think.
James: Oh, counterfeit as in like not an authentic... Okay. So it's real wine. It's just posing as like an old wine, but it's a new wine.
Chris: Yeah. All right. My bad. I learned that at a flea market. (Laughs)
That's cool. No, that's a cool fact.
How would you describe your journey as a band overall? Doing the live shows, starting from the basements of house parties, now playing at venues like Baby's All Right and Bowery Electric.
Alex: I think it's really nice. Actually, you go first. I assumed I have something.
(Everyone Laughs)
Chris: Yeah, it's nice. I mean, I think it gives us a lot to reflect on every single experience, and it's helped push us forward. I think all the ways we've been challenged have been really good, and all the quote-unquote rewards have also been really good, just for us to see what we need to keep doing as a band.
James: I mean, New York's such a huge, dense place, so it's cool to be playing the same kind of shows over and over again, but you still meet new people and have new experiences just doing the samething, which feels monotonous on the inside, but in reality, you're moving somewhere, so you've got to remind yourself of that.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
It was such a pleasure to sit down with The Baxbys and get a true glimpse into what makes their band so special. The deep friendship, the easy humor, and their shared sense of wonder for the world around them. Their creativity clearly springs from connection, both with each other and the experiences that shape their journey. With a new album on the horizon, The Baxbys are carving a new sound into the music scene, and we can’t wait to see where it leads them next!
xxx
Website: thebaxbys.com
Music Video of “In A Cage”: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUjaUvOm0t0
