How did you guys become a band?
I met Daniel Anthony, our drummer, in the fall of 2013. We went to highschool together but the school we attended was massive, so even though I knew of him growing up, we had only met a handful of times. That fall, I contacted him about starting a project. He was one of the few guys I knew making music at the time and after sitting down for coffee and talking about ideas we had, we immediately hit it off. We played our first show less than a year later. As far as Cody and Noah and when they jumped on board, we had them filling in for us on a hometown show around a year ago and had such great chemistry that we asked both of them to jump on full time with us.
How did you guys come up with the band name NeoRomantics & what’s the meaning of the name?
Wikipedia and coffee. It literally means “New Romantics” so we felt like lyrically, at the time especially, it was an accurate depiction of what we were trying to convey. Romantic concepts, in an unconventional format.
Can you tell us a little something about each of you?
Cody has the sickest shoes in the band for sure. Noah fell through a bathroom ceiling at a show once. Hagen collects cactuses. Anthony changes facial hair styles daily.
What is it like being in a band? And what’s the difference from going from being solo artists to becoming a band?
You don’t sleep a lot, but you do learn to sleep on floors. You’re in like seven Facebook messenger threads that were intended to be productive, but have now become a hub for memes and trash talk. When you’re on tour, old guys look at you funny in rural gas stations because of your skinny pants.
How would you describe your musical style as a band?
Like, if there was such as thing as pop emo that had a baby with slow, less structured pop punk.
What artists/bands are you influenced by?
We listen to a lot of our friend’s band and bands that work in the same tour circuits as us. Right now I’m really into Salt Creek, Kayak Jones, Belmont, Future Tapes, Embracer, etc.
What’s the difference from your band and all bands that have come before you?
No other band before us, was made up of us. So, everything. We didn’t invent rock music, but we did invent NeoRomantics.
You guys just released your new EP, “Homecoming” and it has gotten an amazing reaction from your supporters. What has been your thought about the reaction of the EP?
We’ve been pleased with the response for sure. We toured a bunch between the two releases so we had loads of friends and fans all across the country anticipating the release. When we finally released it, I think that it was so drastically different and more mature than our other work, that it really surprised people.
How did the idea for this EP come about?
Uhm, we wrote ‘Concentrated’ about a year ago which was sort of the catalyst for the rest of the record. When Cody and Noah came into the picture around the same time, I felt like it gave us a little more direction stylistically and the rest of the record was just us chopping up and working with concepts that I had written.
Can you tell us the meaning behind the name “Homecoming” ?
In a way, it is kind of about me getting back to being in a content place with myself but also about the feeling of coming home after touring for the last year and bringing all those experiences home to write the E.P.
Any fun moments while creating the EP?
The entire thing was one big fun moment. I had the opportunity to write a record about my life with my best buddies.
What’s the process of writing one of your songs?
I usually map out the bare bones of the song. I’ll have a verse and chorus or a riff that I like. Then the rest of the guys take that and help structure and embellish those ideas. We just piece it together live in a room.
What’s been your favorite song to write and why?
I loved writing Gold Plated. It’s probably my favorite tracks of the record and getting to write that drop and feeling how huge we could make it sound was such a cool feeling. It gave me goose bumps the first time we played it through live.
Do you guys have a creative say in your music?
We have the only creative say, really. We are totally independent, currently, so everything you hear on the record is purely, unadulteratedly us. Aside from contributions, production wise, from some of our friends and our engineer, it was basically written and produced solely by the four of us.
What do you hope to gain out of your music careers?
We just want to continue to travel and tour and make friends at home and on the road. We want to be ambassadors for Tulsa all across the country and help bands come up at home. We want to make records that people can relate to and fall in love with.
Are you guys planning on touring or doing any shows anytime soon?
We just held our record release party on June 9th at The Vanguard in Tulsa. It was really well received and we had an amazing night! Now we have two tours coming up this week and again in July. Then we are taking a break to write and let Daniel Anthony get married, then we will be back on the road this fall.
What’s the feeling you guys get when performing in front of your fans?
I feel like we really shine in the live setting. We’ve always been a live performance band so being able to show our friends an even more intimate, intense side of the band is always exciting.
Does your fanbase have a name?
No, but if they did they should be called NeoRoFantics.
How do you want your relationship to be with your fans?
Open. We don’t really refer to anyone as fans, but friends rather. That’s important to us. We want to build friendships no matter how popular we become.
What social media platform do you use most to stay connected to your fans?
We are super easy to get ahold of on all social media if you want to yap with us. We are especially active on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc. We like communicating with people in our community.
What was the craziest fan encounter you guys have had?
We’ve never had too strange of a fan encounter. Friends make us art sometimes, which is cool. People will recognize us places that we don’t expect to be recognized. We had a few people come up to us inside the Mall of America which was wild. I think we’ve never really been closed off to people, so it sort of takes away the whole fan girl aspect when you’re just buddies with the guy that plays in NeoRomantics.
What’s an average day for “NeoRomantics” look like?
I’ll give you an example of a day on tour for us. Daniel wakes up three hours before everyone else and walks to a coffee shop six miles away in a city he’s never been in before. I wake up on one of my friends floors, get up and kick Cody and Noah in the ribs till they start moving. We load up all of our junk and hug and kiss all of our friends goodbye. We pick Anthony up and hit the road. We’ll stop at a gas station and fill up while trying to find the least disgusting thing to eat for breakfast. I’ll drive for like three hours through the middle of corn and pastures while Cody plays his emo hip hop playlist in the van. We’ll stop and stretch our legs every few gas stations and fool around inside rural gas stations, until we feel like they may kick us out. Noah always comes up with his best shenanigans in rural gas stations. A few hours later, we’ll land in whichever city and load in our equipment at the venue, meet the promoter, etc. Then we’ll usually go out and explore the city in between load in and doors. We’ll call around restaurants that we know help out local bands and try and get free dinner. Then we’ll head back to the venue, catch some local dudes play, load on stage and play our set. After we’re done playing we make friends with the people at the shows, the bartenders, the staff. After the show we’ll drive to a friend’s house in the city, and usually have some back porch/living room hangs, before crashing back out on the floor again.
What goals have you guys set out for the band?
We have specific things that I think every band wants to do, but really we just want to tour with friends and see as much of the world while making good records.
Where do you guys hope the band is in 5 years?
Making records, touring the world. Same thing, larger scale.
Do you guys have any last things you want to tell your supporters?
We appreciate you all spinning ‘Homecoming’. Please keep listening, and keep an eye out for NeoRomantics in your favorite city. Also follow us on social media.
Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer these questions.
Thanks so much!
