Frequent Dying Scene visitors may remember that Brooklyn band The Reveling were the focus of our Band Spotlight not so long ago. The band’s frontman, Sean Morris, was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule of crawling through attics on scorching summer days to answer a few questions for us. In the process, he hits on various topics, like being called a misogynist, the state of the Brooklyn music scene, and why exactly bands have such a tough time keeping drummers.
Check out the full interview here.
The Reveling are getting ready to hit the road later this year in support of “Tributaries” which came out June 21st on Black Numbers Records. Read our review here.
First and foremost, can you give us a little background on the band: who you are, how you met, when you started out, etc.
Dave, Dennis and I grew up together playing in different bands over the years. Dave and Dennis both went to school in Albany and started a band called Rory Breaker up there. I was living in Boston at the time but would come and hang out there a lot to check out their shows. Brendan was playing drums for them and we all ended up being good friends. So as the years passed and we all found ourselves in or around NYC with a desire to play music together it was a no brainer.
“Tributaries” reveals a sound beyond what you normally expect from a band’s debut full-length. What was the writing/recording process like: did the songs grow over time or were they written specifically for the recording sessions?
Thanks a lot. The writing process was a pretty organic thing for this record. I usually come up with a verse and chorus idea and then take it to the guys to flesh out. Sometimes I’ll demo it at home and send it to everyone to take a listen to before rehearsal, but most of the time its just 16-32 bars with no real structure and we all shape it together. Some songs were ideas I’ve been holding on to for years sometimes, but most are brand new. This record had a bunch of songs that kind of wrote themselves, and I mean that my favorite songs always come in a flash, like 5-10 minutes worth of writing and it’s there. I hate trying to shoe-horn a riff into something else I’ve got on the back burner just to get a song down, it never sounds right, always sounds forced and takes too much time and energy for me to keep interest. I always think that every great song that could ever be written is in the fret board somewhere, I just have to pull it out.
“Tributaries” has earned you comparisons to bands like the Gaslight Anthem and the Bouncing Souls. How does the band react to such praise?
Ya know, it’s obviously a ridiculous compliment. I think we made a great sounding record, so it’s really nice to be compared to guys like that. I have to say that we aren’t the youngest batch of rascals, our average age I think is about 30, so we kind of grew up in the scene that spawned a lot of what’s going on. We certainly never set out to be those bands, or sound like those bands necessarily, we just wanted to write great, fun, catchy songs and I’m sure that’s where those guys are coming from too, we just happened to grow up loving and listening to a lot of the same stuff.
Lyrically, your songs come across as honest and personal and they seem to radiate with the same sort of “hopeful pessimism” found in lyric by Trever Keith or Joey Cape or Tony Sly, particularly on tracks like “Chasing My Tail” and “Unglued.” I’d love to hear about the influence behind one of them: care to pick one and tell us about it?
Yeah, I made a decision to be as honest as I could on this record, because I feel like if I hold back, or don’t say it like I see it, then its disingenuous, and if that’s disingenuous then the whole thing is. “Chasing My Tail” is pretty straight forward, I’ve made my fair share of fuck ups for sure, it’s when you get locked in a vicious cycle and you repeat those mistakes, you can feel crazy. That song’s about trying to break that cycle.
“Left at Forkright” tells the tale of the working masses, toiling decade after decade at “dead-end jobs.” What sort of jobs have the band had to labor away at while trying to make a living at the music thing?
Well we all still have real jobs. This punk rock thing doesn’t have great benefits or job security really, so we all do different stuff, Dave’s a computer genius programmer (thanks for the sweet website buddy), Brendan and Dennis have management positions for different companies and I work in construction, electrical/hvac stuff. Crawling through basements and attics on 110 degree days. Good stuff.
Because of the level of soul and sincerity in your lyrics, your songs seem pretty easily relatable to the listener. Any interesting stories of fans telling you what your songs mean to them?
People like to dissect lyrics and find hidden meaning in things, but on a song like “Charlotte Thompson”, where I created a character that falls pretty low and ends up finding the love of the people around her, some miss the redemption part at the end and focus only on the runaway hooker aspect. I was told once that I was a misogynist for those lyrics, I said, I think you turned it off too soon, it all comes together at the end.
The number of up-and-coming bands calling Brooklyn home seems like it has skyrocketed over the last several years. Have any favourites in the scene?
Yeah, it’s a great place to call home. There’s been a lot of great shows and show spaces and people committed to making it happen which is inspiring. One of my favorite bands is Bridge and Tunnel. They just kill it every time, their energy is amazing. This band Timeshares is totally killer, The Marine Electric dudes too. Great stuff.
Trying to make your way through the NYC scene, particularly in Brooklyn, seems like it could be both a blessing and a curse for up-and-coming bands: lots of opportunities to get noticed, but lots of other bands fighting for the same attention. What are your thoughts on trying to make it in NYC?
I think if you are trying to be a band here, first and foremost just do it because you love it. People see through the bullshit and ulterior motives pretty fast. There are so many little scenes here, find your niche and play a lot of shows and just let people hear what you are doing. Oh, and get a rehearsal space that doesn’t suck. Good luck with that one.
The Reveling have been no strangers to the inevitable early-band Spinal Tap-ian lineup changes [former drummer Jay Weinberg (of the E Street Weinbergs) has moved on to Against Me!]. Seriously, what is it about drummers?!?
Yeah I’m really hoping Brenden doesn’t spontaneously combust, they’re hard to come by. The thing is there just aren’t as many of them. There are lots of shitty guitar players to choose from, but a great drummer that’s also in to the style we do as well is rare.
Any plans to hit the road in the near future to unleash The Reveling on the masses?
Yeah we’ll be posting some dates real soon. Hitting the northeast and then heading south in the coming months. Gonna try and get out west for a short run when the blizzard hits this winter too, and we’re talking to some people now about the Spring time heading to Europe for a few weeks.
Are you still writing new music? If so, what sort of music are you listening to now that has you inspired?
Yeah we’re writing all the time. I don’t think any album inspires me to put pen to paper exactly, but sometimes when I’m into a record that gets me excited I aspire to write something close to that quality. I really loved the heart on Red City Radio’s recent release, and the harmonies and arrangements on the new Bon Iver record are incredible. I get inspired when I hear people doing great things with passion more than say, “that breakdown section coming out of that bridge is awesome, I wanna try something like that”. Stuff like that never really works.
What’s on the horizon for The Reveling? Any exciting plans lined up?
We’ve got another little release coming up soon, that should be announced relatively shortly that we’re really excited about and we’re just stoked to get out and play this record for people, we hope we see you guys at a show.
Anything else you think the Dying Scene faithful should know?
Half of us can grow splotchy mutli-colored tour beards.
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