An interview with Teenage Halloween
Music is political. Teenage Halloween tell you why.
In a Reddit post or something, I saw the question raised, “Where are all the young political punk bands?” I didn’t mind it much because these questions get brought up all the time by ignorant troglodytes but during the moment, I thought of Teenage Halloween.
The New Jersey power-pop band takes a pretty open stance against capitalism, homophobia, cops and oppression of many kinds without sounding inauthentic or less compelling. But for the band, politics isn’t a thing they can separate from their identity and by extension, their music.
I had the opportunity to sit with some of the band and interview them. The transcript below is a boiled-down version of that interview that I highlights the band’s creative vision, humor and experiences nicely. The audio version of the discussion doesn’t have the best sound, but if you’d like to listen, it will be out as a “podcast” episode.
In the transcript, we talk about their influences like Jeff Rosenstock, ‘50s doo-wop and Defiance, Ohio. They also told me about their 10-man RV tour as well as their thoughts on politics in music.
Check out the audio version for their experiences in New Orleans (2 min), their most recent split (9 min), van problems (19 mins), thoughts on Brooklyn Vegan, Catbite, Fest (23 mins), coming to terms with Jimmy Buffett’s possible involvement with Jeffery Epstein (26 mins), Japanese Indie Music, Steely Dan and last but certainly not least, cocaine (36 mins).
Audio version:
Edited for clarity. Audio version contains a less edited interview with rough timestamps listed above.
I want to ask about the name “Teenage Halloween” because I was listening to Jeff Rosenstock one time and that song “Twinkle” came on. Is that where that's from?
Luk Henderiks (vocals/guitar): Yep. Literally, it was from “Twinkle.” I was 16. I loved Jeff Rosenstock. It was helping me through a hard time.
Tricia Marshall (bass, vocals): We still love Jeff Rosenstock.
Luk: Yea but it was huge on me when I was 16 and it was helping me so much through a hard time. I just loved the way those two words sounded, because it's like Halloween is this scary holiday, but you're finding joy in it in your teenage years, it’s like this freeing feeling. I just decided that that was what it was gonna be called and we didn't change it since, so.
How is Jeff Rosenstock an influence on y'all?
Luk: Definitely sonically. I was very into Bomb The Music Industry! growing up and Arrogant Sons of Bitches. And that stuff was super influential on the fact that I really like raw punk music, but I love making melodic structure, but with an imperfect voice. And that's one of those things about Jeff Rosenstock that I always respected. It's the most DIY form of singing because it's like an untrained voice that's very melodic. I always enjoy bands like that, like the Ergs and Jawbreaker where it's very melodic, but not polished.
Are y'all classically trained in any way?
Tricia: I am. I'm a classical pianist. But my first instrument was guitar. I was 12 or 13 when I started that and just from taking lessons in the shop. I started taking piano lessons and eventually went to college for that, so that's really where my classical training happened. But somewhere along the mix, I also became a bassist and it just fit.
That's one of the things I really love about the band is that it seems kind of like Bomb The Music Industry! in that it’s like a rolling cast of characters.
Tricia: Not quite anymore.
Luk: It's definitely become a very set four-piece. And all of us are contributing and writing songs now. The last record we got together very heavily on and wrote it. And then the newest one is everyone is writing songs on it.
Tricia: Our most recent split was one song written by [Luk] and one by me.
Luk: Yeah, exactly. So we're working on a second LP that we've been prepping this summer.
Tricia: I mean, I shouldn't say for sure, but we are currently working on music that all four of us have been writing which is nice.
So the self-titled was sort of like a wider, collaborative thing?
Luk: I would say that it was. I had a lot more stems on that one that I brought forward that we all wrote our own thing over. The last thing we did was Tricia started singing in the band too. So we started working on a bunch of vocal harmonies and from those harmonies, we've evolved into— Trisha's writing some songs for the band and I also write songs still, of course.
Tricia: And Eli [Frank, lead guitar] writes too.
Luk: Yeah! Eli writes a bunch of stems and different riffs and melodies that I work over and write lyrics over. And he wrote a song. And its been very fun. The first record was much more my stems besides “Drown,” which was an Eli song. And then the second record is gonna be a little bit of everyone.
I was listening to another interview y'all did and you mentioned that fifties music was a big influence. How has that influenced you specifically?
Luk: Specifically melody and I always love the songwriting that's very to the point and it's very formulated. So that's always been a huge influence among like fifties girl groups or like doo-wop bands and stuff.
Tricia: But I think especially three-part harmonies. One of the things that we're gonna be working on, especially moving forward, we'd like to do more harmonic things like that. And then essentially fifties music is just like—
Luk: It was kind of the slate for all the rock and roll now.
Tricia: Exactly. I don't know. I've always sort of felt like power pop and classic, rock and roll is very similar.
Yeah, and now [power pop] kind of is a punk thing, but [punk] has so many different meanings. How do you guys feel like you fit into the punk, DIY crowd? Or where did you find belonging musically?
Luk: I would say at first [Teenage Halloween] was much more of a folk-punk band. Yeah. But now we're finding a lot of, belonging within rock and roll shows and power-pop type shows where it's high energy, loud music. That's like chord-based. And that's what we've been into right now, just loud rock bands playing with us.
Tricia: I would be careful to stick us to one genre because I think that we do a lot. We like experimenting.
You mentioned folk punk. How did Defiance, Ohio influence your sound?
Luk: Specifically for the first record, we love the keyboards and the horns and the big sounding stuff. Yeah. That's the part of Defiance, Ohio that really did it for me, the heavy big band energy.
That's what makes me think of your music and energy, so why strip it down to the four-piece?
Luk: It felt more convenient for us as a touring band and it felt a lot more sustainable this way. And I'm not opposed to doing shows that are like one-offs with larger groups with us, but I don’t think as a touring band, it's entirely sustainable in today's climate to have a bunch of people on tour together in terms of like finances. Especially with COVID, it's more difficult. Finding places to sleep is much easier with four people, eating, in general is easier.
Makes a lot of sense.
Luk: We toured back in 2016 with 10 people in a RV. We toured to Canada and that was one of the most grueling things I've ever done in terms of getting everyone together. And every night we would stay at a house and— I remember one of us slept in a bathroom one night, it was absolutely rough. Like we had a pad in the bathroom, whenever someone knocked, you would have to wake up, get out so they could take a sh*t or something. It was a time like— I have so much love for that era of my life, but now that I'm playing with three other people, I'm very grateful.
Tricia: I'm really happy. I was not a member when that happened.
How'd you get an RV?
Luk: Oh our friend Chris, he had a RV that his family used for vacations that he offered to us to use. It was just sitting in the driveway for a long time. So we ended up taking Chris's RV to Canada, doing debaucherous things in it. Our one friend who was driving got completely butt naked when we entered the border, driving the RV with a captain's hat. It was a time. I miss the RV, but it was very hard to fill up with gas. It was a hundred dollars in 2016 to fill up. So imagine how much it would be now. That's definitely not worth it. There was beds in it though, and a bathroom.
<Big cut from the conversation where I met drummer Peter Gargano, talked van troubles, Ska, Fest, and of course coming to terms with Jimmy Buffett’s possible involvement with Jeffery Epstein>
I guess sort of a broad question that I like to ask bands is, what do you want people to take away from your sound, from your music?
Luk: Big Pete.
Peter: Why is everyone pointing at me? I dunno. I just want people to have a good time, honestly. At the end of the day, if people are enjoying themselves, I really feed off of that. Especially when it's like, you could physically see people having a good time. It makes me have a better time on stage.
Luk: Literally what we all say, but like more articulate.
Tricia: Such a good person.
*Everyone claps*
Tricia: I completely agree. One of the best takeaways for me personally is when someone comes up after a show and is like, “Hey, that just made my day so good.” It's infectious, you know? When you see people actually vibing in the crowd, instead of just standing there listening, like if they're dancing and moving, that will always help my performance.
What about message-wise?
Luk: The message I want to convey is I want people to kill the cop in their head and be able to create a free life for themselves based on their own meaning and ideal for life. Every lyric I write is about how everything is completely f*cked and you should try your best to pursue what you want to do and live your life to the fullest it can be. It is inherently political to do that because you are destroying the pressure of the capitalist society on you.
Tricia: I also wanna add, I want people to feel welcome when they listen to our music. Obviously, if you have some sort of negative attribute— if you're a Nazi, I don't want you to feel welcome but you know, you have to be pretty specific when you say things like that. If you say everyone's welcome, they'll think everyone's welcome, but—
Luk: If you’re a Nazi you should “not-see” us.
Tricia: Yeah! But you know, more specifically, I think that we try to broach a wide range of subjects with our music. I think that we like to at least try to include people from all walks of life or include all of our diverse experiences in our music, and I hope that that can reach people. I hope that people find some sort of community in that, or purpose.
I think that's sort of the cool thing about DIY and punk stuff is that it seems very welcoming to everybody.
Tricia: I hope that's not cringe to say.
No, I don't think so.
Tricia: It is nice. It's just, I haven't been a part of DIY culture as long as these two or even Eli. So, especially as someone who felt like an outsider for a long time, it's nice to immediately feel welcomed.
Why did you feel like you were an outsider?
Tricia: Well, I just wasn't a part of the scene, really until I was maybe in my twenties. 21.
What was it about the DIY scene that made you feel welcome?
Tricia: The music scenes I was a part of before didn't have as much diversity. So it's just nice to see people from all different walks of life. Not even just like, as far as race and gender go, but people who grew up in different areas have different life experiences, have different interests. It's a very wide range of people and you can meet so many different people at the same show. It's really cool in that way. Everyone is welcomed.
Luk: To add to this, I actually met Tricia through a friend and that’s because Trisha had very similar political ideologies. And that's how we became friends. So it wasn't through the scene. It's kind of something we both created for our band ourselves.
Tricia: I want you to picture Luk with like a fishing line and then they cast their line and caught me and pulled me in.
Luk: That's not what happened, but it was—
Tricia: Not in a weird way. In a fun way! You can cut that in post.
Just cut everything, off the record.
Tricia: No, I really do feel that way though. I'm so happy to have been brought into it. Because the mutual friend of ours is a really special person, so just hearing them say, “I think that you should see this band and get to know these people and fill in a gig.” I trusted them and it was worth it.
I think it's cool that y'all are openly political. Why do you take a political approach?
Luk: I take a political approach because that's something I feel strongly about. I always like to note in all of these interviews is that the level of action that I wish I could do is something that I'm not doing. So I want to at least be able to put my beliefs and ideas for change within music. I think that even though music isn't the biggest form of activism you can do, it's at least saying your piece to create a better world.
I feel like it is hard sometimes to try to act and do things like that.
Luk: And the world always tries to tear you down and make you feel like you alone can’t make a difference. I feel like the secret to navigating is putting your beliefs and what you want in your art. I recommend anyone listening to this that wants to create something to do it because they can make a difference with their words and someone will at least feel inspired for one moment in their life by listening to it.
Tricia: It's not like politics in music is a new concept.
Do y'all feel like music should be political?
Tricia: Oh absolutely. It always has been. Like Beethoven’s Third Symphony was originally dedicated to Napoleon and then he took away that dedication after Napoleon [declared himself emperor].
*Little note here: Tricia could not remember the whole story, but to not let Tricia’s point go flat here, I added the reason. But ya know, shame on her for not knowing obscure historical facts from the 18th century to a quill-brushed “T”.
Tricia: I don't totally remember after so many daiquiris, but you know, even Beethoven took a political stance and it wasn't just him. People write about what they're feeling and what they're thinking. And politics is everything. Whether or not you like it.
Have y'all ever faced any resistance for having [open political] beliefs?
Luk: Ya, like dumb comments, funny dumb comments. But sh*t that doesn't matter to us, you know? We know that what we're doing is right for us and that's what matters.
Tricia: I liken it to a troll. Like you're just trying to get a reaction.
<Japanese Indie Music, Steely Dan and Cocaine>
Luk: Could I interview Pete?
Yeah, please do. That actually sounds awesome.
Luk: Peter, so what was your favorite season of the Mets? What was the most influential?
Peter: I really remember 2008 cuz I was a kid, you know, growing up. That was the first time I would watch the Mets games with my parents and it really left a lasting impact on me.
Luk: Who was playing at the time?
Peter: Oh, you know, you got your classics, you got your David Wrights, your Johan Santanas pitching, you know?
Luk: Then my second question is, what drummers influenced you to start drumming?
Peter: Oh, that's a, that's a good question. The Mets definitely influenced me to start drumming, but other than that, I was listening to a lot of Led Zepplin when I was young, loved John Bonham, for sure. I was also really into a lot of Green Day and Beatles too growing up. So like Tré Cool. Learning songs by those drummers really influenced my style of playing now.
I think Tré Cool is kind of underrated.
Luk: He's pretty cool. Better than Travis Barker honestly, in my opinion.
<Luk departs for another “Slur-ricane”>
Cool, I guess we can leave it with what sort of future plans do you have for Teenage Halloween?
Tricia: We definitely want to do a second album and hopefully more after that. We definitely have more plans for touring in 2022 and 2023.
Peter: Yeah, those are the two big things.
Tricia: It's touring and recording some music. I'm very excited to record our second album. Definitely, a group hug is in the future.
Follow Teenage Halloween and listen to their excellent split and debut album on all streaming services. Alternatively, purchase it on bandcamp.com.
Ooooh.. STOP!!!
Special shout-out this week to Owen Morawitz, who writes The Pitch of Discontent, a sick punk/hardcore newsletter that does album round-ups and deep-dives. They recommended me on Substack writing:
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Owen, you give me too much credit but thank you. I could never write such a concise yet comprehensive description in my life. Thank you so much.
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I loved the podcast episode's audio. Hearing all the random stuff going on in the background plus the off-the-cuff interactions between folks seemed to let the conversation flow naturally. The randomness of some of it was also pretty humorous and made for a super enjoyable listen.