Night Birds
November 1st, 2011 by chocko
2011 has been a busy year for East Coast’s Night Birds. They played a ton of shows including a European tour and released their killer 7″ featuring their tribute to sleazy films titled “Midnight Movies”, an album titled Fresh Kills Vol. 1 featuring all their vinyl recordings since 2009 and the brand spankin’ new album The Other Side of Darkness. Their punk songs are all killer, no filler and combine punk with surf rock. Night Birds features Brian Gorsegner on vocals, Mike Hunchback on guitar, Joe Keller on bass and vocals and Ryan Mchale on drums. Their last show of 2011 will be on December 17 at ABC NO RIO in NYC along with Death First, Mind Eraser, and Citizens Arrest. That show is gonna rule! Thanks to Joe for taking the time out and doing the following interview.
How did you all meet and form the band?
Brian, Mike, and myself all had previous bands and we all played with each other’s bands. Once those band (For Science, The Ergs, and Hunchback) broke up, we got together to form Night Birds.
What are some of the bands you’ve all previously been in?
Brian – For Science, The Survivors, Full of Fancy, Psyched to Die, The Good Book,
Mike – Hunchback, Weird Fantasy Band
Joe – The Ergs
Tell us about the new record, Fresh Kills Vol. 1.
Fresh Kills Vol. 1 is a compilation of the songs from our original 4 song demo plus the three 7″s we’ve put out so far. It’s everything we’ve done as a band up to “The Other Side of Darkness” LP.
What are some bands that have influenced you?
I love tons of stuff all over the board. I like jazz, punk, old rock n roll, soul, surf, and country. In terms of what influences Night Birds, I’d say it’s heavily influenced by old California punk and hardcore. Mike also brings his heavy 60’s surf influence to the band as well which I think really defines how we sound.
What do you remember about going to your first punk show?
Shit! I guess that depends on what you define a punk show as. I think the very first punk show I went to was The Ramones believe it or not! I saw them on their last tour back in 1995, fucking half a lifetime ago at this point. In terms of first local punk show, I think the first show I saw was at a place called Club Bene in Sayreville NJ. I went to go see my friends’ band, Visual Purple, play. They did a bunch of originals as well as some sex pistol and Rancid covers. Then they smashed all their gear. Two of the guys in the band were the other 2 members of The Ergs. I think that day changed my life.
How has touring been so far?
Touring has been great so far. We all get along pretty well so that makes it go very smoothly. We’ve done the Midwest, a little bit of Canada, and Europe so far. We hope to hit the West Coast next year.
Do you have any good road stories to tell?
Hmmm, the really juicy ones are not fit to print. I guess the best thing I can talk about is Mike falling off of the stage in Germany. Mike likes to jump into the crowd while we play and this time he tripped on the way out. He hit the ground hard and according to him, he blacked out for a second. He thought he was ok by the end of the night but the next morning he sneezed and heard something crack. All of a sudden he was in terrible pain. We had to call a doctor to the squat to have him looked at. She was afraid Mike had ripped his spleen because if he did, he would probably die on the plane ride back home. We got Mike some ultrasounds and an x-ray and thankfully he was ok. He had to play sitting on a stool for the next couple of nights though. It looked like he was in coffee shop mode.
What are everybody’s interests outside of the band?
Music takes up a lot of my time, but I also love science fiction books and movies. I listen to records and drink large quantities of soda whenever possible.
What are some of your favorite horror and b-movies?
I’m not the biggest horror fand like Mike is, but I love the John Carpenter stuff as well anything by Frank Henonlotter. It may be a little too big to be considered a b-movie, but “Army of Darkness” is one of my all time faves.
Do you have any favorite comic books?
When I was a kid I loved the Marvel superhero stuff, particularly the X-Men. Nowadays, I read a lot of stuff on Vertigo. I was reading the Walking Dead but I haven’t kept up.
If you could have one super power, what would it be?
Gotta go with invulnerability – party all night and no hangover.
Do you have any touring or recording planned for the near future?
We’re definitely going to do an instrumental surf 7″ next year as well as be on a couple of compilations. I don’t know yet what we’re doing beyond that but I would expect a couple more records after that.
Closing comments?
Get in the hole!
Night Birds at Europa in Brooklyn (video courtesy of loopyvids)
Tags: interview, night birds, punk, punk rock
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