Photos by Jenna Murray, Words by Maddie Breeden
“Epoxy is a polymer, it’s like an industrial glue,” says Alec Publicover, singer of NYC’s screamo three-piece, Epoxy. Alec is defining the band’s name to me in the back corner of Baby’s All Right, alongside bandmates Ben Leach and Cashel O’Malley. Though the name is figurative, Epoxy is a unit. Together, the group exudes a raw, unfiltered sound.
At 1am, Epoxy took the stage at Baby Dance #004, the fourth night of Baby’s late night concert + DJ series, preceded by sets from German Suplex and Zachshots. From the outset, sweat dripped, beer spilled, and New Yorkers moshed. The night was rightfully raucous, one for the books. Before Epoxy’s set, I sat down and spoke with the suit clad band about their influences and upcoming debut album Civilians, releasing Friday, October 17th.
Can you introduce yourselves for ALT Citizen readers?
Alec: My name is Alec; I sing and play guitar in Epoxy.
Cashel: My name is Cashel; I play bass.
Ben: My name is Ben, and I play the drums.
Awesome. How did you guys meet?
Alec: Ben and I met at the same restaurant. He kind of hired me.
Ben: Alec walked in off the street and my manager was like, he’s cute, I think we can use that. The rest was history.
Alec: Cashel and I know each other from mutual friends, and it kind of brought the team together.
What brought you to making post-hardcore music?
Alec: I just love it. I don’t think we’ve set out to make a post-hardcore song. It just feels like the genre that most easily expresses what I like to think about.
A big part of hardcore music is the DIY attitude and ethic. Do you feel like DIY is still alive in New York?
Cashel: I feel like that’s all there is now.
Alec: It’s all DIY. Up until basically one step below, like Sabrina Carpenter, everyone’s DIY. It’s almost annoying when people are like “DIY.” Yeah, no shit.
Cashel: Being broken of the illusion that someone’s gonna come along and do it for you is actually very, very liberating.
How do you play with space to create your higher intensity sound?
Cashel: I play bass like it’s a guitar and I’m playing a lot of chords. It’s a Lou Barlow kind of approach. We think about the guitars in a Sleater Kinney kind of way, there’s no bass and the drum is the bass. The chords are happening across the multiple instruments in different voicings. That really fills it out.
Alec: I’m glad you brought up Sleater Kinney, because people talk about post-hardcore when they talk about how we sound. Team Dresch, Sleater Kinney, and early Riot Grrrl are equally important to our sound, especially instrumentally.
I hear Unwound.
Alec: Totally. I love them.
Ben: They’re a sparse band, and we are kind of sparse sometimes, which is fun.
What inspires you about screamo in NYC?
Alec: A lot of the skramz scene that’s going on, especially here in New York, is based on late 90s emoviolence, which is one of my favorite types of music. But, those bands are all six, seven people, like Kodan Armada, but we’re a three-piece and the minimalism of that naturally makes it sound a bit different.
Ben: That’s why it’s more groovy, too. It’s more rhythmic and groovy, versus, spazzy and intense.
Alec: A lot of emoviolence songs are thirty second tantrums, which is inspiring because it’s pure energy. We start from the same place, then take it in a different direction.
Cashel: We started doing that kind of thing. But, we figured out pretty quickly that we could get people dancing.
Like the push and pull with the crowd….
Cashel: Yeah.
Alec: I like the tension between the spastic nature and the more rhythmic kind of type stuff.
I have to ask, is “song 2” a reference to Blur?
Alec: No. I mean, I love that song so much. It definitely wasn’t a reference. Especially in emo, there’s a shit ton of songs called song two or untitled two. “Song 2” by I Hate Myself, it’s one of the best songs. If anything, it’s referencing that.
Whoops.
Alec: I love Blur too. “song 2” was also the second Epoxy song.
Ben: We try to make sure it’s never the second song in a set and it will not be the second song on the album.
Alec: Cashel heavily advised us to come up with a new name for the song for a year.
Cashel: I’ve learned to respect his vision.
Alec: It’s good to get voices in the room.
So you’ve released four singles. Is an album on the way?
Alec: It’s coming out October 17. It’s called Civilians, it’s going to be 10 songs.
Are you going to have a release show for the new album?
Alec: Absolutely, the day after we release the album and it’s going be fucking sick.
Where is it going to be?
Alec: It’s going to be at our friend’s house. But, it’s a professional house venue: The Cinnamon House.
DM for address?
Alec: It’s DM for address.
Ben: Ask a punk.
Alec: Ask a skramz kid, ask an emo.
Cashel: Ask a kid in a hunter hat.
Ben: Or, ask one of us.
See you at the show… and wear your business attire!