The New Resistants

New York based The New Resistants hit us with their latest single Shark Bread, a sonorous slice of punk rock balladry with sharp melodies and vocals. Check it out on their Soundcloud!
Source: SoundCloud / The New Resistants SoundCloud The New Resistants thenewresistants rocknroll shark NYCpunk - Diamond Deposits

Sharkbread…
The song takes as its main muse an all-girl punk band from Brooklyn called Sharkmuffin. Tarra, the lead singer, got us that first gig at Trash. They have kind of a surfy, garage vibe to some of their songs. I always figured we could write a song like that. I gave Johnny the bassline and he gave it back as what you hear on the recording.
In terms of the subject matter, we liked the idea of a surf tune about a shark attack. Kind of ironic, tongue in cheek shit that we love in songwriting you know, like Back in the USSR or something like that. When taken as something abstract, the lyrics are ambiguous enough to be open to interpretation, and at the very least, when taken literally, a talking shark is hilarious.

Social media is…
great at what it is intended to do; bring people together. We’ve found a lot of great opportunities to expand our presence through social media. It’s also great for networking with other bands we’ve met along the way. Social media and the internet is just an industry must have, that any band needs to have a firm hold on if they intend to be taken seriously.

On another hand, it could also be seen as having a kind of divisive force on the music community. You know, it used to be you got your music from the radio and down the street at the record store. Now you can hear so many different kinds of music immediately, and there is so god damned much of it, the natural reaction is to categorize it down into sub-genres and organize it for easy consumption on itunes and shit. Same thing happens with people…you put them in groups according to nationality and color and they think they’re all different from one another. But its all just rock and roll for the most part.

The key to working together and staying together is…
very simply the music. We enjoy writing songs and playing them together, gigging, and getting free drinks. We are friends and for the most part have similar tastes in music.

thenewresistantsSuccess..
We love playing music, and if we could all live generally fulfilling lives doing that, I think we’d all be happy.
What’s ahead…
In the short term, we are working on a music video for one of our other songs called “All in Your Head” and filming is to start in August. The ultimate goal for us as a band is to make a record we’re proud of and get it out, so we’re in contact with some smaller studios about that. Gonna ride out 2015 in New York with the odd show out of town, just to get the songs good and drunk, you know? We’d also like to hit the road next year and tour the states once we’ve got something substantial to tour behind. We’ve got things loosely planned, so we’re always right on schedule. - AVA Live Radio

Hey, New York is packed with swaggering guitar melodies, hard hitting drums and confident vocals from NYC trio The New Resistants The track is part of their recent EP titled Season’s Beating. Check their ode to the city that they hail from via their Soundcloud. - Diamond Deposits

INTRODUCIN’ #25- THE NEW RESISTANTS
NY’s very own noisy rock trio The New Resistants took some time out of their busy finalizing their upcoming EP to share some questions!
01. Hey guys! How are you doing and what’s up?
Always great to hear from our friends at DD. No BS, we like your taste in music. There are so many good bands out there nowadays, finding them all is tough. As for us, we’re kicking ass as usual. So far this year, we’ve gotten the chance to branch out a bit, most notably to Toronto, CA for Canada Music Week. We played a spot called Bovine Sex Club, no shit, which was totally rock and roll and a fun time. Other than that, thoroughly enjoying this great summer and writing, practicing, and gigging, as always.
02. How did you come up with your band name?
Our name is a reflection of who we are, and what we want, or rather, what we don’t want. Musically, we look a lot to our heroes of yesteryear, the mid 70s punk golden age, The Clash, Johnny Thunders / Heartbreakers, Sex Pistols, and of course The Ramones, even further back to The Kinks, Beatles, Stones, and Stooges. They are the old, we are the new, but the message is the same. Resist the crap that we are being force-fed on a daily basis, the indoctrination of the masses, the lies, and the deceit. Have a good time and don’t bother people, too much. Put those two ideas together and you get The New Resistants. We are counter-culture, counter-pop, and counter-terrorism. We came up with the name in the car on the way back from a gig and it stuck. Naming your band is one of the most difficult decisions a band will face in its lifetime. It’s everything, like deciding what topping to get on your pizza.
03. When and where was the first show you played? How did it go?
Tuesday November 18th, 2014 at Trash Bar, Williamsburg Brooklyn. We’ve had quite a few come and go, but that one we’ll remember forever. It was a complete disaster, we played for the sound guy, a few drifters, and the cockroaches (a pretty decent crowd actually if you know how big the cockroaches were at that place). In all honesty, however, it was great to finally get on stage and play our songs to a “crowd.” It was legitimizing as a new band, vindicating as song writers, and a confidence booster to know that we could actually play the set, live, and well. From that night on, we’ve known what we have to do, and how to do it. We went on to play Trash Bar a few more times after that, unfortunately it closed last summer. That sound guy by the way has remained our friend since that first night, Owen McCarthy, we love you man.
04. What was the name of the first song you wrote together? When was that and what was it about?
So hard to tell. In the early days like 2012-2013, we were playing with a lot of different sounds and ideas, most have been forgotten, some written and recorded, while others were chopped to bits and recycled. One that I can recall was “You Always Get What You Want” a play on the Rolling Stones song (theirs is better for the record). It was about getting laid, big surprise. We never played it live, or recorded it, but now that I’m thinking of it, it has a pretty cool bridge that might need to be re-purposed.
05. How did the band come together?
All three original members are from the same little town in New York, called Cold Spring. It’s about an hour north of the city on the Hudson River. I’ve known John since we were knee high, but never knew he had any real talent other than cylindrical origami. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, this guy can play the guitar, like pretty well, so I said screw it I’ll get a bass (that was 2013). Then John was commissioned with the very tough task of finding a good drummer. Donnie the Destroyer, the best one in town, joined a few months later in early 2014. He has since moved on and after a couple months of hard searching, Mad Max Parker joined earlier this year. We are a three piece, but always open to getting a fab four thing going. Just looking for the right George to come around I suppose.
06. What was the most memorable gig you played?
Bovine Sex Club in Toronto back in May was great and marked our international debut milestone, it was part of Canada Music Week which was big for us. Playing downtown Manhattan is always great. Arlene’s, Pianos, and The Bitter End are top spots and always fun. Can’t forget Trash Bar either…RIP.
07. You guys released a fantastic EP late last Xmas. Any new music or singles on the pipeline?
Thanks, glad you like it. Our second four song EP “Summer of Lust” is due to release in the next month or so. Recording is done, we’re just putting together final mixes, and then off to mastering. It’s summery rock and roll that always at it’s core is designed to make people move and have a good time. We maintain our edge (hopefully) with Johnny’s powerful guitar leads and provocative lyrics. Plenty of songs in the pipeline, we’re looking to release two or three EPs a year, until the juice runs out, or we croak.
08 Where are you guys based out of? What are some of your favourite things about your city and what do you love doing there?
Based in New York City, but spending more and more time upstate in Beacon, NY at Cassandra studio, where three of our new songs were recorded. The best thing about New York is that there is no best thing about New York. It’s a city that continues to amaze even life-time residents and captures the imagination of the world. Anything is possible here and you can pretty much do whatever you want, as long as it stays within the general realm of the law. We love eating, drinking, smoking, seeing shows, playing shows, and whatever else we goddamn please. It’s a free country after all, at least for now.
09 Any local artists that you are into and would love to share with us?
It’s no secret that we like rock and roll (I intentionally keep it vague, but included under the mother term rock and roll, is punk rock, and all of her other bastard children). Some of our favorite locals are The Subtexts (hard-hitting thought punk), Left in the Attic (badass chicks from the Bronx, they will hurt you), Super FM (fuzz-tastic sludge punk, and definitely What Moon Things (psych punk rockers, the lead singer is from our home town). We’re on a Radio United punk rock compilation album due out later this year that’ll showcase some good local punk rockers, recorded at the infamous Studio G in Williamsburg.
10 Any sleeping tips for us?
If you can’t sleep, it means you’re not working hard enough. Get up earlier, do more during the day (working never hurts), stay out later, party harder. If that doesn’t work, try drinking more heavily. If drinking doesn’t work, try barbiturates. If those don’t work, you are an insomniac and should learn how to better use the night hours. Read some books.
11. What artists were you guys listening to while growing up?
In addition to everything named in question #2 and in no particular order, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Led Zepplin, Cream, Van Halen, ZZ Top, SRV and Double Trouble, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Bob Dylan, T-Rex, The Beach Boys, The Hollies, CSNY, CCR, The Chambers Brothers, anything Motown, the blues legends, of course David Bowie and all his incarnations, The BeeGees, ELO, New York Dolls, The Velvet Underground, Nirvana, The Red Hot Chili Peppers….on and on and on. I’m sure I’m missing something and after I hit send will be like “Oh shit, how did I forget those guys,” but you get the drift.
introducin interview the new resistants punk rock nyc - Diamond Deposits