Hi, everyone! I was recently given the ultimate opportunity to interview lead singer Sawyer Nunes and bassist Henry Pearl (aka HP) from the up-and-coming NYC-based bedroom pop band LAUNDRY DAY Since their creation in 2017, they have released three studio albums, accumulated over 100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, and are now touring nationally. All of this- before the members have graduated high school... pretty insane, if you ask me! After hearing them on Spotify's popular "Bedroom Pop" playlist, I became hooked on their music and decided to reach out to them. Despite being on tour to promote their recent release, HOMESICK, I am very fortunate that their manager gave me the chance to interview these lads.
bazzreviews: Which artists or albums inspired you guys to start a music career?
Sawyer Nunes: Our music influences are all very diverse. When we all first got together, we all really liked Tyler, the Creator and BROCKHAMPTON. Each of our albums has had its own influences, though. For our latest record, HOMESICK, we were listening to guys like Bon Iver, Frank Ocean and the 1975. The music we like is always changing and we are always pulling inspiration from different artists.
Henry Pearl: Sometimes, it’s not even the artist’s music that inspires us. The way an artists carries themselves is very important, too. You don’t see a lot of people doing that today.
br: How did you guys first meet each other?
S.N.: We had all been making music by ourselves for a while. We have all been very musical and have played instruments for a long time. We all met in our freshman year of high school, and I had just released an EP that fall. Jude [Lipkin] knew that I produced music, and told me that he had a song he really wanted to work on. We would go during our lunch periods and every day after school to our school’s basement because there was a recording studio in it. As we were working on it, groups of kids would start to huddle around us and watch the production of the song. By the end of it, there would be people we didn’t necessarily know that would be showing up to see us work on the project. HP, Henry Weingartner (HW), and Etai [Abramovich] were the guys who would always stick around and would end up forming the band. They had real input and something to say about the track. We had already known each other at some point through school, which made it really easy for us to get together. Right from the get-go, though, Jude and I knew that they were the right guys for the band. We all went up to Jude’s summer house in the Berkshire Mountains and the five of us started making music for fun.
br: I know you guys are touring nationally right now to promote your latest album, Homesick. Do you ever find it difficult to keep a balance between high school life and band life?
H.P.: It’s challenging in the sense that it’s exhausting, but it’s very doable. It’s scary and exhausting, but our teachers have been very supportive of us. We are pretty hard workers, so we think that we manage it pretty well.
S.N.: This is a time in our lives when we’re pretty energetic and excited about things. People kind of underestimate the things we have the potential to do. If we put our mind to stuff, we can get anything done. Even though we are on the road a lot, we still have to make up projects and other stuff for school. We still stay committed to everything we do, even if we’re really tired. Whether it’s designing merch, our website, or schoolwork, I’m pretty proud of all of us for our willingness to stay on top of everything.
br: I saw that you guys had some studio sessions that were over twelve hours when you were working on Trumpet Boy, would you guys say that you prefer working in the studio rather than performing live?
S.N.: We started out primarily as producers, so the studio holds a pretty big place in my heart. We have always found the studio- either my bedroom or Etai’s basement, as a really sacred and special place for us. That’s where a lot of our creative work gets done. They’re both very different though. There’s something magical about playing live and seeing your fans sing along. You could have a million streams on whatever platform, but it doesn’t have as much of an impact as coming to your show and connecting with you. Live shows are still something that we’re figuring out because this is our first tour. We want to become more comfortable in both atmospheres.
br: Can you guys describe your process of making a song?
H.P.: It always starts with an empty grid in Logic Pro. Normally, there’s always one or two people at the computer at once and the others will watch. We either start with a piano, bassline or a sample that we will cut. Etai might also start with a drum beat, and Sawyer would find some good piano chords to go over it. HW, Jude or I will also chip in with some ideas to keep filling the grid. That can take anywhere from thirty minutes to five days, months even. Once we get a solid structure, we’ll add or take away parts by executive decisions.
S.N.: To HP’s point, we’ve written a lot of full songs in really short amounts of time. Gone are the days where you need to have a whole album written before going into the studio. What’s great is that we will typically write in the moment at our studio’s computer. Jude and I will add vocals, then a hook, and I’ll arrange the other parts around it. A song like “Chalk” made in one night, or “FRIENDS” taking a little while to finalize it before we felt satisfied. That was the same with “10 SPEED”, but the ending took us a long time to make. Each person added their own stuff to make it sound really cool.
br: Throughout your songs, I’ve heard a lot about the triumphs and struggles teenage life- would you say that your lyrics are a reflection of your own lives?
S.N.: It’s interesting, because Jude and I do this a lot. We sit down in our studio and write about what we felt that day or what we thought about. If I write a chorus, Jude will write verses that have the same tones and themes. We always want to push ourselves and say what’s truest to us. The guys will definitely call me out if I’m not writing something that’s true to myself.
br: What’s more important to you guys- lyricism or production value and instrumentation?
S.N.: I don’t think we would ever want to release a song where we thought melodies and stuff were as good as we could have made them. For each song, we try to do our best in every individual area. A song with great production but mediocre lyrics ends up making it bad, no doubt. I think if it’s got a good balance of both aspects, it’s going to be a song that people remember.
br: If you guys could compare your sound to any other artists or band, who would you say and why?
H.P.: I don’t think we can really answer that. We take what our fans think we sound like into consideration, but we never try to think about it. We like to maintain a sense of individuality.
S.N.: HP makes a great point here. Our inspirations are changing so rapidly, so we don’t really like to think of ourselves as sounding like someone else. If we ever tried mimic another artist, it would be very different and we wouldn’t have a very dynamic sound.
br: If people want to get into LAUNDRY DAY, what songs should they listen to?
H.P.: If you’re new to LAUNDRY DAY, then I would say check out our earliest stuff. You should listen until you decide whether you like us or not. Start with “10 SPEED”, “Ginger” and “Close Your Eyes”. If you like that, go to “Harvard”, which is one of our favorites.
S.N.: We write so many songs, it’s hard to pick one or two. We like “Jane” a lot because it’s fun to see people sing it at our shows. I would say that you should go back to some of our old stuff like “Sunny Boys Lament” or “Work Out.”
br: What music goals do you guys have for the future?
H.P.: As a high school student, I go to Governors Ball every year and go to a lot of concerts around New York City. I get to perform like that on a smaller scale now, but I would definitely like to play bigger fests and venues that I go to. I’d also like to keep growing. At our live shows, the percent of people who know all the words to our songs is over 90. I’d like to see almost everyone coming to show knowing every word of every song.
S.N.: As HP touched on, we’ve been a high school band that has been playing high school shows. In the last year, we’ve been doing a lot of bigger shows across the country. I’d say our biggest goal is that we want continue being stable and self-sufficient. Collaborating with really cool people is another thing we’d love to do in the future, too. We want to inspire people, and as we’ve said, keep putting out our best work all the time.
Thanks again to Sawyer and HP for giving their time up for an interview. They were very well-spoken and were amazing to talk to. If you haven't listened to their stuff, check out their profile or their song "Harvard" on Spotify's "Bedroom Pop"! Thanks again to all my readers, more great articles are heading your way soon!
To get started with LAUNDRY DAY's discography, go to https://open.spotify.com/artist/0SwK6bwzmGkViNoxSbJ5Mk
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