Hi, everyone! Late last week, I got to catch up with Trey Schibli of the Brooklyn-based synth rock group argonaut&wasp. The original three members, Schibli, Theo Klein (production), and Alec Donkin (bass) all met as students at the University of Vermont. They moved to Brooklyn to continue pursuing their music passion that had grown among them while in college, and met their drummer, Chris Corisco (drums). Guitarists Adam November and Kevin Whitehead complete the rest of the group. While Schibli and Klein first became popular for their cover of the timeless Rolling Stones' song"Beast of Burden", the group has made recent appearances on mainstream Spotify playlists like "Indie Pop", and "All New Indie". I discovered them through there, and I became a fan of their music as soon as I heard it. Their recent singles "Composure" and "Monacillo" have been popular with me, and I hope that trend continues with their future singles. The group is continuing their rise to success, as they just sold out their upcoming gig at Rough Trade Records. Needless to say, I was very excited to sit down and talk with a musician that is on-the-rise.
bazzreviews: Which albums or artists made you want to start a music career?
Trey Schibli: I’d say Radiohead, 100%. They were one of my favorite bands in high school and made me really passionate about music. It was then just getting obsessed with different albums every two to three months at the time, I would listen to them forwards and backwards. Other that I’ve kept on repeat and are in the vain of the music I wanted to release on a professional level include Grizzly Bear, LCD Soundsystem, the Clash, and the Talking Heads.When we first met, Theo was really inspired by a lot of dance music, and I didn’t really care all that much for it. However, he opened up my eyes to the world of dance. At this point in time, we’re bringing back stadium rock and also trying to be a dance-punk band. I can pull albums from every generation that directly influenced the music that we’re making, but I don’t think there’s not a specific time period we’re trying to revive or go after.
br: You mentioned that LCD Soundsystem and Radiohead as being influences of yours- what would you say are your favorite records by each group?
T.S.: Ok Computer got me into Radiohead, Kid A got me obsessed with Radiohead, and In Rainbows got me to become a better musician. It’s tough for LCD Soundsystem, because so many of their albums are good. For me, it would probably be Sound of Silver or This is Happening.
br: Your most popular song on Spotify is your cover of “Beast of Burden” by the Rolling Stones- would you say they’ve been an influence on the way you make music?
T.S.: Yes, very inadvertently. My dad was a huge Rolling Stones fan, and would play it a lot when I was growing up. The story behind us doing that song, though, was kind of an interesting story. We somehow connected with this writer that wrote for Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and a bunch of other editorials. He went on tour with the Stones in the 90s, and he wrote a book about his experiences on the road with them. He was having a book release party and asked us if we wanted to play. The stipulation was that we could play our own set, but we needed to do a couple of Rolling Stones covers the way we would do them. At the time, we were recording our EP Ha! Fiction at a studio in NoHo. We showed up for the first day of tracking. This was a week after the book release party, but the mixing engineer told us that Keith Richards and Mick Jagger just walked out of the studio. To some, it might sound insignificant; to us, these guys were heroes, and it was kind of a magic moment. We had an extra hour or so after we were done with that session, so we decided to lay down the cover of “Beast of Burden” that we performed at that party. When we first put it out on Spotify, I thought people really liked it. It was popular with our fans and the our media, but it didn’t really catch storm until last year. It’s been a song that people are discovering first and bringing them into our catalog.
br: I know you met some of the members when you were at the University of Vermont, but how did you first come in contact with them?
T.S.: I met Alec on the third day I was at UVM. He was sitting on the lawn with his friends outside my dorm, and I bumped into him. You know that feeling when you meet somebody for the first time and you know you’re going to be good friends with them? I kind of had that with him. We kept in touch, but our paths didn’t cross that much my freshman year. I met Theo at my dorm sophomore year when I was going to the top floor to meet someone I knew at the time. I heard crazy jungle dance music from one of the rooms, and there was Theo DJing at his desk. We became fast friends, and both liked the same kind of music and had the same inspirations. We didn’t take it making music too seriously until we had one song where we said, “Holy s--t, this sounds kind of professional”. We showed it to our friends, and then we had the confidence to start doing our own thing. I talked with Theo and said I wanted us to have more of a band feel and to not end up being a DJ duo. I knew Alec, so I asked him if he wanted to join. He was all for it. He moved to New York with us once we graduated, and we met Chris within our first week in the city.
br: What made you guys want from a smaller and more quaint music scene in Vermont to a more vibrant one in Brooklyn?
T.S.: We just thought Brooklyn was where all the artists were. Moving there made more sense because we were closer to the venues where a lot of experimental music was. It’s also cheaper than Manhattan, and you have more space. We knew that we wanted to build a recording studio so that we could explore and experiment beyond the materials we had used in college. Theo and I have a duplex, we live upstairs, and this massive space which we turned into our recording studio is down below us. If you listen back in our catalog, you can hear the difference in sound. We were jamming with live drummers, synths and pianos, and a bunch of different amps. The whole thing almost became more organic. We’re now able to take so many more risks creatively, and none of that would have been possible if we didn’t make the move.
br: Is there any significance to the band’s name?
T.S.: I was an English major in school, and right around the time where Theo and I started making music, we still didn’t have a name for the band. I’ve always been inspired by the writer Ambrose Bierce. He was a muckraker journalist, almost like Edgar Allen Poe. He wrote a journalism column called The Argonaut on the West Coast, and a column called The Wasp on the East Coast. I thought it was a great name because creative writing and literature is almost my second passion. The names are bicoastal, and it almost has that united ethos. We both thought it sounded pretty original. It’s weird to say at first, but once you say it, you won’t forget it!
br: Can you describe your process for making songs?
T.S.: Theo and I will try to start our music together in some shape or form. If we see it through to a certain point by ourselves, it goes against what argonaut&wasp is. I’ll add some chord progressions, a vocal melody and some lyrics, and I’ll show Theo. If we both like it, we’ll sit down and work with it. At that point, Theo will whip up a drum beat on Ableton and we’ll start tracking it. We’ll keep adding layer, layer, layer, and then idea, idea, idea, until we like it. We’ll have a rough sketch of a song at this point, with chord progressions and A, B, and C sections. We’ll get the demo recorded and sit on it for a little while. If it sparks our interest, we’ll come back and work on it in the future. Sometimes, inspiration might hit really quickly and we could have a song done in ten minutes.
br: What’s more important to you- lyricism, or production value and instrumentation? T.S.: I would say that the classic song structure is more important to both of us. Production aesthetic and production style is what’s going to make something interesting on first listen. You could have an amazing song, but if the production doesn’t grab your attention right away, it’s going to take longer for people to like it. We just make timeless music, and with that, there are two things you need to get across with a song. You need to have a vibe, and you also need a message. You can get across a vibe with a bad song, but really good production. In order to get both, you need a really good song behind the production.
br: I know you just released “Monacillo” a few days ago, but do you guys have any projects in the work?
T.S.: Yeah, we have some stuff that’s coming together right now. Once one of our singles starts getting popular, we think we’ll release a bigger project.
br: Can you tell me a little bit about what it has in store?
T.S.: Before we released “Composure” six weeks ago, Theo and I hadn’t made any new music in over a year and a half. That entire time, we were working so much on writing and producing. We have so much music that we’re ready to get out. What I can tell you is that this year is going to be filled with a s--t ton of music from us. There’s no release date for the album yet, so just keep expecting new tracks each month until we make an announcement.
br: What music goals do you guys have for the future?
T.S.: I would say that we want to get enough fans to the point where making an album makes sense. It’s every musician’s dream to create a full record. That is a huge goal for this year. We also want to play some festivals and going on tour with some of our favorite bands.
Thanks so much again to Theo for giving me his time for an interview. I wish him and the rest of argonaut&wasp the best of luck in their future endeavors. Feel free to reach out to them on Instagram, @argonautandwasp, they are very generous in responding to fans. I would also recommend that you check out some of their more recent singles, as they've been some of my favorite songs to listen to recently. Once again, thanks to everyone for reading this; I hope you guys continue to tune in to my content in the future!
To hear some of argonaut&wasp's bangin' tracks, go to https://soundcloud.com/argonaut-and-wasp
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