It’s Saturday December 7th, 2024 – a rainy night in Paris. After a packed out show and a dazzling performance, I corral the boys of Fast Money Music outside of iconic venue —Supersonic, to ask 5 Fast Questions (ok maybe more than 5).
What’s your favorite release from 2024?
Nick: Oh god, (laughs) Joshua Scarratt’s ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’
Josh: That’s a pretty good (laughs)… It’s ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Mind’
Nick: Oh fuck I didn’t even get it right.
Josh: I’ll go with Fontaine’s DC ‘In The Modern World’
Nick: Say Fast Money Music! What the fuck!
(everyone laughs)
Josh: Or ‘Starbuster’
Joe: Recently, ‘Afterlife’ the new Sharon Van Etten single.
John: ‘Ritual’ by John Hopkins
Which do you prefer: writing, composing and recording or playing live shows?
Nick: Wow, that’s a tough one.
Josh: That is tough.
Nick: It’s fucking equal… because writing and recording is such a different process. But then once you play the song live, it takes on like a whole new life. Once you’ve played it for an audience then the song feels real. Otherwise, it’s just a demo in your computer That’s my answer.
Do you ever work on a song long enough and then you’re like, I don’t like it anymore?
Nick: Joe, when’s your EP coming out?
(everyone laughs)
Joe: 2038
Yeah, okay, can we premiere it?
(everyone laughs)
Joe: Live, for me… Studio’s great, but I find the energy of live.. when it’s good, it’s just…
Josh: Yeah, like, tonight was sick.
John: They’re so different, it’s hard to compare, but I know what Joe’s saying… When you have a good live show, there’s nothing really like it. When everyone’s on that sort of… Whatever that thing is… when everyone’s on that, there’s nothing else really like it. And it’s hard to kind of get that in the studio sometimes.
Nick: And you can never do the same thing twice, you know? So when it happens live, it’s real.
Notebooks or notes app, or both?
Nick: That’s tough. I wish I was a notebook guy, but I am a notes app.
John: We are not that romantic.
You don’t carry a little notepad with you?
Josh: I wish I always had one in my pocket with a pen, but it’s always my phone. It’s always my phone.
Steffan: I can’t write anymore.
I have the same problem. When I write for too long, my hand cramps. It’s not good. So do you use notebooks at all for writing?
Nick: Yeah.
Josh: Sometimes, I keep a diary.
Nick: But you can edit so fast on the app. On the fly, too.
Are you using the voice memos, too?
Nick and Josh: Yeah
Are you putting the voice memos into your notes?
Nick: Yes!
Josh: I’m a voice notes straight onto Dropbox.
Nick: Ooh!
Josh: Yeah. So I have a reference holder for lyric ideas.
Joe: Very efficient Joshua.
Josh: I try to be.
If you were to learn a new instrument, what would it be?
Josh: I really want to learn the cello.
Joe: I’d love to learn to play drums properly
Nick: Saxophone.
John: Well I play saxophone. I’d be giving him lessons (laughs). Maybe he could teach me guitar. So I’ll take a guitar.
Steffan: I think the theremin.
(everyone laughs)
Nick: Woah!
(Steffan starts making theremin noises)
People aren’t utilizing the theremin enough in modern music.
Josh: They are not!
Steffan: I’ve been rallying.
Next EP then? Fast Music Music… theremin?
Nick: There’s gonna be so much fucking theremin on the next album.
What is your favorite song off the Rouge EP to perform but also if its a different answer, compose and write?
Nick: I want to say the most fun to perform is probably, annoyingly, ‘Polar Bear,’ which is not even a song I wrote. But I’d say second is ‘Hot Melt Glue’ for me and probably my favorite song on the EP.
Josh: ‘Space Opera’ for me. Probably because I do the most on guitar. It’s really fun to play that one.
So you like to show off?
Josh: Yes. This is my time in the sun.
Nick: By the way, Joe and I co-produced the EP together.
Joe: ‘Hunky Dory’ is my favorite song. Hunky Dory
Nick: Damn, everyone’s got a different one. I love it.
Steffan: I think ‘Space Opera’, just because I love that song. And it just feels really good. You can see the audience react to it in a really positive way. It’s a good one.
John: Maybe ‘Polar Bear’. Kind of because… it’s just chaos and the video was fun.
Nick: Yeah, controlled chaos.
John: Yeah. You’ll never know that I’m in it because I’m dressed as a polar bear.
Then composing, writing, is it a different answer?
Joe: Well, not composing or writing, but I guess recording and producing, I think Faceless was kind of the most fun because of the references. What was the track again?
Nick: It was like a mix of Suicide and Bruce Springsteen, I’m on Fire, right?
Joe: No, the Alan Vega track, though, the Alan Vega solo album track.
Nick: Oh was it ‘Jukebox Babe’?
Joe: Yeah.
Nick: ‘Hot Melt Glue’, for me, was the one that kind of weirdly wrote itself. It happened so fast and it was super exciting.
I love that song, but when I was first listening to it I thought, how did you get to Hot Melt Glue?
Nick: The theme of the song is trying to find external things to fix you.
Of course, glue sucks though.
Josh: It’s unreliable. Its quite sticky.
Nick: Well, trying to have other people fix you sucks too… it turns out.
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