Q&A Scene: Vinnie Barbaro ~ The NEW YORKS

Tell us about your new single/ album/ tour?

The recording process for the EP begun in January this year, though the timeline for when the tracks were written is widely spread over the last year.  It was recorded in Adelaide at Chapel Lane Studios with a friend and fantastic engineer, Michael Carver and all round great guy, Simon Kither with the tracks being sent for mastering at Sterling Sound in the US.  ‘Sir Wolf’ was mastered by Joe LaPorta (David Bowie, Vampire Weekend & The Weeknd) and the EP by Ryan Smith (Paolo Nutini, Talking Heads, Ozzy Osbourne & The National).

The EP shows influence from an affection for early 2000’s indie rock, with artists including Bloc Party, Paolo Nutini, The Killers & The Hives having influence, with its main themes being admiration & resentment, love-hate relationships and the irrelevance of questioning juvenile morality.

What’s your favourite work at this point in time? (your own or your group’s work)

We are super happy with the EP, though every time we release something then we write something new, we always wish we released the new tracks. Personally, I think it is really hard to be truly pleased with everyone single aspect of your own work.

Tell us a quick, on the road or studio, anecdote.

Is that a U-PARK? Dude, we are in the middle of the Hay Plains…

What, or who, inspires you?

We’re inspired by a lot of different artists but it’s hard to deny that indie lords like The Vaccines, The Kooks, The Wombats or The Strokes haven’t influenced us greatly. I think we all just enjoy making music and that somewhat inspires us to keep going.

Which song do you wish you wrote?

Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand or You Make My Dreams by Hall and Oates… damn that is a good song.

How would you describe your sound in food form and why?

Packet Mi Goreng… a bit shit, but you still love it.

What’s next for you?

We start the ‘I Wish I Was You, But That’s Just Me’ Tour this month around Australia including shows in Manly, Adelaide and Melbourne, then plan to get back and start the writing process again. Apart from that, three of us have a holiday planned for a couple of months at the start of next year to see a bit of Europe.

What’s your scene?

Anywhere that has Cherry beer on tap.

 

 

https://youtu.be/Tyaj5aaJt7g

 

Indie rockers The New Yorks have announced their new single We Enjoy This Too Much, a seriously fun, guitar-driven bop reminiscent of The Wombats, is out now.  An endearing clip, featuring the charismatic half wolf/half human frontman Sir Wolf, accompanies We Enjoy This Too Much with a perfect nostalgic quality.  This lively track is the second taste of their sophomore EP I Wish I Was You, But That’s Just Me, a collection of clever and irresistibly catchy songwriting, has also just been released.

To celebrate the release, The New Yorks will be hitting the road, kicking off with a free show at Hotel Steyne in Sydney on August 18, then heading through their hometown of Adelaide on August 25 and wrapping up in Melbourne at the The Reverence on September 22.

We Enjoy This Too Much is so steeped in mid-2000s influences, yet somehow it exists as new today, and audiences will surely be grateful that it does.  Evoking thoughts of The Strokes, Catfish And The Bottlemen and early offerings from The Jungle Giants, We Enjoy This Too Much goes hard and fast, guitars and riffs abound, and buoyed by clever lyrics and lead vocalist Vinnie Barbaro’s energetic performance.  Of the inspiration behind the track, Vinnie says, We Enjoy This Too Much is a rant about an irrational adoration for constant debate and agitation between a couple.  It’s a bit of a complicated relationship… the idea of love-hate and what is actually healthy is one that is dwelled upon, with conversational lyrics intended to represent bickering about what to watch on Netflix.  The temptation to push the quarrel in order to get one’s way is unanimously accepted to be a waste of time, instead they both take comfort in meaningless argument.”

The clip is a VHS-soaked alternate universe where it’s somehow completely normal for a wolf/human hybrid to start a band in their garage and ultimately suffer a meteoric fall from grace.  Directed by Oliver Del Vecchio of EAT SLEEP EMPIRE (The Coconut Kids), the concept behind the clip sounds a bit off-kilter but somehow makes perfect sense when all is in motion.  Vinnie explains, “The film clip is a prequel to the video of our previously released track, Sir Wolf.  Sir Wolf was established as a dominant character, a gobbling narcissist of a business man that’s interested in the dollars generated behind the music.  Sir Wolf is extravagant in order to out-shadow his dissatisfaction.  We Enjoy This Too Much provides a backstory to how he became this figure.  Set in 1985, the clip shows the failure of Sir Wolf’s band, ‘Steppe & The Hunting Men’ and his adoption in the music business.  A love for being a musician results to be detrimental, with his failure turning him bitter.”

The EP encompasses this world, cleverly crafted by the band, and spins it into an indie pop/rock wonderland.  Upon listening to I Wish I Was You, But That’s Just Me, you would be forgiven for thinking you had transported back to the time where Hot Fuss by The Killers was first doing the rounds.  Recorded at Chapel Lane Studios in Adelaide by Michael Carver and Simon Kither and mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound (Paolo Nutini, The National, Talking Heads), the songs fold into each other with ease, swelling and deflating most sweetly; crescendoing at Truman and taking a gentle breath in at Death In Modern Time.  Speaking about the EP, Vinnie says, “The main themes of the EP are admiration and resentment; love/hate relationships and the irrelevance of questioning juvenile morality.  The notion of love/hate relationships is not necessarily based on human interaction, but rather how a love for something and the search for admiration or approval can rob that process of the elements that made you love it in the first place.”

Anyone who listens to these recordings will likely be hungry for the live show, and luckily The New Yorks are set to deliver.  The group are thrilled to be stopping by Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne in August and September, and more than ready to hit the ground running with high-energy live shows.  Vinnie enthuses, “The recently built set is an honest representation of the recordings. We have always been a traditional band with an organic set up, little time for smoke, mirrors and bullshit.”

The New Yorks are Vinnie Barbaro, Marcus Rosella, Carlos Carosi and Jared Grimm.

The single We Enjoy This Too Much and EP I Wish I Was You, But That’s Just Me are now available.


Grab their EP here.

Catch the band LIVE:

THE NEW YORKS ‘I WISH I WAS YOU, BUT THAT’S JUST ME’ TOUR
FRI 18 AUG | HOTEL STEYNE MANLY, MANLY NSW | 18+

Free entry show | supported by Space Monk
FRI 25 AUG | ROCKET BAR, ADELAIDE SA | 18 +

Tickets available from www.moshtix.com.au | 1300 GET TIX | All Moshtix Outlets
FRI 22 SEP | THE REVERENCE HOTEL,  MELBOURNE VIC | 18 +

Tickets available at doors.

 

Connect with The New Yorks:

FACEBOOK                              SOUNDCLOUD                            INSTAGRAM                        TRIPLE J UNEARTHED

About Mary Boukouvalas 1620 Articles
Mary is a photographer and a writer, specialising in music. She runs Rocklust.com where she endeavours to capture the passion of music in her photos whether it's live music photography, promotional band photos or portraits. She has photographed The Rolling Stones, KISS, Iggy Pop, AC/DC, Patti Smith, Joe Strummer, PULP, The Cult, The Damned, The Cure, Ian Brown, Interpol, MUDHONEY, The MELVINS, The Living End, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against The Machine, The Stone Roses –just to name a few - in Australia, USA, Europe and the Middle East. Her work has been published in Beat magazine, Rolling Stone magazine, Triple J magazine, The Age Newspaper, The Herald Sun, The Australian, Neos Kosmos, blistering.com, theaureview.com, noise11.com, music-news.com. She has a permanent photographic exhibition at The Corner Hotel in Richmond, Victoria Australia.

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