Aye Nako

The following is an interview with the band Aye Nako | Written by Posture’s Music Editor Emma Caterine

Featured image left to right: Mars vocalist/guitarist (he, him, his), Joe bass guitar (he, him, his), Angie drums (she, her, hers), Jade Payne guitar (she, her, hers). The dog’s name is Broccolinni.

It was a rainy Sunday afternoon as I got off the A/C stop at Bedford-Nostrand to go over to the apartment of Mars and Jade, singer and guitarists for queer fuzz-drenched pop punk pioneers Aye Nako. I stopped at a pizza place to grab a slice before I headed over. “Diggin On You” by TLC came on my mp3. “I was like peace in a groove/On a sunday afternoon.” Yeah, perfect. I started walking through the rain towards their apartment. The apartment building was your standard Brooklyn abode, but once I got inside it looked like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, a winding uneven staircase that led all the way up to a fourth floor apartment.

I was greeted at the door by Mars and his super adorable little pup Broccollini. I was pretty early, so while Mars, Jade, and I waited for Angie and Joe, as well as Posture photographer Tafv, to show up, we talked about dogs and which areas of Brooklyn we like the best. Jade asked if we’d be interested in a recipe she had for chocolate chip cookie dough brownies. Tafv, Angie, and Joe all soon showed up. The band members, though a little shy about the interview at first, we’re obviously very comfortable around each other and great friends. The chemistry the band has in the studio or on stage is definitely mimicked in their social lives: they finish each other’s sentences, laugh at each other’s jokes, and almost always seem in complete agreement. Though all the members had different personalities, they were complimentary puzzle pieces. Jade is tall, focused, confident, with long hair and a direct well-thought way of speaking. Mars has expressive eyes that showcase the soul of a sensitive artist who has to tell the world that it isn’t as horrid as it thinks it is. Joe’s bright clothing perfectly expresses his energy, which is coupled with an impressive intelligence. Angie is the gregarious friend always able to make others feel comfortable, and so often able to expand on the thoughts of others without overriding them. I talked with Aye Nako about the restrictions of pop-punk, “rocking out”, and how queer identity shapes their music, including their new record Unleash Yourself:

Emma: Y’all last played with Mal Blum at Public Assembly. How was that?

Jade: I thought it was really fun. We played really well and it was special too because Mal is Mars and I’s roommate so it was nice to support the record release. It’s nice when nothing goes horribly wrong (laughs) and I also got to do some rocking out with Mars.

Emma: Rocking out?

Jade: Rocking out is when there’s a solo happening and you move out of your spot on stage to go interact with someone else on stage, like dueling guitars ACDC style.

Angie: It’s nice when we have monitors at a show cause normally I don’t get to hear the vocals very well.

Emma: Is Public Assembly generally the type of venue you play?

Joe: There’s not really an average show. The last few places we played were like Public Assembly: sound person, PA. But we’ve also played basements or bars without any PA where someone just tells you “Oh there’s one outlet over there. Do whatever you want!” We don’t really have an average show, especially in New York. Here it’s competitive to set up a show so there’s not certain places you can easily use or book. You take whatever you can get it. So it varies from Public Assembly to some weird basement or a really crappy bar that holds 15 people.

Angie: Which are all fun.

Emma: A single called “For the Inverted” from your upcoming debut Unleash Yourself was released through spin.com recently and I was really touched by the lyrics of the song, they were almost macabre, darker. Could you tell us a little about the lyrics?

Mars: So the inspiration for that song came from these reoccurring dreams I’ve had where I’m a cis gay man fooling around with other men. I’m really into dreams: talking about dreams and keeping a journal. I wanted to write a song about that, about these dreams.

Emma: The word ‘inverted’ made me think of the old term ‘inverts’-

Mars: Yeah yeah. That’s why I used it. I was reading a zine or a booklet that Radclyffe Hall, some of their writing, and they kept using that word and I was like “Oh. I like that.” I find words for ‘homosexual’ really interesting, the coded language we use.

Emma: Pop-punk musically gets restricted to a couple of options: really angsty or really happy. But I feel like your songs, like “For the Inverted”, have a much more blues-like tone while still maintaining that driving pop-punk edge and speed.

Angie: We made an effort to break out of the pop-punk genre.

Joe: Not just musically but culturally. Sometimes when we played out of town and it’d be all-around different from who we were or what we were going for. They’d think, “Oh this is just another pop-punk band” as in music for 20-something straight white guys. All these bands kinda sound exactly the same on purpose and it was hard cause we had struggled to write songs really slowly, specifically to sound different or have different styles. It was hard after that for people to refer to us as “Oh and check out this other pop-punk band.”

Emma: You guys particularly got compared to Superchunk by spin.com. How do you feel about being compared to other bands?

Mars: I wish they had called us the gay version of Superchunk (laughs) I mean I love Superchunk.

Jade: Yeah I feel that way too. I never mind when it is a band that I admire.

Angie: It’s flattering when it’s band we’re all into.

Joe: But it’s frustrating in that it’s kinda a lazy music. “Any band that remotely sounds like kinda fuzzy and has guitar…it’s Superchunk!” It doesn’t hurt my feelings to hear but it isn’t that exciting either. It isn’t a super cool compliment.

Emma: How does queer identity shape the lyrics and music in your band?

Mars: I feel like I don’t hear a lot of songs on queer topics or topics involving gender. I mean (alarm rings)

Jade: Cookie brownies! Keep going I’ll be right back.

Mars: In rock or this particular whatever genre. Being queer is such an important part of my identity. One of the reasons I play music is to play the songs I wanted to hear as a queer teenager, as someone who is 13 or 14. I wish I had had those songs. Lyrically I never overtly say ‘she’ or ‘girlfriend’ or ‘baby.’ I talk about those things but I don’t gender them.

Jade: I really appreciate that in bands when the references are gender neutral. When you never refer to the character’s gender it reaches more people. I also appreciate how you will explain to the audience what the songs are about because not a lot of bands do that especially at the basement shows. Before I was in the band I always liked going to the shows for that reason cause you can’t always hear what the vocalist is saying in those sort of shows.

Joe: It was something that came from seeing other bands play, in those kind of basement shows. If you don’t have any personal connection with a band the first time you see them play, I mean maybe if I knew what it was about I could get into it but they don’t explain it so all I hear is “kkkkkkk.”

Mars: You kinda forced me to do it years ago. “Stop making awkward silences and say something.” (laughs)

Joe: Well when you’re on tour and you’re playing with different bands every night, totally random bands, you don’t know them. It can be pretty uncomfortable: you don’t know if you can be yourself around them. So saying what your songs are about can open that up. And conversely some bands will say “Oh this song is about something really stupid” and you know not to talk to them later.”

Emma: Who are some of your favorite queer musicians?

Mars: Little Victory, we’ve played with them but they don’t play as a band anymore.

Joe: That was a band that we became friends with through their drummer Kelly and the first time we went out of town was with them. They were a really big influence on me cause they were the opposite of us: really confident and so gay. We were weird and awkward and they were not. It was completely different worlds but wound up being a good mix and a good influence on us.

Angie: We’re also playing our record release with The Fucking Dyke Bitches who are one of my favorites for sort of the same reason: they remind me to not be so uptight and not to take myself too seriously.

Jade: I liked playing with The Breathing Light. I’m not sure if they’re queer but they were awesome.

Emma: There’s a lot of Brooklyn pride in the music scene. How do you feel about the city and how does the scene here influence your sound?

Joe: Well I don’t like flippy hats (laughs).

Angie: Growing up in New York, it is cool for me to be a part of this band because I always surrounded myself with the same group of musicians so it is cool to expand my horizons. But at the same time it is a conflict of interest because I feel like I have a dual life. My past and my present is all here.

Emma: I can definitely relate to being part of a music scene and when I decided to play music that expressed my queer identity I got shunned.

Angie: Yeah. Or vice versa, they feel ostracized from my new thing.

Emma: I love your website. Ridiculously cool. The ASCii art, the rainbow banners, the color scheme are all great. How did that come about?

Mars: The computer whiz.

Joe: Yeah that’s me. I feel like it captures the goofy nature of the band. Constantly joking about goofy things and embracing that. I was really into ASCii art when I was younger. I recently got this queer nerd zine called FAQNP which had this huge pullout poster of queer nerd icons all done in ASCii art of photos of these icons. And I was like “Oh I used to love this. I should do this again.”

Emma: What’s really interesting is that most bands nowadays just have a bandcamp or myspace, not their own website. Why didn’t you go that route?

Joe: Well part of it is I work at a webhosting company, so it wasn’t a hassle. It’s what I do everyday. But it was a struggle not to be into this sort of things. Facebook, bandcamp, it was difficult for us to accept. We didn’t want to care but people could list it as an interest anyways and it makes a page for you. It forces you into it. They all seem silly, especially since at first we didn’t have any songs and we didn’t have a record. Why should we concentrate on those things? We’d rather focus on creating the songs.

Angie: Bandcamp also feels empty. I’m always disappointed when I’m trying to get more info about a band, and you can’t tell anything about what they’re about, what they’re into, who they are. Our website makes it more personal.

Joe: It’s how we do the fliers and record too. Like that cheesy saying “The message is the medium.” When it is handmade people get excited cause you don’t see a lot of that anymore. With bandcamp everything looks the same. It doesn’t really make you feel anything.

Jade: I think it is cool that our fliers are handmade. It makes a big difference.

Emma: You don’t see that a lot around New York cause they’re so strict about taking down fliers.

Angie: Joe and I were taping our record release poster around the neighborhood and the next day I happened to pass the same spot and it was already ripped down.

Mars: Probably had something to do with the Black butt on it.

Angie: Or Fucking Dyke Bitches.

Jade: Or Dick Binge.

Angie: Probably a combo of those things.

Emma: What is the importance of DIY and independent producing to how you made the record?

Joe: It was pretty important for us to put out the record ourselves: we can say whatever we want, it’s ours, we worked really hard and no one else can have a say in how it is put out or received.

Emma: How do you feel about major corporate labels?

Jade: It’s such a double-edged sword. Being in a band, there are so many bands these days, and it is nice to have support but the trouble is finding support that is aligned with your goals and politics. The music industry, everyone knows it, is a money-sucking monster. Being in this band, we all are pretty wary of the offers of support we get. The Billboard thing. Billboard wanted to do a thing about DIY punk bands and we were like “Uh we don’t care.” You have to be careful. But there are a lot of great labels that don’t have profit at the forefront of their minds. It is really tricky. In my old band we never saw a penny from our music, even though it was on iTunes and everything.

Joe: It’s scary to give it to someone else, to trust someone else with it.

Jade: Then they have a say in how it is perceived.

Joe: It’s a slippery slope. Most people who come to our shows now are pretty cool and friends and if we gave it to someone else to promote they could bring people to our shows who would alienate the fanbase we worked so hard to build.

Mars: Or alienate us.

Jade: That’s why Courtney Love is in a band (laughs).

Emma: A lot of bands, there’s this idea that certain members are expendable or not. With major labels it is the guitarist or the lead singer cause they’re the face of the band. But it can be the opposite with DIY, especially in New York, where the drummer or the person who has the drum kit becomes important.

Jade: Or the person who has the van.

Joe: That’s me.

Mars: We’re all crucial members.

Joe: Music is really important but once it is done there’s all these other aspects of a band that people don’t see it. It is a huge culture and social thing. I couldn’t imagine having anyone else in the band just for a musical reason. It’d be so different if it weren’t the four of us. It’s so weird to read stories of bands that replace people. For me it is so much more than that. I couldn’t imagine auditioning for a band.

Jade: It reminds me of when I first moved to Brooklyn with a completely different mentality, looking on craigslist and going to auditions. But it was so horrifically disconnecting and completely not gelling at all. You have to have well-meaning intentions and things have to happen organically.

Angie: It works well for us.

Emma: Could you tell us about Unleash Yourself?

Mars: Well the title has a few meanings. The first is that I really like dogs, so I wanted there to somehow be a dog reference. I walk dogs, so I’m always about dogs. It is also about how the time we last recorded was 2 years ago. So this is 2 years and just 11 songs, not even cause some are from the demo. And it is so different, really different from the demo. The transition away from pop-punk, unleashing ourselves. Oh I think Mal just got home.

Mal: Hey what’s up? You  can quote me on that.

Angie: This is Mal that we were talking about.

Mal: What were you saying? It’s all lies (laugh)

Mars: Anyways, there are more layers. Some songs have three guitars and second vocal parts. At this point I’m kinda over the record and I’m ready to write new songs.

Joe: We finished it in the first week of November. It was a lot of fun, a really cool recording experience. We were lucky to record with someone who was nice but also pushed us in a supportive way. This guy named Justin Pieza-Ferraro, recommended by a friend. When we had posted asking people who we should record with no one else had good things to say, but one of our friends sent a page long recommendation of this guy. It would have sounded a lot worse with someone else. Afterwards he’s been super nice, following up and helping with the mastering. Very encouraging, always said that he liked it.

Angie: I’m really proud of the record and really excited for our friends to hear it. It is so different and it is a huge accomplishment.

Emma: What is the future?

Mars: We have a couple of new songs already. I really want to do a 7 inch.

Joe: We’ve only gone on tour for like a week at a time. So hopefully more of that.

Angie: Go to the west coast, hopefully not a pipe dream.

Emma: One last silly question. If you could banish one straight pop musician from speaking about “gay rights” or “same-sex marriage” ever again, who would it be?

Mars: Do they talk about that stuff?

Jade: Taylor Swift?

Angie: What’s your answer?

Emma: The question came from Katy Perry winning some award.

Joe: That’s who I thought of.

Mars: Wait…she has that homophobic song…you’re so gay. What…

Angie: Good answer.

Jade: I would like to see the whole marriage conversation go, it isn’t relevant to the queer scene we identify with. I’d like to see people talk about trans equality and trans issues, it is much more important right now than marriage.

Angie: Buy our record!

Mars: No, no, no…

Angie: ayenako.com

Mars: it’s ayenako.org

Angie: I know I was joking.

 

Unleash Yourself comes out May 31^st, check out the facebook event page for their record release show with The Fucking Dyke Bitches, Dick Binge, and Yva Las Vegass