Interview: Stay Inside Announces Their Debut EP, As You Were

As with all great and engaging music, the generational waves in which each genre evolves retroactively measures its widespread impact. Combining four distinct backgrounds, newly minted Brooklyn-based band Stay Inside refracts its own urgent style on the emo/post-hardcore landscape.

Now, the quartet is readying the release of their debut EP, As You Were, out April 21st via self-release. GroundSounds is happy to make that announcement today and caught up with the band to get a little more insight into what to expect.

Check out our interview with Stay Inside and check out their initial demo below.

Hi, Stay Inside! Congrats on your new EP. Can you tell us a little more on who you are and how you first came together?

Thanks! Bartees and Chris met up to try to make some music and went back and forth between working on a rap project or something guitar based. After adding Bryn and Vish to the team, it just naturally started heading towards post-hardcore. Mostly cause Vish can’t rap tho.

What’s your songwriting process like? Is it fairly democratic?

We all love to write and very well understand our stuff turns out better when we do it as a team. Generally, someone comes in with a riff. Then we tell them it’s trash and we use it to write something better.

What are some of the larger themes at play on As You Were?

“As You Were” are lyrics from a song on the EP, Daily News, which is about the kids that sell drugs outside of my apartment (Bartees). They catch a lot of heat and I know they feel like they don’t have options. I just wanted to write a song to say that they’re beautiful, awesome, smart, valuable people.

As You Were, as a project, looks at some tough life situations and how people sorted out these problems. How they went from how they were, to how they are now. With so much going on in the world it’s hard it’s hard to remember that people can change, and that the things we do have impacts on others.

Where do you see yourselves currently in the NYC post-hardcore/emo scene? What makes you stand apart?

This is a tough question, I’d love to know where other folks think we stand in the scene :). I’d say we’re “tweeners,” we can get just as loud as most hardcore bands, write catchy licks like the emo guys and we’re high energy, we’re a fun band.

What makes us different is our approach to the genre. We all wanted to start a band like Stay Inside because the scene desperately needs more diverse people and viewpoints. We sing a lot about break-ups and fucked up relationships, but we also spend a lot of time addressing police shootings, anti-lgbt laws across the south, half the country turning their backs on black and brown people. We try to hit it all. Singing about stuff like that sets us apart here in NY among other bands in our genre. There are a lot of bands that are great in NY, some of them share our commitment to bringing new viewpoints to the scene, but I think we’re bringing this aspect to the table in a special way through this EP and at our shows.

What was the production team behind As You Were?

The album was recorded / produced / engineered at Dr. Richard’s audio remedies in Brooklyn, NY by Nick Rapley. It was mastered by TJ Lipple, who masters for American Football and a number of other great bands. Christopher Salyers created the artwork for the ep and singles. He’s handled our band’s visual aesthetic (including merch / flyers) from it’s inception.

Could you describe each of the three songs on the EP in three words or less

Radio Silence – not so silent

Daily News – for the kids

Blockbussa – staggered space jam

Any new Brooklyn-based artists/venues/purveyors of the arts you could turn our readers onto?

The emo/punk scene is really starting to come through in bk and it’s really exciting to us. We recently played a show with a band called Hold On, Caulfield and those kids are really doing some rad stuff. Also have to shout out our friends Nervous Dater and Good Looking Friends.

Where can we follow you and where can our readers catch you live next?

We’re @stayinsidemusic on most social media sites. We’re already writing our next release so definitely keep your eye on our facebook and instagram for updates!

Any parting thoughts? Open platform!

Thanks for bringing us on, we’re pumped about our first EP together and we hope folks enjoy it. We’ve got some shows coming up! Come out! More coming soon.

March 25 – Arden Guild Hall, Arden, DE

March 30 – Don Pedro, Brooklyn, NY

April 14 – House Party, Philadelphia, PA

April 20 – The Gateway, Brooklyn NY