This post was written by Hatchet staff writer Margaret Kahn.
Anyone who listens to SKATERS’ first single, “I Wanna Dance (But Don’t Know How),” can’t help but head bang at least a little.
SKATERS, a four-man rock band trying to make it big, really will make you want to dance, even if you don’t know how. The group recently released their first full-length album, “Manhattan,” and while none of the band members are from the city, they’ve made it their adopted home with a series of tracks about life in the city. The Hatchet spoke with lead singer and songwriter Michael Cummings about having a love-hate relationship with the Big Apple, the band’s zine and why the guys aren’t like KISS (yet).
SKATERS will play at Rock & Roll Hotel this Saturday at 8 p.m. Get tickets here.
Where does your band’s attachment to New York City come from? Why make it the focus of your first album?
It wasn’t really like that. It’s just that’s how we all came together. We all met in the city, and that’s the reason the band started. We had all moved back, and the band started really quickly. Everything we wrote about, all the concepts, all the songs in the first record are about shit that happened to us in New York. It’s not really an obsession, it’s actually a love-hate relationship which you’ll hear in our record.
What was the message you wanted to get across with your first album?
We just wanted to make a record that people could put on at a party, you know what I mean? [One] that wasn’t too alienating, or too esoteric. It just kind of felt like it could be for anyone and you could play the whole thing start to finish. That was our only intention.
You’ve drawn many comparisons between yourselves and The Strokes. Can you name other musicians who have influenced you?
I think musically, it’s more like late 70s, post-punk stuff like The Ramones, Devo, Television-like, more thrashy stuff. Early Beastie Boys, Circle Jerks – stuff like that. People can compare us to whoever they want. The Strokes are good friends of ours and obviously a great band.
Tell me a bit about your opener Team Spirit. Why did you choose them?
We didn’t really know much about Team Spirit before this tour, and we just checked out their band and dug it and offered them the tour. They’re pretty crazy.
Sound-wise, they are similar enough, but the show makes sense for sure. All around it’s a pretty high-energy show.
What can concert-goers expect from your show?
It’s something you have to come create with us… we’re not like KISS, it’s not like a train is gonna come out of the wall like at an ACDC show. You gotta participate. It’s a crowd participation experience.
I saw that you guys have a zine called “YONKS.” What went into creating that?
We thought it was a good excuse to throw a party and build a community of people who we worked with already that were really talented but might not know each other. All these people who were doing all this artwork for us sometimes for free or really cheap, we had them all kind of submit some work. We didn’t really make money off it, we just do them all by hand and sell them at shows. If you’re into the art, you can buy it. If you’re not, whatever. We do it for the camaraderie of it, a bunch of our friends in one spot and all really talented artists. Even since the first [issue], a couple of them have kind of blown up.
This is your first big tour. How has it gone so far? What were some of your favorite venues?
This is our first full U.S. headlining tour. We had no clue what to expect from it. We were in San Francisco and it was maybe the rowdiest crowd I’ve ever seen. That was a real treat. It wasn’t the biggest crowd, and it just showed that a small crowd of kids can really make the show so much better if they give a shit. You can have the same amount of people in another room in a different city [with a] different attitude and the show can be stale. But those kids were true champions.
