The Triceratops are ready to conquer your ears and minds with their blend of noise-rock and alt-rock nostalgia when they release Charge in a few days (01 Nov to be precise). Prior to their debut album, the band has joined TGEFM for the latest of our Roll of the Dice interview series. Check it out below!
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Congrats on the upcoming release of “Charge” What can you tell us about The Triceratops and this record for readers just discovering the band?
(John) We call ourselves noise pop. Like noise rock but melodic. We’re heavy and pretty, except when we aren’t. There’s a lot of variety on this record. There’s huge dissonant chaos songs and acoustic songs. Andrew Schneider, who’s made amazing records with Unsane, KEN Mode, Julie Christmas and Cave In to name a few, helped us get a different guitar tone for each song which helps a lot with relistening. A record that sounds the same throughout often makes me feel waterlogged. We like our songs short, growning up on punk (particularly NYC hardcore) and 60s pop (The Beatles didn’t have a song over 3 minutes until their 5th record), but dense. We pack a lot into each one. Melvin’s drum parts are intricately written, it really rewards multiple listens.
What album or band or significant singles made you go “Yeah, this is what I want to do” Not just an influence but who or what was the catalyst?
(Melvin) You know, I could rattle off a few bands, but I really think, and I know this is silly, but the Simpsons… the episode where Homer Brings “Michael Jackson” home from jail… at one point MJ and Bart collaborate on a birthday/apology song for Lisa, and I have goosebumps right now thinking about it. I was around eleven years old, not especially into music and didn’t play any instruments, but something about the scene- the piano and the song made me think to myself “this is what I want to do, I want to make songs” I also remember really liking the collaborative element of it. I’ve always preferred writing with someone in a band.
(John) One of my earliest memories is someone showing me a picture of a bug and thinking “why are they calling that a Beatle?.” My obsession pre-dates my memory, they’re my DNA. My dad telling me how they insisted on doing one of their originals at their first recording session was my version of Melvin’s Simpsons moment, the idea that people make songs.
When I was 14 I saw Guided by Voices in their hometown. When the first song, Wished I was a Giant, kicked in, they started high kicking and spinning and windmilling and I said “That. I am going to do that for the rest of my life.”
You guys got your start working together at CBGBs. What did you learn from the successful and not as successful bands to grace the stage there that you’ve been able to incorporate into The Triceratops?
(Melvin) Hmm it will be hard to be brief with this question- I would say that I think gear and tone is really important, but also a great player can make a shitty drum kit sound amazing while a bad player can make the most expensive amp you can get sound like crap. I’m going to say my biggest take away after seeing eight bands a night for years is that punk in a society of self service is actually about rebelling against that and having respect and community. If you’re slotted for thirty minutes and play an hour or take your sweet time getting your gear off the stage your attitude is basically “fuck the other bands” and that’s bullshit. And everyone knows it. The staff know it, the bands know it, and the audience knows it. Besides that, leave your audience wanting more.
(John) Everything Melvin said. Beyond that, maybe part of this is hindsight, it taught me to appreciate every moment I have onstage. I would get more out of a band whose music I didn’t like who gave it their all than I would out of a band whose music I loved who seemed like they didn’t care. I can still feel those floorboards under my feet, still feel myself crouched into a ball on the side of the stage while Joey Ramone sang “I Wanna Be Sedated.” I get a bit of that feeling every stage I step on. In New York we’re losing the war on music, waged by the real estate developers that rule the city. Clubs keep closing. Every chance I get I’m gonna give everything I have.
We’ve all got a few, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn’t take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?
(Melvin) I feel like the main one is asking for an electric guitar for my 13th birthday. It’s just been a steady stream of bad ideas and decisions since that one. I write songs about it. That said, some part of me thinks there’s no other path I could have gone down.
(John) Over the years, pretty much every time I changed something in a song because I thought it was too obvious, or too simple, I wish I hadn’t. A) I’m pretty weird so what’s obvious to me isn’t necessarily obvious to everyone else, and B) obvious is obvious for a reason, because it flows and feels natural. And it helps people follow along. Heavy music can make you feel powerful or it can overpower you.
We’re the Triceratops you ride, not the Triceratops that tramples you.
What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences as a touring musician so far? What’s been the most unexpected? The weirdest?
(Melvin) Most unexpected – I played guitar for the Japanese pop singer Jun Togawa at a festival in Shanghai, I had done a few shows with her in Japan but didn’t know what to expect in China. We started the set and something felt amazing, just really good energy. Then we brought it down for the first verse and suddenly I heard an eruption “did the PA system just explode?!” No. That was the audience singing along. I never heard anything so loud, I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t even know the words! What I realized after the set is that most Chinese people don’t speak Japanese, and they were singing along entirely phonetically
Weirdest? Tour is non stop weirdness. Meeting a band of strangers for the first time and then hopping in a van or bus with them for a month will lead to lots of awkward moments and conversations. The strangers you meet. The fist fights. The laundry you forget in Finland. Getting stranded in Switzerland for a week because volcanic ash shut down air travel. Whoring yourself out for a place to stay. Getting your van stolen with your ID and not even being able to buy a bus ticket home… Vans break down waaaay too often. You will inevitably stay or play in some meth house…. Promoters are shady, tour managers are shadier.
It’s a ride.
(John) if you’re in a touring band reading this, play at Scottish Dave’s Pub in Clinton, CT. I was so impressed by how Scottish Dave took care of us, and that was before he brought out the swords. Giant Scottish swords. We took a picture with them, and then more people were getting in in it so I was going to give mine up to give them a chance for a sword picture. But Scottish Dave had enough swords for everybody!
One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found most important on a personal level. Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should?
(Melvin) right now I just want to push this Brooklyn band called A Deer A Horse. Check them out. They just put out a new record that is ……. You just gotta listen to it.
(John) yes you do! Also the new Julie Christmas record is amazing. Our power duo idol is Djunah. They do this melodic dissonance thing we try, playing 2 dissonant notes that are still part the scale of the key we’re playing.
Now that the world has its hands on the record, what’s next for The Triceratops?
(John) Immediately next is our record release show on November 15 at Gold Sounds in Brooklyn. After that… there’s one thing we know: in exchange for doing something he didn’t wanna do, Melvin got me to agree to put a different version of our 9 second theme song on every record. We recorded our debut EP (self-titled in tribute to Sonic Youth) after Charge! On there it’s called “Half of the Triceratops,” because its just me and an acoustic guitar. Thing is, “Half of the Triceratops” is exactly twice as long as The Triceratops. So it’s half spatially. Stay tuned to see how we keep it interesting.
What do you wish I asked about or that you had more of an opportunity to speak about during this interview?
(John) The Triceratops got to smash its way through the back of the Copacanana, covering one of the greatest songs, “Then He Kissed Me,” for the Day Old Donuts comp on Wax Donut Records. It’s a benefit for CDP Global Recovery Fund. They do disaster relief and there’s more than enough disaster these days. We were also honored to be on Conan Neutron’s Seismic Waves vol 1 comp. Excited to see what comes out of that label, everything Conan does is interesting.
Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
