NORMY - Sound In The Signals Interview
I recently had the opportunity to interview George Lucarelli of NORMY. We discussed new song “Thanks For Nothing”, when to expect the band’s upcoming EP, collaborating with Smartpunk, covering Motion City Soundtrack’s “My Favorite Accident”, and more. Check it out below.
First, thanks for the interview.
No problem! I’m always down.
You recently released a new song “Thanks For Nothing”. Can you tell me about writing and recording the song?
I wrote the song one night when I was tuning my guitar and kind of accidentally wrote the little intro part and rolled with it. It came pretty quickly and then I laid down some programmed drums and had a full demo. From there I recorded the instruments with Steve Perrino and waited for Eric to come in and track his vocals for the final product. Lyrically I know it’s about Eric havin’ a bad time on tour with a band overseas for the first time but I wasn’t there so I can’t dive too far into that beyond what he’s already publicly said about it. The recording process for this EP was kind of a nightmare! But I’m happy with the final product.
It has a great vibe and really good energy. Do you usually start with music or lyrics?
Every NORMY song has started with just music. I usually just get a strong enough sounding demo to send out and see if everyone digs it and then it goes from there. I didn’t hear any of the lyrics sung for the songs on this EP until after they were tracked so it was all new to me.
I’m hearing rumors that you’re working on an album. Is there any truth to that? If so, what can you tell us so far?
No, there's no truth to that rumor! There’s an EP dropping in September though. It's going to be our final EP or at least my final as far as participating but I don’t think the band will randomly decide to continue without me in it. Can’t say for certain though. The EP is called WHAT THE FUCK PLANET ARE THESE GUYS FROM? and it’s being released via SmartPunk.
You released your past EP on vinyl with Smartpunk, but with the release of this new song you announced you’ve officially signed with them. What made you decide to sign with them? How has the experience been so far?
I think it’s been great. It’s nice to not have to worry about the finances or figuring out who’s going to be printing stuff or where to get vinyl made etc. We originally were going to be doing an in-house label self release style stuff but that idea kind of fizzled out so I had asked Matt from Smartpunk if he was down and he seemed to really like the songs! They have been very helpful and super easy to work with from the start.
Earlier in the year you released a cover of Motion City Soundtrack’s “My Favorite Accident”. What made you want to cover that song?
I think it was just me really wanting to do a cover and figuring it had to at least be a band that Eric would also be into. I was really happy with how that turned out also. It was another instance of me not hearing the vocals until after they were done. It felt kinda cool to hear it finished instead of being there during tracking listening to it all day long and kinda getting sick of it. It’s one of those songs that throughout the years has always been in the rotation of music I’m listening to.
Is there any chance that we’ll hear more cover songs in the future? Are there any artists who you’d like to cover?
We did cover “Memory” by Sugarcult at both of the shows we’ve played so far! I have thrown out the idea of covering many songs, but none of them will ever see the light of day.
I see you being compared to No Pressure a lot. How do you feel about that comparison? Do you feel it’s mainly because you draw from similar influences?
I think it’s because we both play the good style of pop punk and not like the kind for little children lol. I really like what they are doing because they can play hardcore shows and not like fests with bands I would have no interest in seeing or like random rappers who think they’re pop punk now. I like a lot of music so I just try to write what I think sounds cool but I’d definitely say their first EP was a strong influence for NORMY. I really respect what they’re doing and look forward to listening everytime they release new music.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else that you would like to add?
No worries, thanks for having me! Check out my other bands. Start a band. Go to shows. Smoke cigarettes.
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