On the night of Killing Horse Records’ three-year anniversary show, I was able to sit down with all eight members of The Everymen to talk about the last year, their latest record, New Jersey Hardcore, the upcoming Tiny Giant Winter Beach Ball, and so much more. The Everymen, for those who aren’t familiar with the group, have been bringing good old rock ‘n’ roll back to the local circuit for the last three years. With a serious amount of undeniable talent and dedication in this supergroup, it’s clear why they’re gaining as much momentum as they are. For a band with eight members, they form a sweet, sultry and energetic sound that’ll have you on your feet in an instant. The conversation is as follows:
New Jersey Hardcore came out not too long ago. How have you guys felt it’s been received?
Mike Venutolo-Mantovani: It kinda came out recently but just got into stores last week after a big manufacturing problem. The record actually came out on Oct. 9 and we only got a few hundred to sell and for the record label, Killing Horse, to sell. But it only just got here and hit record stores all over the country last week.
It kinda almost feels like it’s a new record again, which is cool. We’re trying to go back and do all the things we did minus a record release show. It’s awesome. I don’t expect anything but negativity, so when people dig it, I’m psyched. I mean, I’ve played in a lot of bands and I’m sure everyone here has played in a lot of bands; we’ve gotten absolutely no recognition, so any recognition is great let alone positive.
We recently got asked to license a song for a movie, which is very exciting. But the most exciting thing for me [is the music supervisor] said the reason he’s licensing it is because he’s a huge fan of us. It’s cool that our song is going to be in a movie but it’s more exciting to me that people besides our friends, moms and dads are digging it. It’s awesome and great and before these guys joined the band, all the songs were written and pretty much there and almost fully formed. So now we’re starting to make our next record, which is great because it’s more of a collaborative thing. Everybody is kinda coming into their own.
When we made New Jersey Hardcore, a lot of people were still trying to figure out and I was still trying to figure out how everything kinda fit together, but now we’re really firing on all cylinders. So we’re making this new record now and I feel like they’re going to be light years beyond what we did with the last record, which is cool ‘cause apparently it’s going well.
How did you guys get involved with Killing Horse Records?
MV: Just being around. Being a quasi-Jersey City band. They’re from Kearny. Even before we made this record, Mike Sylvia… I think the first time he saw us was in Newark for the Brick City Sound Riot and I think the next time he saw us he was like, “We have to do something.” So we made this record and we shopped it around. I told Mike to let me shop it around to bigger labels first and if that doesn’t work out then we’ll do it with Killing Horse, not that they were ever a second choice—we just had to explore all of our options. It turned out to be the raddest experience. This is their first full-length so they’re still learning, but they’re super on top of their shit, super diligent. They’re just rad dudes. Mike and Ryan [Gross] both play in two killer bands. It’s, you know, a bunch of Jersey jerks making records together. You can’t go wrong, I guess.
What has been some of your favorite shows to play?
Catherine Herrick: I’d say our recent shows. We’ve played at Don Pedro’s; that was one of the tambourine breaking incidents and that was fun. One of the real sloppy shows, that was a lot of fun. We played at Maxwell’s and then we went to a Mexican restaurant, Boca Grande, and we ended up playing at 2 a.m. Mike wouldn’t remember it, but at one point I turned around and Mike was on drums and really confused and then I realized that the song was being extended and extended and extended and I had to use the bathroom, so I went to the bathroom and finished the song and nobody on stage even noticed. I think that was the first time I got into the crowd while singing.
The music video for “Coney Island High” is pretty entertaining. What inspired it?
MV: Just being stupid, and being dumbasses. We probably shouldn’t have made that video and we probably could have came up with a better idea. But it ended up being awesome. It was just a stupid fucking idea.
Scott Zillitto: I think we all come together and from growing up in the Tri-State Area, we all have a similar sense of humor and what kind of stuff cracks us up. So just putting together a video like that together came organically and naturally.
MV: When we were trying to find a place to premiere it, our publicist, Derek [Meier], had a really hard time because it has a really long intro; it has a commercial and a two-minute intro, a two-minute video, and then a two-minute outro. So 1/3 of the video is actually a music video. It was funny. It was our “Thriller.” It would’ve been smarter as a band or a marketing machine to make a music video, but we’re not a marketing machine. We’re a bunch of friends who were trying to have fun with each other, and to us that was the funniest thing to do. It probably would’ve been picked up wider or gotten more YouTube views if it was just a music video, but we were just trying to have fun.
SZ: We went over to our friend’s place with a bunch of props and costumes and used what he had there. We threw a bunch of stuff against the wall. It was spontaneous.
The video definitely has a bunch of character!
MV: Well, you’re looking at a bunch of characters.
Let’s talk about the Beach Ball for a second. With Sandy hitting Jersey and the Asbury Lanes being one of the venues for the Tiny Giant Winter Beach Ball, was there any concern that maybe that wasn’t going to work out? Or even with the Court Tavern? What was the potential backup plan?
MV: Hell yeah there was a concern! Sandy fucked everything up. And with the Lanes changing owners, we didn’t know what the hell was going to happen. We didn’t even know if the Lanes was going to be there anymore. Personally, I don’t believe in Plan B’s. If you have a Plan B, you won’t try as hard to make Plan A work. So I really didn’t think of it.
We were going to have this thing at the Asbury Lanes, the Court Tavern, Maxwell’s and The Lamp Post, and we were going to have as many bands play as we could. I kinda approached it in the way we approached this band; don’t over think it, don’t over plan it, and if it doesn’t get figured out, it’s not the end of the world. Everything is going to be fine. The hurricane put all that shit into perspective; it put a lot of things into perspective. How many minutes will each band get on the side acoustic stage, how much change over time, and what’s the cover charge and can we do all this and how many bands… Who gives a shit! Let’s book a bunch of bands, let’s have as many bands play as possible, and let’s have a good time. Everything else we’ll kinda figure out.
It does start pretty early, and it goes all night!
MV: It does. It really starts at 12 p.m. and goes to 2 a.m. We’ll have bands.
And then there are other venues that weekend.
MV: Yeah, the Court Tavern is Friday night. Sunday there’s a matinee show at The Lamp Post in Jersey City, and then Sunday night is here at Maxwell’s for the closing party.
Well thank you guys for your time. Is there anything else you want to say?
MV: I just want to say, as a kid growing up on the Jersey Shore, we used to have three places where we found out about music. One of them was WPRB Princeton Radio that we played a session on over the summer, one of them was Princeton Record Exchange—who are now carrying our record—and the other was The Aquarian. So to even be written about in The Aquarian when you guys first started paying attention to us was the most flattering thing. I was the happiest dude ever. I’m freaking out but like, 15-year-old Mike is losing his mind. It was in the 7-Eleven on Rt. 9 in Tuckerton, and we used hang out at my buddy Jill’s house and me Jill and Jay, we used to walk across, get Slurpees, get The Aquarian, and check out the new bands and take notes because we were nerds. And got our hands on the CDs from all the cool bands you guys would write about. So this is one of the coolest things ever, so thank you.
The Everymen will play at the Asbury Lanes on Feb. 9. Their latest album, New Jersey Hardcore, is available now. For more information, go to theeverymen.bandcamp.com.
