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an interview with secret nudist friends


Last Thursday night, I had the chance to interview Philadelphia based band Secret Nudist Friends before their show in DC. I was so nervous for this interview you literally have no clue, I thought I was for sure going to pass out right in the middle of it. Turns out I was scared shitless for absolutely no reason because Secret Nudist Friends are some of the best people I have ever met! SO thankful for the opportunity I had to chat with this wonderfully kind, talented, funny, overall amazing band.

would you guys mind introducing yourselves?

Brian:

I’m Brian and I play the drums

Andy:

I’m Andy I play bass

Matty:

I’m Matty and I play guitar and sing

Missy:

I’m Missy and I play keyboard and tambourine

Matty:

Brian and Andy sing too

how did you meet and start playing music together?

Matty:

I’m the only surviving original member, the band was started by a friend of mine in Brooklyn and we were a three piece in Brooklyn. Lineup changes happened, we eventually met Brian through Craigslist and I fell in love with him immediately, I thought he was a doll. So then the band kind of became a Philly band and we would go back and forth to New York with our New York member and eventually Brian and I started writing music with the band as well.

Andy:

you might wanna just clarify “fall in love”, we don’t know

Matty:

it’s true, we (Brian and Matty) are not actually in love, but we are in love. We’re not dating. But we could be, give it a year!

Then when Ed, our original member, left we kind of reformed the band with Andy and then Missy joined after that. We also met Andy on Craigslist, and Missy and I play in another band Blushed and run DIY shows in Philly together. We met at a show together and we do date!

has your local music community or community in general influenced you or your music in any way?

Missy:

for Secret Nudist Friends, I feel like I don’t know because we don’t have that exact Philly sound, but for my other band I definitely use more of the Philly sound to drive the creative process

Matty:

I feel like the energy of it definitely inspires it, we’re very active in the DIY scene, we run DIY shows and that’s how we got started

Missy:

it’s the ethos for sure of how we interact with people

Matty:

exactly yeah!, you know all the touring, all the things we’ve done, a lot of that came from meeting people in the DIY scene and the community. Honestly some small part of me has gotten more punk since I lived in Philly- I’ve lived in Philly six years- so definitely.

I’d say my biggest inspirations musically writing wise would be a lot of west coast and the garage rock scene that’s very prominent on that side of the country but I feel like it exists everywhere in the country. But definitely the ethos for sure. Andy, same question, do you feel like the scene affects music writing?

Andy:

yes

are there any musicians who have influenced you or your music in any way? Matty:

I’m obsessed with Unknown Mortal Orchestra and even though we don’t necessarily sound like them, I use Ruben from that band as kind of my inspiration. I just love their whole life and the whole progression.

Brian:

I like Animal Collective and the Beach Boys, neither really local, but I get a lot of inspiration from seeing local acts including this band that’s very under the radar in terms of their presence, Mavis the Dog, they’re a big influence for all of us I feel.

Andy:

Eminem

do you think you‘ve changed as a band in any way from your past releases to the release of your latest single Triangle?

Matty:

I think that’s an example of Andy’s influence on the band. Brian and I were writing a lot together before that and when Andy joined I feel like he just had a really good sense of basslines. Even the first song we wrote when Andy joined was a song called The Mirror which we usually close our set with, Brian and I were messing around with it; we heard the bassline and I think that’s what made the song. The basslines that Andy’s brought are very musical, they’re simple enough but definitely not simple.

Brian:

Triangle used to be a completely different song and we showed it to Andy and he had some ideas that were enough to resurrect it, we were kind of stuck with it.

Matty:

There’s definitely been a few songs that I think once Andy joined, songs that we were messing around with became songs. Songs that also felt kind of empty, we started using keyboard with Missy around six months ago, so a lot of songs that needed that extra build now have that too.

Missy:

I have yet to record any keyboard but next week we’re going to the studio!

you released your EP Susan last year, can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind the EP and the name Susan?

Missy:

so Susan is Brian’s ex wife

*everyone laughs*

Matty:

not true!, but that’s our joke

Brian:

we kind of just ran with that because the original bass player wrote the song Susan

Matty:

yeah, out of the four songs, our old band member wrote that, Ed Krosney wrote that, the title track

Brian:

and he drew the face (for the EP cover). For awhile when we were touring I just kept babbling about my ex wife Susan and if you see her she looks just like the shirt, tell her I’m sorry, that sort of thing

Matty:

I know he (Ed) always used to say that for some reason it was some fictional woman that he imagined in a dream mixed with Ed and my college voice teacher who was named Susan, even though the subject matter has nothing to do with her apparently he was thinking about her with the name and also another fictional character and melted them together . Ultimately, it’s Brian’s ex wife.

going to switch topics a bit here, what’s your favorite city or venue that you’ve ever played?

Andy:

Blacksburg, Virginia (Virginia Tech) The XYZ Gallery

Missy:

we have a lot of friends in Pittsburgh, that makes it fun to go there

do you have any weird or funny tour stories you’d be willing to share?

Brian:

we walk into this third floor apartment in Virginia Tech and there’s just a huge stump in the middle of the living room with a pentagram and

Missy:

blood stains

Brian:

and 666 written all in red paint and there’s a bunch of nails and there’s beer bottles and cans everywhere, a cloud of tobacco smoke and this kid that I didn’t even talk to that day was just like “hey you wanna play Stump?” and he was just swinging a hammer at the fucking stump. He put nails in it and you take turns and you throw the hammer up in the air and try to catch it and however you catch it you have to hit a nail with it

Matty:

every person is assigned a nail

Missy:

we started playing that at around 1am and again around 3am

Matty:

yeah, with a break for a jam and a poetry reading in the middle. Lots of cats too

sounds like a normal Tuesday

Everyone talking at once:

yeah yeah! normal Tuesday night!

Matty:

there was also a shrine to the building manager to scare him away when he came in

Brian:

yeah, the building manager sent them a letter saying “your attitude reflects how you live here” and they outlined random things and wrote the guy’s name down a bunch of times and burnt the edges of the paper

Missy:

left it on the stump for him to see

Honestly the: wildest tour story I've ever heard.

Thank you so so so much again to Secret Nudist Friends for letting me ask em some questions and take pictures before their show.

PLEASE! do yourself a favor and keep up with this band and all of their adventures!

pictures + words by eva


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