BANQUETS really need no introduction. You will be hard pressed to find many Best of 2011 lists in the DIY punk scene that don’t have Top Button Bottom Shelf listed somewhere amongst the writer’s favorite records of the year. In the past year, the New Jersey quartet has really hit their stride as a band, and Top Button Bottom Shelf is a perfect embodiment of when a band clicks. For me, Top Button Bottom Shelf was really the only record I could listen to habitually front-to-back, which is a feat not many bands have been able to accomplish in a couple years. But more importantly, it’s the honesty that pours through the speakers when listening to the record and is visibly evident when the band plays live that really sets Banquets apart. In a scene that is so deeply rooted in honesty and emotion, sometimes it is hard to tell who is being real and who are just faking it until they make it, so to speak. But Banquets are about as real as it gets.

I was able to catch up with Dave and Travis in late 2011 to talk all things New Jersey, looking back on the year, and looking forward to 2012.

Pastepunk: From when I’ve seen you guys play, you guys seem like one of the rare bands that actually enjoy being around each other. Did you guys know each other before starting this band? What is the short history of Banquets?

[long, semi-awkward pause]

Travis: Oh, I was going to let Dave start to answer, and then I just cut him off.

Dave: [Laughs]

Travis: Yeah, I think we pretty much knew each other for a while beforehand. I knew Dave longer than I knew the other guys because we played in a band before a while back. And he pretty much knew our former at the time drummer, Pete, and Chris, our bassist. And then when Pete left, we all pretty much knew Brian, our current drummer, so we were all friends and acquaintances beforehand. And now we’re like, even more friends.

Pastepunk: Yeah, because you always see those bands, and I’ve been in those bands before, where you are just like “these dudes hate each other.” But when I was watching you guys at the Fest all I could think was “man, these guys probably like each other, and that’s awesome.”

[both laughing]

Travis: Yeah, you know we pretty much came to the realization that we are the funniest people in the world, so it’s just good to enjoy it.

Dave: Yeah, we’re actually booking a comedy tour next. There’s a lot more venues that you can play if you don’t have to have a PA, and don’t have to accommodate a band.

Pastepunk: I’d definitely go see that. I think half an hour just watching dudes fuck with each other is probably more entertaining than most tours. But, I’ve been listening to Top Button Bottom Shelf a whole lot and it seems like a lot of the songs are about putting the past behind you, but it also seems kind of spiteful at times. Is there a theme to the record? Is it kind of accurate to say that a lot of the record is about putting the past behind you?

Travis: In a spiteful way, I guess you could.

[all laughing. Laughs all around]

Travis: Yeah, it’s very straight-forward. I’m like, “Ya know, I’m going to say ‘fuck you’ on this one,” and just do whatever. And it was just more open doing the lyrics on this one than the previous EP, and anything I had really done in the past. So I was pretty psyched on that, that I was able to actually… well, I don’t know.

Dave: Travis is never psyched, for the record. He is never psyched.

Travis: I’m excited how it came out, and everything like that. And I think that it was something that needed to happen in my life, to cover those subjects and what-not.

Pastepunk: Well in that same vein, everything on the record seems really deliberate. There are no real noodly parts, and everything just gets to the point. I mean, I think there are only 2 songs that are over 3 minutes long. Was that a conscious decision? When you guys are constructing songs do you aim to have these sort of shorter-punchy punk songs, or is it just how it naturally happens?

Travis: We usually try not to repeat many things. Usually if we do more than one verse in a song, we’ll do something different about the second one. Like, we’ll do another drumbeat or a different progression or it’ll be sung differently. I’ve never really liked repeating things, with the exception of maybe a chorus here or there. And I mean, I like doing the noodly things every now and then. But with those songs, they kinda came out how we thought they were supposed to. We didn’t really have to go back and think about adding too many things to them.

Pastepunk: Yeah, and I guess my next questions is something that only people in bands are interested in, but how is the songwriting process for you guys?

Dave: It’s almost always just parts, and then we sit down and say “OK, lets write a new song today” and we’ll start with something Travis has, and we’ll work on it, and then we usually end up shelving it for a practice or two, and then coming back to cut it up into what ends up becoming a song to us.

Travis: But we’ve also done things where we were able to do an entire song in twenty minutes. And then there are others where we’ll come back to it the next week or month.

Pastepunk: Yeah, that happens to us, where we will bang out a songs in one practice, and have another that we work on twice a week and it never really pans out.

Travis: it’s like that song that song that Scott Stapp and CREED did. It wasn’t “Arms Wide Open” it was the other one. What was the famous one, the first one?

Dave: ”Take Me Higher”?

Travis: I think it was that. And he said, [in his best Scott Stapp impersonation] “I woke up in like a dream… And it just started pouring out of me.” [laughs]

Dave: Exactly like that. All of our songs are written like that, we’ve been lying.

Travis: I usually wake up in the middle of the night and speak them into my phone.

Pastepunk: Dude, you guys just lost so much cred for dropping Creed in this interview.

Travis: Nobody respects Creed anymore?!

Dave: What?! Who doesn’t like Creed?! Show me one guy who doesn’t like Creed.

Pastepunk: Have you guys seen the song he did for the Florida Marlins, called “Marlins Will Soar.” Fucking google it. It’s the best thing you’ll ever see. But anyway, I was getting ready to interview you guys and was reading other interviews and reviews, and I think I read in one review that you guys mention that you started this band to do things your own way and not feel any pressure to tour or shop a record. But do you guys feel like there is any kind of glass ceiling to that? Do you feel like there is pressure to try and do more, or are you happy with the level you are at?

Travis: We’re definitely happy with what we are doing now, but there are opportunities that work is kind of getting in the way of. And we just try to make the decision that needs to be made or whatever. If somebody can’t do something, we’re not going to call them out on it, or be like “I hate his girlfriend” or whatever. We’re just like, “ok, he can’t do it.”

Pastepunk: Well do you think that bands even have to really go out and dog it out for months at a time on the road? When I first started playing in bands that was the only thing you could do.

Dave: I don’t think touring is totally obsolete, but I also don’t think it is as important as it use to be. You can get a lot done by doing weekend tours and by playing regionally and promoting yourself in a way that is smart. Because a lot of bands will record a demo or their first EP and just hit the road with it. And you just get beat for six months to a year, when you could have done just as much at home and waited until you put out a record and people give a shit about your band before you start touring full time.

Travis: But I also think that we are in an area where we are more fortunate than most other people. Like, if you live in Nebraska or something, you are kind of limited in a way. I mean, I don’t know, I’m not from Nebraska, but you know, I think I’ve been to Nebraska once or twice and there was one place to really play there. Or, that’s what all the kids said. I was in Ohio one time and this death metal band was telling me about how they played in North Dakota a couple nights before, and I was all psyched because that’s where my mom is from. And they were like “yeah, all these kids were on meth and they started a bonfire in the back of their truck, and then they drove it around. So, we went home.”

[all laughing]

Pastepunk: You kind of just described every weekend I had growing up in the South right there. Bonfires and pickup trucks. That’s all anybody really does in the South when they are in high school. But yeah, so I know you guys have been in a lot of bands and done a whole lot of touring, so, did you guys just ever get fucking burnt out on touring?

Travis: It’s kind of ironic, because I got way burnt out on it like two days after I stayed at your house (Note from Zac: Travis’ previous band stayed at my house some years ago, and he and that band parted ways two days after they stayed with me). No offense to you, but by that time in the tour, so much stuff was going on back at home, and so much stuff was on the horizon and I just had bills adding up and stuff like that. It wasn’t like I was 21 doing it, ya know? You have more responsibilities as you get older.

Pastepunk: So you guys were saying that you were lucky about where you live and that you can stay in the region. Well, everybody is always sort of talking about Philly these days, and that Philly is putting out these banger bands, but no one really mentions how Jersey is consistently putting out solid bands. Like, you guys, LUTHER, THE GREAT EXPLAINER just to name a couple, and there is definitely a “Jersey Sound.” Like, this melodic punk stuff. Do you guys feel like there is a reason why that is?

Travis: We really try to do as much as we can with Luther and The Great Explainer and those dudes, but for the most part, it is usually outside of New Jersey. I think one thing that comes to mind though, Dave says this a lot of the times, you know that people always say “oh these bands are from New Jersey” and your friends are on tour and they say “hey, we’re playing in Jersey, come hang out,” and your just like “well, that’s two and a half hours from my house.” Like, New Jersey is really tall, and it’s not like it is the biggest state ever, but there can be big gaps in space between cities and scenes. But going back to the sound and everything, I think it’s just that I’ve known the guys from Luther and The Great Explainer for a while and we’ve all had pretty similar influences. And I just think most people that are playing music nowadays that are our age and above 25 are playing this kind of music, or else we wouldn’t really know them if they were in a death metal band.

Dave: Chris would probably know them.

Travis: Our bassist Chris used to play in some really hardcore bands.

Dave: He’s got the hockey mask to prove it.

Pastepunk: Well yeah, and that’s another thing that I wanted to talk about. It’s not that you guys are a Jersey City band, or you’re not a New Brunswick band, why do you think that is? Why are all bands from New Jersey just called “Jersey Bands?”

Travis: You know, New Brunswick has had many bands to come out of it. When I went to school down there and even a couple years ago, it was still very prominent as far as kids doing shows and lots of bands coming out of there. And now, we don’t hear much about it these days. You know, we’ll go play down there –

Dave: We’re too old to hear of those bands.

Travis: I think that might be it too, maybe that we’re too old. I just don’t hear much about it, and there’s only a couple bands that I know actually playing in the basement scene in New Brunswick. As far as Jersey City goes, there’s no real venue around here. There are a couple bars that do shows every now and then.

Dave: There are a lot of bands in Jersey City that like, practice in Jersey City, but there is nowhere to play in Jersey City that’s cool. So there’s not much of an actual scene.

Pastepunk: So do you feel like it’s just a New Jersey scene? Would you guys draw just as well in New Brunswick as you would anywhere else shows happen in Jersey? Or are there isolated pockets of scenes?

Travis: I mean, there could be, and we just don’t know it. But there is no…I wouldn’t call it a scene where we live in Jersey City. There’s people that we know that would probably come see us if we ever played in Jersey City. We’ve done it a couple times and there was a great turnout. And usually when we go down to New Brunswick to play, like we’re going down there tomorrow, there will be a good amount of people there. But I don’t know if I could really consider it a “scene.” The thing is that I don’t know any of the kids doing basement shows anymore in New Brunswick, and that is really weird to me. And I talk to other people and they are all like “yeah, I have no idea.”

Pastepunk: The same thing is happening in Atlanta right now. Like, I know there are kids doing DIY punk shows, but I don’t know where they are happening. I can tell you where all the bar shows are happening, though.

Travis: Yeah, right? It’s like any time a band needs to get on a show, you’re just like “OK, well there’s a bar,” then they’re like “well we wanna play a basement show” and you just have to say “Oh, well, I don’t know man. That used to be my field…”

Pastepunk: Totally. Well, the last Jersey inspired question… I was reading an interview with Jimmy from POLAR BEAR CLUB, and he was talking about bands that get lumped into “bands that sound like HOT WATER MUSIC.” Do you guys ever deal with, I guess a Jersey version of that? Like “Oh yeah, these guys just kinda sound like another Jersey GASLIGHT ANTHEM band”?

Travis: We get that a lot, but I think our good looks just kind of take us a step above.

Dave: True. Plus, it’s mostly Vic from STATIC RADIO that says most of that. So I try not to let it get to me.

[all laughing]

Travis: I think moreso about the Hot Water Music thing, I think it’s just a style. And you know, Hot Water Music was the most prominent and well-known band to play that style of music. So, of course it’s going to be easy to get lumped in with them. And that’s not a bad thing at all.

Pastepunk: Well you guys had one of my favorite sets of the Fest, and I was kind of generally surprised, not in a demeaning way but because –

Dave: Generally we suck

[all laughing]

Pastepunk: Well you know for just being another Jersey band…

[laughing]

Travis: For a Gaslight cover band…

Pastepunk: But you guys were playing up against AGAINST ME! and BOMB THE MUSIC INDUSTRY!, which are like two of the most hyped bands. But you guys had a totally awesome show and kids were going nuts, were you guys pretty happy with that performance?

Dave: Yeah, we really couldn’t have asked for anything better than how that went. It always feels good to have kids come see you when you are nowhere near home.

Travis: Yeah, we were super psyched. I heard that there were kids that couldn’t get in and that was kind of a bummer, because it didn’t look packed in there, did it?

Dave: It looked like, to me, that they had reduced the capacity from last year. Because we played that same club last year and it was also at capacity while we were playing and the room looked a lot fuller to me than it did this year.

Travis: Maybe we turned into a ska band and that was the problem

Dave: yeah, too many people on stage, that was the problem. Plus you have Dan and Pete stage diving like crazy.

Pastepunk: So Dave, to kind of wrap things up, running the label Black Numbers…it seems like now that anyone can pretty much press their own record. Do you ever worry that labels will become obsolete, or do you think there will always be a need for DIY labels?

Dave: We work with a lot of bands that do press their own records, and we approach the label from all kinds of aspects, and sort of managing the release and not just “putting out a record.” So I think DIY label will always need to exist, it’s just that they are changing their models and the ways that they are helping bands, honestly.

Travis: And if anyone has a band that doesn’t want to do things DIY, I am starting a label called White Letters, and we’re fully backed.

[all laughing]

Pastepunk: So what do you guys have going on next year?

Travis: Well, this is the last year that we are all going to be here…

Dave: So we’re really going to go out hard

Travis: But, we’re looking to do a weekend with JUNIOR BATTLES in January.

Dave: We’re playing with IGNITE in December 2011.

Travis: Looking to head over to Europe in the summer. Still working things out, but I’d like to do something with… should I say with “you guys” or should I just say CAMPAIGN for the interview sake?

Pastepunk: I’m not sure, I really don’t know how to play this, because I once interviewed Campaign for Pastepunk before I joined the band, soooo….

Travis: So let’s do this… We want to play with these awesome dudes from down in Georgia called Campaign…

Dave: And we have a split that will be out in the early part of 2012, hopefully. Still working out the details on that one.

Pastepunk: For sure. So last one, we’re rounding out the year, so what are you guys’ top records for 2011?

Travis: So what do you want to do, top 3? You go first.

Dave: RED CITY RADIO. Uhm, STATIC RADIO. Uhm…

Pastepunk: I hope number three is another Radio band.

Dave: Yeah I know, now I have to think of another Radio band.

Travis: I think you should say the Banquets record.

Dave: Well you know, that’s the best record every year.

Travis: [laughing]

Dave: That’s the best record of all time. So I don’t even want to tarnish it by putting it on this list.

[all laughing]

Dave: I really liked that new Polar Bear Club record. The fucking TIMESHARES record is awesome. I’m having a hard time picking three….

Travis: That’s fine, you just gave a bunch. I love the RESTORATIONS record. The new KELLY CLARKSON record is pretty dope.

Dave: He’s not joking.

Travis: Yeah, I’m not. I can play it right now on my phone, if you want. Uhm, what else? That’d be funny if the only two records that came out this year that I could name were the Restorations record and the Kelly Clarkson record.

Pastepunk: I’d just leave it at that man. I’d leave it at that.

Travis: 2012 has some good stuff coming out. You know, the new Hot Water Music coming out, and the new DAYTRADER, just a bunch of stuff coming out. Really psyched about that. The new MENZINGERS, definitely.

Pastepunk: Awesome, I think that’s a good place to wrap it up. Thanks for talking with me guys.

Travis: Thanks dude.

Dave: Thanks Zac!