Photo Credit: Ben Scofield
The talent that makes up Courier Club only came together a year and some change ago, but they’ve already started to make their mark on the music scene. Pulling from the soundtracks of the games that used to occupy their after school hours, this foursome is working their way towards being more than just a rock band with new music on the way in 2020, and more.
Kendra: Inspired by video games of the early ’00s but far from those 8-bit bands as you do have more of a Strokes, We Are Scientists vibe about you – how did you initially approach pulling from the gaming world without it coming off as very niche?
Courier Club: Oddly enough, the gaming world functioned as an introduction to a lot of the bands and the scene that inspired us as kids. You would hear songs you liked playing in EA Sports and Tony Hawk games, hunt them down, and slowly piece together the music scene that was pushing out those tracks.
When piecing together our visual identity, we wanted to champion this idea because it felt genuine to our origins rather than putting on the facade that we were involved in the epicenter of culture. Luckily as the band grows, we’re learning that countless others connect with this ideal.
Kendra: Throughout the video for “Soapbox Sunday” you all added little visuals here and there from your inspirations, but if you could take this track and place it in one game – which would it be and why?
Courier Club: F-zero, which is a futuristic racing game that was made by Nintendo in the 1990s. We feel “Soapbox” would make a great match for its fast-paced and gritty visuals.
Kendra: The idea of a soapbox made my mind wander to social media as everyone and their literal mothers are ranting about something online nowadays. Do you feel as if people’s opinions have always been so…we’ll say, vibrant or has social media just cranked up everyone’s opinions to an eleven?
Courier Club: We don’t think social media has changed people, however, it’s acted as a multiplier to the amount of information we witness and extended the reach of everyone’s ideas. You can choose to use this new setting to tangle yourself in low minded bouts instead of to connect with the world and progress in ways we couldn’t even imagine a decade ago. That’s a personal decision. “Soapbox” isn’t a critique on social media but more so an acknowledgment that the social connectivity of our world has been turned to 11.
Kendra: Since coming together in 2018 you’ve dropped a handful of singles, but can we hold onto hope that 2020 brings about an EP or even an LP?
Courier Club: We have an EP planned for 2020. We wrote and recorded it this past summer in Philadelphia, and it is definitely the beginning of the next chapter for Courier Club. It’ll be five new songs, all of which tap into a spectrum of influences ranging from the 2000’s dance club scene to hardcore. We want this EP to widen our sonic spectrum and break free from being pigeonholed as a rock band.
Kendra: This time of year many bands hold off on touring as the holidays are for family and the roads a bit icy. With that, will you be playing more shows as we head into 2020?
Courier Club: Yes, we have only played a handful of shows since we formed about a year ago, but we have plans to play a lot more in 2020. We will be hitting cities all along the east coast, but we will travel as far as we can (Houston and LA, we haven’t forgotten about you). We have met a lot of awesome bands over the past few months, so we’re excited to put some shows together with them as well.
