Interview No. VIIII
CLUB AQUA
Credit: Sam Plouff, @samplouff, @splo_photo
This is the first-ever full-band interview for Firebird Upfront. Club Aqua exists in a genre-less world of sonic dissonance where quiet and loud sounds blend together and where limits do not exist (unlike the popular clique in Mean Girls, Club Aqua is talented, chill and bitchy only when provoked). Their ethos is punk, their influences are a combination of psychedelia, krautrock and shoegaze, and their pastimes are playing basketball and filmmaking — they’re a band that refuses to stay in one lane which makes them all the more intriguing. An homage to their beach town roots, Club Aqua has quickly become a name worth remembering. Should you ever want to visit the hallowed halls of the New York underground, you’ll likely find them there.
First off, introduce yourselves. Name and instrument!
Giovanni, vocals and guitar, Camilo Isaza, guitar, Ryan Cox, bass, and Maynor Castillo, synths and stuff. Tysen, drums — he parted ways with the band a few months back.
Where are you guys from and how did you meet?
Ryan Cox: Gio and I met in high school and quickly realized we had similar tastes. We used to play in an experimental band called Slug. We always talked about starting something before we moved to New York. We later met Cam at a white elephant party in college.
Giovanni Musso: Ryan was here [in NYC] first, then I moved up with Tysen, who used to play drums with us, and then I met Maynor while working in a warehouse for a record company.
You somewhat recently changed your band name. Can you disclose the old name? Why the change to Club Aqua?
GM: That was a different project that we’re done with. Club Aqua was just heard on TV and we’re all from beach towns. People like to yell I Think You Should Leave quotes at us because of it.
RC: They really do.
GM: Do you like it?
RC: I don’t mind it but it’s a bit overdone.
Above: fans talking about Club Aqua
Photo: Vulture.com via Netflix
I’ve seen Club Aqua play a few times now and have loved the off-kilter, unique stage presence each band member has. Can anyone speak to that? What’s going through your minds while you’re on stage?
Camilo Isaza: Cool tunes call for cool moves.
RC: I feel like music is a very rhythmic thing for me, especially being a part of the rhythm section, you feel it more. I’m a very physical and active person and can’t help but show that on stage. It’s fun to put on a performance.
Club Aqua, in my opinion, sounds and feels like a combination of lots of different genres and sensibilities. Sometimes I hear glimmerings of surf rock, sometimes I hear The Cure or a hint of Modern English in Gio, and then there’s some shoegazey elements, too. Is Club Aqua going for a specific sound? Where do you see yourselves slotting in genre-wise?
GM: I do like a lot of the post-punk and shoegaze stuff but I wouldn’t feel comfortable calling us either of those things. I think narrowing yourself down to a subgenre is helpful for getting onto playlists but bad for your art. You can’t choose what people call you, I guess, but “shoegaze” was supposed to be an insult before it was a sound. We’re just as influenced by psychedelia or krautrock or whatever. Maybe it’s just easier to say something like punk because that’s an ethos more than a genre. I don’t know— it’s all just marketing terms anyways.
Talk to me about your current discography. Anything new coming down the pike?
GM: We finished a recording of “Saab Death” which was one of our first songs. We don’t play it much anymore but wanted to record it for posterity. We started this band just ripping off Pavement. Our friend Sam asked us to do a music video for “Do You Want To?”, which we wrapped back in January. Those feel like the proto-Club Aqua sound though.
RC: We recorded them in a practice space quick and dirty to figure it out and show people what we sound like.
GM: Yeah, it’s cool because that’s how it should be at the start, but we’re working on songs now for the record where we feel more like ourselves. Jake Routh does our artwork. Shout out Jake Routh.
Cover art by Jake Routh for Club Aqua’s song “Saab Death”
Who were your early musical inspirations?
RC: My first instrument was really saxophone so I listen to a lot of jazz. I was really into Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, Phil Woods… one of the biggest names is John Coltrane and I heard a recording of him live at Temple where he goes on and plays the most out of body solo. It feels very physical, emotional, and very spiritual. That’s when I realized music was not just an auditory experience, but a whole body experience. Even if I don’t make that kind of music I think that’s the way I see it.
CI: My parents told me I’d spend drives from the countryside back to the city singing along to Colombian and Latin music out of the window. I have no real memory of that but it’s the music I first loved. When I moved to the States, I gravitated toward hip-hop, specifically stuff from Atlanta, risa up. Shortly after giving guitar a shot, I became a blues nerd and still really hold some of that stuff dear to my heart. But I had to come to terms with the fact that I was never going to be that cool so I got into rock music.
GM: The “Homerpalooza” episode of The Simpsons was really important for me. When I was thirteen, I got yelled at by a guitar tech for jamming a drumstick into my pickups because I wanted it to sound like Sonic Youth. I didn’t really know what I was doing. But I think that’s the start of my interest in loud-quiet-loud dynamics, feedback and noise.
RC: On the record, we’re a Simpsons band.
Maynor Castillo: I like Wire and John Cale.
Above: Sonny Stitt and “Homerpalooza” S7, Ep. 24 of The Simpsons
Favorite show you’ve played to date?
CI: Union Pool was great. It was our last show with Tysen as our drummer and we got free food.
GM: That was just such a great opportunity, Union Pool. Shout out to the Windjammer show too. One of my favorite hangs. Cam did a double-header with Browsing so everyone was out.
Credit: Valerie Mosher, @valeriemosh
What else do you do besides play music?
GM: We’re kinda jocks. Ryan’s a runner. Cam and I play basketball. Maynor’s in film school and I work in production too.
CI: I binge reality TV. If anyone at one of our shows wants to talk Bachelor drama or Vanderpump character arcs, come find me.
What’s next for Club Aqua?
RC: Taking over the world dude. I don’t know. I think we’ve solidified our identity.
GM: Yeah, I feel like we’ve evolved into what this band should sound like so I’m antsy to get in the studio. Beyond that, New York’s really struggled lately, but there’s so much history to pull from. We need more than people who just wanna remake Meet Me In The Bathroom. Something needs to be built offline.
RC: It’d be nice to be a part of a real scene and bring that about. Connect everything.
GM: I don’t think we’ll ever make any real money from making music like this, so, really, all I want is to make records and play shows with good artists. I have faith in my squad.