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INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS, CULTURE PIECES, MUSICAL RAMBLINGS.
The four members of Purchase-based indie rock group Bird Week came to me in four separate Zoom blocks — the members dispersed in different locations across New York State during the time we had blocked off to chat. “It's very rare that all four of us are in the same place,” vocalist and guitarist Justin Hatch reflects. Calling themselves a “soldier without a nation,” the band doesn’t have a real, concrete hometown — rarely feeling like locals anywhere, with the situational exception of the college they came together in.
Using their fluidity as a strength, the band has become bill-favorites in multiple DIY scenes including in New Paltz — hitting bars, birthday parties and basement shows in the recent months of 2023. With other upstate towns such as Binghamton, Ithaca, Albany and Clifton Park on their radar, the fading summer remains bustling for Bird Week, following the release of their second LP, “To Live Without” in July. Having started as Hatch’s personal quarantine songwriting project, he was eager to form a full band upon returning to school. He enlisted Zach Vogel — the resident scene bassist at the time — and later, Maura Vander Putten on electric guitar and drummer John Porcelli. The band’s live show life started in the music buildings on the SUNY Purchase campus, later trickling off to places like Long Island and Connecticut to support their first album, “Bird Week.” With the band all living in different cities, shows were sometimes a mish mosh of members based on who was able to make it or not. “If you see Bird Week on a bill, there's kind of no promise of what you're gonna get,” Hatch says. “I think that's kind of what I like about it; It's like every show is kind of like a surprise.” Watching a Bird Week show is exactly that — energetic, engaging and interactive; you might catch Vander Putten dropping her guitar and doing somersaults if you’re lucky. “I feel like for a while I've kind of been known as ‘the wild card,’” she says. “My biggest inspiration is probably Jeff Rosenstock. Seeing him live and his absurd energy just for the sake of it is really inspirational to me. The crowd wants to dance, but they want you to do it first. You tend to make a total fool of yourself so that other people can make a fool of themselves on purpose, and have fun with it.” “I really feed off of that sort of awkward nervous energy, and I think that's really present in our music as well,” Hatch added. For the band’s recorded music, he draws inspiration from DIY, lofi projects like Car Seat Headrest — who taught him that it’s not hard to make your own music — Pavement, Alex G and Deerhunter. After a grueling recording process — a stolen laptop, drum tracking issues and endless takes — “To Live Without” was finally released on July 28. In an Instagram post on the @bird.week account following the release, Hatch calls it a “reflection of the people that we were when we made it and I think in that sense it is perfect.” “i do not think i will ever be able to put so much of myself into a project like i did this one again but i don’t think i need to now.” “When people ask me what this album is about, I usually say it's about going to college and not having fun,” he explains. “ So few people in college are good. Like, you just meet a bunch of people that you don't like.” “Everyone sucks when they’re twenty,” Vogel laughs. This cross between self-analysis and the criticisms of peers are apparent in tracks such as the first on the album, “Philadelphia,” where Hatch sings solemnly but sternly about mean kids at the Dave and Buster’s and ex-friends leaving him out of hotel rooms. He wrestles with the feelings that these events, and how continuously being mistreated by people he thought cared for him, have left inside of him in the chorus: “And I still don't forgive them / And I still don't forgive them now / And I still don't forgive them till I die / And I won't forgive myself.” “Everything is a crossroads,” Hatch continues. “Everything feels like such a significant event and a turning point. It forces you to reflect, and be very self critical and self analytical on seeing who you were and who you are now, and not being happy with either.” “To Live Without” plays like a chronological recount of the hardships of college — the ugly corners that appear amongst the partying, drug-taking and newfound independence no one likes to touch on. It’s an honest and relatable on the post-quarantine collegiate experience, from exposing shallow friends you only really speak to at the bars (“They always offer you a cigarette / And now they’re laughing at a joke you wouldn’t get / But if you’re ugly then you’re outta luck / They’re only friends with people that they wanna fuck”) to grapples with forgiveness, awareness and attachment (“Know that I'm wrong / But I can't admit that it's my fault / Oh, now I see that I need you more than you need me”). “I think this record was a real product of some seriously awful shit that's happened to all four of us,” says Porcelli. “I would hope that in some regards, people will understand it from that perspective, but also get a sense of emotional attachment. If people dislike it, that's actually more motivation for me. Regardless of whether it's positive or negative, I just want people to see it and go ‘What the fuck.’” Bird Week expresses uncomfortable and buried emotions with an unrelenting passion, and the members treat the project in itself with the same love and affection. “I've joked about it before, but there's nobody in the world who likes this album more than the four of us,” says Hatch. “Like, I think the Bird Week album is probably my favorite album that I've heard this year.” Bird Week may feel like occasional drifters, but they establish a cozy home through their own work, for both the members themselves and the audience, always a presence when they need something to return to. “We're trying to make art,” said Hatch. “We're trying to make stuff that matters to people, because it matters to us.” Listen to “To Live Without” on your favorite streaming service today. Follow @bird.week on Instagram to stay posted on future shows.
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