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El Greasy, welcome to VENTS! Can you tell us about your debut single, Bad Night for Leather?
Thanks for having us! I visited Berlin a few years back and figured I’d try to go to one of those crazy “mmm-tzzz mmm-tzzz” night clubs they have. I threw on a black leather jacket and got in line. The bouncer let everyone in but cut me off and turned me away. He just didn’t like me. Of course I walked away muttering “fuck that fuckin’ guy” under my breath but admittedly, I felt a bit crushed haha. So when we were writing El Greasy songs, that story popped in my head. It really is about loneliness and assuming that doing something superficial like wearing a dumb jacket will help you fit in and be less lonely…and then despairing when that doesn’t happen. I tend to take small, inconsequential situations and blow them out of proportion. But this time it yielded a good song.
We recorded it at Nu-Tone studios with Ben Hirschfield at the helm. We wrote this surreal script for the video which was directed by Cedric Letsch. We’re indebted to everyone that helped us make this song and video sound and look better than we ever could ourselves. We’re very proud of it.
The sonic mayhem is meticulous, what’s your secret?
No secret at all. It’s a process of throwing lots of pasta at the wall and seeing what sticks. For El Greasy, I try to keep things as simple as possible in terms of songwriting and instrumentation.
I’m a sucker for thick slabs of juicy guitar riffs, but now I equate them to going to a Brazilian steakhouse. If you keep putting that sign on the end of your table the meat will keep showing up. The meat is delectable, moist, and succulent. But keep eating, and you will vomit. So you need to be a bit more selective of which meat and when you want it on your plate for the most excellent of experiences. Same with the riffs, if that makes any sense at all.
Will the melodramatic vocals become a hallmark in your future releases?
Oh, most definitely! It’s a vocal style I never really tried before but would always sing to myself, jokingly. It is melodramatic, as you say, but it lends very nicely to the idea of turning a mundane situation like being turned down at a club into an internal crisis haha.
You clearly take an intellectual approach to your music, where has this compulsion come from?
Thank you. I don’t know how intellectual we are but we’ll take it! The story always comes first in El Greasy. Several times while we were jamming on an idea or stuck on a song, we’d pull back and go “big picture” with figuring out what the story is and then try to write music from there. Lyrics are never an afterthought or something that gets slapped on at the end. I’m not saying the lyrics are Tolstoy or Bill Shakespeare; at the end of the day it’s rock and roll, but I do give a lot of weight to the lyrics and the story.
How has your music gone down during your live performances?
Very well! We’re excited to play a lot more shows in the near future. I think we really stand out musically and in a live setting. We’ve found a unique niche.
What brought you together as a duo?
We played music together for several years in another project. We started doing zoom sessions during the pandemic and then it progressed from there.Jeremy is a really strong bass player and has a good sense of knowing when to add something more technical and also when to pull back. He’s really good at bouncing ideas off of and giving feedback. It’s always fun to watch him take a placeholder riff and develop it into something nice and greasy. We also talk about the story of the song and not just “what riff should go next.”
I might mention here that we are looking for a drummer! Crazy, I know. A rock n roll band without a drummer. Hit us up, VENTS readers!
What’s next for El Greasy?
Well today we’re going to slam some tacos, probably bullshit about some terrible movie we just watched, then catch the Royal Blood show in Oakland. But after that, we have several more singles and videos we’ll be releasing in the coming months and we are currently writing new music in addition to those releases. We’ve been so blown away at the positive reaction and buzz around Bad Night For Leather. It’s very sweet to know that people are into it. We’ll be ramping up our live shows and coming out swinging fists and slinging riffs in 2024!
