Kingston-based emo-power-pop-punk band Couch Surfer dropped their debut EP Don’t Let it Dwayne on you on October 30th–a fitting soundtrack for Mischief Night. The band, composed of Mark Buckley (vocals, guitar, & songwriting), Madison Steorts (lead guitar, vocals, & songwriting), Matt Joyce (bass & vocals), and Tony DiMauro (drums), blends nostalgic 2000s power pop-punk angst with in-your-face riffs and driving rhythms that give their sound an infectious liveliness. They’re one of those bands that when you hear their studio recordings, you can feel and visualize what it’d be like to be at one of their shows. Speaking of which, the release comes just ahead of their five-day East Coast tour:
- 11/4 – Bar Freda – NYC (tickets)
- 11/5 – Perro Blanco – Norfolk, Virginia (tickets at the door)
- 11/6 – The Milestone Club – Charlotte, NC (tickets)
- 11/7 – The Breadroom – (house venue – DM for address) Huntington, WV (tickets at the door)
- 11/8 – The Dojo – (basement venue – DM for address) Millersville, PA (tickets at the door)
In true punk fashion, it’s a short EP consisting of four short-but-sweet songs. As the longest song is 2:15 and the shortest is 0:52, the tunes are succinct–they say what they gotta say, bring the riffage, and get in and get out with no fluff or filler. The first track “Neo” opens with feedback, a speedy guitar progression, and then the band kicks in with propulsive force. What stands out most to me are the fuzzy, buttery tones and nasty licks that Steorts sprinkles over the rhythm section, effectively embellishing the powerful wall of sound. The group vocals on the choruses add a nice cathartic touch, as the band sings, “I know I’m sounding like a jerk / But I gotta be real, but I gotta be real / I gotta be straight up with you / I’m no Neo / I’m not the one, the one.” We love a good Matrix reference. Dysfunctional relationships seem to be a theme throughout the EP. Track two, “Clout Demon,” comes in hot with a rapid tempo that demands head banging. A warning to my fellow over-30s folk: Be careful with this one–your neck will be feeling it tomorrow, and your face muscles will be sore from all the stank facing that the harmonic pinches elicit. This song seems to be a clapback against a social media influencer who wielded their power to nefarious ends, and alas, are now confronted with the consequences. The shortest song on the record, “April Fools’ Day,” coming in at under a minute, is a concise cautionary tale about not being deceived when things seem to be all good, because there’s always a catch: “Every time you think you’ve got it made / Life’s got you thinking every day’s the same / So check your calendar / Don’t believe what you heard.” The EP ends with “Party Jamz,” an emo-punk anthem about feeling disconnected while working in the service industry. Buckley sings, “Party jamz just ain’t helping / I feel so alone / There’s a glitch in my brain / Everything here is pain / I’m going insane / Switch to auto-pilot / Anything but crying / In the freezer again.” Being that I work part-time catering and bartending jobs on top of my full-time job, I can relate to the feeling of quietly suffering while those around me are laughing and dancing, all while I’m enduring my 666th listen of “I Gotta Feeling” by Black Eyed Peas. But somehow, Couch Surfer’s upbeat punk rock expression of this experience, garnished with Steorts’s shreddy leads, makes it all okay–that’s the power of music, baby.
I had a chance to talk with Steorts and Buckley about the band, their new EP, and their upcoming tour. Be sure to catch them if they’re coming through your town, and locals, come through to DIY Kingston Fest 11/21 to see Couch Surfer on their home turf. Get to know the band, check out their debut record, and enjoy the interview!
JK: I feel like there’s so much more pressure on bands when releasing their debut works in contrast to any of the latter releases because it’ll set the precedent and be listeners’ first impression of your sound. What was y’all’s approach to putting out this initial EP? Ideally, what would you like listeners to take away from this record?
MS: We really want listeners to connect with the stories we’re telling on this record. Every song feels like a snapshot of a specific moment, memory, or feeling, and our goal was to weave those personal narratives into a cohesive journey. We want people to hear these lyrics and find pieces of their own lives reflected back at them.
MB: I honestly feel like we did everything ass backwards on this one. Even though I had a lot of fun doing it, I consider it a lesson on exactly what not to do when putting out a record. Next time we aren’t going to construct a timeline for the release or touring until all the masters are finished and all the artwork is done. That being said, I’m happy with the way it came out and hope this collection of short, fun songs finds an audience that appreciates what we’re going for.
JK: Who are some of your major influences? Which bands would you say were the most formative for your songwriting style? How has that changed over time, and who are you listening to these days?
MS: We are big fans of Prince Daddy and the Hyena, Title Fight, Archers of Loaf, Fountains of Wayne, and Superdrag. Our songwriting style stems collectively from all of those bands. Mark and I grew up on skate punk, which we still love—RKL will always be my favorite band of all time. However, we’ve been listening to a lot more emo and power pop lately. I feel like that is the direction we are heading, even though punk rock will always be in our roots.
MB: Madison and I came up together in a band called The Nosedives that we started right after high school, and at that time we were really into all the Fat Wreck stuff, especially two smaller bands on the label, The Lillingtons and Bracket. When we were young we really wanted to write these pop songs with big harmonies but play them as fast as humanly possible, which didn’t always sound so great haha. Nowadays we’re not afraid to slow down a bit and focus on the melodies. I think there’s a lot of Pinkerton era Weezer and The Ergs hiding in our sound along with the rawness of early jawbreaker. It’s funny to me because when I think of the Couch Surfer sound I think of the stuff we’re writing right now, and all the stuff on Don’t Let it Dwayne on you feels a bit old to me already. So, we’ll just have to stay busy so we can show you what the future of our sound is going to be.
JK: Since you guys are originally from North Carolina, what brought you both up to the Hudson Valley? How would you compare/contrast the scenes up here and down there?
MS: I was in a spot in my life where I wanted to escape the hustle and bustle of Charlotte. I dropped everything and moved up here to get this band going again with the guys. Kingston quickly felt like a home away from home, especially with Mark living nearby. It has been an incredible experience, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for both the band and our lives in general.
MB: I moved up to Brooklyn from Charlotte in October of 2020 because I had been wanting to get out of Charlotte for a few years and I finally had the means with the COVID relief checks. It all just kind of happened in this serendipitous way where I visited Brooklyn in August with this girl I was seeing, and I met her friend Kipp who offered to let me crash with him while I looked for a place. Eventually I met our bassist Matt,at Bar Freda (where we’re playing on Nov 4th to kick off our tour) and we immediately connected over our shared love of The Ergs and Jawbreaker and decided to start working on music together. We did a little 6-month stint in Brooklyn with Matt on drums, but eventually it fizzled out, I got kicked out of my apartment, couch surfed around Charlotte for a year, then got offered a job in Brooklyn helping out my friend Kipp after their disabling accident left them in a wheelchair, and I kinda just wound up in Kingston after Matt’s neighbor moved out. Then I convinced Madison to move into my living room and we linked up with Tony and here we are. All the things just slowly fell into place after falling apart, c’est la vie.
JK: You must be psyched about your upcoming tour. For bands out there who are interested in touring, what advice would you give them? I’ll be honest, the cost of gas and lodging, etc. etc. have deterred me from touring in the past. I’ve talked to Matt about this, and it seems like most often it ends up being a net negative endeavor, but I get that that’s not the greatest attitude to have about it, and that when it comes down to it, you gotta do it for the love of the game. Despite these hurdles, what in your view are the benefits of touring?
MS: I see touring as an experience, good or bad. Even if it ends up being a net negative financially, it’s a vacation from the daily grind–in other words, a “Free Ride” (hint hint to a banger of a single we have coming out soon). You have to spend money wherever you go anyway, so why not spend it getting lost in the moment and rocking out with friends? We’re so stoked to go on this tour together and make the absolute best of it.
MB: Honestly, I’m pretty sure this specific tour is kinda dumb from a business perspective haha, but I miss my friends in the South and really want to show them what I’ve been working so hard on these last few years. That being said, to me, touring is how you practice being a “real” band. Setting up and breaking down, getting your stage presence just right, figuring out how to consistently sell merch–all that is really hard to juggle and pull off consistently, and unless you get put in a situation where you have to do it every night even when you’re not feeling your best, you’re never gonna develop the good habits you need to be a pro. There’s this documentary on some legendary sushi chef I watched a long time ago where he says that you can never actually become an expert at such a complicated job if you’re not putting in 50 hours a week for years, and I think being in a band, especially today where we’re expected to be the talent and the management and the marketing all at once, is kind of the same thing. So, without touring I feel like that expertise won’t ever fully develop. That’s the problem with some of these newer bands that are waiting on some TikTok or streaming metric to give them permission to tour. I saw one of my favorite bands recently and the local opener was a group of kids with some cool songs and a lot of Instagram followers, but they just didn’t know how to recover from a technical difficulty and it really killed their set at a gig that was probably a big deal for them. And so, you gotta do both–keep doing the Internet thing but also go out there and play and gain experience, because if you have an aesthetic without community and chops, you’re gonna hit a ceiling when it comes to growth pretty fast.
JK: I’m hyped that you guys will be playing DIY Kingston Fest after the tour. Got anything special planned for your set that fans can look forward to? And beyond that, what’s on the horizon for Couch Surfer for the remainder of the year and what do you have planned for 2027?
MB: We’re planning to record a second EP as soon as we get back from this tour. In the spring, we’re planning a New England run with our friends in Lazlo from New Brunswick, who are also releasing new music. There’s a couple shoegaze influenced songs we’re hoping to incorporate into our set by the time DIY Kingston Fest comes around. They’re quite a bit longer than what you’re used to hearing from us, so it’s hard to find a place to squeeze them in. If you can’t tell from the EP, our natural inclination is to play as many 1-to-2-minute songs as we can cram into a 25 minute set, but we’re gonna make an effort to slow down from time to time and fiddle with some delay pedals haha.
Couch Surfer’s social and streaming links:
Buy the EP on Bandcamp
-Review written by James Kwapisz
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