Pictured left to right, top to bottom, Jon (Rhythm Guitarist/Backup Vocals/Management), Charlie (Drummer/Lead Vocalist/Composer) Jonah (Lead Guitarist), Colin (Bassist)
Abraaxys has brought an undeniable level of swag to the table every time I’ve seen them, and I’ve been to all their shows and I gotta say, these guys are gifted. They create an easy listening fusion between the sounds of folk rock, and punk, while maintaining a solid footing in the world of psychedelia. They have a sharp and punchy sound while remaining fully fluent in the language of groove. It’s hard for me to really classify them by a specific genre as they don’t fit a specific genre. They described themselves as Cryptid Rock which to me, feels like the kind of music that makes you want to dance in two different ways at once. Their versatility is unmatched, Their first song of their most recent set was Maneater Bug, an eleven minute long beast of a track. As is typical with Abraaxys, it was an emotion-packed rollercoaster, featuring an ever-evolving psychedelic jam built around the core of metal drumming and funky guitar licks. It’s been a little over a week since I saw them live and I still can’t stop involuntarily head-banging to this song and now, you can too! Abraaxys absolutely ripped it on the 17th and if you don’t believe me, we’ve got footage to prove it. All thanks to the wonderful Hayden Garrett @garrett.p.hayden If you’re interested in watching the concert recording, the video will be linked at the bottom of the article. The interview featured in this article was recorded after their second show, they have played live once more since then. Abraaxys seems to easily fit so many different niches while providing everything you’d hope for in each one. You should 100% check them out if you ever get the chance! Without any further delay, here’s the transcript from the interview!
INTERVIEW
Ian
How do you guys know each other?
Charlie
We’ve known each other since we were six or seven. We all went to the same elementary school, middle school and high school and now that we've graduated this is kind of like our way of staying in contact because, you know, we found something that we care a lot about and we care about each other. Like this was a good way to continue that.
Ian
What do you want out of this?
Jonah (without hesitation)
Madison Square Garden
Colin
Easy dude! Easy!
Jon
Every seat sold out.
Charlie
I mean, yeah, everybody can dream. You know, that's how this all got started. if you're not daydreaming about what you're doing, you should find what it is you dream about, and that's the thing I dream about, you know? playing all these great places. But I think we just want to make music that speaks to us and speaks to people. Because, at least for me, I always wanted to be the band that inspired someone else. Like all these other bands that inspired me.
Ian
Who inspired you guys?
Colin
They don't really sound like the music we make, but I'm not really into the composition side as of right now. But the two artists that have inspired me are Tatsuro Yamashita and Masayoshi Takanaka.
Ian
A little Japanese jazz?
Colin
You know it.
Jonah
What inspired the one song we wrote Jon?
Jon
You’re talking about Storm Chaser (song 2 on the live recording). I think there was influence from Looking Out for You by Joy Again and Current Joys
Jonah
I'll give some to Current Joys and a little bit of Alex G perhaps.
Jon
Alex G for sure, Alex's a big influence, I really like a lot of that folksy stuff like Richy Mictch and the Coal Miners but I also like bands like Caamp a lot too. A lot of our songs are based on Gizz.
Jonah
Oh yeah, Charlie’s a huge (King) Gizzard fan
Charlie
Yeah, there's a lot of jam sound going on. We started as kind of a psychedelic project. Then we were like, oh, well, Colin came from the school of funk bass playing. I came from the school of punk and metal drum playing and so we’re kind of just like finding the best things for each song, trying to find what works out and what speaks to us.
Ian
What genre is Abraaxys?
Charlie
So we call it cryptid rock just because I think the word indie has become a little bit diluted, It's just… what is Indie now? Ultimately we’re just making Independent music. But there's punk, there's jam, there's psych, there's folk, there's jazz, etc. We don't try to think so much about what we want to do and more so like, what does it come together as, and then we just go, oh, what if we made this sound like this? What if we made it sound like this? So a lot of it is just playing together and building it together.
Ian
Where can I find your stuff?
Charlie
Well, we hope to release two albums here pretty soon and they will be released within close succession of each other. We intend to record them at the same time so we have about an hour and a half of music that we have written and we're just going to slowly start integrating live. (Editor’s note, they have! Their new songs are awesome!)
Ian
What does recording look like for you guys?
Charlie
We were hoping that we could record it ourselves and then send it to somebody to mix and master because when I was in Psykohliminal, that was all just we were mixing and mastering as we were going but I didn't know what I was doing. And so we're going to try and give those rings to somebody else. We have a lot of plans set right now.
Ian
What's the story with Psykohliminal?
Charlie
Psykohliminal was a concept recording band that may or may not still exist. It was between Nichols and I. She did our wonderful poster tonight. She does a lot of our art.
It was a two piece Psychedelic experimental concept album band and the first album released and then we just decided to do separate things. And so Psykohliminal may or may not be dead, Psykohliminal may or may not show up in an Abraaxys set. Yeah it’s just in an ether right now.
Charlie
Yeah, I would say like, yeah, me, what inspires me is the first band I ever really got into was this a I believe they're L.A. based. They're this band called The Bronx, and my dad just showed them to me from a really young age. And from there on, it was like I was getting into Van Halen and I was getting into W.A.S.P. and getting into more metal and then from there, yeah, the Japanese jazz has always been a huge part of my upbringing as well. But as of recent, nothing has quite inspired me like the work ethic of King Gizzard. I just think they're doing it like nobody else. I saw them in Newport, KY. I was front row.
Ian
Who's your favorite local band?
Jonah
People In The Daytime. 100%.
Jon
Maybe Simon (Molnar)
Jonah
Classic.
Charlie
Like, that's the thing. It's like, where would we have been without seeing him because that’s when we really started.
Ian
He's so cool.
Charlie
Yeah he is, we like **** our pants when we found out that at our second show, we would be playing with Mascara Cowboys and Befriend Strange Creatures too like it’s crazy.
Ian
How did the show go tonight?
Charlie
Our first show was kind of a make or break so the nerves were a little higher, this is make or break too, but people seemed to have loved it. You know? Everybody has technical difficulties but I'll always be proud of what we did tonight.
Jon
Overall, I think it went pretty well. Few hiccups here and there but we’re just starting.
Ian
I promised I wouldn't do any twin talk but you know I have to.
Jonah
Well, you’ve got to! We’re way more marketable.
Ian
What's it like for you?
Colin
Well, sometimes someone will call me the wrong name and that's been happening for nineteen years and that's just about the long and short of it.
Ian
That makes sense. One last question for Charlie, how do you manage playing the drums and singing at the same time, those feel almost mutually exclusive.
Charlie
It’s kind of interesting because I’m a choral singer at school and there’s a specific way you have to breathe to support your breath you have to have **** in the tank and **** coming out at the same time but at same time drumming is like a marathon it’s about getting the air in as fast as possible. I guess you can call it a Hail Mary. Just going for it.
