In two years time, The Burns have firmly established themselves as a go-to band in the Asbury Park scene. A band that is must-see, that when they announce a show the people coming running.
Of course, they probably wouldn’t agree with this statement. Read through this interview, and you’ll see on the surface a lot jokes and self-deprecation. But, if you read a bit deeper you’ll see a band that truly cares about their craft, their scene, and each other. And that deep seeded care is what has propelled them to the top of the scene.
Recently, we caught up with bassist Chris Dubrow as the band gets set to open up the new season of Happy Mondays at Wonder Bar.
The Burns Are (Members of the Band & Instruments They Play):
Joey ‘Hendo’ Henderson: Vocals, Guitar, Sweat
Matt ‘Fern’ Fernicola: Guitar, Vocals, Unique Time Signatures
Billy “Billiam on the Drummiams’ McCabe: Drums, Percussion, Steely Dan Aficiandoness
Chris ‘Chris Dubrow’ Dubrow: Bass, Vocals, Dear God Why is He So Bendy?
Year We Formed In: Sometime between March & May 2017. We honestly forget. Let’s say May 2017. Sure.
We’re Based Out of: Burns HQ is a lovely 2 Bedroom Ranch in Shrewsbury where Joey has set up a home studio in the basement and his roommate tolerates us coming in multiple times a week to be loud.
Story Behind Our Name: DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING TOO HOT, IT’LL HURT.
Famous/Cool Bands We’ve Shared the Stage With: We’ve closed out for Cake & Ben Folds at the Stone Pony. Also, for Gin Blossoms (Hey, Jealousy!) Alien Ant Farm (Hey, Smooth Criminal!) and Marcy’s Playground (Hey, Sex and Candy!)
As cool as those shows were, it’s much more cool when we organize events like What a Wonderful Year in December at The Wonder Bar where over 2 nights we get to share the stage with over 30 local acts that we count are both huge fans of and also good friends with. We love love the New Jersey music scene and we’re always overjoyed to get to showcase how amazing all our friends are.
We interviewed you guys nearly one year ago to the day. The first question I asked you was ‘you’ve been around a year how do you feel you’ve evolved musically?’ I now ask you that question as a band that’s been playing together for two years.
The most important thing that has changed from last year would be the shedding of self-imposed deadlines. We’re much more open to writing & recording without a final end goal of release. When we have something we’re all super stoked on, we’ll start sharing it. It’s opened us up to much more experimenting, trying different arrangements and songwriting styles that have helped us keep things fresh and interesting.
What’s been one of the most important things you’ve learned as band since you first formed?
We all came from projects where either we were the main person running the band, or just musicians in the project focusing on our job. This band has taught us all how important it is to have everyone in the project working towards the same goal and all contributing to that. Having different guys handling different parts of the To Do List helps each person not feel overwhelmed even though we all always feel overwhelmed and sleepy!
In that time you guys have established yourselves as one of the most reliable, go-to bands. A band that people know are going to put on a killer show. Can you talk where you guys feel you are as a band now, as opposed to when you came into the Asbury Park scene?
Honestly, we don’t feel any different. We still put our all into every show we do. Probably the most important thing for us as a band has giving every audience the best we can give them on any given night. So, yes, the shows have gotten bigger sometimes, but we’re still four friends doing our best and having a blast.
You dropped two excellent EPs last year — any word on when a new full length record will be coming from the band?
We won’t know when our next full length will come until after it’s only like 65% done but we’ve already booked the release show and we have to feverishly scramble to finish the thing in time and Chris starts stress eating Burger King to handle the pressure!
If there is a new record coming can you let us know about what we can expect from it? Any new sounds? What kind of themes are you addressing in your lyrics?
New Sounds: We’re always exploring & developing what our ‘sound’ is but we’re never interested in doing something new for the sake of doing something new. We’re interesting in creating things that appeal to us, that sound good to us. We want our love of the music to be apparent to anyone listening to it.
Lyrical Themes: they always say you should write what you know and we collectively don’t know anything so I hope this helps
What’s one of the wildest moments you’ve had as a band — one that’s indelibly marked on your souls forever?
Okay, I’m going to break the fourth wall of the collective Burns answers for a second here. Chris has been answering these questions and consulting with the guys. For me personally, a moment that is forever marked in my soul, one of the highlights of my life was our second release show where we played a dual album release at the newly reopened Asbury Lanes with our Telegraph Hill Records label mates Levy & the Oaks
I grew up in the old Lanes. My father was working in Asbury in the early 2000s and helped that room come back. I spent a lot of my Saturday afternoon at the Old Lanes bowling and watching whatever insane movie they were projecting That room was felt real to me in a way that few other places have ever felt, if that makes sense.
Playing the New Asbury Lanes felt like somehow both a homecoming for me and also a re-establishment of what that room should be: a place for music of any kind to thrive. It felt like us trying to tell Asbury Park that we’re all still here and we’re not going anywhere. Bands may come and go, venues may open and close, but Asbury should always be a place for music and art of any kind to get a chance to let it’s voice be heard and let it be heard fucking loud.
Anyway, that’s Chris’ soapboxing for the day. Normally we don’t let him do that and if you want to hear his pointless opinions, follow him on twitter.
Sorry, these answers were supposed to be fun and slightly flippant. Ummm. Ok. We also wore togas at a show once that was a collectively terrible idea.
What is it about this band that you love?
Knowing that we all have each others back.
What are you most excited for in 2019?
We want to play for as many people in as many different places as we possibly can. We want to drive long hours in cramped vehicles for the chance to do what we love in front of new people. We want to keep writing and recording songs that hype us up, that we’re super stoked to show to people. We want to break our association with Miller Lite. We’re more of a Budweiser band these days.
