Keep Asbury weird.
It’s a philosophy that many in the Asbury Park music scene still hold dear to their hearts. Meteor Police, who perform tonight at Happy Mondays at Wonder Bar, are keeping this spirit alive. They play an uncompromisingly loud, heavy and groove laden style of music that doesn’t bounce around the walls of venues like it used to in Asbury.
Recently, we caught up with Shawn and Dustin of Meteor Police to discuss their brand of music, Halloween, the importance of Happy Mondays and their very exciting 2024.
Meteor Police are (Band Members & Instruments They Play): Dustin James – Guitar, Vocals, Justin Wright – Drums, Vocals, Matt Pelli – Bass, Vocals and Shawn Clancy – Main Vocals.
Year We Formed: 2021
We’re Based Out of: We say Ocean County even though two of us don’t live there. But we practice in Brick and three of us have spent the majority of our lives living in various towns throughout the county so it seems fitting.
The Story Behind Our Band Name: It is a deep cut video game reference. The real nerds will get it.
Our Sound Has Been Likened To: Fugazi, Q and not U, Les Savy Fav, mewithoutyou
You’ve Seen Us in Other Bands Such As:
Dustin – Prehistoric Forest, Suzuki Sad Boi, Solo Artist
Justin – The Dream of When (?), The Antoine Poncelet Band
Matt – Matt Pelli and the Mean Bean Machine
Shawn – VSSLS, Unwanted Sect, Distant Sunday
Famous/Awesome Bands We’ve Shared the Stage With: The two most famous bands we have played with are The Bobby Lees and The HIRS Collective. We have played with countless awesome bands but Graphene (formerly the Red Room), Kirkby Kiss, and Tango Machina deserve special shoutouts for not just being great bands but good friends.
You released your full length record New Type Destroyer and an EP, Hallowtide Hymns in 2023. How do those two records differ from each on a lyrical and sonic method?
Shawn: New Type Destroyer was written with our original bassist William Pompeo so sonically it has a heavier/thicker sound. I would say it is more aggressive overall than Hallowtide. Lyrically, it has a few songs that I had been sitting on for over a decade so there are some references to Hurricane Sandy and falling out of touch with formerly close friends in there. But mostly it’s me riffing on my usual hangups around greed, power, historical misrepresentation, and my romance with nihilism.
Hallowtide Hymns is all songs we wrote with Matt and it skews more towards the rhythmic and melodic side than NTD. It’s Halloween-themed so the lyrics are all sort of short horror stories. I tried to write in different horror genres on each song, so one is about Hostel style exploitation movies, another is Lovecraftian/cosmic horror, and the last one is a classical doomed romance between a succubus and an immortal.
Dustin: Hallowtide had the first batch of new material we had written since Matt joined the band, and even with just that small sample size it displays a more dynamic approach to
songwriting than the first release. The first album was no slouch, but we definitely did some growing since then.
Is there any new music on the horizon in 2024?
Dustin: TONS, and it’s (subjectively) our best yet.
Shawn: We pretty much never stop writing so we already had 2 songs for the next album done before Hallowtide Hymns released. Our live sets now are primarily new material with a few NTD and HH songs sprinkled in. That shows you how eager we are to play these songs. But we are taking our time writing and fleshing out ideas still so we likely won’t release anything until next year. I do plan on promoting Hallowtide Hymns a lot this Halloween though as it’s release last year was kind of rushed, so expect to see a bunch of stuff about that EP in October.
How important is it for a show like Happy Mondays to exist in Asbury Park, especially when so many original venues are dwindling in the scene?
Dustin: You said it yourself. The shrinking amount of original music venues is causing a bit of an artists’ diaspora, with a lot of talent packing up because they aren’t even getting booked in their hometown. You can’t just claim to support local artists when so many of them aren’t being given a proper spotlight because they can’t push 100 tickets; Happy Mondays has kept the heart of the Asbury music scene beating just a little longer.
Shawn: Venues are increasingly either shutting down, not featuring original rock music, or only want guaranteed big draws and nothing else. The Asbury scene is as big and vibrant as it is because of places like the Wonder Bar offering a stage to developing artists who can someday grow and maybe pack a house on their own. It’s an investment not enough places are willing to make but that benefits everyone in the local community. Music and art is what revitalized Asbury Park and that’s increasingly being forgotten amongst the rush of new development. I am grateful the Wonder Bar is not one of the places that forgot that fact and continues to support local original music.
For those who’ve never seen Meteor Police before — what can they expect from your live show?
Justin: People can expect to see something different. It’s loud and we have fun playing and I believe it really shows in our performances.
Dustin: 4 whirling dervishes and a biodegradable robot.
Shawn: I usually have props. Also I imagine I’m being electrocuted while on stage.
Outside of Happy Mondays — any other shows on the horizon?
We have a bunch! Some highlights are:
-A double header on 5/18. In the afternoon we are playing the Moorestown Porchfest and then that night we are at the Meatlocker in Montclair.
-5/24 we are at Salty’s which is another great venue near Asbury everyone should check out.
-7/19 we are at John and Peter’s in New Hope.
Follow our Instagram at @meteor_police to get show updates or keep an eye on the show calendar at meteorpolicenj.com.
What do you love about being in Meteor Police?
Justin: Being in Meteor Police means that I get to be in an interesting band with my pals. It’s a band that we’ve all built from the ground up, and it’s cool to see the evolution.
Dustin: Before anything else, we are all just really great friends who just HAPPEN to have excellent musical chemistry. I have so much respect for their respective input and have always trusted that what they’re bringing to a song is only going to better it.
Shawn: I’m in it for the dank memes we show each other at practice mostly.
Finally, what’s on the horizon for the band that you’re most excited about?
Dustin: Recording those aforementioned sonic studs!
Shawn: Besides the next album cycle (which I am really really really looking forward to) we have frequently talked about doing projects besides music together. Mostly video based stuff like a YouTube show. I’m looking forward to executing on that and finding out if we are actually as funny as we think we are. Also I really want to tour again. Maybe this fall we can get some out of state stuff on the calendar.
