The Double Negatives are gracing the stage at Wonder Bar in Asbury Park tonight with their own unique brand of psychedelic indie rock music. The power of their lyrics and vocals draw you in, and the music itself keeps you entranced, wondering what will come next.
Hailing from LBI, this five-piece consists of Rob Connolly on vocals, guitar and keys, Brandon Campana on lead guitar, vocals, keys, Dimitri Almeyda on bass and backing vocals, Dan O’Hara on guitar, keys and backing vocals and Kevin McDaniel on drums, percussion and vocals. Together these multi-instrumentalists create music that makes an impact, from the incredibly personal lyrics and psychedelic-dipped arrangements, to the build-ups and breakdowns and captivating stage presence.
The Pop Break had the opportunity to interview The Double Negatives to find out more about their inspirations, their live performance, their progression as a band, and more! Read on to see what they have to say!
As you guys are from LBI, where are some of your favorite places to play around that area: LBI can be tough for us since we like to do our original music whenever we can, but a few places have let us play our music. We loved playing Buckalews and also are really excited to play at the free bayview Park series for the second year. There we can play all our originals and companies let jetty support us and help let us give crowds on LBI our music.
How did you decide on the name The Double Negatives and what does it mean to you? How does this name reflect who you are as a band: The Double Negatives was one from a list of many names we played around with. It seemed to roll off the tongue nicely and covered a lot of ground with a simple name. So I guess you could say it has multiple meanings, and we just sort of like how it sounds.
While you were still working on your previous project back in 2013, when did you realize you wanted to create a different sound and add more instruments/members to the band: I don’t think it was ever a conscious thought to go a different direction with our sound, we used to jam and Rob would make up lyrics over top and sometimes re write them afterwords. After the passing of a close friend and an original member we decided to take a break to travel, go to college and work, eventually Danny boy learned guitar/keys and joined the band then met Kevo in school and he hopped on drums within a week of knowing him, it all seem to happen very naturally.
Following that, what sounds are explored in the music of The Double Negatives? (I feel like it’s so hard to place your sound – which is probably what you’re going for – you can go from a folky Americana vibe, like in “Commas” to straight up rock with a punk tinge in “My Sun is Setting…” and it’s really unique): We’re about making music we all would like. It helps having more than one main writer too.
In what ways do your musical influences such as Pink Floyd, Arcade Fire and Grateful Dead (to name a few) inspire you: We all pretty much dig the same music which is great because it puts us on the same page for when we go to put a song together. But I’d say the influence doesn’t necessarily come in the form of guitar tones or stage presence rather we draw from these bands’ work ethic and ability to keep their music a continuous work of art throughout their career.
When it comes to live shows, what do you enjoy the most about being up on stage performing: It doesnt matter how long it’s been since we last played, who had a shit day or if it’s an empty basement show in the middle of Wisconsin; the feeling of looking around the stage and seeing that we’re all just best buds playing music together is incomparable to pretty much anything.
From The Double Negatives (Demo), the Visions from a Stranger EP and the release of My Sun is Setting/Commas in 2017 to now, how has your music developed and evolved over the last couple years: The evolution of music has happened without us really feeling it till it’s there. We have started writing a lot more piano music and also trying to write more concisely. You can hear this in our new releases, “My Sun is Setting” and “Commas,” where we tried to create two opposites that fit together. Also Kevin has started writing and we are branching out with having multiple singers taking lead for songs. It gives more chances to create and have a bigger impact at our shows.
Are there any themes that pervade your music? If so, what are they and how are they explored in your songs? What brings about these ideas or themes: In our music, I feel as though we try to dig down to the core of songwriting and bring in a diverse array of influences into what we do. Thematically, this allows us to experiment with a wide variety of subject matter, so we like to tell personal stories and experiences through a broad eye. I’d say we like to try to put the music first and see where it takes us emotionally. It’s much more exciting to go outside the box.
Is there any song of yours that you find yourself connecting to the most right now? If so, what song is it and why is it so relatable to you currently: At the moment it’s an unreleased song called “Secrets” about…. you know… secrets. Seems to just strike a chord with personal stuff in our lives.
What is the best part about being a member of The Double Negatives: The feeling of doing what you love with friends. It’s an enhancer.
What’s coming up for The Double Negatives this summer and for the rest of 2018: Our summers are usually pretty quiet we tend to work insane shifts all over the Jersey Shore to support ourselves and to give time for everyone to write solo music. We’re really picky and poor so it usually takes us a long time to write and record new music but we should have some new tunes out before the end of the year. Definitely a few shows the rest of the summer and more in the fall and winter. We’re trying to figure out where we wanna go from here musically.
