Q&A: Boys Go To Jupiter on their latest EP ‘Now You’re A Circle’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY LUCY BULLINGTON ☆
Photo by Lucy Bullington
BOYS GO TO JUPITER IS ON THE RISE—Their latest EP, Now You’re A Circle, is an exploration of the beauty of the "wrong" choice. Luke Volkert describes their philosophy as a deliberate embrace of the unpolished, finding the exact point where a jarring sound can become an interesting hook.
Boys Go To Jupiter is made up of three best friends, Caleb Martin-Rosenthal, Jess Kantorowitz and Volkert. Their origin is unlike most typical stories: Kantorowitz and Volkert first connected on Hinge. Their romantic vibe quickly grew into a deep friendship where the two began planning a band. This element of chance even dictated their name, pulled hastily from a phone list to satisfy a venue’s deadline. “It was kind of a happy accident,” Kantorowitz reflects, “but now it feels completely right.”
Having photographed a handful of their shows over the past year, I’ve watched their steady growth into larger and larger venues. Often joined by a six-piece band, Boys Go To Jupiter’s live set is the perfect mix of clarity and chaos. They’ll share a funny bit and then dive into a deeply personal ballad. This versatility is rooted in a palpable, familial chemistry. On stage, their individuality shines through even as they perform pieces written by one another, showing their deep creative trust. Their newest EP, Now You’re A Circle, documents this growth balancing individual authorship with a collective cohesion between each member.
Luna sat down with Boys Go To Jupiter to discuss their process and the power of the happy accident. Read the full conversation below.
Photo by Lucy Bullington
LUNA: Why the name, Boys Go to Jupiter?
LUKE VOLKERT: I’ve been keeping a running list of band names on my phone for like ten years. Mostly just for fun. On my first date with Jess, I showed her the list and “Boys Go to Jupiter” was one I had just randomly written down.
CALEB MARTIN-ROSENTHAL: When the name was sent to me I immediately thought it was awesome.
JESS KANTOROWITZ: I remember seeing it and literally saying out loud, “That’s a really good band name.”
VOLKERT: And then Jess booked us a show before we even had music out—she kind of lied to get us in—and they asked for the band name. So Luke sent a few options, and that was the top one.
KANTOROWITZ: It was kind of a happy accident, but now it feels completely right for us. We’ve really grown into it.
LUNA: What’s the story behind your new EP, Now You’re A Circle, and why release it now?
MARTIN-ROSENTHAL: We have so much music. Honestly, we’re playing catch-up. Some of these songs are two or three years old. We’ve been sitting on them for a while. I think “Handstand” is reaching its two year anniversary. We’re already working on the next one.
LUNA: What’s your favorite thing each of the other members contributed to the EP?
VOLKERT: I really like “Wake Up Layla” from Jess. She played that for us a while ago and I thought it was so cool. It also really came alive in the studio. It turned into something even better than I imagined. For Caleb, I remember him playing, “Sunshine,” and I remember thinking immediately, that needs to be a band song.
KANTOROWITZ: For Caleb, I really appreciated his restraint on this record. He helped simplify things so songs didn’t feel overcrowded. It gave the album a kind of ease and clarity we didn’t always have before. And for Luke, some of my favorite lyrics he’s ever written are on this record. There’s a line in “Rules of You”: “He’s in love, and she’s in love, and they’re in love, so why shouldn’t we be?” I could spend my whole life looking for that lyric and I could never write it. That lyric wrecks me every time.
MARTIN-ROSENTHAL: Luke’s melodies, especially in “Flying Machine”, are just so great and they came from him. The entire melodic DNA of that song is Luke. His melodies have such interesting shapes in my head.
Jess just really keeps the gas on the craziness of the song, “Sunshine”. She completely sells that performance and brings the song completely to life. That song only works because of her. Only Jess could perform that song.
LUNA: Anything interesting in the production that people might miss?
VOLKERT: We pulled a lot from older music. Caleb and I both studied composition in college so we were interested in classic Hollywood string arrangements. There’s this wild string section at the end of “Sunshine” where the instruments are trembling and sliding and iit creates this eerie, almost chaotic sound.
MARTIN-ROSENTHAL: There’s this one old song, “This Magic Moment,” that has a crazy interesting arrangement. And at the last chorus of “Sunshine,” we tried to recreate a really interesting string sound we heard in “This Magic Moment.”
VOLKERT: We were also experimenting with imperfection like, what’s the worst sound we can add that still works? Those weird textures actually add energy, even if they’re not traditionally “musical.”
LUNA: What songs are you most excited to play live?
KANTOROWITZ: I’m excited about “Rules of You” live. It’s really personal and was hard to write as a group because it comes from such an emotional place.
LUNA: How do you guys typically write?
KANTOROWITZ: It’s a mix. Some songs start individually. For example, I wrote “Wake Up Layla,” Caleb wrote “Handstand,” Luke wrote “Do It Over.” Others, like “Sunshine,” “Rules of You” and “Flying Machine,” were written completely together.
LUNA: F***, Marry, Kill: Writing, recording or playing live?
MARTIN-ROSENTHAL: F*** playing live. Marry songwriting because it gives me life, and kill recording.
KANTOROWITZ: I double that.
VOLKERT: Same. Recording can be miserable. But writing a great song can sustain you for a year.
LUNA: Was there a moment where you realized, “This is serious”?
KANTOROWITZ: Literally the moment I met Luke and Caleb I knew immediately.
MARTIN-ROSENTHAL: After one of our early shows at the Sultan Room. We were in the green room afterward just holding each other’s hands like, “This is special. We need to hold onto this.”
VOLKERT: I agree with that Sultan Room moment. Because I’d played in bands before, but this felt different. It felt like something that could really grow.
KANTOROWITZ: I knew Caleb and Luke were the best songwriters I’ve ever met.
LUNA: What’s your favorite lyrics they’ve written?
KANTOROWITZ: That same “Rules of You” lyric I mentioned earlier for Luke. It captures that feeling of loving someone but wondering why it’s harder for you than it seems for everyone else. Caleb has this unreleased line: “Leave it to me, give me the heavy things / I’m some machine, I can do anything.” It’s about someone convincing themselves they can hold anything for anyone and be a support for someone. Someone who just tries to carry things for someone. I think he wrote it for him and I.
MARTIN: I love writing songs about characters who have just started to realize themselves. Or who have just begun convincing themselves of something about themselves.
LUNA: What do you want people to take away from the EP? And what’s next?
MARTIN-ROSENTHAL: This EP was a slight evolution of our sound but not in a “we’re changing everything” way. More like, we have a lot of influences and ideas and we want to bring people into that world with us. I want people to think that Boys Go To Jupiter is gonna be a band that grabs their hand and shows them some cool stuff.
KANTOROWITZ: We’re also attempting to do some long-term like building a larger narrative across releases. This EP is just one part of something bigger. I hope it eventually serves as context for a larger narrative we’re building together. At the end of the day there’s a singular thing we want to talk about and I hope people puzzle pieces by themselves over the course of our releases.
VOLKERT: Yeah, and we’ve got a lot more music coming.
