Q&A: Gollylagging’s “Comet” finds the light in one another ahead of debut album, ‘Real Life’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY BECKHAM ROCK☆
Zoe Hopper
MOVING ON IS THE GREATEST ACT OF RETRIBUTION—in Gollylagging’s newest single and music video, “Comet.” The carefree music video and energetic instrumentals balance the single’s heavier lyrics centering loss and the subsequent change that comes with it.
The band, composed of Jake Regulbuto (vocals, guitar), Jules Skiffington (vocals, guitar), Andrew Garas (drums) and Joey Lorant (bass), highlights how growing within your community is the strongest way to move past the tumultuous end of a friendship.
This theme bleeds into their debut album Real Life, out October 16, as Gollylagging explores breaking cycles and accepting what cannot be changed as an avenue to grow with each other. Fuzzy guitars and hard-hitting lyrics come together on 10 unique tracks to remind us the ways community can bring healing during hardship.
Leading up to Real Life’s release, Gollylagging has spent the past few years honing their indie rock craft across multiple EPs and singles. Concurrently, they’ve made their way performing through New England via venues, bars and opening gigs. While the band is always expanding outwards, they stay grounded in their connection to Boston and its DIY scene, a recurring undertone in their music.
Keep reading to learn more about what Gollylagging has been up to and what’s next in anticipation of their debut album.
LUNA: Thank you so much for meeting with Luna. To start out for our audience who aren't familiar with you guys yet? How would you describe your sound, and who or what would you say are your inspirations?
LORANT: A lot of times, we say our influences recently have been Teenage Fanclub, Pavement. Who else?
Renee Newman
REGULBUTO: Dinosaur Jr., Def Leppard. We call it fuzzy, indie rock mostly. Changes by the week.
LUNA: You have your debut album, Real Life, coming out on October 16. Congratulations, by the way! How have you been feeling about it? How has your creative process been different from putting out an EP or a single to putting together your debut album?
GARAS: This is our first project with Jake and Jules both singing. So there's 10 songs on the album, each of them sing five. They sing on both, but for primary vocalists, each of them gets five songs. That was definitely the most different thing for us. It also felt natural to put the collection of the songs together, to be like: “Okay, we got five here, we got five there. Let's pick the ones we think are the best.” Then just make it an album. It was different, but it also felt like it came together quickly in that sense, which was good.
LUNA: On the note of your album, we talked about general inspirations, but would you say that's the same bleeding over into the album, or do you have any specific inspirations or visions for this album?
REGULBUTO: Those are definitely the ones for me. Plus, maybe the Breeders or something. But Jules sometimes has interesting ones.
SKIFFINGTON: Yeah, I don't know. Playboy Carti's recent album, Music, really inspired me to make something great because that drop was just horrendous. It's so horrendous. We need to come back with something for the YVL Bluds. So hopefully we get on the Opium Label with this one because we've been trying for the last couple projects and nothing yet from King Vamp.
LORANT: He’s trolling, he’s trolling.
LUNA: Specifically with your single, “Comet,” I love the old school camera vibe that you had for the music video. What was it like getting to make a music video with the local DIY community, especially with the album's themes of the importance of community and friendship?
GARAS: It was very fun. The camera comes from this guy Trent, who goes by Osprey Corp, who started coming to shows in Boston (he used to live in Boston) maybe four years ago. Then we met him because he kept filming our shows, but he was always filming on those vintage video cameras. We ended up becoming friends with him, so when it was time to make the music video, I was like, “I think we got to get Trent on board,” even though Trent lives in Philly now. We had Trent trek up to Boston to help us work on the video. I also thought it was cool to bring a bunch of our friends that are in all the bands that we play with together, so it was cool.
I definitely love the vibe of his cameras. Some of the footage in the video was actually corrupted footage. It was all messed up because the tapes or whatever he was using got a little screwed up, and he was like, "I don't know if you can salvage any of this.” I ended up using a lot of that footage because it actually looked cool. So you can kind of tell when you watch the video, some of the scenes are weird looking, fuzzed out. That was all organic from the cameras that Trent has.
LUNA: How did having community and friends in the video contrast the song's themes of like kind of the painful end of a friendship?
SKIFFINGTON: It was good because I don't want to think about that stuff anymore. Yeah, it was nice to just have the video because you can't really make a video about what I'm writing about. It would just suck. It’s part of the dish too because I can't even make a video about this shit, so I’m gonna make it about how I glowed up with my boys. We're making burgers and playing sports.
GARAS: Jules and I also have a running joke that I don't listen to the lyrics of the song because the video was my idea, and I didn't know what he was talking about in the song. I was just like, "Oh, this is gonna be cool.”
SKIFFINGTON: Yeah, he was like, "Happy banger vibes, bro. Let's go,” about familial trauma.
LUNA: You had some recent shows with Wildflower Fest on August 22 and The Rockwell on the following August 23. How did you feel about the headline set specifically in New Hampshire?
REGULBUTO: That one was fun. We’ve never played outside. That was cool. It's like Coachella for us.
LORANT: Brochella.
GARAS: The Rockwell one was really cool too. Our last EP, when that came out, we played there, so we hadn’t played there since. It was cool to go back, and the bands we played with are awesome. It's good vibes. I like that venue.
LUNA: You've mentioned before having a strong connection with Boston and inspiration with that in your music as you're based there in the music scene. Do you feel that energy when you perform in Massachusetts and other areas in the New England region, as opposed to playing in other cities?
LORANT: When there are Boston shows it's nice because we know a lot of the people in the audience. We definitely feel that connection.
SKIFFINGTON: Joey's parents come to every show, so it's really nice.
LUNA: Outside of your shows, what do the following months look like for you with anticipation coming up with your album's release?
GARAS: We're gonna put out one more song before the album comes out—probably next month, sometime in September. Then the album's out in October, and we'll play a couple more shows in between there. We'll play a record release show at some point. We're still cooking that up right now, but yeah, some cool stuff happening. I'm just excited for the album to be out. Then we'll make another one after that hopefully.
