Fresh off their latest release "The Knots,” MUD caught up with the Manhattan-based band to discuss the heart of their upcoming album and tour.
Congrats on “Did You Sleep Last Night?” What do you hope listeners take away from this new song?
Jude: That we can do whatever we want. Seriously. We keep tapping into new sonic worlds and expanding the definition of what a LAUNDRY DAY song can be. And that’s never gonna stop.
Sawyer: I think a lot of times it’s really easy to question yourself and be your worst enemy. I felt like there was a period of time where collectively everyone felt so down on themselves. I think the song just feels really confident and I’m proud of that, I think we all need to remind ourselves sometimes that we have the power to overcome anything if we set our hearts on it.
Your upcoming major label debut “We Switched Bodies” is coming out so soon! We’d love to know, at its core, what’s the story and message of this dope project?
Etai: The beauty of our band is that we would definitely all give you a different answer to this question. To me, this album is a journey to the core of LAUNDRY DAY. Since starting this album process in February 2020, our main goal was just to create a body of amazing, undeniable SONGS that translate both on paper and in recording. In the past, we may have let an overarching concept or vision serve as our North Star while writing, but with "We Switched Bodies" we really found out what our band sounds like when all the bells and whistles are stripped. Just reaching around in the dark for the best, most inspiring SONGS! In many ways, this album might as well be self titled. We pay tribute to NYC, the environment that raised us, musically and visually. We strengthened and deepened our relationships with each other by embarking on this journey to our core. While that two-year journey wasn’t always easy or straightforward, we’ve emerged stronger and more interconnected than ever.
Jude: First of all, thank you for calling it dope. Second of all, I second Etai. This album started as just random ideas, no “north star," no concept, but it eventually became clear that the whole album was about making it. So meta. But yeah — every song talks about what it’s like to be in a band, the internal dialogue that comes with that. And yes, I agree this album is a tribute to NYC, but I’m gonna go out and say it’s even more so a tribute to us. Everything we’ve gone through, everything we’re going to go through. We made this album for ourselves. It got us through the past year or so. And I’m honestly so excited to put it out so that we can move the fuck on!
Henry: When starting the album, I think there was a mindset that this needed to be our Opus, and that we needed to make something bigger than us. We were really ambitious with the actual recording techniques and concepts for the songs, and we quickly realized it wasn’t working to our benefit. After a bunch of uncomfortable discussions, we realized we needed to rethink how this album was going to get made, but more importantly our goals and ambitions for the project. After a long road, we were really pleased with what we had made. It came out exactly how it should have because it sounds like us hanging around, telling jokes, being friends, and supporting one another. Each member has moments to shine, but the majority is us as a whole. I don’t really know what to say. It makes me happy knowing we are proud of it and we feel like it represents us well.
We know the creative process of every band is different. Where do you draw the most inspiration from? Are there also artists or bands that have influenced your career?
HP: I think most of our inspiration comes from each other. Jude makes me want to be more ambitious, Etai makes me want to be more outlandish and creative, Henry makes me want to be cooler and funnier, and Sawyer gives me confidence. We bounce off each other and move as a unit.
Jude: Every time I write a song I think about John Lennon.
Sawyer: I think we’ve always held each other to such high standards and that’s always pushed us to make music that we truly love. We’re such good friends, we know each other’s habits and tendencies so we’re like one big collective brain. So when we collectively feel something we know it’s really special and that feeling can never be beat.
You have such a unique sound that is both nostalgic yet so authentic and new. In your own words, how would you define it?
Etai: With such a broad range of musical influences between the five of us (that compounds when we work together) it’s no wonder we end up with a formula nobody else could replicate! I would define it as a big smoothie of all of our individual tastes, talents, and ambitions. Having this kind of creative process means we may never make an album that any one of us would define as “perfect” in every detail, but I think that with each album we get better at representing the energy of our interpersonal dynamic and creating something unique as the sum of 5 lovely parts. That’s way more authentic and enjoyable than perfection to me!
Henry: This album has the most intentional production of anything we’ve ever done. We were still able to have fun with the songs, but we all got a lot more musically mature over the course of the past two years, and I think it shows in a lot of the songs. You can really tell in the softer spots. I’m proud that we didn’t over do it as much as we used to. It allowed for more personal and emotional moments, that in the past had been masked by a bunch of unnecessary and distracting elements in the instrumental. We made smarter decisions that allowed the songs to be more concise and get the point across easier.
Jude: We all have such an expansive musical vocabulary and we end up trying to squeeze in as many words in as we can. If you listen closely, you can hear everything we grew up on: The Beatles, Ben Folds, Prince, The Ex Boyfriends, etc. etc., etc.
You have toured with iconic bands and artists such as The 1975 and Clairo. What has been your favorite moment touring and is there a city/show that holds a special place in your heart?
Etai: Several heartwarming moments immediately come to mind! On tour with the 1975, our show in Greenville, SC was unforgettable. Right before taking the stage for our set, we climbed in Matty & George’s recording studio tour bus and played them our EP, Light Up Shoes 2, which was set to release 2 weeks after that night. They gave us the warmest feedback and the conversation that ensued gave us the motivation to absolutely murder our second ever arena show! We played our hearts out, got off stage, announced the EP on Instagram, and went back to class at Beacon High School on Monday! Also, touring in Europe with Clairo was possibly the best month of my life; I’m so grateful that she gave us the opportunity to see the world under her wing. The whole Clairo team was so gracious inviting us into their family and we quickly joined the fold on their giggly tour antics. One moment I’ll never be able to forget was crossing rural Germany with Claire riding along with us in our little LD sprinter van. We stopped at the most remote Bed and Breakfast in all the land, ordered some lunch that didn’t quite look edible to our American eyes (but wasn’t half bad!) and made friends with the lovely matriarch of the establishment.
Jude: The first time we played Detroit there were 18 kids there (not including us). We were so nervous going into it, but it ended up being a night we’ll never forget. We were in this small rinky-dinky club with our matching tour outfits and wireless mics and we still called for the mosh pits and it was awesome.
Sawyer: So after that insane meal in rural Germany Etai was talking about, we played Cologne in Germany and it was one of our first tours using in-ears and they completely stopped working as soon as we stepped on stage. But the show ended up being amazing and the crowd gave us this insane energy. When something goes wrong it kind of wakes you up and your adrenaline takes over and you forget about messing up and that paired with an insane German crowd was just amazing!
Make sure to follow LAUNDRY DAY on Instagram. Their upcoming album, "We Switched Bodies" will be available on all streaming platforms on February 11th.