Brooklyn-based four piece Plight has spent the last five years making a name for themselves in New York City, cultivating their own brand of alternative over the years. Now with their debut LP on up-and-coming imprint à La Carte Records, the sound of Plight has evolved into a concoction of chunky power-pop anthems, wall-of-sound shoegaze, and morose slowcore ballads
How did the band form and what does the band name mean?
Plight began in 2017 through a series of Craigslist encounters in Brooklyn. Matt found Anthony and they bonded over a love for slowcore bands like Low and Bedhead; Anthony found Andy and bonded over a love for Tom Petty and Motley Crue. I think our bass player at the time oozed up from the ground and won us over with his ridiculous tone.
The band name means what the word means - a shitty situation.
Previous musical projects? How'd you first get into music?
We were all dumb little high school emo kids and have been in and out of bands since then. We’ve been in many previous bands, everything from punk/hardcore/noise rock to indie and pop punk. One of us rapped in High School and another had dreads, we won’t say who.
We all got into music in the late 90s. Third Eye Blind, Deftones, Korn, Blink-182, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer. All that major radio rock stuff from that era got us hooked. I remember listening to Mellon Collie everyday on the bus to middle school and thinking I was a vampire bad-boy and nobody was ever going to understand me. I think I still have part of that in me.
MTV and early music video streaming like Yahoo was also huge for us. As was having cooler older cousins who would sneak us burned copies of things like Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water.
First concert that you ever went to? (Locally and National acts)
The Bled, Underoath and Thrice at The Warfield in 2005.
What's your writing process like?
Usually one of us will come in with a riff or two and we will jam on it for a bit to get the feel and direction we want the song to go. We take the democratic approach to the song and all contribute ideas to the arrangement and then vote on what we feel is best. We usually play the parts a few different ways to map out our options before we vote to make sure it sounds good to us all. We then do a phone recording of the song to take it home and listen for more refinement and repeat the process until we have something we all feel is the best song it can be for our band.
What other artists or songs inspire your music?
Hum, Smashing Pumpkins, Deftones, Cloakroom, Title Fight and Drug Church to name a few.
What's the live experience like and your philosophy on playing live? Do you think the music live should be identical to the recorded version or should it be it's own thing?
The live show for us should always be better than the record. It’s important to us to have fun and be real people when we play live so we like to play things a little different from time to time to keep it fresh. A live show is a moment in time that will never happen again. It's important to cherish and enjoy the experience with everyone around you because in the end, music brings us all together.
Has the band toured? What has the touring experience been, best shows?worst shows?
We’ve toured a bit, mostly in the east coast region. Touring has always been a learning experience, and things have only gotten better with time as we figure out what the best way to book shows outside of NYC is. I’d say the best show on our last tour was Philadelphia at Ortlieb’s which was a lot of fun to play. Some shows are worse than others but every show has its ups and downs and honestly we feel excited to play anywhere fun that is full of cool people.
What's up next for the band?
Continuing to promote the Plastic Sun record is top of mind. We are all super proud of this record and excited for everyone to hear it. After this summer tour we’ll likely hunker down and begin the writing process again. Hopefully tour some more this fall as well.
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