Ernest Jenning Record Co., Trash Casual and NY metro area indie-rock quartet Scoville Unit are excited to present the brand new album, See What Can Be. In March of 2020, Scoville Unit was riding an unusual high. The ‘90s-inspired guitar-pop quartet led by longtime friends and ex-college roommates Drew Isleib and Gandhar Savur had just released their third, self-titled album and received some unexpected accolades. Of course, the album cycle was cut short for obvious reasons, resulting in the cancellation of the remaining shows supporting the release. Unable to rehearse or perform, Isleib, a doctor, braved the storm, donning a white coat and an N95. Savur, on the other hand, fulfilled a lifelong dream and moved to Costa Rica, where for the next year-and-a-half he admittedly spent the bulk of his existence “surfing and eating rice and beans.” As you can tell the album finally happened and here we are. See What Can Be brims with a newfound confidence and mastery of the band's craft that features tight, crunchy, '60s-influenced pop-rock with big, baited hooks alongside jangling and fuzz-drenched guitars — imagine Brian Wilson growing up in Asbury Park instead of Malibu. So we sat down with Drew Isleib to hear more about the album making process, inspiration and more:
How did the band form and what does the band name mean?
I was living in New Haven, CT with our good friend Tony Senes who had built a studio in his basement. Gandhar [Savur] came to visit us to record some demos of songs he had written. He meant to stay for the weekend but while we were in the basement, a blizzard came through and snowed us all in for about a week. We had a few days where we lost track of time and did a few 20-30 hour marathon sessions and wound up getting our days and nights reversed — a hazard of basement studios with no windows. When we finally emerged to ground level, we had a new band and the basic tracks for our first record, Everybody Knows.
The lineup has changed over the years but Gandhar and I kept the thing going as the two frontmen; we’ve now settled on permanent members — Kevin Shelbourne on lead guitar and Rob Hunsicker on drums — and the central mantra of "let's see what happens" has been consistent.
Tony first suggested Scoville Unit as a band name during that first recording session, and we all liked the sound of it. I had never heard the term before, and I don’t think Gandhar had either. The term scoville unit, being the measurement unit of the hotness of food, actually doesn't mean all that much to us, but I do like a good hot sauce. Mostly, we like the way it sounds — just feels like a band name.
Previous musical projects? How'd you first get into music?
My first serious band was called Velour44 which was harmony-filled Central Jersey power pop. At the time I was a 15-year-old singing drummer playing gigs around the Jersey shore. Drums were the only instrument that I had any training, but since band practices were at my house, everyone left their gear there. After a bit of messing around on my bandmates' guitars, I started to make noises that started to sound like music. I became a constant songwriter and always have a few half-written songs working their way out of my head at any given time. I've put out five solo records over the years under the name Drew Isleib and have had the good fortune to do some touring in venues and living rooms across the country.
Gandhar and Kevin both played in El Secondhand, which remains one of the greatest live punk bands that I've ever seen. They did a good deal of touring throughout the country but they were playing mostly punk and hardcore shows, which was completely different to what I was doing. Our drummer Rob Hunsicker also grew up in Central Jersey and played in a bunch of bands as well. Although we didn't know each other in high school, we had very similar upbringing.
First concert that you ever went to?
The first real concert that I went to was Anthrax and White Zombie at the Tower Theater in Philly. I loved every second of it, but I left bleeding.
What's your writing process like?
My writing process has evolved over the years. When I was younger, everything came pretty fast and easy where I would hear a phrase or a lyric would pop into my head and the melody would come along with it and then I could build everything around that pretty quickly, with most songs taking an hour or so to get out. These days I often start something and say I’ll finish it later, which makes that process much tougher to actually get it done. Right now I am actually in the process of finishing off a bunch of tunes that have been kicking around for a while, as we are getting ready to do pre-production for a new album.
With Scoville Unit, Gandhar was historically the main songwriter; on our last record (the self-titled record) he brought a full album’s worth of fully-formed songs to the table. However, on our new record, See What Can Be, the songs Gandhar brought to the table were more bare bones and we filled them out together. It was much more collaborative, and parts and lyrics were kicked back and forth for a while before they were laid down in the studio. That’s how Everybody Knows was made too — a lot of experimentation in the studio to fill out the skeleton song structures and bring them to life.
We are already writing for the next album and it's looking like a mix of Gandhar's songs, my songs, and songs that we are writing together from the start. Although we have been playing together for many years now and have each written so many songs during that time, this is the first time that we have been truly co-writing in the traditional sense; its just something we don’t have much experience with, and we’re really enjoying it and excited to see where it takes our sound as a band. In fact, Gandhar recently came by my basement studio for three days and we wrote and recorded demos for the next full-length (we had a really good time trying, at least).
What other artists or songs inspire your music?
I'm always drawn to strong melodies and am a sucker for harmonies whether it's Simon and Garfunkel or Hot Water Music. I recently replaced my turntable and have been listening to albums all the way through again. As a band, we've always tried to think about records as a whole even though people rarely listen to them that way anymore. But after listening to The Cars’ self-titled album, it’s hard to not feel motivated to make something so perfect from start to finish.
Lately I've been listening to The Beatles, The New Pornographers, The Kinks, Elvis Costello and Fito Paez. I know while writing See What Can Be, Gandhar was listening to a ton of Big Star and Fleetwood Mac and stuff like that, but also he loves The Go-Go’s, The Ramones, The Cars and really poppy, melodic stuff like that as well. He’s also obsessed with the Beatles and ‘80s music.
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 its own thing?
We play live as a four-piece, and Gandhar and I try to present as a dual frontman kind of band. We practice to the point of muscle memory, so ideally during the shows we are just having a good time and not having to think too hard. I've found the more we are enjoying ourselves, the better the songs come across. There is really nothing else I'd rather be doing than playing live, and I have no issue with the audience can sensing that.
Our songs live are often presented differently than the album tracks. Although some of our records have had keys on them, when we play live, we favor a traditional guitar/bass/drums setup. On record, we bounce around between having different sounds. But when we play live, we like to go hard, heavy and fast on most songs.
Has the band toured? What has the touring experience been, best shows? worst shows?
Most of our shows have been on the east coast, but we did have a chance to tour the UK and that entire experience was amazing. It was a great way to see England and Scotland and meet a lot of amazing people and bands. We were treated very well and we are hoping to get back soon.
Thankfully, we haven’t had that many bad shows. I think it’s because our expectations are very humble — we just enjoy the opportunity to play live for people. We just played recently at Berlin in the East Village in New York for the single release for “Reasons.” It was our first show since COVID and it felt so good to be playing, and I think the whole room felt it. The room was filled to capacity and the energy was just great; it was an amazing night where music brought people together for a good time. That’s why we do this, really. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the shows on this album cycle.
What's up next for the band?
We've got a handful of shows coming up to support See What Can Be, and we are waiting to hear about getting attached to a tour. From there, we will continue to see what fate throws at us. But the plan for now is to keep making records. Hopefully more and more people will listen to them, but we are going to keep making them either way. We've also realized that making videos can be fun, so we'll keep those coming as well.
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