Social Media (John Messina) and Shocking Twist (Eric Holsten) first met by chance in a New Brunswick dorm room over 10 years ago. The pair of artists, consisting of John (Pynkie, Diap, Curled Up, Papermaker) and Eric (Grilled Cheese, Tape Club) bonded over a mutual appreciation of Brian Eno and experimental electronic music. Frequent insomniacs, the musicians traded off sending each other music at odd hours for years until they began working together in earnest. The two have combined to form a sort of super Indie Pop / Synthwave duo and are releasing their debut "CBDJ EP" on October 28th via Mint 400 Records. We caught up with the duo to hear more about what inspires them and the birth of this project.
1. How did the band form and what does the band name mean?
EH: I have been releasing music as Shocking Twist since 2005--the name originated from a walk with my friend Luke Warren, who had the idea for an artist who always had some unexpected change in their songs.
Early Shocking Twist did just this, it was the most rudimentary sampling, but always had to include some unexplained juxtaposition. A bit like an M Night Shamalan movie, if you always expect the twist is coming, then is it really surprising?
The novelty of this wore off pretty quickly, but I continued making music under the name.
JM: Initially I came up with the name Social Media as a joke. I realized that every other arbitrary combination of words I would think up was already taken, but something entirely simple and commonplace like Social Media was not. The name has allowed me to approach songwriting through a different lens than I would normally.
A lot of my songs come from thinking about seeing the most intimate details of someone's life who you don't even really know, to approach them from a first person perspective. I am constantly turning that idea around.
2. Previous musical projects? How'd you first get into music?
JM: I first started playing piano as a child, I can remember playing Christmas music by ear when I was a very young. Everyone in my family has a very musical ear, and they were a huge influence on my development. Still my family will get together to play music.
When I took lesson with piano teacher, the teacher would record our lesson on cassette tape, and would record the songs first. One time, she did not play the song first, and realized I did not learn it and was doing everything by ear—she yelled at me in front of my Mom and it was very traumatic.
Luckily, I did not have bad music teachers my entire childhood. When I was in early middle school, the music teacher would let me play my original piano songs during our concerts.
Late into high school I got a copy of ProTools 5 and started making music on my computer. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and was just making noise on my laptop
EH: I come from a very musical family—my mom is a music teacher and my dad is a pastor, so I grew up singing in church, and singing with my family.
Since a young age I've been drawn to sound—the texture of the rain falling on a metal roof in upstate NY, the sound of wind rustling through red autumn leaves, the low call of morning doves outside my window, or the ambient drone of living close to an airport. This fascination with sound led to me making field recordings as a teenager and sampling them to create music played entirely by the world around me.
3. First concert that you ever went to?
EH: First one I can remember going to all on my own was to see Cake at Starland Ballroom, although apparently when I was much younger my dad took my family to see Celine Dion at Nassau Coliseum.
JM: My first concert was Tom Petty at PNC Center. I remember I asked my dad what the smell was that smelt like skunk and he looked me in the eyes and said, “that’s weed!” I also asked my dad who the homeless looking opening act was, and that I did not like his voice, it ended up being Bob Dylan. I think I was about 8 or 9.
4. What's your writing process like?
EH: Our writing process is a bit of creative magic happening in real time--typically, we will set up a bunch of gear to play with. John will usually bring his synthesizer and voice pedal, and I will have some strange nosiemakers, bells, etc set up with a few microphones. We begin songs by adding layers of improvisation onto the same file to get a texture we both enjoy, then we will begin carving out sections which eventually become verse, chorus, middle eights. Most of the songs on CBDJ EP were written this way – sampled improvisations that we mixed and arranged afterward.
Usually the song will exist for a long time before we record the vocals. I personally find writing lyrics and vocals to be the most challenging part of making any music. I have to often remind myself that the first idea is usually the best idea.
JM: Part of our theme in this EP was the constant bombardment of notification and consumerist, hyper-stimulated modern life. What I was attempting to convey was that these electronic forms of communication, the mass number of these communication systems that are out in the world, and the scale of the networks that are in our everyday lives at this point, is overwhelming, sometimes more than we can take in
5. What other artists or songs inspire your music?
EH: “Rockit” by Gorillaz – this is from D Sides, a compilation of demos and b-sides for Demon Days (aka the best sounding album ever made). Overall the songs are all extremely weird and experimental, part of what I find most inspirational about this is the throwaway nature of some of the lyrics (“I’m feeling very blah-blah, I want to blah blah blah”). Goes with the “first idea is the best idea” philosophy we take when recording music together.
“It’s Not Fair” by Aloe Lonely – this song is absolutely genius, the way the harmonies and phrases loop and mesh into one another, almost like thinking the same thing over and over again in your head. Expertly arranged and composed.
“Phone Call” by Jon Brion – the first time I heard this song (a cue from “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”) it took my breath away. When this happens I get hooked, the texture of a song and the mood it evokes is the best drug there is, I will listen to a single song on repeat for hours and hours. When working on any music I strive for this experience.
JM: “Der Kommisar” by Falco – this song reminds me of a very memorable NYE when my roommates and I were tripping surfing YouTube looking for things to watch. We stumbled on this video, which we could not get enough of. I love the style of the song and how firmly 80’s it is, you do not hear music like this anymore.
“Jumbo” by Underworld – one of the best songs ever made, I could just keep listening to this for ever. I used to listen to this song when I would get drunk in college. There is an exceptional live performance of this song on KCRW
“Kelly Watch the Stars” by Air – Air has been a huge influence on me since high school, I love how lighthearted their music is. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, which I think we need more of nowadays. Music doesn’t have to be
6. 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?
JM: I don’t think music has to be the same when it’s played live. The experience of playing music live is extremely gratifying and fulfilling to me. I think it is more about communicating with the audience than it is anything else.
When I perform live I block out my vision and get super focused on what I am doing. One of the greatest feelings is connecting with even just one member of the audience. If I can communicate the original meaning of the song, or even an entirely new meaning to just one person I think it is a successful live performance.
EH: My philosophy when playing live is to get the energy of the song correct - this does not necessarily mean that it should sound exactly like the recording. I find forcing a drummer to play along to a click track just ends up sounding like a drummer playing to a click track. Live performance is about being in the moment, and having to play to a metronome just takes away from that, in my opinion.
People also have the idea of live electronic music performance as something which can't differ from night to night. When performing live, I like to be right in it – listening to the sound happening and changing it in real time.
The most engaging live performances I have experienced ebb and flow, the energy of the band and the audience feed back on each other to create a shared experience which both will (hopefully) remember. This involves some improvisation on the band's part.
7. Has the band toured?
EH: We have never played a show together! Catch us at Pet Shop 10/27!
8. What's up next for the band?
EH: We have a few releases planned – one is more minimalistic and pop-oriented, and the other is a single 27 minute track.
Personally, I am working on a full-length Shocking Twist album ‘Party Ghost’ which should be out sometime in 2023
JM: I plan to release a full-length album planned in 2023 and some additional singles for Social Media.
https://www.instagram.com/social_________media/
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