Introducing The Mediocre Friends: a quartet of high school pals from NJ who reunited 30 years later to revive their musical journey. Each member contributed a song to this EP, and though tensions flared like their teenage years, the result is a proud testament to their enduring bond. With four tracks of power-pop reminiscent of Fountains of Wayne and Superdrag, they've earned praise from Powerpopaholic as "the opposite of mediocre" and Hearasingle blog as "a wonderful 4-track EP." Here's to four old friends who got off the couch and created something special…..now back to the couch! We caught up with the band and here's what they had to say about their formation and what inspires them.
How did the band form and what does the band name mean?
The band was formed due to an initial nearly imperceptible, yet consistent pressure from Bill that started a few years ago. Over time, the pressure intensified to an unbearable level of constant sarcasm and nagging that could no longer be ignored or denied.
The name is a bit of a send up of the superhero genre, as well as a nod to our friendship at the same time taking a shot at our musical ability. Bill basically hadn’t played bass since High School, Chris only got back into playing music again recently and I’ve always been a, “sideman”. As for Mike…Mike is actually quite a talented musician that we drag down by association.
Previous musical projects? How'd you first get into music?
I’ve been in a slew of different bands: Kid With Man Head, The Blakes, Readymade Breakup and The Vice Rags. Mike was in Meyerman and fronted a band from California called, “The Return of Mr. Blackshirt”. Chris writes and releases his music on Bandcamp under the moniker, Side Project Skip. Bill and I played in our first band together, the metal cover band, “Deception”, and then our first original band, “Smack Dab”, which had two other talented Hillsborough Musicians in it that went on to play in two popular local 90’s bands, “Loose”, and, “Mars Needs Women”…I took my first stab at playing bass in Mars Need Women…It didn’t go well. I was booted.
I’d have to say that if it weren’t for Bill…I probably never would have gotten into music. My father played acoustic guitar and I think he wanted me to follow suit, so any time I would ask for an instrument, he’d buy it for me. So basically I’d try an instrument, take lessons for like three weeks or so…I’d suck and then quit. That has pretty much remained my life’s motto to this day…If you’re not good at something quickly, quit. But I digress…So I’d moved from Albany NY to Hillsborough NJ in 8th grade and lets just say…I was a little behind the times with my members only jacket and parachute pants .Couple that with the fact that I was a D&D playing comic book reading nerd with giant thick glasses…I was fresh fish…But for whatever reason, Bill, a popular football playing jock, took a liking to me and took me under his wing. I’m not sure why, but I guess we bonded over our love of hair metal. So Bill was over one day and we had probably inhaled too many pixy sticks and had too much Coke (the cola of course). We were bouncing off the walls, Bill picked up a bass from my pile of long for gotten instruments and I grabbed the guitar. We started jumping up and down in front of the mirror, yelling and posing (we might have even been shirtless). I think at that point my mother told us to shut the fuck up…So we fished out a guitar magazine from my stash of smut and comics and we actually started to learn a song…It was RATT’s “Wanted Man”…Deception was soon to follow and so on…
First concert that you ever went to?
The first concert I went to was a local Albany band called “Blotto”. They had one of the first songs on MTV, “I want to be a lifeguard”. Remember that banger?! The first local NJ shows I went to was with all of these guys. As mentioned, our friend joined the band, Loose, and we basically followed them around NJ. We watched them in: basement shows, at City Gardens, Fast Lanes, Maxwells, I think we even went to a soup kitchen (literally) and saw them play with the Bouncing Souls (that was a weird one)…Anywhere they’d play, we’d go. So we’d see a lot of the local bands: Shades Apart, Motel Shootout, The Fiendz and Lucy Brown are a few that jump to mind. Toward the end of High School we kind of transitioned from our beloved hair metal, to band’s like: ALL, Dag Nasty and Bad Brains. So we’d go to City Gardens to catch whomever we could. That place was nuts! I was always certain I was going to lose my teeth there or be swung around by my pretty long hair by some skinhead. Thankfully that never happened.
What's your writing process like?
As noted in the bio…This whole experience was about as smooth as sandpaper and I think the writing process was where most of the friction was generated. At the outset we had a Point A and Point B, but we didn’t exactly know how we were going to go from one point too the next. . So it started with each of us submitting a demo of “our” song. At one point everyone was going to sing their own song and we were going to be the captain of our own ship, like four producers, but along the way we course corrected and decided that we would try and make it sound more like a band, with a uniformity to all of the tunes…I think we had a hard time separating ourselves from that initial concept of everyone is the captain…So we butted aheads a lot when it came to making decisions…And naturally as soon as I became the lead singer I was immediately afflicted with the dreadful SINGERITIS and I assumed everyone would and should just listen to me and when they didn’t I pouted and threatened to quit. Crazy how that happens…But we grinded it out and I think it was actually that push and pull that allowed each song to have it’s own personality while still having a continuity.
What other artists or songs inspire your music?
Personally, I pretty much have always faithfully followed the path of power pop. I saw Jellyfish at the Stone Pony in the early 90’s. I didn’t know them too well at the time. When I heard them hit that massive four part harmony in, All is Forgiven, I was hooked. I was officially a power pop junky. Give me harmonies and stack them sky high! So the harmonies you hear across the songs, especially, “That’ll be Me”, comes directly from that. I think you can hear the drive and the jangle in our music from the other bands/artists on the list. The other guys in the band have a much more diverse taste in music than I do. I probably should just text them and ask them for their insight, but then it’s going to turn into a whole big thing and it will end in me pouting and threatening to quit.
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?
I’m kind of the wrong person to be asking this question because I basically don’t ever leave the house. On the rare occasion I do go to a show, my back starts hurting and I get grossed out when anyone brushes up against me. I’m uncomfortable start to finish. So…really what I prefer is a live experience that is over quickly.
What's up next for the band?
I’d say we’re going to have at it again n maybe a year or so…Then we’ll have enough songs for a set and provided we don’t actually murder each other this next go through…Maybe we’ll play a show.