Philadelphia’s Looser deliver hook-heavy rock that fuses ‘90s slacker aesthetics with the glossy punch of ‘70s and ‘80s new wave-tinged power pop, drawing as much from the Breeders and Pavement as they do from the Cars, the Go-Gos, and Big Star. Following a string of home-recorded singles and splits, the band have completed ten new tracks of searing power pop for their debut LP, Lonely Century. Fronted by singer, songwriter, and guitarist Tony Aquilino, the lineup features drummer Zac Ciancaglini—who also produced, engineered, and mixed the record—alongside Russell Langley on bass, Gabe Wilhelm on guitar, S. Catoe on synths and cello, and Megan Gouda on backing vocals.
We spoke to Tony about the band, the new record, and upcoming shows.
How did the band form and what does the band name mean?
The band started as a recording project for me around 2017. I was playing in the bands Control Top and Sun Hat at the time, and both started to drift in different directions so I sort of had this musical gap to fill. I had been getting more into demoing on my Tascam 4-track recorder and decided to flesh out a couple of ideas I had been noodling with that were sort of a return to the formative music of my youth–The Breeders, Weezer, The Rentals, Pavement, etc. That ended up being the ‘Envy Sea/No Line’ single. I sent that to a couple of friends and started getting a live lineup together to flesh out some other ideas and start playing shows. It took a couple years to get a solid live lineup together and once we felt like we had some momentum going, and then of course Covid hit and just totally knocked us right back to the beginning.
“Looser” is sort of a nonsense name, but the word has a historical definition of “someone who fails to achieve their goals due to indecisiveness or inactivity,” which unfortunately feels very apt for yours truly.
Previous musical projects? How'd you first get into music?
I’ve been playing bass in Zac’s project CLOAKZ for probably about ten years now, and I play in the band Halfsour whenever we can all arrange to be in the same city. When I first moved to Philly I played in the bands Sun Hat and Control Top. Prior to that, I played in a bunch of bands in New York, including a super fun power-pop group called MiniBoone, a country-punk band called GunFight!, and a sort of groovy, shoe-gazey band called Quiet Loudly.
First concert that you ever went to?
My first ever “real” concert was going to see Pearl Jam at the Jones Beach Theater in New York, where I grew up. I remember my dad drove me and my friends and my little brother to the show. I was a teenager so I was allowed to sit with my friends but my brother had to sit with my dad in a different section. Sonic Youth were the opener, and totally blew my mind. My dad said they were the worst thing he’d ever seen.
What's your writing process like?
My writing process has changed a lot over time. It used to be very guitar-centric, starting with riffs or chord progressions and arranging from there, with vocals almost always being added last. I realized at some point that I like my songs a lot better when I start with a vocal hook, so I try to take that approach as often as possible. I have like hundreds of voice memos on my phone with vocal melody ideas. Usually I work off of whatever idea is most stuck in my head, which is usually a good sign that the song has a decent melodic core. When I’m feeling stuck, though, I’ll scroll through my voice memos until something jumps out at me and then try to arrange some chords under it to see if it feels like something.
I definitely struggle with lyrics, and will almost always procrastinate on those until the end of the songwriting process. I’ve started employing some methods that I’ve read in various songwriting books and interviews. Jeff Tweedy has some great methods for shaking loose lyrical ideas. Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies are also useful for getting unstuck lyrically and musically.
I also often try to tap into older sensory/emotional memories. At the phase of adulthood I’m in, I feel like I’ve gained some emotional stability, which is great for, like, mental health and maintaining good relationships and stuff like that, but maybe lacks some of the drama that feeds interesting songwriting (for me, at least). So I feel like I’m often writing as a character that’s based on an older version of myself, or someone I knew, or even just mining some details from experiences that felt really emotionally fraught for me when I was younger and then inventing a new character’s perspective on that.
What other artists or songs inspire your music?
I definitely started out heavily borrowing from the early Weezer/Rentals sound for this project. I’ve spent a lot of time and energy chasing that chugging Blue Album guitar sound. Bob Mould also has an iconic chuggy guitar sound, especially in Sugar. Great songwriting too. The Breeders/Amps have always been a huge influence for me. I love Kim Deal’s songwriting and I love how she and Kelly Deal build harmonies together. I’ve been a Pixies fan forever as well, but they were always better with Kim in the band (no shade to anyone who’s played in later iterations of the band—Kim was just so essential to the band’s initial sound, and the best of their records feature her the most. The band that dog. also shaped a lot of the verse/chorus dynamics, and how we layered vocals with counter-melodies and call-and-response sections.
Fountains of Wayne were a huge influence (so much so that we included our cover of “Sink to the Bottom” on this record). I’ve always enjoyed how melodic and referential their songs are, and how strong the songwriting is. I think they’re a band that is often overlooked because their biggest song (“Stacy’s Mom”) is sort of a novelty song, but their records are really strong, and songs like “Hackensack” have a lot more emotional depth than you might expect if “Stacy’s” Mom was your intro to the band.
I also have a major soft spot for ‘90s radio rock like Gin Blossoms, The Wallflowers, and Sheryl Crow. I think a lot of this came out of the Big Star/Replacements lineage, blending in some elements of country with super melodic rock songs with really crisp production. Someone more contemporary who really captures that vibe is Kathleen Edwards. I think her album Failer is a total classic, and definitely influenced the sound we chased on “Friends.”
What's the live experience like and your philosophy on playing live? Do you think the live music should be identical to the recorded version or should it be it's own thing?
I think both approaches can be really cool! We kinda fall somewhere in the middle, mostly because I like to pile things on in the studio which aren’t always practical in the live arrangement. We generally try to align the live versions with the recorded ones, but will try to stay aware of whether any particular element is working live vs. on the record. One thing I’m excited about for the upcoming shows is having Catoe play synths and having Megan and our friend Abbey singing backup. We ended up putting a ton of keys and layered harmonies on the record, so it’s really nice to be able to make those part of the live show.
Has the band toured? What has the touring experience been, best shows? Worst shows?
We haven’t really toured at all. We play New York every so often, but I’m looking forward to getting out in the region a little more. There are great scenes in New Jersey and Delaware, and further into PA that are really accessible from Philly.
We’ve had some not-so-great shows, but fortunately (knock on wood) nothing too catastrophic. I hopefully got a lot of that out of my system with my older bands. For past projects a bad show would come down to something like, “oops I got too drunk to play and forgot all the songs” or “oops I’m cranky at someone in the band and decided to have a bad time.” 99% of the shows I’ve played in my life have been a good time, though. I’ve been lucky to make music with people that I like being around, and that’s as true as ever.
What's up next for the band?
We’re getting ready to play a bunch of shows to get the record out there. Our record release show is on October 5 at Ortlieb’s, which is a venue we absolutely love playing. We’re also playing in Phoenixville, PA on October 18, and are in the process of setting up some shows in New York and New Jersey around the end of the year. I’ve got a handful of new songs written, too, so I’m sure we’ll be back in the studio soon enough.