Strawberry Launch is a queer pop rock band, est. November of 2018 after lead singer, Riiza, cold-called guitarist, Matrianna Gahol, hoping she would want to start a band with a complete stranger. Together, they added Abby Flicker on bass, Taylor Hurt on keyboard and Benjy Berkowitz on drums. Their debut EP (released in August 2021) quickly gained praise from Under the Radar, Rolling Stone India and Atwood Magazine, saying of the bands EP, “Strawberry Launch cast a wide net, embracing astral synths and guitar tones, big pop harmonies and melodies, and cathartic chorus crescendos that amount to massive simultaneous releases of emotion and music”. The group has built a devoted following in New York City, sharing the stage with heavy hitters Beach Bunny, Hot Flash Heat Wave, Small Crush and Similar Kind. The group will be presenting three new singles this spring with Brooklyn label Trash Casual. We caught up with the band to ask them about what inspires them and their musical roots:
How did the band form and what does the band name mean?
How did the band form and what does the band name mean?
Strawberry Launch was est. November of 2018 after Riiza cold-called Matrianna Gahol, hoping she would want to start a band with a complete stranger. Together, we added Abby Flicker on bass, Taylor Hurt on keyboard and Beniy Berkowitz on drums. We had a different name when we started SL, but our drummer at the time wasn't vibing with our previous name and asked if we could change it. She was the one who came up with Strawberry Launch and we all really loved it. Shoutout to Marissa Dumlao for providing our name!
Previous musical projects? How'd you first get into music?
Previous musical projects? How'd you first get into music?
Riiza was originally a solo artist, who was also toplining for DJs. Taylor and Matrianna were previously students at School of Rock in Chicago, but SL is the first band we've all been a part of.
First concert that you ever went to?
Riiza's was Miley Cyrus, Matrianna's was the Jonas Brothers, Taylor's was Selena Gomez, and Abbys was The Cheetah Girls. I don't know why our first big concerts were all Disney channel related but there ya have it.
What's your writing process like?
What's your writing process like?
We will either start with a guitar lick from Matrianna or a melody line from Riiza. We have periods of time where we only meet to write new material, and then we take a break for a few months. We usually build the song around a melody line and start with vocals first, and drums last. Might be a little backwards but it works for us. We try to just get the bones of a song down and then embellish with synths and secondary guitar lines and backup vocals.
What other artists or songs inspire your music?
What other artists or songs inspire your music?
We all have really different musical tastes, but right now we're heading in a more rock-heavy direction. But, we're all pretty big 1975 fans, Steely Dan, boygenius...the one genre we always agree on is indie rock.
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?
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 first year we were together we only played live, and we didn't put ANY of our songs out for steaming. It was Riiza's philosophy that we learn how to play together and work together as a team before putting any music out. We are always thinking about how our new material will translate into our live sets, but we usually end up playing our unreleased songs live for people well before they come out. We like to test out our stuff and get a genuine reaction before putting time and money into our records. We have a couple of songs that we've played over the last couple of years that never saw the light of the studio, because we could tell people just weren't vibing with them the way they do with our other stuff. We know we can't make our sounds sound exactly the same on the recording as they do live, but we do our best!
Has the band toured? What has the touring experience been, best shows? worst shows?
We haven't exactly toured but we did play a few out-of-state shows last year. In Philly, the bus back to NYC never came to pick us up after our show, so we convinced an Uber driver to take us all the way to the city and back. We were out $300 but at least we made it home that night!
What's up next for the band?
What's up next for the band?
We'll be releasing a lot of new stuff this year, and taking our sound in a new direction. We're starting to piece a new EP together, and were really excited to share the next SL chapter with our listeners. We're playing at least three major shows this spring/summer and planning to get that tour we've been talking about together.
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https://www.facebook.com/strawberrylaunchmusic
https://strawberrylaunch.bandcamp.com