The Northcoast is a band made up of three members, from New York, New Jersey, and Seattle. Not only are they a mix of geographical locations – utilizing dropbox to collaborate on all of their music – but each member has also played at least 3 instruments since childhood. Their video for “With You” is one of our favorites of the year so far, and it sparked an interest in knowing more about the guys themselves. Luckily, we had the chance to ask the band some questions.
Where did the name The Northcoast come from?
It’s really just a reference to our geographical location in the US. Though we are on opposite ends of the country, we are both on the northern coasts.
Tell me about your single “With You.” What was the process like creating it?
Well, it originally started off as a remix of Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You” when I was doing stuff on my own. When Charlie and I started making no music again, I showed him a bunch of my old tracks and he wanted to mess with this one. He basically took this crazy remix I had made and turned it into this luscious Synthpop that I’d been aching to play. This was the script first track we did that paved the way for the rest of our upcoming tracks. This was the one where we said “that’s it, that’s the sound we are going for!” Charlie eventually re-wrote some lyrics for it that had originally come from a tough break up he was going through. He decided that more than the break up, he wanted it to be about our relationship and our sort of bromance. As we weren’t always the best of friends, we’ve gone through a lot to realize that we are more similar than we thought.
Who are your main musical influences?
As if it doesn’t show, we are very influenced by anything from Prince and Michael Jackson to Great Good Fine OK and The 1975. Though Charlie was raised on a lot more disco and funk, Lou and I grew up listening to more punk rock, we all kind of fell in love with 80’s music and have wanted to make something like this for the longest time.
If you could share the stage with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
Prince, Michael Jackson, Earth Wind & Fire, The Beatles, Luther Vandross, TOTO, David Bowie, Justin Timberlake, just to name a few. And why not?! (Laughs). They’re our main influences and they’re awesome. We hope to leave a legacy as strong as they have.
How did the band come together?
We have known each other for over a decade now, actually. We’ve been making music on and off for just as long. I think, even ten years ago though, we were making music in the same manner since we both had studios of our own. He would send me a track and I’d record my pianos and synths and send it back to him, or we’d track drums at my place then transfer everything through external hard drive. These were the days before the dropboxes and such when it was justly slightly more tedious. We parted ways around 2010 and probably weren’t the best of friends at that point either. We had a few years there that we didn’t even talk at all. Sometime around 2014, Charlie approached me to start making music again. A year later one of our best friends from Puerto Rico (Lou) moved up to join us on bass and we’ve just been making huge strides since then.
Who is your favorite superhero?
Dan: Nightcrawler
Lou: Superman
Charlie: Goku
Is there anything you think that everyone should know about you guys?
That we’re all nerds (laughs) and we’re all college graduates. At some point in our lives we all lived together. The three of us are multi instrumentalists and can speak both English & Spanish fluently.
If you were a food item, what kind would you be and why?
We’d probably be some kind of weird sushi roll. One that tastes different from most, but still brings the joy of a simple but elegant spicy tuna roll. (Laughs)
What’s up next for you?
We’ll be planning a tour soon, hopefully getting into a studio to finish the album up, and just playing shows worldwide.
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Keep up with the rad guys of The Northcoast here.
