Guillermo Castro
It’s not exactly fair to align pop-punk with adolescence and young adulthood, as so many critics are quick to do. Sure, the music is driven in large part by youthful exhilaration, and there’s a tendency for practitioners to focus on themes like evolving identities, sorting through relationships, the pleasures and perils of drugs and alcohol, and such—but it’s hardly the only genre to do so. The truth is few forms of music are as well-geared to capture the dazzling blur and raw emotional expense of coming to terms with one’s early position in the world. Pop-punk may often yield deeper, more transcendental revelations than its given credit for, but it also makes for a damn cathartic soundtrack to growing up. And so such is its lot.
Give a listen to Be Better., the new EP from Atlanta foursome Eddie Rascal, and you may begin to catch a glimpse of what I mean. Comprised of vocalist and guitarist Mac Hunt, guitarist Yaar Hosseini, bassist Danny Gadra, and drummer Matt Hendler, the band writes kinetic, emotionally-charged anthems tailor-made for fervent basement show sing-alongs. It’s music built decidedly of and for the moment, a release valve of exultation, adrenaline, and pain meant to sweep you off your feet and send bodies colliding into motion. But beneath the EP’s effusive rush are turbulent, heartfelt songs that delve into the darkness of toxic relationships, addiction, and mental illness. Eddie Rascal may present themselves as lovable, happy-go-lucky goofballs looking for the next good time, but Be Better. reveals a more contemplative and nuanced group of young men working through various struggles and confronting their demons.
Ahead of their release show this Saturday, I had an opportunity to speak with Hunt about the new record, the band’s history and growth, and how his love of film plays a critical role in his songwriting. The band was also gracious enough to allow us to premiere their new EP, which you can stream above.
Who are Eddie Rascal?
We’re just four dudes who like playing rock‘n’roll and hanging out in my basement. None of us are named Eddie.
How did you guys arrive to where you are? Did any of you come from other bands?
When Eddie Rascal started it was just an outlet for me to release and perform songs that I had been writing throughout my teenage years. When I first moved to Atlanta I was young and broke and sleeping on Yaar’s couch. He was active in a couple smaller musical projects, and always had people in and out of the house playing instruments of all sorts, but none of it was very organized. The first Eddie Rascal recordings were just acoustic folk-punk demos made using cellphone microphones in my bathroom. At some point in early 2014 a friend’s dad told me I should get a band together to cover up the fact that I can’t actually sing, and I took that advice and kind of just ran with it. We’ve gone through a few different members and tried a lot of things sonically with our music, but I think Be Better. is the first release that we are all really happy with. We come from very different musical backgrounds, and finding a way to blend our personal influences together and make compromises for the benefit of our overall sound was a long but rewarding process.
On the surface, your music is driving and upbeat, and I think you all present yourselves that way as well in your photos and videos. But there’s definitely some dark undercurrents on Be Better.—personal battles, toxic relationships, and such. Can you talk about some of the themes or some of the experiences that led to making this EP?
I think we are all generally pretty happy, upbeat people in our personal lives, and we definitely try to reflect that in our photos and videos. We like poking fun at ourselves and try to make art that generally leaves people feeling happy and energized. Writing songs that are poppy and “danceable” is very important to me because I want people to have a good time when they come out to a performance. At the same time, however, writing has always been my main emotional outlet, often for the less-than-happy things on my mind. It’s a way for me to get my feelings about issues in my life down on paper and feel like I’m being heard, and is kind of a therapeutic process for me in that way. This record deals with things like mental illness, addiction, and the problems that often come along with a long-term relationship. We want to make something honest and relatable, but still unique and personal. It’s really just a set of songs about growing up and learning how to stay positive through bad situations.
I’m really digging Jess Silva’s album artwork. Is there a story behind that?
Jess is amazing. The concept for the album art was originally pitched by our lead guitar player, Yaar. It’s an honest visual representation of the juxtaposition of struggling to be a better person and grow up, but while still being young and a mess. We’ve all had those drunk nights eating take out and reevaluating our lives, and the idea of the fortune cookie literally telling you to get it together was great to me.
Talk a little bit about your new video, “Right For This.” How did that concept come together?
That idea developed over a few months and ended up being an opportunity to learn a few things and have some fun. I originally wanted to make a video mashing up clips from old cooking shows like Martha Stewart and Rachel Ray, but we decided to take it a step further and act out a cooking show parody ourselves. It didn’t go quite as we planned. In an effort not to waste more food than was necessary we only had a limited number of takes we could shoot. Danny, our bass player, had quite a nasty allergic reaction to my cat in the middle of shooting, and I chopped part of my finger off slicing up sausages, but overall it was a great experience and we learned some great new problem-solving techniques for next time. Our director of photography, Joshua Prem, was awesome, and our lighting crew did us a huge favor coming out to help. Aside from music, film is one of the things I’m most passionate about, and being able to blend the two is always a surreal experience, no matter the magnitude of the project.
What are some of your favorite movies or directors? Do you find them influencing your music at all?
I definitely have a subconscious tendency to try to give my writing a cinematic feel. I’ve always been pulled to the idea of big Hollywood type productions and have wanted the scenes and images we create to have that kind of effect on people. I’m a big fan of Aaron Sorkin’s writing style and I think that draw to fast-paced, high-energy banter shows through the way I approach our vocals. I also find guilty pleasure in corny ‘80s John Hughes-esque movies, and love how they often take a super simple, juvenile concept and develop it into something beautiful with surprising depth. We try to follow a similar process with our music.
What is 2018 going to look like for Eddie Rascal?
We’re really excited for what this year has to come. The concept behind Be Better. was to be the first in a series of two records that will really redefine Eddie Rascal. We haven’t released any new materiel in over a year and we’ve grown like crazy individually and as a band in that time. For us this release represents a new beginning, and in that mindset we will be taking the majority of our old recordings down and pushing toward the future. The follow up to Be Better. will be released at the beginning of summer, and we have a summer East Coast tour planned to follow its release. In the meantime, we will be playing plenty of shows in Atlanta and around the Southeast, and trying to meet as many people as possible and play these songs for them.
Eddie Rascal will celebrate the release of Be Better. on Sat., Feb. 24 at Mac’s Basement alongside Mighty, Fairshake, and Raps Moran. Doors open at 7 p.m.
More Info
Bandcamp: eddierascal.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @eddierascalband
Instagram: @Eddie.Rascal