INTERVIEW: Uncle Skunk drops new EP ‘II’

New York City’s modern day infamous rock outfit, Uncle Skunk, has been steadily climbing the ranks of the music world over the past five years. Recently signed to Cropsey Records, this band first made their mark back in 2019 with their debut EP, I. Since then, they’ve kept the momentum going with a string of impressive releases.

Now, they’ve unveiled their most highly anticipated record to date; II, a six-track EP that aims to redefine the standards of rock n’ roll music in the modern era. Recorded in the summer of 2023, II was born out of the band’s mission to disrupt the American recording industry and establish a new benchmark for rock music. With a mix of melodic guitars, mesmeric synths and bold rhythms, Uncle Skunk’s latest EP serves up a thrilling listening experience from start to finish.

Kicking things off with “My Sweet Wife” a hazy psychedelic aesthetic gives way to an upbeat guitar riff riding bouncy drums as the smooth vocal leads slide in to thread delicate melodies above the indie rock crunch of the arrangement. It’s the perfect display of the band’s ability to stitch blissful melodic writing into a gritty sound, forming a charming rock outing that’s both catchy and danceable.

“Old Violence” follows with the warm strums of acoustic guitar and laid back shuffle of drums capped by bright vocals. Maintaining a swaying groove throughout, the song floats through an uplifting jam full of memorable hooks and buoyant instrumentation to offer a different, more mellow side to their sound.

In stark contrast, the bold strike of drums and slick lead guitar runs on “December 18” serves up a raucous rock n’ roll sound packed in a potent hundred second dose of sonic energy. Lead single “Found a Way” puts the band’s songwriting talents on full display with infectious melodic vocal leads sweeping across punchy drums and a blend of rich guitar rhythms and twanging leads, resulting in a joyous and enduring indie rock anthem.

The EP’s second single “Drone Song” opens with the lively rustle of drums met with the soft strums of clean guitars and elegant vocals before the vibe shifts with the moody crunch of guitars and rising intensity of vocals. Building to a cacophony of driving energy and storming lead guitar, the song injects slick ebb and flow while capturing the superb creativity and pure originality of the band as it bends from soft power pop-esque aesthetic to moments of explosive alternative rock.

Closing the EP with “On the Hill,” the band crafts a downtempo indie rock sound built on a lilting rhythm, graceful guitars, warm key tones and hushed vocal delivery. Taking the listener on on last outing with this enveloping and constantly evolving song, it’s the perfect finale to the band’s sensational new EP that’s sure to delight both new fans and old alike.

We caught up with Uncle Skunk to find out more about their musical journey so far, their new EP II and what they’ve got lined up for the future. Check out our interview with Uncle Skunk below.

Hey guys, how’s things?

Otis: Things are, as always, very weird! And that is okay.

Henry: Pretty good. It’s hot!

Sam: Coolin

How did you get together as a band?

Otis: It’s a tale as old as time. In high school, Sam and I talked about starting a band but could never get our acts together. Henry and I went to college together and post-graduation we devised a sort of structure for making music in 2019. Sam came on and boom — we had sort of a band! All three of us are guitar players and the remainder of the band went through a bunch of iterations before Robert and Teddy joined in 2021-2022. That is when I would say we really became a band.

Which artists do you draw most inspiration from?

Robert: I think everyone in the band draws inspirations from different artists and genres. There are some things we’re pretty much all into, like Neil Young, the Replacements, mbv, maybe except for Teddy, who really likes Tool. As corny as it might sound, I think we primarily try to draw inspiration from each other as artists in the way we develop songs.

Otis: I’ve been hung up on listening to Paul Westerberg, Paul McCartney and The Pastels for the last two years despite trying to find new things to listen to… I definitely enjoy stuff that feels a bit more playful and rough around the edges.

Henry: Big range of stuff. I try not to restrict myself to any one genre or inspiration.

Sam: It’s so hard to pin down to a handful of artists, but I am generally inspired by the ethos of artists who seem like they’re playing with unusual or unexpected sounds and exploring the possibilities of the medium. I don’t know if that makes sense – but a few people that I see this in are the Beatles, Sparklehorse, The Beach Boys, solo Paul Westerberg, MBV. There’s a lot of others. And I agree with Robert! I gain a lot of inspiration from my band members.

How else do you find inspiration for your music?

Otis: I don’t know if this is really an answer but I find inspiration for making music by trying to starve myself of opportunity to make music up to a certain threshold. I feel the most inspired when I am incredibly busy and only have a couple hours of free time a week to work on new stuff — those are some very productive and creatively potent hours for me. When I first started trying to write music in a more serious way I was basically unemployed and would sit around waiting for good ideas to come… that worked okay for a little while but quickly became very unproductive.

Henry: Listening to new music helps a lot. So does practicing. I find when I go through cycles of practicing more, especially stuff that makes me uncomfortable, I end up writing more and coming up with new ideas.

Sam: I love to experiment. I find that my process often consists of fucking around until some progression or sequence of notes catches my attention, and then spending a lot of time trying to make it more interesting by adding nuances and details. Similarly when I demo I tend to lock myself in a room and layer sounds and textures until something that I find interesting emerges.

What’s been your highlight of the year so far?

Otis: Definitely finally putting out our third EP. It truly is the culmination of roughly 5ish years of songwriting. A lot of these new songs were holdovers from the last EP or stragglers from our first release. It feels incredible to have a totally blank slate now and I’m quite excited to see what we can cook up.

Henry: totally agree: finally releasing this stuff! I always get very anxious about sitting on old material for a while and I’m excited to have it out there and move on.

Sam: I’ll third that. Releasing this music feels amazing. Hearing everyone’s new demos makes me very excited for what’s to come.

Robert: Fourth’d!

What do you love about the New York music scene?

Robert: I’d say that the diversity and sheer number of different bands and performing musicians is pretty staggering, and inspiring. It also helps with never getting stuck in a toxic, competitive dynamic with anyone, at least it feels that way to me. There’s so many people trying to find their footing in the music scene, you sort of have no option but to put your blinders on, focus on what’s in front of you, and appreciate when you do really connect with another act, musically or personally.

Otis: I’ve met a lot of great weirdos who I am glad to call my good friends out and about on the New York scene. At a certain point, going out to shows and seeing bands started to feel like a goofy extracurricular rather than this super serious, intimidating activity — that’s how it felt to me when I first got into it. That speaks to the kindness and openness that generally permeates the scene.

Henry: honestly, it’s hard to answer this one because NYC is so huge that it’s hard to call it a “scene,” you know? There are a million different scenes, and I don’t think we fit into most of them so it can get pretty lonely. We’ve started meeting more bands with similar sensibilities recently which is nice and that’s definitely helped. But still wouldn’t say we’re part of any scene.

Sam: I think as we’ve gotten older and gotten to know more people, I am increasingly astounded by the amount of talented and driven people here. We’ve had the opportunity recently to work and collaborate with friends who are musicians and also other types of artists – filmmakers, photographers, etc. – and it is such a privilege to make things with them.

What would you say is the perfect setting for listeners to enjoy your sound?

Otis: In a fancy submarine at the bottom of the ocean.

Henry: At a show. Come to a show! Or skydiving. I can imagine that’d be pretty sweet.

Sam: in the subway

How has your own style and sound evolved since you started out?

Otis: Off the bat, I feel like we had this very guarded sort of generic indie-rock thing going that felt like the result of self consciousness on my end. We’ve definitely become substantially wilder and less self-important. In the live realm, I for one feel far less concerned about anything aside from finding a good energy and riding it.

Henry: we’ve definitely opened up more to heavier music without losing the softer stuff, which is cool I like that. We’ve also just gotten better at our instruments, which has made us more confident exploring new sounds.

Sam: I think we’ve gotten progressively weirder, which is awesome. One thing I love about the new EP is that it’s kind of all over the place in terms of genre, texture and sounds.

Robert: Having joined the band during the development phase of “Heaven River”, I feel like I’ve seen two very different moods, but the same layered sonic approach, and an ever-evolving songwriting feel and sense.

How do you try to bring a new angle to rock music?

Henry: this may be a dumb answer but by not trying to bring anything new I guess. Everything’s been done before so don’t even bother. And if you try to bring something new it’s probably gonna sound artificial and dumb. But by integrating all 5 of our personalities into the songs as much as possible I think we’ll inevitably make our own sort of ~flavour~ ya know?

Otis: Yeah I have never been trying to explicitly change the rock game. If we do bring a new angle to rock music it’s probably not on purpose. However, I suppose that the way we have recorded in the past seems fairly unique. We have and will probably continue to be a fairly self sufficient group that can record, edit and mix our own music – that stuff is always happening in tandem with the actual songwriting which I think could set us apart.

Who would be your dream artist to collaborate with?

Henry: Oh man. Well, it’d be fun to hang out with Neil Young and have like a 5 hour crazy blues jam. T-Bone style!

Otis: Yeah, I would love to have a T-Bone style jam with Paul Westerberg for sure. Maybe a little too scary for me though…

Sam: I would love to make a really weird song with Brian Wilson.

How did you find making your new EP “II”?

Robert: A lot of the songs on “II” were written and developed before I actually joined the band! So for me, it was interesting discovering them individually within the massive demo collection that followed our previous EP, “Heaven River”, and then coming to consensus as a group which ones we’re most enthusiastic about putting together for our next project. Actually, I believe “Drone Song” and “On the Hill” were originally intended for our previous EP. Anyway, this project feels the truest to the feel and energy of our live ensemble, as well as the culmination of a lot of things the guys have learned about making great home recordings.

Otis: Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, 4 of the 6 songs were holdovers from the last EP that didn’t make the cut and the other two were demos that emerged during the process of recording that same release. Which ultimately worked out well because these updated songs had a very different compared to their earlier versions we tracked.

The process of recording this EP was truly nuts and I don’t know if I will ever do anything like it again, for better or for worse. Basically we spent a weekend last summer recording the base line tracks. Then we spent a couple months separately recording an ultimately absurd amount of overdubs. In the end, we created 1435 additional tracks. Then we handed the whole thing over to our incredible mixer, Mr. Matt LaBozza, who had the ridiculous task of coalescing all those overdubs into something that didn’t sound like a wall of noise. I don’t think we could do anything like that again. That approach to recording relied so heavily on us knowing the songs inside and out because we had played them so much over the previous couple years.

Henry: it was pretty dragged out but I’m happy with the final product. Definitely want to strive to bring more and more natural live energy to our recordings, which we did do better this time. And we can do better next time.

What message did you want to get across with this release?

Henry: “the boys are back”

Sam: I second henry

What artist have you been listening to most recently?

Robert: DR Hooker

Henry: probably stereolab

Otis: Not an individual artist but I’ve been listening to “Songs in the Key of Z volume 3” which will make you feel like you’re losing your mind after 2 or 3 songs.

Sam: lotta MF doom and Ryuichi Sakamoto

What’s the main thing you want people to get out of listening to your music?

Henry: Pleasure, euphoria, delight. However you wanna put it.

Sam: I would love for someone, somewhere to hear what we make and feel inspired to create, much in the way I feel when I hear my favourite music.

Robert: A smile would be great!

What’s been your favourite live performance so far?

Henry: Of ours or of another band? We played Our Wicked Lady battle of the bands last year and our first round show was awesome. All our friends turned up and we practiced a ton and were super tight. All around great time.

If another band, Sam and I saw Metallica at MetLife last year. That was sick!

Sam: it’s hard to say! We’ve had so many good ones lately. I always like playing the Broadway, just a good vibe there. Metallica was sick. I also saw Neil young and crazy horse some weeks ago, hearing that man shred brought a single tear to my eye.

Who would be 3 artists to headline your dream festival? And where would it be?

Henry: Well, it’d certainly be on top of a huge mountain.

Sam: Snoop dogg, Paul Westerberg, and to top it off – a Metallica reunion with Dave Mustaine. And it would be in that spot in Pompeii that Pink Floyd did that video.

Do you have any advice for a new artist wanting to follow your footsteps?

Henry: don’t be lame and just come for your set and leave. Hear the other bands. It goes a long way.

Otis: Never forfeit! Keep going… stay organised!

Sam: just doooo it maaaaaaannnnn. But actually just follow the music and work really hard to create something that you love and feel proud of.

Robert: Use your ears, and your heart!

Finally, what do you have lined up for the rest of 2024?

Robert: 2024 is looking to be a big year for us. A lot of it so far has been a slow buildup to this release, but we’ve got a lot of things in store for the rest. On top of launching a 24/7 livestream of our music called Skunk FM, we’ll be releasing a massive compilation of our “Undercooked” demo series on streaming services, as well as start developing our first full-length release. Plus, we’ll be playing more shows whenever we can, and continue pushing “II”!

Henry: Work on new songs when we aren’t working full time jobs.

Otis: We’ve got a handful of shows lined up. We’ll be playing with Bummercamp, Juicer and California Cousins at Alphaville on 8/1 and then reuniting with our old friends from Chicago, the Deadbolts, at our Wicked Lady on 8/16. After that, the plan is to swing back into recording mode. We’ve got a lot of fresh ideas that we are eager to start developing.

Listen to ii below