Movies, Memphis, and Music with Boyscott

Cover photo from Melted Magazine

Interviewed by Mischa White and Camilla Johnson. Transcribed by Grace Ellsworth.

Names Pronouns Ages Zodiac

Scott He/him early 20s Libra

Emma She/her early 20s Gemini

OFF THE RECORD - CAMILLA JOHNSON: In an interview you guys did with Melted Magazine in 2017, you mentioned that it is “hard to be unique when so many people have done many things and are sometimes trying to do the same thing”. So do you still feel that way three years later? Has it proven to be more difficult to set yourself apart?

BOYSCOTT - SCOTT HERMO: Yeah, that’s a great question. Um, yea, I don’t know… It’s—it’s still a difficult thing, um, but at the same time, I dunno, I think we’ve become a little more… uh… a little more okay and, like, accepting of the idea of like, having different songs, types of songs, and like, y’know, kind of playing songs at a certain genre. Um, and like, that’s okay. Like, I dunno, I know a ton of bands that kind of write music that kind of sounds the same in a way, but like, each of them have their own twist on it? Uh, on like their own genre and stuff, so I dunno, I think we’ve become a little more accepting of like, the idea of just like, it’s what it is. Like, I like writing these kinds of songs and like, I dunno, they—I—my influences, my inspirations, definitely show in the songs but at the same time, like, just because it is me making it, inherently, it’s like hopefully more of its own thing. But, but yeah, I’d say that’s definitely still a struggle. Or still something looming in the back of our heads when we’re recording. Right? What do you think?

BOYSCOTT - EMMA WILLER: Yeah, definitely.

SCOTT: Yeah, it’s definitely a little scary. Like, I don’t want to rip anyone off, you know what I mean? I don’t wanna… do that. And luckily, I think it’s nice to have friends that you can send your music to while you’re working on it and just be like, y’know, what do you think? Um, cuz’ every once in a while, you never know if, like, a lyric kinda comes off like, uh, y’know, ‘That kinda sounds like this,’ or like, um, so actually yeah, no, that’s definitely still a thing. But I guess we’ve just, uh, have kind of come to accept it a little bit more for what it is. But yeah. We’re working on our next album and it's definitely been a little bit scary, uh, to try to just stick to our own and kinda remember what our own sound is when trying to just write something.

CAMILLA: So we said Off the Record is based out of Memphis and you guys went to school in Nashville, and y’all started the band there. So, Nashville’s a place that’s pretty familiar to all of us, so is there anything about Nashville, specifically the music scene, that has influenced your band in any way? <quietly> If that makes sense…

SCOTT: Yeah, absolutely! Um, so, yeah, when it comes to the band, it’s significantly influenced like, everything. We kinda started the project before really like having a band, kinda like I had a bunch of songs and then a few of my friends, some of which were actually from Memphis, uh, that were going to school in Nashville, uh, and we recorded the album and then we started the band in Nashville and because Nashville is so amazing, that’s where the band like really took off and, I don’t know, just became more of a thing. We just found, y’know, we were able to find musicians so easily that were like-minded and, y’know, friends of ours. There were just so many people in town that played music and like, if we needed someone to fill in it was, like, really easy to find that. Uh, but I think the biggest thing is just how inclusive the scene is, um, and how there were so many venues and so many types of venues, and all of them were having, hosting bands of all different levels and all different genres, um, so it was huge with uh, kind of just, I don’t know, teaching us what, like, a music scene can be and what it’s like to be a part of a music scene and like how to give back. Uh, what else? We just learned how to play shows.

EMMA: And you would always—you’d always, like, say yes to shows. And you’d always… <inaudible>

SCOTT: Yeah, yeah! For us, we were just stoked to be playing shows. We never thought we were gonna play shows and suddenly we started getting a lot of opportunities and a lot of offers just because, y’know, in Nashville it’s so amazing. You just release something and then suddenly you’re an actual band, and they—the scene—somehow finds you, and uh, we—anytime anyone asked us if we wanted to play a show I would just say yes to every single one, uh, which was a little stressful because we were also still in school. Um, but it was really really fun. Uh, and that’s where I met Emma, in Nashville through the scene essentially, um, and uh, yeah, I don’t know, it’s kind of in everything because we’ve grown a lot as musicians because of that scene, because of uh, just hearing all different bands. Since it was such a popular city for music, like, tons of bands were touring through Nashville all the time, so we had to play shows with bands from out of town. And I think that was the most important thing, kind of like starting to get different influences from, like, live bands and stuff and like we’ll play shows with bands and see how they play and just realize like, oh my gosh, all the dynamics that musicians bring to their songs. So yes, pretty much everything from like the first two years, it was like, humongous and taught us like everything.

CAMILLA: That’s actually so cool! Kinda like the way that y’all can all learn from each other if that makes sense? Learn and build off of each other and all.

SCOTT: Yeah, absolutely! Nashville is such a cool scene just cuz’ there’s tons of different genres of bands, y’know? There’s just tons of different bands, there’s like literally micro-scenes in the scene and just like tons of different genres. Um, but yeah, no, it was amazing! It was so, so awesome, cuz’ I’m originally from New Jersey, um, and there was a pretty good scene up there but I wasn’t very involved with it when I was in highschool, so when I went to college it was like, ohmygosh. And I had no idea just how good the scene was. I just kind of went to school there and then found out.

CAMILLA: Well yeah, cuz’ it feels like not a lot of people talk about Nashville and the way of like the music scene, so it’s really cool to hear that, that it’s bigger than what people would think it is.

SCOTT: Yea, it’s not just, y’know, Broadway and the country music, y’know? It’s—it’s so much more than that. Um, yeah, no, and also Memphis too, actually, had a really big inspiration, uh, inspiration? It really influenced us too because we—we were playing a ton of shows in Nashville and because of that we met a lot of Memphis bands. A Memphis band called China Gate that’s now called Super Low, um, and they’re an awesome Memphis band that really inspired us when we were recording our first album actually. But, uh, yeah, so we’d play shows in, like, the Hightone all the time, um, Memphis is really awesome too. The musicians, the—the bands of Memphis are so sick. They’re so genuine, and uh, I dunno, just really… creative. Yeah.

CAMILLA: That’s good to hear.

SCOTT: <chuckles> Yeah, yeah! This is awesome.

CAMILLA: Okay, so since we’re on the topic of movies, I happen to be a huge film fanatic. What movie blows your mind that way? Right now, currently?

SCOTT: Ooh, yeah, currently. Ooh, that’s a good question. What are you thinking?

EMMA: I mean, we loved, um, Parasite. Parasite?

SCOTT: Parasite! I was just talking about Parasite. I mean, everyone’s freaking out about Parasite.

CAMILLA: <vibing in agreement> Yeah.

SCOTT: That—Yeah, as far as like blowing—mind blowing?

EMMA: Well we—we both actually studied film in Nashville—

SCOTT: —in Nashville, yeah—

EMMA: —so we’re—

SCOTT: —really up to date with it, too. We love it too. Um, yeah, as far as like, mind blowing goes… Let’s think about it. That movie, for sure, destroyed us. We were like, “Holy shit.”

EMMA: Yeah.

SCOTT: Um. What else have we gone back and watched a ton of times? Um… I love the movie Birdman.

CAMILLA: I’ve not seen it yet but it’s on my watchlist.

SCOTT: Yeah, you’ll love it. You’ll love it.

CAMILLA: I’ll be sure to check it out!

SCOTT: Yeah, it’s wonderful! That one, whenever I watch it, I’m just like, “Ohmygod.” So good. I’m trying to think—I used to have just lists of movies on my wall, uh, and I don’t anymore because we’re in a different—uh, we live somewhere else now. And my room just looks different. I didn’t hang up my stuff. Haha. I’m gonna keep thinking about that question.

CAMILLA: For me, I recently watched Whiplash for the first time, and THAT movie. That is probably my pick for ‘absolutely blew my mind, how did that happen?’

SCOTT: Especially that ending too. That ending.

CAMILLA: The ending. Chills.

SCOTT: That movie is intense. That was amazing, that movie. Um, yeah!

CAMILLA: What song would, out of all the songs you guys have written, what would you say has been the most important?

SCOTT: It changes between tours. I don’t know why. I mean, I—I guess our, I guess—y’know, the big song, our big song, or whatever, it’s really popular, it’s called “Nova Scotia 500”, that one definitely is one of the most important to me because I think that song was the one where I had been recording songs just for like a few years right before I was going to college and when I was in college, and it wasn’t until I made that one, or I wrote that one, that I was like, ‘Oh, this is what I’m going for.’ Like, I had always just been writing like weird ideas or strange songs or strange little melodies and riffs and chord progressions. I didn’t have much of a direction, I was just like making stuff. I was just like making poppy stuff, making weird stuff. And then when I wrote that song, “Nova Scotia 500”, I was just like, ‘Oh, this is, like, the kind of genre-esque thing I’m going for. Like, this is what I like to make.’ Uh, and when I wrote that, I felt like, ‘Oh, this is inherently me.’ Like, this is my thing that I want to do. Um, and then we just kinda put all those other weird songs in that album also, and it somehow cohesively worked. But, uh, yeah, I guess that one is one of the most important ones. Um, I like “Lakehouse”, too.

EMMA: Yeah.

SCOTT: We have a song called “Lakehouse”. I think that one, really simple, um, I dunno, people seem to enjoy it as much as I enjoy it. Uh. Yeah, right? I’m tryna think…

EMMA: I wasn’t involved in—I wasn’t in the band when, um, they recorded the album, but I was actually just a fan of the music before we became friends…

SCOTT: Really? Oh, okay, alright, that’s interesting. Why?

EMMA: Uh...

SCOTT: It was just like?... I mean, I dunno, Emma and I have, like, similar influences and stuff, and I feel like that one was definitely more… similar to like, I dunno, we both like Frankie Cosmos and stuff like that.

EMMA: Yeah!

SCOTT: Um… But yeah, Emma joined the band in 2017, like a year and like a little—like pretty much a year after we released the album, um, cuz’ we released the album at the end of 2015. You joined in like early 2017.

EMMA: <nodding> Yeah.

SCOTT: Um, but she’s gonna be on the new album. Um, yeah, it’s exciting. But yeah, hey, that was a good question. I don’t—I haven’t really gotten that question. Nice.

CAMILLA: Um, so. If you had to describe your band in three words, what would those words be?

SCOTT: Oh no… that’s a great question. Alright.

EMMA: Fun.

SCOTT: I’d say hopefully fun…

EMMA: Nice. I think I’m nice.

SCOTT: Very nice. Okay, these are very boring words, but I like these words! I like these words! It’s true! Fun, nice… maybe goofy?

EMMA: <laughing> Goofy. Well, goofy might go with fun… No… not necessarily.

SCOTT: So maybe… so then maybe it shouldn’t be fun. Maybe it should just be goofy.

EMMA: Goofy, fun…

SCOTT: Goofy… uh...

EMMA: Respectful…

SCOTT: Heh, respectful. Healthy. Clean. <laughs> I don’t know. Um. Yeah, actually, no, actually, I would say healthy. We’re a very healthy band. Uh, we all like, don’t drink or anything. We’re very boring. Um, we just play—

EMMA: Boring.

SCOTT: We all play chess. Yeah, I’d say boring...

EMMA: And <inaudible>...

SCOTT: Boring, goofy… uh, what else. Insane? I don’t know. Well, cuz’ we drive each other insane.

EMMA: <wheezes>

SCOTT: Um. Let’s see, oh gosh, but now we have all these—our like—our band has changed throughout the years.

EMMA: Weird. I would say weird.

SCOTT: Yeah, yeah, we’re gonna have to say weird. Our band has changed throughout the years and we have all these new members now and we kinda have a core group now—two of them live in Memphis, one of them lives in Massachusetts, and then there’s us here in Connecticut. Uh. Which, you know, is not ideal for having a band.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Everyone in the band went to college in Nashville, where the band was started. Scott and Emma moved up to Connecticut, whereas their new drummer and guitarist currently live in Memphis.)

CAMILLA: Yeah, so, how does that work? Being in different places.

SCOTT: It’s crazy. So, we started the band in Nashville, all lived in Nashville, that was extremely ideal. And then when we graduated college, I wanted to move back up into the Northeast cuz’ it’s close to all these cities, it’s easy for playing shows. Uh, and Emma and I moved in together up here and, uh, we started playing with someone that we also moved in with. And then, I dunno, the guys in Memphis we haven’t been playing with for a while. Uh, just because we moved up here. And then, once things kinda started kicking off for us, where like we started getting offered like bigger tours, longer tours, it kinda like was totally fine to just be like, ‘Hey, you guys in Memphis, like, why don’t you drive up, it’ll take like a good day or two to drive up, or we’ll fly you up, and then we’ll just go on tour for like a month, and they’ll just come up here and chill for like, y’know, a couple weeks and rehearse a week, uh, and then we go tour for a month long and then I’ll go back home and just sleep.’ And then, that was what the plan was gonna be for this year, for us to just tour a ton, go back home for a little bit, then meet up again and tour a ton. So it’s definitely a little more organizing, but you’d be surprised! It's like, you can just make it work. It is so weird. It is also really nice to know, um, that we can pull it off, cuz’ we love those guys but they live in Memphis, and they’re like, definitely Memphis people that want to live in—want to stay in Memphis and uh, that have Memphis bands, uh, and, uh, y’know, they’ve got a good scene going. Uh. But we make it work, yeah. And then our bassist lives in Massachusetts, who’s really not too far from us, luckily. But it is kinda crazy for rehearsals because, for a while, he was driving every week to our house and it was like a two and a half hour drive for him. But he’s also crazy. Uh. He loves podcasts, and—

EMMA: No, books on tape.

SCOTT: Oh, sorry, he loves books on tape. So he’s like, listening to books constantly. And he would just drive. And he would sometimes drive here and then leave the same day. So he was, like, driving five hours in one day. Yeah…

CAMILLA: Wow. But if he loves it, that’s great.

SCOTT: He does. He’s very strange.

CAMILLA: So this kind of, I guess, goes along with the question of like—how—of the question that was just asked—but how do your—how do your songs come together? Not necessarily the song-writing process, but do you have songs written first and then record instrumentals, or do you have ideas for instrumentals and melodies and then figure out lyrics?

SCOTT: Yeah, that’s a great question. Um. Hm, let’s see. Uh, yeah, it uh, it honestly varies per song. It really does. Most of the time I kinda have a chord progression and a melody kinda going on, or I have like a riff and a chord progression, and then I kind of just like record those parts on my computer, and then I just go crazy adding like a million things, and figuring out structure as I go. Uh, some songs, like, the structure’s already there. It’s just like, when I come up with the idea, it’s just like—it’s there—and when I record it, I just make it as weird as possible. I have this other song called “Killer Whale” and that song started off on the acoustic guitar and it was super simple. I just knew the chord progression and I knew this outro that I wanted. And then, I eventually went and like, accidentally pressed this button on my keyboard that make this, like, weird drum sound, cuz’ it was connected to the <cuts out> that was on drum preset thing <cuts out> and I made this really weird B and I decided to do keyboard instead of guitar. So it was like, I dunno, it just really varies. But I think most of the time we start on guitar, and then we sort out the melody or whatever and then we add to it. And lyrics are like almost always a secondary thing, um, for us, um, yeah. It’s kind of crazy, a little frustrating sometimes because each song is very different, so the recording process isn’t the same for each one so it’s not as easy as doing a checklist of, ‘Ah, we recorded the guitars, alright, we recorded the bass,’ um, so I’d say it’s a hectic process.

CAMILLA: So, follow-up question then: what has been the quickest song you’ve produced and then the longest or slash hardest?

SCOTT: Yeah! So if we’re talking old songs here, which, obviously, we have to. That is a good question. Uh, quickest song… what was the longest one? Probably “Lake House”, probably the quickest one, I would say, because it’s so simple. We recorded that one as we went, and then we added this outro to it. The longest one though… Aw man, that’s a great question. “Marco Polo” was a song that was really really fast, we did it in like an afternoon essentially. Uh… I think embarrassingly enough, actually, a song that took a long time, it took me a really long time because writing it was really strange. I kind of wrote it on my own and just had this really weird outline for it, and then we went and recorded it, but it, like, took a while just cuz’ it was a weird song and I wanted all these different parts of it.

CAMILLA: Well it came together really well because I’m obsessed with that song!

SCOTT: Aw, no way! Thanks so much! Aw, I appreciate that. Thank you so—I think that’s one of our favorite songs to play live.

EMMA: That’s my favorite.

SCOTT: Yeah, that one was like the most fun to play live. We’ve gotten, like, really good at making fun versions of that song that kind of add more dynamics to it and make it a little more of a full band thing… Although that version is full band… um, but yeah, we made that song a little more upbeat, but it’s fun to make it slower again. Yeah, thanks so much, I appreciate that. We like that song too.

CAMILLA: So, um, this is kind of a random question that I have, but if you were open for any artist or band on tour from any era of music, who would it be?

EMMA: Oh my god.

SCOTT: To go on tour with?

EMMA: To open for them?

CAMILLA: Yes.

SCOTT: Ohmygosh. That is a great question. I’m scared to answer that.

EMMA: Well actually we kind of already did that?

SCOTT: We kind of actually already lived our dreams. Uh, we have played with so many fricken’ good bands, especially when you’re in Nashville. But the last tour we did—literally the last tour was in the fall—and we opened up for Pinegrove at like some of the biggest shows we’ve ever played. Some of them were for like two-thousand people. Every single show was sold out. It was in, like, the biggest cities on the East Coast and that was, like, a dream come true because we got to—we love to listen to that band. To get to see them live every single night from like, backstage or whatever, and then get to also play that show. It was like the craziest thing of all time. I would have been fine with just getting tickets to see their show. I would’ve probably done that. Um, so that was pretty surreal. We’ve pretty much already lived the dream on that one. Uh, but going forward—oh man, that’s a great question… Let’s see, let’s see…

EMMA: We were excited—we were gonna open for Vundarbar.

SCOTT: Oh, OH!

EMMA: But we were also going to open for DEHD.

SCOTT: This band Dehd… D-E-H-D…

SCOTT & EMMA: <simultaneously> They’re so good.

EMMA: They’re from Chicago.

SCOTT: Y’all would love them. They are like unreal. Uh, super simple setup, every song is like better than the next, it’s unbelievable. And we were gonna tour with them, uh, right now. So we would’ve almost lived our dream again. Yeah, I would love to play shows with Dehd in the future, still, to this day.

EMMA: <agreement> There’s too many.

SCOTT: There’s just too many bands to name. And I’m like, scared to name them. I don’t wanna jinx them!

CAMILLA: Understandable.

SCOTT: But yeah, we lived the dream getting to play with Pinegrove, that was awesome. We got to almost play with Dehd. That was really cool. We got to play with Vunderbar. That was a really really great band. I’d love to play with—what are some bands you’re listening to right now? I want to play with the band Great Grandpa someday, they’re really good live, I’ve listened to them a little bit. Really really good. We played with this band Quaker Parents that we absolutely loved. Aw man, that’s a tough question.

EMMA: I know…

SCOTT: Right? Cuz’ it’s like… There are so many bands, it’s insane...

CAMILLA: Well that’s great that you guys just gave us a bunch of music recommendations as well!

SCOTT: Ha, alright, thanks, sorry.

EMMA: It’s kinda fun to think about.

SCOTT: It’s fun to think about though.

CAMILLA: Alright, Mischa, your questions! That’s it for me I think.

OFF THE RECORD - MISCHA WHITE: Okay, these [questions] are more fun. I’m curious. This one is personal to me: what are your feelings on Friends? Like, the TV show?

SCOTT: Ooh, see, I’ve never actually seen Friends.

EMMA: You know, I’ve seen a couple of episodes, um… yeah, I’m not really familiar with it, but. I’m so sorry.

SCOTT: Yeah, but, I tell you though, every single, like, little snippet I’ve seen is so funny. Any little thing I’ve seen. What are the guys’ names?

MISCHA: Chandler, Ross, Joey.

SCOTT: So Chandler—or Joey? I think is who I’m thinking of? Anything I see of him is hilarious. Yeah, he makes me laugh.

MISCHA: Yeah, he’s funny.

SCOTT: Unfortunately, our personal relationship is not a very close one, but honestly, with this quarantine? That might change.

MISCHA: And then, what are your favorite colors?

EMMA & SCOTT: Ooh…

EMMA: Blue.

SCOTT: I like light blue. Yeah.

EMMA: They’re the same thing.SCOTT: Light blue is technically different.

EMMA: Alright, I’ll say green.

SCOTT: Really? I know you like purple. Light purple?

EMMA: See, I like blue, green, and purple.

SCOTT: Yeah. And gray. Honestly, she really likes gray.

EMMA: No. Not gray.

SCOTT: She wears gray.

EMMA: Doesn’t mean that it’s my favorite.

SCOTT: Alright, ok… Yeah, I think those are good answers, green and blue. Those are good.

MISCHA: Okay, and then, um, what’s next for you guys? Once quarantine is over?

SCOTT: Yeah, so, y’know, whenever touring is possible again, we’ll definitely be doing that. Really excited about that. Uh, but I think the biggest thing is just releasing the new album. Uh, we’re working on recording it right now, we’re finally like, getting to the point where like, we’re getting close, we’re seeing progress. It’s been a daunting task for the past almost five years, we’ve just been trying to work on this new album.EMMA: An actual five years. Like. Not even...

SCOTT: Yeah, like actually been working on it for five years straight. Yeah, it’s because I’m a little crazy and I do it on my own, so it takes me like a really long time. So yeah, the next thing is to release the new album, hopefully by the end of this year, for Christ’s sake.EMMA: Hopefully do a—we were planning a full US tour, which would’ve been our first one.

SCOTT: Yeah, so those two things: release new music and then do a full US tour. That is the dream, and hopefully that’s what’s next. Obviously it’s pending right now, depending on the situation of, y’know, everything that’s going on. But that’s the idea.

CAMILLA: Alright! Well, I have a question, it’s kind of weird though—well not weird, I don’t think? I’m just gonna ask it. Can we take a little Zoom picture? Just because?

SCOTT: Of course! Please! I’d be honored!

EMMA: You should take your glasses off…

SCOTT: Sure, I… my glasses are broken, as you can see, but honestly? They fit better this way, but I’ll take em’ off.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Scott without his glasses has a babyface. He and Emma do a little thumbs up at the camera. Scott switches his thumbs-up hand midway through the photo.)

EMMA: Got it?

CAMILLA: Thank you!

SCOTT: No, thank you? So much! For real! It’s nice to—it’s been funny, we’ve done a few—we’ve done one other Zoom interview, but we’ve just, like, from doing the streaming live session stuff, we’ve met a lot of people over, like, the internet. Like, visually, virtually, face-to-face, and just been really cool to see how, like, even in this situation we find ways to meet people, so thank you so much for reaching out! It means a lot.
CAMILLA: Thank you for agreeing.

SCOTT: Yeah, no, of course, any time. Um, I’m jealous that you guys live in Memphis. The weather up here is still cold. Uh—

MISCHA: Oh, it’s great right now. It’s literally gorgeous.

EMMA: It’s gonna be in the thirties tomorrow. And it might snow.

SCOTT: It is gonna be below freezing and it might snow tomorrow.

EMMA: Yeah.

MISCHA: Well, we don’t get snow, so…

SCOTT: That’s a good point.

MISCHA: I actually like the cold better!

SCOTT: Yeah, that’s also—but then again, we always say we want the warm weather, and then when it’s summer, we’re like, ‘Oh, it’s so hot!’ So, you know, who knows. But I miss Memphis, Memphis is so awesome.

CAMILLA: Come visit us on your next tour!

SCOTT: Yeah, for sure! We’d definitely love to come through Memphis. We’re definitely going through Nashville the next time, just because we had a show called through, but we’ll for sure try to come out.

Thanks again, Boyscott, for chatting with us! Make sure to check out their Spotify below!