By Chelsie Friedman

Envy on the Coast, hailing from all parts of Long Island has a lot to show from their work for the past two years. With their debut full length Lucy Gray released back in August, a music video for the single “Sugar Skulls,” and a non-stop touring mentality, Envy on the Coast has building a huge following not only in the United States, and threatening to grow all over the world. After their show in Philadelphia on Dec. 30th, Chelsie Friedman of Club Alley spoke to members Ryan Hunter, Brian Byrne, Sal Bossio, and Jeremy Velardi. Member Dan Gluszak was not present.

Club Alley: Can you describe what a typical practice session is like?

Ryan: You know what, that’s my favorite question anyone has ever asked us. To be honest, the first question is very important. Normally the first question is something like this: “How did your band start?” or “Describe your band’s sound in eight words and a color.”

Jer: It depends on what we need to get done.

Sal: We used to actually practice in my basement.

Brian: We used to put in like eight-hour practice days. But now we kind of figure by the 6th hour everyone’s really tired and really pissed, and like playing the same songs and it just sucks.

Ryan: Our practices used to be based on Sal’s parents’ schedules, like when they were out of the house we would practice. We didn’t realize how detrimental that could be to creativity, cause everyone’s like, “Oh, I play in a band I don’t have to do the 9 to 5,” but it’s like no, we did. We actually had to practice from 9 to 5 and it sucked. Writing from 9 to 5 is the most f--king stupid thing we’ve ever done.

Sal: You can’t get very creative at 9 o’clock in the morning.

Ryan: But we moved into a practice space and I think it is quite possibly the best decision this band has ever made. It’s worth every penny and it’s a tight little space but it’s awesome. Whatever we have to get done, its like, “Oh, we’re going to rehearse for the tour.” While someone’s tuning someone is jamming on something and we’ll deviate the practice a little bit and write a little bit. Practices aren’t super super strict.

Sal: Feel like getting drunk? You can do it. We feel like smoking a bowl? We can do it.

Club Alley: How has touring changed over the past couple of years for you as a band and individually?

Ryan: So many more females in our lives.

Brian: We have basically got a lot more d--k than we used to.

Sal: Some of us have realized how much we would rather be out here than at our houses doing nothing, considering this is what we’ve been dreaming of doing for quite some time.

Ryan: Tour initially started as, “Wow we’re so excited to tour, and this is going to be such an interesting experience.” I think now we know what touring is about and I think we appreciate it in a different light. Now it’s like, “Wow I can’t wait to get back on the road because this is what I live for.” Once we’re out here, even the approach on stage is a lot different. I think for a little while we kind of “lost it” or lost what was important on stage, not on purpose or anything, and not in a way that anyone could maybe see. I think maybe we got by and people didn’t notice. But things were a little bit different for a little while. We came back on this tour and we set up the stage a little bit differently and kind of put emphasis on the fact that although it is amazing playing for people, we wouldn’t be able to do this without the amazing people who help us through this. At the end of the day, we really, really love playing music for ourselves, for one another and vibing off one another and that’s really what makes us happy out there. We had just as much fun playing in front of two people that we do in front of 900.

Jer: In a nutshell.

Club Alley: Do you have any tour plans for after the Soundwave Festival?

Jer: We’re playing a show in Japan actually. I think it’s a one day festival. I think we’re going to be there for a few days and hang.

Sal: We’re playing Give It a Name festival in the UK right after that.

Brian: We’ll probably do, what’s that thing? South by Southwest.

Sal: Oh yeah, in Texas.

Ryan: That’ll be fun, we’ll play for a lot of people in suits who don’t give a shit about us. That’ll be good.

Club Alley: Do you have any plans for the next record?

Ryan: We have very general plans. There have been a lot of new influences that have crept in, and a lot that we’re starting to pay more attention to a little bit more.

Sal: Like Bruce [Springstein].

Brian: I love Bruce, personally. I would love to have a song reminiscing the boss.

Ryan: I absolutely hate Bruce I will do everything in my power to not let that happen.

Brian: Maybe that will be on my solo.

Ryan: Yeah that will be on Brian’s solo. On a serious level I don’t think you’ll ever hear the same record. No, I know you’ll never hear the same record twice from us. We don’t really stop in regards to playing and writing. Everyone’s always sending people stuff over the Internet and sh-t even though people don’t necessarily know about it. We’re already planning and thinking about it. It’s gonna be dope.

Club Alley: Is there going to be a next single/music video?

Sal: We’ve been talking.

Ryan: It’s either that or we’re going to break up, so we’re not really sure which one we’re going to go with.

Sal: I think we should just do a video for every single song. Yeah, we have that kind of money.

Chelsie: How did it feel selling out the Crazy Donkey last night?

Brian: It was really, really f--king weird. Honestly, I wish I could have come away from it being like, “That was amazing, that was awesome.” It was, it was totally great. But it was honestly like, you have 800 people just looking at you and when the lights are on them… at some point during the show, the lights came up on the crowd and they were all just looking at us and we weren’t playing. I have never felt more under a spotlight literally in my entire life.

Jer: I couldn’t believe that all those people were there. They could have easily just have left but they were all there to watch us and I just thought that was the craziest thing ever that 900 people are actually there to watch us. Not because they have to, because they want to watch somebody else. So when that got over my head I was like, “Dude, are we doing a good job?”

Brian: It’s a lot of pressure. When you’re a headlining band there’s definitely a pressure, especially if you’re looking at 800 people, you don’t want to f--k up.

Jer: But towards the end I was looking and the crowd didn’t get any smaller.

Ryan: And last night for the first time, I was in a moment where I just couldn’t stop smiling. When we played “Gift of Paralysis” and people were tweaking and just singing every word, I could not stop smiling and I was just out of my mind. That was the happiest moment I’ve ever had.

Jer: There was something, I think it was “Temper,” I looked at Dan and when you said “Temper,” the whole crowd was like, “YEAHHH,” and I just looked at Dan and he was cracking up.

Ryan: It’s funny because I look at other bands sometimes and I’m just like, “Wow they look like a band. They’re like a real band.” Sometimes I look at us and I can’t help but feeling, and not in a negative way, but I spend every day with these dudes and it’s awesome and everything and it’s just us taking our shoes off and f--king playing music or whatever. It’s the same difference to me as being in a basement and last night I was looking around at the stage and everything and I was like, “Wow this is a real show, this is crazy. People are really coming, they’re going to be here. A lot of them, that’s weird.”

Club Alley: Is there a difference between playing songs like “Lapse” and “Starving Your Friends” as opposed to the heavier ones?

Brian: Especially for playing “Lapse” the way we do it, tonight was cool because all of our songs got to have that intimate feel to it and I really, really enjoy moments like that when its quiet there’s no f--king amps blaring and drums crashing. It’s just chilled out, you can hear everything and concentrate and I like playing songs like that.

Ryan: I like it too. I love playing real heavy stuff and I listen to a lot of real heavy stuff. I think we’re all people of extremes. We’re all very extreme in regards to emotions and stuff and the way we feel about things. And I think it’s cool to be able to do that. I’m really happy that we established ourselves as a band that way too. We’ll come out and play something really heavy and at the same time also have the freedom to chill it out and not have people boo us or some sh-t like that.

Club Alley: If you guys could all switch places with each other who would you be?

Sal: I want to be Dan.

Brian: I’d want to be Jer.

Ryan: I’d want to be Jer too.

Sal: I’m just obsessed with drums.

Brian: I’m sure Dan would want to be me so he could make fun of himself.

Jer: I definitely couldn’t be Ryan because I couldn’t deal with the whole everybody looking at me thing. That’s difficult, I wouldn’t be able to do that.

Ryan: I definitely want to be Jer, I don’t know. I love the f--king groove and the soul.

Club Alley: What do the Russian lyrics at the end of “I’m breathing… Are you breathing too?” mean?

Ryan: It was a poem that I wrote that kind of had to do with being a musician and an artist and the expectancy to kind of put yourself out there and the sensation of feeling naked for the sake of something.

Brian: I think that’s definitely the best pre-cursor we can possibly give to our next record.

Ryan: When we finished the record in the way that the last song goes, we thought to ourselves, “A lot of people might not understand this, or might think it’s f--king weird.” The only thing that I’ve heard from people is that it scares the sh-t out of them. And we were like, “Good, then we succeeded.” We didn’t want you to be like “it’s beautiful, we really like that song, play it live.” We wanted you to be like, “What the f--k was that? And it scared the sh-t out of me.”

Club Alley: Is it getting consistently harder to talk to people after the shows?

Brian: Yes.

Ryan: Yes.

Jer: For sure, dude.

Sal: I think for the first time we’ve realized, they can’t always expect that of us, even though that’s what we started doing initially. We wish we could still do that but, sometimes, it gets to the point where we need some time for ourselves. Sometimes we feel like they expect us to, but we also have to realize we can’t put ourselves out there to that extent.

Brian: It’s dangerous. Kids get the wrong idea. All of us have had instances where kids have just been like “Do you remember me?!” And I’m just like, “No dude, I don’t remember you.” And it makes you feel like sh-t. Yeah, it’s annoying but it makes that person feel like sh-t and it makes you feel like sh-t because you don’t remember them, it just sucks.

Jer: “Do you remember my name this time?” And I’m just like “Oh god dude, I met 5,000 of you.”

Sal: Even dudes or girls that you know their face, really know their face, cause they’ve been to so many shows, you just don’t know their name.

Jer: We’re only human, sometimes you’re having a bad day and you just don’t want to talk to anyone. Everyone has that day.

Ryan: I think for the most part people have been understanding.

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