IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Young Rising Sons

With the return of Young Rising Sons, there’s no doubt fans are on a high. Young Rising Sons, formed and based in 2010 in Red Bank, New Jersey, features the musical and creative minds of Andy Tongren (lead vocals, guitar), Steve Patrick (drums, vocals), and Julian Dimagiba (bass, vocals), alongside touring guitarist Max Dean. They released their self-titled EP, which features the hit “High”, on July 22, 2014, via Dirty Canvas/Interscope Records. Shortly after, they embarked on a tour supporting The 1975 with CRUISR. Following the self-titled EP, they put out The Kids Will Be Fine on October 16, 2015, also via Dirty Canvas/Interscope Records. Since then, they have released a number of singles, including “Carry On” and “Noise”, and most recently, “SAD (Clap Your Hands)” and “Scatterbrain”. Aside from The 1975, they have shared the stage with notable artists such as Night Riots, Joywave, and The Kooks.

Young Rising Sons are currently wrapping up their If You’re Sad Tour with support from Saint Slumber. They kicked off their tour in NYC, treating fans to a phenomenal intimate show at Elsewhere (Zone One) in Brooklyn on October 10, 2018. Moments before the show, Julian, Andy, and Steve generously shared some of their time to discuss the creation of their two latest tunes, their favorite places to eat at in NYC and New Jersey, and even their senior quotes. In addition, they kindly posed for a few portraits.

What’s the story behind the formation of Young Rising Sons?

ANDY: These guys [Julian and Steve] have been playing music together forever. I was going to school in the city (I’m from Ohio originally), and moved to New York like 10 years ago or something. I was playing acoustic at an open mic night at this bar, and they happened to be there looking for a singer. They hit me up afterwards, and were like, “Hey, wanna come practice with us sometime?” I did, and I initially begrudgingly moved down to New Jersey even though it gets a bad rap. Ever since then, we’ve been kicking it.

JULIAN: Andy showed up with sheet music. I remember pulling Steve aside and being like, “What a dork.”

ANDY: I was going to school studying music. I just really wanted to impress them.

What was the first instrument (musical or non-musical) you started making music with?

JULIAN: The piano.

STEVE: For me, it was piano. There was a stand-up piano in my parents’ house growing up. My dad would put on Queen records and put me in front of the piano, hoping I would figure it out. I would slowly find melodies and stuff like that. I then saw Travis Barker play on MTV, and was like, “I wanna play the drums.” I just begged my parents to buy me a drum kit after that.

ANDY: I just started singing ever since I can remember. My first string of words was, “Mommy, please don’t sing.” That has always stuck with me because she is tone-deaf, and apparently, I knew that from a very young age.

Which song (released or unreleased) are you most proud of?

ANDY: The nature of being an artist is that you’re most excited about what you’re working on. When we put out “High”, that was the one we were most excited about. I think right now, we’re really proud of “SAD (Clap Your Hands)”. There has been a very fine line with treating mental health issues lately. You can’t be happy and snap your fingers all the time. There are moments in that song when it’s sort of a mockery of itself. It was tough to make sure that translates, but I think it does.

You released two new singles, “SAD (Clap Your Hands)” and “Scatterbrain” on September 28, 2018. What was the process of writing, recording, and producing them?

ANDY: We started “Scatterbrain” in the middle of not our last tour, but the tour before that. Initially, it was merely because we felt our set was lacking a very high energy somewhat and that feel. We started with the fast drum tones and guitar, almost like an homage to “Fucked Up”. We then started messing with lyrics. It was different; usually, it happens the other way when we write a song—a lyric will come first, but we started writing to it. It kind of evolved into this whole other thing that was more meaningful to us than this high energy song. It’s easy to focus on the relationship aspect of it, but to us, it’s a lot more than that. It’s kind of about balancing the outside world when there’s a lot of shit going on in your head and when it’s tough to reel it all in and stay focused and keep it together.

As for “Sad”, I suppose this has a brainchild of mine since I was younger. When we were seniors in high school, we could put a quote next to our picture. I hated mine for the longest time. I was a senior in high school, and I thought it was fuckin’ stupid and whatever, so I made a bit of a mockery of it. My quote was, “If you’re emo and you know it, clap your hands.” I had the emo flock of seagulls swoopy haircut, so I guess that’s always been in the back of my head. I remember two weeks before we sat down to write it, I texted Steve and Julian just the idea of “If you’re sad and you know it, clap your hands.” We then started writing it.

JULIAN: You texted us, and you were like, “This is really stupid.” I was like, “This is so smart, it’s so fun.” I don’t know; it felt like a cool take on “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.” It felt really unique, crazy, and different, but also so obvious at the same time, it’s so cool.

STEVE: It’s something we’ve all battled with in different ways, so it came from a really honest place. We really didn’t want to fuck that up because it felt really important to us to really nail that message.

Wait, can I interrupt? I’m sorry. What was your quote [talking to Julian]?

JULIAN: We had to wear a suit and tie kind of thing, so I was like, “Who’s got a nice shirt and tie? This guy.” I wanted to quote Jimmy Eat World, but I didn’t.

STEVE: Do you know what my senior quote was? I had “Manly like the mustache” in quotes, and I quoted myself.

While on the road, what are some of your essential tour items?

ANDY: Emergen-C and medicine.

STEVE: Gummy vitamins because we’re all children. We all need nutrients so badly because when we do a lot of touring, this [Artichoke Pizza] is kind of what we eat. There’s not a lot of down time. Anything to keep us healthy or our immune system bolstered for a few weeks at a time.

JULIAN: Headphones so that I don’t have to talk to anyone.

STEVE: That’s true, it’s important to appreciate your personal time.

ANDY: You’re stuck in a van or bus with these people nonstop. I don’t think this is necessarily something you would take with you, but the mental capacity to know when you need to separate yourself from the rest of the group when you definitely need to because otherwise, you’ll go fuckin’ crazy. Every day, I’ll just leave, and not tell people to take 5-10 minutes for a walk.

STEVE: It’s easy to forget, too. You’ll be doing everything with everyone, and you kind of just hit a point when you’re like, “Why am I mad at everything?” You walk in the room, and you’re like, “Why is the floor this color?” It’s like the dumbest things that set you off, and you just need like 40-45 minutes to yourself for drinking coffee and hanging out.

JULIAN: Coffee is also integral. If we didn’t have coffee, we’d probably all not exist.

What happens before you go onstage? Is there a Young Rising Sons pre-show ritual?

JULIAN: You’re looking at it!

ANDY: We have a chant. It’s sort of borrowed from the movie Almost Famous. You can kind of hear them doing it in the background of this one scene, but it’s our own interpretation of it.

STEVE: You never see the whole thing. We kind of made up our own, and filled in the gaps.

ANDY: We do that chant, and then we go out.

STEVE: We’re very like, “What you see is what you get, people.”

What’s your favorite food and/or restaurant in NYC? Any places back home in Red Bank?

ANDY: You guys love Red Bamboo.

STEVE: It’s a vegan/vegetarian spot, and it’s amazing. It’s kind of like comfort food, so you can get a vegan cheesesteak or a vegan chicken parm, which sounds kind of counterintuitive, but it’s amazing. It’s really heavy food, but it’s all made without meat.

ANDY: There’s this place called VSPOT. It’s in Park Slope, and it’s right by a studio we worked in. We would always go there. Good Karma in Red Bank; I eat meat, but I still love all these places.

STEVE: Julian and I are both vegetarian, so we drag Andy to all these places, but they’re good.

ANDY: If you’re in Asbury, there are so many great places.

STEVE: It depends on what you want. There’s a lot of great stuff you can get there. Brickwall has great burgers. Talula’s has the best pizza in New Jersey.

JULIAN: Taqueria is really good.

STEVE: Loteria.

If there were a pizza with the name “Young Rising Sons,” what toppings would it have?

ANDY: No meat. My side would have gluten-free crust.

STEVE: It would be a gluten-free crust with red sauce. We definitely want to go extra cheese, and maybe Calabrian chili peppers to add a little bit of spice to it.

ANDY: What about grated parmesan?

STEVE: You definitely want to do that. There’s extra cheese. We’re like a New York slice. It’s really good, but not pompous. We’re not trying to be fancy, but there’s a little extra to it

Who’s your favorite superhero character, and why?

JULIAN: I have him on my arm. Jack Nicholson as The Joker.

ANDY: Right now, in general, I think Batman. He’s just strong with a lot of cool tools.

STEVE: He’s rich, and trained in all martial arts.

ANDY: There could really be a Batman, at some point.

STEVE: He’s the most realistic, but he just has incredible tech.

ANDY: I also really like Deadpool.

STEVE: I’m not a huge superhero fan. I do love Batman a lot, but I kind of want to go the supervillain route as well. I love Scarecrow. He’s my favorite supervillain because he messes with the mind, and he’s intelligent and kind of crazy.

ANDY: I don’t know the superheroes’ names, but Black Panther was fuckin’ awesome.

What’s a question you have wanted to get asked in an interview, and what’s the response to it?

STEVE: One thing that is a lot fun that interviewers don’t ask because they generally aren’t from a musical background is gear questions. They’re always fun to answer because you can hear a John Mayer song, and the second he plays the guitar, before you hear him sing, you can hear the guitar and know that it’s John Mayer because of the tone. There’s a certain sonic footprint that every artist creates, and it’s very unique to each person, which I think is kind of cool. Something about that is always fun to answer. Pizza questions are awesome, like what pizza we would be.

JULIAN: Someone wanted to ask what our Chipotle order is.

STEVE: And what our coffee order is because I think that’s pretty unique and tells about the person you are. I don’t know what you guys get at Starbucks.

JULIAN: Venti with almond milk.

ANDY: It depends on the season for me. If it’s hot, I’ll do cold brew.

STEVE: In the summer, I do grande black cold brew, just nothing. In the fall, I do PSL (pumpkin spice latte) with soy milk and no whip. I also do soy chai lattes. Or the chestnut praline. I like all the seasonal drinks.

JULIAN: My first coffee of the day has to be hot, and then I’ll do cold for the rest of the day.

A huge thank you to Arno for coordinating and Young Rising Sons for taking the time and thought to respond to the questions!

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