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INTERVIEW: No longer hush-hush, Secret Someones are breaking out of Brooklyn

Jon Berrien
Latest posts by Jon Berrien (see all)

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New York based pop-rockers Secret Someones caught our earbuds in August of last year after they unleashed the four-track fiery debut EP, I Won’t Follow.  Featuring three female songwriters Bess Rogers, Hannah Winkler, Lelia Broussard and Zach Jones this four-piece is breaking out- a secret no more.  

They will be releasing their debut album soon and with anticipation building GroundSounds caught up with the band for an exclusive interview to talk about upcoming projects, musical inspirations and more. Check out the exclusive interview below.

 

For those just discovering Secret Someones how did you guys meet and what was it like the first time you guys jammed together?

Hannah, Bess and Lelia were all solo singer/songwriters and Zach was working as a freelance drummer around NYC. We had all played together a little bit in different configurations and decided to do a couple of tours together, primarily playing house concerts. We backed each other up on our respective solo tunes and had such a blast playing and singing together that we decided (with the encouragement of our audiences) to officially form a band! Writing as a group and taking the music from acoustic-based stuff to full-band electric jams have been really exciting and important parts of the transition into a band.

How did you guys decide on the band name Secret Someones?    

We were kicking around a BILLION band names and our producer Chris Kuffner finally suggested Secret Someones (which is the title of a Laura Veirs song) and we all loved it!

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Your debut I Won’t Follow EP definitely put you guys on are music radar, can you tell us about bringing this project to fruition?

The “I Won’t Follow” EP came together after signing with Cherrytree Records. We had been recording and amassing tunes over a 6-month period and we (the band and the label) felt like it would be fun to introduce the group to the world at large with a little taste of what we do together. We chose “I Won’t Follow” and “Chase Your Shadow” from the batch of tunes that we had already been working on and recorded “I Won’t Follow (Acoustic)” and our cover of Nirvana’s “Breed” specifically for the EP in order to show off a few different sides of what we do. 

Can you tell us about the creative and writing process for “Chase Your Shadow?”

As a song, “Chase Your Shadow” came together like most of our tunes – with Hannah, Bess & Lelia sitting around with acoustic guitars and writing music, melody and lyrics together. Once we all got together and started playing it (along with our producer Chris Kuffner), the arrangement was tripping us up a bit and we just couldn’t seem to find the right direction for the tune. Then the idea of trying a Radiohead-esque vibe came about and once we discovered the keyboard part that appears in the intro and the main guitar riff, the whole tune fell together. 

You guys are about to go on tour with Jukebox the Ghost, what do you enjoy most about being on the road? What cities are you most excited to check out?

Well for starters, touring is always more fun when you’re with great friends and killer musicians, and Jukebox the Ghost are some of our favorites on both accounts. We love visiting different cities and discovering the best food and coffee shops, and of course it’s always exciting to share our music with new people and make new friends and fans! We’re really excited to play Irving Plaza in our hometown of NYC and 9:30 Club in DC (Hannah’s hometown), and we always love to visit Chicago, Portland, LA, Austin… We’re excited for the whole tour!

secretsomeonecmjCan you tell us about filming the music video for “I Won’t Follow?” What was the most enjoyable part about the shoot?

We had a great time filming the video for “I Won’t Follow”! Our director Michael Dwyer and his whole team were amazing and we filmed in an incredible old silent film studio in Silver Lake which looked fantastic and really contributed to the overall feeling of the video. The video also features us in performance mode, which is always a lot of fun and very comfortable for us, so that was nice, too. 

We saw that you guys recently shot a new music video…what track is it for?

Yes, we just shot a brand new video for our song “Let You Go”. You won’t haven’t heard it yet unless you’ve been to one of our show or done a little digging on YouTube, but we’ll be releasing the song and the video very soon! It’s a bit different than “I Won’t Follow” in terms of overall tone and feel, and we’re very excited about how it’s looking so far!

What musicians/bands are you guys currently listening to?

We’ve been listening to Blake Mills, Kimbra, St. Vincent and D’Angelo, and we also listen to a lot of podcasts when we’re in the van together, so we’ve gotta mention “Comedy Bang! Bang!”  Everyone is also drooling over “Serial” as we type this.

We are without a doubt excited for Secret Someones first LP, what can you guys divulge about this album? Is there a tentative release date that you could reveal?

We’re excited for our first LP, too! All of the details are just starting to come together, but we can tell you that our tentative release date is May 5th and that it’ll feature a lot of the tunes that we’ve been playing in our live sets over the past year. We’re excited to share some more aspects of what we do with the world; some of the songs are a bit more dance-y, there’s a ballad that we really love, and of course there are still a lot more Weezerian pop-rock jams for your air guitaring pleasure.

http://www.secretsomeones.com/