Banding Together and Tying the Tri-State with Joopi

Words by Matthew Spence:

Welcome to a brand new episode of True Crime: Unsolved Mystery. I’m your host, Parker Parks. Tonight’s episode we’re going to go over a more recent case. I know, that’s not usually what we do. But hey, they pay me to say a shit ton to say this shit, so they can switch shit up all they want. While 2024 has been an eventful year, there’s been a case sweeping up the country. Missing posters have been on trees and bulletin boards. Search parties nationwide have been happening out the wazoo. Everyone, from professional investigators to everyone who googled “how to do journalism,” has been collaborating or going solo to solve the mystery and disappearance of the Bands. Parental and viewer discretion is advised.

 

WHERE ARE THE BANDS? WHERE’S THE BAND? Are Battle of the Bands flyers just being used as bookmarks? Do band camps even exist anymore? (Probably, but still).

 

This is discourse; you’ve probably came across it a couple times this year in some form from some platform. Whether from a convo with a homie or online from an IG comment for a post of 2000’s greatest hits. We’re long removed from the days of reading SPIN Magazine and reading up on which member of the Strokes can fit the most cigarettes in their mouth. Kerrang! Magazine covers where the cover star looks beaten up after getting into a bar fight because someone looked at them weirdly.

 

Alternative music in the more traditional sense has fizzled out of the mainstream, and everyone (casual and hardcore music fans) is wondering “WHERE?”. Everyone is going through individual investigations. Some are investigating Brick style, some are going Inherent Vice style, and others are searching with the homies like Stand By Me (or IT). So I had to help the cause and do my own investigation, Angelica style.

 

And I cracked the case. BANDS ARE STILL AROUND my G. We got our punks over there, emos over here, synth poppers that way, garage rockers this way, and everyone else in between in the middle. Alternative music (I say in the general sense of Rock and Pop) may not be the radio-dominant, chart-topping genre it may have been over 10 years ago, but it’s still alive, prospering, and kicking ass in the Underground and Indie circuit. Plus “mainstream” as well; fucking IDLES and Fountaines D.C. are Grammy-nominated this year, and Amyl and the Sniffers toured with Foo Fighters, sure not chart-topping, but that doesn’t mean motherfuckers aren’t popular. Simply put, just look around in your local area and dig deeper into your Spotify and YouTube recommendations. You’ll find plenty of bands pushing forward, keeping forward, and keeping the flame bright and hot. All while keeping true to themselves and their love of music. With that combo and proper momentum, they could lead themselves into festivals like Redding and Lollapalooza and a performance of the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, struggling to fight through his annoying ass laugh.

Being the good student I am, I’ve learned that you need examples to help get your point across. Where’s my Megaphone?

CALLING JOOPI TO THE STAGE!

Connecting the CT and NYC music scene like Tin-Can Phones, this 4-piece band (5 pieces if you count Dopeness as a member) is just 4 homies drawing a trail leading to music that resonates and reverberates. In this game of 4-Square: Band Edition, our players include: guitarist Kevin MacLachlan, drummer Thomas Albin, bassist Liv Collins (you’ve probably seen her on this site before), and last but not least, Jules Lorenzo. Lead vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, actor, skater, model, and former Floridan (I wish I told her my Florida story during the interview… oh well).

Now, some of you are probably going, “Hmmm. She looks familiar,” and you’re right for pondering. No, she’s not the woman who accidentally stepped in your gum soon after you spat it out, nor the lady who you accidentally let the door shut on her walking into the Family Dollar because you didn’t notice her behind you in time. That was possibly her twin sister…But still most likely not.

Instead, you might recognize her from her roles in acclaimed indie films such as 2018’s “Skate Kitchen” and 2022’s “Good Girl Jane” or her appearances in the TV show “Betty,” or you might recognize her as being part of the Skate Kitchen collective. If you’re in the know, then you know. Stints of her life she’s immensely proud of, but now she’s ready to highlight “Musician” on her resume with a fat yellow highlighter. And with Joopi’s music capabilities, it’s going to be well-earned.

With the release of their first EP, Bruise. It’s 17 minutes of alternative music that would make Gen X-ers proud while Gen-Z feel free with sounds remembrance of early to mid-90s alt music. There’s hints of what feels like Dreampop, Shoegaze, and Soft Rock all packaged up for a new age. Think of a band like Lush or “Pablo Honey-era “Radiohead or The Cranberries.

Tracks like Suffocate contain what feels like the classic writing structure of the Quiet/Loud dynamic made famous by the Pixies. Stamped by Jules’s voice that interweaves angelic and warmth.

Buggy-Bye-Bye sounds like it could be featured on the Reality Bites soundtrack. Just waiting to be featured in someone’s playlist for driving, studying, skating, biking and/or other main character activities.

 

Sunspots has a horn section courtesy of Kevin. Bring in the horns.

[My dumbass kept calling it Sunsports, for some reason, to the actual band. I really don’t know where the R came from.]

 

 

Backseat helps emphasize what a tight rhythm section is. 5 songs = a quality debut. Who would’ve thought this all blossomed from just a regular day? Life is funny sometimes. Liv and Thomas were jamming one day. Jules stopped by and joined in and kept joining to help massage her emotions from a breakup. Then a homie of Thomas asked if he and Liv could perform at a show, though there wasn’t any intention of becoming a band… but Fuck it. They agreed; Jules was down to join, and Kevin was already down to playing. Walla. Joopi.

Keep in mind, this is me projecting what I hear from the music and influences.  Others may hear differently. Hell, you’ll learn about their true influences soon, they didn’t mention shit about Lush and Lilithfair, so it makes their output it a bit more cooler.

Cherry Dictionary

Joopi: an adorable nickname turned into a band name.

Times changed. Bands aren’t in the garage <insert harmonica> anymore but instead switched to creating magic in the bedroom. Joopi is a case of that. They’re a case of Sam & Ash didn’t die in vain (even though they low-key deserve to cause those Going Out Of Business sales were so bullshit, might as well just charged full price).

Now on some day in November (Nov 1st to be exact), I go to talk to the band for an hour from the comfort of a NYC apartment and my ass is home in CT. Talking and chatting about many things: Jamaican food, Morrissey being terrible, music, does FYE sell porn, my critique of Good Girl Jane, and other stuff that may or may not make this Q&A. I asked shit, and they answered about the shit… Read the shit

[If only I thought of the idea of having them say “We’re Joopi and You’re watching 120 Minutes” before the interview. Damn]

Individual Influences: How do you fuse them together for your sound?

Jules: A lot of us thankfully have similar tastes in music; it wasn’t all the same but enough to like [build] together. I’ve loved Incubus since I was like 5 years old, and thankfully I’m just a big emo kid. My Chemical Romance, Evanescence, The Used, stuff like that, and like Thomas was also a big emo kid, Kevin also does a bit emo too, and also Liv Too! We were all able to fuse that together to figure out our sound. Which I think we put under the umbrella of alternative music.

Kevin: We all had a mutual emo phase.

Liv: I really like beabadoobee as you know. When we first started off, the first show we did mostly covers and we did a cover of “Talk” by beabadoobee. Which is one of my fav songs but we did it so much to where we could never do it again.

Jules: “Talk” is our version of Curry Chicken for you

(Writer adding context here: I can’t eat curry chicken anymore from eating too much… but the musical equivalent for me is hearing Bohemian Rhapsody ever again and MANY MORE SONGS.)

Describe your sound in 3 words.

Kev: Alternative Foot Rock

(Idk why I imagine that as Shoegaze’s more extroverted cousin and Butt-Rocks more dapper neighbor.)

Liv: I’d say whimsical, moody, and kinda sad. Just a little sad.

Jules: Just a pinch of sorrow. I feel we try to cover some sadder topics sometimes in more of an upbeat lens and sometimes just make it more powerful instead of feeling soft and drony. There’s a lot of power that pushes through a lot of songs, whether that comes from an angry place, an angsty place, or just, like, a moreso feeling of release of some sense, you know, emotional reverse, and there’s a big part of it too. Yeah, I feel like it’s fun to make content that could be really dark/sad and turn into something that doesn’t seem sad.

Liv: Most of the songwriting for this first EP. You [speaking to Jules] made it after healing from a breakup and being around her [speaking to me] during that process, seeing her deal and seeing the shit went through. That’s why I say it’s a little sad, but it doesn’t sound sad. Like I know the background story too, but it’s still upbeat, and I want to bop my head.

Songwriting Process throughout the EP?

Kev: All the songs were Jules’s lyrics. Like all of her, with a simple guitar and the basic lyrics to the basic skeleton, then we just build from there.

Liv: We get to our apartment or Jules’s apartment and build something.

Thomas: Some songs were written as a group altogether, and others, Jules would come to us with an idea. Like some songs, we’ve written in one practice together and be like, “Oh, that worked out very well,” and other songs. I’d send Jules an idea on Garageband and say, “Hey, what do you think about this?” and I’ll record some drums and some bass to the guitar parts she sent me and work on stuff that way. The “Backseat” melody to the rhythm section for me, stood out cause I’ve always appreciated bands that really have a tight drum and bass. Where the bass follows the drums, and that was one of the demos I sent her. “I really want the bass to follow what the drums are doing.”

Any scrapped songs for the project?

Jules: For this project [Bruise], we didn’t scrap anything.

Why Bruise?

Jules: Whenever it comes to saying song names or album names, it has to just feel right, and when I first gave my band the two names, I was so shy just to even say it to them.

Liv: We had to beg her to say it out loud <chuckles>

—Jules: I wrote this EP from an emotional place; I was going through a breakup, and I was trying not to think of super corny ways to describe it but still encapsulate all the feelings involved there. It felt right. It really matched up with how I was feeling after getting out of this relationship, also knowing you could still heal from a bruise, and all these metaphors for what it meant fit very well with the music and where I’m at now.

(There were two alternative titles; I won’t disclose them because I’m not sure if that was an off-the-record moment; I’ll say one of them reminded me of a Lifetime movie.)

Fav Songs?

Kev: Backseat & Sunspots

Jules: Lamb

Liv: I’m stuck between Suffocate and Lamb.

Thomas: Lamb. Doing it live now has been really fun. I feel it’s the most powerful song in a way.

Kev: Yeah, Lamb is the best one to play live.

 

 

Coming from Skate Kitchen & Sk8Babes, how do you [Jules and Liv] hope to carry the spirit of inclusivity for women empowerment from your previous ventures in your music?

Liv: Ooooh, as soon as you said that, I thought back to the Devil’s Gear show, and of course, I’m a huge stan of women in empowerment, especially being a black woman in the scene. After we performed, we went outside, and a group of people came out and were like, “Oh, you guys were sick!” and this one girl started telling us how it meant a lot for her to see us up there. To see black girls in an alternative rock scene when it’s such a white band/white cis men-washed thing. It just feels cool to give people some representation, you know, and someone looks at us and goes, “Oh, they’re doing that; I can do that shit too.”

Entering the music scene as new artists and fresh players [Jules and Liv], was there any intimidation? How did you turn it into motivation?

Jules: I wouldn’t particularly say intimidation, cause I didn’t feel like, “Oh, I’m not good enough to be playing at these shows.” Of course, I had my own intense fears and worries, like messing up, not performing well, and getting stage fright. It’s more just learning how to trust myself and practicing till I feel comfortable in my own skin. The community for music in NY, especially if you’re from NY, is so welcoming and similar to skating; you’re not gonna click with everybody, but there are a lot of people you will click with; it’s so big that it’s like, if you and I don’t click as people, that’s totally fine. There will be somebody that’ll be so great to jam with, and that’s how it works. With skating and music, I think it’s just more an excitement of “How can I keep doing better?”

Liv: I still get pretty nervous, not gonna lie. I guess it depends; I don’t know. Like I’ve talked to you [me..Matthew…the writer on the other side of the screen] about this before, like how I always try something at least once. I don’t know; we’ve gotten so much positive feedback and support, and there’s so many friends we have in the scene who really believe in us and encourage us to keep going, but I definitely feel those jitters at shows.

What were some of the challenges on the road to becoming the artist you want to be [Jules]?

Jules: For me, especially being a front woman on stage, being able to command a crowd and also make sure I’m playing my instrument right. Just trying to keep the element of performance in the front of my mind and just enjoy it. I feel like I get a lot of anxiety sometimes cause I just wanna do well, so I kinda sike myself out sometimes and worry about a million things going wrong. So I just try to focus on: “OK, you know what you’re doing; just have fun because it’s fun and I love it.”

You’re judging a battle of the bands; who would be the harshest judge out of the group?

I honestly thought this question would bring a fun debate, but everyone immediately pointed to Thomas—including Thomas himself.

Jules, if you continue with your film career, will your next movie feature another Illegal Civ member?

Jules:  <laughs> That’s so funny, uhh…possibly

–The Skate Kitchen and Illegal Civ should keep expanding. My Christmas wish is to have Ryder McLaughlin in the video for Lamb.

From Skate Kitchen to your film career to your band. From an outsider looking in, it feels like when it comes to your creative endeavors, you get a bigger break and the ball gets rolling sooner than most revolving around them. Being a part of a few acclaimed and respected projects. Do you ever take a moment and reflect on that? 

Jules: Yeah, I’ve thought about that a lot; even just the other day at my job, one of my new coworkers was like, “I don’t wanna be weird, but I recently saw Betty, saw Skate Kitchen, and I realized you’re in it. It’s funny that we’re gonna work together, and amongst anything with Joopi, being able to have access to shows and connections we have. I just feel sometimes very lucky. I think that’s a lot of all it really is. Being very lucky and just grateful for having the people I have around me to put me on to certain opportunities and being very grateful for it. It’s a magical thing, just a lucky girl.

Liv: This girl was born to be a star. You don’t have a choice, Jules.

Thomas: I just want to say on that note that our very first show that we played, which we got before we were even a band, had more of a turnout than any local show that I’ve ever played with any other band, like by a long shot. It was our first freaking show. That goes to show what you were talking about.

Do you hope to bring the same opportunities to others the same way you’ve been lucky or fortunate to get your opportunities?

Jules: Of course, it’s all about who you know and your friends building onto things they love. Being able to work on opportunities to make friends and have them involved in stuff that I’m doing. For Betty, we pulled in so many of our friends that skate or with art shows. I think it’s so beautiful to share that type of community with other people, and it’s easily important to lift each other up, especially playing shows and with other bands and musicians.

Future Plans?

Liv: Write more music. We do have one song that we play live that’s not on the EP, and I hope that maybe in the new year we could hopefully put that out. We’re writing more music.

 

 

 

Be Sure to Follow Joopi and all of the members individually. Stream Bruise and future music wherever you prefer to get your dose of music. Remeber, don’t Suffocate getting Sunspots in the Backseat with a talking Lamb who shouts Buggy-Bye-Bye

Photos courtesy of Joopi.