If you only listen to one band from Rhode Island, let Senior Discount be that band! Seriously, these guys made such an impression on us through their music and their hilarious (often ridiculous and even more disturbing) DVD, we just had to ask them for an interview!

How is the music scene in Rhode Island?

The RI music scene is very varied. We (the band and I) were in high school when Monty’s Fan Club (now Monty Are I) and Bad Larry were starting out, and we loved them. They were two amazing ska bands and that was the local music that we focused on. But we also liked M80, which was a punk band that was around at the time, as well as Slik Willy (now Arcadia Landing), which was more like the newer stuff that could be considered pop-rock as much as it could be. considered pop punk. We also had Zox, which is like an impromptu band, as well as many others. So we always had this really mixed scene here. It’s not like you have a big punk scene, or a big ska scene or anything, there’s just a lot of different bands. We have specific friends on the scene now: Monty Are I, Someday Providence, Lemon Lime Tennis Shoes, Arcadia Landing, Mustache Ride, Penrose (and others who will be upset I didn’t name them), and none of them actually play. music like ours, or like everyone else’s (for the most part). We play shows that have all different kinds of acts all the time. It’s more about enjoying music in general, rather than going to a show and seeing two shitty punk bands, then two passable punk bands, and then a good punk band. I’d rather see five good bands of ANYTHING. Whenever we put on a big house show, we definitely look at all the different kinds of music on stage and try to expose the kids to more different kinds of music.

As for the fans, RI seems to have a pretty good layout of places for bands to perform, so that helps. But ever since we got into local music when we were 15 or 16, the same number of kids just don’t come to the shows. We promote very, very heavily and have a great reputation for doing so, so we always get a huge amount at our shows, but it’s generally noticeable throughout the local scene that fewer kids are attending shows than they used to. It could even be BECAUSE there are such varied shows. Recently, a fan told us that he won’t go to our local show because he doesn’t like other bands’ kind of music. He told us that he would come if we played with Catch 22 and the Brunt Of It. But the thing is, we played shows with both bands in the last two months! We want to play shows with EVERYONE no matter if they are not the same type of music. It’s hard because the age of people going to concerts is quite young, and that’s also the age where people aren’t really open to all kinds of music. A 16-year-old punk rocker isn’t going to be interested in a band that’s been compared to Maroon 5, even if he’s never heard of them. And in my opinion, that’s a shame.

In terms of promotion, we do a lot of street promotion, we do a lot of personal promotion (talking directly to kids), and we also do a lot of video promotion, which appeals to people who aren’t even necessarily music fans, and that it attracts a lot of different people to us and they’re interested in coming to see us, but you can’t expect every band to be able to do all those things, so it’s hard to get kids to come to a show, unless you’re a national act.

Have you ever played in PA? If so, what are your thoughts?

We played at the Smiling Moose in Pittsburgh last summer. Our experience was nothing to write home about and we would never judge PA in general for it. This is because we had this booking guy, who completely screwed us over on this tour we were going to do and booked us anywhere (if at all, during our proposed 23 day tour), regardless of money, the location, other acts, etc.

We got to the Laughing Moose, and the bartender (who was an incredibly nice guy) didn’t even know we were playing. I guess there wasn’t much communication between the bartender and the promoter. Nobody knew about the show, so nobody was there.

Not that there were any people there, since no one knows about the senior discount in Pennsylvania yet, and we were booked as the ONLY band on the bill. We played our music, sang into a microphone (for three guys), and some of us slept in a room above the bar that had buckets of vomit. I guess they already provided them for us, so we didn’t even have to throw up. That was convenient.

Other than that isolated experience, we still have to really play there.

Tell us about your recently released DVD? How do you come up with ideas for skits/challenges?

Basically, a few years ago we had the chance to be at this big show in Providence when we were just starting out, and we didn’t know how to promote, because no one knew who we were. So my friend Alan Sousa and I wrote a five minute promotional video to promote the show and we promoted it online. The video got a great response, we sold tons of tickets and we are still making the videos.

It got to the point where people kept telling us to release a DVD. We would always make two types of videos:

1. Real things, documentaries with jokes or crazy (put 300 pumpkins in our guitarist’s room for Halloween, the Ipecac skit)

2. Scripted comedy, like a very physical sitcom.

We decided to make a documentary about the band that was based on that first type of comedy, where it explained the band and who we are, and was also very entertaining. We just felt like that kind of humor went well with our energetic music. So we put together our best (almost completely unreleased) material and created this movie. We sold the premiere, 350 people, in Providence, and it got a great response and now a lot of people are watching it and loving it. It’s called “VBW Attack: The Senior Discount Movie” and it really introduces us to people. We do something every year called the VBW Olympics and it has a scavenger hunt where instead of having to find things, you have to make things and film them. Get a dart in the spine, get hit by a car, things like that. That’s all there. There’s a lot of crazy stuff: I get arrested for a public enema, there’s an Ipecac skit that’s the best vomit-based segment I’ve ever seen, the aforementioned “Pumpkin Caper” – it’s really funny, high. impact entertainment that is all about creating entertainment and music and merging the two. We have a lot of positive responses on this.

Basically, just like with Pumpkin Caper and other “jokes”, they come to us by chance. We plan them before the point of execution, but it’s never like “We have to do a prank right now” or “What can we do for a prank?” – it’s like our drummer says “Hey, let’s fill Tom’s room with pumpkins” and we think if we can do it or not, and if we can, we do it.

As for the stuff in the Treasure Hunt, we sat down for a month or so before the actual Hunt and thought about what would be difficult, but also possible, to do. My favorite things to think about are things that sound easy and then are completely horrible. Like “Swallow a spoonful of cinnamon.” It sounds easy. Go try it. Or go see the movie and see what happens.

How long has the band been together? Did you know each other before the band got together?

Basically, my cousin Christian (drummer) and I (rhythm guitarist/singer) had never played instruments (apart from my short piano lessons). Kevin (our bass player/singer) had wanted a band for a while. We were all best friends who hung out constantly. So the summer we graduated, we decided to start a band and that forced me and Christian to learn to play. For a year we just practised, maybe played twice towards the end of the year and wrote some simple songs. After that we added Tom Wells (lead guitarist) and wrote more serious songs and started to focus on writing good songs and playing. So we’ve really been together as a full band for about 5 years now. Tom was like our “new” friend when he joined the band, but we were definitely all friends first. We are in the process of adding another member to the band at the moment, Alan Sousa, who has always been incredibly close to Senior Discount (we wrote and shot the ENTIRE video together). Kevin and I (who wrote the music) are going in more layered directions musically, so we wanted to add another instrument. Sousa will take over on bass while Kevin will join me on rhythm guitar.

Who are your heroes/role models, musically and otherwise?

Personally, the people I look up to are Kevin Smith, Larry David, Mark Hoppus, Mick Foley, Tom Gabel, and Chuck Palahniuk. All of these tend to be people who really create their own art form and do it in a unique way, which is what I always try to do. As a band, we’ve always been heavily influenced by Blink 182, because it was about writing good songs and having fun. I feel like a lot of bands (now more than ever) are about business and image and things that have more to do with exposure or money or being cool, when we’ve always believed in people who just want to share ideas and play. other people.

Musically, we all come from different places. I like a lot of punk stuff that isn’t new but definitely can’t be classified as old. I really like acoustic material and, in general, a lot of random music. Tom is more into metal, Kevin is into pop punk a lot, Sousa is into reggae and ska a lot, and Christian is really into experimental music. I think at the end of the day we’re all really focused on creating great music that people can relate to and have fun listening to.

Tom wanted me to add that his personal role model is Liberachi.

What’s the most important thing people need to know about the senior discount?
The most important thing people need to know about Senior Discount is that we’re not just a band. We don’t want fans, we want friends. We want to create as many different kinds of art as we can, we want to mix it up as much as we can, and we just want to make people happy in as many different ways as we can.