Welcome to the Onesie universe. Led by Ben Haberland with Rob Lanterman on guitar, Jason Bauers on drums, and Ernie D’Amaso on bass. Old-school lifers. Three albums in and still doing their own thing. Now a new chapter. The single and video “Meetcha At Minnies (The Captain’s Song)” lands first. A taste of the upcoming LP on Sell The Heart Records. We talked with Ben about the new record, the albums that shaped Onesie, life in New York, and the strange stories that end up inside their songs.
★ The new single arrives with a film by Jen Meller. What can you tell us about the upcoming record, and where is Onesie creatively at this moment?
Ben Haberland: Yes! The vid for“Meetcha At Minnies (The Captain’s Song)” is such a dang delight, Jen really killed it with bringing the cat character from the album art to life and launching them into this fantastical world. Musically there is a positive, chugging, yearning spirit there, even though the lyrics are somewhat inspired by a deeply disturbing hostage situation that happened at my college in the mid 90s. The details always sort of bounced around in my subconscious and they spilled forth in a bit of narrative in this rather poppy song, which is a typical mismatch for Onesie. In the grander sense, there’s also the theme of one reckoning with their changing world view over their own timeline.
We’ve got a new album called Way Thousand Bump To The Sky coming out this summer on Sell The Heart Records. Of course at the moment it’s my favorite thing Onesie has done. I’m always trying to get more direct with my writing and this time we went for the throat with more of a live, in the room feel. With Rob and Jason on board, you can really feel us playing off and pushing each other and jacking up the overall energy level. Meanwhile, there are plenty of lyrical themes of coping with tragedy, death, again, and the absurdity of being alive at this moment, in this failing country. Travis Harrison is a master at capturing that bristling power pop sound while dialing in just the right amount of psyche/prog weirdness. Ernie D’amaso joined on bass after we finished recording and we’re really firing on all cylinders creatively and as a live unit at the moment, it’s awesome.
★ If someone has never heard Onesie before, which song should they start with?
Ben Haberland: From past releases I would say “Anemone In Lemonade” from the last record, Liminal Hiss. There’s a nice balance of layered, open tuned jangle with these explosive heavy moments, a modest guitar solo, and a few odd ball arrangement left turns. I was trying to really get to the point with the melodies and sing above the mid range muck of the guitars, like Suede or Ted Leo. Rob had joined while we were overdubbing so his piping voice is in the backing vocals. They’re really all over the place on the new record too- tasty!
★ New York can be a love/hate city. As a Brooklyn band, what’s something about the city that still inspires you, and what’s something that drives you a little crazy?
BH: I think about this quite a bit. It’s cliched but really just having access to so many different types of people has always fueled my creative inspiration in general. Your own point of view is so kaleidoscopic because in the course of any given day you can let the randomness of the city whisk you away. Of course, that doesn’t always go great, but that river is always flowing. You really feel that absence of dynamic, kinetic existence when you’re NOT here. The flip side of that is, and I say this as someone that grew up lower middle class and has logged in many decades living here, you see how the middle class has been driven out and it’s become a city for people with generational wealth or tech bros to just spread their wings and hang out for a while. So yeah, that drives me crazy but I have to say since Mamdani got in it feels like a whole new world of possibilities is opening up – a much needed hope injection!
★ Which records have shaped the Onesie sound the most, and what makes those albums still resonate with you?
BH: My listening diet is all over the place but I lean towards rock for sure- from brit pop to punk to metal to classic rock. I love lists so let’s see if I can make one that gets at the recipe for Onesie songwriting. This is just my own take by the way, in chronological order!
1. Big Star, #1 Record – Yes, a very populist classic rock/power pop choice but it simply never gets old. A delicious, warm soup of triumph and tragedy. Tear jerkers and wailing bangers co-exist happily. By the end you’re sort of exhausted by how much emotional ground they’ve covered. And just the PERFECT blend of layered, chiming guitars that set the stage for The Smiths, Replacements, and R.E.M.
2. Thin Lizzy, Jailbreak – Pure rock power and swaggering confidence. Phil’s singing style and delivery is such a huge inspiration, it’s like he’s not even trying- just telling a story or having a conversation with the listener while the band totally destroys behind him. And there’s no better inspirado for guitar-monies.
3. Fugazi , End Hits – Of course I love the earlier stuff but here is where they really start dabbling with 60s psych rock, dub, and experimental noise. All while losing zero energy and operating within the DIY punk hardcore scene they helped establish.
4. Stephen Malkmus, Face The Truth – An info dense glittering gem born in a basement and released into the wilds of the oft soulless mid 2000s indie rock boom. This was the record that made me want to play with genre and demonstrated how you could pack an album with tons of disparate ideas and still have it make sense as a single body of work, like it was coming from the same alien brain.
5. Mary Timony, Untame The Tiger – Ex Hex put out two perfect catchy af power pop albums and I was stoked for another. Then this Mary solo rec comes along and she totally switches the game, like a rock chameleon, with this noodly master work. Forlorn but musically restless is a great combo – one haunting jam after another here.
★ What’s the strangest or most surreal thing that’s happened to you as a band, the kind of moment you still can’t believe actually happened?
BH: OH, I have one that relates to this record. Last winter I organized an NYCLU benefit at Union Pool. It was the first time we were testing out this batch of new songs before recording them a couple of weeks later. Mark Ibold (Pavement, Sonic Youth) happened to be tending bar that night. He had recently headlined five nights with Pavement at Brooklyn Steel, just down the street, and I was reminded what an amazing band Pavement is yet again. So there he was, stuck listening to our set of (at least somewhat) Pavement-influenced songs, lol. I kept glancing over to see if there was any reaction, some head nodding, anything, lol! Anyway, that’s probably a typical Wednesday for him, but it was very meaningful for me. Afterwards I gave him some records and thanked him for the inspiration and for being part of the night. That’s a magic room that’s been part of my life for well over twenty years, so it made the night all the more special. ★