DJ Interviews: Scoopski

 Hers my interview with Scoopski

How'd you get started in music?

The thing that got me really into music was hearing Good Charlotte. I heard "Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous" on the radio one day in 2002, and fell in love. From there, I bought their albums, and slowly got into more pop-punk like Green Day, blink-182, Simple Plan, and Sum 41. 

The following year I saw Good Charlotte live in Philly and that concert made me want to start playing music. I decided to start with drums, and I had a cousin who had just started playing guitar at the same time. We started jamming with each other, and eventually started our own silly pop-punk band, called Renegade Milkmen.

I soon came to realize when we were putting songs together that I had a soft spot not just for drumming but also for songwriting and melodies. So once I had my first job at Arby's, I bought a cheap beginners acoustic guitar with my first paycheck and slowly learned how to play powerchords and the intro to "El Scorcho" by Weezer.

Time went on, and I began writing my own little songs here and there. Renegade Milkmen ended, but I joined another band as a drummer and also backup singer. This was what made me want to improve my voice and got me interested in singing techniques. I took voice lessons and fell in love with harmonizing. I got heavily into The Beatles and Beach Boys around this time period.

My songwriting was slowly improving, and eventually a couple songs I wrote were performed with my band. One of those tracks, called "Miles", has a Scoopski iteration on the album "BAD THINGS HAPPEN IN PHILADELPHIA".

That band eventually ended over creative differences, but from that the band split in two and another was formed. For this band, I was solely the frontman/lead singer. It was during this band that I met the other member of Scoopski, my wife (Mrs. Scoopski). She was our keyboard player and a songwriter, and today she plays keys, synth, writes, and sings in a huge majority of Scoopski tracks.

That band ended around 2014, and some time went by. I played drums again in a Beatles cover band for about a year, but for the most part I was pretty stagnant with music for about half a decade.

That ended in 2019, when Mrs. Scoopski and I bought a house. I went down into our basement one summer day, plugged in my guitar, and just started playing. Ever since that day, the songs just haven't stopped coming. I've gotten better and better at recording and mixing, and that brings us to current day, 2 and a half years later, we're about to release the 3rd Scoopski album.

Who are your inspirations or influences?

I mentioned a lot of them in the intro, but I have a lot of different influences from all over the rock map, but the thing that seems to be common amongst all of them is strong melody and harmony.

Some of my biggest influences are: Weezer, The Beatles, Good Charlotte, Oasis, Green Day, ABBA, Grouplove, The Ramones, and The Beach Boys.

Because of the myriad of pop culture references and light hearted subjects of a lot of Scoopski tracks, some artists that Scoopski gets compared to frequently are acts such as Nerf Herder, Fountains of Wayne, Motion City Soundtrack, Bowling For Soup, and They Might Be Giants. These acts are also definitely big influences, for sure. I think having a good sense of humor is a big plus.

What advice would you offer aspiring performers?

Don't be afraid to "go there". If something seems uncomfortable to you, that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. It more likely means you SHOULD, because it's something that will make you special.

How do you set yourselves apart from other bands or singers?

As I said in the last answer, I believe that in Scoopski's music, we do "go there". There's no topic out of bounds. We have songs about MySpace and mermaids, then we have songs about infertility and anxiety disorders. We have songs about cats, and we have songs about caffeine addiction. 

I think this definitely sets us apart in some way.

Any new gigs or albums in the future

Glad you asked! We have a new album dropping on February 2nd, 2022 called "SEE YOU SOON" on all streaming services! Look for it, it's rad!