Unsigned518 - Special Episode - Andrew Cerrone of The Pine Boys

[00:00:01] Speaker A: He was born on a Saturday in 73 he loves punk rock music fighting the 13 jabbing the dazzle Jazz rock Now on the beat Guitar with a short wind radio bass his motherfucking Andy Scrolling look at motherfucker cuz here he comes Andy Sculling wearing his or his hat. Welcome to unsigned 51 8. On this special episode, I guess you could say I'm here with Andrew Cerrone of the Pine Boys. How's it going? [00:00:36] Speaker B: Hello. Hello. Thanks for having me. [00:00:37] Speaker A: Yeah, of course, anytime. You know what I was, I was saying to my wife before you got here, you know, because she was like, you know, have, have these guys been on the, on the show before? You know, because I was like, pine Boys are coming. I played her some of your songs and I was like, yeah, they've been on the show. And then I was like, you know, actually the very first piece that I wrote for Metroland was a review of your album last year. [00:01:00] Speaker B: That is sick. So a couple Andes hanging out. [00:01:03] Speaker A: Yeah, just a couple Andes hanging out. We go way back, you know, but you know, we are not here to talk about me, Andy. We're here to talk about you, Andy, and what you got going on with Pine Boys. And you gave me, I guess, a little bit of a rundown before we got rolling, but nothing too in depth. But I do know that you got a show tomorrow at Ophelia's where with my homies, the TV Doctors. So we'll get to that. There's maybe some new music coming. There's a fourth Pine Boy member. Is that a thing? [00:01:34] Speaker B: Yes. [00:01:35] Speaker A: But anyway, just I guess start wherever you want. [00:01:40] Speaker B: So we got a huge show coming up tomorrow night at Ophelia's downtown Albany. We're from Albany, very excited about this show and we're huge Halloween fans. So we're trying to do some special stuff for kind of. I know it's a roughly a week before Halloween, but might be some costumes, some cool visuals behind us, some. Some fog potentially. And gonna be with the TV doctors. And also one of our good friends, Spike Wright, who's a DJ in Albany is going to be just mixing in DJ sets throughout the evening. So I think it'll be kind of cool. No change. Over time he's gonna be throwing in some kind of heavy, kind of like EDM style music. So I think it'll be a really cool night and we're really excited about it. It will be starting at 8 o' clock and yeah, come out if you're around. [00:02:27] Speaker A: That's a great idea. Having A dj. Because I've always, like, been trying to think of, like, the magical way that you can get, like, several bands to play a show with no change over time. And it's like, logistically fucking possible, you know what I mean? But, like, if you had just like a DJ that could know right when to come in and come in right at that last note of the other. [00:02:49] Speaker B: Song and fill that a nice, smooth, smooth transition. We're excited for it. [00:02:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And people could be dancing, you know. Right. So that's tomorrow with tv, doctors, and then I guess. Tell me about, like, some music you. You guys have been working on or. Actually, you know what, you. You have a book there with some notes. So why don't you tell me what's next? Like you're prepared. I feel so ill prepared all the time. [00:03:17] Speaker B: I mean, we. We have been. We've released around one album a year for the last maybe five or six years. One EP or album. So we've been pretty, like, consistent with that. But this is 2025. We haven't released anything yet, and that does not mean we're not working on stuff. We have this new album called Wet House that's coming out probably next spring summer, and it's a little bit longer than we normally do. It's around 12 or 13 songs and super excited about it. And we've been playing a lot of the songs live, and I think that's kind of. We're bringing some of that live energy into the studio, I think, which is cool. But I don't know, we've been a band for almost 10 years and I. This is our 10th album, so it's really special for us, so really looking forward to putting that out, but we're taking our time with it, making sure we're happy with everything and. Yeah, coming soon. [00:04:09] Speaker A: And, you know, we were talking a little bit before we got rolling, just about, you know, you were saying you hadn't been playing many gigs and you've been focusing on the writing and as a, you know, an independent band, I guess, as we all are, like, you know, how do you find. I guess the. The, you know, it's necessary. I don't want to say like, out on the road, you know, because even shows locally. But it's definitely necessary from a monetary standpoint to play shows to fund kind of what we do. How do you find, I guess, the balance in wanting to put out albums and being like, fuck, this is going to cost a lot of money to do it. [00:04:55] Speaker B: That's a great question. I couldn't imagine not doing it right. So, I mean, every single time we put out music, we feel like we're extremely happy with it and proud of it, but then it's kind of that scary time when you don't have any material. You're kind of. We always were like, I don't know how we're gonna. I don't know, quote, unquote, top that or from our standards. But we just. I don't know, we always are consistently coming up with ideas. And I think sometimes when we're preparing for shows, we're playing songs that we've played a ton and that are kind of in the catalog. We're almost like. I don't want to say bored, but, like, we're coming up with new ideas and things just to keep it fresh and interesting. I. We've been a band a really long time, and I think one of the reasons why we're so into it still is because we're always throwing four or five new songs in the set list and mixing it up. If we were playing the same set, I mean, I don't know if we'd be as into it. [00:05:56] Speaker A: And so it's not like you're, you know, getting rid of the songs to make room for new ones. You're just taking them out of rotation for a little bit, you know, like. Because some bands may do that where, like, you know, they come out with a new batch of songs, and those are kind of the ones they focus on. And then you don't hear the older ones live anymore because they're focusing on the new ones and the new ones after that and the new ones after that. So you're saying you have this extensive catalog that you do try to pull from all corners of it when you're playing live. [00:06:28] Speaker B: Yes. And you. You know this, like, as being a songwriter, I think it's kind of tough to know in an unbiased way if you think your new songs are really great or if you're just super excited about them or kind of like you're just jazzed on them because they're new. But I do think we're constantly thinking about what songs perform better live or, you know, doesn't mean we have a lot of slower songs that we never, ever play live. We just like to kind of keep the energy up as much as possible. And so I'm just kind of trying to grab from all corners of the. Our catalog of, like, what is the best live song. [00:07:07] Speaker A: Right. [00:07:07] Speaker B: And I don't know. That's. [00:07:10] Speaker A: And speaking of live, you Know, typically it's been just the three of you, but now you've. You've added. And I just found out that you were playing with the drummer like you know, 20 minutes ago. So I guess. Tell me all about that. Like. [00:07:23] Speaker B: Yes. [00:07:24] Speaker A: Is it full time? Like, is it a full. Is he a full time member? [00:07:26] Speaker B: Like, yeah, full time member. It's Bobby. Mr. Bobby Light. Andrew Gold. Golden from Adequate Phil. He's played with some other things, but we. I worked on an album with Ben Gorman from Boss Crowley a couple years ago and he just kind of did the drums for us and I got to know him a little bit and yeah, this whole year we've been playing with him and we're. We always kind of just tend to like to improvise. Whether if we're at practice or in the studio or we're. We like jam bands and bringing Bobby on the drum kit full time, it's just. It's been very refreshing in terms of just songs we've played for a while sound a lot different and things have been going in different directions and it's just not as set in stone. I mean, we had the drum machine for so long and there was cool elements of that and I don't look down upon those days, but we kind of knew exactly where the song was gonna go. [00:08:23] Speaker A: Our band started with the drum machine. I don't know if you knew that. No, it was just me and Lonnie and then we added a. You know, John, the drummer. But so I know the perils of a. Or the perils and the benefits of a drum machine. [00:08:36] Speaker B: But I mean, I think the biggest thing is dynamically, I mean, being able to bring the energy up and down. It's just. It's been really fun. And if you haven't caught us yet with a drummer, I mean, highly suggest coming out tomorrow. It's going to be awesome. [00:08:48] Speaker A: And especially having someone that can drive the train, so to speak. You know what I mean? [00:08:52] Speaker B: Oh yeah, yeah. [00:08:53] Speaker A: That's great. So new me, have you been working on new music with. Now that you're a four piece? Like, is that how that's going or was it already stuff that had kind of been. [00:09:05] Speaker B: It's actually not. We've never done anything with drums in the studio. We're still kind of keeping the same format. But I've been doing a lot of more using actual drum machines and programming drums more than I have in the past versus using samples. So I think there's a lot more drum changes on our new record than we had in the past and in terms of keeping it consistent. So definitely. Thoughtfully using electronic drums for the new album. But Bobby will not be on the actual recordings. [00:09:32] Speaker A: Gotcha. So that it was already kind of in motion by the time. By the time he joined. Sweet. So what. What else. What else we got? [00:09:42] Speaker B: I don't know. I mean, that's. That kind of sums it up. We're really excited about the show tomorrow and think might be some fog, might be some costume. So if you want to, you know, dress code is optional. You can have a costume if you want, or you can, you know, t shirts and L.L. bean jeans, that's totally fine. [00:10:02] Speaker A: Right. And six days before Halloween is not too early. It's fully in the. In the costume zone. As far as, like, Halloween goes, I think that whole. [00:10:11] Speaker B: That whole week kind of applies. [00:10:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:13] Speaker B: I remember in college, it was like, I feel like people would push it to almost three weekends sometimes. [00:10:17] Speaker A: Yeah. I used to always, like, when I was, you know, younger, I used to always have, you know, people be like, what are you going to be for Halloween? And be like, well, you know, this weekend I'm going to be this, and then this weekend I'm going to be that. And then, you know. Yeah, got to get as much in as you can. And you know what, speaking of Halloween, and we'll. We'll wrap it up, but we're going to. We're going to talk some spooky movies and shit on one of my. My Halloween episodes. So I don't know whether it'll come out, but before or after this. But it'll be right in the same feed as this, so make sure you go and listen to that. But is there anything in closing that you want to. Want to throw in there? [00:10:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I just wanted to throw in. We're going to be playing around five new songs tomorrow. We have a couple Halloween songs we would consider that will be on the set list, so definitely come out. Tickets are $10, and it'll be a great night. [00:11:06] Speaker A: All right, so get out to Ophelia's 20 tomorrow night. Pine boys, TV doctors. It's gonna be a fucking killer show. So, Andy, thank you so much, man. [00:11:14] Speaker B: Thank you so much, sir. [00:11:16] Speaker A: Unsigned 518 is produced and hosted by me, Andy Scullin. New episodes are available every week wherever you stream podcasts. If you'd like to help support the show, please like and subscribe wherever you are listening. Or you could buy me a [email protected] unsigned 518, if you would like to advertise on the show, send me an email at unsigned518mail.com and to be a guest on the show, reach out to me through Instagram, signed 518. Take care of one another, and I'll see you next week.