The Shondes Interview

Image: Fanatic Promotion

Local Brooklyn band The Shondes have a lot on their plate these days, but they will be celebrating Independence Day in style. The band will be playing a FREE show at the Brooklyn Museum’s First Saturday/July 4th party. The band goes on 8 pm and is sure to bring up the energy level with their punk-influenced rock music. Their album The Red Sea came out last year and they are currently working on a new one. The group has opened for the likes of Electrelane, Erase Errata, and Amy Ray, and has played various venues throughout New York and beyond. I had the chance to talk with drummer/vocalist Temim Fruchter:

Big Apple Music Scene: Your band identifies with many cultures and traditions, like Judaism, punk, and the LGBT community. How do these myriad of traditions influence your music?

Temim Fruchter: This stuff all makes its way into our music just because it’s pieces of who we are and the things we care deeply about, you know?  I think we all constantly appreciate that we all come from pretty different backgrounds – musically and otherwise – and were able to come together and be like, we just want to make music that really moves people, and that means something to people.

TF: Our band name is both a loving tribute to Jewish and specifically Yiddish tradition, and a reclamation of an age-old Yiddish insult.  Someone whose identity doesn’t quite mesh or who speaks out for justice a little too loudly or radically or brashly is often called a Shonde.  I think it’s pretty safe to say that some of my favorite people in the world are Shondes.  You know, in the best possible way!

TF: I think some of our favorite shows have just been the ones where people get the sweatiest and scream along the loudest, venue-irrelevant.  Still, we love some of the venues closest to home – Union Hall, the site of our last New York show, was fun and cozy (and has bocce ball to boot).  One of the first OMG-I-Live-In-NY-Now activities I engaged in upon first moving to Brooklyn was attending First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum, so I’m really excited that I get to play it this time around!  We love to play free and all-ages shows when possible, so it’s great that this is both – and it doesn’t hurt that we’ll be playing amid a host of great works of art.

TF: I have to say the thing that’s going to sound cheesy but is quite true – some of the raddest musicians and bands we’ve played with are the ones who you may not have heard about yet.  That said, I was pretty psyched to open for Joe Lally [bassist for Fugazi] a little while back.  I grew up in the DC area and when I discovered Fort Reno and the punk/political music scene ‘round those parts I fell hard and fast for Fugazi, so I had a little bit of punkstarcrush holdover when we played with him.

TF: We are hard at work on our next album and are super-excited about it.  Stay tuned for news and announcements on that front.  In the meantime, we’re collecting mini-heartbreak-stories on twitter and at shows – heartbreak is a huge thread through the songs on the next record.  We definitely want your stor