The Churros: Debuting New Album at Music Festival
DJ Luke holds Q & A with bands' members on The Churros' formation, influences
So, exactly who are The Churros?
No doubt you've all been hearing them as part of our numerous promotions for the upcoming Perimeter Road Music Festival this May 4. Since the day they signed with Perimeter Road Sound Recordings in May of last year, they've been doing prep work and writing for their upcoming album, "Anxious," which is dropping this Friday, May 3. To bring everyone up to speed on the hot new release, WPCD DJ and Perimeter Road Sound Recordings student engineer Luke Matias brought in The Churros band members Lance Meuser and Alex Maloney to talk a little about the album, their time together as a band, and what they’re looking forward to as we approach the final release of their debut album.
Luke: How did The Churros come together as a band? How did you all meet?
Alex: We've had a long history with our lineup. It started with just me and Myles on guitar and drums and wanting to start something up in junior high. Then Colton, we met him on a bus ride and he was like, "Hey, I play bass," and we started practicing together, and we were terrible for a couple of years (laugh). Then after a while, we started coming into our own, playing our instruments and moving from covers to trying out different things. We've had a number of vocalists, it was always the vocalist that was the issue. But then we found Lance at one of our last shows at the high school, and he joined the band. Once we heard him sing we were like "put this dude in our band immediately!" And it's been like that ever since.
Lance: Yeah, I went to one of their shows, and I've been looking for a band to join. I saw these guys playing and I was like "these guys rock." That's how I met them.
Luke: So we're in the final stages of releasing your record at Perimeter Road. What were your inspirations coming into writing the songs for this album?
Alex: It's a lot of different stuff. It's stuff that I listen to a lot that just shows up in [the album]. I'd say a lot of the guitar tones have been inspired by garage rock sounds. Really just a lot of garage bands have inspired what I wanted out of the band. Then Lance came in. There's a thing between three songwriters here. Colton's stuff is different than my stuff that's different than Lance's stuff. I think unifying that in some way has been really interesting.
Lance: Most of my writing influences come from the bands I listen to obviously. Muse, Royal Blood, Gary Clark on the blues side. That's kinda how I write, ya know?
Luke: So what would you classify The Churros as?
Alex: Punk rock in some ways, bluesy with the stuff that Lance writes. I really love how we have an eclectic sound. We can go from something like our single, "If You Need Anything," to something like "Prisons," which is just such a brooding song.
Luke: What is the overall theme or mood you're looking to cultivate with this album?
Alex: Specifically, I want to keep the listener on edge throughout the album.
Lance: Anxious? (laugh)
Alex: I think that having our different writing styles coming through the album, I think it's kind of a soup. It's a bunch of different things.
Luke: What are your favorite tracks or highlights on the album?
Lance: I like to single out my solo track "Wild Horse." It's set apart from the rest of the album like a bonus track, but it creates a different dynamic for the group, and to show people how we can have these different styles all work out.