5 Questions With: The New Romantics

Brandon Biondo stops by to talk about the latest record, what's next for the band, and what you should know about the Knoxville music scene.

May 10, 2024

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Good morning!

Today we’re talking with Knoxville-based The New Romantics

My on-ramp to The New Romantics came in the form of an Instagram message. Had I heard of The New Romantics? it asked. “It’s just one guy who sounds very much like the Simple Minds and New Order stuff you like.” I hadn’t, but with a description like that, I had to check them out.

The “one guy” is Knoxville-Tennessee’s Brandon Biondo, and he’s been recording under the New Romantics moniker since 2013, releasing several singles and EPs along the way. He’d been following the usual cycle of recording singles and playing until COVID stopped the latter. He still had a handful of songs in various stages of ready when his mom passed in the summer of 2023. Putting together the record was initially a distraction but also a way for him to process everything.

The self-titled long player was released last October and includes previously released singles ‘Hard To Let You Go’ and ‘You Got It Right.’ Despite the gravity of the overarching themes (grief, loss, etc.), there are plenty of tight hooks and catchy synth beats. Echoes and reverb mesh nicely with jagged riffs. It’s a record that is at times expansive and others intimate, with equal respect paid to melodies and detail.

Biondo sees himself as more of a ‘singles person’1, and the record's sequencing reflects that. Opener ‘You Got It Right’ kicks things off with airy synth-pop, some sophistipop chords, and (*checks notes) bells? ‘Let You Down’ follows that and will remind some listeners of early Depeche Mode with its driving beat and BPM count. Towards the end is ‘Untitled,’ a woozy, surreal instrumental that is slightly disorienting in all the best ways.

The result is a record that is a bit coldwave, darkwave, and synthpop, with a dusting of psych-rock across the top. Lyrically, it is Biondo’s most honest work and compels you to move.

I’m obviously into 80’s Synth Pop, but I was kind of brought up on punk so there is definitely some crossover there. Bands like The Sound, Chrome, DAF, Depeche Mode, Jesus and Mary Chain, Human League, Robin Gibb, Cocteau Twins etc. I’m a real sucker for catchy songs, so I definitely am a singles type person, which is probably why my music is so all over the place.

In our wide-ranging chat, we cover the genesis of this record, his extensive gear setup, and what we all need to know about the thriving Knoxville scene (note: check out the killer list he shares below the jump).

So, with all of those influences and comparisons, what does Biondo have to say about the record? When asked, he said, ‘Honestly, I just hope that it makes [listeners] feel some kinda way.’

It does, and it will.

(Our chat has been lightly edited for clarity/flow.)

KA: Can you tell us a little bit about your backstory? What got you started playing? Are there any other bands that you are/were involved in?

BB: I started playing when I was maybe 16? I don’t totally remember, but I worked at my uncle’s music store for a summer. He used to have me polish the guitars that were hanging on the walls, and I really wanted to play bass, but my Dad told me I had to learn guitar first, so they scrounged up and bought me an acoustic guitar. It was a Seagull; I actually still play it.

My family on my Dad’s side were all musicians, though, so I think it was just always around me growing up. I’ve played in a lot of bands over the years, like Royal Bangs and COOLRUNNINGS, and I have some other kind of side project things like Walsh, but New Romantics has been my main focus for quite some time now.

KA: Congrats on the new record! Your work was sold to me as “very much like the Simple Minds and new order stuff [I] like.” I can hear a lot of different bands here. Who(or what) influenced the sound?

BB: This question is pretty hard to answer for me because I think everything influences me in one way or another. I’m obviously into 80’s Synth Pop, but I was kind of brought up on punk so there is definitely some crossover there. Bands like The Sound, Chrome, DAF, Depeche Mode, Jesus and Mary Chain, Human League, Robin Gibb, Cocteau Twins etc. I’m a real sucker for catchy songs, so I am a singles-type of person, which is probably why my music is so all over the place.

KA: Is it correct that it’s just you performing? What sort of setup are you using?

BB: I’m working out a live band but I keep saying yes to every show coming my way these days and end up having to practice the solo stuff because I hadn’t for so long since the pandemic. So, eventually, there will be a live band, but right now, I feel like I’m going through so much new material and trying to figure out how to make it work at all that I’m kind of plotting my live set in a way that can be performed solo or with a band. It’s actually quite complicated and I don’t know that it’s interesting to anyone but me, but the last couple of times I had played out before playing out again recently I had switched to an all hardware setup using an Octatrack as the brain of the set. Looking back now, I’m not really sure why I was so adamant about not using a computer.

The set I’ve worked out now ditches the Octa, and I’ve gone back to Ableton and an OB6 + Prophet 6 and an Ableton Push 2. There are some pretty crazy things going on in my live set right now. If any nerds are reading, I truly hope I’m explaining this in a way that makes sense. I’ve got about 14 songs in a live set ready to go and am using the Push in usermode to turn songs on or off and start/stop them. I use the top row to play a scene that has tempo/time signature info, and it has these clips that send program changes to my synths. Each column is a different song. So the pad right underneath that is what plays the backing tracks.

My synths have local midi turned off, so there might be 4-5 instruments on one keyboard spread across the keybed, and the OB6 might actually only control the OB6 on the bottom octave and have a mix of software and the Prophet at the higher octave.

It’s totally whacky, honestly, and a lot of it only makes sense to me. Some single notes play chords, etc.

I’m actually quite enjoying being back in ableton because I’ve been using it so long at this point that I just don’t think any of this stuff would be possible on hardware and if it was it would just be so ridiculously expensive and extra. It’s also a lot easier to translate a recorded song to something to perform live when you are working in the same environment.

KA: For anyone coming to your music for the first time, what do you want them to take away from it? For fans of your previous work, what should they expect?

BB: Honestly, I just hope that it makes them feel some kinda way. This stuff is pretty personal, and when I hear how someone else has interpreted it and how it meant something to them in such a different way than where my head was writing it, it is so crazy to me. I love to hear that from people.

Sometimes songs take on different meanings to me after hearing another viewpoint. There were things I didn’t really understand until I got an outside perspective from someone who didn’t feel obligated to just say, “Good job.”

I appreciate anyone who takes the time to listen to it because I know there are a billion people out there screaming for your attention. I don’t really go out of my way to scream at people like that. In some ways, I want to stay hidden, and hopefully, someone will discover it and just be pleasantly surprised.

I think there are still a lot of people out there who think I just stopped making music after Coolrunnings ended. I get messages from time to time about why I stopped making music and I always say that I didn’t, I just started calling it something else. It can be frustrating at times that people have such an attachment to this old stuff because, to my ears, a lot of it just isn’t that good, but I guess that’s kind of the pain of being an artist. A lot of the time, people will be into something that you look back on and cringe.

KA: Knoxville is not exactly a music mecca, let alone a place people might think of for synthpop. What’s the scene like there? For anyone that might find themselves in town, who should they be checking out?

BB: There’s a lot of really great music here. I’d argue against the idea that it isn’t a music mecca, and I apologize in advance for trying to prove that statement wrong lol. The problem with Knoxville is not that it isn’t a mecca so much as it is the people making truly great music don’t record and release music in the same fashion most artists do outside of here. There are some for sure, but in my experience, we’ve got a lot of incredible music that most people will never hear because most musicians around here aren’t as concerned with pushing their music or social media as much. Knoxville can feel like a bit of a black hole, and sometimes it feels like Knoxville makes music for Knoxville.

There’s a venue here in town called the Pilot Light, and many musicians around here consider it home. They have all kinds of shows/events and focus on more obscure/experimental types of music. A lot of bands from out of town also consider it home too. When the crowd responds positively to an out-of-town band, it’s almost like they become locals, too, in a way. I can’t tell you how many bands I’ve met through the years that always have to come back and play it, even if they’ve gotten bigger.

There are many different kinds of groups/projects locally that are drastically different from each other right now, and it’s not unusual to go out and see any one of them playing together on a show while still being quite very different from each other.

I’m going to put some links here so people can check some out because just mentioning them doesn’t do them justice.

Carry Ripple is somewhere in the kinda 2020’s version of southern Pavement. I don’t know that Carter would agree with that assessment, but that’s my opinion. There’s some more electronic aspects of this stuff, but it’s more in the ways the guitars are affected.

Everlastingness is the solo project of Bishop Martin, who also plays in Rat Punch. This stuff is wild, again, this is just my opinion, but I’d say this is like experimental post metal. I don’t know that Bishop would agree with me at all about this, and tbh, I don’t know much about metal, but this stuff is very unique.

Cave Deco are a band I haven’t gotten to see live yet, but I’m playing with them next month, and they fucking rip. Just really great Synth Punk. I feel like it’s really lazy to compare them to the Screamers, but if you like the idea of a more chaotic Screamers, this is your favorite Knoxville band.

Attic Eyes are like Knoxville’s no. 1 pure trad goth band. These guys fucking rip, and they are all incredibly sweet people. Adam (the singer) also plays in another electronic band called Horcerer, which is also a local favorite. One thing I love about this band is they aren’t doing that low-register Ian Curtis shit that literally every goth band does anymore.

FKA Ice is someone I had been trying to see for years and I finally got to catch her set at this thing we set up during the last day of Big Ears this year. Her music is hard to describe without feeling like I’m not explaining it right, but it’s somewhere between Laurel Halo and that Yin Yang Twins song with the whispering. Her music is so unique that you should ignore my explanation and check it out.

Glad I Didn’t Get My Stupid Wish are a two-piece, and they go so hard. This is one of the best live bands around here right now. Somewhere between Synth Punk / Experimental / Poetry. Some of this stuff is just so polarizing. I fucking love it. They both build pedals for a living at Hologram Electronics, so they probably had a hand in building all those pedals you see in those YouTube videos with succulents and synthesizers.

Escort Mission is a two-piece improvisational self-described “EBM / Horror Synth / Harsh Electronics.” Their Bandcamp is kind of barren, but if you are ever in town and they are playing, you should definitely check them out.

Plague Summer is a project by Cameron from Escort Mission and Parking Lot Funeral. Again, just my interpretation, but it’s Hyperpop / Glitch / Emo / Noise. I imagine this is what ADHD translated into audio sounds like, and I don’t mean that offensively. It’s addictive.

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but I just wanted to share some local artists.

KA: What does the rest of 2024 look like for you?

BB: I’m playing a lot of shows. Covid really fucked up all my plans with music, and I really went through a huge shift in my life, losing my Mom last year, and am just now starting to play again. So hopefully a lot more shows and maybe another EP/album. I haven’t fully decided, but a lot of the music is done already. I think I’ve got about 30 minutes of newer music; I’m just not sure if this will be focused in one direction or if it will be another weird one where the songs are all over the place.

The New Romantics | The New Romantics, 2023

Click on the record to listen on your platform of choice.

RIYL: Cold Cave, Hibou, Depeche Mode, Simple Minds, (early) New Order

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1. Describe your music style in one sentence.

Music to drive to a dead-end job.

2. What music played in your house(s) growing up?

My Mom was always listening to lots of Fleetwood Mac, Janet Jackson, Led Zeppelin, Don Henley, and Pink Floyd. Nothing really too interesting. My Dad was always listening to more musicians type music like Al Jareau and Tower of Power type stuff. He was a musician himself, so I heard a lot of him playing. He was an amazing drummer/percussionist so I was always tagging along to his gigs.

3. What are you listening to these days?

Cruel Blue, Kontravoid, Glistener, Front 242, Sally Dige, Units, The Mob, Clan of Xymox, Chronophage, etc.

4. What are your 5 Desert Island Discs?

The Sound - Jeopardy
The Slits - Cut
Neon Indian - Psychocasms
John Berenzy Group - Vice Verses / Chain Reaction
Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy

5. If you could collaborate with any artist/band, who would it be?

Depeche Mode, but 80’s to early 90’s DM. I’m semi-terrible at collaboration, and I think they’d probably laugh me out of the room, though.

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