Getting to Know… Stereo Off

Reading Time: 6 min read

**On the 155^th edition of the Getting to Know… series, we interview the intriguing, Brooklyn-based, three-piece band, Stereo Off.**

Who is 🎙 Stereo Off – “that is the question!” So, why not let the band answer! “Stereo Off is a crew of dark hearts, all from very different musical and family backgrounds, with the energy of New York City fueling our passion as kindred spirits.” COOL 🤘! The three-piece band, comprised of 🎙 Sebastian Marciano (lead vocals), 🎙 Bridget, and 🎙 Niall are the interviewees on the 155^th edition of our Getting to Know…series. What an honor it is to continue to host such an incredible assortment of musicians on our platform. So, without further ado, here is 🎤 Getting to Know…Stereo Off: Interview #155!

Starting things off right, for those who may not be familiar with Stereo Off, what would you say makes your band distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

🎤 Stereo Off is a crew of dark hearts, all from very different musical and family backgrounds, with the energy of New York City fueling our passion as kindred spirits. We got together after being mentored by legends in so many different genres and it makes this mashup of sounds that much more important to us. We guess it is because we’re not just influenced by these things, we were trained by them and lived in the places they were born. So we carry that energy to the crowd to make a new, shared world that we can exist in with the audience, and that is reality and mystery coming together and making something beautiful.

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Stereo Off form and what were some of the goals or the visions you had as a band early on?

🎤 Niall had come from the UK indie scene a few years prior and met Sebastian in New York City through mutual friends and going to shows. Sebastian started moving away from hip-hop and producing a solo rock project, and he went about recruiting players to find Niall was into developing the project as well. We got 🎙 Darren Jones on drums, a previous coworker who trained in jazz and recording at Fredonia, along with 🎙 Steve on guitar who we knew from university. Bridget and Sebastian had been dating for a while, and although classically trained in strings she jumped in on keyboards to have some fun and add legit synths in the live set, eventually adding violin and taking over lead guitar. Early on, we just wanted to get the pieces together and struggled a lot with our personal sensibilities. Like what tones and styles were appropriate for the vibes of the songs and what genres each person wanted to build into the sound. The tracks were coming together in a way we liked, and the immediate goal was to put an EP together, an overall plan Niall came up with to release three EPs, and then an album if it was going right. These would all be separate themes with minimal artwork and five songs each, which we did and developed different styles along the way.

Let’s talk more about goals. Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

🎤 Our perspectives on what exactly in life is valuable or necessary have shifted a bit since the pandemic, as they have for a lot of people on earth right now. In simple logistics of course we changed focus when it comes to live shows and collaborating with friends; so many great music venues have closed worldwide. This is why it’s so important for fans, artists, and owners to band together as a community and help clubs that support the creators, so we all have a place to go back to and be together. In every place, there are spots that need some love, and right now a passion of ours is sharing the message in helping donate to Bowery Ballroom, Bowery Electric and Bowery presents. This is an ecosystem of several key venues in New York City that make a lot of your favorite big shows happen, while also booking newer bands and giving burgeoning artists opportunities. Here’s a GoFundMe for that effort headed up by Ryan Costigan and all the amazing people who work to put on concerts throughout the city and beyond.

Our own goals in creating have simply expanded, which include film scoring, sound design, game and multimedia audio, all of which we engage in activities and we really want to pour it on even more. A new fun vibe will be to press and distribute Vinyl, cassettes and physical medium, along with overseas licensing to lend our vibes to productions that we are fans of. Overall, we want to continue honing our art and our sound to share it with you.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

🎤 This question is always tough… there are so many different favorites and influences. Lots of classics like Depeche Mode, The Cure, The Clash, Prince, Sadé, Hall & Oates, Kenny Loggins, Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke…the list is endless. But the nuance is important: we love synthwave, dance music, and hip-hop, and all the sub-genres we grew up on, which artists like Miami Horror, Neon Indian, DJ Shadow, and so many others have channeled from their own influences of the same old-school genres. So that 20aughts era is heavy for us and it all ties together. OutKast has influenced our lives as much as Fleetwood Mac. Niall and Bridget were on the scene at the pinnacle of drum & bass, while they were playing punk and classical, while Sebastian was reveling in DJ Premiere’s classics, so there’s a big window we look out of and see a huge cast of creators that inspire us.

Ah, the fun stuff. What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance? Feel free to be creative.

🎤 Anything in the lane of ‘that band was out of control’ we don’t really do. We like to party a lot but we’re professionals and overall pretty chill. Puffy’s party at Foxwoods was pretty epic and Sebastian yelled at randoms to stop taxing the minibar because we were comped and didn’t want to insult the hosts. Nothing bad happened. Some heroic saves are fun memories for sure too; one of our first big shows in Brooklyn, our stage synth ripped through the case while we were running for the train. There goes all your lead melody…Sebastian showed up at the venue like., ‘I broke it’ so, Bridget took all the parts she was about to play on that synth and translated them to violin during soundcheck, we did the show, and it was fantastic.

Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

🎤 The track 🎵 “Sunsetting” from the previous EP is one of our favorites, both recorded and live. That’s where we really committed to synthesizers and post-punk vibes combined and bringing in one of our mentors on saxophone was perfect; 🎙 Jim McElewaine really solidified the aesthetic and the shows we wrapped around it. 🎵 “Bullet Time” is also special in our hearts because it was a simple, fun track that had deep meaning in the lyrics. It was our first real production jam, and we had a blast making the video.

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

🎤 This isn’t a rare thing for our generation but most of us are gamers. We don’t have time to play often but when we do it’s not casual, it’s a lifelong passion, and so we’ve all written music themes and scores for video games. PC, console, whatever, we love it all.

Closing things out, what is Stereo Off currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure.

🎤 We just released the first single to kick off the new album. 🎵 “Runnin’” is a love song about contention and re-connection and something we just wanted to dance to on a NuDisco vibe. The next single is about to drop mid-December and it’s a protest song. Our country is not what we want it to be and our marginalized communities are being murdered. None of us were born rich and we’re not sympathetic to hatred in any measure. Our friends and families are all colors and LGBTQ+ so we’re not hearing any both-sides garbage from anyone. Otherwise, fuck around and find out…

Beyond that we’re about to engage a huge project with one of our favorite creators of all time, but we are not able to share details yet until it’s about to launch. For clues, you can check out WickedCow media and their “It’s All in Your Head” books and speaker series. Very excited to also do some live streaming shows, as well as New York City Parks outdoors, where our awesome friends are all playing music very far apart on stage.

Winter is coming, but we have holiday presents for you. Come stream some tracks, or hang out with us online when you’re up late:

INSTA: https://www.instagram.com/stereooff/

TWEET: https://www.twitter.com/stereooff

STREAM: https://stereooff.bandcamp.com/

LOVE: https://open.spotify.com/track/2o7as7Dlb4d5RIZC5JwPxx?si=715bMkz5RBOLpZEKMfmV0w

MAYBE: https://www.facebook.com/Stereo.Off

EPK/WEBSITE: https://www.stereooff.com

Thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward.

🎤 Thanks for having us on, stay righteous out there.