In Bed With: The Roofer's Union
INTERVIEW by KATIE HEINS
ILLUSTRATIONS by PETER HOPKINS
(Left to Right: Josh, Gustavo, Travis, and Jake. Missing: Artur)
On a snowy day in late February, NYC band, The Roofer’s Union invited us into their manager’s cozy East Village apartment. Ready for the theme in flannel pajamas and ponchos, Travis, Jake, Gustavo, and Josh hopped into a twin bed with mac & cheese and mimosas in hand. In a room covered in trinkets from every corner of New York that matched their quirky personalities, Roofer's gave us an inside look into their psychedelic music videos, strange rhyming combinations, and lyrical inspirations.
Travis, the lead singer, writes most of the music. He finds mystifying words in almost everything around him, sometimes with no intention of making sense. The music video for their song, Man Kills God, Man Creates Dinosaur, takes gaming to a whole new level with an underground arena for Mario Kart, while Melt’s music video is one that speaks for itself, as two of the subjects cover each other in spoiled food in Central Park. The band agreed that this song defined them with it’s refusal to be anything but ordinary. Check out our full interview with the anything but extraordinary boys below.
POND: How did you guys all meet?
TRAVIS: I guess I met Jake...
JOSH: and that's it. And I don't know you guys.
JAKE: Well, actually I met Josh during orientation. No one ever remains friends with the people they meet at orientation...
JOSH: The only reason why I approached him was because we were introducing ourselves and we were talking about our majors and he said, "Yeah, I like playing guitar." And so after introducing ourselves and we're walking around the city, I walked up to him and I said, "Oh, wait, you like guitar? Cause I kinda - I know how to - we should hang out."
GUSTAVO: I went to high school with our bassist.
TRAVIS: We all met in college.
JOSH: You went to college?! Me too!
TRAVIS: And the rest is history...
JOSH: Can we say that like five more times in this interview? "AND THE REST IS HISTORY." Every time we say that we should look into the camera.
POND PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Josh, I'm sorry your tagline didn't make the final cut. No hard feelings, you're hilarious, and the rest is obviously history. <3 Rachel
POND: What is your favorite performance so far?
JOSH: I think when I saw you guys play when I was in the audience at I think it was your first show at Shea. It was really loud.
JAKE: That's how you know it's good, when it's loud.
JOSH: I think my favorite time playing though was at Arlene's. There was no one in the crowd -
GUSTAVO: But the sound was really good.
TRAVIS: Yeah, I really enjoyed it. But obviously nobody else did.
GUSTAVO: I really liked the crowd we played to at Wesleyan, because everyone was just so into it.
JAKE: I think the craziest we ever had was that one time at Muchmore's where it was completely overcrowded. There were so many people in that room though that it was incredibly - like 100 degrees in there. It was ridiculous.
POND: If you had to pick a song to define you guys, what would you pick?
JOSH: Right off the bat, "Photograph" by Nickelback. My favorite line is "look at this photograph, every time I look at this photograph, it" - What is it? "Makes me laugh?"
TRAVIS: No, that's not it.
JAKE: Our songs?
ALL: Oh! OUR songs!
GUSTAVO: I thought you were joking this whole time.
JOSH: Wow, this mac & cheese, we've had a lot...
TRAVIS: Maybe "Melt."
JAKE: Maybe "Invisible Cameras."
GUSTAVO: Yeah, I like "Invisible Cameras" and "Godzillas does Dallas."
TRAVIS: If you took every song, layered it on top of each other...
JOSH: And the rest is history... "Melt" is classic. It's one of my favorite music videos- of all time.
JAKE: We had one of the best music videos OF ALL TIME.
JOSH: We said that. We said it first.
