Interview: The Menzingers - Debut New Zealand Shows

Hailing from Scranton, Pennsylvania and now based in Philadelphia, The Menzingers are finally bringing their soaring punk anthems to Aotearoa next month for headline dates in Tāmaki Makaurau and Pōneke — long-delayed shows that were first announced back in 2019. Touring their eighth studio album Some Of It Was True, The Menzingers guitarist / vocalist Greg Barnett had a spirited chat with Chris Cudby covering the group's endless quest to play in NZ, how recording their new long player shook out the creative cobwebs, and the ongoing political turmoil in the US. Both winter events have been moved to larger capacity venues due to fan demand, grab tickets while you can and read on...

The Menzingers
Tuesday 20th August - San Fran, Wellington w/ Mall Goth
Wednesday 21st August - Double Whammy, Auckland w/ Edible
Tickets on sale HERE via UTR

Chris Cudby: It’s actually been five years since you guys announced the tour, which is quite crazy. That’s really great commitment, sticking with it the whole way. Dialling it right back — your shows were announced for just when the lockdowns came in.

Greg Barnett: It was insane. The experience of Australia, New Zealand, on that trip was one of the craziest experiences of my entire life. We flew over to Australia, by the time we landed things were moving so fast that every day our family would be like, "You guys gotta get home. This is really really bad". But it wasn't hitting Australia yet really. The pubs were packed and everything was fine. We were like, "I don’t know, it’s kind of okay here". Then a couple more days went by and we were like, "This is really bad, we gotta get home". Then we were supposed to fly to New Zealand. At this point, we were like, “I don’t know if we should be doing this. No we have two more shows, let’s get to New Zealand and then by the time we get home, sure we won’t get to play shows anymore".

Then the country locked down. We couldn’t fly to New Zealand. We just had to book flights for the next morning, we just flew out immediately. We landed in LAX and it was like post-apocalyptic chaos. No one knew anything about it. I watched this guy sit next to me and I’m like, "What is happening?" We were at a bar getting cheeseburgers and he had rubber gloves on, he was eating his food with rubber gloves... It was wild.

Has that experience had a ripple effect through your projects and the releases that you've ended up making, from that time onwards?

Yeah — we’ve always been a band where we've had a pretty regular workflow of going on tour, having a month off, going on tour, have a couple months off. We were off for a year and a half, then you’d go back. That first year back was really difficult too, because it was really hard not to get sick. You'd get sick or a crew member would get sick, you’d have to leave them at a hotel room for two weeks. You'd travel on and you're testing everyday. It was really complicated to tour. It changed the whole dynamic of the release structure. Because we had this time off and we couldn't get together and we couldn't really write music. Then we got back and everybody wanted to see live music. But by that point, we had an album out for two and half years we never got to tour on, so we toured on that. It was odd, I’m glad it’s over. I’m glad we're on the other side. Now we can kind of tour normally, write music together.

This tour in New Zealand, there’s almost four releases (out since the shows were first announced)…

I know [laughs]. Hello Exile had just come out and we were supposed to tour New Zealand. So we did a whole album cycle on that, we did the acoustic record (2020's From Exile), I did a solo record (2022's Don't Go Throwing Roses In My Grave). Now we have a new album out (Some Of It Was True), so there's been a lot of music released in between. New Zealand definitely feels like unfinished business for us — we were like, "We have to get back". It just feels like there's this special thing about going there. We've heard so much about the Whammy Bar and all the people have been so nice, who we've been talking to.

Yeah they're super cool. It’s run by people who are in touring punk bands as well.

Nice! That’s awesome. Only heard the best things from them and other bands that have went there. We've heard really good things about Wellington as a city and we’re really excited about that. It’s the highlight of the trip for sure.

During this 2019 to 2024 period, you guys did a tenth anniversary version of your album On The Impossible Past. I’m always interested in... revisiting works from earlier in the career. Ten years is a midpoint between still feeling recent, but also distant at the same time?

Yes, absolutely.

Two-part question — what was the experience like of revisiting those works and also will you be playing any songs from that record in New Zealand?

Basically, it was incredible. That record changed our lives. That was the record that put the band on everyone’s attention, all of sudden we started getting more shows and getting to travel more. It was incredible. So revisiting those songs, we play a lot of those songs regardless because they’re some of our biggest songs. But doing it from front-to-back was really exciting. It was really fun to flow through the album like a listener, essentially. It was fun because we were able to tell stories about the songs, it was really cool. Absolutely we will be playing songs from that album while we’re in New Zealand. They’re some of my favourite songs to play live. 'Good Things' is still probably my favourite song ever to play live. Wrote it so long ago, but it’s a blast.

Your new album that you're touring, Some Of It Was True, the spirit of that album just feels gigantic. What was it like working with producer Brad Cook at (Sonic Ranch studios in Houston, Texas)? How did you guys unlock that huge energy on that record?

We were talking with the label, they were sending over some producer ideas and we would take calls with them. We met some really amazing people that we would have made great records with, but I think we were just searching for something that we didn’t know what it was. We were waiting for someone to help us understand what that was... Brad came along and he was just feeling us out. He mainly does kind of more folk kind of stuff. He was like, “Here’s this punk band. Alright, I love The Replacements, I love Hüsker Dü, let’s hear it out.” We got along immediately and he was like, “Yeah let’s do this guys”.

So much of that philosophy was "Don’t overthink these things". I think that that was the magic of the album, where we kind of understood the essence of what the song was about. We would go track it in three or four takes and be like, "That’s it. It’s done. Don’t nitpick it. Just let it be what it is". We were in the middle of the desert. There’s nothing around. For my birthday we went and bought a BB gun and we’d drink beer and shoot cans with it in between takes. It was great. We’d just play music all the time. It was a blast, we just had a really fun time. One thing that we kept saying was, "We’re making our seventh album but we wanna make it feel like our first album". We want that excitement and that energy where you don't really know what's going to happen. I think when we do it for so long, you kind of know what's gonna happen, you know how the studio works. We went in with the wide eyes of "Okay let’s try new things". Let’s just put ourselves in environments and experiences and ways that we’re not necessarily comfortable with, but there can be magic in that.

Would you guys be already working on the next record as well, or would that be down the line?

It’s funny, because in the past I would say no. The album came out in October, it's July of the next year so it's not even a full year old. But music moves so fast now that it rubs off on me as a songwriter. The band hasn't gotten together and started writing a new album, but we’ve all been writing our own parts for the next album essentially, so I think the whole process is gonna come together a lot quicker than it traditionally does for us. Because we're just in that mindset of being creative all the time. All four of us have hard drives worth of ideas. Once the touring cycle slows down later this year, we can all pull together. I think what we learned from our last album, we are able to move a little bit quicker and be a little bit more craving-in-the-moment. Going to a studio with less, without everything being perfect and figuring it out basically.

That’s a great place to be in, at this specific point of your guys’ journey together. You kind of answered the next question that I was gonna ask you, which was — if you were to locate The Menzingers in a songwriting tradition, what might be some reference points? But you provided some, with The Replacements, Hüsker Dü and The Clash.

There’s core bands that we look up to. I would say The Clash and The Replacements are the two bands that the band is founded on. They're probably all four of our collective favourite bands. And then each person has their own thing that they love that they bring to the table that we all just form and make on our own. I love folky, from old stuff like Bob Dylan and Springsteen and Tom Petty, that kind of stuff. Tom (May) really likes electronic music, brings that element in. Eric (Keen) loves '80s proto-punk and things like that, and Joe (Godino) is more atmospheric, Band of Horses, that kind of music. We all take what we all love. Because we all love those bands together, but everybody loves them in different ways and find what we like. We try to constantly challenge each other with our songwriting.

I'm going to wildly shift gears — you guys are originally from Scranton (Pennsylvania). The president is from Scranton. What’s the mood in the street at the moment, regarding the eighty one year old guy who’s running for president? That impacts outside of the US hugely, as much as anything.

Totally. We grew up in Scranton, but we haven't lived in Scranton for like fifteen years. With that being said, all our families live there so I was just back there this weekend. There’s still Biden flags and stuff in the yard, but I would definitely say it’s not good. It’s definitely — critical moment, you need to drop out. We need to save democracy and we need to put someone in who can make sure that Trump doesn’t get in. That is for sure the mood of the country. I’m crossing my fingers that that is what happens and it's not absolute catastrophe in November. Everybody's very nervous right now that things can go drastically wrong here. Yes, Scranton kind of has that as well. They're so prideful that Biden’s from there. There's a hoagie shop called Hank’s Hoagies that we went to and got sandwiches. It's Biden's favourite shop and there's stuff all over. But I think there’s general consensus is, "Let's pass the torch. You’re too old, you can't be doing this anymore".



That makes sense. That's kind of the mood we have around here as well. I spotted you were once in a band with Adam (McIlwee) from Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, from GothBoiClique?

Yeah, we all grew up together and we were teenagers before The Menzingers formed. He started Tiger’s Jaw. We played in a ska band together with Tom from our band, his younger brother was in the band as well. That lasted for a couple years and it was a blast and we would practise in Adam’s garage. He was starting Tiger's Jaw and I was in the first band practice of Tiger’s Jaw. But I was already in The Menzingers and was kind of doing that. Adam had a good idea for what Tiger’s Jaw was gonna be and I was going in a different direction. It's been amazing to see all that success.

There’s no alternate universe where The Menzingers are like a moody emo-rap kind of band. You don’t have that in you anywhere?

I couldn't kind of see myself going down that road [laughs]. It would be interesting.

One last thing. Are you familiar with any New Zealand bands at all? I’m not putting you on the spot, I'm just curious.

I’m not, but Eric our bass player, is married to a New Zealander. She’s from Auckland and she spends a lot of time in New Zealand. He spends like a month out every year they go back. He knows a lot about New Zealand and New Zealand music, so he's been turning us on... we have a connection. They're coming over and spending another month in New Zealand after our tour. I kind of know some bands but not as much as he does.

Thank you so much for the chat. Hugely appreciate it and it sounds like these shows are selling out, you guys are gonna have a great time.

It’s gonna be a blast.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.