Never Coming Home - Sound In The Signals Interview
I recently had the opportunity to interview Anthony Hefler of Never Coming Home. We discussed how they formed the band, writing and recording new song “Nevermind”, the potential for more new music, releasing cassettes, and more. Check it out below.
First, thanks for the interview.
Thank you so much for having us!
Can you tell me how you formed the band for those who may be unfamiliar with it? How did you initially become interested in music?
Well forming the band was a pretty funny story actually! All 3 of us met at School Of Rock Seekonk at different times in our lives and had kept up on social media a bit. Aidan ended up posting a guitar riff on his story while he was at a hospital in Delaware and, despite the fact I was already in a band at that time, I messaged him saying we should start a project. He mentioned he had briefly discussed starting a project with Merritt, but hadn't talked to him in a while. Then about 2 weeks later as fate would have it, I ran into Merritt at a gig! We discussed it before the gig, and then when the band went on I ended up crowd surfing and kicking Merritt in the face! So it was safe to say from then on we'd be lifelong band members! We always say the day that NCH officially started was March 31st of 2019, so we've coined March 31 as Never Coming Home day!
Your new song “Nevermind” is out March 10th. Can you tell me about writing and recording the song?
Well we've actually been sitting on this song for a while now. It's been kind of our secret weapon... a great pop punk song that no one could hate! Seriously though, our older songs were songs we had written in high school that we feel don't necessarily represent us anymore. They were good songs, don't get me wrong, but we can do better.... MUCH better. And we're gonna prove that to everyone this year! Nevermind was one of the last songs we wrote coming out of high school that I think is a good sort of split between the old stuff and the new stuff. It still has the huge chorus and fun 2000s pop punk vibe you've come to expect from us, but also shows how far we've come and our maturity as songwriters transitioning out of high school and into.... well, into life! This single is sort of a bridge between our old sound as much as it is a goodbye to our teenage years. And later in the year you'll see what's on the other side of that bridge.
Do you have a favorite lyrical or musical moment from it? Why?
I mean I’m personally a big fan of the epic high note in the last chorus. And of course the “baby's first breakdown” at the end. I like getting a little bit heavier, it’s way more fun to play live and you can really see the audience reaction when we have heavier moments.
I had a chance to listen to the song and I really like the way the guitar sounds on it. What guitar did you use and how long did you work on it?
I can't remember if I used my Godin Exit 22, my Music Man, or the new Reverend Double Agent (Yes, that WAS a humble brag about how sick my guitars are). The guitar in the cover of the song is the Reverend! As for how long we worked on the song, it was actually written and finished I believe in 2021, we just hadn't recorded it until last summer! But anyone who has seen us post-COVID has 100% heard us play the song!
Do you have more new music coming up? Is there any chance that we’ll hear an EP or album this year?
Maybe an EP, maybe an album, who knows anymore? I don't wanna jump the gun on saying anything cause we've made so many plans for music releases that have fallen through... but anyone who knows me also knows I cannot help but spill the beans on anything we're working on! What I will say for now is there is an EP recorded entirely, and an album in early pre-production. I don't know if you'll hear any recorded album material this year, but I can tell you there is an EP that will be coming eventually this year. And with how early album stuff is now, it could turn out to be 2 EPs, or 20 singles, or it could just never be released. I can't predict the future!
You had a cool cassette tape giveaway. Was the cassette limited to 5 copies? What inspired you to do that?
Well we originally bought them to use as the single cover! We ended up getting the picture back from a house show though and just knew we had to use one for the cover, so I figured, why not use these tapes for promo? So some people get to hear the song early, have a cool collectible, AND get access to an otherwise unreleased song! The B-side of that tape is an entirely finished mixed and mastered song from our older sessions that we decided wasn't a good fit to be released on its own. But of course, we did pay for the song and it is finished so we wanted to put it somewhere. I figured it'd be a nice thank you to everyone for supporting us and joining the mailing list, so I added it to the tape!
The tape featured the new single and an unreleased song. What can you tell me about the unreleased song?
The song is called Never Really There! It was recorded alongside all our high school tracks like Coffins, South Station and Feel Nothing. It isn't a bad song by any means, but like I said before, those songs just don't represent us anymore. So while we did put all that work into it and pay to have it completely finished, it would feel disingenuous to us as artists to release it, and disingenuous to our listeners to mass release a product we don't fully believe can stand on its own two feet. But it is still a piece of Never Coming Home history, so I figured it'd be nice to give some people access to this relic of the past! As of right now we have no plans to release the song on streaming, but things can always change in the future! Maybe someday we’ll revisit it or send it to our mailing list. As of right now though, only the 5 tape owners will have access to that song for the foreseeable future.
Is there any chance that you’ll release more cassettes or was this meant to be a very limited run?
I'm a big cassette collector so I've been pushing for tapes for a LOOOONG time! It just didn't seem like a good investment till now. I mean we didn't have an EP, only singles, and let's face it, there's no one buying tapes as much as vinyl or streaming. And vinyl is expensive! Now that people have shown interest though, I'd love to do an actual tape release of the new EP! We're definitely gonna get Wyatt to help with that when the time comes. If you ever need tapes pressed in New England hit up Wyatt from Plastyc Peachez! He was the one who helped us with these tapes.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else that you would like to add?
Well of course I'd like to thank you for having us! And I'd also like to say to keep your eye on our socials, and follow our mailing list this year, because we'll be doubling up on content and song releases. The EP is coming, and if all goes to plan.... the album is coming! So keep your eyes peeled!
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