Today queer, all-female/non-binary rockers Razor Braids released a brand-new video for “Nashville, Again.” The video captures the quartet recording (or, rather, re-recording) the track in Jake Cheriff’s Brooklyn studio. The song, which dropped earlier this month, is a reworking of the Brooklyn band’s very first single, “Nashville”, which dropped in March of 2020. The new rendition of the song is a stripped-down, Americana-friendly take on the power-poppy garage tune.
During a recent phone chat with lead vocalist and bassist Hollye Bynum, lead guitarist Janie Peacock, rhythm guitarist and vocalist Jilly Karande, and drummer Hannah Nichols (Yes, that’s all four of them!), they tell me this reworking (which was released alongside their sunshine punk cover of Weezer’s “Buddy Holly”) was an effort to continue putting out music, while busy working on a bigger release: “We released our first album a little over a year ago, and we’re working on a lot of new material, maybe an album’s worth of material. And that takes some time to make, but we wanted to get some stuff out in the meantime… So, we took this older release and put our new spin on it, our new vibe.”
The band tell me that the sound of “Nashville, Again” is certainly in the direction of their new music, which is a little emotionally heavier, and less sonically playful than the music found on I Could Cry Right Now If You Wanted Me To, their 2021 debut LP: “With our new material, we definitely challenged ourselves individually to write things that are a bit more intimate, and our lyrics mean a lot… not that they weren’t always meaningful [laughs], but there’s an intellectual vibe to the songs.” And while discussing some of their favorite albums (Hannah cites Cate Le Bon’s Pompeii, Hollye mentions Jessica Lea Mayfield’s Make My Head Sing, and Janie brings up Pixies’ Trompe Le Monde), Janie admits to still getting to know the kinds of artists who are likely influencing their latest sounds: “We’ve shifted our vibe a little bit, and we have some folk influences, but I don’t know that I’ve caught up to be able to name any of those kinds of influences yet [laughs].”
Last year Razor Braids took the sounds of I Could Cry Right Now If You Wanted Me To on the road for the first time, which they tell me was a big moment for the band: “We’re really DIY, so just to get that together was really great.” Although they tell me that their dates certainly had some individual highlights as well. “When we played Music Hall of Williamsburg last August, that was a highlight. That’s a venue we’ve wanted to play forever,” says Janie. Unfortunately, while the group did play a Philadelphia date at The Pharmacy, that particular show did not prove to be one of their most inspiring moments: “Everything that could’ve gone wrong went wrong. Two of the openers got COVID [laughs].”
However, Razor Braids kick off more than a month of dates at the end of next month, which includes a February 24th show at MilkBoy, which they assure me will prove to be a much better experience than their last stop here: “Philly was the first stop of our tour. We definitely rolled up chaotic, and are excited to roll up less chaotic this time [laughs].” “We’re really excited for Philly, Jilly went to Penn!” they tell me.
Hollye explains, “My objective for starting the band, and our community in the first place, was to create a place where people can come to the shows and feel safe, and feel validated, and listen to our songs and find a little bit of themselves in it,” before the band tells me that some of their favorite live experiences with fans are just getting to connect with a younger generation of queer and non-binary people on a personal level. However, there is something else that Razor Braids are hoping for when they’re in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection: cheesesteaks (especially if they’re Pat’s). They even tell me that they’re willing to barter with fans who help them achieve this wish: “Whoever brings us Pat’s gets free T-shirts!!!”
*Get your tickets here.
