To be young; An interview with SKATERS

If angst was meant to be expressed during the teenage years, nobody told SKATERS' Michael Ian Cummings.

Hubbard, Cummings, Burks and Rubin.
Photo by Skyler Warren

The New York band's debut album, "Manhattan", is a New York album in sound, style and attitude. It's heavy with reminders of the city's music scene pioneers, from The Velvet Underground, to The Ramones and The Strokes. At times, the 11 tracks feel like a tour through the city that never sleeps led by Holden Caulfield.

"The common thread was New York," said Cummings on how the album took shape. "The things you discover, people you met and the things you experience."

However, Cummings added that it isn't quite a tribute to the city. The album does seem to chronicle what it's like living there, expressing both the positive and negative aspects of life in The Big Apple.

Stand out track, "To Be Young in NYC," begins with a snippet of audio, in which two women are having a conversation about their search for housing. They sound young, well off and care free. Their only complaint in the audio is that they cant decide which condo to move into. The last line of the track sums it up when Cummings sings; "You can't be who you want to become, when you're rich and young." This is one of many small audio bytes that guitarist Josh Hubbard collected on a handheld tape recorder that add to the overall theme of the album; life in New York.

"It's a real romantic city. You fall in love with it or you don't, and we definitely have love for New York," said Cummings.

SKATERS, made up of Hubbard along with Cummings on vocals, Noah Rubin on drums and Dan Burke on bass, first came to be in 2012 following the end of two bands on different coasts.

Rubin and Cummings, formerly of The Dead Trees, were living in Los Angeles while Hubbard was staying in New York following the end of his band, The Paddingtons (from the UK). The only connection that Rubin and Cummings had with Hubbard were a few mutual friends and Cummings' sister in New York.

All three had been fans of each others' previous bands, and Rubin and Hubbard had talked, but never formally met.

Just as Hubbard's stay in New York was coming to an end, he decided to take a trip out west and meet with Rubin and Cummings. With all of them eager to start a new project, they wasted no time during their first meeting.

SKATERS performing live at Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, on March 20.
Photo by Skyler Warren

"Me and Josh and Noah were sitting at a table going 'All right man, let's jam tomorrow and see if this works out,' and Josh was not having it," said Cummings.

A last minute, cross-country plane ticket might make just "jamming" seem like a waste of time.

"I had just traveled 3,000 miles to start a band. I don't want to fucking jam," said Hubbard. "I believe in what I do, and I believed in Mike as a songwriter."

After that meeting, the band packed up and moved to New York, permanently, calling in Burke from Boston to have him join the fun and help them finish mixing the few songs they had started for an EP.

If Nike were to sponsor a band, SKATERS should be first on their list. The brand's "Just Do It" tagline fits the band's mentality perfectly.

"There's that thing when you talk about doing something with people, and it's just talk," said Cummings. "With this band, it was always 'lets talk about doing something,' and then call the guy and see if he can do it."

"We'd talk about it for a second and then put it into action," Hubbard added, saying that the band was always looking to move forward with their plan.

As it turns out, all their hard work and looking forward mentality paid off. Not long after their first meeting, the band finished mixing a five song EP, "Schemers", in L.A. and released it for free on their website.

After a handful of shows, mostly around New York and some small UK tours, Warner Bros. Records picked up the band and released their debut LP "Manhattan" earlier this year.

The name SKATERS, as well as the band's taglines, "No Problem" and "Doin' it", which they print on everything from t-shirts, to lighters and hats, is meant to encompass a youth culture that has no fear of moving forward. An ideal that the band has embraced from its beginning.

Even after signing a deal to a major label, the band has been able to stick to that youth culture image. Earlier this year, the band chronicled a pizza crawl across New York, and have a series on their YouTube channel called "Getting To Know You", which follows the band as they do seemingly mundane tasks from finding parking to playing pick up games of basketball, in New York City.

SKATERS is currently on their first headline tour of the U.S., which ends on Apr. 11. in Lansing, MI before they play The Governors Ball Music Festival in New York on June 6.