Fritzleschats

Interview by Alex Kasel

Editing by Alex Kasel

Photography by Alex Kasel and Jeanne Bransbourg

Connor is wearing a new order love album on his t-shirt, which in his opinion is the best album. Connor studies film at SUNY Purchase.
Nax wears a shirt from a bike race at a local college. He studies music at Purchase and works at a bike shop.

How did you guys meet?
Connor: Andy and I met in my journalism class in fall 2021. He was like “Yo, what’s up, I heard you play guitar, you should pull up,” so I pulled up. We started making music in the spring. Then I met Nax at a friend’s apartment. I ran into him in the stairwell later and asked him if he wanted to play drums with us.

What instruments do you each play?
Nax: little guitar, little piano, mostly drums
Connor: bass and guitar
Andy: drums and guitar bass keyboard
A: Nax can vouch I’m cracked at drums, right Nax?
N: You’re alright. Haha. You helped me do my checks last time we were recording, remember?
A: I did indeed.

What roles do you each play?
A: Nax is like Lucifer, Clynch is like an angel, and I’m an archangel.
N: You’re in between, yeah. But in musical terms, Connor honestly writes a lot of lyrics, and Andy and I come in with musical stuff, but Andy also writes, and while the writing is happening they’ll be in the background messing around and figuring chords out. I do the recording.
A: When we first met Nax we’d come with a bunch of songs ready and rehearse with him and have him make his own part, but now it’s more collaborative.
N: We do what’s suited to our talents, but also have a hand in everything sometimes. I find bands that have a sole writer that controls everything can become a little limiting, so I like that we all participate on that level.
A: Now it's more collaborative come with a song basically kind of complete and then tweak it
C Yeah the only reason we have that song is cause nax liked what i was playing on my guitar I'm kind of sloppy putting it together
N I find bands that have a sole writer that controls everything can become alittle limiting, i like that we all participate on that level Andy is kind of like our manager and gets us gigs
N I know a lot of people at school, they know a lot of people outside of school

Being from New York, how do you all feel about it ?
N: I love New York because it's my home, but I’m less of a city person; I’m from Buffalo. Though it’s pretty cool and I’m kind of a warm weather person.
C: I love New York and getting to be a part of it. I love playing gigs and exploring all its corners, like, we have a gig in Long Island today
N: Yeah it's cool there's a lot of little places you can discover that you wouldn’t know existed. There’s also a tight-knit community of all the local bands. I haven’t really met a band that isn’t connected to another band I know somehow.
A: I have family and friends everywhere, so no matter where I am I never feel alone. You’ve got to know the spots to chill, have fun.
N: I learn something new everytime I go in. Andy takes us around and is kind of like our tour guide.
A: I’m from Yonkers but I went to school in Washington Heights and 14th st. So I had both sides of the city and Yonkers.

Do you have a favorite gig you’ve played?
N:The monarch was fun because the live sounds were great and the venue was cool, but I really liked how we played at the synagogue in Jersey.
A: The sound was crazy that day. I feel like my voice was so loud, but the crowd was good.
N: It was some semi-religious club that used the space for music events. But that was kind of the gig where we really realized we were a band.
C: Someone from that show messaged us afterwards asking about one of our songs, Sleeptalk, which was really cool. Also we went to Holstons from the Sopranos before we went there which was dope. I got a T-shirt.

What kind of influences do you have?
C: I’m influenced by film and literature and other things, pop culture. Whatever is in my life at the moment, I kind of like name dropping, like the Game of Thrones reference in HBO, because I was watching so much Game of Thrones when I had covid around that time. There’s one song we haven’t finished where I make a Macbeth reference, which could sound kind of pretentious, but I think it’s cool. I like storytelling. Like in Sam's dog.

Can you talk more about Sam's dog?
C: It’s about the serial killer Son of Sam, who’s from yonkers. Andy and I wanted to make a song about it because in our journalism class one time our professor brought it up and was talking about his house. I don’t know why, and since Andy lives in Yonkers we decided to go visit it, and then were inspired to make the song. We did research into it and wrote it from the perspective of David Berkowitz, who is the serial killer, and they called him son of Sam because his neighbor was Sam but this neighbor had a dog, and when Berkowitz pleaded insanity he said that this dog told him to do the killings. We thought that was such a silly alibi and wanted to emphasize that. It’s a pretty happy sounding song with dark lyrics.
N: Andy and connors music that they make and listen to is completely different from mine so it was an interesting opportunity to put myself in a different space and listen to some of the music they were trying to emulate and mess around with my own style to find a sound that fits what they're writing. I was hesitant at first, I didn't know how serious it was gonna be. Like, I pulled up to the first practice and there were like 12 people in the room, only me connor and andy were playing music, but eventually I fell in love with it.

Influences?
A: What I'm into at the moment that really drives me, aspects of Lou Barlow dinosaur jr, the smiths, alex g, 90s indie rock, and Led zeppelin.
A: If there’s a band we all love it’s arctic monkeys. Alex Turner's songwriting is so witty.
C: We’re suckers for a good melody. We love some doo-wop.
N: People might call us indie rock but I don’t think that really encompasses all we do. It’s kind of fluid. So much music can’t be put into a box.
C: Slacker rock. Surf. Country hints. We haven’t really done any blues.


What’s next for fritz?
N: We are trying to release more music next year.
A: Nax is an insane producer.

And the name?
C: Fritz the Cat by Robert Crumb. I like fucked up characters. He’s cute and furry but a devious little shit. So we made it plural and french and it just stuck. There’s a scene in the movie where he’s talking shit about intellectual bullshit and chaos and ineffective change and then he burns down NYU, haha. Like, over the top, but a portrayal of a disgruntled college student that wants to do more with their life and keeps failing, so instead of actually doing something that means anything he’s just going further down the rabbit hole of shitty decisions. I think that’s a cool vibe to apply to multiple people. Like, we can all burn down NYU. I’m kidding. But there’s such an interesting tension between being stagnant and that hyperbolic imagination. Creative acts like music have always been a medium to express what’s hard to say, or what you feel maybe shouldn’t be said. Not all our music is definitively about that, but that’s what the name brings for me.

Andy you’re in two bands; how is juggling that?
A: “It’s easy,” he jokes. “Actually nah, it’s kind of tough. It can be kind of difficult getting everyone to communicate and coordinate practices. You get used to it though. It’s a little easier to manage with Fritz since we’re just a three-piece. We’re able to vibe and jam without it taking too much effort for everyone to focus and get on the same page.