You Haunted Me Last Week: Talking with Drummer Sander Bryce

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When asked to list all the Boston music projects he’s played in, Sander Bryce has to take a moment to think. Then, the answer takes a while. The former Berklee student has drummed in local favorites such as I Kill Giants, That’s Rugby, Pet Jail, People Like You, and as if that weren’t enough, he took a year off from all of them to tour with a dream pop group out of Austin, Texas called Boyfrndz

This time on the road led Byrce to contemplate taking front seat with songwriting, and when he got back to Boston in the summer of 2015, songs began taking shape for a solo project. Now, the once-local percussionist has his first full EP out under the name You Always Knew Me Last Week. It’s called HAUNTER and dominantly features the sounds of old friends from past bands woven into one 5-track reflection via audio and video. We caught up with Bryce over the phone to discuss the record and how “solo” projects can often be more collaborative than the bands that often come before them.

Allston Pudding: You’ve described yourself as less of a “producer” on this EP and more of a “curator.” Tell me more about that role.

Sander Bryce: Being a drummer and having played with all these musicians, I knew how I wanted to go about it. I knew I wanted to layer as much live instrumentation over these samples as I could, and I know I’m not the best as using a guitar or bass. I just wanted to collect the idea of playing music in the hands of other people that I’ve met over time and people that I enjoy making music with.

My biggest influence musically has always been this supergroup from the mid-2000s called The Sound of Animals Fighting, which was Anthony Green from Circa Survive, Craig Owens from Chiodos and members from RX Bandits. That project is all those individual people, but it was curated by RX Bandits’ old saxophone player named Rich Balling. He’s such a sick dude. He actually quit music to become an English Teacher.

At some point he decided to try and curate that project, and it’s a super artistic project that really had not too many expectations so it allowed him to really go in a lot of directions that a lot of musicians and bands aren’t capable of doing, what with trying to fit to a scene or whatnot. The music is super ethereal and beautiful to me, and I guess I’m just trying to capture that in my own way.

AP: That said, do you think running a solo project is easier?

SB: Well, yes and no. Especially with this project, as far as recording goes, I rely on everyone that’s a part of it to give me a little bit of their time to put their heart and soul into whatever they’re gonna play on these tracks. Then there’s going back and forth with who’s mixing it and mastering it. Zach Weeks mastered the EP. He’s the bassist of Animal Flag, but he’s also an impeccable engineer.

“I just wanted to collect the idea of playing music in the hands of other people that I’ve met over time”

I don’t know how to mix. I’m not a good engineer at all so I just depend on a lot of people to be available. As far as promoting, booking myself and being around to rehearse, I moved home to New Jersey. I don’t live in Boston anymore. I moved back with my folks in September just so that I could not pay rent and focus on everything that goes into making this thing work.

AP: How did you come upon the artist name You Always Knew Me Last Week? Was it just telling of all the past relationships that were used in the making of this project?

SB: It’s actually really funny because currently I’m in the works of changing the name. Originally, I thought of it, and it worked with the stuff I was writing at the time, but the phrase “you always new me last week” is complete nonsense. 

I said that once to a roommate of mine. I think we went to a convenience store, and I just randomly said that. I think around the same time I made a tumblr and decided to make that my tumblr name because I thought it looked cool. Then I thought, “oh, that would totally be the name of my solo project,” and when a bunch of life events catapulted me into having to write some stuff on the guitar, I ended up going with that name.

But actually, with this EP HAUNTER, something really strikes me a lot with that name “HAUNTER.” I’m thinking of changing my name to HAUNTER, which would make the EP a set-titled one. 

AP: What about this EP would make it work as a self-titled piece? What about it is telling of who you are as a solo artist?

SB: I live a lot in the past. It’s something I’ve been working on, personally, so it’s kind of the idea that a lot of things I’ve gone through that linger at the back of my head still haunt me and also that music is something that haunts you. It stays in the back of your head.

Aesthetically, I’ve always been very into the occult, black magic and whatnot. Thinking of ghosts and the paranormal has always been a thing of mine. So, I do really identify with the EP. I think it works.

AP: You have a lot of sounds on this EP. What’s your favorite one?

SB: Soundwise, a lot of the really cool stuff that I think is sick I wasn’t really responsible for. Like, at the end of “Reflect” and during all of “Sunbath,” Emperor X used what I think is called a CP-1 synth? It’s this crazy little hand synth he had that produces some really insane sounds. It has a little microphone in it, and he was able to just sample his voice and do crazy stuff with it.

 In the song “Depressed,” I sampled a John Frusciante song. John Frusciante is the guitarist of Red Hot Chili Peppers. In the bridge, I basically chopped up his solo-ing and layered the pieces on top of each other to get a sort of counterpoint going. I guess I’m proud of the way I chopped that.

But really, a lot of it was in the hands of everyone else that put their own really interesting noises in there. I can’t really pinpoint a specific sound.

AP: You wrote on bandcamp that this EP was somewhat of an attempt to end cycle of pain for you. Did working on this help you succeed in that?

SB: Yeah, a little bit. I put this record out a year after I had a very complicated, complicated, complicated relationship. I guess it’s just a testament to how far I’ve come. That’s a very hopeful statement when I said “to end the pain” because the pain is still there. I’m still working through it, but I will say this is my way of calling attention to it while also trying to forget about it.

Haunter was released in October 2016 and is available via the You Always Knew Me Last Week bandcamp.