AP: You recently did a Reddit AMA. How was that experience and vehicle for connecting with your listeners?

JR: It was pretty overwhelming, to be honest. I wanted to answer all of them and I worked at it for like three days and I realized I’d only answered like half of them. And I sat here like, “Well, I’m not going to be able to do this”. But, you know, it’s cool talking to people. I talk to people on Twitter a lot just because I’m not great at talking to people and having a limit of 140 characters kind of makes it easier and people won’t think you’re being short, or that you’re being a dick or anything. But it was nice to talk to people without that sort of limitation but also have it not mixed in with my emails from my mom, saying, like, “What are you doing for the catering for your wedding?”. It was nice to have a place where it wasn’t that painful to talk, or for that to happen after a show when somebody asks me a question that I don’t know the fucking answer to at all, and I also just basically ran the equivalent of like five miles in place while screaming my head off  and I kind of feel like somebody’s kinda pressing my brain, and I just want to talk to this person so much but have no idea how to even make words come out of my mouth. So it’s nice not to be in that situation and be able to actually answer questions. And also because I was doing a bunch of press for this record which is a new thing for me. It was nice to talk to to people, to listen to them. That was cool. I feel like that’s a cool, straightforward way to do it. And nothing against any press or anything like that. I write for things, too, and I interview bands, too, and so I get it, but it’s just cool to get really specific to what some kids want to know, and I’m happy to talk to them.

AP: That’s definitely a strength of that platform, although I can see how it could be overwhelming.

JR: [Laughs] And nothing’s overwhelming if you just do it really half-assed!

AP: You just played five shows in the five boroughs of New York while only taking public transportation between each one. How was that and how much does it mean to you to stay connected with the city that you’ve really been associated with?

JR: There’s a movie called Style Wars, have you ever seen it?

AP: I have!

JR: I saw Style Wars when I was probably 20 or 21 years old. I can’t think of too many other movies that changed my life as much as that movie has. And I especially love the concept of bombing [with graffiti] being a positive thing and creating instead of destroying something. That still sticks with me and kind of gives me chills. I just think that’s so rad. So they talk about doing the trains and going all-city, and I just thought that was so fucking cool. You write a thing; it costs you whatever the cost of spray paint costs, and you make art and everybody in the city can see it, and it’s just always there. And I always wanted to do something like that. I’ve always wanted to do something like that where it’s five shows in all five boroughs in one day. And everybody who came to the shows were awesome. All the shows turned out great. We didn’t have high expectations for the shows. We kind of figured 20 or 30 people would show up to all the shows. We’re not fucking Joan Jett with Nirvana playing Nirvana songs, we’re me and my buddies, you know? But all the shows were packed! Staten Island at 10am was packed, and it was great. It was such a great experience and it meant so much to me. It’s very hard to be able to put it into words and I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to be able to do that. It was just a positive day. At practice the night before, it was like, “Any time we’re feeling negative, let’s just shake ourselves out of it” or if we see each other being negative just be like, “Hey, you’re doing it, stop!” and that only happened once. The worst things that happened were like, “Ooh, okay, I’m tired… Alright, let’s go”. It was awesome.

AP: Well hey, man, thanks for chatting, and speaking of artists you mentioned, I’ve been spinning your record just as much as Father John Misty’s.

JR: That new Father John Misty record is something else, man. That took me by surprise.

AP: Yeah! I liked his first album but I didn’t listen to it too, too much. But I have a couple of roommates that got me hyped for the new album, and when it dropped, shit. What a devastating listen.

JR: Yeah, it rules. My fiancé was showing me one of the songs and I was like “Eh, this is good,” and he played New York for Valentine’s Day and the record came out around then so I bought her the record for Valentine’s Day, and when we were listening to it, I was just like, “Hooooooly fuck, this is my favorite band, screw you, this is my favorite band!” And then we fought each other to the death.

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Jeff Rosenstock, Andrew Jackson Jihad, Chumped, The Smith Street Band
Royale
Doors at 5
Tickets: $16 Adv, $18 Day of Show