Interviews // Avery Springer (Retirement Party)

The rumors of Retirement Party’s retirement were greatly exaggerated, what’s the story?

The previous line up of the band was just at a point where not everyone wanted to do it anymore. Those members are people that have been with me for a long time. So they kind of both expressed around the same time that they were kind of done with wanting to be in the band and do it. It had been hard during the pandemic. I didn’t feel comfortable taking the band forward at the time with the given circumstances like having to rebuild the band. We were supposed to go Europe in a couple of months, and it didn’t feel like something that I could do and there was a lot of emotional consideration there too. I was just kind of a wreck. Because that band was with James and Eddy. Sorry that’s a very long winded answer and a little more emotional than I would normally say. Chris who was our bassist for the last 2or 3 years or so he is still in the band with me now and we are rebuilding. So, we are kind of going to take out time with this. Definitely not going to jump back in and be on tour all the time. Really just starting it off with this tour because Pet Symmetry asked if we would come back and play it. That was kind of the moment where I was like, “Yeah, I miss doing this!”

What do you want people to take away from your music?

You know, sometimes it’s depressing, they’re not all depressing songs. I don’t want people to view most of them that way, I know a lot of people do. I think it’s just that I want them to realize in a cheesy way they are not alone in the pains of growing up and just being a human. I feel like that’s kind of the big sprawling subject matter that kind of encompasses everything. It reminds you that other people are human too and hopefully I feel like a lot of people can connect with the stuff, the subject matter, and it just helps them. I get people that tell me it helps them through things, or hard periods in their life and that means a lot. It’s a heavy cross to bear but I take it to heart.

What is your song writing process like?

It mostly starts with I’ll be playing a little chord progression that I like. Mostly on my acoustic guitar but it can be in any setting. I’ll kind of come up with a guitar part, and it can be a very short guitar part. But something I like. Then I start immediately writing the lyrics and the melodies to it in that same sitting. I just build the song as it goes, I almost always start with a verse. I don’t often start with choruses and write around it. I start with a verse and kind of work my way through the song. Figure out that first verse then maybe some of my melody choices in that verse will translate or will help determine what the chorus direction is going to be. So, I kind of just let it go on this little journey. I don’t always write stuff in one sitting, but I try to write at least a verse and a chorus in a sitting and then I build it out from there. Writing with other people, or talking to other songwriters in bands is fascinating, we all write in different ways. I’ve found that I’m not as compatible with some people. Our styles are just so different. Another time, because our styles were so different, I love what we came up with.

Are you a big gear head?

I wish I was! I do! I am not a big gear head; I am maybe a gear head in training or an aspiring gear head. I literally just sold my second electric guitar that I have, so now I have one. So, I’m on tour with someone who has twenty, or something like that. I don’t want twenty. But I would like to play around with it more I’ve just honestly been kind of broke since I’ve started this band. Now I have a full-time job and it works out. I like my little pedals that I’ve found and I’m trying to get more into gear.

Do you have anything coming up we should know about?

This is it for now. We are going to come back from this tour and Chris just moved back from Philly, he was there for the last year, and we are finally together again, and we can just write together. Hopefully, some tour plans kind of come up but it’s not a priority for us right now. Making new music and figuring out the new iteration of the band is what we will be doing. Happy that we get to start it with a tour because it feels like a very natural way to get back into shape.