Interview by: Gemma Marshall
Photos by: Liam Sullivan
The weekend of September 28th I traveled to Providence, Rhode Island to interview some of my good friends in the upcoming band Never Coming Home and watched them absolutely kill their set at the Alchemy, a hot spot for the Massachusetts and Rhode Island local music scene.
Introduce yourselves and your position in the band.
Anthony Hefler: My name is Anthony, I play guitar and I sing.
Derek Lima: I’m Derek, I play bass and I backup sing and I’m the bottom.
Aidan Sullivan: I’m Aidan, I play guitar, I have a dog, I can’t walk.
Anthony: You sing too!
Aidan: Oh yeah, I sing too.
Merritt Cathers: I’m Merritt, I play drums and that’s it.
What musicians inspired you to start playing music?
Derek: Weird Al and that’s not a joke.
Merritt: Idk probably like Dani Washington from Neck Deep and Josh Manuel. Even Josh Dun. Josh Dun got me into drumming.
Aidan: I blame the movie School of Rock for getting me into music. As for bands that inspired me, like All Time Low, Blink-182, bands like that.
Merritt: Neck Deep, The Story So Far.
Aidan: Oh! Greenday, Linkin Park.
Anthony: The first thing that got me into music was my dad showing me bands like Twenty One Pilots and The Struts. One of the big ones, I think, we take a lot from is All Time Low. A lot of our songs have inspiration from them that you can hear.
You guys dropped your first ever song called ‘Runaway’, are there any new songs in the works?
Aidan & Derek: No.
Merritt: Hell yeah.
Anthony: We have like 40 done.
Merritt: We have like 40 under our belt but we just haven’t recorded them yet.
Anthony: The EPs gonna have like 5 songs. We’re looking to recording something soon.
Merritt: I’m tracking drums tomorrow.
Aidan: It’s called *********.
After the already announced upcoming shows are there any more that you’re looking to play and who do you hope to play with in the near future?
Anthony: We have a couple. There’s one that I’m working on booking in November but then we’re gonna take a break from December through January, maybe a little bit of February and then we have another big one we’re hoping to plan for February. But December and January are gonna be strictly recording the EP and getting it out.
Derek: And we’re breaking up.
Merritt: Don’t say that. But we have shows in Newport in October and then I think that’s it.
Anthony: October we also have the Halloween Show.
Merritt: So that’s our last three.
What would your dream lineup be?
Merritt: So I’m thinking we play a show with The Fairview, Chousand, Neck Deep, The Story So Far, Blink-182, not Green Day.
Anthony: Green Day’s great.
Merritt: Issues, gotta put Issues on there. We’re gonna have Liam guest scream for us.
Anthony: This is like a festival.
Merritt: It’s gonna be called Runaway Festival.
Aidan: Do I get a turn? I’d go easy, All Time Low, A Day To Remember and Senses Fail.
With new music obviously being in the works, how do those songs speak on behalf of your lyrical growth as a band?
Anthony: Basically there’s been no growth. We’re all really angry and really sad. There’s a song we’re playing tonight that’s gonna be off what’s coming out after ‘After Party’ and it is about the exact same thing as a song on ‘After Party’. We’re just really angry and sad.
Merritt: Girls are really mean to us.
Anthony: Specifically Derek.
Aidan: That’s just Derek.
Merritt: We keep getting heartbroken and that’s our downfall.
I know you guys haven’t been together for a long time and you’re still working on music so what has been the biggest struggle for you guys starting out?
Merritt: School.
Anthony: School.
Merritt: School has been the biggest block for us not being able to hang out and record and write.
Anthony: And Merritt actually making money.
Merritt: Yeah and I have a job.
Derek: And Aidan’s crippling disability.
Who has been your favorite band to play shows with?
Merritt: Chousand.
Anthony: The Fairview and Chousand.
Aidan: The Fairview.
Merritt: SRO.
Aidan: SRO was so good.
Anthony: Let It Rain.
I know you guys have a new EP called ‘After Party’ coming out, when should we expect that to be released?
Anthony: First quarter of next year.
Coming off of that, what are your favorite songs off the EP that you’re most excited for people to hear?
Merritt: Wait, what’s on the EP?
Anthony: The EP is ‘Runaway’, ‘Nothing To You’, ‘Goodbye Ghost’, ‘Paper Thin’, and ‘After Party’.
Merritt: ‘Nothing To You’, easy.
Aidan: ‘After Party’ but I’m biased.
Derek: ‘Paper Thin’.
Anthony: ‘Nothing To You’.
You can follow Never Coming Home on Twitter and Instagram @nchbandri. You can also stream their newest single ‘Runaway’ on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play and more! Don’t miss the release of their first EP ‘After Party’, being released early next year. And if you get the chance definitely do not miss out on seeing these guys live, you won’t be disappointed.
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