Loose Buttons is a New York City based indie-rock band who got their start between 2011 and 2012, and have been working hard to join the ranks of the greats since then.
They’ve opened for Grizzly Bear and My Morning Jacket at the CBGB Festival in Times Square, headlined at Brooklyn Bowl, sold-out the Sidebar in Miami and even had the video for their song ‘Thrill’ debut on Noisey.
Formerly known as “Sins Of The Loose Buttons,” the band was assembled by lead singer and guitarist, Eric Nizgretsky and guitarist Zack Kantor—adding bassist, Manny Silverstein, and drummer, Adam “Ad-Man” Holzberg, when Nizgretsky went to University of Miami, completing this talented ensemble of musicians.
Now living their post-college lives, Loose Buttons is still on track to make their mark in the music industry. I caught up with frontman, Eric Nizgretsky, about the band to get to know more about the people behind the music and to talk about what’s in store for Loose Buttons in the coming year.
Tell us a bit about yourself and the rest of the band.
Well, my name is Eric Nizgretsky, and I’d like to think of myself as a nice young lad who enjoys playing music with his friends, daydreams about being James Bond and thoroughly enjoys watching the Rangers win the Stanley Cup in 1994 on VHS. My bandmates are three gifted children who have a deep infatuation with Asian food and spending time with me.
How did Loose Buttons come to be?
Zack, our guitarist, and I started playing music together when we were in 6th grade, and truthfully never had a desire to stop. When he and I went to separate colleges, we felt that we should keep this machine rolling, so I convinced my freshman year roommate, Manny (bass), to join, and stole our drummer, Ad-Man, from another band and never gave him back. And now we are here in 2016, dancing and having a good time.
So are you and Zack the only two born-and-raised NYC natives?
Yeah, we are the only true New Yorkers. Ad-Man is from the neighboring state of Connecticut, and Manny grew up 30 minutes outside of the city. Now we are all living in the quaint little town of New York and just built out our nice little studio in Long Island City, Queens.
You
guys originally started out as “Sins Of The Loose Buttons.” Why did you change
your name to just “Loose Buttons?”
It was honestly just way too much of a mouthful, and it was just a nice way for us to refresh everything. [Less is more became] our approach over the years.
How would you describe your sound?
I like to consider our sound as just good ol’ fashioned NYC Rock n’ Roll.
That’s somewhat hard to find now because a lot of people are trying to fuse so many different sounds and genres together, so it’s cool that you guys are sticking to the Rock n’ Roll roots.
Don’t get me wrong, I love genre blending, but I think we do it a lot more subconsciously now. We have just kind of learned to keep things simple now.
Do you think your sound is unique?
I’m not sure if our sound is necessarily “unique” by any stretch, but our sound is definitely fun and energetic, and I believe that we kind of have our own “Loose Buttons” brand of Indie-Rock. I just don’t believe that we are doing anything that is to the scope of what Albert Einstein has done for society. At the end of the day, we just try to write good songs that people could sing along to.
Who are your personal greatest influences when it comes to music?
For me, personally, I wouldn’t be a musician if it weren’t for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. “Californication” changed my life and everything just connected for me when I heard that album. I was about seven or eight years old, and my parents were divorcing, and that was the first time I got lost in music and just tuned everything out. I remember just thinking like, “Wow, if Anthony Kiedis could do this, I think I can as well.” All I did was imitate him for years. As I got older and I began to truly dissect music, I fell in love with the Arctic Monkeys, and just really dug how the stories and melodies were delivered.
Dead or alive, who would your dream collaboration be with and why?
Listen, if Alex Turner called to collaborate, there is zero chance I say “no.” But, I’d really love to work with Tom Waits. Just to be in a room with that guy and see how he crafts songs would be f*cking dope.
What inspires you when you’re creating a new song?I mean, when writing a song lyrically speaking with Loose Buttons, I love writing songs that kind of provide some sort of commentary on the things going on around me in New York. Whether it’s about a nagging girl, or just grabbing dollar pizza at three in the morning, New York is the catalyst, and the ultimate wingman, so that concept really interests me.
What is your writing process like? Do you create a track and put lyrics over it, or do you write lyrics and create a track for them?
It’s case-by-case. It depends on which member of the band has an idea first. The song could start with a gnarly riff that Zack brought in, or a melody that I brought in, and it really depends. Sometimes I’ll write the lyrics prior and they fit perfectly with the melodies we are writing, or I’ll need to workshop some lyrics to make it work and to tell a great story.
What’s your favorite part of making a new song? Writing lyrics, creating the track, recording?
It’s another thing where it’s really case-by-case. I love being creative in the studio and creating the initial thought, where four dudes just get on the exact same page and just conceive these songs.
So it’s like the songs are your children, and they have four dads?
That’s the exact way of looking at it. Some of us get very over-protective; some of us give the tough love approach. It is very much like parenting.
How did it feel when you guys were finally given the green light to go in and record your first album?Well, we haven’t really been given the green light to record our debut album, and nor do I feel that we are fully ready for that responsibility yet. We are just having fun creating four or five songs at a time, and either releasing them as stand-alone singles, or as a cohesive body of work.
Of all the songs you’ve made, which has been your favorite to write and record, as well as to perform live?
Our new song, ‘Crowded Room,’ probably. It’s just a nice jam.
How did you balance both your college and music career when you were in school?
It was pretty easy, honestly. The times when I should have been studying, I was writing music, and when I wasn’t studying, I was writing music.
How did you manage to make the band work despite the distance between Zack and the rest of the band?
That was definitely a struggle. Three of us went to University of Miami, and Zack went to Wesleyan University. Technology [kept the band going]. We would spend a lot of time sending demos and recordings to each other, and [we would] craft our songs that way.
What advice do you have for students who are trying/want to make it in the music industry?
You have to set attainable goals, and have a zoomed in approach to accomplish those goals. It’s honestly quite simple, just do your homework and you’ll be fine, kids.
A lot of power lies within music. It’s something that’s very influential and speaks to a lot of people on a very personal and emotional level. If you have some sort of message you want to spread with your music, what is it and why?
Everything I’m about to say is extremely cliché, but you just have to have fun with everything. The concept of “making it” is really hard, and you need to take a second and enjoy the process.
What is your favorite memory and/or moment with the band?
Probably our shows in Miami and shooting the ‘Thrill’ music video. We were just f*cking around the whole time and having a blast. Plus, the shows were sold out and we had some amazing crowds. What could be better?
Do you have any projects in the making that we can expect in the near future?
We are currently in the studio working our little booties off writing new songs, and then we will probably hop into the recording studio around March to start recording them.
What’s in store for Loose Buttons in the coming year, and where do you see Loose Buttons in about four years?
The plan is to release this new EP sometime around the summer, and get it into as many hands as possible. In four years, we hope to be doing the exact same thing, but maybe double as many fans as we do now.
With all of the success Loose Buttons has already had, it can certainly be expected that even bigger and better opportunities will be coming their way. Every band member has a burning passion for music, and more talent than they know what to do with. Loose Buttons is slowly but surely working their way down the path to greatness, and you’re not going to want to miss a single second of it.
You can find Loose Buttons’s music on iTunes (under “Loose Buttons”), Youtube and SoundCloud, as well as like them on Facebook so you can be notified of new content and see when and where they are performing. So what are you waiting for? Jump on board and watch these guys conquer the world of music.
