We had the pleasure of speaking with the New York rockers, Takeover, on several occasions. This time, we will delve deeper into their latest single, “City Lights,” and discuss their future plans. Let’s explore!
- How did Takeover first come together, was there a shared vision from the start, or did it grow organically?
ALEX (Bassist/Songwriter): Well, there wasn’t really a “vision”. I never sat the boys down and said “alright lads, we’re gonna be a blend of DMX and the Talking Heads and we’re only going to play lutes and mandolins”. We just started with a few songs I had written, one of which was “City Lights”. From there we slowly figured out what we did well and tried to lean into it. Then we tried to subvert it. Now here we are.
- “City Lights” captures that rush of seeing the Manhattan skyline, can you tell us about the exact moment or memory that sparked the song?
ALEX: I wrote this one a few years before I started the band. I was living out in New Jersey at the time and commuting into NYC for work. There were a couple times where I’d take the last bus to NJ after a night out in the city. After you come out of the Lincoln Tunnel and emerge in NJ, there’s a hard turn that reveals an impressive view of the Manhattan skyline. It’s actually in the opening few shots of the intro to The Sopranos. Anyway, one night I’m off my tits on speed and booze and I see the skyline and think “I should write a song that looks like that!” Took another few weeks to find the chords but that was where it came from.
- The track begins quietly, then bursts wide open. Was that contrast something you planned from the start, or did it emerge in the studio?
ALEX: That just came from how pretty the chords sounded and how I visualized the song to be. It needed a bit of calm contrasted with chaos. The part that I didn’t write originally and that emerged organically in the studio was the 3/4 outro that turns into the 4/4 outro. That’s one of my favorite parts of the song but I didn’t originally have the written
- What does “contentment among chaos” mean to you personally?
ALEX: It’s like the example I gave earlier. You’re on a quiet, midnight bus, loaded on drugs and booze, you look out on this gorgeous city of lights and across the Hudson River it looks pretty and peaceful. But you know that once you’re inside the city it’s fucking loud and dirty and bonkers and all that. The eye of the storm and all that gear.
- Your sound pulls threads from NYC legends like The Strokes and The Velvet Underground. Do you see yourselves as carrying forward that lineage, or carving out something distinct?
ALEX: I think we’re just trying to make music that we ourselves enjoy. Inevitably we’re gonna be inspired by the bands we like, and being a bunch of New Yorkers, we’re naturally gonna dig some of the local heroes. If people tell us we sound like The Strokes or the Velvets then that’s great. I’ve heard that we sound like everyone from “rock n roll Dean Martin” to “One Republic”. So I always take that with a grain of salt. At the end of the day, we are Takeover and we’ll always be Takeover.
- When people describe your music as “indie rock” or “alternative,” does that feel accurate or do those genre labels miss something essential about your sound?
ALEX: I never really cared about labeling music with these genres, ya know? It’s useful to have a large umbrella, but once you get into sub-genres it’s a little tiresome. “Math Rock” vs “Prog Rock” vs “Doom Metal” vs “Sludge Metal” vs “Self-Fellation Rock” and on and on and on. I suppose we are “Indie Rock” because we haven’t got a major label record deal. I don’t even know what the fuck “alternative” even means. All my favorite contemporary bands got labeled “alt” when I was growing up so I guess we’re alternative too. I always think of us as “rock n roll”. Pure and simple.
- Do you approach writing with your New York audience in mind, or are you trying to reach something more universal?
ALEX: I think we try to touch on universal truths. Falling in and out of love, being young and having fun, all that stuff. We do have a song or two that’s a bit more NYC related but not so much that it couldn’t be applied to other cities too. “City Lights” was only really inspired by NYC. It isn’t about NYC.
- How do you know when a song is “finished”?
ALEX: When it’s recorded and pressed and distributed. Until then it’s an ever evolving entity. Some songs of mine need a ton of work, multiple demos, multiple re-writes, etc. And some songs, like “City Lights”, just write themselves and you never have to do much more than some a tweak or two.
- If Takeover could soundtrack any movie scene, what kind would it be?
ALEX: I think we’ve got a lot of tunes that could be great as the music in a Scorsese gangster movie. Something from Casino or Goodfellas or one of those movies with the main character doing a narration. For “City Lights” I think if Scorsese did some gritty blend of his gangster style and a futuristic Sci-Fi thing like “Blade Runner”, it could be in the scene where everyone’s getting whacked by laser guns or something. I can especially see that scene with the big sounding outro playing in the back.
- Where do you hope Takeover’s sound will evolve in the next year or two?
ALEX: Well, as we grow as a recording band, I’m hoping we learn how to try newer and newer things. We’re currently building our own recording studio and from there we’ll have a lot more freedom to push our boundaries. Rather than having to be on a tight 10 hour rental schedule where all the songs have to be pre-planned and limited in scope.
