Interview with Neriah from Basic Needs
I just want it to make sense
The first thing I can recall talking to the subject of today’s piece about when I arrived at the record release show for the new LDB release “The World Isn’t My Concern” 7” by Louisville’s Basic Needs is that Neriah immediately pointed out a younger kid at the gig and informed me that they were trying to start a youth crew straight edge style band like Judge. I ponder that while listening to my copy of “Chung King Can Suck It” I got in the mail recently and I’m coming to the conclusion that HC is still just as special as it was when I got into it 20 years ago. The fact that young kids are rediscovering the things I consider classics gives me faith and brings me hope. It is also things like this, him knowing that about a random kid at the gig, it’s why I have always respected and appreciated but have grown to love the subject of today’s topic and I could not be more proud to be a part of releasing this 7”. The following is a chat I had with Neriah Romero regarding their bands and comedy and obstinate nature. I love him like a brother and not in the way some white dudes call every black guy they talk to brother.
LDB: Okay introduce yourself, who are you and what do you do?
Neriah: I’m Neriah Romero, I sing and play guitar in the shoegaze band Sidestep. I sing and write in the Louisville hardcore band Basic Needs and I book shows in Louisville, KY
LDB: How long have you been booking shows and how many times have you been completely over it but kept doing it for some stupid reason?
Neriah: Honestly I’m probably more over it now than ever. I booked my first show in 2013, booked my first tour package in 2015. When I started there was literally no money in this thing at all. Bands were happy to get 90 bucks each and eat the free pizza spinellis gave out. I’ve probably booked 10-12 shows a year since 2016 and I’ve lost money on maybe 3 in that time. I say I’m more over it now just because everything is bigger. Mid level bands have agents and managers and guarantees to negotiate. I don’t do any of that. Hit my dms or phone and let’s work it out. The minute you have me email an agent to “iron out details” I’m checked out for real.
LDB: I think it is as bad as it’s ever been right now but I feel like it’s energizing a sect of HC that in any other era would be very snobby, to be more open and inclusive than any other time that I can recall. Young kids are listening to Youth of Today without being bullied into it and that’s pretty cool and bizarre.
Neriah: Don’t get me wrong. My “over it” is more than a lot of people’s “trying their hardest” I love where hardcore is right now. It’s awesome to see young kids get into everything and nothing be sectioned off. I once had a conversation with Matt Wieder where he said “you don’t get it. You either liked Earth Crisis or Endpoint, never both” and that stuck with me. We’re in a golden era of kids getting into things, and I’m DEFINITELY not knocking anyone getting their money. I think the way I book shows and the way I run my stuff, I just want to keep it as punk as possible. I’m never going to the NBA, I just wanna be a great street ball player.
LDB: That is exactly why I am so happy to have this Basic Needs 7” on LDB I always want this label to help anyone in this for the love of the game because Ashton as well as our bank accounts can attest to it.
Neriah: We’re very grateful that you all had us, thank you
LDB: We are too because the record rocks. I do wanna know just for memory’s sake how long you were doing a band before you started booking yourself?
Neriah: It’s all the same. First show I ever booked was at my church’s youth building and I booked it so my band could play. When I started taking tour packages my first hardcore band, Frailty, would open or close all of the shows. Even by the time I got to Crossed Off, my bands weren’t booked by other people til I had been around a few years. The first few years of being in HC bands pretty much everything we played I had booked.
LDB: That’s what I remembered and that’s why you were someone I respected even when you were first coming around. I think some of the most successful scenes in hardcore are built that way and I know we all recognize the Knocked Loose wave for exploding attendance in Louisville but I don’t think it would be sustaining without you. Not to glaze you too much but I am, nowhere near the self-starter you are and that’s a quality I have always admired since you were a kiddo.
Neriah: I appreciate that. To be honest I would have loved to not have to do it. A lot of times it felt like I was screaming in the wilderness, kind of away from everything and unacknowledged, but now I wouldn’t trade it for anything. At the end of the day this is DIY culture. My bands wanted to play, my friends wanted to play, we could get people and a venue, why would I wait around to be handed a show? Let’s make it happen.
LDB: You perfectly summed up doing HC in the midwest since as far back as I can recall. It’s better now than it used to be but I can remember checking message boards not even in hopes of seeing my band mentioned but simply hoping to see any of my friends get a sliver of recognition.
Neriah: Oh yeah I mean I remember that feeling of like Turnstile playing here in ‘15 or Gods Hate and Terror coming in ‘16 where everyone was like “oh shit these big bands are coming here” now it’s kind of swung the other way and everyone comes here but the excitement back then was palpable.
LDB: I think there was a moment where I was starting to worry people were taking HC for granted but after the gig the other night I really feel the spirit is alive and well.
Neriah: I think it’s only taken for granted if the people doing things take it for granted. Nobody talks about how transferrable energy is. You can feel a low effort show, you can feel the lazily put together lineup, it doesn’t have to be said, it’s sometimes completely subconscious but you know it when you feel it. The show the other night was me and the rest of Basic Needs heart. People took it seriously because from the moment doors opened to when the last person left you could feel how seriously we took it. It was beautiful.
LDB: Seriously big feelings and I think that energy has been felt any time I have seen you guys, from the first show to the record release. It is the thing that makes me so proud of the community here. What were your intentions with this 7”? I feel like descriptors like “a complete work” are usually reserved for LP’s but this 3 song 7” very much feels like a complete work and expression. I also think all the things you touch on in your songwriting for Basic Needs has had very concise theming.
Neriah: I wanted to write an actual Louisville record. The last decade Louisville has become a tough and hard city. The bands that come out of it are crazy mosh bands and heavy shit, and that’s dope, but historically Louisville hardcore is an emotive crybaby ass city. I once heard one of the Axe To Grind guys describe 90’s Louisville as “shoes off, sit on the ground hardcore”. So the 7” is my nod to all of that stuff: Elliot, Endpoint, Falling Forward. But unlike them I’m from the mosh era of Louisville so I still need movement. “The World Is None Of My Concern” is “what if I made you feel all of that 90’s emotion? what if I told you about me going to work? and my relationship with god? but I present it with so much energy and force that you have no choice but to react viscerally.”
LDB: That is kind of exactly how I would describe the record and is exactly how I describe Louisville before my time. In my defense Louisville had become abusively loud HC that people in black jeans stood with their arms folded to. The mosh reaction only follows the laws of physics.
Neriah: Basic Needs to me is the most Louisville band to ever exist. It pulls just as much from Knocked Loose as it does from Elliot while sounding like none of it. It’s built exclusively from the blocks this city laid before it.
LDB: I want to be sure to touch on something even though it outs me as a bad friend as I still haven’t made it out to a show, you started doing comedy in the past couple years. Am I partly responsible for laughing at your jokes on stage too much?
Neriah: You are partially responsible but not because you laughed, but because for years I’ve watched you and Moe walk on stage and be willing to be your best or worst but always most honest self on stage. Pandemic happened, my whole life was shows, I’ve been straight edge my whole life this shit is my outlet. I needed to be somewhere and work out my thoughts, that’s usually hardcore, no hardcore? Oh well I guess I’ll do open mics. I got decent at it quickly because of singing in bands but I was just walking on stage and being as vulnerable as possible in front of rooms of people. Bombing a lot but needing that space similar to hardcore. That “come as you are” type of energy only an art form created by social rejects allows.
LDB: I can’t speak for Moe’s reasons but I know for me this has always been more than live music. It’s about messages and whether or not I agree with what everyone thinks I think if you have nothing to say then a critical factor of this is missing. Right or wrong the bands that always stuck out to me were the ones with strong opinions that spoke from the heart without sloganeering or preaching to a choir. Something that has always stuck with me is the GB line from Good Intentions “I’m not perfect I’m just CIV” that means a lot because I know I give you a hard time but I always appreciate your strong opinions even when I am vehemently opposed.
Neriah: I agree. That wave from 2017 to like just a couple years ago was hard for me, a lot of white dudes in bands who had nothing to talk about and bad riffs would be playing and absolutely bombing but then they shout out black lives matter and now we get a white guilt mosh. Or dedicating a song to the people of color in the room.. and it’s just me… and they just mistook me for being in End It. Tough era, glad to see we’re getting out of it. That’s what Basic Needs is born from, it’s impactful because it’s personal.
LDB: I am sure you have a few more instances of getting mistaken for End It man left but hopefully it is trending down. All that performative shit gives me way more white guilt than some horrid shit done by the cops or proud boys. Was comedy always something you had an interest in? Covid was just the driver to finally go for it? Just like you and HC I have never seen someone self start comedy shows but I am sure it’s more common than I’m aware.
Neriah: Dude I’ve caught shit more than once for going on stage with Basic Needs and clowning the fuck out of the white guys speeches in the bands before me. That’s the comedy thing biting me in the ass. The urge you develop to say the intrusive thought. I’ve always loved comedy and had been thinking about it pre-pandemic. John Hays who sang in Fleshmother did it and was that push for me to try but pandemic really made me jump into it. Like anything I always happen to find the freaks of Louisville comedy and they put me onto doing diy shows. Since I already knew how to do that, all I had to do was figure out the art form. Funny enough the VFW I was throwing HC shows at after covid stopped letting me use the venue, not becuase there were 60 kids moshing in the room but because I booked a comedy show and the headliner absolutley DESTROYED by making fun of all the dead soldiers on the walls.
LDB: I was going to bring that up but yeah way to go ruining our ability to book VFW shows but prope for finding a unique way to ruin it! How old were you when you found an affinity for stand-up comedy and as Maron would ask who are your guys?
Neriah: Yo if I find a room I will ruin it how I want. Honestly that’s why Spinellis is truly the greatest and Brian is my friend and OG for life. Really given me a space for anything I’ve wanted to do. I was into comedy early. My parents are pastors and loved clean guys like Sinbad. I took to loving it in high school. The Chicago alt wave that happened in the 2000’s, Hannibal Buress, Matt Braunger, Kyle Kinane, and Pete Holmes. I saw Kinane do a standing room show at Haymarket in 2016, it was so punk if I saw him walking down the street I’d have to shake his hand and tell him he made me a comic.
LDB: That’s awesome those are great acts to glom onto. My mom raised me on Comedy Central in the late 90’s so I grew up with all the guys who are canceled now for mostly good reasons lmao
Neriah: Dude some of those acts are still good. I know one area where disagree is separating art from artist so I won’t start up with you on it.
LDB: Oh I can still enjoy art already created I only find it hard to put money in someone’s pocket moving forward that doesn’t ethically jive with me. I also think when comedians start crossing those lines they fall off because their act becomes catered to the anti-woke crowd and those jokes are so fucking lazy. Good comedy to me punches up or is funny without having to punch anyone. This is why Mike Birbiglia and Bill Burr will always be my goats.
Neriah: Early Birbiglia and Burr are amazing, I’m not too fond of the newer stuff. To me a lot of comedy is like hardcore. Your first album or 7” is everything you are holding for years then it kind of becomes cool. Stanhope is the goat for sure no matter how many specials he keeps that rage.
LDB: I disagree to a degree but I think it’s because those 2 specifically grew into what they are and I have heard Birbiglia cop to his early material being heavily influenced by Hedberg. So I will agree with the HC comparison for a lot of people but take umbrage with you coming after my guys like that. Which brings me to the last thing I wanted to cover to close this out. You are by far my favorite person in the world to argue with. I love you to death but you bring out the most adversarial side in me that would usually be reserved for a romantic partner. I want you to hit me with a controversial take that will either ensure someone buys your record or decidedly never listens to your band for the rest of their lives.
Neriah: Shift NYHC is everything people say Quicksand is and more. Egg Hunt is better than Fugazi because at least they have 1 hit. Philly over New York.
LDB: Oh my god I don’t even know where to start with these. I planned on asking if you have come around on Quicksand but with that assessment clearly you have not. I can maybe see a case for Fugazi having so many records that some are kind of sleepy but they have several all timer tracks. As far as Philly over New York I would like to hear your case.
Neriah: Yo if literally anyone else but Walter had written Slip everyone would have called it gay nu metal because most of those riffs are nu metal. It is not cool alt rock full of hits that everyone says it is. That would be Spacesuit by Shift. Fugazi gets a little bit of a pass from me for doing something first but for real you cannot name a Fugazi song better than “All Fall Down” by Egg Hunt. Even if it’s their only song it is a fucking smash hit. Last I honestly love New York but Philly is just a doper city to me. Sidestep played both on tour last year and NY was full of hipsters that cool guy’d us. Plus the city is hard to drive in. Philly hands over New York toss ups. To be real I was already shitting on Quicksand so I figured I’s double down.
LDB: I am tabling the Quicksand debate because I am at work right now and afraid I will spike my flip phone into the ground if we pull on this thread. I don’t contend Egg Hunt is not cool but out of those 13 Fugazi songs half of them go just as hard as Egg Hunt. And I hard agree the current Philly scene is probably much better than NY. Outside of Brooklyn HC is hardly happening and even there people can act too cool to have fun.
Neriah: You don’t play an instrument to realize how stupid some of the riffs you are caping for are
LDB: I love and respect you even though I think you have egregious takes. Thank you for chatting with me for this and letting LDB put out your 7” is there anything you want to leave out on?
Neriah: Thanks for everything Tyler. I love you and Ashton and BN really appreciates you taking a chance on us.
Last thoughts: Buy our record so Tyler and Ashton can continue to put out good bands. If you are coming around Louisville come see Cloakrook April 8th at Spinellis, Bib April 16th at Spinellis, LDB after show late night at Spinellis.
Love me or hate me everything I do I do it for the city of Louisville.
Follow Neriah on IG to keep up with what he puts on for Louisville. Stream the Basic Needs 7” or buy it from the LDB store or the band at a gig. It’s a very special record from some true fucking freaks. Also I completely spaced on appropriately including this in the interview with Joey from Apex but check out the new Apex Predator Promo!
“You have the right not to be killed. Murder is a crime unless it was done by a policeman or an aristocrat” - The Clash