Today we’re turning the spotlight on Philladelphia-based infectious pop-rock outfit Scoopski. Chatting with lead Scoopski, we get into becoming a full band from a duo, themed records and what is was like to hear from Betsy Brandt on their release of “I Agree, Marie”. Give “Little Ball of Energy” a spin and read on for the interview below.

CF: As you pointed out recently over social media, Scoopski has had a big year full of growth and some changes. You became a full band, for one. Did that take a while to put together or was it reasonably quick for you to find the musicians that now make up the band?

S: Hey Jaimee, thank you so much for having us on Crooked Forest, it’s a big honor! 2023 was definitely a year of huge change and growth for Scoopski.

The process of going full band actually took some thought on our part. For starters, finding the right time to do it was very important. Scoopski didn’t become a “live act” until summer 2022, about 2.5 years into the existence of the project. Being new parents in 2022, we didn’t think it was the right time to do it yet. However, after playing a couple shows to backing tracks in the second half of that year, we were starting to feel it become a necessity, as venues were pretty quick to turn us down once they found out we weren’t playing as a full band.

But the question then arose… Who would be in a potential Scoopski full band? Luckily, 2 people who I considered pals in the local Philly music scene had already expressed interest in joining us had we ever decided to go full band, without me even mentioning it! Marc had mentioned to me on his blog Abominations that if we ever needed a bass player that he’d be interested! And similarly, Jackson had said to me at a local show we both attended that he would play with us if we needed another guitarist. So, we made a plan to meet up a few months down the road, at the beginning of summer 2023. It went really well!

We did have to find a new drummer a couple months in, unfortunately, due to our original drummer not having the means in his schedule to keep up with practices. Luckily though, we bounced back quick, as an awesome Philly area drummer named Nick Cervini agreed to join us!

So I suppose the process took awhile, but at the same time it came together pretty easily, if that makes sense?

CF: For those that don’t know, can you briefly introduce everyone?

S: Sure! I’m Scoopski, I sing, play guitar, write, and produce the recordings you hear.
Mrs. Scoopski sings, plays all the keys/synth, and also writes as well.
Then rounding out the band, we have Jackson Vincent (of Naive Nature) on guitar, Nick Cervini (of Sacred Monsters) on drums and some guy named Marc Schuster (of The Star Crumbles, solo) on bass. I definitely like the idea that the band is a Scoopergroup of sorts!

CF: How does having the band now change the way you approach new songs, if at all?

S: So I can’t really answer that question yet, only because thus far, the band has only done live renditions of the Scoopski songs that are already in existence. We have a pretty extensive catalog, mainly because Mrs. Scoopski and I wrote so many songs in 2020-2021, which is where the first few albums came from!

The pace has definitely slowed down, but between spring 2022-summer 2023 we did write another album’s worth of songs, and the full band wasn’t really finalized until this past summer. About 60% of that next album is already out in the form of all the singles you can hear from 2022 onward, starting with “Dad Bod”, but the rest of it has been slowly progressing towards completion for some time now. We took a little detour with the Halloween EP, and then I had some hardware issues with my CPU that had to be worked out, but progress has resumed and the next album will finally be out this year! The hope is that after that album, which will be the final duo recorded album, we will start banging out some new originals with the band!

There are already a couple ideas for new tracks with the band on the table, and Marc and I briefly already collabed on part of a new track from just file exchanging. He presented some lyrics and a cool chorus for one track and I came back to him with chords and a slightly different melody. I can definitely see that being a fun formula going forward for the future of the band’s songs!

CF: What would you say is one thing that unifies the band? A particular artist or genre or just a passion for performing?

I’ll have two different answers for this one. For Mrs. Scoopski and I, the unifying factor of our music is that we want to make something that leaves a lasting impact on people, whether it be having a melody be stuck in someone’s head, or just standing out and having a unique flavor in our songs that makes people remember us.

I think for the band thus far, the unifying factor is definitely the love of performing. The reason the full band was started was with the intention to get onstage and play some fun tunes with folks who could get behind what we’re doing, and that’s a great feeling!

CF: Your band reminds me often of acts like Bowling For Soup, especially the way you approach your lyrics and melodies. Who are you most influenced by?

S: That’s cool! I love Bowling for Soup! Jaret follows Scoopski on Instagram which is so cool. We’ve gotten a handful of comparisons to them over the years, you’re definitely not the first to say that! I think another good analog for our more recent songs with the male/female vocal tradeoffs might be one of Jaret Reddick’s side projects, Jaret and Kelly, which he does with Kelly Ogden of The Dollyrots, another one of our all time favorites!

The comparisons we get probably most frequently is “Weezer meets blink-182”, They Might Be Giants, and Fountains of Wayne. I also have people say my voice sounds like Weird Al sometimes, and I love Weird Al and don’t take that as anything but a compliment, but I personally don’t hear it! People say our songs are funny sometimes, and I can see that, but we definitely go for quirky charm moreso than straight up comedy. I think it might be because I sing pretty nasally, but I’m genuinely not trying to sound funny, that’s mainly from my pop-punk upbringing more than anything!

As far as who we’re most influenced by these days, the biggest ones between Mrs. Scoopki and I where there’s most crossover seems to be Weezer, The Beatles, Green Day, The Beach Boys, The Hush Sound, Ben Folds Five, The Pink Spiders, Grouplove, and The Dollyrots.

CF: You put out a bunch of singles in 2023, is there one you’re most proud of?

We did! I’m very proud of “Double” and “I Agree, Marie”, probably equally in my book. I think those songs cover a lot of ground and pull off a lot of different things, and that’s the direction you can definitely anticipate for the next album of which they’ll both be on! I’m also proud of “Seasonal” for being very different sonically from the other singles we released.

CF: Actress Betsy Brandt even joined the Scoopski hype train this year showing her appreciation for “I Agree, Marie”. No doubt that was exciting for you. How did that happen? Did you guys reach out or did she just stumble upon you somehow?

S: That was wild! For those unaware, the song “I Agree, Marie” is one of two songs we’ve released recently (the other being “Steve and Nancy”) where it was a songwriting exercise to try and write full songs about the lives of characters from television shows, who aren’t necessarily the leads or focus of those shows, and turn those into songs folks could enjoy whether they’re fans of the shows or not.

A couple days after the song released, I put out a tweet asking if some followers wanted to retweet the song and tag Betsy in it, in an attempt to see if it could grab her attention…

Well, enough people did it, and it actually worked! Betsy reposted the song and said she loved it. Totally starstruck moment!

CF: You released a Halloween EP this year and previously you released a Christmas EP. What’s the next themed EP in the works, Valentine’s Day?

S: I know people on Twitter asked for Arbor Day! But sadly, that may be the end of the holiday ones, don’t think Valentine’s EP is really in the cards! There will probably be another themed EP in the future, but we’re still up in the air about what it will be.

CF: What do you guys get up to when you’re not practicing or performing?

S: We all have full time day jobs and Mrs. Scoopski and I are full time parents as well. When we can, we still try to get some gaming in, although my pace of completing games has slowed from about 10 games a year to about 2! Last year I played through Street Fighter 6 and Sonic Frontiers, and Mrs. Scoopski played through Resident Evil 4 Remake.

Also, everyone in the band (aside from Mrs. Scoopski) is involved in other music projects as well. Jackson and myself in Naive Nature, Nick in Sacred Monsters, and Marc with his solo work, The Star Crumbles and the myriad of other things he does.. so I think music really does take up a lot of our lives!

CF: What are Scooopski’s big goals for 2024?

S: As I mentioned previously, you will be getting the next album, definitely hoping in the 1st half of the year. I really want this album to stand as a great, eclectic collection of songs, and maybe a lofty goal but I would love to get on some year end album lists with this one! Definitely aiming higher with this one than we did with our last release, 2022’s “See You Soon”.

I also want to get at least a couple recordings out there with the full band. We discussed maybe starting with some covers or re-worked recordings of some old Scoopski faves. The sky’s the limit!

CF: It’s the top of the year so we’re inclined to ask, have you all made New Years Resolutions or are you part of the anti-resolution crowd? If you did, what are they are and how likely are you to stick to them, honestly?

S: Hah! To be honest, I don’t think New Year’s Resolutions really crossed my mind much this year! This isn’t so much a resolution, but as previously mentioned in the last question, I’m just going to make it a promise that we get the next Scoopski album out and that you’ll hear the full band on a recording of some sort as well!

CF: Do you have any upcoming gigs you want to plug?

S: We’re playing a show at Silk City Diner in Philadelphia on 2/3 with our friends Bees! and Haha Charade!

Bees! are an incredible band. In 2020 when I had a lot of downtime at home during the pandemic, I used to go on Instagram and just search for what was happening in the local Philly scene, and Bees! were one of the bands that caught my ear as something really special. To me they sound like if The Presidents of The United States of America (the band) and Queens of the Stone Age hung out at a 90’s arcade. Haha Charade rule too, I saw them live last year at a local show and their songs really stuck with me, which is the sign of a great performance! They’re indie pop perfection with songs that would dominate on a summer playlist.

CF: Who are you guys listening to these days that we should be checking out?

S: I gotta be honest, most of the music I listen to these days is stuff I hear from either the local music scene or from Twitter, with the rare exception, like Green Day’s new album which is pretty great!

I have to do some promo for our incredible band members, because everyone’s got new music out and I’ve been listening to them all! Marc Schuster has a dreamy new song out called “Your World Now”. Nick’s band Sacred Monsters has what I’d call a bubblegrunge new rocker out called “27”. Finally, Naive Nature, the project I’m playing drums in with Jackson, just released “the weight of the world”, which is a very guitar heavy, “punkgaze” emo breakup song. I highly recommend checking out all of them!

Also want to shout out another Philly band called Longfriend Timefriend who just put out a new single called “Axis” and it absolutely rocks, definitely worth a listen or 20.

CF: Finally, what was your favourite record of 2023 by another artist?

I’d probably go with “Freakazoid” by one of my favorite bands, The Pink Spiders. On the indie/underground side, there was a ton of great releases, and “O! Fantastik Melancholy” by Bottlecap Mountain definitely stands out.

Thanks very much Scoopski!

Keep up with Scoopski by following their social media channels.

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Spotify
• Bandcamp

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