Kill The Music

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Unsigned Spotlight: Longfriend Timefriend

Jordan Mohler

Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.

  • Pete Imbesi - Drums

  • Mike McMahon - Lead Guitar, Vocals

  • Caleb Delp - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals

  • Louie Fantini - Bass, Vocals

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Longfriend Timefriend? 

Mike and Pete played together in the ska band Political Party Crashers for nearly a decade. Caleb and Louie played together in an indie band called Missing You In Italy, and after that Caleb sang in hardcore band And Now the Weather and then put out a solo record under Caleb Michael.

How long has the band been around?

A mutual friend introduced Caleb to Mike and Pete in the Fall of 2019, and they wound up stepping in to back him at a Caleb Michael show.  The vibes were good, so they decided to keep making music. Louie joined on bass in January of 2020 and we wrote the first batch of LFTF tunes.  We had a pretty tight set ready by March and we were psyched to play some shows and then, uh, some stuff happened and there weren’t any shows for a while.

We were all lucky enough to be working from home during the initial lockdown, so we made a bubble and the band kind of became our sole social activity through 2020 (along with Animal Crossing).  We focused on writing new tunes and ultimately recorded our album “If Me Dies, Me Dies,” which dropped in February.

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

The name comes from a Joe Biden gaffe. We get a kick out of all the ways people mess it up. Angelo Cataldi interviewed us about our cover of the sixers victory song and called it a "putrid name."  Once we got featured on a podcast and they called us “Longtime First Time” the whole time, haha.  At this point we just embrace it, it’s exciting when we hear a new way to get our name wrong.

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

Writing new tunes is a really collaborative process for us.  Usually one person comes in with like a riff & some lyrics (usually the person who winds up singing lead), but all four of us contribute from there and we usually wind up with something very different from where we started.

As far as themes go, I think you can definitely tell that most of “If Me Dies, Me Dies” was written in 2020.  There’s a lot in there about the personal experience of isolation counterbalanced with anger at the idiotic cruelty of US politics. But really we’re hoping if you don’t listen too closely to the lyrics you’ll just be singing and dancing and having fun haha.

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making? Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band? If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

Maybe everybody feels this way about “the scene” of their youth, but we’re honestly so lucky to have grown up in the Philadelphia area & Jersey when we did.  It’s such an incredible stable of local bands we grew up seeing play: Bomb the Music Industry, Bouncing Souls, the Front Bottoms, Glocca Morra, Hop Along, Into It. Over It., the Menzingers, Mischief Brew, Radiator Hospital, River City Extension, Snowing, Spraynard, Streetlight Manifesto, Swearin’, Tigers Jaw, Title Fight, Titus Andronicus, the Wonder Years, etc. etc. etc.

As far as today goes, so many of our favorite bands put out, like, perfect records in the past year: Bad Moves, Adult Mom, Ratboys, Waxahatchee, PUP, Jeff Rosenstock, Teenage Halloween, Cheekface.  We’re also super psyched for upcoming releases from our buddies in Naked Lake, Spirit Flaw, and Precious Little Life--don’t sleep on them!

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …

We try to make every set a little unique, whether it’s tossing in a cover or adding a weird transition or something. The rhythm section has been unsuccessfully lobbying for a ska version of one of our songs, but no dice so far, haha.  The closest thing we have to a pre-show routine is scrambling to find what we inevitably forgot to bring to the gig, whether it’s a power supply or a cable or, uh, Louie’s entire damn bass.

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

Last year we were selling cover commissions as a way to raise money for studio time and our friend Clare had us cover “Here Come the Sixers,” (the song they play after every sixers home win).  It wound up getting shared a bunch on sixers twitter and we eventually got interviewed on sports radio.  Still waiting on that call from the sixers to play at halftime, but we haven’t given up hope yet.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Check out “If Me Dies, Me Dies,” on bandcamp and spotify!  We’ve also got a session coming up at Leesta Vall where we’re cutting direct-to-vinyl singles, so if you want to support us and cop some super rare wax you can preorder at the link below. We also might have a split coming out soon, so keep an eye out for that. We’ve got our social media stuff below, give us a shout if you want us to play your show or just wanna play super smash bros or whatever.