Northvale came together in 2020 and quickly went about establishing a heart-on-sleeve, emotive brand of pop-punk that displays the quintessential energy of the genre, whilst delivering honest lyricism and melodic guitar work.
Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.
Keith – Vocals
Chris – Guitar
Mike – Guitar
Kevin – Bass
Aren – Drums
For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Northvale? How long has the band been around?
Kevin – Mirror Eyes & In Our Glory – toured nationally
Chris – The Victory – toured nationally
Keith – Casual Friday which later became Duck School due to a legal battle with another Casual Friday
Mike & Aren - Young Alchemists
Northvale started in 2020, just before the quarantine hit.
What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?
We all met in the town Northvale, NJ so when we were trying to think of a band name, Chris suggested Northvale and it kind of just stuck.
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?
It’s a collective effort and there’s never really one process set in stone for writing. A majority of the time, Chris or Mike will come up with an instrumental and the two of them will work on it together. Once they have a demo down, Keith will come in and start writing vocals. Aren writes the drum parts and Kevin writes the bass parts. The songs are constantly changing until they’re in their final state. Even up to the very end where our producer Kevin Krug puts his finishing flair on the song.
What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?
Mayday Parade
Grayscale
Knucklepuck
In Her Own Words
Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?
There are too many to name and it’s different for all of us. Mike will tell you about his first Coheed & Cambria show, for Aren it was Silverstein. Chris was heavily influenced by Yellowcard. Each one of us was drawn to music in general by our favorite bands and I think that for every musician, seeing any good live performance is what makes you say “I want to do that.”
What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, etc …
Aren has an intense stretching regiment but the rest of us just try to relax and get in the zone.
What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?
As of right now, our biggest highlight was playing an acoustic show opening up for AJ Perdomo after we had him feature on our single “High Tide”.
If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?
There are plenty to name but touring with Blink-182 in their prime seems like it would have been an amazing experience.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
We plan on releasing a few more singles over the course of 2021 and plan to release our first full length album in January of 2022. We hope to be on a few shows in the near future as long as everything starts to open back up.