Remember Sports Interview

Rapid-fire Questions

1. What have you been listening to lately?

New Pom Pom Squad, old mbv, a lot of old Feist, and 00’s girl groups.

2. Last song you cried to?

Cicadas and Gulls by Feist

3. What are you currently looking forward to?

Cracking a cold one (fiber soda)

4. Can you do a cover of the Cupid Shuffle? I need it for my cousin’s quinceñera.

I had to look this up, so I don’t think I’m the guy for the job. Can I come anyway?

5. Make me cry.

500 species have gone extinct in the last 100 years, all due to human activity.

6. How can we stop Space Jam 2 from being released? I already wrote to my congressman.

I’m actually pretty excited for it. All the same characters (except for MJ) are coming back, which is rare for sequels.

7. Do you think we could beat Lebron James in a one on one game if we all stand on eachothers shoulders while wearing a trench coat and pretend to be one really tall person?

I think we’d put up a respectable fight.

8. On a scale from 1-10 how much do you regret agreeing to do an interview with me AGAIN?

My only regret is that it’s taken me a month to get back to you.

9. What fictional location would you most like to play at?

The roof of Padua High

10. Any Philly bands that we should check out?

Orion Sun, Drill, 2nd Grade, Jack Washburn, Spring Onion

Isaac Gutierrez for Born Loser Mag: How are you doing?

Carmen Perry of Remember Sports: I’m doing okay

The last time we spoke was back in February of 2020! What have you been up to since then?

We put our new album out, pandemic, we played a livestream release show at The Headroom in Philly, which we will put a recording of online eventually. Catherine and I also adopted some kittens.

I read in a previous interview that there are some Tejano/country music influences in Like a Stone, and I had to go back and listen to the entire album all over again. Are there any Tejano artists or bands that you remember listening to while growing up?

I grew up listening to my aunts and uncles play Mexican folk songs, covers of pop songs, and songs in Spanish that I couldn’t understand fully. The only Spanish language music I remember listening to of my own volition were the Spanish songs on the Selena album, the one Spanish song on the J.Lo album, and some Shakira songs.

Can we expect a spanish/tejano album anytime soon?

I’ve always wanted to do a cover of a Mexican romantica, but I’ve never quite figured out how. I covered a Selena song in Spanish once.

If you start a Tejano side project, can I be in the band and play the cowbell?

Yes

What should we call our tejano band? Recuerda Deportes OR Carmen y Los Perdedores?

I like the latter, but let’s change it to Carmelita y Los Perdedores. It rolls off the tongue better.

Have you watched the Selena series on Netflix??

I watched the first few episodes… I didn’t love it. I usually like watching bad tv, but the subject matter in this case felt too close to my heart to enjoy making fun of.

I got way off track. Sorry about that.

It’s okay.

Talk to us about your latest release Like a Stone!

Well, we recorded this album in the fall of 2019, so it was entirely pre-pandemic.

What does this album mean to you, and what does it mean to be able to share it with the world?

I think we’re all pretty proud of this album and think it’s a serious progression from our previous albums. To me it means we’re growing as musicians in a way that I like, and I’m really grateful that people seem to also be responding well to the ways in which we’re shifting our sound.

What was your mindset going into making this album? Was there anything that you really wanted to focus on while creating this album?

I always just want to make an album that feels better than the last to me. I want everything I do to feel like the best thing I’ve ever made. I think we did that here.

I love your fast paced pop-punk songs, but it was so cool to see you explore with different sounds. Is that change in sound something that you intentionally explored on the album, or were you just kind of feeling it out as you were creating the album?

I think as musicians and as people who listen to music and have personal tastes that are constantly evolving, we like to follow each other’s instincts about things we can do that are different or feel refreshing to us. Especially when you go on long tours, you can really start to hate a song the more you play it, so I think it’s become really important to us to keep things feeling fresh since we’ve become a touring band.

Do you ever revisit your old stuff?

We still play a lot of our old songs live, but we try to keep them evolving so that they’re less boring for us to play. I’m always surprised when I pop in an old Remember Sports cd and the original versions of the songs are very different.

Is it ever scary to branch out into different sounds?

Yes, especially since I’ve kind of made it my livelihood to try to sell as many albums, tickets and t-shirts as possible.

I’ve been a fan ever since you released All of Something back in 2015. I’ve really enjoyed all of your releases, but as a listener this latest release seems like you’ve become even more comfortable and confident in your music. Does it feel like that on your end?

It does. I think our last album, Slow Buzz sort of got away from me because it was the first time that I really felt like I was making music for an audience and not just myself, so to me it feels like a reflection of that anxiety. I think I’m a little more comfortable with that aspect of making albums now.

This album deals a lot with change. What are some of the major changes you’ve experienced as a band since you started?

We’ve worked with a few different drummers in the last few years, but it’s been me, Jack, and Catherine for a while now. We’ve gone through a lot together as people because spending long stretches of time traveling with people and essentially running a business makes for a unique relationship.

What was the writing/recording process for Like a Stone like?

The writing process took a long time because I was more picky about the songs than I usually am, and we spent more time playing around with the arrangements than we usually do. We spent eight hours a day recording in a windowless basement in Brooklyn with our friends Carlos Hernandez and Julian Fader, two people whose work we’ve all admired for a long time. Working with them felt like we were becoming big boys and girls.

Is there a memory that you think you’ll always associate with this album?

Eating chips on the couch in the studio with Carlos and Julian. And the insane sandwich prices in Dumbo.

Sometimes I get obsessed with certain songs and I literally listen to them on repeat for weeks. Lately that song has been Materialistic. Can you give us some background on that song?

I do that too! That song is about a relationship in which the two people let each other down a lot and try to make up for it by clinging to physical memories.

It seems like bands will be able to tour again in the near future. What are you most looking forward to see on tour?

My greatest post-pandemic fantasy is to be in a gigantic crowd of screaming people at an Ariana Grande concert.

The last time we talked I asked what success looked like to you, and this is what you said:

Has your view of success pretty much remained the same?

The pandemic has really made me think long and hard about the kind of life I want to lead and what sacrifices are worth it to me and which ones aren’t. I’ve learned to value my time and labor a lot more than I used to, which it seems like a lot of people in the country are doing right now too. That is very exciting to me. I think my view of music success has stayed the same, but I also feel like musicians deserve to be able to get paid fairly for the work we do.

Are you currently working on anything?

I’m making stuff over on my patreon patreon.com/carmenperry, and I’m also about to start recording a solo album with Catherine. I have a lot of songs from the past few years that I haven’t done anything with, so I’m excited about the prospect of putting some temporally distant narratives together and figuring out how to make them into a cohesive piece of work.

To wrap things up, Is there anything that you want our readers to know?

I’m gay

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview! Hopefully I get to catch you on tour sometime in the not so distant future.