By Zephyr Weinreich \/\/ <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This past Thursday, indie rock ensemble Boyscott<\/a> played for an enthusiastic crowd at Swarthmore\u2019s very own Olde Club. I dropped by before the show to chat with frontman Scott Hermo Jr., bassist and back-up singer Emma Willer, guitarist Tom Bora, and drummer Noah Dardaris. To readers hoping for some good gossip about behind-the-scenes rockstar divadom, I am\u2019m sorry to report that Boyscott\u2019s whimsical, easy-going exterior seems to rest on an equally whimsical, easy-going interior. Though a lengthy and meticulous soundcheck revealed how seriously the band takes the quality of their performances, an Olde Club staff member later commented that they\u2019d been remarkably gracious and fun to work with. I sat down with Hermo and the others in what seems to me to be the perfect setting for a Boyscott interview: a circle of old adirondack chairs at the edge of the Crum Woods, gentle gray skies overhead, the sun just beginning to sink behind the trees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The below transcript was edited and condensed for clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zephyr Weinreich: So, I\u2019ve read every interview with you guys that I could find, and as far as I can tell, this question remains unanswered. Once and for all, let the people know: why \u2018Boyscott\u2019?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scott Hermo [laughing]: To this day, I don\u2019t really know. I had a BandCamp with that name, where I\u2019d put my demos, but I\u2019m not sure how I landed on that. My name\u2019s in it, so that\u2019s something, and I was a boy scout, but I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s really the connotation I was going for. I will say I really like the letter B. I know that sounds crazy, but I really mean it. In so many different fonts, it\u2019s a cool letter. I think I always just wanted something that started with that. There you go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ZW: So it was more about how the name looked than how it sounded? <\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: Yeah, to a certain extent, I\u2019d say so. I really just like fonts and like how words appear to the eye. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ZW: Actually, something striking about Boyscott is that you guys have a highly distinctive aesthetic not only musically, but visually. How did the \u2018Boyscott Look\u2019 come about? <\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: [Emma Willer] and I studied film, and I think I was always interested in visuals and graphic design. As far as the specific visuals of our band, I don’t know\u2026I think nature looks really cool with music. All of us in the band really like nature, and it was always a topic that was fun to write about and make music under.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ZW: Was there any media you\u2019d consumed that helped to shape that aesthetic? What were the major influences, both within the realm of music and beyond it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: Whenever I get asked this question, I think of this magazine that I once picked up when I was in high school. It was the New Yorker, and it had this incredible cover. It had Dirty Projectors<\/a>, Grizzly Bear<\/a>, Animal Collective<\/a>, MGMT<\/a> and Vampire Weekend<\/a>. Those were basically all my favorite bands. I listened to a lot of typical indie rock, which was very formative for me. What I liked so much about that cover, though, was that it brought together these six bands, and they all had completely unique sounds. I mean, obviously everyone\u2019s ripping off a little of someone, but I just thought it was really cool for these bands to have such distinctive vibes. With Boyscott, I wanted to try really hard to try to make something that was, potentially, distinctly our<\/em> thing. I don’t know if I\u2019ve quite gotten there yet, but I am getting there, I think. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Emma Willer: As far as non-musical influences go, we\u2019re all film nerds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: We all love movies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ZW: Which movies in particular?<\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: You know, it’s funny, because, for the project we just recorded, we were watching stuff that wasn\u2019t necessarily the vibe, but also, in a way, kind of was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Noah Dardaris [laughing]: We watched Like Mike<\/em> at one point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SH [laughing]: Yeah, so not exactly the vibe. But we watched The Thing<\/em>, we watched Blair Witch Project<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n EW: A lot of thriller and mystery stuff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: And then, a lot of people compare our stuff to Wes Anderson movies, which I do really like, and Goonies<\/em> was also one of my favorites growing up. I like a lot of movies that take place in nature, too \u2013 adventure stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ZW: The Orpheus Review<\/em> is a college music publication, and Boyscott started out as a college music project, so let\u2019s talk about \u2018college music.\u2019 What does this phrase, this concept, mean to you? How did the collegiate environment shape your music? How did your music shape your collegiate environment? <\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: I\u2019m sure each college has its own distinct thing. For us, going to school in Nashville, there was a massive music scene. You\u2019d think it\u2019d be too huge, but it was actually only a positive. There were just so many house shows, every day of the week. There would be Monday<\/em> house shows. Plus, there were a bunch of venues that were the perfect size \u2013 venues that fit about 100 people, which was just right for us. It was just wonderful. The dorm culture was great, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EW: Everyone played an instrument, even if they weren\u2019t studying music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SH [laughing]: Which meant people didn\u2019t care if you were making noise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ZW: Boyscott\u2019s dorm-room origins clearly shaped the band\u2019s stylistic sensibility \u2013 your music is a classic example of the uniquely 21st-century genre often called \u2018DIY\u2019 [Do It Yourself]. Nowadays, though, you\u2019re able to record and produce your music in professional studio spaces, with equipment that certainly qualifies as hi-fi. How do you approach that? What does it mean to be a bedroom pop band that made it out of the bedroom?<\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: Honestly, I\u2019m still navigating that. We worked with Noah\u2019s older brother, Scoops [Dardaris], who\u2019s an audio engineer, and it was a new, somewhat difficult process for me. I already had fleshed-out demos, but even still, there was this problem: I know how to get my sound in a really cheap way, but how do I get the same sound in a hi-fi way? You really do get a different vibe. Going forward, I\u2019d like to mix the two even more. Maybe we do guitars specifically in a more DIY way, but have drums be more hi-fi. I think there\u2019s a balance that\u2019s hard to strike, but ultimately rewarding. I\u2019ll always write in a DIY way \u2013 I\u2019d be way too stressed out to leave that for when Scoops comes. That would be intimidating. But he also provides a studio environment that\u2019s great. We actually did a lot of creative stuff in the studio space, and hope to do more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ZW: A lot about the music industry has changed very rapidly over the past couple of decades. Between the rise of streaming and the dramatic increase in the availability of DAWs [digital audio workstations; apps like Garageband and FL Studio], what it means to be a musician today would be almost unrecognizable to musicians of the past. How has it been to navigate this new world? <\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: I can only answer from our experience. When we released the first record, Spotify was just beginning to be a thing. And, honestly, it only seems to have benefited us. Of course, Spotify and a lot of these companies can be really exploitative and terrible, but so far, we\u2019ve been super fortunate. Having people have access to our music so easily has helped us to gain fans around the country, and the world, actually. So it\u2019s only been a positive experience for us. We understand how fortunate we are for that. Our music is very, for lack of a better word, \u2018streamable,\u2019 and \u2018playlistable,\u2019 because it\u2019s very accessible music \u2013 it\u2019s not too crazy. But there are a ton of artists that I love that I think are the same way; they aren\u2019t benefitting nearly as much, and I just don\u2019t know why. So we\u2019ve just been super lucky. And when it comes to the DAWs, that\u2019s only positive. Having gear be accessible and being able to do it all yourself, it\u2019s just amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ZW: Possibly the most polarizing aspect of today\u2019s music world is the importance of social media in achieving popularity. You guys have some pretty great social media content \u2013 is it something you enjoy? <\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: <\/strong>I think if you\u2019re trying to do what we\u2019re trying to do, which is full-time touring, it\u2019s not really a choice. You kind of have to do it. It\u2019s a lot of work, and it\u2019s tough, but trying to strike a balance between churning out content and making visuals that are cool and interesting to you is super important. I know a lot of bands that are just forcing it, and I always think they\u2019d be making better stuff if they were just having fun. Actually, Noah\u2019s girlfriend is in a band called Shallow Alcove<\/a> and they kill it with social media, which they do by making stuff that they genuinely like. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even so, it\u2019s always taxing. It\u2019s a tool, and all artists go through phases of enjoying it and being completely sick of it. So it\u2019s a gift and a curse. Probably mostly a curse. It\u2019d be sick to not have to have to try to be an influencer constantly, even though it\u2019s definitely cool to be able to reach people in such a technically easy way. It\u2019s tough for us. None of us are the kind of people that want to be front-facing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I would like to find a way to enjoy it more, because when I was in college I\u2019d just make videos for fun. I\u2019d make goofy, weird stuff \u2013 short films or funny video clips with my friends. Now I\u2019d say it feels forced. But if we\u2019re making cool visual stuff, I enjoy that, even though anything front-facing is kind of nerve-wracking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ZW: Speaking of virality, as Boyscott has become more widely known, two of your songs in particular \u2013 \u201cNova Scotia 500\u201d and \u201cKiller Whale\u201d \u2013 have absolutely blown up. So tell me: what\u2019s it like to have a hit on your hands? Is it a blessing and a curse, or just a blessing? <\/p>\n\n\n\n SH [to the band, laughing]: Are you guys tired of playing any of the songs? I mean, I think there\u2019s a balance. Honestly, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever played a show without ending our set with one of these two songs \u2013 like, ever. Which means that you love it sometimes and are done with it sometimes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n EW: Once in a while, I\u2019ll definitely be over playing a song. But then we\u2019ll have a show where the crowd is so excited, and it makes me love the song again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: I\u2019m also totally down to give the people what they want, even if I didn\u2019t like it. We\u2019re so grateful to be able to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EW: Yeah \u2013 we\u2019re not necessarily playing it for us all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: Sometimes we are, though. I enjoy playing all the songs, to be honest. On tour, we change up arrangements for most of our songs, which keeps everything fun. Also, though, I guess that\u2019s what the album\u2019s for. We have the older songs for the people that connect to that stuff, but then we have new things to share, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ve also been doing this for so long that, for the first four or five years of the band we were playing shows to no one, and only a couple of people would be stoked. So now it\u2019s cool to play the songs for people that love them. I\u2019m totally down for that. As you get older you change as an artist, and it\u2019s like, well, would I have written this song now? Probably not. But I\u2019m really grateful that we did and that I get to play it now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At first when we released the record I was really self-conscious about the songs, because suddenly we were the band that opened up for the cool bands that came to town. Suddenly, I was being exposed to bands that were ten years in, five years in, that were so tight and so dynamic, and I was embarrassed of our music then. Fast forward five years, and I\u2019m like, oh, no, we were doing it right the whole time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ZW: Ever since the rise of \u2018pop music\u2019 transformed musicians from mere entertainers into focal points of public attention, artists and audiences alike have been split on the question of how this influence should be used. A lot of people, especially in recent years, have argued that anyone with a platform has a responsibility to leverage that platform for good, and speak out on behalf of those in need. Others say that musicians are still, first and foremost, entertainers, and that their politics don\u2019t belong on stage. How do you approach this debate? <\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: I\u2019ll start by saying that I don\u2019t think of us as a band that anyone\u2019s going to for information about politics. That being said, I do think that everyone who exists has a responsibility to talk about injustice. And sure, people are going to a show to relax, to be entertained, but I think there\u2019s space for information that important almost 100% of the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n EW: We\u2019re also just very politically aware people, and it would feel wrong if we didn\u2019t have a donation bin or something. It would feel inauthentic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: I don\u2019t think it takes up as much mental room as some of these bigger artists are saying. And I\u2019ll say this: now that I\u2019m at this age (we\u2019re all older \u2013 late 20s, early 30s) I\u2019m not looking to artists for information. However, when I was young and impressionable, those were the only<\/em> people I was looking to. I got politically active through the artists that I admired. And then, after that, I was like, okay, let me actually read the news. But when I think about how formative those early concerts you go to are, I remember that, when people give you information from that platform, it could change your whole life. I think more than anything, it\u2019s just really, really special when people who have those platforms use them in a brave way, and are informed, and try to help inform young people. It\u2019s the silence that bothers me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ZW: Before we go, I\u2019d love to get some music recommendations for our readers. What have you guys been listening to? <\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: Well, we\u2019ve been collectively listening to the new Alex G album<\/a>, and Emma has a new record<\/a> out with her band, Lazy Trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EW [laughing]: Yeah I\u2019ve only been listening to my own album \u2013 gotta get those streams. No, I\u2019ve been listening to a lot of Hand Habits<\/a>, plus the new Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: I\u2019m saving the Wednesday for when I\u2019m home. I\u2019m so excited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ND: I\u2019ve been listening to Nathan Salsburg<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: We were just on tour with Another Michael<\/a> \u2013 they\u2019re out of Philly. It was such a joy to hear their songs every night. And I\u2019ve just been listening to a ton of Chapell Roan<\/a>, to be honest. I just can\u2019t get sick of those songs. Like, really \u2013 I can\u2019t get sick of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ZW: Which ones?<\/p>\n\n\n\n SH: I love \u201cCasual.\u201d When I put on \u201cCasual,\u201d I always want that song to keep going. But I literally love all of them. I love some of the ones I hadn\u2019t heard before, like \u201cAfter Midnight\u201d or \u201cNaked in Manhattan.\u201d I hadn\u2019t heard that one before, and I was just like, this is the best song that most bands would ever release in their whole careers, and for her it\u2019s just a \u2018whatever\u2019 song. It\u2019s just great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Boyscott will be touring the U.S. in support of Summer Salt from January 2026 through March 2026 (back in Philadelphia on February 5th). Their most recent album, Spellbound, is available on all streaming platforms. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Zephyr Weinreich \/\/ This past Thursday, indie rock ensemble Boyscott played for an enthusiastic crowd at Swarthmore\u2019s very own Olde Club. I dropped by before the show to chat with frontman Scott Hermo Jr., bassist and back-up singer Emma Willer, guitarist Tom Bora, and drummer Noah Dardaris. 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