Kevin at Purgatory in October by @s.r.b

A couple months back, right before I left for Berlin, I had the pleasure of interviewing Karin, or Kevin, Sa– lead singer/songwriter/guitarist of The Tarrys. They are a rock band from Danbury, Connecticut that often performs in NYC. Their style can be described as some combination of surf, punk, and indie.

This conversation took place in the apartment of Nico Gomez– designer and childhood best friend of Kevin. The scene was a room with one bed, walls covered in fabric drapings, and a rising Brooklyn sun peeking through the window, constantly reminding us that it was around 6am. He spilled some super real facts on the best cereal, his future cat named Woofers, and of course, The Tarrys:

((*) is for Nico.)

What did you do today?
I woke up and then I started playing on my PC for like four hours, or maybe more. It might have been more. 

What were you playing?
I was just playing Valorant. That’s my shit.

That’s your favorite game?
I mean at the moment that's like all I’ve been playing. It's kind of cool and competitive. But it be pretty toxic sometimes.

About 60 seconds into the conversation, Nico started giggling under his breath. Somehow this made us all start dying laughing for 2 minutes straight for no particular reason. One of those laughs that makes you say “I haven’t laughed that hard in a while.”

What's your favorite cereal?
When I was a kid, right? I be fucking with like the fucking Captain Crunch and all that like all the sweeter ones. But then as I got older, I just started fucking with the ones adults be eating like fucking– wait what are they called? – cornflakes. Yo cornflakes they go hard bro.

Another minute of laughter between the three of us at the concept of “adult cereal.” Nico then comes to the realization that he is not valid because he can not hold in his laughter. He cites “the fact that he can’t laugh” as the reason he wants to laugh.

Which cartoons did you watch growing up?
I watched so many but I was mainly a Nickelodeon head, so I watched a lot of Spongebob and stuff. But the older stuff like Rugrats were fire too.

Do you have a favorite episode?
There were so many mythical episodes, bro, especially whatever involved Patrick the most in it were just funny as hell. I mean, it's such a funny ass show bro. Like he cannot be replicated.

Do you have any pets?

No. I wish I had a cat, but my fucking sister's allergic. That shit is fucked she’s ruining it for us.

What would you name it?
I’d name it Woofers.

* Kevin, tell him about the cat and dog idea.

Eventually, if I had my own place. I'm gonna get a puppy and kitten. Like, the kitten's name would be woofers. And then the dog's name would be kitty. They would just be mad ironic.

Where do you get your inspiration from?
I mean, since my life basically revolves around music, I just really look up to the artists and stuff. Lou Reed is a myth. Like, I really aspire to be like that man. But it's a bit cliche because everyone wants to be like him. I guess that's the point. It's just cool that he brought avant garde into music. It is abstract. The person that literally inspired me to make a band was Nick Ratigan and he's a modern day Rock and roll head. He's from the band Surf Curse. It’s just cool because seeing all their underground shows that they used to do when they were younger inspired me. And seeing where they are now is crazy. They're freaking huge. But also stage performers. Fucking Kurt Cobain, for sure. His energy is so crazy.

He’s the goat of live performances. I think he is the greatest ever.
Yeah, I fucking agree. Like he literally gave no fucks and he was just awesome shit.

I can see that in your shows.
I appreciate that.

A lot of people wonder— Where does your style in your live shows come from? The stylistic differences between your live shows and recordings are so stark.

They're both different vibes. When we're playing live, we're not afraid to fuck up and shit. And, if it doesn't sound the same, we kind of just don't care. I feel like that's what makes the shows unique because every time you're gonna hear something different. I think it is a big difference, but just like whatever, we don't really care. And we're there for the moment too. There'll be times where Ke’shown drops his stick, but that makes it pretty cool too. Because it's a moment that we're gonna remember. Those little details.


Kevin by Chistopher Guaman (@cpg1013).

Do you have a pre-show routine?

Not anymore, really. I kind of just go for it. But when I first started, I used to always try to get drunk because I used to get mad nervous. Like I would get the worst butterflies and just drinking alcohol would help take the edge off it. I used to get so fucking nervous though. Even if I'm playing just in front of my mom, bro. Like, I was shaking–

Not anymore?

Not anymore. I guess it's because I'm more comfortable with my instrument and stuff. And also just not caring if I fuck up. A person once said, “if it's too perfect then it’s not punk.” It is lame. I hate when people try too hard to be perfect. Like it's not that serious. Have fun with it.

Do you think coming from Danbury affects your music?
Danbury is a small town in Connecticut about an hour and a half away from New York City. The Tarrys, Nico, and their manager, Christopher Guaman or @cpg1013, all hail from the city.

Yeah, fucking a lot. Coming from Danbury inspired most of my lyrics, honestly. But just a lot that I went through, I guess. And making it a – what's that word? – metaphor basically. I used to use inspiration from movies too. I really like movies. I would make songs that would make me feel like I'm in the movie. Because I just liked that feeling. Especially coming of age movies. I just feel so free.

So you said making songs. What is your writing process like?

I would just write in my room really, like, I will have ideas and stuff that pop in my head. And I would just record it into my voice memos and stuff. Whether it's lyrics or a melody, or the sound of chords or whatever. Typically I would just write in my room. I can't write anywhere else. Let's say I'm writing right now, in this space. I would just get too distracted, you know, especially if I'm around other people or if I'm in a different environment. It just doesn't have the same feel. It doesn't make me coherent when I write. I just don't process it with the most thought. But in my room I do because it's chill. But typically I would base the lyrics off the instrumentals first. I will have instrumentals first, then I will start writing lyrics. Because the instrumentals just help develop a feeling for me. And based off that, like based off what I feel, I would write based off that, and then it would stem from a certain idea. And that would just build off that. I can never really write and then put the instrumental over it. Like I don't know, I kind of just write stories off the notes of my guitar. That's how I process it I guess. There isn't like a diary that I go through. I end up making diaries because of it.

Where did you get the name “The Tarrys”?

Our home. That came from the park. There's a park in Danbury, it's called Tarrywile Park. And that's where mad kids go just to hang out and stuff. People go for different purposes. People go there to hike, people go there to fucking smoke weed and shit. Back in high school, we used to smoke weed there all the time. And drink alcohol and all that shit. So it’s just a fond memory. And still to this day, we still go to Tarrywile– just to chill. And my drummer Ke’shown, he hit me up. And he was like, “Yo, you should come. Like play acoustic, like have an acoustic session with me. And some people.” And there was like 10 of us there. We were just vibing, playing our acoustic instruments in Tarrywile. So that became a thing. And then after that, there was probably like eight people that were there. And then it just shortened down to four people. And then eventually, it just came down to three people which was me, Ke’shown and Brandon. And we decided to start a band. 

This was all in one day?
All this happened in the span of probably a month or two. And then we would start the band and then we had the name as “The Vibrations” but that sounds so stupid. It was actually so dumb.

* That’s pretty stupid

That shit was dumb bro. So we were like yeah we need a new fucking name. And we decided to go by “The Tarrys'' because every time you hit up your friends and you want to go hang at Tarrywile you would say like, “Let's go chill at ‘Tarrys,’” or something. They will always say Tarrys. And then eventually we just slapped that onto ourselves. And that's our name. We just added “the” in front of it, so The Tarrys. So it's a simple ass name. But I guess it wouldn't be hard to not understand either. It’s just “The Tarrys. ” It’s simple, I guess.

Do you write all your songs?

The majority of it, yeah. Lyric wise.


Brandon taking over the vocals at a show. Photo by @cpg1013

What role do Brandon, Ivan, and Ke’shown have in terms of writing?
I do most of the writing lyrically. Like probably 90%. And then, just like recently, Ivan and Brandon, they've been investing more into the lyric part of writing. And they've been contributing more to that. Which is cool too seeing their ideas and stuff. And then we'll just come together with it and develop it. Usually the instrumentals come from either a jam session or I would come up with an idea, and I'll just bring it to the table. And then they'll start working around it and building off it. So it works really well. And they're very open minded too. They're never picky. I mean they are. They would tell me if some shit was not that good. Or at least I'm sure they would. But for the most part they be fucking with it. I'll just bring it to the table and they start building off it and it becomes sick.

Do you have any particular goals or anything like that for The Tarrys?
I mean, I'm sure we’ll last pretty long. We have really good chemistry and we've been very driven. But as far as goals, we just hope that we at least get to release more music and stuff and play more shows really and sustain that. It'd be easier to get signed under labels or something or management just so that people could take care of them. Because I'm pretty sure for most labels at least if you’re signed through the labels, you get to use their recording studio. You get a practice space and all that. It would be so much fucking easier bro. Especially recording, dude, that shit is so fucking ass. It's so expensive. Like literally they be charging like, what like $100 for like one hour of recording? And like mixing and mastering is OD. 

What are you doing tomorrow?

Tomorrow, bro. Speaking of fucking tomorrow. Fucking, it’s pretty late. I have to fucking wake up and work at this new job. Or at least for two hours. It’s just like a test run. It’s a Banh Mi shop in East Village

Which one?

Xe May. You've been there before? 

Yeah I’ve been there before.
Yeah ima see how it is. I don't think it should be too hard. They just want me to meet their crew and just see how we connect, I guess. I hope they're cool. And I don't think it should be that hard really. He also said we get free food.

–

Kevin is clearly very passionate about his band but also does not take life too seriously. I would say the insane timing and lack of sleep made the three of us delusional but, to be honest, we always act like this. Either way, just as he lives his life, everything in this conversation was super genuine. He still has the same best friends from high school and still makes sure to always pay homage to Danbury. And if you have met him you would never expect his enormous and somewhat violent stage presence. He is super kind and slightly shy. The surprise is what makes his shows so special though. If you are in Danbury or NYC, be sure to be on the lookout for the next Tarry’s show. A Tarrys show is one thing you do not want to miss. You can find their socials below.


The Tarrys after a show at Taco Bachi on Cinco de Mayo. Captured by @cpg1013

www.linktr.ee/thetarrys
www.instagram.com/thetarrys/
www.instagram.com/summon.m3/