Last August brought about the release of the underrated sophomore album, Somewhere Down Below, by the Pittsburgh four-piece Gaadge. The band first piqued my interest when I heard their single, “Oh Wonder,” and subsequently had it on repeat throughout frequent road trips up the coast to Los Angeles and while laying around during the dog days of summer. The track, along with the rest of the album, evokes early slacker rock pioneers, Pavement and Guided By Voices, mixed in with hints of noisier acts like Swirlies. With one foot rooted in classic 90s indie rock and the other in modern shoegaze, their sound is a multi-faceted and nostalgic blend of guitar music.
Amid their recent five-date tour of the East Coast, Gaadge took a pit stop at WNYU’s studio to talk about their latest record, breaking bones at hardcore shows, their songwriting processes, their favorite Pittsburgh bands, how to pronounce their name, and what it’s like juggling multiple projects at once.
[Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.]
For the record, could everyone go around and introduce themselves? Say your name and what instrument you play!
Ethan Oliva: Hi, I’m Ethan. I play drums in Gaadge and I occasionally do backup vocals and stuff on the recordings.
Andy Yadeski: I’m Andy, I play guitar.
Mitch DeLong: I’m Mitch. I play guitar and sing.
Nick Boston: I’m Nick. I play bass and sing and guitar a little bit.
Wonderful. How did the show go last night? How are you guys enjoying your time in New York so far?
Ethan: It went well! The place we played at was Alphaville in Brooklyn. It was really, really cool. I’d never been there, obviously, but no it was–
Nick: A lot of people came out!
Ethan: Yeah! A lot of people came out!
Mitch: Yeah! A lot of your like, old friends [referring to Ethan]. It was cool! Everyone was in high spirits. All the bands sounded good. Crate, Bedridden, they were really, really good.
Andy: Oh yeah, very good!
Ethan: Also the fried shrooms there are insane!
Mitch: Oh yeah the fried shrooms were really, really good with like, chili oil on it.
Ethan: Yeah, it was insane.
Last year brought the release of Somewhere Down Below, your second full length! Could you tell me more about the process behind that album and how you’re all feeling now that it’s been six months out?
Mitch: It was fun! We went up to this place called Henryville, it’s like two hours north of Philly in the Poconos and our buddy Matt has a studio out there. It’s him and his fiancée, they live up there. It’s her parents’ farmhouse, they have a dog, Benny, there’s a big yard, then there’s this double-wide, two-story garage. The upper part is where the studio is and it’s a really cozy kind of cavity. We went out there with most, most of it written? Everything was pretty much in place, but there was still a lot that we hadn’t really figured out yet. We stayed out there on the property for like four days and we recorded what we had ready and then we kind of worked on stuff that we didn’t have ready and came up with some stuff on the spot there, and we were really happy with it! It was like a vacation.
Andy: Yeah it was a really fun process and it was the most collaborative album or release we’ve done so far. ‘Cause a lot of the others were just mostly Mitch and his songwriting. But this one we all contributed more to it. It’s kinda like the first one that wasn’t as much of a solo project, I guess.
What was the main difference between this past album and Yeah?, in terms of making it?
Ethan: It was mainly just me and Mitch– well, Mitch wrote all the songs except, well, a couple songs Nick was on– but mainly Mitch came over to my house and we recorded the drums in my basement and he amazingly recorded everything in Audacity over those drums.
Mitch: [laughs]
Ethan: I don’t know how he did it! I used Audacity when I was in high school and it sounded nowhere near as good as he did. But yeah, kind of going off of what Andy just said, it was more Mitch was like, hey I’ve got ten songs, put some drums on this and then we kind of just layered it accordingly. But Somewhere Down Below, like Andy and Mitch were saying, it was really straightforward but laid back. It was five days of just hanging out and contributing to each other’s ideas.
Mitch: Yeah? was more of like a home-brew thing. It was during the middle of Covid so I’d just go home from work and work on that. Then this was like, alright, let’s go do this. Let’s go sit in a studio, have someone record it for us– and it was great!
Nick: And also it helps that everyone in this band is basically a multi-instrumentalist. There were a lot of times, like, Ethan plays drums in this band, but there were a lot of times where he had a guitar part and then he could just play. He’s like oh! I have an idea in my head, let me get this down–
Ethan: Yeah!
Nick: So there’s songs where Andy’s drumming and Ethan’s playing guitar. Everyone’s doing different instruments.
Ethan: Yeah, there’s a couple songs in there where me and Andy swap.
Do you feel like once you’ve completed a big project, like an album, that you’re already sort of moving on to the next thing? Or are you–
Everyone: Yep! [laughs]
Alright! So what’s coming up now? What are you guys working on?
Mitch: We just recorded a five-song studio EP–
Nick: Well actually, we recorded that like a week after we did the album!
Mitch: Oh yeah, yeah! It was last year, no, the year before that… It was 2022 when we recorded Somewhere Down Below. We got back a week later and we were like let’s go record some of the extra songs with our buddy Nate ‘cause he’s an engineer at the Mr. Small studio–
Ethan: God bless him.
Mitch: Yep! So we just hung out with Nate and we’re like, alright, we’ve recorded those and we’ve been sitting on those. We just finally got some last minute bells and whistles put on top of it, so, that should be coming out soon. And while we were working on that, we already have a bunch of new songs for another album. Ethan’s working on Ex Pilots stuff too. So–
Nick: We’re juggling a bunch of songs right now. It just never ends!
Ethan: It sounds maddening, but I don’t really have any hobbies! I mean, I have hobbies. I have a life, please believe me. But more often than not, I’m just always thinking about this crap.
Everyone: [laughs]
Ethan: Which is fine! When something is done I’m like [sigh], you know? It’s the best feeling in the world, but it’s like, okay, don’t relax too much, now. You have six more ideas.
Nick: Yeah, you’re gonna be like, alright when this is done, I’ll have two weeks off and then we’re just gonna get back to it.
Mitch: We’re always looking forward to not doing anything, and then that time comes and we’re like, no! We have to do this. What else are we gonna do?
Ethan: The amount of times we’ve been like, you know, after this is done, I can’t wait to take like a couple months…and we can still hang out but just like, hang out, you know?
Nick: The four of us haven’t hung out not in a music context in many months.
Ethan: Yeah, and I think that the last time we hung out we went to a show. We all went to see Wednesday, I think.
I love Wednesday! I just saw them at Brooklyn Steel!
Ethan: Yeah, yeah! Wednesday and Hotline TNT– I love Will and Hotline TNT.
Will was the first person I ever interviewed!
Ethan: Oh nice, nice! I love him. He rules. He’s a real nice guy.
Speaking of all of that too, I just found out you guys are also all Ex Pilots. That self-titled record came out about a year ago now too! What is it like balancing the two bands and any other projects you have? Creatively, what is the difference between working on a Gaadge record versus working on Ex Pilots? Besides having different main writers, I guess.
Andy: I think certain songs will be in your head and it’s like okay, I have these four or five or more bands and a song will be like yeah, this is that band. It’ll make sense where it is. Me and Ethan are in another band called Sober Clones and that’ll be the weirder more psychedelic ones. That’s another one where we’re working on an EP and an LP at the same time. It’s like why are we doing this? [laughs]
Ethan: There’s no mistaking. There’s no other place the Sober Clones songs could go.
Andy: Yeah, but then Gaadge or Ex Pilots could kind of be either/or.
Mitch and Ethan: Yeah!
Ethan: I think it really comes down to–
Nick: Production?
Ethan: Yeah, production.
Andy: That’s part of it.
Mitch: Ethan is the main songwriter in Ex Pilots. It’s kind of your [referring to Ethan] baby.
Ethan: Yeah, Ex Pilots is my big baby. The Ex Pilots record that came out last year I recorded in 2019 at home with Nick on one song and Mary, who’s also in Ex Pilots, on another song. That was ninety-nine percent a solo project up until 2022. Sam from Smoking Room and Toner, which the shirt you’re wearing [points to my “God’s Hammer” shirt], he’s the nicest guy. I love that guy. Gaadge played with Toner in 2022 and I think he had asked about doing a run of a Gaadge record or something. We’re like well we’re doing Crafted Sounds, but I do have Ex Pilots if you are interested in this. And he was like oh, yeah, totally let’s do it. So then he helped me get that re-released and remastered last year so that was awesome. And now it’s a six-piece band if you can believe it! It’s all four of us plus Ralph DiLullo of Speed Plans and Mary Komondy of… Pittsburgh, P-A [laughs].
Mitch: It is a juggling act though, because we’re doing this run with Gaadge and then next month we’re doing a run ‘cause Ex Pilots is going on the Cherry Glazerr tour.
Ethan: Yeah, we’re doing a week with Cherry Glazerr next month!
Mitch: So, It’s like, alright, we have to think ahead. We’re gonna plan this time to do Ex Pilots and this time to do Gaadge.
Ethan: It’s easier than it looks, somehow.
The entire state of Pennsylvania is just exploding with incredible bands right now. I was wondering, coming from Pittsburgh, who’s inspiring you to keep moving forward and who are some of your favorite bands in that scene?
Nick: You wanna just go like, we’ll each name one then keep going around?
Everyone: Yeah!
Let’s do it!
Mitch: Alright. I’m gonna throw out Silver Car Crash. Those are good buddies of ours. They make incredible post-punk music.
Ethan: They put out a record last year that blew me away. And so did… Feeble Little Horse!
Everyone: Yeah!
Mitch: Oh, the horses.
Ethan: What more can we say about Feeble Little Horse? We love ‘em. But you already know that.
Andy: I’m gonna pick Rex Tycoon.
Ethan: Rex rules.
Andy: Yeah, they’re awesome! They have an album coming out, their first proper LP, and I got an early listen and it’s really awesome. I’m excited for that one. Hopefully they blow up with the rest of the Pittsburgh music scene.
Ethan: Sleeping Witch & Saturn has been a long, long favorite of mine. Another post-punky, not in exactly the same vein as Silver Car Crash, but they’re adjacent. Very, very good. If you like chorus on bass, kind of post-punk, you’d like them a lot. Gina Gory is another really good one. I think Gina Gory might be my favorite drum-less band in Pittsburgh right now.
Andy: Yeah, they were like the most exciting band I’ve seen for the first time. It was in a basement and I was like oh my god, this is crazy. This is so good! The harmonies were insane, and it’s just like a drum machine and guitar and bass and two singers and it was really awesome.
Ethan: Also they have this puppet that they put on the ground. It’s like a battery-operated puppet or something.
Mitch: Little Ronnie!
Ethan: Oh, it’s called Little Ronnie? It moves like–well you can’t see what i’m doing–the puppet dances throughout the whole set and it’s tiny and it’s so funny. And it’s awesome. And I guess it’s name is Ronnie.
Nick: Yeah they’re great. Very C-86 sound.
Mitch: I would throw out Merce Lemon as well! Merce Lemon did some cool stuff. They’re a great folk artist that has a great backing band now.
Andy: Also the Pittsburgh hardcore scene like Speed Plans, illiterates, Living World–
Nick: Little Angels!
Ethan: We can’t say Living World, we’re biased.
Andy: Me and Ethan are in some of those bands… but we didn’t say the ones we’re in!
Ethan: Right, yeah.
Andy: Because we’re polite… But yeah, the Pittsburgh punk scene is like, the best in the world.
Ethan: We love our hardcore scene… I broke my foot at a hardcore show this month, so.
Which hardcore show?
Ethan: Alamoans! They’re another amazing band. They have members of Speed Plans and–
Andy: Silver Car Crash!
Ethan: –Silver Car Crash, and EEL!… They’re amazing. I broke my foot at the show.
Nick: And Black Button played that show!
Ethan: Oh! Black Button’s very good too! Are they from here or are they from Philly?
Andy: They’re from North Carolina or Virginia–
Ethan: Okay so neither!
[To Mitch] I read that you started Gaadge in 2014 and it’s now 10 years later… How do you feel about where the project is now, and where do you hope to be moving forward?
Mitch: It’s wild looking back and thinking about that now. ‘Cause I wrote a song when I was in Erie and then I was like, okay, I’m gonna just start this project. And it’s kind of gone through different iterations… I was just trying to get any of my–you know these guys, we all are from Erie– I was just trying to get anybody to help me out with it and then it kind of just fell into place once we all moved to Pittsburgh and we picked up Nick here.
Nick: I’m not from Erie!
Mitch: [laughs] Yeah, he’s not from Erie!
Ethan: ‘Thank god!’ he’s thinking
Mitch: I think, I don’t know, it’s nice! I’m very happy with the spot that it’s in. You know, we’ve got some stuff that we’re still working on, so there’s not really any feeling of being stagnant or stuck and I think we’re just gonna keep working on that.
Ethan: Also we picked up another ‘A’ on the road!
Mitch: Yeah, yeah! It used to just be G-A-D-G-E! And then everyone kept calling it “gage” and they still do! I was like, adding another ‘A’ will help out with that and then no, it didn’t. Now it’s just more confusing.
Ethan: I love lying and telling people the name is a tuning.
That’s really funny–
Nick: We’ve never tried–I’ve never tried—
Ethan: I mean it would be really hard because tuning either E string to G would probably put insane pressure on the neck.
Mitch: Looking forward, that’s what we’re gonna do! [laughs] We are gonna write a song in the tuning of GAADGE!
Andy: It’s like the band Bad Company has the song Bad Company on the album Bad Company… We’ll do Gaadge by Gaadge in GAADGE on Gaadge, the album.