Knuckle Puck 2020 Pedal

[Mckenzie Witting]

Inthis instagram photo, you can see nick has a Marshall JMP 2203 on his emperor 4x12 cab. This amp is currently being used on knuckle pucks 2023 tour in support of their new album Losing What We Love.

Evan Ball:

Hello and welcome to Ernie Ball's Striking A Chord Podcast. I'm Evan Ball. Today I'll speaking with Kevin Maida and Nick Casasanto of the band Knuckle Puck. I caught up with Nick and Kevin of Knuckle Puck just prior to the release of their latest album, which is titled 2020. We discussed the choosing of their band name, how their writing process works, their band relationships and common bonds they have, such as coffee and movie quotes. We talked about The Sopranos, listening to Blink-182 as kids, some interesting encounters they've had with fans, and more. Ladies and gentlemen, Kevin Maida and Nick Casasanto.

Evan Ball:

Kevin and Nick, welcome to the podcast.

Nick Casasanto:

Thank you.

Kevin Maida:

Thanks for having us.

Evan Ball:

All right, let's go down memory lane. When and what was Knuckle Puck's first gig?

Kevin Maida:

July 2011.

Nick Casasanto:

I can't believe you remember the date. I would never remember it.

Kevin Maida:

Yeah. I don't know why I always specifically remember that it was July.

Nick Casasanto:

Yeah. It was at a bowling alley in Tinley Park, Illinois, and we actually got the name of our band because we needed a name for that show and we didn't have one.

Evan Ball:

That's good. Deadlines are good.

Nick Casasanto:

Exactly. It's what made us go with Knuckle Puck. We were throwing names back and forth and eventually John came up with Knuckle Puck and we all thought it was cool and we were like, "Why not? Let's just tell them Knuckle Puck so they have something to put on the flier."

Evan Ball:

So was the sound of the name or did it have special meaning or just rolls off the tongue nicely?

Kevin Maida:

It was neither. John saw it on the back of a T-shirt at a music fest and like Nick said we just had a show coming up and they needed a name to put on the flier. Nick, it's funny. Why did we even have a show if we didn't have a band name yet? That's something I've always thought about. Like, who agreed to have a no-named band on a show that they've never heard of? I always thought that was kind of funny in retrospect.

Nick Casasanto:

Wasn't John friends with somebody in one of the bands that was putting the show on and they needed an opening band and John was like, "I've been jamming with some guys." Isn't that how...

Kevin Maida:

Or it was Joe. Maybe Joe knew someone who was putting on the show or, again, another band that was playing or something like that. I think it was just like a leap of good faith.

Evan Ball:

Was there bowling going on at the time or was it just using the bowling alley as a venue for a show?

Kevin Maida:

It was in... You know how sometimes you go to a bowling alley and there's like a side party room if you have like a birthday party?

Evan Ball:

Yeah.

Kevin Maida:

It was in one of those. So there was bowling going on. It was still fully functioning and open. It's funny. It's this bowling alley in Tinley Park, Illinois, called Centennial Lanes and we've since played... It's kind of become sort of like a local venue since. I know Dave and Kyle from the band Real Friends would book shows there and there was always local shows happening there after then, so it's kind of cool to play it when it was like, "Oh, this is kind of a weird circumstance. We're playing in a bowling alley." But then it morphed into a normal venue for local shows. Kind of cool.

Evan Ball:

That's cool. Do you have video of the first show?

Kevin Maida:

Nick's brother does.

Nick Casasanto:

Yeah. It is somewhere. I'll be interested to see what that looks like some day.

Evan Ball:

It didn't make it on the internet yet, huh?

Nick Casasanto:

No. We'll see if it ever does. He likes to break that stuff out years later as like a prank. I mean, I guess less of a prank and more of, "Hey, remember this?" And he shows you something crazy that you thought you would never see. But we definitely have it on video so maybe one day it'll hit the internet.

Evan Ball:

So keep your eyes peeled, people. All right, so Knuckle Puck. You got the name for the first gig. Is it puck like in hockey or do you guys think of Puck as the little mischievous mythical... what is it... fairy or something?

Nick Casasanto:

I'm not even aware of what that is.

Kevin Maida:

I thought it was only hockey and that was the extent of the name.

Evan Ball:

No, in ancient mythology... I don't know whose mythology... there's some character named Puck. Hockey, then. All right.

Nick Casasanto:

Yeah. Ours was [inaudible 00:04:28] hockey. Definitely a Mighty Ducks reference in one way or another, which is funny because when Kevin and I met the first time we hung out it was at his cousin's birthday party who I went to grade school with and that's how I met Kevin. At this birthday party we watched The Mighty Ducks and Knuckle Puck is the term from the movie that they say in the movie. The first time Kevin and I ever hung out we watched the movie where our band name originated from.

Evan Ball:

How funny.

Kevin Maida:

Nick, I did not know that.

Nick Casasanto:

What do you mean you didn't know that?

Kevin Maida:

I don't recall that specific detail. I didn't recall us watching that movie together. I don't doubt that it happened. I don't think you and I have ever talked it about that specifically, though.

Nick Casasanto:

I guess we didn't. I talked about it before to other people because Alex was a hockey player. A lot of those kids at that birthday party were hockey players so they kind of grew up watching The Mighty Ducks, so it was something that they always watched every year at his party. Anyway, yeah.

Evan Ball:

So you kind of alluded to this: did you guys all know each other before you were in a band together?

Kevin Maida:

Nick and I were like the only two people that actually knew each other before. Like Nick just said, he grew up with my cousins, so I've known Nick since we were kids, but in terms of everyone else we all met through mutual friends and some of us went to school together and we would always see each other around at local shows and stuff like that. That's kind of funny. Nick and I were the two people that knew each other outside of the band.

Evan Ball:

Does the band come up in high school? Or is it after high school?

Kevin Maida:

For Nick and I... So it came up for me right after I started my freshman year of college. Joe and John, they're a year younger than Nick and I, so they were still in high school. They were seniors. For them high school, but for me and Nick we were college aged.

Evan Ball:

Okay. And you guys are just outside of Chicago?

Kevin Maida:

Yeah. Southwest suburbs, generally speaking.

Evan Ball:

What's the town called?

Kevin Maida:

We're all... Nick actually grew up within the city limits but the rest of us are from the suburbs, but we're all kind of spread out within a 20, 30 minute radius of each other kind of thing.

Evan Ball:

To see shows at that point did you guys have to go into Chicago more? Or were there stuff around the suburbs?

Nick Casasanto:

Yeah, there was stuff definitely all over. A lot of shows are in the city but some of the smaller shows... like there's a venue called Mojo's that we would always go to shows at and that was out in the suburbs. Oh, and Fiesta. That was in Tinley Park, too, right Kev?

Kevin Maida:

Yeah, and Mojo's was in Orland Park, which is where I grew up. There was Mojo's, Fiesta... Fiesta was like a iteration of Mojo's, so it was like the same people who ran it. Like, smaller... Like, touring bands would always play there but the smaller scale... I remember one time we saw The Wonder Years was at Fiesta. A bunch of smaller touring bands... they were smaller at the time... would play at that venue, Mojo's. I remember seeing All Time Low there when I was in high school and I would hear about, I think, A Day to Remember used to play there way back in the day when they would first start touring. But like for bigger shows at bigger venues, yeah, we would mostly be going into the city at venues like Metro and Riviera and [Aragon 00:08:04] and stuff like that. Hustlers, too.

Evan Ball:

All right, so there's a new album coming out soon. Actually, I should say when this podcast airs your album will already be out, so we're, in a sense, living in the past here as we talk about it. 2020? Is that the title?

Kevin Maida:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Evan Ball:

I know you've released a few songs already but how many songs are on the album?

Nick Casasanto:

There's 11.

Kevin Maida:

11?

Nick Casasanto:

Yeah. I had to think about that.

Kevin Maida:

Yeah. I said 11 with a question mark. I was like, "Oh, I actually don't know."

Evan Ball:

I know you've released a few. How do you decide which songs to release before the album is out? Because there's got to be some tension between putting your best foot forward to create interest versus not showing your full hand and saving certain songs for the actual release.

Nick Casasanto:

Right. I feel like we just kind of all give our opinion about what should come out first. Our manager and Lisa from Rise will give their input as well. From there we see what songs have the most, quote unquote, votes, but I do remember for this record... For our previous records we were all usually on the same page, like, "This one definitely we'll put out first and then this one." With this record I feel like everybody had different choices of what the first single should be, particularly the first one, but after that one we decided on a few more that would come out. We knew that we want Earthquake to come out in the summertime because it's a feel good song. We wanted people to listen to it in good weather, so we knew that. But other than that, yeah, I guess we just kind of would say what we think that it is and whichever had the most feedback that's the one that we went with.

Evan Ball:

Yeah. Is there a balance between how much you release in advance?

Kevin Maida:

I guess because of COVID, Nick, I feel we've released way more singles than we normally would have for a normal rollout. How many singles are out right now? Like four?

Nick Casasanto:

I think there's five. I'm pretty sure we have five singles out right now, which is definitely more than we usually would have put out.

Kevin Maida:

But I think we kind of compensated for that because we're like, "I mean, the release of this album is delayed now so might as well just keep putting new songs out. What's the harm in that?"

Evan Ball:

Okay. So it would've been out earlier, right?

Kevin Maida:

Yeah. It would've been out in May. Like, May 20-something, so right at the beginning of summer. For our other records I don't think we ever really premeditated the release date in terms of the kind of songs we wrote and the kinds of songs we included on the recording roster, but like Nick was saying, with our single Earthquake that, to us, was like a quintessential feel good summer song and we kind of approached the album like that because we knew it would be like a fresh summer release. It's funny that the first time we actually premeditated the release of the album it just kind of didn't happen. It got pushed back a couple months, but it's okay. I think the feeling is still there.

Evan Ball:

Yeah, like you said, you were able to put certain songs out and control the rollout.

Kevin Maida:

Right.

Nick Casasanto:

In May there would've been like probably only three singles.

Evan Ball:

So for this album did the stage in your career or vibe or context around creating this album differ from previous albums in any noticeable ways?

Nick Casasanto:

Well, I guess one big difference is I had moved out to Los Angeles a couple years ago pretty much right as we started writing the record, because I remember the first song that was written for the record was Breathe and we had started working on that before I moved out here. Then I moved out here in September of 2018 and the big difference in working on this record was that obviously I wasn't with the guys for the majority of the time, but I would fly to Chicago at least once a month whenever we were off from touring to work on songs for the record. Like, Joe and Kevin and John would meet up and write songs at Joe's house and then I would work on stuff on my own in Los Angeles and then when I would come to Chicago or before a tour or whatever we would work on stuff together at that point.

Nick Casasanto:

So that was, I guess, the biggest difference in working on this record, I think. But even then I feel like even that was pretty similar to how we would write our past material because generally how we work as a band is it's like somebody comes up with a riff and brings it to the rest of the guys and then we finish it from there. It was pretty much the same here. If I worked on a song at home in Los Angeles I would record it, send it to the guys, and then the next time I saw them we would flesh it out and finish it together. Even though I wasn't really there we still kind of wrote the same. I guess that was the biggest difference.

Evan Ball:

Okay. The rest of you guys, are you all in the Chicago area?

Kevin Maida:

Yeah. I mean, John and I live in the city and Joe and Ryan live in the suburbs, but it's all generally the Chicagoland area. Still pretty close to each other, reasonably speaking.

Evan Ball:

Nick, what prompted your move out to LA?

Nick Casasanto:

My wife got moved... She got offered to move within her company that she works for and it's not like had a 9:00 to 5:00 where I had to be anywhere specific, so we just kind of decided to go for it and see what it's like living out here. She no longer works for that company any more. She moved to a different one since. But we've been out here for the last couple years and it's going pretty well. I've been enjoying a change of scenery and the weather's also a big plus as well. But I do miss Chicago, though. I miss Chicago very much. I really miss the seasons. It's very different out here. I do really enjoy whenever I get to go back to Chicago, which I'm actually going to Chicago tomorrow to practice with the guys and play. We're playing a live show with Audiotree. They're going to be streaming a show. We're setting up and playing in Lincoln Hall, a venue in Chicago. They're going to mic everything up and film it and it's going to be a livestreamed show for the release of 2020.

Evan Ball:

So how much will you guys practice together before that happens?

Kevin Maida:

So far it's just been the four of us getting together but that's only been weekly, like once a week and kind of like dusting the cobwebs. But now that Nick is coming to town I bet we'll practice a whole lot more. I don't know. Nick, what do you think? We have to talk about that.

Nick Casasanto:

Let's figure this out right now. I would imagine that I get into town tomorrow. The show's in a week. We'll probably practice just about every day, if not every other day, for sure.

Evan Ball:

Do you guys have a room somewhere or someone's house?

Nick Casasanto:

Yeah, we have a-

Kevin Maida:

We have a practice space.

Evan Ball:

You mentioned how you guys generally write songs. Does Joe, your singer, weigh in on the music side, like the instrument non-singing side? Or would he come in after you guys have a song fleshed out and add his vocals?

Kevin Maida:

He writes a lot of guitar as well and will record guitar as well, so he's very much well versed in that sector of writing as well: like, the instruments.

Nick Casasanto:

He definitely contributes to all of the music as well.

Evan Ball:

Are the vocals normally the last layer? Or sometimes are they written and presented together with music as a song idea?

Nick Casasanto:

They're usually the last thing that is written. Joe and myself do the vocal writing. So generally we'll write a song, we'll have the instrumental, and then we'll put the vocals on top of that, but for 2020 a lot of the songs... I would say at least half of the songs... I had written the vocals alongside the music while the music was being written. That's something that I've been trying to improve on, is having an idea for the vocal while the song is being written so it can kind of guide and make a lot of the decisions for the music. So for this record, like I said, a lot of the vocals were sort of baked into the songs already, which is really cool. I think that's a really positive thing to do when you're writing.

Evan Ball:

Yeah. So Nick, when you and Joe are both singing on a song do you collaborate on lyrics? Or would it be more likely one person would write it and then split up who sings what?

Nick Casasanto:

It's kind of both. Generally if Joe came up with... If Joe or Kevin got together and they demoed out a song Joe will come up lyrics and I'll help. On this record, Tune You Out, Joe and Kevin met up and wrote that song and sent it to me and immediately I was hearing all these really cool melodies so I went and I threw vocals on top of that. It's kind of different depending on the song. Sometimes Joe will have an idea for a song or a melody for a song that I really can't... like, I'm lacking inspiration on, I can't really hear a melody for, and vice-versa. For this record and, I guess, for our records in the past it's just kind of once the instrumental is written anything that either of us hear we just kind of sent it to the other and hope that the ideas are bounced off of each other and develop from there.

Evan Ball:

How does Knuckle Puck get along as a band?

Kevin Maida:

I'd say pretty well. We've had other people tell us who've been around us, they're like, "You guys seem like you're all friends. It doesn't seem phony or forced." I mean, all bias aside, I've even noticed that objectively as well. Sometimes you're just around bands and you can kind of tell, "You guys aren't really friends first." No judgment. There's nothing wrong with that and not like that needs to be a requirement to be in a band, but it does make me appreciate that more when I know that even we weren't playing music together, going on tour, recording, or doing any of this we'd still probably all be hanging out with each other, and that makes me feel good.

Evan Ball:

What kind of common interests do you guys have? And also, what would you fight about if you were going to have a band fight?

Nick Casasanto:

That's a good question.

Kevin Maida:

Common interests, I'd say it seems to me at this point we're all pretty into coffee. We just did a coffee collaboration with Metro Coffee, which is a coffee [inaudible 00:19:07] based out of Chicago. When we were posed with that idea we were all super into it. And what would we fight about?

Nick Casasanto:

We would fight about the accuracy of movie quotes that we were quoting.

Kevin Maida:

Yes, good point. We're all pretty big quoters, as I'm sure a lot of friend groups are.

Evan Ball:

Then again we're getting back into common interests it sounds like.

Kevin Maida:

That's a good point. Movie quotes, that's another common interest I suppose.

Evan Ball:

Yeah. I'd think when your lives are so intertwined you must develop common interests, beliefs, sense of humor. It just is probably going to happen naturally.

Nick Casasanto:

Definitely. I think Ryan, our bassist, has had a huge impact on our collective sense of humor. He's just such a funny guy, man. He is always just saying outlandish things and quoting funny things and doing impressions and it just rubs off on everybody. The things that he says become common things that we say as a band and become our inside jokes and yeah. I guess a lot of our interests are movies, music... Like Kevin said, we all really like coffee. Joe and I really like weed, not just smoking it but from...

Evan Ball:

Studying it and knowing about it.

Nick Casasanto:

Exactly. So yeah, there's a lot of stuff that we connect on as band members and as friends. Like Kevin and I really like gear and we talk about amps and pedals and stuff like that. What else, Kev?

Kevin Maida:

John and I like film photography. We all like cookie butter. That's a pretty big... That's a base layer. I think Nick would agree.

Nick Casasanto:

Are you a crunchy or creamy cookie butter guy, Kev?

Kevin Maida:

Crunchy, and I recently... Nick, I have not bought a jar of cookie butter in actual years, but I just bought one the other week and I was just eating it the other night.

Nick Casasanto:

You're lying. You're lying because I also haven't had cookie butter or bought one in well over a year and I just bought one a week or two ago from Trader Joe's.

Kevin Maida:

No way. You got the good stuff. Do you know why I bought it, Nick? I sent you a video of it. I got it because I was at Jewel and I saw... Jewel sometimes will market things as vegan and it's hilarious. They'll have a little sign that says vegan with a plant leaf next to it and I saw the tag first that said vegan and I looked up and it was a jar of cookie butter. I was like, "All right, I'm just going to grab that."

Ni