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I was scrolling through upcoming shows at The Pinhook, Durham’s staple venue for the DIY and queer communities, when I first discovered cuffing season. They were set to perform with Charlotte-based emo band blankstate. right after Thanksgiving. While I missed that show by a few hours — and for the best because I ended up with my worst bout of RSV — I was bummed. Their self-titled EP had a Weezer-inspired blend of indie rock and emo with a DIY lo-fi bedroom filter that I was curious to hear live.
Then their new single “Summer” dropped in anticipation of their first full-length record, and my view of their sound shifted dramatically. It’s not an exaggeration to say they’ve leveled up in every regard. The band, which includes James Straub (vocals/guitar), Brandon Finch (guitar), Brian Finch (drums), and Caden Splenda (bass), is dialed in and sounds fantastic. The production quality is also top-notch, courtesy of Lawson Alderson at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, NC.
There’s a soft spot in my heart for the quaint town of Hillsborough, where the members of cuffing season largely call home, so I reached out to the band for a chat in mid-December. We gathered right before the end of 2024 at James’s house and talked for close to two hours. It was an inspiring conversation with a group of musicians who grew up together as individuals and performers, so read on and see what all the fuss is about!
We’re right at the end of 2024; was there an album from this year that stood out for each of you?
Caden: I did not listen to many new albums this year. I did listen to a lot of Sabrina Carpenter and the new Kendrick Lamar album. Those were the two I liked the most.
Brandon: Mostly just the Tombstone Poetry album [How Could I Be So In Debt?] that came out in October. They’re from Asheville. I’ve had it on repeat for the last week. It’s super good. Also, the new blankstate. EP [LOTUS] is amazing. All the other albums I listened to did not come out this year.
Brian: That’s a tough one. I’ve been listening to some bôa and Gojira lately. I’m all over the place, from like Sepultura to random emo stuff, but no specific albums.
James: Probably just Charli XCX.
Caden: Oh yeah, I forgot that came out this year.
To be fair, summertime feels like it was almost two years ago.
How did each of you fall in love with music? Was it playing an instrument or finding a band that was yours to obsess over?
James: I started with a classical guitar, like a $50 one. I still have it, but it’s pretty beat up now. But the tuning on it was pretty good, and if I’m being honest, I probably would have quit if it wasn’t good because it would have bothered me so much.
I reluctantly went to lessons for a while. Then, I got an electric guitar and joined jazz band in middle school. For some reason, we learned “Enter Sandman” by Metallica, which I hadn’t heard of before. I was so bad at guitar that I couldn’t play it. I think that moment was like when I knew I wanted to be a performer, but at that point, I wasn’t good enough yet. It gave me a sense of where I wanted to be and I’ve been chasing that since.
Brandon: For me, it’s similar in that the first time I picked up an instrument, it took me a minute to fall in love. I started super early because my dad has been teaching music my whole life, which helps. He started a band with Brian and me as soon as we could pick up instruments. We sucked at first, but then we ended up learning a bunch of more challenging music.
We played in front of all the students, like at one of their recitals or whatever. It was a lot of classical piano, but we were playing rock at the very end. Playing in front of people was when it hit me; it’s like an adrenaline rush that’s super rewarding. I fell in love with music after that. It makes you want to be better at your instrument.
Over the years, just continually playing music has inspired me. We keep getting shows, and they get bigger each year with the more energy we put into them.
Brian: Like Brandon said, we grew up in a musical house. I think I gravitated towards drums because it was easy and loud, and I could hit stuff. I didn’t need an instrument to get started or practice all the time. It’s more like rhythm, timing, and muscle memory. I mostly kept at it and then started playing in bands like 723.
Caden: I started taking piano lessons as a kid because my mom always wanted me to play an instrument. She was also the one who got me into the band since she bought me my first bass. I met James through a mutual friend and have been friends ever since, so it made sense to play music together.
I can relate as a fellow “guy who became bassist to join a band with friends.” It makes the process of learning the instrument more fun when you have a group who cares about you learning.
Caden: When I started, I just looked at James’s fingers and copied what he was doing. [laughs] I also credit Weezer for turning me on to the whole scene because we just used to play a bunch of their songs.
That segues nicely into my next question: how did the band come together?
James: It started with me and two other people. I was not that great at guitar, nobody was good at their instruments, and we weren’t even planning on writing music. You gotta play on time first and nobody was great at singing.
I’d always wanted to sing. I liked the melodies in my head a lot. And I feel like your voice is just an extension of that. So I started writing lyrics. It was terrible for a while, but eventually, you get into a place where writing is an afterthought in your life. It just happens and you feel compelled to do it all the time. And it got to a point where I didn’t have a sleep schedule and would just write whenever I wanted, even if I was tired. It often led to unproductive sessions, but I needed to learn songwriting.
Caden, myself, and a friend of ours ended up playing together twice a week, eventually four or five times, and grinding it out. After a while, it started to turn a little more professional because we were actually playing shows. Then we released the EP [cuffing season] in 2021, and that solidified the band as an actual project.
I thought [the EP] was a good effort, but I didn’t take much pride in it when I released it. I like it, but I’m always moving on to new stuff, and I never like to just dwell on old songs when there’s so much potential. I mean, I already did everything and I can play it live and it’s fun. But I like to get into the mindset of always making new things.
What’s your typical process for writing songs?
James: My writing was definitely influenced by Weezer. I did a lot of power chord songs with simple drums, and it’d be like three sections. I liked the “verse/chorus, verse/chorus, verse/bridge, solo/ chorus” type of structure, where it’s just like a simple pop song. But then I got into a mindset of writing songs that are like one long song with different sections. And none of the sections repeat.
It took me a while to figure out a good way to make songs with those weird structures. Travis Scott is a good example. I like his stuff, but some of his beat switches, I’m like, “That wasn’t a good beat switch.” Song transitions are my favorite part of writing because making them work is the hardest thing ever to make a great song.
That reminds me a bit of the new Glass Beach album [Plastic Death] where the songs feel like they have movements with otherwise unrelated sections, but they work.
James: Definitely. I loved their first album and watched the documentary about how they made it. Their process was just amazing and made me want to be even more of a perfectionist. But mixing and producing your own music is actually terrible. So much energy is required to do both, and there are two very different mindsets you have to be in.
Brandon: A lot of times we got together and we would just try and record something.
James: We’d workshop at his house a lot. I feel like the different environment in his house is that his father is a crazy musician in the best way. He has so much equipment for our use and encourages us in every way. They’ll tell us to shut up sometimes when we’re playing too loud. But they’ll always be cool about it.
Brandon: James was really focused on the writing aspect. I was getting into recording because that’s when I took classes for it. I dropped 400 bucks on Pro Tools — fuck Pro Tools — and was able to start using a couple of mics that my dad had.
We started grinding and recording shit, and we got some really good ideas out. When we were bouncing ideas off each other, it was like I would write a cool part, but I would never know how to turn it into a song. But then you would come in and be like, “Oh well, it’s easy, you just do this!” and then we would record it and I’d be like, “Fuck dude, how did you know how to do that?!”
James: One of the songs from our upcoming album came from those recording sessions. We improvised it in an hour, recorded it quickly, and it became this song years later but better recorded.
So y’all solidified your lineup and started playing out consistently at venues like Cat’s Cradle and The Pinhook. What was the process of going from self-producing your EP to writing this new record?
James: Honestly, I got burnt out and took a break from songwriting after years of constant writing and playing guitar every day to the point of obsession. There is such a thing as playing music and trying to make music too much to the point where you’re exhausted physically and mentally, but you don’t even realize it sometimes because “Oh, I made something great.”
I hit a wall and had the worst artist block of my life. Just like all the creativity drained. For a long time, you can’t write anything that sparks. I had to get back to a point where the songs just come as they do. I’m not writing every day like I used to, but at least I’m content with what I’m doing. I’m not thinking, “I’m not writing enough,” because that’s unproductive.
Brandon: It’s like the harder you try to do it, the more pressure you put on yourself. But even if you’re making bad stuff, you’re always progressing as a musician. You have to see it that way.
James: I’d say never get comfortable with what you’ve made because you’ll hate it one day and you’ll want to make something better. You can retire when you’re dead. [laughs]
I remember growing up, I was always obsessed with artists falling off. At age 16, I was like, “When will my fall off be?” But it made me realize that not ever falling off is to not be comfortable with what you’ve made and to always realize that it’s really about creating, not about enjoying what you created. The process is the transformative part.
What inspired the choice to record at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville?
James: Our producer is Lawson Alderson, who went to the same high school as me. I remember he set up stuff and was involved in the community, which I was not when I was younger in high school. Like I’d go to concerts for my favorite artists. But I wasn’t attending local shows and putting myself into the community.
Brandon: I don’t know his job title, but he’s like a studio tech or something up there. He can set everything up and produce your recordings.
Brian: We were both runners on the cross-country team, which is how I met Lawson. He knows most people around here. My other band [723] went to Asheville to record some songs and learned that Lawson worked there. Once I knew that, I texted him and asked if we could record with him. He was super open to it, really liked our music, and likes supporting the Hillsborough music scene, where we originated.
Brandon: He helps so much with supporting local bands and is a huge reason why we’re able to do such cool shit. He set up our first show for my other band at his house because he had a small venue in his yard. Like he genuinely loves music and is in full support of anybody trying to do this shit for real. Like if you’re committed to it, he fucking supports you. And he has the resources to push you further.
What was it like being in the studio with him?
James: I had to get accustomed to the mixing station because you got your own headphones. And then you mix your own stuff, but that was nice. Eventually, it got to a point where I could perform everything and it was a very smooth process. I wasn’t like, “Okay, make the drum sound like this, make the guitar sound like this.” I just trusted him to have everything dialed in. We had three days and recorded about 11 or 12 songs for the album.
Caden: We were ready to lay down what we would record because we’d been playing the songs for over a year, some even longer.
Brian: Yeah, we had a lot of time to practice up ahead. We knew the parts we were going to play so the songs were already in a good state before we got to the studio. Lawson didn’t have to change much from what we wrote; he could make it sound good with the recording and in the mix.
Brandon: I feel like a huge part of being in the studio for me is the ability to say, “We’re paying for this guy to have everything set up so we don’t have to think about the tedious shit.” We’re not responsible for setting up mics or making it so that the drums don’t bleed into the guitar channel. So we could go in, set up our spot to sit and mix our own headphones, and then dial in your part to make it sound as good as it possibly could with the band.
It made it so nice that we literally got four or five songs done in a day. To put it in perspective, James and I would be in my house for like nine fucking hours to make one song. Maybe we had two parts or tracks that sounded all right.
James: And then you’re sweaty and angry at the end. It’s nice to know that everything recorded can be used and there’s no mistake.
There’s somebody whose job it is to be like, “That sounded good, y’all! Let’s move on to the next one!”
James: You need to be pushed to accept the takes and go because sometimes you’re overthinking it. You don’t need to do it again. Having that outside perspective is crucial. Someone who can say, “You’re bugging out on this. Yeah, you’re good. That tone is annoying so let’s adjust it.”
Did you record all the songs live or do it section by section?
James: We first did the whole album live to focus on drums and bass. They figured most of their takes would be used, and then we would fill in the rest. We weren’t going in the mindset of “one take, no cuts.”
But it was very impressive because Brian got, I’d say, 85-90% of his takes done through the live recording. After we recorded all the guitar and bass overdubs, we went back to the drums and refined everything. It really did not take long; it probably took the least amount of time for takes.
Brian: I felt confident before going in. We were practicing to the point where we knew we could get every song perfect live.
Brandon: Lawson is also so fast with Pro Tools. He did shit in five seconds that would take me an hour to do at home. He would be doing like 50 different things while recording us. We would be talking in the background but he was able to just focus and lock in despite all of our bullshit.
There were times when something was not right with the amp setup, and it took him some time to fix it. But we weren’t angry because it was just him ensuring everything was great.
James: We also all slept in the same room with our partners on that trip to Asheville. It was like a screened-in paint storage room or something.
Brandon: It was like a whole experience to wake up there in the mountains with everybody you’re recording with.
When are you planning to put out the album?
James: Still to be determined but very soon.
Brandon: January or February at the very latest. Most of the tracks are done, but there’s just some minor stuff that we need to edit that can be done in a week of perfectionism.
This has been the most hyped I’ve been to put out something I’ve been a part of creating, so I’m ready to get it out. I’ve probably listened to it a hundred times at this point after the studio and I know it sounds so fucking good. I feel like we’re at a jumping-off point, if that makes sense.
Kind of like a “level up” moment.
Brandon: At least in my head. We won’t go on tour or blow up off this, but it sounds awesome, and we all made it together. The most important thing is making music you like with people you like. It’s so rewarding.
To wrap up: who are some of your favorite local bands — either in the Triangle or throughout NC?
James: There’s a band called Rain Recordings that I’ve seen at the Pinhook a few times. They’re very well-made emo while also being new if that makes sense. You’ve got the super impressive guitar tapping while singing and weird song structures. Sonically, all their songs feel very different, but they are so great.
Brian: Tombstone Poetry blew me away at a house show this past Halloween. They played with Weymouth, who is also a great band.
Brandon: I love Tombstone Poetry. They’re constantly inspiring me; whenever I see them, they’re like the nicest people ever. And they play the craziest sounding, shoegaze-y Asheville indie shit I’ve ever heard. I also love blankstate.; their singer plays crazy tapping riffs while jumping around the stage and their bassist has a really chunky bass tone.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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