No Stupid Questions ahead of their sold-out gig at The Mercury Lounge
No Stupid Questions is one of New York City’s newest and fastest-growing bands. Together they played their first-ever gig just over a year ago to a sold-out crowd. Within the last year, the four-piece has headlined and sold out several other venues across the city. No Stupid Question is Brian Cropp (vocals and guitar), Jake Baynum (guitar and piano), Adam Keltz (bass), and Kevin Socolow (drums). Backed by a wide range of influences, their sound intertwines classic Americana with modern fast-paced indie rock. On February 23rd, the band released their latest single, “Making It Through” ahead of their sold-out Mercury Lounge show.
With such a fast rise in the city, who knows where they’ll go from here?
So you guys met in 2020 at a bar in Brooklyn. Can you talk about how the band originally formed?
Jake: I met Brian at a bar in Brooklyn. I was playing with the band that the three of us were in, and it was kind of serendipitous.
What was the other band?
Jake: We were called Broadly Speaking. We were just doing covers and that kind of stuff. Brian didn’t know this at the time, but it was our last show because our singer was moving. Brian came up to me and he is like, “I'm a singer who needs a band.” And I'm like, “We’re a band and need a singer!” And it just kind of worked out.
Adam: Yeah, I feel like that's kind of how it worked. I don’t know, you guys approached me. You're like, “Hey, we're a band who needs a bassist.” I'm like, “I’m a bassist who needs a band!”
Jake: We formed that out of necessity in many ways. There's no good etymology behind it.
Brian: And to Jake's credit too, I sent him a bunch of voice memos and me playing acoustic guitar in my room. And he was like, ‘These are sick.’ I'm glad that I basically got accepted into the band.
And you all had previous musical experience?
Photo via Owen Labate (@olabsphoto)
Adam: I was in my school orchestra from 3rd grade through 12th grade playing the bass. Then I got to college, and I was like, I can't do that. So, I learned how to play electric [bass].
Kevin: I started playing drums when I was in third grade. Sort of lost interest in high school, but did it for the grades and sort of fell back into it at the end of college and really wanted to get back into it. And then luckily met Jake in 2019.
Adam: Did it for the common app.
Jake: I've been in bands for a long time. I actually started on drums and then bass and then guitar, so I kind of went backwards through it. I was in a band before and then just kind of picked everyone up gradually.
Brian: I played in a band in high school. When I say played in the band, we never actually played in front of anyone. We were a band that never played, but I was in choir for sophomore year.
Jake: I would love to hear your raspy voice in the context of the choir. That'd be fantastic.
Adam: This is so funny. I didn't know any of this shit.
I also learned that you (Brian) were in a Macklemore music video.
Brian: Yes, I'm in a Macklemore music video. That is my fun fact that I think I can live by. My student teacher in middle school was Macklemore’s video guy. This is before he got big. And all the kids in that video are all from my middle school.
What's the origin of the band’s name?
Brian: Honestly, we were all coming up with different band names.
Adam: We had a meeting to be like, we need a band name. We don't have a name. We had a list of 50.
Jake: And I remember it was Adam's (suggestion), and you were like, “Oh shit!”
Adam: They picked the one that I guess I put down. I was like, “I didn't even remember putting that down, but let's go!”
What were the runner-ups?
Jake: I'm trying to think. Brian was really into Bonus Round, and we were all like, ‘No’.
Adam: Oh yeah, we didn't like Bonus Round.
Jake: I remember we tried utilizing the early days of Chat GPT because it just dropped, and came up with names, and they were absolutely awful. One of them was like the B Train Bandits.
Adam: I liked the other train one.
Jake: That was the Subway Conductor Support Group. Yeah, that one was good. Is it too late to change?
Photo via Owen Labate (@olabsphoto)
So, for your first single you released “Shotgun,” in July of 2023. When I listened to it, I thought it was a little bit folk rock and I really loved the bridge, especially the guitar and the drums and the bass and the synchronized rhythm. That was my favorite part of the song. Can you talk about what the creation process was like for that first single?
Jake: A lot of this is out of necessity. We had a show and we didn't have enough songs to really fill what we wanted to do. Brian came in with the song in a skeleton form, and we just kind of fleshed it out from there. And I specifically remember the bridge kind of being, I mean, full disclosure I'm not a big Grateful Dead guy, but I was hearing the song and there was something about it that to me seemed a little jam band, Grateful Dead. And I was like, “let's get a little bit alternative country like folk rock,” like you were saying with it. And that riff just kind of came to me where it's like, what would a Jerry Garcia guitar line kind of be? So that's where specifically the bridge came from. But yeah, the song mostly blossomed from the first show that we played.
Adam: And I'd say a lot of the way the songs come together, and I imagine this is probably a universal thing, but I feel like we just kind of get in the room, start playing a little bit, and then things just take their course that way.
Would you guys consider yourself a DIY band?
Kevin: Definitely.
Jake: I think so, for sure.
Kevin: I think Brian mentioned this the other day, that he ends up writing a ton of music as we're preparing for a show, just already in that creative mode. But that's sort of how they leapfrog along.
Brian: I would also say we're very DIY in the sense that all of our production is done by Jake, so everything is done ourselves. Everything that we're doing right now is DIY.
Your next single, “Aerial Defenses,” was released the next month, in August 2023. And the chorus goes, “We ain't waiting on a rainy day to get on up and shake this way, so let's keep grooving, cruising, moving, losing it all.” I interpreted that as kind of not waiting for a rainy day to go, and just live life. And it seemed in a sense it was a positive message. How did you write that song and what do you want people to take away?
Brian: I think there's two ways that we write songs. I’ll sort of write a little bit of the structure of the song and maybe the chorus and a couple of verses and then bring it to the band, and we'll kind of arrange it together. And then the other way is that sometimes either Jake, Adam or Kevin kind of have an idea that I need to build lyrics off of. Honestly, that song was just kind of a hard-hitting dance track. I just wanted to add lyrics that just made people want to dance, made people want to move. And so that's really what the song is about, and I don't even know how we got “Aerial Defenses,” or why it's called that.
Jake: I just name it after what I think it sounds like when I do demos to make myself familiar so I can find it later. So the original demo for that song was called “LCD Soundsystem” because of the bassline. And then “Aerial Defenses” came out because my really good friend is a naval pilot and we were thinking of the song title. And he sent me a message about something with our Aerial Defense System and I'm like, cool.
Brian: That's the other thing about that song is we sample a bunch of our friends.
Adam: Doing what?
Brian: Just laughing.
Adam: And why are they laughing?
Jake: They might have been on mushrooms.
Brian: So DIY.
Photo via Owen Labate (@olabsphoto)
And is there anything that you really want people to take away?
Brian: I would say the live show is a huge aspect of the tracks that we've recorded and released, and just even the ways that we arrange our songs. I'd say with that song, not to kind of stray away from the question, but the kind of meaning behind it is all about what it brings to the vibe to show. A lot of times with that song, we bring people up on stage, we have people participate with the cowbell.
Adam: People love that for some reason.
Who are you going to bring up on stage tonight?
Adam: I have my pick.
Brian: I don't even know what's in the setlist, I'm thinking.
So out of the four singles that you have released, what one is lyrically the most meaningful?
Brian: We released this song today, “Making It Through”, which I'm pretty proud of, just being the most meaningful. And there's some songs that we write like “Aerial Defenses” that are kind of more theme-based and are not really a song that I think that actually has lyrical meaning. I'm really proud of the lyrics that I wrote for “Making It Through.”
You categorized “Shotgun” as alternative country and then “Aerial Defenses” as indie rock and now you're playing a lot of more indie rock songs. So was that kind of a calculated move or was that a switch in genre? Are you just kind of doing what feels right for each song?
Photo via Owen Labate (@olabsphoto)
Jake: The alternative country label at the time, I mean we played a few shows, we didn't know exactly what our sound was going to be. And now that we played more shows, we also still don't know what our sound is going to be! So we haven't really made a lot of progress there. But I remember doing “Shotgun” and uploading, and it made me select a genre. I didn't know that it would end up being labeled that. But I thought that the song was alternative country in a way. And then with “Aerial Defenses,” I was kind of thinking what could we put out next that would be very opposite that. In terms of what Brian was talking about, where it's like, to me “Shotgun” is a little bit more emotionally evocative and what can we do that's more physical, something that's just very different thematically. If we put out another “Shotgun” that would become our sound. But by putting out “Aerial Defenses,” it varies.
Adam: I’d say we remain pretty ambiguous in that regard.
Brian: I think that we all challenge each other's music influences. If you just listen to the voice memos that I have on my phone, they don't really sound anything like our band.
Adam: We definitely don't have the same taste per se, but it all works together.
Kevin: As we start to do so many different things. I think it's all converging into one sound.
Brain: I don't know if you guys disagree with this, but we're not really going for a specific sound.
So today you released “Make It Through,” but you released two songs, “Making It Through” and “Higher Tonight.” So why did you choose to release the two together?
Adam: I didn't even know there was a second one.
Jake: Once again, to me it was like juxtaposition. Where “Making It Through” is more soft, for lack of a better word, and you kind of get into this trance and lull. Then it ends, and “Higher Tonight,” starts with that loud snare, and then you're just into it. So I kind of wanted the juxtaposition to really shine through on those two.
And you fully self-record and produce the songs?
Adam: Yeah. We went there a month ago in his little cabin in the woods and did it up. Had some band time and blood oranges.
So you (Jake) play guitar, but recently you started adding in keys. What inspired adding keys into your live shows?
Jake: I don't really. Well, we have one song that we will close with tonight that's a new song that we felt like keys might add a different element to it. I feel like I'm a broken record, but it's like we talk a lot in our practices about variation and just kind of subtle ways to change sounds. And a lot of that used to be just through dynamics. I think it just might add a little bit of differentiation between the shows. So if you've been to three of our shows and we're just playing guitars the whole time, when you see the keyboard, it just might recontextualize some of the songs.
Photo via Owen Labate (@olabsphoto)
Brian: I think one of the things that I like about the piano too is we're all getting better as musicians as we play more shows and we play more together. But it also shows off Jake's skills. Because Jake's a hell of a musician, and there's one song that we play where he actually switches from playing the keys to ripping a guitar solo. And just being able to highlight that and kind of flex that is pretty cool.
So how do you choose when to play guitar versus keys?
Jake: A lot of times it might just be when I'm on stage and I think that the guitar could be better accentuated with the keys. I haven't told you guys yet, but in the bridge of “Higher Tonight,” I might go on the keys for that. It's just something where it's like “What can I once again do to differentiate this from the rest of the set?”
You played your first show in early 2023 and since then you've sold out several venues around New York. What do you think is your edge as a band that attracts people to keep coming to your live shows?
Kevin: Luckily, four of us really have been in New York for so long and have developed a network. I grew up in New York. So luckily I think we just have a lot of friends that are good friends and loyal friends that come out and see us. But I think it's slowly expanding to friends of friends and the like. So it's been fun to watch that progress. Each show added a little bit musically to the network. So, I guess the music is good enough that they keep coming back.
Adam: Especially in the beginning, we were just playing the same songs because we only had a few. Now we've been able to add a lot more. But our friends I guess just kept coming, so good for them.
Jake: They were so drunk every time they just forgot.
Adam: But definitely attributed to good friends. But personally for me, once I start seeing or realizing that there's people that I have no connection to whatsoever at these shows, more of those people, that's when I'm going to be like, “wow, we’re really fucking doing something here.”
Brian: And I feel like we're starting to get there. It is hard for us to do that when we released our first song over the summer in 2023. So it's hard to call yourself a band without having any music out there. And slowly and surely we're growing the audience from friends of friends to more people on the outskirts of that.
You said that you recorded your album in a cabin. So what phase of the album process are you guys at right now with that?
Photo via Owen Labate (@olabsphoto)
Brian: I think we're close, but the last 10% always takes so long.
Jake: Exactly. I mean like we said, we're very DIY, and that means mixing and mastering on our own.
Adam: “Our own.” It's just you bro.
Kevin: In case you haven't realized he does it all.
Jake: I mean we have some parts that we just need to iron out, but I think all of the songs are close. But it will just be like, I know it's done when it's done kind of thing.
Brian: We want to get it done by April. Being a self-produced band, it can be hard and you have to give yourself breaks when mixing and mastering and producing your own music.
For each of you, what would be the goal?
Brian: I want to take this as far as we can. I think that we're a fire band. We are very talented. And even just over the last year, seeing how much we can progress. We just sold out the Mercury Lounge. I'm just trying to keep on riding what we got. But everything that has just continued to grow from what we've been doing. So just keeping that trajectory.
Jake: And that's my goal. I would just say positive trajectory. As long as we're getting better and the songs are getting better and the shows are getting better, I'm happy to keep doing this. I don't know what the end is, but the short answer is, I want us to play the Bowery Ballroom.
Kevin: Mine is similar to Jake. I love the fact that we literally started with our own equipment. We are playing on sidewalks and now we're playing places like this. Bowery Ballroom is also a goal. We haven’t really done any supporting performances before. I'm excited for that and I think that'll only push us higher and also challenge us. I'm also just pumped for an album to come out, to have something that we've all worked on and we can own and have that really forever. That was a goal for mine way back when. So I'm excited to see that in a couple months.
Adam: I can give you the schoolhouse answer, which is honestly just have fun. As soon as this is not fun, I'm not going to want to do it anymore. We're all busy people, we're all getting older, we're all getting into more things. As long as this is keeping me happy and entertained, I'm having a great time. Simultaneously, once I realize that random people are just listening to the music for whatever reason and it's just being played on its own and it's living its own life and people are listening to what we're doing and we're creating, that’s it.