Thesaurus Rex on Their Debut Album, Greatest Hits.

From the heart of New York City’s local scene hails Thesaurus Rex, a rock band that’s anything but ordinary, redefining and bending the limits of the genre. The band includes Calvin Rezen (vocals and guitar), Varun Jhunjhunwalla (guitar), Ethan Marsh (bass), and Dan MacDonald (drums). Thesaurus Rex brings a precision and depth into their lyrical songwriting process, pairing it with melodic instrumentals that create a separate identity for each song. 

After just two years of playing shows, Thesaurus Rex released their debut album on June 13th, titled Greatest Hits. They’re known for their witty yet sharp-edged comedic lyrics, featured in songs such as “Ballad of a Horse Girl,” or “I Won’t Hold My Breath.” 

We met up with Calvin, Varun, and Dan at an eclectic diner in Brooklyn. 

Ethan, who accidentally slightly melted their upright bass in the New York City heat wave, had to do an emergency fix.

We ordered 5 mimosas for the table and began the interview. 

Thesaurus Rex started around 2021. Can you give a brief overview of how this version of the band came about?

Calvin: Originally it was me and my friend Fiona and Cashel. It was a three piece. That was right before I went to Berklee. My sister moved out to LA, we had been living together in Queens, and I got into grad school and I met my girlfriend and I got a job, and I was like, “fuck it, let's start a band.” So that's when the Thesaurus Rex was born. And when I went to grad school, I met Varun. On my first day there, we all did an open mic. Varun went up, he said, “Hey, I stayed up till two o'clock in the morning writing this. So I've been awake consistently for 24 hours writing and producing this song. Take a listen.” 

Varun: That was true. And that was one of the first songs I ever wrote, I think. The first song I wrote in English. 

Calvin: I don't know if we've ever heard the song since. It's like at least a three minute tred fest. It's awesome.

Varun: It's like a guitar solo, then sing a verse, play a guitar solo, sing the same verse again.

Calvin: But it ripped really hard, and I was like, “wow, he’s a great guitar player.” The more we were in school together and we would chat, I was like, I feel like our band would be better if we had one actually good musician playing. Not me, because I'm not a great guitar player. I just need someone to hold it down in that way so I could actually do front man stuff. 

Varun: It was cool because I think a lot of gigs I was doing people would ask me to play just because the music was good. But I think we got along because I really liked your jokes and thought, like, “okay these are perfectly stupid to be around.” I think that was one of the first kind of getting on the same wavelength and that turns into a musical project, as opposed to gigs.

Calvin: So that's how Varun got in the band. And then Fiona had to drop because she was playing with a bunch of these big artists from Atlanta and she just didn't have the time to do stuff anymore. So we needed a new drummer. Dan was working at the Power Station, which is where we went to school together. I remember Dan coming in for an engineering project.

Dan: We all met and whenever I'd see you in the halls, we would always just say random garbage to each other and riff on the dumbest shit. And then I would go out and do work.

Calvin: I was working at the equipment room. Dan came in for an engineering class that we were taking where we were learning how to set up mics or something. He was the stand-in drummer, and I was like, “oh, that guy rips. If I ever needed a drummer, he’s the guy.” And then Fiona had to drop out, so Dan jumped in and it was love at first sight. So it's been the three of us. And then Cashel ended up dropping and we added Varun’s housemate.

Varun: Yeah, this guy appeared on Facebook Marketplace. He needs a place to stay and calls me, we have an interview. And he's talking about a shield, which he uses to turn down wifi signals when he enters the room and other things of that spiritual realm. He's like, “oh, it's really powerful. You have to bury it deep under the ground at night, otherwise it'll mess with your home or whatever.”

Calvin: And we thought, “oh, this person will be a great addition to our band.” 

Varun: I was like, “he should live in my house.” They show up and turn out to be the best musician I've ever met, they play every instrument.

Calvin: Ethan's like a child prodigy.

Varun: And so after Dan joined the band, then Ethan joined the band. 

Calvin: Then I would say the first gig that was the four of us in our current configuration was about two years ago now. 

You released your debut album on June 13th, Greatest Hits. The first track is the “The Thesaurs Rex Theme Song,” which is a sarcastic opening to talk about the band’s identity. So, why do you think these are going to be your greatest hits? And why did you choose to open the album doing an introduction to yourself?

Calvin: It's going to be our greatest hits because we're basically all washed up at this point. We really don't have anything else going for us.

Varun: That was kind of all we had. 

Calvin: No, why is it going to be our greatest hits? Well, we were joking about how the next album we are going to call it, Oops, All Skips. We were trying to come up with album titles and we thought it would be, well we were going to call it, This Sounds Like This, or something kind of like self-titled. Or we almost called it Deluxe Addition. We just wanted something to sound stupid. 

Dan: So you just brainstorm and then it eventually just turns into the real thing.

Calvin: I also feel like Greatest Hits is kind of actually artistically the right name for the album because it is a culmination of songs we've been playing around New York. We almost called it the New York Shows Album. It's songs we've been playing for two or three years, a lot. We have a lot of ideas for concept albums and stuff we want to write, but the main glue for these is just that they're the songs that we can't not play- because someone's going to be mad.

Dan: We probably have another album or two worth of stuff.

Varun: I also think Greatest Hits is like, I remember when it came up more than a year ago actually as part of the joke process. And it only works for the first album, this is the debut.

Or in 70 years. 

Calvin: But we'll be dead by then. Microplastics. Mark my words. 

Going off of that, it seems like you've been playing a lot of these songs since 2021, if not earlier.

Calvin: Well, I mean some of them, “[The] Gallery,” has been around for eight years. I was playing that since my solo time. But some of the stuff is new. “Gallery” and “It’s Getting Late [so Early These Days]” are both recorded and released under my own name, badly. 

But how did you choose which ones were going to make it on the album?

Calvin: Some of the ones we've kept off of the album are ones that fit nicely into some concepts that we have for upcoming albums. So we were like, “we have to wait on this one.” We've got an album that we're writing that's about revenge so there's some of those songs. We knew “[Thesaurus Rex] Theme Song” definitely wanted to be on the first album, because it's our theme song, we should introduce it. “[Ballad of a] Horse Girl” was a big debate whether or not we should include it because there was a certain contingency of maybe we should never put it out, so that it is just a live experience because it's a little bit of a kind of blood cult initiation. But a lot of people were like, “it's popular, you got to put it out. They'll freak out.” 

Varun: I also think for the album, the set found itself over a year of figuring out what works out live. So it wasn't really what goes on the album, more of 50 shows worth of what's the set list.

Calvin: So like “Wristwatch,” and “Excommunicated,” which were singles, weren't included on the album. But basically “Wristwatch” is part of a longer thing, and “Excommunicated” is like, we were still figuring it out. And “Dumpster Fire” and “The Bachelor’s Wife” felt like us. They just feel like our current voice.

For this album, you said you had a better release strategy. What changed with your strategy for this release versus earlier ones?

Calvin: Just some basic planning. I mean, a lot of it is we've had some help just in social media. We've gotten better at using social media is basically the deal. And to my humility, I guess. It's kind of funny that we've done decently well on social media. We have a decent internal barometer of, if this feels really embarrassing to do, we won't do it because it just doesn't feel fun. And if we're doing something, like the other day we were at rehearsal and we were like, “oh, what if you sit on the toilet and play slides with the toilet paper?” And we're like, “okay that makes me laugh right now. It won't destroy my sense of self-respect to put it out.” 

Varun: I think just embracing the shit post has been nice.

Dan: Well, we don't take ourselves seriously to begin with. So if we look like an idiot on camera, that's just how we are normally.

Calvin: We're releasing with TuneCore nowadays. TuneCore has been good, they're very much about supporting young and up and coming artists and just doing the things. So while we're still doing self releases and stuff, it seems like it's cool to have the support. 

So on the album, one of my favorite tracks is “Fad.” I felt like that song is the hook of the album, the one that regains attention. 

Calvin: We knew it had some single potential, which is why we put it out before the rest of the album. 

Dan: We put it out as a single?

Calvin: Yeah. 

Varun: We did?

Sonically, it was a standout from all the other songs on the album. It was a little bit different in its tempo and rhythm, and overall very upbeat and fun. I was curious specifically about the creation of that single.

Calvin: We recorded it and then remade the entire thing twice. 

Dan: I think we had it at a slower tempo before and we were going for more pop. We wanted it to be sexy and really up in your face. And we kept on working on it and we got to a point where it's like, “this doesn't sound like us.” And also the dance ability of it was just not happening.

Calvin: One of our early references was “Fame” by David Bowie. Which, I love that track, but it is slow. If you do “Fad” at that, it's not how we play it live.

Dan: So then we were like, “okay, let's just tap it out, tap out the tempo and play it all together live in the studio.” And we did basic takes and basic tracking and we're like, “oh, this is how it should sound.”
Varun: It became more rock and then it was cool to find how we could add hooks between the vocals and the chorus. So we had a bunch of ideas. There were guitar lines, some horn parts, and a bunch of synth stuff. It was cool to fly over parts from different versions of the song and see how it feels.

Dan: We did reuse some things from the original recording, speed them up and put them in a new version. In the beginning of the track you hear arpeggiating, that's from the original recording that we timed two or three times. 

Calvin: That song of all of them is also probably one of the bigger collaborations. Some of these songs I feel like I showed up with or I've had for a couple years and we've put them together as a band. But this one's really, Ethan and Varun fully wrote the whole middle breakdown section. And then we were like, “how do we make this feel like it's got sections and also have, it's connected to the rest of the song?” There's even more jokes and stuff that didn't even make it into the final album. We were talking from the perspective of hedge fund guys on a private jet.

“I Won't Hold My Breath,” that song is the head banger off the album. The lyrics read, “he's the kind of boy girl’s write poems about crying on their therapist's couch.” Lyrically, not just in this song, but in a lot of your songs, they're all very much their own story. A lot are very sarcastic, political, and comedic stereotypes in all of them. What's your songwriting process?

Calvin: Yeah, I would say I take a long time to write. I am kind of proud of taking a long time to write. I don't know what it is, it feels like there's a glorification in songwriting of, “I sat down and I wrote it in 15 minutes and it just came out.” I'm like, okay, that's a cool way to write something that sounds like you wrote it in 15 minutes.

Dan: That's the culture of songwriting these days. People will just get together in the studio and meet for the first time and write a song there. And it's like, “oh cool, you're writing about a breakup or you're in love with someone and it's so shallow and it's nothing really to grab onto other than the concept of love.”

Calvin: I'm very concerned with talking about politics or political things the way that a person would. I feel like there's this need a lot of times when you're talking about something that's bigger politically to be the ultimate authority on the thing. Or to write a kind of tome on, “here's the ultimate statement on this cultural problem with politics or whatever.” It's just like, no, talk about it the way that you would talk about people driving big stupid gas guzzling cars in the city. Or, “oh, I heard there's these people who are flattening people's tires. Isn't that crazy?” It's more pedestrian or something like that in a good way. Or things are just kind of more connected to the way you would actually talk about them, as opposed to some kind of like, “well here's my personal philosophy on all things.” So like “I Won’t Hold My Breath,” the amount of comments that we have on that one that are like, “oh my God, this is just like this guy I know.” And I'm like, “yeah, it's like a billion people you know.” I'm just talking about a cultural archetype. We're all aware of a couple people like this, and they're annoying. Here's a list of them and here's their social security numbers and addresses.

How does that feed into everyone in the band?

Calvin: It depends on the song and we're kind of changing as a band and hopefully towards more of a collaborative thing. A lot of these songs are songs I've had for years. But I'll come in with chords and the lyrics and melodies and then Dan's always writing his drum part for sure. I mean, because I don't have a clean idea in my head of what the drums are going to sound like. And Varun and Ethan are really filling out a lot of the melodic heart of the song and under licks. There's songwriter theorists or whatever who are like, “Oh, if you want to write a great song, you have to write a melody and you have to write a counter-melody that happens in the music.” And I'm like, “or just get a band they'll do it for you.” It's like everyone has to come up with something to do. They'll come up with it. But especially the solos. I mean we are like a guitar solo band for sure. But that's pretty collaborative actually.

Varun:  A lot of them are improvised. The guys will be like, “oh yeah, that was a cool melody.” Then we build on that.

Dan: The solo in “Peaches,” we were all just in the studio and [Varun] would play and we would be like, “oh, do that.” And that's one of my favorite solos of all time.

Calvin: Well, I would say a big part of the collaboration is that it's just connected to who they are as musicians. Ethan and Varun are very virtuosic and they have capabilities beyond what would be normal in a kind of pop rock song. And so a lot of it is like, how can we include interesting things in this while still making it the kind of thing that a 15-year-old wants, when I was 15, like, oh my God, I really wanted to learn how to play the solo to,

Varun: “Freebird.” 

Calvin: Well, no, but seriously, when I was 15 I wanted to learn how to play the solo to “Gives You Hell” by All American Rejects, which is two lines, not complicated, it's just melodic. But it's got its own kind of sauce to it and connects to something that's more complex.

Varun: I feel like every time we rehearse and learn songs for the first time, a lot of new sections are being created. “[I Won't] Hold My Breath” breakdown was kind of something we came up with in rehearsal. All these things that have turned iconic had just been us jamming. 

On the album, which song was the most difficult to finish?

Dan: “Gallery” probably.

Calvin: “Gallery” and “Fad” both had their things. “Gallery” is just like a sound we don't usually play around with, and so it took a lot of like, “do we want to redo the drums? Do we want to add more weird sound effects and stuff in the back? Is it too busy?” So it's like adding things and taking them away and adding things and taking them. 

Varun: There's a classic problem with recording that you go into the studio and you lay down every idea possible on every instrument. And you mute this track full of ideas and you do the next instrument. So with “Gallery” we ended up with piano layers, guitar layers, all these samples, like Calvin's sister talking and saying hilarious things.

Dan: Which is a process we don't really want to go back to.

Varun: And so then it was breaking that up and seeing what fits nicely in each place and adds to the story. That was new and really tricky.

Calvin: “Gallery” is also a story song with a beginning, middle, and end. So we wanted it to really feel like it was developing throughout. But it's kind of a production piece, so it doesn't grow in a traditional way. 

You said that for this album there's a difference of production compared to some of the other stuff that you've released. How did that proccess differ?

Dan: So the first three songs we put out, “Bachelor’s Wife,” “Wristwatch” and “Excommunicated,” we recorded at Power Station. We were trying to find our way with the process of recording and knowing what each of us wanted in the production. And there's a batch of songs we recorded for the record that we did in one or two days. We recorded the basics and then produced from there. I mean, it was a long process. So I mean the main difference was really just learning. We do it all ourselves. So it was learning what we want and the sound we're going for.

Calvin: I would say “Road Rage” is an episode of how we recorded and did production that we want to replicate in the future. We recorded it live in the studio. The drums, the guitars, the bass, the vocals, and the organ, we all played them all at the same time in the same room and it's minimal overdubs. We did some overdubbing backup vocals, little things, but the whole actual process of producing that took a week and a half, 10 hours tops. 

Dan: We had a mix that we were happy with within a week after.

Calvin: Whereas “Fad” took 10 months.

Your next show is coming up in a month, on August 26th. 

Calvin: We are playing at Sony Hall. And we're going to change the face of rock and roll.

Tell me what’s happening that night. 

Calvin: It's kind of a big summer blowout. Last year we played so much in the city and I feel like every band in New York reaches that point where you have to start playing more scantily or with more space between. So this is, with the exception of the little surprise show we did last night at Our Wicked Lady and the big show we did at the Bitter End, this is our show of the summer. We're trying to make it as big a deal as possible. We'll probably have some guest appearances and whatnot. 

Varun: I think Paul, we're waiting on Paul to reply. 

Calvin: Paul McCartney. 

Varun: You might have heard of him. He's a maybe.

Calvin: He's like an old friend. Ringo’s in for sure. 

Dan: The Beatles are kind of flaky, so.

Calvin: But that's what we've got lined up and we're excited to play. 

Varun: Also it feels weird to not have played in so long. I'm fucking itching to get up there and get a set going. 

Calvin: I've only been there for work events. They're like, “oh, you're playing Sony Hall?” I'm like, “we're playing on 44th Street, baby.” Maybe we'll get some random tourists who should have gone to see Mamma Mia or something. We'll probably end up hanging around Times Square in our underwear and just being like “oh, you guys want a cool vibe? Come meet us in the basement.”

Besides that, what's coming next?

Calvin: What is coming next? We're doing some tours in the fall. A couple down the eastern seaboard towards Nashville in September. Then some stuff hovering around Chicago in October. This is the idea so far. And then we're making another album, maybe two. I've got a show that I did for my college thesis that's like a concept album / play thing that we might do as an album. And then we've got this revenge album we're working on. And I want to make a Christmas album called Synonym Spice. So we're going to have to figure it out. 

Varun: That's a maybe. 

Calvin: That's a for sure. 

Any final comments? 

Varun: My final words are I love my parents and thank you so much and life has been so beautiful. 

Dan: Stream “I Won’t Hold My Breath.”

Varun: Thank you for listening to us talk, and thank you for reading. 

Dan: All the investors out there, all the guys who have lots of money and don’t know where to put it, put it in the band. 

Calvin: Oh yeah sorry, we’re looking for investors right now. So if you’re thinking about investing a lot of money in like BlackRock, or Blackstone, or into like a weapons manufacturer.

Dan: Friends of the band. 

Calvin: Instead, take that money and become a patron of the band. That way the band excels but then your money is not going to a terrible cause. So it’s really two birds with one stone. I would say two birds with one stone but that even implies violence.

Dan: We’re getting two birds stoned at once. 

Calvin: We’re getting stoned with two birds. 

Varun: It’s a tax write-off if you’re making a loss, which you would be investing in us. But the gains are sky high spiritually. 

Calvin: Keep diner culture alive. Come to our show August 26th. 

Thesaurus Rex’s next show will be August 26th at Sony Hall for All My Friends Vol. 1. Find Tickets here.

Find Thesaurus Rex on Spotify, Instagram, and their website.

All photos by Tori McGraw (@afterr.hourrs)