Words and Photos by Kaley Klapisch
Seamstress is a self-proclaimed “dreamy, alt-rock outfit” based in the NYC/Westchester area, established in 2024. I’ve worked with Seamstress since June of last year, including a Central Park photoshoot that now lives on the front of their Spotify page. Earlier this month, I had the chance to sit down with them for an exclusive interview before their set at Mercury Lounge.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: Hello, Seamstress! Thank you for being here, and for being you. This is the first time I’ve ever done this, so bear with me.
BEN GOLD: This is my first time I’ve ever been interviewed — like, not for a job. First music interview.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: So we’re all first-timers, here! I want to start with something I’ve always wondered: where does the name Seamstress come from?
CARRIE RED: Oh, we actually have a story!
NICO: We were gonna be Weaver, because we’re weaving songs and sounds together. But I was like, “This sounds too much like Weezer.” Can I curse?
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: Go for it.
JACOB GOLD: Our conceptualization for this band was that we have this eclectic sound that’s always changing, and that reflects in the name in a really wonderful way. We started off with a much more unsubtle name, and we just didn’t like it.
CARRIE RED: I liked Weaver! I’m the one who came up with it!
NICO: Weaver fucking sucked the whole time.
(Laugh)
CR: We wanted it to feel like threading songs together — the T in our logo is literally a needle & thread.
N: Dude, I haven’t thought about that in so long.
JACOB GOLD: It’s a motif we have across everything. The name’s meaning keeps changing the more we write and play.
Sound & Evolution:
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: That’s actually such a wonderful transition— do you feel like your sound has shifted over time?
CR: Dude, like, SO much.
JG: When we started out, we were originally envisioning — as I said — a really eclectic sound, but we were still figuring out what kind of musicians we wanted to be.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: What do you mean by eclectic?
CR: We sounded like 18 different bands. Like if the Smiths, Radiohead, and the Cure got together and had a crazy orgy and no one knew whose baby it was.
BEN GOLD: Our second album — largely because of Nico’s songwriting — we knew it was going to lean more emo.
N: Because I don’t listen to the Smiths or the Cure.
BG: Yeah, that stuff was more Jacob.
CR: I’ve been listening to a lot of OK Computer. But vocally and lyrically, it’s still like… 90% Joni Mitchell.
N: We both started writing lyrics, but our styles are different.
CR: I pretty much just have a bad night and then finish the song. But do you (gestures to Nico) write it all in one shot?
N: Yeah, I wrote “Coarse Hands” after a breakup. [to be released!]
JG: A big shift was losing our old drummer. When we became a four-piece, we had to be tighter and more deliberate with instrumentation— live and in recording.
CR: Honestly, a lot of it is Nico. He went from bass to drums—
N: Our old drummer was a jazz drummer.
CR: So the sound had to change — everything changed when the drums changed. Nico has more influence from heavier rock and, fucking —
JG: Sludge metal!
N: Post-hardcore is probably the biggest influence.
JG: All of our influences come from the sheer volume of music we listen to and meld into something intangible.
CR: I don’t feel like we fall into a genre.
JG: Yeah, it’s normal for humans to want to put things into categories, but our sound shifts in ways that are pretty unconscious to us.
CR: I think what it was was that these two (points to Ben and Nico) swapped around a lot of roles. Ben went from just the keys to mostly bass after Nico switched to drums, and vocals shifted with that.
JG: It was just a natural evolution. We never sit down like, “Today we’re writing this kind of song.” It just comes out. Our sound is probably going to keep changing. In 5, 10 years, we might even be fully electronic!
Songwriting:
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: One of my questions was about the songwriting process— I only knew Carrie wrote songs. I didn’t realize Nico did too.
JG: Everyone in this band writes songs. Everyone writes their own parts — complete, entire parts.
CR: Nico is a multi-instrumentalist, so when he gives us a song, it’s fucking done.
N: I send them a song, and I’m like, “Learn it.”
(Laugh)
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: Do you write all of the parts as well?
CR: I only know how to play rhythm guitar, so I’ll send rhythm guitar and be like, “Hey guys, we need to write the rest now…” (thumbs up).
JG: Early on, one person would write a full song. Now that we’ve become tighter friends and a tighter band, it’s way more collaborative.
CR: Even in our last rehearsal —
JG: Yeah, we were workshopping a song out of thin air… it’s a very yes-yes-no-yes-no process.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: Like, by committee?
CR: Yeah, straight up.
JG: You try a bunch of stuff and see what works — it’s intuitive. It can feel trancelike.
N: For our song, “Loathe” — we said we wanted another demo, and I just woke up and wrote it.
CR: I’ll stay up until like 2-3 a.m. on FaceTime with my girlfriend, then she falls asleep, and I’ll just sit on my guitar and mess with tunings. Then I’m like, “Alright, guys, new demo — let’s get to WORK.”
(Laugh)
“Faces”:
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: Your new single, “Faces” — what was the inspiration behind that?
JG: A lot of it comes from music theory — borrowed chords, non-diatonic chords, all that stuff. I don’t think, “This is the sound I want.” Again, it just comes out.
N: Dude, I’m not gonna lie, not only was it one of our hardest songs, but this was right when I had to take over drums. We didn’t even have time to sit down and decide what it should sound like — I just plopped down on the kit.
CR: He literally taught himself drums on his bed at college a month before our show, while being our bassist. Thank god there are multi-instrumentalists in this band — Ben was able to take over bass because he learned it at school — because otherwise we would’ve been fucked.
And for “Faces,” I took a lot of inspiration from Stevie Wonder’s “Overjoyed,” especially the outro. Lyrically, it came from my then-recent relationship with my girlfriend. We started dating in October of ’24, and we started writing “Faces” around then.
JG: In my demo, the chords were there, but it was a very different song.
CR: He came over to my house, and we played it on my amp— a two-channel amp— and we plugged into different channels and just rocked it out. It was so fucking awesome.
JG: I kind of just whipped up this melody line in the middle of it.
CR: And I think that’s what’s so cool about how we write – it’s super collaborative. Nico wrote “Coarse Hands” front-to-back — lyrics, vocals, everything — the fucking GOAT. I take the lead on most lyrics and vocals.
So yeah, “Faces” is more or less about my girlfriend. I finally got into a relationship where I felt appreciated for who I am. Coming to terms with my gender and sexuality… she makes me feel powerful, like I’m actually doing something right.
Influences:
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: So you guys have talked a bit about this already, but who are your inspirations — originally and currently?
CR: I wanna hear who the hell you two (gestures to Ben and Nico) are inspired by. Let’s do top three.
N: Title Fight’s definitely in there. Radiohead — I know every fucking band says that. And lyrically, RX Papi’s 12 Stout Street. It’s straight-up personal grief in a track. You can’t just listen to the genres you wanna make. I don’t think I could’ve written “Coarse Hands” without listening to that kind of stuff.
BG: My Bloody Valentine — I’ve been listening to them since I was 14. Also, underground rap — Lucy Bedroque, Jane Remover, Che — and screamo, like I Wrote Haikus About Cannibalism in Your Yearbook.
JG: I’d agree with Ben — pop songwriting combined with just noise. Beach House is my all-time favorite band. I think they have a perfect songwriting formula that’s remained relatively unchanged. No sound ever feels unnecessary. And to throw in a curveball — free-form jazz, like 12-minute-long tracks that drift in and out of focus.
CR: My big three are Radiohead, Joni Mitchell, and Jason Molina from Songs: Ohia.
Momentum & Friendship:
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: It’s interesting that Jacob highlighted a band that values consistency as inspiration for a band that’s all about changing so much.
CR: I think a lot of our consistency comes from the way we play. We rehearse a fuck-ton when everybody’s home.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: I was actually going to ask: since some of you are in college, how do you keep momentum during hiatuses?
CR: We just keep writing.
BG: We keep sending demos.
JG: We talk every day.
N: Literally every day.
CR: We’re yapping in the group chat nonstop.
JG: We’ve become much better friends and grown as musicians and people. Most of the time, we’re not even talking about the band.
CR: 80% of the time I’m on some straight-up bullshit.
LOUDSPEAKER COLLECTIVE: So you were friends before the band?
CR: I’ve known Jacob and Ben since high school. I’ve known Nico for like eight years; I used to run a fucking JoJo meme page, and we met on the Discord for it — in the trenches.
We all practice a ton, but we’re also just good friends. I honestly can’t believe the band is still together — this is not normal.
JG: We also try to record and release music on school breaks, which helps. After college, it’ll probably get easier to play more, maybe even tour.
N: And I can finally get a fucking drink at venues!
(Laugh)
BG: We’re friends, not just bandmates.
CR: Friendship is paramount.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Seamstress in the basement of Mercury Lounge. From left to right: Nico, Carrie Red, Jacob Gold, Ben Gold.
Loudspeaker Collective 