By Sean Maldjian, Contributor

Meet Foley

Foley is a Brooklyn-based folk rock band with a wide array of musical influences, but still offers a unique perspective in their music. In a recent interview, Ed, Joe, and Tom discussed their upcoming album, "The Joke Turns Sad" and shared some interesting facts about themselves, including their first instruments, inspirations, and the venues they'd love to bring back. They also answered some difficult questions, such as whether they would eat pizza from the subway stairs or lick the bottom of every subway seat, and which color they would remove from the world.

A self-portrait by, Foley

Would you rather…

eat pizza you picked up from the subway stairs or lick the bottom of every subway seat?

Joe: Given that the pizza has only been sitting on only a few inches of subway stairs, it's just less surface area than every seat. Plus it's a free slice of pizza.

Tom: Pizza for sure unless it’s raining–one and done. Saturate it with all the flavors of the NYC street, though, and the seats start to look tempting.

Some Questions with Foley

Glad we got in touch. Can you tell us a little more about your project? Who is Foley?

Ed: We are a folk rock band based in Brooklyn, NY. The roots of the band go as far back as childhood, but we started recording our songs in 2017. Originally we were a three-piece group consisting of myself, Tom Parisi, and Joe Guzzardo (Westfalia), but we've been joined by our old friends Collin Melazzo (Westfalia, Foreign Body) and Danny Barbati (Sleepy Seas).

What was the first instrument you learned to play?

Ed: When I was nine I was supposed to be the drummer of my family band but I did not pass the audition. I was demoted to Tambourine.

Joe: I learned how to play a banana-shaped shaker when I was 6 or 7. I think that Shaker actually appeared on our last album, Songs of the Lyrebird.

Tom: Recorder in Ms. Wyatt’s second-grade music class. I have Hot Cross Buns seared deep into my brain.

Can you tell us a bit about the inspiration behind your upcoming album, "The Joke Turns Sad”?

Ed: Originally, we had the idea to make a really quiet album. As quiet an album as we possibly could. Our music was getting bigger and louder over the course of our early output and we really wanted to do something where the songwriting took center stage. It's not as if we risked becoming Slayer or anything, but restricting the sounds we allowed for ourselves gave us neat borders to work inside. Creating constraints allows you to work in miniature and also hastens your decision-making. 

Would you prefer people to be able to see colors or taste your music when they hear it?

Ed: We use taste metaphors fairly often when describing our music. We used to refer to our very first songs as 'jellybeans' because of how quick and bright they were. It sounds more derogatory than it was. There are a couple jellybeans on The Joke Turns Sad, but hopefully some other food groups are represented also.

"Hold Within" has a dream-like, introspective quality to it. Can you talk about the songwriting process behind this track and how it came to be?

Ed: Yes, for me the writing is very much like dreaming, in that you are presented with mysterious language and symbology, which is irrational and ought to be examined but not necessarily interpreted. Also as in dreaming, it must be a solitary action. You are lucky if you’ve found someone you can dream with, but most of us are sentenced to dream alone.

Joe: We tracked a lot of the songs on this album in Ed’s and I’s apartment just hearing him play the songs and naturally building from there. We used to labor over songs before recording and it felt like this time around we were kind of putting the songs together in response to hearing them for the first time, which was very exciting. The rest of the arrangement flowed similarly. I showed Collin, our drummer the track for the first time in my attic/recording space and immediately he kicked into a very understated but grounding groove. Danny, our pianist accentuated with these soaring piano swells which were completely untethered to the rhythm but added so much dynamism and intrigue. Hearing that one come together for the first time put so much wind in our sails.

If you had to remove one color from the whole world, what would it be and why?

Ed: I have a low grade color deficiency so this is my reality. It's not so bad. 

Tom: #d4df25 – there are no good reasons to use this color.

The folk rock genre has been around for decades, but how do you approach bringing a fresh and unique perspective to it with your music?

Ed: We pull from a  wide array of influences, so the genre border is fairly undefined for us. I think it's very helpful to have a rigorous musical idiom with a long tradition like folk music to measure yourself up against, but dogmatically sticking to the conventions of folk music  can be a kind of self imposed tyranny. You should feel free to use and discard whatever is useful for any particular statement. This band is so full of musicians coming from all angles and approaches, so the freedom to use or reserve that is vital.

If you could bring back any closed venue which would it be? Why?

Joe: There are so many failed venues, I feel like the captain of the dodgeball team there are so many to choose from. Perhaps one of the NYC classics like CBGB or Max’s Kansas City. Tom and I are both originally from New Jersey, so City Gardens is on the shortlist as well.

Can you discuss your creative collaboration process as a band and how you work together to craft your sound?

Ed: Usually I will present a song to the band and we will work out an arrangement. They are all such skilled musicians but with so much restraint that they are able to create very tasteful arrangements very quickly. They are also all fantastic songwriters in their own right, Tom and Joe both have written on this album as well. They’ve really influenced how I write songs. They've shown me that there's so much you can resist, so much you can leave on the table. I have dozens of songs that are either pedantically literal or trying too hard to make some sort of statement. Their taste filters out any song which wouldn't allow mystery or duplicity into the room.

What do you want listeners to take away from your upcoming album “The Joke Turns Sad”?

Ed: I would hate to limit the possibilities of what someone could take away from this album. I think it is the most open album we have made, and so people can inhabit the songs however they see fit. I won’t tell you what to listen for, but I will say we design the songs to reward listening attentively.

There is a Taoist principle of non-being, essentially that it is the empty space in any object, a mug or a house for instance,  which makes it useful. This is also true of works of writing and of people in general. There is a whole lot of non-being on this album, enforced by rigid structures, which I hope folks can find useful.

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)                  

Ed: Our latest single, “Like A Lamb” is also out everywhere on April 28th. 

Joe: The record will be out there on May 26th! We’re also putting on a release show @ Gold Sounds on the 26th with Jay Rosie and the Mood and the Move. Come to the show!