The Low Expectations Of New York's Skaters

Michael Ian Cummings is shuffling the footpaths of Brooklyn, trying to find a quiet place to take this call. The Big Apple has acted as Skaters' home base for a few years now, and without its constant stimulation the band probably wouldn't have given us a debut album as entertaining as Manhattan.

After making introductions at an LA house party in 2011, Skaters frontman Cummings and English guitarist Josh Hubbard made a pact of sorts when the pair reconnected in New York a few months later – they would play a gig before Hubbard boarded his flight home, giving the pair a limited window to get some songs down and make it happen.

“We didn't really have any expectations at that point,” Cummings begins, taking solace off the streets in a friend's apartment. “We set a date so that it forced us to do something, but I've never done that before, just booked a show and then get the songs together, so we were all a little on edge but it got the job done and we got the first show out of the way, then it was clear what we had to do. If you don't go for it you just sit around waiting to do it, like you say, 'Oh, we'll do it when this comes together,' or 'We'll play shows when this happens.' Sometimes you need to just book it, [but] it's kinda turned into something that we weren't expecting.”

Rounding out the quartet is Cummings' long-standing percussion pal Noah Rubin, and bassist Dan Burke, a gun-to-acquire type musician who was well regarded in their local scene as a back-end player who could get the job done. However, the rocket up the arse really came from Hubbard.

“He just showed up, and he was only in town for three months, so we used his limitations and we didn't really anticipate even playing y'know,” remarks Cummings. “He just showed up and we were like, 'Okay, maybe we'll get together,' and he was just like, 'Nah, I came here to start a band, I want to play shows,' and even though we didn't have a band or songs he didn't seem bothered by it.”

Like any one night stand though, you don't really know if genuine chemistry is there. When Hubbard called Cummings out of the blue after arriving in New York, the pair still only had that one balmy evening in Los Angeles to go off. And although the frontman confirms they got along famously on first introductions, he's quick to add that it was strange starting a band with someone he barely even knew.

“We both knew that we were good at being in bands, because we'd all done it before,” Cummings says. “But there's always that big question mark and you don't know what's going to come out of it, or if it's going to last a week or ten years, so you've got to take a leap of faith a little bit and just hope that the other people are as into it as you are.”

In a way Skaters originally stood as something of a musical sharehouse – the guys got along great, but could they live in each other's pockets? Cummings laughs in agreement. “You could have the best friend and then when you decide to live with them all of a sudden they smell like dead fish,” he relates.

Still, there was a foundation to work on from the outset, with Cummings having written five demos before Skaters was officially formed. These tracks became the band's first EP, 2012's Schemers, which they dropped as a freebie to generate buzz. Developing concurrently with all of this was the band's zine, Yonks – an artist-driven publication designed to connect and present their friends' various artistic pursuits. The quartet were embracing New York's underground DIY ethics to generate interest, and it paid off, with the band landing a deal with Warner to release their first LP, Manhattan.

Although three of Skaters four members grew up away from the city – Cummings and Rubin just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, and Hubbard in Hull, England – New York is their home, an integral part of the band's aesthetic and identity.

“I'd fallen for it before,” Cummings says regarding the city's charm. “I'd lived here before and my family is from here, so it wasn't new to me or anything. But living here full-time for the foreseeable future, you definitely have a different attitude towards the city compared to someone that's just visiting. When you're visiting it's just like, 'Who cares, this is crazy!' When you live here you have to figure out how to do it.”

The vocalist/guitarist admits their adopted base has allowed the four-piece to develop at a faster pace, and has presented opportunities that otherwise would never have formed.

“You're kind of surrounded by potential fans all the time, and you're out meeting new and interesting people, and everyone is doing something in a similar field, whether it's art, photography, fashion, whatever,” Cummings tells. “And you're all in the same boat in the city, like everyone is hustling to get their thing accomplished. Because of that it allows you to move quickly; you can just meet anyone you need to meet because they're at the bar. It's not hard to navigate your next step, you just put yourself out there and people throw stuff at you, you take it and you try not to miss too many opportunities.

“You're just one of the many bees in the hive, and everyone is fighting for the honey,” he continues. “You gotta want to [live in New York City]; obviously it's not for everyone. It's kinda cutthroat when it comes down to it, like if you don't get this show someone else will, if you don't capitalise on your opportunities someone else will. There's a level of competitiveness that keeps you on your toes, and at the same time just the energy in the city is pushing you forward. If you stop doing stuff you really notice it because everyone else is doing so much around you. You feel like you're not making the most of it. Rent is too expensive to just sit on your arse.”

Before the Skaters boys were taking their rock'n'roll licks worldwide, they could be found shaking and stirring of a different kind, slinging drinks in some of the most happening bars in the city. And although the work was definitely not as glamorous or adored as touring the globe in a guitar band, Cummings' late nights on the bottles gave him an uninterrupted view of the cartoonish nightlife New York offers up. It made sourcing stories for lyrics a breeze, and from the suggestive To Be Young In NYC to the reckless abandon of Nice Hat, Manhattan lets you live those moments, the record playing out as a series of short stories about what it's like to be young, wild and free, standing at the centre of the universe.

“There's definitely not a day that goes by that you don't see something crazy,” Cummings agrees. “If you put yourself out there you see crazy shit, so the city is just going to give you those stories, but it's whether you can pick up on them. It's one of those things where you've just got to be open at all times and be willing to get into situations you wouldn't normally get into, if nothing more just for the experience of it.

“When I listen to the record and I listen to some of the songs it reminds me of something that felt so long ago, but it wasn't that long ago, it was written in the now,” he concludes. “And that was the most important thing, to try and write about what we saw and what we knew, and not try and pretend we were great philosophers and that we were trying to teach life lessons. There's no preaching y'know what I mean, it's just observation and insight.”