MANCHESTER, NH – When it comes to live music, few things compare to the genuine experience of a show with a bunch of local bands taking the stage; musicians who all hail from the same area load up their gear, do a little soundcheck and they’re rip roaring and ready to rock for an electrifying period of time. This experience usually garners a new fan or two while making them pay more attention to what’s going on musically in the place they call home. An example of this is going down at The Shaskeen on April 19 with local rock & rollers The Doldrums being the headliners. Nashua punks Birds, In Theory and local rock acts Regals and Still Sleeping, who are playing their first ever show, will be rounding out the lineup with it all starting at 8 p.m.
I recently had a talk with the vocalist for The Doldrums, Rob O’Neil, about how the band started out, a new single they released last year, and a new EP they’re currently working on.
Rob Duguay: First things first, how did The Doldrums start? I know you guys have been around for over five years so did the band start during COVID, or before COVID and then the pandemic stalled everything?
Rob O’Neil: I started it in 2018 with Brendan Lucente, who is the rhythm guitarist, and we at first had two other guys in the band, a different drummer and a different bassist. We kicked them out because they weren’t the best people, and then we kind of went on a hiatus for a little bit. Then COVID happened, so the hiatus took a little longer than expected, so Brendan and I were kind of looking around for new people towards the end of the pandemic. Then we found the drummer Rob Chodor, who was recommended to us a few years prior, and then we added another couple guys. We tried it out then, and again we went on another hiatus, and then we ended up with Tom Nicosia on bass to round out the lineup.
The EP that we recorded after that, which is on Apple Music, Spotify and everything, consisted of songs from 2018 that just got re-recorded during 2020 and 2021.
RD: That EP you just mentioned is “Minus the Bad Ones”, and was that done virtually or did you guys wait until things opened up a little bit to record together? How did that come about during that time?
RO: This was actually when we had a different guitarist in the band when I was just singing. It was in 2021 when we recorded the EP at Blackheart Studio in Manchester. I needed to get these songs out there because I wrote them and I didn’t want them to die with the original part of the band. Since then, we had a cordial ending with the guitarist being out of the band, and we’ve been working on new music, playing some shows and it seems to be going pretty well lately.
RD: Speaking of new music, you guys last year released a new single called “Why?”, so was that done at Blackheart Studio as well? What was the experience like making this single and why did you want to just release a song rather than another EP?
RO: We wrote that one almost a couple years ago now, or maybe a year ago, I don’t know, time flies. It was written by myself, Brendan and Tom, and we liked the song. We didn’t have many others, we still had all of the other originals, so we decided to release this by itself, but it’s also going to be on the new EP we have coming out. We re-recorded the drums for it, so that version is going to be on the upcoming release, which is tentatively going to be coming out pretty soon.
RD: That’s great. The Shaskeen seems to be the major venue in town for local rock bands, so what are your thoughts on the place? Do you feel it to be The Doldrums’ second home when it comes to the venues around Manchester?
RO: Oh yeah, everyone loves The Shaskeen. The staff is great, the owners are great and before even starting a band, when I turned 21 that was my bar of choice. I actually ended up meeting Brendan at The Shaskeen because he used to go there every Sunday for rap night before it was more popular. I asked him if he wanted to start a band, and he was like,”Yeah, definitely” and we always go there. It’s the coolest bar in Manchester, for sure.
RD: You mentioned earlier that you guys have been working on a new EP, so what’s the situation with that so far? When it comes out, how will it signify a progression in the band’s sound and what do you think will separate this EP from the previous one?
RO: I’d say some of the music on the new EP is a bit heavier than the original EP. There’s one song on it that’s from the original Doldrums lineup called “Big Black Bottle of Booze,” which is kind of a fun party song. Tom always liked it, so we figured we’d throw it on there because it’s the easiest song to play. There’s not a lot of substance to it, but it’s a fun song so we have that along with five other songs and most of them are pretty heavy.