Crashout Interview
- The Setlist
- Nov 17
- 14 min read
Conducted By: Ryan Freeze
Transcribed By: Ryan Freeze
Edited By: Soph Shull
A Food Lion parking lot is a pretty unconventional place to conduct an interview, but Sean, Alexis, Corey, and Nate thrive in unconventionality and are carving out their place in a thriving Newark DIY scene. Their band, Crashout, is breaking all the norms of DIY bands, and have exploded onto the Delaware scene. They are raw, and they are resonant, having made a name for themselves within a relatively short timespan. In this interview, Crashout touches on their latest single, “Train 124,” and also discusses their upcoming single, “Weather.” They talk about stylistic influences and paying homage to what came before them.
In addition to these items, Sean and Alexis of Crashout also touch on standing up for others in the community and finding your individuality—your voice—in DIY spaces. When I was conducting this interview, what was most striking was how human these musicians are. In no other band around the Newark scene will you find a more self-reflective and honest group of musicians.
I hope you guys enjoy this interview!
Ryan: I'm here with Crashout. We're at a Food Lion. My name is Ryan. I'm the interviewer for The Setlist, and who am I here with?
Sean: Sean from Crashout.
Alexis: Alexis from Crashout.
Corey: Corey from Crashout.
Nathan: I'm Nathan, back here.
Ryan: Nathan from Crashout is in the trunk of the car. All right, so guys, I wanted to first start off by asking y'all about the single that just came out, “Train 124.” I want to ask about the process and how that song materialized for you guys.
Corey: We were looking for a really pop punk type song.
Sean: Yeah.
Corey: We really wanted to write one. We've all been really into that lately. A lot of the other songs that we’ve been writing are pop punk as well.
Alexis: Yeah, a lot of the other songs that we've been writing are pop punk as well. I think pop punk has been like a pretty heavy influence on a lot of the stuff that we've been writing lately. I remember Nate just came into rehearsal one day and was like, “Hey guys, let's write a pop punk love song.” We were like, bet. He literally dropped all the lyrics too—which, like, shout out Nate. Um, I kind of cleaned him up. We kind of just cook. Usually when we get in the garage, we just, for lack of better vocabulary, cook, and if it works, great. Usually if we can't get something down in like 15 or 20 minutes, we scrap it, just because it's like, if it's not working, it's not working.
Sean: There's been like two songs that we try to jam out that we didn't necessarily like too much, that we wound up scrapping entirely, for the record. And, you know...
Alexis: Maybe they’ll come out.
Sean: Usually, I would consider myself the person behind the music, and then Lex is behind the words most of the time. We just talked about how Nate wrote the song “Train 124.” Usually I'm the guy that's behind the music, if that makes sense.
Alexis: Sean comes in with a lot of riffs and things of that nature. We usually can, as a unit, really be like, “Hey, this cord isn't working. Can we maybe try it like a different walk-up or something like this? Or what if we do this for the bridge?” Like, it's nice because—
Corey: It's a very collaborative process.
Alexis: Yeah like, and it's nice too. We all kind of just lock into our—oh, obviously, like, play a separate role, you know, being a four-piece band. So, um, you know, like I literally sit in the corner like a hobbit and song-write as quickly as I can while the train's still like going.
Sean: It’s very impressive.
Alexis: Thanks, Sean. Well, but it's even more impressive too, because it's just them three really like locking in–
Ryan: It came out so nice. The production on this one. I mean—yeah, yeah.
Alexis: Shout-out Wallaby, get your stuff done at Wallaby. Get your stuff done. Yeah, shout-out Wallaby Inc. on Instagram. He did our mix, our master, The Down Under Audio. Run that. My local bands looking for a good live sound, run that. He did awesome work. Just anything. He's awesome
Sean: Wallaby, I think especially for the next song that we're going to be dropping, he will also pitch in creatively sometimes. If he's listening to something—his ear is absolutely amazing. There's one part in the song that I didn't even think of, you know, to have in it, where we added another piece of instrumentation. And that was a suggestion from Wallaby, and it just made the song sound like that much better.
Ryan: So it's these additions, you know—you guys are collaborating. All these good pieces are coming together to create this song. Did you guys find that was happening on a lot of the songs on this new record?
Corey: Yeah. Yeah,
Alexis: I would say what's nice is I really, really, thoroughly love and enjoy our songwriting style. It's something I very much look forward to. We rehearse it almost every week, so it's like the high of my week. It's so nice to be able to come in and—I want to say “like-minded,” but I don't think that we are, and I think that that's what makes the music so fun to do. Everyone really does bring something different to the table in a way that we can, you know, make it very harmonious as a unit. Especially when we got in the studio for a lot of this stuff—especially the next one that we have coming out, “Weather,” which will be out November 14th, a week from today. And then we'll have another one coming out like two, three weeks after that. So, keep your eyes open.
Ryan: Oh, so you guys are like workhorses, man. This is awesome. Yeah.
Alexis: We've definitely been working on these songs for a really long time, so we knew that these were the first three that we wanted to record and put out while we've been kind of cleaning and polishing everything else for the album. Yeah. Yeah, especially like Wallby’s recommendations too—when we were in the studio, there's this huge vocal part where Wallaby was pulling out a lot of crazy harmonies, even in “Train 12”4 that he's playing on the guitar and being like, “Why don't you try these?” And it was nice, because it was like—we'll do as many takes as it takes to get it right. Also, “Weather,” instrumentally, was one take. That was so nuts that day. Even I was like, go ahead, guys, like that was crazy.
Ryan: When is the new single “Weather" coming out?
Alexis: November 14th.
Ryan: November 14th. So next Friday.
Alexis: Next Friday. Yes. Friday.
Sean: I got to give a quick shout-out to Olivia. She also did the art for that single.
Ryan: Shout-out Olivia.
Alexis: Shout-out Olivia.
Sean: Shout-out Olivia. If you want your art done for your band, hit her up. If you want a tattoo, hit her up. She's amazing.
Ryan: Is there anyone else who you'd like to credit on your guys' evolution as a band? Corey: Oh, Bradley.
Alexis: Yeah, our GOAT.
Sean: Can I shout out a couple of bands?
Ryan: Oh, yeah, absolutely, man.
Sean: Shout-out the homies in Daisy Doom, Capillari. Shout-out—there's too many bands to name—Pucker Up, Tarnished. Shout-out to Nate’s other band, Tarnished. Shout out to the old band, Meridian. Shout-out Shark Shark.
Alexis: Shout-out Shark Shark. Yeah, shout-out Shark Shark, bro. I was in that band for a very short period of time, but they were very helpful. And awesome.
Sean: Everybody's homework for Delaware emo is Ring Finger, Sadhound.
Ryan: Y'all are like a very like a well-socialized band, man.
Alexis: You have to know music history is just as important as music creation. There's a famous quote, like, “good artists borrow and great artists steal,” in the sense that in what you write, you are inspired by those who came before you. So it's important to know and credit these people. It's also in a way that's like—we want to pay homage to these people who have really paved this way for emo and punk and hardcore and all these things.
Ryan: You're being inspired by them. Yeah, you know what I mean?
Sean: Yeah. It's also important to support your local scene. There's too many doofuses out there that will use this as like a beacon to either prop themselves up or, you know, well, just prop themselves up and what-not. Like, if you're not out there participating in your community and you're kind of just arm-chairing it, you're not really gonna get anywhere inside your music scene. You have to go, you have to go see these bands, you have to meet these people.
Alexis: Support your local shows, play with your homies, play with your bands’ homies’ homies. Go to their shows, make new friends. And not only that—when you're in that position too, you go and see all these other bands and shows, and you can be like, “Oh, my God, they're great. I wanna play with them.” And then that's how you get connections with other venues, other fans. That's how you get better bills. To be a part of it is to, like, really be in it and like, live in it. Like, you go and play basement shows, you go see your friends play, you go to—
Ryan: Even if the basement sucks.
Alexis: Even if the basement sucks, you go.
Sean: Honestly, bro, you're playing in somebody's basement. If you're expecting something glamorous—like, no.
Alexis: Yeah. If you're looking for glamour, you've come to the wrong band.
Ryan: You don't have to name-drop the specific venue or whatever it was where it was just like, “Yo, man, like, take a couple steps back.”
Alexis: Even some of the glamorous places have been, like, how they treat you—even if they're nicer—that's really a big part of it too. We go to these basement shows, and I think we enjoy the underground more because it does feel more connected. It feels less like a job and more like something we get to do.
Sean: The coolest thing for me, when I was first getting into going to independent shows and such, one of the things that was important to me was there was always, like, a sense of community within everything. Like going to these basement shows—if anybody, any of my old heads, remember House of Mouse in Newark—headed into those shows for the 1st time and just meeting all these different kinds of people was so important to me. And then, going on and just going to all these different shows in the Delaware area and meeting even more people—you know, it was that much more important to me because it made me realize that there's people out there that are just like us, you know, that are people, you know. And there are plenty of people out there that are just in it for love of the game. And I feel like that's very, very important is just being a part of a community and all that.
Alexis: Yeah, at the end of the day, it is, like, for the love of the game. You do it because, you know, if you love what you do, you don't work a day in your life. Like, it's a privilege to be able to play—f it's someone's basement, if it's The Anthem, like, wherever you play it.
Ryan: You also have to make people love what you do. In this Delaware scene you guys are absolutely tearing the house down everywhere you go—like WVUD, Tire, wherever the venue may be. How do you think your presence affects how others are gonna engage with your music? You know what I mean?
Sean: Can I answer this first?
Ryan: Absolutely, absolutely.
Sean: I gotta say, like, the kind of reaction that Crashout has gotten ever since our inception has been absolutely shocking. I didn't think—I knew, we were gonna have some kind of presence to begin with, but I didn't think that the kind of reaction that we would have with everybody around us in the scene would be the kind that we had. I go to a random record store and I see our stickers there. I see somebody wearing one of our shirts—somebody that I've never even talked to before. And just seeing that people care about something that I'm a part of and that we're a part of— it really humbles. It makes you just kind of have to sit back and realize, you know, I'm just a guy. I'm just somebody who made music and such. This isn't even the only kind of music that I make, but it's different because of the kind of community that, like, comes across and appreciates what you do. It just means a lot. It's very reassuring, you know?
Corey: The biggest part about me going on stage, I would say, is just me being myself and rocking out. It's just me being myself. And it's nice to see that people like all of us just being ourselves and showing who we are. You know, we're not putting on a mask and pretending we're something different. We're just being ourselves. So it's a lot of fun doing that, and I like seeing that people like that.
Nate: Yeah, we definitely, like, we stand for what we believe in. If we think something is wrong, we'll speak up about it. Like, people should be good to each other. And sometimes we don't see that, so…
Ryan: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, sometimes you'll see these other, you know, groups around the block here. They'll, you know, not do good by their community. It's a shame to see. It's a shame to see, really.
Alexis: Yeah, we've definitely really put our foot down on that, too. As a woman in this scene—especially for my girls—we gotta watch out because some of these people…not even just the boys in the scene, there's always a handful of people in every scene, in any city you go to. But we really just gotta look out for each other. That's what makes this a community—us standing, not only standing up for us, but standing up for everyone. Everyone has a spot in the community, whether you are on stage, whether you are an audience member, whether you're a door hand, whether you're security, whether you're working the merch tables—everyone is in this community together. And I think that's what's nice about doing basement shows and being in the community: you are face-to-face with these people. It's not like you're above people—everyone's at the same level. Everyone's here for the same thing, and it's for good music. And I think that that's why people—like Sean said—I don't think any of us thought that we were going to get as much traction as we have so far.
Ryan: Are we going to see more subgenres, like pop punk, integrated in the next records?
Corey: Hell yeah.
Alexis: Hell yeah. But also, I think this album's definitely going to be a lot heavier, I think, than the EP. Especially drum-wise—Nate's really, like, he's cooking on a lot of these tracks.
Ryan: That's one of the first things I noticed about Train 124 was the drums, man. The drums were killer, dude.
Sean: I would say, in terms of like, the style of the record, of course we don't want to be one-dimensional with that kind of sound and such. So you're gonna hear other sounds that might pop in—like, you might hear, things that are interesting melodically, you know, or harmonically. We're going to be pulling from as many stops as we can. But I would definitely say that that pop punk sound is a big part of this next record, you know? It's kind of strange because, like me personally, when I was in high school, pop punk wasn't my go to genre, you know? But as I get older and I want to experiment with more genres and listen to more music, I start gravitating towards that sound more, whether it's intentional or not. It just works, you know? I'm really, really excited to see how we take the rest of this sound.
Alexis: I think too, like, to what Sean was saying—we don't want to be a one-dimensional band. I would like people to see that we can kind of do it all.
Ryan: So when is the Crashout, like, yacht rock record coming out?
Alexis: Well, we’ve got to do the Crashout jazz record first. We've already talked about that. We're going to shave our heads and we're going to do a jazz record. In all seriousness, for this one I feel like there's a huge pool of influence. We pull from hardcore, we pull from punk, we pull from pop punk, we pull from emo, we pull from grunge, we pull from… it's really got a little bit of everything. I guess, like, to what you were saying: people say it's akin to like a Paramore or something like that. That's a lot of the music that shaped us. And not just Paramore, but grunge, and even like some of the nu-metal and stuff like that. There's so much diversity on this record. I'm really excited for people to hear what we got.
Corey: Yeah, it's very different from the EP, for sure. Like, the content on this one is good too. And like all the songs—I feel like they are either on the same level or better than “Train 124.” It's a lot of fun, you know. I'm really excited. I think we're going back early next year to finish recording the rest of the songs, and then everything will be out hopefully sometime… April-ish. Yeah, April is next year. Crashout will be the band of 2026.
Alexis: Yeah. Um, yeah. I mean, we're just—like with the EP, we were really just getting our footing. So, you know, we'll be a year old at the end of this month. We'll be a year old at the end of November. So the fact that we already have something out and we're still putting out stuff—I think that this is going to be some of our better music. I think, like what Corey was saying, the content of it is also—one, I think it's really good and two, it's important to us. We talk politics, we talk stuff about the scene, we talk about taking care of your girls in the scene and stand up for your ladies and whatever, taking care of yourself. I think, at least personally, lyrically, this is some of my better work for sure. And it feels very raw to me—like, when I sing it or when I write it—and I hope that people feel that. Really, too, when we write, it's kind of whatever I'm feeling that day. You know, I'll ask them and be like, “Do you guys have any feelings you want to put in?”
Sean: I think the closing track was like the heat of the moment. We were writing, and it was inspired by an incident that we had earlier as well—not like with one another, but with other people, as a band. As a band, yeah. It was a very relevant event, you know? So we kind of implemented that into our lyrics.
Alexis: I guess I was kind of talking about earlier too—like, as a woman in this scene, there's a lot of stuff that people think that they can get away with when they speak to me a certain way or have things to say about me behind my back. There is literally nothing worse than an angry woman who has something to say. So, you know, I hope people hear that. I hope—whether it's politics or personal—you know, I've never been someone who's been very quiet. So that's on them at that point. If you wanted me to write nicely about you, you should treat people better.
Ryan: So, Crashout. They're coming out abrasive. They're coming out with lots of emotion. They're coming out with a lot of relatability, and frankly, a lot of resonance towards the feelings of people in the community, what people are feeling. “Train124”— everybody go listen to it. “Weather” is coming out November 14th, and you heard it here from Corey: Crashout will be the band of 2026. Before we end off here, is there anything else that you guys would like to leave here?
Alexis: Listen to “Primal Delinquency,” that'll be out December 13th.
Sean: Shout-out Little Goat Roasted coffee. Shout-out all Delaware emo.
Corey: Shout-out Bananas.
Alexis: Shout-out your local scene, man. Go to your shows. Shout-out Nate's mom. We love Nate's mom.
Corey: Shout-out Tiger.
Alexis: It's a cat that runs around the neighborhood. Yeah. Be active in your scene. Be nice to each other. Stream Crashout, and buy our CDs and vinyls and cassettes.
Ryan: I'm Ryan Freeze. That was Crashout. They're going to be the band of 2026. We're signing out.
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