niiice. talks internet shenanigans and 'internet friends'
Interview by Kendall Dennison
Hailing from Minneapolis, MN and reigning over the midwest DIY scene, pop-punk trio niiice. has just released their sophomore album internet friends. The band — consisting of Roddie Gadeberg (guitar/vocals), Abe Anderson (bass), and Sage Livergood (drums) — has garnered a cult following thanks to their sick riffs and upbeat internet persona. Especially evident in their response to the leak of internet friends, niiice. never ceases to entertain. I had the chance to speak with Roddie about some of the band’s Twitter antics and the creative process behind internet friends.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Ease Up: How have you been? Excited for the album to come out?
Roddie: Yeah I’m really stoked. It feels like it’s taken forever to happen, but I’m really stoked it’s finally happening.
EU: You guys have been teasing it for a while now. Was it finished before quarantine?
R: We sent it off to mastering two weeks after everything shut down — I guess, maybe a month after everything shut down because we came home from tour, finished the stuff we needed to finish recording, Abe mixed it, and then we sent it. But it was almost done before we left.
EU: I remember you played “free earl” at the Beach Bunny show at the Metro.
R: Yeah we played a few. We played “shlonkey kong” and one called “trademarked” and one called “ruff n’ tuff.” That show was so cool, very fun.
EU: Is there any specific reason you chose “shlonkey kong” and “free earl” to be released as singles?
R: I think we just thought those were two of our favorites.
EU: So about the recording process, how does it feel to be screaming into a mic in a studio or for a livestream versus into a crowd at a live show?
R: It’s really different. You’re more aware of how you’re fucking up. At a show, I’m definitely not that pressed if I’m not hitting notes just ‘cause it’s about the vibe more than anything. Obviously you have to care about the notes you’re hitting in the studio.
EU: Do you have any warm ups for your voice?
R: I actually don’t. Whenever people ask me this, I feel like I’m setting a bad example. People should definitely warm up, but I never really do. I think what I do is I talk a lot. Throughout the day I just talk more and more. I honestly don’t know how I haven’t had more problems with my voice going out before, because I take pretty poor care of it.
EU: Which song are you most excited for people to sing along to once gigs are happening again?
R: Probably “free earl.” That’s my favorite song on the record. That’s my baby. I love that song.
EU: Is there any specific scene or place that you think is best for people to listen to ‘internet friends’ in?
R: I guess [at a] party. It’s got a party vibe. I feel like the whole record kinda does. That’s kinda been our vibe as a band just as a whole is just kinda like just party. I feel like drinking is a good time with it. But also I feel like it’s got some late night drive, kind of punching your steering wheel, screaming along type moments too.
EU: Did the writing process for this album differ a lot from previous releases? I noticed a lot more twinkle riffs and ad libs on internet friends.
R: So how we write songs usually is I will come up with the shell of a song and then during the whole writing process of internet friends, me and Sage lived together, and he contributed a good deal of riffs. The “coachella” interlude riff, he wrote that. He wrote basically all of the riffs for “FRESCO MODE.” So in that way it differed a little bit, but the main difference is that I used a different tuning than I’ve ever used. And I think after Never Better, I was feeling really creatively spent for a second and I didn’t really — or… not necessarily creatively spent, but the songs I was writing just sounded like Never Better songs, and I kind of wanted the full length to be something different. I think it still sounds a lot like Never Better, but sounds different in a lot of spots too. And I was kind of looking for a way to push [myself] out of my comfort zone, because I’ve never really fucked with open tunings. But yeah, I just changed the tuning and kind of had to reteach myself how to play guitar based out of that tuning.
EU: Are there any artists that you pulled influence from to do that?
R: Definitely. I pull a lot of influence from different places. I feel like band-wise, bands that I was listening to a lot while writing this were Taking Meds. They’re a band from New York. They’re really cool. We were on tour with them actually when the pandemic hit. I love that band, and I think the stuff they do is really cool. And California Cousins is a big one — another band from New York. Mover Shaker has been a huge influence for years for me, like the way that Jack and Gabriel both write songs and write lyrics and approach songwriting is really cool. Honestly… Uzi. [He's] a huge influence too. I love that guy. I feel like I really try to bring a lot of like, not necessarily musically, like there’s not a lot of influence from rappers and shit but it’s just bringing that type of vibe. Like the way Uzi’s able to talk about — he doesn’t always just say substance-less things. He talks about some real shit but it’s always part of a vibe, and the vibe is usually pretty lit.
EU: I noticed there are more personal lyrics on this album too.
R: I definitely tried to talk about more things on this and push myself lyrically a little bit. I think the main difference through the writing and recording process was just there was a lot more attention to detail about like, with the things we were recording, like when you said [there are] more ad libs and harmonies and [there are] synths all over the record too. We’ve never really done that. There’s cello on the last song.
EU: Yeah the horns on the last song really stood out too.
R: Yeah, Jeremy from Skatune Network did those for us. I really like “lockjaw.” That’s one of my favorite things we’ve ever written. The main difference between that and everything else we’ve ever written is that I wrote the shell of that song and, right before we recorded, we got together and made a phone demo of it and we played it all the way through twice together and we just recorded everything based off that. We made the tempo map based off that little phone demo. My parts were mostly written but I added stuff on top of it and then Abe and Sage wrote their parts as we were recording it so it was like this huge kinda piece and part together type deal and that was dope as fuck. That was really fun to work on.
EU: So about your twitter account… it’s been suspended a few times. Do you have anything to add about that?
R: Three times. So the first time I got suspended was because I tweeted that I — the tweet was “I could kill and eat Ben Shapiro and not lose a minute of sleep over it.” And it was on a day he was trending — I honestly didn’t even know he was trending when I made the tweet. I just kinda woke up hating Ben Shapiro, as I want to do on most days, and his creepy little fucking stans on the internet, like middle aged moms and fucking bots and shit found it, and they were spamming my ass and I was like — I was talking my shit. I was definitely spamming them right back. So, I got suspended and they were like, “Yeah we’re not giving it back because you threatened to kill somebody.” And I was like, “Are you serious? I ‘threatened to kill somebody?’” I feel like anybody who reads that is like, "Damn, that’s obviously a joke.” So I lost that account. On the same day, I converted my personal account at the time into the niiice. account, and that one got suspended just ‘cause they eventually found it. I swear to god, dude, they got Twitter working fucking overtime on me man. Whoever is finding me is not getting paid enough ‘cause I’ve lost three niiice. accounts and four personal accounts. So I’m seven accounts deep right now. And what’s fucked up is that they locked Kanye’s account a couple days ago, but they gave it back to him.
EU: Oh really?
R: Yeah, he tweeted a video of him pissing on a Grammy and that’s what got him suspended. They just locked it for a few hours.
EU: I remember you logged into a few different twitter accounts and tweeted to promote the album.
R: That was one of my favorite bits I’ve ever done. It was really funny that I got to get on the Heart Attack Man account. That was funny. I was like, “Hell yeah, dude, give me your account with 14 thousand followers.”
EU: Did they ask you?
R: No, I hit them up. We know each other. We’ve hung out a couple times before. They’re cool.
EU: Do you have any internet friends you want to shout out?
R: Yes, absolutely. Just as far as people who I feel like we definitely couldn’t be where we are without them and the support they’ve given us is obviously Bee, Bethünni our photographer/merch person/tour manager/joint roller/just fucking chillest homie ever. Ellie Hart, same shit. They don’t roll joints but they make up for it in being sick as fuck, so it’s tight. Matt Harris, he plays in Termination Dust and Grandad. That guy’s support has meant the world to me forever. I’ve learned so much from him. Everybody at Brace Cove and Chatterbot Records. There’s tons more. I could go on forever. Alex Martin too. They book shows for us, super good homie. Miss them a lot. Might drive out to Pittsburgh just to see them. I might just drive to Pittsburgh to hit the Glove World gravity bong honestly like that thing is so sick. Every time I get a picture of it I’m like, “Damn I miss that thing.” It has a sticker on it now that says “glove world grav bong.”
EU: That’s all I have for you!
R: Word. It was nice to talk to you. Have a good one!
Find niiice’s latest twitter account here and be sure to listen to internet friends, now on all major streaming platforms.