LAUNDRY DAY and the City That Never Sleeps

f you’re not listening to Laundry Day’s album, We Switched Bodies, then today is the day you should change that. This is the band’s fourth full-length album following 2019’s HOMESICK, which includes their hit song, “Friends,” that was featured in the season three finale of the Netflix’s coming-of-age series On My Block. Composed of young, native New Yorkers Jude Ciulla, Sawyer Nunes, Henry “HP” Pearl, Etai Abramovich, and Henry Weingartner, Laundry Day is not just any typical band. 

by Camilla Ffrench

A couple of hours before their show in Pontiac, MI, the band was overjoyed to find a pool table in the green room. So of course, they took advantage of this access and played around while answering questions. This was the third tour of their career, and since the start of the pandemic, it has been an even longer time since they had been on the road, let alone performing in front of a crowd of people. Despite having to travel across the States in just a little van, the guys were still having fun. One thing that you need to know about Laundry Day is how much they care about their fans and the experience they have at their shows. This is important to most artists, but the boys are fascinated by it. Salt Lake City was a show that came to mind for drummer Abramovich. “You just felt this very strong camaraderie in the crowd,” he says and emphasizes that it happens a lot more at smaller shows. “In a small show like that, it makes people feel safe and a little more free to express themselves and sing along. Something they might not do in an arena setting. It’s very special to us,” he adds. Like any band, they want to break loose and climb their way to the top––playing shows in the likes of Madison Square Garden, but for now, Abramovich reassures: “To be here now, I’m very grateful.” 

“To be here now, I’m very grateful.” 

Tyler’s Camp Flog Gnaw Music Festival

Regardless of what artist or genre it is, Laundry Day is inspired by a collection of different musical talents and for different reasons. Earlier on in their creative journey, they have learned a few things from the hip-hop artists Tyler, the Creator, and Brockhampton––both of which they had the chance to connect with––from performing at Tyler’s Camp Flog Gnaw music festival in 2019, to working closely with Brockhampton’s Kevin Abstract and Romil Hemnani on their new album. Their inspiration does not necessarily stem from the sound of their music, but from their foundations and their attitudes. “They have this multifaceted thing going on that was what caused us to start this band to begin with,” Abramovich explains. As Laundry Day has grown, this isn’t something that they think about as much anymore, but it is something that they can look back on and remember how much these artists drove them to do what they wanted to do with their careers. 

When it comes down to the things that have inspired We Switched Bodies, there was a lot of good music coming in and spilling out of their ears. “We did a lot of long drives where we would listen to albums for the first time together and that was a cool experience, just to make our world just a little bit bigger,” Abramovich said, grinning. When I asked them what were some of the albums they listened to, they listed many acclaimed records that a lot of us know and love including Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, as well as the rest of their popular albums like Animals and Wish You Were Here, Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder, and Hunky Dory by David Bowie. With such an eclectic taste in music, I was curious to see what genre of music they would categorize themselves as. They have been grouped into various subcategories of indie music or bedroom pop, but with their new album especially, you can hear a significant growth in sound that still makes them sound like the Laundry Day we know and love. Songs like “Little Bird” and “Blübe” come to mind; one heavy in rock, another with a jazzy-funk feel to it. 

We Switched Bodies Cover

“Alternative,” Ciulla concluded. In his eyes, the band identifies with a lot of alternative bands: “Just based on just doing whatever you want. I guess alternative rock because there’s that side to it. On stage that comes through a lot.” He references the band Fun. as an example, even if it isn’t a perfect comparison. “They were kind of fit in that world where it’s like Kanye influence but it’s a band and it’s very experimental,” he says. 

Laundry Day’s process when it comes to writing songs is fairly collaborative. They spend a lot of their time playing around with instruments, testing out different chords and sounds that work, then recording if they like what they hear. Despite the fact that everybody has a designated instrument they play on stage, each member is a multi-instrumentalist, and this heavily comes into play in their creative process. But when there are five or more people involved, there are bound to be disagreements. As to how they deal with these disagreements? The answer is simple: “Try everything,” Pearl states. “There’s no one way. It’s different every time. There is always gonna be some type of disagreement but if things go well you can feel the river flowing in a very nice way,” Abramovich adds. In the end, things are the best when everybody can agree on something. Nobody’s idea is left in the dust. “If the four of us like something that one person doesn't, versus something that all of us like, the thing that all of us like is going to be better. So it’s worth it to just push through to find that thing that we all like.” Pearl concludes. 

Laundry Day’s focus isn’t just on the music – they are also behind the fun in their music videos. The band’s videos have always been exciting, whether it's the boys having the time of their lives in a bouncy house in the “Harvard'' music video, or the creative chaos that is the videos for the Light Up Shoes 2 EP. However, when it came to their music videos for We Switched Bodies, the band truly showed us their range and potential that just gets you excited for what's to come in the future. Ciulla tells me they just try to “be as silly as possible” in the process. He goes more into depth: “There’s this quote that I like: you can explain a really good movie in a few sentences but you can explain a blockbuster in one. If the concept is super simple and you can just say it’s us in a sweater going around the city (in reference to the “Connect 5” music video) it’s a great video and that’s all that was. That was my pitch for the video. That was the same for us as superheroes (“Worry ‘Bout Yourself”), or us with the baby at our doorstep (“Did You Sleep Last Night?”), or we as Muppets (“We Switched Bodies”) like that’s been every single video for this album and that’s been all it is, just trying to think of that sentence and using the five of us and what we could become as characters”.

Growing up in the Big Apple had a big impact in a lot of different areas of the band's life, not only in the music scene but also just in the way they look at the world. For Abramovich, it helped him navigate the culture, since there were a bunch of different kids with different backgrounds. Abramovich adds that not only growing up in the city had a large impact on them, but also on his parents. “My parents came from a very boring place, [Israel] and there were not many things going on. They saw New York, like Pearl was saying, as this ideal destination.” He’s thankful for all of this because it pushed him to do a lot of things he probably wasn’t going to do otherwise. “They pushed me to do piano and I hated the piano when I first started,” he says. “It’s such a distorted reality. Like when we go and travel, we’re like ‘This isn’t normal. This isn’t America.’ because it’s so foreign to us,” Ciulla adds. For Pearl, he says that New York made him an optimist. “I don't think you can succeed at something crazy if you’re not an optimist,” he explains, “and it’s that distorted reality thing too. You’re in bands, and you’re going to see broadway shows, it is just what it is. You weren’t in the program like ‘Oh my god, I’m working with a professional musician!’ It was just normal…It’s so easy to take for granted because it’s just our world.” They bring attention to the fact that New York is that place that everyone wants to run to, but because they’re already there, they’ve always felt a little more special. “Even going back to the college thing, in some ways, part of the college experience is leaving your home, and getting a perspective that shows you who you are and gets you out of your shell. New York is not a shell, like at all. So it’s like you don't need that escape. I think that's one of the most insane things about it,” Ciulla adds.