The indie pop band stops by to talk about their latest record, what we should know about the Louisville scene, and what’s next.
Good morning!
We’re in for a treat today; Louisville’s Second Story Man stops by to talk about their latest record, how it came to be, and what’s coming next.
The pitch: A Louisville band forms in the late 90s, and over the course of the next few years, puts out several EPs and a long player. The next several years see another couple of LPs—and a comparison to Jawbreaker (!)—and more than a couple of lineup changes.
In a mark of incredible timing, the band started recording a new record in… 2020. COVID had other plans, and between that and real life, the record took five years to come to fruition. But all good things come to those who wait, and ‘Calico’ is proof positive.
With this record, we made a conscious effort to embrace simplicity, to not overthink, and to accept imperfections. The instruments were all recorded live with no punching in allowed.
~Carrie Neumayer
Having retroactively gone back through the band’s discography, I can say that this record is a delight. Any vestigial line to Jawbreaker has been erased, replaced by a (slightly) refined sound. The best groups evolve over time, and this is no exception. And it’s a sound that really can only come from the chemistry that comes from playing together for years. If you like punchy, well-built indie pop, Calico is for you. We’ve already seen a couple of tracks featured on the weekly playlists; now the entire record is available.
I recently had a chance to chat with the band via email. In our wide-ranging discussion, we talked about where the band has been and what’s coming next. Our chat has only been lightly edited for grammar and flow.
KA—
Congrats on the new record! For those that might not know, can you walk us through the backstory of how this project came together?
Carrie: Thanks! We started writing these songs sometime around 2017/2018 and finally got into the studio to record them in March 2020 with our friend Anne Gauthier. Then the world shut down, and so did we! I ended up going back to school and made a career change, Jeremy became a father, Drew was raising a young child, we grieved some very significant losses, and we all just kind of focused on other aspects of our lives until last yea,r when we decided that the record was worthy of seeing the light of day. We are extremely grateful to our longtime friends at Noise Pollution Record,s who believed in it and offered to put it out.
A previous review described the band as “…a female fronted Jawbreaker, with angular-gang-vocals in the style of Sleater-Kinney and bittersweet noise a la Superchunk for good measure.” That’s a lot to unpack, but more than anything else: Is that an accurate take?
Carrie: I think most long-term relationships inherently have many deaths and rebirths. That’s certainly been true for Second Story Man. We’ve reinvented our sound many times, so I don’t think that description accurately captures our 27 years of creative partnership. We’ve always aimed to make something that is uniquely us. Also, Evan and I sing equally on this album, so “female-fronted” is only half true!
Doubling clicking on that, this is the first record in several years. How is Calico different from the earlier albums?
Carrie: I had a realization recently that before this record, I’d held onto a belief that if I wasn’t singing and playing guitar at the same time 100% of the time, then I wasn’t working hard enough. So silly! With this record, we made a conscious effort to embrace simplicity, to not overthink, and to accept imperfections. The instruments were all recorded live with no punching in allowed. In our past albums, we were much more maximalist (and neurotic!)
Louisville is a place a lot of people might not be familiar with. What should we know about the city? What’s the scene like there?
Carrie: All four of us were born and raised in Louisville. Our drummer Drew and I even went to first grade together! Louisville is not quite southern and not quite northern. It’s a small city/big town. It lives in the in-between. I think the Ohio River plays a big role in the collective unconscious and shows up a lot in the music that gets made here in ways that are difficult to put into words. The scene is both robust and fragmented— there are multiple scenes, many of which do not overlap. For example, the Black gospel music scene in Louisville is legendary. There’s a thriving intergenerational hardcore/punk scene that can draw like 800 people to some of its shows! Then there’s the ever-evolving indie/art rock scene that all of us grew up in. It has splintered out in a lot of directions over time but has always had a moody, dynamic, cerebral, psych/experimental sort of flavor (e.g. Slint, Rodan, Rachel’s, Shipping News, Evergreen, Parlour, Wombo, and a hundred others I could name here) or channeled that sensibility through more of a literary and folk/country lens (e.g. Will Oldham, Catherine Irwin, Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band, Grace Rogers, etc.) The older I get, the more deeply I appreciate what we’ve got here.
For anyone new to Second Story Man, what’s the one thing you hope they walk away with?
Evan: Our record!
What’s next for the band? What do the next 6-9 months look like?
Carrie: Our plan is to take things one day at a time. We all work full-time, and Jeremy and Drew are parents, so finding time to do things the way we did when we were in our 20s isn’t possible! It sure would be fun to try to get out of town and play some shows. We’ll see!
Last one, just for fun; I bump into you as you walk out of the record store. What records are you carrying?
Carrie: The most recent records by current artists that I’ve enjoyed have been Grace Rogers’ “Mad Dogs”, Michael Beach’s “Big Black Plume” Idle Ray’s “Even in the Spring”, and S.G. Goodman’s “Planting by the Signs”
Jeremy: Some recent favorites have been Ghost Woman’s S/T album, Wand’s “1000 Days”, and Richard Swift’s “Walt Wolfman”
Drew: I’ve been listening to Tangerine Dream’s “Thief” soundtrack, the “K Pop Demonhunters” soundtrack, and covers by The Middle Age Dad Jam Band.
Evan: Our record!
Listen:
Second Story Man | Calico (2025)
Right-click the record to listen via Bandcamp.
Calico is out now. You can grab your copy here.
You can also connect with the band via Facebook and Instagram.
Thank you to Second Story Man for their time, and thank you for being here.
Kevin—
Kevin Sent 
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