We had the pleasure of catching up with Brooklyn's hottest new indie band, Pan Arcadia, a vibrant collective of native New Yorkers and one honorary native. Their unique sound is shaking up the Brooklyn music scene in 2024, a year filled with emerging talent but none quite like this.
Pan Arcadia's origin story is as eclectic as their music. Lead singer Eamon Rush and guitarist Dylan Kelly have been friends since middle school. Their shared passion for music led them to recruit bassist Henry McGrath during their high school basketball days, cementing the early foundation of the band. The addition of drummer Brian Duke, found through a musicians-for-hire platform, and guitarist Gabriel Gonzales, who joined after meeting at a party, completed the lineup.
Each member of the band brings a unique set of musical influences to the table, resulting in a sound that is both diverse and cohesive. According to Rush, “I think everyone kind of came in with their own influences, but then there are some common threads like Gabe and I share Guns N' Roses. That's that one.” He adds, “It’s been cool to share some of the influences with each other and develop more of a language with each other based on these shared influences.”
Listening to Pan Arcadia is like taking a journey through the varied landscapes of indie rock, their music resonates with the raw energy of classic rock and the experimental age of modern alternative. Their blend is not only refreshing but also a testament to their ability to fuse their individual influences into a unified sound that feels both nostalgic and new at the same time. Their shared passion for music is the beating heart of their sound, making them a standout act in 2024. Keep an eye on Pan Arcadia, they are paving the way for a much-needed era of new music and they are undoubtedly a band to watch.
What would be the ingredients of a pan arcadia sandwich?
Brian: “Some meat stolen from whole foods.”
Eamon: “Stew.”
Brian: “A lot of onions, raw onions”
Gabe: “A lot of raw onions.”
Brian: “Cheese cubes”
Henry: “Shepherds pie crust. Instead of bread it would be mashed potatoes.”
Brian: “There would be like three bites taken out of it then left out on the counter.”
If you could be in the room for the making of any album what would it be and why?
Henry: “Carney by Leon Russell is a sick album”
Eamon: “Transformer by Lou Reed, would be amazing to see Lou working in the studio with Bowie and Mick Ronson”
Brian: “Axis: Bold as Love I feel like it would be really sick Just because it's such a live record but then there's also these like wild production things that happen occasionally so just seeing how they kind of navigated their way through that I think it would be cool”
Gabe: “Dark Side of the Moon It would have been cool and has a lot of experimental sounds”
Do you think that in that album do you see yourself picking out things to add into your own?
“Definitely David Gilmour's tone I think, that's like a perfect tone”
One person dead or alive that you would want to hang out with?
Gabe: “maybe Frank Sinatra and JFK That would be a crazy combo, classy but fun”
Eamon: “That's true I kind of forgot it was dead or alive I was only thinking about dead people”
Henry: “the guy from snl, John Belushi”
If you had a basketball team what would the name be and why?
The band decided collectively they would go with The “final stoners,” based on an inside joke they created with their friends.
What's your biggest irrational fear?
Henry: “ I hate bugs, I don't even like butterflies”
Brian: “more of a rational fear but heights! We should not be up there!”
Where did you guys grow up? And do you think your particular neighborhood influenced your sound as a band?
Henry: “I don't know how much I would say my neighborhood influenced my sound individually at least but I do know that I think New York City influenced all of our sounds probably but I grew up in Manhattan”
Brian: “I grew up in Connecticut and there was definitely a pretty strong jam scene up there and that had a big impact on me musically throughout my late teens and early twenties, I went from rock to blues and southern rock and I was really immersed in that for a long time.”
Eamon: “I grew up in Manhattan too and I think it helps cause you see even in like the 26 years I've been alive things have changed so quickly yeah compared to that are upstate you know it's kind of the same nature persists but you really see culture evolving quickly here”
Gabe: “I mean I think living in New York it's one of the few cities in the world where you can do whatever you want I think that's definitely allowed me to you know when I'm writing songs I'm writing them cause I like them not because I'm trying to fit in the trend or you know
What kitchen utensil do you think you are and why?
Henry: “I would be a pizza cutter like the circle one!”
Brian: “Maybe like a spatula? They could do everything.”
Eamon: “It would be a runcible spoon, but everybody calls it a spork.”
Gabe: “Ice Machine.”
Henry: “I’d give you an ice tray.”
Brian: “Yeah but that's still a bit of a stretch.”
What’s one goal that you hope to achieve by the end of the year?
Brian: “To buy three yachts! Or to play a venue we haven't played before, make a lot of music.”
Eamon: “Conquer New York.”
Brian: “Win the presidential campaign.”
Gabe: “Pan for prez.”
If you could tell a person one thing about your band what would it be?
Brian: “We'll help you party down, actually someone told me the other day they were describing our music and I hadn't heard it described in this way before they said that there was between like all the songs they listened to all these demos that were were like days away from going and turning them to actual tracks and after listening to these demos they told me that there is a thread that runs through all of our music that says come like come come It never says no”
Gabe: “We'll do manual labor for free studio time”
What’s the craziest experience you’ve had as a band?
Brian: “There's a fond memory of being on tour in California and running into these two german women who were like oh are you going to what was it called?”
Gabe: “we were at the festival that we stumbled upon it we had no idea where it is that it happened to be It was a wild place It was wild, beautiful It's like it's totally nuclearFallout, radiation, it's just like so you can't really live there but people do live there and there's a little town It's also the salton sea, it's like toxic.”
Eamon: “It's like almost more true version of Burning Man before it became commercialized so it's like much smaller but it's like in these abandoned kind of ruins of that old community, basically before the salton sea was polluted because of lithium mining, there were a lot of Indian reservations and people like Frank Sinatra showed up at some of the casinos and it was like a destination and then the mining poisoned the water and all the fish died and it smells like shit and it's all toxic so then it became like a place for like you know trailers and fringe type of people so fallout's like attracted artists and there's a festival that's only one or two days a year every other year so it's like crazy odds that we just happen to be in the middle of the desert in the middle of the desert and these people are like oh the festival is about two miles down and it's crazy how good it was.”
What’s your favorite underrated spot in the city?
Gabe: “Rudy's Bar and Grill in Hell's Kitchen it's the cheapest bar in the entire city free hot dog yeah, free hot dog and two dollar pints”
Henry: “the metal bar around here I love Dubs it's underrated’
Colors influence the sound of music all the time, what would the color palette of your sound be?
Eamon: “we happen to just like start putting shit in the basement and everything and then our one of our photographers, Tommy took this photo with the sky with cherry blossoms and blue and pink it's been a reoccurring and those are like opposites too”
What’s next for pan Arcadia
Eamon: “Going up to the studio a few days we just got a few mastered too”
Brian: “A lot of music on the way and a couple local pop-up shows in the next couple weeks…”
Eamon: “Don't even talk about that. Bowery Ballroom.”
Brian: “Bowery Ballroom. August 16th. That's next be there or don't be but you should be!”
Speaking of, catch Pan Arcadia’s next show at Bowery Ballroom on August 16th, definitely not one to be missed!
Get tickets at:
Listen to their newest release, “Life: As If I know it” here!
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