A Conversation with 40 Lashes: Emerging Voices in the Punk Rock Scene
Performing on the day of their new EP release, 40 Lashes gives us a backstory on their songwriting process, upcoming tours, and how their band formed. Performing at the University of Rhode Island, members Josh (singer and rhythm guitar), Abe (drums), Chris (lead guitar and backing vocals), and Peter (bass) make up this punk/indie rock band. They are located in Boston, MA., and have been playing together since 2021.
Could you tell us how your band formed? How did you come up with the name?
JOSH: Chris and I met through mutual friends. Our mutual friend was my neighbor/middle school best friend. Then he moved to North Carolina in seventh or eighth grade. Chris was in a band with him in North Carolina, then Chris moved here for work after college, and that’s how we were introduced. Abe posted on Craigslist advertising drum lessons, and I replied to that saying, “I don’t need drum lessons, but I need a drummer.” And that worked out. Peter, we found the old-fashioned way through a Craigslist ad, saying that we were looking for a bassist.
CHRIS: The name, we had been kicking around for a long time. I had been working on a song called 40 Lashes way before I joined this band. It was about the 39 lashes in the Hebrew Bible. Apparently, it’s the most severe punishment as the maximum number of lashes you can get. The song was about punishment and shame. And of course, a SpongeBob reference.
What are your strengths as individual musicians and how do they complement each other in the band?
JOSH: We’re all down to grind it out and work on stuff.
ABE: We love Kratom. It’s like herbal tea… That’s a joke… It’s like a very mild herbal substance.
CHRIS: His strength is definitely that he’s the tastemaker in a way. ABE: Yeah… so let’s say we’re all really good at writing stuff for our instruments. JOSH: We pretty much write our own parts, but I mean, I guess we’ll get feedback sometimes for other instruments. But personally, the less things we have to worry about, the better.
What inspires your ideas for songwriting and the different songs that you write?
JOSH: For those vocals, I’ll come up with the melody first, and then just try to have fill-ins or ad-lib words, like placeholders for the lyrics. And then I’ll put other words to those that sort of make sense and sound cool. The lyrics have been last, lately. There will be songs where we have the whole demo pretty much done. I’ll just sing some sort of gibberish and then the lyrics are put in after the placeholders.
Is there anything else you want to say? Is there any new music coming out? Have any recent tours?
JOSH: We just released the last song off of our new EP today. The EP is called Cheer On, Rock On, Party On. We are still recording some other songs– hopefully another EP soon. This is the first night of our tour to promote the EP. It’s 17 days, so it’ll be our longest run yet. We’ve gone on weekend tours before. But nothing this long. We’re playing another tour at the end of the summer, but I think it’ll be a couple of days shorter. 11 to 14 days.
CHRIS: Yeah, we are touring the northeast. In the fall, it is the Midwest. Even as far as Chicago.
ABE: You know, we wanna try the local restaurants, the beer companies– all the beers. CHRIS: Yeah, the steamed hamburgers out in Connecticut are pretty epic.
If your band was starring in a TV series, what would your theme song be?
ABE: Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone”. Josh likes her a lot.
JOSH: Yeah… I like that album.
CHRIS: “White Houses” by Vanessa Carlton. We have a song we’re working on that sounds like that one. It’ll be out. I don’t know. Next year, hopefully.
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