Home Remedies light up the stage in Washington, DC

My first time watching Home Remedies perform was at SongByrd in DC. They’re stage presence was warm and exciting; I’ve never seen four people more in sync with each other. Each one of them were in their own world while they were performing; eating up every second they had on stage together. You could almost see the music moving through their body; their instrument simply serving as a tool to make it understandable to the crowd. Watching them, I couldn’t help but smile. They have a way of connecting with the audience that makes you feel like you’re a part of something special. 

I got the chance to sit down with the members of Home Remedies and learn about their passions for music and songwriting, how they met each other, and what they hope for in the future. The band consists of four members: Andrew Gibson (Gibby) on bass, Zach Basile and Max Cohan on Guitar, and Tyler Master-Mateo on drums, who went to American University. The focus of their music being Indie, Rock, and aspects of Punk making its way in there. 

Our conversation started with the classic, “how did you guys meet”. Zach and Max have known each other the longest, both being from New Jersey, and along the way they met Gibby and Tyler. Before Tyler was on drums, they had another drummer, Ian, who they talk fondly of. 

The respect and love they have for each other came off them immediately. Each emphasizing how the other helped them with their songwriting and overall appreciation for music. They all contribute something that the group both needs and appreciates. From speaking with them, their true love resides with the music itself. Even if the band never existed, and even if they never played gigs, the four of them would be satisfied just playing with each other as friends. While talking with them, the conversation ended with us discussing the future of the band, and what the members thought it looked like for them. With three of the members moving to New York and one staying in DC, they assured me that no matter what they would figure out how to make music together.

All of the members of Home Remedies have now graduated from college, and emphasized how much the music community has grown throughout their time at The George Washington University. They brought up the bands Palisades and Boys Kisser as upcoming bands that are really making a name for themselves. They seemed really proud of how big the music community in GW is becoming and their part in bringing it together. They emphasized that now that their time has left from the GW band community, they love the new talent that’s coming in, and things are looking really promising for the music community at GW. 

The range of talent within the band, I think, is a testament to the diversity of bands and artists within the DC music community at large. I think Home Remedies represented that community within GW perfectly. Each of them also writing and producing their own solo albums, as well as playing with other bands they’ve created outside of Home Remedies. Bassist Andrew Gibson writing, producing, and playing in Dundrum Band alongside Dylan Weiss. 

Since members of the band are moving forward with their careers, they made sure to emphasize the already present, and new arising talent that has been coming up at GW: Palisades, Boys Kisser, and Painthinner Band. 

How did you guys meet?

Max: Zach and I met playing at a show, different sets. We both covered a modern baseball song, and we quickly became friends, and Gibby and I met through the GW music scene 

Tyler: I came a little bit later and met them just kind of through the DC college music scene. The previous drummer Ian moved to New York and then I hopped on. 

Zach: We knew Tyler years before that. 

Max: Tyler helped us demo our record… that wouldn’t have happened without Tyler. 

What’s the songwriting process for you guys

Zach: It’s changing as we speak. We’re recording an EP, Tyler is engineering it and mixing it and stuff like that… I think we’ve been doing this in a much different way than we did the last album. 

Gibby: Before it was them two (pointing at Zach and Max), so the songs they wrote together, they stayed together for a summer and wrote stuff.

Tyler: And also like when we first got together, we were just playing a combination of Max’s songs from… 

What has changed since the band first  came together? 

Zach: A lot has changed 

Max: It’s really like harder now. There’s more of a punk thing happening now for sure. 

Zach: We’re blowing it up. (said sarcastically) 

Max: Yeah, we’re blowing it up every night. (also said sarcastically) 

Max: It’s a lot more collaborative I’d say. We’ve all gotten more comfortable like, and we’re all I think more influenced [by] each other’s writing. I think each of us are off like taking tips from what Gibby does, what Zach does, what Tyler does. 

What’s it like playing originals versus covers? 

Tyler: It’s cool cause you can kind of like, you can make your own part and then it feels a lot more like personal and it feels, it’s more fun to kind of know that… the song exists because your part is there in it. 

Max: It’s more like a living thing. 

Tyler: But I honestly miss playing covers, like I mean, that’s like we’re all inspired obviously by other people’s music, and playing other people’s music…

What was it like touring? 

Zach: It was kind of like a mini stint.

Max: It’s funny who came out of the woodworks, there were people that I knew that I didn’t know were coming at like a stop, which is a lot of fun. And then there were like strangers and people who were very kind. We played at a basement show in Philly with a band that we loved to call Davy Jones locker. They were, they were really excellent… we were stoked on them and they were really stoked on us…

Zach: I was amazed at how like instantly you can make a connection with another band playing in their home, like so many times, like specifically when we went and did that, we connected with bands who then like put us on their splits… and we made some music together… and then we hosted them and they hosted us. 

Max: We made good friends with a band called Armbite in Philadelphia, also, and Armbite was working on a split and we hopped on. It was them and Precious Little Life… and Knuckle Deep who also helped us record our album. 

What’s it like playing music at GW? 

Zach: It was pretty decimated by COVID, and so that was like, I met Max the first month, like my first semester back from COVID. 

Max: And it was like my first semester of college. 

Zach: Yeah that’s true.

Max: I think that with any scene, the GW scene like comes in flows. I think that there’s been bands that have come and gone that we really like and stuff. There’s new bands that are performing and that we know about. There’s a great band called Palisades. It’s like a metal group. 

Gibby: It feels like there’s a lot more people involved in music at GW than there were before. 

Max: That’s the thing about doing anything in college though like there is a set amount of time people come and leave.

Zach: But there was maybe one band. Like I think like I was like the only people here at GW before COVID… After that there was one band, Static TV…

Max: And as we were just starting, they were just leaving. 

Max: … There’s really great people who are like interested in supporting GW music, and in just DC music at large, but the university I don’t think does a really good job trying to spotlight that kind of thing. 

Tyler: I was gonna say it’s similar with American [University]. There isn’t that many places to like practice as a band, though since COVID, there have been efforts to like, kind of build up the part of the music department that is more like bands like us… and there’s been and there’s also a new club that formed called like Singer Songwriter Club, that like connected kind of yeah, singer songwriters to have people collaborate [more], and join bands and stuff. I still wish there was more like, physical, space for people to rehearse. You kind of have to find your own way. 

Is there an artist or a song that got you into music? 

Zach: The Beatles.

Tyler: The Beatles. For me it’s been Beatles day one. 

Zach: I only ever picked up a guitar because I loved The Beatles so much. 

Max: It was Green Day. 

Gibby: It was the first album I ever bought (Green Day).

Max: Me too! Me too!

Gibby: Yeah it was absolutely Green Day. 

Max: The thing about Green Day is that when I’m not listening to Green Day I’m like ‘oh I like Green Day’ and then I’m listening to Green Day and I’m like ‘This is the greatest band of all time.’

What’s a rose, bud, thorn for the band? Your favorite moment/moments in the band, something you’re looking forward to, and something you want to improve upon?

Max: I feel like putting up the album is like the big rose right? 

Zach: I was gonna say my rose… my rose is definitely like what these guys have taught me about music… because I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t know how to appreciate it. And like between like drumming with Tyler and Ian, and Gibby playing bass, and like Max’s ears, like I have learned so much about music and like how to appreciate it. That’s definitely changed my life. 

Gibby: My rose is similar to that, I have like learned so much about music production and the scenes behind it. Like now I can record songs on my own in  my room, and I would never have had that opportunity or like know how to do that if it wasn’t for like being introduced into music through this band. And like learning so much from Tyler on the recording side of things, and mixing, and like Max has great ears for that kind of stuff, and like Zach has great insight… we’re doing a new EP now and… Tyler was recording some stuff for us.

Zach: And also in playing

Max: You just gave away the bud bro. 

Gibby: I was wondering what the bud was. 

Tyler: I’ll say my rose since joining the band, like something for me is like I always just wanna play and play as much as possible, and one of the thing[s] that was so exciting about, like being brought into Home Remedies is like we just play a lot, and we love to play… We love to jam and practice and it’s just like that’s yeah, that’s what we care about most, just being able to get on stage and go hard and play often. 

Max: Tyler’s waging nuclear warfare on the [drum] kit. He’s unlocked thrash. 

Max: When we were on tour with Ian, our good friend, our other drummer, uh Tyler, like to Ian, [said] something along the lines of like “yeah man I’m really good but Ian knows true thrash.” And I just gotta say, lately Tyler’s been thrashing. 

Tyler: Being in this band has helped me tap into the more like punk side out of my drumming. 

 Zach: I had to take a step away from the kit last time we were playing because I thought it was going to fall apart. 

Max: I think my other rose is just being apart of the DC community at large. Like the DMV music community is really special. There’s been so many people who, like make us feel so welcome. 

Gibby: Basketball, festival. 

Max: Oh yeah! We went and played at an event called “Mosh Madness”, that our good friend Reed from Dorinda put together, and so many great bands were in the scene… and they were so cool and like the sets were great, and the comp being able to put that together, like part of the reason we were able to put that together, [was] because people knew Home Remedies. 

Gibby: It was like a live  3v3 basketball tournament, like bracket style, like bracket style with bands playing in the back [behind each net]. It was really cool. 

Max: Another friend of ours, Taylor Ruckle, wrote about it in the city paper and our friend Carolina wrote about it for the Divergery Blog. 

Max: Bud being the EP.

Zach: If I could launch a different bud… you know like Gibby said, everyone has got new avenues for like making music, um, and so I know Gibby’s other bands are putting out stuff [Dundrum, …, …). The two of them are in a third band that is putting out other great music. Max is about to put out an EP. You’ve also got a fourth band, a solo project (referring to Gibby), there’s like this proliferation of like music going on around everybody I know and it’s like-

Max: The Home Remedy-verse

Zach: but that I’m like really excited about that. I’m picturing the playlist, I’m picturing… everybody that I’ve known for years, like coming together and putting, putting together good stuff. 

Zach: Honestly you know what the thorn is-

Max: Too much of a good thing

Zach: We’re staring off the edge of a cliff because like Max is graduating, going to grad school, you’re moving to Manhattan (Tyler). 

Max: The thorn is that the immediate future, after the end of the semester, is a little more uncertain. 

Gibby: Long-term, I think we’ll always be making music together. 

Max: I think that we all just have such great respect for one another, as friends and as musicians and for our stuff, and like we love playing together more than anything. 

Me: Is it kind of scary thinking about that kind of stuff?

Gibby: Yeah definitely. 

Zach: For sure.

Tyler: Yeah. 

Max: Yeah, but not like existentially scary, we’re going to figure it out. 

Tyler: I think in the grand scheme of things… like if you want to continue the band, if it’s worth it to continue the band, which it is like a year (referring to the time being spent apart), it could just be like time you spend like writing or recording or working on marketing, it all can be put to good use. 

Zach: It’s just important that I can do it (music).