The Crystal Casino Band have made a name for themselves in their hometown of Washington, D.C., and now they’re ready to take on the world.
Photo Credit: Cagla Akcada
The four-piece band consists of Pete Stevens on guitar and vocals, Jarrod Hendricks on guitar, Joey Mamlin on drums, and Jordan Mullaney on bass. The first iteration of the band, previously known as The Colonies, came together in 2015 while a few members were students at The George Washington University. The band bonded over their musical influences, which in turn influenced their sound—a nostalgic touch of the indie-rock bands that dominated our Tumblr dashboards in the 2010’s.
Their latest release and sixth studio album, Maryland House, is their most collaborative effort yet while maintaining the band’s signature introspection and socially-conscious lyrics. The record was two years in the making and features all four members on lead vocals, as well as a variety of featured instruments including a trumpet, ukulele, mandolin, and harmonica.
I had the opportunity to chat with Pete and Jarrod over Zoom before The Crystal Casino Band embarks on their most comprehensive set of tour dates yet, including two stops in Canada—Toronto at the Drake Underground on July 28 and Vancouver at the Biltmore Cabaret on September 1.
Read ahead to find out what they know about Vancouver, what they’re looking forward to most about touring, and why you should get a ticket to one of their upcoming shows.
asapmusicblog.ca: What was the first song in your memory that inspired you to pursue music?
Pete Stevens: Oh, that’s a great question. I don’t know if it’s the first song to inspire music specifically, but I think it might be the first song that got me to acknowledge I liked music at this point. I was obsessed with the song “1985” by Bowling For Soup growing up—I learned all the lyrics to it. So I think that song probably got me interested in music in the first place and planted the seed to eventually want to do music, as early as it goes.
Jarrod Hendricks: Yeah, for me, it’s sort of related to the 80’s as well—the song “Unchained” by Van Halen. There’s a YouTube video out there with a live performance of it and they’re just running around the stage, absolutely killing it. That’s what I wanted to do and what really inspired me to want to be a musician.
A: I think with this current tour—the Getting Closer tour, it feels like it’s the most comprehensive set of tour dates that you’ve done, especially with the new band name. What are you most looking forward to on this tour?
Pete: We’re actually playing a lot of cities that we’ve never played before on this tour. We called it the Getting Closer tour because it’s kind of like we’re getting closer to becoming a real band who actually tours and sees and plays all these cities. Before, we were just playing in D.C a ton and then occasionally venturing out to New York, Baltimore, Philly, and Boston—just regionally.
This has actually gotten us out of our traditional comfort zone. Last year, we were able to fly out to L.A. and just do a one-off show, but now we’re able to fly to L.A. and then do four more right after going all the way up the Pacific Coast and everything. I’m just really excited to be seeing and trying out these markets for the very first time!
Jarrod: Yeah, I’m definitely really excited to be professionals that tour and just what we’re doing for a whole week—going up the coast and then going back down a little bit and back into the U.S. Just the consistency of doing shows for that stretch of time is going to be really cool and it’s going to be a really interesting time!
Pete: Yeah, to play off that a little bit—right now all of us work full-time jobs, so we’re squeezing in these tour dates into our PTO. A lot of the previous dates that we’ve just done have been trying to fit it in over a weekend and doing some insane drives to get back home on Sunday. Driving from D.C. to the West Coast, while doable, is not easy to do in a weekend for sure. This is the first run that we’re actually doing all at once up the coast and then down a little bit.
A: And will it be your first ever show in Vancouver?
Pete: Yes, it will be! I’ve actually never been to Vancouver before, so I’m really excited. I went to Montreal once when I was really young, but yeah, we’re going international this tour!
Jarrod: I’ve only been to Calgary and Edmonton, so it’s gonna be really cool to kind of see the West and the Pacific Coast and Canada and the differences, especially because we’re also going to Toronto.
A: You have me beat for the province of Alberta, because I’ve only been to Edmonton once—you have one up on me!
Jarrod: It was cool, I also really liked Calgary, that was a really cool city. I hope Vancouver kind of lives up to my expectations.
A: On the note of Vancouver, I thought it might be a fun question and this is a very open-ended pop quiz, but what do you know about Vancouver?
Pete: So I know, “Go Canucks!”—I also know that one of my favourite bands is from there, Peach Pit, so hopefully we run into one of them just walking around—that could be fun. To be honest, I don’t know too much about Vancouver! I know it’s supposed to be a beautiful city, because the Pacific Northwest is just gorgeous and British Columbia is beautiful, so just really looking forward to experiencing it for the first time kind of blind and not knowing exactly everything about it beforehand.
A: What about you, Jarrod?
Jarrod: I think the only thing I know about it just off the top of my head is Gastown? Wasn’t there also for a floating McDonald’s at one point? I’m maybe just spitballing that.
A: That’s a good question, we do have a floating gas station, but I didn’t know about a McDonald’s… Pete, I know that you’ve brought up Peach Pit before as one of your favourite bands, but Mother Mother is actually based in Vancouver as well!
Pete: No way! Yeah, love them.
A: I’m also going to look up the floating McDonald’s afterwards, I’m curious… [Editor’s Note: The McBarge did exist and was originally built for Expo ’86!]
Pete: I’m curious too! We need a Grimace shake when we’re there.
A: Apparently that’s a US-exclusive.
Pete: Oh, it is?!
A: Yeah, don’t rely on Canada, we don’t get a lot of stuff here! So in most of the write ups I’ve found about The Crystal Casino Band, they often refer to the bands that you are fans of or that have influenced your music. To turn the question around, have there been any moments where the Crystal Casino Band has created influence for others that has taken you by surprise?
Pete: I would say it is really cool that right now we can kind of see younger people growing up in the D.C. area who are starting bands and looking up to us—that’s definitely really exciting. I think the D.C. scene is becoming bigger and more welcoming and everything, and us being a part of that. We went to George Washington University, so it’s really cool that there are other bands that are now our age when we started the band that we get to go see and support, and vice versa, they come and support us—so that’s been really inspiring for sure.
Jarrod: Yeah, it’s not more of musical influences that we’re giving people, but more like aspirations of what they want to do and how they want to get to perform elsewhere—they’re pretty excited when they’re able to sign up for gigs outside of the D.C. area. Hopefully, sooner or later people will be taking inspiration from us.
Pete: Musically, yeah!
Jarrod: That’s yet to be seen that we know of, for sure.
A: I know that there was a recent milestone that the band hit. Every city has a music venue that’s beloved in their city and in Washington, D.C., that’s the 9:30 Club. You got to headline a show there for your release show for Maryland House. What was the experience like playing the show and are there any memories that you have of the venue as an attendee?
Pete: I’ve just seen so many concerts there that it’s so hard to pinpoint just one of the best things I’ve ever seen there. It just feels surreal when you’re on stage thinking that so many of these bands I’ve looked up to for so long have also played these stages. Last night, Joey and Jordan who aren’t on this call—Jeff Tweedy was just up there and we freaking love Wilco so that’s just unreal to think that we were just on that stage maybe five months earlier or something like that. And five months later, Mr. Jeff Tweedy himself is performing there too. That’s definitely been one of the coolest things about that experience.
Performing there, it was just such a highlight. I often find myself still thinking about that night, even to this day—there’s just something magical about that room. The crowd was terrific, they were giving such great energy to us, and it’s really cool because we performed Maryland House in its entirety. To see their reactions of these songs… because a lot of them, maybe some of them are hearing it for the first time, but it was out for a little bit [so] some people already knew words to some of the newer songs. It was just overall a magical night that I keep looking back to now, and hopefully we’ll get more nights like that in the future.
Jarrod: Yeah, it was definitely really surreal. I was always thinking the days before, someone was going to be like, this isn’t real, someone’s just joking. It was super surreal just being in the green room with all of us, just hanging out before the show. There are balconies above the stage so you’re able to watch from the balconies on the end of the stage, and it was super cool to go out there and watch the opener perform and then people be like, “Oh, there’s the band up there!”
They’re watching the show and they’re trying to get our attention. That was super cool to be a part of and experience that little fan moment there. I haven’t really seen too many shows [there] before, I only saw two bands so I really didn’t have that much of a physical connection with it. But when I was out in November visiting my friend before our California show, my other friends had a book detailing the first 35 years of the 9:30 Club and they showed it to me.
I was like, this is so cool—I was looking at all of the bands that went through like Fugazi back in the day, The Smashing Pumpkins, and seeing all of the history about the place and really kind of set in that this is a legit venue—this is a cornerstone in the Washington, D.C. music scene. It kind of hit home and then I was like, wow, we’re really performing there in three months! It was really a special moment in my life and also the band’s history.
A: I know that the Biltmore where you’ll be playing in Vancouver is smaller, but even when I think back to artists that I’ve seen in that room—the two that I can think of right now is The Neighbourhood who played there at the beginning of their career and then King Princess, who ended up opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers at our stadium recently.
Pete: Wow!
A: And Peach Pit has also obviously played at the Biltmore, which I didn’t see them play at, but I always appreciate getting to see people in smaller venues and then seeing them grow.
Jarrod: Yeah, we have a venue in D.C. kind of like that, it’s called DC9. They have on the walls little mirror balls with the names of now very famous touring artists, so there’s this uniswap of all these little names of the people that have millions of streams and millions of fans. It’s just cool that we’ve also performed there, like when they were our size they were performing here and now we’re performing there. It’s cool to be in a space that bigger artists were playing when they were our size.
A: To go back to Maryland House for a moment, your latest album—in a previous interview, I think it was actually the two of you that mentioned how the record ended up being a perfect companion for people who take public transit or enjoy being on the road. Now that you’re going to go back into tour mode, what songs are you currently listening to on your playlist?
Pete: We’re friends with an artist in D.C. named Jack Kays, and I’ve been really vibing with his latest single, ‘Caffeine’. So that’s definitely been on my playlist for sure, and let me see what else I’m really excited about at the moment… oh, Faye Webster’s new track is so freaking good! I don’t know, there’s just something so unique with it—the structure of that song is just very different than anything I’ve ever heard, really. Those are my two choices right now.
Jarrod: I don’t listen to too much music just in my day-to-day, but when I listen to music, I try to listen to chill stuff. I like to have inspiration from other music. I’ve been listening to Her’s a lot, especially the song ‘Dorothy’ and then listening to a lot of Khruangbin, the two albums they did with… who was it with?
Pete: Leon Bridges?
Jarrod: Yeah, Leon Bridges! I really like both of those vibes. Those are my main two right now, those have been some pretty stable ones for the past year or so—I just keep going back to the vibes and the tones of their music.
A: If someone hasn’t seen the band live before—if we were trying to convince someone in Vancouver to come out to see you, what would you describe the experience as being?
Pete: We have a lot of fun on stage, like there are a lot of gimmicks between us as members. We sometimes will switch instruments, we’ll switch singers—every song there’ll be something new added to the show. Sometimes we’ll even get tattoos before and show you on stage—that happened in Chicago. My sleeve is too high up to pull it up, but it’s matching with Jarrod! They’re just a lot of fun and you never know what you’re going to expect—each city is going to be different.
Jarrod: I would say we’re very audience-focused—we’re not trying to put a wall between us and the people that are there and we try to engage with them and make eye contact, and sing the songs to them. And with Pete—there’s actually one song that he doesn’t play guitar in, so he just kind of wanders about and tries to get off the stage and high-five the crowd.
We try to be very focused and be very engaged with the audience, and not look at our feet for the whole hour or so of performing. We have a lot of high-energy songs—you’re going to be on your feet dancing for most of the show and I’m always kind of jealous because I’d like be on like the other side of it sometimes to feel what it’s like to be at our own shows. It’s a great time for everyone involved and no one leaves unsatisfied.
A: Hopefully in the future there’s an option to project yourself outside of your body to experience that!
Jarrod: We just need someone filming every angle from the crowd, just get a full Oculus Rift to be in the crowd.
Pete: The Google Glass just videotaping!
A: The Google Glass might be the future of the concert experience. So the last question that I have—I think the band does an excellent job of sharing what you stand behind as humans and in your music. If there was one thing that you would want the listener to take away when they’re listening to your songs, what would it be?
Pete: I think that we write about subjects that are relatable to anybody—I want our audience to take away the human experience from our music. We just write about what’s happening [and] going on in our lives—loosely going on in our lives, and then try to put it out there in a way that’s accessible for everyone to experience. We want to have a very inclusive audience that anyone can relate to us and everything too. I think that we just want our music to show off the human experience and to include everybody involved.
Jarrod: Yeah, exactly. I think we’re very relatable in our music and someone will find meaning in one song more than another one. There’s always a song for someone out there in the world. I think it’s really interesting to go to a show and someone will be like, ‘Oh, this is my favourite song!’ and it’s a song that you never really thought someone would connect so deeply with. We have songs that resonate with everyone—they’re not too specific in a way that alienates maybe someone who doesn’t look like us and we’re always striving to be welcoming and inclusive for our audience and for our shows.
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The Crystal Casino Band will be heading back on the road at the end of this month. For more information on their upcoming tour dates and music, head over to crystalcasinoband.com. Find the band on social media on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
