Speed Riders will be celebrating the release of their inaugural album, Super Cheers, on January 10, 2025 at the 331 Club. It’s eminently danceable, creative grunge-wave!
Please tell us about the band.
I (Sean) wanted to start a new band after a few years hiatus due to having kids and that whole COVID pandemic thing. I tapped my brother, Kyle, to join on drums, as we have played in bands together since elementary school (most recently in a punk group called What Tyrants). On lead guitar, I asked another prior bandmate, Mitch, since we had spent many years perfecting our musical comradery in garage soul sextet, Black Diet. Mitch also SHREDS. Michael is my good friend who said he could play bass and already owned five motorcycles, so we had to let him join!
I love the video for Heaters, is described as “inspired by Godfrey Reggio, AI, and analog life in a digital world.” An interesting description! Is it an homage to AI or created with AI? Godfrey Reggio is an interesting character – where does that come from?
The lyrics and the video are really a critique of modern media/technologies, AI included. I did use AI to create some of the clips, especially at the beginning of the video, with more shots from the ‘real’ world included towards the end. The premise was to blur the lines of what is real versus fake and reflect how we view ourselves and other via social media. Similar to Godfrey Reggio’s work, the ‘Heaters’ video examines how we perceive ourselves, singularity and as a society.
Little Pieces feels more grunge pop punk. Great for dancing. What was the inspiration?
It’s definitely our most radio friendly song! ‘Little Pieces’ is a love song about the things you like and hate and love about your significant other, except it’s supposed to be a bit tongue-in-cheek because the things you hate aren’t actually negative qualities (i.e. ‘I hate it that you’re never there). I wrote it for my wife, Winona ❤
You’ve got an album coming out soon. How would you describe it? Is there an ethos, story or mood that you are conveying through each song? Or more of a collage?
I’d say a cohesive collage, if that makes any sense? It’s really a reflection of our first year together as a new band – the process of writing together and blending each other’s influences/ideas. We had written most of the songs before we ever landed on the name Speed Riders, but always joked we sounded like an ’emotional motorcycle rock band’. I usually tell people our songs are about love, death, and motorcycles and that we sound like a group from the 1970’s playing 90’s-era grunge.
Tell us about the record release plans.
We’ll be releasing our debut album, titled Super Cheers, on vinyl and digital formats on Fri, January 10th. That same evening we’re celebrating with a release show at 331 Club with Sparrowhawk and Sick Eagle. EXPECT MAXIMUM ROCK’N’ROLL!
Mostly Minnesota 