Features

With a decade of putting in the miles and heartfelt songwriting under their belts, Long Island’s Somerset Thrower are gearing up for the release of their fourth record, Take Only What You Need to Survive, out July 11th via Smartpunk Records. The new album captures the band’s signature blend of gritty alternative rock and emotionally charged melodies, which could already be heard in standout singles like “Never Going To Therapy,” “Motor City,” and “Shinebox.” We sat down with guitarist John Stippell to talk about the new album, which finds them channeling influences from Jimmy Eat World to Seaweed into something all their own.

PRT: Your first two albums were released two years apart. Did shifting priorities in your lives have anything to do with the fact that we had to wait a bit longer for the new album?

John: Yeah, and there was also Covid. We released 'Paint My Memory' at the end of 2020 and things were obviously quite different then with the state of the pandemic. We didn’t actually start to play any shows in support of that album until the Summer of 2021 and then continued that push until 2022. We started writing for this record in 2023, but we deliberately took our time to demo and do a lengthy pre-production to really make sure the songs were as good as they could be. The recording schedule was also pretty sporadic - we’re not a full time band, so we fit in sessions where we could on long weekends and such. So all that added up for a longer release schedule. Oh, and somewhere in between all that, I was living in Chicago for two years and Tim had a baby.

PRT: Was there something that sparked making ‘Take Only What You Need To Survive’? Or was it more a matter of just getting started?

John: We were writing songs and knew that we wanted to do another record at some point but with no clear goal of making it an album or an EP. SmartPunk approached us during that writing process and expressed interest in putting out a record. So, once that conversation happened and we knew we had them in our corner, we began working very deliberately to make a full-length.

PRT: Your musical influences have always been obvious, yet your songs never feel like a  nostalgic retread. Is that something you are cautious of?

John: Yes and no… We share a lot of the same influences and references for our music, but each of us also listen to bands and genres that are unique to our own tastes. We don’t deliberately try to take a genre or a style and put a twist on it. I think it’s more of an effort to try to put elements of influences together in a way that feels natural and resonates with us.

PRT: Are there also things - both musical and non-musical - that are less obvious influences? I read that you are Beatles fanatics.

John: Yea we’re all pretty big Beatles fans, some of us more fanatic than others. The name of the band is actually a reference to the song Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite off Sgt. Pepper’s. We’re all very steeped in 60’s/70’s rock - Rolling Stones, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, stuff like that. That’s kind of the foundation for all the music we gravitate towards. At the end of the day, we just want to be a good rock band. 

We’re pulling from a lot of the 90’s sound as well - bands like Superdrag, Fugazi, Pixies, Drive Like Jehu, and Jimmy Eat World - and that’s probably more directly heard in our music. We listen to everything, though. I’m a big Deadhead fan, we all love Metallica and Pantera, and we’re all pretty avid hip-hop fans…I don’t think those things make their way into the songs in an obvious way, but it all informs something in one way or another. Apart from music, we share a similar taste for movies and comedy. That certainly comes into play with titles, lyrics and how we approach the band in general.

PRT: If you were to give one Beatles song the Somerset Thrower treatment, which one would it be and why?

John: Probably ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’. It has that loud/quiet juxtaposition thing going on and it’s a bit of a looser composition than most Beatles songs. The long outro is something we do in our songs sometimes too. We could have fun with that one.

PRT: What would you say is the biggest difference between the Somerset Thrower that released ‘Falling Swingers’ 10 years ago and the band that is releasing the new album now?

John: I would just say we’re a better band, haha. When we started the band, we were all somewhat new to the roles we were filling. We were all pretty active with other bands before Somerset, but Tim had never played drums in a full-time band before, Conor wasn’t a full-time bassist, and Frank was never the sole vocalist in a band. So we’ve been learning together and all getting better at what we bring to the table over the years.

PRT: Has your songwriting approach changed over the years or do you still work the same way as when you started out?

John: Apart from taking more time and being more deliberate about our choices - not so much. Pretty much every song starts with someone and an acoustic guitar - it could be a fully fleshed out structure, or just two or three riffs that go together. Whoever wrote it brings it into the room and then we start collaborating on it to build it up. Frank writes the melodies and lyrics at some point and then we go record it. In the past, we’d record it exactly how we’d practiced it. On ‘Take Only What You Need To Survive’, we wrote a lot of additional parts in the studio and reworked things to really bring out the best of what we do.

PRT: With the album being called ‘Take Only What You Need To Survive,’ what would be a necessity in your survival kit?

John: We’re partial to those big plastic containers of Utz Honey Wheat Pretzel Twists. So, a bunch of those and a case of Modelo.

PRT: What’s up next for Somerset Thrower once the new album is out?

John: There’s three singles streaming now and there will be one more track we’re going to release the week of July 7th.  We’re playing with our friends HushMoney from LA at O’Brien’s in Boston on 7/31 and at TV Eye in Ridgewood, Queens on 8/1 to celebrate the release of the record. We’re working on getting some more shows in other cities on the books for the rest of the year and in early 2026. Keep an eye on our Instagram page for show announcements.