NORF ROSSMORE IS A COOL PUNK BAND BASED IN BERKLEY, CA. THEY RELEASED A GREAT TAPE RECENTLY ON PAINTERS TAPES AND GOT ANOTHER ONE COMING OUT SOON, "GREATEST SPORTS MOMENT". KIERAN IS THE MAIN CREATIVE FORCE BEHIND THE PROJECT, CHECKOUT OUR CONVERSATION WITH HIM BELOW. ENJOY!
Remove Records: Can you tell us about your new record "Greatest Sports Moments"?
Kieran: So "Greatest Sports Moments" is a collection of 8 new songs I recorded this summer. It's the most I've collaborated with other musicians on a release, with my good homies Sam (Quarrel Reef) and Toby (Diarchipretti) providing drum programming and live drums respectively. Sound-wise, it's kinda like the self-titled tape I put out last year got more and less hard at the same time. There's some pitch-shifted catchy stuff, there's some yelling, and a little bit more noise rock than I've worked with before. It's coming out digitally October 16th, and on tape sometime not too long after that.
How'd you start working with Painter's Tapes?
I found Painter's Tapes on bandcamp one day when I was listening to The Resource Network, and just really dug a lot of the other stuff they were putting out. I was kind of just cold-emailing all these labels to see if they were down to do a tape or something for "Norf," and I ended up sending it to Charles at Painter's and he was down so it just worked out smooth like that. Since then I've gotten to listen more to other bands they're putting on and it's just a really great little group to be a part of. Shout out Painter's Tapes!
Where does the name Norf Rossmore come from?
I was trying to come up with names for a solo project and I thought it would be funny to do a pseudonym that wasn't really close to my actual name at all. I was also watching a lot of Antihero videos and thought it was hilarious how Frank Gerwer and Eric Hewitt would just talk to each other in this made-up language, so "Norf" kind of came from all the weird sounds they were making. It might've been stolen from an Instagram caption of one of theirs? Can't be too sure. And then I liked Rossmore cause it sounds super professional like I'm this blazer-wearing journalist type person. So I just put the two together. I didn't realize Vince Staples had a song called "Norf Norf" until after I was putting out music under the name.
What have you been listening to lately?
That's kind of a tough one. The new Gag record is super good, especially that last song that's just some EBM stuff. I've also been trying to get more into Enya after I heard the dude from Blood Incantation hyping her up. She rules, and it's just so ethereal and unique sounding. The new Diarchipretti record is 10/10 (not biased cause he's a friend it's just true) as well as the new Jon Bunting, "I'm Too Normal to Die." Also some Iron Maiden.
If you could collaborate with one artist/band who would it be?
All my friends are gonna clown me for this one, but definitely Ween. To be able to witness that creative process would be a life highlight for sure, even if it's just fishing and drinking with them. I wanna party with Ween.
Can you tell us about the music scene where you're from?
So I'm originally from North County San Diego, but right now I go to school and live in Berkeley. Back home, we all lived around a half-hour from downtown so we were pretty far-removed from any sort of local scene apart from bands that went to our high school. Luckily enough, a bunch of my friends play music so we were always able to put on house shows and everyone was sort of involved in bands with each other. Shouts out Rubenstein Drive-By, Chalk Talk, Skulpin Bomb, and all the other friend's bands I'm forgetting.
Berkeley is a little different, cause it's a college town and an actual city at the same time, so you have that sort of dissonance between "legit" shows and just student band house parties and stuff like that. I've met a lot of really amazing musicians up here, and I'm definitely anxious for shows to start going down again. I'm really grateful to know Diarchipretti, Jon Bunting, Dao Jones, Porkbelly, Guilt Trip Cluster Fuck (even though they mostly live in LA) and everyone else in our little music bubble. I've only ever played one live show with Norf, but who knows maybe I'll start hopping on more bills in the future.
Have you ever been to Detroit? What's your impression of the city?
I've never been to Detroit! I'd love to go. I feel like my first impression of the city was that Eminem was from there, so I kind of associated it with him. But the more I see about the music scene and just the culture of the city there's obviously way more than that, which all seems amazing. Hopefully the Norf/Detroit connection only strengthens in the future.
What are you working on next?
In terms of music, I've got a few things coming out soonish that I'm really hyped on. I have a black metal project called Moss Witch dropping a tape October 9th on Moonworshipper Records. I also have a collaborative album with Dao Jones and Diarchipretti that isn't quite finished yet, but I'm really excited about it. I also just started a little CD label called Sicko Disks to put out my friends' music, and I'm almost done with the first two releases for that.
How do you feel about the future of music/art?
I feel pretty good about it to be honest. Obviously musicians can be a very shitty group of people, and I think we have a lot of work to do just as a community in terms of elevating BIPOC voices, queer voices, etc. And that isn't going to happen overnight, but I absolutely think it can and should. I think we should all be asking ourselves how we can do that, and more importantly, we should be listening to and supporting people in the scene that are already working towards that goal.