Warpark

Like grandma always says, when one door closes, another opens.

When NYC band The Lounge Act lost a few members, they could have called it quits. Instead, they’ve re-branded. Enter Warpark, the trio formed from former Lounge Act members Simon Arcenio (guitar/vocals), Roger Walsh (bass) and Nick Ciccantelli (drums).

“I locked myself in my room and told myself, ‘I have to get better at guitar if this band is going to survive,’” Arcenio tells BTRtoday. The single premiering today, “Early Onset Regret,” was a product of that moment. “I looped riffs in my bedroom and accompanied myself with guitar as best as I could,” he adds.

Though they still plan to pull from similar inspirations as The Lounge Act, Warpark intends on having a more sophisticated sound, with refined and polished instrumentation. The single below is a robust mixture of sounds that curates a catchy and bubbly melody still dark and mysterious.

Arcenio says a lot more music will come from Warpark in the New Year, with a possible music video as well. Read the entire interview with Arcenio and check out the brand new track from the brand new Warpark below.

BTRtoday(BTR): So why the name change? Does this mean Lounge Act is completely done? Where did the name Warpark come from?

Simon Arcenio (SA): The name change has been something about a year in the making. Our second guitarist left the band back in early 2016 and we’ve since been experimenting with our songwriting and arrangements to fill that gap. What we came up with was something really different from where this band started, so it felt natural to change the name. Warpark came from a sign on the highway. We were on tour somewhere in Virginia and Roger saw a sign that said “Historic Civil War Park.” He said it out loud a couple of times and that was it. After so many months of waiting for something we could all agree on, it just kind of clicked.

BTR: Is this going to be a completely different sound, now that you’ve got a new band name?

SA: Yeah. We’ll always have our main influences that sparked wanting to create music in the first place, but we’re writing at a higher quality now.

BTR: Who are some of your inspirations?

SA: We all come from very different backgrounds in music. We have artists who we’ve bonded over and we credit them for bringing us together. Especially the New York rock bands of the early 2000’s like the Strokes, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and many others in that genre. But I’m an Indie-boy, Nick is a metalhead and Roger’s a punk. Through these differences, we’ve each become very accepting of styles of music outside of our own.

BTR: How did you guys all meet and decide to be in a band together?

SA: We met in high school. We would spend our lunch hour in the music room together covering the same two Arctic Monkey songs. Fast forward to college around 2011, Roger sees a video of me performing at an open mic and asks if he can play bass. Nick was a good friend at that point, and he also happened to play “The View from the Afternoon” [by The Arctic Monkeys] the best on the drums, so we asked him to join.

BTR: How long have you guys been playing together? Has your writing process evolved at all since you guys started writing together?

SA: We’ve been playing for six years, which I am really grateful for. Naturally, when writing with the same partners for so long, we’re able to provide one another with a level of comfort that’s good for creativity. We do experiment a lot with the writing process and it has changed over the years. Now, we collaborate more and get songs finished faster than we have in the past.

BTR: Tell me a little about this single “Early Onset Regret.” What was the creative process for it like?

SA: “Early Onset Regret” is a special song to us because it was our first song that we had written since we got back together after the loss of one of our members. I locked myself in my room and told myself, “I have to get better at guitar if this band is going to survive.” I looped riffs in my bedroom and accompanied myself with guitar as best as I could. So, this song was originally written on a loop pedal, which coincides with it being a more repetitive song. Once we were ready to jam together again, I showed Nick and Roger the song and it quickly took on a life of its own that I could not have foreseen. This is a cliché, but the song wrote itself.

BTR: How are the lyrics inspired? Any real life stories you guys tend to write about?

SA: Melody is our first step. Once the melody is in place, I add lyrics that I think sound good in the context and hopefully match the character of the song. I try to create an emotional vibe through my wording. I’m often inspired to write little lyrics and sayings in a notebook I carry. I find lyrics while reading books, or looking at titles of TV shows, over-thinking something. It can be anything.

BTR: What should we be looking out for in the future of Warpark?

SA: A lot more music. We’re planning to record an album throughout 2018. We intend to sit tight until we have something we’re really proud to share. So, a definitive release date is still a ways off—but expect a couple of singles and a music video directed by the band in 2018. - BTR Today

Around the last quarter of 2017 we got to know NYC’s Warpark as they emerged from studio after working with producer Tom Tierney on their upcoming album with a listen to their introspective new single “Early Onset Regret”. Previously known as The Lounge Act; Simon Arcenio, Roger Walsh along with Nick Ciccantelli build upon the bonds & styles established over the course of the past three years with a fresh start & new moniker. As Warpark the trio tries out their most complete & realized set of sounds yet where the arithmetic & equations of their creative connection are elevated to a level of higher mathematical learning.

“Early Onset Regret” strikes at a very familiar feeling that many of us have upon purchases & investments that are both beyond our means & over our heads. Simon’s lyrical reiterations of it starts with you drives home that sinking sense of buyer’s remorse as the chords’ rhythmic interplay are arranged in a building-block sense of addition that leads to the intricate variables full of electronic effects & treatments. The math-rock mode is entertained, even as Nick, Roger & Simon allocate a neat sequencing of instrumental elements in a unique & original approach to algorithms only to begin dismantling them after little more than a minute and a half into the single. It is through this that Warpark then neatly flux between the quiet & loud dichotomy where they savor the highest decibels for their most otherworldly alchemy of arts & sciences fused together in sound.

Nick Ciccantelli, Simon Arcenio & Roger Walsh from Warpark took the time to chat with us in the following interview feature:

Walk us through the histories from 2011 that saw The Lounge Act move from a quartet to a trio and how you all metamorphosed into Warpark.

We all met in high school. We played as a 4 piece with our good friend Jordan Wuest up until about March-April of 2016, when we decided we wanted to branch out of NYC and start hitting the road. Jordan decided that the touring life wasn’t for him, and so we respectfully parted ways. We got a friend of ours to fill in on guitar for the tour and when we got back to NYC, started looking for a replacement. It ended up taking up a lot of our time trying to audition people, and it felt like we were just wasting time. Since we already had such a tight bond with each other after all of these years, we decided it would be best to just continue as a three piece. Simon and Roger started messing around with pedals more, I started singing more, and we worked really hard and spent a lot of time solidifying our sound as a three piece. Through that time we started writing a lot more and spending more time in the studio. Our sound and writing style has definitely shifted quite a bit since we moved to a trio, and it felt natural to change the name because to us, this is essentially a new project.

Tell us why you all decided up on the name Warpark and it’s significance for you all as a band.

We’ve been working on changing the name for about a year now. After constantly looking for inspiration for a new name, this one literally came to us as a sign! We were on tour somewhere near Baltimore when Roger saw a sign that said Memorial War Park or Civil War Park, something along those lines. He said it out loud a few times and we locked eyes. It was kind of like a eureka moment for us. Besides being the first thing we all agreed, we felt like the two words evoked super contrasting images—something chaotic and aggressive, and something peaceful and calming—and that those images are pretty reflective of the kind of music we’ve been writing lately.

What did you all learn from the past 6 years as a group and what sorts of takeaways have impacted you all today?

Being in a band is just like any relationship. Communication and listening is key, and it takes work to keep the relationship going. Besides that I’ve learned that it’s extremely important to stay true to yourself and to make things that you personally are happy with. It’s easy to look at your peers and be envious and say, well what are they doing that I’m not? Why did they get this show when I didn’t? How can I do what they’re doing so that I can get those same opportunities? Thinking like that sucks, and it’s something I used to do when we first started out. But I’ve learned to just focus on us and not worry about what anyone else is doing. I’ve never been happier making music than I am right now, because I feel like we’re at a point where we’re making music for ourselves, because we love it, and trying to create things that we’re really proud of. That’s not to say that we aren’t proud of what we’ve done in the past, but it feels like we are doing things because we want to, not because we are trying to achieve some milestone or goal.

Interested in hearing about what the experience of working with Tom Tierney was like and how they were affected & contributed to the Warpark vision.

Tom came highly recommended to me by the folks in A Deer A Horse. He’s an incredibly awesome guy to work with, and is extremely talented behind the boards. He did a great job of capturing our live sound, which was something that was super important to us for this session. He also did a great job of bringing the chill vibes and the chaotic, crazy vibes of this song together.

Give us the story about the instantaneous remorse and other short stories that might have influenced “Early Onset Regret”.

Well, to be honest, the name came to us while ordering a Filet-O-Fish and several pies at a rest stop in Pennsylvania. One time I ran a relay in short-shorts that were too small for me. The title was meant to evoke embarrassing memories/make people cringe, but the song is meant to be a confidence booster for our listeners. The song exists to remind me, and others, that if you want something as insane as a career in music you have to destroy self-doubt and replace insecurity with hard work. You know cliché shit.

Local NYC bands that are currently inspiring you all?

Some bands that are really killing it are Color Tongue, Vinegar Mother, The So So Glos, Fat Heaven, Triathalon, and Low Anxiety.

Local NYC activism that you all feel is very important?

-Small businesses and venues closing. Real estate
– Poverty
-Racism. People don’t always associate the city with racism but it’s very much alive between the abundant amount of peoples and cultures represented in NYC
-Overpopulation

What can we expect from WARPARK in 2018?

New music. We are planning to record our debut full length album with Tom throughout the year, a music video or two, and definitely lots of shows and touring.

Listen to more from Warpark via Soundcloud. - Impose Magazine