GIFTSHOP – Rock of Ageless

Many believe that with age comes wisdom. For Queens, NY-based foursome GIFTSHOP, it also comes with a passion to rock.

The band, which consists of Meghan Taylor (vocals, photo: front), Matt Santoro (guitar), Damian Eckstein (bass), and Jordan Kramer (drums) (photo: back, L to R), are 17 year veterans of NYC’s indie scene, and recently released an album titled A Bunch of Singles.

The nine songs on A Bunch of Singles span the gamut from punk rock, to pop punk, to rockabilly, to grunge, and there’s even a power ballad thrown in for good measure. Ironically, it’s a perfect introduction to a band that’s been around for nearly two decades.

I caught up with Meghan and Damian of GIFTSHOP to get the story behind A Bunch of Singles, and they also discussed the band’s secret to staying together, the time they felt the need to explain they weren’t making an adult film, and how there’s no such thing as growing old in rock n roll.

You guys have been together for 17 years, and based on your bio, you’ve had zero member changes. First off, is that true, and if it is, how the heck have you managed to pull it off? 

Damian: The core members, which are myself, Meghan, and Matt, have been an artistic collaborative for the last 17 years, and we’ve had a Spinal Tap-ish amount of drummers that ended with the current drummer, Jordan, who’s been with us for seven years. So he joined us about 10 years in.

Meghan: Our first drummer, Joel, was a high school friend of my husband, Matt, the guitarist.

Damian: Joel was with us for four years. Then we had six years of a new drummer every year, or subs, just to keep it going.

Seventeen years with three members being the same is really amazing. How have you managed to stay together? 

Meghan: We are actually really good friends, and we love each other.

I really can’t really remember a time when we were like, F you this, or up yours that. We’ve had our moments where we’ve just been like, OK, you’re irritating me. Then we say, I need to take a walk. We walk around the block, and then we come back.

There’s never been a moment where I’ve felt like – you know what, screw this.

I’ve never felt that.

Damian: She’s a hundred percent right, and I feel like we all bring the same passion to the table. This is what we love to do. It’s not even a question about, should we, or shouldn’t we.

The core three are all songwriters, and we help each other realize what maybe perhaps we, on our own, could not do.

Meghan: Yeah, we need each other, and we’ve all been in bands that have broken up, and it’s no fun, it feels yucky. I never want to feel that again.

What lessons did you take from those other bands that you brought to GIFTSHOP? 

Meghan: I had a couple bands back in Rochester that were fantastic in the beginning, and a couple of them I just kind of tried to keep alive, and just barely Frankenstein-ed them, dragged it out, should have let it go sooner. With this band, I’ve never felt that way.

Damian: To Megan’s point, bands seem to have this shelf life of maybe two years, or that’s what my experience was. Several bands I’d been in … they last two years, because you exhaust all possibilities. Then the people who don’t want to do it anymore move on, and the people who still want to do it go and find other people that they want to do it with.

Meghan: We also didn’t go down the road of having one sound, because I feel like, like you were saying, if you exhaust that one sound, then you’re just kind of like, well, now where do we go? We’ve managed take it on a couple of different paths, so there’s always something new to explore.

That sounds so stupid, and pretentious, but it’s true.

You recently released an album titled A Bunch of Singles. Other than having a bunch of singles, and wanting to compile them, what made you want to put these songs together for an album? 

Damian: I think we’re always looking to do a project. It percolates every few years. We start to do new material, and we’re like – this is exciting. Maybe we want to get into the studio, and realize this.

The singles came from the pandemic era, because we didn’t want to stop doing stuff. If there was no COVID we probably would have made something (album-wise) in that time. We didn’t get around to it until now, when we had four or five extra songs, and were like – hey, we can slap this all together, and package it.

Meghan: It doesn’t necessarily have to go together (musically), because all of our songs don’t go together. Come to a show, and you’ll see that our set list is all over the board, so why can’t our album be all over the board? That’s kind of how we are.

Even with that said, do you feel that there’s a common thread that makes the album cohesive? 

Damian: What makes it cohesive is Megan inhabits these characters on each song, and I think that comes through in the material when she’s inhabiting a stylish junkie, or singing a torch song, or if we’re doing a rockabilly spoof on Halloween and Christmas. It’s all these wonderful kinds of emotions that come out of the music, and if we’re genre hopping, that’s just to stretch our creativity, and see what else we can do.

Meghan: It’s just fun.

Damian: I think that’s the thread.

Meghan: Yeah, the fun.

Are there any plans to do a physical release? 

Both: {holds up CDs}

So there’s at least a plan for CDs, because there’s the CD! 

Damian: It’s true.

{Turns to Meghan} You want to say why we wanted the CDs?

Meghan: Alright. So I work in a bar in Astoria called Dominie’s, which is mentioned in the song “Astoria,” and there’s a jukebox there that has CDs in it. It’s one of the only jukeboxes like that in the neighborhood, because they’re all online, which I hate. So I’m like, why would we print up one CD just to put in this one jukebox? So we just printed up a whole bunch.

I don’t know how many people can use them, but we’re going to put that one CD in that jukebox, and it’s gonna get played a lot.

Nice! Moving to the visuals, I hear there’s a heck of a story behind the video for “Stylish Junkie.” What happened? 

Damian: COVID era. We book a hotel in Long Island City. I don’t even remember if we had testing back then, so we’re just taking our chances.

We very much were into Billy Squier’s “Rock Me Tonight.” We were inspired by it because it was much maligned when it came out. Now nobody would blink, but people felt it leaned a little bit to what I guess would be considered queer, and that was not Billy Squier’s style, so we wanted to kind of honor that, at least in the look, and the feel. There was something about the video that we all felt had a stylish junkie kind of vibe.

So we’ve got this hotel room, and there’s pink satin sheets in the video, so clearly we have to make up the bed to look like the bed in the Billy Squier video as an homage.

The concierge comes in. Megan’s in full makeup, and wearing Billy Squier wear, which is kind of big ‘80s style, I think it was like a crop top, and sweats.

The concierge comes in, and he’s like, “Oh, what are you guys doing?” and Megan runs to the door, she’s like, “We’re not filming a porno!”

It’s like, who went there? Why? What’s going on?

He took it in good faith, and we were excellent guests.

Meghan: He was so sweet. He was like, “Well, I didn’t quite think you were filming a porno, but we can’t really allow people to film anything here. You’re not allowed to film here.”

I was like, “We’re so sorry. We’re almost done. We’ll be out of here soon.”

We were so lovely and charming that he was just like, “Just finish it up if you could. Just try not to be too loud, and then, like, you know, get out of here.”

He was sweet.

Damian: Very sweet. And in typical GIFTSHOP style we did it super guerrilla where the director slept over in the room just so that we could pack it up the next morning, because we did it all in about eight hours time.

Meghan: Then they played one of our songs on the way out.

Damian: They said, “What band are you guys?” I said, “We’re GIFTSHOP.” “Can we find you on streaming?” “Yeah, we’re on Spotify.”

They see us leaving in the cameras, and on the speaker system I hear our version of The Motels’ “Only the Lonely.” I was like, “Meghan, you recognize that song?” She says, “Yeah, it sounds familiar.” I’m like “It’s you!”

That’s awesome! You mentioned earlier that your music incorporates a lot of different styles, and genres. Rather than ask the boring question of, “Who are your musical influences,” give me an artist, or band, you listen to now because you were introduced to their music by another member of GIFTSHOP. 

Damian: Oh, that’s really good.

I have one that’s not represented in this particular record – Mastodon. I was introduced to them through Matt. He’s friends with the guitar player. I’m name dropping now. We’re friends with Mastodon.

Meghan: They went to high school together, just like with Joel, our old drummer.

I don’t take suggestions from anybody, and that’s not because I’m a jerk, I just don’t ever search out, and listen to new music. That’s just a problem that I have. It’s a me thing. That’s all on me.

The last time I really got into a band, Matt introduced me to Die Antwoord.

Damian: Oh, yeah. You guys introduced me to them. Yes.

That triggered another thing for me, which was Be Your Own Pet. Both you guys got me into them.

Meghan: Yeah, Matt brought me to one of their shows like 10, 15 years ago.

Damian: They’re very much in our lane. We could tour with them, and you’d be like, that’s a great double bill.

Speaking of bills – that was a wonderful lead in. Thank you – in September, you’re having a 40th birthday party show at Otto’s Shrunken Head in the city. Aging is an interesting concept in music, because men are usually allowed to age, whereas women are kind of considered to have an expiration date. What inspired you to embrace, and celebrate reaching your 40s? 

Damian: The 40th birthday is for Pixie, who’s in a band called Tied for Last, who we really enjoy playing with.

Meghan: That being said, the whole age thing, Matt and I are the same age, him and I turned 50 two years ago, and we had a huge 50th birthday show. We told everyone we’re 50. It was packed. It was amazing. It was wonderful, and I don’t see any reason why turning 50 is a problem when we can still rock out. So I don’t feel like age is an issue yet. Do you, Damian?

Damian: I’m the elder Gift Shopper, I’ll be 55 this year.

I think we are evidence that rock music keeps you young.

I don’t feel like there’s ageism the way it was perhaps 20 years ago.

Meghan: There is in pop music, obviously, but in what we do, live rock n roll, I feel like as long as you still got it, then you still got it.

Damian: Yeah, I think when you’re talking about people who are in their 40s and 50s, they’ve been honing their craft for 20+ years, they might have a voice, or a message you might want to hear. They can convey something that could be more special than some of the up and coming groups who are approaching it from a younger frame of mind.

Meghan: We have a different place that we can come from.

Having been in a million bands, when we finally got this thing together, the way we come at it, it’s like a cannonball in your face, and at the end of it we’re like, yeah, we may be in our 50s, but you’re welcome.

A lot of folks long for, or even cling to their youth, and sometimes it’s pretty cringey. What what aspects of your 20s, and 30s are you glad are over with? 

Meghan: I want to say I used to care what people thought, but I didn’t.

I definitely have more confidence, duh.

Damian: There’s a line in “More Than That,” which is the first track on A Bunch of Singles, where it’s, “I’d stop the pain / I’d stop the tears / of wasted time / and wasted years …”

It’s just like the anxiety that you have, or maybe people pleasing, that is really prevalent in your 20s and 30s, you let go of that, and you’re more at peace with yourself, because you become yourself. This is who you are, and hopefully, if you’ve had any kind of success on working on yourself, you’re at peace with yourself.

For more GIFTSHOP, check out giftshoptheband.com.