Best of What's Next: Suckers

Homepage photo by Victoria Jacob; Main photo by Sam Fleischner

Hometown: Brooklyn
Album: Wild Smile
Members: Quinn Walker, Austin Fisher, Pan, Brian Aiken (all multi-instrumentalists)
For Fans Of: Yeasayer, Dirty Projectors, TV On the Radio

Between their 2009 self-titled EP and upcoming full-length debut Wild Smile (coming June 8), Brooklyn’s Suckers officially have released fewer than 20 songs. But the band has a wealth of material nobody has heard yet: They write about one song per practice and record almost everything as they go. “If we went through that digital recorder and went back throughout our writing history,” says multi-instrumentalist Quinn Walker, “I’d guess we have about 60 to 70 songs.”

Walker is understandably happy to finally see the release of Suckers’ first LP; it’s long overdue for the band, who all met while growing up in Connecticut years ago. Cousins Walker and Austin Fisher grew up down the street from one another and started playing music together when they were seven years old. “We were fiddling around on keyboards and making bizarre children’s music,” Walker remembers. The four bandmates all moved to New York separately, then reconnected and started making the sweeping, anthemic pop music that graced their debut EP. The guys sing in chaotic harmony, each track features a variety of percussion and there’s a myriad of synthesizers, horns and guitars; the melodic, layered composition makes it hard to tell who’s doing what.

And now, with a new album to promote, what does Walker want to do? “I’d like to be in the studio right now recording another album, to tell you the truth,” he says, noting that he prefers studio recording to playing live. He’d like the band to release four albums a year instead of taking what he calls “the more tasteful approach.”

“There’s definitely a certain energy and adrenaline rush playing live that you don’t get being in the studio,” Walker says. “But then there’s also this maddening joy when you’ve created something from scratch. The creative process is my favorite part about playing music.”