Meet The Weather Might Say Otherwise: SUNY Fredonia’s latest pop-punk rockstars

By Dan Chiolan / Photos Courtesy of Trevor Balbierz

This three-piece Fredonia band has a lot to say-- and even more to scream.

Fredonia’s The Weather Might Say Otherwise presents as most great DIY bands do: calm, cool, and completely nonchalant about their underground status. Currently, the band is in the midst of a four show week-long tour, covering three dates in New York and one in Ohio. Although this implies late-night van rides and the never-ending cycle of unloading and repacking gear, TWMSO held no reservations in delivering an especially energized eight song set at The Blue Room on Sunday, excluding not one moment of ear-ringing emo chaos for the entirety of their headlining performance.

Lead singer and guitarist Damian Brown and bassist Tanor Morrison were not shy about their admiration for the Syracuse crowd that gathered for Sunday’s show. “I don’t think we’ve ever played a show quite like that,” said Brown, who seemed distinctly astounded by the crowd’s enthusiastic showing on a school night. Central Syracuse is a college town, and to bands who have a disposition for fast-paced guitar and eclectic percussion, there’s no better audience than a bunch of students looking to forget their Monday paper deadline or Wednesday midterm. As an act conceived on a college campus, TWMSO is no stranger to sauna-like basement shows and moshing student audiences.

The band formed at SUNY Fredonia, the westernmost branch of the State University of New York system. “We met at a battle of the bands mixer our freshman year,” said drummer Zach Richardson, nostalgically retelling the circumstances leading to the release of the band’s first single, “Twenty/Twenty”. Although Fredonia is not quite the sprawling collegiate setting of  Syracuse, the school’s music scene is just as expansive. After TWMSO’s set at The Blue Room, a Fredonia alumni informed me of the comprehensive musical presence that the school has to offer. “There’s a gigantic off-campus scene,” he yelled, trying to remain audible over the closing act’s soundcheck. “Punk, pop-punk, emo... the whole gambit.” It comes as no surprise that SUNY Fredonia boasts one of the best music schools in the state university system, housing faculty members like Dave Friedmann, who’s done production work for the likes of MGMT, Weezer, and The Flaming Lips.

The Weather Might Say Otherwise’s newest single was released in April of this year, a cynical pop-punk tune addressing substance abuse, complete with a hilariously tongue-in-cheek title: “I’LL DRINK TO THAT!'' Antics aside, it’s the band’s most mature songwriting to date. The song opens with a catchy, tinny riff, only to be curbed by powerfully overdriven rhythm guitar, all while Brown sings of the dangers of addiction. Around the two minute mark, the song shelves it’s pop elements when listeners are launched into a breakdown reminiscent of contemporary punk counterparts like Tigers Jaw and Tiny Moving Parts. “Hold fear up your sleeve keeping needles below, feeding to your conscience with wishes untold,” Brown sings towards the end of the song, a fairly poetic commentary on the terror and emptiness that lies at the root of addiction. The single not only serves as a testament to the band’s lyrical development, but also represents a large sonic milestone, due in large part to TWMSO’s friend and associate Trevor Balbierz. “Trevor mixed the whole song,” Brown told me, excited to shine the spotlight on Balbierz. “That was all him.” 

As performers, TWMSO have much more quirk and spunk than you’d ever expect from a D.I.Y. band playing basement crowds, as shown by their seamless incorporation of Simple Plan’s “What’s New Scooby Doo?” into their Sunday set of thrashing punk songs. Brown’s demeanor onstage was anything but calculated; he often moshed just as hard as the crowd, jumping and dancing as far as his guitar cord would let him. While Brown was erratic behind his Fender Jazzmaster, Morrison tended to take a more careful approach, which makes sense, as he wields a hefty and unconventional five-string bass. Although Richardson was limited to the confines of his drum seat, his arms were constantly in motion, perusing from tom to cymbal to snare in a display of true drumming showmanship. The trio plays loud, and all things considered, anything else would be ingenuine.

TWMSO still has two dates to finish out on their October run; they’ll be playing in Buffalo and Fredonia this weekend. Other than that, the timeline of TWMSO’s future is unclear. “We’re bad at recording music,” said Richarson between songs during the show on Sunday. The band played a slew of unreleased music throughout their set, songs ranging from their typical punk tone to spacey math-rock ballads. No matter how far the band decides to stray from their current sound, the trajectory set by TWMSO’s latest single indicates that these songs will be well worth the wait. Until then, fans will just have to catch another live show. “Syracuse rocks, man,” Brown told me towards the end of our interview. “We’ll definitely be back.”