Typesetter
Interview conducted on May 25, 2020
By Dan Locke
Band Members
Alex Palermo
Marc Bannes
Matt Gonzalez
Kyle Mcdonald
Typesetter is a band from Chicago, IL. They are influenced by punk, indie rock, shoegaze and noise rock. Since 2012 the band has played 250+ shows in the US, Canada, and Europe.
You are a band from Chicago. How did you get together?
Me (Alex), Marc, and Kyle all grew up in St. Louis, MO together and after some moving around and chatting about starting a band for several years, we finally got to it in late 2012.
I see you guys tour a lot. Do you have day gigs?
We mostly work in the music world aside from being in a band. Sound engineering, bar tending, screen printing, etc.
How is it to play at the Pouzza Fest in Montreal? Do you have any problems with the over the boarder to perform in Canada?
Pouzza has always been a great time for us. Montreal is a lovely city and the festival is a lot of fun. We luckily haven’t had too many issues crossing the border but we certainly have had some long wait times.
How was it to tour with Against Me!? What did you learn while on tour?
Against Me! is an amazing band. We’re super grateful we’ve gotten to do a bunch of shows with them. They’re great people and i hope we can do it again sometime.
What is your favorite club to play in Chicago?
This is a tough question because Chicago has so many great venues that we love to play, work at, etc. I’d say our old favorite was Double Door, hands down. Now that it’s gone, I’d say Metro is the fun “big” one and Sleeping Village is a great newer / smaller room.
Did you ever play at the Abbey?
We played at The Abbey a few times early in our career. I’m blanking on which shows those actually were… i believe one of them was with Single Mothers.
What was you first show you played as a band?
Our first show was January 16th, 2013 (i have the poster on my wall, makes it easy- ha!) It was at a venue in Chicago called Township with our friend Run Forever, Dowsing, State Lines, and Dog & Wolf.
Do you remember your show at the Double Door on July 28, 2013?
We played Double Door a bunch since some of us were working there and what not. I do believe i remember this one… If memory serves right it was our first “Fuck Fest” which was just a fun free day festival we did next to Wicker Park Fest.
How do you stay healthy while touring?
3/4 of us are vegan and love cooking. It’s interesting when you go from cooking crazy meals to mostly not being able to. We’ve gotten creative over the years. Usually, if we go to the local vegan spot everyone gets two meals so there’s one to have later. The van is always full of bagels, avocados, bananas, nuts, etc.
Marc, as I understand you like to cook. Do you get any chance to make any meals while on tour? And what is your favorite thing to make and can you share the receipt?
This is Alex but it’s true that we all love cooking. Sometimes if we’re on tour for a while we’ll end up with an Air B&B that has a full kitchen or we stay at a friend’s house. If that happens, we usually will make a family breakfast or dinner. Tofu Scramble is most common.
So besides playing instruments, what is each member function in this big wheel called Typesetter?
Personally, I’ve been the on and off booking person for the band which usually results in me also being the “manager” in a lot of ways. I’d say Marc and Kyle are really good creating / introducing new visuals and new sounds for our band. Whether it be new instruments, ways of recording, or a photo shop job. We’re also super lucky that Matt screen prints. So, he does the shirts and posters for the band.
What is the writing process usually like?
The skeleton of a lot of songs are brought to the group from Marc or Kyle but our band has always been very hands-on as a group. Once the skeleton is on the table, we all work long and hard to make it a band effort. Sometimes this involves changing a lot, sometimes very little.
If you could open up for any band current or in the past who were it be and why?
This is a difficult question but I’d say in the past it’d be The Clash. It’s a band we collectively agree was one of the best / most influential out there. And if we’re talking present day, I’d say we’ve always talked about how cool it’d be to play with The National.
How did you get Lydia Loveless to appear on “Technicolor”?
Lydia is an old friend of ours. We’ve done some tours and what not together and always thought it’d be fun to team up. Super grateful it worked out for this one, Lydia did a great job.
You release “Nothing Blues” a year ago. Any plans for another CD in the upcoming year?
We’re well into the writing process for our next release but with COVID-19 a lot of things like recording, tours, etc are all sort of in limbo. We will be releasing some B-sides and other fun things very soon.
Any big plans for the upcoming year?
Unfortunately, it seems like 2020 is sort of canceled, for everyone. We still have some tour dates & festivals booked but we’re just waiting this out for now.
How do you see your band over the next five years?
We’re just hoping to keep touring and releasing new music.
Anything in closing?
Thanks for having us.
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