Q&A: Agender Unleashes "Jeans" : A Post-Punk Dive into Love and Modern Romance
HOW MANY PLACES HAVE YOUR LUCKY JEANS BEEN? —Agender, the fierce LA-based post-punk band, have unleashed a grungy, playful track and music video called “Jeans.” On “Jeans,” the band begs for the tortuous details of their new lover's romantic history, with white-and-denim-filled video to match that pays homage to 90’s-era jeans advertisements and friendly sleepovers.
“Jeans” sees Agender trade in their all black outfits for denim and white as they embrace a new, lighthearted side. Lead singer Romy Hoffman calls the track a “desperate but endearing love song for modern times.” Signature pounding drums and distorted guitars open the track with lyrics that cut to the chase, “I wanna know where your jeans have been / Oh baby, please tell me everything / I wanna know what your lips have done / Give me the names of everyone.” Essentially, the song asks, “what's your body count?” a rather crass question more common in recent years, but Hoffman isn't a fan of this term. In Hoffman's ideal world, the word “jeans” would signify the juicy – “how many places have your ‘lucky’ jeans been?”
Sung from the artist's internal monologue, Hoffman wrote the song in the early stages of a new relationship, naturally a time when one might want to learn of their past, though it may hurt to hear.
“I'm over-thinking out loud, and I want to torture myself. It's not fun being an anxiously attached individual but it is a fun song,” Hoffman says.
Describing its sound, Hoffman says it features fast downstrokes a la the Ramones and nice harmonies that mask a messed up love song, akin to that of 60’s girl groups.
The video, directed by Hoffman, is a departure from the group's usual format of abstract visuals of the past. While the band performs the song, a pillow fight of sorts breaks out, but using jeans instead of pillows, putting the band's whimsical side on display.
“We've made a lot of music videos but none feature us, solely, playing as a band, in a studio,” Hoffman says. “We thought it was about time we let the band shine and allow the song to pop.”
LUNA: Thank you for sitting down and talking to Luna Magazine. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar yet, what inspires your artistic style and creative persona?
ROMY: I think our artistic style and creative persona are inextricably linked. They are one and the same. We’re inspired by the day-to-day feelings of being human, navigating a chaotic world and finding beauty within the said discord. We are trying to extrapolate meaning and make sense of it all. We’re commenting on the self, society and politics via satire and seriousness and it comes out as focused yet unhinged, observant, brash, tongue in cheek, poised and playful — perfectly imperfect post-punk.
LUNA: Your first release of the year “Jeans” recently dropped and I absolutely love the rawness in both the lyricism and sound. What is the inspiration behind the single?
ROMY: Thank you! I wrote the song in the early stages of a new relationship, naturally a time when one might want to learn about the past of their new love interest, though it may hurt to hear. I think I wanted to capture the excitement of this stage of a new relationship and also the anxiety that comes with it. I want to not care about their past, but I do. It hurts to think about. I annoyingly like that pain, or I used to. It’s not fun being an anxiously attached individual but it is a fun song.
LUNA: What did the creative process for “Jeans” look like?
ROMY: I remember sitting next to this person on my couch. I looked down. We were both wearing jeans and I thought to myself ‘Our jeans have stories to tell. If these jeans could talk! They’ve both been to so many places. I wonder what bedrooms her jeans have been in.’ I said to her ‘I want to know where your jeans have been.’ After I said this, I heard the melody in my head, and I thought to myself ‘that’d make a great chorus’. The next day I wrote it. I demoed all the parts myself. I knew I wanted it to be a fast and fun bubblegum, Ramones style song. Speedy downstrokes, endearing melody that on the surface sounds sweet and innocent, but if you listen carefully you’re like that’s a bit creepy, House of Jealous Lovers’ part two! Eventually I played it for my band and they all loved it. They said ‘this is a great catchy song’ and we recorded it properly a couple of months later.
LUNA: Why do you love this song? Is there a certain lyric, message or element that stands out to you the most?
ROMY: I like it because, like you said, it’s raw. It’s honest. It’s about jealousy, in a sense. I’m being vulnerable in it. When the song came out a week ago, I felt like I wanted to hide. What are people going to think of me? I like it because it’s catchy and who doesn’t like a good catchy punk song? It’s different from everything else we’ve released, so it shows our range as a band, that we’re a substance over style band and that we can write good songs with big hooks. It made me think I should write a pop-punk record full of songs like this, to challenge myself. I like the ABAB rhyme scheme of the song. I love the guitar solo I devised. It’s epic, unhinged yet so controlled. I also love the three part harmonies in the last chorus. An ode to the Doo-wop girl groups I love so much.
LUNA: “Jeans” also has an accompanying music video. What is the inspiration behind the video and how was your experience filming it?
ROMY: I came up with the photo and video concepts for the song. I knew I wanted the photos to look like 90’s jean commercials. I grew up in the 90’s and the Esprit, United Colors of Benetton, Guess, Calvin Klein jeans ads were in all the magazines at the time and were in the general zeitgeist of the 90’s. I thought it’d be cute for the band to abandon all black and embrace denim and some color for once! Plus, denim has always been a part of punk culture. The video is a departure from our usual use of abstract visuals of the past, found footage and video art style videos. We've made a lot of music videos but none feature us, solely, playing as a band, in a studio. We thought it was about time we let the band shine and allow the song to pop. And it's like we're just BFF'S at a sonic sleepover having a pillow fight, only the pillows are jeans. It was important to have fun making the video.
LUNA: “Jeans” is one of your first releases since your No Nostalgia record in 2022. What can listeners expect from this new era of music from Agender?
ROMY: Listeners can expect that signature Agender pastiche post-punk. We like our albums to sound like mixtapes, spanning moments of classic punk, hardcore, disco punk, nu-wave and hard hitting post punk. Our music will always reflect the time we live in, and contain cultural, social and political commentary. It’ll also have moments of self-reflection and existentialism.
Photography Credit: Chris Mastro
LUNA: Since No Nostalgia, have you experimented more or taken any risks – either lyrically, sonically or emotionally – since your previous releases?
ROMY: Yes, I think we have. I think I’m being more vulnerable in my songwriting, I think we’re taking the risk of being more immediate and in the moment when we record. Less takes, more mystery! We’re also giving ourselves a time limit this time. The whole record will take two months maximum to make. These punks need some rules! I don’t want to overthink things too much. No perfectionism allowed. That’s pretty risky stuff for a Virgo.
LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for listeners?
ROMY: We aim to create an expansive space, a big spacious space where the listener has enough room to take on what I’m saying and digest it and think about it. Mixing and mastering are very important to us. This, coupled with using analog vintage gear and being very mindful about sounds and tones, all help create space within the songs and the mixes so the listener can fit in with us, like they’re in the room with us, rather than feeling like they’re outside of the music. I do want the listener to feel like they’re flipping through a magazine when they’re listening to our records. Each song is like an article, and the magazine is an overview of the post post-modern world.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would like to share with Luna?
ROMY: We feel good, mainly because we feel good in ourselves. We’re older and wiser and are content within ourselves. And speaking for myself, I don’t expect anything out of this. I think it was so painful for a while, releasing music and having expectations and being hurt when those expectations weren’t met. I’ve been making music for so long and to be honest, I didn’t really sign up for having to deal with streaming and Spotify stream counts and TikTok and creating ‘content’. I do this because it comes naturally and it’s my outlet and punk rock is the perfect medium for my message. My job is to make the art. The rest is beyond my control. I must let go absolutely. It’s a very hard time to be getting any kind of reward for this. You put in more than you get back. You can’t expect anything, and I’m okay with that. If punk rock really is my religion, then just do it, fuck what people think, fuck the system, make do with what you’ve got, make something out of nothing. We’ll release our next record at the end of the summer and then hopefully do a little tour. But, who knows, we take this all a day at a time. There’s only so much we can plan. We’re open to the uncertainty of it all. We’re on the punk path. Anything can happen.
