motel void

Cassette tape music from Brooklyn, NY. Recording project of Jake Brooks from Laveda.

MOTEL VOID: You’ve just released your fourth single, “Sea (Fade Away),” from your upcoming debut album (out 8/2). What was the writing and recording process like for this album?

RETAIL DRUGS: I was writing and recording stuff sporadically in between Laveda tours throughout 2021/23. It was mostly just to mess around with a 4 track cassette recorder that Ali (from Laveda) got for me as a gift. The process of recording onto tape and then bouncing it into Ableton definitely shaped how this record sounds. The tape gave everything this dark blown out vibe. Eventually I had like 15-20 songs and ideas on 4 different tapes. After showing some friends they convinced me to make it a project. I was able to eventually narrow the album down to 9 songs.

MOTEL VOID: You’re from Brooklyn, New York. I’ve never been to NY, but I imagine the indie music scene there is vast. Do you have any favorite venues? Could you recommend a few local artists?

RETAIL DRUGS: Sooo many great bands in NY. I was in the Albany NY area for awhile before moving to Brooklyn. After my first year of living in Brooklyn, favorite spots in no particular order are Alphaville, TV Eye, Union Pool, and Trans Pecos. Local artist recommendations would include Bloodsports, Nara’s Room, Wiring and Stars Revenge, Knotted, and Libby Quinn.

MOTEL VOID: You also play in a (pretty successful!) band Laveda. How does the creative process differ between your solo project and your work with the band?

RETAIL DRUGS: Laveda is a lot more of a collaborative effort with Ali, me, Joe, Dan, and the producers we’ve worked with. We go for a way more hi-fi kind of thing. It’s really fun having the two sides of creativity. Retail Drugs is a more lo-fi/try to get everything down in a couple takes kind of thing. I feel like I’ve been able to discover things sonically on both spectrums. In Laveda, Ali and I will just listen to TONS of music together, get all excited and use that energy to make music. In Retail Drugs I’ll just go off of an idea that’s kicking around in my head and try to make it real and see where that takes me.

MOTEL VOID: Who is your biggest inspiration at the moment?

RETAIL DRUGS: Brainiac.

MOTEL VOID: What are your plans for the rest of the year, both for your solo project and for your band?

RETAIL DRUGS: Retail Drugs has an album coming out with Candlepin Records on 8/2. We are gonna be playing some regional shows in later August with our label mates, Wiring. After we do some shows I’m hoping to release the next album in 2025. It’s almost done.

Laveda is working on a new album and we are hoping to record it soon. Once that comes out we’ll be touring a whole bunch!