INTERVIEW: The Sewing Club
Photograph by Tony Lam
FEBRUARY 28TH, 2023 | BY TONY LAM
The Sewing Club is a bedroom rock band originating from Nashville, TN. Composed of five members – Hanna McEroy (vocals, writer), Stephen Meaux (guitar), Justin McKinney (guitar), Will Harris (bass), and Zach McCoy (drums) – the band is currently on tour with Arlie. We had the wonderful opportunity to sit down with them before their opening set in Boston!
Let’s start from the very beginning. How did you guys meet? What pushed you guys to create a band?
Hannah: Stephen and I were writing together in college and I had copyright law class with Zach. Then, Stephen and I asked Zach if he wanted to play drums for us and he agreed.
Zach: It was just the three of us for a while, just Stephen, Hannah, and I.
Hannah: We asked Will, who was roommates with Stephen, if he wanted to play with us at one of our shows in Kentucky, and he agreed. At that show, we asked him to be our bassist. As for Justin, he kinda just showed up to practice one day and stuck with us.
Justin: And I’ve been here for a year and a half.
Where do you find inspiration in your music?
Hannah: A lot of my inspiration comes from my surroundings – either things that my friends tell me or my own unique experiences. It’s really just an outlet, a way for me to process.
How has your production process evolved throughout the years?
Hannah: Originally, we tried a bunch of different labels and producers, but the mastered pieces never sounded the way we wanted it to sound. So figuring that out was a process. But eventually, I reconnected with one of my family friends who had gotten into production during COVID. Now, we either record at his studio (Polychrome Ranch) or in Stephen and Will’s house.
Hannah, you’re the main writer – some of your lyrics are so deep that it really makes a listener think. What inspires these lyrics?
Hannah: Well, I was a songwriting major in school and my mom is an English teacher. In school, everyone always pushes us to use words that have double meanings– I feel like the best lyrics are super simple words that articulate a thought or feeling. I try to do that. I feel like if your lyrics are too complicated, people don’t really understand it.
One of my favorite lyrics comes from I Like To Break Things: “I like to sit with you in silence cause the quiet’s better than being honest” what inspired those lyrics?
Hannah: It came from being in a relationship where it’s easier to not talk about things, where you’d rather think about what they’re thinking than hear it out loud.
I’ve noticed that your Spotify discography only has a handful of singles released at the moment – do you guys have any upcoming plans for your music? An album or EP?
Hannah: We have a song coming out on February 22nd. It’s being mastered at the moment, but we don’t even have a name for it yet. And then on March 15th, we’re hoping to release a song around that week since we’re playing at SXSW, to kind of enhance the excitement.
Zach: We also have 4 songs on the setlist that we’re playing that hasn’t been released yet, too. So get ready for that!
What do you aspire to accomplish within the next year and what can we expect for the future (besides an album/EP)?
Hannah: Maybe another tour… maybe a shorter tour. We’re gone for like two months so its been long. And we hope to play a festival, that’d be cool. We’re also looking for a booking agent.
If you could play one festival what would it be?
Hannah: I feel like it’d be fun to play Bonnaroo since it’s our home state.
Zach: Yeah it’s a really fun festival to go to and it’s only like an hour away.
How has tour treated you? Are there any cool or weird stories that you want to share?
Hannah: So I have a Ford Flex, which is a really long car. It’s really ugly. When we were using that car initially, we took it down to Florida where it actually broke down so bad to the point where we couldn’t drive past 50 or 60 miles per hour. So we had to drive for like 10 hours with a half working car.
Zach: It took us even longer to get home, like an extra three hours. And the car was wobbling, too. It was miserable.
Hannah: And then we got a rental van, which was amazing but expensive. But then I locked the keys in the van in New York outside of Bowery Ballroom.
Zach: We finished the show – Arlie finished the set and everything. And then we were going to leave and go hangout and then Hannah turns around and goes, “I think I locked the keys in the car.” So we had to wait around for three hours for AAA. We went to bed at like 3 that morning.
Justin: We were chillin on the streets of New York, just waiting.
Hannah: All of our friends came and sat with us. We were just sitting outside of the van waiting for three hours.
Zach: We got empanadas and everything.
Hannah: And then we called a locksmith and he said that he was going to break into the car. And he told us that he “won’t damage the van too much.” And it was a rental van! So we were yelling and screaming at him to not touch the car. So, we had our fair share of car issues.
If you could give one piece of advice for anyone, what would it be?
Hannah: There’s 2 things I would say. The first would be: keep doing it, don’t stop doing it. I feel like so many people would have found their own success in their passions if they stayed just a bit longer. And the second is to connect with as many people as you can.