A Conversation with The Box Story’s Noah Chenfeld & Dylan Chenfeld – HuffPost 10.14.11

Mike Ragogna: We’re talking with The Box Story who has grown an internet following based on a series of music videos focused on their original music. The group is brothers 15-year-old Noah and 17-year-old Dylan Chenfeld. I really hate calling artists out on their age, but in this case, it’s a good thing because they’ve already achieved so much. Okay, enough of that, hi guys.

Both: Hey, Mike.

MR: Elephant in the room. How do you get taken seriously at your age when you’re not making Justin Bieber-type music?

Noah Chenfeld: I think that so many kids these days are into so many different things, you kind of have to make music that you like. The first step is making music that I like. I’m writing this song because I love it, and it’s for me. Then you have to think how is whoever’s going to listen to this take it, then maybe there’s a chord change here and there. Then you say, “I could change this chord and it could appeal to this kind of group and make it this sort of vibe.” Ultimately, the songs are pretty much for you. If you work a few things out, you could appeal to many people, so you can write mature songs that won’t be C, G, F with some simple lyrics. Dylan, do you want to add on to that?

Dylan Chenfeld: I think the whole Bieber thing…I think your age has nothing to do with whether you’re taken seriously. There are people in their mid ’30s or wherever they are in their career, making generic pop music or whatever radio is doing right now, and they’re not taken seriously. I take seriously 15-year-old friends of mine who make good music, but I don’t take seriously 50-year-old people who just keep doing the same stuff over again.

NC: I think people also really like when people are being themselves and playing music that really comes out of them and not trying to sugar coat it at all. I think if you’re doing that, no matter what it is, people are going to take it seriously. If you’re cheesing it up a little bit or doing something that’s really not you and people detect that. I think that’s when the joking and the not seriousness comes into play.

MR: You guys cover a lot territory–you do rap, alternative, and also piano-based pop songs. You’re not approaching it in the context of what formula is going to make you “break.” So, what’s your creative process?

NC: Dylan and I love all kinds of music. You probably can’t name many artists or genres that we’re not going to like, I think you can really hear that. In terms of the creative process…

DC: …I would say it’s not even a “process,” it’s song by song, it’s song by song. A lot of the songs, Noah just writes and I play them. That’s always a simple kind of formula.

NC: I’ve been freestyling and rapping for four or five years now, and love to do that. Then recently, I thought we should make some rap songs, we have the tools, we have the resources, and I think it would be fun. What I’m kind of amazed about is how different the songs come out, how many different genres can come out, and Dylan writes some cool songs. We’re just not afraid to go out of the box and not stick to one thing. So, I think that’s what makes us unique is that we’re trying to give you a rap song, give you a rock song, and blah blah blah.

MR: When you’re creating your songs, when do you get to the point where you say, “Let’s go in and record it and make the video”?

NC: That point can take many sleepless nights. What happens for me is that I write this song, I will have structure, all of the parts in it, and I will have maybe a verse. Then I will sit on it for a while, then a couple weeks later, I will go back. Going back for me is the hardest part; usually, it kind of all shoots out. It can shoot out in twenty and thirty minutes, then coming back and finishing so you can go to record it, that’s the hardest thing for me. I’m not in the moment anymore, and writing lyrics is tough because you have this big jolt of creativity and now you’re struggling to finish it. I think I started writing “Above The Noise” a year before it was put up on YouTube. Usually, I don’t write the whole song and have it done and ready on the first try; usually it takes a lot of time and a lot of rigorous writing before we say we’ll record this and this is done. We could say, “This is not done forever.”

DC: You’re never done writing an essay–you just have to hand it in. Eventually, you have to say, “Let’s put the nail in the coffin.”

MR: Who are some of your musical influences?

DC: I think I can speak for the two of us when I say The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, and The Strokes are the three things that we love more than most things in the world.

NC: I would agree, Bruce and The Beatles…you’ve got it there.

DC: You’re not a Strokes person?

NC: Oh, I’m a huge Strokes person. I think Dylan and I have many similarities, and many differences. I’m a big Simon & Garfunkel guy. We are both big rock guys–Bruce, A Day To Remember, Foo Fighters, Ben Folds, Panic! At The Disco, Red Hot Chili Peppers…

DC: I love the Wu Tang Clan too.

NC: Then rap–Mac Miller, Big L, Eminem…

DC: …I like a lot of metal like Emmure, Horizon, …Prada, and Metallica. Stuff like that.

NC: Dylan likes a lot of the heavier stuff, I don’t really like a lot of the heavier stuff. Dylan definitely likes that.

MR: The merging of both of your tastes is how you’re exploring different genres in the band, right?

Both: Yes.

MR: Noah, when did you start rapping? Did it just blurt out of you one day?

NC: My parents made a mistake of showing me who Eminem was at age four.

MR: (laughs) Oh boy.

NC: They basically said, “Here’s the real Slim Shady, listen to the lyrics, they are really insightful and could teach you a lot.” You can probably find a home video of me at age four rapping to Eminem, I know there’s some video footage of that. Right off the bat, when I was really young, kid rap was become really big. It was already big, but it was only getting bigger. When you’re that young, you can’t actually rap because you’re not capable of it. I think around nine or ten at tennis camp, one of the tennis instructors was a freestyler and he freestyled and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. On a regular basis, we started to do it and I started to get a little better, and now I pump a freestyle every day and have fun with it. It started at a young age, I also have older brothers. Dylan is obviously my older brother, and then I have another older brother who is really into it. He was always playing it, so I kind of had to like what he liked. I was really just forced to be around it at a young age.

MR: Uh, Noah, you’ve done today’s freestyle?

NC: I actually have, we just came back from band practice where there was a lot of freestyling.

MR: Do you care to share some?

(proceeds to freestyle)

MR: Wow, amazing. And thank you for the shout out man, I’m honored!

NC: If you ever want to impress someone in a freestyle, just figure out one thing that rhymes with their name and that’s it.

MR: (laughs) Now, you just came back from band practice…you play live gigs. What are they like and where do you play? Mainly, in New York City, I imagine, because you’re from there.

DC: We play a couple of fun places. We’ve done The Bitter End, Webster Hall…we played P&G when it was open.

NC: We just did our first out of town gig in the Hamptons.

DC: We actually went to play a show at Columbia University, which was awesome.

NC: Yeah, we did.

DC: We played it in the room where Vampire Weekend started. We try to kind of pick some faster, rocking, up beat songs that work well in a live setting. We sell our set with those, but then we periodically place some piano placed ballads. I think, sometimes, you watch a band, and a band comes out there and plays some songs and you say, “THAT was a show.” We’re trying to make a concert, we’re trying to make something where you go through it and it’s not just a band that plays five songs that sound identical. We have some songs that sound similar, but we try to space them out so that we have a well-rounded experience. Wow, I’m talking like a college applicant.

MR: (laughs) Dylan, you were a roadie on the Warped Tour for two weeks. What was that like?

DC: That was awesome, that was probably the most fun two weeks of my life. That was in July of 2010 with a band called The Downtown Fiction, I was their guitar tech. I had never been to half of the States we went to, and I had a great time.

MR: Are you looking for more opportunities to do stuff like that in the future?

DC: I’m not looking for it, but I would absolutely do it. I’ve been trying to make a point to do a little bit of Warped Tour every year for a while now. I did a couple of dates on this Summer’s tour, and I went out there and hung out with some friends in the band called Patent Pending. They took me out on their bus and we hung out for a couple of days…it was an experience. I think everyone should do it. I’m trying to tour as much as possible, filling in, helping, whatever.

MR: Dylan, another little known fact here is that you sir are one of the A&R guys at Razor & Tie. You’re responsible for the label’s Artery Records deal. How did that happen?

DC: Originally, it was supposed to be a publishing deal. I had just got into the heavier music–this is back when they had bands like The Devil Wears Prada and A Day To Remember. I realized that I would listen to these bands like Chelsea Grin and The Crimson Armada and go on their Myspace or whatever their website was and saw the management was the “The Artery Foundation.” I noticed that these bands had songs that were really good to me, but they needed a publishing deal. So, I brought it to the company and said, “You should do a publishing deal with this management company,” and then I started to talk to Eric and I brought him in. Then, we just decided to do a full-blown label deal.

MR: Eric being one of the owners of Artery.

DC: Yes, Eric Rushing. He owns The Artery Foundation. So, we have about nine artists now, and I think we’ve done about 20 releases and going strong.

MR: You must have some pride about that.

DC: Absoluetly. It’s a lot of fun and I’m very happy to be doing it.

MR: Okay, on to Noah. Dude, you visited Madison Square Garden via the keyboard. What were the games you played at and what was it like?

NC: Those were two Rangers games, and that was incredible. It took me up to the top of the Garden–basically, the ceiling. One guy controls all of the sounds you hear; if you ever go to a Knick or Ranger game and you hear the sounds, it’s basically a guy with a bunch of pads just hitting them, and he’s got the organ. The view up there is amazing, my heart was pounding. I played “Don’t Stop Believing” the first time. Then, I played “Born To Run” the second time–your average Ranger fan is going to be a fan of those songs. I think those went well and I think it’s something I will never forget.

MR: And you guys are not sports fans at all, right?

Both: No, not at all.

MR: (laughs)

NC: I’m a big sports fan.

MR: How big are sports in your lives?

NC: Probably bigger earlier in our childhood, because there was just more time. I’m still in a rec basketball in the winter–Safe Haven Basketball League, shout out Safe Haven. (laughs) And we played a lot of tennis over the summer.

DC: We play a lot of basketball and tennis. I bike a lot. Also, my older brother is a college basketball player.

NC: Sports have always been a huge thing in my house–it’s been sports and music. It’s definitely been a big part of our lives. I’m a big NBA fan, a big tennis fan, and Dylan is the same.

MR: Enough sports. So, who’s your audience?

NC: When you start off and have this high school band, you have one advantage over a band in their twenties–you’re in high school seeing hundreds of kids every day. It’s easy to ask a lot of kids to come to your show, that’s an advantage that being in high school has compared to someone who’s out of high school who’s not in contact with so many people day to day. We have a lot of friends there at this point in our musical career, and we’re starting to get some people we don’t know. We definitely saw some people that we don’t know at the last couple of shows coming out. Our audience completely ranges from young to old, from black to white. I think anything goes at a Box Story show. What do you think Dylan?

DC: I think it’s a broad demographic for sure. There are a lot of bands that play to markets and they play one kind of genre of music, and those fans of one genre of music come out and that’s the band and that’s the show. We’re so multifaceted that we have a very multifaceted audience. We have kids that come out that are dressed like rap fans, and you have the kids in the flannel shirts that are the indie kids that want to come out to hear some rock songs.

NC: And, of course, our grandma. We love her.

DC: It’s a broad array of people.

MR: If you’re young in New York and you want to play and jump up on stage somewhere, you’re sort of restricted by age, aren’t you?

NC: One thing about New York City venues over the past five, ten, fifteen years is that a lot of them are locking down on “21 and older.”

DC: There’s been such a rise in underage drinking in bars, so they really have to be careful like that. So, they’re not inclined to let in a band where the majority of the members are underage. They know that we’re not bringing in a majority of older kids, the average of someone at our show is 17.

Also, because of the economy, venues really need to make money on drinks. A lot of venues are going to definitely be a little restrictive letting in a band who’s going to bring in all 16-year-olds. We definitely have had some disadvantages of finding gigs in the city, but we still have found some great spots.

MR: What advice do you have for new artists? I mean, considering you’re new artists and all…

NC: I’ve seen a lot of interviews of bands, and it’s hard not to say something cliché here. I would say be yourself. If you’re really trying to start a fan base or trying to do this, being yourself is the first thing you need to do. You need to write music that you like, you also can’t be lazy. That’s one thing that I’m definitely learning. You need to make sacrifices. You may not go out one night, not go out to the party; you may finish this song you’ve been working on. Don’t be lazy, and if you really want to do it, treat it like anything else. A lot of people will say that music is different than something like sports, and, of course, it is. But a lot of people will say that it’s different in the way that you run it and there’s no rules and that’s what’s great about it. There’s no coach telling you what to do, there’s no discipline, and at the same time, that’s great. You need to be disciplined, and you need to know that music is this amazing thing where you could screw around one night playing music. But you need to finish the song or practice the guitar if you really want to stand out.

DC: I think you covered most of the ground there. But in life, if you want to accomplish anything, there isn’t anything that doesn’t require a great deal of focus and music isn’t any different. It requires more focus because of the amount of people that are doing it and think it’s so easy. If you’re not going to focus on it, then I don’t know what to tell you because that is really huge. You would be surprised how long it takes you to get to where you want to be.

MR: Dylan, as an A&R guy, you must get pitched constantly, but I imagine there’s also some researching on your end. How do you A&R?

DC: I have a couple things that I do. You know The Agency Group? I love that agency. Whoever their booking clients are, they leave their clients out online. I have search parameters set so that whenever there is a change on their site, I get informed of it via email. So, a lot of it is kind of snooping around and seeing what other people are listening to. There’s so much stuff to listen to; if you wanted to listen to everything, you would never leave your home. A lot of it is friends. I’m blessed to have friends that listen to a lot of different music, so I kind of look to what they’re listening to. Of course, I follow a couple of blogs, and I’m actively searching for something cool only because there’s never enough good music to listen to and if I like it, then maybe someone else will like it and we can talk about it.

MR: You’re definitely taking your own advice on not being lazy.

DC: You can’t be lazy and do it, you have to pick one.

MR: And of course, you’re going to school.

DC: And going to school.

MR: And playing sports.

DC: And playing sports.

MR: And making music…cue the music. You just released “Funky Elegant,” but what’s your favorite song of all you’ve recorded so far?

NC: Probably one that you haven’t heard. (laughs) I’m writing some new songs that I think are my best songs, I’m sure Dylan is writing songs that he thinks are the best ones. But if you really want an answer of the ones that are out there…

DC: …you’re going to do something obscure, you’re going to have to do some digging on this one. There’s a song called, “I Don’t Know.”

NC: No, he’s saying one that is out there.

DC: Well, it’s on the internet somewhere.

NC: Well, one that he knows, come on.

DC: Probably “Above The Noise.” There’s also “Four Days A Week.”

NC: I love that song. But I’m sure our favorite songs of ours are ones that haven’t been recorded yet.

MR: What is one where you sat down and looked at the video, heard the song, and thought it was really cool?

NC: “Above The Noise,” for sure. “See You Later” was a fun video to make. That song was cool, and out of the songs we released, that song came together quicker than the rest of them. The time between when that song was written and when we recorded and shot the video for it was a really short period of time. We’re sitting in the living room where we record the “Four Days A Week” video, and that was really fun.

MR: I watched all of your videos and the one that keeps popping to mind is “Drift Away.”

NC: I forgot about that song. (laughs)

MR: Okay, no more softball. It’s time for a political question.

NC: What would this interview be without a political question.

MR: (laughs) That’s right. Did you guys check out the Occupy Wall Street protests yet?

NC: I did, I don’t think Dylan did. I checked it out a couple of days ago and I thought it was awesome. I was looking at the ’60s. It was half and half–I felt half of the people had strong messages, knew what they wanted, and could speak. I thought the other half were there to hit on some girls, smoke some good weed, and overall, have a good time camping out in lower Manhattan. That sounds great, but I think it’s awesome and it gave me a flashback to the ’60s even though I’ve never been to the ’60s, and I hope something positive comes out of it.

DC: I didn’t check out the actual protests, but I plan to fairly soon. I’ve been reading about it online, and it’s amazing that all of the other cities and countries are involved, stepping up and saying what’s truly on their mind. I think it’s always awesome when everyone is thinking it, but there’s one group who’s actually saying it and trailblazing for a bunch of other people to come through and show what’s on their minds, I think that’s great.

MR: It grew from 2,000 to 20,000, and there were the Brooklyn Bridge arrests.

NC: Our cousins were arrested. I don’t know if you watched SNL the other night and Weekend Update. “So 700 protesters were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge, because there’s nothing less that these protesters want to do then go to Brooklyn.” (laughs)

MR: (laughs) When you see stuff like this happening, do you get the urge to get involved? Or is it something you would like to learn more about and then articulate it better later?

NC: Of course. The fact that it’s happening in our city, and the fact that it’s such a real thing that’s happening–it’s people coming together and standing for something. If anything happens like that today, then I’m into it. If you look at the Middle East and protesters, you should be informed about it and you should have your opinions and believe something. You don’t need to be in the protest or maybe you should feel that it’s your duty and I have to do this for me and many other people. I hope it will only lead to positive things, and it seems pretty peaceful right now, so I think that’s okay. It’s also hard to know what they want. When I went there–I think it was Saturday–there was one person there with a sign that said, “Fed Pup!” Another person was promoting the environment, another person was handing out bibles saying you need Jesus. I think a lot of people are now using this as, “There is a bunch of people, let me take my cause and see what happens.”

DC: What we’re saying is we’re booking a show down there at eight o’clock and we hope you will be there. (laughs)

MR: (laughs) Oh my God, that’s hilarious.

DC: I also think the difference between this and the ’60s is that in the ’60s it was simple. Are you for the war? Are you not for the war? In terms of civil rights, are you going to discriminate or not? I think here it’s a lot more complicated; there are a lot of different issues. People are fed up about more and that’s the one problem with this protest. It’s kind of hard to tell what these people actually want.

MR: Because there are so many things to protest.

Both: Exactly.

MR: It becomes the venue to express being fed up, you the Tea Party is there too.

DC: I’m glad there’s finally something on the left that’s not like the Tea Party in the smartness factor, but like the Tea Party in that it’s saying let’s get attention and let’s do something. I think there has been a problem in America the past couple of years, which is that liberals are talking about it, saying it, but not actually doing it. I consider myself a liberal person even though I can’t vote. I think we’re now watching people in New York not only saying it, but doing it. I hope only good comes from it, but I’m glad that’s it’s happening.

MR: Watch out for falling televisions.

DC: Exactly.

MR: Noah and Dylan, this has been a lot of fun. I have one last question for you. This must be THE question that you get asked frequently. The Box Story…The Box Story?

NC: I would say from about 1999 to 2004, Dylan and I shared a room. Almost every night, our dad would tell us these stories where he would be like, “So the boy was in the kitchen and he went into the room and went into the box and the box twirled around.” This kid in the story, basically, was us, and would go in this box in his room and twirl around to another time and place. He could end up anywhere–in the ’30s in New York or on another planet. He would have this amazing experience, and to get back, he would jump into a hole, and when he came back, he would be going crazy. He would say, “Mom, dad, you would never believe what happened!” Sometimes, he would take his parents and they would have this amazing time, and when they came back, they would never remember it. So, it was basically this boy and his brothers, and he would call them “box stories.” We would be like, “Dad, tell me a box story.” The process of choosing a band name was so stressful. I don’t know who suggested it.

DC: It was you.

NC: Was it me?

DC: It was you.

NC: So, in the end, it was just like, screw it, let’s do it.

MR: One last question. Do you feel like your current adventures in The Box Story are similar to those stories told by your imaginative dad?

DC: I bet for Noah it is, but for me, all my box stories were going to Pokeland and hanging out with all of the Pokemons.

MR: (laughs)

NC: I say no, but the one thing I’m never going to be able to do–I shouldn’t say that–is go back in time. If I could do anything, that’s what I would do, and I did go back in time a lot in these box stories. I’m going to give it a sad, but hopeful, “No.”

Transcribed by Theo Shier