Welcome Requiem: Lets Reignite "Fangirl-ism"

I’ll say it, I miss 2016 “fangirl-isms.” I miss the massive rush of dopamine that flooded my 11-year-old senses as I watched a “funny moments compilation” of my favorite band, posted esoteric selfies to their songs, and made edits of a band member I held a deeper devotion for than I had ever held for anything in my life. Even now, as my frontal lobe has developed some, I have basically lived my life in pursuit of that same euphoria I felt when watching Ryan Ross sing “Tonight, Tonight” by the Smashing Pumpkins for the first time. Something that could appeal to the benevolent, emo poser lying dormant within me; something angsty for her to sink her teeth into, goddamnit! The closest I have gotten to that feeling was watching Requiem perform at the Taffeta Ballroom earlier this October. 

Though it was their first show, the band was completely at ease. More than that, they were having the time of their lives on stage. From their eccentric theatrics to their setlist of songs they knew we couldn’t resist singing along to, it felt like Requiem was letting the audience in on an inside joke they had curated so preciously between themselves. Their energy was contagious, spreading to the timid crowd and melting their inhibitions away. When I looked around at the audience I could see a new light in their eyes as they drifted closer to the stage, wanting to be a part of the band’s shenanigans. Dizzy with the excitement of hearing Paramore’s “Misery Business” live and feeling so lucky to have been able to document their premiere, I left their first show needing to go to their next and desperate to know more about this band.

In my interview with Requiem, they express their deeply philosophical musings on crowd work, threaten their audience, promote “having fun” in the pit, and “take us for a walk.” They discuss what energy they want to create at their shows and talk cultivating a punk scene that is true to them, in a period where the punk label is so heavily disputed and seemingly broader than ever. With all members being current students at the competitive and technically rigorous Berklee College of Music, they challenge the “perfection” they are told to strive for in favor of connection, fun, and truth. 

Requiem playing their first show at the Taffeta Ballroom on October 4, 2024.

Grace Abdayem: Everybody say your name and what you do in the band.

Grace Lionato: I'm Grace Lionato, also known as Hobb. I am lead vocals.

Jake Ryan: I'm Jake. I play drums and I do background vocals, mostly harmony stuff.

Dan Sienko: I'm Dan and I play bass.

Stephen Wesolowski: I'm Stephen and I play lead guitar and I run around.

GA: Yes, you do.

Joss Lubenstein: I'm Joss, sometimes people call me John, and I do rhythm guitar.

Lionato: He'll occasionally take us on a walk.

Lubenstein: I will occasionally take them on a walk.

Sienko: Take him for a walk.

GA: Okay. I’ll take him for a walk. I will. Okay, I loved your show so much. I was like, “If I had seen this band in middle school, I would have been forever altered.” Okay so because it’s “Together” Outrageously I was wondering, 

GA: What kind of experience do you want to create at a Requiem show?

Ryan: I don't know. I mean, like I say this with a grain of salt: I kind of reached out to all these people to put this together. I'm not going to say I put the band together, but we kind of got together.

Lubenstein: You put the band together.

Ryan: Okay! No, but I kind of wanted like… I feel like there's a lot of bands now who are like incredible players who could play your socks off, but I've gone to shows where it's just like I feel like I'm falling asleep watching these bands. So I kind of wanted to get back to that like... Nothing we’re playing is too complicated, but we just want to go crazy on stage and like really give that energy out and get that energy back from the audience. That's what I really want.

Lionato: Whenever I'm prepping songs and like when we're performing together, my main thought is making it a fun experience. Like making it like an actually good time. It's like a lot of crowd engagement, a lot of silly gags and Stephen running around. But just making it fun is kind of the main thing that I have in mind. Yeah.

Sienko: I second that motion.

GA: I.

Lubenstein: I.

Wesolowski: I!

GA: Yeah, like the whole sign that was so fun and cute. I loved that so much. Your contact bit.

Lionato: Yeah, right?

Lubenstein: Wait, there was a contact bit?

Lionato: Yeah dude, in Suburban Home when we had the little setlist thing.

Lubenstein: Oh yeah.

Lionato: Reading. Yeah.

Sienko: That was fire.

GA: Literally. You don't understand like, not filming that was like… I actually wanted to die. Please do it again.

Lionato: For sure. Yeah. There’s a couple other gags that we didn't get to do that I want to do that are on lock: that I have not told them.

Ryan: We're going to be cooking up some stuff for our next show.

GA: In the covers you pick, you kind of went over that, how you picked them. I don't know, could you expand on that?

Lionato: Well it's kind of a group effort of picking these songs and we also keep in mind like I am a female vocalist so my range is a little bit higher than a lot of male fronted punk bands, but we adapted to that pretty well by just changing the key on a couple songs.

Ryan: Yeah, we got a lot of stuff that was like we had various tastes. When we picked stuff, we actually went around the room adding covers and it was like everybody would pick something.

Lionato: Yeah.

Ryan: And there's a lot of stuff that's like, on the surface level it might not work for the arrangement we have here of like people, but we've really gotten better at like adapting stuff and like whether it's like changing the key for [Grace’s] voice or how we figure out a guitar part for something that doesn't totally have one.

Lubenstein: Or something that is technically a trumpet.

Ryan: Exactly.

Sienko: Oh, I remember when we did that. That's a good song.

Ryan: You were right.

Sienko: Good tune.

Ryan: That we did that before.

Sienko: Sorry, I'm just putting that out there. We did a good job.

GA: Yeah, I can't believe that was your first show because I really got the Requiem stamp. I feel that you guys have like a very... I'm a fan guys.

Lionato: Yeah!

Ryan: Thank you.

GA: Oh yeah, like “Waiting Room.” That was very powerful to me.

Lionato: Yeah?

GA: Life changing even.

Lionato: Tell me more about that.

GA: Just like seeing a female fronted band playing “Waiting Room” that was really powerful. 

GA: How do you guys want to keep doing powerful shit?

Wesolowski: We're going to play it again.

Ryan: Even better.

Sienko: Well, we're definitely planning on some original tunes in the future. Yes, yes, yes, yes we are.

Lionato: Yeah, cooking up some stuff.

GA: What inspires you guys? Like other artists?

Ryan: All sorts of stuff. I mean like I, my music taste I feel like is all over the place as [Joss] can attest to because I know you definitely don't like some of it Joss.

Lubenstein: Yes, you’ve got some crazy music.

Ryan: But I love like everything from like Slayer to like Lady Gaga, Chappell Roan. All of that shit fucks. It just depends on what the vibe is.

Roxie Jenkin: Would you ever do a Chappell Roan cover?

Lionato: We actually were just talking about that.

Ryan: It depends on how you adapt it.

Sienko: Can we do a band vote right now?

GA: Live!

Lubenstein: Guys, I quit Requiem.

Ryan: Alright.

Lionato: Gotta give em’ a chance.

Lubenstein: I don't know.

Lionato: Plus, you know, there's... arranging it into...

Lubenstein: I'm sorry to interrupt, if we cover Chappell Roan, we can do one of those memes where they say, "I hope they play Hot to Go." It's like, dude, this is Requiem. And then we actually play Hot to Go.

GA: Brilliant marketing.

Sienko: Brilliant. Somebody write that down. Oh.

GA: We already are.

Lionato: It's actually already being written.

Sienko: I had an inkling.

GA: You know David Lynch where it's like...

Wesolowski: I do know David Lynch! I definitely know David Lynch. Please continue this train of thought.

GA: If you don't write it down, like, as an artist, you want to kill yourself.

Sienko: Oh, that's facts!

Wesolowski: Have you read Catching the Big Fish?

GA: No.

Wesolowski: Awesome book.

Lubenstein: I was gonna say, I've never seen, Stephen…

GA: He jumped out of his seat!

Sienko: What was the original question?

Wesolowski: Do you know about David Lynch? And I got really excited.

GA: Would you say you have Lynchisms in your work?

Sienko: Oh, I would say heavily, heavily inspired by the work of David Lynch.

Lionato: I remember what I was going to say. We all have, we all I think come from very different musical backgrounds as well as like backgrounds of interest, but we kind of find a way to put it together that we all enjoy something. We're an eclectic bunch, you know.

Sienko: Certainly. I would agree. I feel like what makes it easy to put together is that we all love performing and we kind of have the same vision of how we want like the live show to go and we all have the same idea of what music should be and we also just all like each other. We enjoy spending time together.

Lubenstein: Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Sienko: Okay. We all like each other, except Joss. And for that reason, it like, it works. It doesn't really matter that we all come from different musical backgrounds. It just becomes fun. That's what it's all about. Fun vibes.

GA: I'm so moved. I'm a big fan, guys. Do you have any questions?

RJ: Yeah, I'm curious how you came up with your genre? Or do you have one?

Lionato: Punk.

Ryan: I would say punk, but like we've kind of, at least right now we have a big range from like pop punk songs where it's, I mean like, we kind of wanted a big range of like everything from like the cheesiest of cheesy things like, “My girlfriend dumped me and she doesn't love me anymore.” All the way to like, here's a song where it's like, it's time to fucking throw down, you know what I mean? We want that range there. I mean, cause like, you don't, I don't like anything where it feels like it starts to get too monotonous or you have a lot of the same stuff. We want to keep changing up, keep people interested.

Lionato: The pacing is the most important when it comes to a live show.

GA: Talk about that.

Lionato: Okay. Well, you know, you can't have three slow songs back to back, you know, people are going to start yawning. And I don't really think that us as a band have any slow songs.

Sienko: I don't think so.

Lionato: I don't think we should. We have some like, you know, less aggressive ones, but it's still, you know, it keeps going because you have to have that drive in order to keep your audience engaged. And without that, you know, people are going to go to the bathroom. Yeah, they can hold it until the end of the show.

GA: I was wondering if you guys have any like, really deep philosophical thoughts about crowd work?

Sienko: Oh, it's very important, I think.

Lionato: Eye contact. That's something for me. I will make eye contact with you if you're up near. And then everyone's like, they get excited. Like I'm pointing at you. I'm pointing at you. You like, you know, push that person next to you!

GA: Commanding.

Lionato: Yeah.

Wesolowski: I think crowd work is, crowd work should be a threat, alright? So the venue owners, whoever was working at Taffeta, wonderful people by the way.

Lionato: Yeah.

Wesolowski: Great people. I believe it was, something was either told to Jake or Dan, which is then relayed to me, which is “Stephen, you cannot leave the stage under any circumstances. You gotta stay up there.” And I was thinking, well I know that, the people down there don't know that. So, I'm thinking, if you're being pointed out by somebody in a band, you can ignore that finger, right? If somebody is motioning that they were going to jump to you, pretty soon you're not gonna be able to ignore that, right? Because you're gonna have a person on top of you. So, if I motion that I'm gonna jump at you, you know, there's a small, instantaneous rush of adrenaline there, and then like that person's good for the rest of the show, right? So, as long as I threaten each person with this like… toothpick twink, then they're energized for the rest of the set, right?

Sienko: We need that to be the headline.

GA: Toothpick twink.

Sienko: Toothpick twink tells all. Yes. Somebody hire me.

GA: Clicks.

Sienko: Clicks. Somebody hire me, please.

Wesolowski: Sex sells.

Sienko: Yeah, I think if the crowd isn't having fun, then you're not gonna be having as much fun. So, in self-interest, it's the best thing to do to have as much fun, or at least appear like you're having as much fun as you can while you're on stage, because that makes people want to have fun. It's like, monkey see monkey do. You know what I mean? They want to see you having fun so they can have fun also.

Lionato: Yeah, like Jake was saying, it's an energy exchange. 100%. That's kind of the only way that I think is like a really good way to describe it, is like you're bouncing back and forth between the audience and yourself, and if you can't maintain that, then you're gonna lose your crowd. You're gonna lose that energy.

Ryan: You're gonna get out of it what you put into it.

GA: You were saying that you guys are staunchly a punk band and I wanted to know, what kind of punk scene are you trying to create with your shows and what do you think exists?

Lionato: I mean, I think now especially, you know, punk is like a term now that is used in a lot of different things that don't originate with what we resonate with. I think for me at least punk is self, you describe it yourself. You know, it's how you feel, it's how you want to do things. It's up to the individual, you know, not what everyone else is telling you. That's what I kind of think of it as.

Ryan: Yeah, I mean kind of just that unbridled rage I have inside of me which is like, I want to do what I want to do, I want to play music how I like to play it. Anybody who tells me I can do it any other way can get bent. That's kind of my spiel, you know?

Sienko: Certainly. I feel like there's not a lot of bands in the college student scene, I guess, who are…

Lionato: Especially at Berklee.

Wesolowski: We used the B word! No, don't say it!

Ryan: Music right now, there's a whole push for perfection thing, which I have nothing against, you know, you want stuff to be really good. But like, there's a thing or it's just like, there's a lot of stuff right now, especially heavier stuff, that in my opinion just feels really sterile. I mean, it's like you've sucked the life out of it because it's so perfect. Like it's people who can play flawless, incredible music and the energy isn't there and I just don't feel anything.

Lionato: Yeah.

Lubenstein: Like, not to go back to the B word, but at Berklee because like, what everyone's teaching you is like how to perfect your instrument, how to perfect your playing and your thing, that means everyone's trying to play perfectly. Everyone wants to play the coolest, most perfect, greatest, most technical, complicated thing ever. Like, exactly what you were saying. 

Wesolowski: Well, it is called math rock.

Sienko: And it's also like people, not in every case, but that kind of music just doesn't give off the energy so like the crowd doesn't really have as much fun and like people who aren't musicians aren't going to be there like, "Holy shit, like that Lydian lick was unbelievable." Nobody gives a fuck. So it's more important to me and to all of us, I think, to just have fun and like have that energy going. Back to the scene that we're attempting to create, I think there's like a big hardcore punk scene. I think that's what's like most popular when it comes to punk right now, at least in the college student area and we kind of don't really play that kind of music. But I think there's an audience of people who are into this kind of music but aren't into that kind of music, which I'm into both, so I get it. But I think there's a good portion of college students who want to go into the punk mosh pit and not get like punched in the fucking face. And maybe that's the scene where we're pro fun in the pit.

Ryan: I love like crazy insane shows, but like there's a method to like moshing and that kind of thing. It's supposed to be spontaneous and it's crazy, but it's like if you're doing that with the goal of like hurting people or doing that thing, it's so dumb. 

Sienko: Yeah. I mean, there's a time and a place for that. Like obviously there's a community who likes to dance like that. So like more power to them. But I think we're all part of the community that isn't trying to dance like that. And I think there's a lot of people who are also like the pit is too much for me, but it wouldn't be too much for them if it was more normal.

GA: I’m really happy you guys are doing shows now because I feel like you're going to create that.

Lionato: That's kind of the goal.

GA: As for originals, are you planning to produce those and release them?

Lubenstein: We plan on doing that.

GA: How do you guys want to keep  those elements that you mentioned about the live energy? How do you guys plan to go about that in producing your songs?

Ryan: I really want to take a super raw approach…like mic up drums, real amps, that kind of stuff. I'm not like, I don't have anything against like the amp sim stuff. That's just cool and it's easy to use, but nothing beats an amp in a room for me. And I love that live track has a band feel, stuff doesn't have to be perfect if it has a really good vibe and you can feel something when you listen to it.

Lionato: Keeping the sound authentic.

Sienko: I think you either want to feel like you're at the show when you listen to it or like the band is in the room with you. Like when you close your eyes.

Lubenstein: My production analysis class was talking about like when people who aren't musicians listen to music, there's like a couple things they see in their head or they frequently see. Some people see themselves playing the song. Some people imagine they're at the band’s show watching the band play the song. Some people see nothing. Some people see just like, I don't know, some weird stuff. But like, I think what we want to do is we want to cater to the vibe of like if you listen to one of our songs and you close your eyes, you can either see yourself right in front of us playing it or see yourself on stage playing it.

Lionato: I kind of want like, if we do release music, you know, if you're listening to it with headphones or on a speaker and you're alone in your room, like you can just, you know, go batshit.

Sienko: You can rock out.

Lionato: Yeah.

GA: Get out that hairbrush.

Lionato: Sing along.

Sienko: Exactly. That would be me in my room if I weren't in Requiem and I was listening to Requiem and they had music out.

Wesolowski: I second that. I would also be doing that.

That was awesome. Do you have anything you want to say?

Lionato: Follow our band on Instagram.

Ryan: Pay attention for some announcements coming soon about some really fun stuff.

Lionato: @the_requiem_band

Sienko: Check under your seats.

GA: A Tesla?

Sienko: Yeah.

GA: Dan, how did you...

Sienko: You're welcome. You're welcome.

GA: Bye.

EXTRA TREAT ALERT: To feed the new Requiem fangirl we know has bloomed in all you, I created a Requiem zine! Download here so you can print your own or print a couple to share with your friends! Spank you very much!

Sound as Ever,

Grace Abdayem

All photos and videos by Grace Abdayem.