When Steve DelMonico (vocals/guitar) approached John Faraone (drums) with an impossibly unique band name, there was no way of knowing that 10 years later they’d be sitting at Nolan’s with their bandmates, Damian Puerini (vocals/guitar) and Joe Principe (bass), talking about how their band, ‘92 Winona, came to be.
In essence, “Steve’s 4am” melody and lyric ideas, partnered with Damian’s harmonies, plus the ease with which they all play together, became the formula for them to successfully create a grounded and at times aggressive grunge-punk sound. As I listened to the new songs on their self-titled record, ‘92 Winona (to be released on May 22nd at Myrtle), I was literally transported to a time when flannel shirts were cool, and when many of us wanted to be Winona Ryder and hook up with Ethan Hawke.
Mayté Antelo-Ovando (Motif): I would love to hear how you came up with the name for this band, Steve.
Steve DelMonico: Around 2016, my buddy Jimmy had a t-shirt of Winona Ryder and I asked him if it was ‘92 Winona — like, is that from 1992? And I just thought it sounded cool. And also Reality Bites (released in 1994) is from that time. It’s one of my favorite movies. I love Ethan Hawke in it. That was the cool era, the shoplifting era (which actually happened in 2001). I just like the lore of her. There’s like a rebellion in her that I’ve always gravitated towards.
SD: I think it’s got a lot of that era, to some degree. There’s a lot of influences in particular that brought about ‘90s music, like late ‘70s funk.
Joe Principe: Yeah, I think my favorite song on this album is “Numb Head.” It’s the grungiest and it’s also very Alice in Chains.
Damian Puerini: And it could have gone horribly wrong. It could have gone “Dad rock” if we didn’t play it right.
MAO: So tell me why you decided to start the band in the first place?
SD: I think it was just to play more, and to do something different, musically. I would say it’s a mix of rock and punk — there’s a grit to it.
JF: Sometime between 2012 and 2016, Steve and I were hanging out at The Parlour, and he said, “I have this idea for a band name, ‘92 Winona. I want it to be like a Nirvana, ‘90s-inspired thing. I don’t know who I want to be in it, but it’s a band name that I’ve had forever.” He was just sitting on the name, and had no songs. So I said, “Yeah, dude, let’s do it. That sounds like a fucking awesome band!”
DP: That’s wild. I had no idea!
JF: And during the pandemic, Damian, me, Steve, would hang out here (at Nolan’s) when there was social distancing. We’d play pool, and talk about music. And I think Steve and Damian wrote “Stetson for my Stepson” (the first official ‘92 Winona song).
SD: I would say that was the moment of conception for the band. And that was what, 2022, 2021, when we wrote that?
JF: And then they were at Damian’s house, just dickin’ around, and Steve texts and says, “We wrote this song. We should get together and play it.” And then, in between them writing that song and us getting together, they wrote like 3 or 4 other songs. And one night we played through them all, and thought, “Yeah, that sounds like a rock and roll band. And then Steve asked, “Who should play bass?” And Damian said, “It has to be Principe.”
DP: He’s the man. I’ve played with Joe for, jeez, 20 years or something.
JF: By the time Principe showed up, they had like 4 or 5 more songs. They were pumping them out.
MAO: So the songwriting is mostly you and Steve?
DP: Yeah, we give the songs really good starts, where somebody just has to finish words. Or somebody starts one on their own and the other one takes it. He takes more than me. Steve’s more prolific than I am. He just has a lot more lyrical ideas faster.
JP: Steve’s 4am ideas.
DP: Some of the voice memos of these tunes are from 2023. Steve and I just wanted to form a rock band, a garage-y punk band.
JP: Like Nirvana and the Heartbreakers.
MAO: That was the inspiration.
DP: That’s what was told to me, ha! But what sold me was the rock and roll piece. I had played in a lot of folk bands and it had been a long time since I was in a rock band. I remember you said – “It’s going to be like 4 on the floor.”
MAO: Four on the floor?
DP: Like, ahhh! Four on the floor is 4 kicks, a kick on every beat, so one, two, three, four, one. It’s house music too. [This band] is all people who do a ton of music. We play a lot. I think all of us play every day. It’s nice to be with people who aren’t rusty. You don’t have to be perfect, but….
JP: You just gel. A lot of the songs on this last album, some of them we have played probably 3 times, before we recorded it. For one or two of them, I think it was literally the first take. All the recordings we’ve done are 90% fully live. It’s just us in a room. We would do the vocals separately, but the feel is very live. There’s not a lot of extra stuff layered on, or production. What you hear is what you get live as well.
MAO: And that’s a choice.
DP: That was my first time at Big Nice. Chaimes Parker (producer and member of Nova One) was super fun, skilled, and knew what he was doing. He kept the pace up, and it was very relaxed and ideal.
JF: I’ve been in a lot of bands, as a drummer. Bands will write songs and say, “We’ll finish that later.” And with ‘92 Winona, anytime there’s been an idea, it gets fully fleshed out pretty quickly and then almost immediately recorded. There’s nothing that’s an idea that we had years ago.
DP: At our first show (at the Parlour), our friend Seamus (of Smith and Weeden) said, “You should record these right away, do it while they still have”… what was the phrase that he used? It was some real Seamus way of saying, “I think you should do it while they’re still fresh.” He’s full of the best wisdom. We recorded them right away.
MAO: So you’re releasing those 7 initial songs (from the first record Hello, Hello, recorded by Chuck Perry, of Ravi Shavi/Joy Boys) plus 7 brand new songs; and this new album is called?
In unison: ‘92 Winona!
DP: My former brother-in-law, Ty Paulhus, made a really great logo that we’re probably gonna put on every release.
JF: Actually, the logo that Ty designed is the Lupos (a former downtown club) logo. They had a picture of Elvis that said “Lupos.” He replaced Elvis with Winona, and then the ‘92 is in the same font. We told them what we wanted to do and they were okay with it.
MAO: Are there songs in the album that are the most meaningful to you?
JF: What is cool to me is that there aren’t any filler songs. Anytime someone comes up with the song, we work through it, everybody adds kind of their own little flavor to it. I’m excited to play every song. Looking at the setlist, there’s no downer, or a song where we’re taking a break or whatever. Every song is killer. In some bands you might hear, ”Let’s play these in the middle because nobody cares about them.” [In Winona], every song is kind of awesome. Which is refreshing and cool.
MAO: And what would you say the songwriting process is for you, Steve, for 92 Winona?
SD: A lot of the stuff tends to happen super late at night. I’ll have a melody in mind, and I usually have a stanza. I’ll have those words and no other ones. And I’ll kind of keep poking and prodding it, until eventually, it’s ready. I never really write down anything until later. It’s mostly voice memo-ed. And then I’ll dissect whatever I’m mumbling. Not so much the words, but the melody.
MAO: That makes me think of poetry. Is that how you think about songs?
SD: Sometimes. I think it’s all kind of ambiguous, though. Sometimes it feels like it’s a poem or like a piece of something [a narrative]. But most of it is subconscious. I come up with things 100% on the fly. There are a few different words that I’ll try every time we’re running a song, and then eventually I’ll piece it together. Or I’ll just say, “Fuck it, this is what it is.”
MAO: There’s a driving force behind everything, it’s fast-paced.
DP: We’ve tried to make the songs longer. We’ll write a song, time it, and say, “Tthis is only a minute thirty.” And we’ll feel like we did everything we needed to do, we have a chorus, maybe a bridge, and then we’ll be at 2 minutes and say, “We got to get this to 2:15.” The brevity is on purpose, saying as much as we can with as few words as possible.
JF: Get to the chorus as quickly as possible.
DP: Don’t bore us, get to the chorus.
JP: I heard Pete Townsend say once, that he aims to have the chorus in by 25 seconds in every song he wrote. We have some songs where the chorus enters at 12 seconds.
MAO: In the song “Diabetic Coma” Steve sings, “I couldn’t figure it out, I started missing you… I needed to relax my brain.” The romantic in me wants to know who you were missing.
SD: I had a riff in mind and writing the song kind of helped me process a time I was going through, and also — I want everyone to have their own interpretation of the song, and what it might mean to them, so I just leave it [open]. Like the Beatles — their music is the most ambiguous.
MAO: What do you see in the future for this band?
SD: I’m up for anything. Maybe some type of tour, and to keep playing however we can. My goal is just to be able to play and to survive. Make music that’s more Winona.
MAO: What makes it more Winona?
SD: I think it’s just more aggressive. And I think that’s kind of her mentality anyway.
A new music video for the song “Diabetic Coma” (filmed at Nolan’s) will have been released by the time you read this interview. Watch it, go to their record release show at Myrtle on May 22nd (with Mike Murdock’s debut project, Distant Boom, and Gymshorts), and follow them at @92.winona – your inner Winona and Ethan will thank you.