Regency Club is certainly one of the hippest bands I've had the pleasure of listening to recently! Led by Kyle Macor, the group released their debut LP, "Moth Music". The band takes listeners on a journey like no other with catchy hooks, memorable lyrics, and most of all having a great time. Without further delay, let's discuss Regency Club's debut LP with Kyle Macor!

Hey Kyle Macor! First off, congrats on your latest release! It's am absolute banger of an EP! Tell us a bit about yourself and how the band was formed.

Hey Thommy! Thank you for the congratulations and also for taking the time to listen to the record! It means a lot. I am a Jersey-shore based singer/songwriter who has been at this for quite a while now. I've been involved mainly with previous punk/emo and electronic projects over the years, and I started the Regency Club project in 2018 as a throwback pop-rock project. I wanted work on more of a "live" sound. Something that can translated easily to the stage. I put together the first EP that was released in 2020, recruited some good friends to play the songs, and have been working on the live show and this latest album since.

The sound of the band is quite interesting. You definitely have different sound scapes going on with every tune! Who were some of your biggest influences when you figuring out your own sound?

Though it has evolved a bit over the years, I was listening to and drawing from a lot of early 60s pop and 00s rock at the time. Simplified pop structure and hooks were the prompt. On our first EP (Vol. 1: Summer Songs) I think this was more intentional. Early Beatles stuff and other 60s pop/rock were large veins being mined. Other 00s influences - The Shins, The Strokes, Vampire Weekend - also inform the songwriting and sound. For Moth Music, the process was less tied to a target. With the intent and sound of the project already kind of established, the writing for this new record deferred a little more to my default impulses. The result is a little more eclectic.

"The Moth Song" is a fitting way to start off the journey through Moth Music. It's a catchy song with some classic vibes from the guitar tone to the hand claps, which I love a lot! The lyrics are also very interesting. To be honest, I have no clue what the words are about. Could you dig a bit deeper to what the lyrics are related to?

"The Moth Song" is sort of a mission statement for the loose concept of this record. In the Fall of 2020, I had a dream focused on a Luna Moth. These were knee-deep pandemic times. I woke up and immediately started looking up online what dreams about Luna Moths mean. I found something that said these kinds of dreams could signify a rebirth of sorts. With the worldwide chaos going on at the time, I felt some sort of relief thinking that maybe this could mean better days were coming. Some kind of harbinger! I then also quickly realized that the anxiety of the situation was causing me to grab at anything to feel some kind of assurance that things were going to be ok. I am NOT a superstitious person. I generally adhere an evidence-based problem-solving process. We were all grabbing for something at the time. I thought about the ridiculousness of the whole thing, the meaning of dreams and such. Then I started thinking about all of the little crazy things we use in this journey to help get through hard times. We put our faith in some odd things. Even if it seems crazy, there's some value there if it helps. Moth Music is a soft examination of these kinds of concepts, some more personal than others. It kicks off with this sort of tongue-in-cheek song about bowing down to the dream of this Luna Moth that is going to be just the thing to end the pandemic.

The tune "Manhattan" is an interesting track. What is the subject matter of this song and what inspired you to write it?

"Manhattan" is about the kind of moments that change your life and challenge the randomness of it all. Sometimes it can feel a little too perfect. Out on a night in Manhattan with something new and undefined. One thing leads to another and we miss the last train back to NJ, stuck on the island for the night to find a place to stay. A couple of chance moments lead this connection to ignite into something else entirely. We've been together ever since. Fate? Who's to say?

"Deja Reve" peaked my interest just by the title alone. French for "already dreamed, Deja Reve refers to the feeling of having already experienced something that is curently happening. When listening to the song more, I totally dug it more and understood how the lyrics and the title connect. I think they're pure genius! Have you ever had Deja Reve before or do you know someone who has?

I had recently learned about "Deja Reve" and did a compulsive, enthusiastic dive into the subject - which I have the tendency to do. With either deja vu or reve, I think we've all felt something of the like. It's something you can't quite put your finger on or explain. These kinds of feelings fascinate me because they aren't readily explained. It may just be coincidences or misfires of the brain, but they carry an otherworldly feeling with them. In general, the mind and dreams fascinate me. They tend to be running themes in my writing.

"Never Knows Best" seems like it's related to relationships that seem to go sour and thinking, as one of the lines says, "How did they let it get so bad?". Is that the idea that the lyrics are portraying or is it something completely different? Furthermore, have you ever had a relationship like that?

I'm really glad you interpreted the song this way. First, I hadn't realized how ambiguous the lyrics can be, or, just how they can apply to different situations. Secondly, it is about a soured relationship, though I hadn't quite framed that way yet.

"Never Knows Best" is a song I wrote about my time struggling with opiate addiction. I went to rehab and got clean a long time ago and very thankfully have not had many reasons to look back since. It's hard to bring up and think about. I've been trying to write anything about it for years, but it's always been a tough nut to crack for me, personally. "Never Knows Best" is a window into the fear and hopelessness I felt in active addiction at that time. Not being able to trust yourself or even trust that there is any light on the other side of that tunnel. Hitting bottom. It is from the perspective of finally being ready to end that relationship but not fully knowing if you are even capable. I never got to completely process that time in my life. To be able to dig in and reframe it a little now that I am older and more mature felt like a real weight off my shoulders. I know a lot of people can relate. I'm alive today because the people that loved me didn't give up on me when they had every excuse to. If you are struggling with addiction or know someone that is, never give up and never stop being there for them. It can get better than you can even possibly imagine.

"Talking to Myself" has a retro/modern vibe to it. Certain parts, particularly the guitar solo, reminds me a bit of the 1960s with the reverb and the choice of guitar licks. For some reason, the lyrics make me think of 2020. What was going through your mind during the pandemic when writing this song and did you have that in mind when you wrote the lyrics?

Bingo. This was written in late 2020. I felt like every time I would catch up with someone in pandemic times it would be people really stressed out, dealing with all kinds of things going on and trying their best to just not freak out. Everyone was just so tired. The sad and strange became the ordinary. I noticed a refrain that emerged was something like "yeah, we're doing great, but..." or "things are going real well, besides..." so I started writing a bunch of these lines as a poem. I took a couple of the best ones out and worked it into a song. I really like this one. It's one of those that came together very quickly and naturally. I think it retains a lot of the helplessness at the time. It almost doesn't feel real at this point. Listening through the lyrics is like, yeah, that's exactly how it was. "...Just trying to stay on track"

"Kids" definitely feels like a reflection type of song. Naturally, as we get older, we may reflect on our youth and remember all the times we had. Do you ever or often reflect with people you know about your youth?

There are times where you flash back to certain parts of your life and the people in it. One of those can be when someone you grew up with and love passes. One of my good friends had passed away suddenly on a day in late June. I was barefoot in my front lawn with a text from a mutual friend that said "Did you hear about Brad?". I'll never forget that moment. And I'll never forget growing up with Brad through middle school, high school, college and beyond. Loving the same music and playing in bands together. He was a constant in well over half of my life. When some people are so tied to your journey, losing them can feel really big and unfair. You always assume they are going to be there. Hug the real ones. Tell them that you love them.

I love the imagery in the song "Slow". When writing lyrics, how important is it to provide imagery in songs?

Honing in on imagery in lyrics is underrated. When I write, I rarely target specific concepts but rather just flow on the idea or subject I am on at the time. I think I default to two or three modes - one being prose and kind of word and sentence craft. Another, here in the beginning of Slow, I am meticulously describing the setting. I'm a big astronomy guy. I track planets and find myself staring up a lot at night. The importance varies, but here I think placing the listener in the setting was important for the theme. Staring at the night sky and questioning your place in it all. Reflecting on vastness and big concepts. Time and place. Smallness. I think we've all been there. If not, I would recommend getting in that headspace every now and then.

The song "Bottom of the Lake" has such a surf vibe to it which complements the tune perfectly! This is another song that once again has a bit of 60s vibe mixed with some new wavey type sounds as well. What is your approach to creating the sounds of your songs when combining different sounds from different eras of music?

Astute observation! I wish I had more of a method to explain here. This song is definitely has some new wave there but I haven't thought about that until this very moment. I think a lot of music may be a summary or expression of many influences that may or may not be explicitly intended. It's a collection of a singular vision as well as hundreds of choices. There are elements to parse here. We have the songwriting and then the crafting of the sounds in the studio. The songwriting had a target on vintage pop-rock and an homage to a riff from The Shins. When the songs get to the studio, there are targets that are set from the beginning to keep the record on the same page sonically. It's not all created on the fly. In that mold, I remember thinking the organ sound was borderline too cheesy and kept stressing in mixing to keep the highs and high mids tucked on it so it didn't stick out too much. As it turns out, that organ is real signature in the track and lends itself to that kind of new wave vibe.

"Out of the Blue" seems to be related to trying to reach out to someone out of the blue. The lyrics feel so personal. Have you experienced what you wrote about in this song?

"Out of the Blue" is a companion to the song "Kids". When the dust settles, how do you cope with losing someone? I think we all have superstitious or spiritual things we use to try to make sense of it. This plays on the core concept of the record. This song is about hoping that someone you've lost can somehow know that you are still thinking about them. It's such an odd, but natural, inclination. The song touches on being hesitant to the idea. It may seem crazy, but here you are still sending out messages aimlessly into the void. Crazy or not, writing this helped me to gain some peace. If there's any chance to let him know, I hope my friend Brad knows he still has friends that miss him and think about him all the time. If not, I at least have this small memorialization to help me deal with it.

"The Colors" gives off real positive vibes with a message of love, supporting one another, and going on an adventure to do what you are meant to do. with lines like "Now it's time to take the lead, Soon you'll be stealing the scene, And as long as I have got a seat, I'll be cheering for you." I connected with these lyrics as a musician and a person which I think anyone who does anything within the realm of art can connect with it, too. When you hear this song now, does it make you think of the journey you took as a musician or even as a person?

Having the opportunity to watch people come of age is a beautiful thing. It gets you thinking about how it felt when everything was big and new. That perspective is centering. It evokes your own journey and past lives. You can see it again through their eyes, give guidance, and hope that some of it sticks. My daughters are getting to an age that I can vividly remember. I see them on the verge of some wild, beautiful changes and I couldn't be more excited for them. I hope they can take some time to enjoy all of the little details. The good, the bad, the absurd. Don't rush it. I get to try to foster their passions watch as the whole thing unfolds. It's special.

The final song on this EP, "Nagoya", is such a classic sounding tune. Nagoya is an industrial city in Southern Honshu, Japan. The chord structure and arrangement are very interesting as well. The lyrics are also really well written. Have you ever been to Nagoya before? Is the song related to your experience there?

This isn't intrinsically a pandemic record, but we introduce with the "moth" and do have some other overt references along the way. Nagoya closes the record as kind of a cap and response to the first track. I went on a trip to Nagoya and surrounding areas for my brother's wedding a few months before the pandemic started. It was the last real big thing that happened for me before everything shut down. So, through that time Nagoya was always a kind of mental checkpoint in the "before times". Is the world ever going to be the same as it was then? Is that ok? The latter half of the song is about trying to get better with accepting things that we can't change and coming to terms with change itself, even if dreams about moths don't mean anything at all. I think it leaves the record on an optimistic note. The world is always going to be changing and hard times and things will come. But if you're looking for it, it'll also always be a place full of love and wonder. There can be comfort in reframing around that.

You have a show coming up on July 29 at The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Are there any other shows coming up that you would like to tell us about?

The show at the Wonder Bar is a big one for us and a stage I have always wanted to play. If you are around Monday 7/29, please come out and hear us play tracks from the new album! Along with us will be Monkeys From Mars, Local Honeymoon and Becky Crosby. Additionally, we will be playing on Saturday 9/7 8pm at Flying Pig Tavern and Tap in Bordentown, NJ and have a stripped-down set planned for Friday 9/20 at the Asbury Hotel in Asbury Park.

Is there anything you would like to share with our readers?

Thanks again to you, Thommy, and anyone else that has taken the time to listen to the record or read through the interview. The best I can hope for is that some people are listening and connecting with it. If you like what you hear, please follow us on Instagram @regency_club_music and subscribe to our YouTube channel for some visuals put together for some of the album tracks. Whatever you are taking time to listen to, try to support local music!





Artist Bio:
Regency Club a retro-pop/rock project of Asbury-Park based singer/songwriter Kyle Macor. The debut LP, "Moth Music" is a loose examination of the things we put our faith in and why. The idea grew from a pandemic-era dream about a Luna Moth and ensuing research on what dreams about moths may mean. There was the subsequent realization that faith has a tendency, no matter how absurd, to lend itself to hope. We mold or own beliefs, even more so in trying times. We all use these things to get by. Dreams, fate, spirits, vices - what's your moth?