You may be familiar with New Jersey prog metal outfit East of the Wall; we’ve been longtime fans and have reported on them extensively over the years and genuinely have some sleeper classics under their belts at this point. You may also know that those East of the Wall dudes are quite prolific, and that there are a number of spin-off and side-projects between them in varying degrees of activity. Looking through the credits now, I’m seeing associated acts in Revocation, Publicist UK, El Drugstore, Day Without Dawn, The Postman Syndrome, Hundreds, and last but not least, the focus of today’s event, instrumental post-rock band NY in 64.
Featuring EotW’s Chris Alfano and Seth Ream in addition to Justin Hock and Thomas Schlatter, NY in 64 have two records under their belts; 2015’s self-titled album and 2017’s The Gentle Indifference of the Night. Their upcoming third LP Safety promises to be the band’s last.
Alfano offers the following:
I doubt it was a surprise to a lot of people that Safety is a posthumous release, considering how drastically our live schedule shrunk in the last two years. The short version is that Tom went from living in the area in NJ to living 3 plus hours in the Albany, NY area. I’m really proud that we managed to output songs that I’m this satisfied with, but things inevitably get less fluid when you go from having full-band rehearsals almost every week to having them once a month. So between that, and the increased activity of our other bands Hundreds of Au and East of the Wall, and some other creative yadda yaddas, it seemed like a good idea to retire the project with a solid batch of songs than to force it in a compromised state. It’s sad, because this band came to me at a time when I really needed it in my life – when East of the Wall was less active, and then my wife and I were long-distance for a bit (she was out of the country in veterinary school). And there are other guys in the band for whom NY in 64 had an even more “right music at the right time” moment. And what’s more, I know that there were some avenues we would have explored had we kept going. So it kind of breaks my heart a little that I don’t get to find out where we would have taken it yet. And that I don’t get to do it with this group of people.
But everything ends. And besides, Seth and I are more active with East than we’ve been in years, and Tom and Justin are in high gear with Hundreds, and Justin and I have had talks about future endeavors. So the spirit continues in one way or another. Hell, East and Hundreds have a show together next month. If I’ve learned anything about our local music scene, it’s that we’re all indefinitely entwined.
Stream NY in 64’s final album Safety in full via the Bandcamp player below:
Safety is out tomorrow, Friday, November 1st. Click through the player above to purchase a digital copy for as little as $1.