almost sex, a musical duo based out of Brooklyn, New York is releasing their third single, “Rest Up” January 15.
Nick Louis and Warren LaSota met on Hinge back in March 2020.
“It was sort of funny because we were obviously, like, doomsday scrolling… looking for some distraction,” said LaSota. “It was the first week that Covid hit Brooklyn, where we were, so we were in complete isolation when we first met and started working on music together. We weren’t really sure whether it was necessarily going to be a romantic relationship or a musical partnership at that point.”
The two began working on music together before ever meeting in person.
“We were doing this stuff with Nick recording on his phone and me sending him lyrics,” said LaSota. They made demos together in this way before finally meeting and being able to record their first two singles, “Knockoff” and “Charmer.”
“When we started working together, we were able to sit in the same room and as I was humming melodies or whatever she would write lyrics to it,” said Louis. “Those two songs were written a little bit differently than our initial demos.”
“Our first song, ‘Knockoff’ is a mostly acoustic song with some auxiliary synths and everything and then ‘Charmer’ is more of a full on mechanical synth sound. The new EP we’re working right now on is solely acoustic,” said Louis.
They describe themselves as having a DIY sound. “It’s sort of LoFi,” said LaSota. “Just us and the instruments we can already play.”
In addition to playing and singing, Louis does all of the band’s mixing and postproduction.
“As far as the production of the songs go, it’s very in-house,” said Louis. “We haven’t worked with another producer or mix engineer up to this point and I don’t think we really plan to in the future.”
Before Covid-19, Louis helped run a DIY venue, the Tar Heel Lounge No. 2, in his basement in Brooklyn.
“I think being a part of that scene and being able to curate shows and being able to surround myself with artists that I really respect has definitely molded the way that I produce and just think about songwriting.”
Louis has been in a couple of projects and also plays in the band Night on the Sun.
“This project [almost sex] has probably been the most fluid in terms of genre or vibe,” said Louis. “I think we’re just figuring it out as of now. But also we’re trying not to let genre hold us back too much. I always prefer the sound to be kind of fluid anyway.”
The name, almost sex, was the brainchild of LaSota.
“Before I ever met Nick or really thought I’d be in a band I had a list of cool band names,” said LaSota. “almost sex was the first one on the list … And it seemed to fit because we hadn’t met yet so it was like, we’re almost in a relationship. We’re almost in a band. We don’t really know what we’re doing but we really like it. It just sort of seemed to fit the vibe of what we were doing.”
Now, the duo is staying in LaSota’s hometown, Patton, Pennsylvania.
“I think we’re both in a sort of nostalgic mood right now, being back where I grew up,” said LaSota. “We decided for this EP that they’d be really raw LoFi acoustic demos. We’re focusing more on the lyrics and the storylines behind the lyrics. Just sort of keeping it simple. We only brought a few instruments from Brooklyn so we’re just keeping it sort of minimal with all the different elements of this song.”
“Rest Up,” almost sex’s third single, will premiere on Bands Do BK January 15.
It began with Louis playing guitar chords composed around a whistle melody for a chorus that he’d started working on when they stayed in Patton over the summer.
“This is sort of like a conversation maybe between a parent and a kid about being patient and especially whenever you’re trying to find someone or looking for love, not to look too hard,” said LaSota. “Be happy with yourself and wait for love to find you. Which I feel like happened to us sort of in the way that we met … I guess it’s sort of a made up story between a parent and a kid. Basically, ‘I found your mom when I was least expecting it.’”
The song will be included in the Patton Demos EP, which will be released in early spring before their debut EP, that will include their first two singles.
“We wanted to do something that was true to that initial concept of our project ,” said Louis. “We thought it would be cool to do a demos EP before the actual four or five song EP comes out later this year; hopefully by summer.”
“The way that our relationship was born, I think it’s just something that we really enjoy and want to keep doing,” said LaSota.
Stay tuned for the release of “Rest Up” on January 15!
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