On a freezing day in early February, I met with Wyn Barnum, Ricky Dana, and James Fusco, the musical creators of Phoneboy, the band behind “Acid Girl,” a song that could warm up any northeast blizzard and was responsible for the most memorable social media moment in local music last year. When the song came out in December, it was ubiquitous on Instagram; posted by many Stevens students on their stories, the song received instant local exposure.
“I remember looking at my Instagram stories and seeing the whole thing was the color of pink and red because everyone was posting it. It was crazy. Friends from home, people from our fraternity. If we didn’t have that support, it wouldn’t have gone anywhere or gotten that exposure at all,” Ricky recounted about the release day of “Acid Girl.”
A music video came next, and the organic sharing and support soon caused the song to explode on streaming platforms, seeing its stats steadily increase. As of early February, “Acid Girl” has cracked 70,000 streams, a number completely unexpected by Phoneboy and extremely promising for this new band. I was lucky enough to speak with the core musical members of Phoneboy and ask them about their history and what’s to come.
One of the most startling facts about Phoneboy is that the band almost never started. Although Wyn and James were longtime friends and musical collaborators, growing up together in San Francisco, California, when Wyn arrived at Stevens (James attends Fordham University) and met Ricky, it took them more than a semester after meeting to realize each other’s talents and their shared musical compatibility. Although Ricky hoped he would click with someone musically, he also explained the cynicism he felt when first arriving at Stevens, claiming that he “wasn’t expecting to find anyone to jam with.” And although he and Wyn lived in the same hall and met just a few days into their first semester, he actually avoided Wyn, who was eager to play with him after realizing their similar tastes in music.
“I didn’t even think anything of it; I just thought he was flaky,” said Wyn about the cancelled plans. It wasn’t until a rush event in the spring when Ricky heard Wyn on guitar and reversed his feelings.
“I heard him play and was like, ‘wow, he’s better than me,’” said Ricky, and all of us laughed. “So, I stuck with it, and that’s where we are now.”
The riff for “Acid Girl” was one of the first ideas Wyn and Ricky came up with from an early jam session, and the lyrics came less than a week later. After officially adding James, who plays bass, to Phoneboy over the summer, the group began refining the track. Speaking to their writing process, Phoneboy seemed even more compatible; while Ricky called Wyn “the king of hooks,” Wyn applauded Ricky for “writing all the long verses [he doesn’t] have the patience for,” and they both agreed that James was the best at writing bass lines. This collaborative nature and the attention to detail is evident in the opening seconds of “Acid Girl” as multiple guitar tracks layer onto each other, each with a new idea, like a jam session coming to life on the track. And as excited as the group is to share new music ideas with each other, they seem even more stoked about sharing their music with their audiences as well. They shared stories of listeners shouting back the choruses of their songs at gigs and of being approached and congratulated by people they hardly know at Stevens and Fordham, and they seemed overwhelmingly grateful for the reception of “Acid Girl.”
Still, though, the group is confident that even more exciting projects than “Acid Girl” are to come. James firmly stated, “I’m happy to see that people are enjoying the music, but I’m excited to show what we have in store,” and Ricky emphatically agreed, saying, “The songs we have set up blow ‘Acid Girl’ out of the water.” If “Acid Girl” is any sign, the world should expect another banger perfect for the approaching summer.
To end the interview, I spoke with Phoneboy about the Stevens and Hoboken music community, and how they would like to see improvements in the latter. Wyn, a Music and Technology major, has felt the effects of the program, as it provided Phoneboy with studio experience and connected them to someone who has produced and mastered their song mixes. As for Hoboken, all members agreed that the city’s music scene could use a facelift.
“If you look at Hoboken, it seems like there should be live music playing everywhere. It’s that kind of town. We want to work on revitalizing the music scene around here in Stevens and in Hoboken,” said Ricky to nods from James and Wyn. This was an interesting point; live music in Hoboken seems rare even though the city practically never goes to sleep on weekends. It will be interesting to see how this changes over time, and whether Phoneboy is involved in that change.
Along with their future-focused mentality, Phoneboy also expressed many thanks for those who made “Acid Girl” possible. They thanked Luis Ogaz, a Stevens student and their creative director, who directed the music video and created the album cover for “Acid Girl,” and Jeremy Roche, a recent graduate of Stevens who has been helping them secure gigs.
Phoneboy will be playing BC Music in Clifton, NJ, on February 17, and the Meat Locker in Montclair, NJ, on March 10.
Stream “Acid Girl” on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/6MgxhqQ6W6HXJU2R602nYf?si=7BmKLVpKSqWIeo61wBsfJQ
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