Peeling Back the Wallpaper: Interview with wallpaper.

Based out of Northern Virginia and Richmond, Jack Lwin (drums) and Andrew Milhorn (vocals and guitar) create "slow-core for teeny-boppers" with their lo-fi punk outfit wallpaper. With the unique name comes a unique sound and unique perspectives. Read more to see what the duo had to say about their name, musical influences, songs that make you want to ram your head into a wall and eat a bowl of cheerios after, and so much more.

Ilse Grace: How long have you guys known each other?

Jack: Since high school so like, 5 years. I have a fond memory of waving to Andrew and he didn’t wave back and it was really sad because I thought he was so cool.

Andrew: That’s interesting. I think that’s happened to me with a few other of my very close friends. I just totally isolate and ignore and then they’re like, oh, let’s be friends, and I’m like, okay.

Ilse Grace: “When did you start playing music together?”

Jack: I’d say immediately after we met which is probably the reason why we became such good friends.

Andrew: Jack played drums and I wanted to play music, but we first started playing together like how we are now, probably midway through senior year of high school. We originally wanted it to be both of us writing the songs, but I just didn’t really work out at the way. It made more sense for me to be doing songs for wallpaper. It really started though when I wrote this list of commandments for wallpaper, almost like a style guide *laughs.* I think one was don’t play Gibson guitar, don’t play guitar solos, always stay in mid to low tempo, never wear jewelry on stage. There is some weird stuff thrown in there that I think I was just regularly mad about as well.

Ilse Grace: “How did you come up with your name?”

Andrew: There is a very specific. Moment in time that I remember being inspired to make the kind of music that we make now. We were in a band called Foxglove, it was me, Jack, our friend Will, who’s in subhead, and our friend Ben. It was this cramped, little bedroom that Will was in and we were jamming. There was this big bunk bed that the drums were under and we were writing this new song and what happened is you locked into this very, huge state and stared off into a corner. Here’s the punchline, he had this wallpaper that was all kids stuff like cows jumping over the moon, etc and multi color Christmas lights, so playing that song in that moment I understood it.

Jack: I thought it was Jimmy’s wallpaper.

Andrew: No, Jimmy’s wallpaper is cool though. That was our Instagram photo for awhile.

Ilse Grace: “How would you describe your sound?”

Jack: Wallpaper.

Andrew: Is that corny to say?

Jack: It looks like our sound!

Andrew: Slow-core for teeny-boppers *laughs.*

Jack: Wanna-be punk.

Andrew: I hope there are pop sensibilities. I’d be embarrassed if we didn’t have pop sensibilities.

Jack: Pop music is really good.

*Puns about pop music*

Ilse Grace: “Who are your major inspirations?”

Jack: The biggest one is Horse Jumper of Love, we adore them.

Andrew: My biggest influence is Nirvana. Probably my two biggest musical influences are Horse Jumper of Love and Nirvana. I love everything about Nirvana.

Jack: Maintain the Light for me, favorite band. Shoutout the homie.

Ilse Grace: “Whats the most challenging thing about being a musician?”

Andrew: Right now we can’t practice or play shows.

Jack: We don’t have a drum set down here which is super frustrating.

Andrew: Not playing shows is the worst, it’s really hard. Because that’s a release, at least for me.

Jack: It’s funny because we’re not really show people, like we only went to our shows really.

Andrew: It sounds like a dick thing to do but there wasn’t really any cool bands coming from home *laughs.*

Jack: If Horse Jumper played, hell yeah we would go.

Andrew: But we would also try to get on the playbill laughs. That fantasy you have where the band brings you on stage and you’re like “I can play smoke on the water.” But it would be like, us *laughs.*

Jack: I get kind of jealous seeing other people on stage.

Andrew: We’re getting a lot more material on the bright side of not playing shows. Hopefully we can play them soon.

Ilse Grace: “Tell us about the radio show!”

Jack: Wallpaper Radio

Andrew: If people think we’re cool and want to hear us being insane listen to Don’t Forget to Floss with Wallpaper Monday’s at 3pm on WVCW.org. We play a lot of slow-core, indie pop, indie rock, only the goodest jams.

Ilse Grace: “Does music have a feeling? If so, what does it feel like?”

Jack: For me, it’s like fireworks. All the pores on my skin feel like they’re dancing.

Andrew: You might want to get that checked out *laughs.* Music is the ultimate form of catharsis for me. Also you can feel any emotions listening to it. There songs that make me happy, sad, make me want to ram my head into a wall and eat a bowl of cheerios after. Scentless Apprentice does that. Metal is a big head into a wall genre as well. Another thing on our commandment is no over singing or vocal runs. We don’t like. Alice in Chains made me think of that.

Jack: That stuff just doesn’t fit with out sound, like if it does, go for it, but not us.

Andrew: We’re fundamentally pretty punk, I’ve never taken vocal lessons or anything. You just live and learn and I’ve learned that I hate vocal runs. They’re not very wallpaper.

Ilse Grace: “What are you working on right now?"

Andrew: Our demo is almost done.

Jack: The plan for break is to lock-in and make an album.

Ilse Grace: “What do you see for the future of wallpaper? “

Jack: Honestly I feel like we’re going to be together after college.

Andrew: It’s interesting because we’re super independent people but reliant on honest feedback but our relationship we can critique and give good feed back that each of us need.

Jack: Maybe we’ll move somewhere and just isolate, even after COVID, and make music. We want to be as big as we possibly can be. Why are you doing it if not?

Andrew: We take it very seriously, but I guess we’d be happy if we were like how Sonic Youth was to Nirvana. A step to something bigger, if you will. To influence a really great artist would be super cool but also I can’t imagine people trying to copy our sound.

Thank you to Jack and Andrew from wallpaper for the interview. Check them out @wallpaperband on instagram to stay updated on their work.

Interview written and conducted by Ilse Grace Thomas

Photography by Ilse Grace Thomas