Interview: She’s a Robot Talks Therapist Parents and Band Chemistry
Austin-based band She’s a Robot discusses the influence of their parents being therapists, their journey from surf rock to pop punk, and more. But one thing they’ll never reveal? The origin of their band name.
Written by Grace Robertson
Photos by Robert McGee
She’s a Robot, the brainchild of singer/guitarist Andy Friedman, is a four-person dream team of audio engineers, lifelong musicians, and, surprisingly, elementary school teachers. After Andy built a backlog of rock songs from previous musical projects, he recruited bassist Josh Reynolds, guitarist Dylon Duerr, and drummer Jonathan Shafer to bring them to life. They’ve since turned those rock fragments into finished songs with a kind of screaming passion that, according to Jonathan, is what inspired him to join the band in the first place.
Afterglow: You guys have called your music “rock music of some sort.” Can you describe what that means?
Andy: Since the beginning, we’ve had a really hard time putting a genre on it. It’s always been interesting hearing other people’s perspectives on it. Lately, we’ve been getting a lot of pop punk.
Josh: We’re alternative, though. More alternative, less structured.
Andy: When we first started, it was more garage rock; indie pop-y. But now, Dylon and I got some new amps, so it’s way more distorted than it first was. Now I feel like we’re going the direction I feel we’ve been wanting to go.
Jonathan: The drums have gone from a surf-rock feel that we played a lot before to a more complex, driving sound.
Afterglow: When did you first get the idea for She’s a Robot?
Andy: I had a project before this from 2016-2019, but it didn’t feel right anymore, so I ended that and started She’s a Robot from the perspective that this was going to be another solo project. But I guess I just didn’t expect to find bandmates who I get along with so well, musically and emotionally.
Jonathan: It’s a funny combo, too, with punk. But then, Andy’s parents are therapists, and my parents are therapists. When we’re talking, we’re talking about our emotions in a positive way. We’re working through them together.
Andy: I grew up having a weirdly high emotional intelligence, which is a blessing and a curse. When I started writing music when I was fifteen or so, it was all just a release of feelings and emotion. It felt good. It took me a while to fully accept that I wanted to make harder rock-and-roll. But now I’ve kind of accepted it, [even though] I went a bunch of different routes at first. But we’re here now, and I’m happy with it.
Afterglow: Who are your favorite artists that have both inspired and haven’t actively inspired your music?
Dylon: I’ve kind of come from a different place, because I grew up on metal. And that’s how I learned to play music, and that’s how I played for ten years. It wasn’t until I started playing with these guys that I started playing anything besides metal, really.
Andy: We’re each doing our own thing and taking our own influences and putting them into it. That makes it interesting, because in the past, I wrote all of the parts and it sounded great, but it’s sounding so much better now.
Dylon: The craziest thing is that we’ve taken all of these very disparate influences and actually managed to blend them together. It’s not like we’re genre bending – [but] we’ve put it together into its own amalgamation.
Andy: The first band I ever fell in love with was Arctic Monkeys, like their early stuff from 2006-2007. It’s in my opinion the perfect alternative indie rock. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of math rock, which has been inspiring the riffs we’ve been writing lately. At the same time, my parents raised me on Portuguese Bossa Nova. I grew up listening to all different types of stuff.
Afterglow: You guys are really passionate about performing live at a variety of spaces. Why do you think performing for the Austin community has been so important for you all?
Andy: I have a couple moments in my life that make life feel like it’s worth living. One of them is live music. I don’t know if it’s the adrenaline or playing with people that I like, but when we get a song right, it just feels so good. I live for this.
Dylon: [When we get a song right] we all just cheese at each other.
Josh: We’ve all played a lot of shows in our lifetime, but [as a band] together [we] haven’t played a lot of shows... [The difference is] the chemistry in this band, really.
Andy: I’ve been in bands in the past where you’re friendly with the people, [but] sometimes when you’re playing a song together, you need everything to be in the pocket and hit at the same time to get that feel. When you don’t accomplish that, you can be playing all the same parts, but if you’re all in the same mindset and coming from the same place, there’s something that can’t be put into words.
Afterglow: What’s the lyric writing process for the band?
Andy: [I write] all of them. I feel like I always need chords first, and then I write my vocal melodies. And then I write the lyrics to the vocal melodies. I have thousands and thousands of notes on my phone of different ideas, and it’s just never ending. I’m at two thousand voice memos. [There are] so many ideas there’s always something to pick from. Once I start with an idea and it fits with the chord progression and the overall vibe of the song, it just kind of expands from there.
Afterglow: What’s the future look like for She’s a Robot? Any other big plans right now?
Andy: Keep on booking shows, keep on playing as much as we can. Get a bunch of music out, and see what happens. I’ve been scheming. You guys will have to wait and see.
Afterglow: Last question – how did you guys get your band name?
Andy: I have some reasons – should I go into it right now? No, that’s redacted. We can pause it there.
You can follow She’s a Robot on Instagram and catch their next show on September 24 at the Independence Brewery.
This interview has been minimally edited for clarity and length.