Cherie Amour, an incredible nu-punk band from Baltimore, Maryland, released a single on Deccember 6, 2024, that can only be described as revolutionary. Nu-punk is a genre that I gravitate to more and more as time goes on, it has those fun, crunchy sounds that are characteristic of traditional punk music, but nu-punk also includes sounds and inspirations from other, wildly varying genres, such as latin music, R&B, pop, and hardcore, among others. Cherie Amour’s single, “Eons”, is a showcase of their musical talent, their songwriting talent, and their amazing skills when it comes to genre-blending. It is a single that goes hard in ways you might not even dream of being possible, only to discover a new way to dance in your car when you hear it for the first time. In the first verse, when the hard bass/kick comes in and seems to punctuate the vocals, it sets up the rest of the track’s energy, driving us into the chorus. This entire track is packed to the brim with energy and sonically-interesting verses and choruses. I have been obsessed with this track since Cherie Amour sent it to me, and I got the opportunity to interview one of the members of Cherie Amour, Brendan, the guitarist of the band.
Valor: This is your first release since 2023, with Some Songs coming out a little over a year ago. How does it feel to be releasing something again?
Brendan: It feels so relieving and rewarding and just so good all around. We’re constantly writing and have been wanting to release music for this whole year and now that we’re independent we control when it drops.
Valor: What was the most challenging part of creating this song? What was the most rewarding part?
Brendan: I would say the most challenging thing with us is trying to fit all of our wild ideas into one song but i’d like to think we’re getting better at it hahaha. The most rewarding part is for sure listening to the mixes in the car and being like “damn this shit goes”
Valor: Inspiration comes from a lot of places – what’s a piece of inspiration that comes from another song/album/band/musician? What’s a piece of inspiration that’s not music-related?
Brendan: As a guitar player I personally take inspiration from other live shows. I love the little spins and kicks and other creative things artists do live to spice up the show. Non music related what keeps me going is seeing everyone so happy at our shows. Hanging out, making friends. that’s what it’s all about for me, yknow
Valor: When the band writes a song, what do you usually do first? Is it lyrics, a melody, etc.?
Brendan: This changes constantly and has so many variables. sometimes one of us will have a little 30 second demo we build on together, other times (mostly casey) will have an almost fully produced demo and trey will write over top of that. recently and especially on this record, we tried something new where we would have a very poppy demo, almost no guitars/drums etc, have Trey write over it and then we go back and add the guitars and drums afterwards.
Valor: If each member of the band was an animal, what animals would they be?
Brendan: I would be a shark because I really just like sharks. I think Casey would be an owl, like a really cool owl. Maybe one from harry potter. Trey would be a nice lil crocodile, like one of the friendly nice looking ones. and Ronnie would for sure be that mean looking bird with the big
ol’ bill. I don’t remember the name of it i think it’s some breed of stork.
Valor:If each member of the band was a wizard, would you have more evil wizards or good wizards in the band?
Brendan: We would all be good wizards except for Ronnie fr. and Ronnie is even like an EVIL evil wizard he’s more like, if Draco Malfoy wasn’t all bad and ended up being good. yknow?
Cherie Amour is a band that I am consistently surprised isn’t bigger. The core of nu-punk is that it’s, well, new – but I keep thinking to myself, how does everyone not know who this band is? How have they slipped under the radar? I think for Christmas this year, I’m going to ask Santa Claus to help Cherie Amour blow up.
Written by Valor
