Caveman
By Whitney Spaner
Photographed by Douglas Adesko
The story of how the five guys in Caveman met is straight out of a "Shit Guys in New York Bands Say" video. Front man Matthew Iwanusa and his high school friend, guitarist Jimmy Carbonetti, met bassist Jeff Berrall while "doing body shots," at a bar. Drummer Stefan Marolachakis found himself sleeping in a diner booth across from Iwanusa after some serious partying. And Iwanusa says the night he bonded with keyboardist Sam Hopkins, they almost got beat up. "I was wearing red shorts and we tried to walk in a bar together with a crazy doorman."
Before founding Caveman, they had all played together in several different configurations. There was Carbonetti and Iwanusa's mildly successful band the Subjects; Berrall and Hopkins were in the lesser known Starcrossed Signs; and who could forget Iwanusa and Marolachakis' band White Dolphin? "We played one show at the Continental and wrote all our songs waiting for the car service," laughs Marolachakis.
But it wasn't until 2010, when they all found themselves in the same studio, that the magic really happened. "There's a moment," Iwanusa says, "when you say, 'Who would be the coolest dude to play in a band with?' and it just happened that all those guys were bandless for a minute and we figured it out." Last fall, the quintet self-released their LP CoCo Beware. The album -- a dreamy, thumping, slightly trippy twist on a classic-rock sound -- caught the attention of Fat Possum who backed a national wider re-release last month. Now, when they're not touring, they can be found enjoying a few beers at Carbonetti's guitar shop, Cobra Guitars, on Orchard Street. "This band gave me the opportunity to hang out with people that I wanted to see more," says Marolachakis. "And," adds Carbonetti, "get in beds with them across the world."
(L-R) Jeff, Stefan, Jimmy, Sam, Matt wear clothing by By Robert James. T-shirt by Howling Hearts.
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Before founding Caveman, they had all played together in several different configurations. There was Carbonetti and Iwanusa's mildly successful band the Subjects; Berrall and Hopkins were in the lesser known Starcrossed Signs; and who could forget Iwanusa and Marolachakis' band White Dolphin? "We played one show at the Continental and wrote all our songs waiting for the car service," laughs Marolachakis.
But it wasn't until 2010, when they all found themselves in the same studio, that the magic really happened. "There's a moment," Iwanusa says, "when you say, 'Who would be the coolest dude to play in a band with?' and it just happened that all those guys were bandless for a minute and we figured it out." Last fall, the quintet self-released their LP CoCo Beware. The album -- a dreamy, thumping, slightly trippy twist on a classic-rock sound -- caught the attention of Fat Possum who backed a national wider re-release last month. Now, when they're not touring, they can be found enjoying a few beers at Carbonetti's guitar shop, Cobra Guitars, on Orchard Street. "This band gave me the opportunity to hang out with people that I wanted to see more," says Marolachakis. "And," adds Carbonetti, "get in beds with them across the world."
(L-R) Jeff, Stefan, Jimmy, Sam, Matt wear clothing by By Robert James. T-shirt by Howling Hearts.
MEET THE REST OF OUR 2012 BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE
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