On May 26, Hudson Valley-based band New Vision dropped their EP Somewhere On This Timeline, their first major release since With Love, which came out in 2022. Skillfully fusing together 90’s indie, emo, and even modern alternative rock, New Vision isn’t afraid to dabble in different genres, leaning into their influences. The result is angst in its truest form, featuring brutally self-aware lyrics, anthemic to the core.
Ahead of May 26, the band dropped two singles from the EP with a music video accompanying each. The first, “Loss of Soul,” details the added pressures of adulthood and what it’s like to screw up. With its catchy chorus of “Rejection is just redirection,” “Loss of Soul” is guaranteed to become an automatic ear worm.
Most recently, “Forfeit” features tongue-in-cheek lyrics like, “Can’t stress if you’re dead,” which has been lauded as highly relatable by fans, applauding the band for their honesty. The music video for “Forfeit” helps to capture the chaotic, yet not unwelcome, energy of the band’s live performance.
For The Punks had the chance to speak with New Vision—Josh Doro (bass), Nico Caro (vocals and guitar), and Ryan Skinner (guitar)—about Somewhere On This Timeline, their influences, and what’s to come for the band in the future.
Starting off, can you tell me a little bit about yourselves?
Caro: What’s up! We’re a band from Hudson Valley, NY. Fun fact about me is I’m allergic to cats. Fun fact about Ryan is he owns 100+ records. Fun fact about Josh is his old bass teacher is the bassist in Coheed.
What made you decide to start the band?
Caro: We all just have a lot of love for music. We pretty much all started out at a relatively young age and that definitely makes an impact on you. It’s this driving passion that seems to keep us going from the very start. When we all started playing, it’s pretty similar where we all were just completely obsessed with it. I guess we still are if we’re being honest haha! It becomes like a need to express yourself and the more you play, the better you get and the more the band grows, so that’s also a huge driving factor.
Your sound almost feels like it comes right out of the early 2000’s. Would you say that you’ve been influenced by any of the bands in the scene from that time, like Taking Back Sunday or I Am the Avalanche?
Caro: Yeah I know for me, I did grow up in that type of music space, because of my older siblings always showing me bands from that era. Motion City Soundtrack and Third Eye Blind and stuff. Then as I got older, I explored more into that realm myself and I found some of my favorite bands like The Promise Ring, Pedro The Lion, Jawbreaker, etc. Then, that ultimately led me to modern Emo/Indie bands that helped shape our sound as well. I do base a lot of my vocals on that 90’s type of shouting/singing combo and then on some of the songs on this record I tried to take influence from some heavier bands and use it on the faster songs like “Chokehold” and “Forfeit”.
Onto the EP. Would you describe the EP as a continuation of “With Love” or something headed in a different direction?
New Vision: We’d say it’s something headed in a different direction but while still having some elements that With Love had. With Love was basically a stepping stone to get to the sound that this EP has. Then this sound is foreshadowing some stuff we want to pursue in the future!
After listening to the EP a couple of times, I think “Home” is my favorite song from the record. Can you talk a little bit about what inspired this song?
Caro: That’s so awesome that that’s your favorite because we actually wrote that song completely in the studio. It wasn’t even a thought in our brain until Ryan and Josh wrote the music to it while I was recording drums. Then when I was done that night they showed me and I wrote the lyrics to it so naturally quick that we were like, okay this 100% has to be on the record now. And here we are!
What do you hope those who listen to the EP take away from it?
New Vision: We just hope that these songs can resonate with people and that they feel the energy we feel when we play them. We also hope people see that we are capable of doing more than just one sound if that makes sense? Like we refuse to be pigeonholed and stuck to one thing because that can get boring we feel. We are always evolving and changing and growing as a band.
One of the most prevalent threads throughout the EP is the pressures of adulthood and messing up, probably most visible in “Loss of Soul” with the lyrics “Rejection is just redirection.” So, how do you get through the difficult times?
Skinner: To get through those difficult times, I can say for myself that I usually lean on music to help relieve the stresses that come along as you get older and just with life in general. Hopefully this EP can do that for someone else too.
Any tour plans for this year?
New Vision: Oh, yeah absolutely! We’ll try to be touring all around but for fall we’ll be going to the northeast and the southeast regions mostly. After that, who knows!
Somewhere On This Timeline can now be purchased on New Vision’s Bandcamp.
Keep up with New Vision on their Instagram!
