After the release of my article, “An Open Letter to Late Nite Reading," many fans messaged me and commented saying they loved the piece and it said everything they wanted it to. The support was amazing, but I knew there were some things I still wanted to know. I shared the article with Brady Szuhaj and he responded in a way I never expected. With Best Kept Secret, Szuhaj’s new band, on tour, Szuhaj took me up on my offer to do an interview while he was in Columbus.
Not only did Szuhaj thank me for being a fan, for writing the article and telling the world how I felt, but he expressed to me that this was one the only pieces he had shared about Late Nite Reading since the band broke up. I had plenty of questions and Szuhaj gave me all the answers I needed. I finally got some closure knowing that although Late Nite Reading broke up, there were good reasons for it and the love for the fans was still there. Szuhaj offers insight into his new life and his feelings about everything that happened.
Q: Things kind of ended and it was kind of here or there where things were going. What was it initially that you decided to go to LA and start this next project?
Brady Szuhaj: Absolutely, so basically towards the end of LNR, we were all kind of growing as people and musicians and as much as I liked the music we were playing, it wasn’t quite where my heart was at. I’m a [explicit] punk kid at heart, so after it all ended, I had a whole bunch of friends out in LA and I kind of wanted some time for myself to go enjoy California and some headspace for myself. I just went out there and met a bunch of cool people, just a lot of really cool people. I’ve met a lot of lifelong friends out there and met my freaking two bandmates and in a course of two months formed a band together and moved in together. I just wanted to play some angry music, some emo music. So yeah.
Q: So how hard was that for you? To leave home and to go to this new place you’ve never been before, besides while on tour?
Szuhaj: It was the hardest thing that I have ever done. Still is the hardest thing. I was actually just at home these past couple of days while on tour, at my childhood home with my family. I was just like sitting there, and we live in like a nicer neighborhood in Indiana, and I was just like ‘wow, I used to not pay rent here and eat all their food and just be like, I hate this place.’ And moving out is so hard. Especially because I picked the worst place to go too, because Los Angeles is very expensive and very strange. It wasn’t even like if I had moved to Chicago or something where I am still kind of familiar. I can still drive home and see my parents, where now I’m literally 35 hours away from home. It was kind of a sink or swim thing. I literally went and signed the lease, it’s a year of my time, if I [explicit] up I have to go home. Fine, I can do that. So far it’s been really great. We’ve been working all over the city and doing a record, an 11 song record that’s coming out after this tour. Just meeting a ton of people. It’s been so scary. Moving out is the best worst thing that’s ever happened to me.
Q: What do you think is the most shell-shocking thing it’s been? Going to LA, what’s the weirdest thing you’ve experienced?
Szuhaj: I was already pretty used to it from tour, [but] some of the homeless people are pretty intense out there. I’ve definitely gotten physically stopped by people and asked for money and stuff. It happens and you just kind of have to get really good at turning off the world around you. I don’t know, the biggest shock is just how much money everything is and how much it all adds up to. How much you take for granted the second you leave your parents’ home. It’s like I didn’t know they were paying for this, that, this, that and this. And I have this and [explicit]. Math is zero.
Q: So we know you guys like to have fun, is it like that when you’re at home and making music? Is it like this all the time or is it like, ‘Okay guys, we have to pay our bills’?
Szuahj: We have a weird schedule. We live kind of like Hannah Montana. We live two lives. I get up and I work everyday from like 6 am to like 3 pm at a normal job, we all do. And then at 3 pm, I get off and go to the studio. Our drummer, John, owns a studio in LA and records a whole bunch of bands and stuff like, I actually can’t say, but a ton of bands, like pop-punk bands. So we sit with him and work for like four or five hours a day working on music. And then we get home and go to a party and go to bed at midnight and I wake up at 6 again. It’s actually pretty fun. I work a normal job, and also party and work on the record. I’ve never been with a group of guys who take writing so seriously. We literally sit down and we write 3-4 songs a week, write and cut and cut and once we find one that we love it’s like put this one on the record. We write a ton of songs and it’s been awesome.
Q: You said you’ve been writing your new record, you’ve got all these songs you know that are going on it, is there anything that you’d release early or ‘this matters so much to me, I need to share this or I’d make this into a video’?
Szuhaj: Honestly, all of it feels like that. We just put out “Let’s Not Pretend” song, I don’t know if you saw that. So basically, to give you an idea this record is very much a throwback to Hawthorne Heights and Thursday, those classic like emo bands that are just angsty. That’s what we’re all feeling right now. That’s what we grew up listening to and getting back to this age where we’re very nostalgic about being younger and growing up; it just feels really therapeutic to write music like that and honestly if I could put out the entire record right now, even just as it is, unfinished, I would. I think we have another song that’s going to come out before the record drops and that’ll probably be a music video. I just want to shove the record out the door and start on the next one.
Q: So with this whole idea of “emo is back”, do you feel like you’re reaching a different fan base than you were before?
Szuhaj: Yeah, I feel like it’s the same and it’s not. There’s a lot of new kids, because the genre change. There’s a lot more dude fans than LNR. Like we’ve had circle pits at all of these shows and stuff and that’s never happened to me before and that’s pretty cool. I think everyone can appreciate it because it’s still pop in the sense that the melodies were catchy but it’s a lot more experimental with the screaming and the actual music itself.
Q: Do you have anything you’d like to say to the fans who were fans of LNR that are reluctant to check out the new band? Because I know that I was!
Szuhaj: I think that it’s perfectly fine if you are reluctant to it. I think that LNR will always have a special place in my heart and in everyone’s hearts, but it’s not a thing anymore. I’d like it to be a fond memory for everyone and I would just like it if you’d check out this new music because it means a lot to me and LNR meant a lot to me and LNR meant a lot to you so hopefully this [Best Kept Secret] will too.
Q: So as busy as you guys are right now, where to you see this going?
Szuhaj: You know it’s definitely interesting because with LNR, we started when we were young and we didn’t have any responsibilities. It was like, we can do whatever and keep building and building and let’s go get signed by this age and let’s go be rock stars all through our 20’s. And now, I’ve done this for 6 almost 7 years and you realize it doesn’t work like that. It’s a slow grind. It’s a grind everyday just like life. The goal now is work, fund our lives, and the band is our focus but as that shift happens that we don’t have to work anymore and the band’s coming up, that’s the goal. It’s going to be our main thing. We love it. Just keep working on it everyday, grinding a little bit more.
Q: Do you know what you’re going to do when you’re done making music or do you think you’re just going to make music for the rest of your life?
Szuhaj: I don’t think I’ll ever be able to escape music. That’s the reason I decided to continue after LNR so gung ho, you know full board, down and back up again in a different direction. I’d love to be in a band as long as I can. I’m young still, I’m 21, almost 22, which is weird, I just won’t count it. I’ll celebrate 21 again. So as long as it makes sense for me to be able to live and tour, I’ll always be doing this. Of course, once I’m like 30, I don’t want to be in a van with a bunch of dudes. I’d love to get into management, into producing or recording. Me and John both record and I’m passionate about it as well. It might be really cool as an older dude to find that young band that reminds me of what I did when I was 15. Let me tell you some stories, drop some knowledge on you and help them out.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Szuhaj: Thank you guys for the craziest years ever. I like can’t even. What this was, is and will be blows my mind everyday. I’m just thankful that I got to live it. Thank you for your support. I love you.
After the interview, Szuhaj and I talked for a long time. We discussed growth. I told him that I watched four people grow and change as both artists and people. The thing we have to remember is that as we grow, we don’t all grow in the same direction, and that’s okay. Szuhaj said he could not have described the situation any differently. Make sure you check out Best Kept Secret and remember that growing up and growing apart are just a part of life.
