The story of how Diet Cig clattered into existence sounds like a pitch for a musical reimagining of The Odd Couple. Indie Rock band Earl Boykins was playing a house show in New Paltz, N.Y. at the home of a friend of budding guitarist/songwriter Alex Luciano.Desperate for a smoke, Luciano interrupted the band’s set to ask drummer Noah Bowman if he had a lighter, and to offset his lighterless state, Bowman offered Luciano a bottle of wine in its place, which led Luciano, a media production student at the time, to promise her services as a video director for the band.
“I did make a video; I totally did,” Luciano says with a laugh. “It may not have been the best video ever, but I made it.”
The two hit it off and began making music together within a few months, despite the fact that Bowman was a veteran of a number of bands since his teenage years and Luciano had only just begun learning to play guitar and write songs. That scenario begs a fairly obvious question: What was it about Luciano that led Bowman to take this incredible and risky leap of faith?
“I guess it was that she had a lot of excitement and it was all so new, and I wanted to see what we could do,” Bowman says. “I’ve been in so many bands where you keep going for so many years and you only reach a certain level, and with Alex it just felt fresh and like it was going to be fun. It wasn’t a bunch of musician kids that grew up playing music together; it was someone who wanted to learn and see what it was like. And we didn’t even think we’d be in this position. We thought we’d play a couple of house shows and hang out.”
“Noah’s other band needed an opener, we did the show and it was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Luciano says. “Two weeks later, we hadn’t talked about the band and Noah was like, ‘Hey, I talked to Chris (Daly, a producer) and we’re going to record five songs real quick next week.’ And I was like, ‘Wait, we’re still doing this thing?’ It didn’t even occur to me. I thought it was this fun little one-off thing we just did. How cool was that? And now we’re here.”
The drummer’s instincts proved to be perfectly honed, because Diet Cig has become an Indie Rock sensation in their two years together. Typifying a style that has been dubbed Slop Pop — a combination of Garage simplicity, Punk energy and lo-fi basement/bedroom intimacy — Diet Cig has made a sizable impact well beyond its New York environs. Their debut five-song EP, Over Easy, and their follow-up 7-inch, “Sleep Talk”/“Dinner Date,” were both released last year on respected indie label Father/Daughter Records.
Diet Cig recently inked a deal with Frenchkiss Records, home to Cincinnati’s own Tweens, and the twosome is currently writing new material and planning the recording of their first full-length.
“We talked to a lot of different labels, but Frenchkiss came up and it just felt right,” Bowman says. “We were like, ‘This is a no-brainer. We should do this.’ ”
“(Frenchkiss has) a very artist-friendly attitude,” Luciano says. “Syd (Butler), who runs it, started off in a band himself (Les Savy Fav) so he really gets what it’s like to be a traveling, touring band. They were the best fit.”
Given the fact that Luciano had only just begun exploring the electric guitar before forming Diet Cig with Bowman, she has experienced some fairly profound changes as a guitarist and songwriter. Luciano wrote the band’s initial songs alone in her bedroom, but she and Bowman are writing the new songs that will likely comprise the first Diet Cig album together, significantly changing the group dynamic.
“We’re learning how to write better together,” Luciano says. “In the beginning, I would bring in a song and Noah would structure it and make it more dynamic. Now I’m more involved in the musical structuring and Noah’s more involved in the actual writing of the songs. We’re learning how one another writes and our musical tendencies. I feel like we’ve started to fall into a groove that feels really good, learning how to write with each other, and kind of how to be Diet Cig.”
The new material, some of which shows up in Diet Cig’s current set lists, is benefitting from this new collaborative relationship between Luciano and Bowman. The initial blurt of Luciano’s unpolished energy and Bowman’s measured response to arrangement has morphed into a nice hybrid of the two approaches.
“I wouldn’t say the songs are more complicated but they’re a little more thought out,” Bowman says. “A lot of the first record was written in the studio; we recorded it and went with it. Now we’re thinking more about what we’re doing rather than just doing it.”
“There’s more intention going into everything we’re doing, and we’re more concerned with details,” Luciano says. “Our first songs, we worked out the details after playing many, many shows and getting used to the songs. Now we’re putting more thought into them beforehand and fleshing them out before we record them.”
The key component of Diet Cig’s live presentation is fun. The duo is obviously having the time of their lives, based largely on the fact that the entire experience is a first for Luciano, which has freshened Bowman’s approach to writing and performing.
“That was our whole goal, to be in a band that’s having a good time,” Bowman says. “A lot of bands are just going through the motions, but we want to do this because we fucking love doing it. It’s silly and fun and we don’t have to take it too seriously. You’ve got to be somewhat serious, but when we get up there, we let everything go. Anything that’s happening out there in the real world doesn’t really matter. All that matters is that you’re here, having a good time and getting whatever energy you have in you out.”
“It’s very cathartic,” Luciano says. “We’re just so lucky and grateful that we even get to do this at all. It’s honestly the most fun in the world.”
DIET CIG plays a free show Friday at Over-the-Rhine’s MOTR Pub with openers Leggy. More info: motrpub.com.
