Post Sex Nachos Interview | bandsthroughtown

EXTRA JALAPEÑOS: COMO’S SENSATIONAL POP-ROCK QUINTET

Story: Madisyn Siebert

Photos: Megan Casady

The college years are the glory days for many people, from living it up at frat parties to late nights in the library. One particular group of Mizzou students—and one recent graduate—would say their college experience might differ from others. How? Well, touring, writing music and recording that music may make college just a tad bit unique compared to the average student.

Sitting down with Chase Mueller, Hunter Pendleton, Mitch Broddon, Sammy Elfanbaum and Kevin Jerez, felt like sitting down with old friends after a long day of school and popping open a few cold ones to keep the conversation flowing. They are a bit goofy, but their goofiness is something that brings them together and bounces off the group in a way that truly makes them all radiant. Plus, I think you have to be a little goofy to name your band “Post Sex Nachos.”

When prompted about said name, Mueller asked if I truly wanted the full story since it was long, and I eagerly nodded my head. Jerez smiled as he started off the story with, “Have you heard of A&W? Like the old fast food restaurant chain?” I knew from this one sentence alone that this time with the band would not be boring for even one second.

PSN recently discovered a new aspect of their band’s origin story when they had Jerez officially join at the beginning of 2022. The story went on to explain how Jerez suggested the name “Pre Sex Nachos” for a contest and ended up posting it to a reddit forum about cool band names, way before any of the band had even met. One day, the original band stumbled across it, liked the sound of it and simply changed the word from pre to post to create the iconic name. “It really is a blessing that he joined the band because I think if we were to have any success without him we would have gotten our asses sued,” Mueller remarked with a smile.

As for the rest of the band, it started off like many college friendships do: Mueller and Elfanbaum became friends through a mutual friend at an organization on campus. They got drunk together one night, wrote the song “Vows” and returned to campus after winter break looking for a drummer. They discovered Pendleton by sending out a blast message to which he simply replied that he could play the drums. Broddon was a friend of Elfanbaum from high school, and he originally recruited him to play keys, until they discovered—in their own words—he was a god on guitar. The group from then on out became Post Sex Nachos.

The band began to find their footing and was working on their self-titled debut album in early 2020. But, all of that was quickly turned around with one email. “Our first record we were making in town in Columbia at North Village Recording. Literally while we were three quarters of the way through it, we got an email from Mizzou that said classes were canceled, go home, all of that stuff,” Pendleton explained. “So we were quite literally in the midst of finishing our first real project when Covid hit. Then we got scattered into the wind for like a year.” The band took this time to work on more experimental projects, such as filming their first-ever music video.

Covid definitely had its ups and downs for the band, but one good thing was that people were listening to more music than ever. “One of our songs, ‘Coffee,’ just got sort of lucky in the algorithm of Spotify and started getting a few more listens, which was cool,” Mueller said. Elfanbaum after hearing this comment jokingly said that they were not truly responsible for any of their success and letting luck take all the credit. But, there is a reason it was picked up by the algorithm and there was a reason people kept listening to the band more. It’s simply because it is good music, which can be hard to discover on Spotify.

Even with the success of “Coffee” taking off, the band still knew there was one major thing they were missing out on: touring. There was a lack of live music over the summer of 2020, and the band had to just deal with it.

They did not waste this time though, the band getting back to the recording studio in November 2020 to start recording and writing their next album, Grandpa Slinks.

As soon as Grandpa Slinks was mentioned, Jerez, the self proclaimed hype man of the group, jumped in to say, “That album Grandpa Slinks is what got me to join the band.” He continued on to explain his love for the album by saying, “The ingredients themselves aren’t unique, but the end result and the composite really is. Like really, really is, which is pretty cool.”

“Big influences for that record were Walk the Moon, Passion Pit, The Killers and a lot of Hippo Campus sprinkled in the lyricism. And also Dayglow. I really fucking loved that album while we were producing,” Broddon stated. Making Grandpa Slinks was also a time when the group was able to expand their music skills and the range of their individual musical abilities. Both Pendleton and Mueller really learned how to get back into playing their instruments in general, with Pendleton having not played the drums since fourth grade before joining the band.

And I know what you are all thinking: Grandpa Slinks? What kind of album name is that? Well, you can thank Broddon for his difficulties with Zoom and constantly playing with a slinky over their Zoom calls to gain his nickname and later album namesake, Grandpa Slinks. I know what your next question is too: Who is that on the album? Well, it is no one other than legendary Mizzou Hacky Sack player Derrick Fogle. He even has his own little documentary on YouTube by Vice that the band appears in, expressing their love for the local legend.

Now, more than ever, the excitement for the band is building up as they prepare to release their third studio album. They recently released their first single off the next album, “I’ve Got This Feeling That Won’t Let Go.” It has self-proclaimed big 1975 energy from the band, and it is definitely noticeable as you let the beat take over your speakers.

The band describes that the new album has a variety of influences besides the 1975, from VULFPECK to even a Midwest emo song. “We relate to the feeling that the songs give us to these artists, but when looking at them objectively they are incredibly unique compared to anything else I’ve ever heard. So, it’s a lot of taking what we like about music that we listen to, specifically like funk from the ’70s or maybe some of that angry pop music that you would hear in the early 2000s. And channeling all of that into something new which is pretty fun,” Elfanbaum described. But, even though this may sound all over the board, the band worked hard to make this album have a complete flow that was previously missing from their old records.

I cannot recommend Post Sex Nachos enough. The music has something that feels so familiar and new, and their boredom has them always eager to release new music. The group of guys make you feel like you are one of the gang, even if they just learned your name five seconds ago. Their energy, drive and overall goofiness is what makes them stand out and makes me excited to hear what is down the pipeline for them. Keep your eyes peeled and your ears open, because you will want to jump on this rollercoaster of a ride with them before they hit it big.