Reserv is a self-proclaimed guitar and computer emo-pop rocker based in NYC. He’s been consistently releasing music under the name since 2019, as well as his side project “thank you, agamemnon”. His combination of bitcrushed melodies, punchy drums & sentimental lyrics create a sound that sets him apart from other musicians in this field. There’s a looseness to the project that makes it feel personal rather than performative, like you’re hearing ideas before they’ve had time to harden into a genre. His new album self titled album came out on Monday & feels just as introspective and melodic as we’ve come to expect from him. It’s the sort of music that wouldn’t feel out of place on the soundtrack to one of the romantic comedies he loves so much. The sort of music you listen to while staring at the ceiling and thinking about your crush. The perfect accompaniment to long summer days with the people you love. A warm hug.
earliest music related memory?
Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness on CD on my old boombox when I was like 3 or 4…maybe a little bit older, maybe 4 or 5, definitely pre-school or kindergarten. And I literally, like, when I was younger, I’d listen to the same song over and over again for…months. I remember, I was 11, and six months after Christmas I was still listening to the Elton John step into Christmas song everyday. But it was definitely Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness, it’s the title of the album, the first song. It’s this sweeping, beautiful piano ballad and I just hit fucking replay on it every single time it stopped. And I was like so young, I remember clicking the button too. Gorgeous and beautiful, I was so young, you don’t know what emotions are when you’re that young…I mean, you do…but, it kinda felt like I was in this whole other world, it was so great experiencing that.
earliest memory related to making music?
The first time that I actually listened to music in a way that wasn’t just letting it wash over me, I was 9 and I got the 25th Anniversary Super Mario All Stars bundle for the Wii. And it came with the soundtrack of the biggest songs of every Mario game up until Super Mario Galaxy, maybe Galaxy too. It was the Super Mario Bros world 1-1 theme, that was the first time I actually paid attention to the layers of the music. The bassline, all the little intricacies that make the song what it is, why it sounds the way it does, why it makes me feel the way it does. I actually paid attention to that. We had a piano in the house, an old piano, and I would go and try and figure out songs that I knew. Focussing on the bassline, how that changes the context of the melody. So it was definitely Super Mario Bros world 1-1, the most known video game song of all time. Or even Clock Tower from Majora’s Mask, I think that’s a really good tune too. And then I didn’t make music until I was way older, but I was like 9 or 10 and thought ‘woah, this is actually cool’ and started paying attention to music more.
favourite item in your wardrobe?
I don’t really have any favourite items right now because I’ve not been spending money on clothes, let’s just say that. But I’ve been wearing the same Carhartt jacket almost everyday since I was 17. it’s the most versatile jacket of all time, it’s the Detroit style, it’s a perfect jacket. If I need to look like a trucker, I can look like a trucker wearing it, if I need to look like some cool, swagged out, alternative guy, I can look like that. It’s a good piece. Also, I would say my Edwin brand baggy skater jeans. I really really like those in the summer. But usually, my favourite outfit is just a nice, tight t-shirt, jeans, vans and beanie. That’s my favourite. It’s my go to, especially in the summer.
where’s the ideal place to listen to your new album?
I mean, there’s no best place to listen to it. I would say, hearing me sing it live would be my favourite way for you to hear it. But that’s just because I like singing these songs a lot ‘cause I really focussed on finding my actual range and singing from my chest a lot more, so it’s actually very enjoyable for me to sing these as opposed to my older stuff which is more from the throat and it’s kinda like…I can’t really sing that live. I would say, you could be by yourself with your headphones on, you could be with a bunch of people actively listening to it, you could put it on during a party…basically, anywhere you’re doing something fulfilling, whether it’s drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette, listening to it by yourself on your JBL speaker while crying about something. Or if you’re with your favourite people in the world and you’re having a good time. Or, on a train somewhere that you’ve been before, but you’ve never been on the train, so you’re finally piecing together the landscape that connects where you’re from to this place you’ve already been. And it’s like ‘ah!’ Anything that brings you comfort, anywhere you feel alive, listen to it. Because I think that the album makes you feel alive. In a very special way. At least it does for me, which is why I like it so much.
who would you want to direct a biopic about you? and who would play you?
Oh, fucking Matt Johnson to direct a biopic. Matt Johnson, 200000%. He’s done Blackberry, he’s doing the new Anthony Bourdain biopic. And who would play me…honestly, if it was made within the next couple of years, I would want to play myself. I would love to act in something, although having tattoos makes it kinda difficult. My life isn’t important enough to make a whole thing about my entire life, I would like a little snapshot of a certain period of my life where I’m doing a lot of stuff that maybe not a lot of other people get to do, that’s interesting enough for people to want to watch. And have it done in a funny enough, engaging enough, emotional enough way, where it would be like ‘I can watch this and enjoy it without ever liking this guys music, because it’s so good.’ I would want it to transcend me and my music and just be a really good piece of film. If anybody wants to do that, you’re losing a lot of money by making that. Contact me at your own risk, Matt Johnson.
3 songs that got you through winter?
The entire album (this counts as one song) On the Strength of All Convinced by Daphne Loves Derby. That album is just so fucking good, I don’t even want to say anything about it because it ruins listening to it. It’s the perfect mesh of heart on your sleeve, simple emo and really authentic, almost gospel god rock. It invokes this perfect feeling for late fall, early winter, going through heart break or trying to mend something with somebody. It’s such a magical album, I love it. Honestly, I listen to my own music a lot. Like I kind of write music for myself. My song Somebody Else, I love that and I listen to that literally all the time, especially right after I made it in September. Although that beat, I originally made that beat a couple of years ago. I would say some Morgan Wallen deep cuts that aren't necessarily his most popular songs, but the ones that are just a cut below, obviously written by like 20 people and it's country pop. It's, you know, schlocky, but it just hits a certain chord and it's perfect. It's really, really great. When you’re all snuggled up in your clothes, you're like almost chilled to the bone. You go into the dive bar, you're with your buddies, or you're meeting buddies there. And, you know, all you guys are going through something and you put on fucking Man Made a Bar by Morgan Wallen featuring Eric Church. And you're like, okay, everything's gonna be totally fine. Everything is totally fine. I don't have to worry. Yeah. So I would say those three.
what’s the first thing you do when you wake up?
At my best, I wake up and go splash my face with water with a lemon in it. And then I get dressed and go to the gym, I get home, I take a shower, and I continue on with my day. What I usually end up doing is I wake up, I go on my phone for an hour and a half, and I go out and I eat like a waffle, and then it's probably like 2 or 3pm at this point. Then I text my friends what they're doing. I go and take a nap, and then I wake up, and then I go get a beer with my friends. I go like six months on of being the most healthy guy you've ever met in your life, and then six months on of like, just like, this guy has serious problems. Like, this guy's totally fucked. Like, you know? And that's, that's great. I like both in their own way. One always ends and the other always starts, and then you appreciate the other because of that.
how does your perfect day look?
I mean, every day is a perfect day…but my ideal day, I had a really good day recently, although it wasn't a perfect day, but it was a really, really great day. I woke up, kind of like tumbling around my bed, you know, my whole room's a fucking mess. I don't even want to look at it. I don't even want to sleep there, but it's just, it's where my bed is. So it's like, oh, God, it's like this whole weight in my head, you know, I get out of bed, it's like 3 p.m. My roommate, he texts me like, hey, do you want to go kick a ball around at a nearby park? And I'm like, yeah, sure. So I meet him there, and we're kicking a ball around. I don't fucking play soccer ever, but we're kicking a ball around, and my other roommate then comes and meets us an hour later. And we just start playing a game of pick up soccer with these three, they couldn't have been older than 15, Mexican kids in the park. And it was the most fun I've had in forever. It was like, it was so, so great. And, you know, we dogged them. We totally won because we're all like over the age of 25 and they're children. But it was so great. And then we went to like a nearby bar and got a beer afterwards. And then we went to the grocery store and we all made dinner. And we were just like hanging out. And then we did like nothing else. And then we just went to bed. Alternatively, my one of my favourite days ever was with my friend Solomon (nuum). We were in Japan. It was 2024. And we were filming this video for me for my song Swimming, that never came out, but that was the plan of the day. We go out to this further suburb. I forget the name of it, but it's like an hour away from Tokyo, We meet his friend, Ayumu, and she doesn't speak English and I don't speak Japanese. But we hang out, me, him, and it literally felt like an episode of a TV show where it's like…it’s like, you have this moment in time where you're just exactly where you need to be, and you're just hanging out. I ate raw chicken and it was great, and we were in a field, filming these beautiful shots. It was just like 12 hours of bliss, and then me and me and Solomon left the next day. I should probably put out that music video at some point, but it's really corny. But that was a really good day. It's kind of like a perfect day. Like, what is a perfect? When you try to describe a perfect day, nothing really happens, but it just feels so good, and you're like, wow, that was like a perfect day.
And then me and Solomon ended it with getting piss drunk on the streets and recording more and being really obnoxious. It was a really good time. I haven't seen him in almost two years. He’s one of my best friends. Basically, a perfect day is when I hang out with Solomon.
what’s your biggest inspiration at the moment and how has that changed overtime?
One of them is definitely my friend Swords2. His attitude towards releasing music and making music, he is a workhorse. He can't stop and he won't stop for anybody. It's really cool seeing him do that. And he definitely inspired me to do a lot on this record. I mean, he even inspired me three years ago when I put out my album In Life I’m in Love because he's on that album, and that album is my most raw. The mix is crazy loud, everything's kind of fucked up sounding on purpose, obviously. This is kind of like a spiritual successor to that album and also A True Romantic Comedy in that way, where I take elements of the nicer sounding reserv stuff and I take elements from like the maybe less on the surface nice sounding stuff that I made. And I combine it into this new thing, and I think it sounds really great.
Probably my greatest inspiration of all time would be…Porter Robinson. Like, Nurture is in my top three albums of all time.
one rom-com you think everyone should see?
I mean, this is low-hanging fruit, but Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, obviously. Basically, I like any rom-com ever. Any rom-com ever. And actually, Eternal Sunshine isn't a rom-com, it’s a romantic drama. I do prefer romantic dramas. I would say Blue Valentine is an absolute must-watch. Ryan Gosling, and I think Melissa Williams. Absolutely fucking gut-wrenching, beautiful. It's just totally fucked. Blue Jay with Mark Duplass, and oh God, the actress in there is so good too. And it's only an hour and 15 minutes, but it’s so insane.
And as far as like straight up rom-com, I would say...When Harry Met Sally, that's a must-watch…I'm basically naming like the top 10cbecause all of my interests, they don't go very deep below the best of whatever it is.
And wait…an Andrew Bajowski movie. Mutual Appreciation. It's not really a rom-com, but it is a rom-com in its own way. That movie, I think, is the penultimate experience. It's so good. Better than Funny Ha Ha, which is his most well-known and critically acclaimed. The acting is better, the story is better, everything about it is better, and the main lead is just so engaging and also it's about a musician, so I'm obviously gonna be biased towards that.
how did you decide on the name Reserv?
I've had a bunch of different names leading up to the end of 2019. And I remember I released this seven-track EP. I spent a bunch of money on the beats, this was back when I still got on people's beats because I didn't have any followers. Maybe 200 followers. I was still just throwing shit at the wall, trying every genre, you know, all this stuff. And I found, BNO, Boys Nights Out. I was the biggest fan of them back then, and they all know this now, like, I'm friends with all of them. And so it's always a funny story. But, yeah, I spent like $200. I was working at In-N-Out Burger in California, and I spent $200 on these beats. And I was like, This is it. This is the EP that's gonna be the one…and it flopped so hard. And I was like, Okay, I'm done with this music project. I’d been trying it for almost three years at that point. I'm gonna switch it up. And I think I tried to go through a laundry list of different names. I was like trying to figure out what would fit right. And honestly, I think I just saw the word reserve. And I was like, Oh, that's it. Like, that has to be it. There's no meaning behind it. It's just, it's a name, it's a name that I saw and I was like, Oh, that's it. Like, that has to be it. And, uh, yeah. And then I just stuck with that. I took the E off. And then I stuck with that ever since. And who knows, maybe it will be something else soon.
how does your process differ when you’re making music as Reserv as opposed to thank you, agamemnon?
I would say for Reserv it's definitely like, that's my baby. thank you, agamemnon if I'm being completely honest has always been kind of an afterthought. But it has provided me with an outlet that is so different and that was so fresh, especially at the time when I put out the first EP. And the second EP was basically just like catharsis for me because I was going through this crazy time. It's kind of completely unfiltered. Versus Reserv, it’s just like a tiny bit more filtered. I put it through a certain lens. I think about it a whole lot more because I care about it a whole lot more. It's not that I don't care about thank you, agamemnon…but with Reserv, it’s like that's my son. You know. So I really put a lot of effort into that. And obviously sonically it is quite different. Although there's a lot of similarities, it's quite different. The process is just completely different. What I write about isn’t different but the way I write about it is different. So it just depends. Sometimes a Reserv song is turned into a thank you, agamemnon. And sometimes a thank you, agamemnon song has turned into a Reserv song.
if i asked you to draw me a picture are you the sort of person to put the sun in the corner with a smiley face?
No, just because the sun is completely beyond me. But I'll draw a face on a cloud. Cuz I can like see a cloud and I see it moving and changing. It's like, oh yeah, l can personify that. You can't really personify the sun in a genuine way. It's all projection, you know. The sun doesn't have emotion…I mean maybe it does, but I wouldn't think that it does. It doesn't have a face. I'm drawing a face on a cloud, or tree, a tree stump. You know. Or a flower. But not the sun.
what’s your favourite venue in New York?
Whatever venue people go to where they're not there to be cool, they're not there to stand around, they're not there to post on their story that they're there. Whatever venue people go to have fun and to dance and to let loose and have a good time. That’s my favourite venue in New York. And they're very hard to come by.
what’s something you want people to know about your new album?
One thing that people should know is that this album fucking rules. It is awesome. It is pungent and you might hate it but you might love it. And it's beautiful. And I think it's my favourite work that l've done. Maybe not necessarily my best. But I would say unnecessarily my best.