Music / Remo Drive

The current lineup. Erik Paulson (left) and Stephen Paulson (right) (Not pictured: Sam Becht)

"You make me want to start smoking,
Cigarettes so I die slowly.
Anything that's bad for me.
You're killing me!
You're killing me!"

— "Yer Killin' Me"

Influences:

• Arctic Monkeys, The Police, PUP, Queens of the Stone Age, Jank, Jeff Rosenstock, The Strokes, Title Fight, Vampire Weekend, Weezer

Remo Drive is a Minnesota-based Indie Rock (formerly midwestern emo/punk rock/post-hardcore) rock band led by brothers Erik and Stephen Paulson. They formed in 2013 after getting into Title Fight and decided they wanted to make their own music like them. A year later they were joined by drummer Sam Mathys, and after years of live shows and recording songs for their Bandcamp, they finally released their debut album Greatest Hits in 2017, which went on to become a major success, attracting the attention of Epitaph Records, who signed them to a record deal. Shortly afterwards, Sam Mathys was fired from the band due to creative differences. He was sort-of replaced with Sam Becht.^note Unlike Mathys, Becht has no creative input within the band (Stephen writes his drum parts). He is also not featured in any promotional photos which is why he's not featured on the page image, so whether he counts as an official member is debatable, even though he's credited as a member on A Portrait of an Ugly Man.

The band's popularity dropped off sharply following their second album Natural, Everyday Degradation due to moving away from the post-hardcore punk rock sound that made them famous.

In 2021, Erik relocated with his girlfriend from Minnesota to New York. An associate of the band clarified that this was not the end of Remo Drive and that they would continue touring together, though they would take a brief break from recording until 2022. They returned the following year with the single "No, There's No Hope for You".

Much of their earlier discography before Greatest Hits is no longer available on their Bandcamp, though can be found on YouTube and other means. The music video for the first version of (not the re-recorded version that appears on Pop Music) Heartstrings is still on their channel, while the "Breathe In" single can still be purchased from Really Rad Records' Bandcamp. "Lookin' Under the Tree" is still available for purchase directly from the band.

Discography:

• Remo Drive EP 1 (EP, 2013)
• "Rainman" ^note Later re-recorded for Away / "Stable" (Non-album single, 2013)
• "Pulp Friction" (Non-album single, 2013)
• Away (EP, 2014)
• Stay Out Longer (EP, 2014)
• Demos 2014 ^note Contains Away and Stay Out Longer (Compilation album, 2014)
• Remo Drive / Unturned (collaboration with Unturned, EP, 2015)
• Weathered / Remo Drive (collaboration with Weathered, EP, 2015)
• Wait for the Sun (EP, 2015)
• "Breathe In" / "Perfume" (Non-album single, 2015)
• "Lookin' Under the Tree" (Non-album single, 2016)
• Greatest Hits (2017)
• Remo Drive - Audiotree Live (2017)
• Pop Music (EP, 2018)
• Natural, Everyday Degradation (2019)
• Natural, Everyday Extended Play (EP, 2019)
• A Portrait of an Ugly Man (2020)
• Mercy (2024)

Principal Members (Founding members in bold, current members in italic):

• Sam Becht — Drums (2019-present)
• Sam Mathys — Drums (2014, 2016-2018)
• Erik Paulson — Guitar, vocals (2013-present)
• Stephen Paulson — Bass guitar, backing vocals (2013-present)
• Austin Voigt — Drums (2015)

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Tropes:

• All Anime Is Naughty Tentacles: Mocked in "Lookin' Under the Tree" where the narrator tells Santa that his dad won't let him watch Beyblade (a show made for young children) because "the girls don't wear clothes". Ironically, Beyblade's cast is predominantly male.
• Anti-Christmas Song: "Lookin' Under the Tree" becomes this when the narrator discovers he got coal for Christmas.
• Break-Up Song: Half of the songs on Wait for the Sun and Greatest Hits.
• Broken Pedestal: "Song of the Summer" is about Erik feeling this way towards Lou Diamond of the band Jank, who faced allegations of sexual misconduct. They are not mentioned by name in the song though, and it can also apply to anyone that the band looked up to who turned out to be bad people.
• Call-Back: "The Night I Kidnapped Remo Drive" contains a cheeky reference to their hit song "Yer Killin' Me".
  "Come on, you're killing me!"
• Camping Episode: The "I'm My Own Doctor" video features the band goofing off at camp.
• Canon Discontinuity: Most of their material that came before Greatest Hits (save for one holiday single released just prior) is no longer on their Bandcamp and are absent from their live sets.
• Christmas Songs: "Lookin' Under the Tree" is more of a parody of one as it's about the narrator talking about how Santa sucks because he gave him coal for Christmas.
• Crappy Holidays: "Lookin' Under the Tree" is about be bitter over getting coal for Christmas.
• Darker and Edgier: Wait for the Sun is their most intense offering.
  • "Breathe In" is their heaviest song. Stephen's backing vocals cross into death metal territory towards the end of it.
• Destructive Romance: "Hunting for Sport", "Crash Test Rating", and "Trying 2 Fool U" concern the victim of an abusive relationship who tries too hard to please his negligent partner and in the latter two songs' case, the hesitance the narrator feels of ending one.
• Driven to Suicide: The narrator in "Yer Killin' Me" wants to smoke cigarettes or "anything that's bad for [him]" so that he'll die a slow death.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The really early stuff they did in 2013 featured Erik and Stephen performing as a duo (Stephen doubling on bass and drum duties) before Sam Mathys joined the band. Natural, Everyday Degradation featured the Paulson brothers once again as a duo, albeit they were joined by session musicians.
• Emotion Suppression: "/mute/", though the lyrics suggest it's involuntary.
• Fun with Flushing: The narrator of "Lookin' Under the Tree" apparently flushed a live goldfish down the toilet in the past.
• George Lucas Altered Version: The Pop Music version of "Heartstrings", featuring slicker production, slightly altered lyrics, and an overall more "polished" sound. Shortly before the release of Greatest Hits, most of their earlier material (save for Demos 2014) disappeared from their Bandcamp (though it was still, for a time, available on Rolling Green Records) with Erik telling fans that he wanted to rework the songs for future releases. So far, only "Heartstrings" was reworked, and three releases later they have yet to re-record another pre-Greatest Hits song. They may have abandoned that idea when the re-recording was negatively received or because the band had since moved away from the emo genre.
• "I Hate" Song: "Passing Through" is about how much Erik hates high school.
  • "Yer Killin' Me" is about someone the narrator hates so much they make him want to kill himself.
• Kids Raiding the Wine Cabinet: "Strawberita" describes Erik's, who was still under the legal drinking age at the time of Greatest Hits' release, first experience with alcohol, and his concern of becoming an alcoholic. By the end of the song, he expresses regret over drinking to fit in.
• Last Note Nightmare: Inverted in "Yer Killin' Me", where during the last minute, the fast, fuzzy, and distorted pop-punk song turns into a slow, sweet, lo-fi, acoustic waltz.
• Lighter and Softer: Greatest Hits dials back the angst and harshness of Wait for the Sun, being closer in tone to Stay Out Longer. That being said, much of Greatest Hits is about being the victim of an abusive relationship.
  • Natural, Everyday Degradation abandons their DIY post-hardcore sound completely for something more studio-polished.
• Never Trust a Title: "My Good Friend is a Pro Sk8er"'s lyrics have absolutely nothing to do with Tony Hawk or pro skaters.
  • No, Greatest Hits isn't actually a compilation of their most popular stuff from their earlier years, but a collection of entirely new songs.
  • Subverted with Pop Music. Fans who were expecting more of the grittier material of their earlier stuff were surprised to find that Pop Music lives up to its name.
• New Sound Album: Natural, Everyday Degradation completely abandons the rawer, post-hardcore sound of their earlier material.
  • Pop Music is also this, albeit not to the extent of NED. It's more of a midway point between that album and Greatest Hits.
• Non-Appearing Title: Up until Stay Out Longer, "Hyland" was the only song that didn't fit this trope.
• Noodle Incident: In "Lookin' Under the Tree", the narrator asks Santa for another goldfish and promises that he won't flush this one down the toilet, though he mentions that he'll shove it down the drain instead so that "it can be in the ocean with its brothers and sisters".
• Not Growing Up Sucks: "Eat Shit" is about Erik's disillusionment with his own immaturity compared to that of his peers.
• Precision F-Strike: At the beginnings of the verses of "Yer Killin' Me":
  I don't wanna fucking be here anymore...
• Self-Titled Album: Remo Drive EP 1 (though most people shorten it to EP 1).
• Shout-Out:
  • Two to the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:
    • The third track on EP 1 is called "Eternal Sunshine of My Spotless Mind".
    • The cover for Wait for the Sun is a painting of the opening scene.
  • The cover of Stay Out Longer is reminiscent of the cover of American Football's debut album.
• Siamese Twin Song: "Art School" continues right into "Hunting For Sport".
• Silly Love Songs: "Provincial" is one of the few Remo Drive songs to be a straight up love song.
• Smoking Is Not Cool: The narrator of "Yer Killin' Me" wants to smoke cigarettes so he'll die.
• Stopped Numbering Sequels: The band never released an "EP 2".
• Straw Fan: The narrator of "The Night I Kidnapped Remo Drive" is a crazed fan who believes that he and Erik are best friends but laments that he's been making some invoked "questionable decisions" lately, so he kidnaps the band and ties them up in an attempt to "talk some sense back into them". It was written to mock the part of their fanbase who wants them to put out more albums like Greatest Hits instead of branching out and experimenting.
• Studio Chatter: "Name Brand", and by extension Greatest Hits, ends with this.
• Title-Only Chorus: "HYYYYYLAAAAAND!!!"
• Title Track: Away, Stay Out Longer, and Wait for the Sun all have these. In general, this was a common practice with their early EPs that they dropped with Greatest Hits.
  • Portrait of an Ugly Man downplays this trope, the closest the album has to a title track is "The Ugly Man Sings".
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Inverted in "Eat Shit", where Erik expresses how he feels like he's not mature enough for his age.
• With Friends Like These...: "Monetary" is directed at friends who fit this trope.

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