Fun As A Core Element: An Interview With Brooklyn’s Seconds Before The Crash

By Staff | August 18, 2026

Seconds Before The Crash are not veterans of the scene. They didn't hone their chops at CBGB's back in the day, or spend decades grinding it out in a broken down van. Yet, it is their relative youth that makes their music and their attitude so refreshing. Coming straight out of Brooklyn with their signature high-energy brand of hardcore, these guys leave it all on the stage, more often than not leaving the audience with a simple takeaway: "damn, that went hard".

Welcome! So, where'd the name Seconds Before The Crash come from, and what does it mean to you?

Ryan River, vocals: Hi! Thanks for having us!! So… I was starting my second year of art school (at SVA in Manhattan), and I was taking a poetry class. In the first week, out of the blue, the person I was dating for almost five years breaks up with me. Over text, then no contact. It was pretty devastating. I've never had someone close to me die before, but I imagine the feeling of grief would be similar. Anyway, the first poetry class had us write a poem in 5 minutes or something. So I wrote the poem and ‘seconds before the crash’ was in a line from it. The band was super new at this point and we kept trying to come up with names. Me and Adam would go into bookstores and try to find something cool, but nothing stuck. We were almost ‘Plane Crash Pamphlets’ but it sounded too much like a tongue twister. The answer was right in front of us though, in the poem. Grief was a very prominent thing at that time for me. I dropped out of school after that.

With 6 demos under your belt and plans for an 11 song album, what do you anticipate being the biggest challenge going forward?

Ryan: I’m not super sure how long the track list will be. We’ve got ten songs in the works, but I’m really into intros/outros/interludes and stuff. For me personally, it's kinda hard to stop myself from thinking too far ahead. There's just so much stuff in my head all the time, you know? A lot of grand visions. And I kinda just have to be like ‘woah, slow down, let's get through this other thing first’. From a technical perspective, I think finding the time and money to do it is a bit challenging. Everyone's very busy. And recording studios can be really expensive. But I’m really ready to do all of it. I get excited just thinking about it.

Adam Collier, bass: Getting really good studio recordings/an engineer who understands how to get our sound into a really good recording.

Paul Bowfin, drums: Getting the schedule we want to support the album as hard as we want to. The studio and recording/mixing/mastering process is a challenge for sure but that feels more like a known entity. How do we scale up to big touring on a small starting budget? That's where I think we will be pushing our frontier.

Photo credit: @adampurvis

Your philosophy is "have fun forever." What does that actually look like at a practice or a show?

Ryan: Having fun is such a core element to all of this because otherwise you're just forcing yourself to do something you don't wanna do, and that's miserable. I believe everyone should do what they want to do. It's hard though. A lot of times you have to survive doing something you hate in order to do something you love. At practice we joke around a lot. We can get real silly. I think we might be the silliest serious band in all of New York. But yeah, shows are great because I get to put that energy into performing. If the crowd can laugh or be weirded out or dance then I know something’s working.

Lucas Diamond, guitar: I think heavy/alternative music can get typecast as only being sad or angry maybe because of the sonic palate, maybe in contrast to pop music. As someone who loves this kind of music I want it to be able to create good times for the listener as well as catharsis for negative emotions.

Adam: Don’t take shit too seriously #ever – music is meant to be fun.

Paul: Love the music and enjoy playing it as much as we'd hope others love hearing it.

As a new band figuring things out as you go, what's been the most important lesson you've learned so far?

Ryan: Patience is needed. So much of it. You just have to keep showing up over and over again until you complete something… and then there's a hundred other things to do. But even if it's frustrating at times, I’m glad the frustration can happen at all. Because it's the thing I was put on this earth to do. Being kind to other bands and stuff is also really important. Not having an ego. Not putting yourself down. Being able to take criticism and actually using it to better yourself. But yeah, patience. We’ve been a band for almost two years but we only started playing shows in April of this year. It feels like lifetimes have passed. You gotta hold on tight and not let go.

Adam: It’s important to persevere when there’s a connection with people, even if it’s hard getting all the pieces together.

Paul: If you're serious about trying to make things work, you'll often find the right people are too. Time complications, song disagreements, whatever it is. That combo of keeping everything moving forward and being flexible to always make things work for each other is what makes the magic happen.

Photo credit: @adampurvis

You've been through a drummer change already. How did that affect the band's dynamic?

Ryan: Haha, it's a lot to process for sure. It's happened more than once, too. Not for any bad reason, it's just that people have lives that aren't compatible with the band sometimes and that's okay. The worst part of it is not really being able to make songs. And perform, of course. You're stuck in a weird limbo where you wanna keep going but if you don't have a drummer it's very very hard. But we’ve got Paul now and he's wonderful.

Adam: Not too much – we haven’t ever had a drummer that has consistently played for us for a super long period of time.

Lucas: It was difficult finding reliable people to play with, but both the drummers we’ve had shows with have been great.

Paul: I've been playing some band lore catch up, but I can't speak for the rest of the band who've been there before me.

If you could open for any band right now, who would it be?

Ryan: If it was an ideal world where all the stars aligned and I crossed all my fingers and toes and made a thousand wishes, it'd be My Chemical Romance. I just saw them at Citi Field and it never gets old. Just spectacular performers. On a more grounded note, I’d love to open for Thursday from New Jersey. They're such a big influence for me. Super nice guys and their shows are incredible. The energy of a crowd at a Thursday show is something I can only hope I’ll be lucky enough to witness with our band.

Lucas: DRAIN.

Adam: Squid, or PUP.

Paul: Rebelmatic, Streetlight Manifesto and also MCR.

Photo credit: @halfpricewinona

What's one thing you'd like people to take away from a live show?

Ryan: I love theatrics in performance, and I try to show that when we’re playing. Stage presence is really important to me. If the crowd’s having fun, we’re all having fun. I’d want someone to come to our show and really feel the raw emotions we put forward. Every song is quite different and I think there's something for everyone at a Seconds show. There's a new bit now where I slow dance with an audience member for the ending of one of the songs. I like to get on the floor as much as I can. Screaming on the floor is very cathartic. Everyone should try it.

Adam: That we have fun and like variety/aren’t same-y.

Paul: “Damn that went hard”.

We've interviewed a few bands that have connected on Craigslist. Did you have any misadventures on the platform before finding the right people?

Ryan: Craigslist is definitely interesting. Nobody's ever been super weird, but we’re definitely gotten some characters. I got Adam and Lucas from there. I think Craigslist has just the right amount of young weirdos that would be a good fit. It's certainly mostly older people, but you gotta play the long game and eventually you get people like us.

Lucas: I had a jam session set up with someone on Craigslist where the very first thing he said upon arriving was “do you have weed?”, and when I said no he let out an exasperated sigh and went on to talk about how he should’ve smoked beforehand. Not exactly the right vibe to start with.

Adam: Ryan was the first and only person I’ve ever met through Craigslist in a music type way, so no :D

Paul: I am the only non-Craigslist guy here and have not met people musically through Craigslist before. I can imagine it's a big gamble though.

Photo credit: @halfpricewinona

Anyone you'd like to thank for their support?

Ryan: Yeah! Such a big huge thanks to Jorge from Fear Not Ourselves Alone, he got us our first show and is just the nicest human being ever. Also everyone who shows up for us and believes in us. Anyone who's listened to the demos or bought a cd. And thank you guys for giving us our very first interview :-)

Lucas: Thanks to everyone who’s come to see us! We’ll never stop appreciating it.

Paul: The photographer who has been getting amazing shots of us. (Our friend Skylar @halfpricewinona on IG)

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secondsbeforethecrash

Demos: https://secondsbeforethecrash.bandcamp.com/album/demos