SKAROUND The World with Josh Coutts # 16 | The NPCs
December 3, 2020
In our ongoing series titled SKAROUND The World, I’m gonna take you on a trip and talk about a band that was formed while everyone was stuck in quarantine. That’s right – I’ll be talking about The NPCs.
Josh “Pizza” Hershkovitz of Backyard Superheroes fame is the mastermind behind this project. I’ll let him tell you in his own words…
“Back when quarantine first started, I realized that it would be a while before I saw my band in person again. We took it very seriously as we have members with babies and family members who would be compromised if they got the virus. Being stuck home alone for the majority of the week, I got bored one day and thought it could be fun to get a few friends together for a remote collaboration of a cover song.”
He went on to say… “With Sum 41’s “Fat Lip” being the reason I picked up a guitar 18 years ago, it seemed like a fun project. I made a post on Facebook asking who would want to join in and when I came back a few hours later, over 40 people responded!”
He added, “At that point, I owned zero recording gear other than my guitar amp and guitars, so I purchased an interface, some monitors, and learned how to use some recording software from scratch. My unwillingness to say no to people who wanted to join lead to what ended up a 32+ person cover song, with video included. We had a thread going about what we should name ourselves, and we fell in love with The NPCs – the meaning behind it being ‘non-player characters’ from video games. We figured while we were all home, wishing we were on stage…we are all non-player characters.”
“It’s evolved to over 300 members, with smaller projects and larger projects going on simultaneously. It’s taken on a mind of its own to the point that I’m not even involved in a majority of the projects! I still ‘mastermind’ the massive collaborations and handle all of the track organization and video editing for the most part, but it’s 100% a group effort.”
“So far we’ve released three songs, two of which being the massive collaborations of “Fat Lip” and Goldfinger’s “Superman” which had a cameo from Tony Hawk himself for the release of his newest game!”
“For Halloween we had a smaller group drop a cover of The Specials’ “Ghost Town” which went over very well.“
GHOST TOWN
“We have a ton more projects in the works, future plans, and even once the quarantine is lifted this project will be a passion project for a bunch of us.”
“You’ll definitely see some recurring faces in a majority of our larger videos, with members of international bands jumping in whenever they can!”
FAT LIP
If you haven’t seen this collaboration yet, it’s absolutely fantastic. With the release of the cover of Sum 41’s “Fat Lip” and the Goldfinger song “Superman,” people are paying attention.
SUPERMAN
These songs will get more than your toes tapping and your asses up and dancing; it’ll make your whole body move!
Besides the three songs they have already released, there are some big ones on the way! I just can’t wait to see what comes next from this amazing group of talented musicians!
