All-around Breakdown: Former Glass Jaw Guitarist Nick Yulico Discusses Debut EP from New Band 10 Minute Major with Fellow LIHC Vets (self-released)
10 Minute Major is a new Alternative Rock, Post-hardcore, and Indie Rock-leaning band hailing from Huntington, New York consisting of four seasoned Punk/Hardcore vets. 10 Minute Major's current line-up is vocalist/guitarist Nick Yulico, guitarist/backing vocalist Eric Perry, bassist Bart Ostrowski, and drummer Pete Figoni. Amongst them, these Long Island Hardcore vets have spent time making and playing music with Glass Jaw (an early iternation of Glassjaw,) The 2 Minutes Hate, and Breadless Circus. We've been keeping an eye on 10 Minutes Major (@10minutemajorband)'s Instagram page, as well as members Nick Yulico (@nickyulico,) Eric Perry (@kimjongmfdoomm,) and Bartholomew "Bart" Ostrowski (@strauss_thall)'s personal pages for quite a few months now.
Actually, back in February, 10 Minute Major quietly released a single called "Everyone Lies" exclusively on their Bandcamp page and have been sporadically playing shows in and around Huntington/Long Island. We've had an exclusive press advance stream of 10 Minute Major's debut EP fittingly-titled EP for the last month or so. It dropped on Bandcamp on October 25th and went live on additional streaming services that following weekend. Frontman Nick Yulico—who spent time playing guitar in Glass Jaw from 1993-95—after seeing our recent Little Low All-around Breakdown, was kind enough to provide us with a comprehensive breakdown of his own. Check out Nick's breakdown below and listen along with 10 Minute Major's EP. EP is now available on streaming services and we can assure you, this isn't the last we'll be hearing from these Punk/Post-hardcore vets.
"This is a song that is meant to be played driving in a car, windows down, pumping up the chorus with everyone singing along. This was the last song we worked on before heading into the studio to record the EP. I remember when we nailed it down in practice and listened to the live demo, it felt really good. I told the guys, "we need to get into Westfall Recording [Company] and release this as a single." To me, it is our most Indie Rock track. There is that part in the beginning when the drums really kick in and [drummer] Pete [Figoni] is pounding, which really gets it going... we were in our rehearsal studio and I suggested some drumming like The Get Up Kids (I won't mention which song.) We, actually, played that song through the phone into the mic and, then, Pete just ran with it.
The song has a lot of dynamics to it, starts mellow, then, pounds away, then, goes back into the quiet intro after the bridge to build back up the final chorus. One friend of mine mentioned The Cure as an influence he heard. I think a lot of that is shaped by the guitar effects used in the studio. Much of the guitar work reminds me Dinosaur Jr., but put into a Post-hardcore/Indie blender (and no, I won't claim to play anywhere near J Mascis' level.) Bart [Ostrowski,] Eric [Perry,] and Pete did a great job lining up their parts; so, this one is really one of those full band-on-point songs and it's one of my favorites to play live.
I totally spaced out when coming up with the name for this song. Obviously, one of the most famous songs ever is "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" by Journey. Who knows, maybe, this will help us. My buddy joked, "you should lean into that reference and call it "Separate Ways (Boroughs Apart).""
"This was the first song we worked on as a band back in August 2021. It got changed the most of any of these songs. We probably altered it in a major way at least 10 times in the past year. I think I drove everyone in the band crazy with all the changes... we'd get to practice and have to play a whole new song. Even in the studio last-minute, I added that backing guitar part in the intro (giving it a feel like The Cult.) And, then, for that heavier [Black] Sabbath-like guitar riff (when [the] drums kick in,) our studio engineer, Anthony Lopardo, at Westfall suggested we harmonize the guitars (a great idea we ran with.) For the chorus, I remember changing the vocal melody, lyrics, and pattern just days before recording. There are a bunch of harmonies on this one between [myself] and Eric (on vocals and guitar) with some inspiration from Thin Lizzy.
To me, the song always felt a little [like] Queens of The Stone Age. I am a huge fan of Josh Homme. It shifts between minor tonality on the verse into major on the chorus. It has the breakdown in the intro and after the chorus that has a heavy Hardcore-ish drum part, inspired by the days Pete & I played in Noisecore band The 2 Minutes Hate back in the 90's after I left Glassjaw. It uses a flat five-chord, clear Black Sabbath influence on that riff."
"I have been writing this song since 2020 during COVID-19. I spent endless hours on my acoustic guitar, had chords, and, then, changed the verse and chorus melodies so many times. From a song-writing standpoint, it's one of our most interesting. I'm gonna get nerdy here and talk music theory. It centers around A flat major tonality (we play everything tuned down a half-step,) but then we do stuff, like make the 4-chord minor (a classic Beatles/Radiohead trick,) then, there is that heavy interlude, which shifts the key a bit... then, back into the chorus, which is full-on Arena Rock. One friend described it as, "My Morning Jacket meets The Strokes, classic American Indie vibe." Bart's bass tone came out really great on this track and highlights his rocking work.
I always write lyrics in just a stream-of-consciousness vibe. To me, it's most important to nail down the vocal melody and pattern first, then fit words into. If there ends up being a story that is put together, fine, but I'm not trying to write deep songs at the start. I will say after the fact that the whole concept of "shadows fall" dates back to a song I wrote for Glassjaw back in, like 1995. I took that name and ran with it.
The lyrics now to me, actually, have to do with depression, most likely... and we all find ways to deal with it and get over it. The verse teases that idea, via "don't you cry like I do," then, once the chorus hits, there is the line of "and everything feels just like you want it to... shadows falling... and everything feels just like you knew it... shadows falling." The idea here is that something sad or bad gets removed by the shadows falling.
Hey, I was a philosophy major back in college at UCLA, so I have a lot of classic books built into my mental DNA. Plato's The Allegory of The Cave is a formative book. If you read that book, it centers around a group of people living chained to the wall of a cave all their lives, facing a blank wall... but they watch shadows projected on the wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them and give names to the shadows. The shadows are not accurate representations of the world, but just fragments of reality, or rather, our perceptions. So, to me, shadows falling is, actually, when you realize the bad stuff or bullsh*t or whatever you deal with in your life isn't "fully real or true." So, it’s a relief that shadows falls. Man, we got deep here. Enough said; now, back to rocking."