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Turn Two Turns Heads in New Jersey
- Konstantina Buhalis
- Jul 9
- 4 min read
The Legacy of East Coast Pop-Punk and Emo Lives On
Article Contributed by Konstantina Buhalis
Turn Two, one of New Jersey’s latest bands, has been taking the Pop-Punk world by storm with their sound, melding the classic 2000s sound with modern touches. SoundCheck sat down with Shane Maziekien to talk about the formation of Turn Two, Third-Wave Emo, and how they developed their sound.
Turn Two’s Entrance
Turn Two was created out of a love of playing music. Shane Maziekien, formerly of With the Punches, was recording with lifelong friend Matt Flavaloro when, after developing an EP that faced internal struggles, He posted on Instagram asking if anyone was interested in joining their band. Maziekien explained that through his sister they soon gained a singer, saying,
“At the time, my sister was dating a guy out in California who just so happened to be one of Mike [Hayden], our now singer's, good friends, and so he saw me post it. They forwarded the post to Mike, and was like, ‘Hey, this guy doesn't live that far away from you; he's my girlfriend's brother. If you wanted to do something again, you know, hit him up.’ And so Mike messaged me, and he messaged me a demo, which actually is the song "Nice Thing" that's on the newest EP; that song just came out last month.
After recruiting Hayden, Mason Ingling joined as the bass player, and the band was complete. Mazieken went on to say that three out of the four members have previous experience playing in bands: “Mike used to play in a band called Talent Four with Pete, which was my sister's boyfriend; that's kind of the other band that, and I know Mason, Mason played more progressive metal kind of stuff. He toured for a long time in a band called In the Presence of Wolves, too. So the three of us have played in other bands. Matt's the only one who never really played in a band previously.”
Up from the Underground
Pop-Punk has evolved since the 2000s, moving away from the era of New Jersey bands that shaped the genre, as members now have unique experiences. While so much of the sound has changed, the passion for the genre has stayed the same. Mazieken explained that while their sound is influenced by the genre standards they grew up with, Turn Two draws on each member’s talents. While multi-genre influences shape the sonic architecture of Turn Two, the core is a desire to create music that reflects their collaborative spirit.
Mazieken went on to explain how each member’s writing style is incorporated into the work, saying, “I think the coolest part is that we're trying to make something that is something that defines who we are as a group of people.” Continuing to say, “We have some stuff that leans a little bit more heavier to Matt's influence and some stuff that leans a little bit more heavier to Mike's influence, but I think, in the end, all the most like all the songs you can tell are a blend of all of us kind of like putting our heads together to say, hey, this is fast and fun, but we're going to make it catchy, and then we're going to give it a little bit of synthesizer to give that pop element to it, stuff like that, that can make the song our own.”
As Pop-Punk and Emo changed and the rise of Fifth Wave Emo arises, Mazieken says. “People change, people evolve, and like young people also get influenced by different things, you know, like they're bringing in multiple, you know, different genres of music, maybe that we didn't have a lot of access to back in the early 2000s, so that's where some of that evolution of the music comes from.” Mazieken follows up saying, “I just appreciate all of the iterations of it. While you can definitely see an evolution, I really dislike that people have to pigeonhole it into, like, "oh, this is fifth wave" or ‘This is sixth wave’-that's, like, whatever to me. I am probably sounding like an old man, but it's evolving, but it's the same thing to me.”
Music Video Mavens
Turn Two’s music videos harken back to the early era of Fuse and MTV, and feature some interesting visuals, with their lead singer, Hayden acting as the director. Hayden takes inspiration from horror media, in particular, Stephen King, leading to one of their music videos, “Medicine” taking a gory turn with Mazieken saying, “We kind of just came up, came up with some concepts, like the medicine music video, that one, that song we released on Halloween.
So we were like, Mike's done horror music videos, it's coming out on Halloween, we got to do something fun, and so Mike came up with that entire concept, and like we ended up, you know, draining our friend Steve's blood throughout that video, but it's, it's just, you know, we want to bring back like fun, I wanted to look fun, right?”. In the spirit of DIY, the music video for “Polaroid” was shot in a backyard and used a corkboard and green screen to create a montage of the band, with Turn Two working together to create another aspect of their art.
August Releases
Turn Two is planning to release their EP, Never Meant To Fit in August, with Maziken saying he’s excited, “I think it may be like some of my favorite music, like as just as a musician that I've ever put out.” Most recently, Turn Two released another single, “No Skips” with an accompanying music video on YouTube. They are also in the process of planning a tour in the upcoming months.
Turn Two is available to stream on all platforms.
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