Local Talent
Traffic Circle Local Talent
Tastemakers recently spoke with Zack, Gianni, Sydney, Ryan, and Ethan of Traffic Circle about their music, backyard shows, and their duck.
safely while following COVID protocols. Everybody loved those shows, so once everybody started to get vaccinated we were like “Well we’ve got the perfect place to have a real outdoor backyard show.”
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Sydney (S): Because everyone was kept up inside for so long, the reaction to these shows was so overwhelmingly positive. Our first show, they went absolutely nuts. One girl threw her bra at Zack and was like “Oh my god your drummer is so cute!”
Tastemakers (TMM): Where did the name Traffic Circle come from? Zack (Z): We knew this was coming, and we don’t have a good answer. There was a period of time when we were picking random names and having that be our name for like three days, and if we hated it we would just change it. We just did that a few times, until eventually we just came up with Traffic Circle. At the end of the day, I think we kind of just leaned into the traffic theme at some point. So now we collect traffic signs, and we bring them on stage and stuff like that. TMM: Speaking of things you bring on stage with you, what’s the story behind the duck?
S: That got us excited about being a band again. Z: So our first public show was over the summer and we were releasing our single “You Want Love.” We played with our good friends, like Eli Olson, who also goes to Northeastern as well as– G: Maya Lucia–
Z: Ethan the duck! Does Ethan want to explain it?
TMM: Oh, she was in Tastemakers.
Ethan (E): So Ethan the duck used to be a real duck. He died, someone taxidermied him, and was selling him at a yard sale.
Z: Yes, a Tastemakers alumni!
Z: So I guess we just started bringing him to our shows– Ryan (R): He’s the good luck charm. Z: Now every time we go to a show people expect to see him. TMM: We were talking about this a bit before the interview, but I would love to hear more about the Turnpike and how that all started. R: We moved into this house during the pandemic, so we were kind of in like a year and a half long period of not doing any shows. We were worried that our neighbors would be mad about noise, and one night we were out in the backyard when someone yelled down “Hey are you guys the musicians?” And we were like “Uh oh we are about to get our comeuppance for making noise in the neighborhood.” We followed with “Are we too loud?” And they were like “no we love it, you guys should play a show in the backyard!” And our other neighbors who were outside agreed, so we did that. Fall 2021
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Gianni (G): I don’t know about that…
Z: We asked them for song requests, and set up on the patio. They have porches that overlook our backyard, so they were able to watch us
G: And Lip Service. Z: Yes Lip Service from Berklee. We spread the word on social media, and we turned the Ethan the Duck Instagram account into the Turnpike Instagram account. We were completely blown away by the amount of people that came to that first show. S: It was wild. Z: We definitely want to book local Boston acts. We kind of want to be a hub for local musicians to be heard. TMM: What’s the songwriting process like for you guys? Gianni: It really depends on the song. Zack: Sydney mainly writes the lyrics. E: Well a lot of our songs are written by different people. Like our song “Attack of the Clones” was written by Ryan. S: “Evan’s Way” started because I was in “Intro to Songwriting” and I
