Special Interest

Special Interest Bundle

Endure - 

Brought together by New Orleans’ DIY scene, Special Interest is, on every level, uncompromising: in their adventurous sound, their high-energy live performances, and their convictions. Dance music and punk culture have flirted in the warehouse before, but the desire of Special Interest is to dismantle genre. 2018’s Spiraling and 2020’s widely acclaimed The Passion Of articulated the group’s style, driven by dance grooves and electronic textures as much as hardcore riffs, but Special Interest expands the vision with Endure, their latest al- bum and first for Rough Trade. 

Informed not just by the bleakness of the pandemic, but the tremen- dous energy and righteous anger of the summer 2020 uprisings. En- dure sets the intensity of that moment — from the gnawing despair of isolation to the euphoria of human contact and connection — to a driving dancefloor rhythm on No Wave-inflected tracks like “Foul” and “Love Scene.” “Cherry Blue Intention” brings together a sturdy post-punk bassline, shrieking guitar effects, and a jungle breakbeat into a driving anthem of an opening track. 

New songs like “(Herman’s) House” recall the art rock of Sparks and The B-52s as much as politically-minded punk, and on “Midnight Legend,” the group is more overtly pop than ever before — making something fun during a time of frequent sadness became a central priority.The group directly addresses the issues that surround them, like gentrification and the impending climate apocalypse.There’s a universal resonance to songs like “Concerning Peace,” which takes its hook from a sample of Frantz Fanon, but Special Interest’s music isn’t just a call to action. Biting humor and irreverence intermingle with harsh edges of noise, and there’s always room to dance and sweat. 

Endure Remixed -

Tour and webstore exclusive 12" pressing, limited to 300 copies worldwide.

Special Interest have announced Endure Remixed, six remixes from their critically acclaimed 2022 album Endure, out Friday, November 10th, 2023 on Rough Trade Records. Today they are sharing electronic cyber-punk duo Machine Girl’s remix of ‘Concerning Peace’ - Special Interest’s incendiary screed against authority. The song title is inspired by the "On Violence" section from philosopher Frantz Fanon's 1961 book "The Wretched of The Earth". Straddling the line between club banger and punk anthem, the remix feels especially timely.

Endure Remixed contains remixes of Endure favorites by artists such as Marie Davidson - and in a nod to their New Orleans roots, a bounce remix of their single ‘Midnight Legend’. The EP will be available as an extremely limited edition 12” and digitally.

Brought together by New Orleans’ inventive DIY scene, Special Interest finds a new way of defining the “rock band,” a true collective unit rather than the dictated vision of a single member. Their sound is ever-fluid and continues to evolve — Special Interest actually began as the duo of Alli Logout and Maria Elena with guitar, drum machine, and a power drill, before Nathan Cassiani and Ruth Mascelli filled out its current line-up.

Even as their music transcends borders and adapts into new styles and forms, Special Interest is rooted in a sense of time and place, truly capturing what it feels like to exist in this moment. Just as much as any single musician, the group exists because of the dancing bodies in the crowd, striving to become a truly living collective that dissolves the barrier between performer and listener. Special Interest and their spectrum of sounds is the result of organic connection not just between four artists, but between those four artists and the world around them.