Weeklong Weekend

Ziggy Keairns

Weeklong Weekend are a Minneapolis-based music group, consisting of members Kevin Ritter, Namgyal Dorjee, Franklin Tangre, and Matthias Dewane. I sat down with Kevin Ritter to discuss their latest two-sided single, “Need/Contemplate,” as well as their journey from the formation of Weeklong Weekend to today.

What is the inspiration behind the name Weeklong Weekend?

Kevin: Like, right at 2021 we just started the band. It was just kind of for fun, playing a lot of covers. And we were sitting down with notebooks for like an hour to just write down different names, like, “oh, this could be sick.” I'm like, “No, I don't know. Oh, this could be sick, nah.” And then Nam, actually, he had just listened to this song that was called “Seven Day Weekend.” And at the time, we were like, “yeah, music should be like a party for everyone. It's like a weeklong weekend. Like it never stops. The weekend just keeps going.” So that was kind of the idea behind it. It's kind of developed into more of an ironic thing now, as we started to get more into emo, and as we've grown older, like, it's like, “yeah, a weeklong been sounds great in your head, but as it comes down to reality, partying all the time is not good, believe it or not.”

What made you want to make music/what inspired you to begin making music seriously?

K: I'm actually a classical viola player. I'm in orchestra. I've been doing that since I was like 12 years old. I did that all the way up until I turned 18. I went to a college in Chicago for music, and it was a pretty bad experience. I'll be so honest. I was just playing all this music I did not care about. And as this was kind of happening, I was starting to play more and more guitar. And I was like, “You know what? This old, dead, white guy music sucks. I am done. Like, I just want to write my own stuff.” And I went home, I dropped out when Covid hit, and we started the band after that.

How would you describe your musical style?

K: There's a strong presence of emotion and dramaticism in most things that I do. I think it's fun to express things really honestly through music. We kind of fit under the post hardcore umbrella too. It's fast, it's exciting. A lot of the time we end up writing songs that sound kind of happy but have sadder lyrics. I don't know, they're fun to dance to, but if you really start thinking about it, then you're like, “Oh shit, that's kind of sad.”

Are there any artists that inspire you?

K: Totally, Title Fight, across the whole band, we love Title Fight. When we first started the band, we used to watch their live performances to get ready for shows. Like we'd watch them playing and hype each other up. Otherwise, Tang and Matthias really love hardcore bands like Sunami and Drain. That kind of presence shows itself up in our rhythm section a lot. But the melodic instruments, like me and Nam, we take after, like pop punk, like Taking Back Sunday. 

What do you think the influence of emo music is in today's world?

K: I think it's a really good outlet. You know? I think it's an opportunity for people to be truly honest about how they feel. I think in a world that's like, really demanding, say in a college atmosphere, for instance, you have to go to school, you have to give the answers that they want, but with emo music, you can really just go and experience it for what it is, and be sad in that moment and understand the feelings are a part of life. And you really can experience it all, like, I think it's a valuable expression of being a well rounded person to be sad and happy.

How did the band form? 

K: That's actually a kind of interesting story, too. So me and Nam, we've known each other since middle school, and we started the band primarily with these two other guys who aren't in the band anymore. Me and Nam were like, “Yeah, we want to take it more seriously. To start doing gigs.” And those guys were like, kind of just doing it for fun and wanted to play covers, mess around. So we played our first ever show at the Garage in Burnsville, which actually closed down. But we played that show with this other band, which had Matthias and Tang in it. So we all met, and were like, they weren't happy in their band. We were ready to move on in our band, so we just joined forces at the show and kind of moved on from there.

What was the inspiration behind your most recent release, Need/Contemplate?

K: “Need” was actually written after a trip me and Nam took to Vegas. It was kind of like, about addiction and other things like that. Like playing on the fact that, yeah, it's fun, like, again with the band name, it's fun to mess around. It's fun to party, but at the end of the day, that shit will weigh on you heavily and I'm sober now. We've really grown a lot as a band since those songs. And it was kind of like a tribute to that time in our lives, in a way. “Contemplate” is more of a classic emo romance story kind of thing, talking about how, “Oh, I could be better in a relationship or stuff like that.” It's kind of cheesy. It's an older one, but it's got a really fun beat. It's fun to play.

What can we look forward to regarding Weeklong Weekend? Any live performances or new music?

K: We’re dropping an EP next month that I’m very excited about. It’s a four track EP. It's really the stuff I’ve been the proudest of in my musical career. We're also doing an EP release show in November, and then actually a show at the Whole Music Club that I can't talk about that much, but it's on Dec. 6 and it's going to be insane. So, I really can't talk about it that much, but it's going to be a big one, and I'm very excited.