Koyo

Banquet exclusive LP is on 'half maroon / half white' coloured vinyl. /250.

The new full length album from the awesome Pure Noise signed punk-rockers Koyo.

There’s a lot of musical history on Long Island, especially when it comes to hardcore and punk. It was that heritage that the six members of Koyo wanted to pay homage to with their band. Formed in 2019, the six-piece – vocalist Joey Chairamonte, guitarists Harold Griffin, TJ Rotolico and Mike Marazzo, bassist Stephen Spanos and drummer Sal Argento – all played in different bands in the scene but had been friends for years. It was when they all happened to be home at the same time that idea of a new project was floated and Koyo started life. They managed one gig before the pandemic hit, but the subsequent downtime allowed them the time to really hone their craft and the direction of the band. 
“Our goal isn’t so much to exit where we came from,” explains Griffin, “but to stretch the boundaries of what we can be and what Koyo is. We’re heavily influenced by the early- to mid-2000s hardcore-adjacent emo and pop-punk scene. It specifically catered to Long Island bands when it started, but now what Koyo is probably relates to other bands that aren’t so geographically concentrated. They can be from anywhere – it’s more the timeframe that’s more called back to with what we write.”