Poloroids ‘Gotta Know’
Poloroids by Ethan Terzini
Vocalist-Guitarist Edgar Echeverria, drummer Jasmine De Leon, guitarist Eliel Esquivel and bassist Jeremy Mendoza—known collectively as Poloroids—are serious about representing their Hudson County heritage. As Edgar recently told The Jersey Sound, “all of us grew up in Hudson County and come from a Latino background. For us, that’s always been important to represent. Hudson County, its culture, and its people, are a huge influence.”
The band’s new EP, I Gotta Know, is a four-song blast that starts with the kind of galloping guitars that hook the ear at first listen. With songs written over the course of the last two years, the attention-to-detail is palpable. It’s a world away from last year’s “Stagg” single, their 2024 I’m Not Sure Who I Am But I Know Who I’ve Been EP and that year’s “Song 1” debut.
“We’ve been around since 2023,” Edgar explains, “originally started as a project between Jasmine and I but we decided to flesh it out as a full band and were first joined by guitarist Henry Vasquez and bassist Meyling Wong. When the new lineup was formed, we decided to pivot our sound to something that was more emo-adjacent while still keeping some of the shoegaze-punk elements of our previous EP.”
As produced by Doug Gallo of Retro Media Studios in Red Bank, I Gotta Know’s third track, “Scabs,” crystallizes their action in a compact 2:46. It all ends rather abruptly with “CTRL,” a heavy slower drone of uninhibited mystery. It’s the type of EP that the listener wishes were longer.
The band has aligned itself with an organization called Cosecha whose website says “is a national, non-violent movement fighting for permanent protection, dignity and respect for all undocumented immigrants.” To that end, Poloroids performed a benefit last Saturday at The Dungeon in Jersey City in an effort to “respond to ICE attacks on immigrant families,” according to Edgar, who reached out yesterday morning to tell us, “yeah, we performed at The Dungeon in Jersey City along with Alien (Montclair), Drop Dead Gorgeous, and Best Dressed Ghost (Both Brooklyn-based). It was a DIY (Do it Yourself) show hosted by two local artists, Marvy and Rue. The fundraiser shows have been going on since September as a way to bring people together in these difficult times, all of the proceeds go to Cosecha, they’re a statewide movement responding to ICE attacks on immigrant families. We are very proud of where we come from, Hudson county is our home and we stand with our community.”
You can catch them at The Brooklyn Music Kitchen in New York this Friday.