The Shadowboxers On Touring With Justin Timberlake, Working With Villa 40 & Face Tattoos
The Shadowboxers — which consists of the trio of Adam Hoffman, Scott Tyler and Matt Lipkins — may seem like an overnight sensation, thanks to the hit song “Hot Damn!” taking off in late 2017. However, the roots of The Shadowboxers go back about a decade to when its members met as students at Atlanta’s Emory University. The “big break” for The Shadowboxers came when Justin Timberlake discovered the group on Twitter in 2013, leading him to sign The Shadowboxers to his artist development label Villa 40. Several years into the development process, Timberlake offered the trio the opportunity to open up shows on his Man Of The Woods tour from March through early June.
Beyond tour dates with Timberlake, there is a lot going on for The Shadowboxers. For starters, the debut EP Apollo gets its release on March 23rd via Villa 40/Sony/RED Music. In addition to the arena shows — which kicked off on March 18th at Washington D.C.’s Capital One Arena — The Shadowboxers will be playing four headlining club shows, including March 23rd at New York’s PUBLIC Arts, April 30th at Los Angeles’ Peppermint Club, May 10th at Nashville’s Basement East, and May 20th at Miami’s The Ground. Prior to their first show with Timberlake, I had the pleasure of doing Q&A with Hoffman, Tyler and Lipkins on behalf of The Hype Magazine, and the highlights of such are below. More on The Shadowboxers can be online found at www.theshadowboxers.com.
Is it true that Justin simply discovered you via Twitter? Do you remember what the specific post that he saw was?
Scott Tyler: Well, he discovered us via YouTube, and we definitely remember the post. How jaded would we be if we forgot already? (laughs) He saw our cover of his song “Pusher Love Girl,” and then reached out to us on Twitter — just sent us a DM out of the blue. You could easily mark our career in two phases: before the tweet, and after the tweet. It completely changed the trajectory of our path.
Have you yourself ever discovered a new band through Twitter?
Matt Lipkins: One time, back in 2007 when Twitter was just a young thang, I remember John Mayer tweeted about Passion Pit being awesome. It was really the moment I started giving a crap about Twitter because I finally understood its scope and purpose.
Villa 40 is known to be an artist development company. How do you feel the band has evolved since working with Villa 40?
Adam Hoffman: We’ve evolved so much over the course of our nine-year career, but since we haven’t released a ton of music, looking back, the whole thing looks like a continuum without the normal album benchmarks. But the last four years, since working with Justin and Villa 40, the evolution has been about 4x. When we first started working with Villa 40, we were really just beginning to come into our own and the process of discovering and defining The Shadowboxers was starting to crystallize, but it took off when we started collaborating with JT. We literally spent two and a half years in our studio in Nashville writing and recording songs — every single day. We would send them to Justin and the team, get feedback, and keep plugging away. Through that whole process, we sort of excavated our sound in a very organic way. And the Apollo EP is the first glimpse and distillation of all of that work.
Prior to landing this tour with Justin, had you ever played in an arena before?
Scott Tyler: Once. We were lucky enough to play a few shows opening for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill last year. It was just enough experience to give us a taste of the size and scale of an arena.
Does playing in an arena change how you approach playing a live show?
Matt Lipkins: 100%. We’ve been playing music that feels appropriate for large-scale venues for a few years now, but always had to figure out how to scale those songs down to size. Now that we have that space, we sort of have to do the opposite with our performance. It’s all grand gestures, gesticulation and showmanship on a level that we’ve only experienced up to this point as fans, and that sort of required a mental reboot. We won’t have the help of a camera crew to bring our faces closer to the fans, so we’re gonna have to do it ourselves. And that means being really intentional with our staging decisions to look as big as possible, while also figuring out how to do the most important part of performing: connecting with your audience. So basically what I’m trying to say is yes, we’re bringing t-shirt cannons.
Tour with Justin aside, what is coming up for The Shadowboxers?
Adam Hoffman: Releasing our debut EP Apollo on March 23rd and we couldn’t be more proud of it.
Your band has written for other artists. Is that something you plan on doing more of in the future?
Scott Tyler: Yes, definitely. We love to write songs, and writing for other people allows us to exercise that muscle.
When not busy with work, how do you like to spend your free time?
Matt Lipkins: “Busy” has been a relative term for us for the past few years, since we try to stay busy always to keep the tools sharp. We’re not up to “I took six months off for self-reflection in a camper without a cell phone up and down the west coast” status yet. So I guess to answer your question, when we’re not writing, exploring new instruments, listening, demoing, creating video content, or watching Sylvester Stallone’s Instagram account, we’re just tryna take advantage of these new Moviepasses we got. $12/month for infinite movies? Come on.
What was the last concert you attended for fun?
Adam Hoffman: LCD Soundsystem — one of the best live experiences I’ve ever had.
Finally, any last words for the kids?
Adam Hoffman: Words for the kids — If you’re thinking about getting a face tattoo, maybe, just maybe, sit on it for a few days. Then, if you still really want to get a face tattoo, at least you can say you mulled it over. Wait, does that make it worse? I think it does. Nevermind. Bad advice. Keep on, kids. I got nothing for ya.
Scott Tyler: We’ve been a band for over nine years and are still refining our sound. And it will be different again in a few years. Listen and let your tastes evolve. It’s OK to hate something you made years ago, but loved at the time. Kinda like a face tattoo…
Matt Lipkins: Absolutely get a face tattoo.
About the Author
Darren Paltrowitz Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."
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