Born from a fake interview for a high school zine, the small band from Pittsburgh named Kwarter Zip was a happy accident that has grown to the level of drawing packed crowds in and outside of their hometown.
The group formed during high school and features Michael Adams (vocals/guitar), Logan Baxter (guitar), Lukas Clement (bass), and Liam Taylor (drummer). I was joined by Adams, Baxter, and Clement for an interview about their history, their latest EP, and upcoming work.
Baxter and Clement have known each other since kindergarten, growing up as next-door neighbors. In high school, Clement was approached by a friend who wanted to write a fake interview for his zine, and Baxter and Clement were on board to pose as a band.
The two admit to making the story of this fake band “as dumb as possible” and at the time, they weren’t even playing instruments yet. When it came to naming the band, Baxter thought of his new Cardigans CD and was inspired by the simplicity of a clothing item, so he threw out “Quarter Zip” as an idea. Funnily enough, the person who wrote the interview for the zine spelled quarter zip with “KW.” It wasn’t intentional, but the typo stuck.
It was only a little over a year later when Baxter and Clement met Michael Adams, who encouraged them to legitimately practice their instruments and start a band. They started jamming and writing music, and the name “Kwarter Zip” just followed.
The group’s Spotify cover image features all four members in t-shirts reading “Title Fight” across the front, an homage to one of their main influences. Kwarter Zip draws heavily from great Midwest emo and hardcore bands, like American Football and Hum.
During their senior year of high school they started to get serious, playing typically three live shows a month. At that time, they were working on their first EP “Two Years Two Late”, which took close to four years to produce.
“Two Years Too Late” EP Cover
When it comes to writing music, their process is sound first and lyrics second.
“We write songs and then we’ll be like ‘holy shit we need to write lyrics’,” said Clement. “Yeah, and a lot of times we have a show in a week,” Adams added.
They admitted to needing to write lyrics to a song they are currently developing after our interview was over.
Despite having the songs written with lyrics, the delay in releasing the EP was due to a cycle of re-recording and editing, largely motivated by Adams.
Clement explained how recording a demo of the EP would take roughly three weeks. A majority of the band would be happy with the final product—demos that were a little rough around the edges and were obviously homemade—but Adams would want to restart.
“NO! We need to rerecord all of it,” Clement said, jokingly doing an impression of Adams. Baxter said this cycle repeated every six months.
“He’s gonna change it until he thinks it’s good, which honestly is an awesome quality to have in a band member,” said Baxter when talking about Adams’ perfectionist tendencies. “I think it makes everything better if you have someone willing to fight for it [the music] and not just like, settle.”
Adams said that they have the hardest time writing lyrics and that the EP was very collaborative. Given that they were developing these songs at the same time as playing shows, they were essentially written to be played live, said Baxter.
Lyrically, the band is most proud of “Kwarter Pounder With Cheese” and “Teach a Fish to Man.” Adams shared how he wrote Kwarter Pounder on his own and how ‘Fish’ was written in his garage with drummer Liam Taylor in an hour.
“‘Kwarter Pounder With Cheese’ I actually wrote that like, in my bedroom, before I even really knew what emo music kind of was,” said Adams.
Not every song is literal or telling direct stories, but when writing, the group will draw from their own experiences and throw those ideas at the wall, seeing what sticks to a song. ‘Kwarter Pounder’ is about going west, being sick of Pittsburgh, and wanting to leave home, and ‘Fish’ draws on similar themes of growing through adolescence.
The most rough around the edges song on the EP is “Same,” closing out the record. “Same” was recorded outside on a porch while it rained. There were two chords and just Adams screaming, and it was the first time the band got together to play at the same time.
“We didn’t even know what type of band we were,” said Adams.
“Same” wasn’t meant to be released for streaming because it is a live recording on an iPhone. Clement only wanted it to be on CDs as a small secret to locals and people who actually know the band, but it was inevitably added to the EP anyway.
“Two Years Too Late” was released Nov. 21, 2025, finally.
Embracing the DIY spirit, they handmade around 50 CDs for the release.
“Logan and I are like fiends for physical media,” said Clement.
They thrifted CD cases for months, hand-burned all the discs, and included Clement’s drawings for the inside cover. They wanted to make more, but ran out of time and money upon their EP release show.
Clement plays the trombone during Kwarter Zip’s song “Perry vs. Windshield” at their EP release show / Dan Dunn
Honoring the release, they performed a show to a packed house at a local venue, The Mr. Roboto Project. The band was used to playing to an empty audience or a few people they knew. This show had roughly 200 people, including faces they had never seen in their lives who were singing along with every song.
“The EP release show was like a full circle moment,” said Baxter.
They’re still not happy with the EP, but are grateful for the experience gained through the process of recording and mixing music.
Adams shared how, since exiting high school, it has been harder for the band to meet regularly.
“With the newer stuff, it gets harder and harder to write lyrics,” said Adams. He keeps a notebook for lyrics and will ask the guys if they like the direction of the writing and for suggestions.
He noted how collaborating is harder given their change in schedules post-high school, but how the group doesn’t want the band to interfere with their lives, as they all have jobs or are in college.
“I feel like we don’t want to let the band hold back our lives,” said Adams. “It’s like very hard to get our schedules on time while we’re focusing on our adult life and still trying to get the band work.”
But, they are still meeting up, making new music, and have managed to go on tour, too.
They released a new single on April 9, “Budlight Supernova”, a play on the Oasis hit “Champagne Supernova.” They are sitting on more singles and have a collaborative EP coming out in June with three other native Pittsburgh bands. Kwarter Zip is currently on a mini-tour, hitting Pittsburgh, Dayton, and Chicago through April, too. To keep up with them, you can follow them on Instagram at @kwarter.zip and their profile on bandcamp.
Featured Image courtesy of Kwarter Zip Instagram