Plucked like a band of outsiders from broken bands and transatlantic flights comes your new favorite band, The Hotcakes. Over the past few years this musical foursome has been garnering some major buzz with their unique sound, one part classic rock and roll, the other dance-worthy neo-disco. Consisting of Lee Leshen on drums, Matt Stamm on keys, and Kevin Snider as bassist, the band is led by captivating vocalist and Blondie throwback Erin Marsz. With their new EP, Gonna Go Out, set for release at NYC’s Arelene’s Grocery this Saturday night, we caught up with Erin to chat about what sets the Hotcakes apart, the thrill of live performance, and their mission to bring raucous New York rock back to the stage.

How would you define yourself as a band? We have a vintage sound akin to Blondie but we also have No Doubt kind of flavor, which was something I would have originally not admitted to but...not that I don’t like them, I just never really thought that but we’ve heard that a lot. I think that probably has to do with the high energy too in our shows and we’re just a rock band that’s a little bit dancey-we like to get down. So we’ve got a little of that rock and roll throw back.

What sets The Hotcakes apart from other new bands? One of the things that’s different about our sound is that we’re a little bit more aggressive and not as disco as bands like Blondie. We have certain elements that are different-myself as a vocalist, I have more of a chest voice. I’m not of a gutty singer, I’m pulling it from the deep down, I’m digging it that way. I’m not as light and lyrical in that sense.

Who were some of your personal influences as well as the bands? My personal influences are Debbie Harry and Dusty Springfield is actually a huge influence for me as a singer. For the band as a whole, I would feel like some of those influences are...well, Blondie again but it’s one those things where we all have our own influences, I think that’s part of the way we have our sound-we all listen to such different types of music. I think at the same time what brings us all together is this love of pop music and maybe Bon Jovi and writing songs ad performing songs, that maybe one day you can walk into a bar and everybody’s like, “Woah, we’re halfway there, living on a prayer.” You know what I mean? That kind of feel to it.

Do you find it difficult with everyone’s different music styles to create one cohesive sound? Yes and no. The thing with any band, the longer that you play together and work together, you really develop your own sound and you kind of develop an ear for what’s going to work with what the other people are doing as well. It’s kind of an environment where we’re working off of each other so it’s also going to be a longer process.

The band has undergone some bandmate changes since you’ve started, would you say the band is an ever-evolving project? The core of the band has stayed the same but sometimes a member will decide that it isn’t for them anymore or they want to move to Europe and you just have to respect their choice as an artist and move on from there. In a way it’s always helped us. I feel like when you listen to our first EP and you listen to the EP we’re about to release, you can hear a huge shift in the sound.

What’s that shift? Us coming together more as a band and having more time together, working on things together, just time to evolve.

What do you love most about performing? One of the things I love about performing is that every performance is going to be 100% different than the last performance. That’s the one thing you can count on is that there’s nothing to count on. You can be as prepared as you want but then you come out on stage and the audience is different, the venue is different, it’s a different day, it’s a different time-there’s all these factors to really come into play and it really pulls you to really reach your peak as a performer. I do it because I love performing, I love the challenge of it.

Do you have any favorite tracks on the new EP? My favorite track is “Lucky Girl.” I wrote all the songs but that one I particularly like because I think it really speaks to how I feel about the band. When I was a little kid all I wanted to do was be in a band and there’s a lot of moments where it’s not exactly what you think it’s going to be but every time I’m on the stage with the band, and I’m sitting there, I just take a moment and reflect and feel incredibly lucky that I have that opportunity. It’s something that I’ve always wanted for so long so that song is something that’s really special for me.

What’s next for the Hotcakes? Next up is releasing this EP, touring to support it in the North East, possibly going to South by Southwest, and just taking this next year to record a second EP that we have all the songs for, we’ve just been trying to space them out because they’re a little more rock and roll in nature whereas this one is more of a dance party EP.