In Conversation: Study Break

The indie rock band Study Break from Austin, Texas, sat down with Slipfast to discuss the release of their EP Eastern Approaches, as well as the formation of the band, the songwriting process, and upcoming events. 

Written by Kayla Barnak

Photographed by Mckenna Sefick

Study Break, made up of Max Kinser (vocals and guitar), AB Brown (vocals and guitar), Nevin Varghese (vocals and bass), and Layton Thacker (drums), released their debut EP, Eastern Approaches, on November 7, 2025. The five-track playlist of songs showcases the band’s talents, as well as their sound.   

How did you guys meet and decide you wanted to form a band? 

Varghese: It was last December, and we were in this apartment. It was late, and Max had the idea to get all our musically inclined friends in one room, and we’d play Christmas music and have a holiday night. We left that being like… it wouldn’t be too hard to actually get together and make music consistently, between us three (Kinser, Varghese, and Thacker). After we got back from break, I got a bass, Layton got drums, and Max had his guitar here already. Later on, AB joined us because we needed a guitarist. 

Brown: Yeah, I joined in August!

That’s so cool! What was your guys’ creative process like for the EP, and how do you decide when working together in choosing parts of each song? 

Thacker: It’s very fluid. We’ve never had a concrete method of how we write songs or how it comes about. Sometimes we’ll find a melody that sounds really nice and we build something off of it, and if it goes somewhere, we keep going. A line comes to mind… like that could be cool to sing and then write a song out of it. It’s never one consistent method. So for the EP, I think it was very much like if we have an idea, follow it as far as we can, and if it turns out to be something cool, we keep going. If not, so what? There was no rule book for how to do it. We were all figuring out how to write songs together. 

Speaking of the song “Tough Cookie,” when you guys were creating/shooting the music video, how did you come up with the video’s concept? 

Kinser: I came up with the base idea, which was [that] I really wanted Layton to be messing up karaoke night. I don’t know why that came to my mind, but then our manager, Ana, she also really helped flesh out the idea, and then she directed it as well. I’d say a lot of the “Tough Cookie” music video had to do with the little team that worked on it, which was Ana and our friends Jose and Kenobi. I think the idea of “Tough Cookie” is someone that is innately destructive, but they don’t know any better. I wanted to portray that through Layton. 

I love the title of the EP Eastern Approaches. How did you guys come up with the name? Was there anything specific that inspired it? 

Thacker: That was all Max.

Kinser: This summer, when we were workshopping names and working through ideas, I found Eastern Approaches, which is a World War II book by Fitzroy McLean. It’s about how he was a super spy during World War II, and he would travel around. I thought it was a cool two words, but then we thought it kind of portrayed how we felt doing this, which is like being a super spy in a room that you’re not supposed to be in, but you pretend you’re supposed to be there, at least to your damnedest. Kind of how we felt about music… like imposter syndrome. 

How did the tracklist come together? 

Varghese: I’d say it’s similar to designing a setlist now. You want the energy to flow; you don’t want it to be all high-energy ones and then end on a slow note. We knew we wanted “Drive” in the middle and “Tough Cookie” at the end. For “Sunspots,” the bird sounds in the beginning were a voice memo off of Layton’s phone from Pease Park here in Austin. We wanted that to be the first sound people hear. So then “Singing Lessons” made sense as the second [track] because [it’s] pleasing and easy to hear, and then “Picturesque” towards the end. 

So cool! Do you guys have any more music videos that you are planning on making for the EP? 

Thacker: Yes, we’ve been working with one of our friends on a class assignment for a music production class. Part of that was finding a local band and doing song promotion, social media, and finally doing a music video. We just finished shooting a music video for one of our songs that’ll come out sometime soon. 

Kinser: We also have a music video shot for “Singing Lessons” [...].

Brown: Oh yeah, I love it. It’s really well shot, and it feels very professional. It was kind of surreal. 

Thacker: We got very lucky to be surrounded by really good people at what they do, and we kind of stumbled into it. 

Any upcoming performances or appearances you guys have?

Brown: Yes, we’re playing at Stubb’s Indoor on Sunday (Nov 16), which is a huge milestone for us. We started in the backyard of somebody’s house with a bunch of crappy amps, and it was truly the worst set-up you could possibly have, and now we’re playing at Stubb’s, which is so cool in such a short time and only just a couple months. I’m really appreciative of how much our manager helped to work towards this.