When the First Take Is the Truth: Reginiano on “Drink With Me”
Punk Head: You describe first hearing Lionel’s voice as a moment of clarity - almost like being pulled toward a place. What was it about that voice that felt like home to you?
Reginiano: It’s the mix of his incredible breath and vocal control with a voice that feels completely his own. Lionel is a strange, singular character, someone who seems to inhabit his own world. When he sings, it feels like being drawn inward—slowly into his world.
Punk Head: This song seems to sit right at a life threshold: between personal expansion and renewed responsibility. How did becoming a parent again reshape the emotional weight of the writing?
Reginiano: I wrote this song while my wife was pregnant with our third child, and it comes from a moment where many emotions existed at once- fear, excitement, sadness, and happiness all overlapping.
There was a sense of wanting to expand outward again, to breathe, to make an impact on the world, just as my daughters were growing older and life was beginning to open up.
Then the third child arrived, and with that came a feeling of being pulled back into responsibility.
The song captures my process of coming to terms with that shift—moving from resistance toward acceptance.
Punk Head: The fact that the first rehearsal phone recording became the emotional blueprint is striking. What did that raw take contain that you were afraid to lose?
Reginiano: After I taught the song to Lionel, we had a conversation where I shared my feelings behind the writing, and at the same time, he was going through something personal in his own life.
All of that came together in our performance. Already at the first rehearsal, we recorded the song on a phone, and what came out of it was a real “wow” moment.
I later orchestrated the song for woodwinds and strings based on that recording, so the final version could preserve the natural dynamics between Lionel and me - the way we instinctively played together in that first encounter.
Punk Head: There’s a lot of space in this song: space to breathe, to hesitate, to listen. Was restraint something you consciously worked toward, or did the song demand it?
Reginiano: When I work on one of my songs, the emotional core is usually very clear to me.
From there, it’s simply about conveying those feelings as truthfully as possible.
The arrangement is really just an echo of those emotions.
I’ve always loved space in music—it allows room to feel and imagine.
In that sense, the song didn’t need to be restrained; it naturally asked for that openness.
Punk Head: You’ve spoken about writing around people rather than placing them into forms. How did that philosophy shape the way you worked with Lionel specifically?
Reginiano: I initially composed the song with Lionel’s voice in mind.
It’s not a song I could perform well myself as a singer, but I could always hear him in it.
The lyrics are entirely my story, while the melody comes from imagining Lionel—his range, his tone, the way he inhabits a song.
When it came to recording, my main task was simply to make him feel as comfortable and connected as possible, so he could fully be himself inside the music.
