You’ve lived in New York, Vancouver and San Francisco - did these specific cities influence your music at all?

Absolutely, I think it was crucial to my growth as a musician (and person) to move around. I was only 18 when I moved to New York and I spent so much time being a wallflower by playing in other people’s bands. At that time I was constantly going to shows and in awe of all the people around me who had their sh*t figured out already; I felt like I didn’t know what I had to contribute yet. When I got to Vancouver I would practice constantly and write songs almost every night, and my bandmates in Vancouver gave me so much confidence in what I was doing. I think I really came out of my shell out there because I felt liberated by the prospect of my anonymity and being able to re-invent myself as a more outgoing version of me.  By the time I got to the Bay, locking in the band’s new line-up felt really natural, and playing/starting to write with Alex and Miles  really helped mold our sound. I really love going through the writing process with them, we all feel really comfortable around each other which is so important! Gotta know you can fall on your face in front of your bandmates and brush yourself off and laugh about it together. 

The lead and only real single off your self-titled album is called “No Mutuals” - do you have any hot takes on social media in 2021 and how that applies to being in a band?

I had an incredibly frustrating experience before we released the album with an old roommate who also played in a band (i’m hardcore paraphrasing here) “I looked y’all up on spotify to do a clout check but I didn’t see anything” I don’t know if my eyes have ever wanted to roll harder. I struggled with feeling like I wasn’t a “real” musician for so long because the band existed primarily as a live band and we had no way for people to trace us online. It felt like if we didn’t have a presence online we weren’t a real band. But that’s BS because it takes time and money and serious skills to make a record, and not everyone has access to those resources. I didn’t have a computer until very recently, and it took so many false starts to make the record happen. Anyway, social media can suck your soul out of your body if you let it and it’s so important to not measure your success or self worth around it. My hot take is social media is a demon that I allow to come into my house everyday... as long as it takes off it’s shoes.

A lot of the lyrical content of your music positions itself in the kind of apathetic yet brutally honest tone of voice that seems to be a prevalent vantage point of self expression these days.  Do you feel like putting it to music is a form of catharsis in a way that others might tweet their feelings on the internet?

Absolutely. It feels SO good to sing about shitty things. Most of the lyrics are also laced with a lot of humor because that’s my way of coping. Plus my shadow self loves the idea that a couple people might be shaking in their boots knowing that some lyric is about them. Not in a totally vindictive way. What I mean is even though I was put through the ringer emotionally, it leverages me into the position of power at the end of the day; a much better feeling than whatever caused me to write the song.

FAKE FRUIT
MIX

Dual vocals appear on multiple songs of the record.  What made you specifically select these songs to emphasize this counterpoint?

We wrote the songs with dual vocals as a band (and No Mutuals)! The other 8 songs were songs I  wrote alone and carried with me between cities. I think some more dual vocals should be expected on our next record because we’ll be writing more of the songs collaboratively which I really enjoy. 

What does guitar music in 2021 mean to you?  

It means the same thing it always has to us, just as exciting as it was when we were teenagers. It seems like there’s more freedom and boundaries to be broken in guitar music now than ever. It lends itself to players of all styles and abilities, from the most technical and melodic to the most raw and disjointed players. -Alex + Ham

Tell us more about the recording process/inspiration behind this new track! 

We recorded this smack dab in the middle of the pandemic, so we had to learn how to remotely record. Our angel guitar player Alex orchestrated most of it by getting our practice space all set up for recording, and engineering each of our separate recording sessions. There was definitely a bit of a learning curve because even when we made our album we all recorded together live in the room, so this was the first time we all had to play alone. When the first version of the song came together it sounded like a different band covering our own song. So funny, we all had red light fever and no bandmate energy to feed off of so it sounded pretty skimpy. We went back and re-recorded both guitars and the drums again and thank god it sounded like our band playing our song again!! This whole song is a metaphor, I don’t often write like that but it came together really quickly. I brought a verse in to show everyone and the rest of the song and words came together in that practice. This was definitely one of those scarily effortlessly written songs.

Any under the radar musical peers we need to know?  

We are lucky to be friends with so many sick bands! Some of our favorites are: Pardoner, Blues Lawyer, Freak No Hitter, Naked Roommate, Necking, Half Stack, Dumb, Gilt Head, Luvgoon, Maraudeur, Flex TMG. 

What’s special about the mix you’ve made?

What’s special about it are the people on it, some of our dearest sweetest friends and also some people we’ve never met that we think are really cool. Mostly stays in the post punk zone and we honed in on new music. 

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