Written by Shea Roney

The story of how Ivy began was, in sorts, ideal to their DIY success. And the story of Ivy’s ending is equally as telling to the strength and depth of their legacy as a band. Consisting of Dominique Durand, Andy Chase and Adam Schlesinger, the trio defined a particular type of underground music that was both accessible and artistically compelling.  With the passing of Schlesinger in 2020, Chase and Durand have come back to their early catalog, reissuing their 1997 album Apartment Life (as well as its demos) on vinyl. Now their 1995 debut full length, Realistic, is getting the vinyl treatment off of Bar/None records as well. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Chase and Durand, talking about the early days of the band, the processing years after the loss of Schlesinger, and finally coming full circle on the Ivy project. 

In 1991, Chase posted an ad in The Village Voice, looking for like-minded musicians to form a band, in which Schlesinger responded. Dominique Durand, a native to France, moved to New York to study English, where she met Chase. Soon, Durand and Chase developed a relationship, eventually marrying down the line. With no intention of performing, or even singing for that matter, Schlesinger and Chase convinced Durand to sing on some demos and Ivy was formed. Putting out their first EP, Lately, in 1994, “we were just the three of us. Me, Dominique and Adam, just logging it away and figuring things out in my little semi professional recording studio”, Chase says with a clear excitement reflecting on the innocence of the early days. 

Quickly becoming a close group of friends, Ivy was a place of learning and developing in real time. “I think the innocence was real”, recalls Durand. “First of all, we were beginners. We were not very professional and really had no idea what we were doing. We were in the learning process and every step was so exciting”. In regards to all three members, it was an experience of learning new instruments, building production techniques, and even just learning how to function as a band in general. “When you’re in your twenties, like we were, every week in the recording studio was like, ‘Oh, my God! I can’t believe how much better we are,’” Chase says animatedly. “And we didn’t have those ‘Oh my God!’ moments in our later records as much as we did on Realistic. We were really going from, I guess, infancy to adulthood,” he finishes.

Having signed to Seed Records for the Lately EP and the debut LP, Realistic, the band handed off some of their creative liberty, something that they worked so hard on developing themselves. “Realistic was like the perfect storm for us to ensure that the rest of our career we would do it ourselves,” Chase recalls. Determined to this DIY approach, the three became an indisputably well structured unit. “I think, in our DNA. The three of us were very autonomous minded,” Chase adds. Working to craft a relationship in which creative disputes were democratically handled, ideas were graciously heard and the process was true and patient, Ivy’s structural strength shined through their musical ventures. “In a way we just love to be able to do everything, because I think we really love each element of making a record,” Durand says. 

When it came to an Ivy album, you would just find the band Ivy as the fully credited songwriters. When asked how the creative process was divided, Chase shared, with regards to his and Schlesinger’s other bands, “clearly there was a filter that any idea would go through that was so powerful, that it was unrepeatable outside of Ivy. So the easiest way to credit that alchemy was to just say all songs written by the three of us”. In a move that has been found fatal in many bands, Ivy thrived in this shared creative involvement as Durand says, “because we are three very strong minded people, we had arguments, but always in good spirits. And at the end, you know, we always ended up compromising in a way that was fair and okay with everyone”.

As Schlesinger’s other band, Fountains of Wayne, as well as his commercial success in movie soundtracks began to take off, Ivy always remained a constant in his busy life. Although finding success in their sophomore album, Apartment Life, as well as having a song in a Volkswagen commercial and in the 1998 film, Something About Mary, Ivy never reached that heightened commercial success. “I think with Ivy, he didn’t have to think in terms of ‘is this gonna be a huge commercial band’, because we didn’t sound like that,” Durand recalls. “And so, in a way, with us, he was more relaxed, and he was really more focused on just being more creative in terms of production arrangements and writing. I think he needed that in his life”, she finishes while Chase adds, “it’s like coming home”. 

Schlesinger’s passing in 2020 due to COVID-19 was a shock and a huge loss to the music world. But to Durand and Chase, it was more than losing a bandmate and a contemporary. Schlesinger was part of the family. As the private people they are, it wasn’t until some time had passed that Durand and Chase released a tribute video. With intimate home footage of Schlesinger in the studio, critiquing Chase’s choice of sweaters, playing guitar in a freezing apartment, and gag after gag on stage, Durand and Chase crafted a meaningful and personal celebration of life and contribution that he had shared with the world. “It took us a year and a half at least, to even publicly comment in any way,” Chase admits. “And [the tribute video] was our way of publicly commenting”.

Around the same time of Schlesinger’s passing, Ivy’s record label, Network Records, called up to tell them that their fifteen year contract had expired and they now owned all of their master tapes. With this new possession, the band held years of demos, voice breaks, and multi-tracks of their music; all relics of their late friend. Taking a contemplative pause, Durand shares, “after [Adam’s] death, for at least a year and a half we couldn’t even listen to [the masters]. We couldn’t even think or do anything about it. It was our own personal mourning”.

As time passed and mourning turned to reminiscing, Durand had an idea to reconnect with Mark Lipsitz, the man who first signed them to Seed Records back in 1994, giving the band their first shot at success. Now working at Bar/None Records, a personal excitement for the New York indie musicians, Lipsitz graciously took them on with plans of fully reissuing their early projects on vinyl for the first time. But that would mean listening to the hours worth of tapes and demos that the two have avoided for so long.

When asked in what way these master tapes affected their recovery process, Chase quickly says, “if you always appreciated somebody, and then they’re gone forever, you can’t help but to delve back into what those things were that you appreciated [about them]. And then you discover all over again how vast it was”. Each taking turns to share their favorite moment re-lived within these recordings, it was clear that this reissuing process has become a unique source of healing for the two of them. And as it goes, remembrance becomes an opportunity to find comfort and closure. “It’s not painful anymore. It’s actually really joyful. I love hearing his voice. I love thinking about him. I love remembering him,” Durand shares. 

Ivy is one of those bands that has transcended the 90s, avoiding that unsavory time stamp given to decade defining acts. With a sound that is both breathy and expansive as well as tight and articulate, the band defied pop rules; a point to which a lot of groups these days seem to still be capturing that Ivy influence. Although unsure to what extent the Ivy project will continue past this point, their musical contributions are attested to how definitive and essential the group has been to underground music. As Durand and Chase prepare for the reissue of Realistic, there comes a comfortable book end to this significant group. “So it gives us that closure. We started our career with Mark and now we’re ending the Ivy story (in a way) with Mark,” Chase discloses. “It ended up being a beautiful story, because it really felt like we were going back to the roots,” Durand adds. “Here we lost a member, but we are going back to the person who discovered us. It sort of made sense to us. To feel like we are, you know, not reborn, but it’s making sense emotionally”.

You can support Ivy at bandcamp