Every Wednesday, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week we have a collection of songs put together by Chicago-based artist Carter Ward.
The beings that live in a Carter Ward song are filled with a deliberate sense of belonging, playing with a type of storytelling that feels immediate, scrappy and incredibly sincere as they take shape in their own little worlds. With his rich instrumental voicings, tinkerings that become fixations in his stories, each CW track ripples in the immediate pond that we all wade through; reactionary to the minor moments, the disorder, the celebrations, the heartbreak, the moments we work towards and the pieces of us that have fallen behind all become a reflection point of immunity and community. Although his last official release was 2023’s Try Again, a collection that lingers in our ears with each melodic infatuation, each conscious sound that breaks the facade, brimming with a type of casualty that is both compassionate and committed, Carter is continuously looking ahead at what is next.
Listen to Carter’s playlist here!
You can listen to Carter Ward everywhere you find music! Check out his latest album Try Again or catch him playing lead guitar in Chicago’s own Girly Pants.
Written by Shea Roney | Photo Courtesy of Carter Ward
There is something innately natural about a Lisa/Liza song, the project of Portland, Maine based artist, Liza Victoria, whose self-made path of intimate folk music has been creating a presence where much often goes unnoticed in this fast paced world. In 2023, Victoria released Breaking and Mending, an enduring collection of songs that grew from grief and found a home amongst an extensive and true journey of healing. But last week, Lisa/Liza shared Ocean Path, an EP consisting of some of her earliest recordings she made in her teens and early twenties, now put directly on tape via Chicago’s Orindal Records. Although these songs were pocketed for years, serving as a measure of time for Victoria, in its own way, Ocean Path was always meant to be shared with the world, it just needed to feel like the right moment.
The basis of Victoria’s intuitive storytelling lies within her guitar playing, where thought and feeling almost become a deliberation of a moment – transparent in the motion of feelings and capturing the environment entirely in which it was recorded in. Often tracked in open spaces, such as her kitchen or backyard, these songs fit just right in those places we deem as safe for our own being. “Summer Dust”, the opening track, plays with that same meaning of intimate stillness, the acute pieces of collective thoughts, mental dust, that begin to build when left alone for some time. “Love for two-becoming / Love for yourself / finally running through you”, Victoria sings with such acching care, sometimes almost to a whisper, as if saying it loud enough for only her to hear it. “Gamble”, one of Victoria’s earliest recordings, is a story of nature and nurture, following our inherent need for connection, and the responsibility we feel to offer it to others. “Gamble, my Father’s dog, was born in a mountain fog / Followed me through the dark, Searching for the dawn”, she sings through a striking progression of stunning vocals and vivid imagery.
There are also many ghosts that we haven’t been introduced to yet that align on “Shark Teeth” and “Then You Shall See”, bidding for their piece to be heard before going off to complete their other ghostly tasks. The word ‘haunting’ holds an authentic meaning when writing about Victoria’s work, where it often feels to be tapping into the presence of a soul which lives amongst these delicate and intrinsic soundscapes. But whatever that soul may be, whatever we feel it represents, it’s not there to cause alarm on this earthly plane, but rather to make that connection between what we see and what we feel – being that direct line between a deep longing and a deep understanding of our own place in this world.
Ocean Path is a remarkable sense of self, tracking a linear path of growth that can often be hard to visualize when you are the one laying the groundwork. These songs aren’t immediate, but it’s in the trust that Victoria has always held true to her artistry that is representative of a journey you take on your own time. It’s the dirty fingernails, the layer of dust, and a broom in the corner that becomes such a personalization of storytelling from Lisa/Liza, yet has always been beautifully universal to those who are welcomed in. As the project is now getting the chance to be shared with others, it’s best said in Victoria’s own words, “this cassette leads down paths of memory, reminding me we are always becoming and growing into who we are and what will be.”
You can listen to Ocean Path out everywhere now as well as order a limited edition cassette tape via Orindal Records.
Montana’s latest addition to the summer heat comes from the newly formed group Les Duck, who are sharing their debut single “Head Fell Off” with us all today. Coming from the pop-driven minds of Lukas Phelan (Fantasy Suite) and Sanders Smith (Soft Maybe, Wrinkles), this track is the first bit of taste-testing from Les Duck’s debut album “Love Is The Dirt” set to be released August 29th via Anything Bagel, bringing in a collection of players who embody the likings of “fast cars, loud guitars, family and friendship.”
From the daydreams that take the reins in a moment of stillness, “Head Fell Off” finds sincerity in the off-kiltered melodic fixings that Les Duck take for a joy ride with both pure excitement and full commitment. It’s a riveting collection of thoughts, unhindered by any expectations of structure or rules, where Phelan lays the dots and the sprightly instrumental voices connect em. “When my head falls off, what will they say about me? “what a fool” they will say, “though he was nice,” Phelan sings, while the track begins to unravel with charm-filled possibilities, instinctive foot tapping and a reminder that there is a bit of Timothee Chalamet in all of us.
About the single, Phelan shared, “this is a song I wrote on a walk by the river while my kids were being real wacky and getting into trouble. I guess it’s a song about feeling like a different person than the person I was before I was a parent, or at least a dumber and more scattered person. Also pondering what legacy and artistic expression means for me now that I’m like that. Not complaining though, I love it!”
Listen to “Head Fell Off” here!
You can pre-order “Love Is The Dirt” now as well as on vinyl and/or one of the Bagel’s specialty screen printed tape.
Mila Moon has always been a project that decomposes any sense of formulation, grifting amongst Isabella Feraca’s innate intuition and maturing senses. Beginning as a solo project back in 2021, finding solace in the new sounds that she would create on a whim, Mila Moon has since found new meaning in her life. And as of a few weeks ago, Mila Moon shared “In Transit”, the fourth album from the Pittsburgh-based songwriter, finding the project coming into full harvest as Feraca continues to define the space it occupies as something more reflective of where she is now.
“In Transit” becomes a vehicle in and of itself, trekking through soundscapes of genre-bending fascinations, as Feraca makes thoughts and goals feel like destinations to be met and explored. As a listener, we are taken along for the ride, accompanying the various new routes that Mila Moon travels down; finding the alt-country nods of “why” and “less” play out like familiar landmarks, while the electronic backbone of “Reprise” becomes a scenic route to the more hearty and boisterous guitar work of songs like “Bored” and “Drive Through”. It’s an album that beams with confidence as In Transit also finds Feraca bringing in a few collaborators, including a duet from Chicago’s Henry Tartt of Memory Card on the opening track “The Half”.
We recently got to catch up with Feraca to discuss the heart of In Transit, the practice of writing a ‘song’, and continuing to grow with Mila Moon.
This album has been edited for length and clarity.
So it’s now been a few months with In Transit out there. How are you feeling about it all? How’s it sticking with you?
I feel really good about that album. We’re preparing for a few shows and finally playing some of those songs live. I feel really good about the feedback that people have given me, and I’m excited to keep going in that direction and write more.
This album definitely feels like you’re really coming into this project with a lot of confidence, like exploring different sonic avenues or bringing in a few collaborators. What aspects of making this album are reflective of where you’re at in your life, both personally and as an artist, too?
Well, bringing in collaborators is definitely reflective of my life creatively. Before this record, I was trying to do everything myself. I don’t know why, I guess I had an image of how I wanted things to sound, and I really just wanted to do it myself. But for this record, I wanted to break out of that because I became aware of the limitations that exist in doing it that way. So, at this point in my creative life, I was trying to work on that and bring in other collaborators so I could go outside of those limitations and just make a better project overall. Personally, I just feel like I’ve been moving between different locations and spaces, in transit literally [laughs]. That’s what a lot of the record is about. It’s about literally physically being on trains and planes, and then also feeling that way mentally and emotionally as well.
So you had a clear vision for this project, so when it came to discovering your own limitations creatively, was that something that was easy for you to accept?
I mean, it took a couple of projects, but it’s hard to say. I guess part of why I was not really looking to collaborate that much is because a lot of the records were being recorded in my room whenever I had a chance. I didn’t like sitting on songs that much, so I would just record everything in one take. For this album I sat on songs and showed them to people and got input and recorded demos and then took in other people as well. It did take a little bit to accept, but it was more just looking to approach this project completely differently.
What sort of things did you want to approach differently?
Definitely the songwriting aspect. I feel like on previous records, I wasn’t really writing full songs, just music. But this time I was looking to write songs that could be recorded and reproduced. It was more trying to write the actual song, and maybe just recording a simple demo, and then coming back to it and figuring out how I want the final recording to sound.
It’s a very expansive collection of sounds, exploring bits of alt-country, some electro, methodical interludes, and really just more boisterous guitar work than your previous work. What things did you find yourself wanting to explore more sonically, and what new avenues were you finding comfort in that you explored?
I was definitely wanting to explore the alt-country sound. A lot of Wilco, Frog, Neil Young, and all of that. I’ve gotten to a point where I really like that sound and I like how it suits me. A lot of times my music takes shape in what I’m really into. So that’s probably why I did find comfort in that. And as I’ve started writing other new music, I’ve been exploring different sounds on different projects. But I’ve definitely found comfort in these new things, and it’s something that I want to pursue going forward.
As you said earlier, being more comfortable sitting with these songs longer, did that spark any of the different avenues that you explored, and maybe wouldn’t have originally thought to go down before?
I can remember writing a song, sitting with it, and then later, coming back to it and adding something crazy to it. Like that song “Reprise”, the last bit of it is this really insane electronic stuff that I was just playing with. I was sitting on that song for a while, and I re-recorded it like three times. I just really liked the chord progression. It’s a reprise of the second song on the album, “Scratch”. I was really unsure of how to finish it and make it exciting. But that song is definitely a product of sitting with it longer.
Does it feel finished to you now that it’s got a new life to it?
Honestly, yeah. When I added that part, I was like, ‘this is it’ [laughs]. I thought it was fun, and a lot of this album was just me trying to have fun and to play with it a little bit, just not take it too seriously.
Does it feel like you accomplished that?
Definitely. I feel like it’s a really good mix of playfulness and also seriousness.
I know the instrumentals of a Mila Moon project are very crucial, where the lyrics weren’t necessarily your biggest priority when you were first starting to write. Do you find yourself putting more weight on the lyrics that you write now to accompany these instrumentals?
Definitely. I think that goes with what I was saying about trying to write songs, where a lot of them started out with either just words or me on the guitar, just really simple bare bones stuff. Whereas Prior, when I wasn’t really focusing on the lyrics, it would be a lot more about recording an instrumental that I really liked, and then just adding words that sounded good to it. So this time there’s a lot more weight on the lyrics and just making them cohesive songs.
With the idea of being in transit a lot, what stories did you want to get across when pairing your focus of instrumentals and newfound focus of lyricism on this record?
A lot of the stories are about movement. There’s a lot of songs about me riding the train from my house here in New Jersey to New York. I was just on the train a lot, and it would be this bridge between here and the things happening there that were also in my life. It’s kind of a mosaic of different stories of my life from the past year or so. It’s not a concept album or anything, but more just pieces of things that were happening. But I was really focused on trying to translate things from my life into a song, rather than the more abstract lyrics that I was writing before.
Okay, so you’re in New Jersey now?
I go to school in Pittsburgh, which is usually where I’m based. But I’m home right now in New Jersey and every time I’m in New Jersey I’m going into the city for various things.
Do you feel settled at all? I know you’re still moving around, but with this album out, are you feeling settled as a project, or just where you’re at?
Honestly, yeah. I think before, I wasn’t really sure of what direction to take. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to keep the Mila Moon project, or just abandon it because it’s so old. I started it when I was 16, and it’s just taken so many different forms that sometimes I don’t even know if I want to keep with this or just start something else. But I think with this record, especially with the love that it’s gotten, I’m going to keep going in this direction and see what happens.
I understand wanting some distance from something you made when you were 16. So how did this album help you get over that hesitation and decide to keep the name?
Mila Moon has sort of become less of my alter ego and more of a project that incorporates other people, which is what this album was about. I think that helped me to grow into it more. And having my friends who are in the band really embrace the name has really helped me feel more attached to it, and just feel better about what it is, and less of my 16-year-old alter ego. It’s become more of a project that’s growing and putting out records that I’m proud of.
You can listen to In Transit and all other Mila Moon projects out everywhere now!
Written by Shea Roney | Photos Courtesy of Mila Moon
Every Wednesday, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week we have a dj mix put together by San Diego-based project Kan Kan.
Kan Kan revels in the scruffy intermediates; a type of rock n roll that’s not one to weigh the empathetic with the obscure, but to be the one fighting the revolution through community hubs, interior plots and definitive charm as the band has so seamlessly blended the two together. Playing to the lackluster scribes that float through their day-to-days with holy prowess, Kan Kan makes any type of formality a bit sweaty and finds engagement a bit bolder when their altruistic form of guitar rock hits its audience. As a three piece, Kallen, Joe and Cameron, Kan Kan released their last bit of music in 2024, an EP called two thousand and whatever. But as they push on, Kan Kan continues to play show after show, finding space beyond their home of San Diego, and becoming a conversational piece, a connecting thread when this band is brought up, “oh, yeah, Kan Kan? They rip.”
About the mix, Kan Kan shares;
This is a mix of selections by the band. Some to dance to, some of joes hidden YouTube gems, I also tried to pick songs of our friends that have been a constant source of peace in these dark times.
Madrone, Californias oldest friendship over everything band new album “Eponymous Debut Masterpiece” is out now.
Oldstar on tour last summer in Detroit in a dingy old bottle club. These young chaps just might save rock n roll
Crush23, Kellan and Joe also play in this band. a super group live band now of sorts.
threw in an unreleased Outwest song called “Cameron says” produced by Kraus. plus ! a new Kan Kan song “she goes by another name” mixed and mastered by Will and Jack Kraus ! Out soon on a 7inch split with Pocket Full of Crumbs out on Cherub Dream Records!!
Track listing
Monitors – Madrone Blushin (not!) – Charles The Durutti Column on the review show On The Way Home (Neil Young) – covered by David Roback Upstairs (212) – First Day Back The Mixer – The Fall Spring – Edaline How About Hero – Kelley Deal 6000 York Blvd – Acetone Skyskrape – Idaho Vivea – Ariel M Self Ignition – Silver Jews chairs in the backyard with Parke – Kan Kan Wallflower – Bob Dylan Pop Song/She Liked Horses – Oldstar “Broken Hearted At The Bottle Club” Live In Detroit (2024) Silver Shoes – Ampersand She Goes by Another Name – Kan Kan Locket – Crush23 Twins – Calla Ward Any Day – Bizarre Anyones Style – Daisies Slowfire – Sciflyer Can’t be Bothered – Idle County To Be Rich Should Be a Crime – Cola Boyy Cameron Says – Outwest Four – Elm
Listen to Kan Kan’s mix here !
Listen to all things Kan Kan everywhere now!
Written by Shea Roney | Featured Photo Courtesy of Kan Kan
The discography of People I Love boasts potential for an excellent horror movie score. Not so necessarily a grotesque blockbuster (though I would love to hear “Holyness” in Smile 2), perhaps more of an emotionally abstract, artsy thriller. The kind of film where the real “horror” is not derived from cheesy SFX or supernatural antagonists that cease to exist when the credits roll, and instead through the realistic, human characters it features. His latest single might present like the latter (though I suppose that hinges on whether you believe in witchcraft), though underneath halloween emblems and mildly sinister cover art is a track that fits perfectly into his raw and sensible discography. Out today, “The Witch” toes between warmth and melancholy as it begs the question of what is more terrifying; the fact that someone hurt you, or the fact that you let them.
Brooklyn based Dan Poppa has been releasing music under People I Love since 2019. He usually keeps his canvases minimal, eliciting tension through wilting chord progressions and airy layers of organic and eerie synthetic sound. There is a heaviness amidst his sparsest arrangements, armed with sneakily contagious melodies and introspections that scrape deeper upon each listen.
At first, “The Witch” appears less fragile than People I Love’s 2024 releases. There is a volatile feel to Poppa’s vocals, which often assume a more tender and withering shape. It also builds up fairly quickly, as the early reserved guitar and thin percussion bleed into a fuller sonic atmosphere just after the one minute mark. The motifs from the beginning of the song return, offering an unsettling intermission between charged pleas of “are you a friend or you just a witch” and chipping away at a facade paved by animated melodies and moments of upbeat tempo. Though the tone of “The Witch” is murky, bending between skepticism and clarity, the track’s catchy nature is irrefutable. You can listen below.
Today, the Chicago-based duo Hell Trash is sharing with the world their ecstatic new single “Violence”. Hell Trash members, Rowan and Noah Roth have been formative members of the Chicago DIY scene, occupying countless bills, participating in other projects, and continuously finding new ways to share their unique creative voices through different avenues. But with little music released thus far, “Violence” becomes a culmination of time, exposure and spirit as the duo marks a new beginning for Hell Trash at large.
From the get-go, “Violence” is attuned to its unfamiliarity – switching from the often guitar-forward landscapes that they have covered in the past, to amalgamations of electric pianos, horns and an infinitive grove, as the track explodes into horizontal momentum built out from uncharted territory. But as the project becomes more solidified in its ambitions and practices, there is an already well affirmed structure of trust in the directions that Hell Trash choose to follow. Soon the song pushes on; “I make you violent, cause it feels good in your mind”, is a searing line, sung in harmony as the duo almost eggs on the explosive instrumentation that takes the reigns. As “Violence” begins to prove itself, its buoyant complexion becomes entrenched within the distorted grit and darker undertones of the track, embracing a pluralistic approach to making the music that Hell Trash ultimately wants to make.
About the song, Rowan shares, “I wrote “Violence” at the end of 2021. It was included in the first batch of songs that I brought to Noah when I hired them to engineer and produce a record for me around the same time. Over the course of the next four years, we recorded “Violence” four different times. The first version was an acoustic demo, the second one was based around a Can sample and a vocoder, the third one was basically a straight-ahead alternative rock song, and the fourth version is what we’re putting out into the world. It didn’t end up working until we decided to eschew the guitar as the primary driving force of the song. Instead, we leaned into other sounds that excite us—electric piano, horns, drum machines, etc. Ultimately, making this recording revealed to us that perhaps the most important part of this project’s ethos is the search for a kind of music that sounds new to us.”
Late last month, Darryl Rahn released a pair of singles titled “Silent Acknowledgement” and “There Ain’t You”. As the first bit of new music from the NYC-based songwriter since his previous LP titled Dusk was released back in February of 2024. Those tracks found Rahn both conscious and explorative in the midst of engaging stories, gentle tunes and enduring melodies as he set out to define the sounds, feelings and beings that he takes inspiration from in his day-to-days.
From the very opening, the groove of “Silent Acknowledgement” blows in like a gust of wind, beginning with a gentle sense of commotion as the instrumentation pushes towards the lighthearted melodies that soon follow. With that, Rahn begins to build off of a sense of familiarity, or the lack thereof, as he works out the terms of a friendship now distant. With subtle guitars that sear the soundscape, Rahn’s deliverance remains upfront, blending wit with conviction and irony with what has been assumed so far. “There Ain’t You” slows the pace but doesn’t muddle the experience. Embracing the softer tones in his tool belt, the track becomes fixated on the textures that bring out the tender longing that Rahn can so masterfully create.
But as he continues to look at what’s next, these songs have become a necessity for Rahn, creating a sense of space for him to play with. It’s not the sonic spacing in these songs per say, but rather the space he allows himself to have in his creativity, breaking away from formulation and expectations, and embracing what matters most when it comes to releasing music as a creative motive.
Meeting up with Rahn while he was on tour playing guitar with the Samia band, we got to discuss setting boundaries in his creative practice, what he’s been working on as of late, and the two new singles that he holds so dear.
This interview has been edited for length and purposes
So you put out two singles recently, your first bit of new music since Dusk, which was a little over a year now. How has that album stood with you, and how does it feel to put out new music?
Luckily, I still love that album for what it is, but I think that a couple months after it came out, and this happens every time I make an album, I’m into a totally different sound or approach. I get really tired of whatever I just made. To quickly answer the question, it feels really good to put out something new. But the main reason I did that is because I just finished making a new album with a proper band in a studio, trying to do it all right. It’ll take a couple months to mix and master and get it ready to a place of releasing, but I was just feeling so pent up that I made these two songs at home for fun. I was just thinking, I got nothing else going on right now, I might as well learn how to use my stuff better. And it wasn’t until I finished mixing them that I wanted to put them out right now. It’s very rare that I make something and then immediately have space and time to just put it out and still be excited about it. It was the perfect scenario where I haven’t done anything in a while and I’m not going to do anything for at least a couple more months, so why not just put out these things that I’m having fun with?
With being restless, do you feel like you exhaust these avenues that you take in the recording sessions? Like you said, you get tired with the style and sound of something, but repurposing it as ‘this feels fun, this feels fresh’, was that a new practice for you at all?
At least new as of late. For the past couple times I’ve made an album, I get to a point where I’m not having fun anymore because I’m just so focused on making the best thing I can and trying to perfect it to a fault where I strip the joy out of it. So, after recording this last album, there were a few days in the studio where I felt truly bad and just so caught in thinking about it all wrong. I needed to have fun to keep making music because I can’t keep working this way. The fun was just a necessity – if I don’t start having a good time making music again, there’s no point. So luckily, “Silent Acknowledgement” came to me pretty quickly and it felt different for me in a way where I don’t have a song with this feel. It felt really good to just do it at home and not have to worry about anybody else. Just try to make it myself.
In your writing, you do a lot of balancing expectations in your lyrics; what it means to love and to be loved, where you want your life to be at and where you are now, but also expectations that have exhausted the recording process for you. Have you figured out a way to approach them or hold them differently as you continue to write and continue to put out very personal music?
I’ve always had really high expectations, and over time they’ve changed a lot. Now my only expectation I try to have is just writing the best song I can, and not having any expectations beyond that. Because it’s always going to be wrong, even if it’s good. Even if the outcome is good, it’s never going to be what you think. Nothing has ever been how I expected it to be, and that’s been really good and really hard at times. It’s a blessing and a curse.
And then these two singles, “Solid Acknowledgements” and “There Ain’t You” are a really nice pairing. At their core, there’s this absence, and each song feels like a different way of holding onto that absence. Why did you decide to pair them together?
“Silent Acknowledgement” to me is about a friendship, and “There Ain’t You” could be about a friendship or a romantic relationship. What’s funny is that “There Ain’t You” sounds like it could be a breakup or something, but it was actually written because my girlfriend was out of town for a weekend, and I was just thinking that it would have been fun if we were hanging out [laughs]. “Silent Acknowledgement” to me, if anybody’s going to hear one, I’d like it to be this one just because it’s the easiest to chew on. But I wanted to add “There Ain’t You” because it’s a little less immediate – it felt like a good after song mint. I wanted to write this little bouncy jam, but I also write a lot of acoustic music that’s a little more introspective too, but that’s not all I want to do. I actually have an album that’s in the can right now, and I tried to cover every sound I like. So, this was like a mini version of that, where I could do it at home with my own skills. I’m always focused on albums and full-length projects, and this, I wanted to challenge myself to just be okay with releasing something small and bite-sized and still care for it as if it’s an album, but just have it be much more condensed.
So with that challenge for yourself, taking the space of an album where you have so much room to work with, but just focusing on two songs, what do you get fixated on to show that you can be expansive while also being restrained?
I get fixated on everything, but I still try to be really economical with words. I still try to make that the forefront of everything. How can I get this feeling across in the least amount of words and in the best pairing? This time I tried to focus on immediacy – I tend to get lost in the weeds with a song, seeing it build up through the end. But sometimes my favorite songs start immediately and you get the vibe right away. So I got really fixated on figuring out how I can make this a fun experience to listen to immediately, as opposed to how do I build it differently?
So these two songs are solely you in your bedroom. And then the upcoming album is first time in the studio for Darryl Rahn band?
No, not the first time, the last couple albums have been really piecemeal, like recording some guitars at home, do the drums at the studio, try to put it all together, etc. By the end, I would just get so burnt out. I could hear all this patchwork and not in a good way. And so, this time I really wanted to feel like me and my friends had played these songs together and I wanted to capture that. It was the first proper recording experience in a while, where the songs have been written and rehearsed, then I brought the band and the engineer in and captured it all live. I wanted something to feel really cohesive, like a statement of, like, ‘I didn’t mess around this time [laughs]’.
And you’re just making tunes with your buddies.
Yeah, it was a great experience! You know, there were some days where I felt really bad and hated what I was doing. I guess it just came from a place of being tired of my process. And so, to have friends there who were also invested in having it be a good project, because it’s theirs too, felt really healthy. I think it was really a positive thing to have other voices, because they really helped me make sure I didn’t just get so tired of something and not give it its best chance, you know? Because you need to see it through if you want it to go anywhere. They just help you care for things beyond the writing phase, which is really important. I just get so burnt out on stuff as soon as it’s done being written, just thinking of what’s next? And that can be a damaging way to look at art.
How do you combat that?
I mean, honestly, these two singles, it was me needing to do something else again. Just as long as I’m still taking in information, writing and really feeling like I’m releasing something, not just music, but releasing creativity, I feel revved up enough to have confidence in whatever I’m working on. If I feel creatively stagnant, I feel totally stagnant.
I had a question sent from our friend Nisa [Lumaj]. She was curious, asking, [Darryl] is one of our more prolific songwriters, always releasing and recording. It’s really cool to me that he’s always looking forward. I’m interested in what a songwriting day session looks like for him. Is there a specific ritual or does he write as it comes to him?
Oh, that’s such a sweet question. For a long time, I tried to just treat it like my job, even when I made zero dollars from it. I would get up early and I would try to free write a page or two just to get my brain going. And then if something stood out to me in that session, I would try to latch on to it and just see the idea through. But now I’ve become more hands off, where I know when I’m in the mood to write. But frankly, like in the past year or two, I started smoking a little weed at night and I realized that my ears and my eyes are a little more open with that. It helps me hear a phrase, even if I’m watching or reading something, it really helps me see an idea and bring it to song form.
Even without weed, I’ll usually be playing guitar and I’ll land on something that interests me in some way and I’ll go deep and get tunnel vision. I can’t do anything until the song is done, basically. Like with “Silent Acknowledgement”, I got that riff just from playing around at home, and I knew this was something I had to dive into, because I get physically uncomfortable until the song’s finished. It’s probably obsessive compulsive disorder, but it’s truly a drug to me. Finishing a song feels so cool to me still because every time it’s done, I don’t know if there will ever be one again. So whenever it happens, I’m so eager to get it out just to prove to myself that I can. And, you know, if I enjoy it at the end of that, then the song might be OK. But I’m always editing. I used to edit until something was quote, unquote, perfect, and I realized later on that I was ruining songs that way. There should be elements of imperfection that get to the root of a feeling, to just be a little more human.
Is that where the hands off approach is coming from?
I need to trust that there’s a point where you need to let a song be done because the feeling has left. The feeling is there, and the meaning is there, but the more you pick away at it, the more you can take away. And I’ve got to give credit to listeners more than I do, because they are going to hear a song and no matter what, attach their own meaning. So, if you try to hammer in too much of your own meaning, you’re just depriving the listener from their own story.
You’re on tour with Samia Band now. It’s not your first big tour, but how has it been?
Oh, I love it! I guess every tour I’ve done has gotten a little bit better in some way. And this one is not even for my own music, but to have this as my day job, I’m pretty happy. Samia is definitely the best boss I’ve ever had. But the shows are really great and Samia’s fans are so sweet. I’m probably similar to a lot of them because I was a Samia fan. I saw her show a couple of years ago on the last tour before I was in the band and it was one of my favorite shows I’ve seen in a long time. So being part of it now and trying to contribute to a great show is a pretty fun project every day. And it feels like I’m getting so much fuel, so when I go home, I’m going to feel musically energized.
You can listen to “Silent Acknowledgement” and “There Ain’t You” out everywhere now!
Written by Shea Roney | Featured Photo Courtesy of Darryl Rahn
“For one thing, with all of our previous releases, we’ve always been at a point where we’re playing so many songs that aren’t even on the record that’s coming out. We often feel like we’ve moved so far beyond the thing that we’re releasing to the world,” Hannah Pruzinsky says, noting the frustration that occurs with the consistent forward motion of artistic practices and restrictions of time. “This record is the first time where that isn’t the case. It feels really exciting to just give something away and not be holding on to residual things.”
Sister. is the Brooklyn-based project of Hannah Pruzinsky, Ceci Sturman and James Chrisman, who are currently gearing up to release their sophomore record Two Birds out July 11th, marking their second release via NYC’s Mtn. Laurel Recording Co. Sharing their debut LP Abundance back in 2023, and a few straying singles here and there, Sister. has become a means of pushing the enduring process of their collaboration, all while further defining the project on their own terms. Playing with bits of maximalism, Two Birds is a record well-worn in, utilizing the exciting challenge of experimentation without hindering the deeply rooted intimacy of each track. Earlier this week, the group released “Honey”, the third taste test from the upcoming record and a display of just how well they can walk that line.
Caught within a loop, “Honey” begins with a steady build, embracing the group’s inherent talents and knack for sonic contusions that they often find themselves exploring. As a whole, the song feels rich and heavy, like thick ink blotches dripping on a clean sheet of paper. And once it gets started, it’s reluctant to stop the dribble of emotions that are no longer contained. And to their credit, “Honey” feels unpredictable in its direction, rearing both excitement and tension until the long-awaited release of the very last line, “oh honey, weren’t you moving towards eternity?”, becomes a stand-still thought caught up in all of the motion. As the group prepares to release Two Birds in a few weeks, “Honey” is a clear marking of a band that continues to push the boundaries of what they’re capable of, while still holding dear to what they know best.
We recently got to catch up with Sister., discussing new writing practices and the weight that lies within “Honey”.
SR: You guys have a new record coming out in July! How’s it feeling to finally get it going?
Hannah Pruzinsky: We’re really excited about it! These songs on the record are a lot of tunes that we’ve been working through in the live shows, so it’s been fun to be able to explore the arrangement so much.
SR: So they were given a lot of space before finalizing them?
HP: Yes, I think the oldest one is probably ‘Levity”, which I remember Ceci was playing on guitar as Felix [Walworth] and I were having a conversation like three years ago in our living room. Maybe about astrology or tarot cards or something?
Ceci Sturman: I think you had pulled [Felix’s] tarot cards and were reading them, and some of the words I found so moving and just started playing around with them. There’s a voicemail recording of the first time I ever played it, which I think is my favorite version of the song ever. It didn’t make it on the album, but the version that’s on the album is also extremely cool, and that is sort of just a James masterpiece.
James Chrisman: We recorded a good chunk of the album in live acoustic sessions. We did a lot of it in our studio, but there was some of it that was done in Hannah’s living room with all of us sitting in a circle. We tried “Levity” a few ways, but we couldn’t quite get there to be enough movement and momentum in it, because it’s quite a repetitive song. So I took that acoustic version and put it through this kind of delay where a part will get caught in the chamber and repeat, and then you can change the pitches of what’s caught – you’re kind of performing into the delay. But there’s actually very little material in the song itself, so it’s the performance of singing over guitars, and there’s the second performance of the production that’s really fun.
Photo Credit: Sarah Blesener.
SR: I do want to talk about the sound as a whole, because it does feel like you guys are coming into a more defined area for Sister., compared to that patchwork style of Abundance. As you went into recording these songs, what did you find yourself focusing on as you were piecing together what would be the sound of this record?
CS: I think that there’s a lot of maximalism which is a thing that we prefer – it’s sort of a sister. vibe. That definitely was true in Abundance, and I think in a lot of ways we wanted to replicate that and make it sound better. We’re all just a little bit better at the process.
JC: I mean, just a big difference is that we played everything as a band before recording it. There’s a way of making music that a lot of people do now, which is you play a song into a computer and then you try a bunch of stuff over it. I’ve done that. But we had figured out band arrangements for almost all the songs. Felix was much more in the mix this time from the beginning. That is a big difference between having stuff finished and then tracking drums over it versus building over a drumbeat.
CS: It’s definitely true with our last album, where we started playing it a lot after recording it, and we found out we liked some of the new versions a little bit more. I think we were just mindful of that going into this process and being able to play it so much and really figure it out. It has made a very cohesive sound, and we’re proud of that.
HP: Also, just a note on the writing of this album, too, it was much less those patchwork moments with songs coming from Ceci, coming from me or coming from all three of us. This time around a lot of the songs started off with Ceci and I meeting to work through things, as it was also a time when we had just moved away from each other. It was this connection to each other and our friendship through the songwriting. But there are also a lot more songs this time around where all three of us wrote the songs from start to finish.
Photo Credit: Sarah Blesener.
SR: What was that like having the three of you writing together start to finish?
HP: I’m always surprised by how easy it is. I don’t think I can do that with other people. I think there’s a lot of trust between the three of us, where we can propose an idea that maybe is a little silly, or feels harder to do with people that we don’t have this type of trust with natively.
CS: I was thinking about the process for “Blood in the Vines”, which is a song that we wrote together. James proposed an activity of writing a song in 30 min. So that truly was us just putting a timer on our phone and seeing what we come up with. It started with playing the guitar and throwing phrases around, and then at the end of 30 min we had the bare bones of the song, and we really liked the direction it was going.
SR: That’s an impressive practice. So you obviously have trust in each other, but as ideas started to come out of this moment, what sort of things were you trusting to either follow or quickly discard in such a short timeframe?
CS: I’m always trying to keep everything. And so, I’m like, ‘it sounds amazing. We got it’. They can attest to my falling in loveness with scratches.
HP: I remember the song at first felt kind of pop-punky in a way. That’s certainly not something we usually do, and I think we all knew we weren’t gonna go too deep down that rabbit hole. But it is fun for us to explore a different key that we don’t usually write in and see what kind of feelings and emotions or phrases come up with that. It really depends on the song we’re writing together what we start latching on to.
JC: I think in that case, the point of the exercise is to be guided by excitement and not intellectualize at all. I think a lot of creative practices people figure out that with editing, you have infinite time. But how do you get inspiration? And turns out there are ways to manufacture inspiration, and one of them is an artificial time constraint. If a Riff were stupid or something, that would be something to worry about after that timer is over. But in the meantime, you have something, and you can make it resemble something you like, because it’s something that now exists. That’s kind of the mentality behind something like that, because you’re just worried about things like, ‘is it me?’ and you sort of bypass that because you’re like, ‘Oh, no, I only have 10 min left. Who cares.’
Photo Credit: Sarah Blesener.
SR: I want to talk about “Honey”, the next single you are sharing. One thing that I’ve always admired about your guys’ lyrical writing is the way that you really put a lens on personal and interpersonal relationships. With that, I was really drawn into the opening setting of a kitchen, because it’s a very homey, intimate location. But as the song starts, we’re brought into this already antagonizing situation. What kind of portrait were you trying to create by using this location?
CS: “Honey” is a song that I wrote the lyrics for and I remember wanting to immediately place it in the kitchen because I read something where a songwriter talked about how having the setting in the first line can do a lot for the song, like placing someone somewhere. I’ve never done that, so I want to see how that could become a way of sorting through some conflict or interpersonal confusion that is really intimate, but very distant. I think of two people that maybe are trying to figure out if they really know each other or understand each other while they’re already in an intimate setting, and like how you can sort of navigate that familiar scene. I’ve experienced a lot in my life, where I’m just sort of getting to know someone, and the more you get to know them, the more questions you have about your compatibility, or about how you relate to each other, and how that makes you relate to yourself. Really playing with the sort of contrast between the intimacy in the home, and then the serious distance in the connection.
Photo Credit: Sarah Blesener.
SR: The avenues you guys follow with the sonic exploration really do a good job at creating that tension. A standout word that I grasped onto was ‘eternity’. In that phrase at the end, I feel like that’s when the lyrical and the instrumental stories really blend together to form this release. What weight does that word ‘eternity’ hold in this song? And how did you guys try to embrace that weight instrumentally?
CS: I wanted the last word to be something really drastic, and it is drastic [laughs]. But, I mean, it’s like asking the same sort of intimacy question where sometimes you start asking them and then you can’t stop asking them, and they just build and build and build and build. The weight of it is just very big.
JC: And a big element of that song’s arrangement was found when I was mixing it. I took Ceci’s vocals and put it through what’s called a space echo, which is another kind of delay – that’s when something catches itself and it creates an infinite generative signal. So there’s kind of a literal sound painting aspect of evoking infinity there. And that first sound you hear in it is actually Ceci’s voice going through that space echo. And a lot of that stuff climaxes more towards the end like a sound painting aspect of the lyrics.
CC: I love how the band worked on the song and created it to be so tension driven. The chorus has no words in it which is abnormal for our songs, especially for the songs that I’ve written. It’s cool to lean on the instruments and the feeling that’s driven to continue to build the song where the chorus usually does. I think that there’s a lot of questions in the song, and we just slowly keep building and building and building and building it up until the last lyric, which is ‘weren’t you moving towards eternity?’, which is a question to continue to ask yourself all the time. I’m always asking myself.
Two Birds is set to be released July 11th via Mtn. Laurel Recording Co. You can pre-order the album digitally as well as on vinyl now!
Written by Shea Roney | Featured Photo by Sarah Blesener
Every Wednesday, the ugly hug shares a playlist personally curated by an artist/band that we have been enjoying. This week we have a collection of songs put together by Burlington-based artist Lily Seabird.
Earlier this year, Lily Seabird released her third LP titled Trash Mountain via Lame-O records, which found the songwriter developing a more tender sonic display of acoustic laments, warming textures and melodic meanders. While building from the bare bones, these songs embrace the simple and worn in, like knowing how far you can lean back in the old porch chairs before it’s too late or noticing the outline of foot markings on a doormat that is familiar with its responsibilities. Seabird so instinctually illustrates the connections that we share with what’s around us, and whether or not it’s clear from the beginning, that search for understanding becomes the heart within her writing and the sincerity that drives her performance.
About the playlist, Seabird shared;
“This is a playlist I made before the tour. It’s a mix of songs I found on the numero group playlists and songs by friends.”
Listen to Lily Seabird’s playlist here!
You can listen to Trash Mountain out everywhere now!
Written by Shea Roney | Featured Photo by Eliza Callahan
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