the ugly hug

A Conversation with Wishy

December 15th, 2023

Written by Shea Roney

Photo by Conor Shepherd

Calling from separate locations for our Zoom call, Kevin Krauter, braving the November cold on the front porch of his friend Stephen’s house and Nina Pitchkites from her cozily lit room, were discussing a carpool possibility to pick up Ben Lumsdaine, friend and producer, from the airport at midnight. The next day they would be traveling down to Bloomington, Indiana to record what would be the debut full length album from Wishy. But obviously, before we can talk about a full length album that hasn’t been recorded yet, Wishy is riding the release of their debut EP, Paradise, out today.

Making noise from Indianapolis, Wishy is racketeering force of Midwestern exceptionalism; a blanket of whirling guitar music and breezy pop hooks in return for a melancholy heartbeat by leaders Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites. Having met in high school, Krauter and Pitchkites already had a built in friendship, though Wishy wasn’t formed until 2021 when Pitchkites moved back from Philadelphia. Both being established songwriters before collaborating, Krauter being a former member of the band Hoops as well as a solo career, and Pitchkites’ electro-indie pop group, Push Pop, the two had to put their respective projects on the backburner due to the pandemic. But coming out of this break was the formation of Wishy; a purposefully emulated and collaborative force to be reckoned with. Spending two trips in LA with Lumsdaine to record the new songs, Wishy came back with one of the most critically acclaimed EP’s released this year. Coming upon this release, Krauter and Pitchkites called me up to discuss the project, commemorating the homegrown spirit, and the pleasure of where they are currently at.

As the band began to catch steam in the media for the three singles released ahead of the EP, Wishy became a cluster of descriptors and antiquated jargon to try to lock down a clear understanding of their sound. With loud and boisterous instrumentation, layered atmospheric calms and jangly pop hooks, Wishy is a consistent, impressive and nostalgic blend of noise. When asking the two of them to sum up their own interpretation of their sound, Krauter expresses, “I think that it’s a reflection of our personalities and our tastes, you know.” To which he continues, “in general, we both have an emo side and we both really love cutsie happy sounding shit. I love when bands are able to capture a synthesis of both.” Building upon, Pitchkites adds, “it’s edgy and sweet. I’ve always had a taste for both and I’ve always wanted to communicate it,” continuing with, “I feel like I just never hear much of that anymore, but I found that through Kevin.” With tracks like “Paradise”, “Spinning”, and “Too True”, Wishy breaks down and expands on generic genre terms, creating something that they feel most comfortable in. “I think at the end of the day, we both just really love writing pop songs,” Krauter reiterates, saying “this EP in particular, is a presentation of the softer side, for the most part, the sweeter side of things.”

Before Wishy was even an initial idea, Pitchkites became indifferent on whether to pursue a career in music at all. Once moving back to Indianapolis, where Krauter asked her into the band, Pitchkites was hesitant, saying, “I just got jaded and cynical about the world. But, I went with it and it’s been over 2 and a half years since we started this band.” She finishes, “it’s just motivated me to actually write more and to practice more and challenge myself.” That feeling doesn’t go unreciprocated, as Krauter shares, “I think I personally feel more confident in my songwriting than I ever have,” he says, sustaining on that thought. “Having this outlet where Nina and I can collaborate, the atmosphere we both like to inhabit feels really good together”.

With the release of Paradise as well as a foretold debut full length in their future, Wishy shows no signs of slowing this momentum, as well as a clear understanding of the camaraderie that they surround themselves with. Bringing back Lumsdaine to record again as well as the inclusion of Steve Marino, who you can also find playing guitar on the EP, finds two Hoosiers returning home to contribute to the project. When asked if this homegrown mentality was something that they try to preserve, Krauter responds, “Yeah, it feels really good, it’s just fun to do shit with your friends,” with Pitchkites adding, “everyone gets a little exposure to their own craft, you know. So like, we’re all winning”.

Where Wishy stands as a new band that is catching the wave of popularity was in no way their definitive goal when starting this project. Beyond the stereotypical formalities found in Midwest caricatures, being a part of a music scene in the middle of the country has a very approachable, dare we say wholesome, feeling to it. The Indianapolis indie scene is a comfortable home to many underground groups, and like other bands in Midwest scenes, that grow up on a specific tenacity that comes through the rickety house shows, backyard parties, and the occasional farm show, Wishy truly capitalizes on the humble midwestern roots. “Starting out, this whole project has just been about having fun with our homies and impressing my friends,” Krauter shares, as simple as that. “That’s really been my main goal.”

That kind of sums up where Wishy is at the moment; just happy to do what they love. As we finished up our call, and the conversation wandered to ridiculous FedEx fees and favorite music publications, Krauter and Pitchkites were looking ahead into a busy next couple weeks, but they didn’t seem phased. With one last single to be released and a full album to record, the two of them are extremely proud of the work that they have done, but truly humbled by the attention it has received. Still in slight disbelief, Krauter voices one more time, “when I first started writing this shit, the vision in my head was always like ‘I can’t wait to play this at State Street Club with my homies’, and not exactly like, ‘I can’t wait to get on Pitchforks singles of the week’. That’s just been a really happy surprise”.

You can find Paradise, off of Winspear, out everywhere now. In addition to this interview, you can read my review of the EP at Post Trash.
A Conversation with Why Bonnie

December 7th, 2023

Written by Shea Roney

Photo by Shelby Bohannon

“I think, when it comes down to it, people get into three things as they grow up,” Blair Howerton proclaimed from the stage at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall. In no particular order, she lists out, “sports, birdwatching, or spirituality”. This odd, yet endearing list sparked some chuckles from the audience, then comically rang more true to a lot of people as murmurs like, “holy shit, I just got into birdwatching,” spread throughout the packed hall.

Blair Howerton fronts the Austin/Brooklyn band Why Bonnie. Following the release of their critically acclaimed 2022 debut full-length, 90 in November, an album that defined a childhood spent growing up in Texas, the band looks to ride this momentum forward. Gearing up to announce their next album, Why Bonnie doesn’t hold on to much of the past anymore as they try to shape the future and find steady ground in these trying times. I recently got to chat with Blair Howerton in the midst of this transition period, opening up about where she is at in life, including her own roaming spirituality, a new era of the band, and what the next Why Bonnie album is shaping up to be.

With their second album not yet announced, Why Bonnie took advantage of this most recent supporting tour, with S.G. Goodman, to showcase a lot of the new material. With notable themes revolving around money frustrations, growing/diminishing empathy, and systematic uneasiness, Howerton shares, “I was really interested in the relationship between micro and macro issues and how that kind of plays out in our personal lives.” To the effect in which large issues can bleed down to simple and communally felt points of discomfort, Howerton’s storytelling remains as vivid and authentic as ever through this shift of focus. For as much as 90 in November found a personal home in Austin, Texas, this next Why Bonnie project is a bit more dissociated. Since having moved to Brooklyn, Howerton expresses, “you’re all kind of living on top of each other, so you can’t escape, and you can’t really turn a blind eye, which I think is a really cool thing. It’s definitely a lesson in empathy.” Where this environment has led creatively, she shares, “this is a much more inward looking album. I think it’s bigger than just where I’m at. I think it’s trying to reach everyone.”

Voicing from the Lincoln Hall stage that night, Howerton remarks that she has begun to reassess her personal spirituality, which is a focus point in some of the new songs. Without putting a label on it, she adds, “I’m a very imaginative person, so I like to believe that there’s something else, and that there is something somewhat magical going on.” Although she’s not committed to anything in particular, there can come a sense of comfort when uncertainties are given possible answers. “I have a puny little human brain. We all do, and no one knows anything, and that makes it all that much more interesting.” That’s kind of where Why Bonnie is at these days; “what’s my place in this world,” a considerate and mature question, doesn’t hold the weight it once had.

As Why Bonnie plans out the next few months, the band finds themselves down a player. Kendall Powell, who has played keys with the band since its formation, has taken a personal step back. “We’ve been playing music together for 6 or 7 years, and have been best friends since we were 2. She’ll always be in my life,” Howerton responds when asked how she has adapted to this change. You will still be able to find Powell’s work on the new Why Bonnie project, as “the new album has a lot of great synth on it. We haven’t gotten to show it in our live set yet, but I’m really excited for everyone to hear it,” she shares. As the band looks forward, “we’re moving into a new era, if you will,” Howerton claims. “We don’t exactly know what the future looks like, but we’re just happy to play music together and tour together. It brings us all a lot of joy.”

“Going back to spirituality,” Howerton relays, “something I’ve really been thinking about a lot is just how deeply similar people really are; how we experience a lot of the same emotions. Maybe different situations, but the way we feel them is all really similar.” This is not only true through unfortunate and systematic commonalities, but it’s also why “sports, birdwatching, or spirituality” is such a genuinely accurate statement. With found joy, communal support, and empathy, suddenly something as simple as stopping to watch a bird or being part of a team offers some sort of confident placement in such a despondent world. As Why Bonnie prepares to move forward, Howerton remains assured, as she voices, “I wrote this new album from a place of, I don’t want to say despair, but just really grappling with all these issues in the world and how to stay hopeful when it’s really hard to be.”

Support Why Bonnie HERE
Hiding Places | “Crown of Tin” Single Release

December 1st, 2023

Written by Shea Roney

Hiding Places (North Carolina/New York) have released their new single “Crown of Tin” out today as a teaser for a new EP set for March 2024. The already well-versed four-piece, consisting of Anthony Cozzarelli, Nicholas Byrne, Henry Cutting and Audrey Keelin came to be through UNC’s student run college radio, WXYC. With a collection of eclectic influences, Hiding Places melded together a nostalgic realm of indie rock, folk, and other various genres, making a comfortable home for themselves in their growing catalog. With production help by Colin Miller (Wednesday, MJ Lenderman) “Crown of Tin”, a collaborative triumph, finds the band posing for a genuine and sonically mending chronicle of homesickness.

“Counting down the seasons until I see you again”, is a lonely statement. One that does not embellish the solitude that comes with moving away from home for the first time. As a first-year student at UNC, “Crown of Tin” is one of the first songs that Keelin ever wrote, finding a process and a purpose for sharing their music. Written from the obscure height of a dorm bunk bed, four years later “Crown of Tin” is emblematic of transition as Keelin and the band move forward.

The single begins in a sedated, lo-fi haze, finding isolation in Keelin’s performance as they sing, “Winter is me singing in my room it never ends / Taking a short dance under the sun when I can / Going on some picnics with all of my new friends”. It’s not a song that grapples with being physically alone, but more of drifting through a changed environment; new people, places, and things that haven’t been defined yet.

As this solemn path carries on, Keelin belts out, “I’ll climb trees and look around and wear my crown of tin”, sparking the track to explode with both wrath and fragility, screeching guitars and warm fuzz, pounding drums and muted acoustic guitar. A crown of tin, though cheap material in a malleable state, is representative of a form of status; one that races back to childlike determination and flexible foundations to fall back on. As the track comes to an end with collected feedback and the warm hum of amplifiers, the band sits in this contrast of comfort, while Keelin holds onto the crown of tin; a reverted sense of self that sticks around for when they need it most.

You can watch the video for “Crown of Tin” right here. Visit Hiding Places to support the band and get some new merch!
ionlyfitinyourarms

November 22nd, 2023

Pompey

Genre: folk/singer-songwriter Label: Anything Bagel

Gentle in voice and strong in character, Montreal, Canada’s singer/songwriter, Pompey, has had an expansive career as a musician and songwriter. With a heartfelt and soft demonstration of candor, Pompey returns with the release of his latest full-length album, ionlyfitinyourarms. In the works for 2 to 3 years of exchanging the patience of writing for a therapeutic outlet, every bit of denial, pity, loathing, honesty, hope, and contemplation is laid out in its bareness. Through songwriting that is both confessional and outspoken, Pompey is there, giving voice to the dualistic devil/angel on each shoulder, to share his most genuine self in the midst of beautiful anti-folk songs.

Beginning the album hauntingly sparse and breathtakingly gentle, “please don’t forget about me” renders the tone for a complex and vivid album to follow. With additional vocal features from Shaina Hayes and partner and bandmate Thanya Iyer creates a tender collection of voices that battle the convolutions of loneliness. “And what if you have my voice in your ear? / If you can hear me and you can see me / Am I there,” Pompey sings in a sense of dissociation from what is present and whole.

This need to escape, to which is present throughout most of the record, is a concept that feels often exploited in art; straightforward to the most saturated angst. But where Pompey stands apart from other direct desires is their need for back and forth confessionals; a therapeutic give and take. Songs like “snug tug” and “body/belly” flips back and forth between wanting to run away from his body to moments where he sings “I wonder where I’d be without my body”. Filed down to self-forgiveness, these sparse sonic embodiments are dutiful to affliction, but enshrined in the understanding from our own relatable personal insecurities.

Most of the time, Pompey’s sense of self is unsteady. Without misconception, things such as a pair of pants, sewing projects, and losing your keys have developed into objects of defeat for him. The songs are simple, tactfully pulling apart the things that Pompey has spent years thinking define who he is. With the ability to be impactful and touching without hiding behind metaphors and colorful language, Pompey’s writing stands a testament to sincere internal dialogue, through criticism, doubt, vindication and all. “Do you stretch your shirt out / Before you put it on? / ‘Cause i do / I learned it from my mom,” is an uncluttered portrait on the song “snug tug”. Honest songs like “tall wall” and “i’m feeling see-through” that follow are striking with their bare bones expression and reluctant empathy towards himself.

Where Pompey’s writing thrives though is when he gives the insecurities a glimpse into comfortability. “i only fit in your arms”, the earnest title track, is a song dedicated to remembering what matters most. When fixated on internal blemishes, Pompey finds refuge in his partner’s arms; a place built around trust, warmth, affability, and most importantly, a perfect fit. With a melodic shift towards composure, “i only fit in your arms” stands in as infinite gratitude for those that love us the most. “mother’s day”, a shift in topic but emotionally fervent as any, is a love letter to the subtle teachings that mother’s leave behind. With respect to character, “Thanks to you / I’ve got thanks for you,” Pompey sings with the most gentle care.

ionlyfitinyourarms is one of the most raw pieces of art that you will hear this year. Going beyond the home recordings and demos, the rawness comes from the gentle approach to internal infatuations, whether glamorous or not. Heartfelt, somber, and blunt; yes. But ionlyfitinyourarms has an underlying sense of comfort that becomes most apparent after a full listen-through. What remains as the album comes to its end is a collection of songs that represent progress; something that is so vital to this type of writing for both the author and the listener. Separating our inner insecurities or dilemmas into physical representations not only solidifies distance, but offers a face to our own foe. Pompey’s therapeutic endeavors to separate rather than fester makes ionlyfitinyourarms a beautiful, sincere, and inspiriting self portrait to be hung up for years to come.
A Conversation with h. pruz |Single Release

November 14th, 2023

Written by Shea Roney

Photo by Felix Walworth

Hannah Pruzinsky, known for their solo project, h. pruz, and the effectively vulnerable Brooklyn trio, Sister., has released a surprise single off of Mtn Laurel Recording Co. today. The single, “Dark Sun”, is a rich composition of atmospheric comfort and folky lament that tells a story of the complexities of love. But in juxtaposition to the title “Dark Sun”, these complexities are entitled to areas of growth and self condolences when shadowed by damage. I had the honor to talk to Pruzinsky, in which they opened up about the emotional progress in writing the new single, their comfortability of collaboration, and the stories found within the natural world.

“Dark Sun” is the first song to see daylight out of what will be the next h. pruz record out sometime next year. Following the release of their debut EP, again, there, Pruzinsky found some steady ground in the turmoil of memories, whereas “Dark Sun” finds them going a step further into these moments of contemplation. “It’s basically a song about obsession,” they share. “I wrote it in a time where I was feeling a lot of guilt for feeling those feelings, and I think it was self permission to lean into what it looks like, and I guess, to lose yourself within it”. That self-permission is an odd habit, in which you feel as if you always have it, but it’s easier said than done. “This idea of self-permission and permission to decide what I want for me without having it be echoed with other people”, Pruzinsky shares was a big self discovery in the writing process.

Artwork by Sarah Bradley

As an extension to again, there, in its vulnerable approach to sound and story, “Dark Sun” takes new strides in which Pruzinsky thought, “what if I wrote a song about falling in love?” To which they specify, “there is still a shade. It’s not just clear good love”. With production help by Felix Walworth (Told Slant, Florist) the atmospheric chord voicings and the steady brush strokes of the snare drum offers a lightness when Pruzinsky sings, “And forget everything else is real / We’re here / In the sun”. That particular warmth of new love, although not explicitly perfect, still fills the track with the innocence and hope of realistic potential.

Growing up in Pennsylvania, the natural world stood testament to Pruzinsky’s practice of self and spirit. “When I was younger, I think [nature] held a place of resentment, because usually I would be working outside pulling weeds.” They continue, “as I got older, I think it took on more of a meditative space. It became really important for me to feel a connection to my younger self in a way that felt really tied to nature”. To this extent, Pruzinsky has found a larger meaning to their place in the natural world, to the degree in which their interpretation turns into vital storytelling. “I think [nature] reflects change, which is something that I both romanticize and always desire. I think it’s really easy to see how things can return to a way you once had known,” Pruzinsky shares. “In this newer body of work, the idea of destruction within the lens of the natural world” has found narrative importance in their writing as well. “I’m your dark / Hiding place / Crush me up / Take a part,” they sing in the cadence of this double-edged feeling of love.

As one third of the band Sister., Pruzinsky is almost a month off the release of their astounding debut full-length, Abundance. Becoming more of a personal focus to conquer in their life, writing music is a process of exchange to them. Sister., as a collaborative project with long-time friends Ceci Sturman and James Chrisman, Pruzinsky tells me, “there’s a big sense of pride that I have when I get to make something with my besties, cause it’s not easy”. They continue, in response to writing lyrics with Sturman, “it’s really special to also be like, ‘wow, we both felt this thing and both got to immortalize it in a way.”

Photo by Felix Walworth

But when it comes to writing alone, Pruzinsky admits, “I remove my rose colored glasses when I start writing, and sometimes I’m not ready to do that”. Art in general is a process of give and take, but effectively raw art happens when the give becomes a vital takeaway. “I’m good at repressing things that I am not ready to see in my life,” Pruzinsky admits. “But being able to write songs about those things is the first way that I’m like, ‘Oh, wow! This is something that clearly isn’t okay”. Continuing to the effects of the upcoming album, they say, “it feels so vulnerable. Am I ready to potentially alter my life in a large way, at least with this record? It’s not always that dramatic, but it was for this one.”

You can catch h. pruz on a supporting tour this December where they are hitting the road with Portland, Maine artist, Dead Gowns. “I’m playing with a new band and excited to be a little more rocking than usual,” Pruzinsky tells me. You can listen to “Dark Sun” out now.
A Conversation with Work Wife

November 10th, 2023

Written by Shea Roney

Work Wife, the creative project of Meredith Lampe, has become a facet of the Brooklyn DIY scene, both as a band and as a community patron. Coming up on a supporting tour with Husbands and new music to be released in 2024, Meredith Lampe and newbie member Isaac Stalling, called me from their rock climbing gym to discuss lyrical goals, building a community, and functioning as friends who also happen to play in a band together.

After moving from Seattle to Brooklyn, Lampe was a member of the Brooklyn trio, Colatura, but with too many songs to share, she began her own project, calling it Work Wife. Upon the release of her 2022 EP, Quitting Season, Lampe added Cody Edgerly (drums) and Kenny Monroe (bass) to the project, allowing Work Wife to find its fullest pop band potential. “Ever since then I’ve been thinking of it more as a band rather than just my project,” Lampe shares. “There are some things that are easier with just me, but it isn’t nearly as fun.” After meeting Stalling on tour, when it came down to it, Lampe and the band said, “we should get that fun kid from Oklahoma City,” and soon Stalling was moving to Brooklyn.

As a musician, and a lyricist in particular, Lampe relies on the hidden details. Choosing brief moments to command feelings of both grief and comfort, Lampe’s writing offers up open arms. With songs that break down emotional trauma into digestible, and oftentimes, darkly humorous stories, tracks like “Brian Eno” and “Apathy” are on the cusp of perfection. With a song like “Too Young To Understand”, a nod to a family caught up in addiction, Lampe is able to form years of distrust and heartbreak into a four minute song. “When I wrote [“Too Young To Understand”], I had no intention of putting it out, which is, I think, the right way to go about writing a song that is so sensitive,” Lampe admits. “To just say, I’m never going to put this out, I’m gonna give it the honest treatment and then decide after the fact,” allows for more sincerity and less internal deliberation. “I think being honest like that can be really fucking scary,” Lampe says, “but everyone always handles it better than you think they’re going to, as long as you have a one-on-one conversation with them about it. And in this case, I think it improved our relationship in the long run.”

Going from being an additional singer in Colatura and then transitioning to a solo project, Lampe is now the leader and front person of her own full band. “Now that I have these guys, we’re kind of figuring out this new writing process as we go,” she shares while adding, “it’s been so much better. The music is so much better now that I have people to work with.” With Stalling as the newest addition, he responds, “I felt so lucky to be added. Everyone’s just immediately chill and there is no proving grounds or anything like that.” For as tightly constructed the band sounds when playing both in studio and live, the environment of Work Wife could not be looser. “It’s funny as a front person”, Lampe says, “it feels like you’re always trying to balance showing the band that you know what you’re doing. You have to be artistically opinionated enough for them to believe in your leadership, but not so much that you’re a dictator or then it’s kind of like limp noodle vibes,” she laughs.

Photo used with permission from Work Wife

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Sometimes it can be a fine line between work and play that can ruin a band, but in the case of Work Wife, the work has become the play. “Music is hard enough. It sounds like bullshit, but one aspect that is often forgotten is that we are very lucky to do this. So, maintaining a fun situation makes it a lot more achievable for longevity,” Stalling shares while Lampe adds, “the odds that you’re really going to do anything bigger are so slim that if you aren’t enjoying the process, you’re making a horrible bet.”

Having first seen Work Wife on a supporting tour with Fenne Lily and Christian Lee Hutson at Chicago’s Thalia Hall, it was clear that the band loves what they do. Whether that be sharing members amongst the three groups, crying and hugging to Hutson’s emotionally ripping songs behind the curtains, or sharing humorous stories on stage, as an audience member, I felt fortunate just to be there. That being the first time touring as a full band, Lampe and Stalling couldn’t hold back their excitement of remembering those shows and the time spent on the road. “This is just so hard to come by and with just newly joining the band, at the time, I felt so lucky,” Stalling says while Lampe adds, “it was kind of like when you are dating someone and you’re like, ‘is this just really good for me, or is this like actually really good?”.

Photo used with permission from Work Wife

The effects of a reliable and neighborly network are not lost upon the members of Work Wife. “If you have an idea of the community that you want, no one’s gonna make it for you. You just have to make it happen,” Lampe tells me. As roommates, Lampe and Monroe have turned their house into a venue called No Hassle Castle. Getting friends to play sets, the No Hassle Castle has hosted artists such as Fenne Lily, Katy Kirby, Sister., and They Hate Change along with many other Brooklyn staples and travel-throughs. With a welcoming and overtly cozy environment, Lampe and Edgerly have created a safe space for artists and fans alike to enjoy and build upon the Brooklyn music community. “After people started going to shows again, I was kind of the weird girl where you meet someone really briefly, but not well enough to hang out. And then I would be like, ‘hey want to get lunch?’” Lampe shares with enthusiasm. “Every time I did that, we ended up fostering a very close friendship.”

With an official EP set to release in the spring of 2024 and rumbles of the first Work Wife full-length in the works, Lampe shared what she has planned in the coming months. “I really wanna just sort of pare it back, which is, I feel, like the usual trajectory of someone’s music career,” she shares. In regards to the album, “I’m hoping we can record the full length this spring. It all depends on how fast I can write all the songs. But fortunately for the band, I just lost my job. So I’m on a roll,” she says as her and Stalling laugh.

You can catch Work Wife playing the Turkey Slamdown Benefit Show (11/11) for Make the Road NY as well as on tour with Husbands for their East Coast Run.

Support Work Wife here: bandcamp
A Conversation With The Spookfish

November 3rd, 2023

Written by Shea Roney

Dan with doggy friend, Burl

“It was the morning after I had done a release show for the first record I ever did called Black Hole. I remember all my friends were just so supportive about it. But, I was basically living in a closet and I was pretty much on my way out of Brooklyn to go and study music therapy, so I just needed a change for a lot of reasons. But it was hard to leave”. Goldberg continues, “I had a dream that I was with some of those friends at this cabin in the snow. As I set off away from those friends at the cabin, a bear appeared in front of me. We had a standoff. The bear whacked me with its paw, and I was dying in the snow, but I remember thinking to myself, ‘I don’t regret this’”.

The Spookfish, the project of Maine-based musician Dan Goldberg, recently released his latest project, Bear in the Snow, off of We Be Friends Records. As a songwriter, Goldberg is a collage artist of sorts, encountering sparse folk music and lo-fi electronic fixings in a layered and textured sonic world. As a project, Bear in the Snow finds Goldberg in an extension of his natural self; the part of him that no longer has a place on this earth, but with full acknowledgement to his physical journey in the natural world. The album is also accompanied by its own video game created by Goldberg that follows that path of self discovery. Calling from his home in Maine, Goldberg opened up about his recovery process after a tragedy that led to this alluring and earnest project.

To fully grasp the personal aptitude and eternal understanding that went into the writing and producing of Bear in the Snow, it is crucial to know about Dan Goldberg’s last few years. With life turning events facing a family tragedy, on top of a heartbreak and moving to a new state, Goldberg was pushed into the externality of our human fragility. Referring to a lyric he wrote for the track “Misanthropy”, Goldberg kept coming back to the phrase, “the world’s not going to miss us when we’re gone”. In a bleak state, Goldberg explains his “frustration at the way that western values and capitalism can get in the way of human life,” while he adds, “if it killed us, the animals would not miss us. They won’t be like, ‘oh, I wish they did more economic development in their time,’” he laughs, but it is clear there is some weight behind it.

Having studied and practiced to be a music therapist, Goldberg made an effort to find effective ways of recovery through his own creative outlets. In textures, Bear in the Snow is a deeply expansive listen, embodying layers of familiarity and subtle sonic tensions. “I would go to this cabin and it would be these moments where I wasn’t gonna get an emergency call for an hour. I was just completely hidden in these scary woods,” he says. “I would really enjoy making sounds that soothe my brain and then playing them back,” Goldberg shares. Breaking away from structural soundness, “I think I was able to find a little bit of freedom to move the music away from my normal patterns”.

Beyond the primitive and experimental instrumentation that Goldberg creates, Bear in the Snow serves as a kind of natural field recording, following the sounds that make up his world. “Coyotes”, as simple as it sounds, is a recording of a pack of coyotes as they howl and laugh to the open sky. To some, this is an external noise that doesn’t grasp at any deeper meaning, but to Goldberg, this inclusion stands as an expansion of personal sense and growth. “As a small child I was horrified by everything. I was horrified by the woods, and I felt like everything was haunted. I’m sure that’s just being a vulnerable little being that could easily be eaten by anything,” Goldberg laughs, but with slight sincerity to his younger self. The inclusion of “Coyotes” was a thoughtful addition into an already deeply personal record. “I guess I wanted to revisit that childhood feeling” of vulnerability to the world. “That particular recording, I was walking back from a hike, and it had gotten dark. I was just immersed in that feeling and I recorded it as a journal entry”.

Recalling the time he went on a solo hike on Devil’s Path, one of New York’s most difficult trails to hike in the Catskills, Goldberg brings up a fractured process where he admits, “I would try to exhaust myself into feeling better”. As the sun set on the treacherous trail, Goldberg found himself lost and with no cell service. As the old tale goes though, follow running water and you will find a way out (which Goldberg says that this is an irresponsible action and that it is safer to stay put). Soon coming upon water supply land and flag markers, Goldberg ended up on a highway, where he came face to face with a mama bear and her cubs. “She scowled in my face before shooing her cubs in the woods and leaving,” Goldberg says. Eerily similar to the dream he explained earlier, Goldberg admits, “I feel like that was when I was like, ‘Okay, I need to focus’”.

The video game, a visual extension to the album in which Goldberg also titled “Bear in the Snow”, is a personally rooted piece of art representing Goldberg’s understanding of his path to recovery. “Well, I was working at a soap factory while I was in school. I was just drinking coffee, putting soap into boxes, and the idea just popped in my head,” he says in suit of mindless busy work. Goldberg describes the game’s concept, in which “you’re this little ghost character. I came to see that as my own ghost,” referring back to the dream, “because the bear killed my sense of self”. Enriched with these beautiful and introspective beings, the game is a haunting exposé of Goldberg’s eternal conflicts. As he continues, “my ghost is floating around, and each of those places in the game and each of those song titles is a place where some really significant things happened”.

These significant places are highlighted with a storybook instruction manual that refers to Goldberg’s travels. Put together by his partner, Saffronia Downing, the manual explains specific paths, locations, creatures, and myths that expanded Goldberg’s perception of self. As the ghostly character, you encounter this cathartic journey, redefining your own place in the world.

As a world traveler, Goldberg has been on the move for years. But he finds himself comfortable with where he is at now. “I think that I feel like I’m set,” he tells me with confidence. Having graduated and spent years in practice as a musical therapist, he has found a love for helping others in their own recovery process. “I’m really interested in combining outdoor therapy with music therapy. I would like to have a place that I could build relationships with the people that I work with,” he says.

When living in Brooklyn, Goldberg would host events that he called the ‘Mountain Shows’. Taking a group of musician friends as well as a group of listeners up Mount Taurus, the mountain became a sanctuary of redefining personal roots, not only in the natural world, but internally as well. “I think a big reason for the mountain shows was to give people different ways of looking at being in the woods, especially in New York City where a lot of people hate hiking,” he says. Goldberg developed a remarkable way in which people can experience both kinds of therapies. “I would say that the interesting thing about both fields is that they let people have moments of not speaking”. He insists, “I don’t necessarily or rationally believe in ghosts, but, some part of me feels the ghosts. Some part of us is feeling things that we aren’t thinking”. In the search for understanding, those inner ghosts can come out when least expected when given a moment to breathe and “it can share really valuable information about [people’s] lives,” Goldberg finishes.

Returning to his dream, as Goldberg laid dying in the snow, the bear stood defiant and remorseless in its actions. A nightmare of sorts, but in the end, the bear is the least important facet of this dream. A narrative, told through the simplicity of closing his eyes and the complications of REM sleep, broke down an impossibly difficult decision into a clear answer. Goldberg recalls a moment where, “it felt worth it to try and do what I needed to do, even if I got killed by a bear within five minutes”. Bear in the Snow stands as a complementary parallel to the valuable information given by the ghosts that find home in our physical bodies, as Goldberg tells me he decided right then and there, “I’m gonna do this change, even if it fails”.

“Bear in the Snow” Video Game: https://the-spookfish.itch.io/

You can support The Spookfish here: bandcamp
Common Rituals by Cruel

October 30th, 2023

Cruel

Genre: alternative/rock Label: Angel Tapes

Revved up and out of the gates of Chicago’s expansive DIY scene comes the newbie band, Cruel, and the release of their debut EP, Common Rituals. Off of the newly formed Angel Tapes, an extension of New York’s Fire Talk Records, the band is at home with its rough and deliberately melodic post-punk sound. With recording and mixing help by Jack Henry (Friko, Free Range, Horsegirl) and mastering by Greg Orbis (Stuck, Lifeguard, Deeper), the four-piece strike a deal between punk antiquity and alternative’s melodic variety to release the next Chicago stalwart of rock music.

Cruel, consisting of Michael Schrieber (vocals/guitar), Jen Ashley (bass), Brent Favata (drums) and Jack Kelsey (guitar) is a ruthless and well constructed group of musicians. There is no doubting the intensity that comes off of this EP more than the very moment it begins. The opening track and the first single released, “Gutter”, is a trial of human exposure to a relentless system. With an explosive guitar riff right off the bat and drums and bass rumblings underneath, Schrieber growls into a song about societal expectations of labor and moral bending. “Forty hours a week I lose myself on my knees / Forty times a night I tell myself I’ll get more sleep”, Schreiber screams as the chorus finds its steady ground.

Emerging with guitar chunks and pounding tom-tom runs, “Damage” has a rhythmic change, initiating a maturely paced intensity. With a melody reminiscent of the glory days of punk music, with its simplicity yet engaging and angsty lyricism, “Damage” finds the band speaking to the self-destructive nature of youth. As the two guitars duel between dissonant bends into harmonious and satisfied chord progression, the feeling rises up into a release of our own pent up frustrations. “Demeanor”, one of the catchiest tracks of the EP, is a rush to a secular life. With the drums, bass, and guitars all in a mutual understanding during the instrumental rundowns, “Demeanor” is a screaming conversation towards a one sided systemic scheme. “Count me out / Of your affiliation / I won’t take part / In any congregation” Schrieber demands.

With the fuzziest sound on the album, the closing track “Tuesday” is a thrashing escapade that barely scrapes over two minutes long. With the implementation of a stop time effectively used to break up the wall of sound, the band closes the EP with a catchy and repetitive headbanger that is as memorable as it is loud. (very).

Photo by Yailene Leyva

At only four tracks long, Common Rituals is a fresh take on the importance of punk music in a DIY scene. Loud, thrashing, and emotionally blending, Cruel stands their ground, in a rather dying world, as a defiant and exciting new voice to be reckoned with.

Written by Shea Roney

You can support Cruel here: bandcamp
A Conversation With Ivy

October 26th, 2023

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.

Photo used with permission by Bar/None Records

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.

Photo used with permission from Bar/None Records

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
A Conversation With Combat Naps

October 13th, 2023

Written by Shea Roney

Photo by Amelia Soth

With a sound that is fortified in pop facets, experimental awareness, and sweet undertones, Combat Naps, the project of Neal Jochmann, is fully demonstrative of the boldness and sheer joy that comes with making and performing music. With preparation leading towards the release of his new album, Tap In, Jochmann took the time to talk to me about being a home grown musician, reimagining Combat Naps live, and the freedom that comes with writing music.

Naming the project Combat Naps in 2016, Jochmann had a deep love for music while growing up. With a creative emphasis in his household (and a mom who spent the 80s singing in bands), the desire to make music came early and it came with energy. Notably, “I was really excited about the Frank Ocean album [Blonde] that came out that year [2016],” Jochmann shares. “I remember just feeling really overwhelmed with excitement because there were so many possibilities that it opened up. It’s just a very freeing piece of music”.

Unlike Frank Ocean though, Combat Naps became a musical factory, pushing out pop song after pop song, all to a degree of musical exploration and focus. Starting in the Chicago scene, Combat Naps released a string of EPs and LPs that embraced a lo-fi sound, but kept this undeniable sense of maximal lightness to it. On top of that, Jochmann spent time balancing a side project called Hippie Johnny with friends, Guatama and Connor, putting out a handful of releases. But as of 2018, Jochmann relocated to Madison, Wisconsin, quickly becoming a hometown staple and a familiar face to many. Finding a large and supportive outlet for Combat Naps to thrive, as Madison goes, “it’s a nice little test tube scene, you know”, Jochmann tells me as we share our mutual love for the city and its musical caricatures.

With help from friends and local Madison musicians Tim Anderson (of Able Baker), Marley Van Raalte (of Loveblaster), Ivette Colon (of Field Guide, Original Citrus, and others), and Madison guitar mainstay Ilych Meza, the band takes Jochmann’s sweet and offbeat recordings and interprets a new potential of what Combat Naps can reach when performing live. Hearing the effect to which Colon’s and Jochmann’s harmonies envelop a sense of pop-elegance is only a mere extension to what the full band brings to the shows. Unbeknownst to Jochmann, with an outpour of assurance and borderline feral attitude towards performing, the band revealed a punk nature to the live shows that wasn’t heard before on the recorded material. Telling me about an idea for a future project that would contain both live and studio recordings, Jochmann excitedly shares, “it will be a jump, and there will be just a big sonic difference in what the songs sound like”. But with Jochmann’s knack for manipulating sound, he continues, “that imbalance kind of makes it take an interesting form, like a novel with an incongruous kind of introduction by some other person”.

Tap In, the newest release by Combat Naps, is a harmonious plunge into Jochmann’s versatile and vividly scenic world. With songs about your typical themes of heartbreak, redemption, satisfaction, and even some heroic bravery, Tap In is as ridiculous as it is personally heartfelt and creatively moving. But where Jochmann’s typical songs of dire love or painstaking heartbreak goes, there is always a curveball to the story. “There are so many songwriting tropes”, Jochmann explains, “and then there’s like songwriting anti-tropes that you then learn about, after having learned the initial tropes that are just as traditional as the tropes you were trying to avoid” he laughs as he tries to push out the sentence.

When it comes to his lyricism though, Jochmann sees it as a collage, mad libbing fiction into the real stories of feel-good sadsacks, misfortunate heartbreakers, and eccentric hobbyists. “This approach is really attractive to me. It allows [me] to write stuff that is 100% meaningful because it has images from my life”, Jochmann states. “But it also has gaps of unspoken things and mysteries for the listeners, which can be potentially very impactful as well”.

For instance, take the track “Up To The Task” off of the new release Tap In. A story about an ex-girlfriend starting an indie-pop band with low budget-film dreamboat, Michael Cera. Jochmann’s lyrical approach brands his extensive imagination by portraying commonly felt emotions into a story that forces you to consider the whole spectrum of things you may be feeling. “You occasionally get slapped on the wrist by yourself though, by asking, ‘what the hell is this about?’ Or a friend saying ‘that’s really weird’, what’s that about? And you’re like, ‘yeah, of course this is just nonsense’” Jochmann laughs. “But then you’ll rein it in and go back to, you know, ‘Peggy Sue, oh how my heart yearns for you? Oh, Peggy Sue’. It’s just kind of a rinse and repeat thing”.

As Combat Naps go though, with his extensive collection of bandcamp releases, there is a lot of ground to cover. Whether or not that means that Jochmann has a hard time sitting still with a project, it is indisputable that he has a work habit like no other. Being fully self produced and home recorded, Combat Naps holds a very grand and melodramatic sound that is hard to come by in most DIY recordings. “I have aspirations in composition and in performance,” Jochmann says with an emphasis on polyphony. There might be a fear of writing and producing something that is perceived to be boring. But, looking past that, there is a much stronger drive to make something as exciting and fresh as possible.

With these grand productions and nonstop sonic experimentations, it seems almost inappropriate to try to box this band into a specific genre. “That’s just kind of part of the musical project,” Jochmann discusses. “It’s more than any specific sound. Just be honest and do whatever it is you feel moved to do”. What Jochmann’s music envelopes is this sense of freedom to any predetermined structure or rule to songwriting, genre, or DIY production. It’s prevalent in live shows, it’s there in the home studio, and it’s very clear in any Combat Naps release. “I have so many corny, sappy and sweet little things in my songs” Jochmann expresses. “But this is like a punk music experiment you know, like, make it sweet. Make it obvious. Make it do that. Don’t shut that out. It might lead to an impression of, you know, a nice impression of versatility”.

Combat Naps is a clear and animated response to Jochmann’s creative spirit and a passion to fill in the gaps of undesirable silence. With more releases already planned for the future, “It’s like the modern equivalent of some sort of religious devotion” , Jochmann says as the conversation takes a contemplative pause. “It’s like a religious devotion basically to what that process can reveal. Cataloging it, dealing with it. just reckoning with it. It’s really cool”.

Support Combat Naps at bandcamp