Your new single “East Coast” was the perfect way to come back after these last few months away!! What is the story and inspiration behind this new track?
Cory: I think the past few years have been a lot for everyone, we just found ourselves day dreaming about getting away from everything and decompressing. We tend to travel with my family every year to South Carolina and love having those experiences year over year, so it's become a sort of safe place for us and that's what really drove the inspiration for the song.
Trudi: I echo all of this. During the COVID shutdown and months following, everything felt incredibly monotonous. To me the song is about escaping-- leaving things that don't serve you, finding new opportunities, transplanting, etc.. but it's also a bit of a fantasy. You can't, "just go." It's wishful thinking but something to think about nonetheless.
How did you all meet and start making music together?
Cory: Years ago we played music together and sort of fell out of communication with one another. I was starting a side project from a band that I was playing with in Akron Ohio and really wanted it to be a bit lighter and more synth heavy with a pop leaning, but also wanted a female voice in the mix. Trudi instantly came to mind as she and I worked so well together in the past, the funny part was we started talking about the project and bouncing ideas back and forth and then we matched on a dating site! We ended up having a ton in common and fell in love soon after, and then finally got married right before the pandemic, the project has just sort of continued since then and allowed us to work on music as life allows us to!
Trudi: TINDER! Actually we met years ago at church and both our lives were very different then. I've always enjoyed being part of any music projects and writing a bit on my own. When Cory asked if I would want to join on a new project he was starting, I knew it was something I wanted to be part of. He sent me some demos and I loved them. Cory encouraged me to have my own voice and contribute to the band my musical abilities and ideas; not to just passively sing a line he wrote. I had sung with numerous worship bands and a few local bands, and for the first time I was able to contribute ideas. It was really humanizing, respectful and encouraging. And then we matched on Tinder.
You have such an incredible vibe to your music, it’s like being transported back to the 80s haha I love it!! Who would you say are your biggest influences when it comes to your music?
Cory: I have always loved experimenting with guitar pedals and different sounds, a few years back in my last project I was introduced to a Roland Juno 106 from the 80's and absolutely fell in love with the sound. It was a completely different experience playing that instrument and a completely new sonic landscape for me as a musician. From that time we started listening to various acts that incorporate those types of vintage sounds and samples (such as MUNA, flor, Now, Now, Bon Iver) and just ran with various ideas!
Trudi: I started with the hipster, folky music because it was accessible; lots of harmony, instruments I played, repetitive chord sequences etc.. it made sense to me and is kind of easy music to be honest. I also loved Sylvan Esso, The Japanese House, Now, Now, War on Drugs, etc.. moving towards more nostalgic, dreamy, synth sounds but they always sounded so indulgent. Like music I couldn't actually make or be part of because they were too technical.
What do each of you think is the best album of all time?
Cory: I personally think Bon Iver's i,i is a perfect record. It has so much experimentation but still maintains the hooks that a record needs to be popular. Hearing the way you can incorporate samples and more random sonic ideas into music is really inspiring to me, it's more of a texture than something melodic and that has really carried how I approach writing music
Trudi: That's such a hard question, there's been many. I've hyper-fixated on quite a few albums in different phases of my life. For the past few years, it would have to be Phoebe Bridgers's, Smoke Signals and I still always come back to it. Motion Sickness and Funeral are both tracks that hit very hard. They have taken me back to and through very specific times in life. She is such a relatable artist in so many ways.. her lyrics, the controlled fragility in her voice and the way she presents herself is such a contradiction.
If you could open for any artist in the world, who would y’all pick and why?
Cory: Personally Bon Iver would be a dream for me, just seeing the behind the scenes of that project and how they perform would be an incredible experience!
Trudi: Metric! When I was 16, they played a $5 show in Columbus and it was my first big concert. It was breathtaking and inspiring. I'll never forget that experience.
Any upcoming projects you can talk about? I could not be more excited to hear more from you guys!!
Cory: That is a great question! We have had some transition with folks in the band, our guitar player, Keven Chambers, moved to Seattle and we have various members who have contributed to the project all over Ohio, so it's difficult to connect to work together to record and perform. However we recently worked with a local radio station called WOSU, which is a local affiliate of NPR that did a more stripped down live set with us. It was a really fun experience to reimagine songs with just a few guitars and a synth. That really inspired us to start working with some local musicians on a live set for the end of this year and early 2023!
Trudi: I'm not sure what we have coming up but I'm excited for it! We just finished a new single and recorded a session with a local radio station. I'm very much looking forward to those two projects releasing and getting started on whatever we have coming next.
Interviewed By Sarah Curry
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