You guys have known each other for a while (especially Jake and Brandon) – how has your concept for this band changed over the years? Have you always been interested in playing the same style of music?
Over the course of the last 4 years, we’ve worked on a bunch of different genres, our tastes can vary a bit, but Couch Prints is basically the middle Venn diagram category where the shared loves we’ve had merge. When we first started the project a few years ago, we came together with the idea of making a synth-pop album, because that was definitely the biggest shared connection. As we progressed though we started to take more inspo from music that was slightly more fringe, like dance and bits of experimental. Our very first (unreleased EP) was a lot more dancey, but we felt a little nervous to put it out. Especially in the beginning because there was this lil golden age around 2016 where a lot of good pop was coming from David Dean Burkhart’s Youtube channel, and we were really inspired to become part of that world. That’s more where the inspiration behind “Of Drawing” and “Tell U” came from. Since then we’ve grown a ton as musicians and gained more confidence in regards to wanting to release something we felt was more true to us. So with this EP we wanted to expand on those initial ideas and incorporate more of our influences in dance and experimental again.
Your music is very modern (synth-pop is one of the coolest modern music styles out there), but it also has a very timeless feel that is reflected in the video for “Tell U,” how do you go about taking influences from more classic bands and making it your own?
We’re pretty honest with ourselves about what our influences are and where they came from. Since we listened to a ton of 80s pop when we were growing up, we draw from that pallet in a lot of ways – especially in song structure. So we try and bring that classic pop feeling, mixed with more contemporary lyrics and sonic elements. That said, the method of making music on laptops, and the amount of cheap hi-fi plugins and effects, just makes stuff naturally sound newer and contemporary unless you’re actively trying emulating that era.
Speaking of that video, can you talk about the process of shooting and designing it? Where did your ideas come from for this?
The “Tell U” music video concept is all the director Mayachka and co-writer Erin Grant! They listened to the song and had a sense of our influences aesthetically and crafted this oughties soap opera drama narrative that fit so nicely. The shooting took place in the Lent-Riker Smith Homestead in Queens, this really beautiful property that’s known for being the oldest inhabited home in NYC. The house is saturated with history, and you can feel it in every item that the owner has collected over the years: statues, crystals, newspaper clippings, furniture… it really created this beautiful and timeless mood that colors the video and compliments the song perfectly.
“Faces” came from a very painful place. Are all of your songs this personal or was this an anomaly? What was it like to write such an honest track?
Brandon: I generally don’t write in a very literal way or draw from a specific experience in the way I did with Faces. Because for me writing is so intertwined with production, oftentimes the mood of the production will influence the subject of the lyrics and I don’t like to go into a song with a specific idea of what I want to write about. With Faces though, I had had this relationship that was still so fresh at the time, and had influenced so much of my adolescent life, that it was impossible not to write about it. I think there’s something really comforting in immortalizing parts of your life and sort of separating them from yourselves. Though I’m not happy or excited about the events that created the song, I’m glad that I have this expression of it that I can look back on, sort of like a photograph of an era.
Is there a theme to this album or is it more of a mix and match?
Jake: For the EP the idea was to capture moments that evade description in words. Those sort of feelings that language isn’t equipped to describe, and that seem to come from somewhere sacred. All music is like this, but we’ve all undergone such drastic transformations in our personal lives since starting this project that the EP became our unpacking of it in real time. When we try to conceptualize how strangely entangled our lives have become, and all of the various versions of ourselves we’re living to see, the EP is one of the few concrete things that comes forward. Growth is something that Brandon and I truly value and have since we first met, and with the EP we wanted to basically put a period on this chapter of our lives. That way we can look at these times, reflect on them, and use them to influence our movements forward. Thats why the EP art is designed to look like a physical material, and is labeled “Tell U Chapter 01.” It’s our way of allowing this to be one moment in our lives while staying flexible to future expressions of ourselves.
How has the process of creation been different since quarantine?
Our writing process has changed dramatically since covid!! We always would write an initial idea on our own, and then get together in the studio and record and produce it with everyone present and contributing. Since we all were quarantined, we’ve had a much more individualized process: writing something than sending it off to the others, who then write on top and send it back. This is pretty similar to what Jake and Brandon were doing when Jake lived in Paris, so it hasn’t been bad at all – though we all really miss each other!
What are you working on next?
We’ve been writing a ton since quarantine started, and have some really cool ideas/songs for an album, so we’ve just been continuing to write and concept for that project. We’re really excited to share it with everyone 🙂
