As they share their debut studio album, Gun, genre-bending duo Boyish talk about their symbiotic musical bond and writing a love story set in small-town America.
The names that come attached to Boyish’s recent rise suggest that the Brooklyn-formed duo are worth taking note of. They’re signed to R&R, the same label that boasts Dijon and Mk.gee. They’ve toured with The Beaches and Claud, and collaborated with King Princess and Rachel Chinouriri. And Loren Humphrey, the producer of their new debut album, has worked with Lana Del Rey and Geese frontman, Cameron Winter.
So that’s a lot of impressive names. But do India Shore and Claire Altendahl match the hype? If Gun – their cinematic, surprising and musically chameleonic inaugural LP – is anything to go by, Boyish are set to be a quintessential presence in alternative music for years to come.
The album is dark, brooding and atmospheric at times; cascadingly beautiful at others. There’s depth to the narrative focus, which revolves around a love story set in small-town America, with the vocal performances often full of expression and endurance. It’s the work of chemistry and craft, instinct and introspection. Below, Wonderland chat with the pair to dig into their origins and delve into the making of their album.
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How are you? How’s your summer been?
Summer has been fantastic, we’ve been in Minneapolis doing queer mud wrestling and rehearsing for tour.
Talk us through the origin story of Boyish. How did you start making music together? Why is it this sound palette?
It was something close to divine intervention. We showed up to the same place at the same time, and things just kind of went from there. We ended up sounding like this cause we hated every other variation we’ve had of this band and eventually that led us to this new album.
What is it about the two of you that works so well together as musicians and people?
In the words of Rocky, “She’s got gaps, I’ve got gaps, together we fill gaps.” India doesn’t really play any instruments but knows exactly what parts she wants to hear in the production, and Claire plays a lot of instruments and loves making parts and collecting gear. I think the bottom line is we both really respect each other musically and are very inspired by each other, so there’s a lot of trust there and not a ton of ego.
How would you describe your artistic essence?
Like a gas station coffee and donut: the perfect duo. Or clam rock.
Congratulations on your debut album. How are you feeling about the release? Why did now feel like the right time?
If it were up to us we probably would’ve poked at this album for the next 20 years before we felt like releasing it. We are perfectionists and really slow movers, so the people around us had to tell us to release it. Releasing music is really scary but we both love this album so much and we put so much heart into it, and I hope that comes across.
Why is the LP called Gun?
This album is a love story set in a small town in America. We were trying to think of what to call the town our story takes place in, and asked ourselves, “What’s the most American name you can think of?” The answer was pretty easy, so we started calling the town Gun. We also wanted it to run sort of like a play, where if there’s a gun on the wall at the beginning of a play, by the end of it, it has to go off. Treating the music as if it all had to amount to something and figuring out what that something was, was really fun, trying to figure out what all of these things are supposed to boil down to in the end.
How was the process of working with producer Loren Humphrey?
Working with Loren was the best musical experience either of us has ever had. He sort of made us fall more in love with the process of recording music.We recorded the whole project to tape and used no click tracks, so the process was very different to what we’re used to. We started recording at Diamond Mine studio in Long Island City, and then finished the record at Loren’s house upstate.
What influences the sonic choices on the album?
We listened to so much music while recording this album. I think we wanted to play around with different room sounds, and how that can make a recording sound more alive. We wanted this record to have a sound that was difficult to place into a time period. We didn’t want it to sound too modern, but we also didn’t want it to sound like we were trying to imitate a decade. We didn’t use any plug-ins on this album except for Soft Touch by Infant World Audio, the rest was all analog gear.
What is the album about, thematically and conceptually?
When we started writing the album we knew we wanted it to feel like stepping into a physical place, or at least an atmosphere that lasts for the duration of the time you’re listening. We thought the easiest way to do that would be to imagine an actual physical place where this album is taking place, sort of like a set or a backdrop. That lent itself to us creating a narrative to go along with these songs. The town is inspired by all the places we’ve seen driving around the country on tour or on our own over the last 4-5 years, and having all of these really surreal experiences. The story of the album is a love story that (shockingly) ends with a gun going off. It became really easy to channel everything from our lives and put it into this imaginary place, and imaginary characters, so the end product is something that is fictional, but emotionally very true. It’s really about just longing for something, or someone and how that feeling manifests itself in different ways.
You’re heading on tour later in the year, how are you feeling about the shows?
I am excited, and hoping for an audience! We’re not trying to recreate the album, but instead arrange the album to be played by very few instruments in new ways. It’s going to sound different live, but it shows another side to these songs that can only exist in a live setting. We also want to stretch one of the songs out live to last 10 minutes, so far we’ve got it to reach 7 minutes so there’s still work to do.
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