PREMIERE: Montreal's Never Better Perfects Indie Candour with New Track "Leash"

View fullsize

Rhys Climenhage AKA Never Better

Audio engineers: How do you pass the time when your DAW needs to reboot? 

For Rhys Climenhage, AKA Never Better, technical difficulties sparked writing the title track of their to-be-released debut record Leash. Set to arrive October 11th, 2024, the Montreal singer-songwriter shares the full-length’s opener, all of which came together in “about 10 minutes” on the faithful day their Pro Tools crapped out before heading to work in the studio. 

Climenhage is a friendly face in Montreal’s indie scene, both on stage and behind the mixing board. Since arriving in la belle province from their hometown of Peterborough, Ontario, Climenhage has found themselves “stumbling upwards” creatively, collaborating with fellow scene sweethearts like Sasha Cay, Holobody, James Clayton and Fireball Kid, all while nurturing their solo venture as Never Better. 

With their busy schedule, playing “at most, in like seven bands,” and engineering friends’ works, it makes sense that Climenhage “didn’t intend on making a record” when they first started crafting “Leash”.

View fullsize

“Leash” single artwork by Amery Sandford

Out today, the album’s lead offering is a tender musical keepsake for Climenhage. The song documents the early days of Climenhage’s relationship with their now partner, and fellow musician, Charlotte. With warm guitar strumming and honeyed harmonies, “Leash” is ever-inviting after the first listen, offering a glimpse into the budding closeness between Climenhage and the apple of their eye. Fittingly, recording “Leash” on a whim began the process of Climenhage seeking artistic consultation from Charlotte on more love songs they wrote for her, which would eventually become the album. 

“By the fifth song I knew it was going to be a record, and I was so excited to share it [with Charlotte], because she is also a musician and I wanted to see what she thought about it,” says Climenhage. “As we continue to date, I find myself being able to write a song in front of her from scratch, which I’ve never been able to do. I was sharing everything with her early on. She was there while I was mixing, and eventually I got the courage to ask her to sing on the record.” 

Climenhage cites the help of many friends making the production of Leash possible. Featuring instrumentation and backing vocals from a cast of local musicians, the album was entirely recorded and produced by Climenhage. Until Leash arrives this fall, Climenhage says they’re planning to roll out a few more singles and announce the album release show in Montreal, already hard at work on their next project.

---

LEASH

Out October 11th, 2024

1. Leash

2. No Choice or Chance

3. Pockets

4. Leaf Clover

5. Shuffle Slump

6. Circles

7. Loud and Lazy

8. I’ll Find My Way To You

9. Herd

---

Never Better

Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify

Zoë Argiropulos-Hunter (she/her) is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of Also Cool Mag. Aside from the mag, she is a music promoter & booker, and a radio host & DJ.

---

Related Articles

Slice Casts a Dreamy Sheen on Sincerity with "III" (Selenite Records)

Megan Magiera, Barbara Barrera, and Alex Hattick of Slice by Debbie Cho

Mellow yet moving, flowing yet focused, Long Beach’s Slice have long been crafting their unique indie spell. Comprised of spouses Megan Magiera (guitar and vocals) and Barbara Barrera (bass), along with keyboardist and vocalist Alex Hattick, Slice’s thoughtful artistry has gained favour with women and LGBTQ+ communities across Southern California. The trio masterfully employs motifs of jazz, post-punk, and dream pop, honouring their respective backgrounds without compromising artistic growth.

Their latest EP, III (out August 9th via Selenite Records), carries that compelling torch. Its captivating melodies are enhanced by earnest lyricism, navigating the waters of mental burnout and the demonization of homelessness. Slice touches on pervasive issues with cohesion, turning moments of isolation into cause for unity.

Late last month, Megan, Barbara, and Alex sat down with Also Cool to chat all things Slice.

Rebecca Judd for Also Cool: The band is coming up on its tenth anniversary. I’m interested in hearing how Slice's story first began, and looking back on the first chapters of the band.

Megan Magiera of Slice: It was kind of just me and Barb. Has it been ten years? Or is it-

Barbara Barrera of Slice: It’s coming up. You [Megan] would jam with your looper and you recorded [debut EP SLICE] – remember? All by yourself.

Megan: Yeah.

Barbara: But then we would also jam in your room – I would play bass, you would play guitar.

Megan: The beginnings are just in a bedroom. I thought it would be fun to play a show for my birthday, so we [Megan and Barbara] played a show, and I thought that was really fun. We met Alex and Kelsey [Landazuri, producer and engineer] through the music scene and… I feel like those beginnings are just in a bedroom, you know? Just making-

Barbara: Lo-fi.

Megan: Yeah, lo-fi…

Barbara: Bedroom pop.

Megan: Yeah, there you go…pop? [laughs]

Also Cool: So what were some of the previous bands you were in?

Barbara: I was in a band called Gaze with Lily Stretz from Meow Twins.

AC: Alex, you came into the band a bit later. What was your experience like before joining Slice?

Alex Hattick of Slice: I was a music major turned psychology major. I started playing guitar…in my early 20s, I guess? And then I started my own project, Hellgal, that Meg was in too. I was playing in three bands at one point.

So I saw Slice play, and there were a couple of songs that got stuck in my head, which is pretty rare when I go out and see bands. Usually, it’s like, “Oh, I like this!” but I don’t remember anything.

But I remembered “Sick,” and it always – I could sing “Sick,” and there’s no lyrics to it. There’s this little melody [that] would get stuck in my head. I remember hearing them play as a three-piece, and just being a little fangirl for a while. And then Michael Williams of Sanguine Knight was like, “You should be in Slice! You should have Alex in Slice!” [laughs] He was the little bird in everyone’s ears.

AC: So it was like a [crowdsourced] fusion of the minds coming together? It was just a matter of time before you joined forces?

Alex: Yeah!

AC: Jumping off of that – you’ve mentioned some of these smaller bands in the scene. Here in Canada, you hear about the music scenes in Orange County, LA, and across the West Coast as some kind of entity. A lot of what I’ve learned about the band is that Long Beach and the OC are important to your identity. I’m interested in knowing how your music reflects the sounds and the vibes of the West Coast, of the OC, and how you think it differs as well.

Megan: It’s hard to say stuff about Orange County – Long Beach is LA, technically, but I don’t know much about the Orange County scene. I know you [gestures to Barbara] were involved in it.

Barbara: I mean, I was in the Orange County punk scene as a teenager. But I feel like [being from the West Coast] adds to our chill sound.

Megan: There you go, there you go! [laughs]

Barbara: People say life over here is very laid-back and chill and I feel like our sound reflects that. What do you think, Alex?

Alex: I feel like Long Beach is a mini-LA in some ways. There are some really good venues here – some well-established venues that are dedicated to local music, which is cool. I’ve never lived in Orange County—Long Beach is right on the cusp, it’s like the last stop before you get to Orange County—but a lot of people from LA have started moving down here. I’ve run into multiple people who say they’ve moved here from LA and they’re like “It’s weird here, everybody just says hi! Everyone says hi when you’re walking down the street!”

I think there’s been a shoegaze-y or a 90s resurgence in stuff [here]. There are also little pockets of post-punk resurgence in the area too. So I think it’s been interesting watching who we parallel and relate to music-wise.

Slice by Debbie Cho

AC: Getting to the new EP, III, a lot of it shifts around some dark subject matter. There are songs that deal with anxiety, and “Depleted” deals very specifically with burnout – I’d like to hear more about the greater inspirations at play here. Did you set out to make an EP inspired by something you were working on [or dealing with], or did you feel like the songs kind of came together organically?

Megan: I would say it happened organically, for sure. There was no concept – I strived to do that later on. But all of these songs were written so far away from each other that there wasn’t a “theme” or anything. It just kind of [came back to] everyday struggles that we deal with and were inspired by. The subject matter is something that we [all] see probably every day. Dealing with anxiety and things like that, it’s just our everyday lives. The ebb and flow of life, you know?

AC: What would you say are the time frames through which you were working on all of these songs?

Megan: 2018 to 2020, maybe?

Alex: “Depleted” and “Shopping” are the most recent songs. Those are 2020, 2021, I think? Time passes so quickly!

I worked on the lyrics for both those songs and the lyrics came up during specific moments of feeling my own burnout from working as a therapist; of just feeling those feelings of the world, the nature of our political climate, and things like that. Holding all of that is a lot – for everybody, for lots of different reasons! I work with clients on [those subjects] too, so it’s something I encounter really frequently.

Also, as a social worker, I’ve had several jobs working with lots of different populations, so the lyrics for “Shopping” were inspired by some of the political pieces I’ve been following around the unhoused population and the treatment of those folks in our culture.

AC: Yeah, “Shopping” was one I particularly picked up on. It felt very charged, very riot grrrl in that sense of boldness to it. That’s really interesting to hear more about its connection to the unhoused and other [therapy clients] you’ve worked with.

Learning more about the band, it seems like the band consciously refrains from overproduction and you want to replicate the essence of your live shows. Painting the picture of these live shows, what do they look like? What is the connection to your community in those shows, and how did you come to value this in your sound?

Megan: That’s a good question. Have you ever been to a concert where the band didn’t sound like the recording – in a good way or a bad way?

I guess it’s just more authentic and we feel like we’re being ourselves. There’s nothing that we’re hiding behind. It’s an expectation that we set.

Barbara: When we’ve recorded, it’s always felt like taking a picture of what we sound like at that moment in time…rather than making a painting…if that makes sense? We added some [stronger] production to the new EP though.

AC: I like the visual imagery of that – that does make sense!

Alex: Yeah, and I think with how we seem to jam together, we almost work better together with simplicity and a certain amount of minimalism. Between the bass line, the guitar parts, the [keyboard] parts, there’s this natural flow that they have together and there’s three different melodies all happening at the same time.

So in order to hear that, for that to come out, I like that it doesn’t have so much “background noise” that blocks that out. It has that balance that reminds me of Grass Widow, and how they recorded too.

AC: It’s warm and fuzzy, and you can associate it with the memory of being at one of your shows. It sounds like the community really shows up for you.

Slice by Kelsey Landazuri

Speaking of shows, with the EP coming out on August 9th, I’ve heard there’s a big release show on August 10th. I’d love to know – what can fans expect? Are there any other shows planned, or other tricks up your sleeve?

Barbara: Kelsey and Val[eryee Jimenez of Selenite Records] said that we should record another 3-4 songs, and press that EP and this EP together on a 12-inch. So we’ve been talking about doing that. I’ve also suggested we could press all four EPs on one 12-inch, like this one punk band – Subhumans.

But we’ll see. We want to press a 12-inch, press another record for sure.

Megan: We’re also definitely playing more shows. Whenever a friend hits us up, we usually say yes… we have one more show booked in September.

Barbara: The August show, we’re playing with Coleco Club. It has members of the band Baus. They’re really cool, I can’t wait to play with them!

Megan: Angela Jane Bachman…

Barbara: Angela Jane Bachman!

Alex: I’m a big fan.

Barbara: Yeah, Alex is a big fan.

Alex: We’re going to be playing at our “home base” in Long Beach, which is called Vine. I think it became a thing when I was in college – so maybe not quite 20 years.

It’s now owned by Dustin Lovelis, who’s been in the music scene for a long time. [Dustin] has a recording studio, and he’s really involved in booking musicians. They have music pretty much every night of the week. The shows are also always free, so it’s a hub for music in Long Beach. Honestly, the main hub, which is funny because it’s one of the smaller venues. But it really is – if you’re a musician in Long Beach, you know about it. We wanted to play there because it’s the home base.

AC: Feels like a “return to form” of sorts.

Would those other shows also be in Southern California? Are there any plans to tour out-of-state?

Megan: We have no plans for that right now, but we would love to! We’ve toured the Pacific Northwest a few times, and we’ve even gone the SXSW route. We’d love to play more on the East Coast – Canada! [laughs] We would love to.

---

III

Released August 9th, 2024 on Selenite Records

1. Depleted

2. Don't Overthink It

3. Painfully Aware

4. Shopping

Megan Magiera - Guitar/Vocals
Alex Hattick - Synthesizer/Lead Vocals
Barbara Barrera - Bass
Kelsey Landazuri - Drums

Mastered by Nick Townsend
Produced by Kelsey Landazuri
Album Art by Alina Kano

---

Slice

Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify

Rebecca Judd is the features editor of Also Cool Mag.

---

Related Articles

PREMIERE: Kaspien Marks a Dazzling Return with "Cinder" (Video)

View fullsize

Ottawa-based indie wunderkind Karim Rostom, AKA Kaspien, has broken a three-year musical hiatus with the release of “Cinder”—a sparkling recollection of an unforgettable first date. Today, the 27-year-old singer-songwriter brings the experience to life with the anticipated debut of the single’s music video.

View fullsize

On “Cinder”, Kaspien details: “‘Cinder’ is about the most chaotic first date I’ve ever been on,” Back when I lived in Toronto, Cinder (not her real name) and I went on a date to a New Orleans-themed restaurant in Trinity-Bellwoods called Southern Accent. The owner waited on us; he was very sweet and talked to us for a long time. Cinder and I invented a backstory that we’d been engaged for three years, among other things,” he shares.

View fullsize

Made possible by a tight, talented group of Kaspien’s close friends, the homage to a formative evening at Southern Accent is a pearlescent daydream. Pinned coloured sheets and stringed beads transformed director Chantalyne Beausoleil’s childhood bedroom into a kaleidoscopic runway for Kaspien’s promising comeback. 

View fullsize

To Kaspien, the level of trust surrounding the production made for an effortless rendering of his lived experiences into a dream-like standalone concept for the music video. This is evidenced by the palatable on-screen chemistry between Kaspien and Zara King—his best friend who stars as the fictional Cinder. “[Zara created her own version of the person I wrote about. It’s hard to listen to the song without picturing [her] as Cinder now!” he says. 

View fullsize

“I’m blown away by the talent my friends dedicated to this video, and I’m eternally grateful to them,” beams Kaspien. “When directing, Chantalyne’s background in theater was incredibly valuable. Zekios Habtom, our cameraman, captured Chantalyne’s vision wonderfully. Jessy Lindsay took time out of her busy life as an incredible singer-songwriter to help us out in any way she could, and I’m forever thankful to her for that. Mack Brander, our editor, brings a creativity to video editing that is unmatched.” 

“Our video perfectly [captures] the hopeful, and maybe naïve, feeling that you might have just met your soulmate for the first time. When you feel that way, everything seems beautiful. Even throwing up,” humours Kaspien in reference to the lyric, “Cinder, I threw up my dinner / But still feel like a winner.” 

View fullsize

Watch the Also Cool Mag exclusive premiere of “Cinder” below!

Kaspien

Website | Instagram | Spotify

Zoë Argiropulos-Hunter (she/her) is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of Also Cool Mag. Aside from the mag, she is a music promoter & booker, and a radio host & DJ.

---

Related Articles

What's Also Cool at FME 2023

FME’s full schedule

As August comes to a close, we’re counting down the sleeps until the most glorious festival of the year… FME. The Festival de Musique Émergente returns to Abitibi-Témiscamingue this weekend! 

Featuring 81 artists, this four-day frenzy offers entrancing programming for music lovers from every pocket of the country. We couldn’t be happier to take part in the 21st edition of the festival. Whether you need some help planning your itinerary or you’re looking to shake up your playlists, we’ve got you covered with our top picks!

THURSDAY

N NAO by Naomie de Lorimier and Charles Marsolais-Ricard

N NAO

We had the pleasure of witnessing N NAO opening for P'tit Belliveau a few months back, and it was nothing short of the most ethereal goblin mode music we’ve heard in a while. Generally leaning more towards shoegaze fairy-pop, N NAO brings her dreamy world to life through her strange and wonderful compositions.

Pressure Pin via Taverne Tour

Pressure Pin

High-strung and minimally angular, art-punk group Pressure Pin are sure to hit the grounds of FME with a bang. Originally a pandemic-born solo project of multi-instrumentalist Kenny Smith, the project has since expanded to a full band operation. For fans of Devo, NOV3L, and Eastern Canadian post-punk.

Yocto via Bandcamp

Yocto

Yocto is one of Montreal’s supergroups, and legendary bands emerging from the Esco-Quai Des Brumes-Rockette Bermuda triangle. Inspired by the underground rock of the mid-70s (think Television and the Talking Heads), they credit their creativity to the sci-fi soap operas of the same era.

FRIDAY

Elisapie by Leeor Wild

Elisapie

The ethereal Inuk singer-songwriter Elisapie is set to take the stage in Rouyn-Noranda. Elisapie’s performance comes just weeks away from her release of Inuktitut, a cover album featuring selections from artists like Blondie and Queen that will pay homage to her youth in Nunavik.

Fraud Perry by Alex Apostolidis

Fraud Perry

With an exceptional knack for melding genres, rapper-singer-songwriter Fraud Perry has set her sights on Rouyn-Noranda. Prepare to be charmed by the Montreal artist’s fiery delivery and dance-ready beats.

La Sécurité by Aabid Youssef

La Sécurité

As steadfast fans of Montreal art-punkers La Sécurité, there was no question in our minds about proclaiming them a top pick. Their frenetic arrangements and provocative lyrics make for captivating live performances that are guaranteed to please.

Nora Kelly by Gabie Che

Nora Kelly Band

Previously known for her success at the helm of Montreal punk trio DISHPIT, Nora Kelly has hit a compelling stride with her shift to alt-country. With sickly-sweet vocals and atmospheric instrumentation, Nora Kelly Band offers the perfect complement to fading summer skies.

SATURDAY

Les Louanges by Sacha Cohen

Les Louanges

The poignant lyricism and signature funk of singer-songwriter Les Louanges (also known as Vincent Roberge) are not to be missed. Known for his charming melange of R&B and jazz, the artist has transfixed audiences from Quebec and back again.

Night Lunch via Bandcamp

Night Lunch

Night Lunch are bringing the 80s to Abitibi for their 5 à 7 performance at Les Mooses. Known as light-and-dark pop rockers, Night Lunch sing of the vices of the big city, big romance, and anarchist fantasy. We saw them open for LUCY (Cooper B. Handy), and can confirm that their show is not to be missed.

Truckviolence and Jodie Jodie Roger via FME

Truckviolence and Jodie Jodie Roger

If you’re in the mood for something loud and rowdy, the fin de soirée show at Cabaret de la Dernière Chance will give you the fix you need. Jodie Jodie Roger will kick off the show with her metal-infused punk energy, followed by Truckviolence’s gloomy hardcore sound. Bring your earplugs and get ready to get sweaty.

SUNDAY

Knitting by Alex Apostolidis

Knitting

Bounce around the last day of the festival with Knitting, an indie bedroom pop/rock group from Montreal. By choosing knitting as a metaphor, the band aims to enhance the relaxed, artisanal side of the business. Sit back, relax, but also maybe get up and dance.

SAMWOY via sam-woy.com

SAMWOY

Closing out the festival, SAMWOY comes to rock the cabin with dark hues, on assaults of guitar, sharp synths and cavernous voices, as it should be. Inspired by Division, Bauhaus and Iggy Pop, it’ll be a perfect show to end the weekend.

We can’t wait to run from show to show at FME! Keep an eye on our socials to catch our daily live coverage of our favourite small-town festival.

Get your tickets below if you haven’t already, and as always, we’ll see you in the pit.

---

FME

Tickets
Website | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok

---

Related Articles

Empty Nesters, The Lemon Twigs and Tennis: Also Cool's Playlist Refresh

View fullsize

Empty Nesters by Steph Dinsdale

The January air is rife with possibility, crystallizing all around us like porcupicicles from the roof, and some of our favourite musicians have started the new year by hitting their creative stride. Catch up on our recent listenings in this week’s Playlist Refresh, marking the first new music review of the year.

While the calendar flip is still fresh, we have an itch that 2023 will be defined by endless listening opportunities, from artists local to the Also Cool music scenes and beyond!

Explore the chapters of our Playlist Refresh series on Spotify.

View fullsize

Empty Nesters by Steph Dinsdale

Empty Nesters, the project of Chinese-Canadian artist Eric Liao, is an Also Cool musical mainstay. Having planted seeds in the same Ottawa DIY music scene, and eventually making the move to Montreal alongside some of the magazine’s founding members, every Empty Nesters release is an emblem of peers growing alongside each other and self-actualizing in the once intangible layers of the Industry™.  

This maturation is evident in Liao’s newest single “Going Bye”, self-released on January 6th. Outfitted with a dissonant shoegaze flare and bound by signature indie know-how, “Going Bye” brings forward the inner workings of Liao’s thoughtful songwriting — once buried by the fuzz of his house-show beginnings. Now with five EPs under his belt and an ever-growing curriculum vitae of live performances, Liao’s creative prowess takes centre stage with “Going Bye” winking at an exciting new chapter.

Catch Empty Nesters at Casa Del Popolo on January 28th alongside Blooming Season, Bedridden and Plastic - presented by KickDrum! More info and tickets available here.

Empty Nesters

Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify

View fullsize

The Lemon Twigs via Bandcamp

Long Island brother band The Lemon Twigs graced us with elegant love song “Corner Of My Eye” earlier this month. As the duo’s first offering since their acclaimed 2020 LP Songs for the General Public, “Corner Of My Eye” reminisces with the feel of 1960s soft rock pining. 

Written and produced entirely by The Lemon Twigs, the single’s uncluttered mingling of melodic guitar, muted percussion, dreamy vibraphone and winding upright bass cushions Brain D’Addario’s delicate vocals and the pair’s sparkling harmonies. 

“Corner of My Eye” is out on Brooklyn label Captured Tracks, and while no hints of a fourth album are on the way, we’re hopeful that The Lemon Twigs are brewing up big plans for 2023. 

The Lemon Twigs

Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify

View fullsize

Tennis by Luca Venter

Inching closer to the release of their highly-anticipated sixth studio album, Tennis has released the crisp and evocative “Let’s Make a Mistake Tonight”. This track marks the second single from Pollen, out on February 10 via the duo’s own Mutually Detrimental. 

Overtop of a laidback disco sound, vocalist Alaina Moore paints pictures of impassioned escapism. Her Madonna-tinged lilt elevates the vintage decadence as her fantasies of runaway romanticism culminate in destruction.

Elaborating on the vision behind the single, Moore notes: 

"'Let’s Make a Mistake Tonight' is all hubris, attitude, and wish fulfillment. I’m turning water into wine," says Tennis. "I’m reshaping my reality through projection or denial. While tracking with Patrick [Riley] I kept envisioning the same scene: I’m in the passenger’s seat. Patrick drives with one hand on the wheel and one on my thigh. This song plays us out."

Those in and around Toronto will want to catch Tennis on April 5th at HISTORY, featuring folk musician Kate Bollinger.

Tennis

Instagram | Spotify

Our Playlist Refresh series is available in full on Spotify, refreshed on a rolling basis.

Stream it all below!

---

Related Articles

It Took Reno Cruz A Lot of Retrospection to Make "Falling In Love Is Not That Hard"

Reno Cruz. Photo courtesy of Sam Fuehring

In Reno Cruz’s debut album, Falling In Love Is Not That Hard, he draws on an essential truth that we have likely all grasped at some point during the pandemic: isolation and togetherness are not mutually exclusive, and it is easy to feel alone while in the presence of loved ones.

But unlike most, the Chicago-based folk artist didn’t learn about the fusion of these conflicting feelings in the midst of COVID-19. His upcoming project consists of countless years of retrospection, taking listeners back to the time when he first moved to Chicago in 2017.

“I ended up here in a kind of roundabout way,” Cruz tells me over Zoom. “I was acting in a film that was shooting in Wisconsin, but then staying in Chicago on my off-days.” Originally from Los Angeles, Cruz initially came to the Midwest for acting school in his late teenage years. “I was like a little nerdy 19 year-old coming into Chicago on the weekends, and trying to find any cool culture that I could,” he says.

Although Cruz felt happy with the energy that he put into the film, he had a quick change of heart and decided to brace the music industry head-on. “I suddenly realized that this was not what I cared about,” Cruz says. “I really wanted to be a songwriter, but I wasn’t writing songs. The experience of moving to Chicago—and the many things that I discovered about myself between 2017 and 2019—were what really shaped the record.”

Reno Cruz. Photo courtesy of Jacob King

Cruz wants to make it clear that while Falling In Love Is Not That Hard focuses on relationships, “...it’s really about anxiety, and the narrative that we tell ourselves in relationship to other people.” He tells me that the man pouring out his soul in many of the songs off of Falling In Love Is Not That Hard is not the same Reno Cruz that I’m interviewing through video chat, but instead represents a different version of himself. “It’s the version of me that I was in January of 2019. Fucking heartbroken, lying on the floor and thinking, ‘Oh God, what is this!?’” He mentions how contradictory his emotions were at this moment of his life; although he was depressed from trying to recover from a breakup, he was also excited to be living in a new city, taking on the music industry and making cool and talented friends with each passing day.

Cruz shares with me that the word he came across which helped him to conceptualize these feelings was ‘ambivalence’ – meaning two strong opposing emotions being felt at the same time. “That’s not my experience with any particular relationship, that’s my experience of life,” he says. 

“Life is not simple; relationships are not simple. We live in an extremely complex, ever-changing world that brings up all kinds of feelings all the time. When it comes to feeling isolation and togetherness at the same time … You can feel that way in a romantic relationship, you can feel that way when you’re out at the bar with your friends, and you can feel intensely connected to people when you’re all alone in your bedroom.”

Before leaving his home in California to pursue acting and songwriting, Cruz had already worked many odd jobs. This includes stints as a jewelry salesman, banjo boy, and even a cheesemonger (which he still does to this day). “I’ve had a weird life, and I’ve certainly sought that out,” Cruz informs me. “But when you seek something out enough, it also finds its way to you. Mostly I’ve just been saying ‘yes’ to whatever I have been offered … I’ve said yes to a lot of weird shit, and it’s definitely enriched my life.” 

Because Cruz has had to operate in a lot of different contexts, he feels conviction in his ability to relate and empathize with a broad array of humans across the world. “I’ve been in acting, but I would also consider many of my experiences in customer service as acting, as well. It’s an emotional labour, if you have to speak to someone who is being rude and unreasonable to you. And it’s a skill that I don’t believe people who haven’t worked in that field often think about.” 

Reflecting on these experiences, Cruz explains how this kind of emotional labour has impacted his life as a songwriter as well. “In the song ‘Everybody,’ I sing about how ‘everybody wants to be my baby,’ and ‘everybody needs a piece of me.’ In many ways, it’s about me feeling like I’m doing customer service in my regular life.”

Reno Cruz. Photo courtesy of Sam Fuehring

For musicians looking to release their debut works into the world, Reno Cruz offers two pieces of advice based on his own experiences: be honest with yourself, and take your time. “Moving towards music wasn’t my plan … it was just, like, ‘I need to do this,’” Cruz reflects. “But it took a long time, because I was too locked up emotionally to become a songwriter. I learned how to play guitar, and I played music with other people for years and years and years before I got to a place where I was writing songs that I felt I could actually play in front of other people … you don’t have to be honest to write a song, but you have to be honest to write a good song.”

Cruz also emphasizes that “... [i]f you haven’t lived any life, then you can’t write a song,” and I am forced to think about all his odd jobs, heartbreaks, and the adventures that came to him upon moving from place-to-place. He believes in random bursts of creativity, but he also believes in the power of sitting down to refine his musical creations.

According to Cruz, these two methods live in symbiosis – you simply cannot have one without the other. “Sometimes it comes out all at once, and you’re literally looking at where you are, and what’s going on, and trying to get it as clearly and concisely onto the paper as you can. But sometimes you need to take a long time and just let it sit. We tend to romanticize that burst of creativity, but sometimes that’s not the best way to say it. You have to go back and be honest with yourself, edit, and show people how it’s working. It’s a balance of that super potent in-the-moment feeling, and later on, that healthy detachment from that emotion in order to make it as clear as possible.”

Listeners who enjoy Falling In Love Is Not That Hard can expect more Reno Cruz projects in the future, although they might be somewhat different from his debut release. He is currently finishing off an EP which serves as a follow-up to Falling In Love Is Not That Hard. This upcoming project explores some of the same themes, but with an expanded musical palette; more complex harmonies, additional instrumentation, and even a rap feature.

“I don’t know if I’m a folk artist, even though I love acoustic guitar and folk has had a huge impact on my life. But I had to make Falling In Love Is Not That Hard because of who I was at a certain time in my life. I’m really excited to put it out and move past it, because even though I love this record, I know that there is more to the story.”

---

Falling In Love Is Not That Hard

Released January 21st, 2022

1. F.I.L.I.N.T.H.

2. Wild Geese

3. Love Is A Wave

4. Around U

5. Everybody Wants

6. Your Love

7. The Problem

8. Heart Is A Window

9. Barnacles!

10. I'd Do It All Again

11. Love Is A Wave (Demo)

All tracks produced by Reno Cruz

Track 9 co-produced by Hunter Davidson

Mixed and mastered by Brok Mende at Friends of Friends Recording

Vocals on Tracks 1, 4, 5, 9, and 10 by Hannah Maverick-Cruz

Vocals on Tracks 6 and 10 by Danielle Strautmanis

Vocals on Tracks 9 and 10 by Wyatt Waddell

Vocals on Track 9 by Ariella Granados & Izzy Ortiz

Drums on Tracks 1, 7 and 10 by Sam Subar

Bass clarinet on Track 1 by Jacob Slocum

Bass on Tracks 4, 6, 7 and ambience on Track 2 by Jake Hawrlyak

Violin on Track 5 by Noelle Viard

Tenor saxophone on Track 7 by Eric Novak

Tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute on Track 6 by Kenneth Leftridge

Drums on Track 6 by David Blair Jr.

Trombone and trumpet on Track 6 by Chris Misch

Flutes on Track 10 by José Guadalupe Flores

---

Reno Cruz

Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify

YouTube | Apple Music | Twitter | Website

Spencer Nafekh is a tireless reader, writer, editor, and advocate for the written word. With an undergraduate degree in Concordia's English and Creative Writing program imminent, he plans to pursue a Master's specialization in journalism so that he can fully realize his career path. When Spencer is not working away, he is probably listening to experimental music while lost in the world of a science fiction novel.

Instagram

---

Related Articles

Dutch Indie Quintet The Klittens Tackle Coming of Age on New Track "Herkenbosch"

The Klittens by Megan Bruinen

On their latest offering “Herkenbosch,” Dutch five-piece The Klittens tour a small town just south of Holland. With a population of about 4,200 people, a single church and a skatepark, the modest Herkenbosch is the hometown of guitarist Winne Conradi’s parents, and where she spent her teenage years.

“Herkenbosch” still by Megan Bruinen

Following the release of their single “Canned Air” —premiered on October 15th via So Young Magazine— “Herkenbosch” is the band’s take on a theme as old as time: coming of age. Unlike its lamenting predecessors, such as “Old World” by The Modern Lovers, “Herkenbosch” finds lightness in reminiscing, and outgrowing, a past version of oneself: “You can’t live in a hamster ball/I miss the ruins of my childhood/What else can we do about the modern way of death?” sings The Klittens’ Yaël Dekker.

“Herkenbosch” still by Megan Bruinen

Fittingly, “Herkenbosch” supports The Klittens starting a new chapter as a band. Since the release of their 2020 maxi-single Pigeonhole, the group opened the 2020 Amsterdam Fashion Week in Paradiso, played the Left Of The Dial Festival at Maassilo in Rotterdam, and caught the attention of Beats Per Minute and Matthew Wilkinson of Apple Music’s The Matt Wilkinson Show. 

“Herkenbosch” still by Megan Bruinen

Along with “Canned Air,” “Herkenbosch” is The Klittens’ second hint at what we hope is a full-release to come.

Watch the music video for “Herkenbosch” below! 

The Klittens

Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify

Zoë Argiropulos-Hunter (she/her) is the co-founder and managing editor of Also Cool Mag. Aside from the mag, she is a music promoter & booker, and a radio host & DJ.

---

Related Articles

Dayton Swim Club’s Debut "Hangman" Invites You to Rage With Them (Perpetual Doom)

Nick Flessa and Dominique Matelson of Dayton Swim Club. Photo courtesy of Mario Luna

A rager takes place in some unspecified, sprawling Southwestern desert. Visualize Wim Wender’s Paris, Texas’ opening scene, except noir. Dayton Swim Club are playing for the party-goers when a mob of zombies overwhelm the space. These zombies look familiar; they are not corporeal revenants, but instead a tyrannized social cult. 

Fresh from American indie label Perpetual Doom, Dayton Swim Club’s debut Hangman offers a soundscape for pensive days. Its seven hypnotic tracks will rouse thoughts about sinister social norms as the sequel of a tormented history. Nick Flessa’s droned lead vocals are reminiscent of a late-70s shoegaze mood; together with Dominique Matelson’s ethereal voice and Mario Luna’s fuzzy, reverb-soaked guitar riffs, Dayton Swim Club’s concoction of space and distorted atmosphere(s) are magnified.

Melodic, lo-fi guitar riffs hint towards 60s psychedelia, setting the stage in “Pillow Talk.” As these riffs darken into an ambient sparseness, a collection of Me Too realities and other familiar authoritative perversions are confronted. Flessa and Matelson spiral between direct address, first, second and third person POV, alluding to the twisted yet very real nature of the track’s themes. “Night Breed” is a “Pillow Talk” season 2 of sorts: here, the sun sets and the mood dampens. Backing vocals evocative of female screams haunt an arid town where street lamps flicker. A rhythmically dark guitar persists, reminding us that here, days are as sunless as the nights.  

An eerie mélange of strings pierces the hovering gloomy clouds in "Landers”. The remote, Californian desert community that the track was named after renders a multifarious conceit for issues related to individualism and destruction. The track’s motif “Be your own man / Be your own hang / Be your own hang, man”  is chanted by Flessa and, paralleled with Matelson’s operatic vocals, induces an artful abstraction of social terrors. Dayton Swim Club have wrapped resentments of the ruinous Manifest Destiny and other deteriorating effects of political ideologies in shoegazed, Western-noir packaging.   

We caught up with Flessa just after the release of “Landers” to chat about the (pandemic-induced) means of recording and mixing the album, tonal and lyrical inspirations, and the bar featured in the “Landers” video.

Dayton Swim Club. Photo courtesy of the band

CJ Sommerfeld for Also Cool Mag: Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with Also Cool today, and cheers on the new album!  What forces were responsible for Nick Flessa Band’s conceptual and sonic transition into Dayton Swim Club? 

Nick Flessa for Dayton Swim Club: Thank you! I guess the main force behind the transition is my collaboration with guitarist Mario Luna, who took over composition and production duties. Mario has a strong and focused vision for the project. He’s also responsible for a lot of our visual presentation – flyers, band photos, etc. So far in Dayton Swim Club I’ve mostly been a lyricist and frontman, as well as the de facto manager.  

Nick Flessa Band hit a stride in 2019 with a lineup including Dominique Matelson, Jessica Perelman and Kirsten Bladh. At the beginning we were playing songs from my previous solo releases. Once this band became a regular unit, and we started writing new material together, it began evolving into its current form. Without having released anything, we played three shows as Dayton Swim Club in late 2019/early 2020 shortly before the shutdown. 

Also Cool: Dayton Swim Club is a collaborative ensemble between numerous L.A.-based musicians. Were you acquainted with these artists prior to creating music together, or did you get together for this project? 

Nick Flessa: We mostly knew each other in some capacity. It’s funny because Mario and I went to CalArts at the exact same time but didn’t cross paths until later, through music. Then we kept running into each other at Kaldi Coffee in Atwater Village and became friends. A few years later I also met Dominique at Kaldi, where she was working at the time. Greg Marino, who plays sax on the record, works there too. Mario, Jessica and I have all played in another project called Fragile Gang. Kirsten is an old friend from Cincinnati, where I’m from originally. J.D. Carrera (pedal steel on “Predatory Drift”) and I have collaborated a bunch and were roommates for a long time, and Pauline Lay (strings on DSC) is another art/music friend. 

Most of the players we’ve worked with are people I've been familiar with already – knowing so many excellent musicians is a huge perk of living in Los Angeles. The current iteration of the band includes our friends Daniel and Scarlett (on bass and synth, respectively), whom I met for the first time at a practice a few months ago. Mario brought them in and they’ve been doing great work – our live show feels stronger and more cohesive than ever.  

AC: Hangman was written during the pandemic – what was it about that time that encouraged the creation of this project? 

NF: Like many, I needed a project to hold me together during that time. At first it was a challenge to try to coordinate everything remotely, but Mario and I developed a workflow where he would send me song ideas and I would write lyrics in response, then record vocals and send them to him for mixing – Postal Service style. We found ways for our other collaborators to contribute parts remotely, and developed some pre-pandemic demos into full-fledged songs. 

Working on the record helped create structure to combat the general isolation of that period. The stakes of life itself felt raised, and since I had the freedom to focus solely on writing lyrics, I tried to take the day-to-day as a prompt to explore my thoughts and feelings about the past few years as we collectively bore the bizarre brunt of American history – a nightmare from which I'm still trying to awaken. I took a break from drinking, sharpened the focus of my reading and writing, and went on long walks. Making this record was part of surviving and processing that time and the years that led up to it, fueled by some distant hope that we’d eventually be able to finish, share and perform the project.  

AC: The locations where [the video for your track] “Landers” was filmed —Landers and Palm Springs—reflect the death cult that the United States has become. Can you tell me a little more regarding what it is about these communities that represents both a history and present state of self-destruction? Can you elaborate on the track’s lyrical motif “Be your own man, be your own hang-man"? 

NF: I spent much of 2020 in Palm Springs at my partner Chloe’s dad’s house, right next to a public golf course. It was a huge luxury to be in a relaxed environment with a swimming pool and plenty of space to walk around. It felt like I was hiding out on a permanent vacation during the apocalypse. I walked around the golf course frequently, and thought a lot about how many resources went into maintaining it. 

Those thoughts led to more thoughts about Western expansion, “Manifest destiny”, and the US as a colonial superpower; how the pandemic laid bare so many structural failures, but how control is always prioritized here. American individualism came full circle in 2020, a sort of ouroboros where the self-made head eats the tail of its own self-destruction — the anti-mask movement and nationally sanctioned super-spreader events being examples. “Be your own man, be your own hang-man” refers to this, and also to the isolation of having to be one’s own “hang” during the pandemic.  

Landers is a remote community in the high desert near Joshua Tree. It’s beautiful, isolated, and the site of a lot of extraterrestrial and UFO sightings. We performed there one night in 2019 a few days after the death of the late, great David Berman. It was a heavy and heady trip. Jessica’s drum kit got run over by a drunk driver in the parking lot of the venue. There had just been a rainstorm, which caused our ill-equipped cars to get stuck in the sandy dirt roads on the way in and out. The night had an enchanted and cursed quality to it. This experience was also a tonal and lyrical inspiration for the song. The venue we played at was called Landers Brew, it’s also featured in the video. Just a few weeks after we filmed there, it was bought by a developer and shut down. I learned this via Instagram when I announced the video premiere.

AC: The remainder of the album carries strong socio-political concerns. Much has changed between when you wrote this album to now. In what ways do you think your next album will reflect this social change? 

NF: One concrete change is that we’ve all been able to gather together and perform live shows, now that there’s a vaccine. That’s been very new and exciting, but also a big moment of adaptation.  As a group we are hoping to have the opportunity to record in a studio together. We are gunning to make a very deliberate record that is conceptually thought through with an arc from start to finish. There's a sense in which Hangman is a cut-up record in terms of its structure, and I think that’s a strength, but I also think a more focused follow-up is in order.  

As much as the 2020 election was a pivotal moment, things aren’t great here. There’s a point, politically, where you can never go home again. As much as the attempt at a sanitized return to the Obama era has been a reprieve for some, I think there is much worse to come unless the Left can consolidate in a meaningful way.  

Our music speaks to a popular resentment. It’s valid to feel resentment at the way things work in the US, and that feeling is potent; ideally this is a power that can be harnessed to fight injustice rather than enforce it. While there are plenty of things to be optimistic about, even the most seemingly progressive of our elected politicians are doing more to appease Republicans than represent their own constituents. Corrupt city councilmen abuse the unhoused with impunity. Military budgets continue to inflate. The charade can’t be kept up forever, though. People are savvy. We can all see it happening in real time. Climate change, too, promises big catastrophes soon. This will continue to change the world we live in, and by necessity my writing will reflect that change.  

AC: Thank you again for your time, I’m loving this album and am looking forward to your future projects. What can we expect to see next from Dayton Swim Club? 

NF: Thank you so much! We have a few new things coming up, including a video by our brilliant friend Will Wiesenfeld (Baths) for our track “Predatory Drift”. We’re also doing a TV theme song cover for Perpetual Doom’s Stay Tuned compilation.  

Several DSC members have solo projects with upcoming shows and releases. Mario, Scarlett and Daniel are all playing in Daniel’s project Dearly Departure at Substance Festival in November. Dominique has a solo record she’s been working on concurrently with this one, coming soon. I'm working on a cover of a song by our friend and labelmate Austin Leonard Jones, also coming soon.  

We’re DJing labelmate Grady Strange’s residency at the Echo on November 1st, ahead of a short hiatus before one final 2021 show in December. Once we wrap these, then it’s back to the drawing board. 

---

HANGMAN

Released September 17th, 2021 via Perpetual Doom

1. Darker Moves

2. Pillow Talk

3. Night Breed

4. Landers

5. Predatory Drift

6. Rage All Night

7. DSC

Produced and mixed by Mario Luna

Contributors include Jessica Perelman, Kirsten Bladh, Pauline Lay, Greg Marino, and J.D. Carrera

---

Dayton Swim Club

Website I Facebook  I Bandcamp 

CJ Sommerfeld (she/her) is a Vancouver-based freelance writer with a particular interest in the convergence of language, art and society. When she is not writing, you can find her experimenting with harmonic minor progressions on her keyboard.

---

Related Articles