Your music is both shrouded in layers of fuzz but sometimes a line will come out that's crystal clear. There's a lot of both soft and harsh edges. Do you deliberately play around with melodies/sound to create this dynamic push & pull?

HB: I think some of the shifts from soft to harder sounds come from the range of music we listen to. We love heavier shoegaze and loud post-punk as much as softer slowcore and indie-folk songs, so I guess the songs are naturally a reflection of that.

OV: A lot of the dynamic push and pull comes from each of our different writing styles and trying to mix the sounds each of us like. We like to play with a large range of sounds and see what works together!

You're a relatively new group with just one EP out before this new single. How did you come together as a band and what's been the vision for creating music so far? How does each song represent the growth and next step of the band as a whole?

CM: Olivia and I started hydrodate as an idea we wanted to create during early 2020 before Covid started to ramp up. We had written a few songs together focused on creating soft melodic folk music, but never really had anything recorded at the time. Hendrix, Max, and I were also in another band called Loris that made slow guitar centered tracks. In early 2022, that band started to lose momentum so Olivia and I invited Max and Hendrix to come jam on some songs we had written for hydrodate. The heavier sounds from Loris and the folk from the early days of hydrodate came together to create the type of music summative of us today.

hydrodate
MIX

Your music has a dreamlike quality where meaning slowly unravels behind each song. It feels more like a longform piece sometimes than a song 3-4 minutes long. What's your advice on how to best spend time w/hydrodate's music?

MG: I think a big part of that dreamy/hazy sound comes a lot from all of the various layers we put into each track. The way they blend/weave together can create a really nice texture that gives something new to experience on each listen. I don’t think there is one best way to spend time with our music! Our sound can span a pretty wide range of emotion and reach people in different ways

ALL: Chilling on the couch with some friends admiring the beautiful Roku City skyline

Where do you find solace / inspiration for creating?

CM: I’ve always enjoyed messing around on my acoustic guitar, coming up with new chords to play or trying to figure out melodies I’d thought up the week before. It’s a good way to express myself in ways I can’t normally. I also work from home, so building on a song throughout the breaks in my workday can relieve a lot of stress. I like to have an instrument around while watching T.V., I'll get a rush of inspiration from a song or movie and be compelled to get it out. Finding inspiration comes in strange ways a lot of times, so I just try to stay open to any form it may come in when it does.

HB: A lot of my motivation and desire to create music stems from years of being an avid music fan. Since early high school Cam and I really idolized a lot of the artists we listened to, and a couple years ago we finally decided to channel that influence by starting a band and making our own music. Now, pretty often we’ll go through a phase of liking a certain song and we think “ya know, I’d like to make a song that sounds like that”. For example, when we were writing Layers of Dilemma we were listening to Realize by Codeine a lot, so we just tried to make our own rendition of that type of vibe and sound.

Tell us more about the recording process/inspiration behind this new track!

CM: This new track was created in the living room of mine and Hendrix’s apartment. We’ll usually bring this tiny amp we got from the thrift store in to play electric guitar while the other will play an acoustic guitar. We put on a movie in the background, and after a few minutes I came up with the opening riff, Hendrix added the backing guitar chords, and we just built it from there. Recording this track was a good experience also, our friend Jake had us come by his apartment studio on a Friday morning to track the drums. Max finished the drums within a few takes, which set a good base for the rest of the day. We then recorded my guitars, relaxed for a bit, til Hendrix, and Olivia came a little later to record the bass, synth and vocals. By about 8:00 we had the recording finished and went out to celebrate by getting some food from a local restaurant called Victory Grill.

Any under the radar musical peers we need to know?

OV: Chicago is filled with some great local bands like Harvey Waters, Dearly Somber, & Jerry Russo. Jerry Russo is the project of our friend Jake who recorded the new single! Our friends Full Body 2, based in Philly, are also a very ethereal band to check out!

HB: I know Cusp has already been featured on Open Tab, but I have to shout them out again cause they’re really good! “I know” and “Spill” are songs I’ve been listening to a lot lately. Bled Tape is another good local band too. Like Olivia said, Chicago has a lot of great bands that are more underground. 

What's special about the mix you've made?

OV: On the mix I added songs by a few of our friends’ bands as well as some from my favorite 80’s post punk bands. I think the mix is special because we all have different music tastes that compliment each other side by side.

MG: I think the mix really highlights all of our various influences and inspirations. Everyone in the group has a pretty diverse musical background, which contributes to the sound in a pretty unique way.

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