What’s the dynamic like between you two when writing and creating music? How do you collaborate on ideas?

Wyatt Clem: Normally the songs start with one of us having a chord progression or a fun production idea that we have pre recorded and then show the other person. I am the singer, I normally kind of write some gibberish like melodies over it until something sounds cool and then slowly start to write the lyrics. Shawn is really good at suggesting little tweaks here and there as far as how melodic stuff goes. It really depends, we start songs at piano, guitar, drum sometimes so it just kind of varies.

What artists or genres influenced you the most while shaping your style?

Wyatt Clem: I think initially Shawn and I have bonded over the 1975 and other kind of bands in that world or adjacent to that world. Small Pools was really big for us at that time in 2016, that is when we met so that was a big one.

Shawn Abhari: Even just growing up with the classic alternative bands, like my middle school was all Green Day and Blink-182. And high school was all Death Cab and somehow dub step. When I met Wyatt, I was like 'what music do you listen to?' and he was the only I met that day at our music school that listen to the same music as me. So we just bonded and started writing music.

With three EPs and a full-length album under your belt, how do you think your sound has evolved since the start?

Wyatt Clem: I think in the beginng we were pretty heavy in labeling ourselves as a synth pop band. I feel like over time our synths have been utilized in our music and it kind of has been more subdued, strip back, more organic sounding. And we have shifted more towards starting songs with a guitar and kind of making the sound more raw and using real instruments. We do have a lot of stuff that is electronic but it sort of feels now more intentional on how we use certain electronic elements versus the more organic, piano, guitar type of stuff. And we have like two songs that I would considered straight up rock, so we are not afraid to venture into that world a little bit as well.

Shawn Abhari: I would say all of that and after writing music together for so long, it is like just becoming better song writers. Wyatt has brought some of the best songs to the table and I’m like 'okay these are amazing'. So I think just kind of getting more years under us, our experience grows with that.

Performing with bands like LANY and The Band CAMINO must have been a great experience. What did you learn from them that you’ve brought into your own performances?

Shawn Abhari: It’s funny, I would say whenever we played with them it was in the first three years of The Ivy. When we played with The Band CAMINO, we were just in the same genre more or less. So just watching and playing shows with them together was really cool. And a lot to learn from them.