Have you ever been in love? We have, when we first heard The Ivy. They’re the indie-pop/rock band of your dreams so if you like a good synth-pop-leaning-alt-rock track then boy do we have just the thing for you. The Ivy’s new track ‘Be Like You’ just dropped and we’re obsessed. It’s an exploration of the pressures of life backed by airy, angsty vocals and some killer guitar. Stream it for yourself and see what we’re talking about. While you’re at it, check out more tracks from The Ivy like their previous release ‘Street Dog,’ ‘Have You Ever Been In Love?’ or ‘Thirty Eight’ (which is a personal favorite of ours.
We were lucky enough to get a chance to talk with The Ivy about ‘Be Like You,’ music, Mexico, and more, so let’s dive right in!
Hello and welcome to The Honey POP! We’re so stoked to chat with you guys. Can you introduce yourself to our readers who may not have heard of you before?
Shawn
We’re The Ivy from Tulsa, Oklahoma. My name is Sean and this is Wyatt and we play Indie music. We both met at music school in 2016 and put out our first song together four months after meeting each other, and then put out our first EP one year after meeting each other. So pretty quickly decided we wanted to write music together and now here we are still together!
You guys have both been playing music from a young age, how did you land in the alt/indie-pop scene?
Shawn
Both of our musical influences throughout the years were kind of in the alt scene or, you know, kind of alt rock. We really just kind of decided to write music that sounded like music we grew up listening to, a good fusion of all the songs that we liked and bands we were interested in, and that kind of took a form of its own.
Wyatt
For me, it was first genre that felt accessible to be able to, like produce on my own. It was kind of just the first thing that I figured out that like, oh, I actually don’t have to do this in a studio. You know, there’s people doing this in their bedrooms, which is true for all genres now. But, you know, 10-12 years ago it just felt more in convenient, and also it was what I was into.
How would you describe your sound and are there any other genres/things you want to experiment with musically in the future?
Shawn
I think our sound has kind of evolved, but constantly stayed in the indie alternative pocket with some electronic influences, and now we’re kind of leading more into that almost 90s dream pop sound, we’re excited to venture into that world. I think moving forward, some areas we want to jump into might be like, you know, kind of continuing to incorporate electronic influences while still having that true, like, indie sound and dream pop sound.
Wyatt
Yeah, I love the idea of like, meshing worlds together, musically. Sean comes from more of like, when he started producing, he can correct me if this isn’t right, but from more of an EDM world, and sort of how to replicate those sounds. I have a little experience with that, but I’m kind of more on like the guitar heavy side of things and so it’s always interesting when we get together and write kind of how those two things work well together. So yeah, I’m excited to do that some more and maybe like some more drum machines, more like electronic influences with some shoegazey guitars and stuff.
You guys have been on a roll with singles this year, anything you can share with us about what fans can expect from you in the coming months?
Shawn
Yeah, we’ll continue to put out a few more singles leading up to a bigger project early next year.
Let’s talk about the main event: ‘Be Like You.’ How did that song come about?
Wyatt
Shawn and I took a trip to Mexico and we wrote a bunch of music there, a lot of which is going to be a part of our upcoming releases. A few days after we got back, I was just in my room, and I was just feeling a certain type of way and I just kind of wrote it with just like guitars and a drum machine, the whole song was done in about half an hour, 45 minutes. So, it just came really naturally. I was excited to really lean into the stuff I was listening to, which I still listen to. Just a lot of like heavier 90s grunge music, and also, you know, some modern day like shoegaze and slow core bands. So, yeah, it came about really fast. Short answer, you know, we wrote it right after we got back from that writing trip, and I think we were still riding that momentum from that trip. So definitely helped with the speed that it was written at.
Lyrically, this song, I kind of wrote it from a perspective of comparing yourself to other people and just feeling like, you know, if your life isn’t the most exciting thing happening, then you should view yourself with less value, because that’s a mindset that I struggled with, throughout my early 20s and still sort of struggle with. You know, the fear of missing out on things ,and its a theme that I just felt like we’ve talked vaguely kind of about but I feel like I’d never really fully explored what that feels like and how to get that across lyrically. So yeah, and I hope it’s a positive message. I think at the end of the day, it’s about how you shouldn’t be so concerned with how everyone else is living or what they’re doing and definitely shouldn’t let those things have any weight on how you feel about yourself.
Given the themes of ‘Be Like You,’ like looking for connection in the digital age and how easy it is to get caught up in comparing ourselves to others, how do you feel about platforms like TikTok impacting artists’ relationships with potential fans and how they can affect artists in the industry as a whole?
Wyatt
That’s a good question, I think TikTok actually is less so what I was talking about. I think TikTok can be a great tool. When I get on Tik Tok, I would say that’s probably the one social media platform that doesn’t make me feel like sh*t. I really enjoy Tik Tok actually, and we’re trying to be more active on there as far as just kind of showcasing who we are as people and teasing new music and stuff like that. I think it’s a great tool, I hope that it doesn’t become the only way that artists can get their message out. I guess that kind of is the fear that you know, like a 30 second sound bite on TikTok can be responsible for hundreds of millions of streams before the song is even out. Which can be really cool, but also, I don’t know, I hope it doesn’t lead to shorter lived careers and shorter lived like moments for artists that are actually really talented and before people just kind of move on to the next thing, Shawn?
Shawn
Yea I’ll just say one like negative aspect sometimes is the feeling of the pressure that comes with that. And nowadays, it feels like we have to, in a sense, have some presence or performance in the kind of social media realm where it takes away sometimes from just being a band that writes music. You also have to have some amount of social presence. So that can sometimes just be extra pressure and work. Yeah.
Wyatt
One more quick thing on that. I think one thing that’s irks me, or recently I’ve just been told this we’re not signed to a label, but like a record label one of the first questions they typically ask is how’s your TikTok presence. And to me, that just feels a little dystopian. Like, something about that just feels very weird and kind of gross. But you know, unfortunately, it is important, to some degree.
‘Street Dog’ was partially inspired by actual street dogs you saw in Mexico, can you elaborate a little on that?
Wyatt
Yeah, it was my first time in Mexico, other than like a tourist trip that I took on a cruise. But yeah, I was just really surprised that there were just so many dogs that didn’t really belong to anybody and they were just kind of roaming around. Growing up, dogs would kind of just be like, sheepish and shy and like, wouldn’t necessarily just let you walk up and touch and be like, they just didn’t care. I mean, they had the most confidence out of anything there and I thought that was really cool. It kind of seemed like the whole community just kind of pitched in and took care of them. It was just like a normal part of the culture there was just to have a bunch of dogs everywhere.
Shawn
And mind you, this was just a small surf town in Mexico. So maybe not every city is like that. But yeah, it was really cool!
Speaking of inspiration, where does the inspiration for your music come from? Do you incorporate personal experiences and feelings into your music or focus on more general themes and feelings that people can relate to? Or is it a mix?
Shawn
I think our inspiration, you know, kind of comes from just our surroundings and what music we’re listening to, as well as what you know, whatever thoughts might be running rampant in our heads. Music has always been a sense of expression for us. So if we have a thought, sometimes journaling and writing something down, just kind of gets it out of your head and I would say for us writing that into a song is the same.
We actually got a chance to see you guys on The Summer Dreams Tour with Grayscale last year and fell in love with your music. You’ve gotten the chance to tour with some pretty amazing artists so far but who are some bucket list artists you’d love to share a stage with one day?
Wyatt
One band I’ve been really thinking about lately that would, I think it would fit really well and it would be a dream artist of mine would be Alvvays, with the two V’s. It’s just like female powerpop they’re just so sick. I would love to tour with them. Porches would also be cool. Influence wise I would love to do some shows with him. Hippocampus is one of my favorite bands, so I’d also love to play some shows with them. Shawn?
Shawn
I’m racking my brain, I think, gosh, there’s so many artists, Humberstone would be kind of cool. There’s so many artists that would be really, really exciting just to, you know, be able to travel and share similar fan bases with.
Wyatt
If the Cocteau Twins ever reunited, which that’s never going to happen, that would be like, all time bucket list
You’re embarking on some headlining shows, what’s it like going from a support band to a headliner? How does it change how you approach tour?
Shawn
I think some of the challenges are, you know, it’s a little bit more pressure, just realizing people are paying their good hard earned money to see you. Not that I don’t feel that way if we’re supporting, it just feels that we have to bring more of the sparkle, if you will. So for this tour, we definitely knew that because it was going to be a headline tour, we wanted to make sure we had a cool lighting package and kind of production package to pair with the music. Whereas in the past, the main focus has just been let’s make sure we can get our songs across as good as possible and make sure they sound as good as possible and then the lighting will come like later. So this felt like the kind of us pioneering new grounds that we’ve never yet.
Wyatt
Also being the headliner, you know, you don’t get to just play your set, and then go party for the rest of the night, while all the other bands play. It’s like you like you’re the person who has to show up and be at least a little bit professional. So that was a big change as well, just making sure you know, we’re in the right headspace, and we’re just locked in ready to go. Being the opener is really fun, but it is a lot different. It’s like we play our set. People aren’t necessarily there to see us, in a lot of cases they were which was really nice, but as the headliner, like Shawn said, people are specifically paying to see you. So yeah, you really got to bring it!
We also don’t travel with a big crew or anything. It’s just four of us like it’s me, Sean, and then Ramsey who’s our touring drummer at the moment and then a sound guy. So, it’s quite a bit of work for a four person crew, but you know, we’re making it work. We’re finding, you know, systems that work and everybody kind of knows their role and if everyone kind of just sticks to it, then it goes really smoothly. But that was a learning process for sure. Just setting up the LED production and, and everything else with the lights.
Shawn
Merch
Wyatt
Yeah, we were like kind of being our own merch, guys as well. So yeah, we’re just kind of doing it all.
Lastly, it seems like Mexico left a great impression on you guys, can you share some of your favorite memories from your trip?
Shawn
I thought it was, it was really cool because I had been able to go down to that same spot in Mexico quite a few times, just because of friends that own property down there, and so being able to go there with Wyatt, and being able to write music had kind of been a dream of mine. So to have that come to fruition, was exciting. The core memory for me was, we flew down there and arrived on Wyatt’s birthday, and right when we got there I think one of the first things we did was get tacos and bring them down to the beach and just kind of, you know, eat them and jump in the water for a little bit. I just have a good memory of going straight from like the plane checking into our like Villa house thing, and then going straight to the beach. So that was a really fun moment.
Wyatt
Yeah. My favorite thing, I think was just that you could walk down any street and people were just selling tacos, like out of their house. It was like the best food ever. Just, you know, authentic street tacos everywhere you go. I didn’t have a bad meal while I was there. I mean, it was just amazing. And yeah, just taking a break for lunch walking down to the beach. I was just like, man, I probably wouldn’t leave if I could afford to stay here.
Shawn
It’s so refreshing the whole town kind of moves a lot slower than it feels in the urban United States. So interacting and talking with people down there was really cool.
Wyatt
It’s just like a different philosophy.
Shawn
Yea, it’s like, no one’s really on their phone. Internet’s a lot more scarce, you know, even like cellular data, which has grown a lot over the years. But still, the priorities that people hold down there are completely different. Yeah, that was refreshing.
A huge shoutout to The Ivy for chatting with us, we had a lot of fun reading their answers and we hope you did too! Do yourselves a favor and go stream their music because you will not be disappointed. If you want to catch them on tour, be sure to grab your tickets ASAP!
Let us know your thoughts on The Ivy and ‘Be Like You’ in the comments below or drop us a line on our socials. We’re always buzzing about something on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
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