This interview features Katrina Hildebrandt, Sebastian Jones, Ian Kloehn (Daundry), Cormick Costello, Caradoc Crandall (Intoner), Nick Chun, and Grant Lendvay (the latter four are only for a bit at the end). It has been edited for (relative) clarity (once again: I tried my best… it was fifteen minutes of audio this time…)

5/8/2024 @ 11 PM-ish : Lace for Leisure, Intoner, and Daundry @ bookclub:

Kat, Seb, Ian, and I stand in a circle to the right of bookclub’s front door. The show’s over and there’s at least twenty of us all standing outside, smoking and chatting in separate clusters. It was hot enough inside the venue for the cool evening breeze to feel good without a jacket on. After rounding everybody up and three (?!) false starts (my screen was frozen for some reason?), I start recording:

Ella: And now we’re cookin’…

Kat: Here we go…

I clear my throat.

Ella: Ok, question number one: how would you rate the show tonight out of ten…?

(Same as the Intoner interview… I will try to come up with a better first question next time.)

Seb: Seven?

Ian and Kat nod.

Ian: It was a nice one, I’d say like an eight and a half… 

Kat: Eight, yeah.

Ella: Have you had any ten’s?

Ian: Hm… I don’t know—

Seb: I mean, there are a lot of shows that we’re really happy with—

Ian: And like, some of us are happy separately—

Seb: Yeah—

Kat: There was a [Subterranean] show I think we all felt really good about—

Ian: Yeah, Subt one time was really good.

Ella: Was that in January…?

Kat: I think so…?

Ella: I think I was there for that…

Ian: Yeah, I think that was in January… that was a really good one, that was fun.

(I was in fact there for that! It was the day before my 21st birthday and I don’t think the bouncer knew what day it was because he gave me a 21+ wristband, but I still made Maria and Cordia buy my beers for me because I was nervous. Good times!)

Ella: Well, what was the worst? Like, do you have one that was really bad?

Everyone immediately nods.

Ian: Oh, here! We had one here, like last summer—

Seb: Was that the one in the summer when it was like, 98 degrees inside?

Ian: Yeah, 98 degrees, there was no AC, I was pissed off—

Seb: Yeah, Kat almost passed out onstage—

Kat slowly nods.

Ella: Oh my God…

Seb: I had this other set of cymbals I used to use that were all broken, and during a song, one of them flung off and hit me in the face and cut my lip—

Ella: Jesus fucking Christ—

Seb: Yeah… 

Ella: So it was bad!

Seb: It was bad… we played fine, I guess, but it was just—

Kat: We were mad—

Seb: We were upset all day.

Ella: So you don’t look back on that fondly…

Ian: Hell nah!

Seb: No, not at all…

Ella: How about Grantchella, was that a good one?

Everyone smiles when Grantchella is mentioned.

Kat: That was one of the best. 

Seb: That was a LOT of fun—

Ian: That was fun, that was one of the most fun ones ever… I chain smoked the whole time…

I nod.

Ella: You were chain smoking the entire time—

Kat: Onstage…

Ian: The cops came to our set—

Ella: I was there!

Ian shrugs.

Ian: But we kept playing, it was fun.

Ella: You guys were really good! I think this year it’ll be more chill… like, having it more public and wrapping up at 8 and everything.

Everyone murmurs in agreement.

Ella: What’s your favorite venue to play?

Ian: I think upstairs Subt or… Sleeping Village.

Seb: Yeah, I’d say upstairs Subt… Honestly, we played Empty Bottle a couple weeks ago and that was a lot of fun, I really really liked that one. 

Kat: That one was really fun—

Ian: They have a cat at the bar!

Ella: They do have a cat at the bar! But the cat doesn’t engage with the patrons like… at all…

Everyone: Yeah, no…

Ian: Its name is… um… 

He doesn’t remember.

Kat: It’s a her…

Ella: Ok, so you guys just dropped your album a couple months ago, how has that been? Well received? You feel good about it? It’s really fucking good! It was fun to hear all the songs I’ve heard live like… a crazy amount of times…

Ian: It’s been really good!

Ella: Where did you record? 

Seb: We recorded at Treehouse with Gabe Bostick—

Ian: It’s like, a practice space—

Seb: Yeah, and the recording process was I think over the course of like… four days? For all that?

Ella: Damn, that feels really quick—

Kat: We did it live—

Ian: It was really fun, good bonding—

Seb: It was like, fourteen hour days—

Kat: It was crazy—

Ian: Bonding for real, and we love Gabe, he’s super sweet, and then we mastered it in his garage—

Seb: We mixed it in his garage—

Ian: And then we mastered it with…

Kat: Greg Obis—

Ian: Greg Obis! Who…

Kat: He’s done, like Duster, and—

Ella: Really?! That’s cool, how did you guys get to work with him?

Kat: Gabe knew him!

Ella: Oh my God… that’s cool. From the outside, as least, I feel like everything’s really connected in a weird but awesome way—

Seb: Yes! Definitely—

Kat: Chicago’s cool like that.

Ella: When you’re coming up with a song, how does that normally go? 

Ian: I think it’s always different…

Seb: It really depends on the song—

Ian: There’s some that we’ve done all together—

Seb: I think there’s some that we were just jamming… because we jam at Lilly’s a lot, where we have like, four or five hour sets, we come across some things that we like. It’s usually: Ian goes home, creates more of a structure for it, brings it to practice, and we all kind of—

Ian: Play it off of that—

Seb: Yeah, kind of figure out what works for us. Half the time—maybe less than half the time—we write the lyrics together, half the time it’s just Ian.

Ella: Out of your songs that are out right now, are any of them an example of a jam that was successful?

Kat: “FedEx,” for sure—

Ian: “FedEx!”

Kat: We did that in a day—

Ian: We wrote it all together, all the lyrics and shit… It was like, a jam kind of thing, and then it turned into that, it hasn’t been changed, really—

Seb: That was the last one, the most recent one.

Ella: What about covers? This is a personal question because, you know, I’ve seen you guys play a lot, but what happened to your cover of—

Ian: “Wicked Game?”

Ella: “Wicked Game!”

Ian shakes his head. Everyone groans.

Ian: We just don’t play it anymore… We just have a full setlist now, other stuff we want to play on our own.

Seb: We played it, like realistically, probably for like 50 shows in a row, so we’re kinda sick of it…

Kat: Yeah…

Everyone nods in agreement.

Ella: I remember talking to you guys about this a while ago and you were already kinda over it…

Ian: Yeah, I don’t know if we’re ever gonna do another cover, but if we do, it’ll be something that we all really fucking love, and like, change it up our own way—

Kat: We've talked about doing a lot of different covers but none of them really stick, so I think once we find one… like “Wicked Game,” we found that…

Ella: What else have you talked about doing?

Ian: “A History of Bad Men” by Melvins—

Seb: Yeah! That one, “Jealous” by Eyedress…

Ian: We did that… before—

Seb: That was, like, the first song we ever covered. But that was before Ian had all his distortion and chorus pedals, so it sounded… not full at all… I think if we did it now it would sound really cool.

Ella: How did you guys land on “Wicked Game” of all things? Like, it’s a good song, but I only knew it from you guys, and I only knew Chris Isaak from fucking Twin Peaks Fire Walk with Me, like, I didn’t even know he made music… 

Kat: Well, to be honest, I think that song was really popular on TikTok when we started covering it, and then it just—

Ella: And then you kept on playing it—

Ian: For a while… I think my mom showed me it when I was a kid—

Seb: Yeah, my mom also showed me it—

Ella: Really? That’s kind of sweet…

Ian: Now we just don’t really do it anymore—

Ella: It’s dead, you’ve retired it… You could always bring it back at some point…

Seb: Maybe for Grant Slam…

Ian: Shoegaze version… maybe!

Seb: Maybe… 

Kat: We were talking about doing it as a single or something…

Ian: Yeah, putting it out maybe…

Ella: It’s like, almost unrecognizable when you guys do it—

Seb: That’s definitely our goal for covers—

Ella: Yes! They really have to justify their existence and I think you guys definitely did service to that so, good job! 

Seb: Thank you!

Ella: I never really got sick of it, but it was kind of a “bit” toward the end…

Kat: Yeah…

Everyone nods.

Ella: Ian, I remember when you played a solo show with no setlist at Archie’s—

Ian: Nooo! I hated that shit…

Ella: It was so funny dude… like everyone was just yelling, “Play ‘Wicked Game!’”

Laughter.

A lull.

Ella: Um… what else do I have for you guys?

I pause.

Ella: Um… anything coming up other than Grant Slam?

Seb: We have a pretty stacked May actually—

Ian: Cobra Lounge show—

Seb: Cobra Lounge…

Ian: We have a Schubas show—

Kat: With Superdime—

Ella: I just saw Superdime for the first time at the Intoner release show! They were really good…

Ian: Yeah, it’ll be a fun one—

Kat: I think we might record that new song as a single…?

Ian: With Gabe, maybe, again… or if not, we’ll just do my bedroom…

***

Ella: Were you guys all friends before this? Or did you become friends through being in the band together? How did that start…?

Before they can answer, Matthew Boyd and Maddie Voelkel walk past us and wave on their way out: 

Matthew: Bye Daundry!

Seb: Bye guys! Great job!

Ian: See you guys! 

We all wave bye.

Grant walks over with Nick Chun, Caradoc Crandall, and Cormick Costello, (and some other people I don’t know but have seen before). 

Grant: Hey guys!  

Indecipherable chatter:

Nick goes over to Ian to prod him about his proposal to pay him to restring his guitar during Daundry’s set. I’m standing closest to this conversation (of many) and this is the only one the recording picks up:

Nick: A dollar is fucking foul—

Ella: A dollar for what…? This will be in the interview, by the way—

Nick: Oh, to restring his guitar!

Ian: No, no, I’ll give you something good—

Nick: No, a dollar per string—

Ian: Seven dollars… it’s a seven-string…

Nick starts laughing.

Nick: Seven? No, it’s a six!

Ian: Well, I’ll give you seven dollars—

Ella: You’re about to be rich—

Grant and friends on the other side of the circle start talking about Grant Slam:

Seb (I think?) (to Grant): Anything you want to say about Grant Slam?

Hooting and hollering in the background.

Grant clears his throat.

Grant: I’m really excited for it, Daundry’s gonna headline, they’re gonna kill it as always, they’re gonna go, uhh: (noises that would be impossible to write out) and it’s gonna be cool.

Laughter.

Ella: I’m not gonna be able to type that out… but totally…

(Why does this keep happening in these interviews?)

Someone (?) starts singing “Shattercane” (by Daundry) in the background (I cannot tell who). 

Grant: The whole thing’s for Daundry…uh… 

He starts to trail off, collecting his thoughts.

Grant: Make sure to poop at Grant Slam.

Laughter.

Ella: In the porta potties! Because they’ll have those!

Grant: We’ve got three!

Ella: Three porta potties?!

Grant keeps going:

Grant: Buy Daundry merch!

Seb and Kat: Yeah!

Grant starts talking to someone else. I turn back to Kat, Seb, and Ian:

Ella (laughing): Ok, so back to the question—

Seb: Right—

Ella: How did you guys, I guess… what was the band’s origin story?

Ian: So, Seb and I met freshman year, we jammed out once, and then we didn’t talk again… And then we met in the dining hall again, and skated, and became best friends, and then we—

Seb: We started off, Ian and I, were just a surf rock band—

Ian: Just us two—

Seb: For like two months. That was our plan, to just do some, like, Surf Curse-type shit. And then—

Ella: How did Kat get in there?

Seb: Well, we needed a bassist—

Ian: I met Kat at one of Seb’s shows—

Seb: For this other band that I was in, Socks Off—

He gets interrupted by chatter in the background from more people joining our ever-growing circle.

Seb clears his throat:

Seb: But yeah, we needed a bassist, Ian met Kat—

Ian: And I found out she played bass, hit her up over the summer, and we jammed out and it went really well.

Seb: Less than two weeks later—I did the math a couple weeks ago—we started recording our first EP with Brett*.

(Brett Manion, who worked on Intoner’s latest release*)

Ella: No way!

Seb: Yeah, so we kinda hit the ground running once Kat joined—

Ian: Yeah—

Seb: And when she joined, because she’s from Seattle—

I COMPLETELY interrupt:

Ella: I know! Pacific Northwest!!

Kat: Fuck yeah!

Woot!

Seb: She’s got a… grunge-y background, which I think we definitely needed. 

Ian nods in agreement. 

Seb: Slowly over the course of having her in the band, and being able to invest in new pedals and stuff like that—

Ian: Yeah, making show money to buy our own shit—

Seb: We’re definitely getting heavier, for the most part… I think the songs that we keep putting out are getting—

Ian and Seb: Heavier and more experimental—

Kat: Yeah, Seb was in a metal band in high school, so… 

Ian and Seb: Yeah—

Laughter.

Ella: What was the name of it?

Seb: Exeter!

Ella: Exeter?

(Kind of a badass name for a metal band)

Ian: Well, I was in a rock cover-band… it was pretty bad.

Ella: Oh! What kind of stuff did you cover…?

Ian: Like, rock songs—

Ella: Oh.

Laughter.

Ian: It wasn’t even really that bad, honestly it was really fun.

Ella: Well what were you guys called…?

Ian: Uh… 

A beat. Ian is either racking his brain to remember or he’s trying to decide if he wants to tell me.

Ella: Oh my God…

Ian: “(Something that starts with B) on the Beach…”

I don’t quite make out what he said:

Ella: Bubble on the Beach?

Ian: Bobo on the Beach…

Ella: Ohhh—

Ian: I dunno, some people started it and they let me join… 

Ella: Ok, so you were just there…

Ian: Yeah, but I did a lot of other, like, solo stuff in high school, I started writing music in my senior year.

Ella: And look at you guys now, now you guys are cooking…

Seb: Now we’re cooking!

Ella (earnestly): It’s really awesome guys, I’ve kind of already said this but I’ve low key been a groupie for like… an embarrassingly long time, so thank you for letting me do this!

Ian: Thank you!

Ella: Any final notes? We’re already hitting eleven minutes!

Seb: Um… we just got merch… so you can buy that online at Pleasure Tapes—

Ella: Oh yeah! You guys just… what is that? 

Seb: It’s just a merch deal—

Ian: Like a merch label—

Ella: Ohhh, I thought it was a record label at first, but then I was like... Wait…

Seb: No, a lot of people have been coming up to us saying, like, “Congrats on getting signed!” and we are not signed…

Kat and Ian: Sign us!

Ian: Matador Records, sign us!

Seb: But yeah, buy our merch, it’s gonna be at Grant Slam, and honestly probably the rest of future shows once we get [the tapes]… and… follow us on Instagram and Spotify—

Ian: And TikTok too!

Kat and Seb: And TikTok!

Laughter.

Ella: You guys have a TikTok?

Ian: We’ve got some weird ass TikToks…

Ella: Who runs the TikTok?

Kat motions to Seb:

Kat: This guy…

Ian: Sebastian runs it… It’s pretty obvious that he runs it–

Seb: I’m not great at it—

Ian: It’s very goofy, ‘cuz he’s goofy…

Ella: One thing about you guys, is that even though you make this super heavy, like, experimental music, you really don’t take yourselves too seriously… like thank God you’re not… weird about it—

Could I have put that more eloquently? Absolutely.

 Ian: “It’s a lifestyle… being a…”

He stops himself and shakes his head.

Ian: That’s a stupid ass thing to say. Not at all, actually… never mind…

Laughter.

Ella: But that was stupid on purpose… 

Cormick and Caradoc join the circle:

Caradoc: If y’all aren’t doing anything, we’re having some people over after this—

Ella: Do you have anything you want to say to the Substack?

Cormick: Yeah, what’s the question?

Ella: You can just say whatever you want.

Cormick looks at the members of Daundry. 

Cormick: What are you guys talking about? 

Ian shrugs ironically.

Ian: We’re just talking about life.

A beat.

Cormick: I be talkin’ about life too… 

Ian: We’re talking about philosophy bro…

Cormick: Yeah? Hmm…

Ian: What’s your biggest take on philosophy?

Cormick: My biggest take on philosophy?

Ella (to Ian): Why are you asking better questions than me?

Philosophical ramblings ensue (naming philosophers left and right).

We talk about the Intoner interview from a few weeks ago.

(I had to cut most of this because it added three pages to the already veryy long chat)

(I might post the Intoner addendum separately)

***

More yelling about philosophy. 

More laughing. 

Cormick: This interview is whack! I shouldn’t have done it a couple weeks ago!

Everyone: Damn!

Laughter.

Cormick: I’m playing, I’m playin’!

I try to rein it in and turn to Kat.

Ella: Kat, anything else you have to say for the Substack? 

Kat: Um… I love Ella’s Substack, she’s a really great writer—

Ella: Thanks so much!

Cormick interjects:

Cormick: This interview is absurd—

Caradoc: I like rhombi—

(Nice callback Doc)

Ella: Nooo!!

Cormick: My mom actually texted me when the interview came out, and was like, “This is like, Kafkaesque—”

Ella: She definitely did not say that—

(I’m currently taking a class called “Kafka and the Kafkaesque” so this is weirdly relevant)

Cormick: She said, “Reading this is like reading Kafka—it just went nowhere, it was incredibly difficult for the writer to get any questions out, everything was working against each other—”

We all laugh.

I turn to Kat, Seb, and Ian:

Ella: Well, this was a lot smoother, so thank you guys!

A beat.

Ella: Any final notes?

Ian: Subscribe to Ella’s Substack, don’t be lame. Subscribe, it’s a good read.

Ella: Thanks guys! I really appreciate it! Alright—

I abruptly stop recording and we all keep talking. Unfortunately, I got distracted and we forgot to take a picture… next time!

~Fin~

• Come see Daundry headline Grant Slam Fest 5/18 @ Jonquil Park!

• Here’s Daundry’s Linktree for all their stuff! (@daundryofficial on Instagram)

HUGE thank you to Daundry for taking the time to chat! Listen to their music and go to their shows! Support local bands!