On a roll with two new singles this year already, MKE indie sleaze band, Alley Eyes, takes the time to sit down and chat before hopping on stage for their electric set for the night. Discussing their creative visions for their new EP releasing in July, bringing together musical influences while staying true to their own sound, and how the Milwaukee art scene is closer than you think, Alley Eyes is just getting started.
Shaylyn: Thank you for giving us the time and space to do an interview with us! For people who may not be familiar with Alley Eyes, would you mind giving us an introduction?
Colton: We’re a Milwaukee based indie alt band. We’ve been in the scene for like, three or four years now — been through a couple iterations, but this is the one that’s gonna take us to the top, to the stadiums, haha. We just put out two singles within the last couple months leading up to an EP that we’ll be putting out in July.
S: So, you guys came out with “no good.” and “tangerines.,” which are two songs that have an almost melancholic, vulnerable feel to them, but still are very unique in their writing. When writing a new EP, do you guys feel as if you build off of one song for an EP, or do you have the vision already set in stone before writing? What’s the writing process like for you?
C: When it comes to projects and picking songs, we’re not necessarily going for any one vibe or aesthetic or mood, or even necessarily a singular message. We just kind of write a fair amount of ideas and then pick the ones that feel like they fit best; that work together the best. If there’s any unifying thread, it’s usually just like, these songs in one way or another are always like a time capsule of the couple points of the months to year that they were written. We start with the songs and then just let whatever happens. There’s no grand plan usually.
Jason: I think we like working in full releases, though. The two releases that we put out this last year were initially gonna be on the EP we’re doing this summer, and then ended up not being on [there] just because it felt like they weren’t quite stylistically there. But I feel like overall we like to be looking towards “what’s an EP,” “what’s an album gonna look like,” as opposed to just “Oh this is a song and it stands on its own.”
S: You sound like you have a pretty good idea of what you want in an EP or album. I’m gonna start the next question by saying I love the music videos-
Everyone points at Griffin
AJ: That’s this guy.
S: Wow! Can I ask you then, do you have a vision for these music videos to tie into the album at all, or is this kind of like, just another form of art you guys can express yourselves in?
Griffin: Well, I kinda have a limited reservoir to pull from, at least, with this band, because I haven’t been in the band all that long. It’s only been five… six months now?
J: You’ve been here long enough.
G: Yay! I helped them record these last songs, just going in the studio and being told you can just add what you feel like you need to add. So that was kind of a little bit of an undertaking, just to be thrown in that situation, haha. But when I started working on the music videos, “tangerines.” was shot by another Milwaukee videographer, Eddie Curran. For “no good.,” I was kind of like… trying to work off of a budget as much as we could. So we decided to do it at a junkyard, which that’s not necessarily gonna be a theme that stays tangentially through the whole plot of the EP.
S: Yeah, the “tangerines.” music video was so much different than the new one.
G: When I was thinking about the music video style I was thinking about Inhaler, a band that we all kind of pull from influences of, and kind of just a more grungy indie vibe to it. Just really pushing that indie vibe forward because I know in the past that music hasn’t necessarily been aligned with indie rock…. I don’t even know what you’d call it… like old school –
C: Our early stuff? [Laughter]
G: Yeah, more rock forward stuff.
J: Which is a positive voice to have, because I think all of us definitely, as the music we like to listen to, gravitate more towards the end of indie rock style. It’s like Inhaler.
C: And The 1975, The Strokes…
S: Are these common interests that you guys share, or do you all have a different mix of music and inspirations?
A: It’s like there’s through lines, and we find little pockets within us. We’ll find bands that are like, “Okay, the two of us really like this band.” Like, Jason really likes The 1975.
J: But I feel like we align with the emo stuff, he’s more with the pop and hip hop stuff, or the more oldies stuff, Tom Petty and The Beatles, stuff like that. It’s very rare that one person is kind of on their own in being in love with an artist.
C: I think we all definitely have a wide range of music they like, but I think we all can agree on the general sort of genre and decades that we look to for inspirations and similar sounds. There’s definitely been times that at least of all of them, they’ve introduced me to music that I didn’t know anything about and then very quickly got into and they became a big inspiration. AJ introduced me to the band The Beaches like a year and a half ago or so and within a month I was like, this is one of my favorite bands of all time, we need to write songs like this now! But we all definitely have overlap with all of us, not perfect, but enough that we’re not just trying to copy one band that any of us likes, but there’s enough of a diverse DNA base to draw from.
S: I feel like a stalker saying this: I scrolled a bit through your videos and saw you recorded “tangerines.” in four days. As someone who’s a big fan of the process in art, were the four days dedicated just to “tangerines.” or did you get to work on multiple tracks?
C: The ideas usually do come pretty quick and then we just spend a long time kind of just playing it, fine tuning small things… But we went into the studio, and we worked with this guy out in East Troy called Derek Moffat from 608 Studios. We recorded two songs, with his process being two twelve hour days per song, cause his whole thing is you’re in the studio with him, so he records you and then he immediately starts mixing it and producing it in front of you, which we love. We get to have a very collaborative process with him because of that. When we recorded “tangerines.,” we recorded it with another song that’ll be on this EP that hasn’t come out yet.
C: We got them through pretty quickly and Derek’s a great producer and mixer, and he’s just someone that also is very collaborative, so if he heard things that he liked or didn’t like, he would let us know and he could mess with it or if we had sudden ideas in the moment or in the studio, we could quick hop in the booth and see what it sounded like.
J: There’s definitely an element of necessity with it, of being an indie band, you get really used to doing things really fast.
C: One of the five songs of this EP we’re putting out, my favorite of the bunch, it’s called “Blood Stain.” We were going in and we knew we wanted to record three more songs to make this a five song project. We had a couple ideas and none of them were panning out and they’re like, we need one more song! I had this idea just saved in my voice memo app, and then within 24 hours I was like, I think I have the song. [Laughter]
S: Nice!!
C: Then I gave it to them, it’s always a bounce back and forth, usually, at times working alone, but then sending things back and forth in different iterations. It was basically two back and forths and the song was basically done.
S: You mentioned earlier that you feel like Alley Eyes is “the one.” I know with our magazine we are very rooted in DIY, so for you guys how has the community shown up for you?
C: First off, the DIY community as a crowd are people who love music and want to appreciate it, you couldn’t ask for a better audience. DIY people are looking for new music actively and often, and really want to find something new to love. So, once they invest in you and are super supportive, you could not ask for better fans. There’s also just been people within the scene — we’re musicians, but we work naturally with other creatives, like photographers, videographers, other producers and whatnot. All of the people that we’ve worked with and that have pushed us the furthest, helped us the most, and helped us grow the most have been people we’ve made friends with or been introduced to from other friends within the scene.
C: Like how Griff shot “no good.,” “tangerines.” was shot by Eddie Curran, who’s in another band in the scene, but is also a longtime videographer and was someone we just met and became really good friends with. So yeah, it’s the people that have come to flock to support us and the people we’ve gotten to work with.
J: I like to think that our city is pretty decent about having a strong community and trying to have each other’s backs and support each other. Music, I think, on a larger scale can be fairly cutthroat, and I like to think of us a little bit more of like the community of comedians, and how comedy has always been known for being very close knit, trying to help each other and support each other and I like to think that’s what our Milwaukee music scene does.
S: You guys have high energy on stage, what are some pre-show warmups or rituals that keep you optimistic and on your toes when you’re up on stage? Or is it more of the vibe of cracking open a cold one and then jumping up on stage?
A: We’ve been trying to come up with a pre-show ritual, but we’re actually exceedingly boring for pre-show.
C: We are the opposite of what you think of like, rock stars. We’re actually all pretty health conscious and very lowkey. Most of us have a nine to five. So, if we’re ever hanging out it’s never like “Yeah man I had thirty beers last night, we went crazy!” It’s more like, “I had two beers, we had a nice conversation, and I was in bed by 10:30.”
J: We played Davenport, Iowa, last month and it was our first time opening for a national touring band, and not our own city. We opened for The Criticals, who are out of Nashville, and that was a nice moment where AJ kind of pulled us all together to be like, “Hey, it feels like we’re here for a reason. It took a lot of work to get to play for the first time with someone who tours nationally in a city that’s not Milwaukee.” And just gave a moment of love and appreciation, and that was nice.
S: Any other exciting things coming up that you want to let the people know about?
C: We’re playing the biggest festival in the world, Summerfest on Friday June 27th at 2PM at the BMO Harris Pavilion, opening for Cake! Then we’re gonna be playing in Milwaukee again, July 25th, for the release of our EP that all these songs are a part of.
C: And then in terms of fun out of town ones, we’re gonna be playing in Nashville at a DIY venue called Twisted Tea Gardens on August 22nd!
S: Any other closing words?
A: We would love to play Chicago more!
S: Yes!!!
A: Chicago DIY scene… Welcome us to you.
As Alley Eyes work tirelessly on their new EP set to release in July, you can show support by finding a show near you, and find their two new singles “no good.” and “tangerines.” on Bandcamp and Spotify.
Follow Alley Eyes on Instagram