“We spend every day together,” says Henry.
“Pretty much,” says Sawyer.
“More than ever,” says Jude, who had a relevant realization after hanging out with the famously stoic Ed Sheeran: “You have to be a different breed to be a solo artist.”
In March, the band signed to the Warner-partnered label R&R, the same imprint that reps milieu-shaping artists Dijon and Mk.gee, the latter of whom established his own quietly huge solo venture over the last year. For the guys, both acts feel like a blueprint. Per Jude, “Obviously they do it a lot differently as far as the way they promote themselves, but the musical credibility…to be associated with them, is pretty sick.”
Their admiration—of Mk.gee’s prowess as a live performer, of Sheeran’s iron-clad business savvy, for example—shapes their ambition. They want to be doing this until they’re “gray and old, playing Fenway Park or something—or Yankee Stadium, I should say,” says Sawyer. They’re excited by the prospect that, whenever their own sold-out day at Barclays comes, they might not still be playing songs they wrote in high school. When the band opened for Ed, they played one of their bigger hits, the pining pop ballad “Jane,” which is one they normally ask the crowd to hold up their phone lights for. That night, Jude was watching and thinking about one day looking out at the crowd and seeing 19,000 lights just for Laundry Day.
“People thought we had our [shot], we were right there,” says Jude, thinking back to 2019, to their first brush with success and the record deal. “We’re getting another chance right now.” The guys have an ongoing tradition where, on New Year’s, they like to tell each other this next one is going to be the best year of their lives. This time around, everything has felt more surreal than ever. “It just feels like we’re new again, a little bit,” he adds. “We had a lot of things kind of drag us down and make you feel like, fuck, we’ve been doing this for so long. And now last night felt like our first show.”
Next up, the plan is more of the same. Bigger, better. Record more music, film more videos, book more shows, which they’ll probably drive to themselves in their passenger van. (Locally, they’ll be playing at the Rockaway Hotel on August 23.) But first up, they’ve got another sold-out Bowery show to play tonight.
“And then on Monday, we’ll probably come here,” says Henry, casting his eyes over the snug kingdom of Sawyer’s living room, where the rest of the guys have already resigned to scrolling their respective TikTok feeds. “And do this.”
