New York-based indie pop duo Boyish makes music like the first rays of sun shining after rain. It aches with the pain of growing while searching for identity and love and all the hardship and self-doubt that entails. Yet, there’s an almost tongue-in-cheek aspect to their music, a willingness to laugh through the hardship, to find that sunshine peaking through the rain.
Boyish recently sat down with 303 Magazine to talk musical evolution, melding melancholy with humor, their new EP, Little Demon Boy, the makings of a great live show and more.
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Boyish is comprised of lead guitarist Claire Altendahl (they/them) and vocalist India Shore (in their words, “she/ they/ literally whatever”). Before forming Boyish, both had their own unique relationship with music. Altendahl — originally from Minnesota — took early inspiration from their dad, who played guitar in a band while they were growing up and raised them on “dad rock” bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. They described “an ultimate Summer Jam” that their dad played in at a friend’s cabin up in northern Minnesota that caused them to dream of playing the drums. Their dad’s friends would put them on bongos and let them bang away as the band played.
After years of this, Altendahl eventually picked up a guitar to follow in their father’s footsteps. This then led to becoming involved with their local School of Rock program which allowed them to play dive bars around town and really experience what life for a musician is like at a young age. They said, “I was like, ‘I have to go into music. This is all I ever wanted to do. This is the most excitement I’ve ever had in my life.” This led to a decision to go to Berklee where they met Shore and the early iterations of Boyish were formed.
Shore’s father also had a huge impact on their early life though they had a much less straightforward path to music. They grew up as “a competitive gymnast for most of [their] life,” something on which they said their dad was “hugely influential.” He also influenced their early music taste, getting them into British punk bands like Stiff Little Fingers and The Clash at a young age. Their dad’s influence melded with that of her mother who “was always really, really into musical theatre,” allowing Shore to develop a wide musical range that they’ve been building on for a lifetime.
Shore didn’t consider making music themselves until an injury sustained right before starting high school forced them to take a step back from gymnastics and find something else to occupy the massive amount of time they’d been dedicating to the sport. They decided on music which led to them auditioning for the famed New York performing arts high school, LaGuardia, and getting in on the strength of their singing voice. It was there that they learned music theory and how to write songs but also perform on stage, which they described as “huge” given that they were once “very, very shy” about singing in front of people. This experience opened their eyes to the possibility of making music full time which then led to them attending Berklee.
Shore and Altendahl met within their first month at Berklee. Shore had heard of Berklee’s Storyteller Showcase which allows featured artists to play the Berklee Performance Center and desperately wanted to audition. They were introduced to Altendahl by a friend and the pair started working on music together for the first time.
Though the audition didn’t pan out, Shore and Altendahl continued working on music together, initially treating their relationship as “just business,” never really hanging out besides to play music. However, they eventually encountered a situation in which they were forced to actually talk to each other and a friendship that would last the rest of their college years and beyond was born.
Upon graduating in 2019, the two had become somewhat disillusioned with the prospect of making music professionally. It’s a daunting prospect, the idea of being thrust out into the world and attempting to make a living in one of the most difficult and fickle industries there is. Nevertheless, they persisted. At this point in time, Shore and Altendahl found themselves in an alternative country band that they weren’t really connecting with while they had been built a collection of songs on their own. They’d come to believe in their music and to realize that all they truly wanted was play together and pursue the dream. This realization led to the earliest iteration of Boyish.
Over the next couple of years, Boyish released a number of projects including Carnation, Garden Spider and We’re all going to die, but here’s my contribution. These projects each vary in polish but all feel raw, passionate, hungry, rallying cries against a world that rarely makes any sense. They represent a growth era for the band, a period of time where they were trying to find and develop their voice, what they wanted to say. This especially applies to Garden Spider, which was their first true attempt at producing and was released on Valentine’s Day 2020, about a month before COVID hit.
COVID turned out to be an opportunity for Boyish to take a step back and further develop their sound. With the world shutdown, the band retreated inward to take a long look at itself and figure out how to make itself stronger.
When they reemerged a couple of years later, they did so confidently with the EP My Friend Mica, featuring songs such as “Smithereens” and “Legs.” Their production efforts had vastly improved and they’d become masters of creating mood and texture. They’d traded in the more raw and angry sound of their previous efforts for a more melancholy one, a healthy dose of humor preventing it from falling too deep into sorrow. Yet, the music had become almost all-encompassing, wrapping itself around the listener like the arms of a friend who understands.
This continued with their latest effort, Little Demon Boy. Altendahl said “A lot of the newest EP, we wrote to our 17-year-old selves. That’s where I got a lot of emotional inspiration from, coming from a place where I felt so lost.” They also took inspiration from early 2000s bands such as Radiohead, describing themselves as a “siphon” for as much music from that era as possible. The result is a beautiful collection of songs that each feel like the first throes of laughter that come through tears as someone you love cheers you up and lets you feel okay for a little while.
Currently touring the country with Claud, Boyish puts a lot of thought into their performances. It’s just the two of them and a drum track most of the time, though they occasionally play with a full band. This causes them to bring an intense amount of energy to their shows. Their performances are electric and alive, messy and beautifully human, everything that their music is elevated to even greater heights.
While Boyish doesn’t have a specific philosophy when it comes to creation, Shore said there is an idea of laughing through the pain that they stick to when crafting songs. When faced with hardship in this life, one can either laugh at it and try to learn from it or cry and accept defeat. Never ones to surrender, Boyish laughs loudly through gloomy skies and persists with the knowledge that the sun is never too far away.
Little Demon Boy is out now and can be found on all streaming platforms.