Activity

city: New York
country: USA
genre: Electronic, Indie
styles: Dark Wave, Gothic Rock, Indie Rock, Kraut Rock, Ambient

Support Activity buy Merchandise & Vinyl

Follow Activity on

Spotify Bandcamp @activity_songs @activitysongs @activitysongs

credits: Ebru Yldiz

on hashbrandnew.com since June 20, 2023

ABOUT THIS BAND

Activity is a Brooklyn-based band of Travis Johnson (lead vocals/multi-instrumentalist), Jess Rees (guitar/vocals/keys), Bri DiGioia (bass/vocals), and Steven Levine (drums). The band’s sophomore album, Spirit in the Room, is an emotional seance held through an unearthly haze of menacing trip hop, ambient electronica, and synth-based noise rock.

The band’s most collaborative album to date and follow-up to their 2020 debut LP Unmask Whoever, Spirit in the Room was written and recorded during the pandemic, “to keep from losing our minds”, as Johnson explains. It was also around this time that Johnson experienced a series of personal tragedies, namely the loss of his mother to pancreatic cancer. “The grief was (and sometimes is) this colossal thing,” Johnson explains, “and I kept finding myself thinking of how I could find her or get in touch with her, like there was a phone number or address and I just had to find it.”

The 11-song set–also featuring tracks sung/written by Rees and DiGioia–ultimately reflects the band’s deep anxiety about the modern world while simultaneously displaying their immense gratitude and—believe it or not—joy. As Rees describes it, “One moment it’s bottomless shearing chaotic noise, and the next it’s a sweet melody. Sometimes at the same time.”

When asked why this album needed to be made, Johnson put it best: “None of us can stand to not make music is all, really.”

Source [Spotify]