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When Izzie Clark and E. Scarlett Levinson met at The Knockout in San Francisco, the two musicians immediately felt a creative synergy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were hanging out in the photo booth, and we were just like, \u2018We should start a band. I feel this vibe,\u201d Clark, the band\u2019s guitarist and vocalist, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still have the photos from the photo booth,\u201d bassist and vocalist Levinson adds.<\/p>\n
Together as chokecherry, Clark and Levinson make soaring alternative rock that draws from grunge, surf punk and dream pop.<\/p>\n
Case in point: \u201cGoldmine\u201d \u2014 the first single from chokecherry\u2019s debut album Ripe Fruit Rots and Falls <\/i>\u2014 begins with an entrancing Cocteau Twins-like riff from Clark.<\/p>\n
That guitar lead, along with Levinson\u2019s bassline, initially sprung from recording sessions for the band\u2019s 2024 EP Messy Star<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt ended up being this short little thing that we never really finished until January of this year,\u201d Clark said, \u201cSo it became the first real track of the album.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inspired by King Krule, Frou Frou and Beach House (the song itself is mixed by Chris Coady, who worked on some of Beach House\u2019s most beloved albums), \u201cGoldmine\u201d is a lush, moody exploration into a breakup with pop hooks that deliver wistfulness in all of its agonizing beauty.<\/p>\n
A failed relationship isn\u2019t the only form of loss chokecherry examines on Ripe Fruit Rots and Falls<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of songs about heartbreak that are<\/i> interpersonal,\u201d Levinson said. \u201cNow, this album really expands on that. It is not just about interpersonal heartbreak, but heartbreak over the state of the world, over the loss of childhood, all sorts of different forms of time passing and grief.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is an album that helped us both process a lot of things in our lives that we were struggling with so much at the time that we were making it,\u201d Levinson said.<\/p>\n
chokecherry\u2019s debut album Ripe Fruit Rots and Falls<\/em> is out Nov. 14. The band is performing their record release show<\/a> at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco on Nov. 14.<\/i><\/p>\n