We had a chat with Brooklyn alternative outfit Ivy League about their emotionally charged and impactful new album American Love
Emerging as a fierce and unabashed alternative rock outfit who wear their heart on their sleeve with their emotionally crafted and cathartic sound, Ivy League delve into themes like love, trauma and devastation with an authenticity and rawness that leaves a really powerful mark on you as a listener and makes for some truly impactful moments.
Their new album American Love is a track that explores some of these themes through the very focussed and relatable lens of a relationship that has gone awry and fallen apart, and having to reconcile with those emotions and the aftermath of that in a concise and engrossing way. The result is an album that we loved here at CLOUT, as you can find out through our extensive review HERE, and as a result we reached out to Ivy League to find out a bit more about the process behind putting it together and some of its inspirations.
Hey! We love your new album American Love, what more can you tell us about it?
This record is about my previous relationship and its downfall, something I thought would be everlasting, and having to deal with the personal failures. It’s someone I loved very dearly. It’s about still dealing with that connection and simultaneously dealing with the fact that it’s severed. I tried my best to start from the beginning and finish where we left off, while still leaving it with a full narrative and complete story that was easy to follow. Though I do think the songs stand up on their own without knowing any of this.
What was the process like putting it together?
The process always starts with the music, I had 8-10 songs fully done with no lyrics or melodies. I had some “poems” and certain lines written about this relationship that I thought could work one day as lyrics. Once I decided to tap into this idea, the flood gates opened… It was pretty painful to put your self in the position you were in 10 years ago. Those scarred over, deep emotional wounds don’t really want to be cut open again for any reason let alone trying to find where the love had gone.
What were your biggest influences when creating it?
Funny enough I was watching A LOT of Dawsons Creek when I was writing this. I think that “deep connection-destiny, the will they-won’t they end up together” energy is what the last ten years was like for me. But musically, I always just wanted to have the emotionality of the band “Mansions”, the stomach of “Every Time I Die”, the beauty of “Mono” and the creative uniqueness of “O’brother”. These bands are always my north stars.
How do you feel the album differs from some of your earlier work?
The last EP that was put out in 2022 was a concept record of someone being admitted into a Mental hospital, thinking it was everything they ever wanted. Through the days in treatment(4 songs) there’s a lot more trauma and pain than the progabist realizes that has to be worked out. I I’m always going to write concept records, I think they’ll always be somewhat autobiographical, some more real than others.
What else do you have planned for the near future?
Shows and tour. I would really love to make that part of this a lot bigger in my life. Ivy League is based in Brooklyn, so if you’re reading this and like what you hear, let’s play a show.
