Freezing Chilly had a superb head of steam going earlier than COVID killed its momentum shortly after the discharge of 2019’s Glimmer. Studying their “hurry up and go nowhere” lesson, native Lengthy Islanders Angie Boylan and Jeff Cunningham took their candy time making Treasure Pool (Don Giovanni). Each Freezing Chilly co-founders have logged their indie miles—Boylan as a session and touring drummer for Sleater-Kinney, Aye Nako and Cheeky, Cunningham because the singer/guitarist for Bridge & Tunnel and Strange Lives.
With its percolating tunefulness, environment friendly 32-minute runtime and midtempo pacing, Treasure Pool appears like a real reconciliation of Freezing Chilly’s DIY punk previous and a extra finespun post-punk/power-pop dynamic. Assume Remedy by the use of late-’90s Nada Surf, punctuated by occasional J Mascis guitar histrionics.The trio has most definitely benefited from the addition of bassist Leanne Butkovic (By no means), who joined the band amid the pandemic.
For its sophomore launch, the trio tracked 10 songs over 24 months in three separate periods at Lakehouse Recording Studios in Asbury Park, N.J., with mates Eric Bennett and Marissa Paternoster (Screaming Females) behind the boards. Boylan, Cunningham and Butkovic supplied extra particulars to MAGNET’s Hobart Rowland.
Provided that sophomore releases might be difficult, how does Treasure Pool showcase Freezing Chilly’s evolution since 2019’s Glimmer?
Boylan: On our first album, we had been nonetheless sort of determining our sound and the course. With this new album and lineup, we had a clearer imaginative and prescient. I feel it’s a superb illustration of who we’re as a band in 2025—and I do suppose our sound has modified a superb bit in comparison with Glimmer. Most clearly, Leanne is enjoying bass and singing and was part of the writing course of. They’ve such good concepts for crafting a music, from the construction and particular notes to the pedals we use and the sound—to not point out vocal melodies and harmonies.
I additionally suppose we had been extra intentional with the writing course of. We had extra conversations concerning the course we needed the songs to take and what position every music serves on the album. We favored heavier guitar sounds and changed the delay pedals with a phaser. We put extra thought and vitality into our music buildings. We actually needed to include woodwinds someway, so I went out and acquired a used clarinet on Craigslist and relearned find out how to play it after not choosing one up since highschool. Leanne additionally broke out their saxophone from highschool.
The brand new album attracts on some standard alt-rock components whereas nonetheless managing to sound contemporary and unpredictable. How did you handle that?
Butkovic: We weren’t following any algorithm on the time of writing. However wanting again, I feel we had been making an attempt to write down issues that adopted typical music buildings—or at the least not a string of unrepeated elements that go from level A to level Z. Then we’d pry these formulation open to stuff in a stunning twist, or an element that may not even actually really feel prefer it belongs at first. One thing like “Eclipse” might be the obvious instance—an ordinary intro/verse/refrain and simple anthemic rock tune with an nearly spooky minute-long instrumental bridge shoved in there. The album is stuffed with many extra—or much less—dramatic examples than that.
We did a good bit of whiteboard diagraming, which most likely would’ve regarded like demented cuneiform to different folks. Doing that may have over-intellectualized the method. Nevertheless it did flip the extra radical selections into decipherable logic that allowed us to contemplate whether or not we felt the music labored as a complete. Past construction, we had been all simply pulling from our level of views and discovering compromise throughout the Venn diagram of our tastes.
How has Leanne’s addition to the band modified the dynamic?
Cunningham: Greater than ever, we’re working as a really collaborative unit, bringing elements and sections of songs into follow, pulling them aside and placing them again collectively. Past Leanne’s contributions to writing and performing, they designed the album artwork for Treasure Pool, utilizing a chunk of stained glass and paint. In addition they directed and edited our newest music video and created our final two T-shirt designs.
What was the inspiration for the album’s title?
Boylan: It’s an idea we got here up with one night time whereas hanging out at my condo. It was sort of impressed by a visit I’d not too long ago taken to the Oregon coast, the place I noticed the tide swimming pools seem at nightfall, revealing so many creatures and habitats you didn’t know had been there simply minutes earlier than. I learn an outline that known as them “distinctive habitats teeming with life, providing a window into the marine world.” There’s some metaphor there about being in a band, certainly. You create this world collectively, are susceptible, naked your concepts and artistic expression to 1 one other, and pool all the pieces collectively onto an album that’s finally revealed to the world.
You took two years to make Treasure Pool. How does it present within the completed product?
Cunningham: I feel we had been extra impressed by the recording course of this time round. That centered, concentrated time actually helped us zero in on the nuances of what we had been doing. Since we recorded just a few songs at a time whereas nonetheless writing others, we had the prospect to step again and take into consideration the album as a complete. If one thing felt repetitive, we may scrap a music or simply a part of one. That point and house present within the selection throughout the album. There have been moments after we felt stress to launch it sooner. However letting it take the time it wanted paid off.
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