BACKSTORY: The alt-pop duo of April George and Matthew Thompson have spent the past eight years working their way to the release of their debut album
FROM: Washington, DC
YOU MIGHT KNOW THEM FROM: Their close working relationship with Little Dragon, or from opening shows for Little Simz and Mura Masa
NOW: The duo released Traditional Noise earlier this week, a project that pays homage to their DIY spirit as a duo and the community that shaped them
The debut album from DMV-based duo April + VISTA begins with a warm embrace. Aptly titled “Hello,” it’s an introduction to a universe—to the sounds and ideas that fascinate the artists behind the project, April George and Matthew Thompson. A twinkling string suite mingles with snippets of voices from friends and family members, collaborators who helped bring Traditional Noise into being. And though the calm is rudely interrupted by the PSA that intros “Very Bad News,” it sets the stage for many of the themes that move through this expansive, beautiful collection of songs.
Comfortability—or the joy and confidence that good music provides—is a focal point of Traditional Noise. While writing it, the duo were “thinking about things that make you feel safe, memories in your life and things around your upbringing that made you feel comfortable where you are,” George explains from the duo’s home base of Washington, DC. The idea of sampling as homage, of paying tribute to the musicians who helped April + VISTA get to where they are today, is the sort of gratefulness and positivity that imbues the album. “Erik [Bodin] from Little Dragon graciously helped us finish ‘Grotto,’” George says. “He put the craziest percussion on that we’ve ever heard. We were leaning on the people that we know to help us see it through. It was a defining moment for me.” Thompson reiterated this position, adding, “All those voices in the beginning of ‘Hello,’ that’s our moms, sisters, and friends. We were like, ‘Send us a line so we can put you in the album.’”
It makes sense why musicians and friends—bands as prominent as Little Dragon, with whom April + VISTA teamed up for the 2023 EP Slipping Into Color—put their weight behind the duo. The album is a triumph. “Two Evergreens” is a gorgeous, shifting ambient-folk tune that centers George’s powerful voice. It sounds like Grouper renouncing lo-fi in favor of the sonics of a professional studio, with a bit of Thom Yorke’s solo style thrown in for good measure. Elsewhere, “Love Unspent” is a neo-soul resurrection built around layers of George’s floating mid-range vocals and a bass line that’ll make you scrunch your face in delight.
Part of the reason why Traditional Noise coheres so seamlessly is that George and Thompson built the structure moment-by-moment. Previous efforts, like their 2021 Pit of My Dreams EP, were almost forced, writing a collection of music because it felt like the right time. With the LP, they moved slowly into the process after writing and recording “Grotto.” They walked away impressed, eager to make an album that shared thematic and musical signifiers with the track. “Grotto” is a moody indie-pop tune with a kaleidoscopic guitar line and hazy half-memory lyrics from George. The strings give the song a moodiness that mimics the mystery of the vocal performance, and the loosely tethered structure is shocked into shape by Bodin’s improvisatory percussive accents.
“We were leaning on the people that we know to help us see it through. It was a defining moment for me.” — April George
Once George and Thompson put this song to tape, once they knew that they had something this significant in them, the floodgates opened. “We were trying to take the whole album process less seriously than when we’ve made records in the past. We were thinking to ourselves, ‘We’re just going to make songs and see what bubbles up,’” Thompson explains. They wanted to give themselves the opportunity to have fun before ratcheting up the stakes, and it led to their most assured collection of songs to date. “We have a history of just taking it all the way too soon, but as soon as we made ‘Grotto’…” he adds before George finishes his thought: “...it was like, ‘We’re doing it.’”
Just because the album came together quickly, though, doesn’t mean that each aspect of it was necessarily easy to accomplish. They began working on it during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as such, they didn’t have access to the same collection of players that they did in the past. They were mostly left to record the album by themselves—including playing instruments they didn’t have any previous experience with. “I learned how to play viola,” George recalls with a laugh. “When you hear strings on the record, it’s me playing violin and viola dubbed a lot of times.” Adds Thompson, “Right here on the living room floor.”
“We were trying to take the whole album process less seriously than when we’ve made records in the past. We were thinking to ourselves, ‘We’re just going to make songs and see what bubbles up.’” — Matthew Thompson
This helps explain some of the urgency that courses throughout Traditional Noise. It’s never desperate, but always assured, triumphant, and bold. This album had to exist as it does, by any means necessary. That meant learning how to cook up viola parts, recording in apartments, and leaning on friends—but only when the threat of a highly contagious virus was diminished. It’s an album that celebrates the communal power of music, and the energy it takes to write nearly a dozen songs, record them, and release them into the world. It’s no small feat, and April + VISTA are proud of the work.
As they should be—it’s exemplary. But they’re also sharing the roses. “We like to champion how much we do ourselves,” says Thompson, “but we wouldn't have been able to do a lot of this without our community.” FL
