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Photo courtesy of Tracy Conoboy |
For Bridget Stiebris, experiencing creativity comes in waves. Months can be spent in songwriting mode, swapping ideas with OK Cool bandmate Haley Blomquist Waller and prepping for recording sessions. Other months become more administrative, booking tours or creating flyers to promote shows. It seems like just yesterday but also a lifetime ago that they went into songwriting mode for their debut LP, Chit Chat.
The intention wasn’t necessarily to have enough material for a full-length album, but this time around they planned on challenging their songwriting capabilities. They agreed that with some experience under their belt, it was time to try something new.
“I was intentionally trying to make the songs longer as a challenge to myself,” Stiebris said. “I felt that the more I listened to other people’s music, I [thought], ‘Well, I like theirs when it goes on for a little bit longer. So maybe someone will like if ours went on a little longer.’”
Right before they planned to record the eight songs they had ready, two other partially written songs came together. Those last minute ideas turned into full concepts just in time to hit record. The 10-track LP was entirely written, performed and produced by Blomquist Waller and Stiebris, with engineering support from fellow Chicago musicians Avery Black, Brad Harvey and Wesley Reno.
Having two people to coordinate the time and attention needed to create music can be equal parts simple and testing. Once one of them has an initial idea, the rest seems to flow easily. Setting one’s own deadlines and sticking to them, without the influence or persuasion of others, can become complicated. The final product makes it all the more rewarding.
They describe their storytelling as organic. In the moment, they focus on getting their point across. They never intend to have songs connect, but once the track list starts to come together, they recognize shared themes that help drive those points home.
“What you’re going through turns into the themes of the record over time,” Blomquist Waller said. “We’ll notice themes that Bridget has in her songs that I have similar themes in my songs or vice versa. It is fun to see how it all comes together just from being similar people.”
They agree that their songwriting capabilities have improved in the last few years. They are more comfortable with admitting that something isn’t working or making last minute pivots. For Chit Chat, Blomquist Waller said that they were better at bouncing off each other’s ideas and taking snippets that planned on being scrapped and working with them until they became full songs.
Their first single from the album, “Waawooweewaa”, was one of the first songs written for Chit Chat, and after sharing the demo with a few trusted confidants, they knew it was the perfect way to showcase their current sound. They debuted the track at their live shows, alongside other singles “Safety Car” and “Last”, but are most looking forward to playing the album in full at their upcoming album release show.
OK Cool took voice notes and text messages and turned them into 10 songs centered around communication. Chit Chat is an effortless conversation between friends that could go from trivial to complex in an instant. Keeping that line of communication open is how they plan to dive into their next songwriting mode.