In case you haven’t heard, Ōtepoti alt-rock band IVY is boasting the release of their first album, Hush. The group formed in 2020 while still at school in Dunners, but quickly rose up the ranks of Dunedin’s music scene. The lads broke into the student music scene in 2023 performing at U-Bar’s Pint Night before paving their own path. Their sold out collaboration with the Dunedin Youth Orchestra was a momentous moment for the group's deserved success. The group is fronted by (singer-guitarist) Jesse Hanan and his angelic voice, who plays alongside (lead guitarist) James Axton, (violinist) Louis Stevenson, (bassist) Connor Cooper, and (drummer) Ocean Temple Wilson.
At the end of each IVY gig, the music dims down and the crowd erupts into murmurs, audience members all asking each other the same question: When are IVY going to hit it big? Critic posed Jesse and James this same question over a cup of coffee. James undeniably states that it is the band’s goal to “make it.” The two musos pondered over their definition of the term. Jesse thinks that it’s “living off the music, having a career where you can support yourself and having people who love your music.” James said that they only write music that they want to hear, “so if other people like it, then that's great. If it makes us blow up, then so be it.”
IVY’s first single on Spotify was ‘Stranger’, a surf and alt rock blend, which has now become the band’s most streamed song. Critic asked why the anthem has been absent from the band’s setlist for the past year. Jesse said that he wrote the song when he was 15, originally as a piano-infused bar fight anthem. The group has since drifted away from their Ocean Alley roots and towards their Radiohead and Portishead era. James continued, “People can like what they like and all power to them […] But we're probably not gonna play it live. Like, we got better shit to play.”
Since Critic last interviewed IVY in 2023, the group has changed so much sonically and conceptually. Jesse puts this down to a range of factors, the most obvious being age. As Jesse bluntly puts it, “We’ve gotten older.” The band has also made a consolidated effort to sonically declutter their music. Jesse says that they have to think a lot more about how every instrument relates to each other. “It's trying to compose rather than just jam pack everything together.” This leaves the band with a tighter and more stripped back approach.
Jesse calls their recent album a “personal anecdote of our youthful lives.” Many of the songs have been in the works for years. ‘Colours in the Sky’ is the oldest song on the album, originally written in the final months of 2021, while newer songs like ‘Loon’, ‘Invasion’, and ‘Tall Grass’ were all written last year.
The pair blame the drawn out release on their everlasting pursuit for perfection – as well as being broke as fuck. The album was entirely self-funded, meaning they had to gig until they had enough money to mix and record. Jesse wanted the album to be as polished as possible before release because the album is “gonna be out for ever, ya know.” As much as they tried, James still can’t say that they reached perfection: “It's impossible.” But he added that “the little blemishes make it more interesting.”
IVY is ready to kick off their tour across the motu alongside local rockers, The Beatniks. Beyond their three shows at Pearl Diver this weekend, the bands will be heading to Pōneke, Tāmaki Makarau, and Ōtautahi this October. Jesse equates the feeling of going on tour to the montage sequence in Pixar’s Cars when Lightning McQueen travels to California to the soundtrack of Rascal Flatts’ ‘Life is a Highway’. James gleefully noted that the “novelty hasn’t worn off yet”. The guitarist reminisced about the time in high school when he told Jesse, “The day we got on a plane as a band, we've made it [...] now we've done that twice this year. We haven't made it but it's pretty good.”
While talking about their recently released album, Hush, the two muso’s couldn’t help but get excited for their next release. James said there were a lot of songs that had been written intentionally for Hush that didn't end up making the final cut, either because they weren’t finished in time, or just didn’t fit the vibe. Jesse said many of these tracks will be “reworked,” either as full songs, or expansions of the ideas.
The two also hinted at the idea of a live album based on the recordings made at their orchestrated gig at Errick’s. Jesse said that he just heard the first mix of one of the songs “and it sounds incredible.” Given the band’s relentless pursuit of perfection, a release like this is unlikely to surface anytime soon. So no need to set up camp just yet; the wait won’t be over anytime soon (but it’ll be worth it).
For your next walk into campus, give IVY’s album Hush a listen. Available on all streaming services.