Shervin Lainez
Maybe it’s the fact that the band’s latest single, the first one since their debut album dropped last year, was released hours before the call. Maybe it’s because the band’s only days away from launching another tour, this one opening for alt-rock legends Death Cab for Cutie.
Either way, Eva Grace Hendricks, the lead singer of Brooklyn-based power-pop band Charly Bliss, is plenty exuberant when she picks up the phone to speak to Isthmus, while she’s en route with her bandmates to play a pre-tour gig in Aspen, Colorado. They’ll play the newly opened Sylvee on Oct. 3.
“We’re just so happy and gratified to be at this point,” she says. “Guppy took so many years to finish. It’s really fun to be working on new music again.”
You can file Hendricks and her bandmates — guitarist Spencer Fox, drummer Sam Hendricks and bassist Dan Shure — under “persistence” in the rock dictionary. The band first perked ears back in 2014 with the release of their three-song EP, Soft Serve, and its corresponding set of story-based music videos. But even though they had the songs set to release a full-length, it took another three years to record and release Guppy. Unsatisfied with the first recording, the band scrapped it altogether and went back to the studio for a second swing. The result was one of last year’s most pleasant surprises, an addictive mix of clever, snarky songwriting wrapped up in a grunge-tinged, ‘90s-era power-pop package.
Hendricks says the experience of re-recording, while grueling, allowed the songs on Guppy to take on a new life. On tour, they’ve started to head in yet another direction. Hendricks and Fox have been trying out a new, scruffier arrangement of “Ruby,” a fan-fave song about Henrick’s therapist. (“Ditch me, gone to see Ruby….”)
“Watching an audience react, on stage, you learn a lot,” says Hendricks, who’s not afraid to belt and scream. “It’s been cool to have a moment that’s deep like that, where you can explore a song in a new way.”
The band members have more ties than a shoestring factory. Sam Hendricks is Eva’s older brother. Eva and Dan dated briefly and were in musical theater together in high school. (“It taught me a work ethic,” she says.) Dan and Spencer went to the same summer camp — which is the likely inspiration for the video to the band’s song “Westermarck.” It’s also clear they love playing together.
“I feel grateful to be with my best friends,” she notes. “I don’t think any of us is very jaded. We’re not afraid to be excited about the music we’re creating.”
Speaking of that, the band’s new single offers a glimpse of Charly Bliss’ second chapter. “Heaven” feels like it’s parked at the intersection of “Ruby” and “Julia,” one of Guppy’s more serious, slow-building tunes.
“Part of it was that ‘Heaven’ was the first song I wrote after Guppy,” Hendricks says. ‘It sounds like I was still in that headspace.”
It won’t necessarily be representative of the band’s eventual second album, however. Hendricks says the band is already moving into new frontiers, pushing past its comfort zone.
But even if the members of Charly Bliss explore new musical territory, the goal remains the same: “The number-one thing is to preserve the energy and the sense of fun,” Hendricks says, with a laugh. “That’s the central mission: No serious music!”