ArtistInfo

Babbling April

US
Rock

Babbling April has always been a DIY affair, producing the kind of fresh and warmly emotive rock that can hop genres, be quiet or loud, yet always sound distinctly like themselves. The bands spearhead, Dave New, grew up in Baltimore, where he fell in love with music and began helming his own grade school bands while pursuing his prodigious hobby of home recording. Dave moved to Dayton, Ohio in 2011 where he met his female counterpoint Vivienne Machi. Together they began cutting their teeth in a variety of Dayton area venues, recording under the moniker Babbling April, which reached its current incarnation after they relocated to Washington, DC, adding the rhythm section of Ben Medina and Ben Melrod. Babbling April put out their first EP, On Breath, in February 2015, landing a Noisetrade “New and Notable” feature and plenty of Hypem love. Since then they have continued a tireless schedule, self-recording and self-releasing every song they’ve written while building a dedicated following in the DC underground scene. The act of playing and recording has come to represent a joyful reprieve for the band, much of whom works government jobs in the DC metro area. “With the 24/7 news cycle filling our heads with tweets, statistics, spreadsheets and talking points, we’ve come to regard our time in Babbling April as a beautiful escape” the band concedes. Recorded and mixed in Dave and Vivi’s basement, the band’s newest EP, Holy Gold, is a testament to the joy Babbling April imbue their music with. Acoustic-meets- shoegaze guitar pop ambience echoes across each track as fevered bass lines and distinct vocal textures weave through. The compositions tend to change tempo and morph beneath the ear-wormy melodies, conjuring up the work of Yo La Tengo, Built to Spill and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, amongst a wealth of alternative bands of the ’90’s. “The songs are often bittersweet snapshots of the ephemeral nature of life” Dave reflects. “Friends grow apart, places are never the same, but a few perfect memories will always remain.”