On holy friend, their second outing as dog eyes, Hailey Firstman and Davis Leach investigate the ways relationships evolve. The songs are all love songs, of a sort, but with a wide-open approach to the subjects of intimacy and devotion.
“The songs are expressions of love and friendship interacting with each other,” Leach said. “Certain feelings and patterns come up in relationships of all kinds, romantic or platonic. I think of a holy friend as the person who supports you through the tough things in life: sadness, growth, love and loss. Holy friend has songs that feel romantic and some that feel more platonic. They’re fluid.”
Firstman said, “Even though some songs are bleak or sad, they all have a sliver of hope. Bad situations aren’t all bad, and good situations aren’t all good. People are not one thing or another. The holy friend finds something pure and light in people that are flawed, like most of us.”
The album holy friend was recorded in the Oakland home Leach shares with friends, many of them in bands of their own. The songs blend folk, rock, pop and experimental elements, creating a sound that’s both unique and familiar, finding ways to tweak the verse/chorus structure.
“A song should be whatever it wants to be,” Firstman said. “We like to play with words and melodies. The same line can mean something different as the song goes on. What’s the point of a chorus, if the verse is what feels best to sing? I think this approach is really nice. Not limiting ourselves to the standard three-and-a-half minute form yields lots of sweet little songs without all the fluff.”
A couple of songs that offer differing perspectives on a new affair open holy friend. On “crush,” Leach strums quiet chords on acoustic guitar as the duo sings in close harmony, describing the delight one feels at the beginning of a relationship.
Firstman sings a subtle lead on “firsts,” a pop ballad floating on warm, ambient sustained synth chords. Her voice fades in and out as she slowly realizes that her new love may be carrying a torch for someone else. “It’s a song about soft boys not actually being that soft,” Firstman said.
Twin acoustic guitars open “drive,” with Firstman’s double-tracked harmonies depicting her desire to leave old memories behind as she moves through unfamiliar landscapes. Subtle bass tones add a melancholy feel to the tale. “The ambient sounds on the record are the result of messing around with effects to find unique sounds to sprinkle around,” Leach said.
“We also prefer using all lowercase letters for our dog eyes band name, album and song titles,” Firstman said. “We think it makes things come off a little softer.”
Although Leach and Firstman began collaborating a few years ago after meeting at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, they’ve both played music most of their lives.
“When I was seven, I had one of my first experiences with grief and wrote a song about it in my diary,” Firstman said. “I played no instruments at the time, but I’d sing it a capella every once in a while. It brought me comfort. It’s not all that different from the role writing plays for me now.
“I enjoyed performing at open mics in college, but I’d never thought about producing my songs until I started recording with Davis,” she added.
“I’ve been playing guitar since I was in first or second grade,” Leach said. “In high school, I played with friends, just jamming around. I started playing in bands in college. Eventually, my girlfriend introduced me to Hailey. We hit it off and went on from there.”
They released their first effort together—good, proper send off—digitally on their Bandcamp page, during the pandemic lockdown. When they finished holy friend, they sent it around to labels and Grand Jury Records picked it up. The album will be released online and as a cassette on Aug. 16.
Currently, Leach attends grad school and works full time at Cal State East Bay as an environmental geologist. Firstman is a producer for an ad agency that makes toy commercials. She’s also written several young adult novels that she’s working on getting published.
“We’re excited to see where things can go,” Firstman said. “We’ve never been at a point where we could consider being full-time musicians. This year is the closest we’ve been to that, so far. We’d love to start touring, but we don’t have any expectations. We enjoy making music and hope people continue to listen to us and come out to our shows. Anything else is a bonus.”
The dog eyes album-release show takes place on Thursday, Aug. 15, at 8:30pm, Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., San Francisco. 415.626.4455. bottomofthehill.com.
