If you were tuned into WKDU recently, or packed into the studio, you may have caught DJ Meow’s boiler room-style set. Which, for the blog’s record, we do not usually do here at WKDU, though maybe we should start…
“I only prepared half of that,” she told me right after, also visibly overheating. “The other half was just vibes.”
With only about a year into DJing, DJ Meow, aka Jess Urwiler, is weirdly natural on the decks. Originally, Jess was supposed to come in for an acoustic Fish Food set to spotlight her debut EP Roots, which dropped back on September 26 (and is available on all streaming platforms, nudge, nudge). That project lives firmly in the singer-songwriter world, with acoustic guitar and intimate lyrics from songs she’s been sitting on since high school.
Cassie Ramone is a songwriter, musician, and visual artist who first came onto a lot of people’s radars as a founding member of Vivian Girls, starting in the late 2000s, and later with The Babies, as well as through her solo work. She grew up in New Jersey, moved to Brooklyn in the early 2000s, and has spent years moving between different scenes, projects, and ways of making music.
Her most recent record, Sweetheart, has felt like a really reflective moment in that long arc. Cassie was able to stop by WKDU ahead of her show at Philly Style Pizza with Colleen Green and Jess Urwiler, so we caught her for a quick in-studio and interview!
Fresh off of their in-studio performance at WKDU presented by Fish Food, the indie folk darlings from Shallow Alcove joined us for a conversation about sleepovers, nostalgia, and various tour tales in promotion for their upcoming EP Doggy Paddle out May 21st. Currently on their “Slumber Party Tour,” the band has been embracing comfort on stage, performing in pajamas and encouraging that same sleepover intimacy among fans.
Noah Kossowsky: Hello, my name is Noah Kossowsky, and this is a very special interview with the band hey i’m outside. Hey, hey i’m outside.
Patrick: How you doing?
Hannah: Hey.
Noah Kossowsky: I’m inside. Yup. I’m surprised by that. I thought by the name that you guys would be outside. But yea, you guys just put out an awesome album, self-titled, and when I heard it, it quickly became one of my favorites of the year. So, I was like, I need to track these guys down, talk to them about it, you know. So, very excited we’re doing that now. So, do you just want to introduce yourselves for the folks that are listening?
Hannah: Yeah, so my name’s Hannah. I play bass in the band.
Patrick: I’m Patrick and I sing and play guitar.
Noah: And I’m Noah and I play the drums.
Noah Kossowsky: Awesome, I’m Noah as well. So, first question, I guess this is a good starting question. What is your band origin story? How did you start, when did you start, where? Give me the tale.
DJ LSD: Hello everyone, I’m here with Scott from Boyscott, this is DJ LSD, interviewing Scott for WKDU 91.7 fm Drexel university’s free format non-commercial radio station. Scott, how are you?
Scott: I am doing well, technically, I am very good.
DJ LSD: That’s good! That’s good to hear, so I wanted to get your formal apology for eight years of us waiting for this album. Do you have any form of an apology for that?
Scott: I just, I am an anxious person and it took me a long time to write these songs and uhh let me tell you, I was well aware it was taking so long.
This is WKDU interviewing glaive, aldn, and midwxst at The Foundry. Thank you for having us.
Max: How are you guys today?
glaive (Ash): Cold.
aldn (Alden): Good.
midwxst (Edgar): Cold as f*ck.
Max: Have you guys eaten today?
Ash: I ate a little bit but not much.
Alden: I drank coffee.
Edgar: I ate a slice of pizza.
Ryce: So is this your first time in Philly?
Alden: Second time.
Ash: First time.
Edgar: Second time.
Ryce: Did you guys do any sightseeing?
Alden: No, sadly.
Ash: No.
Edgar: None, at all.
Alden, Ash, Edgar: *laughs*
Ryce: Have you guys tried any authentic Philly cheesesteaks while you were here?
Alden: I wish.
Ash: We had Starbucks.
Edgar: I had a burger.
Ryce: Well if you guys do, my personal favorite is Steve’s. It’s in Center City.
Ash: Oh, we’re here tomorrow!
Alden: Yeah, we are.
Ryce: Oh! Okay, so there’s two locations. There’s one in Center City but there’s also one in Northeast Philly. If you guys are willing to drive that far, you should check it out.
Ash: We’ll just get an Uber regardless.
Max: D’Alessandro’s is also fire.
Ryce [to Max]: But I’m from Philly, you’re not. (I’m sorry Max *crying emoji*)
Max: Do you guys have any pre-show rituals?
Alden: Um, we hum.
Ash: I get so nervous I almost throw up every time.
Alden: We fight each other.
Edgar: We fight each other to the death.
Ash: We fight each other and then sometimes on rare occasions, we kiss.
*Laughter*
Alden: Butt-naked.
Edgar: And we cuddle.
Ash: Yup!
Edgar: A lot.
Max: So how has the tour been so far?
Edgar: It’s been good.
Ash: Dope!
Alden: So fun.
Edgar: Very fun.
Alden: I don’t wanna go home.
Ash: Yeah, I have to go home after this. It’s gonna be very depressing.
Ryce: What has been your favorite city? Are there any cities you guys are looking forward to playing?
Alden: Boston, because I know people there.
Ash: I’m really excited to go back to Chicago. I think it’s, like, a good city. It’s gonna be fun.
Alden: I’ve never been there.
Edgar: I’m excited for Detroit and Chicago. Both because I’m from the midwest so those are both states that I have like- my sister goes to school in Michigan so it’s gonna be fun.
Max: You guys have been together for the past month or so. How has working with each other and essentially living with each other been?
Edgar: Chaos.
Ash: Fun. It’s been really fun. *laughs*
Alden: Fun. Really fun, yeah.
Ash: We’ve had some good times.
Edgar: I’ve had some very good times.
Alden: I feel like most of the time it’s Ash and I because Edgar has a different bus-
Edgar: Yeah, I have my own travel-
Alden: -But we are together most of the time
Edgar: But we are together a lot.
Alden: Yeah, and we have a lot of fun.
Ash: *laughs*
Ryce: I know you guys are really young, so in high school, during Covid times, did you feel outcasted? Like did you feel like you missed out on being a normal teenager? Not just with Covid getting in the way of making those social connections but also blowing up at such a young age and going on tour?
Alden: I feel like that’s more for Ash.
Edgar: Ash, and me.
Ash: I haven’t been to in-person school since freshman year so I don’t really know. I went for a few months and it was really weird but right now I just do online school. So I can’t really say tbh.
Edgar: I was in physical school and then it went online like junior year and it was kinda like a rough patch for me because junior and senior year were both supposed to be like “the best years of high school” for me and I didn’t get to experience them fully and I had to wear masks inside. It kinda sucked but it was decent because I was able to pass my classes.
Alden: Yeah, I mean, I feel like when school went online I just cheated so I kinda liked it.
*Laughter*
Ryce: *Laughs* I think we all did.
Edgar: Real as f*ck. I think we all did.
Alden and Ryce: Yeah.
Alden: And then I dropped out.
Max: It’s hard not to.
Ash: Amazing!
Max: I know you guys have done some work with Overcast. I work with Tom The Mailman (@tomthemailman), if you know him.
Ash: Yeah, I f*ck with him
Edgar: Shout out Tom.
Do you guys have any strong connections over there at Overcast?
Edgar: Tommy (@fixedfortommy) is on my team for my label. And also this man right here, Hasan, he’s been filming everything on tour.
Alden: Tommy is also on my team.
Ash: Yeah, we all love Tommy.
Edgar: Yeah, we all love Tommy. We all love them.
Alden: And we f*ck with Hasan.
Ash: We f*ck with Hasan more than life itself.
Edgar: We f*ck with Hasan more than life.
(Editorial Note: Tom the Mail Man is an artist affiliated with Overcast, and @fixedfortommy or Tommy Bauer is with Overcast Arizona)
Max: Why should people pay attention to you?
Edgar: Because we’re ourselves. Like we know who we are, we have an identity, and we make good music at the end of the day.
Ash: There’s literally no reason. It literally doesn’t matter. If you like my music, listen to it but if you don’t I literally don’t care.
Alden: Yeah, I don’t care but I produce all my own stuff so I work a lot on my sh*t. So thank you.
Check out glaive’s old dog, new tricks if you haven’t already! You can catch glaive, aldn, and midwxst on all streaming platforms <3
