America’s Newest Band: An Interview with Coast Modern

Words like “instinctive, dreamy pop” and “two young men with nice hair” all come to mind when thinking of indie band Coast Modern. If you haven’t heard of them yet, get ready to. After only a year, the California duo has been racking up an impressive resume, doing everything from playing SXSW to going on tour with the legendary The Temper Trap. I sat down with them (virtually) to discover more about their fast success and, more pressingly, their preferred Hogwarts house. 

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As your first single, “Hollow Life” does a lot to provide an image of what your band is. In it, here’s a very visceral sentiment of wanting to break free from the norm, something I know stems from your wanting to remove yourselves from the confines of the mainstream pop industry. How do you keep such a monolithic force from influencing you or creating doubt? 

CM: It’s easy to think of institutions as these hulking monsters, but really they’re made up of people with faults, fears, dreams, and they’re all playing this weird game. You’re a people too and you can choose to play the game or make your own. It took a while but we realized to make the best music, we had to be completely true to ourselves and stop worrying about following someone else’s rules.

Although you’re a new band (only a year old!), success has come hard and fast, placing tours with BØRNS, The Wombats, and the Temper Trap all under your belts. What has your quick progression as a band been like for you?

CM: We didn’t even expect to form a band, much less be playing live with bands we love and in front of so many rad people, so it’s been a huge thrill. To think that our first song came out only a year ago and we’ve already been on so many amazing stages in front of so many people is a real trip. We’re just riding this crazy wave.

With the rise of social media and the immediacy of the internet, the relationship between bands and their fans has obtained a new intimacy. Do you find maintaining an online presence to be draining?

CM: Most of the time it’s such a pleasure. We’re constantly impressed by the humor and intelligence of our fans and the things they tweet at us. It feels more like a friend relationship which is cool. That said, there are times when we need take little breaks to live a little away from the net and climb up high on a mountain or something.

Other than a job, what would you say music provides you? Feel free to be metaphorical here. Everyone likes a good metaphor. 

CM: It’s a tin-can-and-string walkie talkie from one bedroom to another. It’s a connector. Music without people behind it and in front of it is not very interesting. We’re interested in meeting the people that connect with our music and see what we can share with each other. I remember being young and seeing bands I idolized and I wanted so badly to hang out with them and learn from them. With the internet, that’s becoming easier and easier.

Aside from other musicians, who (or what) else influences you? 

CM: We like to read a lot, listen to podcasts, watch movies, go to museums. People that crack open the curtain of reality or tap into some deep subconscious well really inspire us. People like Alan Watts, Jack Kerouac, Walt Whitman, Mark Rothko, Hermann Hesse. The Duncan Trussell Family Hour podcast is a fun mind melter too.

Watching your visualizers, one gets the feeling of being trapped in some new wave lava lamp. There’s a trippy, nostalgic quality to it, yet it’s paired with undeniably fresh-sounding music. With Coast Modern, is the goal to create something new or grow what’s been done before into your own? 

CM: There are always going to be seeds from the past planted in our music but we are believers in embracing the weirdness of our era and trying to push music forward, mix up genres, and reflect the times that we’re in. Popular music is only like 70 years old, we can’t keep recycling the same stuff. 

What does the name “Coast Modern” mean to you? How did you come up with it?

CM: Coast Modern just seemed like the perfect fit. We’re from the West Coast and like we mentioned above, are trying to keep our style modern and fresh. We love bad puns and were just playing around with the word postmodern until we hit Coast Modern.

Finally, and most importantly, if you could attend Hogwarts right now, which house would you be sorted in and why?

CM: Slytherin gets a bad rep for obvious reason, but I think we’d both be in that house. Ambitious, cunning, rebellious. They’re not all bad, right?

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