In college, Keena Batti and Molly Falck majored in Gregorian chants and minored in melancholy. They met one fateful summer while studying abroad in Cambridge and spent the semester eating haggis and endlessly strumming Jenny Lewis covers. Post graduation, they worked in the disheartening world of retail while moonlighting as troubadours inside Malibu’s best imitation of a Joshua Tree honky-tonk. They paired with producer Devon Geyer (Decorations) to record their first EP On Returning and made the rounds on the LA venue circuit under the moniker Steps of Doe. Now, as hyps, Keena Batti and Molly Falck hole up every weekend in a Los Feliz apartment, crafting songs to mend their broken hearts and soothe their late-twenties angst.
Molly and Keena’s music is a conversation. It’s the sonic result of two friends, sitting on a couch, talking through their loneliness and uncertainty. It’s Elliott Smith’s diminished chords paired with Joni Mitchell’s honest, colloquial lyrics. While their writing speaks to an upbringing on early 2000s indie folk-rock, Molly and Keena’s tight harmonies and unconventional folk instrumentation infuse their sound with a hint of past decades. It’s warmer and more intimate than garage rock, but draws inspiration from the genre’s lo-fi approach. A set of dreamy tunes channeling the disenchantment of young adulthood, their latest songs can only be defined as wistful living room rock. Life’s hard, but it’s easier to get through with a partner. That’s hyps.