Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
Ekko Astral is a glitter noise-punk band from Washington, D.C. composed of Jael Holzman, Miri Tyler, and Liam Hughes. Their debut LP, pink balloons, was released in the spring and draws attention to the discomfort that comes with honesty, while also offering a space at live shows to find unabashed joy—striking a perfect balance.
Your new song, “pomegranate tree” releases tomorrow. You shared a statement on Instagram about this song, about how something from your childhood community is being used as a symbol for genocide. Is there anything else you want people to know about this song?
(Tyler) I’m really glad and proud to have a song coming out that addresses the feelings I mentioned in the post announcing the song—it’s just sad as someone who still identifies with Judaism, to see symbols like this being used in this context. And I think a lot of people still do get manipulated into believing in Zionism and backing everything that Israel does without a second thought. But it saddens me to the point where it’s hard to sleep sometimes. And it has me questioning so many things about just identifying with Judaism in general, to be honest, which is sad in and of itself.
I believe you mentioned it was collaborative; how does the band usually work on songs? Did it come out quickly, or was “pomegranate tree” something you worked out over time?
(Holzman) The songs across Ekko so far historically have been collaborative. This one started out with a guitar riff that I was fucking around with, and then Miri and I wound up jamming at her place on that for like two hours or whatever, and then the song itself came together over the span of almost six months, but the bones of it started right after October 7th, like in the weeks after. It was really built out of this restlessness that we felt. Then we kept playing the song over and over again, seeing the different crowd reactions as we performed it, which varied from people being like “Fuck yeah,” to people being like “Fuck you.” Then we went into the studio in late July to record the song and that’s when the end really took shape. There was this feeling like a bigger story could be told than just the story we were telling for four minutes. There’s a broader context we can bring into play and more of a location-setting, and make people understand how it feels, just by virtue of living in the city that we live in, be complicit in genocide. This song has been a culmination of what we’ve been through as a band over the last year.
And you mentioned there is a video accompanying the song?
(Holzman) There’s a visual artist, Kate the Cursed, who started working with us when we did the video for “baethoven,” and then wound up becoming our go-to person for videos and backdrops at our shows. But this video opens with a journalist in D.C. who covers Congress and who has mentored me for years in my past life, who also has been quite disturbed by the way that Washington, and specifically the media, talks about Palestinians and talks about U.S. involvement in the violence that we’re seeing—not just in the Middle East, but all over the world. And then it immediately flashes into a visual feast, a meditation on living here and feeling the static buzz. The goal is to watch this and feel how it feels in D.C. but I don’t want to speak too much for it, I think people should just see it.
(Tyler) There’s a mainstream view of what D.C. is like, with the politics and Capitol building. And having grown up here, the important parts of why I love this city have absolutely nothing to do with that, except for the fact that we have the opportunity to march to the White House lawn, to march around the Capitol building, and try to have our voices actually heard. So we try to embody that by personifying it, I guess.
I think a lot of people often feel exhausted from this country’s horrors and the constant doom-scrolling, that it feels easy to be apathetic. But there is something inspiring about seeing folks use this sadness and anger to organize and take action, and I’ve noticed you do a lot of fundraising at your shows. Do y’all have a background with grassroots or non-profits, or does D.C. just further fuel this work?
(Holzman) I was a long-time journalist in Congress and thought that being a reporter has certain ways of impacting the world positively, but I saw that music could be far more powerful. So for me, that’s where that fundraising comes from, and that focus on direct action.
(Tyler) I am no stranger to organizing or protesting. Because to me, just growing up in this city, that’s what it was all about. You find your people, and I found that through music. My older sibling was in punk and metal bands, so that kind of introduced me to the whole scene here, and that community work is so ingrained into the music scene here.
Your music and shows feel like a vessel for pent-up emotions. How has making music helped you channel this and spark action?
(Tyler) No matter what kind of music you or anybody makes, music has always been a drive for culture and community. You can run, but you can’t hide from it.
What do you think is special about your musical development on pink balloons? Does the new single feel similar to the album?
(Holzman) We got to work with Jeremy Snyder and a lot of what you’re hearing on pink balloons is Jeremy. But as songwriters, we trusted ourselves to make shit and not directly reference anything, and whatever sound comes out will be like a sandwich of different toppings, and we’ll just put it together. It’s like a candy, it’s saturated with so many ideas and different places and the songs are still compact. And then with “pomegranate tree,” we’re messing with time signatures and it’s almost a prog-song. I think this is where a lot of our newer stuff is headed, all very influenced by the moment. We’re trying to not only lyrically and thematically, but sonically speak to how it feels to see so much chaos and violence happen.
Another song we’re playing on tour, “beltway is burning”, is also very rooted in one specific memory. Do you remember the smoke incident last year? It’s funny how few people in D.C. even remember that this happened.
Oh yeah, it was apocalyptic in New York. Orange skies.
The day that the smoke incident was the worst in D.C., Liam and I [Holzman] went to see Tinariwen perform at a concert hall that’s very old, and smoke was filtering through this theater and a haze was above the band as they were performing. There were all these D.C. liberals who listen to NPR dancing and clapping, and it was this jarring image of winding guitars and smoke that has stuck with me since. Like, I find us gravitating towards these winding guitars and hazy chord progressions and the feeling of doom and disaster around every corner.
Where did the name Ekko Astral come from?
I [Holzman] actually don’t think I’ve told the full story publicly before, but I’ll break the news to The Alternative. So it’s a Death Grips lyric, but like, E-C-H-O, and it’s meant to be this space-echo thing. A bunch of years ago, I was at an electronic music festival called Moonrise Fest in Baltimore, and I went into a port-a-potty during a terrible set. And then I had a vision where I was on stage, in a dress, performing under the name Ekko Astral, and the crowd was huge—but I was still in the closet at the time. And I remember having that vision and then immediately going, “No, that’s bullshit, push it down,” and then going back out and partying.
And then when the time came, I was talking to Liam at the initial discussions in 2020 when I first came out to him, and was like “Hey, by the way, I’m a girl. Also, can we maybe make music about it someday?” And then I started looking into Echo and discovered it was the Greek nymph for sound, so it’s like this cosmic culmination where the fates spoke to me and said, “Please come out as trans and make music about it under this name.” And that’s how it all started.
“pomegranate tree” is out tomorrow, October 9th.
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Ryleigh Wann | @wannderfullll
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