Photo courtesy of Ariel Kassulke

The stereotypical trajectory of a musician is to begin in high school as a mediocre cover band, maybe write a song or two that should not see the light of day, graduate and find another project that turns into something concrete. For vocalist Colton Schroetter and bassist AJ Folino, Alley Eyes is their first band. Learning who they are as musicians is happening in real time, and that leaves constant room for improvement.

In the year since Alley Eyes released their debut EP, bondage in the afternoon, their main takeaway has been that the question “What do we sound like?” has not been fully answered.

Experimentation has been crucial to the three singles they’ve released this year. They agreed that “bloodstain.” from the EP was a sound they wanted to lean into, and after a writing session at Folino’s home, “MY LOVE” was an easy next single to release. It ended up not being the right direction soundwise, and when they began the creative process of “Punisher”, American rock band Quarters heavily influenced Alley Eyes guitarist Griffin Larson.

During a writing session with him and Folino, they came up with the syncopated part before the last big chorus. Once again, the finished project was not the exact direction they felt best represented them. For drummer Jason McCullum, the songs that interest him the most are the ones he feels are relevant from a friend standpoint. When he hears lyrics and can immediately grasp what Schroetter is ruminating on, he believes those are the songs worth pursuing. “Good Times” is one of those songs.

These songs do not leave the listener with a sense of hope but instead speak to the reality of not wanting to feel hopeless. The lyrics are broad enough to manipulate the meaning in a multitude of ways, but with an overall desire that it speaks to someone personally; that the feeling of loneliness is shared.

“A lot of the songs that we’ve been writing moving forward, some that we’ve put out and some that we’re working on for future releases, [have] an emotional throughline of just being very tired by everything around you and very weighed down by life,” Schroetter said.

As they continue to write and record new music, it is clear that these three singles will not be part of a bigger project. They are the perfect representation of their sonic exploration, but they agree that it is not something they want to explore further.

“I’m glad that these stand on their own as their own living, breathing thing,” McCullum said. “We’ve very much started to find where we want to exist in a musical space. I think it will be cool for years down the road, there’s people who have this relationship with us and our music to be able to trace us searching our way towards that.”

While they have given more thought to what they do not want to sound like, they feel as though they are finally on the right track. The three singles have helped them gain a sense of intentionality that wasn’t necessarily as important for the songs on bondage in the afternoon. They believe they found enough of their DNA that their goal is now a full-length album. They are most excited for what one another is bringing to the table for this next batch of songs. For Larson, his contributions are both anticipatory and in demand as he moves away from the direction of “Punisher” and into something uncharted.

“I feel like now I’ve realized, having worked on some of the newer songs that we’re currently in the process of making, that level of instrumentation for us might not be what we want to lean into going forward,” he said.

For Schroetter, as the main lyricist, he writes from a place of instinct and doesn’t necessarily have an inherent feeling or meaning attached to the lyrics as they are being written. When he and his bandmates are locked in on something, that inspiration means something in that moment that may translate differently the farther removed they become from it. Right now, they are on a journey of creating a body of work that emotionally, sonically and thematically feels like they all belong together.

“I think this band functions the best when we have a North Star,” Folino said.

Alley Eyes is closer than ever to answering the question, “What do we sound like?” They have embraced the moments of exploration, tested their abilities and can honestly say they know where they want to go next.