In 2019, GREENHOUSELAKE had a new band name, a fresh batch of bright, emo-y indie rock anthems, a solid lineup – singer/guitarist Elijah Bloome, guitarist Caleb Couri, bassist Nico Caro and drummer Joe Leonardo – and an enthusiastic following in the small Hudson Valley college town of New Paltz. In March of 2020, they released an EP, ALLCAPS/NOSPACES. There was, of course, no release show.

At a time when most people were struggling with isolation, Bloome was living in an overcrowded punk house and needed some space. That summer, in the height of the pandemic, he left New Paltz for Philly.

Smooch, GREENHOUSELAKE’s new record, came from Bloome’s trips back to New Paltz. The college town is a recurring theme in indie rock: it’s an artistic incubator, a small pond, an ecosystem, a launch pad. It had been those things for Bloome, who graduated from SUNY New Paltz in 2019. Going back to visit, “I felt uncomfortable in the town, felt uncomfortable taking up space” he says. “We were stuck in this phase where we were talking about how good it used to be.” The community, he thought, was stuck. “Another year went by and i was like, ‘Ok everyone fucking get over it, lets move on with our lives and do some interesting stuff.’” But a friend pointed out that maybe Bloome was the one who needed to get over it. As he deadpans in the bittersweet “BBB,” there were things he “tried to bury without a proper funeral.”

When they were barely teenagers Couri taught Bloome how to play guitar. By highschool they had a real band, and then carried their musical partnership to college. Leonardo joined in 2016, and Caro hopped aboard around the end of school. Bloome and Couri scrapped everything else they’d ever written, and GREENHOUSELAKE was born.

Keyboardist Bianca Checa, who lives in Brooklyn, joined in 2023. Everyone but Bloome still lives in the Hudson Valley. “I can only describe it as a long distance relationship – which it is – where you have to make every visit count,” he says with a wink. He’d take the bus up for a couple days, and the band would spend the whole time workshopping the new songs. In the last few months they started playing the songs for an audience. “I like to let a song grow up, mature, and people need to be in the room responding to it for a song to get better, I think.”

Bloome has always loved the stream-of-conscious lyricism of the Pixies and Pavement, but Velvet Underground fandom, he says, is at the center of Smooch. On “College Town” Bloome talk-sings over a driving, undulant jam. It’s a detailed tour of a physical place as well as his own highly specific emotional geography. The track, he says, was an attempt to rip off “Sister Ray” or “The Gift,” but “College Town” also brings to mind the funny, wistful sweetness of, say, Minutemen’s “History Lesson Part 2.” Even at his most frustrated Bloome’s lyrics are rooted in curiosity and kindness.

The songs on Smooch, which are overall more sophisticated, and hit harder than the sunny ALLCAPS/NOSPACES, were taken from a batch of around 50 that Bloome wrote during his first year in Philly. Reworking lyrics became a kind of therapy, as Bloome began to recognize the intense pressure he’d put on himself to justify leaving town, and his fear of being unwelcome in his old community.

‘It’s kind of like, ‘Ok, this is the reflection, here it is for all to see, I’m ready for the next thing,’” he says. “I’m trying to walk the fine line between nostalgia and reflection and not get too sappy with any of it.

“To heal from it is the goal.”

https://www.youtube.com/@greenhouselakeband