Chatting with Someone You Can Call

If you use Spotify at all, you may be familiar with their Daylist feature. Although it isn't perfect, more often than not it’s a mix called “Frat Boy Ohio Wednesday” or some fucking disaster like that. Occasionally I will get a perfect assortment of songs to fit my vibe. It was through one of these Daylist discoveries that I found a song called “You Will be Okay!” The soft emotional voice accompanied by an arrangement of perfectly plucky acoustic guitar and harmony of horns pull together this song that I have been obsessed with for weeks. Being nosy like I am, I did the normal thing and listened to all of their stuff and reached out to them, like the average music listener, duh. 

Someone You Can Call is a self-acclaimed “West Coast brass folk” band out of California. The band is composed of members Hunter Dalton, Athen Walker, and Mickey Ikegami. Starting just two years ago, the band already has two albums under their belt with the 2023 release of Broken People Call Themselves Poets and their most recent venture with last month’s Through The Quiet and Cold. Both of these albums are packed with wonderful ballads, highlighted by much-appreciated horn melodies and moments that make you feel like you're in a wintery forest, reconnecting with yourself again.

I had the opportunity to reach out and ask the band a few questions about them, their creative process, and their new album.

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What is your favorite song you have worked on and why?

Hunter: Curiosity and insight or 34 curiosity and insight I love because the whole song just has a really interesting baritone part it kinda feels like improvising a solo the entire time it’s very loose, 34 I also adore it because it’s so simple and the trumpet solo at the end clicked very quick I believe it was actually the first take I took that we ended up using

Athen: There’s one song that stands out above all others for me, Trying to Move Out it’s one of my favorites instrumentally, lyrically and what it holds emotionally the meaning it has to me now vs when I wrote it will always make me smile and it’s just the one I'm most proud of but outside of that you will be okay! and a new one I’m working on called “the wind blows for you”

You guys were featured on Liam Mccay's album, Accept, last year. How did that collaboration come about and what was it like to work with someone as infamous in the indie scene as Sign Crushes Motorist?

Mickey: We first talked with Liam about us possibly covering his song “boyhood” and we did. afterward, he reached out to us and we were beyond excited to work with him. I love Liam’s music, and to be able to work with him was such an awesome opportunity.

Athen: It was such an insane experience it still doesn’t feel real even after a year, we had messaged him when we first wanted to release boyhood to get permission and to our surprise, he responded and asked to hear it when we finished that was already so insane, looking back now I cringe whenever I hear boyhood because it was my first time ever recording and mixing so the end result wasn’t my favorite but that’s besides the point we sent him the song when it was released and he seemed to enjoy it about a week or so later he texted mickey and hunter and asked if they would join him in a song for a new album he was working on we freaked out for quite awhile after the message since mickey and I were already huge fans

You recently put out your second album, Through the Quiet and Cold this month. What can you say about the process that went into making this project?

Hunter: The project was definitely a roller coaster, we were pretty sure that we were just going to do singles for a little while but then we had enough material cooking at the same time that the album just sort of came together and as the time got closer there were many stressful last minute changes but it all worked out in the end

Mickey: Chaotic! but so fun. we had so much fun making this album and this project really had so much love put into it. this album is very dear to us and the entire time we were so excited to put it out!

Athen: Writing an album was something i never thought id be able to say we did i’ve had ideas for most of those songs since last year so seeing them all come to life in their own way was so lovely some songs came easier than others, trying to move out and the thought of you i had written fairly quickly and knew how they were gonna sound while others like set me free went through several variations when i first wrote it set me free was called “trying to hide the fact you like someone by singing about gnomes (gnome song)” which hunter shut down fairly quickly since it was a mouthful and the lyrics were quite bad then it turned into “garlic song” “kids these days” then finally “set me free” but the project in all was such an amazing experience traveling different places to film videos for promotion or get sounds in nature for backing stuff or even meeting new people that helped us with lyrics or other instrumentation i’d never trade that for anything and a huge shout out to luci, ian, veah and kieran for all the help they gave us along the way

Aside from music, what are some art/media that have helped shape your creative identity?

Mickey: Some media that has totally helped shape my creative identity would just be films. i know this is connected to music, but watching different movies with iconic scores just gives me so many ideas!

Athen: I always had such a love for drawing and graphic design as well as skateboarding, I’ve for the art section I tried carrying that through with our cover art too, the art for boyhood, and trying to move out I had to print out and adjust every picture to fit just right so it could fit the vibe of the song- each picture has meaning to what I felt it showed or displayed

Who are some artists that have helped influence your sound the most?

Hunter: I think the artists that shape our sound the most are probably primarily Hey nothing, and Liam

Athen: The artists that inspire me the most for how our sound ended up we’re definitely crywank, sparky deathcap, modern baseball, the spinto band, hey nothing, and of course the wonderful felix rabito

Mickey: As a band, I think some artists that have influenced us the most would be crywank, signcrushesmotorist, mom jeans.

If you could, shout out some local bands/artist friends below!

Every dog has its day, Fischer on the run, and Sownn are the three that come straight to mind all fantastic people and artists

please please go check out goblin mode, blooming heads, pacing, ash bricky, paper airplanes, sownn, lokeigh and the speak low

shout out to blooming heads!!!!! check ‘em out!!

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Their Linktree

You Can Call’s new album is out now on all streaming services, follow them on Instagram and TikTok for updates and more. Thank you again to the band for their time and the opportunity. Stay cool y’all and live VASH