Strange Men Unleash Their Debut Full-Length, ‘Come Yesterday’
Years ago, Ashley Skye Clayton hid his band’s demo CD on the ceiling of San Francisco’s Bottom of the Hill. Every time he went to the club, he checked the conduit, until one day, the CD was gone. Fast forward, and he meets Róisín Isner. Turns out, she was the teenager who went up and stole it.
“We both look up, and can climb quickly without making a scene,” says Ashley. Clearly, they were meant to be in a band.
Strange Men is Ashley and Róisín’s fourth attempt at a project, and the first that actually stuck. They run things as a duo, creating a massive noise that defies their limited headcount. Ashley plays a massive 8-string guitar he built himself out of scavenged wood, managing both bass and guitar duties. Róisín is a rare drummer-singer, swapping lead and backup vocals with Ashley throughout their set.
Since it’s just the two of them, they have to be totally in sync on every move. This intense, zero-moderation dynamic turns their moody practice space into a private world. Róisín calls them “little goth mice hiding in our little hole.”
When they write, Róisín often brings rhythmic lyrics, but no melody. Ashley starts “spiraling on guitar,” sounding like he’s failing until he “lands on something sick,” says Róisín. Their goal is simple: “We’re trying to make dance pop, and just failing into punk because that’s all we have the skill to do.”
Their debut full-length, ‘Come Yesterday,’ is built from the same spirit of scavenging that started their story. Old ideas and past collaborations are recycled and resurrected, with former bandmates getting co-writer credits. They brought back the track ‘Ocean,’ a “fucking shredder” written by Róisín’s ‘non-biological twin sister’ years ago, because it was too good to stay unreleased.
The album is full of ill-fated romance and relationship burnout, seen through tracks like the simultaneous-vocal attack of ‘Ungrateful Town.’ The whole narrative resolves on ‘Under the Compass Rose,’ a track about shaking off a bad entanglement and reclaiming your identity.
‘Come Yesterday’ is coming out on tape via Seattle micro-label Puzz Records. This cassette format is intentional: Strange Men wanted the album to feel like a curated mixed tape. They want to sound like a collection of different bands that just happen to fit perfectly together.
The band offers this conclusion, saying, “We’re only two people, so we do a lot of multitasking, and our songs are mostly anguished lyrics about politics. Except for ‘Hot Nights,’ which is just about hot nights.”
Headline photo: Strange Men (Credit: Cassidy Frost)
Strange Men Website / Instagram / Bandcamp
