Glom
Photo Credit: Mel Nunn
Six-piece band Glom is an alt-rock collective with a mind for making music. After rearranging quite a bit over the last five years, they finally released their album, Bond, in 2019. Their music is special; it takes you back to a time of well written music with meaningful lyrics. Every member of the group is a multi-instrumentalist who brings their unique perspective on music making to the table; this diversity only adds to their sound. Songs like 2020’s “Matches” is the perfect example of this. The slow rock ballad earned the group a spot on Spotify’s Fresh Finds Rock Playlist earlier this year. Over the past year and a half, the group has over 5k monthly listeners and a growing fanbase. We recently spoke to Glom about their journey as musicians, recent music, and more!
First, let's talk about the band's origin story. How did Glom come together?
Well, it all goes back to middle and high school. Four of us (Sean, Peter, Jonathan, and Sahil) all went to the same middle school and that’s where we met. We didn’t all start playing music together until 10th grade. I was asked by Jonathan and Sahil to join a band for our high school’s talent show. The next year I started a Beatles cover band and was re-introduced to Peter and from then on we’ve been playing music together. We would play at a Haagen Dasz in town every Friday in the summer. After high school, we all went our separate ways but remained close. I was playing in a regionally touring band and was introduced to Johan. He eventually joined that band and when Glom got going he became the fifth member and completed the sound.
Peter moved to NYC from Spain in 2016 and the band I was in with Johan fell apart so Pete and I felt it was time to start working on a project together. We spent the first 3 years before the release of “Bond” working and reworking demos, trying to make a cohesive sound. It was definitely way harder than we thought. Jonathan, Peter, and I started workshopping the songs in a practice space and hardly any of them worked. At a certain point we decided to attempt to record a demo EP ourselves and see what happened with it, and about a week after we released that I wrote 9 songs that ended up being Bond. After we recorded and released Bond, Peter and I already had a few songs ready to go for the second record— Matches being one of them. We wanted to go for a different vibe, so Jonathan switched to bass and we got Jordan to play drums. Oddly enough, Jordan also went to our high school.
Is there a certain type of vibe that you go for when creating your music?
Sean: Realistically speaking, I probably listen to our music the most out of anyone in the world. Peter and I set out to make music that we’d be hyped listening to, and I’m definitely still hyped listening to our music every day. Hopefully that translates to our audience out there.
Peter: Yeah I’d say from the beginning we were always aiming for a sound that would capture the alternative rock of our youth - heavy and often dark, but also widely accessible. Back then, alt rock WAS pop music, and we still think of it that way.
What can you expect from your typical Glom track?
The guitars are the bed you rest on, the synth is the pillow. The drums rock you while the lyrics and melody serenade you into the most restful mindsleep you can ever have.
What are the best and worst things about being in a band?
The best thing about being in a band is sharing big moments and making music with your best friends. One of the worst things is when we can’t agree on everything. Everyone in the group has their own opinions about what glom is to them, so it’s inspiring to me that everyone feels so strongly, but it also can get frustrating when it takes us a long time to get to an agreement. However, while that part can be tough, the end outcome is always worth the journey it took to get there.
If the band could be represented by one cartoon T.V. show, which would it be and why?
Well maybe you could say Glom could be represented by Hey Arnold because I coincidentally live very close to PS 118.
When making Bond, did you guys have any trouble picking songs for the album? How do you overcome creative differences, if any, within the group?
We didn’t really have trouble deciding what songs to put on Bond because the ones that made the cut were the only ones that were ready. I wrote Matches around the time of the final Bond sessions, but that one wasn’t ready yet. Peter wrote a song around that time as well that ended up being on Merit and it’s better that we waited for the songs to be fully developed rather than rushing them onto Bond. When we start a session we definitely want everything completely decided creatively before we set up a mic. It’s easier to run the songs in the months prior to get a full image of what the song will be before we start doing the final version. Sahil wanted to do that process before we started recording Merit, and it definitely works well for us.
Was there any, one song off the album that took longer to finish than the others?
The song “Forlorn” definitely took the longest to complete. It had a slightly different vibe than the rest of Bond, but the way Sahil mixed it made the track flow with the rest of the tracks.
How has the pandemic affected your ability to create music?
The pandemic has greatly affected us. Johan lives in DC so we haven’t been fully together as a band since our last show on February 29th. Creatively, I have been in a pretty serious lull. I just don’t feel the urge to write or play guitar and I’m much more interested in biking or skateboarding currently. I’m sure it’ll pass, it’s just hard to feel inspired when the whole world is in an extremely bizarre and terrifying situation.
You guys are currently in the studio working on Merit. What will be the biggest difference, if any, between the project and your first album?
I’d say the biggest difference between Merit and Bond is, I hope, the quality of the songwriting. I think that the songs on Merit represent a step forward in the consistency in songwriting, the conceptual development of the album, and the execution of the sound. Hopefully this album feels more homogenous than Bond, being conceived in a shorter amount of time. We’ve learned a lot in the process of recording both of the albums, and it’s made us better and ready to keep releasing cool stuff as soon as Merit’s fully released!
