The celestial, melodic vocals of singer Harlee Case float over pulsing synths and a steady rhythm of programmed drums. These are the hallmarks of the brief but potent pop output of Portland-based electronic trio New Constellations. Alongside bandmate and songwriter Josh Smith and the recent addition of multi-instrumentalist Kyle Farook, the threesome will wrap up a West Coast tour in Bend at the Volcanic Theatre Pub on Sunday, Nov. 24 with local alt rockers Chiggi Momo.
Case and Smith are childhood friends who recorded a song together in Smith’s bedroom as teenagers. They both went off to other things — Case performed solo as an indie, folk singer/songwriter for years and Smith played drums in a bunch of rock bands — before reconnecting to start this band.
While on tour, New Constellations will also drop a new single full of ’80s pop vibes called “Sun Chasing the Rain” that, “was finished over two years, three hair colors and practice spaces, many states and a lot of all-nighters,” the band wrote on Instagram.
The Source Weekly spoke with New Constellations’ Harlee Case and Josh Smith via phone prior to their gig in town later this month. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Source Weekly: I know your new single “Sun Chasing the Rain” just came out but what’s next? A full-length album?
Harlee Case: We have a handful of songs that we’re working on right now, and it’s looking more like we’re going to drop an album, which is ideal. But it’s challenging because we don’t get to do this completely full time. We both work part-time jobs. Early next year, we’re planning on spending a few months working on music full time and double down and really focus so we can get an album out next year.
SW: You two are childhood friends. How did you reconnect to start New Constellations?
HC: I honestly just put it on my Instagram that I was a vocalist looking to be in a project or a band, and Josh and I, you know, we’re still friends, and he hit me up and was like, “I think that I should be in this band.” [Laughs]
Josh Smith: I’ve been in a bunch of bands, but none that I had any sort of creative control over or anything and was kind of feeling burnt out on that for sure. Harlee was talking about wanting to be in a band really bad, and I just was thinking about the idea of Harlee being in a band with some other people, and I was like, “That seems crazy. If anybody’s going to be in a band together, it should be us.” We just got together, and she sent me a bunch of voice memos, just singing random stuff in the car. She sent me probably 100 voice memos. Our first couple songs were just me listening to those and finding cool little parts and kind of turning them into songs.
SW: These voice memos, were they lyrics or melodies or what?
JS: A little bit of both. It was her just singing a cappella into her phone. It was like reading her diary, listening to all these voice memos of her just singing about her life or what’s going on that day, just kind of freestyling lyrics, sort of decompressing. It was cool, but it was really intimate. “Wow, she’s really spilling her guts right now,” in song form.
HC: I sent those voice memos as opposed to coming and writing with him initially, because I was way too scared to actually collaborate with someone. So it was really amazing working with Josh because he allowed me to be scared at first and do it that way, and then eventually start writing together. A lot of our process is me freestyling, and that takes a lot to do in front of someone. It was terrifying but very exciting.
SW: How did you come up with the name for this project?
JS: The reasoning behind the band name is: The constellations or the stars are essentially timeless; they have existed an amount of time that is sort of unfathomable to us, like literally billions of years. So the idea that there would be a new constellation is kind of interesting to us. It’s a new constellation when the constellations have been around for billions and billions of years. Even though they’re these sort of huge bodies that to us on Earth, when we look up, they seem like they’re making one shape, that’s only from our perspective. If we moved around the universe, if we went to other planets, if we went to other galaxies, we would see these exact same stars that have been around for billions of years from different angles. There are other constellations from other points of view that we haven’t seen yet because we haven’t been there yet. If and when we’re able to sort of explore the galaxy…
HC: When!
JS: We’ll get to explore other universes and there will be new constellations there when we get there, even though it’s sort of the same old stars.
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This article appears in Source Weekly November 21, 2024.
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