dog eyes, the lo-fi Oakland duo of Davis Leach and Haily Firstman, want to talk about friendship. Leach & Firstman were friends before they were bandmates, finding each other through mutual connections at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in California. They bonded over a shared love of two-person songwriting teams like Hovvdy & @, and Leach helped produce Firstman’s previous project Mr Marigold. The collaboration was so fruitful it turned into a whole new band.
Something stunning and hauntingly beautiful is upon us now, and this mysterious being is Oakland based dog eyes, giving us an experimental and stunningly succinct new single, “moment”. Arpeggiated synthesizer colors the body of the song, as Haily Firstman sings with an evocative warble, powerful yet delicate, a truly rare vocal touch.
“Endings and beginnings. Love! Loss! Mean boys! Friendship as it ebbs and flows. Ultimately, what interests me when I’m writing songs are people and their stories, expressing feelings or things that seem big or hard to grasp and making them feel small, expressing feelings or things that seem small and easy to grasp making them feel big. I hope some of that comes through when one listens to ‘holy friend,” says Firstman.
