Boston-based group Raavi and the Houseplants performed at 88.9 WERS as part of Wicked Local Wednesday. The four-piece band’s current lineup includes lead singer/songwriter Raavi Lucia, guitarist Josef Kiefer, drummer Madden Kless, and bassist James Duncan. After their set, WERS’ Kenneth Cox sat down with the group to talk about how the band got started, songwriting, and the process of recording the band’s upcoming debut album.

How did you all get together?

James Duncan: Should I tell this one?

Raavi Lucia: Go for it.

JD: I met Raavi through this choir we used to do, Boston City Singers, when we were like 15 or so. And then I found out she played guitar, so I was like, “hey do you wanna be in this band that I’m starting?” We were in this band in high school and—

RL: Don’t look us up.

JD: It didn’t work out. The singer left for Philly for college, and then Raavi hit me up to play a show with her...

RL: Fall of 2016.

JD: Yeah, and after that we kept on playing some more shows together as a duo.

RL: That was our senior year of high school too.

JD: We added a guitarist that I met at Berklee Five-Week, and then I met Madden at Five-Week, and then me and Josef never crossed paths but he was down the hall from me freshman year and joined the band this past fall.

Madden Kless: We actually mixed the EP in his room, weirdly! Not in the band yet, but we were in his space.

JD: If you look back on Bandcamp, Josef has that “Assistant Engineer” credit on the EP.

Where do you find the balance between student life and working on your music?

RL: You don't go to school! So, they all go to Berklee, and I don’t go to school, so this is my life.

MK: I mean, this is what we’re here to do.

RL: And Berklee gets that.

MK: Especially going to a music school, this is what we’re here to do, and we prioritize that. It’s like having a job, you do your work before you go to your job, it makes you do you your stuff more timely.

RL: And they’re all in other bands too. They’re really balancing a lot, and I have a couple of jobs too...

JD: At this point Raavi handles all the logistics, like talking to people on the internet, and making and selling shirts.

Is there one show that has been particularly memorable for the band?

RL: Last spring we had two shows that were right next to each other, one was at Middlebury College on 4/20, so like, already great! And we opened for this person named Orion Sun who is really cool. And they paid for a hotel, they bought us dinner, they really gave us the works—

JD: That’s when we realized we’re famous as f--k [laughs].

RL: Yeah! And then right after that we opened for Adult Mom, which was really meaningful to me, because I’ve been listening to them since high school, and they were all super nice, and added me on Facebook after, so it felt really validating.

MK: You said that was at Once Ballroom?

RL: Yeah.

MK: Yup, that was amazing.

What is your songwriting process like?

JD: I usually get a voice memo from Raavi, or one of us does, and she’ll be like, “Hey is this good?”

RL: I write on my Notes app on my phone, and then I voice memo it and send it to them and I’m like, “Do you like it?”. And if they don’t respond, we won’t do that song.

JD: And then we’ll play over that and we’ll get together and work through ideas and see what sticks.

RL: So usually there's a skeleton of a song that I write, and they all write their amazing parts.

JD: Usually over the course of a month or so a song will get finished-finished.

RL: And I feel like it’s not finished until we play it a couple times so that we can figure out what works and what was just super sloppy—

MK: Or when we have four other subs try it too, and we hear their interpretation and take that.

RL: Yeah, true! These guys are super busy so we have two subs for every other band member, and everyone brings something, and they’re all really amazing.

It sounds like its a very collaborative process.

RL: Yeah.

MK: Definitely.

RL: And we have a lot of other honorary “Houseplants” who are our subs, and they know all our songs, and they’re awesome people.

Your music was described as “Plant Rock”, could you describe what that sound is?

RL: We don’t really call ourselves that anymore, I think it’s just on our Facebook as a descriptor. But, when we were first starting out, on the EP, it feels like every song is a different genre on it. I wasn’t writing for a specific genre, so I didn’t really know what to call ourselves. Like, we had “All Over Again”, which has a Bossa Nova, sort of Latin feel to it, and “A Petty Waltz” was a Waltz, so that’s kinda just what I called it to be funny. It’s not that deep.

JD: People would come up and be like “Oh, what kind of music do you play?”, and I wouldn’t know what to say.

RL: Now we call ourselves “Emo Lounge”. That’s what one of the first reviews of our EP called us. But now, I feel like with the new album we’re gonna put out it’s a little more Math-y, indie rock.

You’re working right now on your debut album, what has the process of creating that been like?

RL: Oh my gosh, it’s been so fun. We have a really incredible team working with us. It’s been so much better than the EP. We’ve actually been planning it out, where the EP was really rushed. I’m still happy we put the EP out because it helped us a lot, just having music out is so important.

MK: We learned from it.

RL: Yeah, it was a learning process. But, for this one, we went to this studio in Rockland called 37 Foot Productions, and we did one 15-hour day to record drums and bass in the studio.

MK: It was amazing.

JD: It was so sick, yeah.

RL: The studio was really nice.

MK: We had a lot of gear to choose through, and they made it really vibe-y for us, it was comfy.

RL: [To Madden] You really got to nerd out with the snare drum.

MK: Yeah, I used like four different snare drums.

JD: I would switch basses in the middle of the song during the part that I wasn’t playing—

RL: And for the rest of it, we recorded guitar at Josef’s apartment, and we’re still in the midst of recording vocals which we’re doing at my house, because I live in the suburbs and it’s a little quieter (which is good for recording vocals.) Ruben Radlauer is producing it, and Justin Termotto, who is our friend is helping out as well, so shout out to them for being angels.

Where can people find your music?

RL: Anywhere they listen to music really.

JD: Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music... Tidal?

RL: Yeah, Tidal. [laughs]

MK: And hopefully we’ll have physicals in the future.

RL: You also can find out about stuff we’re doing on our Instagram which is @houseploonts.