Image by Carter Howe

There’s a certain closeness to hometown friends that can’t be imitated. These are the people who have known you from before you had an identity of your own, and who have developed passions, dreams, and failings alongside you. Fold puberty into the mix and you have a perfect storm of self-discovery. It’s a time where people enter and exit your life often and with slamming doors. You discover who in your life are fair-weather friends or the first members of a chosen family. It’s this formative time that allowed the band Fish House to take their first steps into adulthood and explore their individual and collective goals.

Fish House, now comprised of Jacob Benavidez, Adam Jacey, and Kyle Torr-Brown, began in the small seaside town of Mystic, CT. The childhood friends began playing steadily at the few local venues in their sleepy hometown but craved new experiences. Opportunities cropped up during the boom of the pop punk scene as members of local bands began to play into the genre’s quickly rising popularity. The Fish House boys were similarly courted by management and groomed for the same lot, changing their name and sound, but quickly felt the disingenuous nature of the scene take its toll. They stopped playing shows and took a much-needed break to reassess.

This could have easily been the final chapter in Fish House’s history. Jacey moved to Boston to go to Northeastern while Benavidez went to study at UMass Lowell, all members continuing their own musical journeys. After three semesters Benavidez decided to forego a degree to pursue music more actively, beginning a “a fairly lengthy period of solidarity and reflection at home.” Afterward, he reached out to and began writing with Torr-Brown; it was from this space that “In Character” was born, channeling the self-doubt that comes along with bucking the expectations set by society and family. When the duo brought Jacey the song, still in its’ early conceptual stages, there was a spark that ignited in the trio that they thought was long lost, beginning a summer of boozy nights jamming together. The jazzy groove was laid down by Benavidez while Torr-Brown added his decorative drum track. The final product is a song that feels like the summertime, warmth saturating the track and trickling with the smokey honey of Benavidez’s vocals. Small details demand attention from icy chimes, small vocal harmonies, and organ-like lines, reaching a build that is packed with bliss. Needless to say, it’s a far cry from any pop punk influence.

It was a long-distance relationship at first, trekking back and forth to spent the few hours they could together on weekends. Recognizing the unsustainable nature of the situation, the band came to a crossroads.

“Regrouping as a three piece we needed to solidify and bounce off of that,” Benavidez notes, “To own this again some way. We’re just proud of it sounding good, this time around it’s a lot of the same stuff but with a lot more meaning to it based on the context of what had happened since then.” It became the undercurrents of their writing, seeking out the bare-faced honesty that had come with youth and the catharsis of letting that be their experience as a band once more.

This insight from distance and the choice to return manifests not only in the music but the bond that has been established. The rest of the bandmates moved to Boston, playing to friends at Jacey’s apartment and letting their music evolve naturally. They now live under the same roof, which makes writing music and playing shows easier than ever. Despite the bickering of brothers, the bond that they have established is as solid as blood ties.

The boys are beaming with pride at the work of Torr-Brown, whose artwork serves as the cover art for their single. Jacey explains that Kyle began painting portraits when he moved to Boston, and that the one they chose was one of the first he had done. While Kyle is quick to point out his general disdain for work that does not reflect his current level of prowess, the others echo their support and express their desire to use his work for future promotional material. It’s this moment of untainted pride at each other’s creative accomplishments that echoes from the early days of Fish House, creating for self and one another, allowing that to be more than enough.

Listen to “In Character” below from the band’s forthcoming EP, ‘Burns From the Rope,’ and be sure to check out Fish House with fellow AP faves Modern Painters and The Water Cycle at the Fire Escape on 4/20. Blaze it.