Honeyfitz, Gabe Gill, and Rothstein in Cambridge, MA by Rothstein’s mother

Fists pounded the bathroom door. Footsteps tumbled down the sticky wooden stairs. Music blared from the living room. The hosts were nowhere to be found, until, Gabe Gill opened his bedroom door and asked his guests to keep it down⁠—not because it was 4:30am, or he thought the cops had arrived, but because his microphone was picking up sounds from the party. Gill, Honeyfitz, and Rothstein were recording “take me back to august,” a folk-pop cypher that would become the single for their new three-song EP, Deadmall + Rothstein.

Honeyfitz laid the guitar lead and programmed the drums with Gabe Gill, a formula they’ve mastered as their band Deadmall. After they recorded their verses, Rothstein–who grew up in Massachusetts alongside Honeyfitz and Gill⁠—delivered his verse, a winding ninety seconds of nifty metaphors. Blown away after hearing it, Deadmall grabbed their phones and continued to write. 

Honeyfitz recalls that moment: “Just being in that room with both of them made me like, ‘Fuck, I need to write the best verse I could possibly write.’” Typically, Gabe Gill writes the quickest out of the three. He tells me, “I’m not afraid to say things that sound cocky or stupid, I can make them beautiful later.”

Gabe Gill by Carlos Semedo

While Gabe Gill specializes in catchy pop tracks, Rothstein dips in nearly every puddle SoundCloud has to offer: party anthems with Supa Bwe, glossy trap with ryan jacob, blistered bangers with BLVC SVND, emo bops with teddybear, and even lo-fi hip hop with deem spencer. Rothstein is currently tying up loose ends on his debut album, Paradise, which he hopes to release by the end of November. It features appearances from Bobby Raps, Gabe Gill, Vader The Villin, Connis, Elijah Fox, and Radamiz. 

Rothstein appears on Radamiz’s latest album, Nothing Changes If Nothing Changes, on the song “Knuckles.” Hours after its release, two-time NBA Champion Kevin Durant posted to his Instagram story a screenshot of the song. In response, Rothstein said, “Needless to say, I’ll be working on my jumper tonight. This has been a wild and occasionally cruel ride but it really is a fairytale sometimes.”

Rothstein by Ryan Jay

While Rothstein and Gabe Gill thrive in the pop world, Honeyfitz feels most at home writing folk songs. His latest solo album, I Don’t Need Tennis Lessons, I Need A Therapist proved to be one of the most compelling albums of this past summer. Honeyfitz may seem like an odd match for Rothstein, but on DM+R, Gabe Gill naturally bridges the gap between their styles. For example, on “this might all make sense,” Gill uses his verse to admit to faults, as Honeyfitz typically does, but he sings in auto-tune harmonies, unlike Honeyfitz, and just like Rothstein. 

DM+R is full of these moments where antithetical styles collide and somehow sound great together. On “this might all make sense,” an electronic beep occasionally jolts through the otherwise woodsy instrumental, and soulful moans signal transitions between verses. The track’s finale casually juggles ad-libs, pop-punk stutter strums, and warbled singing all at once. 

Deadmall by Rain Drooker

On “you loved me back then,” a delicate ballad that closes the project, Rothstein gets specific about his past. He sings, “My friends earned summer jobs / I scraped by selling pills to burnt out college kids who came from Forest Hills.” This song is perfect for a night to reflect, a train ride through the countryside, or a toasty night at home. The day after recording it, Honeyfitz called Rothstein while driving to work. “He told me he was listening to a bounce of ‘you loved me back then’ and it made him cry,” recalls Rothstein. “He said, ‘Roth, what did we just do?’” Honeyfitz was deeply moved, and appropriately so, but Rothstein says his reaction was par for the course:

“I think we’re all just boys who are unafraid to cry.”

Deadmall and Rothstein by Rothstein’s mother

“When we wrote DM+R I was kind of sad, but it was like ‘XD quirky’ sadness,” says Gabe Gill. “I was deeply in a bad place when we made American Genius / Alice Peck”— Deadmall’s latest single which dropped early October, a month after DM+R—“and you can hear the difference.” Agreeing, Honeyfitz adds, “AG/AP is seething. It’s bitter and angry… at ourselves, but also at people around us.” 

Even at their most flagrant, Deadmall can’t help but be soft. On “American Genius,” an upbeat bop powered by rabid post-breakup energy, Honeyfitz admits, “It’s nice to know that I still want to die sometimes.” Gabe Gill begins his final verse lightly, listing small-town cliches like whiskey on the rocks and lottery tickets. By the end, he’s exposed, raw, neck-deep in self-reflection. In the final seconds of the song, Gill declares, “I worked on suppressing, but it’s still been on my mind.” With their guard down and ears open, Deadmall and Rothstein are poised for endless growth; and the better they get, the more exciting, sophisticated, and expansive the musical canon will become.

Stream Deadmall + Rothstein at the link below or here on Apple music.