Interview: Wyatt Clem & Shawn Abhari of THE IVY

There is nothing that gets me more excited than discovering new music that makes me instantly fall in love. You know what I’m saying...those artists and songs that make your mind drift away to a fantasy world for a few minutes of escape...that’s what The Ivy does with their new single “Good Faith.”  

I will admit that I am a music first, tonal quality, vibey person, so at the top of my listening palette, I hear music quality. What does “Good Faith” have in it? It starts with a simple bass line with a tapping of a hi hat that automatically gets you in a groovy sway. Then in about four seconds, there is a wavy 6-3 on the synths that introduces a beach vibe before the rest of the music pops in. The vocalist comes in with a soft high tenor that really makes you sway along in a dream like stance, and though it will take me a few more listens to really know what the song is truly about, my ears are pleased with the combinations of sounds that cause dreamy visuals of floating on the blue seas with some sand and fruity drinks nearby.  

The Ivy’s singer/songwriter/guitarist Wyatt Clem and songwriter/synth player/bassist Shawn Abhari met studying at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Oklahoma City, and have amassed fans all around the world, shared the stage with the likes of LANY and the Band Camino, performed at Lollapalooza and are making indelible waves in the indie pop scene. Pulling influence from indie rock as well as R&B and the blues, The Ivy has crafted their own unique sound garnering over 500K monthly Spotify streams, and Broadway World was elated to interview THE IVE about their new single, that I am sure will be a good addition to their other singles “Gold” and “Have You Ever Been in Love.” 

BWW: Thank you for talking with me today. Tell me a little about your music.  

Shawn: We're The Ivy. We're from Tulsa. I do the synths and bass. I'm one of the songwriters and producers along with Wyatt who sings and plays guitar, and we both, pretty much, write our music ourselves. On this last EP, we worked with our producer friends, SameSame out in Santa Monica.    

BWW: That's so cool. When did y'all start recording?  

Shawn: We went out and started recording with them in June for two weeks, and then we did one more week in July. So, in three weeks with them, we were pretty much finished in terms of the writing side. Now it's just the mixing and mastering.  

BWW: Well that’s exciting! 

Shawn: So far, we've done three EP's.  

BWW: And sales have been going well? 

Shawn: Oh yes, at least streams have been.  

BWW: Awesome. How did you guys build your listenership?  

Wyatt: So, we put out a song called Gold in 2017, and that was the first time we've ever seen any real traction as far as digital streaming goes. And that song, actually, how long was it after we put it out?  

Shawn: Six weeks?  

Wyatt: Six weeks after we put it out, it started to gain some traction and then it actually made it onto the Spotify viral charts. On Spotify, there's a Global chart and then there's a US one. I think it climbed all the way to #3 on the Global Viral Chart. From there after that release, we really started to have more of a solid fan base. After that, we put out our single “Have You Ever Been In Love?” In that same year, that song ended up even doing a little better in terms of numbers. So, I would say those two songs really were kind of the beginning of us starting to have some decent fan base interactions.  

Shawn: Yeah, we’re definitely growing our online presence.  

BWW: I’ve heard those songs already, and I am definitely a fan. Did you guys just set out to dominate the world or, you know, we're you just hanging out and said let's play some songs?  

Wyatt: Yeah. I'm not sure that we had any real expectations. I mean obviously the hope was that they would do really well. We just wanted to see, you know, how far we could take it. So, it's always a really nice surprise when stuff like that happens.  

BWW: I know your fans in Arkansas were excited when you came to Little Rock at Stickz Rock-N-Roll Chicken Shack last month. So, does this mean you're touring the world now?  

Wyatt: Something like that, yeah.  

BWW: Are you having fun doing that?  

Both: Oh yeah. Oh yeah.  

Wyatt: It's been a blast. We got our East Coast run finished for now, and then we're gonna do a couple Texas shows in October. After that, we'll do our West Coast leg starting in November, so, we're excited about that.  

BWW: And your new single comes out Friday (today). Tell me about it.  

Wyatt: Yes. The song is called “Good Faith.” Shawn and I took a little writing trip/vacation to Mexico to a little surf town called Punta Mita. It's near Puerto Vallarta. Is that right? Yeah. So, we were there for about 10 days and brought our laptop and a couple keyboards, a couple guitars and set up a little home studio inside of this storage container house that our friend’s family was nice enough to let us use. During that time, we tried to write at least one or two ideas every day, and this single “Good Faith” was the one that both of us were kind of just instantly excited about.    

BWW: OK, and this is goning to be on all the platforms, right?  

Shawn: Yes  

BWW: YouTube and Spotify and all that?  

Shawn: Yes, ma'am, we're doing Apple Music--all the DSP's.   

BWW: Are you guys signed with anybody?  

Shawn: We are independent. 

BWW: Grassrooting it. I love it!   

Shawn: Yes, ma'am, and we’d like to give thanks to our team and everyone that's been with us and made this possible.  

Wyatt: And yeah, I was just gonna say that I think this new batch of music is really diverse. I think there's something for everybody and we are very excited to share it with people. 

BWW: Well, we are thrilled you shared it with us. I look forward to following your career.  

THE IVY is currently on their fall headline tour playing cities across the U.S. through December, for all ticketing info please go to http://www.wearetheivy.com.