Hollow Bastion is the musical project of Illinois native Teagan Brey, AKA Twooba, that began as a solo venture but has since developed into a full band featuring Michael Whalen on drums and Ruben Steiner on various instruments.
A little over two months ago, Hollow Bastion released their debut LP, “Waitin’ All Winter”, and it’s been in my heavy rotation ever since.
I first listened to the LP all the way through while on the train to New York City and was instantly hooked, so much so that I listened to it again later that day on the way back to Connecticut. It’s a twangy delight of an indie rock/alt-country record that pulls you in from the first track “Flower,” and ends off with the tender ballad “I Want to Go Home.”
A standout for me was the track “Buried,” the chorus of which is the basis for the album title. The layering of the piano and the fuzzy wailing guitar created a cool almost Pavement-esque sound.
The track “Only One,” another favorite of mine, leans deeper into the country influences on the album with banjo and flippy vocals. There’s also a music video on the Twooba YouTube channel directed by Scott Teresi which features a bar employee being stalked by Teagan, who is dressed up in cowboy garb.
Teagan talks with me about how Hollow Bastion formed, her writing process, moving to Chicago, and more.
This interview was edited for length and clarity
How did the Hollow Bastion project get started?
It started when I was in high school. It was a solo project…this was my first time, like “OK, these are my real songs,” because before then I was making maybe meme songs; pretty much everything was a joke. So I recorded this first EP and just put it out on Bandcamp and YouTube, but people seem to like it. I guess that was what I didn’t expect. The people that listen to it, they’re like, wait, this is actually decent?
I was living at home at the time and I didn’t really know any other musicians. I was living in the suburbs and there wasn’t really a good music community. I always had in my head like, I always wanted to play in a band, but I was kind of just stuck self-recording for a long time.
Since I’ve moved to Chicago, it was hard to get a band together. [It’s] a lot harder of a task than one might expect just to find a drummer that’s…complementary but then also isn’t in another band and then also you get along with and then also scheduling conflicts and also same goals… so it took a hot minute.
This current lineup we got going like a year or a year and a half ago, this is the longest running lineup I’ve had going and this is kind of like the most real the band has ever been. Me, Michael and Ruben, we put together the Waitin’ All Winter album. Everything up until that point was just solo stuff solo recorded. But that was like, the first time, you know, as a band.
I know you started out making music on your phone in GarageBand. How has your music production process progressed since then?
Yeah, really each time I’m kind of learning as I go. When we went to record this album I never had recorded drums before, so that was a whole new thing to figure out.
But actually I had recorded just on my phone through GarageBand for the longest time, and that is what I’m really comfortable with so I still ended up actually using that as like the main DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) for the stuff I had to record at home.
Even still, on the album we recorded the live drums because we needed multiple mics set up…which was not going to be possible on my phone because iPhone doesn’t have power like that… but basically we got that and then the drum tracks were sent to me and then basically at home I just slowly recorded each part. The guitars are all still Garageband guitar amps sims. I guess I was surprised that we got it sounding pretty decent.
I guess surprisingly so, like without being in a studio or anything, and without spending any money really, you can still get a nice sounding album if you just take your damn time.
What’s your writing process? Do you write solo or do you collaborate with other people?
Well, up until this point it has been mostly solo. It’s kind of like older Hollow Bastion, which is like solo stuff and now there’s like, new era now that we’re formed as a band.
But before, at least for this album, I had like a collection of demos. Kind of half written songs, some maybe fully written, that I had just done on my own, and I guess over the last year of playing with the new band and playing them live, we kind of worked them out a little more.
I had these songs written, but then with Ruben and Michael… we did the live band arrangement, we gave it a different feel. And their contributions…they did really shape kind of how the songs sounded because even with being able to play with a drummer now there’s just this added level of energy and dynamics you can achieve, whereas if I’m just by myself, you know, I can only get so loud.
Now, like as a band, I feel like we can achieve new levels of rock’n’roll. So that’s fun and exciting, and also just Ruben and Michael, they’re really great songwriters on their own with their own projects and bands. It just worked really well.
You said you moved to Chicago. Where were you from originally?
Just the Northern Illinois suburbs, like an hour plus from the city. I didn’t really come to the city growing up. My family would have been one of those classic suburbanites, like afraid of the city. So growing up it was like really in my own bubble. I wasn’t exposed to the music scene or like, I had no fucking idea what was going on over here.
The way I learned about music was online. Or that’s where I shared it, but now I mean I can play shows, I can actually meet other musicians, I could see live music every day pretty much if I wanted to. There’s just a lot more life going on. There’s a lot more, I guess, opportunities.
Do you think that being in the city has influenced your music at all, writing or soundwise?
I reckon it must have. More so than even just Chicago itself, if anything has been the most inspiring to me it’s just like the personal growth. Moving to Chicago, becoming a young adult, living on my own. Going through these life experiences.
And the shit that goes down in Chicago pretty much.
You released a music video for the song Only One on your new LP. What was the process like for kind of creating that and are there any fun behind the scenes stories that you have?
Oh yeah, for sure. The funny thing is, we started it like last September and we ended up working on it for like 6 months, which I did not expect at all. It became like this huge project as we went along with it.
But, basically, Scott Teresi, who directed it, it was kind of the collab of the century. I guess I had this idea…like I wanted to do a music video, I wanted it to be cowboy, I wanted to have these funny bits in there, but I didn’t quite know how to make it into a thing. Scott really helped turn it into like a cohesive project.
I guess one of the things was at the end of the video… the way the video ends the last location we go to is the lakefront. We recorded this like on an October day, late October, maybe it was November even, but anyways it was getting kind of cold at this point. I think it was 40° and there was wind. Originally the video was going to end with Declan, who is the redhead, my love interest in the video, he was going to jump into the lake. But it was choppy as hell…it was so choppy and we realized that he would actually die probably, so last minute Scott Teresi came in clutch, basically rewrote the ending on the fly.
I feel like that’s kind of just the DIY process and I’ve just learned a lot just from the music video. Maybe the ethos or the philosophy is like. “Yeah, you’re gonna imagine it one way, but actually that’s not how it’s gonna go down. And you’re actually gonna have to pull stuff out of your ass on the fly.” I feel like that for the music video, but also that just for life and that for the album…that for everything.
Now that it’s been about a month since your debut LP was released, what are some reflections you have and what kind of reception has it gotten so far?
Well right after the album came out actually I kind of felt a little burnt out because I was working on it for soooo long. By the time it was about to come out, I was so like “Oh my God I just wish it was over already.” I was working on it for a year at least.
Planning the release, show and everything else that goes with it, all on our own too, it was like the biggest project I’ve ever done in my life. Now that it’s done, I know that like, OK, I’m capable of doing this, so it will be easier for me to do these bigger projects.
But yeah, it felt like a monumental moment because this was a life goal of mine to do an album. I think right after I was definitely feeling weird, I was definitely feeling existential because I was working on this for so long, and now there’s nothing, so I gotta find something else to do. But yeah, as time has gone on, I’ve been recovering and of course now I just want to do the next thing.
I know what I’m capable of in my head and I know the vision I have for Hollow Bastion, but through a few little sporadic EP’s… It’s like you get a little hint, but I feel like this is very much so like “OK, this is the band.”
And I can do this indie rock thing. I always thought I could do the indie rock thing and so now I have physical proof.
I feel like “Waitin’ All Winter” is like, I get it now. I know what it was I was trying to do. This is a good representation, I think, of what Hollow Bastion is and what it sounds like. I always loved albums too, so I didn’t want to just be an EP kind of guy. But yeah, album takes a lot of work.
What are some of your musical influences either in creating this album or just in general?
Definitely my number one favorite personally is Japanese breakfast. I’m like a Japanese Breakfast stan for sure. I also really like this band Hop Along.
Cate LeBon recently I’ve really gotten into the last few years. Wilco is a big one, Big Thief, Courtney Barnett, Pixies, XTC, MJ Lenderman, Snail Mail, Alvvays and there are definitely more I’m not thinking of. Heck, you could throw Weezer in there, but I think I’m influenced by a lot of different things.
That was an interesting thing when recording the album or kind of seeing it come together. With each song where there would be like, moments in the songs and with the band where it felt like I finally cracked some mysterious code. I was like “Ohh wait. This part sounds like Wilco,” or like I remember specifically on “Round and Round,” the post chorus, there’s a little instrumental part. To me I was like, “this sounds like Cate Lebon,” which I was freaking out over because I felt like I had no idea how to sound like Cate Le Bon. It sounded so mysterious and like not replicable or whatever word.
I think the influences throughout the album I hear in blips and in moments and it does feel like a cross of a lot of different things that I like. I just thought that was really cool to see because I like those bands.
“Waitin’ All Winter” feels true to its name in that it’s the perfect album to bring in the warmer months. Because I’m not bound by FCC rules against calls to action in the written format, I’m going to tell you all to go listen to it now.
