The current landscape for music at the moment is vaster than it has ever been, and keeping up with the various corners of emerging acts can be a daunting task. Luckily, from this slurry emerged untitled (halo), a shining star within LA’s ever-expanding indie rock scene. With a powerhouse of diverse talent, composed of Ariana Mamnoon, Jack Dione, and Jay Are, it’s easy to see why WNYU has gravitated towards their sound so strongly.
Last month, I sat down with the trio in hopes to unveil the allure behind the naturality of their process and how they are able to harness the feeling of nowness so wonderfully in their work.
[Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.]
Recently, I’ve been seeing an incredible network of smaller artists using online radio as social platforms for outreach. You guys are all huge contributors to this so I wanted to start off by asking about your standpoint on indie radio right now and the type of artists it promotes?
Jay: I feel like it’s funny because it’s partly about networking with other musicians but I feel like it’s been such a core thing with just homies and like friends. When I was at Santa Cruz, there was also a local radio station on campus, similar to the NYU one I’m assuming, and that’s where I met most of my friends. That’s where we met our manager. And then that kind of unlocked a whole universe of friends. It’s important because it’s kind of kin and just finding your own community within that. Even if you’re just hanging out in the lobby, someone’s always down to talk about music. Everyone there’s a geek. Everyone’s just a nerd.
I get the feeling that the community is built by everyone kind of perpetuating their friends’ music. You’re playing this person’s music, they’re playing someone else’s music, and that someone else is then playing your music now. It just seems to have this snowball effect where it keeps getting bigger and bigger.
Ari: NTS, Dublab, odyXxey… it’s really cool how there’s all these like little pop-up radios happening. There’s a really cool one called Calm, based out of Portland. But I think whenever people ask “how do you get your music out there?”, indie radio is kind of the way. Cause that’s what we’re listening to find cool music.
Jay: It’s such a crazy ecosystem.
Let’s take it back. There is not much documented record of your guys’ conception. I know you two found each other on an Alex G platform-
Ari: Oh, that’s fake.
That’s fake?
Ari: That’s so funny. We’re barely a band and there’s already misconceptions of how we met. That’s fake. Isn’t that so funny that that’s fake?
Please correct me.
Ari: That came out in an article and I think we corrected them. Jay and I met when I was getting coffee with a friend from Dublab. Jay was just there and we met as friends. Jack and I met through a friend who skates, who just brought Jack to the house one day, and was like: “you guys are poetic, you’d get along”. And then Jay and Jack, how did you guys meet?
Jack: STICKY RICE! We met at a restaurant, but through mutual friends. We were both the first one’s there for a birthday- Oh, my God, the street’s kind of crazy. I’d only heard of Jay. He’s like the boogie man. I knew about him. I knew his clout like, bro had motion- Oh my god! There’s like a dirt bike… here… hold on. I’m driving right now. Can you guys see this?
Ari: Wow.
Holy shit, brigade.
Ari: Haircut. You got a haircut.
Jack: Yeah, my mom cut my hair yesterday.
[Jack turns off his camera]
Okay, so you guys meet. Now, how do we get to towncryer?
Jay: We jammed for a bit. We would just show up to a rehearsal space with other people’s gear and then we wouldn’t record anything. It was mostly just jam sessions. We have a cover of the Stone Roses somewhere in voice memos.
Ari: We all were playing with other friends of ours because we all wanted to make music so bad. But then I think there was a point where I texted Jay like, “Yo, you should just come over. Bring your beats. I have a microphone.” And then we made “el prado freestyle”. That’s the first song we ever tried. That was the first thing and it was actually a freestyle. I seriously remember sitting on the wooden floor in my bedroom, looking at Jay and being like… oh my god. And then I think Jack joined like the day after. We knew Jack needed to be in the band. And then… That’s the band. There actually was an Alex G group chat we were all in, but there was never a forum, just to clarify.
I wanna talk about some of the unknown members. We have Davis, urika’s bedroom, Silas. Everyone’s got side bands and these kind of side projects.
Jack: I do Angel Investor with Silas but… I don’t know what’s going on. We’re gonna put stuff out eventually, but I don’t want to convolute like halo releases because we have a lot coming. Sorry if that’s a leak, but we’re coming out with a lot of stuff soon.
Ari: Mine is just called Ari. It’s just like when people ask me to sing on their songs and I like them. So for Forma Norte, we met via odyXxey actually. He asked me to sing on a song that he made (Larsen). It’s a fun outlet for just vocals. And then with Eera, I got to do like a pop song (Bleed). But yeah, same with Angel Investor, we all want untitled (halo) to be priority. But we do have our side things, which is fun. And I think brings more attention to the band.
Can you guys explain everyone’s role in the band? Maybe it was Jack who was talking about the effect untitled (halo) has, as this kind of meditation on nowness and digesting the current moment. That explanation of the music, sound, and tone untitled (halo) has, it feels very true to me. Take me through the process of making untitled (halo) songs and everyone’s role behind maintaining this effect.
Jay: I literally just started making music from making loops and just ruining samples. And then that’s kind of how we started.
Ari: Jay’s the OG side project.
Jay: I feel like looking back on those scraps of collage-ambient and sample based stuff that I was doing is just… when I was so down bad. I was just trying to make stuff. And then I uploaded to Spotify and even seeing both of them on like Distrokid and seeing how much untitled (halo) has grown in this project has just flatlined. In terms of nowness, I don’t know. I feel that’s pretty intuitive of what it’s like when we make music. I feel like the best stuff that we make is within the span of like an hour. And my role, I really just enjoy finding good drum loops or textures from other songs or artists that I admire, which might be like a problem, but it’s fun to just do it and worry about everything later.
Ari: Jay also does all the recording engineering. That’s all Jay. He’s so intelligent in that way. I feel like our band has an electronic element and I feel that really comes from Jay. I play guitar and bass, but I would say like a lot of what I bring is songwriting.
Jack:We all write our own lyrics. I write guitar stuff. Everyone kind of does their own thing.
So what’s something kind of pushing you guys currently? What are you guys… I don’t wanna say inspired, cause it’s kind of dull, but what’s motivating you guys right now? Musically, visually, tonally?
Ari: We like films a lot. Like we just wrote a song that I love that was inspired by a film that we all love.
Jay: I put it on like: “watch this, Ari’s about to be crushed”. It was Lilya 4-ever, by the way.
Ari: The song is good though, so it just shows the power of visual in our songwriting. I think we all take from visuals a lot, particularly in film. What’s inspiring you guys, Jack and Jay?
Jay: Honestly, just waking up and then not feeling trashed. Yeah, just getting through a day.
Ari: Seeing other bands too.
I’ll kind of jump off of that. bar italia, you guys have played with them a few times now…
Ari: I think the day came where bar italia is coming to LA, and we were hit up by their label Matador to open for them and we’re like: “We have to say yes. We have to do this”.
How was the Coachella backstage? I popped in on the livestream for a second and I saw Ari and Jack just doing a little jig on stage.
Jack: That shit was awesome. That was my favorite moment.
Jay: You guys told me to go into the crowd and I was looking for you and then I saw you guys on stage. I’m like, what the fuck?
What’s been the shift in sound you’ve noticed in a lot of smaller brands recently? Can you kind of speak on what’s kickstarting all these small bands coming out of LA right now, especially in your genre realm.
Jay: Honestly, I feel like it’s just people letting the drafts go. Music production has never been more available. Anybody could just make anything all the time. And we’re so oversaturated that it doesn’t really matter what you put out. So it’s more about your intention with it, right? In terms of like the actual aesthetics, I don’t know, I feel like we’ve kind of reverted. Not we, but just more collectively as like the zeitgeist. I feel like we’re going back to like low-res aesthetics, Y2K, etc… But the allure bar italia had, definitely inspiring. I don’t know. I think it’s just more a sense of how available information is about you online; how intentional you are with how you’re being perceived. And if you like the music, you just let the music talk.
Do you plan on keeping this kind of feeling in your music and this presence in the corner you occupy right now? Are we going to see change soon? Or is it more “play it as we go?”
Jay: With the new single we have and the project that follows, I hope that we have like our own carve in the tree.
Ari: I hope we also get our own little identity. And it seems like we do. But we are small, we are doing our own thing, so it takes time. Jack, maybe you want to talk about it? I feel like this new sound, people are going to see that in us a bit more…Hey Jack, what are you doing? Jack, say something.
Jack: Sorry, I shouldn’t have driven during the interview. I was like, “I want to get to the birthday picnic on time”. I think what’s coming is really vulnerable and it’s really well written. I think we all grew a lot as people and we’re still not playing into the mystique, but just trying to let the music speak for itself. I think the project is very us and the single that is coming out, it’s a lot more… just simple and not about being cool or sad. It’s more like a “you’re up”. It’s kind of a flex song. So we’re not being like bad indie fuckers anymore… well, at least for half the project.
Jay: It’s funny when people call the project mysterious. I feel like we have like a pretty solid friend group in LA and we’ve all been actively doing our own music shit for a while, even if it wasn’t with each other. We’ve all been supportive of each other.
Ari: We literally still struggle with knowing where we’re going to practice some days. But you know, I think that’s what makes us all excited. If Jack sends us photos or Jay sends a graphic or I’m working on something, we all hype each other up because we love each other’s aesthetics and visual identity. And I feel like this project is strong because we all work together to emulate what you said earlier, that idea of nowness. We are really trying to deliver that feeling to people. That’s all we want. And I think it gives us an outlet to really express that. I think so many times in our untitled (halo) group chat, we talk about how thankful we are for the band. Without this, we wouldn’t have a place to express what we need to express.
I think the moment for me that set you apart when I first discovered you guys, was in the “el prado freestyle” video where you can see the computer mouse cut across the screen for a second. That’s my favorite part because I can literally tell someone is just ravenously scrolling back and forth with the footage.
Jack: Yeah, you’re right. 100% what happened.
So was that intentional?
Jack: It was kind of one of those things when the screen recording went long and I was like “you know what, that actually looks good”. It just felt like a moment that was genuine and one that felt sick because no one else would leave that in. We’re going back to the demos and just putting this shit out there, which turns out is actually more interesting than if I made a really polished video and hid my method from everybody. So it’s cool that you like that moment because that in a way, in a dumb way, it kind of represents us most. Sort of an ethos thing.
Can we talk about the look you guys have curated for yourself and how you approach the visual aesthetics behind the band as well as the promotional and album covers. I mean you’ve got a Paul Frank t-shirt on the towncryer cover. There’s a lot.
Jack: That shit’s all just genuine. It’s kind of natural. I don’t feel like I had any mood board aesthetic for how I wanted this band to look when I make videos. I’ve been making stuff for a long time and I just transfer that to us being the subjects and that’s just what happened. But my friend Mimi, who was modeling for the towncryer, we weren’t even shooting for a cover. Those are just photos I used. But she was just wearing that. Like I didn’t want this shit to look super derivative, so I just try to do whatever is natural to me. I’m trying to make everyone look hot. Actually, I want to go back and say, I’m just trying to make everyone look hot.
So what can we expect from Untitled Halo in the future?
Ari: We’re dropping a lot of music. Every month there’s going to be a new song, some videos.
Jay: New music coming soon. Different avenues that aren’t just a record or an EP. Some music coming out with different people. So a lot more to come, which is exciting.
Well, untitled (halo) is fantastic. There’s very much inherent goodness in your guys’ music. We love it. The name is perfectly fitting. Everyone has halos and everyone is an angel. Thanks for your time. 😀
Watch the music video for “sKill isSue” below: