Planted right in the heart of the south, Nashville is no longer one of the best-kept secrets in the country. With over 80 people moving to Music City per day—many of them musicians, songwriters, tech entrepreneurs and general creatives—the road of self-defined success continues to widen and grow. The pressure mounts with every set of footsteps starting along the journey.
Yet as any geologist will tell you, intense pressure is a necessary force for beautiful diamonds to form, and Nashville’s surf-pop sensation *repeat repeat is the latest gem to rise from the bedrock, kicking dust up along every path in their wake.
Born from the bands that came before them, *repeat repeat was founded after singer/guitarist Jared Corder ended a stint of performing with a handful of rock, pop and pop-punk bands. Hungry for a new sound, Corder reached out and became close to the band’s current producer Gregory Lattimer, who challenged and inspired him to break out of his comfort zone and venture into unexplored territories.
Eventually, after a series of run-ins and working at a record store together, Corder met drummer Andy Herrin as he was exiting a musical project. A rapport was formed, and the group began to take shape, but the pair felt that something was missing. The band wanted to stretch the imagination and breadth of the sound and bring in a female voice to serve as the counterweight to Corder’s melodies.
At the time, Corder’s fiancé (now wife) Kristyn worked with the band in their raw form while they began auditioning female vocalists as the final piece of the group. Throughout the process, Krystin sang on demos and filled in during practice until one day Lattimer heard her sing and told the band to stop searching because what they were looking for was right in front of them.
“I had heard her sing before and knew she had a great voice, but I just never put it together in my head,” Corder said. “It’s like French fries and mayonnaise, you think it’s going to be gross, but you don’t know until you actually try it and once you get a taste you end up liking it.”
Since that moment, the band has rooted itself in its own essence and never looked back. A hauntingly beautiful combination of rock riffs interwoven with psychedelic overtones, the band has brought the beach to Music City, and they feel their new release, Floral Canyon, is only the beginning.
The band sees Floral Canyonas a medley of stories weaved through brief but powerful vignettes. Cultivated by bursts of writing over short periods of time, Floral Canyonembraces vulnerability while retaining the glamour of a pop record. *repeat repeat looks to shift the perspective from a neutral view instead of a one-sided tale.
“We have a recurring theme at the *repeat repeat space, and it revolves around a sign that hangs in the studio and reads, ‘Just Fucking Try It,’” Corder said. “Whenever someone is feeling uneasy about an idea or is unsure if something is going to go the way they want it to or if we’re arranging something that someone might not think might sound good, we just point to the sign and tell them to do that.”
It’s only a matter of time before the tidal wave of *repeat repeat washes beyond Music City. An infectious sound, beautiful aesthetics and a message of positivity and love, *repeat repeat is a band you need to know.
*A version of this interview first ran in the current print issue of Substream Magazine, on stands now and available through our online store!
