From a couch in band member Zach’s dimly lit basement to the Boston Calling stage, the Greater Boston-based soul pop band, Couch, is on the rise.
Last Saturday, July 22nd, Couch closed out the 8th annual Linda Plaut Festival of the Arts at Newton’s Hyde Playground. Many of the audience members were familiar faces, as Newton is the hometown of two of the band members, and almost all of the other members hail from neighboring towns.
Zach Blankstein, the guitarist of the group, said that while the band has performed for all sorts of audiences before, the homey community made this particular performance all the more special.
“It’s really nice when the band and music can bring a community together,” Blankstein said. “We’ve played other shows in Boston where family and friends have come, but what was unique about this one was that it was free and outdoors. Not just our parents were there, but other relatives and our parents’ friends. Each one of us in the band knew several people there who we hadn’t seen in a long time.”
The members of Couch have maintained their collective love of music and close relationships, even when physically miles apart. As each of the seven band members attended different colleges, they wrote and recorded their music virtually, a process that continued during the pandemic as well but did not hinder their ability to work as a team.
Lead vocalist Tema Siegel, who calls Newton home, said that part of what makes the band so great is their close-knit community.
“We love each other, and we know each other so well. It makes for like an intimate dynamic, which is great for creating art,” Siegel said. “Creating a setting with people you’re friends with has its challenges, but it’s also really valuable because we know each other very well and can provide this safe, creative space for each other.”
Four years of the band’s hard work will come to fruition on November 3rd, the release date of Couch’s new EP, Sunshower. Couch’s keyboard player Danny Silverston, also from Newton, said that the band members have grown and matured with each other throughout the years.
“The band was started when many of us were 18 or 19, and now, many of us are 23 and 24. I’m a very different person now than I was four years ago, both in terms of how we present ourselves and our personalities, but also musically. We are definitely better musicians than we were four years ago,” Silverston said.
With a 20-city tour, Sunshower, lined up in the upcoming fall and winter, Siegel said that she is excited to explore all the possibilities of the opportunity.
“We’ve taken this past year to develop our live show and make it something that we’re comfortable with,” Siegel said. “I’m excited to shake it up with the addition of new music but also with new creative decisions, like what we wear and how we design the stage. There are all these conversations about how to make this tour a fresh experience, and we’re still in the midst of it. I’m excited to see what we come up with.”
While the band is certainly looking forward to exciting performances, Silverston said that he finds the most joy in the creative and lighthearted dynamic of the band.
“Touring is super fun, and I love playing live music, but to hang out and flesh out some songs and bounce ideas off of each other is another aspect of being in a band that we all really enjoy,” Silverston said. “We sometimes forget about that stuff when we’re constantly on the road.”
As exciting projects and experiences are on the horizon for Couch, Blankstein said he wants to soak up every moment and memory, no matter how small or large.
“I would tell my younger self to just enjoy everything as it comes,” Blankstein said. “Celebrate the victories as they come, but also stay excited and hungry for whatever the next thing is. There are definitely some nights I look back to some really fun shows where I wish I’d taken it in a little bit more.”
Couch has come a long way since the members’ teenage years, but like his other bandmates, Silverston still holds onto the same dreams he once dreamed on a basement couch; only now, song by song, those dreams are becoming a reality.
“I would tell ourselves to dream bigger,” Silverston said, “Growing up, I never really considered music as an actual feasible way to make a living, and I never thought that I would be going on these 20-city tours and playing for thousands of people a night, but here we are. You start to see the dream materialize.”
Emma Zhang is a Fig City News summer intern, a senior at Newton South High School, and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the NSHS Lion’s Roar.
