Songs for a Scientist is an album born from the merciless Chicago winter. As the city sat under cozy wool blankets, Post Office Winter toiled away at their debut album. The band, comprised of Charlie Johnston and Will Huffman both 16, wrote, recorded, and mixed the record entirely out of Charlie’s garage.
They huddled over a single space heater, warming their numb hands between takes; the wind bouncing off the walls. “My mom made us keep the garage door open because of COVID,” says Charlie. “So we’d get a lot of train and car noises. It was extremely annoying but I think it makes the record cool.”
The natural sounds across the record only add to it’s lo-fi aesthetics. Just as Charlie and Will gathered around the heater, they also hunched over their single microphone, which recorded almost every sound on the project.
“I’m a believer of DIY,” says Charlie. “But really we only had one mic. We aren’t well versed in audio recording.” “I remember one time I brought my mic,” says Will “and we tried to do a two mic set up and it just didn’t sound as good.” When you listen to songs like “Mother”, “Sister”, “Nurse” or “Porcine Quilt” it’s like you become that microphone in the icy garage; just you, the band, and the elements. Altogether alone.
Post Office Winter is a fairly new band. They released their first single Your Local Slaughter House in October of 2020 under the name For Robots By Robots. But soon after, they decided they needed a better name. “We put a list together of things we liked and then chose from there,” says Will. “We were working on [the project] this winter and we would go to the post office a lot to drop things off. When we came to Post Office Winter we were like this sounds kinda good.”
As the pandemic crawled into its first winter they set up their equipment and began working. “We live one block away from each other,” says Will. “So I’d just walk over to her house and write a song. Then I’d come back the next day to record and mix it.” They continued work on the album through the winter, spending a lot of time together in the process.
Songs for a Scientist is an incredibly intimate record that pulls you in close and buries you in a totally new world, a world with its own politics, lore, and way of life. “The idea is that there is a world of people with animal heads and this big bird who enacted this on the world and lives in the shadow of what he did,” says Will.
The story is entirely non-linear, feeling more like memories or dreams than a movie. By the end of the snug 30-minute run time the audience is left with more questions than answers, which is exactly what the band wants. “We want people to have their own interpretations of the record,” says Will. The band members believe that art means something different to everyone. In order to concretely make it about one thing, one must destroy the multiplicity of it.
For an album and band so grounded in the winter, it’s strange that for me the album doesn’t always sound like cold snowy days. Maybe it’s because it was released on June 25th. There is juxtaposition in the winter creation context and the summer release, but it’s a juxtaposition that allows the album to transcend seasons. I listen and hear the quiet reflection that can only happen around a campfire. A group of people separated for too long, reuniting. I can see the embers ascending into the night and it all feels so comforting and isolating at the same time. No one has to say a word because they all know the answers to the simple questions.
It’s funny because when I first heard the album I didn’t know anything about the band. I just knew they were associated with Hallogallo, a local artist collective that includes bands like Lifeguard and Dwaal Troupe. But for the most part, there is no way to know anything about Post Office Winter. “There is no information about us,” says Charlie. “We like to keep it low-key.”
Post Office Winter lives by this low-key creed. They announced their album only three hours before releasing it. They are a band that trusts completely in their DIY community and as their profile grows they will probably only do so more. “It’s cool not to hype things up too much. Like just to do it,” says Charlie. “We didn’t wanna make it a big deal. Like here’s an album and we’re putting it out.” Listen to Post Office Winter’s Songs for a Scientist on Bandcamp and keep in touch with them on Instagram.
Images courtesy of Post Office Winter.