Hilly Eye, 'Reasons to Live': Life Post-Titus Andronicus Has Singular Focus

Last October guitarist Amy Klein left New Jersey rock band Titus Andronicus not because of any blowout or disagreements, but simply because it was time for Klein to move on. Klein now plays in two bands, Leda and Hilly Eye, but for the past year, her new priority has clearly been the latter.

"I left Titus in October and we started recording this record in October," Klein tells Spinner about the band's Reasons to Live album. "So pretty much, it was from one thing to the other. I can only really focus on one thing at a time so it was get the record done, get the record done, get the record done, and it took about a year to finish it."

Hilly Eye is a two-piece featuring Klein on guitars and vocals and Catherine Tung on drums and vocals. Although the pair initially met in college, it wasn't until they both moved to New York that they became close friends and collaborators.

"I guess we would see each other at social events and Amy had already formed an early version of Hilly Eye," Tung explains. "They were looking for a drummer and, at that point, I was just starting to pick up drums so she contacted me and that's how it started."

Originally made up of two guitarists, their third member eventually stopped showing up to practices and Hilly Eye became a duo with no intentions to add another guitarist. They did consider a bassist briefly, but instead Klein just added bass on the recordings. Klein credits Japanese rock duo Afrirampo as one of the band's main influences and the reason why she was adamant on keeping it a two-piece after the departure of their guitarist.

"They were one of the early two piece bands that I knew about besides the White Stripes," Klein says. "I really liked this band a lot and I remember being really obsessed with how much noise they made for two people and they put on a really dynamic live show. So I had this idea that it could really work out as a two-piece."

Debut album Reasons to Live is packed with reverb, dreamy vocals and songs and lyrics that have been edited numerous times before reaching its final state.

"We'll keep on refining the structure of it for a long time," Klein says of the writing process. "From where we started working on the record to where we ended the songs were changed a lot."

Klein and Tung both agree that pursuing creative writing on the side has helped with their songwriting.

"I'm at the point where, if I write a song and you revise it five times, that doesn't mean you're worse at it, it means that you're better," Klein explains. "You just have a higher standard."