When April George and Matthew Thompson met at Busboys and Poets in 2014, their mutual affection for “the same weird music” (as Thompson calls it) soon emerged. The pair had just connected on SoundCloud—she loved his beats; he adored her voice—and within minutes, decided to cut an album together.
“Live life on the edge,” George tells City Paper.
That leap of faith became April + VISTA, an otherworldly electronic duo with a handful of EPs and a debut album under their belt. The band wrap up a tour for their latest record, Traditional Noise, on July 29 at Songbyrd.
George and Thompson got to work not long after meeting, releasing the self-produced EPs Lanterns in 2015 and Note to Self the following year. Thompson served as producer while George took care of lyrics, vocals, and string arrangements. Both musicians are Hampton University alums and grew up locally; they’re now based in Reston. And both are fans of acts like Flying Lotus, Portishead, Radiohead, and MF Doom.
“We liked how those artists and bands used unconventional sounds in their production,” says George, 36.
“Textures,” adds Thompson, 34.
Traditional Noise, released in April, is a “tongue-in-cheek” title, he says. The band’s previous record, 2021’s Pit of My Dreams, pulled more experimental than the R&B sound some of their audience preferred, Thompson says. This album, which is both an ode to and a critique of tradition—and a reminder that all things change—was April + VISTA’s response. “We wanted to poke fun at the idea of traditional popular music, while also attempting traditional popular music,” says Thompson. “In a way, we’re saying that yeah, sure, we can create a more palatable sound, but noise will always be a part of our realities and a part of our music. And we’ll always marry those two.”
The record also venerates music that filled their households growing up, including soul, gospel, and rock. “Those are very Black genres that were created here [in the U.S.], and something that runs through our blood,” says George. “We wanted to take those sounds and flip them on their head, and create some kind of mixing pot.”
As the pair dove into music from their childhood—Curtis Mayfield, Richard Smallwood, Earth, Wind and Fire, Talking Heads—they found themselves steeped in memories.
“We [wanted] to make something that gives us that same feeling, something that awakens that warm nostalgia,” George says. The album, then, would be an attempt to present the band’s identity through a mining of its past, drawing on beloved and repurposed sounds and autobiographical lyrics. “We thought heavily about the idea of this album as our fossil that we’re giving to the world.” (She notes that the album cover features a photographed fossil.)
The track “Two Evergreens” off Traditional Noise revisits George’s relationship with her grandmother, who helped raise her and encouraged her to pursue music. As a child, George regularly climbed two trees that bordered either side of her grandmother’s home in Portsmouth, Virginia. The song—both in its lilting piano lick and its lyrics—harnesses George’s sadness around her grandmother’s passing as well as the “safety” she felt while staying in her home.
“Some may dream a thousand dreams of love they’d long to send/ I carry yours close to me like evergreens that rustle in the wind,” George sings.
Another somber track on the album, “Standing in Place,” reflects the band’s more recent history. As the pandemic shuttered music venues across the country, George and Thompson, like so many artists, had to pause their own momentum. (“As an indie and DIY act, your presence is your currency,” George says.) But in contending with the stillness and smallness of the new world, they stumbled on a new definition of success.
“We learned standing in place, right where you are, sometimes is the best thing for you to do,” George says.
With music so sonically dark and dense, the duo find balance with an assortment of hobbies, such as video games, rock climbing, and, perhaps soon, cooking. “I like the idea of people loving cooking, and I want to be one of those people,” Thompson jokes.
In the meantime, they stay mindful of staying mindful.
“To be an effective artist, you have to live life,” George says. “You have to be bored. You have to experience silence. … It feeds the creativity. It feeds the subject matter. It gives you something to talk about.”
April + VISTA play with supporting act Evil at 7 p.m. on July 29 at Songbyrd. songbyrd.com. $20–$25.