Photo by Aleko Syntelis
New Jersey noisegazers High. are excited to announce their sophomore EP, Come Back Down, available on vinyl and digitally on January 24, 2025 via longtime New York indie label Kanine Records. The announcement is heralded by lead single "In A Hole," which begins with a wall of guitars as powerful as the emotions behind it. Inspired by finding friendship and community amid trauma and hardship, the band excavates difficult memories of their past to match their heaviest guitar work to date.
"’In A Hole’ is inspired by meeting our group of friends,” says lead vocalist Christian Castan. “It’s about being depressed and the people close to you dragging you out of it. It’s about the peace and belonging I used to dream about during childhood trauma and finally finding it. There's a lyric - 'These are the new stars, they burst alive.’ It's about living life at its best and never wanting that feeling to end."
High. also released the official music video for “In A Hole,” starring the band performing at a DIY show in Brooklyn. Set on a rooftop with a breathtaking view of the cityscape, director Aleko Syntelis captures the feeling of camaraderie amongst the local NY/NJ scene High. is a vital part of.
About the experience of making the video, Castan says, “We shot this video during a rooftop show in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on the first night of our tour with Birthday Girl. It was the last weekend of summer with hella New Jersey heads, some new friends, Keg stands, and the New York Skyline. Sh*t was nuts, someone downstairs tried to shut us down. Aleko captured our live set and we hope anyone who sees this gets what that night felt like.”
Come Back Down marks the beginning of High.'s creative partnership with longstanding NYC indie label Kanine Records & a key period in the band’s development. With a greater expression of sonic range, the EP offers more noise, more hooks, more heaviness and more emotion. The sad is sadder, and the love is more in love. More songs about loss and being lost. This moment is the culmination of their growth after their well-received and heavily toured debut EP, Bomber, split released via tastemaker tape labels Julia's War and Suburban Creep. Bomber will be featured on the B-Side of Come Back Down, marking the first time the first EP will be available on vinyl.
You can pre-order the album at Bandcamp.
Around the tucked-away town of Boonton, NJ in 2021, Christian Castan (vocals/ guitar), Bridget Bakie (bass/vocals), Jack Miller (drums), and Danny Zavala (guitar) formed High. Creative nucleus Christian Castan and Bridget Bakie met while playing the DIY and college circuit around New Jersey building Bakie’s reputation as “The Queen of The Quarter Note,” and Castan’s profile as an unforgettable guitarist. After playing in a band together, the two longed for a project that would be their sole creative focus and could tour as far and wide as possible. A few weeks and two practices after their formation, the band began playing shows around the tristate DIY circuit after their proper NYC debut at Saint Vitus.
Come Back Down's first sessions started in June 2023 when the band and producer Matthew Molnar decamped to the Greenpoint studio of Patrick Wimberly (Chairlift) to test new material with engineer Sam Darwish. The band also brought the tracks to Shane Furst and his Cloud Factory Studios to review their recent work and begin the next stages of completion. That fall, the band took a break from the sessions to do a week long tour with Austin's STAB as well as supporting several tour dates with longtime heroes DIIV. Filling out their schedule were opening dates for Glare, Lowertown and A Place To Bury Strangers, as well as a Midwest run with Chicago band Smut. After nationwide shows, the band finished the EP with Jeff Ziegler at his Uniform Recording in Philly, whose work on Nothing.'s seminal record Guilty of Everything greatly inspired the group.
High. has had a busy year of live performances thus far, from touring around the U.S. with contemporaries like all under heaven, She’s Green, Shut Ups, Interlay and Birthday Girl to rocking local opening slots with DIIV, Soul Blind, Narrow Head and Been Stellar. It all continues this fall, with shows around the tristate area with Margaritas Podrias, MX Lonely and Lip Critic.
Upcoming Shows
SEPTEMBER
29 - Trans-Pecos - Ridgewood, Queens *
OCTOBER
4 - The VFW - Egg Harbor, NJ $
NOVEMBER
9 - The Sanctuary - Butler, NJ with Lip Critic #
* with Margaritas Podrias
$ with Mx Lonely
# with Lip Critic
