Demon Dreams of a Clearing in the Woods: Go Home

Go Home is a band, and they’re ready to take you with them beyond the brush, through the meadow, and into the valley. There’s something mischievous about the sound they create, the way a sprite would play a trick on you when lost in the forest. Right when you’re caught up in the serene whimsy, Go Home turns on an intensity that moves crowds. The shifting dynamics bounce back and forth creating a wild feeling, like an animal on the loose. Or in this case: a Demon.

It had been six years since I had seen Go Home play live. I was lucky enough to catch them all those years ago performing as a duo with Marlena Mack, who still provides vocals and plays the keys, alongside  Zak Houston, who also lends vocals while playing guitar. Fast forward to 2024 at Arlene’s Grocery in the heart of the Lower East Side of Manhattan with the band at full strength joined by Travis Emery Hackett on drums and percussion, and Daphne Silbiger on bass. This time I saw something different. Not only in the number of members present on stage, but in the maturity and determination of their performance. It was obvious how much hard work they had put into bringing their live performance to a high level of synchronicity. Each instrument ebbing and flowing distinctly until they clash in a fantastic crescendo. Soft, loud, quiet, thrashing, muted, building, building, and building. Each song a vignette of Go Home’s design, oftentimes focusing on natural imagery juxtaposed against modern materialism. “I can see the moon from the comfort of my room”, from the aptly named “I Can See the Moon” on this year’s EP, titled Bug, encapsulates much of this. Tight rhyme scenes and non-sequiturs abound in the world of Go Home, much to the delight of the packed crowd at Arlene’s Grocery. It felt like the kind of show that offered the band an opportunity to puppeteer, and they had us on a string from the beginning by playing songs across their catalog like “Tara Dreams in Spanish”, which was released as a single in 2023. There was a wonderful arc from start to finish where the crowd lost themselves in the freedom of the music. “I don’t care what happens later. I’m a spirit not a human. I’m an airplane made of paper,” the aforementioned “Tara” soared on a summer night and was met with roaring applause.

The band was gracious enough to answer a few questions of mine as we caught up outside on the busy sidewalk of Stanton Street. Cars were at a standstill on the street as loud music blasted from their closed windows on a rainy night in New York City. It was difficult to hear all of the things that were going on at once, a crowd of people smoking, some weed, some cigarettes, and others just lining up to get in the venue. I was excited, but a little nervous to reunite with them mostly because I had called out to Zak when I arrived earlier but I called him Travis which was embarrassing. He let me off the hook easily and greeted me with a kind smile. Now, compensating for the surrounding noise, we stood in a circle in what used to be an outside dining space. Huddled together I held my phone out to record their answers at a distance that I’m certain was a little uncomfortable. Here’s how it went:

I’d love to hear about your debut album that’s coming out, how do you guys feel about giving life to it and being able to share it?

Zak: We’re very excited. (launches into band-lore) There was a time when Daphne was attending UT Austin.

Daphne: You all were playing as a trio, because I had to leave to go to school in Austin. And so the arrangement of the band changed. That's where this material started.

Marlena: We spent about three years playing as just me, Zak, and Travis. We're very fortunate that Daph finished her program and decided to move back to New York so that we could reforge as a foursome.

Daphne: That was September of last year. You had already cut Bug but there were these other songs that were supposed to be a part of a larger record– we started working on the second half of that. I asked my dad if we could set up a recording studio where he lives for five or six days to complete those.

Marlena: We had already recorded six songs with Sasha Stroud at Artifact Audio. Sasha’s a wonderful recording artist. When Daphne got back, we recorded five songs like she said– DIY in her childhood home.

Zak: And Will Gillman from Best End, who played tonight, also recorded and mixed the second half of the record.

I wonder with the reunion and the songs being ready, how did you choose what made it onto this record?

Zak: We have too many songs. With the previous record “Bug” that we did with Steve Albini of Electrical Audio in Chicago who recently passed, we planned those songs very carefully. We knew we had a limited time with him.

Travis: It was a wild reorientation when Daph joined us again. A lot of that leftover material was unfinished. We went in with a lot of questions, but we quickly re-identified what we were meant to be doing as a group. We had originally workshopped those remaining songs as a foursome, so if we had gone into a studio and said “learn this” it wouldn’t have meshed as well.

Marlena: Even though these songs are different from one another, it feels like there’s a logic in how they fit together.

To me the songs sound very triumphant and there’s a lot of joy in the way you’re playing, how would you describe the band’s character with this new album?

Travis: I think we’ve known each other for a long time. We’ve seen each other at our best and at our worst. And we know our strengths and weaknesses better than most friends. When you listen to what we just did, it's the best we have to offer. There’s a very non-verbal thing that happens when we play and it’s the culmination of a very long and beautiful friendship. That’s what it feels like to me.

Zak: There was a moment when you (Daphne) were going to move back and you were calling me like, “What should I learn?” (to Daphne) Can I talk about this?

Daphne: Yeah, please.

Zak: You were asking me all these questions, “What songs should I learn? What instrument should I be working on? What are we going to do?” And I remember being more concerned with where you were going to stand in the room.

Daphne: (laughing)

Zak (contd.): I feel like the lesson I keep learning from the group and from the work we do is that the music is a function of the relationships, and not the other way around. The thought wasn’t let’s get you back and get these skills and hit the ground running. No, it was let’s get you in the room so we can add you to the soup.

Daphne: I was quite literally out in the desert thinking like, what is it going to mean to come back and start playing again. And it was easy to say, oh if I learn my bass parts really then we can seamlessly reintegrate. It was like you said though, the music and that feeling on stage is time spent together. That’s what it comes out of and that’s a tough thing to learn and internalize. 

Marlena: I do think that kinetic, visceral feeling of being in the room and collaborating together, there is an actual energy that gets shared. That shaped how we view the album as a body of work. We decided to title it Demon Dreams of a Clearing in the Woods, and have been very intentional in the energy we pour in when we’re performing together. For a while, jokingly before a show, we’ve been saying we need to summon the Demon because our best shows are where something goes haywire and we really have to tap into one another, the listening space, the focus on the group. That feels a little bit like you’re doing a spell. You’re conjuring something to keep you afloat and to keep you going. I feel really “woo-woo” saying it aloud.

Daphne: It’s only possible because we get together twice a week for two hours each time. It’s about that time spent together. It can’t be anything else.

Marlena: If you listen to the songs in sequence, it’s not like a play necessarily, but it’s from the point of view of this energy that we create together.

Zak: We started talking about this on the last record, that it feels like human attention is a substance that in its property is so powerful that it’s near magical. It’s us learning into each other, the audience leaning in, and it does feel like something else appears. And for this one we’ve wanted to take that character and put it in different environments.

Marlena: And just to air out our dirty laundry, we all have theater backgrounds to our great shame. I feel like it gives us a penchant for really narrative songs oftentimes.

If I could touch on the Demon that you all summon together, do you ever see them in your own lives when you’re not together? Is there a place you look for them?

Zak: I feel like I experienced this. I had a teacher who said that what he liked about art is that when people are together and connected, they’re open to insights that are greater than what any one person could have. Things start happening that feel connected to the group and larger. Maybe it’s me getting kookier as I get older, but I do feel like I see it all the time. Travis?

Travis: Not to toot horns, but I find myself longing to encounter Demons in my other spaces. What happens in this exchange of energy is so rare for me, that it’s something to be very excited about every time we see each other.

Is there a particular song that speaks the most to your Demon?

Travis: I know mine, it’s “Murder Ballad” for sure.

Daphne: What comes to mind is the part I contributed to “Toro Toro” around quarter notes. It feels really elemental. There’s something in the approach to that song, and building it around this very grounded base that can kind of like be jumped on with both feet, that feels very present for me. It’s interesting to see how it gets into my body, and that may qualify as a Demon in some way. 

Zak: I really like this moment we found at the end of “The Magician” in rehearsal that felt like it just showed up. It wanted to keep things going and then slowly fade out, that’s an ending we had never done before. Your turn. (to Marlena)

Marlena: Okay. Moments on the album where my Demon lives. There are a couple. One is Travis's drum fill in “Little Glass of Vodka”. It happens at three minutes and thirty eight seconds.

Travis: Oh, wow.

Marlena: Then, it's the last movement of a track that Daphne made by herself called “Four Questions”. There are three movements that I hear in the piece and when the second transitions into the third, that’s deep for me. The last two [are] the way that Zak says “matching acid washed denim jackets” (which is in the song “Hey”) and then a song that we didn’t play tonight but is on the record called “Deal”. If we could talk about “Four Questions” though… (motions at Zak and Daphne)

Zak: I met Daphne at a Christmas party and found out she could play the singing saw. Which is literally just a hand saw that you play with a bow, but to be able to play it you have to be an incredible musician because you have to tune it by ear by bending a piece of metal. Once I saw that-

Marlena: (quoting Zak) “Daph is in the band!”

Zak: For this instrumental piece called “Four Questions” that Daphne contributed: we were in Daphne’s childhood home, and we were asking for four part harmony, but on the singing saw.

Marlena: Just something casual.

Zak: Just a ten minute thing, you know.

Daphne: You guys described it like you wanted a portal from side one to side two of the album.

Zak: Then she just went up to her childhood room, came back down like, “I got it” and knocked out four separate takes that stack harmonies on this thing. It was absolutely incredible. So it’s cool that I met you it was learning about the singing saw and then on this record, this wonderful instrumental-

Daphne: It came full circle, yeah. The cover is a collage that I made from around the same time.

Is there anything that you hope for the future of the music that hasn’t come yet?

Travis: Shameless answer, I’m very proud of what we do. I would love for the music we make to be played in front of more people.

Marlena: We want to tour. We want to deepen the community that we have. We have an incredible community in New York and couldn’t be more grateful for it.

Zak: One million dollars.

Daphne: What came to mind are all the songs that just live on a shared notes app. Like you said in the beginning Zak, there are so many songs that need a home. There are so many archives of jams, half songs, and finished songs. My hope for the future is that the archives get lifted up so that we can show the full depth of what we can do.

After wrapping up with the last questions, we all rejoined the show to watch the aforementioned Best End play the final set of the night to a packed crowd. Arlene’s Grocery was treated to a fantastic show, and the musicians celebrated as friends. After saying goodbye to Daphne, Marlena, Travis, and Zak I took the train home excited to hear their new music.

Demon Dreams of a Clearing in the Woods is out now wherever you listen, and you can check out their amazing music videos on Youtube as well. And speaking from experience, this is a Demon you’ll want to have around.