Saint Clementine is a harmonic disagreement that just makes sense

In a short time, Saint Clementine has won the hearts of local Boston bands with sonic dissonance that is simultaneously mysterious and captivating. Their first single, “Skinny,” was released on April 18th, and their second single, “Why would I lie?” dropped on June 18. Aedan MacDougall (guitar/vocals) randomly approached Sylvie Wager (drums) and Cassiopea Opal (bass) and said, “You look like the kind of people I would like to make music with,” and the addition of Isabelle Parker (violin) and Josh Schachter (guitar) completed the collective. Emerging from the Berklee College of Music, they stand out as a five-piece genre-defying band with elements of folk, post-hardcore, punk and more.

We sat down with Saint Clementine to take a look at the people behind the project.

If I’m not wrong, your name is a reference to two Elliot Smith songs. How did you come up with it?

Isabelle: Saint Clementine, like I wasn’t a part of creating the name, but it was the first one that wasn’t just absolutely terrible. 

Josh: Yeah, I think I was just firing off a lot of band names, and I was thinking about Elliott Smith, I guess, one night around the Fenway Garden. I went there with some friends, and I was just walking back, and I was like, ‘Saint Clementine.’

Aedan: And it wasn’t like we brainstormed more than one good name. That one came out and we were like, ‘OK, that is so passible.’ 

Isabelle: We also kind of needed it very quickly.

Aedan: Yeah, because we had a show, and it was like we had to exist right now.

You guys have now played shows in Burlington, VT, and Brooklyn, NY. How did you set up shows in other areas? Which was your favorite?

Aedan: I think our philosophy is thinking of places where we already have a few friends. Because you can drive to some random place you’ve never played before, but at least if you have, like, a few friends, they’ll bring their friends, and then you’re playing to a good crowd of people. It’s like we have a lot of friends who go to UVM (University of Vermont). Josh is from New York, and I’m kind of from the Maine and New Hampshire area. We played with a lot of our friends’ bands, which was cool, and we’ve also just made some new friends along the way. I think my favorite show was probably Burlington; that was fun. It was so chaotic. The drums fell off the stage. 

Isabelle: I think my personal favorite up to this point was the Middle East show in January this year. It was so fun, it was our first show back after winter break. It was really just discovering playing together as a band, and it was just so fun. 

You have played with bands like Sunstray and Sybl Vane. How did you connect with these bands? Did you find it easy to make connections with other artists in Boston?

Josh: For at least Sybl Vane and Sunstray, those were like already homies we kind of knew. But in general, I think it is about connecting with people genuinely, and then making the step to make it more professional and actually playing. Especially at Berkeley, there’s such a big part about connections, and a lot of people don’t spend four years at Berklee, they just spend a year, or even a semester, and it kind of becomes sort of fake, just using you for connections. Obviously, there’s a lot to say about the scene and what that does for connections, but when you’re actually there talking to someone at a show, you are going to act more friendly and try to build that real connection there, and then you talk about playing. 

Aedan: Yeah, I think that’s so true. It’s definitely just like if you go into it with the mindset of ‘Oh, I’m going to try to make connections,’ you’re missing such a core part of having friends and relationships with people. I think it’s just finding people who are in a similar boat as you, and connecting over music you like and places you like.

There is a unique turnover in the Boston music scene due to the volume of college students moving in and out of the city every four years. Bands rise to a decent level of fame, then their fan base graduates, moves out of the city, and another class moves in. How do you guys feel about this trend? How do you plan to make your band sustainable?

Aedan: I think it’s definitely weird to think about how you want to leave an impact on a place. It’s difficult to do that. But, like, as long as we just keep making cool stuff and keep showing up for other people, I think it’s about lifting people up and being part of a thing and not trying to center yourself as the main thing. 

Sylvie: It’s a very unique problem to the Northeast. The Northeast, part of what makes it so awesome, is how accessible everything is. Like, the fact that we got to play shows in Vermont is so awesome. Being in South Florida, so many of those bands, like, the level of fame they reach plateaus not because of a four-year turnover, but because you just can’t make it out of Florida. You just toured to the other end of the state and you’re stuck and you’re out of gas money, and that’s that. So the culture it creates in the Northeast is a lot more intertwined and a lot more of a interconnected web, which I think is really cool because I think it lends to bands in scenes of differen’t cultures of differen’t states, connecting and overlapping a lot more than you see in other parts of the country. It can be a challenge to overcome, but it also can lead to really cool music.

I saw you guys when you first started in my friend’s apartment, and now I see you on show flyers pretty consistently. Describe to me a music scene you love, local or not.

Isabelle: I love my home state of North Carolina, and the culture of folk music that’s here because I grew up in it and I’m still a part of it. You could be five or you could be ninety, and it’s so welcoming, and also just like everyone knows each other, and it’s always like, ‘Oh, you want to come jam? Let’s find a time.’ Growing up in that, it’s been so fun. 

Sylvie: The Allston scene is not like a lot of other scenes that will have [music] spots stay open for years and even decades in the same place. Where I’m from [in South Florida], we have a few spots that have been around a long time. The Allston scene, specifically with its house venues that are constantly rotating, forces you to stay in touch with it. It leads to a really active community of people, and I think that’s so important in the scene. I think moving to the Northeast was a big change culturally in terms of how the scene behaves. But, I’m seeing a lot more interdisciplinary work in art up here than I see in South Florida, in terms of like, this guy goes around and films sets and also does embroidery. Also, our other friend screen-prints for bands and does photography. There’s just a lot more of like everyone doing everything instead of one person doing one thing. I think that is really, really cool in the culture up here.

You guys describe your sound as a harmonic disagreement. Why did you decide on such an eclectic sound, and what influenced this?

Cass: I think something that really influences our sound is how we are: A bunch of people that come from pretty different backgrounds, trying to see where we can fit in the intersection of all these different genres. When we first got together, we were playing folky versions of songs that Aedan wrote. Slowly, it has evolved into this very different thing, with a fusion of a lot of different styles, just because of what we have going on. 

Josh: Yeah, once you start thinking about what your sound is, you kind of lose track of what you’re actually doing a just doing the art, and figuring out what it is after. That doesn’t really matter, but just doing it and just having it be cool, with people you disagree with in the sense that your musical upbringings are different, and the style of music you listen to is different, so you have to disagree to make something new. And that’s awesome.

Can you guys tell me about the tour you have coming up? What are you most excited for and what are you going to call it?

Aedan: We’re playing Portland. We’re playing New Hampshire. We’re playing Fenway’s Porchfest with FRONTRUNNER Magazine. That’s gonna be awesome. We’re doing Connecticut and we’re doing New York City. Five nights; it’s gonna be awesome.

Sylvie: Five Nights No Freddie’s– that’s the tagline.

Cass: No

Aedan: Dude, I knew that was coming.

Cass: Mostly I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again and getting to play music again, especially because I was like a half-member of the band in the last semester of the band. So it’s like I’ve been eager to get to play with these guys.

Aedan: Yeah, we’re definitely gonna be tight from playing a bunch of shows, but then we’re gonna hate each other, so it’s gonna be awesome.

Isabelle: But we’re gonna get to see Dan Capaldi. 

Aedan: Yeah, that’s gonna be awesome. I’m so excited. He produced the single, and he mixed the songs. He’s a Portland staple. He’s just an amazing person, and Saint Clementine is very thankful to him. I’ve known him for so long. I met Dan when I was in a recording internship during my senior year of high school, and he was the producer at a studio where I was working at. He recorded my high school band, and then after high school, he would kind of help with sessions and stuff, and it was  just like building this relationship over time, and he played drums in my band for a bit. He’s just always been around, has always been so helpful and it’s cool to kind of keep him in my life with this project too. He’s been so helpful with these recordings. I think we’re so happy with how they came out.

Sylvie: Can I just say real quick? I really think it’s important to also shout out Ana Blosset. Our band would not be anything without Ana Blosset.

Cass: Nobody would follow the accounts. Nobody would know about our shows. You want to know what Saint Clementine is? She’s who Saint Clementine is.

Aedan: Yeah! I feel like Ana’s someone who’s very musically talented, of course, but has a super special gift for like visual stuff, taking photos, making videos. Like every move Saint Clementine has ever made, she has documented pretty much.

What are you looking forward to in the future of this project? Anything to come?

Isabelle: On that note, I’m excited for us to come more to the south. For us to play North Carolina, for us to go play South Florida, like, that would be so fun, because we’ve played a lot in the Northeast and will continue to do so, because that’s where we’re based. But that’s more Aedan, Cass, Josh and I. And I think it’ll be really fun when we can get down here more to the south. And also, I’d be happy to go more west or north because that’s something I just haven’t done. 

Aedan: I feel like we had songs that, like, tangibly improved a lot when we started playing them in different ways. Like when we started playing electric with pedals and stuff, I feel like the song got a lot more impactful. And like, Cass had like a fifth low string, and I was able to make some weird oscillating sounds with my blade pedals. So it’s like, and the whale noises, it’s like we’re able to bring in so many more textures that just make what we’re doing more unique. I think it’s just like we get deeper into what we’re trying to do.