The members of Conveyor all grew up in Gainsville, Fla, but it wasn’t until relocating that Timothy John Masters, Evan Michael Garfield, Michael Ryan Pedron and Gary Alan Busch, Jr. came together as the psychedelic-leaning indie band, now with two strong releases to its name.
“We all met in Florida while attending school and playing in different groups,” said Masters. ”When we moved to New York City around 2009-2010, we regrouped and started playing music together.”
Like most kids, the members’ interest in music was sparked early on. “We’ve always been surrounded by music growing up,” he said. “We all participated in school band, orchestra, music education. I think performing under those educational contexts was helpful in us realizing that music was another ‘thing’ that you could do when you grew up.”
“I listened to a lot of alternative rock radio in the mid-90s, stuff like Foo Fighters and Smashing Pumpkins and Green Day,” he said, but “as far as listening habits these days, they’ve definitely diversified and intensified, especially with music on the Internet. We’re all over the place in terms of taste.”
Conveyor’s music took on its own similar transformation from last year’s Sun Ray EP, their debut, to their first full-length album.
“I think the different feels come from almost entirely different approaches, writing and recording-wise,” Masters said.
The four songs of Sun Ray combined electronics and folk into a unique beauty. But the art pop exploded into an eclectic sound on the Conveyor LP. It extends their creative boundaries, both expanded and intensified.
“The album was definitely a more intense, focused process. Where the EP came from collectively cashing in on pre-existing material, the album was an effort to truly compose something complete.”
While songs like “Short Hair,” which embraces the tribal psychedelics of Animal Collective, and “Mukraker,” with all the haunted depth of Pedro the Lion, couldn’t sound further apart on paper, the album comes together perfectly. Conveyor is bursting with excitement and wonder.
But even with glowing reviews from most major indie blogs, being in a band hasn’t taken absolute priority over their other options.
“A lot of us are still in school studying different things, working professionally in different arenas,” Masters said. “The commonality in all of us is that playing music is fun, and as long as it’s fun we’ll keep doing it. And as long as we’re making money doing it, we’ll continue doing it for a living.”
Conveyor is out now on Paper Garden Records.
