SPOTLIGHT: EIGHTY NINETY

Photo By Eric T. White

Meet Eighty Ninety and tune into their new single “Hollywood Dream”

“Hollywood Dream” plays with the tension between love and fantasy. What was the first image or feeling that sparked the writing of this song? 

The trap of projecting onto people the things we feel we need them to be. A movie star is literally that - a projection - and I liked the idea of that blurring of the line between the poster on your ceiling and a real person. What happens when you meet the embodiment of that longing? Do you make it into something real together, or do you drag each other into that heightened reality.

You describe the song as capturing the thrill of a relationship that feels cinematic. When writing it, were you drawing from personal experience or more from observation? 

Observation of my own personal experience, haha. I tend to write about things once I (think) I have some perspective.

The line between intensity and addiction in a relationship is such a nuanced topic. Was it difficult to strike that emotional balance in the lyrics without glamorizing it? 

I think that's such a great question and the heart of the song. It was difficult - just like it is in real life - because there's something amazing about getting swept up in romance, and I think throwing yourself headfirst into something incredible is one of those experiences that defines what it means to be human. But the trick is learning when to pull up if head-over-heels begins to turn into a nose-dive.

The production feels as sweeping as the title implies. How did you approach building that sound to match the lyrical themes of illusion and escape? 

We wanted to evoke the dichotemy of the lyrics - real vs fantasy, Hollywood Dream vs reality - and so we tried to achieve that by having a building, sweeping arrangement but using organic instruments. Real drums, piano, analog synths. So it mimics the feeling of the real reaching for the surreal, or the imaginary. Can we use the raw material of real life to create this incredible fantasy. Turns out, it gets complicated.

I love how you say this track explores the desire to mythologize your life. What are some films or stories that shaped how you saw love growing up? 

Love this question too. There's a PT Anderson film called Magnolia that I saw when I was a bit younger (too young, probably, haha). But it was a mosaic of all these lives over the course of one day in LA. And I think it was, ultimately, the story of what happens when people either make decisions that move them closer to, or away from, love and acceptance. Romantic, familial, platonic.  It had a pretty profound effect on me. This might be a strange answer, but the film Blade Runner did something similar. It explores the idea of what it means to be real, and I think that feeling is one that always follows me through life. Not, is this good? But, is this real?

There’s an undercurrent of self-awareness in “Hollywood Dream,” like you know the fantasy might be a trap, but you still don’t want to wake up. Was that contradiction fun or hard to write? 

That tension is at the heart of the song -- the fantasy part of it was easy to write, and then the self-awareness part was a little bit tougher. Kind of like life, haha, wouldn't you know.

The phrase “808s and Telecasters” is such a perfect encapsulation of your sound. How has that signature style evolved from Elizabeth to now? 

Yeah. I think then as now it really means: whatever the song calls for. The collision of old-fashioned Songwriting with a capital S and more experimental, contemporary production. The band is really a vehicle for the two of us to explore the things we're most passionate about. I (Abner) really love writing songs. Harper pushes them into unexpected, exciting places. I think sonically we're recently drawn more to organic, acoustic sounds -- homemade music. Maybe a reaction to everything happening in the world. Also, like I said earlier, the sense that something is Real is becoming more and more important to us.

Your debut album came out last year after years of consistent singles. How did making that full-length project influence your direction going into this new release? 

We loved making the record because it felt like you get to create something that is more than the sum of its parts. Not just scenes, a whole film. After we tackled it, and were really proud of the result, it encouraged us to get even more ambitious. We'll get into it later, but Hollywood Dream is the beginning of a big project.

As brothers, you’ve been working together for a long time. How has your creative process changed, or stayed the same, as your careers have grown? 

Being siblings makes some things easier (you share a creative shorthand that you've honed for years, you have the same contextual reference points, you don't need to "get to know each other" before you can go deep in a collaboration) and some things harder (you annoy each other...). But we've mostly grown out of the latter and expanded the former. So it's been getting better.

What’s a lyric in “Hollywood Dream” that you’re particularly proud of or that felt especially honest to write? 

Actually, the first lyrics "you're the one I always run to / the poster on my ceiling / that summer teenage feeling" really capture something special for me.

Your music often finds intimacy in minimalist production, how do you know when a song needs restraint versus when to lean into full cinematic scale, like in this track? 

Speaking of Hollywood, we treat songs almost as scripts. The music is the score. So really, what kind of scope is this story? Is it small, intimate? Is it wide-screen? Is it a small feeling meant to feel huge? Whatever story we want to tell, we try to emphasize it with the music. Something called Hollywood Dream needed to have scope.

With over 40 million streams and praise from major outlets, and even articulating the “Taylor Swift Stamp,” how do you keep your creative process grounded and personal? 

Our own taste is the thing that we make our songs for. Ultimately, it has to be the compass: if we love what we're making, it doesn't matter if no one else does. If we don't, it doesn't matter if everyone else did. I think that visceral feeling keeps the process grounded. Numbers like that, and Taylor's shout out - that stuff is honestly impossible to process. So I'm not sure if it can have a huge effect because to some extent it just doesn't feel real.

You’ve had songs placed on Netflix and MTV shows. Has that visibility changed how you think about writing? Do you ever write with sync in mind now? 

Interestingly, the most recent sync we got was probably what we would have considered to be the least "sync - song" in our entire catalogue (Walking You Home). Which is great because it means we can just keep on doing what we do without overthinking it— because what do we know?

Looking back at your earliest release, “Three Thirty,” what’s something you think you’ve held onto creatively, and what’s something that’s completely changed?

I think we've held onto the idea that everything we do is based on excitement. From the band itself to the smallest production choices - that is the compass. We know ourselves and our strengths and priorities musically, so it's a smoother process than it was when we were discovering it as we went. Songs used to take weeks, sometimes months. Now we can move a bit faster -- which actually helps hang onto the inspiration throughout the whole process.

As “Hollywood Dream” enters the world on August 1, what do you hope new listeners take away from it, and what should longtime fans pay extra attention to in the song?

Longtime fans might enjoy the sonic landscape - more natural, rawer maybe than some earlier things. For new listeners, we hope they get carried away in a story that might make them feel a little bit more understood or less alone. That's the hope for all our songs.

Listen to “Hollywood Dream” here.