Noah and Dylan Chenfeld, photographed by Charlotte Dulany.
Oasis. The Kinks. Radiohead. The National. Rebounder. What ties them together? One invisible string: Brothers.
Rebounder hails from New York, and they want you to know it – self-evident under the neon glow of the I ♡ NY sign at each of their shows (it even goes on tour). Born through the solo contrivance of Dylan Chenfeld, the title stretched its arms in 2020 to encompass the full lineup: younger brother Noah Chenfeld, Cobey Arner, and Zack Kantor. The dauphin describes the band’s origins as “a gradual process of playing in other people’s bands and writing our own songs at night for fun, trying to get good at recording,” with the idea for their own band dating back “a long time.” Rebounder’s interplay of paying homage to its influences while carving out a distinct sound can be heard in popular tracks from “Where Are You Later On, Forever?” to “Slow Angel,” each complete with stratified layers of clever complexity and synth-pop grooves.
In keeping with a sound evolution that evokes both timelessness and urgency, “Sunset Vision” — one of last year’s singles — captures the feeling of chasing something just out of reach. Its surf riff-inflected aesthetic and chorus elan contrast introspective verses, which, to my ear, speak to the tension between the syrupy naivety of youth and the realities of adulthood. A week before its release, Dylan and Noah drove around Los Angeles with a friend – a native Angeleno – and played him the track; he called it “the most LA song [they have] ever written.” Despite their overt hometown pride, they don’t feel limited to a ‘New York or nothing’ mentality. Still, when I ask if they surf, they tell me in jest, “Fuck no, we can barely swim.” Similarly, “All Strings Attached” twists threads of passion into knots to create a narrative of modern love, underscored by way of a gift for melody and a Frankie Valli-reminiscent rhythm section.
Since picking up instruments at a young age, the native New Yorkers — except for drummer Cobey, originally from Atlanta — have stood on the cusp of stardom, their fanbase crawling across the bridges and beyond, and the view isn’t half bad. Many artists co-opt the culture and sound of New York City, but fewer were born and bred by it. Having grown up on a diet of rock-and-roll and a philosophy of DIY, Rebounder embodies the spirit of indie. In doing so, they keep the heart of middle-class music alive. Leaning into collaborations with artists such as Purr and The Neighbourhood frontman Jesse Rutherford, Rebounder shows no bounds when it comes to their blendable raw energy. Could it be the blood harmony connection? Their song-making capabilities do seem symbiotic, kinetic momentum umbilically linked by artistic genome. “We’re very strict about what we put into the world,” Dylan said. He credits their ambition to continue improving their live act, with each song pushing them forward.
Their upcoming EP Sundress Songs, expected in the coming months, continues a titular thematic thread from their previous EPs Subway Songs (2020) and Summer Songs (2023). Originally stemming from a Spotify playlist Dylan created for songs he’d listen to while riding the subway, the series’ title followed suit with intention. Like tapping sap from a tree, the band’s soundscape feels organically inexhaustible. There isn’t a more apt way to describe their musical pheromone than: it’s Rebounder. Though, admittedly, the “Japanese Posters” hook carries a whiff of TLC’s “No Scrubs” — an echo they occasionally play with, substituting that chorus for their own.
When I meet Dylan and Noah at an East Village cafe one morning, they’ve beaten me there. They’re still defrosting from yesterday’s outdoor music video shoot for the soon-to-be-released single “Count Me into Love,” and we sprawl into a low-lit corner booth underneath a speaker playing French vintage pop. A week from now, they’ll trade their coffees for microphones at Public Records on January 16, the first stop on their four-leg northeast tour.
THURSDAY, 10:30 AM, JANUARY 9, 2025, DOWNTOWN MANHATTAN
Charlotte: What was the last thing you did, saw, heard, or felt that made you stop and think, and what did you think of?
Noah: On my walk over here, I walked by an old friend of mine’s apartment, and I guess they’re opening a new place across the street called Schmuck. I thought that was funny; it made me laugh… I don’t know what it is.
Charlotte: I think it’s a burger place? (Wrong, it’s going to be a bar)
Noah: Is it? (No)
Dylan: I was biking here and when I ran a red, someone yelled, “Fucking asshole!” I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
Charlotte: What’s a song you wish you had written?
Dylan: There’s a song called “Only Myself to Blame” by Scott Walker (à la “The World is Not Enough” soundtrack). It’s so good.
Noah: “I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City,” Harry Nilsson.
Dylan: Great song.
Charlotte: You want to know mine? “God Only Knows.”
Noah: Great choice.
Charlotte: Is there anyone or anything you would attribute your interest in music to?
Noah: My dad is a huge music fan, and he absolutely passed on his love of music to me. My brother also inspired my musical upbringing, showing me a lot of cool records back in our formative years.
Dylan: Are we formed now?
Charlotte: Which records?
Noah: The Virgins, Air, Phoenix, Lady Gaga’s “Summerboy.”
Dylan: All the good stuff. We’ve been so obsessed with music for so long and it’s been the main focus of our lives from before I can remember, even at a young age I thought this was the coolest shit.
Charlotte: What was the last show you saw?
Noah: I saw Interpol, they were great.
Dylan: I saw Interpol the night after he did, and the last show I saw before the holidays was the Chanel Beads-Nourished by Time show at Public Records.
Charlotte: Turning back to your music, you allude to dreams quite a lot across your catalogue. What do you dream about?
Noah: True love, mostly.
Dylan: Health care. Better circumstances.
Noah: …For the world.
Charlotte: Do you have any recurring dreams?
Dylan: I’m so exhausted when I finally do go to bed, that it’s kind of just…
Charlotte: Black.
Dylan: It’s kind of just black.
Charlotte: Have you ever dreamt of a new song, or woken up with a tune in your head?
Noah: It has happened. Not a full song, but I’ve woken up with a melody or a lyric. I’m sure there’s some science behind that.
Dylan: I feel like our best songs usually start with an idea before we get on the instrument… I feel like when you already have a riff or a really good lyric, those songs always tend to go the distance… It’s not necessarily like we woke up and had the whole package, but when it just comes to you like that — walking down the street, and you voice-memo it, and it sounds really crackly with sirens, where you’re like, ‘That’s an idea,’ and then I show that to Noah – that always goes farther and becomes a real song and can become special. A lot of our process is that I take [a song] as far as I can then I show it to him, and he takes it as far as he can and shows it to me. I feel like I get my best stuff not on the instrument, before the studio, and then we go there to finish it and put it down.
Noah: I think the morning can be a creative time, before the clutter of the day. That hour or two right after you wake up.
Charlotte: Is that usually when you guys work?
Noah: Not usually, but I never regret it when I do.
Charlotte: So you don’t usually work at your most creative hour…
Dylan: No, that’s for the gym. I spend my most creative hours in the gym listening to The Daily.
Charlotte: Have you guys had any big revelations about the music business since starting out?
Dylan: I don’t know about any life-changing revelations, but I’m very excited about [our] new stuff, and I feel like we are working with people who make music that we’re really interested in… Not everything you do is going to be perfect, but as time goes on, I’m more confident and excited about who we’re working with and our sound. The stuff that we’re releasing now is the stuff I want to listen to.
Charlotte: How do you know when a song is finished?
Noah: Once you start making changes that you know are really, really pointless, and you think, ‘Ok, I think we should maybe move on.’ We try to not get to that point.
Dylan: When you truly have run out of minute details to critique. You can feel it.
Charlotte: Have you ever made a version where it’s gone too far?
Dylan: Almost every time. We go hard for no reason all the time.
Noah: To go back to your revelation question, maybe I’ve learned to not spend forever on a song. Whereas, maybe in the past, I would have done endless revisions and taken forever and ever, [just to] not even be satisfied.
Charlotte: Do you ever get sick of the sound of it?
Dylan: Oh, for sure. Sometimes it’s like we’ve written ten entirely different drafts of lyrics for this song with the same melody. We agree that the melody’s there but we haven’t decided on lyrics yet… It’s going to make writing the eleventh one incredibly hard. One thing that’s interesting is sometimes the songs you are convinced are great don’t become big, and the songs that you spent less time on reach more opportunities and acclaim, and are songs you hear out and about in the world. So if you don’t know and can’t take control, you might as well just make stuff you think is awesome, and let the rest work itself out. “Sunset Vision” was made relatively fast for us. That song seems to have been the most exciting thing we’ve done.
Noah: You can spend a long time workshopping one song, and then you might write something – and I’m sure any creative person has experienced this, regardless of the medium… Sometimes you work on something endlessly and it really irks you, and then sometimes stuff comes really easily and it almost feels done instantly. Then, the hard part is over. “Sunset Vision” did come together pretty quickly, and I do think it worked to our advantage. That song has a certain urgency to it and I think sometimes you can tell when a song feels like it was–
Dylan: Effortless.
Charlotte: Have you ever learned a lesson from a mistake?
Dylan: Yeah, if you’re not learning from your mistakes then you’re not progressing, and we want to progress in every way that we can. You try things, things don’t work, okay, ‘I did that.’
Noah: I’ll come back to it. (He does)
Charlotte: So about your new EP, how does it compare to what we’ve already heard from you?
Dylan: I’d say it’s a continuation of the sound we started defining in “Sunset Vision.” It feels a little more live-sounding, less electronic.
Charlotte: Is there an ideal setting you’d want people to listen to this music in?
Dylan: That’s a really good question.
Noah: By the way, I thought of my mistake… I’m just going to keep dodging your questions and then come back to them five minutes later. I’ll try to focus. Ideal setting? I personally like listening to music in slightly dark settings… Cars would be cool.
Dylan: We don’t get to do car tests because of our position as New Yorkers, but we send it to our friends in LA and say, ‘Play this in the car and tell us what you think.’ If the songs can work in social music situations like a bar playing classics, that would be my preferred setting.
Charlotte: [To Noah] Ok, back to your mistake.
Noah: I once prioritized fashion over warmth. I wanted to wear this new cool jacket on a fifteen-degree day, and the person I was with taught me the lesson. They said, “First of all, the jacket’s not that cool, and you’re visibly suffering,” and from there on out, I’ve prioritized my warmth over my fashion.
Dylan: I want to be very clear, I prioritize my fashion every goddamn day.
See Rebounder live:
Jan. 16 — Public Records, Brooklyn, NY
Jan. 18 — The Rockwell, Somerville, MA
Jan. 25 — Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA
Feb. 7 — Pearl Street Warehouse, Washington, DC
May 24 — Ventura Music Hall, Ventura, CA
The post Downtown Dispatch: Dreaming With Rebounder first appeared on Alt Citizen.