What do you get when you combine folk music, hyperpop, and terrible SEO? The answer is @ (pronounced “at”), the musical duo of Victoria Rose and Stone Filipczak. But no matter how hard it is to find the band in a Google search, their innovative music has won over indie fans and critics alike.
@’s 2023 debut album Mind Palace Music was written almost entirely remote by sending each other snippets and voice notes via iMessage, resulting in a project hailed for its inventiveness. The band describes their sound as hyperfolk,” which is an all-around accurate description of their music (their new track “Soul Hole” sounds like a hyperpop artist covering Dirty Projectors).
Now, less than a year later, @ are prepping the release of a batch of new songs in the form of the forthcoming EP Are You There God, It’s Me, @, which drops Friday via Carpark. Much like Mind Palace Music, Are You There God, It’s Me, @ seamlessly blends analog and digital elements with lyrics inspired by imagery of AI and computers, like on the trance-like single “Webcrawler.”
Ahead of Are You There God, It’s Me, @, Filipczak and Rose sit down with Uproxx to talk David Bowie, creamed spinach, and dropping acid in our latest Q&A.
What are four words you would use to describe your music?
Filipczak: I’ve heard this one.
It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?
Rose: If people are still listening to our music in 2050 then it’s been pretty successful, so however it’s being remembered is just fine.
Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?
Filipczak: The other bandmate, for obvious reasons.
Where did you eat the best meal of your life and what was it?
Rose: I eat the best meal of my life several times a year at an Ethiopian restaurant called Abyssinia in West Philly. I get the Abyssina 2 which is a combo platter and I have never once in my life gotten sick of eating it.
Tell us about the best concert you’ve ever attended.
Filipczak: Sun Ra Arkestra at Fields Fest.
What song never fails to make you emotional?
Filipczak: “Life On Mars” by David Bowie.
What’s the last thing you Googled?
Rose: Creamed spinach.
Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?
Filipczak: On a pile of ripped up foam in the same room we played, house show in Richmond.
What’s your favorite city in the world to perform and what’s the city you hope to perform in for the first time?
Filipczak: Baltimore, MD obviously! We’re playing a ton of European cities for the first time next month — we’ve also never played Los Angeles.
What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?
Rose: “Do not drop 2 whole tabs of acid at once on that one time.”
What’s one of your hidden talents?
Filipczak: Object repair.
If you had a million dollars to donate to charity, what cause would you support and why?
Rose: I don’t really like this question because neither of us have a million dollars, but there’s an active genocide going on in Gaza, and we should all be doing what we can, funds or not, to continue working towards a ceasefire and bringing an end to apartheid against Palestinians.
What are your thoughts about AI and the future of music?
Rose: I want to be careful with this, because I don’t really know much about in which ways AI is on its way to contributing to the future of music. We also have to accept that an AI driven world is coming for us whether we want it to or not. But I think that implementing AI in the elements of music making directly related to the writing or recording would probably flatten the dynamics that come about through accidents and experimentation. Those are the details in music that often end up being most potent in connecting to the listener, and I think that minimizing the space to create those details would be very bad for the future of music. However, if we’re talking about using AI to make DAW processing more efficient that could be useful.
You are throwing a music festival. Give us the dream lineup of 5 artists that will perform with you and the location it would be held.
Filipczak: Wolf Eyes, Black Dice, Chris Weisman, Horse Lords, Bugs and Rats, at the Elk’s Lodge in Cambridge, MA (tried to keep this one fairly realistic / possible)
Who’s your favorite person to follow on social media?
Rose: Right now it’s @jeremyfragrance on Instagram.
What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?
Rose: Not my first, but my 3rd(?) tattoo was done in 2017 by my friend Jen in a bedroom that Stone was subletting in Boston, at this magical house on Union Street. There was a snow storm going on, and Stone was playing through the entirety of Hallowed Ground by Violent Femmes for us on his laptop. I was surprised to find a half hour field recording of that moment about 2 years ago on Stone’s Tascam. The tattoo is of this little creature with horns playing a tom, or maybe eating a salad.
What is your pre-show ritual?
Rose: Rushing to load in on time.
Who was your first celebrity crush?
Rose: Flick from A Bug’s Life.
You have a month off and the resources to take a dream vacation. Where are you going and who is coming with you?
Filipczak: This is basically what’s happening with Europe tour next month, so we’ll just shout out our amazing band, Nino Soberon and Nina Ryser.
What is your biggest fear?
Rose: Not finding peace and fulfillment in this lifetime.
Are You There God, It’s Me, @ is out 1/12 via Carpark. Find more information here.
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