Ivy by Mullberry
IVY started as a trio of green artists (Adam Schlesinger, Andy Chase, and Dominique Durand), looking to make a name for themselves. They became Indie Pop darlings throughout the 1990’s, with their dreamy tunes eventually appearing on numerous movie soundtracks and presumably all over mix tapes. However, after years of the grind of making records and touring, two parts of the trio fell out. After years of not speaking, Adam (moonlighting as the frontman for Fountains of Wayne) and Andy reconnected as if time had stopped. And then Covid happened, permanently putting a period at the end of the band by claiming Schlesinger to the sickness. That period became an ellipsis when Andy and Dominique uncovered a treasure trove of demo recordings Adam had made, dating back to the beginning of their tenure together. The duo, inspired by their friends’ timeliness, brought in Bruce Driscoll, a sometime contributor to IVY and Andy’s bandmate in Camera2, to help flesh out the ideas Adam had preserved. In the wake of tragedy, the band began piecing together ideas for a new record to honor their fallen friend. What emerged was the record Traces of You, released in September of 2025, a feat the band couldn’t have imagined shortly before it became a reality. We caught up with IVY to discuss Traces of You and the future of a band that’s not entirely whole but not done yet.
PH: The music on “Traces of You” and the next album are entirely based on demos and older material. Were there certain songs that just jumped out at you? Were there specific songs that you didn’t love the first time around, and with a little bit of distance, you realized, ” This is great!”
Andy Chase: Well, the distance we had was anywhere from 14 years to 20+ years because in 2023, when we took stock of what we had, which were demos, sketches, jam sessions, and almost fully finished songs, Dominique and I couldn’t remember why we never finished them. But the objectivity…was fueled by Bruce coming in in 2023 and hearing them and he cherry picked the ones that had potential…we finished 22 songs the first 10 came out on the album “Traces of You” and the other 11 are coming out on our next album…the common thread between those two releases is one that we did them all at the same time and two that Adam, our bandmate who passed away is on all the songs.
PH: Is there anything else beyond the next release?
Andy Chase: I don’t know… the 22 we finished weren’t the only 22 we had… we were close to 60 (ideas), but we decided to focus on finishing those 22…I guess after this next album comes out…when that has finished its run, we will take stock of where we’re at. I mean, if we’re inspired to do another record… There are still many more songs from those ideas… we could finish a third new album, but I think now we’re just focused on the shows promoting Traces of You…We’re not really thinking too much beyond that.
PH: Can you describe the live aspect of playing with the semi-new incarnation of Ivy, particularly the main history of being everyone’s first foray into music, and the absence of Adam?
Dominique Durand: Oh, that’s a good question… for a long time, even though we were making this new record, we didn’t think we were going to play live…it just felt very strange without Adam…we didn’t think of the live performances and then when we released the record…our fans are asking us you know they were begging us and so we sat down and thought about what we could do and actually we came up with a crazy idea…instead of having a new bass player on my left side, which was Adams side for almost 30 years, we’re going to have Adam’s bass from the record playing on the backing track, and so when we play live…he will be there.
IVY plays Respectable Street with Sweet Bronco, May 10, 18+, doors at 7 pm. Advance Tickets ~ Tim Moffatt
