On March 1, I had the pleasure of interviewing Exit Statement. The band’s ranks include Class of ’24 grads Henry Hylbert (drums, guitar, vocals), Mike Solazzo (bass), Will Swartzentruber (guitar, vocals, keys, production) and Ithaca local, Austin Lamb (vocals and guitar). All of them being alumni, the interview was over Zoom, and as Austin said, it was “actually the first time they had all spoken properly since their last days together.” The story they told me was not of a typical Cornell band, but instead the tale of a group of friends, each quite different from one another, brought together by a common interest in music only months before the end of their college careers. Recently, they released their first EP, Come Along With Me, the product of their final days together in a fleeting Ithaca summer.
Exit Statement only formed during the members’ senior year. Will, Henry and Mike had been jamming together for some time on their own but needed “one more” to have a proper band, and Austin ended up falling right in with them. The band as a whole can be defined on these chaotic lines, as Will said about the group’s forming: “It just kind of happened.” This sentiment holds true in the making of Come Along With Me. Recorded in only two days at WVBR, a familiar studio to Cornell bands, the EP has a distinctly organic and experimental sound, which Will — the mastermind behind the mixing and mastering of their music — describes as “just the right amount of rough.” They impressed upon me how some bands would record and then have their music professionally mixed and mastered, but they preferred their method. Will continued, explaining that “playing all the instruments together in the studio, there's just a ton of bleed … the overhead mics are picking up everything… not a clean, clear mix, but it sounded like how we wanted to sound. It's kind of got a slacker Garage Band feel.” It was clear that whatever they produced, they were proud that, from start to finish, their music was theirs. Austin affirmed: “It's like the whole thing is us, you know, our stuff, the magic is in writing and playing, not just playing.”
This rough sound is also a clear result of their influences, with Will, Mike, Austin and Henry all waxing lyrical about Radiohead, The Cure, Steely Dan and especially CAN. On Exit Statement’s EP, their fusion of jazz and psychedelic rock is evident. When talking about the track “Volcanize,” Henry described how they intended to get a “kind of Pink Floyd-y guitar psychedelic vibe, but Mike is a huge jazz guy, and his base was very jazzy so we kind of got a psychedelic track that still has this smooth jazzy sound.” Other songs of theirs, too, like “Ephus,” as Austin described, “have the same level of disparate influence from each of us,” with the song’s chaotically jamming guitar juxtaposed against the rhythmic and relaxed bass and drums. It became clear to me the more I talked with Exit Statement that these features were the result of their totally organic recording process. Every time they set out to make a song, it was always more of a “jam-sesh” where they “would each toss around ideas and just try random tunings and adding little bits here and there.” Their process was, as Henry quipped, “kind of like a musical science experiment.” Their energetic track “Ticket Out,” Austin explained, is probably the best example of what makes the group unique. He said, “we just kind of gelled well, so like Henry adding in different drums, sort of on the spot, when we started recording, surprised me, but it just sounded better. It worked.”
The band of seniors was always facing a hard time limit when recording Come Along With Me, having, as Austin explained, “only started jamming together in February, and you know we had until May before the others left.” While they had enough songs for their EP, by the time school ended, they had only recorded three songs. Instead of leaving it there, they all went back to Ithaca for just two days in mid-July when they were by chance free. They went through song after song with Austin, remarking that the urgency of it all “gave the songs a kind of unique energy and made us more productive than I think we would've been in the year.” I was, however, most taken aback by Will's anecdote about the track “Come Along With Me,” the last song they finished: “Henry had to pack up and leave Ithaca forever the next day. We were sitting on the WVBR steps, and he just got really quiet for a bit … I was thinking, like he said he was going to leave, and I was like: ‘Wait, we haven't recorded your song yet.’ And he's just like: ‘Oh, let's do it now.’ So we just recorded the guitar and vocals together in one take, and then after that, went in with Mike playing the bass and Austin on the drums … It was a very instantaneous session.” In some of their literal last hours in Ithaca, they had finished it. They all agreed, as Will said: “It was emotional, but I think just that day and hanging out on the porch of WVBR was one of the best days of my recent life.” It makes it all the more admirable that they pulled together to record given the circumstance. This story, apart from reminding me our time at college is short, made the band's name seem all the more poignant. They formed in the twilight of their college lives, it was their unequivocal Exit Statement.
While they currently have nothing new planned, Exit Statement isn't ruling out any future projects. Austin, Mike, Henry and Will are now each in different time zones, but Come Along With Me will forever serve as a time capsule of their days spent writing, jamming and recording in Ithaca. While the chance to see them perform live at Deep Dive or Open Mics (as they have in the past) is gone, I encourage all of you reading this to go give Come Along With Me a listen and to think about those magical last days these four friends shared.
James Palm is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at jpalm@cornellsun.com.
