On a cloudy night in Austin, Texas during the annual SXSW festival, the three members of ON AN ON were waiting in line to see Miike Snow; they were a bit sweaty, undeniably hungry, and, well, kind of drunk. The Chicago & Minneapolis-based musicians – Nate Eiesland, Alissa Ricci, and Ryne Estwing — that comprise the band had played music with one another in various capacities for the better part of a decade — most recently as members of indie-pop outfit Scattered Trees, with whom they were performing that very weekend. And while they’d always shared something of an unspoken musical connection, the three of them, at that very moment, felt a different sort of bond; together they had an insatiable impulse to flip the script on everything they had known about making music. Conservative compromises would be a thing of the past; ON AN ON, as they would name their band, would make music and art that melted outside the lines. It was perfect timing: they were already scheduled to record in a Toronto studio in two week’s time with acclaimed producer, Dave Newfeld (Broken Social Scene). With a knack for genre-melding, and a boundary-pushing mindset, Newfeld would prove to be the perfect match for the trio’s new caution-less approach: synthesizers, scattershot electro beats and ambient ear candy would give guitars, bass and drums a newfound ghostly sheen. The end result was Give In, ON AN ON’s ten-track debut album – a dream-washed textural journey armed with a biting perspective on the commonality of loss. The affair sizzles with electricity and calls one in with its unnerved openness. It’s a project – and approach to music — the three musicians in ON AN ON had been waiting for.
