Angie: I’m very interested in your creative process. Do you write the songs first? The riffs? The melody? What comes first, and who writes what? 

Izzy: So, typically, the songs will start up as a riff, so they’re very guitar focused. I’m sure you’ve noticed. We have a lot of rhythmic changes. So, we start with, usually, a riff that Josh will probably send over. Then we write a basic melody, which is typically up for change, whenever everyone else has their parts. But we all write our own parts. We will have a day where we link up, and then we just start playing over the riff that Josh made. And from there, we just can build the song up. Everyone does their own thing, and that’s how it sounds so unique.

Angie: Do you have any moments where you’re like, “Oh, I really like what you’re doing, but I think this would suit the song better”. Or is it that everyone does whatever they feel is better for the song? 

Izzy: Occasionally, we do have moments like that. I feel like it always happens when you’re working with a group. Sometimes we’ll ask each other for feedback too. 

Angie: So, you write the lyrics? All of them?

Izzy: I didn’t write all of them for the album. I wrote most of them, except for Akoustic and parts of Cats. Josh wrote Akoustic. And then Ryan wrote the first half of Cats. Yeah, but I pretty much do the majority of the lyricism for the band.

Angie: What would you say are your favorite lyrics that you’ve written for this album? 

Izzy: That’s a good question. I really like the first verse of Paris, Texas. I think it’s just so cool and colorful. And I’m definitely trying to be a more colorful writer. To employ more imagery.

[Empty words don’t make me flinch
What do they see that I can’t
You sing while I string my beads
Dead flowers don’t make me itch
Don’t make me
Don’t make me itch]

Izzy: There’s also—I really like the part of Are You Ready To Go Back To An Empty Home? Right before it gets really heavy. Okay, it’s honestly pretty short, but I really like those two lines. 

[You press your blush into your pores
Ashes to dust for the night shooting stars]

Izzy: I really like the ending of Cats too. I think it’s one of my favorites.

[And the siren’s wretched scream
In this technicolor dream
Made me wonder to believe
If I could know myself]

Angie: I really want to know why you decided to name this one We Makin’ It Out Of Neverland With This One.

Izzy: Sometimes we put more thought to some songs than others. Some are just joke titles. 

Angie: Which one would you say suits the nature of the song? 

Izzy: Are You Ready To Go Back To An Empty Home? I feel like it fits the song very well. The lyrics, the way it makes you feel… The whole ambiance of it, honestly. But we initially had been calling it Untitled. It was gonna die like that. But no, we’re happy with the title.

Angie: I was curious about some of the lyrics for Paris, Texas.

[I went to visit my old house
And the roof caved in on me
I caught the water dripping down
It had been dripping for weeks
I just wanted to sleep
I didn’t want to be seen]

Izzy: When we made it, we didn’t want it to be a romantic song. We wanted it to be kind of epic. We wanted it to encompass a lot of our own emotions. So, it’s a very emotional song. But usually for my lyric-writing process, I’ll just write whatever. Wake up in the middle of the night, write it down. Like, you know, what Prince did so Michael Jackson couldn’t steal the lyrics out of his head. And then when we have a riff or have an instrumental, then I’ll go back to what I’ve written and see what I feel matches it a little bit. That song I wrote after I went to my parents’ house. I don’t live with them, but I have a bedroom there. I went to their house, after work, before I had to go back to work, to take a nap. I was like, “I’m gonna go here. I’m gonna go to their house. I’m gonna take a nap. It will be fine.” I go home, I walk in my room, and the roof literally has caved in. The roof collapsed inside of my bedroom, and nobody knew about it, because my door is always closed. And it’s my bedroom, so no one ever goes in there. There was water dripping onto the floor. So, yeah, I did not get to take a nap that day. 

Angie: Oh, I’m sorry.

Izzy: I just wanted to sleep.

Angie: And you wrote a song instead. That’s wonderful. 

Izzy: Honestly, yeah. It’s quite literal, which I feel like I don’t usually do. 

Angie: There was another one that I was really intrigued by. Art Of The Riff, where you talk about a “bad man”. What can you tell me about this song? 

Izzy: I can tell you a couple things. It’s kind of an inside joke to us, because when I say, “bad man, bad man”, it kind of sounds like “Batman”. You’re talking about the superhero that has no powers but is somehow a superhero. 

Angie: Dang, maybe it should have been “Batman”.

Izzy: Maybe it should have been. 

Angie: Maybe you can write another one. That’s about Batman. 

Izzy: Yeah, true. I have a lot of superhero knowledge. Add a little joke or to it, maybe sing about Robin instead.

Angie: That would be fun. Was there anything in particular that inspired you to write that song?

Izzy: I had a bad experience with a pervy realtor. Basically, that’s what it’s about.

Angie: Sometimes you have to turn your pain into art. So, if something happens to you, the best thing that you can do is write about it, which I really understand and I do too. 

Izzy: Yeah, I’m sure you do as a writer. But it’s only that part that’s about that experience; the rest is something else.

Angie: I don’t know if I should ask you about this one, Akoustic. 

Izzy: I know a little bit about the meaning behind it. 

Angie: I really like the first verse. What can you tell me about it?

[If you promised me
A home, a life, a garden
I’d smile and I’d laugh
I’m overreacting]

[…]

[If you promised me
To stop our interactions
I’d cry and l’d scream
I’m overreacting]

Izzy: I know the song is about a breakup where both people mutually agree to walk away from what could have been. 

Angie: I saved my favorite one for last. Ready? My favorite one is Thinker Bell.

Izzy: Oh, my God. I really like Thinker Bell. 

[Take me to December
I did it, I finally did it
And I grieved
And I drank
And I broke the fast and I laughed
With a girl I don’t know
With a girl I’m dreaming of
With a girl I’m a stranger to
With a girl that I still love, love]

Angie: What can you tell me about this song? 

Izzy: Okay. I’m a little shy to tell you this. It’s about a girl. I feel like if she ever reads this article, she’s gonna be like… “what?” So basically… Me and this girl went to New York together for a school project. We had to go to a museum. And it just happened to be Santa Claus Day. It’s the day where everybody dresses up, like Santa Claus, and goes to New York to do a huge bar crawl. But the thing is, both of us had never navigated to New York, and back successfully in our lives ever. And I had a fear of transportation. I had a bad experience on a public bus, and I just never rode the bus again, never went on a train, couldn’t take an Uber for a very long time—years. It was really debilitating. It was really bad. But I was like, “okay, I’m gonna go do this project”. Me and this girl, we both don’t know what we’re doing, but we’ll figure it out, right? And we did. And it was awesome. We made it back safe. We moved it, our little project, and we also had fun. It was very liberating for me to experience that. 

Angie: Would you say that part of your fear of being there went away with her company? 

Izzy: Definitely. Even though you would think this girl also has no clue what she’s doing, it felt comforting.

Angie: You feel less alone when there’s someone you can be clueless with.

Izzy: Exactly, exactly. It’s mostly about that. The song was literally about how I overcame my fear of public transportation with a girl that I am not really friends with, but kind of? She has no clue how big that was for me. Some of the craziest things in our lives are like that.

Angie: So now more into the fun part. Tell me about your favorite release of the year. Was there anything that you particularly listened to throughout 2025 that you inspired “Music for Angels”?

Izzy: I listened to a lot of girl bands, especially summer into fall. All types of girl bands. It didn’t matter. I was just adding them all to my playlists. Slutever, Cherry Glazerr, Scarlett Demore. I listen to a lot of—I honestly don’t know what the genre is. Suzy Sheer. It’s, like, electronic. Very dirty music. Suzy Sheer, Bassvictim…

Angie: What can you tell me about the inspiration for the artwork and the aesthetic of Kouskous Heaven. Someone in the band designs the posters and covers, right?

Izzy: Yeah, Joshua’s the graphic designer. It’s all public domain art that Josh uses, and it converts into two-toned artwork for the band. Usually, we combine multiple elements from different pieces of art. So, in all of our artwork there’s women and natural elements, geometric designs, stuff like that.

Angie: It’s really cool. I really like that it has a grainy texture to it. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s almost not a straight line but cut up. 

Izzy: Yeah, that’s because it takes around a hundred years for art to become public domain. So, the majority of the artists we use are from over a hundred years ago. So, the texture just comes with the image.

Angie: Talk to me about the Chinese phrases.

Izzy: It just looks cool. We’re planning on, you know, diverting into other languages this year. We’ll see what happens, but they are actual translations by a person who speaks Chinese. 

Angie: What does it mean? 

Izzy: I’m not telling you.

Angie: I have to learn Chinese then.

Izzy: Some of them are jokes. Some of them are just random lines pulled out of articles that sound like jokes—just silly things. 

Angie: Well, you told me already that you have some plans to go on tour later this year. I know that you just put out an album, but if you have any upcoming projects that you want to tell me about now is the time.

Izzy: So, we just recorded a video for a tiny desk competition. So, we’re gonna compete in the tiny desk concert. We’re looking to have some more shows in the near future. Outside of New Jersey, like weekenders, in Philly and Delaware. I hear the Philly scene is really good. We want to continue to play local shows as well, but 2026 is going to be a year for branching out in other directions.