Meet the band: Closebye shares what drives their sound

The New York-based band Closebye opened for Lunar Vacation at 926 Bar & Grill, moving through their set with the kind of ease that only comes from knowing exactly what they’re doing. The group moved between dreamy, captivating sounds to louder bursts of indie rock, building a set that felt intimate without ever becoming subdued.

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There’s texture everywhere in their sound: guitars folding into one another, percussion pushing the songs forward, and vocals that feel almost suspended over the noise. Under the lights of 926, surrounded by amps and cables, Closebye looked completely at home.

“We all have some pretty clear visions on what we want things to sound like,” Closebye bassist Margaux Bouchegnies said to the FSView. “It was a success. I felt good about how it came out.”

Closebye opens, learns from Lunar Vacation

Closebye and Lunar Vacation had never met before this tour, but the pairing quickly became one of the easier parts of life on the road.

“A lot of times when you tour with another band, you don’t know them at all before,” singer-songwriter Jonah Smith said to the FSView. “They could be anybody.”

This time, the uncertainty worked out in their favor.

The tour itself has also been a welcome change of pace, with a previous run taking them as far north as Vancouver and as far south as Orlando in less than three weeks; however, touring alongside the same band night after night has also become its own kind of education.

“When I see another band play night after night, I’m definitely taking notes,” drummer Simon Clinton said to the FSView.

Closebye said they’ve been particularly inspired by Lunar Vacation’s transitions and tight vocal harmonies, something they’ve been thinking about more in their own set. It’s another small glimpse into the way Closebye seems to operate: confident in what they’re doing, but still paying attention to what’s happening around them.

That balance came through clearly at 926. Their set felt polished without losing its spontaneity, moving from slower, more grounded moments into a livelier closing stretch.

At 926, Closebye gave Tallahassee a look at a band in motion: spectacular songs, their own production, and finding the space to enjoy themselves within their work.

Meet the band

Watching Closebye perform, it quickly became clear that each member had mastered their own instrument, creating space for the band to instead focus on each other and the music itself. Closebye never felt like four musicians independently executing their parts; at 926, they were in constant harmony with each other.

“All four of us are really close friends,” Jonah Smith told the FSView after the show. “We’re all in it together.”

They described Closebye as a “true band,” and told the FSView that the synergy and togetherness audiences see onstage are a part of what they want to invite listeners into. For Closebye vocalist Jonah Smith, performing also provides something more personal.

“It kind of feels like the noise goes away,” Jonah Smith said to the FSView. “I’m just fully present.”

That sense of presence carried through the set, particularly in “No Troubles Left At All,” one of the two newest releases from the band alongside “Ann Arbor.”

The title sounds almost impossibly optimistic for a band spending weeks on the road, where the general unpredictability of touring is part of the routine. Closebye is aware of the irony.

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“There’s a lot of faking it,” Jonah Smith said.

Still, Jonah Smith said that performing the song allows its sentiment to feel true, at least temporarily. Playing live becomes a brief escape from everything outside the room; a moment where things can, in fact, feel okay.

“It does feel really kind of liberating,” Jonah Smith said.

Closebye finds room for experimentation

That freedom also showed itself in smaller, more unique moments throughout the night. Near the end of the set, Closebye guitarist Julian Smith picked up a drumstick that had been left sitting on an amplifier and used it as a slide on his guitar.

“The drumstick happened to be sitting on an amp tonight,” Julian Smith said to the FSView. “It was time for it.”

He added another explanation: “My dad critiques my guitar, so I’ve been trying to think of ways to reinvent it.”

“It’s all because of father pressure,” Clinton said. “That’s what drives this band.”

The joke reflected something already obvious from watching them play: Closebye takes its music seriously without appearing overly protective of it. There’s room in the set for experimentation, improvisation, and the occasional drumstick-turned-guitar-slide.

The band’s move towards independence

That experimentation has also started extending beyond the stage.

Both “No Troubles Left At All” and “Ann Arbor” mark the first time Closebye has produced its own music, a shift that has given the group more control over where its sound goes next. The band told the FSView that taking that step towards independence was less about rejecting outside help and more about learning to trust their own instincts.

For young artists trying to figure out when they’re “ready” to take greater ownership of their work, Closebye’s approach seems clear: sometimes the biggest sign is already knowing what you want the song to be.

Their growing independence didn’t stop at production, with Bouchegnies also directing the music video for “No Troubles Left At All.”

Tallahassee also got a glimpse of music that’s not yet out on streaming platforms. Midway through the set, Closebye played “Exorcist,” an unreleased track that’s expected to appear on the band’s upcoming album. It’s one of several unreleased songs the band has already worked into their live shows.

“We have a history of playing unreleased material for a long time and then putting it out,” Jonah Smith said.

That can make performing new material nerve-wracking at first, but this tour has changed the stakes slightly as many people in the crowd are discovering Closebye for the first time.

Daniela Mendoza is a Staff Writer for the FSView & Florida Flambeau, the student-run, independent online news service for the FSU community. Email our staff at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on FSU News: Meet the band: Closebye shares what drives their sound

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Reporting by Daniela Mendoza, Staff Writer, FSView / FSU News

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This story was originally published September 21, 2026 at 1:18 PM.