San Francisco-based pop-grunge band Chokecherry just played their biggest festival yet – Capitol Hill Block Party.
“We love the music scene in Seattle,” said bassist and singer Scarlett Levinson, noting that the band played at the Seattle Freakout Festival last fall.
“It definitely feels like it’s on a whole new level,” guitarist and singer Izzie Clark chimed in. With Chappell Roan and Remi Wolf headlining, “I think we all said it was the biggest show of our lives so far.”
Levinson and Clark, along with drummer Abri Crocitto, had all been playing in various bands in San Francisco’s DIY scene for years, as well as touring and working on other projects. When they came together under the name Chokecherry, their first single, “Glass Jaw,” was discovered by The Bun 91.3, a Chicago-based artist whose TikTok made their song viral.
“I’ve been playing in bands since I was 17 and Scarlett has been playing in bands for years,” Clark said. “This was the first band that we both really took off with.”
Since then, Chokecherry – named after a native plant that is lethal in some doses – has only released three songs on Spotify at the time of release, but has garnered over 2 million streams on “Glass Jaw” alone and has more than 140,000 listeners a month.
Since then, things have been turbulent.
“We don’t take an hour for ourselves,” Levinson said, noting that they had just taken their first break after spending 24 hours a day shooting a music video and being on the road, followed by a night shoot for shoe brand Jeffrey Campbell and a rehearsal the next day.
Chokecherry drew a crowd at the Capitol Hill Block Party, performing what they describe as “shoegaze bubble grunge” with a strong ’90s influence on the Coke studio stage. But in addition to their popular singles, they also played several unreleased songs.
“We’re just moving so fast that I feel like we’re constantly recording stuff,” said drummer Crocitto, noting that they’ve decided to stagger the releases.
“We’re just really busy touring and spending so much time on one song that we’d like to take really good care of it,” Clark said.
However, Levinson said Chokecherry will release an EP on October 25, as well as two more singles this summer. The band’s latest single, “Afterglow,” was just released in June.
“There’s music in the works coming soon – it’s happening,” Levinson said. “And so ‘Afterglow’ was the first in a series, and we’re really excited to share music with you. So, we have stuff in the works, we promise.”
Follow Chokecherry here!
Kelly Stroh is a freelance writer for Seattle Refined. Find more of her work here.
