“I can’t tell you why we changed our name, but I can say that we were in a situation where we had to,” Lee-Rodriguez says. It’s their first album under the new name up until 2018, they’d been known as People Like You. It’s their third full-length release, but it doubles as a freshly focused declaration of the artistic direction the band has been honing over the past seven years, unpacking the complexities of identity and culture. The band’s upcoming self-titled album, which comes out March 12, makes that especially clear. Any blunt description, comparison or otherwise, is bound to fall flat. It’s a lot of sound from a lineup of just four people, rounded out by drummer Sander Bryce and one-man brass band Matt Hull, but for Really From, that intricacy is everything. And then there are the vocals, an exploration of contrasts - brash and serene, jagged and smooth - split between Lee-Rodriguez and keyboardist Michi Tassey. They’re working toward something more ambitious, expansive and turbulent, layering synth, trombone and flugelhorn with ambient gusts and complex drums. Their point of frustration is less about the sound itself and more about the way the comparison sometimes feels like it implies a trajectory, influences and aims that have little to do with the band’s own. “When music writers compare us to them, I always feel like it’s lazy because you hear some clean guitars and a trumpet and some, like, sad vocals.” Really From's vocalist-guitarist Chris Lee-Rodriguez. “I understand why people compare us to American Football, but I can’t tell you the name of another song besides ‘Never Meant,’” says vocalist-guitarist Chris Lee-Rodriguez over a Zoom call, a note of protest in his voice. Ever since 2017’s “Verse,” they’d found themselves on the receiving end of a steady stream of comparisons to the band American Football. As a self-described “indie jazz” band signed to Topshelf Records - an independent record label best known for its emo-adjacent output - they still tended to land on rock bills more than anything else, and somewhat to their chagrin, the “emo” tag was starting to stick. It wasn’t exactly a traditional jazz club, but it was the biggest room the Boston-based foursome had ever played, and it was an actual jazz show, which came as a welcome change of pace. This story is part of The ARTery’s Sound On series, highlighting rising local musicians. It would be the clubbiest of nightclubs on a different night, a velvet-ropes-and-bottle-service scene, but on this particular Monday in February of 2020, the 1500-capacity space was attempting a slightly more low-key atmosphere. The last time Really From took the stage, they were playing a dream gig: opening for superstar saxophonist Kamasi Washington at Big Night Live, the glitzy new venue that had opened in the Seaport just months before.
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