Ivan & Alyosha

Ivan & Alyosha got together in 2007, playing their first show at Chop Suey in Seattle on 2 July, 2007. Taking roughly a year to write & record their debut EP, The Verse, The Chorus the boys got to spend a few weeks in Los Angeles tracking with Producer Eli Thomson (Richard Swift, Delta Spirit, Sylvie Lewis) & drummer Frank Lenz (Starflyer 59, The Headphones, Richard Swift) in October of 2008. Spending 6 more months on the record, mixing at Avast! 2 in Seattle, then mastering by T.W. Walsh in Boston. The EP was released on 22 October, 2009 via Cheap Lullaby Records. Ivan & Alyosha have flown a bit under the radar in the Seattle music scene since quietly unveiling The Verse, The Chorus. The band hits a sweet spot of anglophilic pop (swaggering tracks that skate between T Rex and Travis—imagine “Driftwood” with less drama and more handclaps. Pure! Pop! Gold!) Jangling guitars and brief spots of falsetto throughout. “Easy to Love,” though, is the unlikely hit, slowly appearing with a muted stomp and a simple acoustic guitar strum, radiating a simple beauty as the line “You’re really easy to love” is repeated over and over again. Then the song disappears just as seemlessly. The Duo played south by south west in 2010 and were selected as one of the highlights by NPR.