Torrey siblings to bring shoegaze magic to Make Out Room

Originally published in the SF Examiner on February 28

While the entire musical world might be at our fingertips now, thanks to streaming services and the internet, there are still few better methods of discovering amazing new bands than having a cool older sibling who knows about music.

That time-honored tradition is what led to the creation of Torrey, a band composed of Kelly Gonsalves, his younger sister Ryann and three other members. The band will be playing on Friday at the Make Out Room as part of an album release party for its second full-length record.

“Oh, I definitely got to piggyback off all the hard work that Kelly was doing tracking down music when we were young,” said Ryann Gonsalves, who is four years younger than Kelly. “He was going on all these torrenting websites and making mixes and I would get to benefit from the trickle down of all that. I’d listen to that music, and just be like, ‘My god, this is awesome.’”

Growing up in the East Bay, Kelly said, there was always music playing in the Gonsalves household from bands such as the B-52s and the Cranberries. In the early 2000s, he discovered the albums of indie rock bands such as the Strokes and Wolf Parade, falling further in love with music and inspiring him to pick up the guitar.

Kelly began writing short compositions and sending them to Ryann, who was also exploring music. Eventually, the two started collaborating together, and Torrey was born in 2018. They released an EP in 2019, and their first full-length album, “Something Happy” came out in 2021.

Their latest album, “Torrey,” will debut on March 8, and it features some of the band’s most robust, layered and fully-realized songs to date. The Gonsalves siblings worked closely with Matt Ferrara, lead singer of San Francisco band The Umbrellas, to produce tracks that are teeming with different elements and rich in texture, resulting in gorgeous dreampop and shoegaze creations.

“By the time we were ready to work with [Ferrara] , Ryann and I had these songs that were pretty much complete, but we knew we wanted to add more to them,” said Kelly Gonzalves. “We wanted to include these flourishes and gave him (Ferrera) a lot of creative freedom to include synths and keyboards and maybe some guitar solos. It was important for us to be collaborative in that regard.”

While the first two Torrey albums were self-released, the latest LP is being issued on Slumberland Records, a legendary Oakland label that has long been a champion of local groups.

A collection of ethereal tracks that channel white noise and dissonant feedback into gorgeous, atmospheric landscapes, the new self-titled album evokes much of the great past Slumberland acts, such as Black Tambourine, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Frankie Rose.

Although the songs have disparate elements — scrawling waves of noise with stirring, uplifting melodies — the contrasts work in a strangely compelling way, a reflection of the Gonsalves’ siblings differing, yet complementary approaches.

“Of course we grew up together, but we’re very different people and I think that works in so many positive ways,” said Ryann Gonsalves. “It’s been super interesting to go back and forth with these different ideas and to be discussing different moods and themes. It really turns into this fun, wild-card puzzle, where we balance each other out. Somehow it all works.”

While Kelly typically draws the sonic foundation of each song, Ryann will provide melodies and lyrics. Although Ryann’s lyrics are deeply personal, they’re written in a manner that is more opaque and mysterious, providing opportunities for listeners (even Kelly) to interpret them through their own perspectives.

“I kind of make my own meanings to what Ryann writes,” her brother said. “I’m in the headspace of playing guitar and coming up with chord progressions and when Ryann adds lyrics they take on this different impression for me.”

While the duo were responsible for writing all the songs on the band’s latest album, Torrey has now grown into a five-piece live band, featuring Sinclair Riley on drums, Adam Honingford on lead guitar, and Susie Chinisci on synths and backing vocals.

Now both living in Oakland, Ryann and Kelly are just one more element of a resurgent Bay Area indie rock scene — a tight-knit, cohesive group of acts, many of them which are featured on Slumberland Records (Chime School, The Umbrellas and Papercuts, to name a few.)

“I feel like being on Slumberland is sort of like coming full circle for us,” said Ryann Gonsalves. “One of the first bands I really fell in love with was Veronica Falls, who were signed to Slumberland at the time. To end up on the same label as a band that inspiring, and to be part of this group with so many of our friends — it just feels right.”