THE PRESS RELEASE: “The Ophelias were still in high school when they first found community in one another. Guitarist/lyricist Spencer Peppet (she/her), drummer Micaela Adams (he/him), and violinist Andrea Gutmann Fuentes (she/her) linked up in 2015 and quickly developed their distinctive baroque rock sound by enveloping Peppet’s incisive songwriting in experimental arrangements that bounce between playful and haunting. Since then, the Cincinnati band has released the critically acclaimed LPs Creature Native (2016) and Almost (2018), and criss-crossed the country multiple times over on tour. While doing so, they’ve added longtime music video director Jo Shaffer (they/them) to their ranks as their bassist, found homes in Ohio and New York, and ditched their former “all-women” descriptor in proud recognition of the trans and non-binary makeup of the group. Their new EP captures the band evolving together in the best of ways. On the sweeping, driving Grand Canyon, Peppet dreams of contact with apparitions of old friends and departed poets. Lunar Rover reimagines the Almost fan favorite in the context of quarantine — ruminating on long-distance connection from the surface of the moon. The mechanical rhythms and cutting lyrics of Bad Enough explore the self-doubt that looms over periods of intense transition. On Both Sides Now, the band uses the classic Joni Mitchell tune to reflect on how much they’ve grown since their inception. The Ophelias are changing in sound, location, and gender — but their camaraderie is strong as ever.”
