[Transcript edited for clarity]

Absent Sounds: What's something you've been sitting with lately, ruminating on?

Mark Grundy: I've been thinking about what it feels like to be an artist right now, in a sort of dying or weird world. What it means to make work in this climate, with all this dark energy around. But also thinking about my friends and the people I love who are doing the same thing.

J. Scott Grundy: For me, I recently became a father. That's new and exciting. Just watching another person come into the world, a big change, a big transition. And it's been really well received, at least so far.

Absent Sounds: The idea of transition, and balancing that with what it means to be a musician right now — it kind of attaches to another question we were thinking about. Improvement, or the idea of improvement, can feel so finicky when everything feels like it's falling apart. What does improvement look like lately for you guys?

Mark Grundy: Well, Scott just mentioned he's a new father, so you're probably seeing improvement on such a daily, granular basis. Someone improving all their motor skills.

J. Scott Grundy: I would say survival more than improvement. But yes, improvement too.

Mark Grundy: Yeah. Sometimes improvement is just feeling like you're moving in a forward-looking direction, whatever that might be. Even the most incremental survival counts.

Absent Sounds: I've been thinking a lot about how I separate time. Like there's an end to something because this thing happened, or this event separates one chapter from another. And with improvement, sometimes you can see tangible progress. But when you can't — are there ways to mark that change is happening, even when you don't necessarily notice it?

Mark Grundy: Before we made our last record, Scott hadn't yet become a dad and I was moving from Toronto, where I'd lived for seven years. It felt like a closing of a chapter. That's what's nice about making work and releasing it — those artifacts serve as reminders, as benchmarks. The work is like little dots on a long line.

Absent Sounds: Endless dots on the timeline. I've also been curious about the album title. Who Died and Made You the Dream — even though there's a question in it, it feels more like a statement. Was it a full stop? A comma? Does the question get an answer?

Mark Grundy: That record is such a question record. It's serving to ask the question. Trying to examine your life from an exterior place. Understanding why you make the choices you make, what expectations no longer serve you. Getting outside yourself and seeing it from different vantages.

Absent Sounds: Did you feel like you got closer to the core of that question through making the album?

Mark Grundy: The album is the question. So I think we got closer to the question.

J. Scott Grundy: It's maybe too early to say. Things get revealed over more time. But definitely still wondering how music can predict, in a roundabout way, what's going to happen. Or reveal something subconscious.

Absent Sounds: I love that music is such a communal thing. When you share it, you're digging into what you're seeking, but the audience has to connect with it too. Do you feel like there's a loss when the audience takes it in and searches for themselves? Not a loss of value, but like you have to give up your own search in a way?

J. Scott Grundy: It's kind of like you free it. When you release the music, it's on its own journey. It's its own person now. It's hard when it's born — when the music is born, it learns to live its own life. You let it fly away from the nest.

Absent Sounds: Your songs are textured in a way where even when you think you understand what's going on, there's a sense of so much layered underneath. How did you figure out what to include?

Mark Grundy: This was a new process for us. We recorded in Victoria and brought in friends we've been collaborating with for a while — Laura Jeffrey and Jen Kovich both played drums, our friend Olivia sang. Scott played some drums too. And we recorded with our friend Austin, and JR Arner mixed it. All new people for a recording context. Every record feels like a new opportunity to add those layers. We probably do have a style, but it's subconscious — the way we approach music comes through no matter who we work with. That's just what the band sounds like.

J. Scott Grundy: There's this one guitar we try to bring on all the albums. It doesn't always make the cut — it didn't come this time. But yeah, it's mostly about trying new things.

Absent Sounds: How does that translate to the live show?

Mark Grundy: The show is always in a constant state of change and experimentation because we're often playing with a rotating cast of people. It's taught me a lot about how to approach playing live. I don't think we've ever played two shows the same.

J. Scott Grundy: And there's not crazy production. It's the bones of the album — just a three-piece band.

Absent Sounds: I think the intimacy of a three-piece translates to the closeness between you. Are you fraternal twins or identical?

Mark Grundy: Identical.

Absent Sounds: We were actually interviewing Bonnie Trash the day before and they're also twins. We were talking with them about trust — the idea that the trust between twins isn't the same as the trust you can expect from other people. You automatically assume that same level, and when others can't meet it, the bar feels too high. What does that look like for you guys?

Mark Grundy: I think you hit the nail on the head. There are a lot of those themes running through our collaborative life. Different kinds of trust at play, different kinds of boundaries. The way you show up as an artist and as a person is always in flux. Working with a twin is going to be totally different from when you bring other people in. And it's been a good thing to learn and grow through — how to collaborate with people, how to learn from them.

J. Scott Grundy: There are probably things I'm leaning on you for that I couldn't even put my finger on. Things I couldn't name.

Absent Sounds: One of the lyrics on the record — "unlimited time for a limited time" — feels like a contradiction. How can you have both? What does that phrase mean for you?

Mark Grundy: I really like that you said tension, because that's the crux of it. There's this swimmy tension, this treading water, where you feel like you could tread water forever until you drown. There's also a song that feels more to do with the tension felt in the body with anxiety — A Little Bit of Space in the Heart Starts Dancing. Unlimited time is more about your mindset. The days are long, but the years are short.

J. Scott Grundy: For me right now my baby is seven months old and it's exactly that. It felt like forever, but also — where did the time go?

Absent Sounds: I've heard that becoming a parent shifts your relationship to your own parents, watching them in a new way. How has your relationship with your family shifted over time?

J. Scott Grundy: Still processing that. They're really happy about it, our parents. Still thinking through my own reflections on it.

Absent Sounds: As you reflect on the past, what feels like the thing that brought you to this moment? Or was it never one thing?

Mark Grundy: It's a butterfly effect. There's no one thing. But Scott has this nice way of talking about choosing the lifestyle of being a musician — not even specific to music, just your passions. People always come back to the things they love. And it's nice when you come to these festivals and you see people you met a decade ago, all part of this tapestry of staying with the thing. I'm inspired by my friends who continue to make work. That's what makes us keep doing this — crossing the border, doing the application, all of it. You're connected to this world.

Absent Sounds: What's your relationship to knowing when to put something down, or to let go?

Mark Grundy: Things just make sense until they don't. Sometimes you're on a trip and you planned to do all this stuff, and then the trip contributes to something else you didn't expect. You know when to stop because stopping is also connected to starting. It's like the ouroboros — the snake eating its own tail. If you're a person who wants to make stuff, you find your way to make stuff and you choose your moments.

J. Scott Grundy: I just feel lucky that we are doing it and can do it. You never know — things can just change.

Absent Sounds: Is there a part of all this that feels the most sacred?

Mark Grundy: It comes back to a version of that trust. You trust your collaborators, you trust the audience, and there are all these ongoing mini social and artistic contracts being inked. And live music — I still take so much from being able to see people play live. It just feels so good. I'm super glad to be part of that.

J. Scott Grundy: Something that's existed for so long. To partake for this little blip is great. No complaints.

Absent Sounds: Last question. Sometimes things live in my gut, sometimes in my brain or my heart. Where does this chapter of Heaven For Real live in your body?

J. Scott Grundy: Feet, for some reason. Like I'm running or walking. There's a forward motion.

Mark Grundy: Mid back. It's pushing me forward. Like a wave breaking, propelling you.