At the onset of the summer’s first heat wave, the beat and the vocals were heating up inside as a new project took the de facto stage in a backroom hookah lounge.
The band Always Morning was performing on WNHH FM’s live-performance “Tuesdays @ the Mediterranea Cafe” on Orange Street.
“Crawling home to me once more, missing pieces from the story of your night before,” lead singer Juliana Rivera accused the partner in “I’ve Been Waiting,” the group’s newly released debut single.
“The hole in my heart I’ll ignore / but where were you when I was right outside your fucking door?”
The song is about literally waiting for a partner after they’ve been out all night, who knows where with who knows who. It’s painful, forged in the moment where hurt becomes reflexive anger, and heavy rhythms and an enrapturing guitar solo drive the message home.
Always Morning formed in 2023, but they’re not new performers. Guitarist Brian Hewitt and drummer Charlie Hewitt are brothers, and they credit their musical chemistry to growing up together.
“We’ve been playing music together for a decade,” Charlie said. They used to listen to a lot of math rock and artists like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Led Zeppelin. They’re close, but “we still butt heads,” Charlie said, laughing.
They played with Rivera in another band, before realizing that they all had the same “direction” and could make something else together.
At first they performed covers at live shows. But when Cafe Nine asked them to perform in January of this year, they decided to give making original music a go. They met Gager Collier, who plays bass in a few different bands, at that same Cafe Nine performance and he later joined the group. Collier, a student at Southern Connecticut State, also brought with him his musical education. He’s been a useful addition to the band’s jams, which often start with Charlie playing a beat, Brian playing a riff, and either Brian or Rivera hopping in with vocals to create a song.
No matter how intense the music can get, Always Morning is always having fun. On “I’ve Been Waiting,” the music video the band shot is full of them running, scootering, skateboarding around Rivera’s neighborhood in Milford, on the beach. There’s a great shot of all four of them at the end, sitting on a twisty slide together in the sun, their faces serious.
The band didn’t kick off their set at Mediterranea with the debut single — that came later. They kicked it off with “Sox.”
“Once again, I got that funny feeling / when the lights go on at every bar,” Rivera sang. “Party’s over but I’m left reeling / can’t help wondering where you are.”
Despite the crashing of cymbals and rapid drumming, it’s a sweet, vulnerable song about having a crush on someone, maybe seeing them too much (“treat me like you haven’t seen me every weekend”) but asking them to come over anyway.
“Baby please, leave your shoes at the door,” Rivera sang, full force. “You can leave your socks on if you want to.”
For “Sox,” Collier played a four-string bass, even though he switched to a five-string one for the rest of the set. This is because, although the five-string has a better range of sound, the four-string was better for slapping. The resulting bassline gave the song a subtle, but pivotal, funk through-line.
The band has a range of musical influences. Charlie and Brian reiterated their love for Led Zeppelin and funk, while Collier brings with him his extensive background playing and listening to jazz fusion, metal, and hard rock.
When I listened to Always Morning, I heard a sound that reminded me of pop-punk/rock band Paramore, in large part thanks to Rivera. She agreed and named the band as an influence. It made sense to me — both she and frontwoman Hayley Willians shared an impressive vocal range and similarly smooth voices, and both were undeniably rockstars. But Rivera has her own sound, one that cuts through, and Always Morning pulls from all over the musical ether.
The band changed things up with their next songs, just as rich in emotion but completely different in tone. First was “Casket Boy,” a slow ballad about the death of a lover. I couldn’t tell if it was figurative or literal, but it didn’t matter — the song was tragic either way. It was one of the first Rivera wrote on her own, and then shared with the band.
“Sunday mornings make me nervous / and so does Jesus, so does service,” Rivera sang to Brian’s atmospheric guitar playing, her eyes closed. “And you said that God isn’t real.”
“Little boy, open casket / where did it go wrong?” she asked, and then later, about his mother, “I wish she didn’t think it was her fault.”
Although Charlie and Collier let Brian’s guitar and Rivera’s vocals mostly take the front seat (until a moving, consuming build-up at the end), they were back in full force for “Hurricane Love.” It was a duet between Rivera and Brian that was a sweet, breezy love song, but it didn’t hold back on any of the strong instrumentation that had been backing the vocals the entire set. It was the moment of return to someone you love — both euphoric and pleading.
“So much has changed since we were young,” the two sang together, then later, finally, recognition, like a reprieve, “Hey, so that’s what that feels like.”
“Everything has changed,” Brian sang, while Rivera responded, “Some things can be simple, just meet me in the rain.”
But the band had to bring it back around at the end for their showstopper: Barb Dwyer (read: barbed wire), a song that Brian introduced as “safe and sweet” before shaking his head and mouthing, “No, it’s not!”
The band geared up and pulled out all the stops for a major tonal shift. Charlie’s drumming carried Brian’s guitar rock riffs and Rivera’s belting. She tossed her hair as she danced.
“Begged me to let her in my room / I knew right then there that I was doomed,” she sang.
“I obeyed and never asked for more / ’til her husband kicked down my front door.”
After a thrashing guitar solo, Rivera sang, “Hold him down / grab the gun / Barbara, you are so much fun.” The band kept rocking out, and eventually, the song ended with a drum solo. It was satisfying to feel the song, and the set, end at such a high, after the band already played full force for its entire duration.
The band, who were all smiles after their set, left us with our ears ringing and waiting for more. It’s coming. Always Morning is releasing their self-titled EP on July 19, and it’s going to be a powerhouse of a project. Listeners can expect to dance, to feel angry, to be sad, vulnerable. There’s no doubt it’ll be fun.
If your band is interested in performing on Tuesday @ the Mediterranea Cafe, reach out through the “Email the Author” form above.
Previous “Tuesday @ the Mediterranea Cafe” performances: