Smoosh

In 2002 the indie rock duo Smoosh took shape in Seattle as a tween outfit. Eight-year-old Chloe, whose surname has been withheld, studied at the Seattle Drum School; her instructor Jason McGerr, later Death Cab for Cutie’s drummer, urged her to work with other beginning musicians so she could grasp percussion’s function within rock. Chloe simply returned home and began collaborating with her ten-year-old sister Asya, who had abandoned piano lessons yet was already crafting her own witty, buoyant keyboard pieces. The sisters christened the project Smoosh, cut a demo of Asya’s songs, and soon became fixtures on the local circuit; they performed live on Seattle’s influential KEXP and, from that exposure, opened shows for Death Cab for Cutie, Sleater-Kinney, and Cat Power. After signing with the hometown Pattern 25 imprint, Smoosh enlisted producer Johnny Sangster to make the 2004 debut album She Like Electric. In 2006 the pair joined indie stalwart Barsuk, which issued their second album, Free to Stay, that same year.