The Story of OK Cool
Chicago indie-rock band OK Cool discusses their earliest memories of playing music, the road to OK Cool, and their most recent EP "Fawn"
Chicago band OK Cool is creating an unforgettable blend of emo and indie rock steeped in raw personality, candid observation, and delightfully inventive instrumentation. The duo, composed of bassist/vocalist Haley Blomquist and guitarist/vocalist Bridget Stiebris, began gravitating towards music and performance early on in life while growing up in the suburbs of Chicago.
“This whole world really intrigued me,” said Stiebris, describing her first experience hearing punk music. When she was 13, Stiebris searched for the perfect birthday CD for her brother. She settled on Green Day’s recent album, 21st Century Breakdown. Stiebris recalls, “He never ended up listening to it. I got curious and I ended up listening to it and I was like, 'Wait, this sounds really cool. Like I didn't know music could sound like this.'”
Up until finding Green Day, Stiebris’s music experience was through piano lessons and French horn in school band. Her further exploration of music eventually led to a music school called Rock Academy in the west suburb of Downers Grove where she cut her teeth performing with other young teens at local bars and venues. “I was really, really scared for a long time. Just doing it over and over again, it was so scary. Eventually, after four years of doing that, I obviously worked up some stage confidence and the stage chops and got better at guitar. So it was really what I needed to kind of break the ice there and start figuring out how to feel comfortable on stage,” said Stiebris.
Blomquist’s journey to performing began in third grade when she asked for a guitar for Christmas one year. “I saw it in a store, and I just thought it would be a cool thing to do. I think I saw like a bright green guitar in a store or something and I didn't end up getting that one, but I still was excited and my parents signed up for some music lessons, like once a week, 30 minutes, and that kind of got me kicked off,” said Blomquist.
Similarly to Stiebris, Blomquist attended a music school that encouraged its students to perform at local outings. “The music school I went to did yearly showcases or seasonal showcases, or something like that, where they would put together five or six kids and you just kind of like made a band for the day. Then you get to play at a bar where your parents would pretty much be the only people in attendance. I think that that kind of kicked it off for me that that was the fun part and what made me want to keep doing music lessons.”
Blomquist and Stiebris met later through Facebook, looking to connect as musicians while they were both attending college in Chicago. "Actually, [we met] through that cover band that I was in from the music school. People started to go all their own ways and me and a couple other girls still wanted to do it. So we were looking for a drummer at the time,” said Blomquist. She continues, "I think I just went through like a few musician pages, scrolled and I messaged some people and she was one of the people I reached out to."
Stiebris recalls, “I think that was not only a really good time for me to be in college looking for something new but I think that the internet was really poised to help you do that.”
The two grew their musical chemistry playing in Serendipity’s rhythm section together but were ultimately bonded by their similar personalities. “We kicked it off in that cover band, and I think we got pretty close in just having a similar sense of humor, and then being the rhythm session section. She was the drummer, I was the bass player for that band. So that kind of carried over into the original band that we were in after that, called the Weekend Run Club, where we did bass and drums. I think that just built like a really strong foundation. We also have similar histories of liking emo music and then finding that similar sound in today's stuff. We always listen to each other's thoughts, and listen to songs that we liked on the draft band practices and stuff like that.”
The duo eventually began performing in the band Weekend Run Club and writing original music together. “I just really wanted to do original music at this point in my life,” Stiebris said. “Over the course of that, [I] got really strong with Haley not only as a rhythm section but also we had the most similar interests, the most similar takes in music. I felt that she was really on board for originals too so that was cool to see. We were just good friends at that point.”
OK Cool was originally a product of pandemic boredom, with their first EP, “Surrealist,” dropping shortly after in 2021. “During the pandemic, so 2020, we were really bored and we were in the city and everybody else was in the suburbs of that band [Weekend Run Club.] So we were just kind of fooling around with our own stuff. It just kind of fell into what we’re doing now which is just putting our own songs together as a two-piece,” said Blomquist.
Since its formation in 2020, OK Cool performed at many venues in the Chicagoland area, including Beat Kitchen, Subterranean, and Empty Bottle. Last summer, the band also embarked on a tour throughout the Midwest, hitting cities such as Nashville, Detroit, and Minneapolis, and recorded a live session on Audiotree.
The band has an eclectic bunch of influences that merge together to define OK Cool’s unique inspiration, including Rosie Tucker and Spirit of the Beehive. “I think we have, like, slightly different favorites in different genre fields, but I think that that helps merge and make OK Cool,” said Blomquist. Stiebris specifically cites the weirdness of Alex G as a consistent source of inspiration, stating, “The way that he writes is just so influential to me because he’s not afraid of being weird, and I always want to try to be weirder.”
OK Cool’s 2023 release, “Fawn,” showcases the band refining its sound and establishing itself as a rising songwriting powerhouse. The 17-minute EP is full of poignant observations sown through gritty and biting riffs, with softer acoustic moments present throughout. The duo’s instrumentation blossoms into warm and expansive passages of intricate sound layered behind lyrics relating to the struggles and joys of navigating life in your 20s.
“I think the themes to that one are kind of similar to the album it: being struggling, working, finding time for friends, [and] just keeping alive right now,” said Blomquist.
She continues, “I think jumping from our one before that “Surrealist,” it just felt like we had a little bit better foundation like what we wanted to sound like and what we wanted to lean into more. I think the process was largely the same. We still wanted to record it mainly ourselves, with some help from other people, and then to be very hands on with every step of it. That’s something we’ve always liked because we want to make sure it sounds like how we’re picturing.”
Currently, the group is looking forward to releasing new music soon. “We’re in the works for some new output so that’s been fun, kind of writing back and forth. It’s been a busy year for us so that’s been tough to fit it in but we’re glad that we get to start recording hopefully in the fall,” said Blomquist.
You can catch OK Cool in all their live musical glory at Thalia Hall on December 27th, performing alongside The Courts and Friko.