Our chat with the Philadelphia alt folk duo at this summer’s Green Man Festival.

@ (pronounced ‘at’) are steadily becoming one of the most essential new voices in alternative folk. Across 2023 debut album ‘Mind Palace Music’, and its more electronic facing follow-up EP ‘Are You There God, It’s Me’, @, the Philadelphia-based duo have made it their duty to seemlessly blend gorgeous, timeless melodies with the confusion and dread of the modern age. With two trips to the UK now under their belt, as well as recent news of their signing to 4AD records, we cannot wait to hear what’s next.

In the last of our quickfire Q & As from this summer’s Green Man Festival, we caught up with Stone Filipczak and Victoria Stone, squeezing what we could about any upcoming music, and also what their favourite ice cream flavour is…

So you’re in the UK, what’s the tour been like so far?

Stone: We played in London last night, and we sold that out.  We played in Dublin before that. We sold that out. That was our first time in Ireland. And then before that we were in Switzerland. St. Gallen. we played a festival in the mountains. it was very beautiful.

How do these mountains compare?

Stone: These ones are a little smaller I’d say, but they’re really incomparable. This is a whole different type of mountain. These ones are bald on the top which is very special.

What about the Swiss mountains? Do they have trees on?

Stone: Yep, they have pine trees all the way up.

What memories do you have of coming to the UK for the first time?

Stone: It’s great. People love music here.

Victoria: Turn on BBC 6 radio, and you hear music that would never air on mainstream radio. It’s amazing.

Stone: The first song we heard on the radio when we turned it on in the car, it was this band Snõõper, friends of ours from America. That blew our gourds clean off.

What stations would play Snōōper in the US?

Stone: College radio, maybe, if you’re lucky. It was quite the surprise.

It’s been a while since we last heard recorded stuff from you guys. Can you tell us anything?

Stone: It’s going to sound great. It’s almost done.

One adjective maybe?

Victoria: [long pause] errr…

Stone: True. It’s all true. There’s no lies in it.

I’ll take that. What was the last song you listened to?

Stone: I put on Agriculture in the car. They’re a band I like from L.A. Everybody check out Agriculture.

What are your plans for the rest of the year?

Victoria: We’re gonna finish the record. Play some shows in the U.S, north-east, midwest. Then we’re gonna chill, I think.

Stone: Finish the album and chill.

Now it’s time for the bag of random questions! Most threatening punctuation?

Stone: Right now, everybody’s threatened by the ChatGPT hyphen. I’ve forgot the name for it…

Victoria: The dash?

Stone: The Em dash I think it’s called. There’s all this discourse online about how if you use Em Dashes, you’re giving yourself away as a ChatGPT user. So I don’t know, if you really want to know the most threatening punctuation, that’s my pick.

Now for the question randomiser! How many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?

Victoria: 7.

Any higher bids?

Stone: [A long pause] No.

Victoria; I think 7 is right?

If your band was an ice cream flavour, which one would it be?

Stone: I think we both know right? Black Raspberry. 

Victoria: [nods in agreement]. It’s good. It’s really good.

If you could only shower in one fizzy drink, what would you choose?

Stone: I would choose Kombucha, a nice mint kombucha.

Victoria: Something like that…

There’s gonna be some untapped health benefits. What if you like shower in ginger shot? It’s not fizzy, but I wonder what would be like

Victoria: It would burn? I’d shower in seltzer water.

Stone: That’s a good answer. That’s the Utilitarian answer.

Do you even lift?

Stone: I do a little bit.

How much?

Stone: Mostly just like, body weight, as much as I weigh, and I don’t know what that number is.

Least favourite colour.

Victoria: Teal.

Stone: Teal’s your least favourite colour?

That was really quick.

Victoria: Yeah. I just know it.

Stone: If I had to choose one. It would be a shade of yellow. Baby Poop Yellow. Little bit of green too.