There are quite a few similarities between Freckles and Chorus Truly. Both are relatively new rock bands fronted by songwriters who moved to St. Louis after positive first impressions about the city and local music community. Freckles, with keyboard-driven indie pop, and Chorus Truly, with strong melodies and a profound ‘80s jangle influence, will now team up with a dual release party at CBGB on March 21 alongside The Vanilla Beans and Cootie Catcher from Toronto.
Zo Talkin of Chorus Truly had stopped through the River City on multiple tours with various bands before they ever considered moving to St. Louis. Born in Virginia and raised in Massachusetts, Talkin started performing live after moving to Philadelphia.
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“We played here in 2017 on tour, made a few friends on my way, and came through in 2019 on a road trip,” Talkin says. “During both of those visits, I found St. Louis to be charming. I really liked the architecture in particular. I was really drawn by that and the parks. People were welcoming. So when I was applying to grad school, that was one of the considerations.”
Chorus Truly started shortly after Talkin relocated to St. Louis in 2023. “I did my first couple of shows with backing tracks and played by myself, but it didn’t create a very substantial sound,” Talkin says.
It was Martin Meyer, Soup Activists band leader and Inscrutable Records head, who suggested the idea of a full band, including himself behind the drum set. The four piece started playing live in 2025 after bassist T.J. Pearson (also an occasional Soup Activist) and guitarist Pete Millar joined up.
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“I played with Martin several times [when I lived] in Philly. He actually kind of bullied me into [the live band],” Talkin jokes. Despite their prior touring experience, Chorus Truly is the first time Talkin has played their own songs and worked as the de facto bandleader.
“Typically, I’ve been in a supporting role of somebody else’s project or in a more collaborative project,” says Talkin. “I actually started playing in bands in 2015 because my best friend Betty’s bass player suddenly dropped out of her band and moved to California and she asked, ‘Do you want to learn how to play bass in three weeks and come on tour?’”
While still getting used to being front and center, Talkin is also “really ecstatic and proud to have a band behind me. It feels affirming and exciting to be supported by people in doing my music. I think we have a great time playing together, just hanging out with friends.”
Chorus Truly’s new release is a six-song cassette titled Chorus Truly Is As Real As You Are, recorded with Mikey Crotty (who is filling in for Millar at the CBGB show). Five of the tape’s songs originally appeared on Talkin’s Bandcamp as part of a late 2024 demo titled Live at Lemp.
As Real As You Are is coming out digitally via the Gentle Reminder + Home Late label out of Baltimore, but in true DIY form, Chorus Truly will be handling the physical release—that means dubbing the tapes individually and printing and cutting all the covers. The band also has new songs in the works and a short midwest tour planned for later in the spring, provided they can work around everyone’s work, travel, and touring schedules.
“I would like the audience to take from [our band] that you can do it,” Talkin says. “It was after so many years of playing in other people’s bands before I realized I can start my own band if I want to. You just have to do it. And that’s the hardest part, but also it’s simple in this weird way.”
For Freckles singer and guitarist Noah Yacyshyn, the path to St. Louis began through a serendipitous message from a local cassette tape label in 2016.
At the time, Yacyshyn was living in their native Florida and putting out music through their own label, Viridian Sounds. One day, Washington University alumnus Jordan Weinstock reached out to propose a collaboration with It Takes Time Records, a collective that Yacyshyn worked with remotely for a year and a half.
“During that time, I got priced out of living in Florida. And Jordan was just like, ‘Come visit me in St. Louis.’ In the space of three days I met a bunch of people my age still doing stuff,” Yacyshyn says. Once settled in town, they noticed “there was always something for everyone every weekend. There are just so many random, strange things that if you want to find the community that grows there, you can.”
Yacyshyn had already started making music as Camp Counselor while in Florida. In 2017, after watching an episode of The Bachelorette with a friend, Yacyshyn was inspired to write and record an EP about the reality show. It Takes Time released the set of songs as Rose Ceremony and, after relocating to St. Louis, Camp Counselor became a performing band with a revolving lineup. Then COVID hit, and they stopped writing new songs for several years.
“I went through this loss of identity. What is important to say? What is it my voice is for? Especially in the pandemic, I was really struggling to figure it out. I just didn’t feel like I had anything to say,” Yacyshyn says.
Then, in March 2024, Yacyshyn’s mother was diagnosed with cancer and passed away shortly thereafter. While grieving, Yacyshyn began writing songs again. “[The songs] felt so important to me that I felt it was a waste to not try to share them in some way,” Yacyshyn says. “I think every creative can feel the way your creativity ebbs and flows, and it can just have a drought. And for years I had nothing.”
When putting a new band together, one of the first people Yacyshyn contacted was drummer Ryan Stakes of Bleach Balta, as they had played together before COVID and wanted to collaborate again. Delia Rainey, best known for the long-running indie-folk outfit Dubb Nubb, performs keys and vocals, while bassist Elliott Smith rounds out the four piece alongside Yacyshyn on lead guitar and vocals.
Freckles’ cassette release is a four-track EP titled DEMOS recorded at home by Stakes. It’s the first release on a new, currently unnamed cassette label Yacyshyn is working on alongside local artist and musician Chelsi Webster.
“On the EP, we have this song where I really yell and shout, and I don’t have a lot of space in my life where I’m allowed to really yell like that. So it’s really powerful every time we get to do it, because there’s no limit,” says Yacyshyn. “I think, as a non-man in this world, there are so many constraints on what expression should look, sound or feel like. This band really lets me step out of my comfort zone without even realizing I’m doing it, because of the love and grace that I get from my bandmates.”
