The vocalist and guitarist of Denver indie-rock outfit Unicorn Hits is surgeon-like when it comes to breaking down his process. His overarching goal? To construct “sonic spaces” and “washing” audiences in contorted guitars.
“There are a lot of alternate tunings, and I’m continuing to dive into those,” Grobelny says. “I’m now up to three separate guitars just to handle all the tunings and not make people watch me re-tune on stage.”
Such preparation typically takes months, if not years, at this point.
“It’s fun and kind of long,” he adds. “I’ll sit down specifically with one of the three instruments and play with the tunings just to sit with the sound of the instrument for like hours and fidget with it and watch it grow in a little Petri dish in my living room.”
But the “most important” part, he says, is bringing his homegrown formulations to the band, which currently includes Suzi Allegra (bass), Eric Thompson (guitar and noise) and Deshawn Johnson (drums). “The songs very much are a musical puzzle that I rely on the other people in the band to help solve,” Grobelny explains.
“When they bring their authentic voices into it and we all put it together, that’s when it sounds like us,” he continues. “You can hear influences, but the hope is to have a band personality come out in that process.”
Then once the music is released into the world, Grobelny hopes Unicorn Hits helps listeners “connect with the dark and weird corners of themselves” and “be good with it.”
Unicorn Hits will try to do just that on Saturday, April 20, during an EP-release show at Skylark Lounge. Local openers Tonguebyte, Holographic American and Soneffs are also on the bill.
The 4/20 gig is sponsored by Herban Underground dispensary, which is offering a 15 percent discount through April 22 to anyone who mentions the concert. Zines filled with collages created by Grobelny and complete with a download code will be available as well.
With a new EP in tow, Unicorn Hits is set to melt minds during a 4/20 release show.
Courtesy Unicorn Hits
The release “took a little bit longer than I was hoping,” Grobelny says. But the inclusion of a physical zine allowed Unicorn Hits to offer a more “multimedia experience” and “bring in the visual things that I’ve been chewing on over the past year,” he shares.
“I was just casting about thinking about releasing it digitally,” Grobelny adds. “I wanted something more interesting to give people and chew over the way that you can look at an album sleeve. … It’s fun to pull all those things together.”
While Unicorn Hits is inspired by alt-rock groups such as Sonic Youth, the project is also infused with Grobelny’s own journey of gender identity, which began in 2021 around the same time the group got together.
“It was a process. This thing kicked off midway through the pandemic,” he says. “I was starting to think about I wanted to play music out again and be more active. At the same time, I was coming into my own as far as gender identity. This is a way to use the curation of a band to also be my coming-out process.”
When it comes to Unicorn Hits lyrics, however, Grobelny doesn’t “write a ton about gender identity and stuff like that.
“It’s just all part of it. It’s all coming together,” he continues. “For me, it’s just one more aspect of producing sound live for people.”
Sometimes, he admits, “being trans-fronted and being an art-rock outfit feels like swimming against a couple of streams simultaneously, but it’s just what’s in my bones and in my writing.”
In that way, Grobelny and Unicorn Hits are bringing visibility to the LGBTQ+ community with what they like to call “queer rock and roll.”
“I’m happy that there’s a space for it in Denver,” he says.
After the release show, Grobelny and his bandmates plan to busy themselves with writing and releasing more original material throughout the year, and potentially a new EP, while playing out more locally. Grobelny aims to make Unicorn Hits more collaborative, as well, by teaming up with different artists and seeing how such creative partnerships morph the band. “I’m thinking about bringing in other songwriters, other players, having different formations of the band,” he says.
Doing so, he believes, would “allow the songs to breathe in different ways and in different settings.”
For example, “smaller venues are more intimate-feeling than the blown-up, Sonic Youth-y rock-and-roll set, which doesn’t connect with everybody,” Grobelny continues.
Until then, you can always drop in wherever Unicorn Hits pops up and check out the ever-evolving live set.
“People can generally expect to get a good washing in a lot of distorted guitars,” Grobelny concludes. “Hopefully some chewy bits. The goal is to get lost in the moment together and sit in sound.”
Unicorn Hits, 7 p.m. Saturday, April 20, Skylark Lounge, 140 South Broadway. Tickets are $15.
