sweet93 is making distorted dream-pop to zone out to

Blending honeyed melodies with walls of guitar fuzz and waves of fuzzy distortion, New York-based artist sweet93 is crafting a new dream-pop sound.

Chloe Kohanski loves the physical sensation of being cramped. “I will literally sleep in the corner, up against the wall, to feel that pressure,” the New York-based artist chuckles, gleefully aware of how curious the admission sounds. “Musically, that’s what shoegaze feels like when I listen to it,” she explains, pressing her hands against her sternum by way of illustration.

A self-professed My Bloody Valentine fangirl, Kohanski’s output as sweet93 definitely owes a debt to the scene that celebrates itself. You can trace the lineage through 2024’s What’s True?, where she conjures wave upon wave of warm distortion to smudge its honeyed melody. On the 2023 single Be My Best, that influence manifests itself more forcefully in the barrage of guitar fuzz that comes close to eclipsing her bleary-eyed vocal. By contrast, the swooning dream-pop of Stars Above is redolent of imperial phase Mazzy Star, its woozily soporific guitar line accentuated by the slow shimmer of tambourine and Kohanski’s languid sighs.

At 31, Kohanski’s key reference points largely predate her initial exposure to music. Growing up in a conservative family, 25 minutes outside of Nashville, Britney Spears provided Kohanski’s gateway to secular songwriting, before Fleetwood Mac ignited her ambition to become a musician. She recalls being instantly entranced by the marriage of classic chord structures and Stevie Nicks’ husky tones: “Looking back now, I really needed to hear a female in that space. It taught me that I could create music for my vocal register.”

Delving deeper into Fleetwood Mac’s musical DNA, Kohanski fell hard for the work of devil-dealing bluesman Robert Johnson – a discovery that proved to be the catalyst for her pursuing a career as a singer-songwriter. “The blues is so serious, so personal, so deep, so authentically pure, and I felt an instant connection to that, as someone who has never been able to fake it.” That lesson was rudely reinforced when an early brush with fame left Kohanski feeling completely disconnected from her art. 

Entering the 2017 series of The Voice for exposure, she was stunned to win, but soon felt alienated by the impersonal, endlessly focus-grouped approach to her burgeoning career. She took time to reset and, in 2020, began writing remotely with longtime friend Evan Boutte – a creative partnership that soon blossomed into sweet93. (The name references Kohanski’s year of birth, which she describes as “the year for albums”, citing Radiohead’s Pablo Honey, Slowdive’s Souvlaki and Mazzy Star’s So Tonight That I Might See.)

Kohanski credits 2021’s self-released debut album, All the Same All OK, with helping her reclaim her creative identity. She’s further cemented that vision across a string of stellar singles and atmospheric live shows, including last year’s US tour in support of Porches. With Boutte based in Ohio and Kohanski in New York, sweet93 remains a long-distance collaboration for the time being, largely carried out over protracted speakerphone sessions and snatched voice notes, with Kohanski self-recording her vocals. Picturing her huddled over a mic in the claustrophobic surrounds of her bedroom, you sense she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Sounds like: The nebulous sound of hope (Sandoval)`
Soundtrack for: Zoning out on your cigarette break
Our favourite tune: Stars Above
File next to: Mazzy Star, Slowdive, Beach House
Find them: @sweet93sweet93