Sylvan Esso on Their Boldest Album Yet—and Why Great Yogurt Is an Underrated Essential

Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn, the duo behind Sylvan Esso, have been crafting their signature low-key electro-pop since 2014, making an immediate impact with their self-titled debut album and the breakout single “Hey Mami.” Over the years, they have continually refined their sound, exploring more atmospheric, fragile textures on Free Love and leaning into danceable, glitchy energy on No Rules Sandy. The pair consistently pushes the boundaries of their music while preserving the qualities that define a Sylvan Esso record.

Their latest album, Ow ∞, released this past Friday, may represent their most daring reinvention to date. Unabashedly nostalgic in tone, it replaces the glitchy modular drums and polished dance production of Free Love with turn-of-the-century breakbeats and distorted guitars. Certain tracks evoke the spirit of bands like Soul Coughing and Blur, particularly on “Hot Slob” and “Concrete Glen.” That said, longtime fans need not worry—there remains no shortage of bleeps, bloops, and modern vocal production techniques to satisfy devotees of their earlier work.

To celebrate the release of Ow ∞, Sylvan Esso sat down for their latest installment of our weekly questionnaire.

What is your most indispensable tool?

Nick Sanborn: My laptop. I’ve been loyal to a series of MacBooks since graduating from high school and genuinely cannot imagine working without one. I am one of those millennials who absolutely refuses to type or do any serious work on a touchscreen.

What is one thing you wish you could change about your phone?

Nick Sanborn: I wish it felt like it cared more about me than its creator.

Amelia Meath: I wish the phone was actually a food replicator. So many problems would be solved.

How many tabs do you have open right now?

Nick Sanborn: Eight, which feels modest compared to my usual ADHD-fueled tab sprawl. No pinned tabs besides email, though—I like a clean slate when I open a browser.

What is your happy place online?

Nick Sanborn: I still frequent a version of the old Monome forum, which generally focuses on programming and instrument design. The people there are excellent, interesting, and remarkably welcoming. It is the only corner of the internet that feels more positive than detrimental to me.

What is your favorite gadget you’ve ever owned?

Amelia Meath: I had a T-Mobile Sidekick that I saved up for in high school. It was the coolest phone I have ever owned. I kept my journal on it.

What game do you have the fondest memories of?

Nick Sanborn: EarthBound—a gorgeous, heartfelt, and quirky JRPG on the Super Nintendo that came out in ’94. It is beautiful and strange and full of humanity. I still play through it every few years.

Amelia Meath: The first Zelda I played was Skyward Sword on the Wii. We lived in a house with a bunch of other people, and we would all hang out and play together. It was a joy and became my gateway into gaming as an adult. There have been so many others I’ve fallen in love with since—Hollow Knight, Blue Prince, Hades—but Skyward Sword was my first love. So much lore.

Which tech trend do you wish would go away?

Amelia Meath: The encouragement of apathy.

What is one thing you wish you had created?

Nick Sanborn: I rarely wish I had made something I already like, since the act of creating it would likely have ruined what it is in the first place. But I have been dreaming about a very specific thing for literal years—an AM/FM radio with an analog tuner that I could control remotely with a computer or sequencer. There are many things out there that come close but not quite, which is maddening. I even tried to get a synth tech I work with regularly to help me prototype one, but it never came to fruition. Finally, last year, a small company in Italy started making one, and about four friends sent me the link in a week—that’s how endlessly I had been talking about wanting one. Of course I ordered it, and it’s good, but I still think it could be better.

Amelia Meath: I wish I had the well. What an incredible claim to fame. “I figured out how to store and save water from the table.” I feel like I could stop trying after that.

What do you do when you need to focus?

Amelia Meath: I go outside and sit. Usually, I have to be writing, so I take my notebook with me. I try to leave my phone inside, but I usually forget!

What do you do when you’re feeling stuck?

Nick Sanborn: I usually find myself stuck when I want something to be good and it just isn’t yet, but I can’t let it go. In that situation, I have to step away and do something completely different and without consequence—like picking up an instrument I haven’t used in a while and making something unrelated as spontaneously as possible. Removing expectations and shifting gears is really helpful for my headspace when I can’t find a way through whatever has me in a loop.

When was the last time you went somewhere without your phone?

Nick Sanborn: About a month ago, I put my phone through both the washer and dryer, destroying it completely and giving me about a week of pure phoneless existence. It was heaven. Highly recommend.

What’s the last piece of physical media you bought?

Amelia Meath: I just bought Sheila Heti’s Pure Colour at a bookstand in Brooklyn. It is a beautiful and incredibly surreal read.

What do you think is worth splurging on?

Nick Sanborn: Yogurt. It’s not even that much of a splurge, but I think good yogurt is utterly transcendent. A deeply underrated delicacy.

What would the tagline for your biopic be?

What’s the last GIF or meme you used?

Amelia Meath: This is also the last GIF I used!!!

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