If you stop and pay close enough attention, you’ll find that Indianapolis is really enjoying a resurgence of relevant local music. Acts like Everything, Now!, The Delicious, Grampall Jookabox among many others are gaining attention outside of the Circle City and showing that there’s some fantastic talent in the Midwest. There’s no doubt that the next name on that list is We Are Hex.

The quartet of Jilly Weiss, Brandon Beaver, Trevor Wathen and Matt Hagan can’t stop writing – even long enough to promote their own album. But the music speaks for itself – a carefully constructed mix of dark psych elements, a slight club feel and indie rock constructs that could make Gloom Bloom the best local record released this year.

The members of We Are Hex recently answered some of our questions. And don’t miss their upcoming listening party at Lockerbie Pub on Thursday at 9pm and release show at the Melody Inn the next night. Details forthcoming here at Indy.com.

What’s the anticipation level before a CD release show for you guys?

Jilly: It’s sorta strange. I suppose we should be practicing the songs that are on the record to get ready for the release show, but we’ve just continued writing songs. We actually tried to stop writing for a minute since we’re a little overwhelmed with trying to design ads, book and promote a tour, flyer, etc. But almost every time we try to practice, we end up making something, even if it’s just a piece of a song.

For example, last week our friend Nate shot some video footage. We meant to play a couple songs off the record, but playing a song that was already written, plus the artificial feeling of playing to a camera, wasn’t working. It didn’t feel sincere. Nate was patient with us as we decided to just let the tape roll and see what happened if we worked on a song that we had written just the night before. Since we were doing something that wasn’t already fleshed out I think we got lost in it more. Anyways, it turned out well. It feels real.

So I got off track, but my point is I think there is less anticipation than there would be if we were just laying back waiting for the show. Instead, we’re writing new stuff, throwing new tracks up on our blog, working on a couple of covers, booking, promoting… oh, and we need to clean the Haus, like really bad.

Brandon: For Gloom Bloom I think its a little different from any other record I’ve been a part of releasing. Lots of songs and a whole record were passed on to finally get what we wanted, and that finished piece is Gloom Bloom. It’s also a little different because we recorded this record ourselves, and it’s the exact sounds, tones, noises, and drones we wanted. That’s new to me. I guess I feel somewhat calm for the moment since it’s finished. We will play some shows and tour as much of the summer as we can. Then we get back and put finishing touches on a few other releases coming out before the end of summer, as well as finish the next full-length. So the goal is to keep our anticipation level as a band in the red all the time.

I read where you recorded dozens for this album. How many is that exactly?

Jilly: I think we could have put out a couple records. Some of them are pieces of songs that we might go back to. Others are pretty cool tracks, but they didn’t fit with the rest. I think others will appear on the blog randomly. I don’t know. We keep writing so I’m not sure we think about many of those old songs too much.

Immediately after we finished the record, we wanted to do something completely different, so we started on the EP that became Various Sounds, Songs, and Furs. It was a totally different process. We didn’t really write the songs, we built them. Someone would do something and someone else would layer over it. We used instruments we hadn’t before. We collaborated on vocal parts more. We spent a lot less time on it than Gloom Bloom and I think it comes across as sort of a lonely moment in time, an impression. It felt important to just create it, get it out, and not over-think it. We didn’t want to get stuck, how some bands do after their first record. We’re not going to over analyze what we do, we’re just gonna keep creating songs. Ah, Brandon, you can better explain how we want everything we do to be different…go.

Brandon: I bet somewhere around 30 songs/pieces were wrote for the Gloom Bloom collection. We constantly write and hash out ideas though, and just because a song is recorded and released, doesn’t mean the song is finished. Just because songs did not make it to the record doesn’t mean they were not good enough. It just means that at the time we sat down together and decided that this batch of 13 tracks worked best together. Now a month or six years from now will I feel the same? Doubtful, but that’s why they make deluxe editions.

What were you looking for specifically in the songs that you choose versus those left out?

Brandon: I think the songs that we worked on a lot, or songs that we thought were going to turn out really well, are the songs we passed on, to be honest. We wanted the songs that came easy and that wrote themselves. The recording needed to capture the instant the song was made and we wanted everyone to hear the spontaneous parts and the improvised parts. The idea of the song being perfect, or even finished for that matter, was never in our heads. We wanted songs where there just happened to be a microphone in the room recording at the time we played.

Trevor: We started writing the album after about two practices, and had about four or five months of writing done by the time we started recording. We picked our favorite songs and began re-recording. We had a few songs that were recorded during practices, but other songs were completely re-tracked. We wanted the album to have this organic movement to it. It wasn’t about becoming the next big thing, trying to be the “cool” band, or trying to sound like so and so. That is pointless and self-indulgent, but it seems to be the trend right now in Indy. Too many bands want to play whatever is cool at the time, and I think the lack of originality in the Indy scene shows. We all worked on this record without the idea that anything would come of it except that we would make a record together. I think our goal was to do whatever we felt like doing and we did.

One album project was totally scrapped, correct? What’s the story behind that?

Jilly: I think writing that first record was an important part of the band we became, but the record itself isn’t important. I honestly think we’ll like it someday, but we also knew that we could do better. We posted some songs off of it on our blog just for the sake of honesty….it wasn’t bad, really! [Laughs]

But after we spent a year on that first record we changed the lineup around. We added Matt and Trevor and everything fell into place. I know that sounds like I’m making it too easy, but really, that’s what happened. When we all started playing together, the sound defined itself. I could never explain how we write songs. I really want to videotape it, so that I know, but that would probably ruin it. Everyone just does their own thing. Everyone writes their own parts. There is no ego, no dominant songwriter. It’s amazing. I feel really lucky to be a part of it.

Brandon: We made that first record and spent a lot of money and time on it, but it wasn’t what we wanted. The band was in a strange place at that time and ended up having a line up change that basically forced us to start over, and that ended up being a blessing in disguise. We knew the record did not represent the band very well, and with the new line up in place, Jilly and I decided to start over and give it another go. Loomers Vs. Lurkers is the name of that long lost record. It’s very much an experiment and document of the time we were in.

You have some tour dates coming up along the East Coast – have you been out there before? What’s the response?

Jilly: This will be our first east coast tour as the current lineup. Brandon has done a great job booking. Clubs and bands and kids with basements have been responding really positively to the record and hooked us up with a bunch of great shows. We have a bunch of new songs we’re excited to try out, so I think it’s gonna be a blast as long as the van doesn’t die. Our van has been coast to coast a couple times in our old projects and she is very tired. Every trip is a gamble, but we’re okay with that.