‘Ripe Fruit Rots and Falls’: chokecherry capture the chaos of modern life on debut album
Vocalist'/guitarist Izzie Clark and vocalist/bassist E. Scarlett Levinson, aka chokecherry, released their debut album ‘Ripe Fruit Rots and Falls’ today.
Pulling from essences of their childhoods exposed to rock’n’roll, adolescent years spent exploring ‘90s post-rock, pop, indie, alt-rock, hardcore, queer musicians, even metal, and their own young adulthood filled with small shows in the Bay Area from a plethora of artists and genres, chokecherry’s debut LP fearlessly pursues creating a snapshot in time, capturing the sonic culture of San Francisco, the political movements overflowing our senses in 2025, the social deterioration of empathy and humanity in the 21st century, and what it means to be human in a time where it feels like there are so few left. “The album isn’t about heartbreak over an individual, some of it is, but it’s from the state of the world. That’s what it is. It’s about heartbreak over the loss of childhood and the imagined future that you might have had when you were young, because that doesn’t exist. It’s actively been taken away from all of us and everything is being stripped before our very eyes, constantly every single day” says Levinson.
Withing 10 tracks, chokecherry piece together the very essence of what it means to be a sentient being in this cruel world, ‘Ripe Fruit Rots and Falls’ is a dichotomy in its entirety; introspective and panoramic, tender and intense, personal and social, post-rock and shoegaze, but so is the duality of man. Chokecherry encompass all that is severely lacking, empathetic humanity.
This month and next month, chokecherry will embark on their first ever full North American headline tour, with special guests The Sewing Club. The trek kicks off with a West Coast record release show weekend, celebrating ‘Ripe Fruit Rots and Falls’ with special guests Pure Hex. The California release weekend includes a hometown San Francisco show, in addition to shows in Los Angeles and Santa Ana.
