On April 25, indie rock band Double Standard made their debut into the music scene with their self-titled extended play (EP) “Double Standard.”
The band itself had been in the works far before their debut. The first embers of what would become Double Standard were kindled when Lydia Eberling and vocalist and guitarist Siena Moran met in college at New York University (NYU).
Eberling described the pair as “a match made in heaven.” Until that point, she had only played live without recording her own music, while Moran had produced a lot of her own music without ever seeing a stage. This led to them writing music together and even playing live around NYC with The Backfires members Harry Ruprecht and Alex Gomez before the creation of Double Standard. However, this was only the beginning for the duo.
“We knew we wanted to delve more into the indie rock scene of NYC and carve out a space for ourselves,” Eberling said.
The soon-to-be-five-piece found their remaining members in 2024 through various connections. This included the band’s drummer Meg Cournoyer, lead guitarist Lauren Dinhofer and bassist Zoe Arora.
The band began rehearsing together in February 2024 and according to Eberling, “felt that synergy right off the bat.”
By July of that year, they played their first sold-out show together and recorded the whole EP at Diamond City Studio.
Even with this immediate connection between members, figuring out how to work as a band has been a learning experience for the group. Each member has their own writing processes that must be integrated to create a final product.
“Songwriting itself can tend to feel like a naval-gazing competition where you’re wrapped up in your own story or emotions or how you want a song to sound, but the beauty of making music in a band is the spirit of collaboration and community that can make a song so much more than you ever dreamed of it to be,” Eberling said.
She provided “Bushwick K-hole,” the closing track of the EP as an example. Moran showed her the opening line of the song years ago, but nothing came of it until working with the rest of the band.
“We were writing about our own experiences and relationships but ended up having common sentiments about our respective experiences,” she explained. This song became the first song that was equally created by the five members, which truly gives it the “DS feel.”
“I think dynamic shifting wise, I’ve become more and more grateful for the four girls around me,” Dinhofer told The Deli.
Despite the learning curve when it comes to writing, there was never much debate when it came to deciding the order of the tracklist for the EP. Eberling shared that the five-piece knew they wanted “Crush” to be the opening track and their first-ever single.
In the song, Eberling sings, “I think I’ve been waiting for you,” which became an inside joke for the band. They imagined fans would chant this lyric at shows because they are the band that the people have been waiting for.
The rest of the singles, “Sweat,” “to Maine” and “nvr c u again,” were also chosen very intentionally, both for their lyrics and their sound. The four singles showcase the range of the music the band creates, providing “a little something for everyone,” as Eberling said.
Eberling has a strong connection to “to Maine.” It was one of the first songs she ever wrote in full that she felt truly proud of, since she did not start writing music until her sophomore year of college.
As a whole, the band agrees that their favorite songs constantly change, but their favorite to play live is consistently “Butterfly Bomb.” The track’s electric energy translates even better live and Eberling says “feels like true rock and roll.” Eberling describes the moment Cournoyer screams the bridge of the track as feeling like floating.
The EP introduced the band in a way they are incredibly proud of.
“We have a distinct voice in our songs, and [this is] amidst a sea of the oversaturated music industry,” Eberling said. The band strives to create a whole visual language that not only translates into their music but their music videos, live shows and social media as well.
Unfortunately, for Double Standard, being an all girl band, who are also very rooted in queer culture, means the industry may often attempt to stick them in a box.
“I think the indie music scene in New York is very male-dominated, and even though there are plenty of amazing female lead acts, people don’t really make the effort to seek them out,” Cournoyer told The Deli.
However, Double Standard emphasized that although this impacts a lot of their experiences, at the end of the day, they are simply a rock band.
“We are here to stay,” Eberling said. “We don’t have to play it safe and small just because we are unknown and we are women.”
The five-piece is paving their way in the industry by not allowing others to walk all over them and advocating for themselves and other bands of marginalized groups. Both Eberling and Cournoyer have expressed how necessary it is to uplift these bands to create a safe space, both at their shows and with others.
Their uplifting applies to other bands but most importantly applies to their own band members. There is such a strong sense of admiration among the bandmates that it translates into the unity in their music.
“From the moment we were first all in a room together, I knew my life had changed forever,” Moran said on Instagram, expressing her gratitude for the band’s talent and friendship.
Eberling even named all of her band members as her dream artists to collaborate with, epitomizing the cohesiveness of the group. The appreciation for one another makes them a band of people worth knowing, in addition to music worth one’s time.
Eberling encourages fans of a wide range of artists, including The Cranberries, The Last Dinner Party, Paramore, Ethel Cain, Chappell Roan, The Marias and many more to “Drink the Double Standard kool aid!!!”
Those interested in drinking the Kool-Aid and seeing Double Standard live, can see the band opening for Issadora Ava at the Mercury Lounge in New York City on May 22. Tickets are available here.
