From left to right: Torncello, Travison, Sandt, McQueeny, and Aaron pose casually against a brick wall. Photo courtesy of Becca Torncello
Based and formed in Oneonta, New York, Seeing Double is a five-person collective composed of frontwoman Allie Sandt, singer/percussionist Ali McQueeney, guitarist/bassist Mike Aaron, and guitarist/bassist (as well as occasional backup vocalist) Zach Torncello.
Seeing Double also features Dylan Travison on drums, who was not present at this interview. The band released their first two singles “Leah//Don’t Wait” in January of 2022, with “Leah” blowing up on TikTok. The single currently amassed over 2 million streams on Spotify. With this successful first release, the band‘s newest single “Take It or Leave It” is highly anticipated by their now 12.3K TikTok following.
Seeing Double’s previous releases draw inspiration from the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Paul McCartney, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Madison Cunningham and even Halsey.
From top to bottom: Travison, Aaron, Sandt, Torncello, and McQueeny smile from the side of a Subaru. Photo courtesy of Becca Torncello
BUT WHO IS SEEING DOUBLE?
Sandt shares, “We are still figuring out who we're going to be as a band, because we've only put out one release. The next few songs that are coming are very, very different from the past two. So I really don't know if I have a good label yet.”
The group formed in 2021, as they were some of the only people on SUNY Oneonta’s campus following a COVID spike. Sandt continues, “I was pretty bored. And I was just looking to play some music with people because I had a show booked already. And figured why not try to get a band together for it.” Through the fate of Instagram announcements and mutual friends, Seeing Double was born.
When asked about the origin of the name, Aaron jokes, “It’s an unfortunate story… When I tell this story to people, half the time people are like, ‘oh that's cute.’ Or they're like, ‘you just made that up.’”
As the story goes, the band was meeting for the first time at a pizzeria near campus. “Then we went outside and this rainstorm that was happening while we were eating, as soon as we walked out, like it completely let up,” Mike says. “And there was a double rainbow in the sky.”
However, Seeing Double was not the only name the band went by. “A couple months after that when we all had went home for the semester and we were like, ‘We're gonna change the name,’” Torncello adds. “Yeah, we tried rebranding.”
Prompted by the question, the band spiraled into sharing their favorite (and least favorite) alternate names.
Allie Sandt: Let me tell you there were so many like, like hundreds [of names] that we can look at. But my top one was Myrtle… I don't know, you guys thought it sounded like an old lady name.”
Aaron: There was one that was called ‘Dugout.’ Now looking back on it, it’s so not us.
Torncello: In hindsight, all of these names are horrible.
McQueeny: What about Pony with a capital P and a period at the end? That was my favorite!
Sandt: I said that as a joke and you all loved it.
Aaron: I think if we were gonna vote by a majority, I think three of us liked it. And then [Allie] and Zack didn’t.
Regardless of could’ve-been band names, the group agrees with Aaron when he shares, “Seeing Double has really grown on me… And I think a lot of it has a lot of significance to us. I've grown to really appreciate it for sure.”
McQueeny and Sandt snuggle up during a performance at The Bitter End in NYC. Photo courtesy of Mel Telesmanic
“Take It Or Leave It'“ is thematically similar to “Don’t Wait.” Sandt agrees that the upcoming single is basically a part two to the previous track, characterizing it as “a song for people who can’t take no for an answer.”
If the band could describe their new song in a word, their consensus is: “silly” . They share that this single is very different from their first two releases as it’s “genre-less,” motivated by the group’s desire to explore a more playful side of their music. Sandt comments, “If it's possible to nail the entire song on a kazoo, that means that we've accomplished what we're going for.”
Some of the band’s favorite parts of recording and producing is both the collaboration amongst themselves and with peers on campus. “At the end [of “Take It or Leave It”] we have some kind of shouty vocals in the background. That's all of our really good friends that came over and just sat around a mic. And then at the very, very end of the song… you could hear our friend AJ Jackson, who has this crazy bass vocal, he does these super low notes.”
Seeing Double also shared that their music will be heading in a different direction with their upcoming releases, describing it as less Fleetwood Mac inspired but still “a little bit retro”. The band joked that the riffs in “Take It or Leave It” are going to be more “sea-shanty-esque” ending by saying “We’ve got some more pirate stuff coming up. Stay tuned.” Seeing Double has been described as a 70s-esque band. After all, “Leah” was inspired by the ’70s power ballads of girls' names like Layla and Rhiannon and Sarah.
Torncello expresses, “When you're first starting out, to have someone call you similar to Fleetwood Mac, that's a really big honor. But when you're trying to develop your own sound, it's not really cool to be stuck under labels.”
Sandt adds, “I don't want to be the ‘Leah’ band… It’s so cool that we have these followers now on TikTok from that song, but I just want to make sure that we can still have people enjoy other music. That wasn't a conscious thought writing the new songs. They just kind of happened.”
Following the release of “Take It or Leave It,” Seeing Double plans to come out with another single titled “Bygones,” seemingly a favorite song amongst the band. They also intend to play more shows around the northeast, with their next concert being at the Mercury Lounge in NYC on Aug. 7th. You can grab tickets here!
Published on Five Cent Sound
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