Critics often describe their music, which incorporates soft electronic instrumentals and the breathy vocals of both sisters, as dream-like and ethereal. Curtis, the lead guitarist, is known for experimentation—she works with both synthesizers and various instruments to achieve her signature sound. Since their first album, “Alpinisms,” came out in 2008, the trio has been recognized for its ability to transcend indie and electronic genre boundaries. Everything about School of Seven Bells is unique, from theirunconventional songwriting methods to the story behind their band name.

 

This winter, I chatted with Ally Deheza on the phone about a Colombian shoplifting ring, the bands’ shared home in Brooklyn, and what job she’d have if she hadn’t ended up in the music industry.

 

Steph Freitag: Before School of Seven Bells, you were in different bands. What inspired you to collaborate? What makes your band’s sound and style unique?

 

Ally Deheza: We were on tour with On! Air! Library! with my sister, and Ben was in The Secret Machines. We both opened up for Interpol and that’s how we met. We were both New York bands, although I had never heard of The Secret Machines before the tour. I was really impressed by how Benjamin Curtis played because [it] was very unique, something I really wanted to work with because he’s very creative. There really wasn’t any definite plan to work with Benjamin— it was just something I was talking about on tour. I already wanted to start a band and he volunteered and I was like, hells yeah. School of Seven Bells doesn’t have any rules and everyone is allowed to write something without worrying about whether it’s their place in the band or whether it’s going to go with someone else’s sound. We’re pretty unencumbered.

 

SF: How did you decide on your band’s name?

 

AD:  I was watching a show on PBS about these shoplifting rings in Colombia during the 90’s. They pretty much stole all of the merchandise off the East Coast. Like at Old Navy stores they would steal 10 or 20,000 dollars worth of merchandise in special coats lined with aluminum. The whole special was showing what they did and how they went to school in the 80’s, where they were trained at a place called School of the Seven Bells. Their final exam involved pick-pocketing items from their teacher without ringing any of the seven bells attached to him.

 

SF: Why did you entitle your debut album “Alpinisms,” a word that describes climbing the Alps and other large mountain ranges?

 

AD: It was basically a running theme at the time. It was just a bunch of elements coming together. I was reading Mount Analog and how you can’t reach the mountain by any direct way, you have to happen upon it. It was a really cool metaphor for what we were doing, a really beautiful idea. 

 

SF: What was it like to record “Alpinisms”?

 

AD: It was really fun, actually. It was a process that would have kept going if we hadn’t had a deadline. We had a recorded version of the record when we were given a deadline and we scrapped the entire record and re-recorded it in three weeks. We knew it would be a different record but we basically worked on it for three weeks and stopped. The new version is the best one—it’s more of what was happening at the time.

 

SF: What’s the most exciting part of making music?

 

AD: The most exciting part is that moment when you’re writing something while it’s a work in progress and you know you’re on to something really good. I kind of obsess over it, it’s a rush, its all I want to do or hear, I put it in my headphones whether I’m working on a rhythm or something like that and that’s all I think or do for days.

 

 

SF: Where’s your favorite place to perform?

 

AD: I have to say right now, Portland. The kids are so rowdy in Portland and awesome. They treat the floor like a dance floor—those kids will totally turn around and start dancing with each other. It’s like a party instead of just standing around and not using your feet too much.

 

SF: If you weren’t a musician, what career would you pursue?

 

AD: Probably just, I’d probably just be starving and try to write. That’s definitely what I would do. That’s the only thing that I think I would have a shot at or maybe I would become a paralegal or something.  I seriously think that I would be screwed if I couldn’t do music.