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Photos by Danica Robinson and AJ Incammicia

Tiny Habits have captivated audiences ever since their soul-tied harmonies graced that fatefully echoed dorm staircase and stopped us all in our tracks. After debuting, the trio has toured with legendary artists classic and new, sharing the stage with everyone from James Taylor to Gracie Abrams to Sarah McLachlan. Tying a thread between vintage folk and singer-songwriter pop has been their speciality, but their new record Keepers changes everything. The record sees a notable sonic transformation, pulling from long-time R&B, pop, and retro influences while showcasing new heights of Cinya, Maya and Judah’s trusting partnership. We chatted with Tiny Habits about taking creative control, pushing themselves to use their voices in new ways, collaborating with The 1975’s Matty Healy and evolving in their sophomore record, Keepers:  

OnesToWatch: You just played Newport Folk Festival, which has a crazy amount of music history. How was that experience? 

Cinya: It was our first time on the big stage. We played the Foundation Stage three years ago and there were so many people that told us they couldn’t wait until we played the main stage. It was so beautiful. 

Judah: The vibe there is like a family reunion or summer camp. All the people that go there have been going for a long time. Even the people that work there have worked there forever. There was this lady that remembered us and she was like, “I saw that you came in earlier and you didn't give me a hug!” It’s a cool little reunion. You can feel that the audience wants you to do well. They really appreciate the music.  

What did you learn from your debut album, All For Something, that affected the process of making your sophomore album, Keepers? 

Judah: The process from the first versus the second is night and day. We know each other more, musically and work wise. We're more comfortable with being honest with each other. 

Maya: There was a different pressure for our sophomore record, but we got a lot more time for this one. The first album felt like crunch time, while Keepers is full of songs we’ve written over the past four years. 

Was there anything you wanted to do differently this time? 

Cinya: We learned to speak up for our own ideas. We were obviously young making our first album and it was our first time creating something together. [We were working] with a producer who was super well known and very seasoned, so we let him take charge. We trusted that he knew better, which is a totally fair thing to assume. We realized through that process that we actually have a lot of ideas that are worth seeing through, which is something we really prioritized for this album. 

Were you more involved with production? 

Cinya: Heavily. 

Maya: This record was made with my cousin. He's one of our best friends. We work so well with him and it was so easy to be in the room. Not that it wasn’t last time, but it was just different. We were all hands on deck making the whole thing. 

Cinya: In some ways, it almost feels like this is our first album. For All For Something, we didn't really have a dedicated period of time for writing together. Those were songs we had accumulated over the course of years, even before we were a band. 

Maya: The arrangements on this record are thicker than the last one. 

Cinya: We’re also singing so much more. I used to just whisper. We listen to Keepers, then our first album and EP, and I'm like, “Why do we have no soul in our voice?” 

It was a different genre entirely. 

Judah: We were also catering to different things. Maybe the softer sound was what people were expecting for our first record. This time we were like, “We can do more.” Let’s see what our harmonies sound like when it's loud or upbeat.

That was one of the things I noticed the most about this album. It starts with a burst of energy, which is so different from your debut. How did your sound naturally evolve? 

Judah: I think it was a fear thing. The soft singing thing worked for a period of time. We craved moving away from that a little bit, but how do we do that without changing the beauty of what we do or what people know us for?

Cinya: We chased that fear on purpose. That was a note during the first album, we were always like, “What do you mean ‘sing louder’? This is as loud as we can sing.” [Laughs] Which is literally not true. 

May: Making Keepers was very natural because we have such big personalities. It's funny because you would never assume that [from our first album]. People were introduced to our gentle vocals, but with this record we wanted to incorporate all of our musical influences. We wanted to make it more fun because we have so much fun together. 

I like that there are sections of the album where you go back to that [original sound], though. How did you go about tracklisting this album? 

Cinya: That was a big concern at the start of the production process. “Towel,” for instance, is so different from everything else. It was really important to put it in a spot on the album that made it not so stark, but let it shine. We literally had 13 pieces of tape with every song and were rearranging it on a wall. 

Maya: Initially, we were like, there's three different albums here. How can we make this work as one? Eventually we realized that we can't. They're the Keepers. It's still Tiny Habits. 

Is that where the album title came from? 

Judah: Yeah. We got to a point where we were just like, “Girl, we made all of it. So it's ours.” It’s more beautiful because it's not seamless. 

Cinya: The culture of albums now is very much okay with that. I've listened to so many recent records with tons of variety. That was a comfort to us [when we were] making the tracklist and choosing which songs we're gonna make. It’s okay that they’re not all the same thing. It's actually better.

How did you choose the singles for this album, especially to usher in your new sonic direction? 

Maya: It was honestly hard. 

Judah: Any of the songs could have been a single. We were thinking we should start off with something jarring to let people know that this is gonna be a new sound. We were indecisive about scaring people. I remember a conversation when we were like, “Maybe we should start with something a little bit softer that eases them in.” We then realized, no, that’s not what we want to do.

Maya: With the selection that we had, the singles give a little taste of what the record looks like. A little bit of R&B, then the singer-songwriter thing with “Anything He Was,” then “Right In Front Of Me” which is more retro. It was a little charcuterie board appetizer. Tiny Habits charcuterie. 

Matty Healy does guest vocals on “Anything He Was,” which is unreal. If Tiny Habits were to do guest vocals on a song by The 1975, what would it be? 

Maya: I love “Roadkill”. 

Judah: What's the one that we used to listen to all the time? “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME”.

Cinya: I'm thinking “All I Need To Hear,” that would be a good song for us to sing. 

“Pattern Of A Person” really stuck out to me. Can you tell me about the voice memo in the song and what it means to you? 

Judah: It's really sad. The voice memo is me and my brother, between the ages of 5 and 8. My parents are separated and my mom wanted us to send a video to my dad because he was coming to pick us up. We were so excited to go see him and so we sent him this video…and he ended up not coming. That song is about my parents and the concept of a “broken household.” They had similar relationships with their parents and somehow still ended up making the same mistakes. 

“Pattern Of A Person” is about the fear and uncertainty of having my own kids and the possibility of that also happening to me. I remember we had this conversation about wanting to shift from writing songs about romance and this was the first one that tapped into other parts of my life. I showed it to one of my best friends, and he was like, “Well, shit.” 

There’s actually another voicemail in there, during the bridge. My parents haven't talked in over a decade, but they love leaving voicemails. They sent me separate voicemails from different times and they both started off with “Hey, son,” in the same cadence, pitch, tempo…everything. In the bridge you hear both of them together and it circles around. It was really crazy. 

I also love the title track, which is an interlude of sorts. I just got lost in it. 

Maya: Thank you! That’s really nice. No one said anything about that one yet. 

I love an interlude. Maybe it's because I'm a full album listener? 

Judah: It’s a gentle reminder that this is a whole thing to be experienced front to back. 

Maya: I love that the title track is the interlude. If you listen really closely, there are little pieces of other songs within it. We recorded it in Judah's living room with our friend Eli, in between his upstairs neighbor literally stomping above. But it was so fun. It was seriously just us singing harmonies and lines from the songs. There was a voice memo of us in another studio where we were singing: Doing what you love with the people that you love. My cousin was like, “We have to put that in.” It’s a compilation of a bunch of memories from the making of the album, which is really sweet. 

If you could ask the younger versions of yourself that met and started singing in the stairwell, what would their favorite songs be on Keepers?

Maya: That's a really good question. Probably “Love Ruins Everything” or “What Do We Do It For?”

Judah: I was a passive music listener until college and then I was like, oh, this is crazy. [All laugh] 

Cinya: I had different tastes back then but honestly, my favorite would have been “Belt Loop.” I’ve always been a big neo-soul R&B lover.

Who are your OnesToWatch? 

Cinya: I really love Truman Sinclair. He gives me a very specific nostalgic and sad feeling. 

Maya: Our friend, Eli, who played guitar on the record, is in a band called Thumber who makes some of the best music I've honestly ever heard in my life. Also, Marie Dresselhuis, who’s opening for us on tour. She's an incredible piano player, singer and writer. Our friend Sophia Bacino also! 

Judah: Mine is Sophia James. 

Maya: We're just naming all of our friends. But, we have the coolest friends. They're all real ass musicians. 

Listen to Keepers below: