Th e Ar r i v a l
By David C. Eldredge
photo by Pooneh Ghana
W
hile Post Animal’s origins stretch
back to childhood friends’
bassist Dalton Williams and gui-
tarist Matt Williams jams in downstate
Illinois, it wasn’t until the duo met gui-
tar/keys player Jake Hirshland, and their
subsequent move to Chicago, where they
found kindred souls in drummer Wesley
Toledo and guitarists Javi Reyes and Joe
Keery (who would soon assume part-time
status due to his unexpected breakout role
in the Netflix hit Stranger Things) – that the
band began to carve its own identity. Or as
Dalton recounts, “We grew up together,
played music together. But this specific
band was when we met Jake in college. We
kind of transformed there - our old band -
into this one. The five of us probably jelled
when we started playing seriously togeth-
er. In 2015, it was not as serious; there were
still a lot of house shows (and) we were
getting our sea legs together.”
Indeed, having just met, the six of us
are all sitting and chatting in the green
room of Brooklyn’s Rough Trade Records
music venue prior to a late evening show,
which is just the latest stop in the band’s
coast-to-coast tour in support of its just-
released full-length debut When I Think Of
You In A Castle. So having established the
band’s genesis, the logical follow-up is
where in the heck did the band get its
name? Matt jumps in first. “It just came out
of a conversation. We were at my family
farm in Highland, Wisconsin. It was a
sunny day, and we were out on the porch.
And we were talking about the subject
matter of a book – I can't even remember
what the book was?”
“It was Sam Martin's,” recalls Jake.
“Yeah? [Band friend] Sam was reading it?”
Matt volleys, pauses, then continues,
“And, uh, we described the subject matter
as sort of ‘post animal.’ Or just the nature
of writing [about] that subject matter as
being ‘post animal ’– something beyond
what is comprehensively animalistic?
“Almost like a higher sense of self-aware-
ness,” adds Jake. “And then it was just set,
we just had to be that,” Matt firmly con-
cludes – bringing an eruption of laughter
from the band.
So we next turn our discussion