It occurred to Devon Geyer one humid summer day in Boston, MA that after years of writing music as a mental exercise, he might want to try it for real, to write music that felt right—songs that were fun, bright, and serious in their unseriousness—and so began Decorations.

Or the spirit of Decorations at least.

The project began as a ruse. Devon created an alter-ego bandcamp account under the name Clubglove with blue and white stock photo image of a surly-looking seagull on the shore. He posted three tracks, one at a time, songs written and produced on a laptop under the influence of a lot of sub-par east coast cannabis and daytime IPAs with nothing but hedonistic musical satisfaction in mind.

By the end of summer 2011, Clubglove was over, and Devon was en route to his hometown of Los Angeles, CA with the idea of turning his half-baked stunt into a proper band.

Some lyrics came to mind one day during a drive around LA, and he immediately pulled over to write them down. The words, all part of an inner rant inspired by a breakup with his last girlfriend, served as perfect accompaniment to a synth line he had written days before, and like that, Decorations had its first proper song.

Seeking like-minded musicians who could bring his bedroom indie-pop to life, Devon recruited longtime friends Mike Malchicoff and Burleigh Drummond. Mike provided the studio know-how and Burleigh brought live drum energy to the record, and all three shared a house in Reseda while laying down the first single. Premiered by Buzzbands.la in May 2014, “Girls” was subsequently picked up by NME, Pigeons & Planes, among others.

Since making their live debut at the bootleg this past August with the addition of Eric Johnson, Michael Brown, and multi-instrumentalist Kailynn West, Decorations has played a handful of shows around Los Angeles and their performances at SXSW will be their first outside the city.

An EP is planned sometime soon, Devon swears.