Roussett, a duo split between Durham and Pittsburgh, is made up of Bryan Bassett and Paul Rouse. The duo makes what they call spacey indie-pop music. Technician sat down with Bryan Bassett to discuss the group, its sound and what it’s looking forward to.

Can you talk a little about the group as a whole and each of you individually?

There’s two of us, me and Paul. We both individually have been playing music for a long time. We met in college on the West Coast and lost touch for a little bit for a couple of years. I ended up moving to North Carolina a couple of years ago, and Paul was in Pittsburgh, so we reconnected. We decided to start making some music together. We both had our own projects over the years, and we wanted to start this one up. We decided to meet at Airbnbs in between Durham and Pittsburgh and rent out a cabin, usually in Virginia somewhere, and work on music together. Both of us play a little bit of everything. On the two songs we [recently released], Paul sings lead and I sing a little bit of backup. Guitar is both of our first instruments. Both of us play synths and other instruments. Whoever comes up with something, we’ll use that. We decided to start this thing up and really like what we’re doing, and we’ve figured out a little bit of a sound that we like.

How would you describe your sound?

It’s always hard to describe. We both like this indie pop with a spacey kind of vibe. We’ve been writing a lot of midtempo, chilled out songs with a good melody. That’s sort of how we’re describing it, spacey, lounge-y pop.

As a group, who do you look to for inspiration?

Paul is originally from Boston, and we both love the Pixies, so we first bonded over our love of their music. Our music doesn’t really sound much like the Pixies, but we’re going to do a Pixies cover in the future. Some of the bigger pop acts we both like are Beck, Grizzly Bear; Paul really loves Superdrag. Both of us have really eclectic tastes and listen to everything. A lot of oldies as well. I grew up listening to a lot of Buddy Holly and Rick Nelson, and Paul likes those as well. We both love Radiohead. We may have gone to a Radiohead show together at some point. When I went to college with him, I remember he used to cover Radiohead. We both love soul music, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, all of that stuff. There’s a lot of hidden gems in the soul genre.

Can you talk about your new music?

Our goal is to put out this series of EPs that eventually culminates with a full-length album. This past weekend, we landed on three new songs that we like. They’re sort of on the same line of the spacey sound. There’s one slow one, one faster one. There’s one that’s called “This is Gonna Remind Me of the Stars Forever,” and it’s sort of like a lullaby. Hopefully, those will be done soon, and we’ll put that out next.

Can you talk about the band name?

I wish it was more creative, but it’s just our last names. We both just liked how that sounded. We thought it sounded like a French detective or something. Normally, I don’t like titles I come up with, but I like the name Roussett, even though it comes from such a simple place.

What are your goals moving forward?

Our goals are to put out these EPs. We’re hoping to build on our website a little bit. Our main goal is to put out as much music as possible this year. We want to play a couple shows. We would love to have some of our music get placed in film or television. Both of us have done a little of that in the past. That’s really what we’re hoping to happen. We both love film and television, and we’ve both had something placed before. It’s just so surreal. Definitely to write songs that we are proud of, that we feel good about putting out and sharing with people, and hopefully people will connect with it.

To learn more about Roussett and their music, visit their Spotify or Soundcloud.