Indie-pop duo, The Ivy, is making its way across the United States again, touring the music of the Oklahoma-natives alongside collaborator Lyncs on the “Spring Tour 2025.”
With over 300,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and a debut album released a little over a year ago, the band began the tour across the US on March 25 and is ending April 24 at the Norman Music Festival. Along the way, the band stopped at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis on April 4, performing the same night as Fifth Lucky Dragon and Lyncs.
The duo has added another to the group. The two original band members are lead-vocalist, guitar player and songwriter Wyatt Clem and backup singer, bassist, synth player and songwriter Shawn Abhari. They are now joined by drummer Jordan Lynch, another Oklahoma native, as of last year.
Clem said that he has been looking forward to traveling for a while now, “a new city every day.” Abhari added that he was excited for some of the upcoming dates, with Chicago being the day after the Hoosier Dome and soon-to-be sold out show. This is Lynch’s first time touring, as he was not with the band when it had its headline tour in 2023. Clem said that touring offers something different — a connection.
“It’s cool to see familiar faces, like people coming back to the shows,” Clem said. “… Getting to connect with people in person, I feel like there’s a lot more value in it … it humanizes the music a little bit.”
All three of the members shared that it is a musician’s dream to be able to tour with music they made and love. Abhari is no different; he said that, since he was a child, he has had the dream to tour in a big bus after seeing all his favorite bands on the road.
“… Touring is just a journey — it’s the funnest part,” Abhari said. “… So I think it’s good to remember that while we’re on the road, it’s like we’re living out our dreams.”
The band recently released the song “Don’t Fall Asleep To This” in February with fellow indie artist and tour-mate Lyncs. With over 84,000 monthly listeners, she is a part of the tour and headlines for the band, returning during The Ivy’s set to sing the song alongside them.
In this day and age, a song can go viral overnight, and that is what happened to The Ivy, Abhari said. After releasing music for a year and a half, the song “Gold” gained popularity and gave the band more attention, sitting at over 9 million listens on Spotify. On the flip side, The Ivy’s most popular song sitting at over 23 million listens on Spotify, “Have You Ever Been in Love,” was a more gradual gain over a year or two, said Clem. Realizing the algorithm picks and chooses what to make popular, Abhari said it is all just numbers.
While the songs may be crowd favorites, both songs were released in 2017, according to Spotify, so the band has moved past the sound they started with, offering a stark contrast, said Clem. For Abhari, he said that it was difficult to leave validation up to the number of listens.
“As long as there’s heart behind the song, it will resonate with someone,” Abhari said. “… I had to cut ties with ‘this song is a good song because it has X many listens.’ … And sometimes I just have to get out of my head. ‘No, it’s a great song, People are going to love it, it might just take a second.’ And so I think separating that is important.”
Lynch recalled on the tour that there is joy in seeing the people show up and playing music that is fun and loved. He went on to say that whether it was a girl singing along even if she did not know all the words or people using lyrics in their wedding vows, he enjoys being a part of something that resonates in people’s lives.
“I think that’s what I’ve liked a lot, seeing them, seeing people resonate with their music really well,” Lynch said. “And I get to be a part of it, and it’s really cool.”
The band will continue the tour for another week, landing back in Oklahoma. Despite some things going wrong like Clem hurting his wrist and the band feeling under the weather occasionally, Lynch said that touring offers a new perspective and fun.
“There’s stuff that’s unexpected, but you just roll with the punches,” Lynch said. “It kind of gives you thick skin and teaches you not to get upset at the little things… You just kind of have to roll with it because that’s show biz baby.”
