In three years, everyone in the band has grown considerably. What kicked it all off was last year's Blowout, when they played the Belmont with hip-hop quartet Cold Men Young, galvanizing the group's hip-hop sensibility (a direction they haven't shied from since, much to the delight of Cuny, probably the group's heaviest hip-hop head).

"I loved that show," Cuny says. "It put us right into the hip-hop scene in Detroit. It became a collaboration." 

House Phone went on to back up and blend in with Cold Men Young at a packed Majestic Theatre show and 2011's Dally in the Alley. 

"Playing with CMY is a blast — nobody brings that kind of energy," Boegehold says. "And as the drummer, if I'm not ready, willing and able to bring the same or more energy, I'm screwed. I'm gonna get left behind. I'm hitting the drums hard with those guys."

Their collective excitement to be playing out as a group was dialed-up after that summer.

"Playing with [these guys] and studying [at Wayne] has helped me grow as a musician," Pierson says. "I'm more conscious of what songs need to sound complete ..."

Boegehold: "As we've continued playing we've all evolved into a more streamlined, sexy sound that I think is a little more intelligent maybe? A definite maturity." 

Singer Linck, meanwhile, has established his own recording and media production studio inside the Russell Industrial Center (Throwback Media) with longtime friend and videographer Raymond Grubb, where he's cut his teeth recording various local acts in the humble (but effectively equipped) area. 

Settling into that rehearsal space solidified the band's rapport, Callaway says, a clubhouse vibe helped them lock in, focus, jam and just chill together. Oh, and record their own stuff too. 

Having a solid foundation built on music students behind Linck — this half-Michigander, half-Brazilian falsetto-crooner with an Afro — is a formula to stop any Blowout crowd from leaving. 

"I don't wanna say we have a grasp on what we're doing, and I'm not trying to have a grasp," Linck says. "On the group's latest [Gift Catalog EP/Cassette], I wanted the songs to be ... shocking? Maybe? To sing in that really high falsetto almost the whole time and have a lot of space around it. I was thinking, while writing that breakdown [on "1,000 Years"] about doing it live. You see so many cool bands, but you might be standing in a bar, distracted, drinking, talking. If the band isn't doing something that makes you stop and say, 'What the fuck is going on?' Then whole sets can go by."

Albums that changed band members' lives

Matt Callaway: 

Albert King — The Very Best Of: "I used to listen to Albert before we played shows to try and tap into that soulful element that blues players always have ..."

Jeff Cuny: 

Sly & the Family Stone — Fresh: "That bass player holds it down ..." 

Stephen Boegehold: 

Steely Dan — The Royal Scam: "Especially in the studio with HP, I'm influenced largely by Steely Dan ..."

James Linck: 

Modest Mouse — Lonesome Crowded West 

Taylor Pierson: 

Radiohead — In Rainbows: Too hard to choose! 

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