Both born in Dallas, Texas in 1997 to respective Smith families, singer-songwriter Jonah Paul Smith and guitarist Julian Paint Smith met in elementary school. An organic orange juice debacle at Booker T. Washington High School for Performing and Visual Arts’ cafeteria cemented their partnership. In 2016, the two enrolled at The New School and moved to New York City. They formed a band and released the EP “Boring the Camera” under the name Pueblo in 2017. Through their collegiate years, the band developed an idiosyncratic folk-rock sound, combining elements of Elliot Smith’s baroque-pop songcraft, Aimee Man’s irreverent adult contemporary, and The Dandy Warhols’ lighthearted, college rock singalongs. Attending Jazz Studies and English Literature courses by day, the band played shows across NYC, headlining venues like Elsewhere and Baby’s All Right, sharing the stage with rising indie contemporaries like Ritt Momney, Wallice, Mamalarky, and Toledo.

In April 2022, Closebye released their debut album, “Lucid News.” The 9-song collection anxiously processes time’s relentless passage, charting a chronology of reverie and reconciliation, estrangement and acceptance, sadness and self-forgiveness. The record’s multiple sessions took place in Bearsville, NY with Producer Tim Bright (Kate Davis, Lisa Loeb, Grey Reverend), and in Fort Worth, Texas with Producers Josh Block (Leon Bridges, Caamp, White Denim) and Robert Ellis at Niles City Sound. Upon the album’s release, the band expanded to become a solidified lineup of 5, adding multi-instrumentalist Ian Salazar, bassist Margaux Bouchegnies, and drummer Simon Clinton. The resulting live show is a testament to the quintet’s ripening sound – sweet, sharp and pithy, like the Texas oranges upon which their destiny is staked.