Bathe, the Brooklyn-based duo of Corey Smith West and Devin Hobdy, craft music that blends lush soundscapes with R&B and indie influences. Formed out of a college friendship and a shared love for immersive storytelling, the pair have built a reputation for creating evocative, transportive tracks.

Their song Avalon is no exception. Born from a looping experiment, the track captures the feeling of being trapped in the monotony of corporate life and longing for an escape—a mythical place just beyond reach. Layered with textured guitar, atmospheric production, and field recordings from Rockaway Beach, Avalon unfolds like a daydream.

We sat down with Producer and instrumentalist Corey, as he took us through the creative process, from the first loop to the final mix, revealing how Bathe brought this slow burn of a track to life.

Highnote: Hi Corey! Can you introduce yourself and your role in Bathe?

Corey: “Definitely. So I’m Corey Smith West. I’m a producer and guitarist and bassist. And I’m one half of Bathe with Devin Hobdy, who’s also a singer, songwriter and producer in his own right. And yeah, we’re together, we are Bathe.”

Highnote: How did Bathe start?

Corey: “So me and Devin met in college. We spent a few years being acquaintances, but Devin was the president of this group called The Inspiration, which was an a cappella group on campus that predominantly covered R&B, soul, and hip-hop songs. And my work-study in college was live mixing and running sound.

The Inspiration was doing a Black History Month show and, as the predominantly Black a cappella group on campus, they wanted their entire staff for the show to all be, you know, people from the diaspora. So one of the members of that group actually reached out to me and asked me to mix that show. And then when I was mixing it, that’s how I came across Devin as a vocalist. I started talking to him after the show and ended up sending him a few beats. That was kind of the start of us collaborating as musicians. Later, we had a mutual friend, and we all ended up living together in a big house where everybody was just all producers and artists. That cemented everything.”

Highnote: Let’s dive into the song Avalon. How did it come about?

Corey: “Yeah, so Avalon is a song about, you know, feeling oppressed or being disillusioned with corporate life. So you daydream about, you know, a mythical place that you can escape to. The song started out as a loop on my loop pedal. There was a period where I was just waking up every day and making a loop first thing in the morning and then translating those loops into Ableton and making beats based on the loops I was making. That was one of the loops that I showed Devin, and he immediately resonated with it. So we jammed on it a few times, and for us, it’s kind of like every song is a loose jam until Devin lays down his lyrics. Once the lyrics are laid in, it’s like, OK, now we have a real song to finish.”

Highnote: What does the layering process look like for a song like Avalon?

Corey: “My favorite thing about Ableton is the session view. Traditionally, people gravitate towards arrangement view in Ableton, but I love setting up a beat as a bunch of clips in session view and then just letting it run. To me, that’s the Ableton equivalent of a jam session. You can let your drum loop run, let vocals freestyle for however long, and then after the fact, chop out the best bits and piece them together in arrangement view. With Avalon, I built the layers that way, starting with guitar parts, then adding drums and bass, and letting it evolve.”

Highnote: The track has some unique textures. Can you talk about those?

Corey: “For the textures, I took some found sounds that I recorded at Rockaway Parkway Beach and nestled them into the track. It was almost as if, as this person’s dreaming more and more, they start hearing these ocean sounds more vividly. Devin speaks fluent Portuguese, so he has a lot of friends in Portugal and Brazil. We asked a few of them, ‘What do you dream about when you’re at work?’ and our favorite response became part of the track’s background. These elements help paint that wistful feeling on multiple levels.”

Highnote: What’s the biggest difference between the rough mix and the final mix of Avalon?

Corey: “The rough mix was like the end of the process for the production. It was me doing my best impression of a mix engineer. Then we brought in Joe Visiano, who’s one of my favorite mix engineers. The first mix was just giving him the song blind and seeing where he took it. When you bring an engineer in, they can completely illuminate certain things that you didn’t hear. That was the case working with Joe. His mix brought everything together.”

Highnote: How does Highnote fit into your creative process?

Corey: “It’s been a game-changer. I make a beat, I send it to Devin on Highnote. Devin might respond, ‘Hey, what if this was three BPM faster? What if this was 10 BPM slower? Can we add another section?’ Then I’ll upload a new version, and he might upload a version with his vocal. We can give each other timestamped feedback without having to call or text. It’s super helpful with engineers, too—like dropping a comment in a specific moment and saying, ‘In this chorus, we could change the snare in this way.’”

Highnote: What’s next for Bathe?

Corey: “We want to collaborate a lot more. Up until now, it’s mostly been just Devin and me. Over the next year, we’re leaving room in our tracks for other artists to contribute. It’s about opening up and growing beyond just the two of us.”

Highnote: Thanks so much for your time, Corey. Any last words?

Corey: “Just that Inside Voices is out now—go check it out! Also, huge shoutout to Joe Laporta at Sterling Sounds for mastering the project. He’s simply the best.”