The Inertia Case (1997) Promotional Band Pic

The Inertia Case (1997) Band Promotional Pic

We started getting serious about music-making while living in New York City. After all, we moved to NYC to pursue our dreams. So back in 1997, we formed our first band The Inertia Case. 

Hoyt and I both knew that singing wasn't really in the cards for us. We were strong enough to recognize our own weakness. We were passionate about songwriting but lousy singers. So, we knew that we had to find a qualified lead singer.

We placed an ad in The Village Voice looking for one. After countless unfruitful auditions, we finally found a musical kinship with vocalist, Elton Lin (currently of the band Notorious MSG). 

Elton's voice is so magical and angelic. He has a remarkable gift. He's also a wonderful human being. We became fast friends and developed a great working relationship. Together, the three of us worked hard on our craft. During this time we wrote our signature song, Between Love and Goodbye. That song always got the greatest response from the crowd, when we would play it live. 

Drawing inspiration from our personal musical favorites at the time (e.g. Erasure, ABBA, Stevie Nicks, Depeche Mode & Yazoo) we managed to produce and record a whole album's worth of material. We eventually released a self-produced best-of EP that is on all the streaming platforms if you're curious to hear it.

I look back on these days with so much fondness. If only we had the deep pockets of a major record label behind us. I feel confident that we could have made it big time. 

Big love, Carly xoxo 

A Young Hoyt Sporting White Blonde Hair

A young Hoyt Emerick sporting a black leather jacket and white blonde hair. 

Back in our late teens and early 20s, Hoyt and I would often get into competitions over who could achieve the blondest hair color. I have great memories of us sitting in the sun with our bleach caps on. We used the sun's heat to help speed along the bleaching process.

This time around Hoyt won! His hair came out the palest shade of blonde. Expressing ourselves with hair and make-up was an important part of our aesthetic. As you can see here, Hoyt would sometimes draw his goatee on with an eyeliner. It was very cool.

I remember taking this photo and thinking that this one's gonna come out great. We were very much into photography when we were younger. I'm surprised that neither of us made it into a profession. 

Big love, Carly xoxo