@ Embraces Secrecy and Solitude: Inside the Freak-Folk Duo's Artistic Process

Victoria Rose pulls into Philadelphia's 30th Street Station and immediately apologizes for the sticky residue coating her car's interior. She maintains bees as a profession, and the substance is propolis—a resinous material that seals gaps within hives. Stone Filipczak sits beside her, while her protective beekeeping equipment occupies the back seat. The pair are heading toward one of their preferred dining spots, an Ethiopian restaurant that also functions as a performance venue. Once inside, the dining room becomes loud and energetic, which poses difficulties for conversation given that Filipczak and Rose both speak quietly and resist sharing specifics about their music as @. Like Rose's bees, they operate as a secretive, self-sustaining unit.

The band's name, pronounced "at," presents challenges for internet searches. Filipczak explains the origin: "a vision of an @ sign on a kick drum head." Yet they require no such visual aid. @'s art-folk aesthetic draws from acoustic guitar, woodwind instruments, and vocal harmonies that shift between melancholy and playfulness. Their second full-length album, Autosmile, represents their debut with the prestigious indie label 4AD, known for releasing work by Pixies, TV on the Radio, and St. Vincent. The album title references a meme depicting a dopey sunflower with the caption: "When you and gang faded and auto smile gets turn on …"

Rose distills Autosmile's thematic concerns into three words: "Turmoil, processing and acceptance." The songwriting process remains somewhat opaque even to the collaborators themselves. "We're close enough friends that we can infer," Filipczak observes. "It's better if we give each other a little bit of space and don't crawl up each other's asses around every lyric." The album embraces the possibility that darkness can coexist with light or humor. Punish My Mind explores the ouroboros of discipline and pleasure, ultimately favoring enjoyment through a recurring sample of a shrieking primate.

How did @ form?

The pair met during their college years in Boston, though Filipczak departed from his studies early. Both participated actively in the city's DIY music community: Rose performed solo acoustic material under a different moniker, while Filipczak emerged from noise and experimental music circles. Mutual acquaintances introduced them. "We went to the Harvard Museum of Natural History to look at the taxidermied animals," Rose recalls of their initial encounter. "I was a little nervous to talk to you because you were really looking at everything," she tells Filipczak.

He had run to the museum wearing leggings decorated with lightning bolts. "It's so to my taste," he reflects. "Dead animals and stuff – that's the type of museum that would hold my interest, looking at actual, real things."

Their connection dissolved when Filipczak relocated to his hometown of Baltimore in 2017. During the pandemic lockdown, he spent his days skateboarding and recording music. Rose remained in Boston, employed at a farm with considerable free time. They reconnected and began exchanging unfinished musical material. Rose asked whether Filipczak could contribute soft drums to one of her compositions. That song evolved into Star Game, launching the long-distance creative partnership that produced their captivating 2021 debut, Mind Palace Music.

According to coverage from Our Culture Magazine, the pair began exchanging musical ideas in 2020, establishing the foundation for their collaborative sound. "Messing around" during this period led them toward a gently strange, freak-fried folk aesthetic reminiscent of Animal Collective's 2005 EP with Vashti Bunyan, the compositions of Linda Perhacs, or perhaps the Shire from Zelda's Ocarina of Time. The record developed into a sleeper favorite within indie music circles by the time @ performed their first concert in 2022. Representatives from Carpark, a Washington DC-based indie label, attended that show and reissued Mind Palace Music the following year. "We were like: 'All right, I guess this is a band now'," Filipczak recalls.

What is their creative process?

Both musicians lived in Philadelphia while developing Autosmile, yet they maintained separate writing and recording spaces at home. "Various people tried to ply us with studio time," Filipczak says. "It didn't work." Their equipment remains minimal, and each values the solitude and privacy their home setups provide. "It's easier to get something to where you want it to be when nobody's watching you," Rose explains, "and that includes Stone." The musicians gathered at Filipczak's residence to complete final production touches, with local collaborators contributing to several tracks.

According to reporting from Yahoo Entertainment, the pair invested more than two years in recording Autosmile, reflecting their meticulous approach to composition and arrangement. While their 2024 EP, Are You There God? It's Me, @, leaned toward progressive and heavily processed textures, Autosmile returns to acoustic guitar as its foundation, echoing their debut's sensibility. The album enchants through its unassuming yet hypnotic qualities, comparable to Jessica Pratt's early recordings. The compositions unfold with deliberate intention and greater scope. The nearly seven-minute title track exemplifies this approach—a tender ballad constructed around intertwined vocal melodies and guitar interplay. According to Klof Magazine, the title track received a music video directed by Sophia Feuer and Tyler Macri when it premiered on 24 June 2026.

The emotional landscape remains candid yet deliberately ambiguous:

I don't know how I belong to you but I do somehow / I don't know how I came to stand up to you but I have no doubt.

Why do they value mystery in their songwriting?

Amid the prevalence of confessional songwriting in contemporary music, @ deliberately preserve space for listener interpretation. "That's kind of what folk songs are, something that can travel from person to person and be played by many different individuals," Filipczak explains. "If the song starts out in a hyper-individualistic place, it's not really going to be able to make that jump." The concept of collective creation sometimes attracts criticism as an echo chamber of groupthink, yet @ draw inspiration from the notion that, similar to bees constructing their dwelling, collaborative effort can produce something exceeding the sum of individual contributions.

What comes next for @?

Autosmile arrives on 16 October 2026 through 4AD as an 11-song release. The band's tour schedule commences on 18 September 2026 at Making Time in Philadelphia, marking the beginning of their live performances supporting the new album.