Portland dream pop duo New Constellations — comprised of Josh Smith and Harlee Case — spoke with The Current’s Morning Show ahead of their performance Friday, Oct. 30, at Amsterdam Bar & Hall in St. Paul.

Smith and Case were reached in their touring van and discussed their slow and steady rise with their song “Hot Blooded,” how they met, and building a business with friends and family.

Listen to the full interview in the player above, and find a complete transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Jill Riley: You're listening to The Current. I'm Jill Riley. Well, this group, I would say, the year 2026 has been, I think it's an understatement almost to say, a breakthrough year. They are New Constellations, the band from Portland, Oregon, that we've been playing on The Current. You've probably heard the song by now, "Hot Blooded." So, without further ado, Harlee and Josh of New Constellations are on the line. Welcome to The Current. It's so nice to meet you.

Josh Smith: Thank you for having us.

Jill Riley: The year 2026. I feel like breakthrough isn't the right word because it's not big enough. But this has been a pretty incredible year for you guys because you've been a band for what almost a decade, so I would love to get some more backstory, Harlee and Josh, about how the band formed, how you got together. Because it's my understanding that you guys, as friends, you have such a long history together.

Harlee Case: We've been friends since we were in junior high and high school, and basically both of us had given up on music for quite a few years. And in 2017, I had decided that I was like gonna give it another shot. And so I put on my Instagram that I was a singer and I was looking to be in a band for the first time. And Josh immediately wrote me and was like, "Hey, we should try to do this together." And so it's been nearly 10 years, and we just started practicing in the back of the coffee shop that he worked at, and slowly got little practice spaces. But every week, no matter what, we got together and we're working on music.

Jill Riley: And had you guys been in touch, or was that message kind of out of the blue?

Harlee Case: We'd always been friends. We didn't live in the same spot. We grew up in a small town in Southern Oregon, and Josh moved right out of high school, and I didn't move for another six years, something like that. So I would see him like once a year at that point. I had just moved to Portland, and we started hanging out a little bit more.

Jill Riley: I don't know that a band, that any artist or band has, I guess what you would call a typical path to getting to the point where you are now. This year, I mean, you have had your first headlining, major headlining tour and these major festival appearances and a debut record and a song that really just keeps on growing for you. Let's go back five years ago when you put out your debut single "Hot Blooded." I wonder if you could talk about making that song and just kind of your reaction to that song in five years, just continuing to grow and grow because that's something that I think not every band experiences. That it's kind of the gift that keeps on giving almost.

Josh Smith: Yeah, for making the song, it started — Harlee sent me a voice memo of her playing guitar and singing, just something she kind of just had come up with almost on the spot, and she sent it to me, and I thought it was incredible and produced the beat out from there. But at the end of the song, there's that little clip of kind of acoustic music right at the end of the song. That's actually that's the original voice memo that Harlee sent me.

Jill Riley: Oh really?

Josh Smith: Yeah. So that's the original idea right there. But we were just finding our sound still, and I think in some ways we still are. But when we were making "Hot Blooded," we called it "Goth Prom" kind of in its working title, just because that was sort of the vibe we were going for, that kind of '80s, dreamy kind of prom sound. Yeah, and then it's been a slow kind of a steady burn, but it's been the coolest thing ever, and it totally changed our lives. But almost every week is its top streaming week since the day we released it, so there's never really been like one big moment or like one huge thing. It's just been like a steady snowball, and it's been the wildest, coolest thing.

Jill Riley: When you said that you had a working title for the song, "Goth Prom," which quite frankly I hear that, but I also hear some glitter. I also maybe I'm visualizing some puffy sleeves, now that you say that. I wonder how you landed on the title "Hot Blooded" because I'm just going to tell you right now, there are plenty of songs we know in the history of rock and roll music or any music there are songs that share a title, but they're completely different songs. We understand that, but for a title like "Hot Blooded," I can't be the first one that went. Okay, like I kind of this makes me think of Foreigner. You guys don't sound anything like Foreigner, but I wonder if there was kind of some talk about that of like, well, are people gonna think of a different “Hot Blooded,” or is this? Are we gonna be able to make this title really connect with the music?

Josh Smith: Um, there was the tiniest, tiniest bit of hesitation at first, but I think they're different enough. I mean, it was either that, or we're gonna call it "Let It Be," but we thought that was a little — that was already taken too, so.

Jill Riley: Yeah. And actually that may have even been more of an obvious like hey, maybe not. But "Hot Blooded," I mean since putting out your debut single five years ago, you mentioned the streaming numbers that it keeps growing, but then movies and in ads and in the gaming world, it's pretty incredible the way that this has blown up. So I just want to say congratulations. We started playing this song on The Current, and I'm like, oh, New Constellations. Like I'm going to check out this new band, and then kind of digging into your story, going oh, they are not a new band; they've been around. But I mean, you guys have really put in the work to get to where you are, and I wonder if you could talk about that a little bit. I mean, what it's like to have this kind of longevity, and then like boom, all of a sudden, like it's happening, it's happening, it's happening. What does that feel like?

Harlee Case: It was like always the plan. We actually had a different band name. It was going to be called Monstera, and another two-piece put out music the same week or the same month we were going to put out "Hot Blooded, " and so we were like, no, we need to find a different name, and then ended up not putting the song out for a whole other year because it took us a year to land on a name, because we were like, “this is our life band.” Whether we make a bunch of money or we like are able to quit our jobs or this is just something that Josh and I always get together once a week and like express ourselves. And so the goal was always to be able to do it full time, and it's so exciting that it has. We love doing this so much, and so the more money there was, the more that we wanted to get together, the more opportunities that there were for us to go play shows. We're like, “Okay, how do we do this?” And I've been very proud of us, and also really grateful. I basically have always had businesses before this, and so there's been this really great, being able to look at it as a business and as this artistic creation. I feel like it's allowed for us taking this band really serious, kind of from the beginning, and understanding how to do that. Yeah, it is the coolest thing ever. This year has been so, so, so massive, and but also a continuously small, slow burn, and it's really awesome because at the end of the day, neither of us wants to be the next big thing, be the most famous act. You know what I mean. So it's been really lovely because we get to make our music and we get to keep trucking along. It's cool. We get to like every step along the way. We get to include more friends. We're in this bus right now. The person that I owned my old company with is our tour manager. One of our other best friends is driving this van right now, and so it's cool that as the expansion happens, we just get to bring our friends along and have different cool experiences with our friends and family.

Jill Riley: I love that you look at it like that because in reality, when people are in a band together, it is like a small business. I guess I would argue that there are some bands that are probably more like a corporation. But because you're driving this, I think it's great. You get to do this with good people. You get to make those decisions. And right now, New Constellations on tour in support of the debut record, 'It Comes in Waves,' and that tour is coming through Saint Paul at Amsterdam Bar & Hall, Friday, October 30. It's an all-ages show, which I love. I love seeing an all-ages show. This is the second time you'll be in Saint Paul this year because you were here back in what the springtime opening for The Midnight, so we're looking forward to you coming back to Minnesota.

Harlee Case: Thank you so much. We're really excited. Yeah, we can't wait.

Jill Riley: Thank you so much for joining The Current, and congratulations again. Everything up until this point, but just such an incredible year, and just it sounds like just so well deserved. You really put in the time, and the debut is 'It Comes in Waves,' and that debut single, five years ago, but really continuing to make an impact in so many ways, "Hot Blooded." Amsterdam Bar & Hall, right here in Saint Paul on Friday, October 30. We look forward to seeing you then. New Constellations. Thanks again for joining The Current for a chat.

Josh Smith: Thank you so much for having us.

Credits

Guests – Josh Smith, Harlee Case
Host – Jill Riley
Producer – Nilufer Arsala
Digital Producer - Natalia Toledo

External Link

New Constellations – Official Website