ACL Festival 2026 Q&A - Montclair

 

MONTCLAIR
Saturday 10/10
12:45pm - Tito's Stage

Montclair’s road to ACL feels especially fitting for a band that grew up inside the Texas DIY music community. The four-piece began on Montclair Avenue in College Station, building its early identity through backyard jams, garage sets, and late-night drives to Austin for shows before eventually making Austin home. Their music sits somewhere between indie folk, rootsy rock and guitar-driven alternative, with enough groove and warmth to keep even the reflective songs moving. After releasing their debut album Heart is Alive! in 2025 and new music in 2026, Montclair now brings their authentic sound to Zilker Park for ACL Weekend 2.

I got to check out their live set last night at Stubb's, and it was such a great show! Their energy is undeniably infectious. I highly recommend arriving at Zilker early on Saturday - you won't be disappointed!  They also played their brand-spanking-new song "I Scream, U Scream" and you can stream it now.  

If you aren't familiar with Montclair, “Pastel Lies” was the song that immediately pulled me in. There is an ease to it that makes the track feel familiar almost instantly: warm guitar tones, a breezy surf-rock groove. It is relaxed without disappearing into the background and is one of those tracks where you are compelled to hit repeat.

The rest of their catalog shows how difficult it is to pinpoint or describe Montclair. Songs can lean folkier, rootsier, or more guitar-driven, but there is a sincerity that carries through all of it. They sound like four friends making music because they genuinely love doing it.

With a 12:45 set on October 10, Montclair is a great reason to get to Zilker early. They were kind enough to answer a few questions ahead of their ACL appearance:

WMB: You started out playing backyard shows and driving back and forth from College Station for Austin gigs, and now you’re playing ACL. Did you ever expect to do SXSW and ACL Music Festival in the same year? How does it feel? 

Montclair: We tend to be excited for what we’ve got rather than expecting whatever might come next. Best believe we are excited to have ACL and SXSW back to back! It’s really a special feeling to have gotten these opportunities, and we are grateful to have them.

WMB: There’s a noticeable amount of range in Montclair’s music. You can move from the looseness of “Pastel Lies” into something much more soulful or folk-driven without it feeling like a different band. Do you begin with lyrics or the overall sound first? I'm also super curious how you decide who will be the primary on vocals. 

Montclair: Montclair is made up of 4 very different people. 3 of which write our own songs that we bring to the band. So all of our songs come together in very different ways and have different influences. Our overall sound is really just the four of us playing in a room together. We recorded most of the “Heart is Alive!” album live in the studio.

As to the vocals, we leave final decisions for each song up to the main songwriter, but it’s typically a discussion among the band about what style is right for which part. We disagree at times, but we have a lot of love and respect for one another creatively. Good ideas never die, there’s always the next song :)

WMB: Heart is Alive! was your first full-length album, but now songs like “Hey Victoria” and “Lucky Day” are already pointing towards an evolution in your songwriting & sound. What did making that first album teach you that has changed the way you’re approaching what you're creating now?

Montclair: As a band, we are really learning where to apply each of our individual strengths and interests to make the whole process feel natural and fun. With Heart is Alive! we definitely went for a live sound. With "Lucky Day" & "Hey Victoria" (as well as all our other new music) we’ve taken a lot more ownership over the post-production, and that has opened up a new world of sounds and possibilities. It’s fun to see where that takes us. The timeline from song inception to release has also been getting shorter. We love to take pride in the details but have learned not to let that stand in the way of the feeling of the four of us being ourselves together.

WMB: After several years of making music, touring, and essentially building something together, has your friendship changed the way the four of you communicate creatively?

Montclair: Our friendship and love for each other is always at the center of what we do, and honestly we work best when the band comes second to that. We are four strong-willed and beautifully opinionated cooks in the kitchen, so there are natural tensions, but over the years we’ve learned the best way to season our dishes.

WMB: You’ve now played with artists ranging from Briscoe and Dayglow to Giant Rooks, and you’ve come up through some very different rooms and audiences. Has there been a band you’ve shared a stage with that changed the way you think about performing live or about the kind of band Montclair could become?

Montclair: I think we learn something from every band we’ve played with. Some of our local favorites; Bovine, Being Dead, Rococo Disco, Stuntdriver, Mid Range Jumper, Audrey Price, are all so inspiring to us. Stuntdriver played our “Sunday Service” at Hole in the Wall in September and blew us all away.

WMB: ACL is obviously a huge hometown milestone, but it also puts Montclair in front of a lot of people who may be hearing you for the first time. If someone wanders into your set knowing absolutely nothing about the band, what do you hope they understand about Montclair by the time they walk away?

Montclair: Everything you hear and see from Montclair is 100% real. We love each other, and we are a family. 

WMB:  “Hey Victoria” is one of your most vulnerable songs yet. Is that openness a clue to the direction of the next Montclair record? What's next for the band? 

Montclair: The ‘direction’ of the record so far is that each song is its own experience. Some songs all four of us equally relate to; other songs are deeply personal. Regardless, we push each other to create something cathartic. We’ve also got songs that we wrote just for the joy of playing, and that’s equally important to us. As for what’s next- we’re just gonna keep trying to believe in ourselves and make really, really good music that we love. 

In my opinion, Austin has some of the best local talent, and it's great that the ACL Music Festival supports local bands like Montclair each year on the lineup. My only wish is that more people arrive earlier to discover amazing talent. So far, the forecast looks amazing for Weekend 2. I'm sharing "Pastel Lies" as it's my favorite, but every one of their releases is solid. 

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