TOUR DIARY
“We Don’t Do Petty”: On the Road With the Soft Rock Siblings of Infinity Song
If you spot four sculpted cheekbones gliding through TSA with bags packed lighter than a study-abroad student dodging EasyJet fees, you’ve found Abraham, Angel, Israel, and Momo Boyd, the sibling quartet behind Infinity Song. Since the release of their 2023 EP Metamorphosis, the New York- based group has gone from serenading subway straphangers to earning a Roc Nation deal, with public shout-outs from Doja Cat and Anne Hathaway. After kicking off their summer with a North American tour, they’re now back on the road in Europe, armed with almond-mom snack charcuterie (“a fake well-rounded meal”), jet lag-defying skin, and a sly new single, “London Foxes”, released last month. It’s a moody, magnetic track that blends tight harmonies with a genre-agnostic cool. After sound check in Vienna, they caught up with us about hospitality riders, writing on the road, and the strange magic of hearing strangers sing your songs back to you. As for sibling squabbles? “We don’t do petty,” says Abraham.
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ABRAHAM BOYD: We’re coming to you from Vienna today.
OLAMIDE OYENUSI: Oh, really? I’m jealous. What have you been up to while you’ve been there?
ABRAHAM BOYD: Well, we flew in this morning. We’ll perform, and then we’ll leave and go to Munich.
OYENUSI: You guys should go see The Kiss if you have time.
ABRAHAM BOYD: What is that? That Gustav–
OYENUSI: Klimt.
ABRAHAM BOYD: Yeah. I don’t know if it’ll happen, but it’s aspirational.
OYENUSI: [Laughs]
ABRAHAM BOYD: Where are you?
OYENUSI: I’m in New York. Are you guys in different places right now?
ABRAHAM BOYD: We’re in the same place, but different spaces.
OYENUSI: What time is it there?
ABRAHAM BOYD: It is currently 6:33 PM.
OYENUSI: What have you guys done today?
MOMO BOYD: Not much, right? Well, we had lobby call at 5:00 AM. Then we got on a flight, headed to the hotel, checked in, came to the venue for soundcheck, and we just wrapped soundcheck.
OYENUSI: What is your soundcheck process like?
ABRAHAM BOYD: Soundcheck is mandatory for us because we have a seven-piece band: the forefront line singers and then a rhythm section. So, we really lean on our soundcheck. It’s usually very stressful. I would like to say it’s not, but usually that’s the time where you’ll see Infinity Song stressed. Because we want it to be perfect for our fans, or as close to perfect as possible, so we sweat in rehearsal or sweat when we’re creating, then we let loose when we’re performing.
OYENUSI: Before we really jump into it, I just wanted to know your birth orders: who was born first, and then also maybe your zodiac signs.
ABRAHAM BOYD: Oh, I am Abraham. I’m the oldest. I’m born in December. I don’t really do zodiac signs, so I don’t know. I hear that I’m a Sagittarius, but I more so identify with… I don’t ascribe anything to it. Blessed and highly favored though, so yes. [Laughs]
ANGEL BOYD: I’m Angel. What was the second question? [Laughs]
OYENUSI: Oh, I just wanted to know your birth orders.
ANGEL BOYD: Oh, yeah. I’m the next oldest in the band. My birthday’s in two days, actually. July 30th.
OYENUSI: Oh, Leo season. Happy early birthday.
ANGEL BOYD: Thank you.
ISRAEL BOYD: Yeah, I’m next. I was born in October, so I’m a Libra.
MOMO BOYD: And then I’m next in the lineup. My birthday’s in March, March 27th, so I’m an Aries.
OYENUSI: Okay, now it’s time to get to business. How’s the tour been so far?
ABRAHAM BOYD: You answer.
MOMO BOYD: Yesterday was our first show. It was a festival in the UK, and that was really fun. It’s a pretty big festival called Latitude Festival, and we had a great, big crowd, 50-minute set. Just did our best. But so far, we’re still fresh. The sleep deprivation and the crankiness haven’t really set in yet. I can still kind of smell American air.
OYENUSI: The pee in the New York Streets.
MOMO BOYD: [Laughs] Yes, exactly. We’re not too far detached yet. In a week though, it will be a very distant memory.
OYENUSI: Do you guys have any must-haves when you’re on the move?
ANGEL BOYD: I will say, technically, this is not our second day on tour. We’ve been on tour starting a month or so ago, but we just took a little break and now we’re back. But I think I’m learning as we tour more and more. I guess one thing that’s required is not requiring too much because that helps and simplifies the travel and just your vibe—packing, repacking. So I do not take myself too seriously anymore. This is probably the least I’ve packed so far. It’s really just the bare necessities.
OYENUSI: How many bags are you checking versus carrying on?
ANGEL BOYD: Okay, so I have one suitcase that I check, then I have a carry-on that I take on the flight. But this is my only airport bag. It’s literally a purse.
OYENUSI: Chic.
ANGEL BOYD: I’m not carrying a tote bag through the airport on my shoulders anymore. This is a standard purse that I’ve just put a journal, my headphones, and my passport in. And that’s tea for sure.
OYENUSI: What’s the best meal you guys have had so far?
ABRAHAM BOYD: Best meal? Oh, there’s one thing that I want to say. There’s this thing called a hospitality rider. It’s a thing that is sent by our management to whoever’s bringing us to a venue, and it’s like food, towels, water. They can be very bare bones or super extravagant. Ours is not that high-level, but depending on the country, they might think it’s extravagant. It’s crazy. You might think someone’s living large when they submit their needs on a piece of paper, but I’m learning that if an artist gives you a hospitality rider, just go ahead and fulfill it—you have no idea how much they need that. So, that keeps us sane sometimes, believe it or not.
OYENUSI: What’s on your rider?
ABRAHAM BOYD: We have fruit on our rider, some berries, some apples. Mixed nuts. Bread. We like bread and butter, just loaves of bread and butter.
MOMO BOYD: Well, not really loaves.[Laughs] Like, baguettes. In Europe, it’s baguettes. And they’re so good.
ANGEL BOYD: We do the whole spread: butter, jam, sometimes peanut butter and honey, but also ham and cheese, turkey, meat, and veggies. Everybody picks different things.
MOMO BOYD: Yeah, it’s like an elevated charcuterie board. You can make your own. It’s all the ingredients of a charcuterie board: grapes, strawberries, cheese, honey, bread, meats, stuff like that. But then you can make a sandwich if you want, or you can make a charcuterie board if you want. All the different essentials: carbs, proteins, fats, and whatever, just to make sure that you have a fake well-rounded meal.
OYENUSI: You guys are healthy. A little almond…
ALL: [Laughs]
MOMO BOYD: No, that’s actually the tea. I can’t lie. It’s a little almond here. [Laughs]
OYENUSI: Let’s talk music. Do you guys remember where you were or your head space when “London Foxes” came to life?
ABRAHAM BOYD: What you should know about our writing process is, sometimes, very rarely, we’ll collaborate on a song and write and produce together. That’s something we enjoy and always look forward to—when we have those tentpole musical moments that we can all come together for. But also, we really love creating individually. So Israel wrote and produced “London Foxes” and auditioned it for us in the studio. I just remember thinking about… we love London and we love the people of London.
OYENUSI: I was going to say, was there a London sneaky link?
ALL: [Laughs]
MOMO BOYD: Oh my god.
ISRAEL BOYD: No, there wasn’t.
ANGEL BOYD: Well, what is your interpretation of the lyrics?
OYENUSI: I studied abroad in London and I’m just thinking about my London situationship. But that’s my own personal life feeding how I read it.
ISRAEL BOYD: [Laughs] I like the actual London foxes, like the foxes that roam around London. And I don’t know, I wanted to write a song about them. You just go into it liking the subject, and then you build the song around it. But your explanation is also valid and makes sense. It’s perfectly applicable. So it’s about that, too.
OYENUSI: So you like foxes. What’s everyone’s favorite animal?
MOMO BOYD: Do you know that Australian animal called the quokka? It’s the happiest animal in the world and it has this little sound like [quokka sound]. That’s my favorite.
ABRAHAM BOYD: A quokka. You said a quokka, didn’t you?
MOMO BOYD: Yeah. Yeah.
ABRAHAM BOYD: I’ve never heard of that animal. Let’s see, I really like dogs. I’m a dog person. I think they’re super cool.
ANGEL BOYD: Mine’s probably pretty basic. I’m a horse gal, even though I’ve never owned one. I do like horses and the whole vibe.
ISRAEL BOYD: I was also going to say horses because I think that they’re really cool.
ANGEL BOYD: But yours is foxes.
ISRAEL BOYD: I like the London foxes. They’re not my favorite animal. I also like the red panda, which is a small, little raccoon thing.
OYENUSI: People often compare you to legends like ABBA and The Mamas & The Papas. Do those comparisons feel inspiring or do they add pressure?
ISRAEL BOYD: I think that may add a lot of inspiration, and we love hearing comparisons because it does inspire us. It adds a natural pressure in that you hope to live up to these great names and great bands. But I don’t think it adds an unhealthy pressure or unhealthy comparative mindset. It’s just like, “Yes, we love these bands and we want to live up to the standard that they set.”
ABRAHAM BOYD: I always do a temp check to see if the band that we’re being compared to is hot enough or achieved enough. If they didn’t achieve what I would view as a metric of greatness, it’s probably bad and vain, but I can’t help but do a “how-far-did-they-go” test in my brain. We really compare ourselves to the greats, not because we’ve achieved that level of greatness, but we strive to achieve that level of greatness. There’s a potency that the greats have, and we always want to find ourselves standing next to them. We haven’t achieved it yet, but that’s what we’re aiming for.
OYENUSI: Has traveling changed how you write and perform together?
ANGEL BOYD: I don’t think it affects how we write at all. It definitely affects how we perform, because we’re performing consistently every single night on a tired basis, just like going, going, going. So we definitely have grown in that area over the past year. I think one of the most common compliments that we get after our shows is, “This is the best live show I’ve ever seen.” Verbatim. That’s what people say after seeing us. Part of that is because of our background in live performance. Primarily, we grew up performing live rather than recording in the studio.
OYENUSI: Has there been a standout show?
ABRAHAM BOYD: We have two categories: the United States and Europe. I’m going to give you our best cities in Europe now, since we’re on our European tour. London, Paris—that’s it. [Laughs]
OYENUSI: That’s it?
ABRAHAM BOYD: Okay, there are other great cities, to be clear. But in London and Paris, the energy is ridiculous. I don’t know what was going on. They’ve always shown us such great love and they’re so passionate about the music. Then in the United States—obviously New York, Los Angeles. Atlanta is immaculate. Toronto is crazy. Some of these cities have given so much to us, left indelible marks on us, and we’re so grateful to all of them.
MOMO BOYD: I would also say an honorable mention for Dublin, Ireland. We played there last year for our final show of our fall tour, and we were so tired and burnt out. It was so hot on that stage, we were sweating so bad. But the crowd’s energy was so crazy and got us through it, honestly. I was ready to break down, but they got me through it. And then another one for the U.S.: Columbus, Ohio, which you wouldn’t really expect. But their energy was insane.
OYENUSI: What are you guys like right before stepping on stage? Do you have any rituals or superstitions?
ISRAEL BOYD: I used to have things, but now I’ll just make a sandwich and go on stage. We do it so much, you can’t do rituals every day. We’re always prepared. I used to have to ease into being prepared, but now I think we’re all just ready to go.
OYENUSI: Do you guys fight for the aux on long drives?
ANGEL BOYD: No.
ISRAEL BOYD: Not at all.
OYENUSI: So who plays most of the time?
MOMO BOYD: Either our dad or Abraham.
ISRAEL BOYD: Maybe some Pat Metheny.
MOMO BOYD: [Laughs] I was going to say that.
ISRAEL BOYD: It’s always some of the stuff our dad listens to, because he’s been listening to the same songs since we were children. So if it comes on, it’s like a classic to us. The Isley Brothers, Ron Isley, Earth, Wind & Fire, any gospel.
ANGEL BOYD: Marvin Gaye, Ella Fitzgerald, CeCe Winans, Kirk Franklin.
OYENUSI: So you guys have gone viral more than once. How does it feel to see yourselves online compared to hearing fans sing your lyrics live?
ISRAEL BOYD: Yeah, online is online, it’s not tangible. But in person, that’s real. That’s people really singing those words. That kind of interaction with people is the reason that we do what we do. It’s the reason that we go on the road and work so hard to write the best music and think so hard about what will get them to sing with us even more. Everything we put into it is so that we can have interactions in person with our audience and our extended family.
OYENUSI: And finally, what’s it like working with your siblings?
ABRAHAM BOYD: I have to say, it’s interesting because its siblings and our dad. Our dad is our manager, and he runs our business and basically takes care of everything. He’s really chill these days, but he still has his foundational, “Let’s make sure we’re on time. Let’s make sure we’re not arguing. Let’s make sure that we’re prioritizing each other.” So a lot of times, with our dad here, we prioritize not acting as crazy as we would.
ANGEL BOYD: I don’t know, I don’t really think it’s because he’s here. I think it’s because we grew out of that a lot. We don’t really fight. We definitely have disagreements or things to say, but you know, we’re all adults here, so you just say it and move on. It’s not really sibling drama. I can’t remember anything notable.
ABRAHAM BOYD: We don’t do petty.
ISRAEL BOYD: We try not to do too much petty, because it becomes dangerous. If we argue a lot, we’re also in a business relationship. And if you are super petty with… Well, they’re arguing now. [Laughs]
MOMO BOYD: [Laughs] No, we’re not.
ISRAEL BOYD: I’m kidding. If you do too much petty stuff, then it can become bigger, and you don’t want that. So we try to be quick to just avoid that stuff. Sometimes it just looks like us avoiding each other when we’re not in a mood.
OYENUSI: Has being on the road sparked any new songs or projects? Any hints you guys are willing to share?
MOMO BOYD: Israel?
ISRAEL BOYD: I know there will be, because we have to be writing all the time. But actually, it’s hard for me to write on the road, historically speaking. But I think that’s going to change. It’s only the second day. Give it a week and I’m sure.