Two siblings started a band. Four years later, they’re a five-piece united by long-time friendships and the city of Baltimore
Courtesy of Mikko Dumadag
Decades-long friendships and family ties sit at the heart of Baltimore band Giji’s discography and live performances.
It would take only a cursory glance at Giji’s music discography to recognize that it completely defies categorization. The Baltimore band’s songs range from pop punk, to funk, to an indie rock sound over the course of a single album.
In just four years, the five-piece has released two albums and just as many EPs while embedding themselves in the Baltimore live music scene — despite all members working full-time jobs.
The secret to the constant evolution of their sound? An equal love for music and each other.
Indeed, some of the members have known each other for over a decade, and in Olivia Hager’s case, since birth. Siblings Wes and Olivia Hager began writing songs and jamming together in late 2019. Olivia Hager is the lead singer and plays the keyboard, while her older brother mainly plays the guitar.
“We don’t fight as often as you would think,” Olivia Hager told Through the Monitor. “And we never fight about the music.”
Over the course of the next two years, bassist Jen Ciarapica and drummer Tim Swiger joined the band. Ciarapica met the elder Hager while studying at a tech college, and Swiger has known him since high school.
Their newest member, guitarist Doug Mullaney, joined in December of last year, though he was a long-time fan of Giji as the childhood friend of Swiger and Wes Hager.
“I won’t do anything without my Douglas,” Swiger told TTM.
The band rehearses and records most of their discography at the Hagers’ childhood home. The creation of their songs is typically communal, with one of the Hagers often composing the skeleton of the track.
“Everybody will add little things to it. There's really no method at all,” said Wes Hager. “It just comes out—we could be practicing for a show and then just jam [on] something.”
The result is a polyphonic style influenced primarily by city pop and neo funk. Giji members define their sound every time they play together, opting for a more relaxed outlook on the direction of their music.
The band finds particular happiness in performing live — especially in Baltimore’s scene — which members describe as tightly knit and deeply supportive. Many Baltimore bands will insist on including one another on their bills, and they feed off of each other’s energies at live shows.
Over time, Giji members have noticed more regulars at their gigs , pushing them to further improve their performance style. Lately, on stage, the band has made efforts to run each track together. The result is a non-stop live experience free of dead air between songs, building excitement for show-goers.
“As soon as one song ends, we try to build the next song basically [from the] ground up. It might be a small guitar riff or something on the keys,” said Swiger. “The bass comes in and the next guitar comes in, and then the drums are playing the main groove. Before you know it, we're into [another] song.”
Many members of the band are multi-instrumentalists, so they often use this time to switch roles, demonstrating the ease with which they perform together.
“Everybody is very level headed and just loves doing this,” said Wes Hager. “So it's really easy to work together and build [Giji].”
Music seems to simply flow out of these interlocking long-time friendships and family ties, and nowhere is this more clear than in the band’s regular promotional videos. In the week preceding a performance, Giji’s members produce a short jingle accompanied by a video with lyrics that relate to the date, time, and location of the show.
“While we were setting up the green screen and everything for the camera shoot, Liv was finishing the lyrics and just worked out the melody right there on the spot,” Mullaney said of a recent video.
These fun, often comedic videos are emblematic of the band members’ deep commitment to working together — and the joy they find in performing as a group.
Today, Giji has reduced their live performances to twice a month in order to work on a new album, which they hope to record this year. This summer, they want to take a small tour to celebrate the release of their new music — and the band’s relative longevity.
“The fact that it's been going on this long, I'm just super thankful for that,” said Wes Hager. “Because this is my favorite thing in the world.”