pic by Thomas Calhoun
De Charlotte, Carolina do Norte, Estados Unidos vem o caldeirão sonoro, que não deixa escapar qualquer vestígio de improvisação, experimentos, ou ruídos, tudo em uma bem torneada criação lo-fi que por vezes nos remete ao Pavement ou ao Grandaddy ou ainda ao nosso querido The Cigarettes, só que mesclando a lógica lo-fi com synths e os acelerando, este é o resultado de Ekzodia, debute dos freaks do Pink Pots.
Daquelas bandas que se qualquer desavisado ouvir, vai dizer que já ouviu isso em algum inferninho nos 90´s, só que não.
Música chapada para chapados.
***** Interview with Pink Pots *****
pic by Phil Pucci.
Q. When did Pink Pots start? Tell us about the history...
Pink Pots unofficially started in May 2015 when I got bored and recorded "Corner", which is the sixth track off of my first record under this name, Ekzodia. The song wasn't meant for anything, and I just made it because I got bored and I was listening to too much synthpunk, but I ended up using it for Pink Pots.
So I officially came up with Pink Pots in July, when I had released my second album under the name Hyperultra. Although I liked the songs a lot and the album was generally well received, I couldn't perform anything from the album because of how complex it is. It has SO MANY LAYERS. It's crazy. So, I went on a quest to write an album that is simple enough for a band of four to perform. And thus, Pink Pots was born.
It's weird too, I didn't expect this to become a live thing. I only did it because I got invited to play a house party with a different band, and two members of that one couldn't show up. So I assembled three others (Evan, Phillip, and Lauren) to play with me, and we rehearsed the day of the show and did a decent performance. I have that performance recorded, and it's sitting on my external hard drive right now.....
Q: Who are your influences?
John Maus is my favorite musician ever. So much influence comes from him.
Others include Grandaddy, The United States of America, Silver Apples, Aphex Twin, Suicide, R. Stevie Moore, Daniel Johnston, The Units, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, The Caretaker, Tom Dissevelt & Kid Baltan, The Screamers, Jay Reatard, Baths, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Black Moth Super Rainbow, C418, The Avalanches, Crystal Castles, Teen Suicide, LCD Soundsystem, Kraftwerk, The Velvet Underground, Shellac, Dan Deacon, Thinking Fellers Union Local 182, Sweet Trip, Tonetta, Sparks, Hella, Death Grips, Perfect Pussy, AnCo, The Postal Service, Olivia Tremor Control, The Music Tapes, Venetian Snares, Neutral Milk Hotel, Nervous Gender, Merchant Ships, Joe Meek, Japanther, Joy Division, Jean-Jacques Perrey, The Gongs, Fishmans, FlyLo, Beat Happening, Half Japanese, and Lemon Demon.
I'm not sorry for listing them all.
Q. Make a list of 5 albums of all time…
I could only narrow it down to 7, but that's close enough....maybe....
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump
John Maus - Love Is Real
The Postal Service - Give Up
Sweet Trip - Velocity : Design : Comfort
The United States of America - The United States of America
Q. How do you feel playing live?
So far, I've only played live with this band twice, so there's that. But both times were fine.
In general, I don't get nervous, really. I'm used to it, and the performances are in front of like, 50 people at most. Not that big of a deal for me. I love doing it, though.
Q. How do you describe Pink Pots' sounds?
I try to not to sound like anyone else - that's the main thing. I've seen that the main problem with most decades in music is that no one really does anything new towards the middle of the decade, and whatever that sound is dies out in the end. However, towards the end of every decade, there's always this "new" sound happening (1960s - psychedelic rock/pop, garage rock; 1970s - punk rock, new wave, hip hop, post-punk, synthpop; 1980s - acid house, shoegaze/dream pop, twee pop, lo-fi indie). I hope to be one of those bands....nothing is original anymore, but we can at least try to be as original as possible. That's my goal with Pink Pots. Same with Hyperultra, but different genre and story.
But by general terms, I just say that we're a punk band.
Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs.
I recorded and finished Ekzodia between May to September 2015. Corner was recorded first, without actually aiming it for a project. I came up with song titles via stream-of-consciousness and I wrote and recorded (most of) the album in a month. The album art was also stream-of-consciousness. Every song was recorded in my house except for "Play Stupid Game, Win Stupid Prize", which was recorded in a mountain home near the North Carolina-Virginia border. This location was also the inspiration for Alienation in West Jefferson, which was like 30 minutes away from the home.
Flowery Purple Onsra (which had the only "credited" feature on the album) was recorded in June with Earn Raku with an aim of using that for a different and scrapped project. I asked him if I could use it, and he was fine with it. Good Night, My Friends was kind of the same thing, except that I had recorded the entire track myself and I asked if he could do something crazy at the end. I hated the result at first, but then I loved it when I mixed it in right.
True Love is a completely different story....I made this idea for making an EP on a floppy disk, and so I recorded like 5 songs in 30 minutes and True Love ended up being one of them. I gave three copies to my friends, and they still have them....
I recorded and arranged everything in Audacity (except for I Fell In Love With a Demon, some of True Love, and I'm Jealous You're Living In the Future, which were recorded with an iPhone), and mixed everything in FL Studio 11.
And if anyone questions the album title, it's some word that I made up when I was like 5 or 6. Some friend told me it was a Yugi-Oh! card after I released it and now I get asked that occassionally. I used to watch Yugi-Oh! at around that age though, so maybe I got it from there....
Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
Grow House by Tangible Rays is an awesome shoegaze record by a dude who's somewhat obscure. I love this record, and it was one of my favorite finds of last year. - https://growhouse.bandcamp.com/album/grow-house
Prismadoll is a one-person project that my friend is doing right now. The entire point of the project is to make a plunderphonics record out of bad alt rock/nu metal/post-grunge records from the early 90s to mid 00s. It's an absolutely hilarious idea, but there's actually been some good songs out of it, like this one. Pris is planning to do a double album with this, and I'm very hyped. - https://soundcloud.com/prismadoll/i-love-my-dolls
City Lights by Jackson Wilson and (The Artist Formerly Known as KL Lublin). Jackson Wilson is another friend of mine who makes progressive electronic music, and he's getting better by the years. I haven't heard this album yet, but I'm excited for its release. I also know KL Lublin, and he's a nice guy too. - https://jacksonwilson.bandcamp.com/album/city-lights
Phantasmagoria by Abelian. Abelian is a dude I know who makes some weird mixture of ambient house and post-rock. This record was pretty tight. - https://abelian1.bandcamp.com/album/phantasmagoria
Q: Which band would you love to do a cover of?
We almost did a cover of "Everything Beautiful is Far Away" by Grandaddy at our most recent gig at Snug Harbor, but we got told there was a no cover policy. So we at least have that planned out.
Q: What are your plans for the future?
Release a second LP (which is like 65% finished) on a label, and do a mini-tour in the summer. Play more gigs. Et cetera.
Q: Any parting words?
Thanks for the opporotunity for me to do this interview.
ALSO DOWNLOAD MY ALBUM PLEASE THANKS
https://pinkpots.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/potsthatarepink/
https://soundcloud.com/pink-pots
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Thanks
