It’s been five years since delicious pastries released Pretty Please, but this Friday the band ends that streak and drops aleatoric delay at Spirit with help from incredible local openers Meeting of Important People, Shaky Shrines, and Butterbirds. The eight song sophomore release marks a continuation of the quirky, idiosyncratic Pittsburgh band’s sound that has steadily developed an entire sensual performance that goes beyond your standard rock show, incorporating visuals and theatrical elements. The show is at Spirit, music starts at 9pm, and admission gets you a copy of the new record. It’s gonna be a doozy Friday night, but in the words of our favorite Reading Rainbow, “you don’t have to take my word for it:”
PPI: What are the main ingredients that go into a delicious pastries composition?
Jesse Ley of delicious pastries: Strong melody and unique / interesting composition choices are the only prerequisites. Other than that, everything else is fair game. We don’t rely too much on predetermined formulas when it comes to writing or song structure. To be perfectly honest, it’s during the recording process that the true nature of the songs finally begin to reveal themselves. We made A LOT of big changes in the studio for this album. Some people might not recognize some of tracks if they were familiar with the previous arrangements. Nothing is off limits. Anything goes.
PPI: The new album seems to have a wider perspective/deeper cohesion than Pretty Please, particularly dynamically and sonically. What differences, intentional or not, can you see between the two approaches?
JL: Actually, the process itself didn’t change too much from the first record. With the exception of tracking drums and some of the bass guitar parts with Brett Zoric of Triggers, and the vocals on ‘women’s health’ and ‘radial blur’ with Levi Graft of the band, The Sky, we did pretty much everything else on our own, just as we did last time. I think we just got a little bit better at what we’re doing. It was a deliberate decision to improve the production quality a little bit this time around. some of the most noticeable progress we made on that front is courtesy of our bass player, Vincent Poprocky who tirelessly mixed the record– an unenviable task. Our kitchen sink approach to making records often yields some pretty interesting results, but it poses a real challenge when trying to sculpt the album into something more palatable. most of that work comes in post production. lot’s of edits. lot’s of mixing.
PPI: Who or what influences your live show? Does anyone tap into a guiding energy? Any preshow rituals?
JL: Fellini, Dali, the symmetry of Wes Anderson, the Marx brothers / vaudeville, the poster art of Bonnie MacLean and Victor Moscoso, Simon and Marijke of dutch design collective, ‘the fool’, old family photo albums, etc… our visual / performance cues are just as wide ranging and unpredictable as our musical influences. We’ll pull from a lot of different sources, but generally, we enjoy trying to take the live performance to a level that transcends what you might experience at a traditional rock show. Approaching it like performance art gives you a lot of latitude in terms of what you can get away with, but at the very least, we like to include visuals and sensory exploring elements whenever possible. For the release party, Marie Mashyna, Travis Mitzel, Dustin Walsh and Elaine Healy have cooked up a bunch of psychedelic vignettes that will be projected behind us. Maybe you’ve seen some of the teasers circulating on the Internet. They look really cool! The only ritual we have is trying to be at the right venue at the right time. So far, so good!
PPI: What would you tell someone who doubts Pittsburgh’s music scene?
JL: I’d tell them to check my Facebook page on Thursday evenings. Anyone who says there isn’t anything to do here is a lazy moron. The Pittsburgh art scene is thriving. Often times there is more going on than I can possibly keep up with. for the release party alone, we’ve enlisted the help of musicians, artists, photographers, film makes, fashion designers, and actors / dancers. I love the idea of taking a multidisciplinary approach to music / live shows. having this many people operating at such a high level of proficiency is only going to increase the overall quality of the product, while increasing awareness of all the participating parties. Not to mention that line up!! meeting of important people, shaky shrines, butterbird?! That alone should speak volumes about the quality of the pittsburgh music scene. It’s like a summer festival without any of the fat! This city is poised to explode. Mark my words.
PPI: Can you tell me any future plans for the band following the release of the new record?
JL: The catalyst behind finishing ‘aleatoric delay’ was that we already have so many more new songs. Before we got too far a head of our selves, I wanted to tie up all the loose ends of the past. We’ve got a few more high profile local shows after the release party (Diane Coffee at Spirit on 4/01 and Boogarins at Cattivo on 4/18), but we plan to get out of town a bit this spring and summer to support the album and hopefully begin tracking the new record this fall.
PPI: How can I purchase a copy of aleatoric delay?
JL: We will have physical copies at the release party. In fact, everyone gets a free copy with price of admission. Soundcat records in Bloomfield will have copies. And you can find it digitally on iTunes, Amazon MP3, Google Play, Spotify, Rdio, etc.
Listen to the first album below:
