Pillow Fort - Sound In The Signals Interview
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| Kirsty Edwards |
First, thanks for the interview.
And thanks for asking us to do it. I'm always excited to talk about our music and what we're up to!
You just released your EP ‘Words That Change With Meaning’ on cassette through Hunkofplastic Records. How did it work out for you to release the cassette with them?
I met the team at Hunkofplastic through social media and mutual friends in the UK music scene. I didn't actually intend to try for a physical release, but when the first single started performing well and people showed interest, I got in touch with them to ask about doing a tape run. They were on it pretty quickly after that!
They also released the cassette with alternate ‘Simpsons’ artwork. Who came up with the idea for that cover?
That was also the HOP team that thought that into existence. With the opening song on the EP having a Simpsons themed name, they offered to do that and I was 100% on board.
Hunkofplastic has worked with so many great bands. Do you have a favorite release from them?
There are a lot to choose from - but if I remember right they did some tape releases for Ogbert the Nerd's album I Don't Hate You, and that album pretty much summarises a lot of what I look for in music right now. A must-listen for anyone that hasn't heard it before!
I really like the lyrics from the EP. What inspired you and/or what experiences were you pulling from when you were writing the lyrics?
In terms of inspiration, I think the EP is quite sporadically split across a lot of the emo sub-genres, but lyrically pulls a lot from the wordier pop-punk kind of emo that was popular through the 2010s. Lots of very upfront lyrics, not hidden behind much metaphor and ranting about somewhat generic feelings. In terms of real life experiences, the songs speak for themselves mostly - relationships, romantic or otherwise.
I really like the song “Nothing Good Happens After 2AM”. Can you tell me about writing that song specifically?
So 2AM was written way back in 2019 before Pillow Fort was a band - I sat with an acoustic guitar and pumped out a whiny relationship emo song (in fact, there's an old recording on a YouTube account I don't have access to anymore). I think it's probably the furthest from how I write songs now, but I still have a soft spot for it, because it's a 1-to-1 reflection of the music I was listening to at the time with bands like Tigers Jaw and Modern Baseball shining through quite well. I was a fan of the more upbeat sound despite the generally kind of depressing lyrics and we turned it into a full-band song to record it last year!
I think the EP flows well and is sequenced nicely. Did you always know the order of the songs? How long did you spend on sequencing the EP?
Sequencing took all of 5 minutes for us. I think we knew we wanted Nelson to open it because we needed to make a big debut, and I was certain I wanted Waterfowl at the end as a nice topper on an otherwise (mostly) energetic selection of songs. I think the decision was basically a single message in our group chat where I asked what the order should be and we were all aligned pretty quickly.
I read that you’re working on releasing a new EP this year. What can you tell me about it so far?
We are indeed! In terms of sound, it's more like the more emo/punk kind of sound of Nelson and This Time from EP1. The songs on EP1 were eclectic and didn't fit together hugely well, but EP2 consists of songs I wrote after finding my feet as a writer and knowing the kind of music I'm aiming to write. It's much more uniform and makes a lot of sense together. In terms of subject matter, it's largely about how a person presents themselves to the people around them, but also has a lot of the usual relationship kind of themes you'd expect from emo.
Do you have a favorite song from this upcoming EP? Why?
The opener (or at least what I expect will be the opener) is my favourite and that probably comes from how much fun it is to play live. There's a riff in the middle of it that I just can't get enough of. But we're getting into spoiler territory - you'll have to wait and see!
Do you have plans to release any cassettes or vinyl for it?
I'm just getting into release planning now, so have no solid plans. We'll see what happens when it happens, I guess.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else that you would like to add?
Just a huge thanks for having us involved in this, I appreciate people putting the spotlight on these songs I wrote on my crappy acoustic guitar in my bedroom. Means the world to me that we have the opportunity to release and share our music, talk about our music like this, and release tapes and stuff like that. Mind blowing stuff, but I appreciate it all so much.
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