Hey there, Pillowinde! Congrats on your new album, "pine!pine!pine!", which is available on all streaming platforms now! For those who are unfamiliar with the band, tell us a bit about how you guys got together and began making music together.

Claire here! I started Pillowinde as a solo project during COVID, recording by myself. Then on a Beach Boys discord fan server, I met my old bassist David Ramos who introduced me to the New Brunswick NJ basement music scene and additionally encouraged me/helped me start playing live. I couldn't have done it without him. A year and a half into it or so he and I parted ways musically and I was on the lookout for people to play with. The whole time David was in, we went through a wild super unstable array of drummers and other members in general so by the time he left, it was just me.

I met Chelsea at a Final Resting Pose/Daddy's Closet show at a bar in Kearny called Jimmy's. We hit it off and got sushi and played billiards that night. She was playing bass for Daddy's Closet who I had gone to see that night. We became friends and she eventually offered when I mentioned offhandedly that I was on the lookout for a bassist. She joined not too long after the Jets to Brunswick album was released.

Kie I had met at one of our shows at the Meatlocker early in 2023. They had come to see the show after the band that they were playing in had dropped because of illness. We followed each other and many months later around late august of 2023 they responded after I made an instagram post searching for a drummer. They came over, tried out on drums, then we swapped instruments and I saw that they were actually a better guitarist, so I figured why not have a second guitarist!

We met Julia and Harry at an acoustic show in Wood-Ridge that we played not long after Kie had tried out. Their band "Marty I'm Afraid" (who you should totally check out!) opened and we remember loving their twee sound. My close friend Em Noll (of Reilly and Co) who was also on the bill became friends with them instantly and soon enough we were all friends. In around March of 2024 I asked Julia to join and around 4 months later her bandmate/roommate Harry also joined on trumpet, creating the large ensemble we call Pillowinde now. (Additionally, Julia's fiancee ((and roommate!)) Curtis hops in the live shows as well on Baritone Saxophone). And my friend Super Jack (also check out his project) who mixed the Jets to Brunswick album has been playing live with us as of late on various percussion instruments. Drums wise we keep going through so many to count but most recently including Isaac Bedics and Konner Hunter.

The album cover fits the whole vibe that the songs give off: crunchy pop with hints of video games sounds. Who came up with the theme for this particular album and how did you arrive at it?

I absolutely love the cover of the album which was made by our talented Harry! To start off, the majority of the album was written in the fall of 23, so it was all for the most part my writing and Chelsea and Kie's editorial input/suggestions. I had just gotten out of a super long term relationship and going through a lot of feelings that were super new/i hadn't felt since being a teenager in terms of new love/heartbreak/yearning. I tapped into those emotions and got really into writing super straightforward power pop. Additionally I had been hanging out with my friend AJ (Daddy's Closet) a ton and was put on to a lot of breakcore/digital kinda music. I got into sampling and downloaded some old video game soundfonts and used them as composing tools. I've always been one to romanticize nostalgia so I leaned into the cheesy/flagrantly dated vibes of a lot of these games' sound and found that I really liked them! I also think that the nostalgic and childish tones kinda lend themselves to the emotionally vulnerable and kinda youthful themes I tackle lyrically here as well.

Upon listening to the new album, you seem to have different sonic elements that are different from a lot of pop songs out there. Growing up as young musicians, who and what were some of your influences that helped shape the sound of the band?

Claire - The Beatles and Queen made me like music as a little kid, Nirvana and Green Day made me want to make music and teach myself guitar, then as I got older I've found myself inspired by more and more niche pop artists like Os Mutantes and Brian Eno. I like a lot of everything.

Kie - "Bread, Satans Pilgrims, Folktale San Pedro, and The frights. The bands are ever changing but when i joined i was listening to those."

Julia listened to a lot of the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel growing up. Chelsea also listened to the Beatles growing up but is nowadays more into heavy bands. Harry likewise is into a ton of stuff, like Beck and Ween. Harry Julia and I even went as far as doing a Ween cover set as Pillowinde back on Halloween.

As of now we all bring a bit of ourselves into the live element and it's cool to see different flavors come through and whatnot. Julia and Harry have a lot of orchestral experience so they bring some of that, but their tastes lie all over as well. And Chelsea is always pushing towards us being more punk and heavy. So it's a good balance!

Some songs have a hip yet weird chord changes. These changes give off more psychedelic vibes yet still retain a more modern vibe. Have you studied any music theory at all or was it just listening to different musicians growing up?

I took piano lessons growing up and eventually self taught a lot of concepts. I'm not really at a jazz level though and I'm still learning a lot every day. When I'm writing though a lot of the time it really is pure beatle power pop candy sorta intuition. I don't usually go out of my way to get nerdy with it except on songs like Furrywool and Intensity/Melodrama. But Furrywool is all in C Major and as Julia said "comes across like a scale exercise". And on Melodrama I was trying my hand at a Brian Wilson-esque sad yearny piece. So yes, both basically, because I'm stealing/referencing my 60s songwriting idols' ideas but unlike maybe somebody sampling, I have an idea of what's going on theory wise.

"Lustful" is such a fun pop song that has incredibly catchy lyrics. The way it's arranged gives the tune a cool outer space vibe. The song seems to be about someone who's in a relationship that begins to go south. Where did you come up with such imagery that can be so relatable to anyone who hears this track?

I was going through a situation at the time where I was quickly falling for someone. This all was not long after having been broken up from a long term relationship. The person who I was newly falling for wasn't in the headspace for a relationship at the time, and we were also close friends already. I've come to realize that they were wise enough to know I wasn't ready either.

For this whole album I tried to be as upfront and relatable for the most part because I've come to find that direct songwriting hits best. I'm not really one for many metaphors, I like using the things that happen to me and immortalizing them in song. Maybe it isn't subtle, but I've found it to be a fruitful way to process things.

I also found myself using this period's (that arc of that relationship) songwriting to pick at my own flaws. Lustful and Enamored are paired because I wanted to juxtapose different headspaces in regards to that relationship. In Lustful I find myself being very emotional and naive/self centered. In Enamored however I take that same premise and use different verses/choruses to swap to her side of things in the narrative. I felt a duty to try to be responsible with my writing's biases. Pop songs are so often one sided! On Intensity/Melodrama I also switch up the narrator, but I'd rather leave it up to the listener to know what line is who's side. Love's kinda messy and I like the cacophony of YEARNING DECLARATIVES contrasting and overlapping with each other.

One of my favorite songs is one called "Naive is a Cruel World". It's such a cool song. It reminds me a bit of Fountains of Wayne and a band called The Lemon Twigs. From what I can gather, the tune relates to friends who form a band and go off to have a great time. Does this song have any relation to Pillowinde or did it come from something else you saw somewhere?

Thank you for the praise! I thoroughly enjoy Fountains of Wayne and they're definitely a huge influence of mine. On this one I think I was definitely channeling R.E.M. and early of Montreal vibe wise. Especially Cherry Peel of Montreal.

I think people all get something different from this song, at least in the band we all do. People focus on different lines from the song and apply it to their own lives. I wrote it from reminiscing about my experience touring down to Georgia in the summer of 2022 and the times I had hanging out with all my friends at the time. I thought those times would last forever and they didn't. I look back at my naive little self and I try to be gentle with her about it. During the tour in Georgia I had multiple depressive bouts and didn't have a great time. However we got to meet and perform with John Kiran Fernandes of the Olivia Tremor Control. He was a very sweet and generous guy and even recorded clarinet for a song called "Beanpets" that is still unfinished/unreleased. While a lot of the shows on that little summer tour were pretty poorly attended, those times are still ones I can pick fond memories from.

The song is an appeal to nostalgia, and I pick at it in the bridge, but at the end of the day, there's no use in dwelling on the worst of the past. So that's why it's a "cruel word". I may have been naive in thinking anything could last forever, but it's cruel to ourselves to be negative like that. I've come to find my understanding of the song and its themes to have changed over time too.

Another one of my favorite songs from the album is "Stabber!". It has such a cool vibe to it. The tune has a funky groovy beat that has a catchy horn line to it. Makes it feel more old school but again still retains a modern vibe that I think everyone would love. Who usually comes up with arrangements for the songs and did you have any specific inspiration for that?

I came up with the riff/general groove of Stabber a long time ago, probably around a depressive era post that "down to Georgia" tour. Up until Julia and Harry joined, it's all been me pretty much, with some input from those around me. Now that Pillowinde has become an extended circus/community (we primarily communicate through a chat called "pillowinde extended universe" that has like 11 people in it), moving forward we are going to be working as a band on arranging together, whether that be in person jamming or a hybrid remote sorta setup where we send each other voice memos maybe. We all live all over the state so meeting up regularly has never been super feasible. We're hoping to get better at it this year though! Now that pine! Is out, the next material we have coming out will have been worked on with everybody involved with the band at the time. Songwriting will also be more collaborative. It's something we're all super looking forward to.

Pine!pine!pine! was transitory in this sense, as Julia and Harry came in at the tail end of its production, so they added parts to songs that were already pretty much completed. On Stabber, I had Harry double/layer the trumpet STABS on top of a part that I had written on my Juno 6. His addition really brought the song to the next level, the trumpet really added a bit of air and pushed the song in that more funky direction. Similarly on Last Kiss, I had Julia essentially double/redo a part I had written on synth flute. I was going for a video gamey vibe overall originally, but adding the orchestral elements really brought another dimension to the album.

I think with Stabber particularly I was channeling Talking Heads and a general weirdo pop vibe, with some modern elements a la The Garden influence (which i would say is a second degree thing, as Daddy's Closet's music is very influenced by the Garden)

Are there any upcoming shows that you would like to tell our readers about?

As of writing this, we are playing Sunday School, a basement venue in New Brunswick, this upcoming Saturday February 1st. Skylar Pocket and Big Girl (from NYC) are on the bill for that one. In the likelihood that this article comes out after that date, we are playing the Meatlocker March 1st and have no other real shows planned yet. We're not in touring mode right now.

What's up next for Pillowinde for 2025?

This year I think we are hoping to work on general rapport/songwriting together. As of writing this, Kie has just had to take a step back/away/out from the band because of time constraints and distance and college and whatnot. He's got his own project you should all check out called "Polyester Hall" they've got super fun surf pop vibes.

Julia Harry Chelsea and I (and others) however are planning on both working on finishing some of the material left off pine as well as writing together new stuff. My hope is to shift the general dynamic away from solo project vibes and more into working with others. We recently made a collaborative spotify (boo! hiss!) playlist that we called the "Pillowinde 4 Lookbook". The hope is to bring in diverse influences into the writing process, so we've got a lot of different stuff on there. Some artists on that playlist so far include Candy Claws, Beck, Gustav Holst, of Montreal, Hiatus Kaiyote, Wolf Alice, Fishmans, and The Beths. I (Claire) am also in the beginning of the recording/production of the Marty I'm Afraid EP which is yet to be titled, so that's something that Julia Harry Em and I have on our plate as well.

Is there anything you would like to say to our readers?

Thank you for taking the time to read, and specifically for patronizing Blow Up Radio. In these times we live in, music is becoming more and more commodified and devalued. We are forced to rely on Spotify as our metrics of success, a platform that does not value its musicians. Otherwise we are deemed irrelevant by show bookers, by other online outlets/reporters, and even by peer artists. Unfortunately, platforms that are slightly better to their artists like Apple Music unfortunately have a small fractional amount of the listenership that spotify has. Websites like Blow Up Radio are some of the last legs of real media/journalism/radio that isn't all run by some greater money interest hoping to exploit. Independent outlets need people like you who go above and beyond in order to live, and for that, I thank you for giving the time to read about my tiny indie band.

If you found us interesting, follow us on instagram, check out our bandcamp, maybe get a tape, say hi to me at a show, talk to us, challenge me at ninja, ask Julia and Harry about their cats, tell me a really bad dad joke that i will try to internalize for future use (but will inevitably forget soon after).


Artist Links:

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Artist Bio:
Pillowinde is noisy pop music based out of New Brunswick NJ. Claire, Chelsea, Kie (until as of this article or so), Julia, Harry, and more friends make up the circus.