Fall in Love with Pretty In Between

Pretty in Between are a San-Fran band on the rise. Quickly becoming a staple in the music scene, the group are set to release their new EP, "Live at Music City." As the band recorded the album at a place very near and dear to them, they come alive and share their true spirit and essence. We had the chance to catch up with the group as they ready for their release, which you can dive into below.

You have had a successful year with an upcoming album in tow, congrats! What can we expect from you next?

It’s definitely been a formative year for us, and we’re very excited about this upcoming EP release. It being a live, and essentially unplanned, recording of a Saturday night show felt like a great way to get our music out there in the most raw and real form. This is hopefully just the tip of the iceberg for Pretty in Between. We’ve got some live video sessions that we’re just wrapping up, and a four-song studio EP in the works as well, so there’s a lot to look forward to. And of course, plenty of live shows throughout the Bay Area.

As a band, what is your writing process like?

As the singer and guitar player, I write a lot of the foundations for the songs. Some songs I’ll write a whole roadmap and then bring them to the band for fleshing out. Other songs are multiple month-long exercises of playing a progression in the practice room with the drummer, Tred, and composing from there. We are all pretty interested in the theoretical side of composition, but that isn’t the angle it initial comes from. At the end of the day it’s a work-flow that is based on our intuitions and our collective dispositions.

Was there any specific storyline you had for the song when writing the new songs? If you can reveal those secrets yet.

There are a few different ideas on this EP. From songs with very grand spiritual concepts, to others about more earth-bound and day to day realities. We definitely touch on a lot of information. The central themes are almost always some notion about the temporary illusions of our physical reality. We also write a lot about the grand schemes of oppression that we find ourselves simultaneously perpetuating and suffering from. To me, there’s a lot of depth left to discover in the human experience, and I want to use the power of song and media to hint at some greater awakening that I think lies beneath all the bullshit.

When writing music, what are your influences? How long does it typically take you to write a song? Do you keep coming back to the piece and revising?

We are heavily influenced by our situation as modern people in an increasingly modern world. We want to be relatable and connect with people, but also tackle feelings of isolation and a sense of longing for more. We want to make music that is as equally new as it is reminiscent. We want to make music that feels good to listen to, but also tugs at the gnawing void that we all can feel inside.
We don’t have a typical timeline for writing. Some ideas fall out in a single session and others develop over months. The salient part is that each song is constantly evolving. There is a constant revision process in this band, which keeps it interesting for us. Songs that we thought were ‘done’ have been re-imagined six months later with new parts and new movements. No song is ever truly completed, and we like that.

What are your influences musically and lyrically? Where do the lyrics draw from?

Our range of influences is an expansive one, but most of all of it falls in that contemporary western ‘pop music’ category. From Steely Dan, to Anderson Paak, to My Morning Jacket, we are constantly touching on and taking inspiration from a lot of different styles and artists. We love the concept of blending these styles and expressions in a fluid way, giving us the freedom to have a jazzy ballad with a psyche-rock chorus and a Rage Against the Machine-esque rap song all on the same release.

With our latest material, the lyrics primarily draw from the question of ‘How can I say with words and melodies the things that I think need to be said?’ I’m the opposite of a nihilist in this way; I think there is direction and meaning in this life, and I think there are things at stake when we don’t keep it real with and amongs ourselves. Whether it’s addressing the gentrification of San Francisco in the song ‘Outside,’ or discussing the macro-level struggle to be zen in the song ‘Clear,’ I’m just trying to put my spin on the ancient human conundrums which are new phenomena for us as we experience them.


What was the recording process like for Live at Music City album?


This recording and how it came to be is actually pretty serendipitous. I work at this awesome hostel/music rehearsal space in San Francisco called Music City SF. There’s a live show room in the basement and I made arrangements to help set up a show in for a friend in order to get some live videos shot for her group. She asked us to join the bill, and to our pleasant surprise brought along her friend, Nate Bauld, who just so happens to be a dope engineer with all the right gear.

He recorded our whole set. We were so pleased with the tracking that we took our favorite songs from the performance and, thus, this EP was born.

Do you have any plans on touring this year?

We hope to widen our circle around the Bay Area and play more places throughout California within the upcoming year. A tour next summer might be in order, but we’ll have more on that later.

What goodies do you have in store for us by the end of the year?

Other than the live EP, we’ve got another batch of five live studio sessions filmed with our neighbors at Gulch Alley Music Studio. Those will be out within the next few months. We’re making our way through our first studio EP, which we are very excited about, within the year. We’ve got a healthy amount of gigs lined up in the Bay Area, and we hope to continue to run that circuit and develop as musicians; spreading our word and getting our groove on.

The band plays on 10/20 at 8p at Music City Rehearsal (1353 Bush Street) in San Francisco.

Find Pretty in Between via:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prett...
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/prettyi...

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channe...
Bandcamp: prettyinbetween.bandcamp.com