In Conversation With #246 - Pynch
A pure piece of of DIY jangly guitar-pop - Pynch are here with their debut album ‘Howling at a Concrete Moon’ via Speedy Wunderground.
From working with Dan Carey and Speedy Wunderground through a speculative demo submission (He simply replied “I fucking love this”), to setting up their own label and touring the UK and Europe in a Skoda Fabia, the band have been on somewhat of an indie-rock odyssey in their first few years together. Now set to release their debut album, Howling at a Concrete Moon, Pynch are ready to deliver their full artistic statement and make good on the promise of their early singles.
They took a moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hey there Pynch - how are you? So your album is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
Hello! We’re good thanks and feeling a mixture of excitement and relief to finally be releasing our album. It’s a document of the journey that we’ve been on as a band over the last few years and everything that we’ve been working towards. There’s a big feeling of relief as we’re completely DIY and it’s taken a lot of work to get to this point but we’re all just so excited for everyone to be able to hear this collection of songs.
It is called ‘Howling at a Concrete Moon’ - what is the meaning behind that?
The title is actually taken from an episode of the Simpsons where Moe becomes a poet and Lisa suggests the name ‘Howling at a Concrete Moon’ for his first collection. I had thought that would be a cool name for an album even back in secondary school so it predates me writing the songs. I think it’s a really evocative title and reflects the themes of longing and urban living in a cool way.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process you are happy to share with us?
The album was mostly recorded at mine and Scott’s house (Chillburn HQ) and at Andy Ramsay’s Press Play Studios in Bermondsey. In terms of behind the scenes stories, there’s a sort of fuzzy distorted ambient sound that comes in the middle of Karaoke which was an improvised solo using a delay pedal and a jack cable. It’s definitely one of my favourite sounds on the album. Also our catchphrase throughout recording with Andy was ‘any old shit will do’ because we had so much to get done in such a short space of time. Andy also had a vendetta against the guitar solos on the album because they were too ‘rock god’ lol
What are the key themes and influences on the album?
At its core, it’s an album about being young and trying to find your place in an increasingly unwelcoming world. It’s both a political and personal account of my early twenties I would say – I wanted to set my inner search for meaning against the strange cultural backdrop of neoliberal Britain in the late 2010s and early 2020s. It’s a mixture of social commentary and personal reflection. I think there’s also quite a lot of juxtaposition throughout between themes like irony and sincerity as well as dreams and reality. Sonically, we draw influence from a lot of indie and electronic genres and try to bring them together in a way that feels relevant and true to us as artists
If the album could be the soundtrack to any film - which one would it be and why?
Oooh that’s a good question. Maybe Slacker if it was somehow filmed in London in 2019 rather than Austin in 1989. I love the way Linklater approaches filmmaking and the balance he strikes between aesthetic and heart in his work. Slacker is lo-fi, experimental, philosophical and also a document of the time it was made so I think there are some cool parallels between the album and the film.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album - if so, which one and why?
Hmm so many of the lyrics on the album mean a lot to me but I love these lines from Somebody Else and think that it really encapsulates the existential nature of the album. It’s the last track and it serves as the emotional climax of the record:
“But I don’t know what to do with myself
I can’t explain to you the things that I feel
I don’t wanna lead a life half lived
I wanna really know I exist
I wanna drive a car into the sun
I wanna feel everything at once
I wanna die doing what I love
I wanna feel like I’m doing enough”
Now the album is out there - what next?
Now we head out on our biggest ever tour around the UK and Europe and then we’ve got a few festivals to play this summer. Since we finished mixing the album we’ve had a lot more emotional and mental space to work on new songs so we’ve got a lot written for our next release. We’re loving how everything is sounding and are excited to see what the future holds!
Catch the band at the following live dates:
Thurs 20th April - Where Else, Margate
Fri 21st April - Moth Club, London
Sat 22nd April - Hope and Ruin, Brighton
Sun 23rd April - Heartbreakers, Southampton
Weds 26th April - The Adelphi, Hull
Thurs 27th April - The Castle Hotel, Manchester
Fri 28th April - The Crofters Rights, Bristol
Sat 6th May - L’International, Paris
Fri 12th May - V11, Rotterdam
