Q&A with Pickwick

Pickwick is a neo-soul and blues band that still maintains some of its folk roots. With a powerful new album, Can’t Talk Medicine, the group is busy touring the country and will be stopping by Local 506 tonight. Staff writer Charlie Shelton talked to lead singer Galen Disston about Can’t Talk Medicine and how living in Seattle helps with the band’s songwriting.

Diversions: So the group used to be an acoustic folk group. What prompted the switch over to a neo-soul and blues band?

Galen Disston: We just got tired of the songs because they were derivative of Jeff Tweedy and Ryan Adams and we started writing collaboratively. And the new stuff is just what has naturally come out when all get together in the basement and write the songs together as opposed to me just writing them on the acoustic guitar.

Dive: Does the band just click more with the soulful pieces?

GD: Yeah, definitely more with the blues, garage or R&B. I think that is where we are headed.

Dive: The band’s first album, Can’t Talk Medicine, was released in March. Was that a big step for the band? Do you feel like it legitimized the group or did you feel legitimate beforehand?

GD: I think the pursuit of releasing the 7”s as singles was just as legitimate but I think as a product we are a lot more happy with Can’t Talk Medicine. We updated a lot of the versions of the songs off Myths (a collection of demos), so in that sense we would all label it as legitimate.

Dive: It seems like a lot of emotion goes into every song, in the delivery, lyrics and music all around. Is it exhausting to put all that soul and emotion into each piece?

GD: Yeah sometimes, but I wouldn’t want to have it any other way. That was sort of one of the crutches of the old form of the band was the lack of emotion that it required, to write and perform. This is just a lot more heady if that makes sense.

Dive: One of the heavier blues and soul tunes on the album is “Brother Roland.” Is there any story behind that song?

GD: Yeah, there is. There was this artist who had an entirely fictional soul career that he tailed through record covers. And the song is about his personal story, about him going AWOL from the military, not being able to get a legitimate job and his brother being in the same situation.

Dive: Another tune “Letterbox,” speaks of “waiting for the summer to end” with some summery “oohs” and “aahs” in there with the blues theme. Do you feel like Pickwick has a season to go with its music or is it good music year-round?

GD: I don’t know, I mean we are from Seattle so the only season is gray.

Dive: Does Pickwick try to lighten that mood or do you roll with the gray skies?

GD: Maybe with some of the arrangements of the songs but the underbelly is pretty dark. So I think that is pretty consistent with where we live.

Dive: It is interesting that the title track is the shortest on the album and doesn’t have any words. What was the motivation behind that?

GD: We wanted to give people some glimpse into the fragmented recording process so that is just a little sound collage of moments in the studio and a culmination of outtakes in what it took to make the record.

Dive: How was it working with Sharon van Etten for “Lady Luck”?

GD: She is amazing. She came into our house studio when she was playing a show in Seattle and just totally interpreted that song in her own way. We were originally planning for that to be a B-side, but her performance was just so compelling for all of us that song became more of a runner for the record

Dive: How was SXSW for the band?

GD: It was really important and we got some amazing opportunities so we were really thankful to be there but it’s pretty inhuman, it’s a weird experience.

Dive: Is Pickwick trying to play more festivals?

GD: Yes and no, I think we are just trying to do everything that is incremental and feels like a natural step. We are going to play Capitol Hill Bloc Party this summer and the other headliners are The Flaming Lips and Girl Talk, we are really excited about that.