Nova-Scotian queer duo Pillow Fite have released their debut album ‘Hard Feelings, Soft Promises’.
Out now via LHM Records, the album follows the band’s EP ‘Flutter’.
Speaking of the album, Aaron Green said: “Art is full of big ideas and even bigger feelings. As the analytical, grounded one, it’s my job to take the intangibles and bring them to life. We’ve never shied away from the ‘opposites attract’ vibes and ‘Hard Feelings, Soft Promises’ showcases this quite plainly. Lyrically, the songs range from “I love you” to “fuck off.” I feel my role in the band is to realise Art’s vision with arrangements and sonics that provide the proper environment to effectively communicate their message. After struggling for a while early on to pin down a genre that fits adequately into a 30 second elevator pitch, my goal as producer was to get out of the way and see where the songs themselves wanted to go. I didn’t want to crunch them into a box or trim the edges to fit some preconceived notion of what Pillow Fite was supposed to be.”
To celebrate their debut album, the band shared with us five tracks that influenced ‘Soft Promises’.
Girl In Red – Bad Idea
We knew we wanted ‘Ativan’ to be a banger. It was one of the earliest tunes we wrote for ‘Hard Feelings, Soft Promises’ and we knew we were moving farther and farther away from our folky acoustic beginning. Like most things Pillow Fite, we leaned right into the shift. ‘Bad Idea’ is coming from the same place ‘Ativan’ is, I think. A little regret. A little self acknowledgement. A need to be heard about how something felt. A bunch of hurt feelings. Those vocals are delivered so matter of factly and it sears in the intentions. I love the rhythm section in the ‘Girl In Red’ song and really took a lot of inspiration from the way the drums build in as the intensity thickens and the way the bass drives the vibe to match the vocal’s vitriol. And a three syllable vocal hook made it seem like an apt influence as well.
The Counting Crows – Round Here
Something about the 90’s always seems to creep subconscious into Pillow Fite songs. But on ‘More Of That’, it wasn’t subconscious at all. Art brought in the skeleton of this gorgeous love song. With the waltz feel, chimey chords and dreamy lyrics, I immediately heard a repetitive guitar arpeggio figure similar to the one that opens this song. We love some pretty dissonance, and once I leaned into that looping three note figure, the rest of the arrangement dictated itself around that centre supporting Art’s lyrics. I tried to keep the instrumentation fairly organic and straightforward, similar to that vibe that flows through August and Everything After and we ended up really happy with how it came through on the track.
Ethel Cain – House in Nebraska
Art wrote the closing track on the album, ‘Camera Roll’, after adopting a new fingerpicking style while we were touring. I’d been quite obsessed with Ethel Cain’s album ‘Preacher’s Daughter’ for most of 2023. The wide open space and texture of House in Nebraska had that lonely, forlorn, ambient reverb that I really wanted to employ to represent the isolation in the lyrical content. ‘Camera Roll’ was slated early on as the album closer, so we knew we wanted it to build to a peak and grabbed a lot of influence from how the big piano and guitar notes land like sledgehammers as the song progresses. Given the fingerpicking guitar figure, the main inspiration for the song became ‘what if Ethel Cain covered ‘Street Spirit’ by Radiohead and then ended it like ‘The Chain’ by Fleetwood Mac.
The Stooges – I Wanna Be Your Dog
‘Art’ had the chords on hooks for Sunday. It had this really simple power chord chorus similar to a Pixies or Nirvana type thing. It was so perfect in the simple state that it didn’t really need much more except some ooooomph behind it. I was listening to a lot of The Stooges at the time and that pounding, ominous piano note that rings out through this song just struck me as the perfect punctuation to make the big parts of ‘Sunday’ hit and I ended up matching it with droning guitar lines and keep the music simple and effective but prodding. This is maybe a less obvious influence as our song doesn’t really sound anything like the Stooges song, but it think the spite and sass underlined in ‘Art’s lyrics about being under the crushing weight of capitalism is coming from that same confrontational vibe Iggy puts forward whenever he is on the mic.
Kathleen Edwards – Birds On A Feeder
No Pillow Fite influence list is complete without Kathleen Edwards. We even got to see her play live in London when we were touring there in September. A nice little taste of home while we were away. Pillow Fite starts every song with two acoustic guitars and a melody or two. The other influences listed above used that start as a base and then blossomed out into other genres and realms. Sometimes, as with ‘Hacks’ on ‘Hard Feelings, Soft Promises’, the song ends up living without much sonic adornment. I love the sonic pillow this songs lounges on and really wanted to recreate that warm blanket feel with hacks. Also, Kathleen has more than a little country influence flowing throughout her catalogue and that tiny slide guitar that peaks through in Hacks is a bit of a nod to that, but in our own weird indie way.
Listen to Pillow Fite’s musical influences:
Stream Pillow Fite ‘Hard Feelings, Soft Promises’ via Spotify below: