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{"id":43115,"date":"2021-05-25T12:30:02","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T16:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/?p=43115"},"modified":"2021-05-25T18:57:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T22:57:00","slug":"playing-cincy-blossom-hall-pyre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/playing-cincy-blossom-hall-pyre\/","title":{"rendered":"Cincy Indie Pop Duo Blossom Hall Release Their First (and Maybe Last?) Album, Pyre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Blossom — Photo Credit: Eden Estes<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Indie pop-rockers Blossom Hall<\/a> have been household names in the Cincinnati alt-rock scene for the better part of half a decade, and now they\u2019ve released their studio album, Pyre<\/em>. Notably, it\u2019s both the band\u2019s debut record and their last project before going on a hiatus. It\u2019s also a great summation of the raw songwriting, swelling instrumentals and orchestral flair that the duo \u2013 comprised of vocalist\/bassist\u00a0Nancy Paraskevopoulos and vocalist\/guitarist Phil Cotter \u2013 is known for.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
*Pyre<\/em> also features several other Cincinnati acts, including\u00a0*Strobobean\u2019s\u00a0Katrina Eresman<\/a>, MADQUEEN\u2019s Jaki Howser, Molly Brown, Elsa Kennedy and Brooklynn Rae; drummers Zach Larabee, Tim Weigand, Matt McAllister and CJ Eliasen; violinists Sarah Gorak and Jacob Duber; and saw player Andrew Higley.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blossom Hall fans were first introduced to Pyre<\/em> with \u201cGod Girl\u201d \u2013 the album\u2019s lead single and a fuzzy rock mixture of anthemic drums and haunting vocals about loneliness and the divine feminine. Other highlights on the record including the mantra-esque \u201cPeace to Everything That I Have Hurt and That Has Hurt Me,\u201d and sunshine-pop \u201cParasols.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the years, Blossom Hall has shared stages with the likes of Broken Social Scene, performed as the Pixies for a Cincinnati tribute show and created a well-defined sound and fanbase. Thankfully, though *Pyre<\/em> is the band\u2019s last album for a while, fans can look ahead to upcoming solo music from both Nancy and Phil and, hopefully, a reunion in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n*
Audiofemme caught up with Nancy and Phil over email about Pyre<\/em>, the evolution of their sound, what\u2019s next for the band and more.\u00a0Read on, and stream *Pyre<\/em>, below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n*
<a href=\"https:\/\/blossomhall.bandcamp.com\/album\/pyre\">Pyre by Blossom Hall<\/a><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AF: Pyre<em>\u00a0is both your debut studio album and your last project before going on hiatus. Do you think this will be Blossom Hall\u2019s official last album, or are you just planning on taking a break?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>NP:<\/strong>\u00a0Probably more of a hiatus. I expect we’ll shift gears to be a recording project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AF: <em>What prompted the band to take a hiatus?<\/em><\/strong><br><br><strong>NP:<\/strong> A lot of things. With the pandemic, my life turned upside down. Before 2020 started, I had planned on leaving my full-time job to go to massage school, which I did in 2020. The idea was it would be easier to tour. But partway through, I realized the middle of a pandemic was maybe the worst time to learn how to be a massage therapist. I left school. I applied to and was hired for my dream job. Life just happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AF: Pyre <em>feels like a good summation of the band\u2019s years together \u2014 what was the timeline of putting this project together? For example, \u201cGod Girl\u201d was originally written 10 years ago, right?<\/em><\/strong><br><br><strong>PC:<\/strong> It is a great summation. Nan wrote \u201cGod Girl\u201d a long time ago, but the arrangement is new. That song especially, but also the album as a whole, distills the ultimate Blossom Hall sound to me. Darkness with a sense of humor. Big landscapes with minute details.<br><br>The timeline of the album is long. We originally went into a studio, which we love, back in 2017. And although the sessions went well, we realized the arrangements just weren\u2019t ready.\u00a0We wrote new tracks and rewrote some others and began to record the album in my home studio. The acoustics of my space and the gear I use is always evolving, so that created an interesting contrast between lo-fi and hi-fi audio elements. We were originally planning to release it a year ago, but when COVID happened it didn\u2019t feel right. Anyone who mixes audio, especially their own songs, will tell you they could tweak them forever if there wasn\u2019t a deadline. So I spent a huge chunk of quarantine mixing and re-mixing the album.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AF: <em>What went into the shaping of \u201cGod Girl\u201d \u2014 adding or changing elements \u2014 to make it the song that it is today?<\/em><\/strong><br><br><strong>PC:<\/strong> It started as a haunting ukulele tune, entirely written by Nan. When I first heard it, I immediately heard the dynamic shifts possible, as well as the range of strange things we could do around what I hear as a psychedelic vocal. The first thing I contributed was building a rough garage rock demo with the dynamic shifts I heard and more of a chugging, constant pushing rhythm.\u00a0<br><br>Nan then added a vocal to help me hear the song take shape. Most of the original takes of my drums, guitar and her voice actually remain in the final version. Once her vocal was in there, I knew I wanted background vocals on the loud parts, so I did a few passes improvising them through the whole song and came up with the \u201csshhhh…hah…hah…\u201d part, which I love so much.<br><br><strong>NP:<\/strong> My favorite element that we added to that song are the drums in the bridge. I wanted to encapsulate the deep well of loneliness and self-pity that I had fallen into when writing that song. I asked one of our drummers Zach Larabee to just play something chaotic, which was a feeling I couldn’t have orchestrated alone.\u00a0<br><br><strong>PC:<\/strong> I knew we needed something ethereal and spooky and started reaching out to friends to see if anyone knew a trained theremin player. I\u2019ve always wanted an excuse to hire a theremin player. Instead, we found Andrew Higley, an incredible saw player. I actually prefer the saw because it sounds more organic, and if you listen close you can hear the dissonant overtones of the bow on the saw.\u00a0<br><br>After that, we had four non-male singers to come in and replace the placeholder background tracks that Nan and I sang. Then I just had to mix all of these elements sonically so that you could hear everything, but the emotions also come across the way they\u2019re meant to. It\u2019s a dense arrangement, and probably the most challenging to mix.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AF: <em>In 2018, you played a tribute concert to the Pixies in Cincinnati. What bands influenced the making of\u00a0<\/em>Pyre<em>?<\/em><\/strong><br><br><strong>PC:<\/strong> For my songs and arrangements: Ohmme, St. Vincent, Roomful of Teeth,\u00a0Pixies, Dirty Projectors, Fleet Foxes, late era Beatles and early solo McCartney, White Stripes and early Todd Rundgren.<br><br><strong>NP:<\/strong> I don’t know if these projects influenced the album, but I was into them the five years we made this particular music. We both love the music of the Dirty Projectors (especially the Amber Coffman era).\u00a0Dixie Cups, Thelonius Monk, the Pixies, Beams, specifically Billy Joel’s “Vienna Waits for You,” Louis Prima, Mount Eerie, Billie Holiday, Erykah Badu, the song “Joyful Joyful” from the <em>Sister Act 2<\/em> soundtrack,\u00a0<em>Thank U, Next<\/em>\u00a0by Ariana Grande, Jeffrey Lewis, Lizzo, the Books, Friendship and not a music project but Dharma talks from the Portland Insight Meditation Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nancy-and-Phil-tall-Bobby-Tewksbury-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43151\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nancy-and-Phil-tall-Bobby-Tewksbury-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nancy-and-Phil-tall-Bobby-Tewksbury-324x486.jpg 324w, https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nancy-and-Phil-tall-Bobby-Tewksbury-416x624.jpg 416w, https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nancy-and-Phil-tall-Bobby-Tewksbury-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nancy-and-Phil-tall-Bobby-Tewksbury-400x600.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nancy-and-Phil-tall-Bobby-Tewksbury-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nancy-and-Phil-tall-Bobby-Tewksbury.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><figcaption>Photo Credit: Bobby Tewksbury<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AF: Where did the inspiration for the album\u2019s title come from?<\/strong><br><br><strong>NP:<\/strong> The song \u201cPyre\u201d is about a relationship I had in which I was yelled at daily, called names, there was financial abuse, he was always threatening to break my stuff, he trapped me in the apartment. It was terrifying.\u00a0When we go through trial by fire, we often come out a different person. The person we were is no longer. Our bodies have new memories, and it is a kind of rebirth \u2013 for better or worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AF: <em>Will you be celebrating the album\u2019s release with any livestream performances, or playing any in-person shows when things open back up?<\/em><\/strong><br><br><strong>NP:<\/strong> <em>Will<\/em> things open back up? My job has me going to the hospital and going to court regularly. With the new strains, it might be dangerous for my clients and for audiences for me to play bigger shows.<br><br><strong>PC:<\/strong> No plans at the moment – we need a break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AF: <em>Are you working on any solo material\/projects at the moment?<\/em><\/strong><br><br><strong>NP:<\/strong> I am playing with friends but nothing I want to announce just yet!<br><br><strong>PC:<\/strong> Lots of other projects, some would say too many. Solo (folk), Golden Theory (live band hip hop), Party Blimp (soul music) and many freelance music projects for clients. I have a <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/phillipcotter\" target=\"_blank\">Patreon<\/a> where I release a song a month, and I follow my whim on what kind of music to make in a particular month.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AF: What is each of your favorite songs on the album and why?<\/strong><br><strong><br>NP:<\/strong> I love the song \u201cSt. Louis.\u201d It’s sweet and relatively simple. It’s focused on longing, which I try not to live in, but it happens \u2013 and can be fun! And Phil and I had fun writing it.<br><strong><br>PC:<\/strong> Gotta be \u201cGod Girl\u201d for me. It\u2019s just so damn epic. I\u2019m so proud of that arrangement and I adore Nancy\u2019s lyrics and melodies. \u201cPeace to Everything That I Have Hurt and That Has Hurt Me\u201d\u00a0is a close second. The first half is so soothingly groovy and pensive, while the second half feels so nourishing and epic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Follow Blossom Hall on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/blossomhallband\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/blossomhallband\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Instagram<\/a> for ongoing updates.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Indie pop-rockers Blossom Hall have been household names in the Cincinnati alt-rock scene for the better part of half a decade, and now they\u2019ve released their studio album, Pyre. Notably, it\u2019s both the band\u2019s debut record and their last project before going on a hiatus. 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