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28 October 2024

Every Monday I will be bringing you an interview with an independent band, duo or music artist. This week, I caught up with London based artist Piney Gir to find out more…

Where are you from and how did you first get into music?
I am from Kansas and I grew up singing in church, I took piano lessons from the age of 4, learned to play the drums from the age of 10, went to uni to study drums and percussion but my drums were stolen, so I changed my major to voice. Didn’t know what to do with my life, moved to London, joined a synth pop duo (Vic Twenty) and toured around Europe and the UK with Erasure. We split and I started a solo career in 2004 when Truck Records offered me a solo album deal, I’m now 7 albums and 3 EPs in (I just released an EP in August on No Distance Records).

Piney Gir is just me, a solo artist, but I love collaborating. My core band actually is Gaz Coombes’ band. I sing BVs and play synths and percussion with him! He sorta started pinching all the people that play with me back in 2015, until gradually his line up became the same as my line up. I’m just happy we all get to make music together as we’re all really good friends, and I’ve learned a lot from singing with Gaz.  He’s so pro and also so humble.

Who were your musical influences when you were growing up and who are your influences now?
I was sheltered from secular music growing up (thus the ‘music in church’ beginnings). But I watched The Muppets as that was deemed wholesome enough, and that was my first window into secular music. I thought Elton John was a muppet with his glasses and feathers, and Deborah Harry was the most beautiful rock n roll princess I could have ever dreamed of. It wasn’t until later (early teens, a bit of a rebel phase) that I actually got into pop culture and started to explore different kinds of music. And I soaked it up like a sponge, I liked all genres, rock, country, hip hop, r n b, oldies, grunge, pop, gothy synth music… it took me a bit longer to find Bowie, Pulp and Roxy Music (that came later when I moved to the UK), and I’m constantly still inspired by new music and old music that’s new to me.

How would you describe your sound?
It’s definitely eclectic. I think because I was so excited by ‘all kinds of music’ I like to explore ‘all kinds of music.’ I don’t listen to only one thing, so I don’t create only one thing. My first album was electro, I did 2 country albums, I did a ‘folktronic fusion’ sort of album, I went to LA and did a 60’s sounding record with Rob Campanella from Brian Jonestown Massacre, I worked on a record with Andy Ramsay from Stereolab, I created an indie pop record in a shed in Carterton, and most recently I’ve made 3 EPs which are quite psychedelic rock, which is a themed trilogy to be released on vinyl next year with a couple of new tracks and different versions from the EPs.

What is your latest release called and what was the influence behind it?
My most recent EP is called “Cosmic Upside Down” and was recorded in Berlin with Garo Nahoulakian, Mike Monaghan & Tomas Greenhalf… and thematically it explores witchy stuff, our connection to the universe and the power of nature. The first EP of the trilogy “Astral Spectra” was created in lockdown, and that’s where the lightning bolt moment happened because I’d never made a themed album before, but I found with the time spent at home in lockdown I got really into researching witchcraft and how the history of witches aligns with feminist history, and those concurrent lines were so interesting! I thought, let’s make 3 EPs (3 being a significant number in numerology) and release the collection on beautiful vinyl. We recorded that first EP remotely, and came together for EP 2 “Alchemy Hand” to work in the studio where Primal Scream recorded Screamadelica “Bark Studios” and that was fun to play together in one room after spending that weird Covid time apart. We also had Harry Deacon from Palace and Chris Barker from Willie J Healey’s band on that EP… it’s fun to work with different people and see what they will bring to the party!

What’s your local music scene like?
I love my local scene! It’s so nice to be part of a community and really feel a togetherness, there is so much talent and kindness in our scene. I think London is tough (i.e. there’s a lot of noise out there) but it’s lovely to feel like I’ve found my tribe and there is love and support there… I mean, it’s no joke that small venues are struggling and post Covid it’s harder for little indie acts like me to get gigs – barring my regular haunts (like I love to play The Lexington). It’s also not cost efficient for me to go on tour, and unless I’m supporting a more established act (like Gaz Coombes has had me support him a couple of times and I supported Ride recently and that’s great!), I’m not really able to consider the money lost on tour as a marketing expense when it’s just a Piney show (i.e. not a support slot), it’s just too expensive. I used to be able to tour the UK quite easily and do a few gigs in Europe, but Brexit has seen to it that Europe is a lot more difficult to gig now as a grassroots musician, and post Covid cost of petrol, hotels and general cost of living has gone up (boring!) so taking the show on the road to Newcastle on a Tuesday and Leeds on a Wednesday, etc is more out of reach than it used to be. I hope I can tour the new album when it comes out next year… and I hope I can tour it with the full band. We’ll see if stars will align there, starting to put feelers out about that now…

What do you have planned for the next 12 months?
I have a gig at The Lexington on October 13th celebrating the 20 year anniversary of my first album (it’s an early Sunday show, 7:00)… I have the final single of the 3rd EP out in October it’s called “What Have We Done For Nature?” and I have 2 tracks in progress for the vinyl release of the EP trilogy, which will happen in Spring 2025 when I’m hoping to tour it, etc… I also did a collaboration with Rhodri Marsden from Scritti Polliti, we did a cover of The Knife song “Reindeer” which is being released by Lush (the high street bath store that smells so good when you walk by)… That single will be out in November, to promote the lovely gatefold vinyl album out early in 2025.

Is there anyone you’d love to collaborate with?
Yes, I love collaborations! I do quite a bit of collaborating so hit me up!

It’s always been a dream to sing “Rainbow Connection” with Kermit the Frog and I’m the world’s biggest Dolly Parton fan, so anything Dolly would be incredible.

Any funny stories surrounding your live performances?
I mean, I’ve been gigging for 20+ years so yeah! But nothing puts you on the spot more than a question like that… Recently with Gaz we were in Australia supporting Robbie Williams and we were sat in the middle of a Formula 1 style race-course in the middle of a big race. We were trying to soundcheck, but the race cars were soooooooo loud! We just had to line-check and laugh about it! Then we played a show to 80,000 people, having not really had a soundcheck, but it was a still good gig!

What is the one thing that you want readers to know about you?
I’m a really good cook. I have a gift with spices and flavours where I don’t need a recipe and can just make stuff from whatever is in your cupboard, ready-steady-cook style! I like it, it’s fun! And baking really relaxes me, the chemistry of it and the lovely smells and of course sharing it. I do feel at home in the kitchen.

Upcoming live dates and performances
I’m doing my 20 year anniversary gig at The Lexington in London on the 13th of October (I’ll be playing my debut album that came out in 2004 there). You can find out more info here.

You can find out more about Piney Gir on her website or via Apple Music, Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud, Spotify, X (Twitter) or YouTube.

Piney’s music video for “What Have We Done For Nature?” was directed by Jeremy Fowler of Newler Films. You can find a mini Q&A with him below:

Tell us about the concept of the video? What were the influences on it?
The clue was in the title of the song. Living somewhere that is countryside adjacent it seemed like the obvious choice to use the surroundings. It’s free Production Value.

And with that in mind I’ll never turn down the opportunity to do my Dollar $tore version of Terrence Malick.

Where/how did you film the video?
We shot the video in the nearby woods and fields, and also our back garden. We did get told off by a farmer whilst shooting one of the timelapses (because we were standing on his crop). But he was very gracious and let us continue until the sun had gone down.

Favourite moment from the video?
The car headlights shining on the sunflowers at the end. I didn’t know until after we had shot the footage that Kansas (original home of Piney Gir) is the Sunflower State. So that was serendipitous. Those sunflowers have since been cut down. If ever was a pertinent reminder of the finality of all things, there’s one there. Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.