I was really excited about getting to know more about this band. The Pressure Kids met in Nashville after moving here to attend college. A mismatched crew of friends and roommates that love to jam together and makes lots of noise. This noise I speak of is a mix of indie rock and heavy drum beats that keep me entranced as they build with beauty of the songs. Last week they released their first EP, Tiger, that is now home to some great tracks by this group. Perfect blend of chill, yet mostly anthemic in sound. Showing no signs of slowing down, this group is excited to get their music out and to be heard. Recently rocking the stages at the Pilgrimage Festival and celebrating the release of their EP at the Exit/In here in Nashville. The EP was mixed and produced by Brian Herman (Vampire Weekend, Kanye West). I got to ask them some questions and here is what they had to say…
-Who are The Pressure Kids?
We’re big Nashville indie-rock, we’re horns and strings and electric guitars. We’re buddies who met in a dorm. We’re a bunch of kids who grew up listening to a lot of different kinds of music who really like playing loudly together.
-What do you sound like?
We draw from a pretty diverse pool of influences, we like to throw in a lot of different sounds. A standard TPK jam will have a really heavy bottom, pounding drums and bass, layered with a net of chimey guitars and iced with a string of melodies on top.
-What was the process for picking the songs on this EP?
All of the songs on Tiger were written, arranged and recorded on site. We had this really wild opportunity for a few of us to head to Brooklyn this past June and track some tunes at Treefort Studios. We thought this would be as good an opportunity as any to get a little risky with things, to get lost in the big city and see how it would color some new noise. We had a few soundcheck licks and basement half-jams that we kept in our pockets and brought up with us, but most of what you’re hearing was hammered out in the this cozy little studio loft hidden inside this Brooklyn storage locker.
-Why the name Tiger for title of the EP?
The night before we left to make the record we got nailed with some travel complications. Our bud Tiger was in Nashville that weekend and dropped everything to zipper up with us and made the trip happen.
There was sort of a cast of characters outside the band that influenced the record, both musically and logistically. Naming the record after Tiger made a lot of sense.
-You have a track named “For Kim”. Who is Kim?
Kim lives above Allan and John. The she’s very sweet and forgiving and puts up with a lot of noise that wanders upstairs. The morning we were leaving to start the record I smashed into her parked car. She was very sweet and forgiving.
-Were you all into music or have a band before joining together in Nashville?
All of us have lived inside a lot of sounds before coming to Nashville, it was what drew most of us to this city.
-What was it like working with Brian Herman?
We didn’t know much of what to expect when we showed up on his doorstep, just a few voicemails to speculate from. He was very gracious from the moment we showed up, genuinely interested in what we were doing and immediately wanted to dive in with us. This is a dude who has been doing what he does very well for a very long time, he has worked on a ton of projects during the course of career. Very humble too, it wasn’t until we started finding pieces of gear laying around the studio with sharpied names on them that we began to realize that he had his hand in a lot of records that we really looked up to.
-If you could tour with any band in the world, who would you pick?
I think we would all lose our minds at an opportunity to play with Wilco.
-What is next for The Pressure Kids?
It’s historically been a little tough for us to put music out, we’ve always gotten sideswiped by logistics and self imposed deadlines, so it’s been pretty electric to have finally have something out that we’re proud of. The response has been really humbling for these new tunes, we’re going to spend some time getting word out about the record, play some shows in the periphery of Nashville.
Even though Tiger has only been out for about a week I think we’re all sort of turning our direction to something bigger. Nothing is lined up but we’re definitely ready to carve out a full length.
Pilgrimage Festival See, aren’t these guys just cool? I can’t wait to hear more from them and hopefully catch them live. Follow them on Facebook for all the latest updates.
Nick Johnston -vocals, guitar
Allan Cuva -guitar, vocals
Katy Carmichael -vocals, keys
Scott Hermo -bass
John Lewandowski -drums
Photo from their Facebook page.
