Purling Hiss | Interview | New Album, ‘Drag On Girard’
The first Purling Hiss record in years riding on the same waves as the previous records. ‘Drag On Girard’ is filled with joy, summer and fantastic songs.
One of the unique qualities of ‘Drag On Girard’ is a specific lead-rhythm arrangement of the guitars, emitting the expected formidable roar while setting a certain type of rhythmic strut for the band. The two guitars style also trips power-pop impulses in the tunes, with sung-along harmony vocals that evoke classic collective magic and burnish the tunes one by one. Once this vibe’s established, side two turns around and stretches out with the molten flow of Purling Hiss at their very most epic; couched within loose improvisatory structures, the title track and ‘Shining Gilded Boulevard’ play further with the yin/yang of nostalgia and truth as they trade places looking meditatively back to them old days and all their harshness and beauty.
A lot has happened since our latest interview. Why is there a time gap between 2016 – 2023 when it comes to Purling Hiss? What occupied your life?
Mike Polizze: Thanks for the interview. It’s good to be back. So we started tracking this latest record at the end of 2019, and then the lockdown happened just a few months later. I couldn’t get back into the studio for at least another year because of the pandemic. I probably finished the record in 2021, and once I turned it into the record label, there was a major delay with vinyl manufacturers. Between approval of our test press and setting a release date, it probably set us back about a year. I’ve also gotten married and have a child now, so that’s also what happened since the last album…and a solo debut LP and Birds of Maya LP in 2020 and 2021.
How would you describe the latest album, ‘Drag On Girard’?
Fun, and loose. We had a couple of songs or jams we had done like ‘Yer All In My Dreams’ and some others especially on the B-side that had less structure and that we improvised in the studio. The studio experience felt low-pressure and we tracked everything in two breezy sessions. We treated it like a fun thing. It felt like a live in the studio feel, or playing a show. We usually do track live, but little bits of nuance were welcomed, like talking in between, or extra feedback, amps bleeding into others through the mic set up. It felt natural.
Would you say the recent events influenced its creation?
Not so much, as far as the pandemic goes anyway, since we tracked right before lockdown. And for people who know the song ‘Baby’ on this LP, it’s actually not in reference to (my wife) having one recently, the timing just worked out. But the pandemic has definitely influenced everything else about playing as a band or artist. It feels like starting over again. We have some shows lined up and that we are planning, but we don’t have a huge tour this time. Maybe next year…
Can you share some further details on how your latest album was recorded? What’s the main difference from previous releases?
Well we recorded it in Philly, at Uniform Studio which is Jeff Zeigler, whom I’ve recorded alot with at this point. And like I said earlier, we tracked the record live with the band in his studio, in two sessions. We had done a couple EPs and a cassette in the previous two years (2017 and 2018) right after our ‘High Bias’ LP, and we did some small tours, with some of those newer songs (from ‘Drag On Girard’) we were kicking around. Some were your-tight by 2019 (‘Yer All In My Dreams,’ ‘Baby,’ ‘Stay With Us’) and others were unfinished half-baked ideas. So ‘Drag On Girard,’ the song, and ‘Shining Gilded Boulevard’ were barely structured and done in one take. When I got back a year later, I just added the vocals and some minimal guitar overdubs then mixed it down.
What kind of pedals, effects and gear do you have these days?
I have accumulated some newer pedals over the years, but my setup has been pretty consistent for the better part of the last 20 years. I play a Strat through an Ampeg VT-22 that was taken from a combo amp, made into a head, and play that through a 4 – 12” speaker cab. I have a couple of Electro Harmonix Big Muffs (recently fixed and modified by Jesse Trbovich of Kurt Vile and the Violators), an MXR delay (carbon copy) a boost pedal (I forget who makes it) and use a Vox wah pedal most of the time.
Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?
Lately I’ve been on a jazz kick since Wayne Shorter passed away recently. My dad, who was a saxophonist and jazz fan, has a decent collection, and I’ve recently had that on plus some Grachan Moncur, Coltrane, et cetera. Sun Ra Arkestra also put out new music last year. Some good music that’s been happening that I’ve caught or listened to in Philly are Bill Nace, Blues Ambush, or Heavenly Bodies, Emily Robb, Rosali…to name a few. Things are starting to bounce back and there’s lots of shows again. I’ve been trying to start going to more.
Thank you. Last word is yours.
Thanks for the interview. Hopefully we’ll do this again in a few years!
Klemen Breznikar
Headline photo: Kathryn Lipman
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Drag City Records Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Bandcamp / SoundCloud
Mike Polizze of Purling Hiss & Birds of Maya Interview
Purling Hiss | Interview with Mike Polizze
