Pushpin's latest single, "The Dance," serves as a hyperactive duet between vocals and percussion and offers a truly dynamic journey, embodying the realisation of personal evolution and the embrace of new experiences.
Since their formation in 2020, Pushpin has been on an unconventional musical odyssey, incorporating sampled household objects into their soundscapes during lockdown. Their debut EP, "Picnic," released in 2022, garnered praise from industry heavyweights like Steve Lamacq, 6 Music, John Kennedy, Radio X and Spotify.
This new single “The Dance” set to be released on the 12th of March is an exceptional welcome return for Pushpin, showing true progression but still keeping their quirky, eccentric and innovative sound. Their dynamic live shows effortlessly blend infectious synth melodies with contemplative violin arrangements, punctuated by intricate vocal harmonies and lively percussion interludes.
As for Pushpin's live shows, their psychedelic pop is elevated by their imaginative visual elements, incorporating puppetry and DIY artwork into their stage performances, and this track makes us feel as if something is building in the Pushpin space. So don’t miss out on the single launch party on the 12th of march at the Lexington. We can’t wait to see what these guys have in store for us, see you there!
What where the main influences of your new single, ‘The Dance?’
It started as just a song with singing and drumming! So we built it up from there. Definitely some Fiona Apple and Tune Yards in there, but by the time we’d figured the whole song out it was its own thing.
Can you tell us about the creative process behind writing and recording this track?
So the first rehearsal we just played it all banging percussion and singing along. We realised we needed to take that somewhere, and we did that with loads of noise and synths and violins. We probably went too far but that’s how we like to push songs, and then step back.
The final piece was Laurence & Ed coming up with the brass at the end, which sort of speak for their wonderful selves.
In 3 words what best describes the sound of Pushpin?
Wonky noisy pop(?)
Where did the name Pushpin come from?
Honestly a really boring one here. We had to pick a name so just wrote pages and pages and it was the one none of us disliked. I think we nearly went for ‘Gumption’ so lucky escape.
How does this single compare to your previous releases in terms of style and sound?
This is the first piece of music we’ve worked with a producer on. We recorded it with the wonderful Joe Futak (lots of love to that beautiful human) and that was a big change for us, because before Arthur (in the band) produced and mixed all our stuff.
Joe really pushed us to come up with new sounds and worlds, and I think you can hear that on The Dance. Every Pushpin song before has had guitars, drums and bass (or something similar) and this song runs away from that into the noisy drum world that feels more at home for us.
Are there any particular themes or messages conveyed in the lyrics of the song that you’d like to highlight?
The song is about embracing new things and learning to love that headspace where you’re just flowing and not thinking too much about anything.
What do you hope listeners will take away from this track?
I guess a raw rush of excitement and the need to get up and dance about!
Can you share any interesting anecdotes or stories from the recording studio while working on this single?
We tried a million drum sounds on this one and threw everything at the wall. I think Joe got told off for setting up weird corridor microphones around the studio but the end result is that the whole track feels so massive!
We also layered all the vocal harmonies together, which is unusual for us, and it really sounds like a big choir of us, which we love.
Joe also made me run around while singing the lead vocal to get that feeling of when we do the song live! You can hear me sounding out of breath in certain places aha.
Were there any specific challenges or obstacles you faced during the production of this song?
I think getting it all to sit together. That was both the joy and struggle of it. We’d tried so many things and the song is such a bare bones framework for lots of fun extra instruments and parts that we really had to think through how to get it smoosh together into one exciting mess. I think we got there though!!
Are there any special elements or instruments used in this track that you'd like to highlight?
The brass!!!
What's next for the band after the release of this single?
More singles, more music, and a wonderful headline show April 12th at the Lexington.
Finally, can you give us 3 up and coming band recommendations that our audience may not have heard of?
I think your audience may have heard of many of them, but our favs are:
- Tapir!
- Morgan Noise
- Stepbrother
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