Off the Record

Kat 0:00
Hi everyone. You're listening to WKNC 88.1 FM, HD, one Raleigh. We are a student run non profit radio station based out of North Carolina State University. I'm Kat, also known as Klementine. That's my DJ name, and this is Off The Record featuring interviews with the local and national musicians. Here with me today is the multi genre band, Pretty crimes. How are you guys

Dan Irving 0:22
Doing great. Good to be here.

Alan "Chico" Marines 0:24
Hello.

Kat 0:25
Hi, glad you guys are good. Some introduction questions, if you want to introduce yourselves, tell us about who you are, where you're from.

Dan Irving 0:35
Yeah, I'm Dan Irving. I do keys and rhythm guitar, and I sing in the band. I live in Raleigh.

Kat 0:45
Really cool!

Em Edgerton 0:47
I'm Em Edgerton. I What do I do in the band? I play guitar, bass, vocals. I live in the bustling town of Franklinton, North Carolina.

Dan Irving 0:58
Represent

Em Edgerton 0:58
yeah, yeah. Alan, you want to go?

Alan "Chico" Marines 1:02
My name is Alan. Alan Marines. I play guitar and I do some background vocals from time to time. And I'm from Cary, North Carolina, born and raised,

Mike Freeman 1:19
Awesome. My name is Mike. I play the drums and little bit of guitar every now and then, a little bit of background vocals every now and then, but definitely mostly percussion, mostly the drums. And I am also local to Raleigh. I live in South Raleigh.

Kat 1:34
Okay, so all of you guys are local to Raleigh, right? Yeah, okay, did you guys always live in Raleigh, or

Dan Irving 1:39
No, the band started in Chapel Hill, Em and I met as DJs at WXYZ, yeah, yeah. So the band kind of started there as a duo, and then after we graduated, kind of migrated over, and Mike and Alan joined along the way.

Kat 1:58
Okay, that's so cool. I'll ask more questions about that later, or, I guess that's my next question, actually, how did pretty crimes come to be? What's your backstory?

Dan Irving 2:07
Yeah, we, like I said, we were DJs at WXYZ We were at some anniversary party for the station.

Em Edgerton 2:15
50 or 75

Dan Irving 2:16
Yeah, it was like some big anniversary party, and we were both rookie DJs. And so we didn't really know a lot of people there

Kat 2:23
Me too. I'm a rookie DJ.

Dan Irving 2:26
Yeah, we get the worst time slot, yeah, yeah. So we were kind of like chatting, and I remember em was talking to someone about how they played bass. And I was like, that's cool. I I play keys. We should jam together sometime. And we ended up jamming, yeah, and then we were like, Let's, let's do some songs. And then we were like, Hey, let's do a show.

Em Edgerton 2:48
Yeah, it was, I kind of signed up, signed us up for a show before we had songs to play, or a name, or a name. Yeah. Mike was actually drumming in another band called The eccentrics, which is really cool. And they, I think it was Mike, or maybe someone reached out and was like, hey, like, do you know in each Chapel Hill bands? And I was like, I'm in a band. And I told Dan, I was like, you have a gig in January. And this was December, I think.

Dan Irving 3:15
yeah, we had, like, a month to finalize a set list, yeah, from various songs we had started, and we made it happen.

Kat 3:24
Also, how did like the name, specifically, pretty crimes. Like, did you guys have a group discussion about that, or is it mainly between you two, and they just joined in?

Dan Irving 3:32
I think they joined after it became pretty crime. So when we first started, like I said, when we got that first gig, we didn't even have a name, and so we went back and forth about a name, and we settled on, initially, the dream houses. And so we were the dream houses for a little bit, but then there's a few other bands that had a similar name, and we're like, oh, that's not too exciting, distinctive, like, we can change it. And so then we made a massive google doc of possible names, and that one won out.

Kat 4:07
I mean, I like the name. I think it's a good name.

Dan Irving 4:09
Thank you, I'm pretty proud of it.

Kat 4:10
So is there like, a is it just the name, you just liked how it sound, or is there like, a reason, or anything? Yeah, I

Dan Irving 4:17
wouldn't, I wouldn't say there's really a deep reason. I was just going for like, kind of word play, kind of thing, yeah, that one kind of struck a chord with us.

Kat 4:25
Yeah, it's like, I said, it's a cool name. I like it. How long have you guys, I mean, you've already said kind of, how long you're making music, since grad school--or undergrad. Sorry, sorry, yeah.

Dan Irving 4:38
we, I mean, we started in is the year I graduated. So 2017 like the end of 2017 till now. So, okay, seven years. Wow

Kat 4:48
that's crazy. You guys are doing well, though

Dan Irving 4:52
we're still doing it.

Kat 4:52
Yeah, some music questions, then about that, since you guys have kind of described your music to. Have influences from electronic music, country in Motown, or you guys say genre fluid as like an umbrella term, what inspiration Do you guys like take music from? Or what what inspiration? What inspires your music a lot, and whether it's like certain artists or maybe something extremely specific, like something random

Dan Irving 5:21
for me, I um, there's a lot of artists that I like listening to, and I kind of like diving into one artist discography, and kind of like listening to it all the way through to see how they develop. So I definitely like artists that change a lot between records. I'm really into stuff like the Beach Boys. Kate Bush, I had, I had a Prince phase, not too long ago

Mike Freeman 5:48
didn't we all

Dan Irving 5:51
yeah. Artists like that. And it definitely, like sneaks into how we make music. I would say, yeah.

Em Edgerton 5:57
I think I a lot of my early influences were, like, outlaw country, so like Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard and stuff. So like, a lot of storytelling based stuff, but also really, I think when we started the band, I was really into Courtney Barnett. Oh yeah. I think I saw her in concert opening for the Alabama Shakes, and I was like, I want to do that. That seems so cool. And a lot of her songs are very lyrical, like super long storytelling stuff, and so I think that played a big influence into some of the songs that I've been writing.

Dan Irving 6:27
I remember we tried doing a cover of not only that, what I'm thinking of is elevator operator. Oh yeah. That was, like, one of the first covers we, like, tried when we were jamming together, and we were like, This is too many lyrics. Let's not do this one.

Kat 6:43
Yeah, so you guys, like, do you think you focus a lot on the lyrics with your music?

Dan Irving 6:49
There's definitely an effort made into it. I'd say majority of the time the music does come first. But then when it comes time to make the lyrics, I definitely over obsess about them a bit. We've, we've had discussions where I'm like, I feel like it needs a syllable here, yeah, I don't know what syllable it is yet, like, very minute detail kind of stuff like that. I was gonna

Alan "Chico" Marines 7:14
say, I mean, I feel like when it comes to songwriting or lyrics, it's usually Em and Dan. But Dan and Em do a really good job of, when they have a song idea and maybe some lyrics together, that when it comes to the music, instrumental part of it, you know, they bring that very open to the band. So maybe the lyrics, you know, have a very, you know, very set in stone, because that's personal to them. But when it comes to actual music, that's when, you know, we're talking about influences. That's where all the influence really come together in the aspect of it.

Dan Irving 7:45
Yeah, where are y'all influences you haven't you haven't spoken to that yet.

Alan "Chico" Marines 7:49
I was gonna say, I feel like as a band, we all have some, like, very similar influences, but then individually, like, our individual influences definitely come out for me. Definitely blues. I listen to a lot like Steve Ray Vaughn. I love blues, yeah. And I try my best not to do a lot of blues licks in the song. I can't help myself.

Dan Irving 8:12
Sometimes they sneak in, and that's okay.

Alan "Chico" Marines 8:14
I can't help my Steve Ray Vaughn faces that I do on stage. But those are,

Dan Irving 8:19
don't ever stop the Stevie Ray Vaughan face, yeah,

Alan "Chico" Marines 8:21
and now Rogers, I did want to say that,

Mike Freeman 8:23
yeah. I mean, for myself, I'm all over the place. I like all sorts of stuff. And I think the pretty crimes in particular has been a super interesting project for me to have to expand my music taste in in that direction, in more of like a I guess, indie Americana Folk vibe sometimes just stuff that I'm not necessarily used to playing, or would, you know, not necessarily be what I would have listened to growing up. I played a lot of hard rock and metal before, and I still listen to a lot of that, but I have a lot of newer folk and and, yeah, like a lot of Willie Nelson, love St Paul and the broken bones. a ton of fun. A lot of funk recently. So

Kat 9:10
I've been listening to so much funk recently, like so much jazz funk, blues, all that kind of realm, like a lot recently. But it's cool you guys have such a like a mix, and I think that definitely encourages the the variety your guys's music has, for sure, and with also that saying, you know, there's so many differences of variety in your music. How would you compare the Compare and contrast them regarding the process of, like, making them? Because the songs, the ones that I played on the radio pedals, sounds so dress, in my opinion, drastically different to if you are there in your other album, which such a good song to both of them so different. And I would assume the process of making them is different, and what you'd focus on. So,

Dan Irving 9:58
yeah, um. I think every song kind of comes from a different source. I know in my experience, like, even the instrument that they originate on is going to be different, like, how they start. Like, sometimes it's just I hear a line, a melodic line, in my head, and I kind of develop it from there, sometimes, like, I'm jamming on something on the piano or on the guitar and like that. Definitely like influences, how things sound, I know, for the songs you mentioned, for pedals, that was something that Em wrote originally on guitar. It was like, it was, it was a much more like, I guess, like, down tempo, kind of indie folk song originally, and then I had, when we were, like, working on the first record, I had just gotten a TR 08 it's the, like, Roland 808 re release that they did a few years back. And I was eager to try it out. And so we ended up trying it out on pedals, And that arrangement kind of stuck. So that's why that kind of went in a more electronic, like four on the floor direction, versus, if you are there, that one started with, it was just like a melody that I started singing in the shower. One day I'd like, just come back from a run. I like to run, yeah, as my form of exercise. And I was just like, singing about how stinky I was. And then I, like, hit on a melody. I was like, oh, I should do something with that and maybe make it a little bit more serious. So I did

Kat 11:35
organic creation, yeah, that's, I like the backstory of that one.

Dan Irving 11:41
Yeah, they all come from different places.

Kat 11:43
Yeah, which is really cool. Do you have, like, a favorite song that was to make, I guess, like one that was the most fun for you guys, or interesting, and vice versa? Which one was the most difficult? YeahI'm

Alan "Chico" Marines 11:58
gonna say, if you're there might be one of mine for recording, because that's that one was so different from any of the other songs we had previously written before. And also, like no drums, so then it was put us in a barely uncomfortable position, both recording and live when we wanted to bring it to the live show. So I think just because of the how much of a challenge it was for that one, then it allowed us to be creative. And what if we use, you know, a nominee court in this part, and, you know. It was almost like less limiting, because it was so open. I like having

Dan Irving 12:39
a little bit of a challenge for us. Oh yeah. Usually yields really good results. I would say, what first comes to mind when I heard that question, was us making still waiting the recording experience for that was kind of interesting, because we had booked that was the first song we recorded for the new record, and we had book studio time with an engineer, and it was like a few days out from the time, and he messaged us and said, Oh, hey, like, I can't make it. I got the substitute engineer for you guys, and it was someone that we had, like, we never met before. You know, we didn't, we didn't know him at all, and we got into the studio, and we we brought still waiting to it, and he had like, so many great ideas for it, and we found out that we had, like, really good musical chemistry, and then he ended up being the producer for the entire record with us. That's yeah. Dylan Turner, yeah, it was, it was a really cool experience. It was like the first recording session for that song. It was just like discovering a new musical friend at the same time. So that was also like a special thing for us. Oh, that

Kat 13:52
sounds so fun. Yeah, that's like such I mean, it's unexpected. I mean, did you ever get in contact with the other engineer?

Dan Irving 14:00
Yeah? He, yeah. He, he did a little bit of engineering on, if you are there, I think that was like the next song we tackled, and he kind of helped with recording the vocoder parts for that. Yeah,

Em Edgerton 14:13
we it was his studio. Is al Bingham, so he does sleepy cat. Oh, okay, yeah. So he works with sleepy cat.

Dan Irving 14:21
the it's bed town studio. Yeah, yeah, he's, he's got, it's like, half the year it's like, at his house in Hillsboro, and then half the year it's at this, like, lake house in Virginia. Oh, okay, so we also had, like, we recorded most of it at his house, but then there was part of the year where we got to, kind of like, go on a retreat, yeah, to just do the recording for a few days at this, like, gorgeous lake house.

Kat 14:45
That's really cool.

Em Edgerton 14:46
It felt really awesome. Yeah, I was gonna say my favorite one to record and to make, like in the studio was the last track, Voyager One. the first part of it. Like, I think everyone at one part wanted to hit her. Head against the wall, because we're trying to nail down this. This, there was like a guitar riff on that mike was trying to grab, and then I was really struggling with the first half of it, but after the end of, like, two days of recording, we finally got to hear, like the big ending of it. And it felt so cool, like, I think everyone cried,

Dan Irving 15:19
Oh yeah, like, towards the end of recording that, yeah, towards the end of recording that we did a overdub with me on a shaker at the end. And, like, with the way to record the shaker, like the mic has to be like, right up on it. And I was, like, willing myself to be quiet with my like, crying as I was playing. But I had to, I just stay focused. So if you hear any sniffles, you hear, if you, if you listen closely on the recording, you hear any sniffles. That's why. Yeah, yeah. It was purposeful. It was rhythmic, rhythmic sniffing. It was intentional. It adds

Kat 15:57
to music Exactly, exactly um, with songs like, I don't, you know, the process sounds so cool, like different and everything. Is it also just completely different regarding the albums as a whole? Are they pretty similar?

Dan Irving 16:13
Yeah. I mean, making them was definitely different. I mean, part of it is just because it was kind of a different personnel. We had a different producer for the last one. We Alan wasn't in the band yet. We had a different guitarist at the time for the first one. So that was definitely different. And I think Mike was still kind of like getting established as the main drummer for us, so he was on some of the songs. But there's other ones where we had different drummers, also, because COVID was happening,

Mike Freeman 16:41
I want to say for the majority of the first album, there's a number of those performances that are me in terms of, like, the final recordings, yeah, but I don't think I can point to any song that I had a hand in, like, writing any of the parts for or so it was like me fully learning completed songs to go into the studio, yeah? Or the first time around, and then the second time around I got to be part of the, like, the writing squad, and, yeah, yeah, that's, that's a good point. Or, like, percussion influence from the beginning, yeah,

Dan Irving 17:13
the first record was a lot more Em or I would kind of bring something and it would be pretty much finished, and everyone else would just kind of add a part to it, versus it was more collaborative. For the second one,

Kat 17:27
did you enjoy, then, the collaboration more? I mean, I assume you felt more involved. So

Mike Freeman 17:33
think it was less stressful for me to be part of the writing process, because when they would, because they they'd come in with, like he mentioned, a number of completed ideas, or near completed ideas, so he'd be describing exactly what he'd want to be hearing. And he's very good at it. But then that would make it so, as as I mentioned, I have, prior to joining this group, a number of totally different influences from, like, a whole other realm. And so there was, like, some techniques. There were things that in this world of, like, Indie, Americana Folk and like that kind of quieter, more down tempo stuff I had just never played before. Yeah. So he was very good at describing exactly what he wanted to hear, and I was very good at having high anxiety about, I don't know how I'm gonna play that thing, that he's been so specific,

Dan Irving 18:25
but it worked out. You figured it out? Yeah, I didn't. I didn't know that it was so nerve wracking for you. You played it off, so cool. You played it off so cool.

Kat 18:34
So both of them have their own like they're none of them's better or worse or anything. They're just different, right? Yeah, you said that they're a different personnel. Do they connect in some sort of way, or would you just say that they're pretty much their own? I think, I think

Dan Irving 18:50
they're kind of their own thing. There's not really much connection in my mind between them. They're just kind of like two different snapshots of where we were at two different points in time.

Em Edgerton 19:01
Yeah, I think, I think the biggest connection sonically, if you can point to the song, would probably be the love I've learned, or is it just love I've learned? Is there the Yeah, the love I've learned, I've learned. I think that one, if you listen to that, and then it kind of transitions into the second album nicely, just in terms of song structure, like it's got Part A, Part B and kind of, yeah, this grows really organically throughout the course of the song. Yeah?

Dan Irving 19:25
That was probably like, the most indicative of the second album on the first one, just in terms of the songwriting and the arrangement of things, yeah. So there's like, some sign posting, yeah, and probably, like, there's some stuff on this record that'll be like the sign post that points to what we do next,

Kat 19:45
which is exciting. What are you guys preparing to do next? If you want to

Dan Irving 19:49
we, we don't- We are not really doing anything new right now. We just came out with a single a few, like a month ago. And that was just kind of leftovers from the second album recording. It was we recorded more songs than we needed, yeah, and then when we got to making the final track list, we were like, Oh, it flows better without these songs, but we also like these songs, so they came out separately. For me, I'm always writing, so I'm like, I'm intentionally not finishing anything, because I want to bring it and, like, be even more collaborative than we were before. So, like, there's definitely plans in the works for a third record, I will say another, another kind of change we're going through is m will be taking a step back from the band starting next year.

Kat 20:40
Oh, okay

Em Edgerton 20:41
it'll be a different dynamic. But for a good thing, I'm, I'm gonna start doing, like a graphic design certificate. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah, I'm really excited about it. It's gonna eat all of my free time. So it's like a bitter, sweet moment of, kind of pausing this chapter to make room for another creative pursuit

Dan Irving 21:02
we're kind of doing it where, like, the door is always open, yeah? So like, you know, we'll, we'll probably be trying to find a new basis soon, but like, whenever Em has the time to come back. Like, yeah, we could also use a rhythm guitarist. Or, like, you know, I'm not opposed to any addition, yeah, to the band, really. And while you're doing graphic design work, like we gotta do show posters, you know, I can add to your portfolio, yeah

Kat 21:28
with your graphic design, did you help create the cover art for your albums or anything?

Em Edgerton 21:33
So we have commissioned artists to do the like, actual artwork of the past albums. Because I, when we started, I was like, it'd be so cool to make, like, an actual art project that we can, like, invest some of the funds we get from playing shows to other artists in the community.

Kat 21:49
That's so sweet.

Em Edgerton 21:50
Yeah, it's, it's something that was really exciting when we first started it. So we commissioned it out. Lydia George, yes, you did the cover for this last album. I just remember the Instagram handle, and that's not the real name, Olivia Huntley.

Dan Irving 22:10
Olivia Huntley, yeah, that's correct.

Em Edgerton 22:12
Yeah, it did the first album cover. But then yeah, I think most of the other graphics I do, and I did, like the CD layout and stuff for it.

Dan Irving 22:19
Oh, that's really cool. And a lot of the show posters kind of like the lead four posters, yeah, that's really cool.

Kat 22:25
That is really cool. And you saying, like, you want to help, you know, other artists kind of just like, give them a chance to do that stuff and put your funds towards that. I'm, I do visual art. I'm also an artist. So to me, I'm like, Oh, that's so awesome. That's so sweet. And, yeah, the cover art is so pretty, and I love how it's different. Like you said, they're kind of their own thing each. And I think the album covers kind of show that, because they're so different, in my opinion, both of them really cool. Thank you. And I also think that they fit the albums really well, sweet and in songs,

Dan Irving 23:01
it can be difficult to, like, figure out, like, what one image sums up these 10 or 11 songs, 40 minutes of audio condensed into one image.

Alan "Chico" Marines 23:13
We had, like, a whole dinner just talking about, like, what do we want this thing to look like? Yeah.

Kat 23:19
So you gave them a prompt, pretty much,

Dan Irving 23:21
yeah, we gave them a prompt. Yeah, we gave them recordings too. Of like, here's the actual album, basically what it's going to sound like. And then the prompt, I remember this last, I think the first record, we really didn't give much of a prompt. We were just like, here's the album. And then she came back with this cool collage piece. It looks like a, I don't know, inter dimensional octopus lady. Like, it's a really cool piece of art. And then this latest one, I remember we were, like, we wrote out a lot, but we also gave it a lot of room for interpretation. Like, I think I remember a lot of our prompt was more about, like, the feeling of the piece rather than the visual of it. And so Lydia definitely, like, filled in a lot on on her own. That was really good

Kat 24:05
with the feeling of the music. Do you think, like when you perform it in a studio, obviously, it's a little more contained and, like, kind of thought out and everything. How is that versus performing live?

Alan "Chico" Marines 24:18
That's a good question.

Dan Irving 24:22
I kind of think performing live is more nerve wracking, just because there are people watching, and you know, there's no there's no overdubs, there's no cut, let's do that again. Like you kind of got to keep doing it. If you mess up or anything, you just recover and you move on. But there's also an energy, yeah, the live performances that you don't get in the studio, just like being able to feed off the crowd a bit, and also, like play off each other. A lot of our recording process so far has been everyone kind of records their part separately. But. It's just a different feeling when you're all playing at the same time. I think we're gonna kind of do that more in the studio, just because that has its own energy.

Kat 25:08
Yeah. Do you have, like, a routine or preparation that you guys do either before live or in the production room? Or

Dan Irving 25:17
I have one routine that I do and that is reminding myself the lyrics to knowing silence because there's a there's, like, the middle section of that song, it just goes, there's not really, I was gonna say there's no rhyme or reason. There are rhymes, but there's no, like, repetition. There's no repetition to it. So I have to remember, like, however many bars of new lyrics that just keep going and going. And so usually I'll find myself the set before hours, I start mouthing it to myself, and then before we go on, I sing it to myself. And then when we do it, I hope that I remember it all.

Kat 25:56
Do you ever just kind of blank?

Dan Irving 25:59
Yes, I Yeah, it's happened in the practice space a few times. It happened. There was one show we did where I, like, skipped over a stanza of that middle section, but y'all played it off great, because I just listened for one word, yeah, you just, they just listened for, like, the cue to end it. And so I still said the cue to end it. So we just were like, oh, it's the short version of the song today.

Kat 26:25
You covered it well, it's fine, yeah, it worked out. And with the crowds reaction you're saying, like, you kind of feed off of each other. How do they react when you guys are playing? I mean, it depends on the song, of course, but

Dan Irving 26:35
yeah, it depends on the song. It depends on the audience too. Because I think we're in this middle ground between these more accessible kind of pop numbers and then the weirder art rock stuff. And so we've had some audiences where I feel like they're vibing really well with the poppy things, and then we like, launch into Q and A or Curiosity, and they're kind of like, what, yeah, thrown off, versus, like, we've had other audiences were like, hey, you know they're, they're like, they're enjoying the pop stuff. And then we do, then we get weird, and they're really into it, and so it also just depends on the audience,

Kat 27:17
As someone who controversial, I don't make playlists on Spotify. I listen to my liked playlist and I just put it on shuffle. So then the mood changes really quickly. They'll be listening to a pop song and then go into a really, completely opposite, maybe a slow one, maybe heavy metal rock song. I love the switch up. I think the switch up is, I don't know, keeps me on my toes, yeah, um, I feel like that'd be really fun. I haven't seen you guys live, but because I've only recently found your guys's music, which really glad that I did, um, but I think it would be so fun, and it sounds like it would be fun, I hope that I get to hear the short version

Dan Irving 28:05
I'll forget the lyrics, just for you.

Oh, thank you. I really appreciate it. That's really sweet. I want to ask more in depth things. I mean, are there any things that I didn't ask that you want to talk about?

Mike Freeman 28:16
I feel like on the energy topic of like, live versus studio, specifically for me as a drummer, I feel like studios can have a habit of feeling very sterile and like it's just such a different experience than what I'm used to from, like a show environment where I'm three feet away from the bass speaker on my left side and The lead guitar speaker on my right side, and it's blisteringly loud, and I kick the kick drum, and yeah, versus, like, in the studio, I have, like, in ears in and then I have the cups over top of that, and I hit the kick, and I can, like, sort of hear it, but like, that's on purpose, because I'm not hear the click, and I need to stay perfect, so I think it can have the capacity to feel very like sterile and not as fun or as bright. Yeah. So that's something that's historically been a struggle for me going into recordings, is to try to match that energy that I would normally have playing live because of what's happening around when all of that is missing in the recording space. But specifically with these recording spaces, the engineers the layout of the whole house, in particular, like the Smith Mountain Lake one, when they do, I call it a seasonal studio, they move like everything there for the winter. And that was so vivid and just so relaxed and cool. And we would set up the drums and all of the microphones, and then break for dinner, and we would make quesadillas on a cast iron pan in this beautiful kitchen just overlooking a lake. And then it'd be like, All right, Mike, it's 11pm let's go ahead and lay down some drum tracks and like, that's just such a cool, relaxed situation. Shouldn't versus, like, normally I feel like there's a panic for like, Oh, we've paid for this studio time. Like, we've got four takes maximum, then we gotta move on. Like, none of that pressure was there, and it was just very relaxed and fun. And I enjoyed hanging out with my bandmates and being friends and just playing in a cool space for a bit.

Dan Irving 30:19
I imagine, uh, recording the drums is also tough, because that's usually the first thing that gets grabbed, at least for the songs that we did. Like I said, we record everything separately, most, most of the time we do. And like, all the engineers that we've used have advised us, like, record the drums first. And so that's what we've done. And so very that makes it even tougher for you, because it's like, you don't even hear

Mike Freeman 30:40
the full song rock and roll away to record is to record very basic scratch tracks and then go back and, like the first permanent thing is the drums, I gotta find a way to bring the energy when there's nothing else there to feed off.

Kat 30:56
Do you guys, from what I can remember listening to your music, I feel like, would you want to do like a heavy metal song? Because I don't know if you guys have gone into that type of music. I mean, you have, I think, lightly, for sure, but I

Dan Irving 31:12
don't, I don't know if like heavy metal, yeah,

Alan "Chico" Marines 31:16
like, kinda rock here in the newer album, yeah,

Dan Irving 31:19
like, we get, we get loud and rocky.

Em Edgerton 31:22
Think live, it's a lot more rock, not quite metal,

Alan "Chico" Marines 31:25
yeah. Like, New Year's might be the closest thing we'll get to that.

Dan Irving 31:29
Yeah, their lungs off. Yeah, that and Q and A are kind of, like, on the far end of a spectrum of songs that we would do. I would say,

Kat 31:38
Are there genres, or, I guess types of I don't know, either, maybe, maybe, either small things like types of percussion or instruments that maybe you want to try, or just, you know, broadly, genres that you haven't really incorporated into pretty crimes that you'd like to yet.

Dan Irving 31:56
I think I would like to get Cynthia with our stuff I love since, in general, and I've acquired several since our last record started. So I'm probably going to try to be using those. yeah.

Alan "Chico" Marines 32:14
I'm going to shoegaze kick. So like hard to own something like that. Recently,

Dan Irving 32:18
it's been sounding good, yeah, he's on a shoe gaze, shoe gaze kick,

Alan "Chico" Marines 32:23
I'm on a shoe gaze kick. Recently, yeah, they've been sounding really good, yeah. All my, all my tones have been just like very, like, spaced out, like distorted, so maybe not the heavy metal that we were justtalking about.

Dan Irving 32:36
We could still get noisy, noisy with it. Yeah.

Kat 32:39
And like you said live, it's way. I mean louder, yes, because it is live, but if you feed off of the crowd a little bit, then you get even more energetic. And yeah,

Dan Irving 32:50
it's more it's more raucous,

Kat 32:53
which is so fun. Again, that's why I love the variety you guys have, because I think having an appreciation for softer music, and then louder music. And also all the in between that you guys have. Also, you guys use auto tune a lot in some of your songs, mainly the one I mentioned earlier, I would say, if you are there,

Dan Irving 33:12
yeah, that was, that was a vocoder. Oh yeah, yeah. I got a, I got a vocoder pedal, and I needed to use it on something. And that was, like, the song I was working on when I got it. So I was like, why not? Let's use it on this one.

Kat 33:23
And I think it sounds really good on it. That's why I like, that's one of my favorites out of your guys' discography. I just think it sounds really cool. And I think Auto Tune can make a song really cool and sound really good, yeah. And sometimes I think it's a fine line for for me, at least. And I think you guys definitely executed it really well for that song.

Mike Freeman 33:49
Catches is a bad rap, but it's, yeah, it's a tool, like anything else, yeah, it can sound really darn cool. Like the vocoder is one of my favorite effects. There's a line you can definitely cross where it'd be, like, all right, that's a bit much, but I don't think we got that. I think it sounds really cool. And that we used it for that.

Kat 34:05
Yeah, I think it sounds really cool. Would you use it again in the future? Do you think

Dan Irving 34:10
Yeah I wouldn't be opposed to it. I guess I would just like, need to feel like it needs that. I think right now my mind is in a place where, like, I want there to be less of a difference between our live show and the records, and so it's kind of difficult to pull off vocal processing for us and a vocoder for us, yeah, in a live show. So, like, I can't say if, like, soon that'll make an appearance, yeah, like, it's always gonna be in the toolbox for us to use. And, like, if we ever need that kind of energy, like, we'll overdub it in, yeah, we'll put it in there.

Kat 34:49
And I know you mentioned you guys don't have like, concrete future like plans yet, exactly, yeah. But do you have any, like, little I guess even time. Ideas, maybe just wrote them down in notes in the middle of the night or something, but just maybe something that you want to incorporate.

Dan Irving 35:07
Yeah, I've, I've been thinking a lot thematically about the record, the next one that we're gonna do whenever we do it, and I think it's definitely gonna be influenced by the experience of being a working musician like I've just been thinking a lot about, like, what, what makes an artist an artist? So I kind of want to, like, do songs that just kind of attack, that prompt at different angles, just kind of exploring that, that drive with that hits certain people, where they just, like they need to create, like they feel like something's missing in the world, and they fill it with something within themselves, like, I think that could be kind of interesting to write about.

Kat 35:57
sounds really interesting, for sure. Um, I wanted to ask, what would you say your goal or mission is for pretty crimes like what they do for the listeners or for you guys, your message through either of the albums both as a whole? Just yeah,

Dan Irving 36:18
I would say, For me, music is just a way that I connect with other people. And so being in a band is like a conduit to make connections. And like, feel connected. Like that the feeling of, like playing a show and the audience is into it, like, I think there's some kind of understanding of myself that the audience is getting out of that performance, that they like it. And so I guess it's like part of it is just being better understood by people. And like, yeah, kind of communicating things that might be hard to put into words. But like, music says more than just words, you know, and I think kind of jumping off that, like, I'm at my happiest when I'm making music. And so I would like to maximize that happiness and do it as much as I can. So if there was like, some element of like, I could support myself on this, that would be amazing, just so that I could do it more than I do now.

Kat 37:27
Is the answer similar for you guys, too, I feel like

Em Edgerton 37:30
I use music more as a way to process everything in the world that's going on, both internally and externally. Like, like you mentioned pedals, like that was a breakup song. And so like, just processing with stuff like that and music. But then there's also, like, the element of playing the music live and just fostering that sense of community that you get with the audience. And there's always this, like, one moment in a song where, like, the audience is vibing and you're vibing and you're just, like one giant consciousness or whatever, and then just like vibing in that release, and for a moment, like everything else in the world melts away. And I think that's kind of what I love it when our music is able to create that and give that experience to everyone else,

Alan "Chico" Marines 38:15
I was gonna say, just to get away from all the you know, stuff that goes on in everyday life. Yeah, yeah. Like for me, it's just an escape.

Kat 38:24
Yeah, for me too.

Alan "Chico" Marines 38:27
And I think the thing that I've appreciated a lot, especially after joining this band, is the community, especially locally in Raleigh, and of course, expands even greater than that. But you know, we've met a lot of great people, like the only we mentioned earlier, and a lot more people than that that, you know, we all connect on this one thing that we all love doing, and yeah, we're all doing it for the same reason. It's just, you know, to express ourselves and to let go for a little bit.

Mike Freeman 38:54
yeah. It definitely fills my battery. I love music. I love making music. I love consuming music. I love going to a show, yeah, and experiencing a really cool thing, and vibing with an audience full of people like you said, like the whole room is kind of on the same wavelength. And then I get to take that and I have to return to my regular life for a little bit. So I definitely like to try to not space them out too far. Whether I'm seeing a show, or I'm playing a show, it's, there's, there's some kind of music thing happening most weeks for me.

Kat 39:27
So yeah, I agree, like all your answers, for sure. I agree with all of them, and I think you guys definitely show that through your music for sure. And also, I thought what you said about it being kind of like a conscious, like singular consciousness, almost. Music does that a lot. And I love music for that reason, for sure. And I definitely think hearing your guys' music, and I would love to hear your live, and I think live that would definitely, you know, come through. It'll show through. And. And I really, yeah, I think you, you guys, follow through with your your message or mission for all of you individually, and they definitely line up, for sure. But um, yeah, I think those are all my questions. Do you want to let the listeners know where they can find your music and socials?

Dan Irving 40:21
the music is kind of wherever you can stream music. You know, Spotify Apple, we have CDs and socials. I know we're on Facebook and we're on Instagram, @pretty.crimes, that's kind of our main platform where we post things. I experiment around on Tiktok. So we do have a Tiktok. I cannot make guarantees about how consistently we will post there to promote things, but we are there,

Kat 40:57
yeah, okay, awesome. And I think that's all, unless you guys have anything else you want to say.

Dan Irving 41:03
Yeah, thanks for having us. This has been a good time.

Kat 41:06
Thanks for coming and doing the interview with me. I really appreciate it. I think it's been really fun, at least for me. Hope you guys also enjoyed it. Aren't internally like, oh man, when are we gonna leave? Great. Okay, great, but yeah, thanks for doing this interview. And to whoever listens. You can check out our other interviews with local artists featured on WKNC 88.1 at wknc.org/podcasts and click on Off The Record. I'm Kat, aka Klementine again, my DJ name and I was here with Pretty Crimes. Thanks for listening, guys.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai