Vents MagaZine Music and Entertainment Magazine
Related Articles
Hi ladies, welcome to VENTS! How have you been?
Hi!! Thank you so much. We’ve been BUSY.
So you both met while touring with Mitski, and that friendship eventually evolved into pen pin. What was it about your creative chemistry that made you realize there was something worth building together beyond being touring friends?
We have such respect for each other’s talents. We both have such a strong desire to highlight what makes the other person shine that it drives us to work a little harder than we might otherwise. Probably the thing that made us realize we should keep going was just that we were both so surprised and happy with what was being created, and wanted to see more of that in the world.
There’s such a specific visual atmosphere surrounding pen pin. When you began making the debut album, how important was it to create that kind of world and mood through the music?
Sometimes the way into something is with a specific vision. But for a debut album like this one, we didn’t come into it with such big ideas attached. We just made some music and then decided to make some more that had the same elements we liked about the previous track. It really went all sorts of places, and we followed each string without judging it. Some of it went off the rails a little bit but sometimes it went into unexpected territory but still fit together. It seems like it naturally all fell into place perhaps because there’s a shared appreciation for a certain vibe between us.
Both of you already had established identities as Magana and Total Brutal, as well as extensive experience playing and collaborating with other artists. What did starting pen pin allow you to explore that you perhaps couldn’t have explored through your individual projects?
We got to teach each other some things we didn’t know about ourselves. Our solo projects are pretty different than what we make together, which is so fun because this becomes a new playground where whatever old rules we have previously felt compelled to follow don’t apply. And it’s a different experience starting something knowing it’s not all on you to finish it. That means ideas can come more freely since the momentum is being generated between us. A lot of these songs were snippets of ideas that were missing big chunks and the other person was inspired by what they heard and was able to add something new.
“Vampire” feels like a darker and more energetic turn compared with the hazier qualities of earlier singles like “Fringe” and “The Boredom.” What made this song the right one to bring out that more nocturnal side of pen pin?
I’m gonna be completely honest with you here. A lot of it was that we wanted to make a spooky music video. Pen pin LOVES a theme. But also, it is a good idea to start introducing the world to the different facets of our music because we want you to be prepared for our record! We contain multitudes!
The idea behind “Vampire” is surprisingly tender: having someone who loves you enough that you always know they’re on your team. How did you turn that feeling of safety and unconditional support into a song with such a dark, almost predatory title?
I think that’s the beauty of people. Something that is a total deal breaker for someone might be the thing that person is loved and accepted in a different relationship. It would give us great joy if the message someone took away from this song was that their darkness is not something to be ashamed of and they can be loved not only in spite of it but actually valued for it.
Your reference to You’ve Got Mail and Kathleen Kelly imagining all the things she could have said after the fact adds a really funny and relatable dimension to the song. Do you find that those little everyday observations and private jokes often become the starting points for pen pin songs?
Sometimes, for sure! But that’s mostly because our everyday observations and private jokes are because we’re talking about bigger picture things in our lives and in the world that we want to talk about. That being said..there are a couple songs that I am not at liberty to share which are fully based on jokes.
You describe the project as being driven by a mutual love of vintage pop. What eras, records, or artists were particularly influential while you were developing the sonic language of pen pin, and what did you want to do differently with those influences?
One specific vintage pop characteristic we set out to harness on Pony Up is our mutual love of harmony. We believe a strong melody is important but also that the harmonies should feel like their own parts. We were very intentional about our vocal arrangements and in some songs they acted more like instruments than vocals. We drew a lot of inspirations for this from ELO, The Beach Boys and Zombies.
You’re both multi-instrumentalists who have spent years working in different musical environments and with major artists. How does having so much experience as players and collaborators affect the way you approach arrangement and production when you’re creating something entirely your own?
It definitely helps to have the tools to get into the mindset of a musician supporting someone’s vision. Even when adding something to one of our own songs, I find it helpful to come at it from the view of “ok this is a new job.” Otherwise it’s hard to keep perspective on what the song really needs.
There seems to be a playful balance between the dreamy, chill atmosphere of pen pin and the more immediate pop instincts that come through in songs like “Vampire.” How do you decide when a song needs to stay hazy and understated versus when it’s time to let it become a full-on pop banger?
These songs are a conversation between us, which is one of my favorite things. A lot of them have some sort of identity already baked in with the initial idea, but even that gets changed just because another person will inevitably hear something differently. We have been working on our bff telepathy skills but still have some ways to go, which ultimately serves the songs better I suppose.
With PONY UP! serving as the introduction to pen pin as a full project, what do you hope listeners understand about the two of you—and about the kind of musical world you’ve created together—by the time they reach the final track?
We mostly want the listener to have fun! The lesson here is life can be hard, try to make it fun when you can. And obviously pretty much any person that walks this earth has had their fair share of trials. So we’re hoping to remind them to take a second, put their hands in the air, add a dash of whimsy wherever they can. Pony Up is a reflection of a friendship and all the shapes and phases it can go through. We hope listeners just enjoy the ride and feel curious and safe enough to have meaningful conversations about what’s going on in their lives with their bffs. We’re all in this together!
