Interview with Pretty, they play the Atria Sat Jan 20

By Will McGuirk

Pretty the band, yip, pretty but not pretty as in just good looking or that the sound is pretty sounding, not that they’re not good looking nor that there are not pretty sounds in their tunes because there are, but pretty I think, as in its more than, like, something is awesome but if its better than awesome then its more than awesome, its pretty awesome, so pretty the band is a band but better, a band but more than, there’s that added other level, next level, and Pretty, the band, this band, are pretty other and next level, and their sound is like when you have a sound and then you psych it, like psych-rock, or psych-folk, so Pretty is like that, and the band, Pretty are from Toronto, and I’m pretty psyched up to have them here in the pretty great city of Oshawa, at the Atria, Friday Jan 20, so psyched well there was that need to know them better and their album, ‘Sertraline Dream’ produced by Aaron Goldstein better so questions sent and Torin Craig (guitar/lead vocals), Eliot Rossi (guitar/vocals), Will Macquarrie (Bass/vocals) kindly answered.

Slowcity.ca: Can you give me an overview of the band, how long together and where you are all from?

Torin: “When I was 18, around 2014-15, that's when the embryonic Pretty emerged. It was a lot more punk/grunge back then. a bunch of lineup changes and consistent gigging solidified a sound over the years, until we formed the current lineup (more or less) around 2019. With everyone in the group now I think we've really found our sound which is psychedelic but with a healthy dose of punk aggression and attitude. It's psych without all the flower-sniffing.”

Eliot: “We're all from the GTA. Will, Brian (Heyes, keys) and myself are from Toronto and Torin and Morgan (Zych, drums) are originally 905ers but have been in the city for a long time now.”

SC: How did you hook up with Aaron Goldstein, love his involvement - and pedal steel on psych, what are your thoughts on that, a one off or do you think it's something to explore deeper? 

Eliot: “We connected with Aaron through Facebook of all places. There is a group on there that does buy/sell/trade and is also a good repository of expertise from Toronto music professionals, so I just made a post on there asking if anyone would be down to work with us. We wanted to experiment with live-off-the-floor recording, where the whole band performs as one unit, rather than just recording one instrument at a time as we were used to. We met with Aaron, he was a great guy and he got what we were after, he was into our demos, plus he had a 16-track tape machine which kind of blew our minds. Needless to say that's what the balance of Sertraline Dream was recorded on.”

Torin: “Pedal steel has been a feature of psych music for decades, so it would be cool to explore and record more when we have more studio time. The pedal steel that's on Sertraline Dream was a very spur-of-the-moment Aaron Goldstein improvisation, which sounded amazing and really fit the whole vibe of that record.”

Eliot: “We definitely didn't plan on having the pedal steel. It was the end of the last, marathon recording day and Aaron looked at me and said "so am I playing on this or what?" And I replied "well, do you want to?" And he said "yes, absolutely." So that's how we got the pedal steel done. It was very cool of him to do that.”

SC: I'm kinda new to the Psych genre, more 60s Garage for me, can you tell me about the genre's attraction for your band members, and apart from your band where would you suggest folks interested start the journey?

Torin: “Psych music feels like a free-form sort of music where you can mix in a lot of things, there aren't strict boundaries placed on what you can and can't do. How you generate and process a sound is as important as what notes you're actually playing. We often don't even identify with the "psychedelic" term all the time, although it does help our music get on playlists so it's hard to dislike that.”

Eliot: “I think psychedelic music can be very beautiful-sounding, and very otherworldly, and that's what draws me to it. I'm very much a fan of tight compositions but I can't deny that I get a kick out of hearing a sound that I can't identify as being a particular instrument, or that I have no idea how it could have been made. In a psych band I get to do both, which is awesome.”

Will: “We've all played in different bands and psych music gives us the freedom to do stuff we wouldn't otherwise, as cheesy as that sounds, it's true. It's cool to play music where I get asked to turn on my wah pedal rather than turn off my wah pedal.”

Starter’s Guide to Psych:

Torin - Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn; MGMT - Congratulations; anything by Kikagaku Moyo or Jimi Hendrix.

Will - Country Joe and the Fish - Electric Music for the Mind and Body, I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die; 13th Floor Elevators - Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators.

Eliot - Sly and the Family Stone - There's a Riot Goin' On; The Rain Parade - Emergency Third Rail Power Trip; Lab Partners - Wicked Branches. We're all big fans of Kikagaku Moyo so anything by them. It's worth noting that almost any type of music can be "psychedelic" so it really depends on what you already like; there is probably a psych version of it.