An Interview with The Przmatics

A fresh album release from The Przmatics manages to deliver an amazing and eclectic soiree of contemporary pop and rock with a thick and beautiful cinematic backbone, personal sentiment, honesty, and the ability to paint pictures with a story.

The Hope & The Hurt is a gorgeous record and pulls you in with its first track, "Find Love" which has this sort of smooth jazz undertone and is incredibly easy to get caught up in the groove of the entire thing with layered percussion, acoustic guitars, keys, and a soulful, sultry voice that wrapped itself around you and keeps you right where it wants to.

This is an amazing track to introduce the record with because it does display some of the staples that you can expect throughout the course of the record. Having said that however, this is not the type of record you just listen to one or two tracks and that's that.

Listening to a few songs from this record will give you a bit of an idea of the vibe and aesthetic it can give off at times but will not give you the full spectrum of what the album has to offer as a whole which is important.

This is because the album is an experience. There are no two songs that are alike although, again, certain staples show face throughout the unfolding of the project.

You get elements of pop rock, ethereal and spacious keys and synth pads, vast undertones, that cinematic approach, and intense vocals that at times can indeed paint those pictures in your head vividly as the songs play through.

Tracks like "Blame" are perfect examples of exactly that.

The way the songs build and become more intense as they unfold is important and really part of why you get caught up in everything so quickly.

At times it almost feels like this record is set up like a concept album would be. So in order to grasp all of it, listening to it from beginning to end is by far, the best way to go.

One of the things that hit me hard about this release is the energy levels. Some intensities fluctuate throughout the album but the energy level feels almost like it was recorded live on the floor to an extent.

It feels like everyone involved was feeding off of each other's energies the entire time and that in turn, gives the record this sort of, alive and breathing feel.

It is an aesthetic and vibe that is hard to capture but on this record, it's done so perfectly that even if I'm wrong about the whole live on the floor thing, listening to it on record makes you want to go see them perform it.

The energy and elements of texture, color, and edginess are all captured so well on record that you automatically know this band is going to be wonderful to see in a live performance setting.

This is a pretty big record that spans about 11 songs and hits 40 minutes in length. It's well worth it for you to dive into the whole thing because, between the tones of the guitars, keys, bass guitar, vocals, and everything else, you get these layers of texture that shine through left and right. So, the album can create its own atmosphere and this is one you don't want to leave.

One of my favorite tracks on the record is the title track which is the last and closing song on the album, because it's got soul oozing from every note.

Beautiful vocal harmonies and a lush, full-bodied approach but still feeling calm and subtle in performance.

This was an immense record and with its release, we wanted to have a chat with the band to find out where this actually came from and what might be coming up next for them. Here's what went down.

Buzz Slayers: Welcome all and thanks for taking some time with us! Let's start with The Hope & The Hurt album! This record boasted honest lyrics and told stories as well as blending plenty of approaches and styles from a cinematic undertone to blues and more! Where did this record come from?

Nü: A mix of world views and life experiences.

Mike: We went into the studio to record a few songs when we had a few weeks off from performing live with the thought of maybe releasing them as an EP. We came back to do some overdubs, and when we did, we wanted to change one drum part. Since it takes so long to set up the drums in the studio, we figured we'd lay down some basic tracks for a few more songs, so we'd keep stuff ready to go for maybe another EP in the future. At this point, our record label, Oakley Avenue who have always been great supporters and champions not only for us, but for so many artists in Chicago, suggested that we should just combine the songs and release a full LP. Well, at that point we needed a few MORE songs to fill out what would be a full LP, so we wrote and recorded a few more songs. In the end, because we were releasing it on vinyl, we ended up having a to cut some songs and rearrange them to make them all fit, and then the themes and vibes of the full album started to reveal themselves to us: the connections of the songs to each other and also what they were trying to say in totality.

Buzz Slayers: I'm hearing some great styles here! Who are some of your biggest musical influences?

Nü: For me, it's a mixture of blues, rock, and r&b from, Billy Holiday to Amy Lee to Eryka Badu.

Mike: Prince, Smashing Pumpkins, Duke Ellington, Elliott Smith...

Buzz Slayers: Are you guys performing live right now?

Mike: We're going to get back into it this year after not playing too much over the past year...

Buzz Slayers: Excellent quality! Did you record this yourselves or did you do it in a big studio?

Mike: We did almost everything at Electrical Audio, which is an incredible studio here in Chicago. We did a few overdubs at my home studio.

Buzz Slayers: Are there any music videos released from this record?

Nü: There is one...but not sure we call a music video, more like a video impression or expression for Phoenix. They were really inspired by the song.

Mike: We'd like to make some!

Buzz Slayers: Do you guys write songs together in a rehearsal space, or is there one songwriter in the group that writes most of it?

Nü: Between Mike and Nü, we write separately and then come together and collab on the things we've been working on.

Mike: On the record, Nü wrote Find Love, Blame, Wait A Minute, and Phoenix, and I wrote the other songs. Like Nü said, we usually write on our own, but once we get together with the band the arrangements really form. For example, a song like Look At The Stars really took on a whole new life when our bassist, Ausberto Acevedo came up with that bass line in the studio after everyone else had finished their parts. Another example was when we were in between takes of Find Love, Nü and our piano player, Nick Gutierrez was rehearsing the song and went off in some new directions with it while we were getting things set to do another take. Luckily, we were still recording and were able to capture it. That became the basis for the Find Love Reprise on side 2 which we hadn't planned on doing but ended up becoming this essential part of the overall story we were trying to put together on the record.

Buzz Slayers: Who's in all your headphones right now?

Nü: I've been really into Kamauu, The internet. I'm love this new school funk and strong base. It's hard to explain.

Mike: I've been listening to Kankawa Nagarra, old Chicago (the band) records, Chris Stapleton, Valerie June. This band called The Building from Youngstown, OH is one I've become quite a fan of.

Buzz Slayers: Now that the record is out there, what's next for the band?

Nü: I would hope more shows and who knows, an official video.

Mike: I'd love to get back in the studio and record some of our new songs.

Buzz Slayers: Before we go, is there anything you'd like to express to fans of the music?

Nü: I truly appreciate their support and taking the time to listen. I hope we can share more music in the future.

Mike: We really are very grateful for the listens, it truly means a lot. Let us know if we can play in your town!