It’s been a few years since we’ve heard new music from the beautiful melange of soul, jazz and rock that is Gretchen and the Pickpockets—but you know what they say: good things take time.
Image courtesy of the band
The band’s newest album, Falling Rising, is no exception. It’s full of punchy horns and smooth melodies that you can’t help but to tap your foot along to. They made a concerted effort to bring their live sound into this album, and it’s made all of the difference.
So, what went into the band’s newest album since 2015? We chatted with Gretchen Klempa (lead vocals), Richie Smith (guitar, vocals) and Mike Klempa (bass, vocals) about how Falling Rising came together and inspiration behind it, plus what’s up next for the band.
Allston Pudding: Let’s start with a little background. How did the band come together?
Richie Smith: Most of us met at UNH (University of New Hampshire), Ryan was actually mine and Gretchen’s RA! Diego’s our newest member, we met in grad school. He started working with us through recording horn parts for the album at Converse Rubber Tracks and has been such a welcomed addition to our sound.
Mike Klempa: Despite being into music and in bands for a very long time, Gretchen & I (siblings) never did anything together until we were both at UNH. I started playing guitar and Gretchen sang, but I switched to bass. Gretchen met Ryan through a friend and he joined as the guitarist. But, then he switched to trumpet. He knew Richie who joined as the drummer. But, he switched to guitar. Then we got Tom who Gretchen and I knew through high school to play the drums, he was the first person to not switch instruments. Then we got the best saxophone player in Colombia to join our band (Diego), and now here we are.
AP: This album sounds more refined and mature than your previous music but it’s still so uniquely your style and sound. What was the process like for writing and recording this album, and was it different than your past records?
Gretchen Klempa: I think the main difference for this album was how we took our time with it. It took over two years. Two years isn’t an incredible amount of time, but sometimes throughout the process we all wanted to pull our hair out. Other times it was actually really rewarding to just go with the flow and see the end result. We also branched out a lot more. We asked a ton of people we trusted advice on the songs, the album artwork, and all that jazz. We worked with individuals we have never worked with before. Dan Cardinal, Nick Nagurka, and Emily Lazar all blew our expectations out of the water. So that was pretty cool. To take a chance on a stranger and really have them see your vision is an awesome feeling.
Richie: The genesis of this album came from a pretty unexpected place. Time and time again, we had people coming up to us at shows saying that they had listened to our studio recordings beforehand, but that our live shows sounded totally different. Since we totally agreed, this album became our most focused effort to date of trying to capture what we do in a live show while still maintaining the sheen of a studio recording. By adding things like a horn quartet, extra keyboards, and tracking much of the album live, we feel like we brought that energy into it.
Mike: For the recording process, we met Dan Cardinal whose studio is in Jamaica Plain (where our family is from) and were sold based on his love for nerding out over audio engineering and good coffee. After a long explorative process of figuring out what we liked (in past releases we really only knew what we didn’t like), we met Nick Nagurka at one of our Brooklyn shows, who helped engineer some of Vulfpeck’s work. He immediately translated our thoughts into the sound of the record. We also were offered the opportunity to record a huge horn section consisting of our friends in the Converse Rubber Tracks studio, and Richie and Ryan both played around on piano and keys. We tried pulling out all the stops without cluttering the identity of the sound we were going for, which is tight and polished but still natural sounding; not too drenched in reverb or overly produced.
AP: Is there a certain meaning behind the album title, Falling Rising?
Gretchen: Falling Rising is actually a name of a song that didn’t make the cut on the album.
Richie: I think the name is really fitting for the process behind this record; throughout the two years it took to get this record out the world has been pretty tumultuous. We hit our share of setbacks along the production process as well, but with every challenge we faced we seemed to find some way to laugh and push right on forwards. Whenever the world faced strife, people somehow found a way to spread love and togetherness in many different forms. So for us, this record represents just that: we do fall, but we always rise.
Mike: What Richie said. This album was more of a collection of our favorite songs to play, moreso than a concept album, so we didn’t really have a good way of tying it all together, and we didn’t want to force it. So we picked “Falling Rising” because it’s a song that we have recorded that we didn’t release.
AP: What sort of story or emotions are you trying to convey in this album, especially ones that maybe you haven’t conveyed before?
Richie: For us, each song has its own story and distinct mood. As a result, we took some bigger risks in song structure on this album.
For example, when we were writing “Easy on my Heart,” Gretchen was fixated on incorporating some kind of polka as a breakdown in the song while another member (possibly Mike) really thought the breakdown should be some kind of Western-standoff theme. We decided to find a way to keep both. I’m pretty stoked about the results!
AP: Your most recent work was your 2015 EP, Anachronic. How would you say your sound has or has not changed in the time since that EP? What about your dynamic as a band or your live performances – has any of that changed? Also, was there a reason (or reasons) you guys waited a few years to put another album out?
Richie: It’s really interesting, we set out making this record as a way of capturing the energy of our live performances. And yet, listening back after we finished recording, we loved the sound of having an extra horn so much that we needed another permanent band member! That kind of feedback loop between our goals and our results was constantly happening during production.
Regarding waiting to release this album, we always felt some sense of haste in our other releases. There were always little things we weren’t totally thrilled about that we just couldn’t shake.
With Falling Rising, we wanted to test out every idea, have enough time to record everything each song needed, work with people who could really bring out the best in our performances, and give the world the best album possible.
Mike: It would have been great to release this album in 2015 or 2016. But, every day brings a new learning experience for us, and we just tried to take every lesson and tidbit of wisdom that was imparted on us from others and tried to make this the best piece of work we could. That meant really waiting and finding the right pieces to the puzzle, instead of rolling with the first option that always presented itself. I’m very happy we did it this way. However, be on the lookout for a lot more material sooner rather than later!
AP: You guys recently had a winter tour to promote this album, and you’ve had several shows since then. How did all of that go, and how does it feel to share your music with people?
Richie: The tour was a blast, I always love exploring new parts of the country from the vantage point of a car (in this case our van, Hot Sheila). It’s always such a trip to be in a place you’ve never been with total strangers in the audience and connecting with those people through music. People I otherwise would never meet come up to me after our set and talk as if we’d been friends forever, it’s a really beautiful thing.
Mike: The whole band has a bond over travel, it’s something we always talk about and want to do more of. So, this tour was a blast. It was also really cool seeing the country with Diego, who literally jumped in a van with five of us for two weeks to see so many different parts of the U.S. We are hoping he returns the favor and brings us to Colombia!
AP: Much of your music is about love. There’s a lot of hate in this world, and it’s gotten especially polarizing in the past year or two. How, if at all, has this impacted your music and/or your message to listeners?
Gretchen: I think my goal is always to just make people feel something. Whether that is excited about a song, or happiness from tapping their feet, or even nostalgia for a past love. Anything that helps people connect to a song and helps them in whatever way they need it.
A lot of these songs were written before the past couple of polarizing years. We actually recorded horns the day after the 2016 election. It was such a bittersweet day because of this. It also was a good reminder that while you may not agree with policies and people above you, you can still spread positivity by doing what you love and fighting for what you believe in.
At all our shows we are now doing a Folkin’ Vote campaign. We have a list for people to register and pledge to vote. I’ll send out some reminder emails as the 2018 election comes closer.
Richie: I want our music to be a positive force for people, and to have all the improvising and energy of our performances be something that gives listeners vitality. In speaking of combating that polarizing in the world, Gretchen’s been promoting this really cool initiative at our shows called Folkin’ Vote, where people can sign up for an email list and get help registering to vote and reminders when elections are coming up. It’s all about coming together and it’s all about really putting some effort into making this world a better place.
AP: What’s next for the band?
Richie: Well, since this album had a horn quartet on it, I think our next record is gonna have a full big band, Count Basie-style.
But in the short term, we have some exciting shows coming up in May, including sharing the stage with Marco Benevuto at 3S in Portsmouth on May 18th and a show at Club Passim on May 28th!
Mike: More music! More tours!