Emilio Pinchi - Interview

  by John Clarkson

published: 27 / 11 / 2018

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Liverpudlian singer-songwriter Emilio PInchi talks to John Clarkson about his new EP 'Holiday', which is being released digitally and on limited edition cassette.

Emilio Pinchi has that rare ability to make the ordinary develop into the extraordinary and the mundane become unusual. The young Liverpool-based singer-songwriter has self-released two previous download singles, 'During Voided Hours’and ‘High Times’/Paint By Number'. His new EP, 'Holiday', which has been released digitally in a four song edition and on limited edition cassette in a five song edition, has come out on the always reliable local label Klee Music (Esme Bridie, Thomas Lang, The Racket). There is an element of an early 20s and funnier Raymond Carver about Pinchi. He employs a similar stark, matter-of-fact lyricism and focuses on day-to-day situations, which to others will probably have no significance but in our own mind are all consuming. The title track tells about waking up on holiday with a hangover and trying to chat up a not very interested girl. 'Coffee' captures the predictability of the daily routine interspersed with various coffee breaks and his girlfriend dropping an unexpected bombshell towards its end, while 'This Machine' finds Pinchi trying to read and make sense of the news while waiting for a bus in the rain and going through some minor emotional turmoil. Pinchi has a aoft, deadpan voice, which pulls the listener in with his understated vocals, and his songs, upon which he backs himelf with acoustic and electric guitar, have a lo-fi bedroom sound. Pennyblackmusic spoke to Emilio Pinchi, in between a short European tour and a homecoming gig to launch the new EP, about 'Holiday'. PB: You seem to specialise in taking the humdrum of everyday existence and then making it unique. Would that be a fair assessment of your work? EP: I guess what I was trying to get at with this new EP is that life is happening constantly all around you and it’s as meaningful or as meaningless as you want it to be. Also, the songs can be quite tongue-in-cheek in places because sometimes all you can do in life is have a sense of humour. PB: Are all your lyrics autobiographical or is there a degree of fiction in there also? EP: It’s all pretty much autobiographical lyric wise. It wasn’t like a deliberate thing I sat down to try and do, just the stories and song ideas kept coming back to me as I was writing, and then the songs just seemed to fit together nicely! PB: You have drawn comparisons with Badly Drawn Boy, Conor Oberst, Car Seat Headrest, and Elliot Smith yet equally remind me of a young Darren Hayman. What can be found in your own record collection or MP3 player? EP: Definitely Elliott Smith! I have all his LPs in my real-life record collection. I also really like a lot of 90s stuff like Pavement, and I’m a pretty big fan of Grimes - I like her approach to making music and art. PB: ‘Holiday’ has a glorious lo-fi and minimal ‘bedroom’ sound. Where was it recorded? EP: Largely in my bedroom! I’ve been experimenting with recording at home for a while and I feel like with this EP I came pretty close to what I was aiming for sonically. I like a lot of the room sound that got captured with the instruments, particularly on the acoustic guitars. PB: This is your third release. In what way do you feel you have progressed as a singer-songwriter since ‘During Voided Hours’and ‘High Times’/Paint By Number’? EP: I think it’s been incremental to the point where I haven’t noticed it happening until I listen back to older stuff and compare with the new. I think the main thing I’ve learned is to work quicker and actually finish stuff before I lose perspective on the song I’m working on. That, and learning to walk away from a song and come back to it with fresh ears if it’s really becoming a struggle. PB: You apparently shelved a lot of material working on ‘Holiday’. Why did you decide to do that? EP: The main reason I shelved stuff was because I couldn’t figure out how to link it all together! When I work on a record, I like to draw parallels between the tracks and make them connect to tell a big narrative. I feel like songwriting is more like trying to solve a tricky puzzle than anything else, maybe like Tetris! PB: ‘Holiday’ has been released by Klee Music on download and unfashionably cassette. Why did you decide to release it on cassette? EP: I like how inaccessible cassettes are. Nobody I know has a cassette player (me included), so to listen that copy of the EP, you have to go to a crazy effort. I just thought it would be kind of funny. Also it’s always nice to have a physical product I think, and CDs make me feel car sick so that wasn’t an option. PB: Klee has a great reputation for discovering great young singer-songwriters from the North West and has put out releases by Esme Bridie, Sophie Bernice and the Racket during the last year or so. How did you become involved with them? EP: It was largely through my friend Joe, from Culture City TV. I bumped into him at an event and we got talking about music and he put me in touch with Steve from Klee - we all basically went down the pub and had a chat over a few beers, before deciding it would be really cool to put out an EP together! PB: You have just completed a five date tour of Europe, playing dates in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria to promote ‘Holiday’. They are not the most obvious place for a LIverpudlian singer-songwriter to go. Why did you decide to go there and how did ‘’Holiday’ go down with an Eastern European audience? EP: It actually grew into about seven dates in the end, eight if you include the upcoming Liverpool launch show. I’d played a couple of gigs in Central Europe before, in Bratislava and Prague, and I just really liked the cities and wanted to go back and play again! The audiences there are so receptive and everyone’s super friendly, which is always cool! PB: You’re just about to playing your launch gig for ‘Holiday’ on the 13th November. What else will you be doing to promote it? EP: On the night we’ll be selling a limited edition run of the cassettes, and after that, the EP will be available online exclusively through Klee Music. Stay tuned for more though! PB: Thank you.

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