by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Chicago’s Melkbelly do sweet sludge better than most. As a bright spot glimmering somewhere between slinky pop and chaotic noise punk, the band are able to assault your senses with writing concise songs all the same. Since they released Pennsylvania back in 2014, the band haven’t released anything less than exceptional, always bringing us on a seasick ride of sugary melodies and blistering destruction, carefully balanced to create something that occupies the space between The Breeders and Lightning Bolt. PITH, their sophomore full length is out now via Wax Nine / Carpark Records and we had the chance to catch up with the entire band - James Wetzel (drums), Miranda Winters (guitar/vocals), Bart Winters (guitar), and Liam Winters (bass) - to discuss the new record, touring, Miranda and Bart’s new baby, and uncertainty in these pandemic times.
Photo Credit: Ariella Miller
DG: Are you all doing alright with all this quarantine stuff?
James: Yeah we're taking it very seriously. I got an electronic drum set so i'm in a good place.
Miranda: I feel badly for my baby, but I don't think she realizes what's going on.
DG: Doing anything special to help keep your sanity?
James: i'm drumming five hours a day on my new Yamaha electronic kit. Cooking every meal which is therapeutic and maddening. i have to figure out how to teach a sound design class online so that's an interesting problem to have. a good problem. We're doing analog synthesis next so i'm gonna have everyone download vcv rack and i'll do Zoom patch-a-longs.
Bart: I'm still working, so I'm just dodging people left and right at Millennium Park--psychos who are still out and about. I do maintenance work so I have to physically be there.
Liam: Bart and I are writing a bad horror movie script. Cooking is sorta fun but doing dishes sucks.
Miranda: Maybe I'm going insane? Having Winnie is awesome because I'm forced to be on a schedule.
DG: That probably helps! Seems like good things to keep you all occupied and I look forward to that horror movie. On that note, the videos for the new album have been great. do you generally come up with the ideas for what you want them to be?
James: We split up the videos and each take creative direction.
DG: Who did which video? Does that mean there's a fourth coming?
James: i found a video artist (grad student) at SAIC to do the first video (“LCR”).
Miranda: I worked on “Humid Heart” with Weird Life Films.
DG: Did you make your costume?
Miranda: The heart itself was made by Weird Life. I brought the clothes, gloves etc. I dyed the shoes. I wish I made the heart. It was based on an IKEA pillow. [laughs]
DG: Whose vision was the “Sickeningly Teeth” video?
Liam: That was Bart, Marty [Schousboe] & I. Basically Bart and I throwing ideas at Marty until he agreed to anything.
DG: You've worked with Marty for awhile, is he a Chicago pal?
Liam: Yes - I used to help him make stuff in Chicago with people from the improv scene. We made a bad feature called Party Time Party Time. John Reynolds was in that too. We did sort of the same process for earlier videos - “Bathroom at the Beach” & “Kid Kreative”.
DG: That's great. I’m so glad to see the Joe Pera Talks With You and Melkbelly worlds meld together in a way!
Liam: Yah! Almost got Joe to be in the video but he was going to Italy.
DG: I hope he made it out of Italy okay! PITH feels like it pushes further in every direction - it’s somehow poppier, heavier, weirder, and catchier. Was this something you were conscious of while writing the new record?
James: Definitely. we were pretty aligned going into the studio and laid some goals out there in terms of overall sound and experimenting with new territory. I'd say we were trying to exaggerate what we already do in terms of catchy song writing and loudness, but for every loud or catchy moment, try to capture the inverse as well. That way, we could create an in between space that felt somewhat comfortable to us.
I think we were letting the songs be what they want to be, but also pushing some new rhythmic territories, and letting space creep in; not trying to fill every gap with a beat or riff. Whether we accomplished that is up for debate, but we definitely made some progress in that direction.
Miranda: I'd say the poppier result is probably my fault lol. A lot of the songs I brought in were more complete than the last album and I love pop rock.
Uncle Liam: We definitely wanted catchier. Once we heard that Winnie was happening, we know that we needed to make some radio hits to bring in the ca$h flow. Winnie's gotta go to private school and what not.
Bart: Yea, I also feel like we didn't have any set goals or parameters making this album, which is why we decided to make “Kissing Under Some Bats” eight minutes long and also allowed a song like “Season of the Goose” on the album. Probably cause we were a little more confident.
DG: I think that “Bats” / “Goose” combo is my favorite part of the record.
Liam: Thank you. We had a hard time with “Goose”.
DG: Making sure it fit in?
Liam: In accepting it. [laughs]
Bart: Just being unashamed of a totally cheesy pop song.
James: The riff at the top. I was a huge advocate for keeping that riff in though it almost didn't make the cut. Bart made a bunch of passes but i think the first one or two takes were the one. I had my wife listen to it and she couldn't stop whistling after one listen. Then we listened back to a version without the riff and the song felt lifeless.
DG: Speaking of Winnie, did you know she was coming along when you started recording this record?
Miranda: We did, yeah! Bart and I did [laughs]. She was in there for the entire recording process.
Bart: Yea, Liam and James didn't know Winnie was on the way during the first recording session. Technically Winnie was on tour with The Breeders which I hope she respects one day.
Miranda: When I rock her to sleep I tell her she was on stage with Kim Deal.
DG: Oh woah, that's crazy. was she going to come along on this upcoming tour?
Miranda: She was, yes. She's scheduled to come in August too.
DG: That’s great! Rock Baby! How much time did you spend between the two sessions?
James: We spent two 3 day sessions at Russian Recording, seven to eight months in between.
DG: Was the time in between due to Winnie, or just to write further?
Miranda: Oh shit, it was because we had to write the rest of the album.
James: We had to write some more songs. We decided to make it down to Russian Recording since that studio was so great. Scheduling with Dave Vettraino too, since he's in The Hecks, he's a busy boy and we had to work with his schedule. Not to mention he records everyone and their grandma.
DG: What was it about Russian Recording that drew you to it?
Liam: Lil Bub magic.
James: The room was amazing, there were built out rooms for us to stay in, bunk beds, cats, Lil Bub (RIP), Mike Bridavsky is a mad man, his extensive Russian tube mic collection was very alluring. Dave V. used to work for Mike way back in the day and Mike heard us play at Culture Shock festival in Bloomington and the worlds collided and we became Russian Recording freaks. The studio is next level.
DG: Do you think recording away from Chicago added another layer of focus to the project?
Bart: Yea for sure.
James: Definitely, that was another reason we thought it was such a good idea. To have the ability to just be there and not worry about Chicago traffic and headaches and people being late and whatever. Plus there is the best pizza place in the world in Bloomington that we ordered every day. And bliz ice cream (Bloomington version of the blizzard).
Liam: No confusion with spring ahead or fall back time changes.
Miranda: I like that we could get mad or fight and not be able to leave.
Liam: We've played in Bloomington a couple times. Once we played at the Bishop with Snail Mail. There were probably fifteen people there. We played first and the four girls wearing Snail Mail shirts stayed up front the whole time. After we ended our set one of the girls said “I can't hear anything! They ruined the Snail Mail show for me”.
DG: [laughs] “Ow my freakin' ears!” Where you playing any of the PITH songs when you were out on tour?
Liam: Yes, we've been playing “Humid Heart” for almost two years now.
James: Yea, we went on tour with The Breeders right after (like two days) we recorded in October so we played “Bats” every night.
Miranda: We played a few with the Foo Fighters. [laughs]
DG: Oh yeah! That must have been crazy! That was at Wrigley Field?
Liam: Oh boy.
Miranda: Yes - we still try to mention it to anyone that will listen
DG: [laughs] Was Grohl a personal fan? James, did you teach him some things?
James: I taught him a paradiddle. Just kidding. I'm not sure if he watched our set but he said he did. He seemed into it, I think he picked us to play? He was very cool. Nice dude for sure, we talked about his daughter who is a drummer too. He said "let's do it again" so we're anxiously awaiting the call.
DG: He seems like a genuine guy, that call could be coming any day! Having played with (and toured with) bands like The Breeders and Protomartyr and other well established bands, have they had any effect on how you all do thinks in Melkbelly? Any sage wisdom?
Liam: Joe Casey is always a good influence. Everything is meaningless.
James: The Breeders are the nicest people and if i learned anything from them it's just to be genuine and kind/caring.. They invited us up to play the Halloween theme song with them as an encore and Jim let me play the kit. they watched all of our sets like every night was their first time seeing us. They are just so passionate about their own music and touring and being out there sharing their music. Never give up.
Protomartyr was the first band that took us on tour. They’re the best dudes. It was kinda eye-opening to see how even a band at their level, a level we were/are aspiring to, still has to really grind it out.
Miranda: We also work this mantra of be "dedicated to uncertainty" which we got from Trevor of Fire Talk... not a touring band but still someone who helped us early on to understand band-ness. [laughs]
DG: There's certainly plenty of uncertainty going on now. Aside from the obvious need to reschedule your tour for August, have you felt an impact on releasing the new album during all this coronavirus mess?
James: Everything is just shifted. We have no issues with the need to postpone band things for what's going down right now. For the most part we have other jobs and sources of income so we're not financially devastated by this, though it's still tricky to navigate. It's what has to happen. The record coming out in the midst of this, I'm not sure what to make of it yet. Maybe people will be more likely to stumble across our videos now since they’re all extra plugged into their devices (as if they weren't already). We have some local stuff that is up in the air on whether or not it will happen. It's kind of all TBD.
Liam: We're lucky too that we weren't mid-tour. Our friends Deeper and Dehd had just started tours. I know a few of them had quit bigger jobs because they were going to go hard for the next 6-9 months. Now they are back home and can’t even work. That's tough. A lot of them worked at venues too and who knows when those will reopen.
DG: When you're writing songs, do you typically start with the riffs and melodies, and add rhythm from there?
Miranda: Yes 100%. Generally when I write a song and bring it into practice James will listen and suggest a bunch of stuff. Tempos, changes, playing with lags, etc. Lotta lags.
Liam: We start with a riff. Bart starts with a rift.
Bart: Yea I usually refer to "riff" as "rift," idk why .
DG: Have you ever experimented attempting to write a song with James playing first? [laughs]
James: Sometimes (like with”Doomspringa” or “ROROB”) those came from me, Liam, and Bart jamming and then develop the song from there. “Mr Coda,” the second part kind of came out of a drum and bass jam, and then we made the rest up from there, but that's probably the only time that happened on this album. We want to try it more .
DG: Miranda - for the lyrics, is there a central theme to the record? Do you tend to come up with ideas and lyrical subject matter and abstract them from there?
Miranda: We lost a friend of ours really suddenly and the grief was unbearable. The album was born out of that experience, processing grief and turning it into something positive. The lyrics explore both the darker side of sadness as well as remembering what it is that inspired you to live with passion in the first place. So life/death.
DG: Was it therapeutic to write with your friend in mind?
Miranda: Yes, it was. Initially it was difficult.
DG: Anything else you all want to add?
Liam: It just wanna say how much we appreciate the support of Sadie [Dupuis of Wax Nine Records]. She's always super helpful with everything. The whole Carpark/Wax Nine crew is awesome.
James: Wax Nine/Carpark are all the best. We love them and they're all so supportive and responsive.