Music Review and Interview with Pageant – But You’re Happy

The great sound of a classic and easy to listen to acoustic guitar to draw you in, then the somewhat unusual and slightly haunting sound of a harmonica; the chords that are used, they aren’t part of one of your usual acoustic rock track progressions, which is great. There’s a traditional feeling, but it’s fused with something that is fairly new. Everything is familiar and warm, but at the same time it’s not – there’s a sort of darkness, a uniqueness to the track. The vocal is gentle, accessible and honest sounding, it reminded me a little of The Pretenders at one point.

For me, I was a fan of this song right from the start, everything sounds great. The song warms you, that nostalgic guitar sound, but then it weaves it’s melody line around you and those lyrics and those contrasting vocals – everything has a pleasant kind of darkness to it, that haunting juxtaposition of feelings and ideas. The instrumentation towards the end, the build up, the distorted guitar solo and the harmonica again, then those contrasting, almost warring vocals. This is a song you remember, and it’s one you really need to turn up loud and listen to. There’s a manic presentation to it all, there’s a feeling of not quite knowing what has just happened for those few minutes, but most prominently there is the feeling that you have to press play again, you have to listen to it more than once.

It’s great, brilliant even – really interesting and impressive song writing and musical performances from everyone involved. That lead vocal is so soft and real sounding, yet it delivers the lines in such a way that they feel important, which is a massive thing to achieve in song writing, and it’s a quality well worth holding on to. I look forward to hearing more from the band.

By Rebecca Cullen

Exclusive Interview:

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?

Pageant​: We grew up in a mid­sized rust belt town in Illinois. As siblings, we share a pretty close musical bond, cultivated by our parents. Our mom insisted we take piano lessons early, participate in school band and all that. Our dad is an old rock and roller who would sit with us at the piano and have us sing and write songs with him. We had music all around us from an early age, which certainly helped shape our appreciation for it now.

Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?

Pageant​: The word ‘Pageant’ seemed to fit the mood of the songs we were writing when we started out ­­ grandiose, bombastic, somewhat tragic. We didn’t really know why the word fit, but somehow it did and we ended up adopting it.

Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?

Pageant​: In a way music has always been given away for free. Even back in the halcyon days of the record industry, when artists were being signed to multi­million dollar record deals, the record companies ended up pocketing most of the profit, while the artists were left saddled with debt. At least today, if an artist sells a record, it’s easier for the money to go straight to them. We currently don’t have any free albums available for download, but all our work is on Bandcamp and Spotify to stream. Any kind souls who want to help us out can buy them on ​Bandcamp​ or ​iTunes​!

Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start­up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?

Pageant​: I always refer to the great artist John Baldessari for career advice. He says young artists need to remember 3 things when considering success. One, talent is cheap. Being the best songwriter or the most amazing bassoonist isn’t enough. Two, you have to be possessed, which you can’t will. Thankfully, we’re all possessed by something. Find out what that is and use it! Three, be at the right place at the right time. I take this to mean network network network. Never stop making new friends.

Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?

Pageant​: Songwriting is a slow revelation. Generally, a thought will snowball into a lyric, which will grow into a chorus, which will branch out into verses, until a song suddenly appears. For instance, the song ‘It’s Your Love’ from our last EP, Endless Sun, started as one line, the title of the song. The chords behind it were written at the same time as the lyrics. I played that line over and over until I found something else to say that accented that line ­­ ‘Fall in love however you want / It’s your love.’ Things grew from there, to the point where I knew there had to be a guitar solo. It’s like I was following a trail and things were being revealed as I walked along. That’s the best part about songwriting ­­ the discovery.

Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?

Pageant​: We’re internet omnipresent. Our main site is pageantband.com, and we’re also on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook under the handle @pageantband.

Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?

Pageant​: We’d build a modest recording studio and use it to record the best record anyone has ever heard in the history of music.

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?

Pageant​: The best method we’ve found is pretty old fashioned ­­ getting out of the house and playing for people. There’s no better way to put your music out there than to put your music out there! There are a million online tools, but they don’t really replace live performance and the networking opportunities it comes with.

Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?

Pageant​: We’re ready to do another full length record! We put out our first full­length, Royal Blue, in 2014, then experimented with some brighter sounds on our last EP, Endless Sun, which came out November 2016. I think we’re ready to take those brighter sounds and make them bigger and better.

Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

Pageant​: We all have a variety of other interests, thankfully, because we’re human people. Music is number one, but we’d probably be enjoying our friends and family, teaching yoga, studying ethnomusicology or building awesome decks.

Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?

Pageant​: We work on that everyday. You really have to be possessed by music to keep doing it. There are so many opportunities to put the guitar down, but when you’re possessed you just keep picking it back up. We all have creative ways of making money on the side to support ourselves and we work hard to keep time available to rehearse and write. No matter what, you gotta make it happen!

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?

Pageant​: We’re gonna have fun in 2016. Keep an eye out for some fun covers and videos on the way while we gear up for our next record!