It's been a massive couple of years for Pigeon. Their debut EP, Parallels, arrived to great acclaim and they've been on the bill at Splendour In The Grass, Parklife, Festival Of The Sun and headlined their own shows across the country. Not content to rest upon their laurels, they've been back in the studio and just released a new EP, Fortunes. There's a national tour to come and then a New Years Eve slot at Peats Ridge Festival. Just a regular December then.
Fortunes maintains a similar style to their debut, but it's a little tighter and consistent. Danny Harley says that was something that the band was focused on while writing.
“Musically, we wanted to narrow down our sound a little bit,” he explains. “The last EP was a bit too all over the place and a bit 'novelty'. We had dubstep and we had rapping, we had all sorts – it was a bit of teething for us and early in the game. I think we've had the time to mature as a band and get to know each other and our sound a bit better. So we were really keen to finally get that music together and put together a new, more mature, release. It's something that represented us better. It's still a bit all over the place, but sort of focusing around a centre of electro-pop.
“We like the idea of an EP because I guess it's not as serious as an album,” Harley continues. “There's not the pressure of an album. You wouldn't want to record an album and spend heaps of time and money and then sort of fail at it. It feels safer to do an EP, for us anyway. While we're still very much trying to reach new audiences and build our reputation as a good band offstage and onstage, the EP is the way to go.”
Despite a sonic palette that leans heavily on electro, it wasn't a genre that any of Pigeon's members had a background in. In fact; just the opposite. “It was pretty much the only thing that we didn't already have,” Harley says. “I think it was, for us, a group exploration into a different style that none of us really knew. Because we had one guy who was a DJ, but didn't produce electronic music. We had a couple of jazz guys. Metal, rock musicians. But we all enjoyed jamming together, jamming whatever we wanted, like reggae or just anything. We're all big lovers of the whole broad spectrum of music, so when we decided to turn the jams into an actual legitimate band, we all sort of got into electronic music at the same time and decided to try and incorporate it as well. And we try to do that in a live band context because that's what we like, that's what we're used to. But we're still finding our sound. I don't think any bands stop finding their sound or developing it – maturing.”
They've been playing some big festivals recently, but Harley says they're looking forward to the challenges of their own set of club gigs.
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“The smaller stages, they're sort of charming in their own way,” he enthuses. “Because you have such little room, you try and find different ways to maintain energy. You find yourself finding new spaces and getting among it – we get pretty cosy up there. I think one gig I tripped over my guitar stand and fell into the brass player's instruments. So it's all fun. As long as nothing gets broken it's all fun and games.”
Pigeon will be playing the following dates:
Thursday 22 November - Port Macquarie Hotel, NSW
Friday 23 November - Brighton Up Bar, Sydney, NSW
Saturday 24 November - Barcode, Wollongong, NSW
Thursday 29 November - Coolangatta Hotel, QLD
Friday 30 November - Beach Hotel, Byron Bay, NSW
Saturday 1 December - Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane, QLD
Thursday 13 December - Rocket Bar, Adelaide, SA
Friday 14 December - Platform One, Melbourne, VIC
