Idiot Pilot
Idiot Pilot brings together an encyclopedic array of influences; an ardent love of innovation and a lifelong creative partnership on Strange We Should Meet Here, their riveting, resonant debut album for Reprise Records.
Featuring fourteen Idiot Pilot originals, including tracks that are as jarring and aggressive as they are beautiful and melodic such as, “To Buy A Gun, “ A Day In The Life Of A Poolshark,” and “Arryhthmia,” Strange We Should Meet Here is written, performed and produced by the team of Daniel Anderson and Michael Harris. The two childhood friends from Bellingham, Washington, joined forces to fashion a sound that mixed equal parts electronica, post-hardcore and contemporary pop, with a sensibility uniquely their own. The result is a potent, propulsive and powerfully original musical statement that, in a single stroke, catapults Idiot Pilot into the front ranks of today’s most promising young bands.
“We were twelve years old when we started our first group,” reveals Daniel Anderson (18) who provides all instrumental and backing vocal support for Idiot Pilot. “We did some local performances and recorded an EP, but when we stripped down to just the two of us, we really started from scratch.” “We figured out that we were both interested in the same goal,” adds Michael Harris (18), the core vocalist and lyricist of the duo. “We wanted a find a juxtaposition between the most emotionally charged music we knew, mixed with the cold logic of electronic sounds. It’s the tension between them that excited us.”
That excitement was fueled by Idiot Pilot’s wide range of musical inspirations. “The building blocks for what we do come from three completely different styles,” says Anderson. “The first is the glitchy electronica of artists like Aphex Twin and Squarepusher…the whole Warp Records thing. We also draw from more hardcore bands like The Locust and The Blood Brothers and was well pop groups such as U2, The Cure and Talking Heads.”
Yet, it is what Idiot Pilot has done with these disparate influences that sets them apart. Working entirely in their basement studio, recording as they wrote, Anderson and Harris spent the better part of two years honing a sound that is completely their own. “We recorded most of the album using free software we got off the net,” Anderson continues. “It all started as an experiment, just to see if we could bring all these different elements together, but once we started, it took on a life of its own. By the time it was all over, we had thirty songs in the can.”
Presenting this meticulously crafted music in a live scenario is the challenge Idiot pilot finds equally compelling, especially for a two-member band. "Performing live is what we enjoy doing most," Harris says, "It gives us an opportunity to show the listener a completely different experience than listening to the record." It's a mixture of realtime drum sequencing, live guitar, keyboards and two very different types of vocalists (one crooner, one screamer). The sheer energy and power of their live show mixed with their sonic diversity puts Idiot Pilot in a unique position among today's up and coming bands. Fans of electronic music can walk away having experienced an electronica show, fans of hardcore music can draw from the abrasive elements of the music, and fans of pop music can appreciate the overall melodic sensibility.
The cohesive feel of Strange We Should Meet Here emerges not only from the duo’s unified musical approach: it is built into the very structure of the songs. “This is very definitely a concept album,” explains Harris. “There is a theme tying these songs together, but I’d rather not say what It Is. I believe in letting whoever’s listening interpret it for themselves. It’s that ability to create meaning on a personal level that has is been appealing to me in music.”
It’s an appeal that elevates Strange We Should Meet Here onto the first rung of auspicious debut albums. “Basically, music needs to change,” Harris concludes. “We’re just willing to go to the extreme to make that happen.”
"Day In The Life Of A Pool Shark"
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