Hometown and home base: Memphis, Tennessee.

How did you form Pillow Talk?

All five of us grew up playing in a scene ran by a nonprofit organization named Smith Seven. Brian Vernon, who started the organization, would take all of the money we made after breaking even and donate it to a charity or someone in need. That was our introduction to DIY — using nontraditional show spaces like living rooms and the skate park to lift others up. We all played in various bands. Calvin and I grew up writing music together in various projects. The timing was just right, I think. Most of us ended up living in Brian’s house at one point, we all were somewhat in between bands, and Pillow Talk fell together.

Why the name? What does Pillow Talk mean?

I don’t remember when we landed on that as what we’d name our band, but I do know that I had always been attracted to the name. As teenagers, we spent a lot of time at this video store named Hasting’s. I believe I saw the cover for the 1959 film starring Rock Hudson and was immediately drawn to it. We really didn’t choose between that and any other band names.

Describe your music to someone who's never heard you before.

A bit of a crossover between ambient/electronic soundscape music and straight-up pop songs. I think we take on the structure of an indie rock band that writes catchy songs, but sonically our influences include sounds that are more atypical or abstract. On This Is All Pretend we play with a lot of guitar effects, sampling, pitch shifting, vocoder, and we found a deep love for synthesizers.

Does being from Memphis influence your music?

It’s such a storied city full of music. It’s impossible not to be influenced by someone that came out of this city; it just so happens that my influence was my grandfather. My grandfather is a rockabilly guy, who lived next door to Elvis Presley, toured with more musicians than I can count, released a number of records, and had a decent career writing songs for other artists. My dad’s told me stories about Rufus Thomas coming over for coffee and breakfast when he was a kid. My grandfather raised me on his knee, telling me these stories, teaching me guitar. Perhaps it sounds corny, but it always felt as if, through him, I had a blood connection to the energy that moved through Memphis music. Memphis is a blighted town made over by imperfections, but it’s a passionate city, and I think creatives here bring that into everything they make.

There are so many varying types of bands in this city too, It’s easy to rub shoulders on a mixed bill with musicians from totally opposite backgrounds. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Big Star — a band from Memphis that defined power pop. I think, from the get-go of Memphis music ‘til now, creatives here aren’t afraid to try something new in what they’re doing. From Sun Records to Stax Music to Royal Studios to Ardent, the artists there were pioneers. That’s inspiring and motivating.

Do you believe it's important that your music is political or serve a means bigger than just auditory, as in "Little Worries"?

Absolutely. “Little Worries” in itself I don’t believe to be a political song, but lyrically it speaks to a significant problem affecting all of us — our inability to look into one another rather than seeing through each other. I am doing my best to walk more truly into that by using Pillow Talk as an outlet to lift others up who need it most. Those without a voice, those without resources, those alienated and pushed aside, I think it’s a responsibility of all of us to do our most by those hurting. Ultimately, I would like our playing music to be less about us and more about what we can do for others as a result of it. I’m still learning what that means, but it’s a path I’m trying to walk.

Why is your album called This Is All Pretend?

The title came after I experienced a monthslong stint of dissociation from my friends and family. My grandmother’s health was steadily declining and it took a tremendous toll — my family, though as imperfect as anyone’s, has always been close. Around the same time, my mother faced a cancer scare. She’s fine now, but her mother passed around my mom’s current age, and it pushed my anxiety through the roof.

I was also working through deteriorating relationships in my life, some of which I am heavily to blame, and I was processing a mountain of guilt with private exercises in self-harm and mental abuse. It was a perfect storm of external and internal problems that disconnected my psyche from the world around me.

Meanwhile, Pillow Talk nearly broke up, taking nearly a yearlong hiatus from being in a room with each other. Prior to that, we had already started writing this record. I had no idea if the songs would ever see the light, I continued to write and rewrite lyrics as a way to cope. In that way, the album is somewhat chronological — It details my experience going through and coming out of that time. I don’t relate as much to some of the lyrics, lines like “I’m incapable of love / I can feel it / but I can’t give it up,” but I can recall like yesterday when I felt that. Writing This Is All Pretend was like preparing for a possible goodbye, I didn’t know what each song would bring, but it was also a public apology — to myself and to others I had hurt through it all.

If you were a hashtag, what would you be?

#wearenotaffiliatedwithzaynmalik

Do you have an awesome MySpace-related story as a musician?

MySpace is the superior social media platform. I hate the incessant need to constantly post to Twitter or Instagram, to always be plugged in, to always be sharing. It’s the nature of the beast and I understand it’s necessity, but my Internet persona is lacking and I am far removed from witty-band-man. That said, I do miss the days of once-a-day bulletin posts. It was limited social media activity on my baby blue iMac desktop computer. All of those high school bands the five of us were in, that’s what we relied on. Let’s get back to those days.

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