Holy Pinto

This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply.

Holy Pinto are gearing up to release a very special double A-side single, King/Very Adult, and in preparation I spoke with guitarist/vocalist Aymen Saleh about the band’s creative process and plans for the future.

Thanks for chatting with me today, Aymen. It’s been a little bit since you guys released you debut full-length, Congratulations. How was the process of putting that out, and what was the reception like for you?

It was really smooth when it came to the release! We were in great hands with Soft Speak and I look back on that release and the subsequent tours very fondly The road to the release was a bit more stunted – we actually recorded that record in 2014 and it took a while for us to work up to it actually coming out. I was more than happy to send it to people that interacted with us after shows and stuff, which placated the emptiness of not having put the record out there for so long. It was a huge thing to finally get it out! In terms of the response – we felt like new people were discovering our music, which is all we could want, and seeing people care enough to pre-order it was an incredible feeling. We’ve almost sold out of the 1st pressing which is tight!

I didn’t know how long you guys had actually waited to release the record. That must’ve made having the actual physical product in your hands that much better.

Yeah definitely! We actually had the record ready before we put out the ‘Stenography’ EP, and before we’d ever even done a tour. Although it was agonizing at times, but we were way better off for it eventually because I’m sure we would have released it to tumbleweed if we’d put it out straight away!

Exactly! Having a bit of a fanbase beforehand is smart. Speaking of physical products, you have a double-A side single coming out soon, and it comes with a pin instead of vinyl? how did that come about?

Haha, actually, as a direct response to the above! To do the exact opposite of what we did with waiting on the record!! We’re releasing these songs within 1 month of having recorded them. We did the pin because we definitely didn’t want to release music without the option of a nice physical component paired with it. Vinyl takes somewhere between 2-4 months to produce, and that wasn’t compatible with our urge to get these songs out and keep moving forward. I’m so, so happy with how the pin came out – I can’t wait to get them in. It’s pretty limited and so it’ll be mostly for people pre-ordering but I’ll have the remainder of them on the merch table in my upcoming solo tour.

Well both of the songs are single-worthy for sure. I understand wanting to get them out there as soon as possible. Tell me a bit about the tour though. You coming back to the states?

Thank you! ‘Very Adult’ is a very cool song that we wanted out there but doesn’t fit in with the sound/themes of album #2. Yeah! I’m coming back over to do a solo tour in July. It’s mostly on the East Coast. The way it’s shaping up is mostly acoustic guitar in living rooms vibe. I love it because get to play new songs and it’s really nice to have more of a storytelling element to the performance. I feel like I want to be Jens Lekman on this tour. Also, I haven’t slept in the car park of a Pilot in a while. That was missing from my life

I saw a picture of your new mini acoustic, I can definitely see you achieving that Lekman vibe with that. Also how very DIY of you! Is there any particular part of the East Coast you’re excited to get back to?

I’m super excited about the north-east stretch! To go to Canada for the first time in my life and play Montreal will be amazing. Passing down through Vermont will be cool, and then Boston!! I feel like Boston’s really come to life for me in my daydreams through listening to Jonathan Richman all the time. He has songs that are literally describing his walks from the Fenway to the museum of fine arts, it’s pretty crazy, haha. Last time me and Ryan were there we were seeing street names that he mentions and pointing out the window and screaming. Looking forward to seeing a bunch of my friends in Philly, the Midwest, and drinking with Free Throw in Nashville!

Well I, for one, am stoked to catch a date or two while you’re here! Thank you so much for catching up with me, man. I’m looking forward to the reaction to King/Very Adult!

Cheers Aj!

Expand - View Original