Pinkshift

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Recently, I was able to schedule a Zoom call with Baltimore punk band, Pinkshift, to discuss everything that went into their forthcoming LP, Earthkeeper. I asked the band about what they love best about the DC-area music scene, the key influences and music upbringing each member brings into the band, and Pinkshift offered some cool creative insight on what fans can expect when Earthkeeper drops on August 29th via Hopeless Records.

Thank you three for your time today! So, Pinkshift are gearing up to release your next album, called Earthkeeper, on August 29 via Hopeless Records. What’s your range of emotions now that this is about to come out?

Ashrita: I feel like I may speak for, maybe the entire industry as well, that we’re in “go mode” of this release. We just released a song yesterday. We’ll release a couple more songs by the end of the month, and we’re working on music videos for them. And it’s just kind of very…I feel like I haven’t thought about August 29th…but, it’s getting closer. It’s kind of going by fast because we got a lot of stuff that we’re working on under wraps as well. We’re working every day!

I bet! I mean, I’ve seen your guys touring schedule. It’s ridiculous!

Paul: Yeah, and now we’re gonna get ready to tour in the fall.

Nice! Who are you guys touring with?

Paul: LustSickPuppy and Combat. And that will also include some dates in Baltimore.

Awesome! Speaking of the Maryland area…I live in Silver Spring, Maryland, so not too far from you guys.

Myron: I was just gonna say that I’m in Montgomery County. I’m in Bethesda, Maryland right now!

That’s so cool! So my question for you guys is about this general area. I mean, we have bands like Turnstile, Have Mercy, and other bands in the scene that have been huge for DC. But now, I’m starting to hear bands that are name-dropping Pinkshift! What does that mean to you guys, to be put in that same type of category?

Paul: People are name-dropping Pinkshift?!?

Absolutely, yes! When I talk about that I’m from this area, they seem to ask if I’ve interviewed you guys, or will ask if I’ve heard your music.

Ashrita: Oh, that’s so cool. I feel like it’s kind of crazy, because in the time that we’ve gotten big…we haven’t really been home that much because we’ve been touring so much. So now we’re just, this year and last year, we’ve really just been like, trying to be home and represent, and bring in the community around Baltimore. We’ve been doing these Earthkeeper nights, like a series, a concert series. So that’s us trying to just create a community in Baltimore. And so we’ve been playing small shows here. We still consider ourselves a DIY band, honestly, when it comes to Baltimore, because there’s just so many sick bands here. And we just try to represent as best as we can. And also, just make sure that the other bands from here end up “on the map” too. And for the artists here, we’re really humbled to be part of it, honestly.

That’s awesome. Do you have any bands that come to mind when you think of this general area of DC/MD/VA?

Paul: I mean, yeah, Combat is a really cool band from here. There’s Pearl…

Myron: There’s Origami Angel, from DC. A bunch of really cool hardcore bands also from the city, like Gasket and Bali Songs are from DC as well. Also, Doubt.

For sure! So I recently came across a band called Babyfang. Have you guys ever heard of them? They’re from DC. They put out some pretty eclectic stuff out there, almost like Mars Volta meets punk rock. So it’s kind of cool!

Paul: Oh, that’s sick. Yeah, there’s so many awesome bands here. Honestly, I’m still just trying to go to shows, and I’m discovering bands a lot. There’s always a new one, and they’re always so insane, creative and original.

So I understand you guys are going to be also doing an in-store performance at The Sound Garden. I will be there in person too to meet you guys and get Earthkeeper signed, and hopefully this one too, over my shoulder of Love Me Forever. What’s in the promotional plan for this record cycle?

Ashrita: We’re doing the “Earthkeeper Nights,” to just be present. It’s our first summer at home in a while. So we’re just being at home and doing these monthly concerts, to build up hype, and also to set the stage for what we want to represent. And we’re going to be doing some record store performances the week of the release. We just put out a song yesterday, and we’re gonna be putting out a couple more before the album comes out in August. Yeah, we’re working hard. We’re gonna be filming a music video on Sunday. And we just put one <video> out yesterday.

Was that for the single that you just released?

Paul: Well, we just put out the one we just released, and we’re gonna be putting out another one for the <video> that we’re about to release.

Hopeless Records are keeping you guys busy! <Laughter>

Paul: We’re just doing it because we want to be out there, and we just want to show people that we’re here and we’re present. We didn’t do videos really too much before, but now we’re getting <back into> the swing of things.

Ashrita: So I was gonna say that this is the first time that we’ve been able to, like Paul said, we’re at home and we’re about we’re able to be very hands-on with everything that we’ve been releasing. And with respect to the music and the marketing strategies we’ve been aside from “Evil Eye,” we co-directed that, but pretty much all the following videos, and the ones that are to come, are pretty much directed by us, edited by us, and we’re really proud of everything that we were putting out.

You should be! I mean, on my way home from work today, I listened to your “top songs” on Amazon Music, and there’s so much stuff that I haven’t even heard yet that is truly incredible. You guys are doing such great work. So I wanted to tell you guys, you were the soundtrack to me battling traffic today! <Laughter> So how would you describe your guys’ concerts? And how would you describe each other’s personas on stage?

Paul: We just put it all out there. We’re really energetic!

Myron: Yeah, I mean, it’s funny, because on tour, I feel like people have said that we’re pretty “strange” in the way that off stage, we’re pretty quiet and low energy. So all of that energy just gets put on explosively on stage, I would say. And we like to really make sure that the crowd knows that they are a part of this. So whatever people walk in with that pent up <frustration> or whatever they’re dealing with, we really like for them to let loose and share our energy with them. And it becomes a lot of dancing and a huge communal celebration.

And Paul, how would you describe your on stage rockstar-ness? <Laughter>

Paul: I mean, like Myron said, I definitely have very low energy off stage, but on stage I think it’s the time where I get to be loud. I mean, I always have been quiet since I’ve existed, so getting to rip it live is the time. Like, if I’m gonna be loud, I might as well be loud as well. And also just growing up and seeing shows, I always get captivated by other people’s live energy and just see people that it doesn’t matter what instrument they’re holding, they are not gonna let that stop them. They dance while they play, jump while they play, or even fall while they play. That is very encapsulating to me, and I just want a fraction of that when I perform as well. Just to let other people know that it’s okay, and you should feel this. You should feel what I’m feeling as well.

So who are some of the artists that you guys were inspired by to even want to become musicians in the first place?

Ashrita: I was really inspired by bands like Soundgarden and No Doubt, but I don’t think they’re the reason I became a musician. I think Paul’s the reason that I started to be in a band at all. I mean, I was just playing flute and piano and like writing my little sad songs to myself. I was writing pop songs, and I feel like music has just always been a part of my life, but to be in a band, it’s really just been my friends.

Paul: Yeah, I saw Green Day on their American Idiot tour in 2005. I was about seven years old, but…

Now, you’re making me feel old!

Paul: I still have my bootleg shirt! <Laughter>

You can probably see my Green Day poster in the background, right?

Paul: Yeah, and I mean, they always take photos in that formation. I mean, Billie Joe Armstrong, Frank Iero and Ray Toro from My Chemical Romance are guitarists that just really spoke to me, and despite, even despite being way too young to understand the content and themes of what they’re singing about…the energy and the visceral performance aspects that they brought. It’s just so cool.

Myron: Yeah, I feel like I’m in the same boat where I probably wouldn’t have really become a musician unless it was…I didn’t really realize that there were people behind the music until I was like, 17. Like I knew, but then I got really into Twenty One Pilots when I was 17, and that was the first time that I knew the members of a band by name and face to a really high extent, and knew what they played. And then I was like, “Oh, cool. I want to learn ukulele because I like this band, and because of this artist. And then I just started learning drums in college, because there’s a drum practice room at the school that we went to. And I was only really just practicing for fun, for real. I just started learning songs that I knew, and because I met Paul and Ashrita, they wanted to start playing songs. That’s what kind of forced me to practice more, and actually get better. And yeah, low key, I’m really inspired by both of them.

And I can honestly hear each of those influences with your guys’ punk stylings, for sure. What was the hardest song to write versus the easiest song to write on Earthkeeper?

Ashrita: I think the easiest song was probably “Free Fall.”

Paul: Okay, yeah, I agree with that. The hardest song might have been “Reflection”, “Spiritseeker” or “Blood.”

Ashrita: Yeah, and if we’re talking technically, I guess it could be “Blood”, because it was the first song off of the record that we ever started writing. But it was one of the last ones that we finished. I think that was probably because we were really stuck on how to get all the parts in there. We just don’t really know how to put them together. It was missing something.

Myron: It was the same case with “Spirit Seeker”, but “Blood” had more versions.

Ashrita: So I would also say that “Blood” had less of a chance of making the album than “Spirit Seeker”, because we were frustrated about it.

Okay, yeah. It’s funny how those kinds of conversations go on within bands and stuff like that. So what is your favorite song on the new record?

Myron: Mine changes a lot, but I think right now it’s “Don’t Fight,” literally right now. But, it’s probably gonna change in like two hours, but for now it’s that song.

Paul: “Blood” or “Patience” for now.

Ashrita: Those are good ones. I think, for me, it would be “Spirit Seeker” or “Blood.” “Blood”’s my baby. I can’t abandon it. “Blood” has kept me going. I feel like “Blood” kind of gets that preference of what makes me feel powerful?

Superpowers, right? <Laughter>

Ashrita: <Laughter> Even though everybody else gave up on “Blood” at some point, I never gave up on “Blood”!

There you go! Now it’s on the record for everyone to know. <Laughter> Can you guys go into more depth about the album cover art? It’s called Earthkeeper, and it’s got a kind of starry night, or cosmos kind of thing. Who came up with that concept?

Ashrita: I made the album cover. It was my first time doing any kind of album art, really, on my own. Normally we work with artists. Like, for every single other album or artwork that we’ve done, we have worked with artists. But, I made this one. The background is the 2012 Hubble image of space. It’s the first image where they were able to really pin down red shifting, and really display it in a photograph. And that is a cool concept, because our name, Pinkshift, comes from the concept of red shift. And this album, we almost self-titled it. We almost called this one Pinkshift, but we were like, no, we’re not peaking yet. But I feel like it’s really a big part of our identity. The <concept> of red shifting, so the stars are in the background, and it kind of represents this vastness. And then in the center we have this…it looks like an hourglass, but it’s actually a picture of a solar eclipse, and it’s warped so it’s wrapped up in a black hole. So those white or misty vibes…that’s sun rays.

And then in the top part is a picture from when we went to the redwoods, back in 2023 and we were laying on a tree trunk, looking up into a clearing, and I took a picture of my little disposable camera, and that picture is in the top half of the hourglass. And it kind of follows this idea that, first of all, time is always moving forward. It’s always running out, and we see the sand of our existence flowing into whatever the uncertainty of the future is. And then in the center we have this hand, and it’s in this formation, and it’s a specific hands-like gesture that is typical of spiritualism and dance. So it’s called a Gyan Mudra, and there’s lots of different ways that you can hold your hands in dance and stuff. I grew up classically trained <in dance>. So this one is also used in yoga and meditation. It’s supposed to represent the individual connection with universal consciousness, and it’s chrome, and I feel like that kind of the way that it comes in is very futuristic, but also very grounded. And it’s this idea that we kind of hold, we hold our existence in our hands. And I don’t know, I feel like there’s a lot of different ways to interpret it, but those are kind of like the basic themes.

And then after I made the original version of the album art, I found out about the Hourglass Nebula, which actually exists, and that looks exactly like what I made. So if you look up “Hourglass Nebula”, you’ll find a picture of it, and it looks just like that, and just very colorful. So, it’s supposed to be this connection that makes you think about how we’re treating our time here, and how we want to move forward, and how that really is up to us. And I feel like in that way, those hands are both us, and it’s also like the Earthkeeper. It’s what holds us in existence. That’s the story behind that art.

That’s so awesome, and a much better and detailed answer than I was expecting. <Laughter> The vinyl is gonna look great in The Sound Garden music store with all those copies everywhere, for sure!

Ashrita: I’m really excited about the packaging. I was very hands-on with the packaging too. The back is inspired by the Brat vinyl package where she had the cutout “stamp” on the back. And so we’re doing that too, but with somebody falling through space. So I’m very excited to see how it looks in person.

That’s amazing. Is there anything else you can reveal about the packaging of the vinyl?

Ashrita: Yeah, the way that the packaging is, it’s supposed to be where you open it and you unfold a world. So, we have this space on the outside, and it’s very sterile in a way, and then when you open it, it’s like a green forest, and it’s very nature-y. And on the very, very inside, there’s a little person in there, like a little glowing figure. And that’s kind of supposed to be you. You’re in the middle of all of this. I’m really excited to see how it turns out!

That’s really cool. Yeah. I can’t wait to get my hands on it myself. Any last words for your fans? Socially, politically, or anything else you care to share?

Ashrita: I mean, this whole record is kind of just about speaking truth to what you see, and speaking up. And also being in community with the people around you, finding your voice through the differences, and finding what you have in common rather than what you don’t. And really like standing for justice, standing on your truth, standing on your passion, and standing on what’s right. And if anybody knows Pinkshift, they know what we’re about. If you’ve got two feet, you have to stand for something, and that’s what we try to do every day. And we try to stand for humanity. We try to stand for justice. And fuck fascism, free Palestine, free the United States at this point, and we need to fight back.

And we need more of those voices like that, for sure.

Ashrita: We’re looking forward to making the tour this fall, seriously, a communal space where we can gather together and talk about what’s going on, and bring all these conversations that are on our phones and on our screens, where it feels so hopeless and so far removed, and kind of bring that into our everyday and see how can we in our everyday lives feel a sense of…how can we manipulate what we can control, and how do we bring justice to the spaces that we see? How do we use our power in real life to affect positive change around us, because it all starts in the community. We’re really excited to bring that on tour this fall and just like, connect with our fans and just see how everybody’s doing, really. It’s scary out there right now. It’s scary over here. It’s definitely scary in DC. We had the military parade, and that was crazy, and it’s a really weird time. But, it’s not a time to be afraid. It’s time to stand up and stand together, because a school of fish is much more powerful than one shark.

There you go. Truly beautiful stuff, and that was very, very deep and insightful. Looking forward to seeing you in Baltimore next month!

Pinkshift: Thanks, Adam!

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