PillowTalk is Sammy D, Ryan Williams and Michael Tello. The guys will be playing live this Saturday at the U Street Music Hall showcasing their debut EP ‘Je Ne Sais Quoi’. Hailing from San Francisco, PillowTalk’s album hits many sounds from house, techno, R&B and disco. We had a chat with them ahead of their performance to find out a bit more about their genre bashing album.
‘Je Ne Sais Quoi’ is your debut LP, how does it feel to finally be
releasing your first full length album?
It feels like a long time coming. We have been announcing it for the
last year. It’s nice to finally land on a release date… We are hyped
for it!!!
How does the creation process generally go, do you write and then
make the music or do you discuss a concept and try and aim for that?
We usually write melodies and or drums before lyrics ever take form.
Songwriting is very organic and we rarely go into the studio with a
full idea. We all have little ideas we try and put together. It’s not
that planned, but more spontaneous.
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Your record is titled ‘Je Ne Sais Quoi’, which literally translates
into ‘I Don’t Know’. Would you say it is in reference to your cross-genre
sound?
We’re not using “Je Ne Sais Quoi” in literal French. We’re more
referencing the way we use it in English; which means an indefinable,
elusive quality that makes something distinctive or attractive.
Something you love, but you can’t quite put your finger on. We think
this really sums up our album.
What type of journey do you hope to talk your listeners on when
they buy your record?
It has a little bit of everything in it. Our hope is to reach a
broad and eclectic group of listeners. We feel there is a song in
there for everyone. The journey is long and hard and hopefully you can
take a little piece of this album along with you.
When you were growing up, what types of artists do you remember
your parents playing and how has that influenced your sound?
All types of music. There are three different families we came from,
so I would say just about every form of music is covered. Individually,
we could give you a long list of specific artists, but that might take
a while.
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What do you feel you each bring to PillowTalk?
We all have our strong points. We all have a decent understanding of
song structure and melody, which is key to what we are doing. From
there it usually breaks off into Mikey writing the drums, and Ryan
laying down the melodies and chord structure. Once we have an idea
down that seems to be working for us, we then tend to start adding
lyrics to the project.
What were you all doing before you started making music seriously?
Before PillowTalk, we were in the music scene for years in our own
right. We are all in our mid-late 30’s.
Music has always been serious, it’s just now people are taking us serious.
What do you hope to achieve in 2014?
We hope to keep building our fanbase, and keep writing music from the heart.
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