An eclectic and vibrant offering, ‘All Quiet (On the Midwestern Front)’ alternates clean, funky sections to rawer, harder-hitting guitar work, showcasing Bury The Pines’ heightened sense of musicianship. Certainly a unique and peculiar offering on the current rock landscape, the American band seems to have found a formula that’s relatable and emotional, yet nuanced in its execution.
Gearing up for a debut EP expected later this year, Bury The Pines go directly on our list of projects to watch out for. ‘All Quiet (On the Midwestern Front)’ is pretty revealing towards the end, with a fuller production and anthemic vocal harmonies layered on top of intricate basslines and fringe drum grooves. What more could you want?
Intrigued by the group, we caught up with them to learn more about their artistry and future goals… Interview below!
Hey guys, how is it going? some of our readers might not be familiar with your project, how would you describe yourself, in a few words?
We are Bury the Pines from the Cleveland/Akron area of Ohio. We say we are a little Emo & Pop Punk, a little Math Rock, a little Prog, and a little R&B. Swancore adjacent. The band consists of Joe Skowronski on Guitar, Mat Markuz on drums, Nick Fischer on Bass and vocals, Marcus Smith on lead vocals, and Evan Hendrix as our touring Rhythm guitarist and Recording engineer.
Your current work is the result of a long journey; How did you all meet, and was there a special factor facilitating the collaboration between you three?
Joe and Mat have known each other and have been playing together for at least 10 years, but never really had the right people to get a project off the ground. Marcus and Nick had been playing together even longer. Joe and Marcus met during the formation of their cover band, and eventually added Nick to the mix. We’d been playing in the cover band and Marcus’s solo project for a few years before we decided to come together and start a new original project.
‘All Quiet (On the Midwestern Front)’ is your latest single. An eclectic offering, the track navigates through post-rock, math rock and gentler indie matter with a very charismatic character. Honestly, it’s a great record! Where does such a peculiar style come from?
The biggest factor is that we all come from pretty different backgrounds musically. Marcus, Joe, and Nick are actually on 2 other groups together, one being Marcus’s solo project which is more hip-hop oriented, and the other being their pop-punk/ emo tribute band. Being in three bands with mostly the same people makes it easy to use our experience in other genres to really add some elements to these songs that we wouldn’t have otherwise.
Do you guys spend more time on lyrics or on the instrumental? how important is it for you to craft a sound that’s fresh and innovative?
We split our time pretty evenly. It mostly comes down to everyone handling their parts individually in the writing stages. We wouldn’t say any of us our pioneers in our instruments. The freshness of our sound isn’t coming from any of us doing something that hasn’t been done before, but it’s coming from the combination of all our musical tastes and personalities.
How does your songwriting/compositional process work? Do you all write together or separately?
it’s a little bit of a mix. The skeleton of the song usually comes from Joe as a collection of riffs that kind of go together. From there we all get together instrumentally and form it into something that makes sense. At that point, everyone is contributing, and a lot of times the song will go a completely different direction than it started, but it has everyone’s personal touches to it and that’s what makes them unique. “All Quiet (On the Midwestern Front)” definitely went through the most changes before we were all happy with it.
Can you tell us what is the main message behind ‘All Quiet (On the Midwestern Front)’, and what should the listeners take home from it?
Lyrically the song tells the story of a guy going off to war. The naivety of a young man who doesn’t know what he’s gotten himself into and the promise he made to the person he loves that he’ll be back soon. The chorus lyric “We don’t need another love song, we just wanna dance all night long” is about how he’d rather dance all night so that it never has to end. But also, in the midst of war, “Love Songs” aren’t what they need to make it through.
Artistically speaking, what challenges have the last two years presented you with?
Really the only challenge has been finding our voice as a band. We had never really done something like this before, so we were very calculated every step of the way to make sure we were building something we’d be proud of when it finally came together. Now with two singles out, we are extremely happy with where we’ve gotten and excited for everything coming up next.
What are the next steps for your project? Anything exciting on the horizon?
We have one more single coming out that we’ll be announcing very soon. All the singles are part of our debut EP that we’re hoping to release in the late summer. Instrumentals are completed and vocals are close to being done. As soon as we have that we’re going to start getting our first full-length album in order.
