Pillow Queens on living the dream with a new album and tour of America
Pillow Queens release Leave The Light On on April 1. Picture: Rich Gilligan
The first line of Pillow Queens’ debut album In Waiting had singer Pam Connolly drawling: “I’m still a baby.” On that 2020 record, the Dublin band had channeled a few years of local hype into an anthem-busting 42 minutes, tracks like 'Gay Girls' proclaiming their manifesto, and comparisons soon being drawn to bands like Weezer and Illuminati Hotties.
Two years later, and with the follow-up album ready to go, Connolly echoes that opening line of In Waiting when discussing the successes Pillow Queens have notched up since. “We're not a baby band, we've been together for five-and-a-half years, but we still consider ourselves as, 'Oh, we're just trucking along'. No, we're not. We're professionals. And we've been doing this for a while - we work really hard. It's hard to not feel like that sometimes because it feels like it has been a long journey,” she says. “We know that we're good enough, but we also have that self-doubt.”
Perhaps those misgivings will be assauged by the potential reception to the release of Leave the Light On, due April 1 on Canadian indie imprint Royal Mountain Records, home to the likes of Alvvays and Mac DeMarco. The release follows on from Pillow Queens signing a publishing deal with the legendary Sub Pop label.
And while the title of In Waiting proved sadly telling, seeing the aspirations that come with an acclaimed debut album grounded by Covid-19 and confining them to their bedrooms around Dublin, Leave the Light On is released with the band halfway through a month-long US tour. That adventure began at SXSW in Austin, Texas, in mid-March, and has just seen them make their second appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden on CBS.
How does the band, completed by Sarah Corcoran (co-vocals, bass), Cathy McGuinness (guitar), and Rachel Lyons (drums), think of the past two years? “Obviously, you don't really want to take too many positives from a global pandemic, but we did. We got so much not out of it, but during that time, we did so much,” says Connolly. “We're lucky that we had that creative output… during a time when people were more cooped up than we were, because we were doing things to have an excuse to get dressed up, even if it was just going to a studio and doing a stream.”
Lyons continues: “At one point I remember my friends saying 'Pillow Queens are our only friends in Dublin that are allowed to do anything right now.' And that's because we were doing that - getting dressed up and going on the telly. 'Well, it's for broadcast!' We're allowed to - literally nobody else could do anything for a while. So we had that. And that kept us going.”
While In Waiting was recorded in snatches and blocks at erstwhile Villagers guitarist Tommy McLoughlin’s Attica Audio studio in Donegal, Leave the Light On was done in one go at the same facility. Written in spring 2021 - very much around the strict lockdown of the blurry first five months of the year - they recorded it with McLoughlin in August.
“It wasn't as difficult as we thought it was gonna be. We definitely were very stressed out about it,” admits Lyons.
Another stress was physically manifested while recording in Donegal. “I broke my arm when I was there," says Lyons, explaining that she accidentally fell over, and stressing that no drink had been involved.
The live arena is where even the casual listener can imagine the songs on Leave the Light On thriving. Intentionally less personal (a side-effect of Covid - “What can you write about when you can't write about your interactions with other people in the world?”), the likes of opener ‘Be By Your Side’ take the Pillow Queens blueprint and turns it up. A gentle bass intro into Connolly’s aching vocals, it builds over pulsing drums and striking guitar riff, the four-part harmonies that are becoming their calling card sealing the deal.
“It’s a lot more vulnerable than we've been before - but a confident vulnerability,” says Connolly. “There's a little bit of warmth there, but we wanted it to sound not out of place in a stadium, but also to be really... big and intimate.”
Pillow Queens’ use of religious symbols and iconography was an interesting theme of In Waiting that they reprise on the new record, most obviously on ‘Hearts & Minds: “Save my feelings, no more novenas, you came to worship but the godless kind.”
Connolly says: “I like to speak in analogies a lot and doing it with religious stories, there's just so much there. And you can put across a notion or an idea or a feeling just by referencing something religious and it will tell the entire story that you want to tell. And I just find a lot of the language quite beautiful.
“We use that language as a vehicle because mostly we find it really beautiful and it says so much.”
None of the group are religious, however. “We have a religious hangover,” explains Connolly.
They’re proud of what they’ve created, and having had their first album cycle derailed, are eager to get back on course. They’ve packed in their day jobs to concentrate on music full-time, and after a pre-St Patrick’s Day/SXSW send-off at the US embassy in Dublin, they find themselves rubbing shoulders with Phoebe Bridgers in Austin and touring from west to east coast. No more baby talk, no more waiting - Pillow Queens have arrived.
- Leave the Light On is released on April 1
Pam Connolly, like Choice Prize winner David Balfe aka For Those I Love, is involved in the Save Tolka Park campaign for Shelbourne FC.
“I am a huge Shelbourne fan. And they asked me to get involved; myself and Dave spoke at one of their online events there last year. Ever since I started going to matches, the idea that Tolka was going to be gone was always prevalent, but I was always like, that's not gonna happen… not for another few years. I was worried as well that the campaign happened at the very last moment, but it hit the ground running and bolted. They did so well, you see the stickers everywhere, the T-shirts and now it looks like we might be allowed to stay.”
As for her expectations for Shelbourne and new manager Damien Duff this season: “I'm excited to see what happens. And we finished top of the league [First Division] last year, so I can only hope but, you know, one of the things we always say about Shels is, if you like torture, you should be a Shels fan. But the ladies are great. So you know what, we can always go to a ladies’ match and always be happy.”
- Thumper: The Dublin six-piece (two drummers! Three guitarists!) have just released their debut album, Delusions of Grandeur.
- Melts: Dublin five-piece Melts release their debut album Maelstrom, produced by Gilla Band’s Daniel Fox, on May 13. Just back from SXSW, they’re heading out on a UK tour in April.
- NewDad: Galway indie darlings beloved of 6 Music, NewDad have released a string of acclaimed EP, are touring the UK, and are likely going to be one of the bands of the summer.
- Junk Drawer: Already one album deep, the Belfast four-piece have hit a rich vein of form lately, culminating in the superb EP, The Dust Has Come To Stay.
- Just Mustard: Another band who are already an album deep, the Dundalk five-piece have signed to Partisan (home of Fontaines DC) and release second album Heart Under on May 27.
