pillowfighter
New York City, New York, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
There is a dreamy tone that fills the spaces in pillowfighter’s recent release, ‘Grow Slow With Me’. The sound comes in as if filtered through a gauzy light; it is warm fields and butterflies gentle flapping. The duo, Joe Seely and Margaret White, turn their Brooklyn environment back to a habitat with lots more nature involved. How green is that?
Joe Seely creates soft, romantic folk music. The easy flow of sound and the interlocking voices allow the songs to float by. “The Nest” moves through like a cloud, “Tobacconist’s Daughter” contains powerful movement as the rails of a freight train rumble underneath the voices and warm note patterns, the tracks never clattering above the precious textures pillowfighter form with their songs. Even the slightly blues/folk electric twang of album opener “Love Runs Lazy” moves lightly into the room, the rush of instruments moving over the arrangement in a hush. The beauty of pillowfighter’s music is that it is always within reach. Under the guidance of producer Craig Chin, the recording creates an ambience that accepts the diverse background of Margaret (classically trained violinist and Winston-Salem Indie Rock veteran) and Joe (guitar and keyboard training honed in the Seattle music underground). ‘Grow Slow With Me’ is futuristic folk music that sticks to the use of acoustic beauty as a medium. - thealternateroot.com
Discography
pillowfighter's debut LP, Grow Slow With Me, will be released on November 10, 2010.
Photos
Bio
Pillowfighter is Margaret White and Joe Seely. They reside in the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn. An evening stroll through the bucolic paths of nearby Prospect Park provides the perfect backdrop for their tunes that range from traditional folk balladry to chamber pop.
Margaret, a classically-trained violinist and multi-instrumentalist from Winston-Salem, NC, cut her teeth in the legendary Chapel Hill scene of the 1990's, folding her effortlessly lyrical fiddlework and voice into the rock stylings of local darlings The Comas, Regina Hexaphone, and Portastatic. From
there, she hit the road, touring with such luminaries as Cat Power, Belle and Sebastian, and the magical Sparklehorse.
Currently, she is one of New York City's most highly sought after violinists, playing with bands as diverse as pop tunesmith Mascott, modern troubadour Kevin Devine, up-and-coming purveyor of warm Americana Doug Keith, and the new incarnation of New York indie-rockers Versus (mogmusic.com).
Meanwhile, Joe came of age in Seattle, WA, playing guitar, keyboards, and singing with his brother, Tim Seely (armyoftim.com), in the band Actual Tigers, whose lone Capitol Records release, Gravelled and Green, was produced by Dennis Herring (Modest Mouse, Elvis Costello), and garnered much critical acclaim. During the tour for this release, they were invited to play a series of West Coast dates with their favorite band, Sparklehorse. During the soundcheck at Berbati's Pan in Portland, OR, Joe first saw Margaret plucking on a banjo and singing sweetly. Promptly, Joe dropped his amp in awe, wiped the stardust from his eyes, and used his penchant for hand-wringing awkwardness to cobble together a few sentences to share with Margaret during the week, including an unusually anachronistic entreaty to become pen pals.
In 2002, Joe began crafting soft, romantic folk songs in his basement apartment. He passed out these homemade cassettes and cds under the name pillowfighter, playing the occasional solo show in an attempt to completely destroy his ego. Undaunted, he continued to write more songs, making sure to
leave space in the arrangements for Margaret, wherever he may find her
(myspace.com/joeseely).
Then, in 2007, their lives converged again, in Nashville, TN, while both were working on a record with Sam Watts and his project, Ghosts I've Met. At the end of a muggy, rustic tour of the American South, Margaret joined Joe onstage as pillowfighter at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle. Their musical friendship blossomed into a life together, and their mutual affection is evident in their first tandem effort, Grow Slow With Me.
Enlisting Craig Chin (craigchin.com), a Brooklyn (by way of Texas) singer-songwriter with a passion for '60's psychedelic pop, to produce the record in his attic studio, they've dressed each song up with a dreamy ambience, due to each musician bringing their unique perspective to the studio in a spirit of true collaboration.
At the annual Love Hangover event in Brooklyn over the past few years, pillowfighter has covered tunes from acts such as The Ronettes, Madonna, Tom Petty, Built To Spill, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, and their beloved Sparklehorse. In various measures, all these elements and
influences blend to form the open-hearted sound that is pillowfighter.
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