Twisted Pine is a Boston-based string band that takes that creatively mingles bluegrass and popular jazz, peppered with sprinkles of rock, funk, and country. Or in other words, its what Twisted Pine’s bass player, Chris Sartori coined as ‘neo-folk indie soul avant jazz jam grass-icana.’ Their latest album Right Now was released on August 14th and although they cant tour to support the release -there is no time more than now when we need great music to carry us through the isolation of 2020.
Twisted Pine is Chris Sartori on bass, Dan Bui on mandolin, Kathleen Parks on vocals and violin, and Anh Phung on flute and vocals. Parks’ vocals are like crystal as she soars on one end of the spectrum and whispers on the other side. Bui and Sartori blend the mandolin and upright bass setting the background for each song without the aid of a drummer. Phung’s flute adds extravagance to each song that draws you closer to the music.
Glide was able to catch the band for an interview and this is what we learned:
You have a new album, Right Now, being released tomorrow. How exciting is that for you? It must be difficult promoting a new album since you can’t tour. What makes this album different from your previous records?
Dan Bui: I’ll take a stab at that one. This album to us really feels like we have really arrived at a thing that is undeniably us. It took us years of playing together, writing, recording and touring. It was awhile before we arrived at our sound and configuration and this kind of thing that we are. In terms of personnel, there is a new lineup of people on this album, but also, the way that we play together and write songs and the way we conceive of this band has evolved. With a lot of bands, you start out by emulating a certain thing that inspires you, but as time goes on, you find your own voice. For all of us, I feel like we have really arrived at this thing that is unique to us. That is the way that it’s different.
Kathleen Parks: I agree. I just want to note the fact that the original songs are different in comparison to our first album of original material. It has been a whirlwind journey. It’s like a huge melting pot of sound. That is so fun for us.
It is an excellent album. The arrangements are done so that each one of you have a chance to shine on each song. How many of the songs are original songs versus cover songs?
K P: Eight songs are original songs to us with two covers. We do Father John Misty’s “Well. You Can Do It Without Me” and Tex Logan’s “Come Along Jody.”
Who are your biggest musical influences?
Chris Sartori: When you listen to this album, you can hear a wide array of influences. As far as musical acts, we are in the same conversation with Billy Strings who is out doing a cool Bluegrass thing. Jerry Douglas and Bela Fleck are big influences and add the Wood Brothers and Lake Street Dive to that mix. We love and are super inspired by those bands.
How many singles have been released from the album?
K P: I think we’ve had about five singles. The most recent single is called “Right Now.” That came out last week. Before that was “Don’t Come Over Tonight.” The first single was “Papaya” released in January. We‘ve been sprinkling singles in here and there.
What is the biggest challenge in releasing new music during a pandemic?
Anh Phung: It is a funny time because we can’t go on tour. We’ve been flexing our creative muscles. We are trying to figure out how we can deliver our music to the public. It’s complicated by the fact that we are located in different places. I’m in Canada. I can’t even cross the border. We’ve been doing a lot of remote recording in our homes, piecing our parts together. We’ve made a show called “The Love Stream.” It was us in a room making a creative show that included songs and skits. We wanted to think of ways to showcase what we can do in our own homes. We will continue to do that and try to expand what we can do. It has been challenging but we are in a new era with the internet and we have to be creative in our approach.
Who is the main writer for the band? Or is it equally distributed between you?
KP: I write a lot of the songs that contain lyrics. Usually, I’ll bring in a song that I’ve been working on and maybe it’s finished. It just depends on the song. Sometimes I need some help getting it in the right direction for its final destination. That’s when the rest of the gang comes in and we really shape it into a sound that fits us. Chris will sometimes bring in a groove that he’s been working on. That’s kind of how he wrote “Papaya.” It started with Chris. Dan has written some really cool pop tunes like “Amadeus Party.” He also started “Tomorrow the Sun Will Rise.” We worked on that together to make it more of a song instead of an instrumental. Everybody contributes to the writing process. Since a lot of these songs were already in the process of being written, Anh has been very helpful being someone who came from the outside saying, ‘I can see where this is going, but let me see what I can add to it.’ She has helped with some of the lyrics as well as the arrangements from time to time. It is fun to work with everyone in the writing process.
Anh, you are the newest member of the band?
AP: That’s right. I joined last year. I kind of dropped in the middle and added my flavor to the songs. I think it’s quite a different vibe now with the flute.
You are labeled as a bluegrass band. You certainly have that flavor, but I hear a lot of jazz infusion in your music. Tell me about your genre of music.
CS: Yes, sure, I think you nailed it. I’m getting asked and I ask myself, ‘What kind of descriptor words we could we use and what kind of genre we are in. We can say that it is not jazz, but it is jazzy, it’s not funk, but it is pretty funky. A lot of the songwriting is indie-pop or coming from that indie-pop style. In addition to our acoustic instrumentation with our Bluegrass foundation, we incorporate jazz. We studied jazz in school.
I was listening to your previous EP and it was predominantly pop cover songs which was done very well. You did manage to seep a lot of Bluegrass in the mix. What music do you listen to when you are at home?
DB: Thanks for saying that about our EP. It was a lot of fun to record. It helped us to pave the way to this current album and the conception of the sound of the band. When we were making all those covers, we were really expanding what we could do as a band. It didn’t matter if it was a disco song or a Beatles song, we realized that if we could play songs that were covers, we could write songs in this kind of way.
As to what we are listening to now I think it’s super eclectic. I’m sure all four of us have different things we listen to. For me personally, I still listen to a lot of Bluegrass and old-time Appalachian fiddle music. I also really like jazz and soul music, Motown, and lately I’ve really been getting into New Orleans music. I’ve even been getting into country, electronic and hip-hop. I couldn’t narrow it down to one artist. If I named one artist, it would be Stevie Wonder.
K.P. Oh man, that is so hard. I’m always playing Paul McCartney in the car, I’ll pick him. He’s definitely a huge influence for me. I do have a lot of other people I would put on there.
AP: This is one that is so hard for me too (laughing). I would have to say that the band that forced me to explore other genres is Led Zeppelin.
That makes so much sense.
DB: I would lean toward Led Zeppelin too.
KP: Oh my, I didn’t even know that she sang (Anh)and all of a sudden she was doing this Led Zeppelin cover and totally crushing it. Totally blowing it away. We were in Knoxville, Tenneesse. It was the only bar that still allowed smoking. It was just a wild scene. (Laughing)
What’s the best advice you’ve gotten?
DB: Here’s a piece of advice someone gave me years ago. We were talking specifically about the band. He was in another band that has been very popular and he said to be very careful about how we grow the band. You might want to expand by adding extra personnel like hiring a tour manager, for instance. It’s smart to do that at the right time. Be very thoughtful in how you do that and only do it when you really need it. Wait and don’t shell out a bunch of money for something in anticipation of a need. Wait until you definitely need it. Don’t overextend yourself. We follow that rule now.
What would be your dream project at this point in your career?
KP: I don’t think we’ve heard from Chris in a little while.
CS: What comes to mind is touring first of all (Laughing). We would really like to work with other bands right now. They are doing a similar thing that we are doing. Normally the fun of the summer is that you have all these festivals and we would be jamming with other folks. We had been wanting to tour with other bands and collaborating with them. The dream right now would be getting creative inspiration from other folks, artists.
The pandemic won’t last forever and there is always next summer.
CS: It is shaping up to be a busy 2021.
