Pezzettino is the recording name for Margaret Stutt, who adopted the name from the illustrated Leo Lionni children’s book. She currently lives in Oakland, CA. Her hometown is Racine, Wisconsin, where the blender, Off! bug spray and Ziploc bags were invented. Resin (out 2/8) is her first studio album since performing under the same name circa 2008-2012 in Milwaukee and Brooklyn. It’s her 11th album overall.
Trained in classical piano at a convent growing up, she joined the Indie music scene after responding to a craigslist ad for a drummer late one night (even though she didn’t play drums). For unexplained reasons, the band gave her a chance, and she sat on her hands at her first band practice, totally uncomfortable with the notion of improvisation. At the end of the practice, they said “well, we have this accordion that nobody knows how to play, maybe you can figure it out.” Familiar with the accordion from her Irish-German father playing it on holidays, she drilled a hole into it, added amplification, and took off from there. The band played one show in an upstate gym, and a couple months later, she went off on her own to pursue her own music.
Her first album was released in 2008, recorded on a laptop through a $10 microphone, and was embraced by Milwaukee’s radio and press. Eager to explore the road, she quickly began touring and developed community within the Midwest music scene. She became a common name in the Wisconsin music scene, opening for Ween and other national acts in Milwaukee and Madison. She kept a busy show schedule with a band at home and as a solo act when touring across the country. She often made eccentric vlogs and on-demand fundraising music videos by assembling footage of her daily experiences. Emboldened by the success of the single “You Never Know” and hip hop collaboration Lub Dub, she was also aware that she was becoming a big fish in a small pond and didn’t want the ego that went with that. She moved to Brooklyn in 2010 looking for a wider perspective in the arts mecca that wasn’t so dominated by 4-boy alt-country rock. She told Sean Moeller at her Daytrotter session in 2011 that she was looking for “a kick in the face,” and he grimaced in response.
She landed a job as a barista at Wyckoff Starr in Bushwick and found an immediate community through the shop’s clientele. The bustling and rich arts scene was deeply inspiring and she started making stop motion music videos using the coffee shop and thrift magazine clippings. But she also struggled to make ends meet while trying to cut through the crowd, finance part-time touring and record a studio album, which was an ambitious endeavor of experimental folk opera and film titled *Pedestrian Drama*. It was inspired by “dark fear” and involvement with the Milwaukee public art installation of the same name by New York artist Janet Zweig. After two and a half years of hustling and living in questionable living quarters, she left New York for what she thought was a quick respite back home, drowning in debt and deteriorating mental health.
Resin is the result of years of documenting hope & resiliency through trauma, crisis and chaos— often written during bouts of insomnia. The studio effort was personally symbolic, celebrating coming through “the tunnel” after a difficult diagnosis and the new lifestyle that is required to successfully live a stable life. The songs were recorded in scattered sessions over a two-year period, and often written the week-of, scrapping an entire album of demos in the wake. It is a recognition of the world’s harshness while holding on to hope, and learning to see with fresh eyes and a “beginner’s mind” approach to life. The name “Resin” stems from trees’ process for self-protecting and healing after injury.
The album was recorded at Tiny Telephone Oakland, engineered and mixed by Jacob Winik and mastered by Justin Perkins. Margaret wrote and performed on all of the songs (piano, accordion, vocals), with bandmates from the almighty Carly Bond (guitars, synth, clarinet, vocals), and Andrew Maguire (percussion, drums). This album was a dream team effort and she has deep respect for the talent they brought to the table.
Glide is proud to premiere “How To”(below) by Pezzettino off Resin a delicate folk-rooted composition that combines the humility of Big Thief and the musical curiosity of Regina Spektor. Pezzettino has created a song of enduring aspiration, where daily struggle and hope combine for a musical buildup that is indie folk at its most haunting.
“Curiosity is a pressure-release valve for the brain,” says Stutt about “How To.” “It opens locked doors and is expansive. Almost all of the demos I had thought I would record in the studio were scrapped post-presidential election. I mostly showed up to the recording studio with skeletons of an idea, scraps of poems and melodies, and planned on happy accidents and happenstance. It required letting go and just trusting that it would work out. It can be very freeing to drop the history of how you once did something or preconceived ideas for what your creative baby should become. The recording engineer, Jacob Winik and the musicians at Tiny Telephone also really embraced that ethos and it was a really life-affirming experience. I like to think of Jacob as the music doula for this album. He put me at ease and fully embraced exploring ideas on the fly.”
Photo by Ginger Fierstein
