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Jan 18, 2016 By Michael Wojtas Pillar Point

This Friday, Polyvinyl is set to release Marble Mouth, the latest full-length from Pillar Point. Ahead of the street date, we’re pleased to stream the record in its entirety. Head below to listen and read some of mastermind Scott Reitherman’s views on the LP, working with of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes, and his plans for 2016.

Reitherman on the evolving sound from the last record to the new one:

“You know I got a much clearer sense of the record I wanted to make after having toured my first Pillar Point album. Playing those shows allowed me to see crowd reactions, see what made people dance, what were the exciting moments. So partly it was that - I had a lot of recent case studies to work off of, if you will. That was different from the Pillar Point debut record which was basically me going away for a couple years and making something in a relative vacuum. The first record had a lot of different types of songs on it, and I was transitioning out of Throw Me The Statue still. Marble Mouth feels like the full Pillar Point identity lock.”

On recording with Kevin Barnes in his studio:
“It was immersive. I was sleeping and living in his studio, very much a cave dweller. Going to bed around 5 or 6 AM every morning. I would start during the afternoons, and Drew would show up after I’d been working for a few hours. Then Kevin would come in later in the evening and we’d show him where things were at. The pace of the work speeds up when Kevin arrives because he can immediately react to a song-in-progress; offer feedback, conceive of a part and do an overdub, anything really. He’s the most instinctual artist I’ve ever worked with and he only needs a couple passes to get a keeper take of an idea. So it was great. I’d already been working on the arrangements in some cases for a few months, so I would be at a juncture with a tune and he could come in and turn on the faucet of ideas and we’d just decide what we liked or if the song could benefit from those brainstorms. It was a really vibrant collaboration.”

On the collaborative process of the new album:
“Yea, we had Cameron Gardener of Washed Out playing drums on the album for a few days at Chase Park in Athens, GA. I had built up the sketches of the songs around drum machines or loops, so in a lot of cases Cameron would emulate and replace those patterns, and in some cases he’d throw a spin on the original idea and we’d use that. Later on, Philip Mayer from Kishi Bashi came in for an afternoon and did percussion overdubs, which was so much fun because we were making the grooves sound really rhythmically unique at that point. I’d put various bottles with water in front of Philip that I’d filled to be in tune with the song we were doing, and he’d just go off and do a bunch of different performances of different patterns. He also brought in a bunch of crazy percussion instruments I’d never seen, like a donkey jaw bone with the teeth still rattling in it, or strange hand drums with sand in them. That afternoon really put a special glaze on the tracks.”

On plans for 2016:
“Playing more shows and working on new music. I’m doing more work scoring work for video and multimedia lately. It can be a way to make a living, and it also allows me to be involved with a variety of projects. Right now I’m producing and doing the score for a pretty elaborate audiobook project with an NYU Professor for a novel they’ve written which I’m very excited about. And I’d really love to score a film. Playing shows is great, but I’m also content in the studio cooking up new ideas.”

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