Pecas
Photo by, Sam Snelling. Styling by, Chloe Bacot
Meet Pecas
My preferred environment to get all broody in is when I am basking in the hazy neon glow of a good set, surrounded by some pretty lush synth. The ideal soundtrack? Pecas — a Brooklyn project helmed by Sandy Davis that delivers calm synths and powerful lyrics that bring all the feels.
ALL OF THEM.
With noodling guitar and dreamy dark tones, the latest release touches on the melancholy of night with a sultry dream-pop-dance sensibility.
Below, we talk about subway recording sessions, the laughter-grief stage, and the sweet nectar of fresh coffee.
Grab a cuppa and give this one a gander...
Weather Report A Mad-Lib by, Pecas
"We interrupt this CIRCULAR broadcast to bring you a DANGEROUS news bulletin. Hurricane ROSE, with gusting SNAKES clocked at 23 miles per hour, is hammering the ABRUPTLY populated Florida coast. This WATERY storm has left GOLDEN devastation in its wake. The National FRAME Bureau reports that in Miami, windows have been blown out of fifty high-rise PLANES, showering the streets below with pieces of broken PEDALS. The howling winds have reduced a newly built SIGNALING center to SCREENS. Police report a seven-ton RING was lifted and sent WHISPERING into a three story RITUAL. Fortunately, there have been no casualties. Nevertheless, the Governor has declared a BLOOD emergency and advised all POCKETS to seek safety in a NOISE shelter. And now back to your DREAM in progress."
Would You Rather
have control over all the fish in the world or all the trees? What would you do with your new powers?
I suppose I would control all the fish.
I’m imagining controlling all the fish and coordinating them to swim collectively to change ocean currents. Maybe the fish and I could combat some big storms together. Or, at the very least, I could help the surfers of the world catch some good waves.
Some Questions with Pecas
What is one thing you would want to change about the music industry?
The music industry is doing a great job of reflecting our values back to us -- as it should. Every art form is essentially a mirror, reflecting the values that we uphold as a society. In art, as in politics, we seem to value power and influence over quality and integrity, we still hold women to patriarchal standards of beauty and success, and there’s little room for marginalized communities to have their voices heard. Yes, the internet makes it possible to put your music out there, but you’re dropping a tear drop into an ocean, and without the power of a massive wave, no one will hear it. That said, within the margins there are incredible things happening and I’m mostly hopeful that those communities will continue to grow into their own proper wave. The only thing I can personally change is how I choose to uphold my personal values and what I choose to add to the conversation. That’s something I’ve been working on lately.
What is your ideal recording environment?
The ideal place is somewhere I feel comfortable enough to play around in. That usually ends up being my bedroom. I write songs as I record so the process is basically one in the same. It’s a lot of recording loops, leaving them, coming back to them, adding elements, taking things away, pacing around, dancing, and singing random things until something lands. It’s a bit like an exorcism -- whatever comes out comes out so I need a lot of freedom and the ability to capture in the spur of the moment. I’m also really inspired while I’m in motion. I often record using GarageBand on my phone in the subway. So my bedroom and the subway are my recording studios of choice.
I’ve struggled in traditional recording studio environments because there is an expectation that you have the entire song mapped out before you get there, and that’s not really my process. It’s like asking a painter to recreate the same painting in a different space with more expensive paints. Why? The demo is the best version, in my opinion. BUT, I am really curious about those fancy recording studio paints and in collaborating with other producers and am already planning to be working in a studio early 2020 to record.
Where were you emotionally when you wrote the single "T-Shirt"?
I was on the laughter stage of grief. I think Kübler-Ross forgot to add that stage.
What draws you to the slower more downtempo side of pop?
My damned soul.
I’ve spent a good part of the last year trying to fight it and it got me nowhere.
I had this idea the past year that being a strong female artist means you’re screaming into a microphone at 200bpm. I ended up making some really bizarre songs in this period -- the soundscape of me battling my natural instincts (maybe I’ll release these for fun one day). But I’ve essentially had to relearn that there’s beauty in being slow and steady and that what makes a powerful song is often the silences.
What is your process of production typically? Was it any different for this 2019 single "T-Shirt"?
T-Shirt is pretty similar production-wise to how I approach most songs. It usually starts with a melody and lyrical phrase in my head. I’ll record a beat, find some suitable chords for the melody and loop those elements over and over until I figure out the song structure and lyrics. Once that’s laid down I’ll add bass and other elements to fill out different sections of the song. T-Shirt is the last song I recorded using the same ingredients as the songs on After Dark. I was in Logic 9 at that point and used sounds almost entirely from this Roland FA-08 keyboard I have. Since then I’ve started exploring Abelton, and have been experimenting with new instruments and synths. My general consensus is that I have too many toys at this point and need to narrow it down to only a few toys so I can focus. Maybe that’s the key to good production.
What was the subject of the first song you ever wrote?
At fifteen or sixteen I wrote a song about being nostalgic. That’s really funny to think about now, but to be fair to my younger self, I think I was nostalgic (and to some extent will always be) for the time I spent growing up in Spain with the family I have there.
Who is your biggest supporter throughout your musical career?
It’s taken a village to raise pecas, but my parents are definitely my biggest supporters and have had the biggest influence on me. After I got back from my most recent tour in October, I went back to stay with them for a month. It was challenging at first because there's really nothing scarier than understanding exactly what you're made of. There was one night where we played Cards Against Humanity for hours and my parents fought over what music to play. My dad instinctively played some really sad folk rock music and my mom argued it was a mood killer and put on Q-Tip, and then went on to win the game because she's a boss and effortlessly funny. That dichotomy between melancholy and fun loving pretty much sums me up and is the driving force behind my music. It's taken a while to convince my mom that I'm going to be a broke musician for a while, but she's come around to respect my need to live slightly off the edge of a cliff at all times. That's where the magic happens.
I also want to take this moment to give a shout out to some other big supporters: my roommate Kenton D'Angeli for always taking my side even when I'm wrong, my bandmates Claire Wardlaw and Nick Stola for trekking with me across the country and to Mexico, my good friend Josh Myers who is also giving me production tips and moral support, and my songwriting partner John Morisi (aka Johnny fucking Dynamite).
What is the best smelling thing ever?
Freshly ground coffee.
Have there been any recent technological advances in music that inspired you?
Yeah, I saw this kickstarter campaign for this device called DUBLER. It’s a microphone that allows you to trigger MIDI notes. You can beatbox a beat, for example, and it translates that into a MIDI beat, or you can sing a melody and it will trigger a synth to match what you are singing and record that directly into Abelton. Seems like it would be really effective for the way that I tend to write and record.
How do you translate your sound to a live performance?
Right now I use a drum machine/sampler with backing tracks and I have a keyboardist and a saxophone player and I play bass on a few songs and sing. I think this will change with the new songs I’m working on. My hope is to introduce a real drummer soon.
What is your favorite fast-food chain?
I honestly don’t have a favorite fast-food chain. I don’t like them -- not even solely for ethical reasons. It just doesn’t taste good to me. I will occasionally get fries at McDonalds if I’m on tour and that’s the only option. But otherwise, I never think to go.
The equivalent of fast food for me is ramen. I love ramen. Not that ramen in a cup brand. There’s slightly better quality ramen that you can get for a dollar a bag. When I make it I usually drop an egg in it and some bok choy and it’s great.
What is your go-to Karaoke song? Why?
I don’t do karaoke enough to have a go-to song, but I really love it when I do go. I went a little while ago to karaoke night at Our Wicked Lady and sang “The Greatest Love” by Whitney Houston. I’ve been a little obsessed with that song the past few months and felt like being able to sing it at karaoke would be really cathartic and some sort of milestone. If you can fuck with Whitney, you can do anything.
Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)
I feel like I started this interview on a soapbox and gradually came down to a comfy couch. I should probably go meditate and so should you.