Saintseneca displays deep, complex side
The alternative folk group Saintseneca has just released one of the more epic tracks to appear this year. “Pillar of Na,” the nine-minute title track of the Columbus, Ohio, band’s fourth album, shows how deep and complex a song can get and still be wildly catchy.
It begins in European folk-style with balalika and flute, then erupts into a rousing pop chorus, with a couple of side trips into orchestral prog territory. The lyrics touch on everything from the nature of history to the hits of Whitney Houston. It ends with a chant referencing Bob Dylan (“We all must get stoned”) in both English and Latin. For good measure, there’s a long backward piano chord recalling the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life.” The overall effect is a bit confusing, but mostly grand and gorgeous.
“That song took the longest time to write, maybe 11 or 12 years,” said Zac Little, the band’s multi-instrumentalist leader ahead of their show at Brighton Music Hall on Wednesday. “I think of writing a song like doing an excavation — you come up with a little piece of something, then you realize what it is or what it might be connected to. Then you realize that it all connects to some broader framework; this little piece might be the pinky toe of a T. Rex.”
Little says that “Pillar of Na” began as en exploration of memory — hence the title’s reference to the biblical story of Lot’s wife turning into a pillar of salt after looking back at God’s destruction of Sodom. The Whitney Houston reference, in which the singer makes a request to a DJ to hear “I Will Always Love You,” ties into that as well.
“I like the idea that there were different iterations of that song over time and that if you request it on the radio in 2018, that won’t mean the same thing that it did in 1990.”
The “get stoned” chant likewise has at least two meanings: “It can mean getting high or it can mean a public execution. I like songs to have as many meanings as possible, and I think that Dylan did, too.”
Together since 2007, Saintseneca has won a following by juggling folk and rock influences and working exotic instruments into the mix.
“That gives you tools that you can use to access different territory; you’ll find different things if you’re playing a bouzouki or a mandolin, and that will inform the whole architecture of the song. A friend of mine played me (English folk-rock band) Fairport Convention before this album, and it blew my mind. I was interested in exploring that palette, but doing things like that wouldn’t have been possible back then. Maybe we could take it into the future and create something people hadn’t heard yet.”
For all that, Little says that he’s not a record collector.
“I dabble, but I try not to collect anything. It’s too much of a burden. But I do try to listen really intently.”
with Black Belt Eagle Scout, at Brighton Music Hall, Wednesday. Tickets: $14; ticketmaster. com.