A Penny for her thoughts
Sometimes inspiration comes out of nowhere.
Norman’s Penny Pitchlynn can be seen playing bass in BRONCHO, but that’s not her only creative outlet. LABRYS is her latest solo project. She has emerged with a cassette tape release here and a spontaneous gig there, but she’s ready to share a lot more.
Pitchlynn, 31, buckled down at Blackwatch Studios to finish her new solo EP (which landed on Bandcamp last month) and couldn’t exactly pin down where the album highlight “Bitch in a Band” came from. She said it felt preordained, but the track still needed work.
“We had a version happening that was cool, but just didn’t feel right,” Pitchlynn told The Oklahoman. “Like it didn’t have the right attitude or something. The song just sat there as this taunting, evil thing.”
Alongside recording engineer Chad Copelin, the two “put on their big girl pants” to find the right sound.
“We finished working on the song pretty late, and I was like, ‘That’s LABRYS,’” Pitchlynn said. “This song felt like the birth of something.”
“Bitch in a Band” bites not only with Pitchlynn’s raw delivery and crunchy guitar antics but also in its loud, quit and loud delivery. It’s catchy, tender and straightforward
unlike anything I’ve heard from her in recent memory. “Bitch in a Band” is a collage of her talents, and I can’t wait to see where else LABRYS takes her.
I caught up with Pitchlynn via email. Here’s our chat.
Q: You’ve had various solo projects and monikers over the past several years. Does LABRYS feel different?
Penny Pitchlynn: That’s exactly what it does for me: it feels different to me. I needed to rename my solo endeavor because I wanted to feel new in it. I didn’t want to feel like I was making some form of a “comeback,” so instead I’m going for a launch vibe. So yeah, I bought a new boat, and we’re launching her. I also like calling it LABRYS because I can speak about it in plural, first person or third person. This is LABRYS. We are releasing a record. We are really excited about it. It’s just more fun that way, and I will always (hopefully) be collaborating with people . ... I don’t think I am the only one excited for this to be finished and released. Even though I don’t have concreted bandmates per se, I feel supported, inspired and influenced by a lot of amazing people I surround myself with inside and outside of the studio. LABRYS feels like the result of all that. So yeah, I think it does feel different. It feels like me.
Q: A song like “Bitch in a Band” just comes out swinging musically and emotionally. It sounds like you’re confident with this new material.
Pitchlynn: I have definitely come into myself, to an insane degree, in the last seven years. I don’t think I’ve personally released anything in at least that long. It seems crazy because I’ve been doing music that entire time, just not my solo stuff. I have those projects and other humans to thank for years of experience. I’ve learned a lot about what I want and don’t want to hear come out of the studio situation. I have also learned how to communicate my vision more accurately. ... It helps to be invested in a super busy project like BRONCHO because my solo stuff isn’t my only outlet. I could sit on these seven songs for another year and there are probably some smartypants business reasons to do that, but I’m glad I’m not. I wrote songs because I had something to say. The longer I wait to release it, the less relevant whatever I wanted to say is going to be in my own life.
Q: Did you enjoy working at Blackwatch Studios in Norman?
Pitchlynn: I love working there. I’ve been in there enough to be super comfortable now, so it just seemed obvious. I love working with Chad Copelin, and I communicate with him so well. The space has great energy, too. It’s a space for channeling the creative, and I feel that in there. I started demoing a bunch of tunes while we were recording (BRONCHO’s) “Double Vanity” there, and once I’ve accessed that creativity in a space, I can often return for similarly productive results. I think my placebo effect might be higher than some. Working on the songs was pretty much Chad and me. Nathan (Price) came to track drums for a couple days, but Chad and I met up here and there through the last year working on it.
I feel like it was like my creative baby . .... He kinda did have to rip it outta me by the end of it. I always get that nihilist apathy toward the end, where I don’t even know
why I make music anymore. It’s all quite dramatic for as long as I let it be or until someone slaps me in the face. It’s why I have to collaborate to some degree.
Q: Do you have a lot of plans to perform your new material with a full band?
Pitchlynn: I have some hesitancy to book it because I have some other probable realities to consider. I mainly just wanted to share songs. It’s been a while, and I wanted to give the couple sweet as hell people out there who have kept up with me something to listen to that is a little closer to who and where I am right now musically, emotionally and creatively.