Interview with PINE vocalist Darlene Deschamps | By Nicholas Senior
Naming an emo record Pillow Talk feels a little funny, considering how many of the lyrics focus on the fact that there isn’t anyone else in your bed anymore—hello loneliness, our old friend. However, the debut EP from Ottawa-based emo-gaze group PINE feels perfectly suited for the bedroom… just not in that way.
Pillow Talk—released June 9 via No Sleep Records—is a deeply intimate record with a hazy, forlorn sound that feels like it was designed to be experienced sprawled out on your bed, relating to vocalist Darlene Deschamps’ sorrowful tales. PINE’s mix of early ‘00s emo and shoegaze is exceptionally compelling, both in its most bombastic—such as on “Viable”—and forlorn—such as on “Dolya”—forms. It could be titled “My Dark, Hazy, Beautiful, Exhausting Teenage Diary Dream,” as the listener often feels transported to a dreamlike state by Deschamps’ voice and the effervescent music.
After forming, the group pined for a great name and just happened to find the perfect one. “The [band’s] name really stole its place after I felt like that is exactly what PINE was for me at the time,” Deschamps explains. “It was something I was longing to do! Pining for, I should say.”
So, what does Pillow Talk mean to Deschamps? “What I was talking about originally,” Deschamps says, “was how love can just be getting back to bed and talking at the end of the day, but it isn’t always enough. I feel as though there’s a lot more to the words on the EP that I now understand that I didn’t before, but I won’t get into that just yet.”
PINE’s style is refreshing and nostalgic, like putting on a favorite emo record and reliving age-old emotions all over again. Yet, their original take on post-punk is just as remarkable as the solemn stories the band tell. If you’ve been pining for great emo or shoegaze—puns be damned—PINE may be the perfect fit.
