Q&A: Rolling Down the Road With Pure Hex Right Into Endless Summer
BEING IN THIS BAND EXCEEDS VOCALIST MARTA ALVAREZ’S CHILDHOOD EXPECTATIONS - Together with Pure Hex guitarists Zach Dighans and Hussain Khan, Luke Clingerman on bass, and then Jon Annunziato mashing drums to the unrelenting beat of the wheel that keeps turning, she finds great pride in making music by, for, and of the Bay Area – especially now, during what she calls a post-COVID local music scene explosion. “There’s like this thirst for activity that’s happening in the Bay right now,” Alvarez tells me. “It’s like a fucking little vortex.”
Their self-titled EP came out in 2019, followed by Still Dark in the summer of 2022, and both bodies of work have their finger on shoegaze, dream pop alternative influences. Think Cocteau Twins meets Smashing Pumpkins meets the voice of a whiplash witch, cyclone siren whose stage presence is truly, madly hexing. Now, after spending some time in Loveland, Colorado to work alongside production mastermind Corey Coffman, they have dropped the first half of their soon-to-be double LP Spilling/Five of Tears via Neon Bloodbath Records. Spilling takes things further than just shoegaze, whereby you still get the perennial use of effect pedals, yet this time combined with elements of grunge-laden alternative rock that bring far more vocal clarity into the fray.
The title track “Infinity Spin” opens with biting lyrics by Alvarez: “It’s a sick joke but I’m at it again. Thought I was safe on my feet but now I’m back on my head.” These two lines alone portend what will ultimately become a fully fleshed-out nod to the tarot card ‘Five of Cups’ by the LP’s completion. Head bent over three cups knocked over, the figure on this tarot card is so focused on the loss before him that he loses sight of two perfectly upright cups at his back. This card, and record by association, nods to the emotional complexity of such hyper-fixation on loss, as well as the cyclical nature of growth during conflict or transition. Every band member shines on this six-track lament, and despite its splintering final breath on “Web and Wick,” the ‘Five of Cups’ is not without hope. Pure Hex asks that we sit with the emotional turmoil of Spilling for the time being, and reflect on which cups have spilled over in tandem with the two cups you have left. Clingerman and Alvarez assure that “it comes full circle,” by the end of the record; it doesn’t end in the dark.
Read below to catch up with the past, present, and future of Pure Hex.
LUNA: The first time I saw you guys play was the music video release show for “Sleep” at Bandcamp in May of last year. What can you tell me about putting that together?
ALVAREZ: So, we worked with two people [Jack Boston & Michael Enos] to get the whole thing going. They really conceptualized the whole thing for us. This is a really personal song, and we met with them a bunch of times, and then they kind of took the context that the song was in and like conceptualized a video that spoke to that a little bit but wasn’t so literal. I don’t know it’s cool seeing how your music can be translated through someone else’s vision. Our focus is a lot on the actual music, so collaborating with someone who sees the world in this visual lens was really fun. And the spookiness of the video is very much in line with Pure Hex mystique. That show was very cool…RIP to the Bandcamp venue, which is gone…I loved it there.
LUNA: It was so well done, such a polished video. And you said it was a really personal song. Can I ask more about that? Or we can also move on to another question.
ALVAREZ: Yeah, that song is about the passing of a friend. And also the whole thing that happens when someone passes and you’re just like, god dammit, like I wasn’t ready for this to happen. You can’t be ready for something like that. Even if you know that they’re dying, like how do you be ready for that? And the video alludes to loss, but I appreciated it not being on the nose. Because you can relate different things to a song like that. Everyone has experienced loss, so I like that there’s a relatability to it.
LUNA: Plus, I think being able to make that video, it seemed like with a group of your friends, and then bring so many people together for the release show was a really cool flip on dark circumstances.
ALVAREZ: Yeah, shout out to the homies that came and stood in the rain. We were just in the rain for so much of filming. And people were just, like stoked to be doing it. Honestly, our community is so strong and supportive and involved. What the hell would we do without everybody that supports us?
CLINGERMAN: On that note actually, we’re starting work with them [Jack Boston & Michael Enos] again for another music video for part two of this album, so we’re gonna have something similar in quality and depth as the “Sleep” video. Beginning the early stages of development right now.
LUNA: That’s fantastic news, so exciting. I also read that you guys write everything together and exclusively record with Corey Coffman of Gleemer in CO. What is it about Corey, specifically, that drew you back out to Colorado for Spilling?
CLINGERMAN: He’s someone who’s very well-connected as a musician, and has developed this really nice sound that has become very desired amongst the scene. And he’s really nice to work with, downstairs in his parents’ home. Just a very homey vibe. It’s nice to be out in Colorado, removed from the world for a little bit, and just be with everyone involved in this project so closely. And Corey’s just a very like gentle, guided hand.
ALVAREZ: Another thing that happens is we record everything separately, so drums, and then bass, and then everybody has their moment. We write largely by jamming together. So like everybody’s playing. It starts with a guitar riff usually, but no one ever comes in like “I wrote this song for us guys,” and then we learn it. Everybody’s writing at the same time. And there’s something so cool about doing that together, which is fucking awesome, and then going to record where everybody gets their moment to hone in. I remember every time someone recorded just feeling like, “Fuck yeah, your parts are so sick, like I never knew you were doing that, because I’m focused on what I’m doing.” Seeing things out of the context of trying to get it right, you know, like, there’s a certain focus when you’re playing with people on what you’re doing technically, and taking that away makes me so appreciative of everybody in the band.
CLINGERMAN: Seeing the layering process is so crazy, because it’s like a day of drums, just drums, like a click track, and you’re like well, I can hear this song but I don’t get the whole image yet. And every day just layering more and more, like the bass is in the house?! Oh, the guitars are in?! It’s just so fun to see the build-up.
ALVAREZ: Also, John is a psycho, and like literally, for 3 days, 10 hours a day, he just drummed only to a click. All that anybody was hearing was just drum. And we’re in high altitude. So, it’s highly physical to be drumming for that long. It was so inhuman, even Corey was like, what the fuck is this. He was just doing it to the click. It was awesome.
LUNA: That’s fantastic.
ALVAREZ: Yeah.
LUNA: And then before I get into Spilling specifically, was this scene something you guys always kind of knew you were going to be a part of? Does this community in the Bay keep you here to stay, or do you have musical aspirations to go anywhere else?
CLINGERMAN: I feel like I grew up always around music, and I always wanted to be a part of and play shows and be in bands from a very young age. When I was getting older, I started going to punk shows at Gilman, and I think that’s only grown. Like the more you’re around, the more you get connected and like I want to be here and do this. I think it would be really hard to leave. I know there’s cool things happening in other cities, but these are my friends. It would take some considerable diminishing of the current Bay Area scene for me to uproot. I like it here for multiple scenes. I play jazz, too. So, the jazz scene, rock scene. All of it’s cool and happening.
ALVAREZ: Everyone in this band has been playing in bands since childhood. Everyone has wanted this I think for a long time. And the Bay Area music scene is fucking popping off right now in a way that I don’t think it was before COVID. Like there’s always been bands but there’s not only a lot of bands right now, there’s a lot of really good bands. And there’s a lot of small independent venues with really fucking cool people.
LUNA: Yeah, I feel like I’m still pretty new to the Bay Area scene, but it’s been so cool to discover and then also see you guys collaborate with DIY stations like Psyched! and independent venues like Neck of the Woods.
ALVAREZ: I think a lot of people that aren’t cool stopped working at those kinds of spots during the pandemic. So, there’s a lot of really fucking cool sound people and awesome promoters, that are not douchebags. And it’s really cool to be part of that scene and know those people. Things are so good in the Bay.
LUNA: You can trust.
ALVAREZ: Exactly. And I think that we could definitely do some cool shit outside of the Bay, but the Bay will always be home. It’s the place that literally made us who we are.
LUNA: That makes sense, and so good to hear because I’m moving back. Honey TV was also such a cool spot for the Spilling listening party. And, I’m so intrigued by the ‘Five of Cups’ tarot imagery. I’m also just wondering how the record is split.
ALVAREZ: Both sides of the record are all about the same card. The reason it’s Spilling and the second half is going to be called Five of Tears is because, in multiple decks, tarot cards will have two names. It’s called ‘Spilling’ in one of the decks that I have, and it’s about loss. That feeling when you’re going up and going up, hit a roadblock, and then you feel like it’s all falling down. Like everything you’ve been working towards has been all for nothing. You’re basically feeling crushed by life and trying to figure out how you’re going to come back from that is such a real and like, overtaking fear that is relatable to everybody.
LUNA: Definitely.
ALVAREZ: And I was seeing this happen when we were working on the record to a lot of people in my life. I think that we’re at an age, like everybody’s in their late 20s, now where some shift happened of like people needing to get their lives on track, or like major transitions happening and feeling like you have no power over that is so scary. So, there’s that aspect, and then on the other side of the card, you have the cups that are still standing. It’s like this little secret thing there where you’re really overtaken by this feeling of fear and loss and like “what the fuck is going on?” that you forget that you’re actually all good. And you have yourself. I think the self is so big, like, when you feel alone, reminding yourself that you have you. That’s what that card is about. All is not lost. You’re going through a transitional period, and you’re going to remember, hopefully, that like you have these good things still holding you up.
And I think also, when I was conceptualizing this in terms of all the songs, because they all tap into it in different ways, I was like, damn, like, when I’m going through a period of loss or transition later in life, I’m gonna come back to Spilling and be like, I needed this right now.
LUNA: And then in terms of splitting the album in half…
ALVAREZ: We are just fucking with the system a little bit. Because we wanted to put out this like, dense, hour-long album. And we live in a world of fucking streaming services and putting out singles, like everything is a single. And we were like, how do we put out this record and have people actually listen to it…so we’re playing…a game. We’re actually just doing an experiment (laughs). Like I don’t know anybody putting things out half and half like this. And I kind of like the idea of doing things differently.
Pure Hex will play Spilling at Bottom of the Hill on June 29, with visuals by Zack Rodell and support from Wander and Mint, to celebrate its release. They have a live session from Las Vegas and some music videos in the pipeline to hold us over before putting out the next half of the record.
