Preview: Pretty Pretty, Purple 7 / September 22 / The Smiling Skull
By Marlena Scott, Features Editor
The Smiling Skull / Sept. 22, 2014
Pretty Pretty is meeting up with friends Purple 7 this Monday, Sept. 22, to play at the Smiling Skull.
Will Staler, Purple 7’s drummer and Pretty Pretty's guitarist/vocalist Evan Wolff have been long-time members of the Midwest punk-DIY scene and met playing a show in Cincinnati. Staler grew up in Perrysburg, Ohio and spent his formative years here, playing in bands and going to shows.
“There’s just a kinship between the soul of people who give a shit about punk,” Staler said.
Both bands are familiar with Athens, Staler having played here many times with his band Defiance, Ohio and Wolff having played at a girl’s rock camp at ArtsWest over the summer. Athens is one of the first dates on both of their Northeast tours.
“The nature that surrounds Athens is some of my favorite in the world, Old Man’s Cave and Hocking Hills are some of the most beautiful places on Earth” Staler said. “As far as man-made things I love to sit in front of that Aethelred Eldridge mural to sneak a beer and sit for a little while.”
For Pretty Pretty, this tour is a special one, for its first release Leather Weather will be at the merch table.
“It’s exciting because we’ve been waiting for it to come out for far too long,” he said. “It’ll be cool to travel with them and just have them in our hands.”
Leather Weather is a 4-song EP split released by Let’s Pretend Records from Bloomington, IN, and Mandible Records from Brooklyn.
Purple 7’s latest release, Jewel Finger, is a representation of how the band has grown since its release of Volume One in 2011. Staler gives most of the credit of that change in sound to the addition of Patrick Jennings, bassist, to the band.
“[Jennings]’s got such a soulful voice and a very emphatic stage presence, that really changed a lot for the Purple 7," said Staler, "He’s got a particular way of writing a song and conveying his feelings through his music. Evolving with him has been a huge change to our sound.”
For Staler, Jennings and Purple 7’s guitar player Chris Mott, working with their hands and creating at their day-to-day jobs directly projects itself onto their songs. Staler and Jennings do carpentry work for a theater company while Mott designs and builds signs for a sign company.
“It’s so nice to go outside and mow your lawn and your grass is shorter and it’s done, or you go to work and you rip out a sink in a bathroom and you put a new one in and you’re like ‘Wow, that’s new, it looks great,'" said Staler, "I think that fulfillment of having something accomplished is a huge part of the writing process for the band.”
After this tour the band is heading right back to the studio to work on a new record.
