A conversation with May Tabol from Washington D.C. based band, Pree:
Dingus: Please explain how this recording came to be? Where was it done, who did it?
Tabol: I wrote the songs in Folly over the course of a long and lonely year in DC. I had lived in my particular townhouse for a number of years when one summer, the landlord made an abrupt departure, and The Bank introduced itself as the new caretaker. My housemates logically took this as a cue to pull up stakes, but I didn’t have anywhere particular to be, so I stayed.
I turned several rooms into recording spaces, but the most useful one proved to be a closet, where I spent a good part of the summer. By the time I began receiving nasty messages from the Bank’s lawyer, I had four months of rent-free recording under my belt and pleasantly agreed to “vacate in seven days (or else).”
But of course, if life were easy, then no one would write about it. Four houses and another foreclosure later, my friends and I finished the album.
So am I correct in saying we should expect a full album soon?
Yes- it will be released on October 18th on Paper Garden Records, although we will have advance copies available on tour starting in September.
What’s the bands line up?
Ethan Brasseaux - bass, drums, aux percussion, vocals. Vanessa Degrassi – flute, guitar, melodica, ukulele, bass, glockenspiel, vocals. May Tabol – lead vocals, guitar, keys. Ben Usie - drums, bass, musical saw, vocals
How did you all meet? What is everybody’s involvement when it comes to writing the music?
Vanessa and I went to college together in DC at GWU. I met Ben when he started playing with Vanessa in Pree’s sister-band, Frau Eva and Ben’s brother, Ethan, joined Pree this past November. I’ve written the songs for A Chopping Block and Folly, but the arrangements have certainly been a collaborative, group endeavor.
If you had to give a few of your biggest musical influences what would they be, and why?
Our influences definitely vary from person to person, but they include Wolf Parade, Dirty Projectors, The Unicorns, Grizzly Bear, Beirut, Josephine Foster, Kate Bush, and Beulah. These are bands that don’t necessarily reflect our sound but whose achievements have colored our lives in one way or another and have inspired us to create a sound based on our own experiences.
photo: Shervin Lainez
Migration Volume 1 by Mission South (Washington, DC)
