Pour La Terre is hands-down one of my favorite Hudson Valley bands. They’ve been in the game for a while and we’ve gigged together a bunch in the past with my former band Grampfather. Their unique blend of indie rock and jazz fusion always keeps you on your toes. I had the pleasure of getting to chat with them about the band and their amazing new album A Great Day to Start the Way, which I’ve been keeping on repeat since they released it back in March.
JK: What’s the inspiration for this album? Is there a general theme running throughout, or is it more so a compilation of many ideas? What’s the meaning of the title?
PLT: A Great Day to Start The Way is a collection of tunes that carried our live shows for a long period of our early era. Some songs could have even made the first album but didn’t. So it’s a special compilation of the songs many of our fans grew to know and love from our live shows. The title came about from a moment at band practice of accidentally switching around the popular phrase “A great way to the start the day,” and then this line was used in one of tracks on the album “Acclimate.” We loved the sound of it right away as well as the concept of realizing that TODAY is a great day to live the way you want to in your life.
JK: Talk a little bit about the band’s origins. How did the group form, and how has it evolved over time? Do you think it’s become something similar to how you originally envisioned it, or has it morphed into something you couldn’t have premeditated?
PLT: Pour La Terre was formed back in 2016 when three of our original members played together in a band called Kraken. Kraken was formed through what was a string of open house party jams in the years of 2014-2015. After just a few shows, some members were dropped and what remained was the beginning of Pour La Terre. A shared interest of Jazz was discovered while the three of us attended the SUNY Ulster music program and played together in the Jazz Combo under Chris Earley. Our vision has shifted a lot musically as we started out in a more indie rock style. Shifting slowly to being more heavily influenced by jazz and jam (such as the Grateful Dead) over the years. Now with our current lineup involving two saxophonists, we are evolving our sound even more and providing a bigger experience for our fans.
JK: What comes first for you, the music or the lyrics? Do the songs primarily come from one member of the band, or is it more of a collaboration? What’s the process?
PLT: I believe for us it is mainly the music nowadays that comes first. Again with some influence coming from our jazz studies, melody and chord progressions have been a big focus and drive at the start of a tune. Each member will write on their own and bring in an idea. From there the rest of the group creates their own parts and something beautifully unique happens each time. There are some tunes, however, such as “Dorian” from our debut self-titled record, that were written together in a practice, and we are interested in doing this type of writing again in the future.
JK: Who are some of your biggest influences? Which bands/artists would you say were formative to the development of your sound? Who are you listening to nowadays?
PLT: Some of our biggest influences include The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Thelonious Monk, and John Coltrane. We’ve listened together as a group to various jams played by The Grateful Dead and worked on achieving a similar fluidity to our own. As we’ve slowly incorporated some of their tunes to our live sets, we have been growing in our ability as a group to improvise while accompanying one another. Similarly we have adopted a trade of playing uniquely each time we play live, whether through a different voicing or altering a melody, and of course through jams and solos. This idea of freedom in how we play was strongly present in our jazz studies and has shifted into our own developing sound.
JK: If you, for whatever reason, could only record or perform music, which would you choose? In your view, which is more important, the final studio product or the live experience?
PLT: For us, the live scene is where it all began, and if we had to choose one, it’d come to that. Feeding off the energy of those listening and sharing in the moment, helping create it, is truly is special to us. Sharing a new song or idea live is so fulfilling, as well as knowing we can either uplift or relate to someone with what we are saying. Playing through a solo that feels unique and hits the crowd well, even prompting verbal responses, is sometimes what drives us to keep practicing and writing.
JK: As a songwriter myself, I feel like I have a personal relationship with the songs I write in a way that I think listeners only get a tip of the iceberg of that inner world. What’s one song from this album–maybe your personal favorite–that you’d like to expound upon to further reveal that inner world to your listeners?
PLT: “River of People” has slowly become a sort of live anthem, or at least our own version of it, with the repetitive and simple chorus we often hear or encourage people in the crowd to sing along. And often the lyrics hit home when we sing, “I don’t want to follow, I don’t want to follow anyone.” Originally this song was inspired by the story of a substitute astronomy teacher. She had experienced the Romanian Revolution from her window as a young child, unable to participate. She described what was a “river of people” all moving towards a common goal to overthrow oppression. Over the time of us playing and then recording this song, there has been so much turmoil and war in the world that often it takes on different perspectives, becoming a song that anyone can sing in time of struggle. In the verse, one of the lines goes, “Death does not hurt us, fear is no cloud. It’s time that we rise up, stand up and be loud.” The first two lines are meant to be somewhat extreme sounding, as most people might disagree in saying death does not hurt and that fear doesn’t feel like a dark cloud covering up our view; however, this is in aim of believing in what might seem impossible at times, in defying the darker and more pessimistic thoughts we may have. And those last two lines simply sum up what this song also perhaps was meant to be: a call to stand up and be loud about what you believe to be right.
JK: What’s your relationship to the Hudson Valley? How would you describe the music scene/community in the area? How has it changed over the years? What are some ways it can improve, in your view?
PLT: We’ve all grown up in the Hudson Valley and went to school and college here as well. It’s been everything for us really, so we’re grateful to this community. There’s been a strong scene for as long as we’ve been in it, especially looking to New Paltz and Kingston as the top places we have played. We’ve seen a few different eras in both these towns in terms of venues offering stages and bands to play with. Fun fact: One of our first shows was at the no-longer Oasis Bar behind Gourmet Pizza in New Paltz. We played in a battle of the bands alongside our long time friends from What? in their early days as a group–neither of us won. I’d say it’s changed by the different bands and venues out there, as well as the connections we make along the way. I think creating more stages and more venues can be a good start to building up the scene here, and ones that are more willing to support the local talents. For example, to shout out the no-longer-in business Cafeteria/Caf’Amelia on Main Street, there was time when they were bringing in music often and of various genres and levels. It was brilliant to see. We hope more stages like this can come to fruition.
JK: What’s on the horizon for the band? Where can people see you live this year? What are your future goals?
PLT: We were so thrilled by the feeling of releasing our second album that we are heading straight into the next few projects. We’ve got an original jazz album planned, as well as our third album in the works. We are also planning on playing a decent amount of shows this year, with our next being July 16th at Night Swim in Kingston and August 14th at Soyuzivka Tiki Bar in Kerhonkson. Be sure to give us a follow for a flyer that shows all our dates throughout the rest of the year! At least right now our current goals are heavily focused on the music, writing new material, and practicing and developing our sound. We also hope to grow our audience, reach more listeners, and play some bigger stages.
Pour La Terre’s streaming and social links:
Buy the album on Bandcamp:
-Interview conducted by James Kwapisz
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