Raleigh, NC-based music group Pretty Crimes creates music that ranges from indie rock to art pop, drawing additional influences from electronic music, country-western, 70’s Motown, and much more. The band came together during COVID and consists of Dan Irving, Em Edgerton, Mike Freeman, and Alan “Chico” Marines. Their first album, You Have Your Mind, explores different sonic territories while searching out the nature of belief and its relationship with reality. Their second album, Every Moment All At Once, is set to be released on February 2. The group spoke to Splash about their music identity, how they formed and their latest album.
You describe yourselves as “genre fluid.” Can you explain that more in detail for us?
We have a wide range of influences, and one genre label does not capture the feel of all of our music. If we had to pick one genre to describe ourselves, it would be art-rock, but that would be leaving out other clear influences we have from electronica, country, and more. We also just like the play on words.
Your second album, Every Moment All at Once, comes out February 2. How are you anticipating the release?
We’re very excited to have this album out! We started writing it in 2020, so we’ve put in a lot of work for it. We hope the audience can hear the real growth we made both as musicians and songwriters from our first album. We anticipate the album will get a warm reception from our current fans and hopefully broaden our reach to new fans as well.
What do you hope listeners will take away from the album?
We hope that the listeners get an emotional journey out of this album. We wanted to make a universe that the songs and characters inhabit, and we want the listeners to be immersed in that world while they listen. Every Moment All at Once is about the threads of connection people have with each other, and how all of these threads come together to form the sum of one’s identity. We wanted to explore how, through the relationships in our lives, we discover different facets of ourselves; some that we love, and some that are hard to grapple with that we wish to change.
Who do you have in mind when you’re creating music together? Who are you making the music for?
In many ways, we’re making the music for ourselves. Even when the song is about a character or a different perspective, we still use our music as a way of processing what’s going on in our lives. Our wish is for the songs to connect with our audience in a way that might help them process experiences from their own lives too.
What does the future look like for Pretty Crimes?
Most immediately, we are planning on touring more extensively than ever before. We also are beginning to work on some song ideas for our next project. Our goal for our next album is to expand our collaboration between all the band members on every song. Several parts of Every Moment All At Once only came together once the entire band jammed on an idea together, and we want to explore that songwriting method more going forward.
How did you come up with the name by the way?
When the band first started, it was a duo project of Dan and Em, named The Dreamhouses. Once membership expanded, and once we found out several other bands had that name, it was time for a new one. We brainstormed dozens of possible names and Pretty Crimes won, beating out such gems as Ovaltine and Al Gore Rhythm.
Official Website: prettycrimesband.com
Facebook: facebook.com/prettycrimesband
Instagram: instagram.com/pretty.crimes (@pretty.crimes)
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/00SYnMqSHm9wRbSgoVx7qQ?si=lTbhIpxZQr6hbCDVDBxYWg
Bandcamp: https://prettycrimes.bandcamp.com/Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqntLGhsrH93oIvq-7jFjxg
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