The Pineclave Project

The Pineclave Project is a project band. Anil and Teri are Maryland Singer/Songwriters that work with great musicians.  But we both have day jobs and so we are pressed for time.

How would you describe your music?

Rock. Indie pop-rock? Been trying to figure it out; you tell us. Strong melodies. Don't do fillers. 

Influences?

Anil: Classic rock - Neil Young, CSNY, Eagles, Doors, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull ... the list goes on, Fleetwood Mac. The ‘80s were a musical tragedy. Then came Sarah McLaughlin and Alanis Morrisette, Natalie Merchant - great femmes, and God, who else, Tori Amos, ...? Currently dig Train, Lifehouse, Coldplay, Dave Matthews, and John Mayer and that list looks dated, ... perhaps add John Legend. But it’s become impossible to say you like a band because you really like some of their stuff, the rest is not memorable.

Is that who you sound like?

Anil: These are people who's music we have internalized. Can't say we sound very much like any of them. Biggest compliment anyone paid me was comparing my songs to Neil Young. I mean he's God in my book! It's been said it was meant for my guitar playing, repetitive and simple, and not mean as a compliment, but shit who cares? I was in the same sentence as Neil by someone who I respect very much - John K. Twice! John is the finest guitar player that has lived. I mean for my songs and our collaboration we have produced stuff that is as great as can be. Yes its conceited - but listen for yourself. eg In Burgundy, Lord and Lady, Destination, Expedition, Arizona Moon, Set Me Down, this is John unleashed! My stuff is very simple, but weirdly good ... I think - Make It This Night, Just This way, Unbroken Silence, That Imagination of Hers. And now our son Mike is amazing, listen to him on Immortal, Gray, Hippo.

And making music is clearly not your day job ...

Anil: I'm a scientist by day. I feel like I must apologize for it. For daring into music.

So this is a hobby? 

Anil: It's a passion. There's a feeling that if you don't give it your all, that if you dabble in it, you can't be very good. Probably true for chops, and mine are terrible. But the wonderful thing about music - especially coming up with great melodies is that you catch them from thin air, effortlessly. I know lots of music (just spin the dial) that is technically fantastic but boring musically and trite lyrically. And they've spent a lot of time on it! So no it's not a hobby. Hobbys are take it or leave it. Passions are where you can't live without it. Like being away from your love. 

Your songs are quite varied. I couldn't guess what's coming up next. Can you comment?

Anil:  I've been lucky to find these tunes in the ether, and to have found Teri who is also a great singer and songwriter. Probably the most satisfying thing is to come up with something that inspires great creativity by others, and it's a such a great pleasure to inspire guitarists like John. Truly his best work is with us, I'm sure.

You don't have a "Tours" page. Don't you play live?

Anil: Only very occasionally. We barely have time to do this in the studio. We have a lot of songs that need out.

Tell us about the tracks on "Pressed For Time" your debut CD.

Anil: I think they all came out well. There's a mental image of where you want the music to be and when I listen to it, I don't have a nagging voice saying you need to tweak this or that. I'm less concerned with the production, although it too came out well (enough). But musicality is something else. If you listen to the classic bluesmen from the south the recordings were nothing like today's, but man they could play and that stands out. Production is over emphasised now, as is sometimes technical ability - chops. But to me musicality is about a tune getting lodged in your head, not annoyingly, jinglingly, but hauntingly, with a beautifully melodic phrase or riff, that anyone can hum. And the lyrics should be great, not pretentiously so, but the lyrics should be fresh and interesting. By the way, its much harder to write songs than poetry, because the tune constrains the words that can be used. In all of these things the album as a whole succeeds. 

And the tracks ...?

Anil: Its hard to be objective of course, everyone loves their children, but I think if you give them a bit of time you'll see they are all different - melodically, time signatures, very different in harmony and seemingly, style.

So anything specific about the tracks? What are you singing about?

Anil: Woman Don't Know came out well with John's powerful guitarwork. Just that track should wake you up and let you know we are a different band! Dew Hangs a Drop was written while my basement door was open a crack and there was a flower in my garden that was just visible through it. And it had been cloudy and raining all day. By the way, only when I recorded it did I realize the meter change of 3/4 and 4/4 between the verse and the chorus. I felt like how the hell did I come up with this? Arizona Moon was written by Teri and gives a spooky great native American campfire feel with her singing and John's acoustic guitar work. Set Me Down has one of my favorite guitar solos of all time, done by John. I used to sing that song way back, and one day Teri came and said she was going to steal it and man she's so fantastic. I always imagined in that song that a couple is sitting in a diner or someplace till very very late so it becomes dawn and she's dumped and the song is that and the cab ride home through gray NYC. The pair of songs Unbroken Silence and The Awakening are mirrors of each other, with one or the other lifemate's passing. They are both very intimate love songs of a sort. By the way if you listen carefully, in Unbroken Silence - which is set in our beloved Maryland - the sun sets over the water to the East. Yup, on the Eastern shore of Maryland this is very much possible as it sets over the Chesapeake Bay. This is what I'm talking about - great lyrics! Lies is a hypnotic almost trance tune. Lucid Dreaming is dreamy, gritty, grunge band like dance like tune. You getting that? Dreamy-gritty? And its all "-like". Because we don't do dancing tunes. Walking This Way is probably the oldest tune in my head from when I first met Teri and wrote it for her. Rich did the wonderfully lilting acoustic lead on that that fits it so well. Only One Sky would take too long to explain what it's about, so just groove to it.

Boat to Forever album is really about all forms of eternity. Opening with Hope It Don't Burn is a meeting, in the waiting room of Hell itself, and very current. Boat To Forever song is a ballad about the initial meeting someone forever. Just This Way is about constantly being unable to change ways and still have  someone at your back. In Burgundy is Teri, inspiring John and Dan, being amazing. Leaving Eden is God's discovery of that crazy little thing called love. That is one of my lyrical songs. You must see Teri's takedown of the song, if I get around to posting that vid. And she does great vocal backups on the recording. Ever Wanted is us all rocking out! Expedition is about being stuck in time loops. A great guitar track by John. I love Destination! Destination is us being amazing. If you don't get Destination, then you don't get us. And then there is Lord and Lady, this is Teri, John and Dan being amazing. Red Flowers is somber, a rise and fall of uncertain fortunes, and permanence of hope.

Then there are the partial albums. Lord and Lady is us being experimental and really very sad. If this song does not touch your heart you are a heartless bastard! Only One Who Ever Listened is being unable to do without your pillar. And trying your hardest. Born On New Year's Day is about being special, where everyone's hopes and desire reside in you, and it is all for something called good. In Black of The Night you have sunk into the gloom and can't escape. You are at the mercy of perhaps only yourself, out of control.  In Black Only Me you are breaking apart because you were never there together anyway and finding it out. But its very Euro!

Shine is us being very different. The song was composed live. Teri was fooling around with sounds on the MoX and I came up with the whole thing with us grooving. It was a very successful live poetry thing.  Immortal is another live lyric composition.  I just created this song live and Mike plays lead guitar. Pfuff! is just us fooling around with Teri on keys, me starting the lead and my boy the whiz Michael takes it to the next level. But I love the note at 2:10, which is my note, and the whole build up to it . That Imagination of Hers is me fooling around. But grab your sweetie and be Latin-esque tonight.

No Walls we're separate again. Never experienced it but as a songwriter you have to explore and this is what it would feel like to me. You had it coming in Had It Coming. And love is not a Bargain. In the Gray you live in shadow and shade. People ask me is it about you know who, and no it's not. But it is about ambivalence and straying from the path. And Mike's guitar work on the Gray is immaculate. I think on the whole Gandhi was a good guy. And I wrote him a song. Little Painting is whimsical - In love across the ages. I hope you like it. I state my position in I Choose Life, that the stain is indelible. Roswell is strange, and just for fun. We watch death everyday in foreign lands in astounding numbers and the world does nothing, does not change, and repeats itself. Another indelible stain in Death On The Sand. 

What's next?

Well we continue to work on the next few album. And the one after that. But really it's hard work.  With Teri's art used as cover, we just put a lot of material out there. 

I hope our music is inspiring: inspiring for you to know these tunes, and inspire you to play them better than we can or inspire you to contribute to playing on them or new ones. Send us a line, we work with great people and would love to hear from you.

And Teri? Something to add?

What he said.