Interview: Feeling Purple with P.E.

Brooklyn electronic art-rock band P.E. discuss the ominous intricacies of the color purple and cooking up the perfect songs on their debut album, Person. 

Written by C.S. Harper

Photo courtesy of Andrew Jansen

After playing a house show together, members of the punk band Pill and electronic rock group Eaters merged together in 2019 to form the fittingly named P.E. The group began creating enigmatic songs that fuse art rock and industrial electronic music into a captivating blend of sounds. P.E. is led by frontwoman Veronica Torres, along with synth player Jonathan Campolo, drummer Benjamin Jaffe, bassist Jonathan Schenke, and multi-instrumentalist Bob Jones.

Afterglow talked to four of the members to learn more about their unconventional beginnings, unique sound, and their debut album, Person, which released March 6.

How did combining members from these two separate groups present challenges or any growth in your creative process?

Jonny Schenke: Both Pill and Eaters had played a lot of shows together in New York, so we’re all friends already. But I think part of the real joy in this project is there was never a conversation about what kind of music we wanted to make, the five of us. We just showed up and started playing. (...) It just happened very naturally, which I think was — to answer your question — really exciting creatively to get out of whatever we had been doing with our other projects.

Veronica: We basically played this one live show together and then went straight into kind of a recording setting that was very playful, and I feel like all of us got more excited to be jamming with new people. You know, every time you collaborate with someone new, you’re just bouncing ideas off of each other, and some of them stick and some of them don’t. Just a really playful nature, and lyrically, also super playful.

Speaking of this playfulness and the jamming that went into this album, your first shows were entirely improvisational. How have these dynamics influenced the creation of this album?

Ben: I think that all of us have a certain kind of philosophy towards that way of playing, which is that (…) if you’re improvising, you’ve got to make it sound like a recording. And if you’re recording, you’ve got to make it sound like you’re improvising.

Veronica: Jonny Schenke basically produced and recorded us, and he is very talented and kind of edited along the way. We all chimed in and made decisions together, but we didn’t have complete songs — or any songs, really — going into the studio.

Ben: Sometimes, I would leave the studio at the end of the day, and I would say, “Alright, well, we put everything together, but I didn’t see any complete songs.” And then Jonny Schenke would stay up all night baking, and the next day he would come in and there would be a baguette. There’s no way to explain how it happened, but he was able to cook it at just the right temperature and know just what setting he had to (bake) that.

Your singles from your new album are unique and distinct: “Soft Dance” contains jazz elements, while “Top Ticket” has more industrial production. With such diverse sounds on your singles, what can listeners expect on Person production-wise?

Veronica: I would say it’s an audio collage.

Jonny Schenke: When we were picking our favorites for the record, we really worked to make it flow from one thing to the next. But as for our palette, ”Top Ticket” and “Soft Dance” can hang out on the same record, but there’s a fair amount of instrumental stuff. There’s definitely some more pop songs. Our next single is called “Pink Shiver,” (it’s) like the party anthem.

Jonny Schenke: I think it’s definitely more of an experimental record in terms of approach. If you define writing a song by verse, chorus, bridge, etc., these songs don’t really fit into that so much. But there are distinct melodies and motifs that come back throughout, so I feel like there is a hook in there for the listener.

What sound are you trying to set up for P.E.? Are you trying to emulate your previous bands’ music, or do you want to explore some new sounds as a new group?

Veronica: I would say that this is very much its own project. It is its own project. The name, though comes from our older projects: Pill and Eaters. Other than us having that as our foundation, this doesn’t really have much to do with Pill or much to do with Eaters.

Has your DIY approach toward making music carried into your songwriting process?

Veronica: In general, I will carry a notebook around and write lyrics and ideas in my day-to-day, like on the subway, or I’ll hear something in conversation, and I’ll make note of it. I would sew things together while we were recording or while we were playing live and had only had a handful of jams. I would feel the music, be like, “What feeling is this creating? What do I want to add to it? Do I want to go off the direction of the feeling sonically, or do I want to add to the unease?” It was just taking thoughts and ideas and trying them out while we were recording. Everyone weighed in on their opinion. I feel like being in the DIY community here, there have been other influences stylistically that I admire: Guerilla Toss, Public Practice.

The lyrics to your singles seem abstract and cryptic — is this the raw feeling that you get from your songs?

Veronica: Sometimes I’m like, “What are words?” You’re using words and stringing them together to convey a feeling. It kind of doesn’t even matter what you’re saying as long as you’re getting a feeling or an idea across. They don’t have to make sense entirely, but they have to make sense emotionally and mentally.

Jon Campolo: It’s always the best-case scenario if you can remain both positive and cryptic. I think that’s always a really nice thin line to ride because it keeps things lighthearted while being critical. You can play both sides of the same line.

Veronica: It’s like a painting as well. The painting isn’t spelling everything out — I mean, people sometimes do play with text — but it’s playing with colors and seeing if that conveys an idea. I feel like words can be used the same way.

Are there any underlying themes on this album that tie its songs together?

Veronica: Personhood. Trying to become a fully-formed person. Sex, identity, knowing that we’re damaging the Earth.

The cover art for your singles and album have similar art styles and even the same shade of purple in the background. How did this aesthetic come about?

Jon Campolo: You don’t see a lot of purple records. I remember settling on purple because there was this really great book that I read in college in film school (...) called “If It’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Die.” It’s a really fun, old film history fact that purple is used as a signifier, as a mood changer. (…) If you see a purple costume or a purple prop, it’s usually someone’s about to die. Purple’s really complex. It’s hot and cold. We really settled on a purple record because I think it is riding that line that we were just talking about. It’s cryptic, it’s moody, it’s really magic, it’s usually associated with things that are royal, or mystical, or complicated. It’s never a simple color. A lot of the single artwork is pairing photographs and graphic design that was a nod to advertising and made to look like a poster. It’s really all about maximalist real estate, like billboard imagery.

Veronica: Jon Campolo also did all of the artwork.

Jon Campolo: Something very early on that I just remembered is that this is definitively an electronic record. (…) And I think electronic music, especially now, has a very small window of an aesthetic. It’s very samey. And you find that everywhere: punk, metal, rap. Everyone has their neat little aesthetic, and it’s really fun to break that. That is something we really wanted to do with this band. It’s a combination of electronic music and this punk band — it leans pop, obviously, but we really wanted it to look like something that could blur a lot of that aesthetic stuff.

P.E.’s new album Person was released on March 6 via Wharf Cat Records. You can support P.E. on Bandcamp here.

This interview has been minimally edited for clarity and length.